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Chapter Text

"Uggh, my head…"

Lilith groaned as she tried to get up, but the glaring sunlight made her wince in pain.

What in the name of the Titan happened last night?

Alright, so I went to a bar, I know that much, but why did I go there? She thought to herself, then she remembered.

Right.

The guilt of an act she committed long ago, one she wanted to make up for but didn't want to think about, was eating away at her. So she decided to go out and drink to numb the pain.

The last thing she remembered before that last drink was just some words being shared with some stranger and then…everything after that was a blank.

She started moving to get up, but as she slowly came to her senses, she began to take notice of things around her.

The first was that she was naked underneath the cover of the blankets.

The second was that she was all alone.

It didn't take long for her to process what happened last night.

"Well, I suppose having a drunken affair is enough humiliation for one night." Lilith said out loud. From what she could sense, whoever she slept with wasn't here, so they in all likelihood left.

Not like it mattered. Even if the person she slept with was still here, she'd probably do the same. The last thing she needed was rumor spreading that she was whoring herself out.

Deciding not to spend another moment here, she reached out her hand and called forth her staff. It took a few minutes, since apparently, she left it at her room at the Emperor's palace, but it eventually flew in through the open window, stopping neatly in her hand.

With a spell circle, she was now fully dressed in her usual attire; a long-sleeved two-tone dark gray dress and dark gray laced boots. She brushed her indigo dyed hair out of her face and straightened it out.

Lilith started walking out of the apartment room. As she did so, she stopped by the kitchen and took note that the bill for the room was on the table. She initially groaned and reached into her pocket for the proper snails but stopped when she saw that the bill had already been signed and filled out, indicating that her unknown partner had already paid for the room.

Well, if nothing else, whoever my partner was, they were at least considerate.

Lilith then walked outside and sat on her staff, flying back to the Emperor's palace to report for duty.

Lilith found herself ill.

It had been two weeks since that drunken night and Lilith had now found herself retching in her bathroom toilet. She didn't understand why this was happening.

It wasn't just the vomiting. She would also undergo chronic pains in various parts of her body, as well as violent mood swings (she had already apologized to Steve for setting him on fire in a sudden fit of anger), and odd cravings (she usually didn't eat this many live birds). Not to mention that she was exhausted half the time even when she barely expended any energy at all.

She was starting to get sick of all this…well, sickness. She needed to do something about it.

She went back to her room and activated her Crystal Ball. It flickered for a moment before Matilda, a high ranking member of the Healer's Coven, appeared on its screen.

"Yes, this is Mat-" She said before stopping when she saw Lilith. "Oh, Mistress Lilith! What an unexpected surprise. Oh, wait, those mean the same thing. What do you need?"

"Matilda, something's wrong with me. I've been rather ill as of late and I need your expertise on how to fix it."

"Is it anything life threatening?"

"As far as I can tell, no," Lilith replied, "But I need an expert opinion on this. It's been rather chronic and I'm getting fed up with it."

"Well, I should be able to have an opening soon. Come in about a week from now and I'll get you looked at, alright?"

"Very well then. Thank you, Matilda."

Lilith then hung up and went to bed, feeling exhausted. Just one week before she could figure out what was happening.

The week had passed, and Lilith had visited Matilda's office and did as she was told. They ran a series of tests on her to figure out the cause of her illness.

Right now, she was just waiting for the results so she could get whatever prescribed medication she needed to fix this.

Her tapping foot as she sat on the chair in the Matilda's office was the sound that filled the room.

She was growing anxious. Just what was taking her so long?

Before she could get up and go to her herself, Matilda walked in, a rather concerned look on her face. She was about as tall as Lilith was and was wearing a modified version of the Healer's Coven robes, having designed hers to look like a doctor's coat. Her brown hair was cut short into a bob and she wore glasses over her hazel eyes.

"Yes, um Mistress Lili-"

"Well, out with it Matilda! What's wrong with me? Am I dying? Do I have a parasite? What is it!?"

"Uh, I-I was just about to tell you."

Lilith paused and breathed in, trying to calm herself down. "Right, sorry. I've just been having all these mood swings as of late."

"Y-yes, that may be another side effect."

"So, I really am sick, aren't I? Is there a cure? What am I even ill with?"

Matilda looked at the papers in her hand and said, "Well, first, I need to confirm something so I can be completely certain."

"What do you need to know?" Lilith asked.

"It's, uh, it's kind of a personal question so please don't take it the wrong way," She said before she cleared her throat and asked, "Have you had any sexual activity within a recent period of time?"

Lilith paused. That was a very odd and specific question to ask her.

"Well, I…uh," Lilith started before she began to stammer, feeling her face heat up, and continued, "I may have gotten rather drunk one night and had an evening with someone around a few weeks ago. What of it?"

"I see," Matilda then organized the papers in her hands and pulled out one of them, "We weren't exactly sure, but all the symptoms you have been experiencing do seem pretty consistent." She then held out one of them in her hand, indicating for Lilith to take it, "Lilith, we believe that you might be pregnant."

Lilith felt as if her whole mind went blank; she went completely stiff and struggled to comprehend what she had just heard. In the span of half a minute, her mind returned to the material world and she uttered the first thing that came to her mind.

"W-what do you mean PREGNANT!?" She screamed out.

"I-it's exactly what it means Mistress Lilith. The symptoms and signs are all there and consistent with early pregnancy. It's very likely that you are going to have a baby." Matilda said.

Lilith lost the ability to speak as she felt the world around her silence. Matilda's concerned cries as she backed to the wall and slumped to the floor went mute amidst her inability to process or accept what she was just told.

"I can't be…I…I just can't be…" Was all that Lilith could utter as she was lost in her own distraught, crumbling world.

"Lilith?" Matilda said as Lilith's mind returned to the world. She saw her kneeling towards her, "Are you alright?"

"You…" Lilith started, "You must be mistaken. I can't be pregnant! Run more tests! It has to be something else!"

Matilda sighed and said, "I can prescribe that you take a pregnancy test or two just to be certain, but all the signs point to it. If it comes back positive, then it will be up to you to decide where to go from there."

All Lilith could do was sit there in silence.

"I'm…I'm…"

Lilith was muttering to herself as she slumped on the wall and bathroom floor. Scattered around her were a number of pregnancy tests that Matilda had instructed her to take. Each and every time, they all came back the same; a positive indicator on all of them.

She tried her best to deny it as much as she could, but there was no way around it now.

She was carrying a child inside her. A bastard child from a drunken affair.

After the last test read positive, she felt herself grow cold and desperate. She moved to call Matilda again and schedule an appointment to get rid of it. But every time she reached for her Crystal Ball to contact her, she froze. She couldn't bring herself to do it. She couldn't end this child's life before it began.

That's where Lilith found herself now; slumped on the floor and not knowing what to do. She couldn't raise a child. She was the leader of the Emperor's Coven. She had her duties and responsibilities. If she was stuck raising it, then it would interfere with her duties and would lower her standing with the Emperor, and if that happened, then she wouldn't be able to cure...

Stop it.

Lilith clutched her head and screamed within her own mind to stop that line of thought. Best not to drown out one crisis with another.

"Just calm down and think Lilith," She said to herself out loud, "You're overthinking this. Just set the child up for adoption. Yes, someone else can take care of them. You need to keep focused. Let the child be someone else's concern. Only one thing matters right now. Just let the child go, and that will be the end of it. Then you and Edalyn can look back on this moment as one of those funny stories you tell your grand...ugh!"

She groaned in frustration. Even talking to herself about it proved fruitless. The more she talked about the idea, the worse she felt.

It's not your problem Lilith. Don't let it be your problem. It's not your problem. Don't let it be your problem.

She repeated that mantra over and over in her head, desperate to convince herself that this was the right choice of action.

She stood up and placed a hand to her womb. It would only be eight months until the child arrived. Just eight months, and it would be over. Before she went to sleep, she contacted Matilda and let her know about what she planned to do; to set the child up for adoption after they were born, which Matilda agreed to help her with. Despite this, she heard a great deal of reluctance in her voice, and as she dosed off later that night, a swell of her own reluctance formed within her chest.

Lilith woke up slowly, her eyelids feeling heavy. She had trouble remembering where she was. She looked around and saw that she was on a bed wearing a light blue gown and she was in a sterile, white room, much like...

Oh, right...

She now remembered where she was. She was in a hospital room.

It had been eight months since she learned that she was pregnant, and in those eight months, that swell of regret grew and grew with each passing day. No matter how hard she tried to bite it down, she couldn't help but feel it rise up stronger every single time. As time passed and her pregnancy made itself more known, Lilith's regret gave way to shame and self-loathing, not dissimilar to what she felt from her greatest mistake years prior. She now felt that she didn't want to go through with her choice, but she kept swallowing it down, trying to convince herself that it was the right decision, that it was too late anyway.

And then the day came.

As soon as her water broke, she frantically called Matilda, grabbed her staff, and rushed to her office as soon as she could. Thankfully, she had arrived just in time to make the delivery. After that...

"What happened after that?" Lilith asked herself.

She couldn't remember what came after. She noticed that she wasn't pregnant anymore; the weight that she had grown used to in recent months no longer there. Perhaps the stress from giving birth caused her to black out?

In any case, what's done it done. Lilith thought to herself. Wherever they are now, they'll be in a happy place. A better place, and hopefully they'll find a family who can take care of them.

Lilith heard the door open and her expression became shocked. Matilda was walking in smiling, but that wasn't what shocked her, no.

What shocked her was the small bundle she held in her arms.

"M-Matilda!" Lilith blurted out. "What are you doing here?"

"I just came to check up on my patient. Nothing wrong with that, right?"

"No, of course not. You're just fulfilling your duties, but...but I thought that you were going to take the child to an orphanage by now?"

"Well," Matilda started, "I was, but I figured the boy should at least see his mother's face before he gets sent off and vice versa. So..."

Oh, so the child is a boy, Was Lilith's first thought. I...I have a son.

That second thought she had made her feel something inside her chest. It wasn't the regret, guilt, or self-hatred that grew over the months. It was something else. Something warm that she couldn't describe. Something she hadn't felt since her days with her sister.

"Do you want to hold him before he goes?"

Matilda's question shook her out of her thoughts. Before she could answer, a gurgling sound came from the blankets before it gave way to crying. As Matilda calmed the bundle down, Lilith felt something even stronger stir inside her. Without even thinking, she held her arms out expectantly. Matilda happily obliged and gently placed the bundle in her arms. Lilith brought the child close to her chest and moved the blankets to see his face.

As she did so, the infant stopped crying, and Lilith felt her heart skip a beat.

In her arms was her son, a precious baby boy with pointed witch ears and a head with strands of white hair. His eyes fluttered open, revealing them to be a bright blue. The baby gurgled again, this time sounding content in Lilith's arms.

Lilith found herself instinctively rocking the baby back and forth in her arms; his eyes fluttering closed as he went to sleep. She held him close to her heart as she could now describe her feelings. She wanted to hold him close forever, to kiss him goodnight and watch him grow. This was her child, her son, and she wanted to give him all the love she could. All that guilt and negativity that she held within for months evaporated in an instant. In its place was nothing but love and joy.

As she rocked him, she felt a wetness go down her face and knew what it was. She smiled and sniffled in happiness as she watched her son rest in her arms.

"So," She turned to Matilda, who was wiping a tear from her eye as well, "I'm guessing you're not planning on letting him go?"

Lilith didn't even need a second to think. She knew her answer. In response, she just shook her head as she gently hugged her son.

"Well in that case, what's his name?"

Lilith pondered as she looked at the boy's face, wondering what his name should be. This wasn't something she thought would ever happen. Even in the months of her pregnancy, she never once thought of a name for the child. Now knowing that she would keep and raise him, she frantically searched her mind for the best name that would suit her son.

After a few minutes, she found the perfect name. She smiled, laid a gentle kiss on her son's forehead and said, "Nero. His name will be Nero Clawthorne."

Chapter Text

"Whoa! Mommy, what's that?"

Lilith smiled as her son, Nero, excitedly asked about the various carvings and portraits in the Emperor's palace. She didn't have any assignments for Belos to do at the moment, and decided to spend that free time showing her son around the place when he asked. At first, she was planning on showing him the artifact room, but he kept getting side tracked by all the portraits depicting the darker times that enveloped the Isles before Belos brought about an era of peace and prosperity.

Despite all the little distractions, Lilith couldn't help but find joy in it all; showing her son around as she carried him in her arms, seeing him smile, and adoring his boundless curiosity.

"That, my little raven, is a depiction of the Savage age. It was a time when the Boiling Isles were engulfed in chaos, and Wild Magic ravaged the lands."

The boy in her arms beamed with delight as he listened to her; his curiosity being satisfied. The baby she gave birth to was now an adorable four year old child. His hair was white as snow and his eyes a bright and pristine blue. He was wearing a blue shirt with black shorts and white sneakers.

"Where there a lot of fights and big scary monsters?"

"Well, I suppose. As it was the Savage Age, conflict was rather common. And the wildlife was far more viscous and untamed back then."

Something that admittedly bothered Lilith was her son's inclination towards violence. Now, he didn't pick fights with others, but he always seemed so enamored when hearing about various fights. She tended to find him either watching violent programs on their Crystal Ball or reading rather action focused books. When she questioned Matilda about it, she said that it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, so Lilith supposed it was her maternal instincts just flaring up due to this being uncharted waters for her.

Still, some of Nero's behavior was worrisome. One such instance was when Nero found his way into her closet and brought out the old saber that she was given; the one she posed with for the posters made to encourage other Isles citizens to work to join the Emperor's Coven. Seeing her son holding such a dangerous tool made her heart stop, and that was before he started swinging it around, pretending to fight monsters and spouting rather silly lines from his cartoons.

She immediately took the sword away and scolded Nero for messing around with it, though after he started shedding tears, she just as quickly comforted and cautioned him not to do such dangerous things.

Lilith really hoped that in the end, this would all just be a phase for her little raven. The thought of him getting hurt or getting involved with such dangerous things was something she didn't think she'd be able to bare.

"Well, hello Lilith."

Lilith turned and looked down to where the voice was. She saw a small, red skinned demon with scarlet eyes and yellow sclera, as well as a pair of conjoined hands that gave off the impression of hair tied into a bun. She was dressed in the high-ranking regalia of a white tunic with a high collar that hid her mouth from view.

"Oh, hello Kikimora." Lilith said, trying her best to keep her tone as polite as possible, despite her...less than pleasant thoughts towards the small, irritating demon in front of her. In part because Kikimora was her immediate superior, so the most she could do about her condescension most of the time was bite her tongue and hold her insults in, and also because half the things she wanted to say to the little beast weren't things that should be heard by a four year old child.

The last thing she wanted was for her son to develop a propensity for foul language.

"So," Kikimora began, "I take it you're showing your son around the Emperor's palace?" She asked, though clearly in rhetoric based on her tone.

"Momma, who's the tiny lady?" Nero asked as he pointed down as Kiki.

Lilith bit her tongue and tried her best not to chuckle as she saw Kikimora's eye twitch at Nero's innocent question that just so happened to insult her height.

"Child," Kiki started, though with an edge to her voice that made Lilith feel uneasy, "Why don't you go and explore the palace on your own? Your mother and I have something to discuss. It's something between adults, so I'm afraid you'll have to leave for this."

"Momma, can I look around, please?" Nero asked with bright eyes.

Lilith was rather apprehensive of letting her son explore the place alone. The palace was rather large and there weren't any Coven members in the immediate vicinity to serve as a tour guide. That and a large part of her didn't feel like trusting anyone with her son's safety. Still, with him begging her with those bright blue eyes, she had a hard time denying his wishes.

Sighing, she gently put Nero down and summoned a spell circle, which manifested a map of the palace interior. "Alright, but use this to find where you want to go. I don't want you to get lost in this place. Oh, and just in case..."

She then drew another spell circle, this time around her son's left wrist before doing the same to her own wrist. "If you ever need me at all, just call my name. This will help me find you, alright?" Lilith told Nero.

Nero nodded and reached up to envelop her in a hug, which she returned tenderly. When she released him from the hug, he happily ran down the halls with the map in his hands. Lilith waved to her son as he rounded the corner and left her sight.

"So, what did you want to discuss, Kiki?" Lilith asked as politely as she could.

"I'm simply here to voice my concerns, Lilith." Kikimora said.

"What concerns do you have?" Lilith asked, crossing her arms as she did so.

"Regarding your sister, the Owl Lady." Kikimora said, which briefly made Lilith's eyes widen.

It had been years since her sister had last been sighted. According to eye witnesses, she was reportedly selling what looked like random garbage. When members of the Coven went to apprehend her, she was gone without a trace.

Thinking about Edalyn made Lilith's heart ache. Despite their differences, she wished that she could see her and help her. Bringing her into the Coven was the only way she knew how, as Belos was the only one on the Boiling Isles with the power needed to put an end to Edalyn's…condition.

A 'condition' that's all your damn fau-

Lilith hitched her breath and shoved that thought down.

"And...what about my sister has come up?"

"It is less a matter of what has come up about her and more about you. Many among the Coven are rather concerned, you know." Kikimora said as she absentmindedly inspected her finger nails, which gave off an almost smug impression.

"And just what have I done that is so concerning?" Lilith asked, now feeling rather angered and offended.

"More so what you haven't done. You haven't made any attempts to locate or bring in the Owl Lady in the past few years. We are beginning to wonder if you're even taking you given duty seriously anymore."

Anger flaring for a second, Lilith took a breath and calmed herself before saying, "Rest assured Kiki, I am just as dedicated to enforcing Emperor Belos' will and bringing Edalyn in as ever. I have just been rather...sidetracked is all."

"Ah, yes, 'sidetracked'. I suppose that is one word for it, but that does bring us to the next matter of concern. The boy."

The anger appeared again, but unlike before, it didn't immediately subside no matter Lilith's attempts to make it. Instead, it stayed and persisted. "And what about my son is so concerning?" Lilith asked as she tried to keep her tone as restrained as possible, but her rage was evident in her voice.

"That you've been rather preoccupied with him. It would be understandable normally, but it becomes a nuisance when it gets in the way of your job."

"Well, Kiki," Lilith said, now clenching her fist from behind her back. "Know that while I serve Belos faithfully and always will, my son is just as important. If you had a child of your own, you would understand."

Lilith then began walking away, not wanting to discuss this any further.

"But you had plenty an opportunity to simply give him away." Kikimora called out, "You have a Coven to run, Lilith. You should have thought of that first rather than waste your time on a meaningless, bastard child."

Lilith stopped and shut her eyes.

Five years ago, she had that exact same mindset. To just give the child away and be done with it. Now, she couldn't imagine her life without her son, and she couldn't help but hate how she felt about him in the first place.

Kikimora's words brought something out of Lilith in that moment. It was a mix of self-loathing toward her past considerations and anger at her superior's words, both of which gave way to something else. Something primal and terrifying. She opened her eyes and saw red. Faster than many could comprehend, she was directly in front of Kikimora and clutching the front of her tunic. In anger, Lilith slammed her into the nearby wall and held her against it; a blaze of fire in her opposite hand as the small demon whimpered in fear.

"Kiki," Lilith growled out as she glared at the smaller demon, her low tone conveying every ounce of rage she felt at that moment, "Let me make one thing clear to you. You can call my own loyalty into question. You can admonish whatever failings I possess as the Head Coveness. You can question my ability to apprehend those that the Emperor wants brought in. That is your right to do. But if you ever even so much as think of insulting my son in any way, I will personally burn you alive and devour what's left of your corpse. Are. We. Clear!"

All Kikimora could do in her suspended state was fearfully nod at a rapid pace. Lilith felt her anger lower and she unceremoniously dropped Kikimora to the floor; a thud emanating through the halls as the small demon landed.

As Kikimora looked up fearfully at her, Lilith growled, "Now get the hell out of my sight."

The small demon at first crawled before swiftly shifting to a terrified run and bolted down the halls, trying to get as far away from Lilith as possible.

Lilith wouldn't deny that while there would probably be consequences for what she just did later down the road, she felt really good about what she just did. After all the subtle and not-so-subtle snark and demeaning that the obnoxious roach threw at her expense, making her flee in terror felt gratifying.

Just then, she felt something buzz on her wrist, causing her to look down and see that the spell circle she placed was now active.

"Nero," She whispered. Her son was calling for her.

Rather than run, she manifested her staff and took off, flying to find her son.

The locater she placed would glow brighter as she zeroed in on Nero's location. It took a few searches and sweeps of different areas, but she found the place that made the tracker burn brightest; the door to the artifacts room.

She quickly retracted her staff and opened the door and rushed to the center of the room, surrounded by the various artifacts and relics of the covens as they were suspended on their podiums. Rather than pay those relics any mind, she instead called out her son's name.

"Nero!"

No response.

"Nero! Where are you!" She got louder as she grew more worried.

"Mom?"

Lilith's head snapped directly to the source of her son's voice. She moved to around the area of the room where it came from and called her son again.

"Nero?"

"M-momma. I'm here."

Lilith spotted her son hiding in the corner behind one of the walls. She immediately rushed to her son's side and scooped him up in her arms, with Nero wrapping his arms around her neck in a tight hug.

"Are you alright? What happened?" Lilith asked in rapid succession.

"I was looking around, then I heard a voice and this scary monster showed up and I hid." Nero muttered under his breath as he clung to her as tightly as he could.

As she hugged him and shushed him to calm him down with reassurances that she was there now, Nero clung even tighter to her and buried his face into her shoulder. She also felt and saw that a shadow enveloped her. Holding Nero with one arm, she manifested her staff again to attack whatever scared her son. Before she could, however...

"I would advise against that, Lilith."

Lilith's breath left her body when the reverberating voice gave its order. She slowly turned around and saw who had spoke to her. The figure wore a gold mask with long, upward horns that bore hollow eyes that almost felt like they could see through your very soul. Their entire body was covered by a large white cloak with golden trim at the very end.

"E-Emperor Belos." Lilith said as she held Nero close and genuflected as best as she could. Despite her servitude to him, Belos was a terrifying individual, and if there was one thing Lilith knew she was afraid of beyond question, it was the Emperor's wrath. "Forgive me, I had no idea it was you."

"No, it's quite alright." The Emperor stated. "I merely saw that the child was lost, and I sought to help them, only for the child to run away."

"Oh," Lilith said, "Well, this is my son, Nero. Nero, this is Emperor Belos."

Rather than wave hello like he would with everyone else, Nero just buried himself deeper into her shoulder, completely frightened by the man in front of her. Lilith did her best to comfort her son; gently rubbing his back and letting him know that she was here, but he remained frightened. Seeing as the Emperor was the root cause of Nero's fear, Lilith decided that they needed to leave.

"I apologize, my lord, but we must be going now." She gave a slight bow and turned to leave. But before she could get very far...

"It is a good thing that you are present in this boy's life. He has an immense potential that only the Coven can draw out."

Lilith paused for a moment before turning her head back to the Emperor and dawning a curious look. Granted, she hadn't started training her son yet, but if what the Emperor was saying was true, then he must have had a truly immense potency as a witch if Belos himself acknowledged it.

"Really?" She asked.

"Quite. I sense a powerful heritage in his veins." Belos praised, which Lilith couldn't help but feel adulated by.

"Why, thank you Belos, but I really must be going now." She turned and quickly moved to the exit, not wanting her son to be afraid any longer as she felt his grip tighten.

"Yes, I believe you should be."

"Thank you, Emperor Belos." Lilith said as she and her son made their way back to their home and left the palace in almost a rush.

Today started so simple. It was just supposed to be a day with her son and exploring the palace together. But the encounter with her leader now left her feeling as anxious as the boy she carried in her arms. Despite the faith she had in him and the years she dedicated to his Coven, she felt uneasy from their encounter that day. As she kissed her son goodnight and tucked him in his bed, even staying by his side to ensure he slept peacefully and without nightmares, a part of her felt as though he was hiding something from her. As if he knew something about her son that she didn't. That thought just wouldn't leave her head that night.

Chapter Text

"Alright Nero, now stand right next to it and say...cheese!"

"CHEEEESE!"

Lilith snapped the photograph as her son stood next to what they made together with a bright smile on his face. It was a horned snow demon that was about as tall as Lilith herself was.

Originally, Lilith was planning on spending the day training her son in how to perform magic, much like they had been doing for the past week. However, when her son heard about the Knee of the Isles and the snowy climate it possessed, he practically begged her to take him on a trip there. Lilith had a rather hard time denying her son when he made that adorable face that was impossible to say no to, so she relented, but made sure that he would at least be able to practice magic while they were there. Additionally, the cold environment could allow her son to focus on ice magic in particular. She made sure that he was prepared for the cold climate before they left, given that he was now wearing an indigo beanie and a blue sweater with a snow monster design in front of it.

As for Lilith herself, she was still wearing her usual attire, but she wore a black overcoat with a white, furry trim which she wore with the hood up. Her normal dress was swapped out for a pair of thick, black pants made for withstanding the cold as well as navy blue snow boots.

"How does it look momma?" Nero asked.

"Looks great my little raven." Lilith replied with a smile, "You want to come and take a look?"

"No, not the picture. The snow demon."

"Oh," Lilith said, "Well, the snow demon certainly looks adorable, but not as cute as you." She then proceeded to scoop up Nero and hug him tight, peppering him with kisses on his cheek. Her son giggled out.

"Momma, stop."

"Sorry sweetie, can't help it when you're just so adorable." Lilith said as she obliged and put her son down before adopting a more business-like, professional tone.

"Now, I'm afraid we'll have to stop playing for now, Nero." She said, "Time to continue with magic training."

"Aww, do we have to?"

"Yes, we do. Now, allow me to show you how to perform an ice spell." Lilith then formed a spell circle and caused a pillar of ice to form in the ground.

"Whoa!" Nero exclaimed with excitement before jumping up and down. "Again! Again!"

Lilith couldn't help but form another spell circle, this time manifesting a small version of Nero comprised of ice and made it wave high to its flesh and blood counterpart, enjoying the delight on her son's face as her magic dazzled him.

"My turn! My turn!" Nero said as he finished jumping before raising his right hand and forming a spell circle of his own. But instead of an ice pillar forming, a blue fire blast came out instead, hitting the single pillar she had created and melting it in almost an instant.

"Dammit." Nero muttered, shocking Lilith.

"Nero, where did you hear that word?" Lilith asked, kneeling down to look her son in the eye.

"You did. You said it when you were cooking."

Oh. The time when she accidentally burned lunch and they had to order takeout.

"Shit." Lilith muttered to herself, before her eyes widened and she realized what she just said, swiftly covering her mouth and hoping Nero didn't hear that.

"Momma, what does shit mean?" No such luck for her unfortunately.

"N-nothing my little raven. Just don't ever say that word, okay. It's bad." Lilith nervously said, trying to turn the situation around.

At her urging, Nero gasped and placed both hands on his mouth before nodding. Good, hopefully this wouldn't happen a second time. Or third, or fourth or...

"Anyway," Lilith said, trying not to think about her son swearing like a sailor, "Let's go over what you did wrong. What were you thinking about when you made your spell circle?"

"About when you set the food on fire." Nero innocently said.

"Okay," Lilith gained a tint of red on her cheeks and continued, "I need you to think about the cold around us. About ice and snow. It'll help you concentrate on creating the same things that I made."

She then placed a hand over Nero's heart and said, "Remember, magic comes from within you. You need to concentrate and draw it out."

Lilith then backed away and watched as her son tried again. He created another spell circle and closed his eyes, scrunching his face in concentration. After a minute, Lilith started to get worried that her son was going to hurt himself in the process and started to move to stop him before ice began to materialize in his hand in the form of a small spike the size of a fist.

He then opened his eyes and exhaled out before his entire face lit up in a smile and showed Lilith the ice spike he made. "Momma, look! I did it!" He then threw it far into the distance before Lilith hugged her son, her face beaming with pride.

It was rather impressive with how quickly Nero could get a hold on the new spells Lilith taught him. Even if he didn't get it the first time, he learned quickly and got a handle on it after the fact. While he did start off apathetic towards learning, he usually became exuberant and dedicated once he began. That youthful exuberance and happy-go-lucky attitude took her back to decades ago. It reminded her of before she became part of the Emperor's Coven and was just living her life, having fun with...

Lilith gently let her son go as the memories started to overwhelm her. All of this was reminding her so much of the good old days with Edalyn growing up. But every time she thought of her sister these days, she had to choke down those memories because they inevitably led to the memory of that horrid mistake she made.

"Momma, are you okay? You're crying." Nero's voice snapped her out of her memories. She cupped her face and saw that tears were falling from her eyes.

Lilith sniffled and wiped her face before putting on a reassuring smile, "It's fine my little raven, it's nothing to be concerned about."

Her son didn't seem entirely convinced, but before he could respond, a load crashing sound snapped their attention to the trees to their left. Lilith motioned for Nero to get behind her as she stood tall and summoned her staff. She could see multiple trees rustling or falling amidst the snowy forest as whatever was responsible was getting closer. She tightened her grip on her staff, preparing to fight.

Whatever it was finally emerged from the forest, revealing itself to be a large quadrupedal creature with white fur. It roared, revealing that its eyes were located on the upper gums of its mouth and that said mouth had blood dripping out.

"A slitherbeast." Lilith whispered to herself, "But they usually ignore anything that doesn't anger them. Why is this one so..."

Just as she asked her question, she saw the answer. On the slitherbeast's tongue was an ice spike that had impaled itself into the beast's mouth. The very same spike that Nero had thrown earlier.

Oh...

"Fuck." Lilith muttered, this time not caring about the profanity her son just heard, "Nero, I need you to run. I'll be right behind you."

"B-but-"

Lilith turned to him and yelled, "Nero, don't argue. I need you to run now!"

"Mom! Look out!"

Just as Nero warned her, Lilith saw the shadow of the slitherbeast envelop them. She turned as fast as she could but found herself ensnared in the monster's grip.

"Nero, RUN!"

As she yelled, the slitherbeast threw her to the side, sending her flying and landing on the snowy ground. As she stopped, she scrambled to her feet and saw her son try to run away.

Before he could get very far though, the monster tried to grab him, only to instead slash him as Nero moved slightly faster than the monster's claw. The act caused Nero to fall to the floor, wreathing in pain as his right arm was bleeding with a massive slash running down the length of his elbow.

The sight made Lilith's blood run cold before it ignited and gave way to unbridled wrath at the sight. Her face contorted to reflect her rage as blue flames enveloped her entire form.

"YOU BASTARD!" She screamed as she blazed toward the slitherbeast, ramming into it and sending it flying away, crashing onto its back as she floated into the air with her staff in hand.

As it tried to get up, Lilith spun her staff around and formed a spell circle from ethereal blue flames, causing an even larger one to form on the ground just beneath the beast as her Palisman, Coronis, unfurled her wings and blazed as intensely as her master's fury. Lilith enveloped her hand in fire as she raised it and closed it into a fist, causing the circle beneath the Slitherbeast to erupt into column of azure flames; the monster screeching in agony as it burned alive.

When the screams died down, Lilith landed on her feet and stood over a patch of scorched land. There was nothing left of the monster but ashes. She then immediately rushed to her son, who was still on the floor and clutching the gash of his injured right arm.

"Nero!" She yelled out as she knelt at his side, "It's alright, I'm here."

Lilith placed one of her hands on Nero's back and bent him upward to steady him and placed her other hand on his injured arm and started concentrating, her hands glowing with magic as she started to heal his wounds. Before she could get very far, however...

SCREEECH!

Lilith momentarily stopped and was drawn to the sound, seeing another slitherbeast had entered the clearing. It had stomped to the ashes of where the previous slitherbeast had been and it sniffed away at them before turning and snarling its fangs directly at Lilith.

Lilith was now fairly certain that she had just killed this one's mate.

Acting as fast as she could, she scooped Nero up and held her staff out as Coronis unfurled her wings once more, prepared to fly away as fast as she could. She then sat Nero onto the staff.

"Nero, use your good arm, hold on as tightly as you can and don't let go." Lilith quickly told her son as he used his left hand to clutch the staff tightly.

"Good," Lilith said as she turned to face the monster as it primed to charge at her, "Now Coronis, get him out of here!"

Coronis' eyes flashed blue as she obeyed her master. Lilith ignored her son's protests as they faded away, signaling that he was safely away from the chaos. While she wanted to go with him and get him to safety herself, she knew that the slitherbeast in front of her was as enraged as she was when its mate struck Nero. It would not stop nor rest until it caught up to and killed them, as it bore the same fury that she had mere minutes ago.

The good news was that she could tell that its rage was directed solely at her, not her son like the mate's was. Meaning she could get him away and keep it busy herself; the beast guaranteed not to go after him.

As the slitherbeast charged at her, she conjured twin fireballs in her hands and threw them at her enemy. Both made impact and made it roar in pain, but it persisted in its reckless assault. As it came close, Lilith jumped out of the way and rolled to her feet as it slowed down to stop itself before turning and snarling at her once more, this time with two patches of bare, burned flesh on its hide.

Lilith stood her ground and waited for the moment the beast would charge again. It roared and began running towards her, where she stood in wait. As soon as it was close enough, Lilith formed a spell circle and thrusted her palm upward. Instead of the desired result (the slitherbeast impaled on a massive ice spike) it stopped itself and just barely managed to avoid stepping into the circle that formed just in front of it as the spire rose up, ending in a jagged point devoid of the creature's blood.

"Dammit," Lilith muttered to herself. Her frustration then gave way to shock as the slitherbeast grabbed the spire and broke it off from the ground before swinging it right at her. She found herself batted to her right and flying to the side. Pain eroded her whole world as she felt her back slam into a tree trunk that she heard crash to the ground as everything around her became fuzzy.

Her vision blurred, making it hard to see. As her sight fully returned, she saw slitherbeast now standing over her; its clenched claw ready to slam down on her and crush her to death. Before she or the monster could do anything, however...

" YOU GET AWAY FROM MY MOMMA! "

The familiar voice screamed out as a massive, ethereal, claw-like arm rocketed at the beast's face and clutched it. The slitherbeast screeched and clawed at the arm as it found itself lifted into the air.

Lilith turned and saw that her son had returned, likely having jumped off her stave to rush to her, but what shocked her the most wasn't his presence...

It was what happened to his arm.

Nero's injured right arm had changed completely. Gone was the normal flesh and blood arm he had before, and in its place was a reptilian claw that extended all the way to his elbow. The palm and fingers of the arm seemed to glow a bright blue as the arm gave way to a crimson hide that was covered in glowing blue streaks.

Much like the glow of his arm, Nero's eyes were also glowing blue, but Lilith could see red irises at the center of his eyes as he glared furiously at the beast in his grip. Lilith didn't think her son was capable of such anger.

Snapping her out of her shock, Nero screamed as he clenched his clawed fist. The ethereal claw did the same, crushing the face of the slitherbeast with a wet squelching noise. Blood coated the spectral claw and what remained of the monster's face as it was unceremoniously dropped to the floor.

The spectral arm vanished and the blood on it dropped to the snowy ground as well, staining the white floor red in small splotches. Nero's eyes ceased glowing as his whole body went limp. He fell to his knees as Lilith fully snapped out of her confusion and rushed to him.

"Nero!" She cried out, grabbing him and holding him before he could fall completely. She hugged him and kept him steady, "W-what was that?"

"Momma..." Nero said, only his voice was weak and sounded drained, "I'm...cold..."

As his voice dozed, Lilith removed her overcoat and wrapped her son in it, intent on keeping him warm. She reached out and called for her staff, wherever Nero had left it, and in moments, it was back in her hand. She seated herself and held on with one hand while holding Nero tightly with the other. On her command, they took off.

They couldn't go home just yet. Lilith needed to make sure her son was okay. She needed to figure out just what had happened to Nero.

Lilith nervously stood outside of Matilda's office, pacing back and forth as the good doctor checked up on her son and examined his arm to see what happened.

She didn't even bother calling ahead or speaking with Matilda's assistant when she arrived. She just barged in and begged her to help Nero as the boy remained cold in her arms. She was incredibly grateful that Matilda wasn't too busy at the time.

Right now, all she could do was wait. Which did nothing to calm her nerves.

Thankfully, she didn't have to wait much longer, as Matilda opened the door and ushered for her to come in.

Lilith almost ran in and saw her son sitting on the table. She rushed to his side and placed her palm on his forehead. His temperature was warm again, and with exception to his new arm, he seemed to be back in full health.

As relief flooded her entire body, she hugged him as tightly as she dared. Nero returned the hug, but it seemed rather half-hearted. When Lilith retracted, she saw that her son was far more focused on his new arm than he was anything else.

"Momma," Nero said as he stared at the appendage, "What's wrong with my arm?"

Lilith looked to Matilda, hoping that she would have an answer.

Matilda just rubbed the back of her head and awkwardly said, "Well, um, here's the thing about that. We honestly don't know what, well, this is."

Lilith, for her part, just stood up and questioned, "What do you mean you don't know? How can you not know?"

"Look," Matilda explained, "Some children, depending on their morphology, usually grow their limbs back even at an early age in the event that they're ever cut off. When we saw this, I wanted to assume the same at first, but it's not regeneration. His entire arm just...mutated, for lack of a better term. We tried taking a blood sample from it to better understand the issue, but..."

She then gestured to the silver tray on the counter, which was full of syringes that had all been bent or broken. "His arm is too durable for anything we have to penetrate it. And when we ran other tests on it..."

She went silent, as if she wasn't sure how to continue. Lilith, now losing her patience, said, "Well, what is it? Out with it!"

Matilda sighed and said, "Okay, so while we were checking his heart rate and the magical output of his valknut, we noticed that his arm was giving off an energy that wasn't too dissimilar to what the valknut gave off."

That made Lilith's impatience disappear as she contemplated what she was told. The valknut was the organ all witches possessed that was connected to their hearts. It was what gave them the energy to perform magic and create spell circles. If she was hearing Matilda correctly, then Nero's arm was akin to a second valknut? How was that possible?

"And that's not the only thing." Matilda went on, "Nero, could you hold your right arm out?"

Nero reluctantly did as he was asked and held out his right arm, which seemed to pulse and glow as Matilda hooked it up to a crystal ball with a red hued glass and a white stand.

"We use these types of crystal balls for verifying the energy output of valknuts. Now, watch..."

Matilda stood back and next to Lilith as they watched the orb give a readout on the energy Nero's arm was pulsing with. The reading simply increased, and increased, and increased, and...

"By the Titan..." Lilith muttered as she watched in awe and apprehension.

The reading on the crystal ball just kept increasing. It was well past the normal output given by most witches at Nero's age and was far past the output of most adults.

Suddenly, the ball started to sputter and short circuit, then...

BOOM!

Lilith raised her arm to her eyes to shield them and saw Nero do the same. When she retracted, she was shocked to see that the orb had exploded. The output of Nero's arm was so immense that the device couldn't properly measure it.

"And the only reason that didn't happen the first time is because we unplugged it before it blew up." Matilda said with a complete deadpan to her voice before continuing in her normal tone, "The most we could gauge about why your son has this is that it could be a genetic mutation from an inherited gene, but we're not exactly sure. Like I said, what Nero has is something we've never truly seen before."

"Is...is it gonna hurt me?" Nero asked.

In response, Matilda walked next to him and ruffled his hair, saying, "Don't worry, little one. Based on what tests we could run, it's nothing life threatening, just...abnormal. Besides, your heart rate is back to normal, your valknut is healthy and producing plenty of energy, and you seem to have made a full recovery. If anything, I'd say you're good to go."

Nero just continued to look at his arm while Lilith's look remained concerned. She wasn't too sure on leaving with questions about Nero's arm unanswered, but as Matilda said, they have no idea just what it was. They said that aside from that, Nero was in perfect health and made a full recovery. Even still, she couldn't shake her concern, but there was very little that could be done by anyone at this point.

"Well, you are the expert, Matilda." Lilith said as she reached out for Nero to take her hand, to which he obliged as he jumped down from the table, "If anything comes up, I'll let you know."

Before they left, Matilda offered Nero a candy-coated roach which she kept reserved for younger patients who behaved themselves, but surprising to Lilith, he wasn't in the mode for one and turned it down. As they returned home, Nero seemed far less jovial than he normally was. He wasn't downtrodden, but he just couldn't take his focus away from his mutated limb, and honestly, neither could Lilith.

It was late at night and Lilith slept in her bed, or at least, tried to, but the events of the day left her shaken and incapable of rest.

She just laid awake, staring at the ceiling of her room dressed in a silk nightgown that was as black as the night sky. Her mind kept focusing on her son, his injuries, his arm's transformation, and oddly enough, Matilda's words regarding it.

She said that a potential source of her son's mutation was likely a result of inheritance. But how? As far as she knew from her family, nothing like what happened with Nero ever popped up in her bloodline once before.

Unless...

Lilith sat up and whispered out, "His father."

Her mind swam back to Belos' words regarding her son, how he had "a powerful heritage in his veins". He was referring to Nero's father, not her.

But who was his father? She didn't know anything about the man she slept with, not even what he looked like, but if her line of thought was correct, then his bloodline was the source of Nero's new arm. The one person who could answer her questions about today's events, and she had no idea who he was or what he even looked like. Still, she had at least one source of information on that end.

Belos.

Based on Belos' words, he is more than likely the only person who knew about Nero's father. And if he could answer her questions regarding him-

"Momma."

Lilith was snapped out of her thoughts by the sound of her son's voice. She turned to the door and saw Nero standing in the doorway dressed in his pajamas; his reptilian arm glowing in the dark of her room.

"Nero." Lilith said, "Is something wrong my little raven?"

"I...I can't sleep," Nero started before he looked down and absentmindedly rubbed his right arm with his left hand, "It's all glowy and stuff...and the monster..."

"Oh Nero, come here." Lilith moved to sit on the side of her bed and opened her arms, inviting her son to embrace her. He walked up to her and did so, the reptilian arm feeling odd as it wrapped around her neck, but she still felt her son's warmth all the same.

"Am I...am I a freak now?" Nero nervously asked.

Lilith retracted so she could face the boy, whose eyes looked like they were starting to well up with tears, and said, "No, you're not. What would make you say that?"

"It's this arm," Nero said as he sat in his mother's lap and indicated to his glowing limb, "Are people gonna hate me because my arm is funny?"

Lilith felt her heartbeat stop at what her son said. The last thing she ever wanted was for people to hate her son because of something out of his control, just like...

No, stop it.

She tried to shut the memories up and lock them away, but they still came. Seeing her sister walk away, her transformation into the Owl Beast, and the reactions of the crowds as she ran away.

That's right. Edalyn turned into a monster. All because of you. Because you're a selfish, greedy, entitled little-

Lilith choked her thoughts out. That was then, Lilith. Focus on right now. Focus on your son.

"Nero, listen to me." Lilith's words drew her son's eyes upward as he looked directly at her, "This," She pointed to his arm, "Doesn't make you a freak. Having an odd-looking arm isn't that strange. It may have unique circumstances, but there's nothing wrong with you. I promise."

Her words seemed to have the desired effect on Nero, as he started to look happier and enveloped her in a hug. "Love you, momma."

Lilith smiled and embraced her son again, "Mommy loves you to, sweetie."

The two of them stayed like that for a few minutes before Nero yawned and began snoring in her arms. Rather than carry him back to his room, Lilith decided to let him sleep in her bed for tonight. She gently laid him down and tucked him in, watching him doze away into dream as she took her place next to him.

As she felt herself doze to sleep, she thought back to her questions about Nero's arm and his father. In all likeliness, Belos was the only one who could answer them, but she knew that he wouldn't just give her the answers she was looking for. The day she brings Edalyn in, the day she finally cures her sister, will be the day she gets her answers from Belos.

Chapter Text

It had been almost a year since the day Nero's arm had changed, and in that time, Lilith learned quite a bit about it.

The most obvious was its ability to conjure a spectral version of itself that often mimicked whatever Nero's arm did. When she watched him play on the playground, he accidentally manifested one and picked up a blue-haired girl whose entire head was a large eyeball. Though Nero was quick to apologize and put her down.

The next thing that they learned was that Nero performing magic with his new right arm was borderline impossible. The arm itself was akin to a valknut, but with far more magic output. Whenever Nero used it to perform a basic spell, he always put in far too much power and it resulted in him being blown back by the overwhelming force of magic his arm unleashed. Thankfully, Lilith was always there to catch him. He could still perform magic with his left hand as easily as he could previously, but his right arm was effectively handicapped thanks to its sheer output.

Lastly, not only was Nero's new arm incredibly durable, it was also far stronger than his left arm. Now, Nero had always been very strong for his age already, but his mutated arm was far beyond that. She remembered when one of Nero's toys had fallen out of his arms and into the streets, landing underneath a carriage that belonged to a group of demon hunters. Despite the fact that the carriage contained a large monster and despite Lilith's protests, telling her son to just wait for them to move, he used his right arm and lifted the entire thing to get his toy back. The display would have been impressive had the container not collapsed under its own weight and accidentally released the trapped monster into the streets. Lilith spent a good minute helping the hunters recapture it and apologizing for her son's actions.

Despite Lilith's words to her son the night he gained his new arm, he tended to feel off put by his limb, spending a lot of time staring at it or trying to hide it, always saying that it was too weird. Lilith found herself constantly dispelling that notion, telling him that it was nothing to be ashamed of and that he should never have to hide something that was a part of him.

For the most part, Nero eventually stopped trying to hide it, but Lilith could tell that his arm still bothered him. Lilith knew that it would likely take years for him to truly adjust to his newfound mutation and that it wouldn't happen overnight.

Nevertheless, today was an important day, so any thoughts about altered limbs would have to wait. As Lilith and her son rode on her staff and flew through the air, they travelled to her old school for what would be one of the biggest, most important days of her son's life.

Nero's first day at Hexside.

Lilith saw that her son seemed very apprehensive at the prospect of going to school. Earlier at home, he even said that he didn't really want to go to school, but Lilith insisted that he needed to go forth and start befriending others his age. Besides, this would also help him realize that his worrying over his right arm was all for nothing, and that others wouldn't mind it.

As the closed in on the front of Hexside, Lilith proceeded to lower them down to ground level.

"Alright Nero. First day at Hexside." Lilith said, "Are you ready?"

Nero jumped off the floating staff and landed on the floor, saying, "I guess so." not sounding very convincing.

Seeing her son's trepidation, Lilith got off and knelt to his eye level and comforted him, "Nero, Hexside was admittedly hard for me when I first started here as well. The first day is usually the toughest, but you're strong. I know you can get through it. Once you do, every other day that follows should be easy. Okay?"

Nero nodded, though he still looked like he didn't want to go. Seeing as he would have to go to his first class soon, Lilith formed a spell circle and out of it came a bright red lunch box and several snails.

"Now, I packed you some lunch money, but just in case someone steals it, I also packed you your own lunch, and I made sure to pack some extra snacks in case you get hungry outside of lunchtime."

"What do you mean if someone steals the money?" Nero asked with a perplexed look on his face.

"Um..." Lilith twirled her hair with her fingers as she looked away before saying, "L-let's just say I have some experience with that. I'd rather not go any further."

She was silently hoping that her son's time at Hexside did not go on to include the cavalcade of madness that Lilith and Edalyn's time was. Poor Principal Bump would probably have an aneurism if another army of Abominations attempted to seize control of the entire school.

A small part of her actually missed those days. None of the constant workload of the Emperor's Coven, no putting up with Kikimora's incessant condescension, no ever present lingering guilt over-

"Alright!" Lilith said louder than she intended so as to quiet her worsening line of thought, "I'll be here to pick you up at 3:00. Now, try to make friends, but most importantly, stay out of trouble. Understand?"

When Nero nodded, she embraced him in a hug, which he wholeheartedly returned. Upon releasing him, she watched and waved as he walked into Hexside's front door.

As her son disappeared behind the front doors and into the halls of Hexside, she felt a buzzing sensation in her pocket and saw that her pocket mirror was receiving a call. She opened it and saw the image of Coven member Steve.

"Madame Lilith. We've located a band of rogue demons causing trouble around the western fingers of the Isles. We can't get close though. Requesting backup!"

"I'll be there as soon as I can." Lilith said as Steve saluted and hung up. She got back onto her staff and flew off to the western fingers.

It had only been the first class that he had finished, and Nero was coming to a super depressing conclusion about school.

It was so boring.

All the teacher, a spider woman named Mrs. Arachne Webson, did was go on and on about stuff he already knew about.

So far, they were just going over the basic runes. Nero found himself tuning it out because all of this was stuff his mom taught him already. He was way past any of this.

As the bell rang, he gathered his stuff and started following the other students and his homeroom teacher to the next class. As he walked through the halls of Hexside, he looked around the walls and ceilings. He liked the colors on the lockers. Besides blue, his favorite color was red.

Just as everyone went around the corner, he stopped and started walking out of the line, seeing something out of the ordinary.

He saw a bunch of paint and words covering a set of lockers. The words spelled out things like "Eda rules, Bump eats stink" and the word "Hoot" was written a couple times. There was also some lightning drawings here and there.

As Nero walked up to them, he couldn't help but find them pretty cool to look at. They were definitely more interesting than the basic, boring runes they were talking about in homeroom.

"Young Clawthorne." Her heard Mrs. Webson call out. He looked and saw her walking up to him, "Please keep up with the rest of the class."

As he walked back to join the rest of the class, he heard something that sounded like a fart or a spitting noise come from behind him. He saw Mrs. Webson glare not at him, but at the set of lockers behind him. He turned and was surprised to see that the drawings had changed, now looking like a face that was sticking its tongue out, only it actually moved and made that sound.

"Please ignore the vandalism, young Clawthorne, we're still working to get it out." Mrs. Webson said as she gently pushed Nero back to the class.

As she did, Nero turned his head back to the 'vandalism' as Mrs. Webson called it, and saw that it shifted again, this time looking like a happy face that was waving goodbye. Compelled to reply, Nero slightly waved goodbye to it, finding a smile on his face as he did so.

The second class, mathematics, ended up being just as boring as runes.

Just like with runes, it was all just super basic things that him mom had already taught him. Nero was really starting to have second thoughts on school. Not because it was hard, but because it was just so uninteresting. Everything so far had either been stuff he already knew or stuff that he picked up on too easily to get invested in.

As far as interacting went, he hadn't really found any chances to talk with anyone. So far, unlike him, the rest of the kids in his class seemed really interested by everything they were learning.

So far, nothing was bad, just boring. And now he found himself back in line walking with the rest of his grade to the next class-

"AAAAHHHHHH!"

Before everyone stopped when they heard screaming. Nero looked and saw a bunch of older girl students running away from what looked like a bunch of ghosts.

As he and the other students curiously looked at what was happening, one of the teachers walked up to the teacher guiding them and said, "Another locker room incident?"

Their teacher nodded and said, "It's been years, but we still can't get those ghosts out of the locker room." Then muttered something about someone named "Eda", much like what the drawings on the lockers said.

Whatever that was, Nero couldn't hep but find it interesting. He'd never gotten to see ghosts before, so seeing them chase a bunch of older students was actually kind of funny. He found himself chuckling, and he heard a few of the other kids in his class giggle as well.

The teachers then shushed them. Nero didn't get why. Maybe they didn't want them to find what happened funny? But the ghosts seemed like fun.

As they started walking again, Nero thought about where his mother was and hoped that her day wasn't as boring as his was right now.

"SHIELDS UP!" One of the Coven warriors next to her yelled as their enemies launched massive blasts of fire down on them.

Lilith slammed her staff down and formed a large barrier that protected many of the Coven members within its range. Those outside of it were able to dodge, notwithstanding the one whose cape caught ablaze and was now screaming like a girl in the background.

Lilith was now starting to get frustrated. So far, they'd been kept down while the rogue demons just launched fire from their encampment atop the hill. At this point, she'd had it and decided that she was putting an end to this now.

Casting a circle, she launched herself high into the air in a burst of flame, reappearing high above the encampment. Getting a good view on her enemies, she threw her staff down at the center, wreathing it in fire.

A massive explosion shook the air as all the demons that bombarded them were scattered and knocked out cold. Lilith landed right next to her staff and plucked it from the ground as the other Coven soldiers entered the camp and apprehended their former attackers.

Lilith walked up to one of the criminals, a tall blue demon with black horns, and cast plant magic, tying him down with large roots and vines. She put the tip of her staff to his neck and set it ablaze.

"Where's your leader," She demanded from him, "Talk, or face the wrath of the Emperor's Coven."

"Huh, funny, aren't we already facing that nutjob, Belos', wrath?" The demon was feeling snarky, it seemed. Lilith amplified the heat and brought it closer to his face.

"W-wait, WAIT!" That seemed to do the trick, "He's in the tent at furthest edge of the camp. You can't miss it."

Lilith nodded and had the vines wrapped around his mouth, muffling his cries for help. She then looked to her fellow Coven allies and said, "Everyone, surround the leader's tent and block off all areas of escape. I'll deal with him personally."

After Lilith gave the orders, the Coven members moved with her and they arrived at the leader's tent, signified by an odd looking emblem at the entrance. Lilith motioned for everyone to block off all escape roots as she entered the curtains and found the back of the rogues' leader facing her.

Said leader seemed to be an old, goat-like hermit garbed in black robes. He sat at the center of what looked like a large pentagram drawn using blood. Whatever he was doing, he was muttering something in a language Lilith couldn't understand.

Deciding that it didn't matter, Lilith pointed her staff at him and declared, "You are hereby arrested by the order of the Emperor's Coven."

The demon gave no response and just kept muttering in that same ominous language. No getting fed up, Lilith approached the leader and forced him to turn around, "I said-"

But she stopped and saw that his eyes were glowing a dark shade of green. The pentagram was also now glowing the same shade of green as the goat demon's muttering grew loud enough for her to fully hear him.

"Venit porro, potens Illa-Vipera! Ultus nobis et expandit semen tuum inter insularum! Devorandum, o magna Echidna!"

As he completed his mantra, the entire ground shook as the leader's body crumbled to dust in her hands; said dust mixing into the pentagram as it glowed brighter, almost blinding her. Sensing that she shouldn't be standing so close to it, Lilith ran out of the tent and yelled, "Everyone evacuate, NOW!"

As she and the other Coven members got to cover, they were blown back as the wind shook everything around them. Lilith could hear the sound of the other tents being demolished by the sheer force of the gusts of wind.

Just as it arrived, the wind ceased, and Lilith looked up to find that the entire encampment had been destroyed, the only thing remaining was the pentagram from the center of the leader's tent, only it was no longer glowing.

"W-what was that!?" One of the Coven guards yelled as he came to and shook his head.

"I...I don't know," Lilith admitted as she looked around and saw that the rest of her men were getting up. Shaken, but alive.

"Uh, Madame Lilith," She turned and saw that Steve was looking at something in the sky. He spoke with a frightened tone as he continued, "What's that?"

Lilith looked up to where he was pointing and what she saw made her eyes widen in shock. Flying in the sky above them was what looked like a giant serpent with an almost plant-like body.

As the serpent lowered closer to them, it started launching large seeds directly at them, prompting Lilith to get up and command, "Take cover!"

She and the guards scattered to avoid the seeds. Rather than stay on ground level, Lilith hopped onto her staff and proceeded to fly after the serpent. When she got in close, the beast made its way into the forest below, flying through the trees as Lilith gave chase. Just as she got in close, the serpent turned swiftly and lashed out at her with its tail, knocking her away and into a large clearing surrounded by the forest.

Just as she stood up, the serpent arrived and floated in the air before its mouth grotesquely opened up, dividing itself into fourths like a four-fanged trapping plant. The mouth revealed what looked like a pale woman wearing a leaf green bodysuit that opened up to expose much of her chest. Her head didn't have any ears and instead gave way to two massive tendrils on the back of her head that seemed to move on their own.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here," The monster haughtily said as it looked down on Lilith, "A little witchling, all alone. Why those fools would summon me to deal with a worthless rodent, I'll never know."

Lilith ignored her insults and pointed her staff at the beast, "What are you, and why are you here?" She demanded from the monster.

The creature laughed at her and said, "Why should I explain myself to one of the Titan's parasites? It won't matter anyway, you'll be dead soon enough!"

The beast then spun and tried to slam her tail down on Lilith. The Coven leader easily dodged in a burst of blue fire and spun on her heels, forming a large spell circle that launched her into the air on a pillar of ice.

Now afloat, Lilith held her staff aloft and spun it rapidly, causing the clouds above the thunder and strike down on the stave with lightning. Lilith took the gathered electricity and blasted it at the serpent woman, causing her to scream in pain.

This didn't last long, as the beast flew into the air and then straight into the ground, burrowing itself within the forest floor as Lilith landed.

Lilith felt the ground rumble beneath her as she frantically looked for where the monster could pop out. Her senses flared as she looked directly beneath her and saw the ground crack, causing her to backflip out of the way as a large tendril attempted to impale her.

Sensing that wasn't the end, Lilith found herself flipping, dodging, and rolling out of the way of several more thorny, vine-like tendrils, doing everything she could to avoid certain death.

Just as she dodged the last one, she reacted too late to another ground attack, this time from the maw of the beast's serpentine form as it grabbed her with its teeth. Lilith cried in pain as she felt the teeth sink into her. Not letting up, she started casting as much fire as she could within the monster's mouth, forcing to let go as it threw her to the floor.

Lilith groaned in pain and shakingly picked herself up as she faced the serpent as it snarled and roared at her, scorch marks visible within its mouth.

Right now, she only hoped that her son's day wasn't as hectic as the hers was at the moment.

Nero sat alone when it came time for lunch. As much as he wanted to take his mother's advice and try to make friends, he was still pretty iffy on walking up and talking to people, especially since he didn't know anyone here.

It also didn't help that none of the thigs he did today had been interesting so far, all of it being things he already knew about. If school was just doing the same thing on a constant loop, then he wasn't sure he wanted to do it.

But since he had to be here according to his mother, he didn't really have many options.

Just as he was about to start eating, he felt someone tap him on his shoulder, although there was no one present when he turned around to look.

"Yoink!" Nero turned back around just in time to see a green-skinned witchling make off with his lunchbox.

"Hey! Give that back!" Nero yelled to the thief.

"Make me, dweeb!"

Nero felt his face grow hot with anger as he instinctively punched the air with his right arm. The act caused a spectral claw to rush towards the thief and pull him right back to him. He was held by the scuff of his uniform in the air by the manifested arm and forced to face Nero.

"O-okay, okay, it's yours, just let me go!" said the thief as Nero dropped him and took his lunchbox back.

"Whoa..."

Nero turned and saw that the other students in his grade were looking at him. Even some of the students in older grades were looking at him.

He felt his face turn red from the attention and instinctively tried to hide his right arm behind his back before his mother's words ran through his head and he timidly moved it back to his side.

"That was so cool!"

Before Nero could react, he was suddenly surrounded by the other kids in his class and all of them were asking questions, complimenting his arm and calling it awesome, and one kid asking him to sign his face.

It was starting to become to much for him to take. Rather than respond to any of them, he found the attention too overwhelming and pushed past the students. He ran as fast as he could. He didn't care where he ran to, just as long as it was away from them.

He just kept running and soon found himself running outside of Hexside and into the forests surrounding it as he felt the cold winds of the isles surround his face as he ran further and further.

Soon enough, he felt like he was running out of breath and stopped for a moment; his hands on his knees as he faced the floor and panted.

Nero didn't like it. He didn't like school, and he didn't like all the attention everyone gave him. He just wanted to go home.

But he couldn't go home, not yet at least. Instead, he found the nearest tree and slumped down, sitting on the forest floor as tears welled up in his eyes.

He lost track of how long he'd just sat there and cried until he heard a shing sound and he felt like he was in trouble. Almost instinctively, he rolled away from the tree just as a sharp blade cut through the trunk, almost taking his head.

As Nero turned, he saw what did it. It was a shambling, awkwardly walking monster with a blade for an arm.

To Nero, the monster looked like a doll. A disturbing doll that was turned inside out with a sharp blade for an arm.

The monster shambled towards him, and Nero didn't know what to do. He backed away slowly, but found himself tripping on something and landing on the ground. As he backed away, the monster loomed over him and lifted the sword-arm over its head.

For a split second, Nero choked his fear down and jumped up.

"Go AWAY!"

And he punched the monster with his left hand, sending it flying right into a nearby tree and making it cry out in pain.

Nero stared at his hand as he opened and closed it. He couldn't believe what he just did. He punched a monster in the face.

It was...actually really fun.

Nero looked up when he heard twigs break and saw the doll monster get back up. This time, Nero didn't feel scared. Instead, he smiled as he raised his right arm and summoned a spectral arm to grab the monster. He then turned and made a throwing motion with the arm, making the spectral arm lift the doll beast into the air and throw it far. Nero watched as the monster flew away and disappeared over the sky.

"Human wares! Get your human wares here!" Eda called out as she waited for customers to come flocking to buy her recent acquisitions from the human world. As she did so, she looked at what she knew was a human shoe, but that obviously wouldn't sell. A lightbulb went off in her head as she took out a piece of wood and wrote on it.

Finished, she placed the sign out front and yelled, "Discount on severed human foot! I repeat, three percent discount on severed human foot!" she then became contemplative before she went back to the sign and made some alterations by crossing the number out and replacing it with a newer, more money making one, "One percent discount! I repeat, one percent discou-"

"CRASH!"

Eda coughed as dust and gravel was kicked up. When it settled, she saw on the floor was...probably the ugliest thing she'd ever seen...so far. Looked like a messed up doll with a sword for an arm.

Eh, money's money Eda, now wring it out of 'em, She thought as she started a sales pitch, "Good day my good sir. Could I interest you in a severed human foot. We're now offering a zero point five percent discount."

"SCREEEECH!"

The next thing Eda knew, her head was cut off and, with quick reflexes, she was able to catch it in her right hand.

"OWWW! You could have just said 'no', jackass!" She yelled at the now unwanted customer as it lifted the blade again. This time, Eda cast a fire ball and incinerated the bastard. Whatever it was, it screamed as it burned to ash.

Eda placed her severed head on her stand next to the register as her body leaned on the front counter. She sighed and said, "Oh well, guess we're back to waiting."

"Nero!"

"Young Clawthorne!"

"Mister Clawthorne!" Whatever sort of reverie Nero was in from fighting the strange monster was broken by the sound of his teachers calling for him, and he remembered why he was away from school in the first place: he ran away; of course that meant the teachers would be looking for him. Much to his shock, Nero didn't really have much of a problem with this, as beating up the bizarre doll monster had allowed him to vent most of the frustrations Hexside had created; he faintly remembered his mother calling this something like "catharsis".

"Oh, thank the Titan." Mrs. Webson came out of some nearby bushes and rushed over to him in a panic. "We were so worried about you! Are you all right?"

Nero nodded and said, "I'm fine. I just needed a minute to myself."

"Well, in any case, you shouldn't run off like that. Let's get you back to Hexside, young man." Mrs. Webson put out one of her four hands and Nero reluctantly latched onto it. As the two of them headed back to school, Nero looked back at the forest and wondered if there were any other monsters like the one he fought running around in there, or even in other forests just like it.

He also wondered how long it would take for him to be able to fight them.

Lilith was groaning in frustration as she dodged another lash from the tendrils on the beast's head. She had managed to marginally recover from her wounds and was moving at full speed again, but that didn't make this thing any less frustrating to deal with.

Currently, the beast had planted herself in the ground and was summoning tendril after tendril on her again. Any time she got close, she'd use the ones on her head to lash away at her and throw her back.

That is it, Lilith thought in anger, I'm ending this now!

Lilith crafted a spell circle that teleported her high into the air. She held her staff vertical to and in front of herself as she gathered power into it. Her whole body was set ablaze and all the flames she generated were absorbed into the staff as Coronis unfurled her wings; her eyes shining a bright blue as they glowed with raw magical power.

Once she was finished, her staff looked like a spear of pure azure flames. She looked down and saw her target, still wedged into the ground.

Perfect.

With all her strength, she threw her staff straight at the beast. The flames took shape to appear as a burning blue raven that soared down on its prey. At immense speeds, it struck the serpentine beast, creating a massive bursting column of fire that shook the entire surrounding forest. As Lilith descended, she could hear the agonizing screams of the monster woman as she called her stave back to her hand.

The monster still lived, but she was limp with scorch marks and burned flesh covering her entire body. Her bottom half still covered by the ground.

Lilith felt no pity for this beast as she walked up to her and knelt down, grabbing the creature's face and forcing it to look at her. The she-beast glared at Lilith with pure hate in her eyes.

"Now, start talking," Lilith began, "What are you? Why did those rogues summon you?"

The monster kept glaring before she answered, "I am Echidna. The She-Viper and ruler of the great forests of the Green Hell."

That made the gears in Lilith's head spin. This creature claimed to be from a layer of Hell? She had read that Limbo, the realm of the Boiling Isles, was one of Hell's many layers, but she had never seen anything from another layer of the Demon Realm.

"Why are you here?" Lilith demanded from Echidna.

"I was summoned to kill those that demanded your death," Echidna snarled as she coughed her own blood, "And I refuse to be bested by a mere witchling!"

Lilith stood at full height and said, "Well, I suggest you get over it. You'll be coming with me to the Conformatorium for questioning. Then the Emperor will decide your fate."

Echidna merely snarled once more as she weakly tried to move before her nose twitched and her face morphed to one of curiosity.

"Wait," She said as she sniffed the air, "That scent. I know that smell. You have a familiar stench. Where do I know it from?"

"If this is your idea of trying to insult me, then you're even more pathetic than I thought," Lilith said as she started casting a large circle to constrain the She-Viper.

"Your smell. It reeks of..." Echidna's face grew shocked, "You smell like HIM!"

Lilith stopped forming the circle, "What?"

"S-stay back," Echidna's expression became terrified as she suddenly found her strength and began to burrow into the ground, "Stay away from me!"

Lilith moved to stop her, but dust and gravel blocked her vision and entered her throat. She coughed and waved her hands to get the filthy air out of her face. By the time her vision and throat were cleared, she saw that Echidna was long gone, having burrowed deep into the ground and was likely far away from here by now.

"Shit," Lilith cursed as she admonished her failing to capture the rogue demoness. "Better regroup with the others."

The Coven leader then got on her staff and proceeded to take to the skies to fly back to where her fellow Coven soldiers were. As she arrived back at the rogue encampment, her eyes widened at what she saw.

Many of her troops were on the ground and unmoving, appearing to be dead. She only saw two members that were still alive; Steve and one whose name she couldn't recall. It looked like they were fighting large hairy masses with two arms supporting them. By the time she landed, They had killed the last one.

"What happened here?" Lilith asked.

The other Coven soldier huffed and panted before answering, "It was those seeds the monster launched at us, Madame Lilith. They turned into these things and started attacking us. We fought back, but we lost most of our men."

"I see..." Lilith whispered as she looked down on the corpses of her men.

"Well, at least you kicked that monster woman's butt and have her wrapped up to send to the Conformatorium," Steve said jovially.

"I apologize," Lilith began, "I was able to defeat the She-Viper, but she escaped. She ran away."

"Oh," Steve uttered as he quickly regained his jubilation, "Well, at least you sent her running. No one messes with the Emperor's Coven. WHOO!" He then pumped his fist and yelled out, "ALL HAIL OUR GLORIOUS EMPEROR!"

"Uh, right," Lilith said more awkwardly as she slightly raised her fist, "All hail Emperor Belos."

As valued as Steve was as a Coven member, his exuberance was...a bit much sometimes.

"I think we should return to Emperor Belos and report what happened," The other Coven soldier said.

Lilith nodded before her pocket mirror buzzed and she pulled it out to see the time, "Oh shit. It's 2:45. Look, I have to go pick up my son from school, could you two handle the reporting thing for me. Thanks, gotta go bye!"

Lilith said all of that at a rapid pace, giving them no time to respond as she took off and flew back to Hexside to pick up her son from his first day of school.

The wind blew in Lilith's face as she descended upon the grounds of Hexside. The final bell was screaming and students of all ages poured out of the building. Lilith smiled when she saw her son within the crowd and hugged him the second he ran over to her.

"How was your first day, my little raven?" Lilith asked after letting him go. To her dismay, Nero didn't say anything, and he didn't even try to look at her through his silence. "That bad?"

"No, it was fine. Just super boring," Nero said. "You already taught me all this stuff, so why do I gotta go here?"

"I suppose that it's just a natural part of life," Lilith said, "So, did anything bad happen while you were here?"

Nero looked apprehensive for minute before he said, "No, nothing bad happened."

"Nero..."

"Really momma, nothing bad happened!" Nero said.

"Nero, if something happened and you're not telling me, I can always ask the teachers. Please, just tell me." Lilith pleaded. Nero looked at her nervously before he finally spoke.

"A bunch of kids surrounded me and kept calling my arm "cool" or "awesome". I didn't like everyone staring at me."

"But they weren't shunning you like you feared," Lilith said. Nero only shook his head in response.

"But they kept staring at me. I hated it."

"Nero, I-"

"Momma, can I please not talk about it? I just wanna go home now," Nero cut in. With a sigh, Lilith agreed to table the discussion for the moment, and as they flew away, she hoped both that he would want to discuss it sooner rather than later and that the rest of his days went better than his first evidently did.

"So, you say that a large serpentine creature calling itself 'She-Viper' wiped out the rest of the Coven members before Lilith defeated her?"

Belos' question reverberated throughout the entire room as he sat on his thrown under the beating heart of the Titan.

"Yes, my lord," the taller, less irritating one said as he kneeled, "We were preoccupied handling the seed monsters she threw at us."

"Interesting," Belos said to himself as he mused over what his Coven soldiers reported. From the description, they were describing Echidna, ruler of the forests of the Green Hell. What puzzled him was how a band of renegade outlaws managed to get their hands on the means of summoning a demon lord from Hell's lower layers.

He exited his thoughts and told the two kneeling before him, "Here are your orders. You are to investigate how these rogues were able to acquire the means of summoning this 'She-Viper'. I don't particularly care for how long it takes you, so long as you see it done."

"As you wish Emperor Belos," the two said as they kneeled and saluted before uniformly marching out of the throne room.

"My lord," Kikimora began as she stood next to his throne, "Should we not search for where this 'She-Viper' has run off to? She wiped out a good deal of our men after all. Shouldn't such acts be punished?"

"Worry not, Kiki," Belos calmly told his advisor, "She does not pose a threat to us at the moment. We will wait until she resurfaces, and strike her down if she continues to be a nuisance. For now, let her think she's safe. That illusion will make her sloppy."

Belos returned to his contemplation. Echidna's appearance wasn't anything worrisome, but if she could be summoned, then demon lords far greater than her could appear here as well. But one thing was for certain; one way or another, they would all fall.

Such was the fate of their kind, and any like them.

Chapter Text

Nero's eyes browsed the stands and shelves as he and his mom walked through the streets. The book fair was in town, and mom wanted to find some new reading material to add to her collections, something that he didn't really see the appeal to. None of the poems or wordy crap that she liked to read struck a cord with him. Nero always gravitated towards things like graphic novels and things like that.

"Nero, come look at this," Lilith said. Nero headed over to her, briefly passing by a mirror that he looked into for a second. At eight-years-old, he had gotten taller than he used to be by a few inches. His right arm still looked the same, though it tended to glow brighter than it did before. Since today was a casual weekend day, he decided on a short sleeved navy blue hoodie with dark green long pants and white sneakers.

"What did you find?" Nero asked as he approached his mother, who was currently reading a book whose title said Prose and Poems.

"Oh, just bunch of old poems. But some of them I used to read when I was around your age," she explained while smiling brightly, "Here's one of my favorites."

She then cleared her throat and began reciting:

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.

Burnt the fire of thine eyes?

On what wings dare he aspire?

What the hand, dare seize the fire?"

Nero listened as she continued with the entire thing, even though the poem itself didn't interest him. Still, he was glad that reading it made his mom happy.

Lilith sighed and happily said, "William Blake, I have no idea who you are, but your work simply speaks to me. What do you think, Nero?"

"It's...fine." he replied.

Lilith's smile dropped a bit. She could tell he didn't really enjoy it.

"Nero, I take it you're not having fun here?" Lilith asked as she knelt down.

Nero shook his head and said, "No, it's not that. I just haven't found anything that I like is all."

He saw his mother look around with a hand under her chin before she turned back to him.

"Well, I think it would be a good idea for you to look around to see if you can find anything you'd like. I'll wait right here for you."

Nero nodded and he started walking around, trying to find anything that could satisfy his interests. As he looked, he found a few self-insert stories that used magic mirrors on the front cover to project the reader into the book, but most of them were these corny romantic drama books that he tossed aside after reading the title or flipping to the back to read the summary. He found a few comics that piqued his interest, but most of them were things he'd already read before, so he just put them back.

He kept looking around until he stopped and saw one book sitting upon an empty shelf. Nero couldn't explain why he was so drawn to it. Maybe there was some unforeseen factor about the book that was pulling him to it?

Or more likely that it was a dusty old book sitting along on a shelf and looked really awkward like that.

Nero picked it up and saw that it was coated entirely in dust and cobwebs, making it impossible to make out the title. Taking a deep breath, he blew on the covers of the old book to get as much of the dust off as he could. Some of it ended up getting into his nose and mouth, making him cough into his elbows for a bit. As soon as he finished, he saw that the book cover was pitch black and it had an odd-looking red pentagram.

Nero skimmed through the pages of the book and found himself enthralled by its contents. The book contained a list and images of the many different species of monsters that inhabited the Boiling Isles as well as showed places where they have either been found or are most likely to be in.

He thought back to that day on his first day at Hexside. He remembered what it was like to fight and throw that monster around; how fun it was to do so, and how cathartic it was. He had yet to tell his mother of that moment, but he also didn't really want her to find out. She tended to worry a lot about him, and he was sure that knowing that he fought a monster, even if he won, would make her have a panic attack.

Still, the monsters he got to punch around where few and far between. During his days at Hexside, he would find opportunities to sneak out without anyone noticing. Usually, he'd say he had to go to the bathroom, sneak out the window, then run to the woods hoping for a monster to pop out so he could give it a beat down. But it was actually rather rare that a monster would come out and fight him, and it was usually easy to deal with. This left Nero feeling unfulfilled due to the lack of a challenge from fighting one weak monster at a time, and so rarely at that.

That was especially disappointing considering that those woods were closest to school. While none of Nero's days at Hexside were as bad or as boring as his first, they didn't exactly get any better. Even when he actually started learning a few new things, they just as quickly started to become boring again after a few classes since he picked up on the subjects too fast.

Outside of that, he still couldn't make any friends with anyone. It wasn't like he was disliked at Hexside, more so the opposite. In each class, everyone always considered him "the cool kid" either thanks to him being smarter than most of them, who his mom was thanks to her being the leader of the strongest Coven on the isles, or because of his right arm and how everyone liked to fawn over it like it was one of those new toys that the rich kids always showed off.

It was all just so very annoying. Nero didn't like how everyone kept looking at him like he was some kind of idol. He just wanted to be a normal kid. But that was something that wasn't gonna happen.

He took up fighting against those monsters in the woods not only because it was all fun for him, but because it also relieved some of the stress from his school life and having to put up with all the annoyances.

With the book in his hands, he might be able to find bigger, stronger monsters to fight against. Maybe more of what he occasionally fought against in the woods in larger numbers. He just had to make sure his mom didn't find out.

Nero looked for a table near the shelf and saw none. He looked around near the shelf, wondering where he was supposed to go to pay for the book, but still saw no one, just other customers and sellers at other shelves either discussing prices, novels, or getting eaten by one of those books that were also alive.

He shrugged, figuring that he could just take this book without payment, and walked back to where he knew his mother was. As soon as he saw her, still reading through those poems that she liked so much, he ran up to tell her about what he found.

"Hey mom! Look what I-"

"Hi there!"

"WAAAH!"

That was the plan up until a head of green hair and a pair of amber eyes got in his way and made him fall over, kicking up dirt in the process. He shook his head and heard a giggling that made him look up.

In front of him were two kids, both who looked to be the same age as each other and maybe a little younger than he was as far as he could tell. To the left was a boy with short hair and wearing a purple shirt with green pants and dark sneakers with white socks. To the right was a girl with green hair that was tied into twin tails and wearing a green shirt with purple shorts and identical footwear to the boy. Both of them were giving him the same mischievous smiles.

It bothered him.

"Nero! Are you alright?" his mom asked as she walked up and held out her hand to help him up, with the two kids moving out of her way as she did so.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just got surprised," Nero said as he looked back at the green-haired kids.

The girl just giggled and said, "Sorry about that, we just wanted to say hi."

"Well, so long as it was an accident," Lilith said as she turned to Nero, "Nero, why don't you say hello?"

"Hi," Nero said reluctantly. Something about these two just bothered him, and he couldn't explain why.

"Hey, you're that Nero kid from school, right?" the boy asked, though it sure didn't sound like a question to him, "I'm Edric, and this is my sister Emira."

The girl waved at him upon introduction.

"Hey, do you wanna play with us?" Emira asked, "We know some fun games we can play together."

Nero was about to shake his head and say no, given that these two rubbed him the wrong way, but his mom interrupted.

"I think that's a splendid idea!" she said as she clasped her hands together.

"But mom, I-" Nero tried to say, but mom held her hand up and looked at Edric and Emira.

"Would you two give us a minute, please?"

The twins nodded and walked away before stopping at a nearby corner. Nero looked into his mother's eyes as she knelt down to around his level.

"Mom," Nero complained, "I don't want to play with them. They just...rub me the wrong way."

However, he wasn't exactly sure why they did, so he didn't really know how to explain it to his mother.

"Nero," she said, "You've been struggling a lot to make friends in school. Think of this as a chance to make some friends your age."

He just looked away, finding the floor more engaging than the current conversation. His mom gently turned his head back to face her as she placed her hands at his sides.

"I'm not saying that you absolutely should befriend them," she explained, "I'm saying that you should at least give them a chance. Get to know them a little bit before you decide."

Nero still wasn't fully convinced as he looked into his mother's eyes. She gave a more pleading look.

"Just give it a try, for me."

Seeing that face on his mother made him consider as he looked down for a moment. While he wasn't fully onboard with it, he didn't want to make his mom sad.

He looked back to his mother and nodded, "Okay, I'll give it a shot."

Her face beamed as she hugged him for moment, "Perfect," she said, "We'll meet in about an hour. I'll wait for you at the fair grounds entrance, alright?"

Nero nodded before he looked back at the twins, who seemed bored while waiting for him. Deciding that it wouldn't hurt to try, he walked up to them to start hanging out. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad, right?

It had only been the first thirty minutes of hanging out with Edric and Emira and Nero was already regretting it.

So far, their idea of "fun" consisted of pelting random people with balloons filled with a rash inducing substance and laughing at their reactions.

Nero found it all so very, very annoying. The people they were messing with weren't bothering anyone, so why did they feel the need to screw around with their personal lives?

Nero tried to tune out their laughing as they magically tied the shoelaces of another random bystander and made him trip into a puddle of the same liquid that filled the balloons. He instead tried looking around and saw that he was still holding the book he had found earlier. Deciding that their ideas of "fun" weren't for him, he flipped to a random page so he could get started on learning what monsters dwelled in the regions that he and his mother lived around.

"Whatcha readin'," he paused as he heard Edric's all too cheery tone loom over his shoulder.

"None of your business, Edric," Nero said, trying to keep his tone as even as possible.

"Come on, let me see!" he whined, before he tried to reach for it.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase?"

"For the last time, NO!" Nero yelled, seeming to scare Edric.

Seeing this, he calmed down and took a deep breath.

"I said no, and I mean it. Don't ask again."

Edric nodded rapidly as Nero walked past him, still reading his new book.

"Jeez, you don't have to be such a buzzkill," he heard Emira say, "Why don't you relax and have some fun like we are?"

"You have a very shitty idea of what 'fun' is," Nero said, not bothering to turn back to face them nor caring about what he just said. Sure, his mom warned him not to use any bad words, but considering who he was being forced to spend time with for the next half hour, he felt it warranted at least some cursing.

"Come on," Emira pleaded as she ran in front of him, holding one of their balloons, "The least you could do is try one."

Nero, without even hesitating, took the balloon from her hand and summoned an ethereal claw to throw it with all his strength. The balloon flew far over the horizon and could no longer be seen.

"There. I threw it. Moving on," Nero walked past Emira and went back to his book.

"You...you're just..." Emira stammered in frustration, "You're just no fun!"

"Well then leave!" Nero turned and yelled back at her, "Not like I wanted to hang out with you in the first place!"

"Well fine! Maybe we will!" Emira stomped off, "Come on Edric!"

"Uh, sorry about my sister," Edric nervously said, "A-anyway, it was nice meeting you, bye!"

He then ran off and followed after Emira. After they were out of sight, Nero felt a swell of guilt in his chest. Sure, they were hurting people for no reason, but maybe he shouldn't have yelled at them like that.

Nero tried his best to ignore that guilt. No matter what, they still hurt random people and treated it like it was just a game to them. He didn't want to be friends with anyone like that.

Either way, what's done is done, and he had enough of the book fair for one day. He walked back to the entrance where his mother was waiting for him, not wanting to spend another minute here.

"Well, I think that went well."

"Shut up Edric." Emira responded to her brother in frustration.

Emira saw her brother look down, but she wasn't in the mood to care at the moment.

The two of them sat in the backseat of their family's luxury carriage as Emira just leaned back and crossed her arms.

The whole thing was just so frustrating. Nero clearly didn't know how to have fun. All he did was complain about their games or just stick his nose in that stupid book of his. If Emira wanted to, she'd just play with Edric and not bother with the boring load that they had to bring along. Not like she had much of a choice, and now she and her brother had to tell their parents about how they couldn't befriend him.

She felt the carriage come to a stop and looked outside, seeing that they had arrived at their home; the Blight manor.

The abomination carriage driver groaned as they walked out of the carriage. As Emira stood at the front door, she let out a loud sigh, with her brother doing the same in equal measure as she knocked on the front door. It was time to face the music.

After a couple seconds, one of their family's servant abominations answered the door and let them in. The two walked into the halls, with Emira nervously leading the way as she and her brother walked to their house's main living room. As they entered, they saw their mother sitting in her usual seat drinking tea, her bright green hair perfectly done in a low bun, as usual, with her pink, oval gem shimmering as she looked to both of them with piercing blue eyes.

"Tell me, Edric, Emira," she began, "How did your day go?"

Deciding to speak for both of them, Emira cleared her throat and said, "It went fine mother, we attended and spent our day at the book fair as instructed." She then looked around for a bit before asking, "Where's dad?"

"Oh, he's downstairs working on his abomination experiments. You know how your father is with his work," Their mother said in a sort of 'pish posh' tone before she gave an expecting smile and asked, "So, were you successful in befriending the Clawthorne child?"

Emira tried her best not to sigh or grunt, but was able to do so mentally. Instead, she just responded as evenly as she could, "We tried, but we were unsuccessful."

"Well, it's really no matter at the moment, I suppose," Mom replied as she added something to her tea, Emira couldn't remember what it was called, and took a drink of it before she continued, "You will have plenty of attempts to acquaint yourself with him, but don't dilly dally on it. Remember, as the son of the head of the Emperor's Coven, he represents a powerful future ally and point of contact for the both of you. Such a colleague is a boon for any Blight."

Aaaand here we go, Emira thought to herself as her mother started the whole talk about how they only associated with 'the strongest and highest pedigree of witches'. Mother and father had given this speech to them a lot since they turned five, and Emira was getting pretty good at pretending to listen to it all and tune the boring drivel out. To her side, she saw Edric looked like he was about to fall asleep, so she gave him a light elbow and kept him awake.

As mother finished the old family spiel, she concluded with, "So put a greater effort into making him your friend. He is the most powerful witchling in your age group, and the strongest are those that we must surround ourselves with."

"If that's true, then why do you let Mittens hang out with that Willow girl?" Emira found herself scoffing as she crossed her arms.

A wave of fear hit Emira as she covered her mouth, realizing that probably shouldn't have said that as her mother placed her tea down and got up, towering over both of them, a flash of anger in her eyes for a second before it became neutral. Beside her, Edric looked equally fearful.

"That girl," she began, sounding as if she was trying to calm herself down, "Is nothing more than a phase. Rest assured, Amity will come to realize how that girl holds her back eventually and how she has no need for such hinderances to her future."

Mother then knelt down and held both of them by Edric's left shoulder and her right shoulder respectively, "Children, you must realize that whom we choose to acquaint ourselves with will determine both our future and standing among the nobles of the isles. Associating with such riff raff could damage all of your chances of becoming ascending the covens' ranks when you all come of age. As such, this is simply for the better interests of both yourselves and our family. Do you understand?"

"Yes mother," Emira and Edric both nodded.

"Good," she then released her hands from their shoulders and returned to her seat, "Now, I believe you both have your studies to continue." she said as she took another drink from her tea, "You are dismissed."

The two of them nodded and began walking the halls to get to their rooms. Emira didn't have any intention of studying, and she was sure that Edric was in the same boat as her. As she entered their room, she undid her ponytails, letting her hair fall down, plopped onto her bed and faced the ceiling. She saw Edric pull out a sketch book and began to doodle something that she couldn't see from her angle.

Blights can only have super strong, super important friends, Emira bitterly thought to herself, Wish we could have real friends and not a bunch of stuck up, no fun fakes.

She hated how their parents always tried to set them up with the kids of one of their friends. She and her brother wanted to make their own friends; people who were fun to hang out with, share a good joke with, play pranks with, and just have fun. But nope, mom and dad wanted their friends to be boring stuck up snobs who always told them what to do and decided what they would play.

"You okay Emira?" she heard Edric ask, "You have that face again."

"I'm fine Edric, just...tired."

They just sat their quietly for a bit before Edric spoke up again and broke the silence, "So, Nero was...okay, right?"

"More like a total killjoy," Emira grumbled as she turned to face her brother while resting on her side, "He just kept telling us to stop having any fun and stuck his nose in that stupid book."

"Yeah, he wouldn't even let me look at it," Edric muttered, "And it looked like it had some really cool pictures to."

"So mom wants us to be friends with that guy? No way, I'd rather fight that Grom monster that I heard the older kids at school talk about."

Emira rolled over and buried her head in her pillow.

"Y'know," Emira heard Edric muse as she turned her head to face him again, "Mom never said that we have to make the next attempt to become his friends the right one. She just said 'don't dilly dally' on it."

Emira sat up as she started getting where Edric was coming from.

"So, we just have to keep trying..." Edric continued.

"But we don't have to actually succeed," Emira finished, "Edric, that's the first smart thing I've heard you say!"

"Aw, thanks," Edric smiled before it quickly morphed into a frown, "Hey!"

"What?" Emira shrugged before getting under her blanket and plopping her head down on the pillow.

All they had to do was just keep failing at making friends with the guy. Shouldn't be too hard for them to pull off. After all, he was a complete buzzkill who'd rather read than have fun or whatever other boring stuff he did in his free time.

It was late at night as Nero wandered a forest close to his home. Before he left, he made sure that his mom was fast asleep, being grateful that she was a very heavy sleeper.

He'd read from his new book about the different kind of monsters that lurked in certain parts of the forests. One of which that caught his eye was a type of monster called the Comessationibus Lacerta, or 'Rioting Lizard' according to the book's nifty translation. But that was too much of a mouthful for Nero, so he decided that he'd call them 'Riots'. They were usually found in the area of the forest he was heading towards and liked to attack any random wanderers that peacefully passed by, and they usually attacked in large groups with savage brutality, sorta like...well, a riot.

They certainly looked stronger than the puppet/doll monsters he fought near school, and the prospect of getting to fight them actually got Nero excited. He couldn't stop smiling as he ran to where the book said they were usually found.

When he was sure that he reached the area, he looked around and stuffed the book into his jacket, seeing nothing but trees, bushes, and rocks all over the place. It looked like they weren't going to come out unless they knew he was here.

"Hey you ugly mugs! Your mom says you smell like barf!" Nero yelled out.

That should get their attention.

Sure enough, the bushes and trees rustled, and a group of five large navy skinned lizards with sharp claws and split open jaws leapt forward and surrounded him from all sides. Most people would probably cower right now.

Instead, a smirk made its way onto Nero's face as he summoned his ethereal claw and threw it forward to grab the lizard right in front of him. He threw it around, slamming it onto the ground multiple times before letting go and tossing it into the nearest tree, splitting the trunk in half.

The remaining four lizards all looked around, both at him and at each other before returning their attention to him and hissing angrily. Clearly they weren't expecting him to fight back.

Two of them tried to charge right at him from both his left and right, claws primed to cut him up. Nero simply jumped as they neared, making them crash into each other as he landed on one of their heads before jumping forward and rolling into a crouching position facing them.

"Hah, eat that lizard breath!" Nero taunted as he pointed at them with his left hand, forming a spell circle and launching a ball of fire at the two downed Riots. They screeched in pain as they both burned up and fell down dead.

Seeing this, Nero looked at his left hand and got an idea as he looked back to face the two remaining Riots, who looked a lot more cautious now.

He formed another spell circle and instead of having it make a fire ball, he steadied his left hand with his right and pointed his left finger at the center of the spell circle, aiming right at one of the Riots.

He remembered something he saw in one of his cartoons, and now he wanted to put it to use.

"Pew!"

And with that utterance, a small fireball shot out at one of the Riots, who was quick enough to dodge it by blitzing to the side. Since the spell circle was still up, Nero did what he did last time.

"Pew! Pew!"

Two more fireballs were blasted. The same Riot managed to dodge the first one, but the second one hit it square on the face, making a small explosion of heat when it impacted. The Riot plopped down dead with a charred neck where its head used to be.

Nero pulled his hand back and held his left finger (which was giving off smoke) to his face and blew on it, emulating something he saw on the Crystal Ball network. He then faced the last Riot, who was looking around terrified and unsure what to do. Nero decided to let the monster off easy.

"Tell you what lizard breath, I'm feeling generous tonight, so I'll let you off easy," Nero said in a smug voice, "So get running and don't bother anyone else again unless you want to take a ride on my fist!"

The Riot ran away in a panic, but rather than take satisfaction in that, Nero grimaced as he realized how lame his last one liner sounded.

"Ugh, Titan dammit! I messed up my cool one liner!" he then slapped himself on the face and muttered, "Note to self, come up with better one liners for the future."

Looking around, he saw that he was all alone; nothing in sight that was odd except for a broken tree, some monster corpses, and some slightly charred patched of dirt and grass. Seeing that there was nothing else to do, Nero shrugged and placed his hands behind his head, content with walking home as he smiled from all the fun he had just now.

Chapter Text

Lilith hummed to herself as she poured a cup of Apple Blood into her favorite blue drinking mug. She had already made herself breakfast, but she wanted to wait for her son to wake up so they could eat together as they usually did.

"Good morning, mom."

Lilith smiled as she heard her twelve-year-old son walk into the room and turned to greet him. She saw that his hair was disheveled from bedhead and he was rubbing his eyes, completely exhausted. As she watched Nero open the refrigerator, she couldn't help but notice an odd line on his shirt that stopped short of his neck.

When Lilith moved just a bit closer, she felt her heart jump when she saw that the line wasn't on his shirt, but his skin, and it looked disturbingly like a scar.

"Nero, what is that?" Lilith asked. Nero ignored the question, so Lilith, in spite of his protests, pulled his collar down and saw exactly what she was afraid of: a series of scars running all the way down his back. "Nero, who did this to you?"

As her heart rate increased, she did her best to keep her temper down as thoughts of severely hurting whoever did this to her son clouded her mind. Instead, she took a deep breath and let out her question.

"Nero, who did this to you?" she asked again as she turned her son around to face her.

"Who did what to me?" Nero asked.

"The scars on your back, Nero. Someone caused them, and I want to know who." Lilith was doing a poor job of hiding her anger, but she hardly cared. Nero looked away from her in silence before finally giving her an answer.

"I fell out of bed."

"Nero, you honestly cannot expect me to believe something like that." Naturally, Lilith didn't believe him for a second. "Those kinds of scars are not something you'd get from simply 'falling out of bed'." Once again, Nero refused to answer her or even so much as look at her, but she grabbed his shoulders and forced him into eye contact. "Nero, if you're having problems with someone, just tell me and I'll handle it. You don't have to lie to protect them; whoever did this doesn't deserve any protection."

With an angry look on his face, Nero, much to her surprise, pulled away from Lilith.

"Mom, I'm fine. I told you I just fell out of bed! I don't need you to coddle me like this!" It was the first time Nero had yelled at her, the first time Nero had gotten mad at her. It startled her for a second, but for both of their sakes, she couldn't let it last any longer than that.

"Nero, do not take that tone with me when I'm just trying to help you. If someone hurt you, I want to know who they are and I want to know now." Nero shot her a glare, but it didn't take long for it to fade away.

"I'm sorry, Mom," Nero said, actually making an effort to look at her. "No one did this to me, I swear." The nearby wallclock started screaming before Lilith could say anything else.

"I have to go to work soon and you have to go to school, so let's put a pin in this," Lilith said with a sigh. "However, I'm going to have Principal Bump tell me if he or any of the teachers know anything, understood?" Nero just nodded at her. "Good. Now, let's take care of this." Lilith knelt down until her forehead was touching her son's, and upon that touch, she recited a select set of words:

"With this spell declared, let the pain be shared."

The two of them shone brightly for a moment before the light faded away. Pain suddenly washed over Lilith's back, and while it quickly subsided, she still found herself feeling the new scars across her back.

"What was that? Why were we glowing like that?" Nero asked.

"It's a spell I learned when I was your age. It halves the pain one has and lets me share in it. Hopefully, your injury is less troublesome now." Nero gave her a nod and a hug before starting on his breakfast. Once that was finished, he went upstairs to his room and came down properly dressed in his school uniform, the sleeves and leggings now having the signature light blue coloring of the Illusionist Track. Lilith couldn't be happier with her son for finally settling on a track as a sixth-grader. He was growing up before her very eyes, and she almost wanted it to stop.

Those were all of the thoughts running through her head as the two of them stepped outside and Lilith carried them into the air.

That was a close one, Nero thought as he waved goodbye to his mother and entered the halls of Hexside and walked to his homeroom with the Illusionist Track.

He remembered last night when he went out to fight monsters. Things were going pretty well, him shooting fireballs and ice spears, using an ethereal arm to throw them around or punch them out, killing them left and right, but then he got blindsided and struck on the back by either a bladed arm or a large claw, he couldn't remember which one exactly.

Either way, something he also learned was that he evidently healed faster than the norm, and usually whenever he took damage, such as a scrape or a cut, he healed fast enough that it was gone by morning.

No such luck with last night, as the slash wound on his back was large enough that it was still there the morning after, and enough that it caught his mother's attention.

He felt bad about lying to her about what he was doing, especially since she used her magic to take half the pain from the injury he got. He enjoyed what he did, sneaking out some nights and fighting monsters in the woods for fun, but she worried a lot and cared for him being as safe as possible. Her knowing about what he was doing would likely cause her to have a panic attack.

Plus, he also feared that her knowing about this would disappoint her, and while he tended to disagree with what his mom wanted for him sometimes, he also wanted to make her happy.

As he entered the classroom, still surrounded by mirrors, he half-heartedly greeted his teacher and took his seat, more or less tuning out the teacher's lecture as he thought back to last night.

He didn't want to worry his mother again or risk getting having his occasional sneaking out to be discovered, so he'd have to figure out a way to avoid arousing his mother's suspicion. So far, the best way he thought he could do that was by avoiding any further injuries like the one he received.

But how was he supposed to do that? Fighting monsters was a lot more complicated than what he thought it would be when he started out. Sometimes caution had to be thrown to the wind, and that would lead him to where he was this morning.

Maybe what I need is to start bringing a weapon along to fight with? Nero thought as he went back to listening to the teacher's lecture.

That seemed like a good place to start.

As the morning bell screamed and Nero made his way to his next class, he passed by a group of kids his age chatting about. "Nero, I know it's hard, but try to make friends at school. You never know until you try," were the words of his mother that suddenly came to mind, and in a similar spur of the moment, he cleared his throat to draw their attention.

"Excuse me," he started, "Nice to meet you guys, my name is Ne-"

"OMG, it's Nero!" As soon as one of the girls shouted that, the entire group started crowding him.

"Hey, could I meet your mom? Think I have a chance of getting into the Emperor's Coven?"

"Oh, speaking of Madam Lilith, can I get her autograph?"

"Wow, you're even cuter up close! Any chance you're available right now?" All of those people and not a single one asking a question actually about him. Having enough of that, Nero conjured a puff of smoke and used the cover to make a break from everyone. Fortunately, no one managed to follow him, and Nero was able to make his way to class in peace.

With that, his resolve to not make friends with anyone at school was strengthened even further.

Nero opened his lunchbox and briefly dug into his meal before he put it away, not really hungry at the moment. Instead, he pulled out one of his journals and looked through some of the sketches he had made during his later classes.

Many of them were of different weapons with pros and cons to them. So far, he'd drawn a halberd, a sword, a battle axe, and a javelin. If he was going to bring a weapon with him to fight monsters, then he wanted to make sure it was the ideal tool he could use.

Alright, so the halberd has good reach, but it's also got a long pommel and is heavier, and since I'm trying to avoid something like last night, I'm gonna have to nix that option. The battle axe has the same issue. It has a lot of weight to it, so unless I want to take hits like I did before and get caught, I'm gonna have to not go with that, Nero thought, going over the weapon options in his head as he briefly chewed on the end of his pen.

"Okay," he said out loud to himself, "That just leaves the javelin and the sword. So what are the pros and cons to each?"

"Hi Nero!" a pair of familiar voices invaded his eardrums from his left and right.

Oh Titan fucking dammit, Nero cursed as he didn't even bother looking to know exactly who was at his left and right.

"What do you two want?" he said before turning to face Emira, who was wearing her hair in a high ponytail and currently dressed in the standard Hexside uniform he wore prior. Being a year behind him, neither she nor Edric had selected a track just yet.

"Oh, we just wanted to say hi, see how you were doing. Is that so wrong?" Emira said with an annoying grin plastered on her face.

You're up to something, Nero thought, I don't know what, but I know you are.

"Hey, what are you drawing?" Edric asked as he reached for the notebook. Before his hand could even touch it, Nero slammed it closed and put it away.

"None of your business, Blight," Nero said, emphasizing disdain on the saying their last name, "Now, I'm trying to eat lunch, so would you two kindly buzz off?"

Emira held out her hands in mock surrender, annoying smirk still on her face, "Fine, fine, we'll go somewhere else for lunch," she said as she and Edric got up and started walking away before she turned back to him, "Though I don't know what your problem is with us, we're just trying to be friendly."

Nero scoffed, "Oh please, that's a lie if I ever heard one," he retorted, "All you two ever do is annoy me. If that's your idea of 'friendly', then go away before I cast fireball on you."

Both of the twins just giggled before smirking at him, "Okay, we'll go for now, " Emira said, "See you later, bestie."

As the two left, Nero groaned as he pulled his lunch back out and continued eating. In the past four years since he met the Blight twins, he kept finding them insufferable with how they kept trying to forcibly insert themselves into his life, constantly annoying him. They were almost like a bad rash that never really went away when you first got it.

And the worst part? He still found their presence more preferable to all the other students fawning over him like an idol or asking favors from his mom like he was an express lane to success. If nothing else, they annoyed him, but didn't treat him like he wasn't a person.

"Alright, Miss Clawthorne, what seems to be the trouble?"

Lilith sat poised in her seat. It was the end of the school day, as she told her son this morning, she intended to learn if someone at his school caused those wounds she saw on his back. Currently, Nero sat outside the office, waiting for her to finish.

"Well, last night, I noticed that my son had some scars on his back. When I asked who gave them to him, he refused to answer," she leaned forward, "I want to know if you or your teachers have noticed him being bullied here. Has anyone been bothering in a manner that could have led to that?"

"Hmmm," Principal Bump pondered as he scratched the red demon he wore on his head, "No, sorry to say, but none of the teachers have reported anything of the sort, nor have I seen him undergoing any roughhousing. If anything, your son is actually rather popular and well-loved here. I can hardly imagine anyone wanting to do something like that to him."

That...wasn't quiet the answer she was hoping for. While she was glad her son was well-liked, at the same time, her mind couldn't get off what she saw this morning. She didn't want to see her son hurt like that, and she fully intended to put in their place whomever caused it.

But to do that, she needed a name and a face, and so far, she had nothing. Nero had school yesterday, and he was with her the rest of the day. So logically, either someone or something here at school caused that. Where else could he have gotten it from?

It really couldn't have just been him falling out of bed, could it have been? Lilith thought as she stroked her chin, What am I thinking? How on the Titan could someone possibly get a wound like that from falling off the bed?

It was rather unthinkable to her. She'd never heard of something so ridiculous and outlandish happening, except...

Lilith snapped awake from the sound of a loud "OUCH!" that emanated across the hall from her room. Yawning, she got out of bed and rubbed her eyes before she put her glasses on and walked to her little sister's room where the noise came from.

As she opened the door, she cast a light spell to illuminate the room. The blue glow revealed Edalyn on the floor, rubbing her arm in pain as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Edalyn, what happened?" Lilith asked as she ran up to her sister's side.

"I..*sniff*..I fell out of bed and hurt my arm," she cried as she showed her the injury. Lilith was shocked by how bad the bruise looked. How could something as simple as falling out of bed produce an injury that bad?

After seeing the tears fall from her sister's eyes, she didn't think anymore on it. Instead, she pulled her sister into a loving embrace and did her best to sooth her.

"It's okay Edalyn. Everything will be okay," she said as she placed her hands on the sides of her sister's head and touched their foreheads together.

"With this spell declared, let the pain be shared."

Suddenly, Lilith felt a strong pain on her arm and she began to rub at it to ease it away. She pulled her sleeve back to see a lesser version of the bruise that Edalyn had.

It hurt. It hurt a LOT in fact, but she could bare with it. She looked to Edalyn's arm and saw that her bruise had lessened as well, with her sister wiping the tears from her eyes.

"T-thanks Lily," Edalyn  sniffled as she reached out and hugged her. Lilith smiled and returned the embrace.

"Anytime sister, just try to be more careful next time," Lilith told Edalyn as she pulled back from the hug, "I never thought falling off your bed could make a bruise that awful."

"Don't worry, I promise I'll be more careful Lilith."

"Lilith."

"Lilith!"

"Huh?" Lilith shook her head as she was snapped out of her memory. In front of her was Principal Bump, waving his hand in front of her eyes, as if trying to snap her out of a daze.

"You went silent for a couple minutes there," Principal Bump said, "Is something wrong?"

"No, it's nothing," she replied to her former principal, "I just remembered something is all. Nothing to be concerned over."

Maybe, Nero was being honest, Lilith thought, Maybe some things that sound so implausible are actually the case.

Looking back, her son probably had more of her sister in him than she wanted to admit.

"In any case, while neither I nor the other teachers have witnessed what you're describing, rest assured that we'll keep an eye out for any signs of trouble. Would that suffice?" Principal Bump asked.

Lilith curtly nodded and said, "I suppose that will do, but if it does end up happening, the first thing I want you to do is tell me. Understood?"

"So long as you don't kill the students involved, then yes," Bump said with at least some dismissal in his voice, "Can't really say I'd approve a move like that."

"If it's any consolation, I wasn't planning on killing anyone who would do that to my son," Lilith replied.

"Right, and Painbows don't turn you inside out," he retorted.

Before Lilith could retort back, the door opened and one of the school teachers walked in.

"Uh, Principal Bump," she said, "We have a problem."

"And what would tha-"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH! GET IT OFF ME!"

"GIVE ME YOUR FLESH!"

The screaming in the background gave an indication what the teacher meant as she awkwardly rubbed the back of her head.

"The, uh...the Choosy Hat broke out again."

"Ugh, fifth time this month," Bump groaned as he placed a palm to his face before looking at Lilith, "If you have any other concerns, let me know. Right now I need to stop the Choosy Hat from eating someone else's face."

Before she could answer, Principal Bump and the teacher were out of the room faster than she could react.

As she stood there, unreacting to what happened, she saw her son stick his head through the door.

"Hey, mom, are you done?" he asked, "Cause I saw the principal and one of the teachers chase after a weird hat thing on one of the students."

"Yes, we're done here," she said as she quickly got up and grabbed her son's hand, "Now let's get out of here before we start to look like a decent meal to that Titanforsaken hat."

She then ran as fast as she could, doing her best to ignore the sounds of the ensuring fight against the hat, with her son keeping up behind her. As soon as they were outside Hexside, she manifested her staff and carried both of them home.

Nero sat in his room as he continued drawing and writing in his journal regarding his potential weapon. At this point, he felt like he'd come to a decent conclusion.

While the javelin was good at a distance, it was mainly a throwing/stabbing tool, so unless he was super precise with hitting weakpoints, it wasn't really ideal, especially if the monsters he would fight were faster than expected like they were last night.

The sword on the other hand, was probably the most balanced weapon out of all his choices. The usual ones were bladed on both ends, had decent weight that he could put his strength behind, but not too much that it would be cumbersome to use. He could be fast and hard-hitting with one where as with the rest, he was more limited in how he could fight.

The big question is where am I going to get a sword? Nero thought. It wasn't like he had any swords lying around in his house.

Except...

Wait, what about that one sword mom has in her closet?

He remembered the first, and only time, he ever held that sword back when he was four. But mom would never let him so much as touch that sword, so it wasn't like he could just go 'Hey mom, can I borrow that sword in your closet for something? Don't worry, I'm not fighting anyone or anything with it.' since that would clue her in on his occasional night time fights.

"So," Nero said to himself, "How do I sneak it out without her noticing?"

It was relatively close to midnight when Nero got out of bed, pumped on his own adrenaline, taking one of his shirts and tying it around his right arm to hide its glow so that it wouldn't risk waking his mom up before he started tip toeing around the house to his mother's room.

By this point, she should be fast asleep, so all he had to do was sneak the sword out without her noticing. He just needed to avoid making too much noise, as while his mom was a heavy enough sleeper that she could probably sleep through an explosion, that still didn't mean he could be noisy.

Quietly, he opened the door to his mom's room, trying to prevent it from making any creaking sounds. As he walked in, he saw his mom sprawled out all over the bed, snoring really, really loudly.

Time to do this, Nero thought as he silently tip toed all the way to the room's closet, opening the door and closing it behind him. Unable to see, he formed a spell circle and created a small ball of blue light that illuminated the area in front of him.

Alright sword, where are you? Nero looked all over the closet, moving different sets of his mom's clothes aside to see where she hid the weapon. It had to be around here somewhere, after all.

After a few minutes of searching, rummaging past sets of clothes and boxes that were labeled 'Childhood', he finally found the sword, looking exactly the same as it did years ago. He smiled to himself as he picked it up, testing its weight in his hand.

Despite the length, it didn't feel quite as cumbersome as it was when he first picked it up. Nero supposed that was due to him getting stronger over the years.

Now that he has the sword, he walked out of his mother's closet, closing the door behind him and dissipating the light spell as he once again tip toed out of the room.

But just as he was half way to the door...

"Stop..."

Nero's heart almost leapt out of his chest as his mother's voice made him freeze. He slowly turned, expecting to see a withering glare from his mother at what he was doing.

Instead, he was met with her still facing the ceiling, eyes closed, talking in her sleep.

"No, stop it *yawn*-lyn, you're gonna get us in trouble," she muttered as she turned around and faced opposite of him.

Nero resisted the urge to sigh with relief as he kept sneaking out of the room, slowly closing the door behind him and removing the shirt tied around his right arm.

Now that he had a sword, he could go out and start kicking monster ass.

Nero found himself back in the woods again, looking about for any monsters he could fight against. This time with his mother's Coven saber in his left hand, ready to cut down whatever he fought.

A slash filled the air as Nero turned just in time to see a small tree flying towards him. He quickly bent backward and flipped as it flew over him and he landed on his feet. Nero looked up to face his attackers and saw what was probably the ugliest set of monsters he'd seen so far.

He remembered seeing them in pictures in his book. These shambling, emancipated skeletal figures in hoods and robes were called Hell Caina. From what Nero could understand, they came from deeper in Hell, but if he had to guess why they were here, the must have gotten lost or left behind a long time ago.

The front most of the three Cainas rushed at him, scythe tearing through the ground as Nero quickly dodged just before the swung attack could make contact. Not wasting opportunity, he gave the Coven saber a swing aimed right at the monster's undefended torso, slicing it clean in half.

Nero looked to the remaining two shamblers and got an idea. Using his left finger while still holding onto the sword, he cast a blue circle that conjured up an exact replica of himself. Something he learned in his Illusionist home room recently that seemed like it'd be useful for off-balancing anything he fought.

Given how the two Cainas looked at each other and back to both him and his illusion, it seemed like they were thoroughly confused.

Smirking, he sent the illusion first, which prompted the two Cainas to charge at it and meet it head on with a double downward slash, poofing the illusion and leaving their weapons impaled into the ground.

Seeing that both of them were now stuck, Nero ran forward and jumped into the air, landing atop the edges of heir weapons, further impaling them into the ground and making the Cainas look up at him.

"Sorry guys, but it looks like I'm gonna have to..." Nero started before he stopped, looking down for a second as he scratched his head, "Gonna...have to...eh, screw it."

He then swung the saber at both of their heads, slicing them clean off as he jumped back from his position on the scythes and landed a few feet back as he hoisted the sword on his shoulder.

"Well, they sure got ahead of themselves," Nero smugly said before he groaned and slapped his face with the palm of his right hand.

He wasted his chance to have a cool one-liner, and replaced it with a shitty pun.

"Titan dammit, I messed that up," he grumbled as the sound of rustling bushes turned his attention behind him.

Shambling out of the shadows was a quartet of familiar looking burlap-skinned monsters with blades in places that they shouldn't be.

Nero smiled as he took the saber and pointed it right at the Scarecrows.

If nothing else, he had more opportunities to come up with something kickass to say in a fight.

"Well, that was fun."

Nero was walking back home, having had his fun fighting and testing out his new weapon. But as he walked home, he ran into one small problem.

He needed to hide the sword. The question was where would he?

He couldn't hide it in his room, since if he did, his mom would stumble upon it and she'd find everything else out. He didn't think he could just put it back in her closet since he didn't know if he'd get unlucky and accidentally wake his mother up when he decided to sneak out.

Where can I hide this thing so I can keep using it? Nero mused as he walked. Until...

"Oof!"

…he bumped into something and fell to the ground.

As he shook his head and got up, he looked to what he bumped into and saw that it was a rather twisted looking large tree. It actually looked less like a tree and more like two trees twisted together and connected at the trunk.

"Okay, definitely the weirdest tree I've seen in my life," Nero said to himself as something from the corner of his eye caught his attention.

He looked and saw what looked like an opening in a nearby rock formation. Ignoring the tree for now, he slowly walked towards the opening and manifested a ball of light as he neared.

As the blue light illuminated the opening, he saw that the inside was a rather small cave, with him being able to see the end of it not very far in. He then looked back to the twisted tree that garnered his attention first and began thinking.

"Interesting..." he started forming an idea.

"Nero, have you seen it?"

Lilith asked her question as she walked into her son's room, who didn't answer her question as he sat at his home desk, writing in his notebook from the looks of it. When she walked up to look over his shoulder, she found that he was writing a bunch of non-sequiturs. Many of them sounded like what his favorite cartoon characters would say in the middle of a fight.

"What are you doing?" she asked directly in his ear, causing him to perk up and face her.

"Oh, sorry mom, didn't hear you," he said, looking a little flustered, "I'm just writing cool one-liners."

"Right," Lilith said as she read some of the lines he was writing and resisted the urge to roll her eyes at how cheesy some of them sounded, "And...why are you doing that?"

In response, he simply shrugged, "Because they're cool. Why wouldn't I?"

"Nevermind," Lilith sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose, "I'm looking for my old Coven saber. Have you seen it?"

Once again, he shrugged and went back to writing his lines. Lilith raised an eyebrow.

"Nero, did you take my old sword?" she received a head shake in response, "Well then I hope you don't mind if I search your room."

Her son just continued to write as she began looking around his room. She checked everywhere; under the bed, in his closet, on his shelves, in his toy chest, even levitating all furniture in the room (including her son on his desk, who was still writing one-liners) to search more clearly.

Nothing. Her sword wasn't in here. Seeing this, she gently and carefully placed everything back where it originally was before.

"Hm, well it's not here, then where could it be?" Lilith mused, "I couldn't have misplaced it, could I?"

She looked back to her son, who was still writing those rather inane lines, and gave him a gentle kiss on the side of his head.

"Sorry about that, but I needed to check," she said before admitting, "Granted, I never used the old thing, but I still liked having it around. If I can't find it, I'll see if I can ask for a replacement."

"Uh huh," Nero said without even facing her. While Lilith was somewhat upset, she did see how invested her son was in what he was doing, so she left it at that.

"Not sure what's so 'cool' about half of these things you're writing," Lilith admitted before she shrugged, "I suppose I may be a little out of touch with the youth these days."

With that, she left her son's room and began searching around the rest of the house. In hindsight, it was rather unlikely that her son would have her old sword around. Despite his fascination with fighting, he never acted on it and was content to just watch them on the Crystal Ball, draw pictures of them, and read about them in books.

Keeping that in mind, what need would he have for a sword anyway?

It was past midnight when Nero decided to sneak out again, though unlike the previous night, he had no intention of going out to fight monsters this time. Instead, he was heading to the twisted tree and small cave opening, which he decided to name 'The Hideaway'.

As he made his way to it, he thought back on earlier today when his mother came in to look for her sword. He still felt bad about taking the sword and going behind her back. She was his mother after all, always taking care of him and knowing what to say to help him feel better. He loved her and she loved him, and lying to her about this made him feel wrong inside.

While he wrote in his journal to come up with new, better one-liners to drop when he fought against monsters, part of the reason he was doing that was also because he needed something to distract himself from those feelings of guilt for taking the Coven saber.

Still, even with those feelings, he kept trying to make sense of it all.

"Remember Nero, it'll help you avoid getting cuts and scratches like last time," he said to himself as he neared the twisted tree, "Less of that means less stress and worry for mom. Also less pain sharing."

After seeing his mom use that one spell to mitigate the pain from the scars and take part in it, he also wanted to do what he could to make sure she never had to use it on him again.

"Let's get you out of there," Nero formed a spell circle with his left hand and green energy coated the twisted tree, causing it to split open, revealing the Coven saber hidden inside.

Briefly looking around, he took the sword and went into the Hideaway, forming a ball of light and pulling out his journal so that he could get to work. He started drawing and writing down the different ways that the saber could be augmented and made better at what it could do. In the corner of the page, he also got to work on coming up with a good name for it. After all, every good sword needed a name.

"Let's see, Rebellion?" Nero mused out loud, "Nope. How about Endbringer? Nah, doesn't feel right. Maybe, Force Edge?"

Nero continued trying to come up with names for a good ten minutes. And then it hit him.

"Wait, I got it!" he then crossed out all his other name choices as he wrote down and circled what he knew his weapon would be called.

"From now on I think I'll call you, Red Queen."

Chapter Text

The bell screamed as Nero left his advanced runes class to get to his locker, thoroughly bored from having to identify and understand all the intricacies of the different old letters and what spell affects they could have. Granted, some of this stuff was kinda useful for fighting monsters, but Nero still found it boring.

Firstly, because all of this came to him way too easily after he started learning the lessons, so he just coasted away so it would end faster while he was at Hexside. Secondly, he tended to prefer the...hands on approach.

Either way, he opened up his locker and placed his ruin books on the tongue that came out, letting it swallow them now that he had no need for them for the rest of the day.

"Hey Nero!"

"Ugh," Nero groaned as he turned to face the now thirteen-year-old Blight twins.

Edric and Emira looked at him with coy expressions, both of them adorned in the Illusionist Track uniform like he was. He was pretty sure that they just chose the same track as he was in for the sole purpose of getting more opportunities to bug him.

Adding to his issues, their lockers were now right next to his, something he was pretty sure wasn't a coincidence.

The Titan is just fucking with me, Nero bemoaned to himself, I know it is.

"So Nero, any plans for Grom?" Emira asked as she put her books in her locker.

"Yeah, it's called 'Literally anything else'," Nero said with a glare at the admittedly smarter of the Blight twins.

"Aw, don't be like that Claw Boy," Edric teased, calling him by that annoying ass nickname the twins had been using on him for half a year now, "We just want to help you have some fun." he said as he took a textbook on illusions and physical interactions off the tongue of his locker.

Nero elected to try and ignore him as he walked away while also electing to ignore all the Grom decorum and over-the-top ways students around them were asking their dates out for tonight. Thankfully, he didn't have Illusion class at the same time as Edric and Emira, but unfortunately, they continued to follow anyway since their classes were in the same general direction.

"I mean, you could do a lot of fun things at Grom," Edric started listing things off, "You could spike the punch with laxatives to get someone to go to the toilet. You could meet a cute girl or boy. You could set up the old bucket of three hour petrification serum on the door so that when someone walks in-"

"Wow, I didn't think you could make me want to go to Grom less, but congrats, you managed it," Nero deadpanned as he shifted the book sack he carried.

"See? This is why you should go," Emira cut in as she walked backwards ahead of them, "All you ever do is brood, read, study, brood, draw, write, brood, seriously, you're worse than Mittens. Learn to have fun for once in your life."

"I can have fun, it's just that none of it involves you two or anyone else here," Nero fired back as he walked past Emira.

"Spoilsport," he heard Emira mutter as they made it to the circular crossways.

Just then, a loud, static noise was emitted from the intercom.

"Attention Hexside students!" Principal Bump's voice came out of it as several students either gathered close to a nearby intercom or just looked anxiously at it, "It's time to announce this year's highest Grom honor! And it looks like we have a king this year!"

Nero looked and saw that Edric was starting to look nervous while Emira sighed with relief. Not that Nero blamed them for once, since if what he heard about the so-called 'Fear Bringer' was true, they'd probably get eaten alive and terrified out of their wits in the first fifteen seconds. Since thirteen was where the age-bracket for getting selected to fight Grom opened up, all of them were eligible to be selected now. Nero didn't particularly care though, as he wasn't planning on going to these things anyway and wasn't selected last year, so the odds of him getting selected were slim to none.

"Well, I feel sorry for the poor guy who gets picked this year," Emira said as she smiled, clearly glad that she had no chance of getting selected, "I sure don't envy anyone who has to fight that thing."

"And our Grom king is...Nero Clawthorne!"

"Wait, what!?" Nero exclaimed.

"Oh...crap," he heard Emira mutter.

"Oh thank the Titan, it's not me!" Edric breathed out, before he let out a loud "OW!", taking Nero out of his slowly growing turmoil as he turned to see that Emira had just elbowed him in the shoulder. She then looked at Nero with something he'd never seen on her face before; legitimate concern and worry. After Edric finished rubbing his shoulder, even he seemed genuinely worried about him.

Nero was lost in thought after hearing the announcement and what he knew was going to happen. He didn't even pay any mind to the growing crowd of students that surrounded him, ignoring their collective congratulations or declarations of 'But he's too cool/handsome to die'. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't mind fighting Grometheus, given what he already did for fun, and the new monster could be a new challenge for him. But these weren't his normal circumstances; he wasn't fighting the Fear Bringer on his own in the woods with no people for miles around to witness the fight. He was fighting it in front of a viewing crowd, with people seeing what he could do. And if they saw that, then they'd spread the word, and that word could reach his mother. Hell, she'd have to chaperone and come anyway, so she'd see it with her own eyes!

"Fuck..."

Lilith internally grumbled to herself as she filled out various forms at her desk. It had been an hour since she'd picked up her son from Hexside and so far, her day had been troublesome. Firstly was that she had to spend much of the day listening to Kiki's prattling when she was addressing the members of the Emperor's Coven during a presentation, her smug sneer making the whole thing all the more obnoxious. The second was that something had been clearly bothering her son, given how nervous he looked and how he refused to so much as say a word outside token phrases of 'fine' and 'okay', and yet he refused to open up about it. And the third, and worst of them all was this, the worst part of being leader of the Emperor's Coven:

Paperwork.

At the moment, she was filling out the forms for admission for new members into the Coven that had passed the trials for entry. Some looked rather promising, while others looked abysmal, with her assuming that their forms only found their way to her desk entirely because of dumb luck.

Like you're one to talk, you no good snake.

Shaking her head and snuffing her thoughts out, Lilith directed her focus back to filling out the forms. The sooner she did this, the sooner she could relax and stop thinking about all this tedious busywork that she had to do for the Coven.

"Uh, mom," Nero's voice prompted her attention as she turned her chair to face him, looking as nervous as he did when she picked him up from school.

"Look, Nero, whatever it is, can it wait?" Lilith said, turning around as she was still caught up in her tedious endeavors, "I'm rather busy at the moment."

"But it's important!"

"Nero, I'm in the middle of something right now, please just wait a bi-"

"I got selected as Grom King." And with that, Lilith dropped her pen and froze. Her son, her little raven, was selected as Grom King. He was going to be forced to fight against that horrid monster lurking beneath Hexside. "Mom?" At some point, Nero started shaking her by her hand and calling out to her, but she barely even registered it. "MOM! Are you okay?" At first, anyway.

"Y-you...you're going to fight that...that thing!?" Lilith stood from her chair so fast that it fell to the floor.

"Uh, yes," Nero said, his voice filled with trepidation as he looked to the floor, "Principal Bump announced it somewhere after my runes class." Lilith just stood there silently, not moving a muscle until she opened up her stand mirror. "Mom, what are you doing?"

"I'm calling the Principal to both get him to excuse you from fighting Grom and let him know that I'll be dropping a house on him later." Lilith was sure that anger and worry were rolling off of her in waves, but so long as Nero would be safe, she couldn't care less. She started dialing up Bump to act on that line of thought, only for Nero to jump in her way and close the mirror.

"Hold up, do you...do you not think I can do this?" Nero asked.

"Nero, listen to me. You don't know how dangerous Grom is. It is a creature that feeds off fear and nightmares."

"That wasn't what I asked. I was asking if you think I can do this."

"Nero Claudius Clawthorne, don't you dare take that tone with me! Whether you can or can't is not the point!" At that point, Lilith still wasn't yelling, but only just barely. Her mind flashed back to when he was attacked by the slitherbeast all those years ago. The sight was one of the most horrific things she'd ever witnessed, and it would have to be a pleasant day in the bleakest, most chaotic pit of Hell before she ever allowed something like that to come close to happening again. "Don't act like you know what you're getting into!" she continued, "I know what's best here, and what's best is that you not fight that monster!"

"And that wasn't my question!" he yelled back, "Do you honestly think I can fight Grom, or not!?" and yet he still didn't understand.

"NO, I DON'T!" The second the words left her mouth, all of her anger faded away, but it was too late. The look on her son's face made it clear that the damage was done. "Nero, I—" Without a word, Nero stormed out of the room away from her; the next sound she heard was of him slamming his door shut. "I'm so sorry."

Nero sat underneath the covers of his blankets, reading away in the contents of his book to ignore the pain of his previous conversation with his mother. He decided that he could push his anger away by reading for anything regarding Grom's strengths and weaknesses, but so far, he couldn't find anything. The book's contents only covered demons and beasts from the greater circles of Hell that were often found in the wilds of the Isles. Whatever Grom was, it was unique and consequentially, undocumented.

I mean, as much as I'd rather not be Grom King, I'll still fight the damn thing if I have to. Even if I don't want mom to find out, I was hoping she'd at least believe I could do it. If that thing hasn't gotten out this entire time, then I'd say I could fight it and win.

A loud knocking from his bedroom door drew his attention as he got out of the covers and put his book away. Once again, the knocking sound came.

"Nero," his mother said, her voice muffled by the door, "Can I come in, please?"

"Go away," Nero fired back, not in the mood to hear his mother.

"Please, I just want to talk," she said as desperation permeated in her voice, "Please..."

With a sigh, Nero got off his bed and walked up to unlock the door, letting his mother in. He felt his anger vanish for a second as he saw her face, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. He couldn't remember a time when his mother looked this sad.

She spoke as she sat on his bed, "Nero, I.." she took a deep breath before continuing, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that I didn't have faith in you. It's just..."

Nero walked up to her and sat at her left as she wiped her face and spoke again, "Do you remember all those years ago? The day your new arm first manifested?"

Now nervous, Nero gave a short nod.

"When I first saw that slitherbeast slash away at you, it was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life," she explained as she turned to face him, "After that moment, I never wanted something like that to happen to you ever again."

The two just sat there in silence for what seemed like hours despite it only being moments.

"Mom, I know how to be careful," Nero found his voice, "I...I don't exactly want to fight Grom in front of all those people, but if I don't, then won't Bump just pick another student to fight it?"

"I don't care about the other students' well-being, only yours," his mother declared as she cupped the sides of his face, "I know that must sound rather heartless of me, but you're my son, and..." she then enveloped him in a hug, "and raising you has been my greatest joy. I know I can't protect you forever, but I'd like to do so for as long as I can."

For a moment, Nero didn't know what to say or do, simply sitting motionless in his mother's arms. But he found it in himself to return the gesture, giving his mother a reassuring hug.

"Mom, it's okay," Nero said, letting his mom know he forgave her, "Look, I know you don't want me to fight Grom, but just..." he fell silent for a second as he exited the hug, "Just let me try. Okay?"

His mother looked rather horrified at the prospect, and her face cycled through different forms of contemplation, many of which probably thinking about telling him no, but she eventually sighed and said, "Alright, I'll...I'll let you fight Grom."

Nero gave a small smile, "Thanks mom."

I still don't really want her to find out though, he thought to himself, Maybe I can pick the right weapon and subdue it quickly or something. Just got to make the fight fast.

"But first," his mother said as she stood up, "If you're going to do this, then I want you to be prepared. I won't take any chances, understood?"

He nodded, knowing that his mother wouldn't budge on this.

"Hey, sis, have you seen Nero anywhere?" Edric asked. The Grom party was in full swing as couples danced, laughed, and all-around had their share of the fun. He and Emira originally planned on setting up a few pranks like coating the floor in slipping fluid so that people would trip and fall while dancing, or maybe taking a bunch of stinger hornets and unleashing them on unsuspecting partygoers, but neither of them really had the spirit to pull that off. Whenever Emira asked, he lied and said that he was afraid that the prank would mess up his dark green three-piece suit. When he asked Emira the same question, she grunted and said that she didn't want to ruin her favorite purple dress. Now that Edric thought about it, he noticed that Emira's dress pocket had what looked like a trading card sticking out of it.

"What's that card in your pocket?" he asked, pointing to the card in question.

"It's a good luck card. Y'know, the kind that are enchanted to give someone good luck for about a day," Emira said as she pulled it out of her pocket.

"Oh, well why haven't you used it yet?"

"None of your business." Emira pocketed the card with a grunt and stepped outside of the auditorium to wait outside. "What about you? Why's that thing around your neck?" Emira pointed at the hairy, closed fist that was on the end of his necklace.

"I think the guy who sold it to me called it a 'monkey's paw'. He said it granted wishes, but I tried it and it didn't work, but I figured I'd keep it as a good luck charm."

"Hmm." Emira hummed as she leaned against the doorframe, looking as bored as he was feeling, but there was something else that he saw in her eyes.

Oh! So that's what's up! Edric thought. It took him a minute, but he figured out what was going through her head; he couldn't call himself her twin if he couldn't do that much, at least.

"Don't worry Emira, I'm sure Nero will be fine," Edric said. "I mean, Hexside is still standing, so maybe Nero has a shot at beating Grom?"

"Oh, please, like I'm worried about him," Emira said. "Why do you think I care anyway? He's been an annoying killjoy since we met."

"Emira." Edric's tone lost its last bit of levity "I know you. We've pretty much shared the same room since before we were born. I just have to look you in the eye and know what you're thinking. And I can tell that you're worried about him."

"Oh yeah, well what about you? I can tell you're worried about him, so how about that?" Edric tried to find a retort, but he couldn't make anything come to mind; he couldn't remember the last time he had trouble saying whatever was on his mind.

"Excuse me, uh, Edric and Emira?" A mature, adult voice caught Edric's attention, and he and Emira turned to see Nero's mother dressed in a pretty black dress that pooled over her feet and hands, and standing behind her was Nero.

Uh...what? The sight of Nero's outfit left Edric at a loss for words. He wasn't sure what kind of suit Nero was wearing because he couldn't tell thanks to the armor he was wearing over it. And the armor he was wearing over that. And the armor over that, and more and more armor in that manner to the point that it looked like he could barely move. To say that it was a lot was an understatement, to say the least, and he could only think of one appropriate action in response.

"Bwahahahahahahaha!" Laugh at him to the point of tears. "You look ridiculous!"

"Like a giant ball of metal!" Emira said, laughing right alongside him. Edric could feel Nero shooting daggers at them through his comically large helmet, but at that point, he hardly cared.

"Can it!" Nero said. "This was pretty much the only way mom would let me come here."

"As I said, Grometheus the Fear Bringer is extremely dangerous," Miss Lilith said in response to Nero's statement, "I'm not going to take any chances. The armor is enchanted so that you have extra protection."

"But I can barely move in this crap!"

Miss Lilith simply pinched the bridge of her nose and muttered something about 'not having time to make lighter armor'. Edric looked to his sister, who seemed to be lost in thought before she walked up to Nero, pulling the card out of her pocket.

"Look, this isn't much, but here," she formed a spell circle on the card and put it in Nero's left hand, where it glowed for a second before it ceased and the card turned a dark grey, "That should give you good luck for the next 24 hours. Figured it might help."

"Uh...thanks. I guess?" Nero said, sounding unsure.

"Don't assume this means anything," Emira said, albeit a little too fast in Edric's eyes, as she crossed her arms and looked away in a huff.

Edric suddenly got an idea and walked up to Nero, taking his monkey's paw necklace off, "Here. I got this a while back. It's a good luck charm." he then tried to put it around Nero's neck, but the headpiece he was wearing in his helmet was really large, making putting it on too much of a chore.

Grunting and realizing that he wasn't going to get it around Nero's neck, he gave up and put it in Nero's glowing, reptilian right hand, "Just hold onto it for good luck. You're gonna need it."

"Huh, thanks guys," Nero replied, sounding a lot softer than he normally did.

"Don't thank me just yet," Edric replied, "I still want that thing back."

"Good to see you all getting along for a change," Miss Lilith said before checking in her pocket watch and turning to her son, "Since there's still plenty of time before the fight begins, how about you three 'hang out', if I'm saying that correctly," she then maliciously rubbed her hands together and chuckled with sinister intent, "Meanwhile, I need to find Principal Bump and let him know that a falling house is in his near future."

Edric leaned in and whispered in Nero's ear, "Y'know, your mom's pretty cool."

"More like pretty smothering," he grunted back. Edric could almost hear him roll his eyes as he said that.

A ringing sound permeated the hallway they were in. While Edric and Emira looked around for where it was, Miss Lilith's face turned slightly red as she held out her finger and pulled her pocket mirror phone out.

"Hang on, I need to take this," she opened the mirror and reacted with shock, "O-oh! Emperor Belos! I...I wasn't expecting you. I apologize, but I'm extre-"

"Whatever it is you're doing will have to wait Lilith," the emperor said, his tone of voice rather dismissive from what Edric heard, "You are needed at the head of the Isles. Our spies have informed us that another attempt at summoning a great threat from beyond my domain is underway, and your aid is required in dealing with it."

"B-But my lord, I-" she stammered, looking deathly worried at Nero and sort of afraid. Not that Edric blamed her, since Belos sounded pretty scary.

"Mom, it's fine. If you need to go, then go," Nero said, trying to turn to her despite all the cumbersome armor, "I'll be fine."

Miss Lilith looked like she wanted to do anything but leave. She looked to her mirror, then back to Nero a few times over before she relented and said, "I'll...I'll be there as soon as I can, Lord Belos."

"See to it that you are."

With that, she closed the mirror and turned to Nero.

"Nero, I promise I'll get this done as fast as I can. I'll be back before you even start the fight."

Edric looked to his sister who gave him a nod of agreement. It was pretty clear that this was a promise she wasn't going to be able to keep. It reminded him a lot of their parents. They'd say they'd be there on time, but they never bothered to show up unless it was convenient for them or the 'family name'.

"Mom, I said it'll be fine."

"I...just promise me you'll be careful." Miss Lilith almost sounded like she was begging.

The headpiece of the armor creaked forward, showing that Nero nodded. Miss Lilith gave her son a quick hug and ran down the hall, looking back at them a few times as if she thought her son would vanish if she took her eyes off him for too long.

When she was out of sight, Emira grunted, "Welcome to the parents are a 'no show' club. I'd give you a t-shirt, but it looks like you're overdressed for this thing already."

"Oh ha ha," Nero's deadpan voice said from the headpiece, "Now help me out of this armor. If I have to fight Grom, I'm not doing it looking like an overweight knight."

It took about a few minutes, but the Blight twins were able to get most of the armor off of him, leaving him with only the first layer of silver armor on and making the dark blue, three-piece suit he was wearing more obvious.

Nero would admit, he was...perplexed by Edric and Emira's actions, what with giving him good luck charms and sympathizing with his mom no longer being here. After all the annoyances they tended to put him through, it was kinda weird, them helping him out like this.

As he walked down the hallway, his thoughts were rather preoccupied by his upcoming Grom fight and the fact that his mother was no longer here. Admittedly, a part of him was glad that she got called away by Emperor Creepazoid, since it made it less likely that she'd find out about his...extracurricular activities, not to mention the fact that he took her Coven Saber and made it into Red Queen. On the other hand, a part of him wanted her to be here when he fought and defeated that thing, something that he hoped would make her proud of him and be less smothering.

He could almost see it, the proud smile on her face as he showed her what he could really do. But then was the other option, the one were she didn't accept it...

He shook his head, not wanting to think about it.

"Damn, why does all this have to be so confusing?" he said out loud to no one in particular.

He neared a familiar set of lockers that he frequented every now and then, if only to have someone to talk to.

Right now though, he needed some advice.

"Hey, been a while huh," he said as leaned back against the lockers and sat on the floor, "Any chance we could talk? Got a lot of crap going on."

Nero turned back to look at the wall, seeing the familiar graffiti of "Eda Rules, Bump Eats stink" and "Hoot" move close to him. Over the years at Hexside, he tended to frequent this spot after he learned how to understand what the sentient vandalism said. It became a good source of advice over time whenever he needed to vent out his frustrations with either Hexside, its students, the twins' annoyances, or his mom's smothering in ways that didn't involve throwing demons and monsters into trees.

The graffiti shifted around and spelled out "What's up?" as it moved.

"It's this whole Grom thing," Nero admitted as he ran his right hand through his hair, "I...don't really want to fight it since...well, what if mom starts putting together what I've been doing every now and then?"

The graffiti swirled, turning into a series of question marks.

"I mean, mom had to go do some mega important Coven crap, so at least she won't actually see the fight and figure shit out, but..." Nero sighed and looked to the floor, unsure of what to say, "But...a part of me actually wanted her to be here too. I don't get why this all has to be so confusing."

After swirling for a second, the graffiti formed to say "Family's weird like that". At the bottom was an image of what looked like a mother, a son, and...a father.

Seeing that image bothered him. As he got older, he tried asking his mother time and again why he didn't have a father. He'd seen other kids on the Isles who had a father and mother, or two fathers, or two mothers, while he only had one parent. But every time he asked, his mom just went silent, refusing to answer, sidestepping the question, just saying that his father wasn't around, or saying that she just didn't know where he was.

While he loved his mother, as smothering as she could be at times, he still would have liked to have a father in his life.

Choosing to move away from that, he said, "Yeah, I guess family can be kinda odd sometimes, even if it's just me and mom." he scratched his head before continuing, "Still, I'm not completely sure about this though."

It shifted once more, this time turning into a poster that said "Face your fears! Kick Grom's ass!" with an image of him wielding a sword fighting a black blob monster at the bottom.

Nero chuckled a little at the graffiti's attempts to encourage him, "Thanks for that." he then looked up to face the ceiling, "Still kinda wish mom was here though."

The graffiti once again shifted, swirling into an image of his mother surrounded by several question marks.

Knowing what it was asking, Nero replied, "I don't really know what the Coven's making her do right now. Heard Emperor Creep say something about a "great threat" or whatever."

Okay Lilith, just calm down, get this done quickly, and get back to Nero before he starts fighting Grom. Lilith's thoughts were plagued with worry as she flew to the skull of the Boiling Isles as fast as she could. She'd already changed out of her more elegant attire and switched back to her standard outfit, complete with her white cloak and hood.

As she neared the skull, she saw one of the Coven members signaling her from inside the right eye socket. She quickly landed and joined with the gathered soldiers.

"Let's make this quick, I don't want to be here any longer than I have to." Lilith was aware that she was being rather rude, but considering the circumstances, she honestly couldn't care less. If it got things done faster, then she'd continue with it.

"Of course ma'am!" the soldier saluted, "We've been tracking this group of renegades down for the past week. We've confirmed that their leader is the younger brother of the rogue that summoned 'Echidna' years prior."

"I see," Lilith said as she started following the Coven members into the socket of the Titan's skull. Lilith had to fight the urge to cover her nose from the stench of rot and decay. While the Titan was considered to be perhaps the true ruler of the Isles, as even Belos claimed to be "his humble messenger", that didn't stop Lilith from disliking the terrible smells of the Titan's rotted corpse that invaded her senses. It was worse here given that the skull was among the few areas of the Titan's body that had yet to completely decay.

Drawing her attention away from her offended sense of smell, Lilith focused her hearing as the sound of chanting echoed through what was essentially a cavern of sorts. As she and her men walked through the cave of bone and decrepit, ancient, decaying flesh and muscle, they exited to see a light down below, which illuminated the inside of the skull and lit up the underside of the Titan's brain. As she looked down, she saw a scarlet, glowing pentagram similar in shape and size to the one that summoned Echidna. In front of it was a small, goat-like demon in a crimson robe in a state of procession as other bandits and scum surrounded the pentagram from all sides. At the center of the pentagram was...

By the Titan, Lilith thought as she saw a small assortment of common Isles citizens gathered at the center, each of them tied up and in varying states of terror. The one that caught her attention the most was a male teenage witch with near-platinum blonde hair and blue eyes, huddling desperately to the woman in the group, whom she assumed to be the boy's mother. It reminded her too much of her own son, the sight almost making her jump right in to kill all the renegades herself, but before she could...

"Surge, o magna Belial!"

…It was too late.

The pentagram glowed as the family screamed, dissolving into ash as their remains mixed into the symbol, making it glow brighter and brighter. Suddenly, the pentagram became a geyser of pure heat and flame that shot up, hitting the brain of the Titan, yet leaving no sign of damage. Out from the flames flew several bat-like demons whose bodies were ablaze; they flew around the room before landing just behind the leader and a few of his thugs, kneeling to the inferno.

The flames then died down, revealing what stood at the center of the now blackened pentagram. The beast had a centaur-like appearance, with legs and feet akin to dragon claws and a muscular upper-body with the visage of a snarling beast. His body was jet black with large spires of flame bursting from his shoulders. In his left arm was a truly enormous blade that gave off immense heat at the tip, making the upper portion appear a super-heated orange.

As Lilith and the other Coven members ducked behind the edge to remain out of sight, Lilith poked her head out to try and better hear and see what was happening to assess the situation. She saw the great demon point his sword at the rogue leader and speak in a deep, booming voice.

"Now that you have summoned me, mortal, let us discuss our business."

After his pep talk with the graffiti, Nero wandered back into the school gym to wait for when he'd get called up to fight against Grom. Overall, he felt better for what he was about to do, but he still felt kind of confused on a few things and even a little bit scared. Just a little bit. As he walked around and avoided most of the partygoers, the lights dimmed down.

"Attention everyone, it's time for us to introduce our Grom King this year!" Principal Bump said into the microphone, drawing everyone's attention to where he stood on the stage, "You know him! You love him! Let's give a big round of applause for Nero Clawthorne!" at the declaration, the students cheered and the spotlight showed on him, forcing him to block out the light with his left arm.

"So...uh, good luck." Emira's voice chimed in beside him, sounding rather unsure of what to say. "I'd say break a leg, but that sounds bad so...break Grom's leg?" Edric said, sounding rather unsure as well, "Wait, what if Grom takes the form of something that doesn't have legs? How would that wor-Hey!" before he could start rambling, Emira grabbed him by the shoulder and took him to a spot on the bleachers. Just as Nero's eyes adjusted to the brightness of the spotlight, the auditorium lights went back on and the floor split open to reveal the underground arena, with two weapon sets manifesting at both his sides.

As he looked through them, determining which weapon he could use, his eyes fell to a peculiar sword on the left weapon set. The blade was a pristine silver with a guard modelled after wings, meeting at a dragons head that appeared to bite down on the sword itself. The hilt bore a swirling pattern that ended in multiple skulls at the bottom, a small spike pointing at the very end. Almost as if the sword beckoned for him to lift it, he picked it up, tossing it from his left to his right to experiment with how it felt. As soon as he did so, a blast of lighting erupted from the blade and flew straight into the ceiling. Nero couldn't help but smile at the weapon.

"Hey, can I keep this!?" he asked out loud to Principal Bump as he tossed the blade back in his left hand and held it over his head. Much to his dismay, Bump shook his head, "Sorry Mister Clawthorne, but that's school property. Afraid I can't allow it to leave campus grounds."

Nero groaned at that as he looked down at the blade, "Ugh, fine, guess it's just one time thing then." he then looked down into the arena and took in its crypt-like appearance. Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw a black, amorphous object move between the columns as he mentally psyched himself for what he was about to face.

"After so long, you finally answer my summons, great Berial," Lilith heard the leader of the group say to the demon, whom she now knew was called Berial, as he bowed to him, whether it be in reverence or fear, she didn't know nor care to know. She also felt shaken by his words of admittance that this isn't the first time that he tried to summon him.

How many innocents did he sacrifice just to get into contact with this one demon?

"Yes." Berial's booming voice shook the entire skull, "I understand that you seek my aid in avenging your brother. Vengeance is something that we understand in the Fire Hell. But this is not why I have answered your call."

"T-then why have you answered now?"

So, he's afraid of Berial, Lilith thought, noting the fear in the leader's voice. It was clear that the demon was the one that held all the power here and that if need be, he could just kill the entire group of rogues and be done with it. After what she saw them do, she almost wanted him to do just that. But part of her wanted him to spare the rogues so that she could savor killing them for herself.

While her task was to bring them in as prisoners, the sight of the sacrifice and the faces of the family as they dissolved to nothing but dust (and how the boy of the family reminded her too much of her own son) made her desire to see these monsters suffer burn far more than her desire to bring them to justice.

"Because word has travelled down throughout Hell, reaching mine own ears," Berial stated as he knelt down to better meet the leader's eyes, "My brethren have been slaughtered by a peculiar presence they claim is on the isles, and now that I am here, I can smell it in the air."

He then took a deep whiff of the air and snarled with immense rage, "The blood of the betrayer, the blood of Sparda, lives on these isles."

"Sparda?" Lilith whispered as she looked to the rest of her Coven, all of whom seemed equally confused. Just who was this 'Sparda' that Berial spoke of? It was the first time she had ever heard that name.

"If you aid me in finding Sparda's kin and slaying them for his sins against Hell, then I shall aid you in your vengeance against Belos and his followers. Is that clear for you, mortal?" Berial declared as he stood up and pointed his blade directly at the leader, who backed away in terror as the tip neared him.

Lilith saw the leader rapidly and fearfully nod as the bat-like demons surrounding the group snarled and hissed at them, as if daring them to defy their will. At this point, she decided that enough was enough.

That's it, she looked to her allies and nodded at them to follow her lead. She stood up and jumped down from the precipice of the height, landing in a kneeling position before she stood tall and proud, pointing her stave as Coronis unfurled her wings, eyes shining a bright blue.

"Surrender! All of you!" she declared as her Coven warriors landed beside her, "In the name of Lord Belos and the Emperor's Coven, you shall suffer for your crimes!"

Upon her declaration, the demonic bats snarled and spread their wings while the rogues cowered and began backing away. The great demon, Berial, however, seemed more curious as he looked down at her.

"So, you are the witchlings who enforce rule over the Titan's body. How...quaint." he said, clearly dismissive of them as a threat. Lilith fully intended to make him regret his arrogance. He then sniffed the air and pointed his blade at her, "Interesting, your scent. I recognize it."

His statement made Lilith curious. It reminded her of her fight with Echidna years ago, where she said that she smelled familiar and ran away, never to be seen again. What were the demons smelling on her anyway?

Berial then gestured to his fellow demons, "Dispose of them. Leave their master to me." upon his command, the burning bats took to the air and started swarming around her Coven warriors, who engaged them in battle while the rogues all started to run away, fleeing deeper into the Titan's skull.

Lilith attempted to fly after them, but was quickly stopped by a blade that blocked her path. She looked up at Berial, who snarled, "Your battle is with me witchling! Let the cowards flee. They are of no importance."

He then batted her aside with the enormous blade, causing her to wince in pain from the immense heat that she felt from her brief contact with the sword. Luckily, she stopped herself before she hit a wall and flew herself to the ground.

"When I last stepped foot on the Titan's body centuries ago, I sought to slaughter those who desecrated his corpse." he growled as he approached her, his stomps reverberating throughout the entire base of the skull, "But I was pushed back. Forced to retreat by the witchlings of the isles then, for despite being parasites who fed off his body, their might was formidable, I shall grant them that. But my blade was sharpened with the bones of your ancestors. Its flame fueled by their bodies. I may have lost then, but I've slain many a witch before you. More than I care to count." he pointed his sword at her as his flames grew more intense, "Show me if the witches of this realm still have the might to challenge I, Berial! Conqueror of the Fire Hell!"

He then roared, shaking the entire skull as his flames erupted, forcing Lilith to avert her eyes as an inferno danced around her enemy. Steeling herself, she aimed her staff at the claimed conqueror, gathering power to face his might.

Nero turned his head left and right, sword in his left hand as he searched for signs of that ominous black blob that he saw before he entered the crypt-like arena. So far, there had been nothing down here. Or at least, nothing he could see. Still, Grom was around here somewhere, so he couldn't rest easy.

Then, an odd, liquid-like sound drew his attention, and he found himself staring at a black blob that split itself into three.

"Okay, ugly," Nero said, pointing the blade at the blobs, "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're Grom." The three dark blotches then rose up and morphed, turning into three exact copies of Scarecrows.

That's it? Nero thought, almost disappointed. These things were a snail-a-dozen. Was this really the best Grom could manage? It also made little sense to him from what he'd heard. Grom fed off the fears of its enemies, but he wasn't afraid of these guys in the slightest.

As fast as he could, he ran up to the first one and cut it down with his sword, making it dissolve back into a blob that sunk into the floor. Just as another was about to slash him, he backflipped over it and summoned an ethereal arm to grab it before taking his grabbed opponent and slamming it into the last Scarecrow apparition. He slammed it down once, then twice, than finally a third time, reducing both of them to goo that quickly sunk back into the ground.

The sound from before permeated in his ears as he turned to see an even larger blob rise from the ground. It took shape before its surface became as white as snow and a maw of teeth opened up, roaring at him with pure rage. Nero recognized the creature as a slitherbeast, and with a single glance into its mouth, he saw something startlingly familiar.

"Is that..." He recognized what was impaled on the monster's tongue: a moderately-sized spear of ice. "Is that the same slitherbeast?" Just as quickly as he asked that, the beast charged right at him, forcing him to dodge to his right as quickly as he could. For a split second, he felt his right arm tremble as he regained his footing.

Get it together, Nero, this isn't the same slitherbeast as from when you were a kid, Nero thought. It's just an ugly blob monster trying to fuck with you. It isn't real, there's nothing wrong with your arm, now use it to kick that fuckhead's ass!

The slitherbeast turned to him as it recovered from its failed charge. It roared at him and spat out a strange substance right at him, which he countered by casting a ball of blue fire to destroy it mid-shot. Just before it could attempt another attack, Nero threw his right arm at it, launching out another claw apparition, but unlike before, rather than grab the beast and crush it in midair, he instead pulled himself towards it as it roared, exposing the eyes in its mouth. Nero smirked as he aimed his sword right into one of the monster's eyes, hitting it dead center and making it snarl in rage as Grom's black tar-like substance poured out of the wound.

Nero jumped off, smirking in victory as the slitherbeast fell and dissolved back into the floor. Feeling confident that he could handle anything Grom could throw at him at this point, he bent down to the floor and tapped it with his right arm as he hoisted the sword onto his left shoulder.

"Hello! Grometheous the 'Fear' bringer! If you don't mind, I'd actually like something scary for a change. Unless you figured out my fear is boredom, in which case, good for you." Nero snarked at the so called 'Fear Bringer', seeing as it just wasn't living up to the hype he'd heard about.

"Nero."

He went stiff as he heard a voice. A voice that, shamed as he was to admit it, he was hoping he wouldn't hear tonight after its owner left early. Slowly, he turned around to face whoever spoke, and he felt his entire body begin to shake as he looked upon who spoke.

There, standing in front of him and at the center of the Grom arena, was his mother. She bore a look that he could only describe as shocked and horrified.

"Nero. What are you doing?"

"M-mom!"

"Shit!" Lilith cursed as she barely dodged a slash from the blazing sword and the sound of her men fighting and dying was drowned out, becoming nothing but background noise in her battle against the lord of the Fire Hell. So far, she'd had several close calls, given how close many of his attacks came to hitting her. Throughout the battle, she tried to keep her distance and gauge how best to approach him, launching an occasional spell to try and do some damage, however little she could manage at a time. She'd quickly come to learn that fighting him up close was a recipe for disaster, as that was where he worked best and could most likely kill her, if not for his blade, then for the blazing aura of pure fire he would let out. The heat alone was enough to sear her skin if she got too close, and she already had some intense burn wounds on her arms to show for it.

Out of habit, her first attack was a fire spell, which proved fruitless given that Berial was practically made of fire, so fighting his flames with her own was a no go. She quickly shifted to launching spears and blasts of pure ice at him, hoping that the opposing element would help weaken him. It worked...to a point. She could somewhat cool his fire with enough sustained ice, but he would just as quickly block her ice blasts with his saber or grow enraged and expand his flare, burning hotter and undoing a decent amount of the damage she did.

All right, Lilith, think! Lilith thought, pausing to get her bearings. I need to figure out how to end this quickly, but how? She tried looking around her environment for anything she could use against the demon lord, but, with exception to the brain above that remained unaffected and undamaged by the chaos going inside the Titan's head, there was nothing here that would serve her advantage.

"Cease your running, witchling!" Berial roared. "Are you like those who came before you that drove me to heel? Or are you a coward?"

Lilith couldn't help but feel her blood boil for a bit, and not just because of the intense heat her opponent was giving off. If there's one thing she hated, it was being called a coward.

Though it's not like it isn't true...

Lilith cursed her sudden melancholy when she saw that Berial was now right on top of her, sword in hand about to slam down and reduce her to a charred smear. As quickly as she could, she formed a dome of pure ice around her as the blade came down, blocking the attack with a thunderous boom and giving her a moment's respite to catch her breath. However, another loud boom caused that breath to get caught in her throat as she looked up and saw that, slowly but surely, the ice dome was cracking and melting away, drops of water falling onto her.

"Okay Lilith, self-pity later, taking this bastard out now," she grumbled to herself as she removed her hood and ran a hand through her hair, "Come on! How are you going to hurt him?"

As she stood there, doing her best to hold it together as a vile demon lord struck away at her shield, she could only hope that her son's woes with Grom weren't anywhere near as bad as what she was currently going through.

"Nero, why were you fighting those creatures?" his...mother asked him. His words were caught in his throat as he tried to stammer out an excuse. Any excuse. But nothing came out.

"You fought them like you've done this before." she said, her face changing from shock to anger, "What have you been doing?"

"I...mom, I..."

"You've been lying to me, going behind my back, haven't you!? What else have you hidden from me?" as she kept prodding him with question after question, weakening his resolve, Nero found himself, for the first time in a long time, slowly backing away, too afraid to do anything, "Is this what I raised you to be, Nero!? A violent thug!?"

Suddenly, her head cocked all the way to her left at a 90 degree angle as she began to slump forward, her face hidden behind her indigo hair, "Well then, son. I think you're in need of proper discipline!"

As her voice altered, gaining a frightening reverberation on the last word, she contorted and altered, screeching as Grom's amorphous black mass pooled at her feet and grew in size. It warped and morphed, growing four legs with razor sharp talons and a pair of large horns at the front with a single blood red eye between them. A maw opened on its front, revealing row after row of teeth sharp enough to slice him to ribbons. There wasn't even an esophagus inside of it, as it was just an endless black void behind those teeth. But the most frightening thing of all was his mother at the top of the beast. The lower half of her body looked like it was fused to Grom's form as her arms grew disproportionately long, with her nails growing equally as much, becoming pitch black blades. Her head remained cocked at its 0 degree angle, but more of her face was visible; her cyan eyes now had black sclera that glared hatefully at him while her teeth grew to canines. Her smile was the most horrific thing of all; it wasn't the loving smile she usually gave him. It was a cheerfully psychotic grin that bore all her teeth, outstretched wide enough that it looked like she was going to bite his head off. He was pretty sure that she wanted to.

"Oh Nero," her now demonic voice said with false joy, "You're grounded." her arms elongated and reached out to grab him. Nero panicked and quickly made a large cloud of smoke before casting an illusion of himself as fast as he could; he ran to hide behind one of the interior pillars, hyperventilating as he did so.

"Where did you go my little raven?" that...thing called out to him with his mother's usual nickname for him, but it held none of the love that it usually did. It sounded more like a promise that it intended to hurt him, "Come out, come out, wherever you are."

Okay Nero, you just need to calm down, he though to himself as he tried to keep his cool, despite how easily he failed at that now, given the circumstances, That...that thing isn't mom. It's just Grom. You can take it. So why can't I move?

All of a sudden, he was really grateful that his mother wasn't actually here right now, and hoped that she wouldn't be here for a while.

Lilith winced as the ice barrier shook once again, dripping more water on the now entirely damp floor. From the looks of it, only a few more strikes and it would shatter and give way to Berial's blade. Thankfully, she managed to use that time to come up with a plan. It was a bit of a longshot, but if it worked, she could end this fast. One issue with it was that she needed to time it just right, specifically just as the blade was about to strike the barrier. So she listened to the rhythm of the strikes and found a pattern, and sure enough, she found just the right moment.

"Ready Coronis?" she asked her Palisman, now perched on her shoulder. For this plan to work, she needed Coronis to distract Berial for just long enough to get things set up. Lilith was banking on her partner's small size to be her shield, preventing the demon lord from landing any solid hits on her. She waited for just the right moment, timing the swing of the burning blade and...

"Now!"

...at her word, she dropped the barrier and side-stepped the sword strike, letting Coronis fly into Berial's face, causing the demon to growl in annoyance as he shouted, "Annoying little bug! Cease or be crushed in my grip!" as he tried to swat her Palisman away, missing each time.

Lilith smirked and saw that her plan was working. She looked behind her to the rotting flesh-like wall of the brain cavity and made her way to it as fast as possible before jumping towards it, her speed making sure she would not fall off for a short moment. Using her feet, she spun, creating a large, blue spell circle before looking to see that she was aimed right at Berial's chest. Lilith smiled as she jumped from her position and flipped into the air, a massive pointed stalacmite of pure ice aimed straight for the demon's chest emerging from the spell circle she had just formed. She whistled for Coronis to return to her staff, prompting her Palisman to retreat from Berial just as the demon lord's eyes widened with realization, but too late to do anything.

The stalacmite hit its target dead on, and while satisfied, Lilith couldn't help but wince just a bit as Berial cried out in pain, his flames dying down with a cool orange hue replacing the areas where his flame once burned brightest. Confidant that her opponent was too weakened to fight back, she calmly walked up to him, stalacmite still impaled in his chest as he breathed heavily and looked down on her.

"Heh, impressive," he complimented, "You are more cunning and able than I perceived. Then again, you must have done something to impress the kin of Sparda."

"What are you talking about?" Lilith asked, still confused by the name, "I've never met or even heard of this 'Sparda' or his relatives. What makes you think I even know them?"

At her question, Berial just started laughing, as if she had just told some kind of joke, "Truly hilarious! It would seem the young witchling laid with the blood of Sparda without even knowing!" and then he just continued laughing as if what he just said was the funniest thing ever.

"What do you mean-" Lilith almost asked, but then she realized what he was referring to. She also realized why the previous demon, Echidna, ran away from her when she smelled 'him'. They were referring to a descendant of this 'Sparda' person, one the demons of greater Hells clearly held in fear and contempt. That means that the person I slept with, Nero's father, is directly related to Sparda, whoever that is! She realized as her brain ran a thousand miles a second. If nothing else, she was at least finally getting some answers on that front.

She gestured for Coronis to return to her place on her staff before pointing it at Berial, her Palisman's wings unfurled as a cold chill surrounded her. "You will tell me everything you know about this 'Sparda'. If you do, I can guarantee your sentence will be lightened." She declared to the demon, who simply chuckled in response.

"Though you have bested me, I have no interest in being captured by your kind!" Berial held his blade into the air as pure heat gathered around it. Lilith jumped back, preparing for him to strike again, but instead, he smashed the stalacmite that impaled him and slashed at the air beside him, creating a burning vortex; a cacophony of screams, screeches, and bloodcurdling roars could be heard from the other side of it. "We will meet again, witch." he said as he then walked into the vortex, which gave off a deafening explosion as he disappeared into it, with Lilith shielding herself from the heat and boom as it vanished.

Lilith couldn't help but curse at what had happened. Once more, she had defeated a demon, and once more, they had gotten away. This time though, she had actually gotten clues as to who she had slept with long ago. She had a piece of the puzzle for figuring out who had fathered her son and...

"Shit!" she cursed and panicked, realizing that amidst the battle with Berial and his fellow demons, she had almost forgotten about Grom. Her son was probably fighting the monster right now and she wasn't there to do anything about it. Calming down as best as she could, she turned to her men and said, "Everyone, I need to g-"

She stopped as she realized two things. Firstly, most of her men were dead, having been killed off by those burning bats. Secondly, the only survivor was Steve, who was casually sitting on the corpse of one of the bat demons. The sight left her with only one question, "How?"

"That," he began dramatically as he jumped off the corpse, "Is a long, complicated story of heroism, betrayal, and-"

"Okay, let me stop you right there, I don't have time right now," Lilith interrupted as she pinched the bridge of her nose to stave off a headache, "I need to get back to Hexside right now, can you try to track down the rogues for me?"

He then saluted, but before he could give an exuberant answer, Lilith nodded and climbed aboard her staff to fly out of the Titan's skull as quickly as she could. She only hoped she wasn't too late.

"Well my little raven, hide like you always do. Hide your true self from me," Nero heard the beast with his mother's face mock, "Where are you, I wonder? Did you run from this school, into those Titanforsaken woods like you always do, to put yourself in peril behind my back!?"

Nero blinked away tears, nearly hyperventilating from behind the pillar. So far, it hadn't found him, but it came damn near close at times, forcing him to hide again and again to avoid it. When it was dangerously close, he actually felt the urge to stab it in the face, but couldn't bring himself to do it. Beyond being too paralyzed to fight it, the beast still carried his mother's face. A warped, twisted, nightmare-inducing version of his mother's face, but he just couldn't find it in him to strike at it. Making matters worse, every question, every insult, served to erode his confidence even more. At this point, he didn't know if he had any fight left in him.

"How ungrateful. A mother should expect better from her son. But what more can I expect from a bastard child?" Out of everything Grom had said so far, that one particularly stung. Before he could even process that insult, it continued, "How does it feel to be the prey? To be the same thing as these monsters? Did you truly think yourself to be above the ones you've slaughtered? With that thing you call an arm?"

At that point, Nero found that he was hyperventilating as he curled into a ball and tried to block Grom out. He wiped his face using his sleeve, forcing down the bile that threatened to lurch out of his throat. He couldn't deny what Grom was saying, nor could he bring it in him to fight back now. At this point, he may as well just keep hidden and avoid it for as long as...

"Found you!"

…he looked up to see the warped visage of his mother right in front of him and rolled out of the way just in time to avoid another attempt at grabbing him. Grom then slashed at him with its claws as he ran, with his armor thankfully taking the damage, getting destroyed in the process and leaving him with just his three-piece suit. Nero rolled forward and faced Grom again, wiping any tears from his face and glaring at the monster, converting his fear into anger.

"No more crying Nero," he muttered to himself, "This thing isn't your mom, and you can't let it get to you. Worry about it later and kick its ass now." Nero then waited for Grom to make another attempt at grabbing him before he made his move. Just as the arm's claws reached him, he swung the sword and slashed away at the nails. Grom hissed in pain and retracted the arm back.

"Why you little-," Grom hissed out, "How dare you strike at your own mother!"

You're not my mother you fucking freak! Nero mentally yelled as Grom's monstrous maw glowed a dark blue and shot out a large blue fire ball. Nero just barely dodged that attack, but the explosion behind him sent him flying away and knocking him back to the center of the arena. As he got up, he glowered at the sword he was holding and said, "Damn it! How do you activate the lightning on this thing anyway!" if he could get it to emit electricity like it did when he first picked it up, that would have helped him a lot right now. He then looked back to Grom, who was turning to face him with a vicious snarl. "Screw it." he sneered as he dashed right towards it and lunged into the air, impaling the sword right in the eye between its horns.

Unfortunately, to his horror, Grom began to chuckle as he looked up to see the twisted smirk of his mother, "Did you really think that would work a second time?" it said. Just as it made a move to grab him, Nero clutched the blade with both arms, and, much to his surprise, the blade began to glow a bright blue and emitted lighting from the hilt. The electricity coursed through the blade and went right into Grom's body, shocking it and making his mother's visage cry in pain. However, Grom made a final move to slash at him, and Nero just barely avoided it by letting the blade go, falling on his back as he rolled away from the screaming fear bringer. For a good minute, the blade continuously electrocuted Grom until it collapsed and fell to the floor on its side, slowly dissolving into black ooze. Nero shuddered as his mother's face returned to normal for a brief moment before it melted away into a black stain that sunk into the ground.

Before he could process any of it, however, he felt something on his head, and reached up to pull off a crown. "And that's a wrap on this year's Grom everyone!" Principal Bump's voice yelled over the auditorium speakers as Nero wordlessly exited the lower arena and walked up the slope, "Let's give a big hand to our Grom King, Nero Clawthorne!"

Nero ignored everyone's cheers and congratulations for him as he went to go sit in the bleachers while everyone else started partying like the entire ordeal never happened. He just sat alone, lost in his own thoughts and wanting to avoid any contact with anyone. "Hey, Nero," Emira's voice pushed him out of his funk as he looked up at her and Edric, both of them looking rather concerned, "You alright?" Edric asked, to which Nero only nodded, not wanting to talk about it.

"I'm fine, just leave me alone right now," his request was thankfully heard seeing as they nodded, albeit hesitantly, and walked away, heading for the auditorium exit. Apparently neither of them were in a particular mood to pull any of their usual tricks. So, Nero just sat by himself, trying to bite down the fear and apprehension he felt from fighting the last form Grom took, trying to ignore the words it spoke to him during their fight. Though given how he ran and hid, only managing a lucky shot at the last second, calling it a 'fight' was being generous if he were to ask himself, but he didn't want to think about it right now. He didn't know how long he sat there by himself. Right now, he was content to just let that whole experience fade away like a bad memory like everyone else was, though in their case, it was anything but unpleasant given how they danced and cheered.

"Nero," suddenly he heard his mother's voice, prompting him to look up and see that she was now sitting next to him with an apologetic look on her face, "I saw Edric and Emira outside and they explained what they saw. I'm sorry I missed everything. As much as I didn't like the idea of you fighting Grom, I wish I was there to see you win against it."

"Yeah..." Nero muttered as he absentmindedly watched the Grom party play out in front of him without any care to what was going on. "Is something wrong, my little raven?" his mother's concerned tone prompted his attention again as he put all his focus into not flinching when called him by that nickname. After how Grom called him that, he wasn't sure he wanted to hear it anymore, "Did something happen during the fight?" she was starting to enter 'tell me everything' mode, but Nero didn't want to say a word on what happened. He didn't even know if there was a way he could put out words on what happened. Instead, he decided to just deflect and avoid, since it was better that way.

"Nothing happened, mom," he replied, "Can we just go home? I don't want to be here anymore."

There was probably a minute of silence before his mom gave the okay and they began to walk out of the auditorium. He barely gave the other students that waved at him anymore than a passing glance, while he did give a small wave to Edric and Emira, who gave their own quiet goodbyes as they left. Right now, he didn't want to think about of even be a part of this day anymore. He just wanted forget it all and move on, but he doubted he'd be able to forget this day no matter how hard he tried.

It had taken them many hours to ensure they had escaped the Emperor's Coven. So far, they hadn't seen any sign of their members hunting after them as they made their way to a hidden cave complex, which was either a sign of a stroke of luck on their side, or Berial had managed to kill them all. Vindice was hoping for the latter, but the fact that Berial wasn't rampaging on the isles and laying waste to Coven strongholds indicated the former.

It frustrated him, to say the least. Years of planning, contacting one of the most powerful demon lords in Hell and setting everything up to summon him to Limbo to lay waste to the bastards that took his brother from him, only for those same Coven members to force him into retreat, undoing all their hard progress.

"Uh, Vindice, sir," one of his allies asked, looking apprehensive from behind his hood, "Now what? Summoning that guy took a lot of time and sacrifices. Are we gonna try again?"

Vindice could only give a nod as he pulled out his book and scoured through the pages, looking for any incantations and summoning rituals he could find to call forth another lord of Hell. Whether he could contact Berial again or another, possibly stronger Hell lord didn't matter to him. All that mattered was that Belos would perish, and that he would have his revenge.

Chapter Text

"Do I really have to do this?" Nero asked as his mother prepped him up to make him seem more 'proper', as she liked to put it. He was wearing his Hexside uniform, which wasn't an issue, but his mom trying to do up his hair and adding a tie to give him a professional appearance was really starting to irritate him. While he got why she was doing this, that didn't mean he had to like it.

"Nero, the Covention is an opportunity for any witch of the isles to find a coven that suits their interests and join it," she explained with a hint of exasperation, "I'll be attending as a guest to inspire others to join the Emperor's Coven, and this is a perfect year for you to attend. You still haven't chosen a coven yet, and I'm hoping you'll find one today."

And one of the reasons for that was simple; Nero just didn't see the appeal in joining any covens. They all came off as so...limiting, what with how they blocked off your magic to only perform a specific type. The only coven that didn't limit magic was the Emperor's Coven, but while his mom did push for him to try out for it every now and then, he didn't want to wind up working for Emperor Freakshow, which was exactly what joining that damned coven entailed. What he really wanted was to just be who he was. Relax, kick some demon ass, and have fun while doing it.

But he had trouble doing any of that for the past three years. Ever since the Grom when he was fourteen, he tried to go out and fight in the forests like he did before, but couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't really explain how or why, but something was stopping him from doing so. About the closest he came to it was sneaking out a few times to make further modifications to and maintain Red Queen, but he never really used it anymore.

Overall, he just went about his days in a dull, mechanical fashion; doing schoolwork, passing classes, and ignoring everyone else around him.

"Mom, I'm just not really in the mood for picking a coven today. Can't we try some other time?" Nero asked. His mother simply sighed and straightened herself to meet him at eye level. Ever since his last growth spurt, they were both roughly equal in height, something Nero would admit that he took a bit of pride in given how tall his mother already was.

"Nero, selecting a coven is mandatory for when children of the isles come of age. You need to join one eventually. It's just the way things are." she explained again. They've had this talk every time he put off joining a coven. She didn't put up much of a fuss a couple years back, but now that he was seventeen, she was getting more restless on the subject, "Look, just...try. That's all I'm asking. Just make the attempt to find a coven that you'd want to join, okay?"

"Fine," Nero muttered. He still had no interest in joining any of them, but he'd at least give the covens a glance, if nothing else, "I'll try, but I'm still not really in a coven picking mood."

"Good." she said as she finished combing his hair, "Hopefully you'll find your preferred coven today. Make sure to find something you know you'd like. Y'know, something that would help you smile more." after she finished, she and Nero made their way to the door and headed off to the Covention. Nero doubted that any coven would help him feel better, and it wasn't like he could talk to his mother about the problem. Not without revealing the whole 'I've been sneaking out every now and then to fight demons in the woods' part that he really didn't want her to know about.

"I'd smile more if I didn't have to look like some pompous jackass," Nero said, noticing his mother's aghast look at his language, "What? You've said way worse than that."

"I...look, an important facet of entering a coven is how you present yourself. You want to come across as appealing to them so they'll be more likely to choose you." she said while pinching the bridge of her nose, "So please try to avoid cursing so much."

"Just saying that maybe you should take your own advi-"

"Nero." his mother sternly interrupted, not in the mode for backtalk right now. Nero could only sigh and say, "Alright, fine, I'll tone it down for now." after his mother nodded, they headed off.

"And here we are!" Nero resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his mother's excitement from seeing all the stands for the various covens. The many, many, pointless, meaningless covens.

"Oh, it's just such a delight seeing upcoming witches find their own covens. What do you think, Nero?" Nero could only shrug in response. This was his first Covention and so far, whatever appeal this place had was lost on him. Most of the covens looked rather pointless on concept alone. Seriously, why the fuck are there so many covens dedicated to cats?

"Well, in any case, I need to prepare for my guest appearance. Give this place a look around and see if one of the covens strikes you in any way," she said before she backpedaled, "Oh, and that wasn't a pun on the Striker's Coven, that just means-"

"Yeah mom, I get it. Go prepare for your thing, I'll see you later." Nero waved off as his mother gave him a quick hug before heading to where her guest appearance would be. Figuring he needed to start somewhere, he walked to the nearest stand to at the bear minimum get an idea of what some of the covens were really about.

"Hey Nero!" the ever familiar voices of the Blight twins entered his ears as he turned to face them. He looked and saw that both of them were in their Hexside uniforms, standing about a head shorter than him. Just behind them was the shorter, familiar, and overall less irritating presence of their younger sister, Amity Blight. She was wearing a Hexside uniform like the other two, albeit with the pink coloration of the Abomination track on the sleeves, and had brown roots in her hair contrasting the light green throughout.

"Hi Nero," she greeted politely. Nero had met Amity a few times beforehand, and overall, he found her to be better than her older siblings on the grounds that she didn't make it a point to actively worm her way into his day-to-day life.

"Hey guys." Nero greeted with a half-hearted wave. While he didn't feel like admitting it, Edric and Emira's presence became more tolerable in recent years. They still bothered him on occasion and were malicious pranksters, but at the very least they toned down the annoyance levels around him to a degree. "So, let me make an educated guess, Papa and Mama Blight wanted you to bring Amity here?" he rhetorically asked while gesturing to the youngest Blight in the area.

"Ding, ding, ding! He's got the right answer," Edric said like a game show host, "Tell him what he's won, sis!"

Emira smiled and continued, "Why, he's won a whole day with all three of us, of course!" she then proceeded to grab all of them into a hold. Nero didn't bother resisting, given that she'd just try again, but he did sympathize with Amity's efforts to get out, as futile as they were.

"Emira, let me go!" the youngest Blight grunted as she managed to just barely pry herself out as Emira released all of them.

"Oh come on sis, live a little." Emira cheekily said as she then reached for Amity's face to force her frown into a smile, only for Amity to slap her hands away.

While the Blight sisters were going about with their thing, Edric turned to him and said, "Mittens here wanted to see a bunch of different coven kiosks before the Emperor's Coven presentation. She's aiming for the top, but she's also looking for other covens to join."

"That's not it!" Amity said indignantly as she got her sister off of her, "I'm just...keeping my options open." she then looked down and pressed her index fingers together, "Y'know, just in case I don't get into the Emperor's Coven." Edric and Emira's faces softened up just a little while Nero looked at the girl's apprehension.

Deciding to try and cheer her up, he said, "Look, most of the Emperor's Coven guys are kinda worthless anyway. So if they got in, I'd say you're overqualified."

…Judging by the expression on Amity's face, his words didn't exactly help. "Uh, I'm sure what Nero meant to say was that you're more than talented enough to get in." thankfully, Emira tried wording what he said into a less unhelpful manner. "Now, Nero, hows about you join us in looking around? Looks like you got nothing better to do anyway, so you might as well."

"Fine," Nero rolled his eyes, seeing as whether he liked it or not, Emira was correct in that he had nothing better to do at the moment, "Let's just get this thing over with." Then Edric and Emira practically grabbed both his hands and pulled him along as his brain entered autopilot, tuning out much of the discussions each stand representative went into about their covens when they started to get uninteresting. He at least put a token effort in trying to find the covens interesting, but time and again all that led to was white noise. At one point, the Fortune Tellers coven attempted to give them all souvenirs, but while Amity accepted the pen they gave her, Nero turned down all of them. He was pretty sure the representative tried to play it off as an 'I knew you would say that moment', but the flustered and slightly pissy reaction said otherwise.

Just as they finished speaking with the representatives for the dice coven, they stopped and Nero saw that they were now standing in front of the opening to the auditorium arena, where the Emperor's Coven's presentation was about to begin.

"Oh! It's starting!" Amity exclaimed, "I'm gonna get a front row seat, see you guys later!" and with that, she ran inside, somewhat shoving and pushing past the others entering. After she left, Nero scoffed as he heard Edric and Emira snicker from behind him.

"What a waste of time," Nero muttered, hating this obnoxious coven system.

"Maybe it is, but Mittens wants to be part of the Emperor's Coven more than anything," Edric reminded him, "So, even if covens are boring, may as well put up with it."

Emira then playfully gasped, "Maturity? Who are you and what have you done with my brother?"

While the two started laughing, Nero started walking into the presentation, "Hey Nero," Edric's voice stopped him for a second, "We're gonna see if we can trick one of the caffeine coven into putting on a power glyph and going crazy, wanna come?"

"You know the answer to that, Blight." Nero bluntly reminded them that he didn't want any part in their antics, "Besides, mom's gonna be the guest here and I kinda have to show up. Family obligation, y'know? So go do your usual shit, but leave me out of it." he then proceeded to walk in, only briefly hearing Emira say "Have fun Clawboy!", the nickname only slightly bothering him compared to normal as he moved past many of the audience members and found a seat at the far back row. He sat through Principal Bump's opening for the presentation, though he did tune most of it out, barring the part where one of the younger students made his head grow and accidentally crush the student on his left.

Then the members of the Emperor's Coven appeared in the arena and were introduced as an 'elite force', which Nero had to resist the urge to laugh at. Most of the members of the Emperor's Coven that he'd met were rather incompetent from what he could tell. The only ones he knew by name that were actually good at their jobs were his mother, Steve, as weird as that sounded, and at least a couple others not worth talking about or putting any effort in trying to remember for one reason or another.

"And now, I am pleased to introduce the esteemed leader of this coven, this year's mystery guest, and someone whom I am most definitely not afraid of because she did not drop a house on me a few years back. You know her! You love her! LILITH!" at Bump's declaration, the crowd was left in awe when a large spectral raven appeared and flew down from the ceiling. As it landed, light blue energy enveloped the entire room and his mother emerged from the aura, a raven's cry echoed throughout the room as the entire crowd cheered. Nero decided to clap along with them; as much as he didn't like the Covention, he could still support his mother, regardless of how he felt about the whole thing.

"Thank you," she said as she unceremoniously threw her cloak and mask towards Principal Bump before he walked off. "It wasn't easy to rise to the top. I also came from humble beginnings," Nero listened to his mother and became curious about these 'humble beginnings'. She never really talked about her past before he was born, and she deflected every time he asked over the years whenever he questioned what her childhood was like, if she had any siblings, or where his grandparents were. What she was saying now was probably going to be the closest he'd ever get to her talking about her past.

"So be more! The Emperor's Coven awaits you!" she exclaimed as she once again summoned the spectral raven to envelop herself and the entire stage. It expanded until it exploded in a brilliant show of lights that left the crowd dazzled. Nero gave a short round of applause as he stood up, deciding that he'd seen enough now that his mother's guest part was over.

Alright, what am I supposed to do now? Nero asked himself as he walked out and headed off in no general direction, opting to wander. He'd already checked the different coven stands and found nothing that interested him despite putting an effort to do so. A very minor token effort, but still an effort. He wandered for what felt like a few minutes before he said out loud, "Fuck this place."

"Tell me about it."

Nero turned to the source of the voice and saw that he was standing next to a rather old looking woman with a similar skin tone to his mother's as well as golden eyes and a gold fang sticking out of her mouth. She was wearing a lot of maroon with a dress and heeled boots of that color alongside grey leggings. She also had a lot of hair, or at least Nero assumed given that she had something tied over her head what looked almost like a balloon-sized hood with some grey hair coming out of it.

"Huh?" Nero said, surprised that the woman was agreeing with her. Most people tended to eat this coven crap up.

"This thing's nothing but a big ol' scam and I would know about those." the white haired lady said. "They just cut their own potential up to suck up to some creep in a mask. It's kinda sad actually."

"Tch, tell me about it," Nero agreed, "Last thing I want to do is work for Emperor Freakshow and his dumb ass bullshit."

"Amen to that kid," the lady said with a smirk, "Though I gotta ask why exactly you're here then. You don't seem the type for this crap."

Nero shrugged in response and answered, "Mom came here and wanted me to come to. Can't really say no on that front. What about you? Why are you here?" after he asked his question, she snickered.

"Oh, a momma's boy. Well, I ain't gonna judge that. Okay, maybe a little, but I'll just say my apprentice tortured me with her overly flowery Blehzura book to get me to take her here," she looked like she was about to vomit just from talking about it. Given the deriding name she called it by, it sounded like she was talking about those crappy Good Witch Azura books that Amity brought up once or twice. How and why anyone would ever like that shit is anyone's guess. Nero thought to himself.

"Ugh, you know someone who likes that obnoxious prosy shit too?" Nero sympathized, "I am so terribly sorry for what you must suffer through."

"Ha! If I can handle having enough exes to raise an army and a bunch of other law-breaking nonsense, I think I can handle a poorly written book series," she laughed before giving a more genuine smile, "You know, you're alright kid. Name's Eda. But don't tell anyone you saw me, kay?"

"I think I can manage that, Eda," Nero said with a genuine smile on his face. Probably the first in what felt like a long while, "My name's-"

"Nero!" an all too familiar voice yelled as he found himself pushed away. Aw crap, mom's here.

Things had been going relatively well throughout the day for Lilith. She'd prepared and made her guest appearance, even spotting her son in the crowd far into the back row and being delighted at that, she found time to meet with the younger upcoming witches of Hexside and signed autographs for them. Overall, it had been a good day, aside from the nagging feeling in the back of her mind constantly telling her she didn't deserve any of this, though she kept that bitten down.

And then, as she filled out another autograph, she saw her son out of the corner of her eye and looked up to greet him, but then she froze, seeing the person he was talking to.

"Shit!" Lilith whispered loudly before she turned to the children and swiftly said, "That's all for today," before she gently pushed them aside and ran up to her son as he talked to a face she was hoping to not see today, or anytime soon for that matter.

"Nero!" she yelled to her son as she grabbed him by the shoulders and started pushing him away from her sister, "I think I saw something over there that you'd like to check out. Why don't you go over there and not-"

"Lilith!" she froze as she heard Edalyn yell her name.

Not wanting to put up with this at the moment, she turned and said, "Edalyn, not now! I'll deal with you in a moment."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute!" Nero broke free from her grip and pushed her aside, "Mom, what the hell are you doing?"

"MOM!?" Edalyn yelled, her face turning to complete shock. Lilith buried her face into her hand, dismayed that all of this was happening. She was hoping that this day would never come, that her son and her sister would never meet each other, because Edalyn's lifestyle would be a bad influence on him and because facing Edalyn meant facing something she absolutely despised herself for. But now it seemed there was no choice.

"Titan fucking dammit," Lilith muttered into her hand just loud enough to be heard by present company, "I was hoping this wouldn't happen," as she removed her face from her palm, she turned to her son, "Nero, this is Edalyn, my younger sister," she then turned to Edalyn, "Edalyn, this is Nero, my son."

Both of them turned to each other, then back to her, then back to each other with completely slack jawed expressions. After a few moments, Edalyn reached into her hood and pulled out a flask with what looked like some kind of potion in it before she took a swig of the substance. As soon as it looked like she was going to drink it, she instead spat it out in a random direction, accidentally (or purposefully, you never knew when it came to her) hitting a random bystander.

"YOU'RE A MOM!" Edalyn screamed out in shock and surprise.

Nero, meanwhile, screamed, "I HAVE AN AUNT! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!?"

"Okay, to answer those questions in order, yes, I'm a mother, Edalyn, and a proud one for the past 17 years," Lilith said as she faced her sister before turning to face her son, "And as for why I never told you about her, there are a couple reasons, but the best I can summarize it as is that we're...estranged."

"Why?" Nero asked, "She's pretty cool, so why aren't you guys talking to each other?"

"Hah! Looks like your kid's smarter than you," Edalyn snarked as Lilith felt her face heat up. Keep it together, Lilith, don't blow a fuse right now.

"Look, firstly, I've tried to go to her house beforehand, but every time I've done so, that infernal fucking house demon knocks me out!" Lilith said as her anger flared up at remembering that obnoxious demonic bird tube. How it kept saying "Hoot!" in the most irritating tone imaginable.

"Language mother, there are children present," her son said in a deadpan tone with his hands behind his head as she felt her face heat up again from embarrassment.

"For shame, Lily," Edalyn shook her head, "For shame. And as annoying as Hooty is, you know why he has to do that."

"Which brings me to the second reason why," Lilith then formed a spell circle and manifested a copy of Edalyn's wanted poster as she pointed right at her sister, who was currently cleaning out her ear, "She's a wanted criminal and isn't even supposed to be here." she then walked up to her sister and looked at her with curiosity, "Why are you even here anyway?"

"Said something about her apprentice torturing her with a book with shitty prose," Nero answered for her, "So, not really here by choice."

That got Lilith's attention. "You have an apprentice?" she asked disbelievingly. "Must be some bottom dweller if she's learning from you."

"Hey! I'll have you know that Luz isn't some bottom dweller," Edalyn fired back, "She's the best bottom dweller! And I bet she could wipe the floor with any prissy blue blooded jackass the Emperor's shitty system has been churning out."

"Uh, guys?" Lilith heard her son say, but she ignored him. She was focusing all her anger on her sister. The sister that made it oh so very hard to help her.

"I've spent years training the isles best and brightest witches, and you think that your disorganized covenless way of life can produce a better magic user than I can!?" Lilith almost screamed as she glared at her sister, who returned it in full.

"Guys?"

"Oh, I don't think sis, I know," Edalyn fired back.

"EDA!"

Their argument was suddenly interrupted when someone jumped between them. It was a young girl who looked no older than fourteen with tan skin, short brown hair, and hazel eyes. She was wearing rather unusual clothes for the standard isles civilian.

"Yeah, see, I was trying to tell you that someone was coming and she kept yelling Eda's name." Nero said.

"Eda I accidentally challenged Amity to a Witch's Duel and I think she's going to kill me all the way dead!" the girl said as she almost collapsed to the floor. This was Edalyn's apprentice? A random girl who freaked out at the first sign of trouble? Lilith almost felt sorry for her, but not by much.

"Hold up," Nero said as he kneeled down to the girl's level, "What's with your ears? Never seen those before." he then gestured to his right arm, "Then again, can't really judge there."

Nero's statement made her look at the girl more closely, causing Lilith to note that her ears were actually round. This girl wasn't a witch at all, but a human. "So, your apprentice is a human? You can't honestly expect a human to be better than one of my students?" she then looked more intensely at the girl, who shirked away, "Can she even do magic?" Lilith asked, barely resisting the urge to laugh as she formed a spell circle that burned every one of Edalyn's wanted posters in the vicinity, "Very well then, sister. Consider this a free day for you. Your apprentice versus my student. We'll see whose teaching methods have produced the strongest magic user." As she walked away, she called for her son to come along.

"Uh, mom, what the hell was that about?" her son asked.

"Nothing, merely a show of superiority to my dear little sister," Lilith said as she clasped her hands together and smiled at the thought of showing Edalyn up.

"Except the part where that kid said that Amity's gonna 'kill her all the way dead'. Are you seriously going to let Amity do that?" Nero's words drew something out of her. She wasn't sure what, but for a moment, she wanted to call off the thing. If only for a moment.

"Rest assured, my little raven, if Miss Blight becomes too aggressive in their duel, I'll call her off, but for now, the fight must continue," she said to assuage her son's worries. Though that didn't seem to work very well.

"You mind answering why you're acting like this?" he asked, "I've never seen you get this uppity about something, so what the fuck?"

"Language," she chastised, "Look, just go enjoy yourself for now. I need to find Amity and train her for the coming match." As well as gather some things to ensure my victory!

This is gonna get ugly, Nero mused as he sat in the stands of the arena, this time closer to where things would be playing out.

"Is that girl really a human?" Edric asked from beside him, "I've only heard about them from what that one kid keeps rambling on, whatever his name was, Rustus, I think?"

"Yup," Nero answered with a large emphasis on the 'p'.

"Something tells me Mittens is gonna flatten her here. Too bad, she's kinda adorable," Emira said next to Edric as she looked over to Nero, "Something up, Claw Boy?"

"It's just...something's up with mom," he answered as he looked directly at his mother, who seemed laser focused on the whole affair, "She started getting weirdly aggressive with Eda when they started yelling about who's student was better and all that crap. Never seen her get like that and I just don't get why."

"Nero," Emira said as he saw her move over to sit at his other side and place her arm around him, "Let me explain something to you about siblings. See, we have what we like to call 'The Sibling Rivalry', and that means we compete with each other on just about anything and everything." she looked over to Edric, "Me and Edric do it all the time, trying to one up each other in who's the better prankster," then she removed her arm from his shoulder and looked down at where Amity was standing, "And we also do it with Mittens. This is all just a natural part of having a brother or sister. It's all just fun, games, and trying prove who's cooler."

"Sounds like a load of shit if you ask me," Nero growled as he glared at the display, "First off, still don't like your idea of 'fun'. Second, you didn't see how mom acted around Eda. This isn't about fun and games. If anything, this feels too...personal, and not just between mom and her sister," he looked down at Amity, who seemed a little too excited to be doing this, "Don't you think your sister's looking a little too kill happy about this?"

"Eh," Edric shrugged, "I'm sure the human will be fine. If she could survive living on the Boiling Isles with your aunt, I'm sure she can handle Mittens throwing a temper tantrum. Me and Emira survive those all the time."

"Still doesn't make this any less shitty," Nero muttered. Even if what they were saying was true, which he doubted, it just didn't sit right with him, especially since they were basically using their own students as proxies for their feud. It what he understood was the case, Amity and Luz were already going to have a duel beforehand, but his mom turned it into a 'me and my sister thing'.

"Huh, that's interesting," Edric said, gathering Nero's and Emira's attention, "Look at the mounds in the arena."

Nero did so and saw that Edric was right about the mounds, which was odd because he knew they weren't there before. Just what were they?

"Oh, I think I see what's going on," Emira realized, "I think your aunt's helping the human girl win."

"Isn't that cheating?" Nero didn't know his aunt well at all, seeing as they just met today, but he would admit that given her having a criminal reputation, he supposed her cheating in a duel wasn't out of the ordinary for her. Either way, given that the human, Luz if he remembered correctly, couldn't do magic on her own, odds were she needed a leg up just to survive. Still, if Amity found out...he did not envy the human or his aunt.

"There is the old expression that all's fair in love and war, and this is a war in the bonds of sisterhood, so I'd say it's all fair," Edric said before frowning, "Although..."

Nero looked at him questioningly, "What?" he asked.

Edric gained a serious expression as he said, "I could have sworn I saw something," he then shook his head, "Nevermind, the fight's about to start anyway."

Sure enough, the bell screamed and the two combatants met at the center of the arena, though Luz walked with very notable trepidation while Amity had full confidence. The younger Blight summoned her abomination, but to Nero's surprise, and Amity's as well from the looks of it, it was far bigger than he was expecting. "Uh, guys, has Amity ever summoned an Abomination that big before?" he asked.

"Hm, now that you mention it, no, I don't think she has," Emira pondered, "Maybe she's just been getting a lot more practice than we thought?"

"No, that's not it," Edric said, "I wasn't sure before, but I think what I saw before has something to do with it." that made Nero and Emira look at him just as Amity's Abomination stepped on one of the mounds, triggering a trap, causing the crowd to roar in surprise and delight, "Before the duel, I saw your mom give my sister a pat on the shoulder, but I could have sworn I saw something in her hand when she did that." he said as the battle continued, Amity's monster triggering another trap that blew them away.

"Wait, you mean that mom's..." Nero wasn't sure if he wanted to finish that sentence. Even with how she was acting earlier, he still didn't think she was willing to do that just to show up her sister. And with Amity too, someone he knew loathed unearned victories more than anything, especially if she didn't earn them herself.

"I mean, based on that, all the puzzle pieces seem to fit," Emira said as her expression grew serious, "Still, Mittens isn't going to like-what the!?"

Nero followed Emira's eyes when she saw what she was looking at; a small creature with a bone mask wearing a bunch of coven apparel was falling down the seats of the arena. Whatever it was, it fell over the safety wall and right in front of where Amity was standing...and right on top of one of the trap mounds. The mound suddenly erupted in a group of spikes that tore through the creature's apparel, though the creature seemed to survive.

"Okay, I'm calling that out," Nero said, now actually kinda pissed since something like that could have actually killed Amity, "SPIKES! What the hell!?"

"Maybe your aunt just didn't think that part through?" Emira shrugged as Nero's mother walked down and inspected the arena, "She doesn't seem the type to think ahead."

"And we should know," Edric added, though he earned a glare from Emira at the reminder.

"...You're both taking the fact that your sister could have been skewered a little too well." Nero evenly, but angrily stated, off-put by their seeming callousness to their sister's well being. While something like that wouldn't kill Amity, their reaction was just too casual.

"Hey, we worry!" Emira adamantly stated, "We're just not gonna get bothered by it because she wasn't skewered. She didn't actually get hurt, so it's all behind us!"

"That still sounds really fucking-"

"SHHHHSH!" Edric quieted them down, "I think your mom's been found out." he then pointed at Eda removing something from the back of Amity's neck. Nero looked closer and saw that it was a Power Glyph, with his aunt announcing it to the audience, to the shock of everyone except for the twins sitting to his left and right. In Nero's case, he was still surprised by the fact that his mom cheated in a duel. It went against damn near everything she drilled into his head when he was growing up. He didn't really know whether to be shocked at her or flat out pissed, though he knew the answer to that when he saw Amity run out of the ring with a devastated expression on her face. His mom didn't even notice, instead focusing her attention and anger on her sister, who was currently doing a sort of gloating dance.

"Titan fucking dammit mom," Nero growled out before he looked at the twins, "Aren't you two going to go and talk to your sister?"

"Eh, we sorta learned that when Mittens gets like this, it's usually better to let her cool off on her own," Emira said, "Besides, I saw the human go after her, so maybe she can calm her down?"

Nero was about to retort and tell them that they should still try to help their sister out rather than leave it to a complete stranger, but before he could, the sound of a burst of fire and an explosion erupted from the arena. He looked back and saw that his mother, staff now out, had just blasted Eda into the wall on the far end. Just as Eda got up and drew her staff, which had an owl Palisman on its end, Nero yelled, "What the hell!" The two then started blasting each other with magic, the sheer force of it causing waves of power to shake the entire arena and the stands they were sitting in.

"Whoa! This is awesome!" Edric said as he and Emira started chanting "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" while Nero was baffled by the turn of events. With the amount of power they were giving off and the intense looks on their faces, it was almost like they were trying to...

"Shit," Nero cursed as Eda switched over to launching a barrage of energy blasts at his mother, who spun her staff around to counter it before firing another blast of azure flames. "I need to stop the fight!"

"What?" "Why?" Edric and Emira asked respectively. Before he could reply, the sound of cracking rock and rubble drew his attention to a group of large stones headed right for them. Thinking quickly, he summoned an ethereal arm and motioned to block the stones, protecting himself and the twins. Screams filled the bleachers as everyone else started running away from the destruction caused by the fight.

"That's why," he said as his mother was now in the air, preparing to throw her burning staff at Eda, "I'll try and stop them from killing each other, you two get out of here."

"You don't have to tell us twice," Emira replied as she grabbed her twin's hand, "Come on Edric, let's get out of here!" as the two ran for the exit, Nero turned his attention back to the fight, trying to figure out how to stop the sisters before things got worse.

I've finally bested you, Edalyn! Lilith giddily thought as she teleported right behind her sister in an azure blaze. She had her off-guard, now all she needed was one direct attack to knock her wild sister down a notch. But before she could strike, a blur of white and blue intercepted, getting in her way as she suddenly found herself pushed far back, landing on her butt. Edalyn's yelp of surprise indicated that she was also shoved aside.

"BOTH OF YOU, STOP IT NOW!" Lilith became shocked as heard her son's voice yell at her. She looked up and saw his ethereal arm held out in front of her, as if telling her to halt. She looked to him and saw that he was rapidly looking between her and Edalyn, his other arm held out with the same motion towards her sister.

"Nero, move!" she demanded of her son, wanting him to get out of her way, "I was about to launch her into the wall!"

"Oh, and what makes you think I wouldn't have anticipated your crappy attempt at a sneak attack and dodged accordingly, Lily?" Edalyn asked condescendingly, causing her blood to boil.

"Okay, both of you SHUT THE FUCK UP! NOW!" Nero yelled, once more surprising Lilith and leaving her a bit afraid, as his voice gained a sudden reverb as he spoke, and she could have sworn her son's eyes flashed a similar shade of blue to all those years ago. He then turned to Edalyn and said, "Look, uh, Aunt Eda, just what the hell were you thinking!? You could have seriously hurt Amity or worse, killed her with that trap!"

"Sorry kid, I just sifted through every trap I had on hand and put 'em all over the ring," Edalyn admitted, rubbing the back of her head, "Didn't really put what you'd call 'forethought' into what they were."

Lilith responded by crossing her arms and looking away, "Well, I hope you've learned your lesson."

"Oh, don't fucking start, mom." Nero almost snarled as Lilith looked at her son, once more shocked by his anger, "Let's get a couple things out of the way. First off, you cheated."

"I, but I," Lilith stammered for a second before she put her foot down and glared back at her son, "I only did that because I knew Edalyn was going to cheat. I simply planned ahead!"

"It's still cheating, Lily!" her sister's taunting voice almost made Lilith walk up to her to give her a piece of her mind, but she found herself pushed back by her son, who still glared at her with more anger than she'd seen him have in a long time.

"Look, I may not know Aunt Eda well, but since I was a kid, you always taught me to work hard and not be underhanded, and I'd like to think I've done a pretty damn good job with that last thing." he then crossed his arms, "So, it's all okay for you to go against all the shit you've practically drilled into my skull just cause it suits you?"

Lilith tried to retort, but found herself left mute, both under her son's glare and because of a sinking feeling in her chest.

"Oh, and let's not forget that you really screwed your own student over on this one," he continued, "Did you even see her face when she saw you made her cheat? Oh wait, you and Eda were too busy with your dumbass rivalry to notice or even care! And while we're on that, are you two seriously trying to kill each other!?"

"I-I don't want to kill her," Lilith admitted, "I just...I just want..." she then fell silent and looked away, not knowing how to explain things to her son to get him to understand.

"Look, I ain't comfortable with killing Lily either kid. Just got a little carried away is all," Edalyn said as she leaned back and rolled her shoulders, trying to relax her bones, "Anyway, I better get going. Not as spry as I used to be, cursed and all that."

"Wait, what do you mean cursed?" Nero asked, and suddenly Lilith's blood ran cold as she tried to force it back. Every ounce of guilt she carried was starting to come up at once as she looked at her sister again. It's all because of you. You're the reason she goes through this everyday. She then looked to her son, who eyed his aunt with a questioning look. How would your son feel if he found out about what you did to her?

M-maybe he won't have to, Lilith thought as she cleared her throat. All she had to do was convince Edalyn to come in and Belos would cure her. That's all she had to do now. "Edalyn, i-if it's alright with you, I-" before she could continue, she yelped in surprise as something hit her face. She looked down and saw it was a snack bag. When she looked back up, Edalyn was already running away.

"We'll call it a draw for now! See you around kid!" she yelled out, the last bit directed at her son as Lilith felt herself grow angry again.

"Dammit Edalyn! You make it so hard to want to help you sometimes!" Lilith growled as she smacked her face with her palm. Why did Edalyn have to make this so hard? All Lilith wanted was to cure her sister, to undo her mistake, if only she could get her to see reason.

"Ahem!" Nero called her attention as he still looked at her with an angry, disappointed glare. Lilith felt her guilt increase as she looked down with a sigh.

"Nero, I'm...I'm sorry. I just got so caught up in everything with my sister and-" her son's voice interrupted her.

"Don't apologize to me. Go find Amity and apologize for using her in your whole rivalry bullshit. After all, it was your idea to make this about you and your sister," he said as he started walking away, "I'll see you at home. Don't want to spend another minute here."

Before he could leave, Lilith tried to go after him, "Nero, wai-WHOA!" and promptly ate the arena floor.

"Mom, you alright?" Nero ran back to help her up from her fallen position. As she sat up, she noticed that the laces of her boots were all tied together. For a second, she wondered how the hell they got like that before it clicked, at which point she did the one thing she could do: yell out the name of the culprit in rage.

"Argh! EDALYN!"

It took a lot of asking around Bonesborough, but Nero was able to get what he was looking for out of some of the locals: the location of his aunt's house. At the moment, it was mid-afternoon as he walked through the forests where the so called 'Owl House' was supposed to be, having told his mother he was going to the library to find something to read so she wouldn't get suspicious. As for why he was heading there in the first place, he had a couple reasons. Firstly, he was rather curious on what his aunt meant when she said she was 'cursed', seeing as she never answered, and asking his mother didn't get him any answers on that front. The second reason was that after today, he was still pissed at his mother for the shit she pulled, and this made for a good excuse to get away for a few hours.

Before he left, he changed into something he felt more comfortable in; a dark blue overcoat with red inner lining and a red hoodie underneath. He also wore dark blue pants and dark brown boots that went over the pant legs and halfway up his shins.

"Alright, so if I were a house isolated from society in the woods, where would I be hiding?" Nero pondered out loud as he looked around for any signs of the house. So far, nothing but trees and leaves. "Maybe I should get a higher vantage point? See if I could find it that way?"

Before he could attempt to get to a higher area, however, the ground beneath him shook, and before he could process what was going on, something erupted out of the forest floor beneath him, knocking him to his feet as the most annoying voice permeated his ears.

"Howdy there stranger! Hoot!" the owner of the voice in question was some kind of weird owl tube...thing that looked at him with the dopiest smile he'd ever seen. Clearly whatever this thing was, it wasn't very bright, "You want to play some games? I'm always in the mood to make new friends!

"Look, whatever you're supposed to be, I don't have time to play around," Nero replied as he got up and dusted himself off, "I'm looking for someone, so unless you know where she is, kindly fuck off."

"Oh, you must be looking for Eda. Hoot!" the creature said, "Sorry buster, but Eda doesn't like trespassers, so I'm gonna have to show you out," he then pointed his head in a random direction, "Exit should be right over-hey! Hoot!"

Nero ignored the creature's indignation as he pushed it aside to get back to his search. He, at least he thought it was a he, was obviously not going to help him and his voice grated on his nerves, so the best thing he could do was ignore him. Unfortunately...

"Sorry mister!" he suddenly found himself slammed into a tree that fell over from the sheer force of the push. As he picked himself, he found himself face-to-face with the creature, "Can't let you get too close! Hoot hooty hoot!"

More annoyed than he thought he could get, Nero attempted to grab the creature's body with his ethereal claw, only for him to dive back into the ground, avoiding his grasp. Before confusion set in, he was suddenly knocked into the air when the ground beneath him erupted, only to be wrapped up mid-flight and slammed back down at high speeds, causing him to grunt in pain.

"Anyway, like I was saying, you can't see Eda. Hoot!" At this point, Nero didn't know what was more painful, the creature's constricting grip or his voice, "But we can still play and be friends. Oh! Let me get my tea set and we can have a party!"

Nope! Not dealing with this shit! Nero mustered enough strength to speak, albeit strained, "Look asshat. I just want to talk with my aunt! Now let me go or I'll find wherever your ass is and kick it to the curb!"

"Ooooooh, your Eda's nephew. Why didn't you just say so? Hoot!" Nero suddenly found himself dragged away in the creature's grip at high speeds; the forest around them becoming a blur. A few seconds later, they were in front of a small house; the creature's tube-like body connected to the front door. The door opened by itself as the creature poked his head through. "Hoot hoot! Eda! Guess who found a visitor for you!" next thing Nero knew, he was pulled into the house and dropped into the floor, "It was me! Hoot!"

"Nero?" he looked up and saw his aunt staring at him. In her hands was a soup ladle, indicating she was in the middle of cooking something, "What are you doing here?"

"Came to ask some questions," he answered as he breathed in and out, getting air back after almost being crushed by the door monster, "Ran into whatever the fuck that thing is."

"Sorry about Hooty. He's my state of the art security system," she informed him as she put the ladle down, "Hooty, could you buzz off?"

"Okay!" Hooty then retracted back into the door and closed the house's front opening. As Nero got up, he heard footsteps coming from one of the hallways.

"Eda, I heard Hooty bring someone in, who's" the voice entered the room, revealing its owner to be Eda's human apprentice, Luz, from earlier, "Wait, your that guy from the Covention that followed Eda's sister!"

"Yeah, don't think we were introduced," Nero held out his left hand, "Name's Nero Clawthorne."

"Clawthorne..." Luz whispered before her face brightened, "Are you and Eda related?"

"Yup. Luz, say hello to my prissy sister's kid, and my nephew," Eda said as she smirked and tussled Nero's hair, much to his annoyance. The girl gasped and her smile grew even more, if that was possible.

"I have so many questions! How old are you? Why's your arm like that? How long have you been visiting your aunt? What kind of magic can you do? What's-"

"Hold it, HOLD IT!" Nero yelled as he shook his head and turned to his aunt, "Damn, is she always like this?"

"Eh, part of her charm, honestly," Eda said as more footsteps echoed down the hall and out from it came the same bone-masked creature that fell into the arena.

"Hey Eda, who's the new guy?" he asked as he walked up and pointed at him, "I demand to know why you've interrupted my nap!"

"And who are you supposed to be?" Nero asked as he knelt down to try and meet the creature at eye level, though he was still far taller than him.

"Who am I? Who am I?" the creature said as his voice grew more bombastic, "I am the most feared monster of all! I am the King of Demons!"

If the 'King of Demons' was expecting any fan-fair from his statement, nothing but silence met his claim. If anything, the idea that this little guy could be king of anything was so ridiculous that Nero did the only logical thing.

"Bwhahahahahahahah!" he fell to his back and laughed his ass off, "Oh that's" he wiped a tear from his eye as he struggled to stop laughing, "That's friggin hilarious!" he then calmed himself down as he got up, "Thanks though, best laugh I've had in a while."

"Hey! How dare you laugh at your king!" said 'King' then ran up to try and 'attack' him, but Luz picked him up and started to cuddle him.

"Oh, don't get upset, King, you little cutie" she calmed him down.

Eda then took a seat on the couch, "Anyways, you said you came here to ask me something, kid?" she asked, prompting Nero to find a seat as well.

"Well, yeah." he began as he cleared his throat, "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly did you mean back at the Covention when you said 'cursed'?"

Chapter Text

It had been a rather exhausting day for Lilith, both physically and emotionally. There was her fight with her younger sister that drained her physically, and loath as she was to admit it, even with the curse, it still took more effort to fight evenly with Edalyn than she was comfortable with admitting to.

Well, that's because she's always been a better witch than you, and a better sister for that matter. You stabbed her in the back and-

Snuffing out that thought once again, she was forced to look on her emotional exhaustion that she didn't want to acknowledge. Just seeing her sister again caused all her guilt over her past mistake to flair up, and it took all her self-control to bite it down. Then there was the after affects of her actions today. While she was able to meet with Amity and apologize for what she did, the youngest of the Blight house wasn't in the mood to listen to her and yelled at her to leave. And she couldn't blame her an inch for it.

And then there was her son's anger at her. Not just anger, but disappointment. Seeing that look in his eyes made her feel as much guilt as when she...

Lilith shook her head and continued sneaking down the halls of the Emperor's main castle. Now wasn't the time for bemoaning her mistakes or any melancholy of the sort. Right now, she needed to find answers, and she wasn't going to find them from anywhere else.

Over the past three years, she'd been visiting and searching every nook and cranny of every library on the Boiling Isles in search of anything she could find on the individual Berial spoke of during their battle. This 'Sparda', who had some sort of relation to her son, which she speculated was either direct biological descent or from one of Sparda's immediate offspring, given that demon lords could directly smell his "scent" on her. Making matters worse, because of something he did, her son was now a target for his enemies. She needed to learn who he was and what his connection to the demons of the greater circles of Hell were so that she could better protect her son from their wrath. If any of them so much as hurt a single silver hair on his head...

Don't think about that right now Lilith, just find out about Sparda and leave before the Emperor figures out what you're up to, she thought as her pace quickened. With every library she went to over the years having no information for her, there was only one place that she could search that would have what she needed; the Emperor's personal collection.

Located in the deepest halls of the palace, no one was allowed anywhere near here except for Emperor Belos himself. Lilith had to distract and sneak around a few patrols here and there on the way so they wouldn't get suspicious of her location. Illusion spells and invisibility were very useful in that regard.

But here she was, standing in front of the large doors to Belos' personal book collection at the end of a hallway illuminated only by sparse torches on the walls. A part of her screamed in her head to just walk away and avoid the Emperor's potential wrath from what she was about to do. But she stomached it, because no matter how devoted she was to Belos and the Emperor's Coven, her son's safety had to come first.

Just before she could reach out to open the door, it began to slowly creak. In the split second before they opened, Lilith took flight with her staff and nearly clung to the ceiling, hiding herself in the darkness. From her spot high above, she saw Emperor Belos slowly walk out, leaving the door wide open. He gave the area a brief once over before he walked away, his footsteps echoing throughout the hall.

Lilith's heart almost felt like it was going to fly out of her esophagus had she not clamped her mouth shut, but just as Belos left, the door began to close of its own accord. Seeing opportunity, she flew right into the room as it closed behind her, enshrouding her in complete blackness that hid everything from sight. Spinning a spell circle, she created an orb of light that illuminated the immediate area, revealing a portion of an aisle filled to the brim with books, and walking down it proved that it just kept going and going and going, almost appearing as if there was no end to it.

This is going to be a long search, Lilith mused, You have no idea when the Emperor will get back Lilith, so just find whatever you can on Sparda and leave.

"So, you're curious about my 'curse', so to speak?" Eda began, not really sure how to discuss this with her newfound family member.

"Well, it's just that this is the first time I've even heard about any family outside of mom," her nephew explained, "And your mention of a curse got me confused by what you meant. Plus it kinda gives me an excuse to get out of the house and away from mom for a while." Eda briefly chuckled before her smile fell and she began to scratch the back of her head in response.

"That's...you see..." Try as Eda might, she didn't have a solid idea on where to begin. How exactly did someone go about telling a nephew they'd just met 'Hey, nice to meet you. By the way, I'm cursed to turn into a monster every now and then' without freaking them out?

"Here, let me," thankfully, Luz stepped in to help out with that, "Basically, Eda was cursed a long time ago, no idea who or how, and she turns into...well," she then pulled out that device she called a 'phone' out and opened it, "This." She then showed Nero the image of her cursed form roaring at the camera. As much as Eda thought it gave her a fierce look, it still unnerved her how she came close to killing Luz and King the last time she transformed. She looked to Nero, worried that he might be scared off by her Owl Beast form.

"Huh, so this is what you turn into?" Instead, Nero just gained a curious look and put his reptilian arm under his chin, "How have you been dealing with it all these years?"

Surprised that he wasn't reacting to it like she expected, Eda took a few seconds before reaching into her hair and pulling out one of the elixirs she used. "I've been using these elixirs to keep it suppressed," she explained, "It generally just takes one, maybe two of these a day to hold the damn thing back. Speaking of..." she then uncorked the top, "Bottoms up!" And drank all the contents in a single gulp before throwing the glass into a wall, shattering the container on impact.

"Sounds pretty rough," Nero said apologetically.

"Eh, I've managed for a few decades at this point," Eda feigned nonchalance, not wanting to give away her greater issues with her curse. Better that Luz and King not have to worry too much on that.

"So, to run things back a bit," Nero began, "Mom said that you're wanted, but for what exactly?"

"Oh, the usual kind of crap. Pulled a few scams here and there, some theft on the side, but it's mostly because I refuse to put up with this coven nonsense and never joined one." Eda explained, "Decided a long time ago that it wasn't my thing, and everything in life taught me that they're the bane of existence."

"Here here," Nero agreed, "I'd offer to do a toast to that, but I don't have a drink, and I'm not old enough for that shit just yet."

"You could just do it with a glass of water," Luz pointed out.

"Or the blood of your enemies!" King exclaimed in his usual exuberance about violence. Eda couldn't help but give a light laugh.

"Y'know, your a bit of a shock, kid." Eda said with a smile, "I'd have expected Lily's kid to be all prissy, snobby, and into the same coven crap she's into, but you're pretty alright."

"I'll take that as a compliment," Nero smirked, "Most of the high society witches I've met so far are uptight fuckers anyway, so I'd rather avoid turning into them."

"Uh," Eda looked to Luz and saw that she was raising her hand, "Sorry to interrupt the aunt/nephew bonding and all that, buuuut I was wondering on something if you don't mind answering."

"Shoot kid," Nero said as he leaned back and rested his hands behind his head.

"Why's your arm like that?"

"Sparda. Sparda. Sparda." Lilith had no idea how long she had been searching through the aisles. Only that she was just now getting to the S section and that she'd skimmed over everything else in her rush to find the information she was looking for. As much as she wanted to read through the contents of these tomes and books, all of which likely contained information on Hell, the history of the Boiling Isles, and even Belos himself, she was pressed for time.

Come on! Where is... Lilith thought she saw something as the light passed over several books in the S section. She walked back and saw a book that didn't have much dust on it, implying that Belos read it regularly. More importantly was the title on it, Sparda: The Dark Knight. Yes! Lilith kept her adulation internalized just in case and quickly took the book from the shelf before flipping through the pages. As she read the text, she slowly found herself enthralled and shocked.

2,000 years ago, the armies of Hell sought to invade the human realm, and among the strongest of Hell's army were the beings known only as the Titans; towering giants of unimaginable power. But as the Titans traversed the Boiling Seas of Limbo, marching to cross the bridge between the realms, they were stopped by a lone warrior. A traitor to his kind. The Dark Knight, Sparda.

With blade in hand and power none could match, he laid waste to the Titans before any could leave Limbo, butchering them and scattering their corpses all across the realm. In the end, only one remained to fight Sparda, but even his strength proved meaningless, as the Dark Knight struck him down and left his corpse to drift in the Boiling Sea. The great Titan and the corpses of his kind have remained afloat in Limbo ever since, a constant reminder to all of Hell of the treachery and power of the Dark Knight.

Lilith closed the book for a moment as her mind ran a thousand miles a minute. Sparda…he killed the Titan that all witch kind stands on. The Boiling Isles and all of witchkind exist because of what he did. Something like this was a massive revelation, and it made her wonder what else the Emperor was hiding from his people in these isles. Information like this could change the isles as they-

"No," Lilith whispered to herself as she got her mind back on track. The line of thought she was having bordered on treasonous. The books here are kept by the Emperor for a reason, she told herself, likely to prevent a second coming of the Savage Ages. Putting all her attention on the book in her hands, she flipped through it again, trying to see if she could gleam through any information on Sparda's enemies and how he defeated them previously. That was all that mattered right now. Now that she knew who Sparda was, she needed to figure out a way to stop any Hell lords from hurting her son for his relation to him.

"Snooping around, Lilith?" The chilling voice said behind her, and her blood ran cold.

"That's...kinda complicated, being honest," Luz listened closely to Eda's nephew as he leaned forward and looked at his right arm, "It's not exactly something I like talking about much."

"Well kiddo, I don't exactly like talking about my curse, but here we are," Eda said, leaning into the couch's side, "So let's hear about the arm. Not gonna lie, kinda curious myself."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Luz quickly added after Eda's statement. Even if she wanted to know, she didn't want Nero to feel like he was being forced into talking about it.

"Eh, it's alright, she's got a point, so may as well," he began, "Basically, my arm's like this because of a genetic mutation. Doctors say it's from a gene I inherited from my father."

"Oooh, now this I gotta hear!" Eda exclaimed as she sat closer and leaned in, "So, who's the hottie my prissy big sis has been riding all these years?"

"Blegh! Gross! Eda, no one wants to hear about that!" Luz heard King make a vomiting noise as he said this. And she had to agree with her adorable friend, since while she was and still is curious about Nero, the circumstances of his birth is not something she wants to learn about.

"Uh, about that..." Nero stated as he looked away awkwardly Luz assumed either because of how Eda worded the question or because it was just a touchy subject in general, "I...don't really know who my dad is. Mom never talks about him."

Eda then backed away a bit and gave him a sympathetic look, "Oof, let me guess, divorce?"

"More like they never knew each other. Even though mom doesn't talk about him, I was able to figure out about a year back that she just got super drunk one night and, well..." Nero explained as he gestured to himself.

Everyone went quiet for a while, no one knowing how to continue, before King said, "If it makes you feel any better, I never knew my dad either. Then again, I don't really remember anything from before I was overthrown." Luz gave him a couple of affectionate head pats.

"Thanks," Nero replied, "But I've had enough time to cope with that fact. Still kinda wish he was around to explain things about my arm though." He then manifested an ethereal version of his arm and flexed his fingers, the energy version mimicking his real arm's actions before vanishing.

Luz gasped at the new magic she just witnessed while King gained an interested look, his tail wagging back and forth in excitement. "That was so amazing!" Luz exclaimed, "What kind of magic is that?"

"Eh, I'll tell you later. I think I've said enough crap about my life, so how about you?" Nero asked, "How'd you end up on the Boiling Isles anyway?"

"E-Emperor Belos." Lilith could only stammer in fear as she looked the ruler of the isles in his cold, glowing eyes. It was impossible to read his emotions, especially with her mind in a frenzied panic as it was, but one thing was obvious: she was in deep trouble, and she could find no escape. "M-my lord, p-please, just let me e-explain." Before she could say another word, a searing pain coursed through her right arm as dark tendrils outlined with a blue aura began to envelop her from her coven brand, the book falling to the floor. As she was being enveloped, she saw the glow in Belos' eyes, a tranquil yet blistering rage.

"M-my lord," she wheezed in pain, "P-please, just let me e-explain."

"Why should I allow you leave to do so when you have broken into my sanctum and scoured by personal collection?" Belos responded with an immense anger behind his calm tone, "You've seen far more than you should have, Lilith."

"N-no, this is the only book I've read! I pro-" The tendrils wrapping around her mouth and covering her eyes silenced her. She couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't breathe. Everything was fading away fast, and all she could think about in those moments was her family. Of the son she loved so much and just wanted to protect, the sister she wanted to save and make amends with for her horrid mistake, the father who'd suffered the consequences of her selfishness, and the mother whom she just wanted the approval of.

Suddenly, the binding stopped and she was released from the tendrils, her arm no longer in blistering agony and her coven brand no longer glowing through her sleeve. As she gasped for air, she looked up and saw that Belos had picked up the book she was reading and simply flipped through the pages. Before, it was easy to see that he was enraged, but now he was completely unreadable, which Lilith found even more frightening.

"So, you've only read through this one, correct?" Belos looked to her and asked, his tone almost daring her to lie to him. Steeling herself as best as she could, Lilith replied with the honest truth.

"Yes, that is the only book I've read here. I haven't read anything else. I swear to you on my life." Her declaration was met with an uncomfortable, deathly silence that lasted for many minutes until he closed the book, with the sound echoing throughout the entire room.

"And what, pray tell, has convinced you to commit such a treasonous act?" He asked, this time with a tinge of curiosity. That meant either his anger at her attempted deception had died down, or he was just hiding it and waiting for the right moment to bring it to the forefront again.

Lilith took a deep breath and said, "I was looking for any information I could regarding the demon known as Sparda. Three years ago, the Hell lord I fought said that I...slept with someone who carried his blood. I believe I either slept with Sparda himself or with a direct descendent of his, and the demons from the lower circles are targeting any who have his blood coursing through their veins," she then gulped, "That...that includes my son."

She went silent again for a moment before continuing, "I've spent the last three years looking all over the isles for any information I could find on him. Who he was, what enemies he had, and how he defeated them, but I could find nothing. I came here because this was the last place I could look, and I was willing to do anything to keep my son safe, even if the act itself is...treasonous."

"I see..." Belos droned, his tone unreadable. Lilith closed her eyes and awaited the searing agony of her brand being set off again. But her mental preparations seemed all for not, as the pain didn't return. Instead, Belos asked, "Tell me, Lilith, don't you find it peculiar? You act against my will and snoop into my personal sanctum, your sister abandoned the correct way of life and lives as a wild witch, and your son has yet to join any of the covens. Perhaps rebellion and thoughts of treason run more strongly in the Clawthorne bloodline than any realize."

Fear overtook Lilith as she pleaded, "My Emperor, I beseech you. I merely wanted what I could find to protect my son. Nothing mo-"

"And if what you were after included anything else here?" Belos' wrathful tone had returned. He walked up to her as she took steps back in equal measure, "You would seek out what could bring about the second coming of the Savage Ages and bring chaos to the isles? All for your son?"

She didn't know how to answer. She couldn't answer as her terror wouldn't allow her. But suddenly, the Emperor bent over and sounded as if he was in pain, dropping the book in the process, with his breathing becoming erratic. He quickly took out a Palisman, one that resembled a serpent, and broke it, absorbing the wild magic as it flowed into the eye holes of his mask as he took a deep breath. The sight left Lilith disturbed, watching the life drain from the deceased Palisman and into the isles' ruler made her sick to her stomach. If she could summon Coronis and cradle him at this moment, she would. It took a lot of convincing to allow Belos to let her keep her Palisman and not utilize the staff he and the Golden Guard used just so he could have another means of revitalizing himself for a few moments. Coronis meant a lot to her, and she wouldn't let anyone take her Palisman away.

"Now, as I was saying, what I have here is more dangerous than you seem to realize. However, seeing as you didn't gleam over anything more than this one book," the Emperor said, gesturing to the book she had previously read, "I shall allow it to pass, for now at least."

Lilith closed her eyes and sighed in relief as she clutched her heart, feeling it's beat calm down as Belos continued, "And I shall grant you one bit of information that you may find useful. I recollect hearing down the grapevine of the Underworld that Sparda had died almost forty years ago, so it stands to reason that whomever your son's father is, they would have to be Sparda's son." Lilith looked up into Belos' hidden eyes as he spoke, her mind reeling at the information as he continued, "Additionally, I once met a man who'd found his way into this very room, seeking whatever he could find. I cast him out and told him he would not find what he was looking for here."

"Y-you mean to tell me that this man is..." Lilith wasn't sure how to continue.

"It is a possibility. Perhaps this man still wanders the isles, slaughtering demons left and right. It would explain why they flock here to hunt for Sparda's kin."

"Why are you telling me this?" Lilith was scared to ask the question, but against her better judgement she did so anyway.

"It's simple," Belos replied, his tone inducing dread in her, "I still have not forgiven what you have done, Lilith. Understand that what I tell you now comes at a price."

Nero looked at the human teenager as she smiled and brightly spoke, "Well, it's a long tale of heroism, violence, and a shocking amount of law breaking that-"

"Owlbert stole her book and she helped us break into the Conformitorium to help me get my crown back," King interrupted before he kicked the ground and crossed his arms. Nero heard him mutter something like 'Stupid jerkface warden, destroying my crown'.

"Well, I guess that's one way of putting it," Luz's face turned red as she rubbed her right arm.

"Kid, let's be honest, you would have added a bunch of needless details and tried to be all prosy about it like those books you're into." Aunt Eda chimed in with a yawn, "And being honest, we don't have time for that kind of crap right now, it's getting pretty late."

"Okay, so skipping ahead, long story short, I'm spending my summer here on the isles and learning magic. Pretty cool, right!"

"Uh, yeah," Nero replied, rather unsure of the idea of Luz learning magic. He didn't have anything against it, he just never heard of a human being capable of doing so. "I'm...not exactly sure how you're supposed to do magic without having a valknut to draw from though."

"A what nut?"

"It's the name of the bile sac that I showed you," his aunt helpfully explained to her, "I just never used the name since I don't really give a damn about 'medical accuracy' and all that other nonsense."

"Oh," Luz said before she pulled out a sheet of blank paper, "Well, I'm learning how to do magic in my own way. Watch this." She then began drawing a weird symbol on the page. Nero curiously looked at her work, having never seen anything like it either in rune books or any lessons on magic his mother and teachers at Hexside gave him. Just before he could ask her what it was, she tapped the symbol with her hand and the paper crumbled, turning into a ball of light that floated in the air.

"Whoah," Nero muttered as he leaned in to get a better look at the floating orb, "Never seen magic cast that way before. For everyone I've seen, it's always like this," he then formed a spell circle with his left hand and conjured a floating ball of flames, which he dissipated before forming a ball of ice, then a small orb of electricity, "What kind of magic is that?"

Luz gave him a cheery smile and replied, "They're glyphs. I figured out how to do them when Eda was chasing us around the house." She then looked apologetic and looked to his aunt, "Oop, sorry to bring it up Eda."

"Eh, don't sweat it kiddo. It's all good." Eda said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Any others you can do?" Nero asked as he marveled at the small orb of light before it disappeared. While light magic was extremely basic, the method Luz used to conjure it was definitely something that got his attention. Part of him wondered what kind of ways it could be used for fighting. What other kinds of glyphs were out there and what combat applications they had? If he could use them as well, not to mention if they could augment weaponry like-

Huh, he realized, It's...actually been a while since I got interested in something like this.

"Nero," he blinked as he saw Luz waving a hand in front of his face, "You still there? You kinda zoned out for a second."

"Oh, sorry, guess I just found what you did pretty cool," Nero admitted.

"Thanks! Anyway, like I was saying, this is the only one I know how to do." Luz said with a touch of sadness, clearly wishing she knew more magic.

Nero gave her a warm smile and said, "Don't sweat it. Last I checked, I didn't think humans could actually do magic, so if you've already proven that bit wrong, then you'll probably figure out more spells to cast later on." Luz shyly rubbed her head at the praise and encouragement. He then thought up on one of the questions he had mused about earlier and asked, "Say, what are the odds you could apply these glyphs to weapons as an augmentation tool?"

"I actually haven't thought of that. I mean, I made a super big light show that one time, but using them on weapons or tools didn't really occur to me till now," Luz admitted. But then she smiled and took out a notebook and drew another light glyph, "But what if I applied the paper the glyph was drawn on to a tool of some kind? Eda, do you have any weapons I could borrow?"

"Sure. I have an armory down the hall in the back a few doors to the left. Anything in-" Eda was interrupted as Luz ran back with an excited grin, "particular? Well she's excited."

"Hey! How come you never let me play with any of the arsenal?" King whined indignantly, much to Nero's bemusement as he chuckled.

"Because a few months ago, you complained about everything being "too heavy"," Eda chuckled, equally bemused, "Then you insisted that 'A true king has no need for weapons!', so I made the armory a 'No King' zone."

"Oh, right. I forgot about that."

In a few seconds, Luz walked in holding a mace that was about the same size as King. She was panting slightly and struggling to hold it over her shoulder, indicating to Nero that it weighed a lot more then its appearance would make you believe.

"Phew!" Luz places the mace down in front of them before sticking the glyph to its spiked end and tapped it. Unfortunately, much to Nero's disappointment, the paper just turned into a ball of light and floated up.

"Well that was a let down," Nero commented.

Luz scratched her head, "Maybe we're doing something wrong here?"

"Hmmm," Weirdly enough, King gained a questioning look before he brought up, "Wait, what if you don't tap the glyph while it's on it and just swing it around as is?"

"Don't these things only work when you tap them?" Nero asked.

"Yeah, that's how Luz's been using them so far." Eda added in.

"Actually, I think King might have an idea," Luz admitted, making Nero turn to her perplexedly. She drew up another glyph and stuck it to the spiked end of the mace, this time not touching it further. Surprisingly, after a moment, the weapon glowed yellow for a split-second it before ceasing. Luz smiled and hoisted the mace up on her shoulder, stumbling back slightly. With a huff, she swung the mace with as much strength as she could and slammed it into the floor. Besides splintering the flooring, a small light burst rushed out of where the mace was slammed by a few feet, shattering a table and its vase.

"Ha!" Nero smirked at the success, "That was awesome! Let me try." Luz kindly gave him the weapon, which felt as light as a feather to him. He then slammed it on another part of the floor, but aside from further splintering the floor even more so than when Luz used it, nothing happened. He lifted the weapon to his face in confusion and looked all over it, seeing that the glyph wasn't there anymore.

"Huh, guess it's just one use," Luz said with a shrug, "Still, I didn't know glyphs could do that until now, so it's still super cool." She then ran back down the hallway before sticking her head back in the room, "Wanna test it out with the other stuff we have?"

"Hell yeah!" Nero ran down the hall with her as King joined along with them. He heard Eda exclaim something about having fun breaking things while Hooty yelled about 'not messing around with his interior too much'. They tested out the light glyph with several different weapons, ranging from battle-axes, halberds, flails, and of course, swords, all the while Nero laughed and smiled throughout.

"W-what do you need of me, my Emperor?" Lilith asked, an audible gulp preceding her question. Rather than answer, Belos turned away from her, as if pondering the question.

"As I have stated before, your son has yet to join any of the covens, and I told you long ago that he had immense potential," he said without turning to face her.

"Yes, I remember."

"And yet he squanders that potential by refusing to join a coven," Belos continued, making Lilith's heart sink with worry.

"I can assure you that he does want to join a coven, he just hasn't found the right one yet," Lilith knew her words were a lie. Even she could tell that her son didn't want to become part of a coven with how he actively came up with any excuse he could. It scared her, how it seemed like he was going down a similar road to her sister, and she knew what that kind of life would lead to. Complete isolation from society at best, and petrification for going against the system at worst. Neither of which was something she wanted to happen.

Belos turned back to her, "Here is my price for the information I have given you. I want Nero to become part of my coven. His strength will serve the Titan's wishes well. And by joining us, he will be provided with protection from any rulers from the lower circles of Hell. Is that not enough reason for him to join?"

"I've tried to convince him to join the Emperor's Coven before," Lilith admitted, "But he keeps pushing the subject aside."

"Then find a way to convince him," Belos said as he placed a hand on her shoulder, making her freeze with fear, "And Lilith, be warned. You have until the Day of Unity to bring him into the coven. Should you fail, he will be cast aside as a wild witch, and you know what becomes of their kind, don't you?"

Lilith restrained the urge to scream in anger at the very thought. How dare he threaten to cast her son out and force him to suffer. But no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't. To disobey such an order from her Emperor was tantamount to suicide, and if he got rid of her, then nothing would stop him from casting Nero away as a wild witch, or even just forcing him into the coven. While Lilith wanted her son to become part of the Emperor's Coven, she wanted him to do so by choice.

"I...I understand, Lord Belos," Lilith timidly agreed to her Emperor's terms, "I will find a way to bring him into the coven before then. You have my word."

As soon as the words left her lips, Belos took his arm from her shoulder and picked up the book he had dropped, "Good," he replied, his tone even once again, "Now run along. Should I find you in here again, the consequences will be far more...permanent."

Lilith quickly nodded and ran out of the room as fast as she could before she calmed herself into a more casual walking pace as she returned to the well lit halls of the palace, waving at any guards she came across in an effort to calm her nerves. Until the Day of Unity, she thought. That was how long she had to convince her son to join the Emperor's Coven of his own volition.

You need to figure out how to do this, She told herself, It's all for his own good. Just remember that, Lilith. It's all to keep him safe.

"Shit, it's getting dark," Nero cursed as he looked outside, "Sorry, but I think I'd better get going. Don't want mom to freak out."

"And if she found out you came here, odds are, Lily'd freak out even more," Aunt Eda said before her voice became apprehensive. Nero gave her a quick nod and said goodbye to everyone, with King yawning and leaving to wherever his bedroom was, before he walked out the door and into the woods as the sky darkened, but before he could get very far, he heard his aunt's voice ask, "So, kid, how's uh...how's my sister been doing these years?"

"Huh?" Nero looked back to her as she stood in the doorframe before he picked up on what she meant, "Oh, well, I'd say she's been pretty good, if that's what you mean. Why?"

What he said wasn't a complete lie, as from what he'd seen, his mother had been doing rather well for herself, given her position and status, but at the same time he occasionally saw this odd sadness in her eyes that came and went, almost like she was trying to force it down. Part of him wanted to ask her if something was wrong, but at the same time, he wanted to respect his mother's privacy. After all, not exactly like he had much room to call her out on keeping shit hidden from him, considering what he used to do a few years ago. Not to mention what he was doing right now.

"It's nothing really," she said a little too quickly, but Nero opted to ignore that for now, "You mentioned that you wanted to get away from her for a while earlier?"

Nero gave a short nod, "Yeah, after the whole, y'know, Covention thing, I was pretty damn pissed at her and needed some space. But I gotta say, being here was actually pretty relaxing. Mom's kind of a smotherer, if that makes sense, not to mention the times she pushes for me to join one of the dumbass covens, so being here without any of those expectations is a nice breath of fresh air."

"Oh believe you me, I know what a smother is like. Hell, maybe that's where Lily gets it from." Eda cringed slightly as she leaned on the side of the doorframe of her house.

Just then, Luz rushed up to her side and excitedly asked, "Wait, you also had an overbearing mom like Nero does? Are we gonna hear more backstory?"

"Sorry kid, no backstory for tonight, or the next, or...ever, for that matter."

"Aw man!" Luz said dejectedly as her arms slumped.

"Oh! Hey Luz, want to hear my backstory?" Hooty obnoxiously said as he stretched out and got in the human girl's face, "I was born when-"

"NO!" Nero, Eda, and Luz all yelled in unison as Eda said, "Hooty, no one wants to hear that!"

"Maybe later then. Hoot!" The bird tube then retracted back into the front door as Eda continued.

"Anyway, as I was saying, if you ever need to get away from Lilith when she's being more uptight than usual, or you just need a place to crash for a few hours to get away from it all, feel free to stop by. Been a while since I've had a family member over that didn't piss me off in some capacity."

"Yeah, and maybe we could talk more about different kinds of magic!" Luz exclaimed, "We learned about using glyphs to augment weapons. Maybe we could figure out more about the kinds of magic your arm could do?"

Nero looked at his arm. In the three years since he stopped going demon hunting, he hadn't used it for anything more than the basics, and the prospect of learning more about what he could do with it here was a tempting one. Hell, just being here made him smile a lot more than he had in the past few years. Nero wasn't sure if it was the more relaxed attitude his aunt and her wards had, the human's exuberance to learning about new magic that reminded him of when he was a kid, or just how open this place seemed, it all made him want to come back here more often.

He looked back to the two in the doorway and smiled, "Sure, I'll visit every now and then. See you around Aunt Eda." He waved to his aunt before looking down at Luz, "Take care kid." The two of them waved back, his aunt more casually while Luz waved more happily. Hooty also said a loud and cheerful goodbye that he promptly ignored since the house demon's voice was like a razor wire sawing through his brain. While he was pretty sure he should have been running back home, given that he didn't want to get there after his curfew, but he was just too at ease and just wanted to enjoy the scenery for once. He'd gotten to meet some family he didn't know he had and it all felt uplifting. At the same time, as he was halfway through the forest, his expression became more serious as his walk broke into a sprint, rushing through Bonesborough as fast as he could, jumping and hopping across buildings to get home in time.

Need to figure out when I can visit them more often without mom figuring out, Nero thought to himself, sadly acknowledging that he was going behind his mother's back again, this time to hang around with his outlaw aunt. Sorry mom, but...I just feel like I might need some space every now and then. Maybe I can tell you someday and you'll understand.

Though he knew that day wouldn't come for a long time.

Chapter Text

The bell screamed for the final time as Nero left his last class. Ever since his recent visit to his aunt's house, he'd found himself looking out the window more often, finding himself lost in thought. He tended to daydream of the old times before that terrible Grom, and to top it off, he tended to have new ones of him fighting as he was now. He didn't know why, as it had been a while since he felt the desire to go demon hunting. It was almost like getting to meet a new family member, one who was much more open-minded and loose, was bringing it out.

Just as he rounded the corner to walk out of Hexside, he noticed a flyer of paper fall from the wall. It was a picture of Luz covered in Abomination material, waving at the picture taker with a smile. Above the image was the word 'BANNED'.

How and when did this happen? Nero thought. From the looks of it, he apparently missed a lot of things that had been happening lately. Seeing that everyone else was already leaving, he folded the poster and pocketed it, deciding that he'd ask Luz later when he saw her.

Walking out, he saw his mother patiently waiting and waving to him, holding her staff upright. "Hello my little raven! How was school?" she asked like she always did. Nero shrugged, not really saying anything. Usually he'd let out a 'meh' or 'whatever' since school days were so boring, but today was...average. He didn't know if it was because the subjects taught today were less dull or if his daydreaming blocked out all the boring stuff, but things were passable.

"In any case," his mother said, "Let's go grab some ice cream. Perhaps while we're there we can also discuss things like the Emp-"

"Actually Mom, I'm thinking I'll just walk home," Nero said, feeling pretty shitty as his mother's face froze.

"B-but we always go for ice cream on Tuesday after Hexside! It's been our tradition for years!" she argued, making Nero feel a bit worse. Ever since his first day at Hexside, Mom took him to get some ice cream the Tuesday after. He liked it a lot back then and begged her if they could get some more. Soon enough, it became a weekly thing they'd do every Tuesday after school. Even when his mother was at her most overbearing and even after the whole Grom fiasco, it was still something he liked doing, even if he didn't smile during it anymore.

Seeing the sad frown on her face almost made him reconsider, but from what she was saying, it sounded like she also wanted to discuss the Emperor's Coven...again. It was something she'd been doing a lot since the Covention. Sometimes subtly, and other times not. Aside from getting some alone time to think, he also wanted to avoid that topic as best as possible.

"Nothing wrong with making new ones," Nero shrugged as he tried to calm her down, "Look, nothing's wrong. I just want to take a scenic route home today. Plus I've been thinking a lot lately and it'll give me some time to do that."

"I take plenty of scenic routes," she said just a tad indignantly.

"Sorry Mom. Next time though, I promise." Nero assured her. Admittedly, he really didn't want to sit through any of his mom's talks regarding the Emperor's Coven, the benefits of joining thereof and such, but he'd sit through one later if it meant getting some time to think to himself now.

It took a couple minutes of convincing, but his mother finally caved in and said, "Okay, I suppose you can go on your own. Just promise me that nothing's wrong."

"I promise nothing's wrong, okay Mom?" he replied with some annoyance in his voice. Even in the times where he could kinda understand why his mom was like this, that didn't stop him from finding it frustrating to put up with.

As he walked away to Bonesborough, he heard his mom shout, "Be careful out there!" to which he gave her a casual wave and rolled his eyes. He was going to be walking through the safest place on the isles, relatively speaking of course, just to get some thinking time to himself, so being careful was pretty much the default.

"As long as we don't make a mess, don't touch anything, and never bring up that we did it!" Luz put on her best smile as she let out an awkward laugh. She felt really bad about lying to Willow and Gus like this, but they both looked so excited to get to do a Moonlight Conjuring. Learning that this was a once a year thing only pushed her to go through with it even more. She just couldn't bring herself to let them down, plus she really wanted to help them stick it to those jerks.

As she looked up at the moon, she tried figuring out a plan for how to keep Eda from figuring out what they'd be doing. But as she came up with at least 3% of a plan, she became distracted when she saw a familiar head of silver hair moving down the street.

"Hey! Nero!" Luz waved, catching the attention of Eda's nephew.

"Oh, hey Luz," he greeted with a casual wave as he walked up to her, "What's up?"

"Wait," Gus said as he looked up at the taller teen in awe, "Luz, you know Nero Clawthorne? As in, THE Ne-"

"Okay, stopping you right there," Nero interrupted, "So, I'm guessing these are your friends?"

"Yup! This is Willow," Luz said as she gestured to her first witch friend, who gave a kind smile and wave, "And this is Gus," she then gestured to the human enthusiast, who looked like he her when she was about to read a new Good Witch Azura book,

"Nice to meet you," Willow greeted.

"Awesome," Gus whispered.

Huh, so I'm guessing Nero's pretty popular at Hexside, Luz thought to herself, "So, what have you been up to?" she asked the older boy.

"Nothing much, just getting some time to think to myself," he answered before he reached into his pocket, "Actually, now that I ran into you, I was wondering on what this is," he then pulled out a copy of her 'BANNED' poster that Gus and Willow gave her. "I found this when I was leaving Hexside. Think you can explain what the hell happened?"

"Oh, uh..." Luz scratched her right cheek as she tried to explain, "Long story short, I sorta got banned after this whole Abomination fiasco and I really don't want to get too deep into it."

"And I unleashed vines all over school to help get her out," Willow added.

"Wait, that was you?" Nero asked with a surprised look, with Willow nodding in confirmation, "Huh, that was actually pretty badass."

"Thanks."

"And I was also there," Gus said, trying to play it cool, "I 'hi fived' some Abomination cauldrons and gave them time to escape."

"Pretty cool, uh..." Nero's face became confused as he said, "Goops, right?"

Gus' face fell, "Does my name really sound like that?" he asked her and Willow. Both of them gave him a reassuring smile and a pat on the back respectively, "I just hope it doesn't become a trend."

"Anyway, what are you guys doing? And where's Aunt Eda?" Nero asked.

"Oh, she's...uh, busy, but-"

"We're gonna do a Moonlight Conjuring at Eda's house!" Willow interrupted, still excited at the idea. Luz really couldn't bring herself to admit that it was a lie.

"Yeah! Wanna join? It's gonna be great!" Gus added as Luz slightly backed away from the two and stood just behind them.

"Yeah...the more the merrier and stuff..." Luz nervously said as she gestured with her hands, mouthing to Nero to 'please say no'. Nero looked straight at her and proceeded to grab her shoulder.

"Would you two excuse us for just a second?" Nero asked as he pulled Luz around the corner. The speed made everything around her seem like a blur as she stumbled at the sudden stop, "Okay kid, what's going on?"

Luz took a deep breath and whispered, "I may or may not have lied to them about Eda being okay with us doing a Moonlight Conjuring, but I'm hoping that she won't notice since she's going out for tonight, so please don't tell."

"Easy, I get it." Nero whispered back, "I'm familiar with going behind someone's back to do something else. Not exactly proud of it, but it's helped with some fun and catharsis every now and then." He then stood tall, briefly making Luz remember that he was almost as tall as Eda, "Most I can say is that you make sure she doesn't find out."

Luz gave him a short nod before she ran around the corner. But she briefly stopped herself and looked back, "Oh! Almost forgot!" she then ran back to Nero and whispered, "I know what I said earlier, but if you want to join, you can. Just got to figure out how to sneak you, Willow, and Gus in. Maybe after Eda heads out?"

"Thanks but no thanks," Nero replied, "I'm not really interested in that kind of crap. Always came off as baby magic to me."

Heh, like aunt, like nephew they always say, Luz humorously thought to herself, remembering that Eda called it the same thing.

"Plus, I kinda have my own plans for later tonight. Revolves around the whole 'going behind someone's back' thing I brought up. So you and your friends have your fun and hope neither of us get found out while we're doing it," Nero finished as he brought his reptilian finger to his lips, as if to say 'keep that a secret'. Luz understood and gave him the 'my lips are sealed' gesture before giving him a thumbs up. The two of them nodded to each other as Luz walked away from Nero and back to her friends.

"Sorry guys, but Nero's got other plans for tonight," Luz explained to them, "So it looks like it's just us."

"Aw man," Gus complained, "It would have been so cool to have him there."

"Yeah, but it'll just be us," Luz said as she started getting back to her plan to keep Eda from finding out about what they were gonna do, at the same time wondering what Eda's nephew was getting up to that he kept hidden.

It had been almost an hour since she left Nero to walk home by himself, and with each passing minute, she regretted it as she cooked dinner and chopped up food. Even with her son's nonchalance, a number of things could happen to him that didn't involve an infernal Hell lord seeking revenge against his grandfather coming after him. Any manner of beast could have just showed up out of the blue and gobbled him whole. There was an assortment of thieves and hoodlums he could have run into hiding out in corners, unseen from Conformitorium and Coven guards.

Keep it together Lilith, she attempted to calm herself, He's fine, wandering alone in Bonesborough. His personal musings meaning he's probably not paying attention to his surroundings, leaving him unprotected from potential kidnappings, robberies, sudden shifts in weather, accidentally stumbling on a painbow and turning inside-, realizing that calming down wasn't working, she poured all the sliced food into the pan and threw her kitchen knives into the wall before she pulled out the bird and started dialing her son's number.

Before she could push the final number, the sound of the front door opening was heard, "Mom, I'm back!" her son's voice came in from down the hall. Almost immediately, she tossed the bird away and ran down hall to greet him, sighing in relief as she saw that he was alright.

"Did you run into any trouble?" she asked.

"No, just a pretty standard trek through town, being honest," he replied as he went to lay down on the couch, resting his hands behind his head.

"Thank the Titan."

"Mom, don't you think you're worrying way too much?" Nero asked, sounding annoyed, "Sometimes I can get it, but how does a bog standard walk home warrant worrying over?"

"Look, there are plenty of things out there on the isles to worry about. Many of which can either kill or eat you!" Lilith said defensively.

"I think I can handle myself pretty alright." Nero yawned.

Lilith pinched the bridge of her nose, "Alright, well what were you thinking about while you were walking?" she then sat down on the adjacent seat, "You said you were taking the time to think. Anything on your mind?"

Nero's face looked away as if he was in thought, "Uh, I guess I was kinda thinking on the Covention and meeting my aunt for the first time. I mean, are there any other family members I haven't met yet?" he asked in an unsure tone. Lilith wasn't sure why he sounded so trepidatious when asking, but the question itself drowned out that line of thought.

"Well, there are your grandparents, Gwen and Dell."

"Why haven't I ever met them? Is this like your sis where you don't like them or something?"

"No! Nothing of the sort," Lilith hastily answered, "They were good parents and I'm sure they'd love you. We just...we haven't been in contact for a while, that's all."

Her son sat up and looked at her curiously, almost as if he was going to ask about them. Lilith prayed that he wouldn't ask any further questions about it. It was difficult enough for her to think about the subject, let alone talk about it. Thankfully, he instead said, "Okay, forget I asked anything," Lilith sighed in relief as he continued, "By the way, there's smoke on the ceiling."

Not knowing what he meant, Lilith looked up confusedly and saw that there was a cloud of smoke hanging above their heads. The way it moves indicated that it was coming from-

"Oh shit!" Lilith cursed as she ran back to the kitchen and saw that the smoke billowing out of the pan as well as a small fire. Panicking, she cast an ice spell and froze the pan, stopping the growing flame as she fanned away the smoke all while struggling not to cough. Walking up to the frozen pan, she used her magic to generate enough heat to melt the ice, causing a small puddle of water to drip to the kitchen counter. She looked inside the pan and grimaced at what she saw; it was a charred bird, the very same she intended to call Nero with.

"Well, looks like we're eating leftovers for dinner," Lilith mumbled as she tossed the entire pan in the trash and walked to the fridge, pulling out what was left of yesterday's dinner; Fairy stew with rice and cooked griffin meat. She warmed it up and poured two bowls just as Nero walked in.

"Do I even want to know what happened?" he asked.

"No." Was her immediate answer. She wanted to forget this embarrassing moment as soon as possible.

"Fair enough." he sat down at his seat across from her and started eating. The two ate in relative silence for a few minutes, much to Lilith's dismay. In the past few years, Nero tended to be fairly quiet whenever they ate a meal together. Before then, even on his worst days, he was rather chatty at these times, but these days there wasn't much of any.

While Lilith wanted to have a nice mother/son conversation, her attempts usually went nowhere. Granted, a lot of them tended to revolve around encouraging him to see what aspects of what covens he liked, which...wasn't really a subject he liked discussing. She tried shifting topics to other things, like interesting new poems she read or funny jokes that certain coven members told every now and then, but that never garnered his interest. She tried shifting to topics to his interests, such as action cartoons, comics, and games, all of which he could talk about non-stop when he was a boy. But they typically eluded her, so she couldn't hold a conversation very well when those were involved, and these days he didn't really talk much about them either.

However, much to her surprise, he said, "So...Mom, how was your day?" the question sounded incredibly awkward and forced, but it seemed he was making an effort to try and be more conversational.

"It...it went well," Lilith replied, still rather shocked, "There was a recent break out attempt at the Conformitorium and I was called in to handle the situation. Also, Kikimora tripped on a carpet, so that was a lot of fun to see," she smirked at the memory, remembering how hilarious seeing the rude little worm fall flat on the floor was.

"Oh yeah, she's that tiny red woman you keep complaining about," Nero said as he leaned back, "So, what exactly is her deal anyway?"

Lilith huffed, "Hell if I know. All I know is ever since I became the leader of the Emperor's Coven, she's constantly been a pain in my ass."

"Language," Nero snarked before laughing. Lilith's face heated up in embarrassment before she found herself slowly giggling along with her son. It was nice, seeing her son being happy again.

"In...in any case," Lilith said between laughs, "I'm gonna have to put up with her for tonight. I have to attend an important meeting with the rest of the coven heads tonight and it's going to be a rather long one, I'm afraid." And Kikimora and the Golden Guard were usually in attendance of these meetings. That meant almost six hours of having to put up with the little red roach and the brattiness of the coven's favorite 'genius teen prodigy', but at this point, she'd put up with worse.

"Wait, did you say it starts at 6:00?" Nero asked.

"Yes, why?"

"Mom, look at the clock," Lilith looked at the kitchen's wallclock and saw that it was now almost 5:00. She internally cursed as she threw the rest of her dinner away and ran to her room to get ready. Brushing her hair and teeth, gathering her staff, cloak, and mask, and dressing in her most refined attire. She ran out of her room and back into the kitchen where Nero was still eating.

Clearing her throat to get his attention, "Sorry, but I can't be late and need to head out soon. But before that, did I make sure to put everything on correctly? I'd rather not look a fool there."

"Not seeing the big deal. What you're wearing is literally the same thing you wear every day." her son said in a deadpan tone, "Besides the whole cape and mask thing of course."

"It is not! My normal dress is dark grey. What I'm wearing now is light black!" Lilith had no idea how her son didn't notice the difference between the two tones. This one was clearly meant for business engagements such as the one she was attending.

Nero just blankly stared at her, "Mom, I can tell you right now with complete and utter sincerity that there is absolutely zero differences between what you are wearing right now and what you wear every single day of the week."

Just before Lilith could argue any further and comprehend her son's lack of understanding in refined meeting attire, her hand felt a biting sensation. She pulled her sleeve back and saw that it was now 5:30. Poking the wrist demon's eye, she gave her son an apologetic look.

"Look, I have to go now. So just make sure you remember all the house rules, finish any homework you have, and be in bed by 9:30, okay?"

"Yeah yeah, I get it," Nero waved off in nonchalance. Lilith gave her son a quick peck on the forehead before running out the door and flying as quickly as she could to the meeting place. As she flew high into the air, she couldn't help but worry that something would happen while she was away. What if someone broke in and she wasn't there? What if a demon lord came to the isles and picked up his scent? What if he snuck out and went somewhere dangerous?

Lilith, you need to calm down and focus, she reminded herself, Nero's going to be just fine. You warded the house to block out any potential intruders, he understands all the rules and parameters for the house, you coated the entire house with every kind of potion and elixir you could make to mask both your scent and his, and he's never snuck out before, so what are the odds of him starting now?

Weird sneaking out to fight something nowadays, Nero mused as he used his magic to untangle the tree housing his sword. Despite it having been years since that Grom battle, he didn't feel the apathy he normally felt when he made an attempt to go devil hunting. If anything, he was actually feeling anticipation for a change.

With the tree fully opened up, he pulled out his saber, Red Queen. The blade looked similar to when he first used it, but finding and reinforcing it with whatever durable metals he could find and altering the blade's shape through metalwork had made it a larger, stronger, and single-edged. He'd removed the wings from the hilt of the blade and replaced it with a more circular version. His personal favorite modification was the specialized spell circle he casted on the hilt. If he twisted his wrist just right, the spell would react and ignite the blade for a powerful fire slash. Since the damage Red Queen could do with it exceeded what could be done without it, he started calling it Exceed. It wasn't perfected yet, but it was definitely something he intended to make good use of.

Hoisting the blade over his left shoulder, he started running through the woods to search for any quarry he could fight, the only light sources being the moon hanging above and his right arm. He had to admit he was kinda nervous, not only due to the ever present fear of his mother finding out, but also because he was about three years out of practice.

Better start getting some practice in then, Nero began looking for any demons he could find. They always tended to start coming after him as soon as he entered these parts of the woods, so it wouldn't take that long.

Okay. Where the hell are they? Now Nero was confused, wandering through a rather random part of the forest. Three years back, the places he'd trek through were teeming with monsters all too willing to rush at him and tear his face off. But now? Two hours into his hunt and there didn't seem to be much of anything. Basic wildlife was present, but none of the beasts that he'd read about, learned about, and fought previously were around.

"Talk about a shitty night," Nero muttered as he started to think to himself, wondering if now would be a good time to call it a night. If there wasn't anything now, odds were another hour of looking about wouldn't do much good either. At the same time however, if he did quit now and some good fights were just ahead, then he'd miss out on them, something he didn't want to do when he just started getting his drive to fight back.

Just as he was thinking though, he felt the ground shake beneath his feet, and a loud booming sound came from his right. As he looked, his eyes widened; out from behind the tree tops, he saw what looked like a massive geyser erupt from the ground. When it ceased, a tingling cold started falling onto him, drawing his attention upward.

"Snow?" Nero had trouble processing what was happening. This was nowhere close to the knee of the isles. Just how could it be snowing here? Before he knew it, he was running towards where the geyser had come from, wondering if this was the work of one of the demons from his book. He'd read about ones that could manifest massive amounts of snow or even control temperature with a mere thought, so it was a possibility, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions just yet.

He brushed past the last tree and stopped to see a large opening in the ground, screeches and whispers coming from down below. Crouching, he looked over the edge and saw a gathering of Cainas, all surrounding a large, white toad-like demon with two antenna that ended in feelers that weirdly looked like glowing women. Its entire back was covered in shards of crystalline ice and its eyes glowed a wrathful red that glared down in front of it. Nero followed its line of sight and saw that it was conversing with three people garbed in red robes.

"Couldn't you have summoned me somewhere with less humid weather?" Nero listened in on the toad's complaining, trying not to be grossed out how he spat bile with each word.

"We don't have the time or resources to do that," one of the robed people whined out. "In all honesty, we would have hoped to summon someone stronger than you, but the hell lords aren't heeding our calls. Why is that?"

"Probably because you fucking parasites aren't worth the effort," the toad snarked. Nero would have laughed if it wouldn't have blown his cover.

"Listen, Bael, regardless, we need all the help we can muster if we are to eliminate Belos," said the robed figure in the center. "Besides, don't any of your superiors care that one who shares Sparda's blood lives on the isles? This is their chance for revenge on his bloodline as much as it is our chance for vengeance against Belos."

Sparda? Nero thought.

"Fuck if I know. Last I heard from down low, Lord Berial was conquering more of Hell and was in the middle of a fight with Goliath's forces." Nero started tuning out the ensuing discussion between the robed figures and Bael regarding territorial disputes between Hell lords and something about how his brothers were seeking to elect a new leader. Didn't seem to matter where one went in Hell. The only consistent truth was that politics were utter bullshit.

Suddenly, a gaunt shadow loomed over him. He turned just in time to see a Caina preparing to split him open with its scythe. Thinking quick, he rolled to the side just as it brought the curved blade down and slashed at its head with Red Queen, decapitating the devil.

"Hey! What's going on up there!?"

The disgusting toad's voice called out and Nero looked down, seeing that everyone's eyes were now facing him. Sighing and seeing no point in the sneaky act anymore, he leapt off the edge and jumped down to meet the demons face-to-face. The Caina's all started circling around him, scythes at the ready, but not moving to attack.

"Yeesh, and I thought you were ugly looking up there," Nero said as he got into a fighting stance.

"Oh you little shit! Just who the hell are you!?" Bael snarled.

"Anyone else just glad that we didn't get got by the covens this time?"

"Not now Dale," the front most robed guy said to his accomplice, "We can't risk any witnesses. Bael, kill him so we can get to killing Belos."

"Do not give me orders, you stupid welp!" Bael yelled before facing Nero, "I was going to do that any...wait a minute."

The frog started sniffing the air, "This witchling smells weird," he said, much to Nero's annoyance.

"Okay, you're the oversized bog bitch, and I'm the one that smells like crap?" Nero levelled a glare at the demon, "Guess there's no accounting for-"

"That's it!" Bael screamed out before giving off an almost sadistic grin, "Step aside!" he yelled at the Cainas, who started dispersing, "The one who carries Sparda's blood is mine to kill."

Wait, he's talking about... Before Nero could process it any further, the toad breathed out a blast of ice, freezing him in place. Fuck, it's cold! Nero shook himself out of the ice with as much strength as he could muster. In a second, he was free as he let out a breath, the now freezing air making it visible, but Bael was missing. Where the hell did that bastard go? Suddenly, a dark shadow enveloped the area he was in. Eyes widening with realization, he ran and rolled just as a loud boom came from behind him.

"Okay, so you're faster than I thought," Nero grunted as he stood up and summoned an orb of flame, throwing a blast of fire right at the toad's rear end.

"OW! Damned little shit!" Bael yelled in anger as he turned around to face him, "That was a cheap shot!"

Bael then leaned back and fired a barrage of ice shards from his back. Nero ran straight for the demon, dodging every shard as it landed before using the final ice shard as a platform, jumping off of it and drawing Red Queen to slash down on the toad's ugly face. Unfortunately, the toad whipped his head around, using his antenna to slap Nero out of the air, knocking him a ways to the right.

"How pathetic! Is this really the best you can muster?"

"Cut me some slack," Nero shook the dirt off him as he stood up, "It's been a while."

"Well then let's see how you like this!" Bael then breathed in. Nero prepared to dodge another ice blast, but instead, the toad let out a powerful roar. Suddenly, the environment around him began to darken until he could barely make out the area he was in. He couldn't even see the stars or sky anymore. Two lights descended from above, revealing themselves to be the two female bodies that were on the toad's feelers. As Nero drew Red Queen, the two...whatever they were supposed to be started dancing strangely and letting out odd moans.

When they made no move to attack, Nero rushed in and slashed away at one of them. He slashed again and again, even unleashing two Exceed slashes on them, but the didn't seem too phased. If anything, they moved as if they were being puppeted.

"Wait a damn-" Nero was interrupted by a load and rancid breath coming from behind him. He reacted just fast enough to roll out of the lunging toad's way and deliver an Exceed charged slash to the demon's side.

"ARRGH!" Bael screeched in pain, turning to glare hatefully at him. The area lightening back up as he put some distance between the two of them.

"Aw, what's the matter toad? Can't take the heat?" Nero snarked with a confident smirk before looking down at Red Queen's hilt and saw that the Exceed's spell circle was on the verge of giving out. From how it looked, he could only use it a couple more times before he'd have to reapply the spell altogether. He looked back to Bael, who looked just about ready to lung at him in blind anger. In that split second, he looked at the toad's feelers, and an idea formed in his head.

"I will swallow you whole!" Just as the toad came down on him, Nero summoned an ethereal fist with his right hand and slugged Bael in the chin, knocking the wind out of him and making his antenna drop to the ground. Nero then grabbed one of the feelers and proceeded to spin around, increasing in speed until everything around him became a blur.

"Wait, stop!" Bael actually sounded like he was begging, "I...I think I'm gonna hurl!"

I better end this quick, Nero thought with disgust. Just as he was about to let go, instead the feeler snapped, sending Bael flying into one of the terrace walls. Nero looked to the limp feeler in his hand, ready to toss the thing aside before it began to glow. Nero's questioning was interrupted as the glow shrank and went into his right arm, which itself was now covered in the same light.

"What the hell?" Nero muttered, wondering what just happened. It felt almost the feeler was...absorbed? Taken in? Assimilated? Whatever it was, it strangely felt like it was a part of him now.

"You..." however, his musings were interrupted by the sound of dirt and gravel being blown away, forcing him to shield his eyes. When the dust settled, Bael stood once again, now looking 110% done. "I will not be bested by some infantile Sparda!"

There's that name again. Before Nero could think too much on it, a slimy tongue darted right out of Bael's mouth and wrapped itself around him. In the span of a second, he found himself being swallowed into Bael's maw. Thankfully, he was able to react just in time to slash at the tongue with Red Queen to get Bael to release him. He was still caught between the demon's teeth, needing to use his arms and legs to hold the mouth open alongside being forced to smell the rotten breath, but it beat getting eaten.

Okay, think Nero, he tried to come up with a plan to get out of his predicament, but he had trouble thinking between the teeth above and below him that were gonna bite down alongside being grossed out by the rancid air. He looked down, then he looked up before his eyes fell on his right arm and an idea came into his head. It was a completely stupid one, but if it killed this bastard, then he'd take it.

"Hey Frog Face!" Nero yelled out before taking his right hand and forming the largest spell circle he could, "Eat this!"

Suddenly, Nero was blasted far back by a burst of pure heat and light, leaving him rolling on the ground before he managed to gather his bearings and stand up, dusting himself off as he did so. Looking back up, he saw that the entire upper half of Bael's body had been blown to smithereens, leaving nothing but his charred lower half behind.

"Guess he couldn't beat the heat," Nero said. The air entered his nose as he said, "Ugh, great. Now I smell like toad breath." Now was a good time to head back home, if only because he really needed to wash this smell off of him before it scarred him for life. "He said that I have the blood of someone or something called Sparda, but who or what the hell is Sparda?" The most he could tell was that the name sure seemed to rile the demon up. Maybe he could try looking into it? There had to be something on Sparda that he could look into, if only to figure out what his connection to them was.

A distorted screech cried out from the bushes and Nero turned just in time to dodge a scythe slash from one of the Cainas that were present earlier. As he drew his sword, more rustling came from all sides, and soon enough, he found himself surrounded by an assortment of Cainas and Scarecrows.

Guess now that their boss is out, they're looking to get even. As Nero thought that, he realized he wasn't feeling the trepidation he felt when he started earlier that night. Instead, he felt only one thing; excitement. As the first of the demons charged at him, Nero flicked his wrist as he rushed forward, setting Red Queen ablaze with one thought on his mind.

Okay then. Let's rock!

"Seriously! Losing the higher demons we summon to the Emperor's Coven is bad enough, but now we lost one to some brat with a sword!?" Vindice was left utterly fuming as the fight wrapped up. Granted, they didn't have enough resources or time to summon a Hell Lord like Berial or Echidna, but Bael was one of the masters of the frozen wastes, and yet he was bested by a mere child.

"If it means anything, Bael did mention him having Sparda's blood," Dale piped up, "So the child must be a lot stronger than he was expecting."

Vindice remembered Bael's words and felt a smile come to his face. If nothing else, they now knew what the Sparda on the isles looked like. They could use that to call forth someone else to aid in Belos' end. Preferably someone stronger than their past summons. "What are the odds Hell will listen if we tell them we know who they're looking for here?" he asked.

"Uh, I think 50-50 sir," Dale answered, "At this point, we may be running out of options."

"Running out and being out are two different things. We just need to bide our time a little longer. Look through to see which Hell Lord from the lower circles would be most eager to face a Sparda." Vindice walked ahead of the three of them, "We will have our vengeance against the Emperor this time. I know we will."

Chapter Text

"Hey, I'm looking for anything you have on someone named 'Sparda'," Nero said to the receptionist as he entered the doors of the Bonesborough library. It was just after school, so he was still in his Hexside uniform, having told his mother earlier that he needed to stop by the library to gather some materials for a test that was coming up. Of course, that was only to hide the real reason.

The receptionist gave him a rather dull look. "Go check the Reference area. I'm assuming we should have something on the database regarding...whatever that is." he replied before pointing to a poster, "By the way, we're closing early for the Wailing Star meteor shower."

"Right," Nero had seen the Wailing Star before when he was seven and went stargazing with his mother. Supposedly it caused a lot of interesting magic to crop up whenever it flew by, with the effects being completely random. Ten years ago, it caused his right arm to set itself on fire. Granted, it was a completely harmless fire and he didn't feel anything, but his mom had a total freak out and encased it in ice to make sure nothing got burned. It took the ice melting a few dozen times and her seeing that he wasn't affected by it for her to calm down, and even then she had all her ice spells at the ready.

"Okay, where would I find something on Sparda," he mused out loud as he walked through the library. Ever since the fight against Bael, he'd been wondering just who Sparda was and how he was connected to him. Normally, if he didn't know something, he'd either peruse the scroll network or ask his mother, but neither of those were viable options for him. Firstly was because he tried the former and found two things; jack and shit. The only thing he found was some kind of movie called 'This is Sparta!', which was not only the wrong spelling, but apparently based off some movie from the human realm. Secondly was because asking the question to his mom would lead to her finding out about what he'd been up to, which was a massive no go for him.

So, the only major option he could think of was to look through either the library's personal networks, or through the aisles upon aisles of books to see if he could find anything. He was banking on the former to make this as quick as he could. Thankfully, he didn't have to travel too far and came across the Reference center and the many Crystal Balls, a few of which were still available.

As he took a seat, he cracked his knuckles and logged in, Just type in Sparda to the library database and figure out his whole deal. Should be simple enough. Nero typed in 'Sparda' and pressed ENTER. He groaned in frustration when the database came up and said 'NO RESULTS'.

"Okay, let's try something else," Nero then tried typing 'Sparda demons'. He'd gotten some articles regarding a few demons, but none of them said anything about Sparda. He then typed in 'Sparda of Hell', which had the same result and just gave him minor studies on lower circles of Hell. He tried typing several different searches regarding Sparda, but each and every one of them ended with no significant results.

"Dammit," he cursed under his breath, "Guess we're doing this the old fashioned way," he really wasn't looking forward to sifting through so many books to find something about the guy. Hell, he didn't even know where to begin. Just before he could get out of his seat and start though, he saw a familiar head of green hair with brown roots walk by carrying what looked like a few children's' books.

"Hey, Amity!" Nero loudly greeted, only for the girl to turn and immediately shush him. Right, library, he remembered.

Though thankfully, she walked up to him and gave a more natural greeting, "Hey Nero, what's up? Kinda in the middle of something."

"Sorry to interrupt, but I'm looking for anything this place has on someone called 'Sparda'. Know anything?" Nero asked. If anyone would know where in the library he could find what he was looking for, it'd most likely be Amity, seeing as she knew the place forward and back.

"Hmm, Sparda Sparda Sparda," Amity muttered as she scratched her head, looking up in thought, "Sorry. I'm not sure, but the section regarding individual histories of important Boiling Isles figures is right around the corner," she said as she pointed to where it was, "Maybe what you're looking for is there?"

Nero looked to where she was pointing, "Guess it'll have to do," he said as he stood up, "Thanks."

"Let me know if you find can't find anything. Maybe it's somewhere else here," Amity replied as she walked away. Nero saw she was heading towards the children's corner.

Nero shrugged and walked over to the section, seeing all the books organized alphabetically. Better start searching under 'S', Nero thought, getting to the s section right at that moment. He just hoped this wouldn't take that long.

This is taking too long, Nero was now thoroughly done with this section. He'd skimmed through every single book just to make sure there wasn't anything he was missing. Not a single one of them had anything related to Sparda in them. Sighing in frustration and slamming the last book shut, he put it in whatever open spot there was in the aisle, not really caring about if it looked organized or not.

Deciding he had enough, he figured his best bet was to ask Amity if there was anywhere else that information on Sparda could be. He walked around the corner and entered the Kid's Corner just as many of the younglings started excitedly running out, him just getting out of their way. Just as the red, eyeless, and rather deep voiced child hugged Amity's legs and thanked her, Nero's eyes explored the room until they stopped on a familiar face poorly hiding underneath a random book.

"Luz?" Nero asked just as the red kid ran past him. This got Amity's attention as well, directing her eyes to where he was looking. And while Nero was just plain surprised to see Luz here, Amity's face shifted from shock to outright annoyance.

"Ugh, you again," Amity sneered as Luz got up and tried to break the ice

"Hey Amity," she greeted as a book fell and she turned to Nero for a second and greeted less awkwardly, "Hey Nero! What are you doing here?"

"Trying to find some information," Nero answered, "You?"

"Returning Eda's overdue books."

"Great, so if you did that already, kindly get out," Amity bluntly said. Nero gave her a stern look that she promptly ignored.

Luz, on the other hand, attempted to break the ice, "So...reading to kids? I guess this sour drop has a hidden sweet center."

"It's for extra credit, nothing more," Amity replied as she picked up the dropped book.

"No offense Amity, but you're kinda shit at lying," Nero snarked as Amity walking to the center table in the kids corner. She gave him a look that made it clear she didn't want to hear anything.

"Hey! I have an idea about how I could help with the kids," Luz walked up to Amity, "What if we took turns reading? We could even do voices! I don't mean to brag, but I've been told that I have a very good mo-"

"Look!" Amity slammed the books on the table, making Luz jump back, "You don't see me going to your little 'Owl Shack' and bothering you while you, uh, fry owls."

"Amity, they don't fry owls there," Nero pointed out, "If they did, I'm at least half sure Eda would have eaten Hooty by now. Assuming he's actually anything owl related."

"Plus, we like to call it the Owl House, not the Owl Shack," Luz interjected.

"Whatever!" Amity yelled, "Look, just, every time you butt into my life, I get in trouble, so just go away already!"

"I'm sorry, I just...sorry," Luz looked saddened as she started walking away. Even Amity looked regretful for what she said, though she shifted her demeanor quickly and turned around.

"Amity, what the hell?" Nero questioned.

"Look, Nero, it's better this way. That girl just brings a lot of stuff with her that I don't want anything to do with."

"Kid, I have no idea what happened between you two, but to be honest, I don't really give a shit either," Nero softened his tone as he said, "Look, Luz is a good kid, and if she really did screwed things up for you, it's pretty obvious it was an accident and she's at least trying to make up for it. Least you could do is meet her halfway."

Amity looked to think about it for a second before she sighed, "It's too late anyway, she's already gone. No point."

"Not really, she just walked out, so I think you can ca-" Nero said all this as he turned to where Luz was walking, only to see her talking to the last two people he wanted to see here. Two heads of green hair, mischievous smirks, and dressed in Hexside uniforms like his, "Oh FUCK me!"

"Nero, what's..." Amity turned and saw what he was looking at, "Fuck!"

Nero looked back to Amity in shock, with Amity looking equally aghast at what just came out of her mouth. "I...I didn't," she turned and glared at him, "You will speak of this to no one, got it!"

"Hey, you don't have to worry about me saying anything," Nero held his arms up in surrender.

"Hey Mittens!" Edric voice called out, making Amity flash red with anger as she walked up to them, her brother holding out a lunch bag while telling her not to be a jerk to Luz. Nero had to admit that was probably one of the few smart things Edric said.

"She's not my friend!" Amity snatched the lunch bag. Nero turned and saw Luz looking sad, at which point he turned back to Amity.

"Amity," Nero chided before realizing that he was starting to sound like his mom. Not really something he wanted to do.

"Is there anything else you want? If not, just leave already," Amity seethed, not in the mood for dealing with either him, Luz, or her siblings.

Nero could only sigh and said, "Searching under S was a bust. Any other recommendations? It's kinda related with demons and other circles of Hell."

"Check under the H section for anything regarding Hell. If it's not there, then the library either doesn't have it, or it's located in the Forbidden Stacks in the back, at which point we might was well not have it since only staff members are allowed back there," Amity explained in a quick, 'matter-of-fact' tone before walking away, clearly not wanting to be around either Luz or her siblings at the moment.

"I put her in a bad mood, didn't I?" Luz said dejectedly. Before Nero could say anything, Emira wrapped her arm around the human in a playful one-armed hug.

"Nah, Mittens is always like that," she said before letting go, "Say, why don't you hang out with us instead?"

Luz looked surprised and Nero gained a nervous look. While Luz was a good kid, the last thing that anyone needed was her falling under the influence of the persistent prankster twins. Before she could say anything, Nero grabbed her by the shoulder and said, "Hold up. Be right back," he then dashed a few aisles away and turned the corner before letting go of Luz.

"Hey! Why did you do that?"

"Luz, trust me when I say this, you do not want to hang out with them."

"Why? They seem nice," Luz seemed oblivious to their hidden mischievous natures, much to Nero's chagrin as he slapped his face.

"Because they're a bad influence and are annoying as shit," Nero groaned.

"You kinda sound like you know them," Luz said as she brightened up, "Are they friends of yours?"

Nero grunted, "I wouldn't use that word. More like they're a pair of tumors that attached themselves to me when I was a kid and never left."

"That's a pretty weird way to say friends, ain't it?" Edric's voice popped up behind him.

"Would you two just go already!?" Nero shouted.

"Oh hush, this is a library after all," Emira snarked as she walked around him and placed a hand on Luz's shoulder, "Look, we just want to hang out with your friend for a bit, get to know each other and all. Is that really so wrong?"

"Well, not really, but-"

"Then just go read your books. There's really no harm in us getting to show the human the ropes," Edric said as he stood next to his sister before looking at Luz, "What do you say?"

"I...sure!" Luz perked up, "It sounds like it could be fun."

"See? No biggie," Emira clapped her hands as they started walking off, "Catch you later Claw Boy!"

As soon as they were out of sight, Nero groaned, "This is gonna end badly, I just know it will," as he slapped his face again before dragging his hand down.

"Alright, fine. No use dwelling on it. Just find the H section and see if that has anything Sparda related," at this point, Nero could only really hope that the Blights wouldn't do anything idiotic in the process. But he had a feeling they would. They always did.

"Ugh," Nero groaned as he put the last book back. He'd searched the entire section top to bottom and once again, it didn't have anything on Sparda that he could use. That was two sections of the entire place with nothing useful in them, and according to what Amity told him, that left only one place that could have something on Sparda.

The Forbidden Stacks, Nero mused as he walked out of the aisle just as Amity and one of the librarians walked by.

"Hey, Amity, the section didn't have anything I was looking for."

"Then we can't help you anymore than that," Amity replied without even looking as she and the librarian kept walking, seeming laser focused on something. Nero followed along with them for a few moments piecing together what was going on before he came to the answer.

"Edric and Emira?"

"Yep."

"Ugh, figures," Nero grunted before walking to the entrance, "Well have fun with that. I'm heading out." Nero heard Amity say 'Whatever' as he left, pondering what he would do next. As Amity said, the Forbidden Stacks was likely the only other place in the library that could have anything on Sparda, but it was inaccessible to non-staff members. No member of the staff would allow him access to it, and the only way he could see them doing so was if he told his mother what he was doing so she could waltz in and order them to let him through. The obvious problem with that was that Mom would find out everything, so that wasn't an option. He wasn't quite fond of the work around to both problems, but he needed to compromise if he wanted to figure out just what his connection was to Sparda.

Well, I already sneak out on a routine basis behind Mom's back. Guess breaking and entering wouldn't be that big a stretch, Nero mused nervously before shaking his head, Just get into the Forbidden Stacks, find what you can on Sparda, and get out. Simple as that.

"You've made reading far too fun. Now stay out!" As soon as the librarian shut the door, Emira couldn't help but belt out laughter at the whole thing. The human and Edric joined in, laughing up a storm as well.

"Man, I didn't think Amity could be more mad at me than she already was," Luz said as she wiped a tear from her eye.

"No no, if Mittens was really that mad, she'd look like this," Edric then made the angriest face he could, looking just like Amity whenever she got that pissed off. Soon enough, his face turned red and he had to take a breath, "Phew! Almost passed out there."

Yeah, Mittens really needs to lighten up, Emira mused. Years back, if one were to ask her, she'd say that Nero tended to be a lot worse than Amity when it came to being a stick in the mud since he added being a broody loner to the mix. Nowadays, Amity was definitely the worst of the two since she kept trying to get them into trouble just for having some fun. Even if Nero hated their fun, at least he didn't but in and try to ruin it.

Then, Emira had an idea that'd get Amity to lighten up for a change and hopefully learn to stop butting into their business. She looked to Edric, who nodded and had the same glint in his eye. Both of them looked back to the human and gave her a pleading look.

"Say, human, we were going to check out a book before we got kicked out and we're planning on sneaking back in to get it," Emira asked. Just in case, it wouldn't hurt to have someone who could help her and Edric out with this.

"Plus, there's going to be some pretty cool magic from the Wailing Star tonight," her brother added, "Would be cool to see what effects it could have on the library. You want to tag along?"

"Sure!" she exclaimed.

"Great, we'll meet back here at midnight," Edric said as they walked away and waved goodbye to the human. Once they were out of earshot from her, Edric said, "Hey, sis, are you sure about this?"

"Why? What's the big deal?" Emira asked, confused by her brother's sudden look of trepidation, "You seemed pretty on board with it earlier."

"No, I mean bringing her along. Not sure if this is something she'd want to do."

"Well, we could use some extra help, plus, it was fun hanging out with her, goofing off, pranking those dumb librarians," Emira explained, "And it's not like what we're doing will hurt anyone anyway."

"But won't Mittens-"

"Look Edric, Mittens gets mad at us all the time and she lets it go later," Emira stopped them for a moment to discuss it, "This is all for her own good. In the long run, she'll learn not to be such a killjoy sourpuss and this will turn into one of those stories you laugh about years later, alright?" Edric looked lost in thought for a moment, but he eventually gave a smile and nod. Emira gave her own smile back as they headed back home, all the while she tried reminding herself that they were doing this for Amity's own good.

Nero looked left and right as he crossed the street, checking if there was anyone around. Just get into the Forbidden Stacks, find what you're looking for, and get out, Nero thought, reminding himself of the plan. The good news was that tomorrow was the weekend, meaning he had a lot more time to get this done since Mom slept way longer on these kinds of days. Still, he had to be quick and sneaky about it, keeping his hood up and his right arm hidden beneath his sleeve so that its glow didn't give him away. In his left pocket was a spell parchment that could let him into the library.

Just as he rounded the corner to the street where the library was, he ducked back behind it when he saw two familiar heads of green hair walking up the steps. What the hell are they doing here? Nero looked back and saw they were talking to someone at the top of the steps. Getting out from the corner, but staying out of sight as best as he could, he hid behind a trash can before poking his head out to see that they were talking to Luz.

Great, just great. Nero groaned in his head as the three walked into the library, Emira using a spell parchment similar to the one he carried to enter the enlarged lock, with it shrinking back to normal once all of them were through. It was bad enough that the twins were starting to influence Luz in their own way, but now he had to worry about getting spotted by them here. After a couple seconds, he ran across the street and up the stairs, leaning on one of the columns for a moment. They just entered, so they're probably still in the receptionist area. Better wait a minute before heading in.

Suddenly, a bright light started arching across the sky, followed by a loud screaming. Nero raised his right arm to keep the light out of his eyes as he remembered, Oh right, the Wailing Star. Before he could muse any further, his sleeve caught on fire, causing Nero to panic for a second as he tore it off, exposing his now burning right arm. Ignoring that for now, he pulled the parchment out of his left pocket and held it to the door's lock, enlarging it before he entered into the reception area. Looking around, he saw that Luz and the twins were nowhere to be seen, but he could hear the sound of laughter and stray shots of magic. Nero did what he could to avoid them, listening in to the sound of their voices to know where they were as he looked for the Forbidden Stacks. He had a couple close calls as he made his way there, such as barely ducking behind the corner of an aisle when they entered it and Luz almost seeing the fire from his right arm in the reflection of an armor set she manifested from one of the novels, though the twins, thankfully, brushed it off as a trick of the dark. Nero had to admit, if he wasn't so busy, he'd actually be pretty interested in how the Wailing Star's magic was affecting the books here.

Luckily for him, he started to hear their voices fade into the far background as he neared the doors of the Forbidden Stacks, both of them large and imposing. Nero stood in front of them and paced for a good few minutes, wondering about how he could get them open. He didn't have staff clearance, so a clean, unnoticeable way wasn't in the cards. The parchment he brought with him was one-use only and even then, the doors didn't have a lock to enlarge, so that was out of the question. Really, the only option he could feasibly go with was to just brute force his way through them, but that came with its own risks.

At this rate, you really don't have any other options, Nero thought as he listened in for if the twins and their antics were getting anywhere near here. Thankfully, they weren't, leaving him to mull over his options for another few minutes before he finally decided on what to do. Standing in front of the door and cracking his knuckles, he pulled his right arm back into a fist and manifested its ethereal construct, itself also on fire due to the magic of the star.

But before he could punch the door clean open, a loud stomping noise sounded and was getting closer. Quickly dematerializing his arm, he jumped to the top of one of the book aisles behind him to see what was approaching. His eyes almost widened as he took in the creature's appearance. Whatever it was, it looked like a giant, pink, hulking rabbit monstrosity with fangs and talons that glowed an ominous shade of blue. It looked left and right with pitch black eyes, as if looking for something or someone. It said nothing, but it's snarling and growling confirmed everything he needed to know about it. As it stomped away, Nero questioned what the hell that thing was or how it got in the library. It sure as shit doesn't look like any demon I've ever seen, and if it's from a book, which one? He jumped down and just as quickly realized that Luz and the twins were still here, and with that thing running about...

"Fuck," Nero cursed as he ran down the aisle and turned a corner. He had to find them and get them out of here, then kick whatever that thing's ass was for good measure. Just as he turned another corner, he ran right into a pair of green-haired heads, all of them falling on their backs in the process.

"OW!" Emira groaned while Edric rubbed the top of his head. Emira looked up and her eyes widened, "Nero! What are you doing here? And why's your arm on fire!?" she asked with a surprising amount of concern as both she and Edric looked for a way to put it out. When they both saw that the fire wasn't bothering him, they sighed in relief before Emira grimaced, "Oh, please don't tell me you're going to pull a Mittens. Cause if you were about to tell us to get out of here for 'trespassing', we were about to head out for Goblin zipping anyway."

"Look, I'm not arguing with either of you guys about that," Nero said as he peaked out the corner of the aisle they were in to look for any signs of that monster, "Don't have any room to call you out on that right now anyway, but you two need to get out of here. There's something here and I think it'll try to kill you if it sees you."

"PFFT!" Edric laughed, with Emira joining in, "Good one Nero!" the two of them laughed for a few moments before they looked at him, faces morphing from amusement to confusion, and finally to worry, "You're...you're serious?" Edric asked, now looking frantically around.

"Yeah, and both of you need to get out of here. I need to find Luz and get her out to," Nero explained, "Where is she anyway? Weren't you with her?"

"She went back to check on Mittens after we found her diary," Edric said.

"Wait, WHAT!?" Nero shouted just as Luz's voice called out from far behind the twins.

"Hang on Amity! I'll save you!" They all turned just in time to see Luz run by at the other end of the aisle, oddly enough wearing a white witch outfit.

"Mittens," Emira and Edric both whispered, voices full of concern, though Nero's mind was still partially on what they'd said earlier, but that could wait. From the sound of it, Amity was in trouble.

"Let's go," Nero ran ahead of them in the direction Luz went as the twins followed after him, "What they hell were you doing with Amity's diary anyway?"

"Oh, we were planning on spreading out the pages to the entire school," Emira replied just as the turned the corner, Luz briefly turning into a puff of smoke ahead of them and heading right into the kids corner, "We just thought she needed to learn to stop being such a buzzkill."

Nero took a deep breath to suppress his anger as the sound of Luz attempting to fight entered his ears. Just save Amity and probably Luz now, punch and yell at the dumbass twins when you're done, Nero thought to himself as they all rounded the corner of the entrance of the children's area. There, he peaked and saw Luz waving a staff around and getting disarmed in the span of two seconds by the monster. Just behind the creature was Amity, her right arm sewn into an enormous book and forced into the shape of a two-dimensional drawing.

"Edric, is that...?" Emira whispered, but didn't finish the sentence.

"Yeah, I think it is. It's Otabin," Edric replied back, equally quiet. Nero noticed their tones of horror and guilt. Looking back to them just as the monster snapped Luz's book shut, depriving her of its powers.

"What did you do?" Nero tried to keep his tone low, but he was seething as he asked.

"I just drew an angry face and claws on Otabin, I didn't think this would happen," Edric whispered in horror as Luz was grabbed by the beast.

"Great, you're already two-for-two on the shitty siblings scale," Nero grumbled just as Otabin started sewing Luz's right arm into the book, making some kind of rhyme as it did so. Seeing an opening, Nero ran into the room and launched an ethereal arm right at Otabin's back, the intense heat of its flames making the creature wail in pain as he pulled himself to it. As soon as he was on its back, Nero formed a spell circle that engulfed his left hand in a torrent of lightning before he grabbed Otabin's face, making it screech in pain, desperately waving its arms around to reach behind it.

"Nero!" Amity and Luz both shouted in surprise. For his part, Nero didn't have time to respond as Otabin managed to reach behind and grab him. Unlike with its two victims, it didn't put him into the book, but instead threw him across the room, sending him slamming into the wall with a resounding crash.

Just as he dusted himself and got up, he looked to see that Otabin was now standing right in front of him, snarling, "You hurt me. You're not my friend. I will see that you end."

Oh goody, the rhyming schtick is a constant, Nero bemoaned in his head as he took a fighting stance, That won't get annoying. As Nero sized up his opponent, he took notice of the book that seemed to be fused to Otabin's chest, Looks like I found a weakpoint, Get rid of the book, and it should kill Otabin.

Just as Otabin raised its arms to slam down him, two lashes made of blue light coiled around them, holding it back. Just behind Otabin, Nero saw Edric and Emira trying to pull the creature away.

"Amity! Luz!" Emira shouted, "Run! We'll hold it off!"

Both of them looked worried before Amity started looking for a way out. Luz, however, struggled and tilted the book forward just enough to get both of them on their feet. While the two captives started running, Nero formed a fire spell and launched a steady stream of flames at Otabin's chest in an effort to burn the book, causing it to screech in agony once more. As he ended the stream, however, he saw that the book wasn't even slightly damaged.

"What the fu-" was all he could get out as, in one fell swoop, Otabin spun around and dragged the twins along, throwing them right at him and sending them all crashing into the wall once more. As he got up and dusted himself off, he saw Otabin run out of the room, likely chasing after Luz and Amity again. "Shit, how the hell did that book survive?" Nero asked no one in particular as he helped the twins up.

"Oh, that's because Mittens likes to reinforce all the books here to be completely fire retardant," Edric said, unaware that the question was rhetorical, "She does the same with her books at home. Always said it was to make them 'idiot proof'."

I get the feeling she meant 'sibling proof' when she said that, Nero wanted to say out loud, but it remained confined to his thoughts as he heard Amity shout "LUZ!", prompting him and the twins to run out in time to see Amity freed and Otabin dragging the large book towards him to make another attempt at sewing Luz into it.

"Oh no you don't!" Nero shouted as he launched an ethereal fist right at the back of Otabin's head, staggering it. The monster turned back and snarled in his face.

"NOT MY FRIEND!" it screamed before reaching out to slash him. Nero was quick enough to dodge and jump to its head once more, this time making another spectral hand to grab its head. Once more, the fire from his right arm made Otabin screech in agony as Nero jumped into the air and slamming the beast into the floor. Just as he was about to use the same ghostly fist to cave the creature's face in, he was suddenly swept off his feet and sent flying into a book shelf. Just as he got up, the shelf fell on top of him, knocking him to the floor again.

"Nero!" he heard Emira call out in concern as he began lifting the thing up, "Are you okay?" she asked as she approached.

"Let's just say that I officially hate libraries now," Nero grunted as he removed the few books that were still on him. Thankfully, none of them had opened. He didn't think he could deal with any more of book characters coming to life to give him shit. Just as Otabin's shadow loomed over him, Nero prepped up an ice spell to skewer it, but before he could...

"Hey, over-sized kiddie character! I'll be your friend!" Edric shouted, getting Otabin's attention, though when Nero looked down at Emira's twin, he sensed that it was just an illusion. Looking around, he saw Edric a ways off, helping his sister up and whispering something into her ear. Nero looked back at Otabin just in time for the monster to make an attempt at the illusion, only to grab nothing but air and back away in disgust. Before anything else, Amity and Edric stormed in on a cart and rammed into Otabin, knocking it onto the floor and sending it sliding back into another book shelf, this one falling right on its face.

Damn that was satisfying to watch, Nero smirked as Otabin struggled to get up before he and Emira ran to meet with Amity and Edric, who were helping free Luz from the book, returning her arm to a more three dimensional shape.

"Oh third dimension, I've missed you so much," Luz rubbed her arm just as Nero heard the sound of creaking wood and a familiar, annoying rhyme.

"We will stay friends until the end," Otabin rasped before glaring at Nero, Edric, and Emira, "Those who take my friends will end!"

"Okay, rhyming friends with friends was bad enough, but now end with end!" Luz groaned in annoyance as it swiftly grabbed her and picked her up, beginning to wrap her in the magic thread from before.

"Shit!" Nero turned to the Blights, "How the hell do we stop this thing? It just keeps getting back up!"

"All this started when I drew in that stupid book," Edric said forlorn.

"Wait, that's it!" Amity said, prompting Nero and the twins to turn to her as she started writing something in the large book they just got Luz out of. When she finished, a large eraser appeared, "Luz! Catch!"

Amity threw the eraser to Luz, who caught it and started erasing the pages of the book. In seconds, Otabin's eyes widened and it disappeared, its place taken by a small, more adorable version with bright blue eyes that Luz caught as she hit the ground. All of them walked up to the two as Luz put Otabin down and Amity picked him up.

"I'm so sorry," Otabin said, voice laced with regret, "I don't know what came over me."

"Uh, my bad," Edric sheepishly said, rubbing the back of his head. Emira also looked away shamefully.

"We'll talk about that later," Amity leveled a glare to her two siblings before giving Otabin a more gentle look and a small hug, "And don't worry Otabin, we're still friends." She then looked to Luz with a nod, who then closed Otabin's book, causing him to disappear. Amity looked sad for a moment before Luz walked up and offered her a comforting smile.

"So..." Emira awkwardly drawled out, "If that's the end of that, I think we should all head home now."

"Yeah, Mom's probably gonna start worrying soon enough," Edric added before the two turned to leave. Nero wasn't allowing it and formed a spectral arm right in front of them, halting their exit. Thankfully, it seemed as though the Wailing Star event ended mere seconds before he launched it, as his arm was no longer blazing.

"Thank you Nero," Amity said before levelling a cold glare at her siblings. Nero did the same, but with far more anger at what they attempted to do. Out from the corner of his eye, he saw Luz attempt a glare, but it too non-threatening to take seriously.

"Uh, Mitt-I mean, Amity," Edric corrected himself, "We're really sorry. We didn't mean-"

"Save it, Edric," Amity snarled, "You want to make it up to me?" she then weaved a spell circle, summoning an Abomination that brought forth some brooms and dust pans, "Start by helping me clean your mess up."

The twins groaned while Luz eagerly took a set of the cleaning tools. Nero also took some and got to work helping out. He figured they needed all the help they could get. Plus, the sooner this was done, the sooner he could leave before his mom waked up and by extension, preferably never interact with the twins again. By the time they were close to finishing, it was roughly 7:00 in the morning, meaning Nero had just a couple hours before when Mom normally waked up on weekends.

"So, Otabin aside, I think that was a fun night out," Emira casually said, making Nero's blood boil, as she and Edric put the books back just after Nero finished standing the shelf back up, "You okay Nero? You've been glaring more than Mittens has the entire night."

"You know exactly why that is, Blight," Nero growled out.

"Okay, but we apologized to Mittens about the whole Otabin thing and-" Edric started, but Nero snapped to him.

"That's not what I'm pissed off about you damned moron!" he snarled, causing the twins to back away a bit, "What the hell were you two thinking when you thought about spreading your sister's diary all over the place?"

"We just wanted to teach her to stop being such a killjoy and learn to lighten up. We already told you this earlier," Emira crossed her arms and looked away.

"Sounds to me more like you did it for yourself," Nero grunted before he went back to putting the scattered books up, "You just wanted to send her a message."

"What message?" Edric asked, sounding genuinely confused. Nero just attributed that to obliviousness.

"That you'd humiliate her if she didn't stop butting into your 'fun'. Tch, some older siblings you are," Nero said as he finished putting all the books back. He didn't really care if they were disorganized or not since he wanted to get out of here and away from the twins as soon as he could.

"No," Emira fired back defensively, but her voice began to waver, like even she wasn't buying the bullshit she was spewing, "W-we were just trying to-"

"Save it, Blight," Nero shut her up as he finished and started walking away, "I'm done here. Next time you see me, kindly fuck off."

He didn't get far before he felt a hand grab his shoulder to try and stop him, "Wait, Nero. Please just...just let me explai-"

Nero didn't let Emira finish and shoved her hand off. Part of him had to restrain the urge to just punch her and Edric in the face, but he couldn't bring himself to even face them right now. Instead, he kept walking, half-heartedly waving at Luz and Amity as they continued cleaning their end of the library. He walked out the front doors, blocking the morning sun with his hand, and headed the quickest route home.

Chapter Text

Nero hummed a tune to himself as he walked through the familiar forests he knew led to his aunt's home, the afternoon sun hanging in the sky. Thus far, it had been a rather uneventful, boring day. He looked through his book to see what other demons lurked in different corners of the isles, he ignored Edric and Emira's calls, which got obnoxiously more frequent as the day went on to the point where he had to outright block them, and he managed to find time to give Red Queen a minor upgrade to increase the amount of Exceeds it could pull off before it needed reapplying.

About the only thing of note that happened was when he was walking through Bonesborough and stumbled on an...odd scene, to put it mildly.

"What the hell?" That was all Nero could really say at the sight of the scene. One of the Coven guards was chasing a Hexside student, another Hexside student was fighting an old lady with a wooden chair, some other Hexside students flying around and fighting each other, and to top it off, his mom was...sniffing the ground?

"Mom?" Lilith looked at him with curiosity more suited for an animal. "The hell's going on?"

"Nero?" Surprisingly, her voice came not out of her, but from somewhere else. "Down here!" He looked down and saw a small, four-mouthed mutt like the ones Coven guards use for tracking. Putting the pieces together, he looked back and forth between the dog and his mother, who looked like she was trying and failing to use her leg to scratch behind her ear.

"Mom?" Nero asked, looking back down at the mutt.

"Yes! It's me my little raven!" his...mother answered, vigorously shaking her head.

"Oookay..." Nero droned out in confusion, "When and how did-"

"Long story short, my sister happened," Lilith snarled out, which was pretty fitting considering she was currently a dog, "We cornered her and she switched everyone's bodies. Now I'm stuck like this!" He looked around at the randomness going on, specifically back to his mother's body, which was walking around on all fours.

A body swap spell? he thought. It was one of the spells he picked up on from experimenting in class; switching the bodies of an echo mouse and a carnivorous plant definitely had interesting results.

"So," Nero said, "I'm guessing you need me to switch everyone back?"

"Yes! And please hurry before that mutt does something while it's in my body!" Lilith said. Nero looked between the two and saw his mother's staff on the floor. He quickly picked it up, but he found himself stopped by the dog who was currently in his mother's body. Said dog picked it up with its mouth and started snarling at him, which would have been intimidating if Nero found mutts intimidating in the first place. That, and it being in his mom's body made the whole thing more ridiculous.

"Look here, ya overgrown pooch, give me the staff so I can put everyone back now!" Nero grabbed both ends of the staff and started wrestling with it. The dog snarled even more, and Nero wasn't inclined to punch it in the face since it was in his mom's body and the idea of punching her didn't sit well with him. Thankfully, he didn't have to, as Coronis came off his end and grabbed at Mom's hair, pulling the dog off as it whimpered in pain. "Thank you Coronis," he said as the Palisman returned to his position at the end of the staff.

Now, let's get to switching everyone back, he thought as he looked to everyone in the immediate area and began spinning the staff with his left hand, Time to see how well I can pull off a large scale body swap.

Aiming the spun stave at everyone as he spun around, he launched an azure colored beam of light, enveloping them all one by one. One full spin later, and he looked back between the dog and his mother, who was currently crouching next to a  lamppost with a leg up, making it very clear what the dog was about to do in her body.

Almost immediately, Lilith got up and started shivering before running up and hugging him. "Thank you so much my little raven!" she thanked exuberantly, apparently oblivious to the fact that said hug was damn near bone crushing and causing him to suffocate. Thankfully, she let go and shivered in discomfort once again, "That was...ugh, I don't even want to think about that."

"Yeah..." Nero replied, catching his breath, "I can see that."

"Amen to that Madame Lilith," the sudden voice came down from their feet. Looking, Nero saw that the voice came from the dog, only it sounded more like a coven guard when it spoke again, "Though if it's not too much trouble, any chance I can get a belly rub?"

Both he and his mom looked down at the dog with wide eyes before he looked around to everyone else. The pink-haired tricloptic girl was flying around happily with the voice of an old lady, saying something about having her youth back. A coven guard was now chasing one of the old women, yelling about wanting their body back while the lady screamed for their mother. On top of that, the other coven guard was now sniffing around like a dog.

"Uh...I might have screwed the spell up," Nero admitted while he prepped up the staff, "Alright then, let me try that a seco-"

"No!" just like that, his mother grabbed the staff away from him and hopped on it, grabbing him and forcing him to sit down behind her, "We are leaving right now!"

And before he could get a word out, they flew away with the area they were previously in becoming little more than a speck.

Nero scratched the top of his head since the whole thing was still a confusing blur to him. After they got back home, his mom went straight to her room, saying she was going to spend the rest of the day repressing what just happened. And since she made it clear she wasn't coming out until the whole thing was repressed, Nero figured it best to just give her space and told her he'd be heading out for a few hours. And he figured the first thing he'd do was visit his aunt to open up about a few things. Hence the cloth covered Red Queen holstered on the back of his coat.

"Hoot Hoot!"

And there's the razor wire in my brain again, Nero groaned as the annoying bird tube stretched right in front of him with that dopey ass grin.

"Hiya Nero! You coming over to Eda's?" he asked as Nero resisted the urge to punch him in the face. Instead he just kept walking in the direction he knew it was in while Hooty followed along, "Maybe we could play games together! Luz just gave me a good cleaning, and I'm all up for a game of mud ball fi-"

"Do you ever shut up!?" Nero yelled, wanting that annoying voice to quiet down just enough for him to think for a bit.

"Yeesh, you are such a downer. Hoot!" That wasn't an option, apparently, "Hey, what's that thing on your back?"

"Keep talking and you'll find out the hard way," Nero grunted as the Owl House could be seen in the distance.

"Really!? In that case, what do you want to talk about?" and now Nero shifted from resisting the urge to punch Hooty to resisting the urge to strangle him as he approached the door, "Cause let me warn you ahead of time, I can talk for hours, and hours, and hours, and ho-"

"Oh the FUCK with this!" Nero yelled as he kicked the door open, causing Hooty to let out a loud 'OW!' as he walked in and rubbed the temples of his head.

"Well that wasn't very nice. Hoot!"

"Don't care. Shut up," was Nero's immediate response as Hooty pulled himself back into the door and closed shut.

"Hooty! Who's at the door?" Eda called out from down the hallway, "Did you let some stranger in again?" she asked as she entered the messy living room, "Because I swear to-" whatever else she had to say was cut off when she saw him, "Oh, just you. How's it been, oh nephew of mine?"

"Been fine. Mom's busy repressing shit right now so I figured I had enough time to visit," Nero replied as he looked around, "Where's Luz and King?"

"Oh, Luz's kinda in the repression zone too, since she just finished cleaning Hooty off, and King's in his room gathering his 'army of darkness'," Eda explained before leaning in and whispering, "And by that, I mean all the plushies he's collected," Nero snickered as she asked, "So, what's that thing you're carrying on your back?"

Nero looked back then sighed in reluctance. Guess there's no going back now, he thought as he looked his aunt in the eye and said, "I...guess I brought it with me since I wanted to open up about a few things. Can't really show this shit to Mom since...well, I'm trying to keep her from finding out."

"Ooh! Keeping secrets from Lily aren't we?" Eda asked in a teasing voice as she took her seat on the couch, "Well you've come to the right place. You're speaking to the isle's foremost expert on hiding things from my sister."

"Uh huh," Nero smirked, "And just who gave you that title?"

"Three people of course!" she replied, "Me, myself, and I."

Nero couldn't help but snicker for a bit before he pulled the covered weapon from his back. Taking a deep breath, he unwrapped it and revealed Red Queen to his aunt, who leaned forward and looked at the blade with an impressed gleam in her eyes. "Damn kiddo," she whistled, "Where'd you find this?"

"I didn't find it. I kinda...sorta..." Nero looked away before sighing, "I stole it, okay."

"Eh?" his aunt looked at him with surprise and confusion. Seeing as he was already knee deep in, Nero explained further.

"This used to be my mom's old coven saber, but I took it from her closet and made some modifications to it over the years. Made it into my own weapon and named her the Red Queen."

"Hold up, hold up," Eda stood up and shook her head, "You stole this from my sister!?"

"Look, I know that sounds bad, and yeah, it is, but..." Nero was going to explain further until he saw his aunt gain a teary look in her eyes. At first, he panicked and thought he made her upset, but then saw that she was smiling as she clasped her hands close to her face.

"I am so proud of you," she said with a small sniffle.

"Please don't be," he groaned, not really liking that his aunt was praising him for the theft, "Anyway, I started using it to go out into the woods at night and kick monster ass. Needed something to take the edge off."

"Damn, you're pretty badass for an angsty teenager," Nero didn't know whether to be prideful or offended by his aunt's statement as she continued with a more contemplative tone, "Guess I can see why you wouldn't want prissy ol' Lily finding out. I mean, aside from the whole stealing part of the baggage."

"Yeah, she'd freak out like crazy if she found out I was sneaking out and fighting demons," Nero looked down at Red Queen as he held the blade in his hands, "Guess I felt like I needed to open up about this to someone and, well, you're kind of the only person I can do that with."

"Hm, yeah, I can see that," she said, "If Lily's anything like our mom, she'd definitely have a freak out knowing what you're doing. Hell, I remember one time I got a paper cut when I was six, and Mom treated it like someone attempted to assassinate me."

"You did say you grew up with a smother of your own," Nero said, reminiscing on his first visit.

"Yup. Overprotective moms. Gotta love 'em, gotta be annoyed by 'em."

"Agreed," Nero said as his shoulders relaxed, "I gotta say, feels pretty good to let that out. Y'know?"

"Guess I can see it," Eda answered before she became contemplative for a few moments. Before Nero could ask what she was wondering about, she snapped her fingers in realization, "Say, I think I've got an idea. There's plenty of woods around the Owl House and I've run into my fair share of monsters and beasts while living here, so what do you say to a little aunt/nephew power hour?"

"What are you saying?" in response to his question, Eda simply held her hand out to the side, a series of crashing and clanging noises coming from the background and through the halls. In moments, her staff flew to her hand, which she caught with ease.

"I'm saying that I got nothing better to do, Luz is recovering, King's busy, and you seem bored," she said with a flourishing spin of her staff, "So why don't we go out and kick monster ass? Seems like it'd be a fun way to pass the time."

Nero found himself puzzled by the offer to join him. Truth be told, he hadn't really planned on doing any hunting today and just wanted to get some things off his chest. But at the same time, today had definitely been a bore and he needed something fun to do. And given that he kept what he was doing a secret for so long, he'd never gotten to do it with anyone, let alone an aunt he didn't know he had until recently.

But it could definitely be fun, and I haven't fought anything in this neck of the woods, Nero thought before he came to a decision, "Sure. Not like I know these parts very well anyway, so it'd help to have someone who knows them."

"Well alrighty then! What are we waiting for?" Eda declared as she walked toward the door with Nero following behind her, "Hooty! We're heading out for about an hour. Keep an eye on Luz and King for me, would ya?"

"You got it Eda!" Hooty's statement was followed by him stretching himself into the house. As Nero and his aunt entered the woods, he was pretty sure he could hear girly screaming from the house, and he was pretty sure it was King's and not Luz's.

"You sure you don't secretly hate them if you're having the most annoying thing to ever live watch out for them?" Nero asked.

"No worries," Eda reassured with a playful grin, "Hooty's a lot of things, but I trust him to protect the house and everyone in it."

"If you say so," Nero replied, the only other noise throughout their walk being the rustling of leaves, "Still don't know how you put up with the guy."

"He actually grows on you after a while," Eda answered.

"I don't believe you."

"Eh, just spend more than a few hours with him if you have the patience," Eda snarked, whistling for a good thirty seconds before asking, "So, aside from monster hunting, you got any other hobbies?"

"Well, I liked working on Red Queen over the years, so I'm pretty good with mechanical work," Nero answered, figuring he could try to get to know his aunt further before they ran into something to fight, "But aside from that, I usually just read and listen to music in my free time. Small getaways from everything else, y'know?"

"I here you on that. Except my getaways are way more literal," Eda said, looking wistfully at the sky beyond the trees, her staff rested on her shoulders, "If I had a snail for every time I snuck off to the human world when I was your age just to escape either the Emperor's goons or my mom, I probably wouldn't need to sell anything."

"Huh, y'know, I keep hearing about the human world from this one kid at Hexside. Think his name is Goops or something, but I don't know much about beyond the occasional show that pops up on the Crystal Ball," Nero wondered out loud, feeling rather curious about the realm beyond Hell, before asking, "What about you? You've been there, what's it like?"

"Oh it's definitely a hoot, I'll tell you that much. Even got to go to this place called Las Vegas. Made a crap load of coin that I unfortunately lost in the same day, but thems the breaks," Eda said, describing her experiences on Earth.

"Sounds like a lot of fun," Nero smiled, part of him wanting to see what the human world was like someday if his aunt's stories were any indication.

"Oh yeah, and that was just one of my later ventures. Let me tell you about this time when I was your age and I was flying over an Earth military base," Eda began describing again as they stopped for a second, "I was flying on my own when this human aircraft thing they called a jet came up next to me and-"

Suddenly, Nero felt this odd sensation in his right arm. He looked down at it and noticed it was beginning to glow. Eda noticed it as well and paused her tale. "Uh, is it normal for your arm to glow that bright?" she asked.

"Not usually," Nero answered before he started looking around, drawing Red Queen in his left hand. Before long, a sudden rustling could be heard in the trees surrounding them.

"Finally!" Eda exclaimed, "Was starting to think we wouldn't be getting any company."

"Think you can keep up old timer?" Nero snarked as his back faced Eda's.

"Old! I'll have you know I'm only forty five!" Eda said indignantly as something shot out of surrounding forests, smashing a tree down in the process, another two following after it. The three monsters looked like giant spinning bladed wheels that quickly circled around them. He could make out a few details, but not enough to get a concrete idea what these things were supposed to be. "Hold up, I recognize these things," Eda casually admitted as Nero raised an eyebrow.

Instead of answering, she just walked forward as the circling demons started getting closer. Nero saw her whisper something to her Palisman as one of the bladed wheels diverted right towards her. In a second, she readied her staff and swung it like a club, shouting "FORE!" as it made contact. The demon went flying back, knocking itself right into one of the other demons in the process as they both scattered to the floor. The third spinning blade teetered side-to-side to get out of their path, only to wobble past them and crash somewhere into the frees, out of Nero and Eda's sight.

The other two demons wobbled up, letting Nero get a better view of their appearances. They looked like bigger, uglier versions of the Scarecrows he usually fought, except with a lot more blades in their bodies, three encompassing each arm and a supermassive one on their backs.

"So, you fought these things before. Any advice?" Nero asked his aunt.

"Pretty simple actually," she replied, "Kick their asses!"

Nero grinned as he charged right towards one of the Scarecrows, which he decided to call a Mega Scarecrow for distinction, and slashed at it with Red Queen. However, these guys were a bit faster than the average Scarecrow and managed to block the sword strike, forcing him back slightly as it made its own slash strike at him. Managing to block the attack with his sword, Nero flicked his wrist and set Red Queen ablaze, spinning out of the block and managing a clean, burning slash to its chest.

Nero smirked as the demon went several feet back, getting knocked right into its partner, whose ass Eda just finished handing it. "Gotta admit, pretty badass there, kid," Eda said, walking up next to him, "But that fire spell on your sword could use some work though."

"Tell me about it," Nero replied, rolling his right arm, "I've been trying to make it more permanent, but the most I could do for the Exceed is add one more use before the spell fizzles out and needs to be recast."

"You called it Exceed? Really?" his aunt rolled her eyes, apparently putting together why he called it that, "Guess you've got some of Lily's dorkiness after all."

"Hey! That's a pretty cool name, and it made sense since-" before Nero could continue to defend his naming choice, one of the Mega Scarecrows apparently had enough of their chatting as it rolled back into a spinning blade and charged right towards them. Nero was about to prep up a spell circle to summon a mass of roots to hold it down, but Eda beat him to the punch, stepping between them and using her leg to weave a much larger circle that she backflipped out of just as the demon neared. A large pillar of Earth flew up underneath the Mega Scarecrow and sent it flying into the air, Nero following its path to see it land way behind them and attempt to roll back.

At the sound of another set of spinning blades, Nero turned to see the Mega Scarecrow's partner spin straight towards him. Thinking fast, Nero formed a spell with his left hand and slammed it to the floor, flash freezing the area in front of him as it reached the demon. The sudden shift to a slippery terrain caused it to wobble and fall, sliding right towards him as it was unable to get up. Holding Red Queen overhead, Nero clutched tightly at its grip, causing the blade to burst into flames as he slammed it down, slicing the Mega Scarecrow in two and using all of his sword's Exceed charge to completely incinerate what was left, leaving nothing but ash, melted ice, and burnt forest ground.

"Kid, look out!" Eda's warning came in as he turned just in time to see the other Mega Scarecrow spin right towards him. Before he could bust out his right arm and send a large ethereal punch its way, an oversized construct that looked a lot like Hooty erupted from the ground and grabbed the demon in its beak mid-spin. He then watched as it slammed the demon down into the ground once, then again, then again before finally releasing it and dissipating back into the dirt beneath them. Before anything else, the Mega Scarecrow's blades suddenly flew off its back and landed on its remains, leaving an impaled corpse behind.

"Thanks for that, Aunt Eda," Nero said, cracking his neck.

"Don't mention it, Nero," she replied, staff rested horizontally on her shoulders with her hands draped on it, "Well, that was a blast, don't you think?"

"Hell yeah! It was pretty damn awesome! Never got to fight these guys with someone else before," Nero said, smiling at the whole thing. Getting to kick monster ass alongside his aunt was definitely a fun venture. "Though I can't help but think we missed someth-"

Just then, the spinning of blades could be heard again as another Mega Scarecrow crashed through the trees and charged right at Nero. Oh, right, there were three of these assholes, Nero thought as he manifested an ethereal arm just as it neared, grabbing it into the air and slamming it down before kicking it with enough force to send it flying back into a tree. To top it off, the blade on its back embedded itself into the tree, leaving it to slash and writhe at the air, unable to move.

"So, you want to kill it or you want me to?" Aunt Eda asked, cracking her knuckles. Nero could only grin as he readied Red Queen.

"Nah, how about we double team this bastard?" as soon as he said that, the demon managed to escape from the tree, both Nero and his aunt charging at it, ready to fight.

Luz stood up and stretched herself out. She didn't know how long she was asleep, only knowing she needed to recover from cleaning Hooty; just the thought alone made her shiver in disgust.

"Oh goody! You're awake! Hoot!" Hooty's voice was right next to her ear, frightening her to the floor with a yelp as she fell on her back. "Oops, sorry Luz."

"It's fine, Hooty," Luz said. Hooty stretched further inside through her bedroom window and helped her up. "How long was I out?"

"Oh, just around an hour and a half. Eda left me in charge to keep an eye on you and King," Hooty answered, sounding proud to be left in charge, "She went off with Nero to go fight monsters. Hoot!"

"Wait, Nero was here? And he's hunting monsters with Eda?" Luz asked. Suddenly, Hooty looked left and right, as if someone was listening in, and got way too close to her face for comfort.

"Don't tell anyone, but Nero sneaks out at night to go monster hunting. His mom doesn't know it," Hooty whispered. He narrowed his eyes and said, "You didn't hear it from me. Hoot!"

"Uh..."

"Hooty! We're back!" Eda's voice could be heard outside, prompting Hooty to gasp excitedly while Luz smiled and ran out of her room to greet them. Running through the house and into the living room, she spotted Eda and Nero entering.

"Hi guys!" she greeted, both of them looking to her.

"Hey kiddo," Eda said, walking up and affectionately disheveling her hair.

"Sup," Nero replied, being far more casual as Luz readjusted her hair back to how it was. She was about to say something else before she noticed the large sword on his back.

"Whoa! That's so cool!" Luz zoomed up to behind him and took in all the details of the sword, "Where did you get that? It's almost like the swords that Power Rangers use!"

"First off, long story that Aunt Eda can explain. Second off, what the hell's a Power Ranger?" Nero asked, scratching his head.

Luz looked at him like he grew a second head, which, considering what she'd seen on the Boiling Isles, she was at least 60% certain witches could grow new heads, especially since Eda could just take hers off like it was a watch. "Y-you've never heard of Power Rangers?" she asked, still having a hard time believing it, "You know, Super Sentai? Tokusatsu? Any of this ringing any bells?"

"Nope. Never heard of any of that before."

Luz's jaw dropped before she picked it up and took a deep breathe to put on the most sage-like fantasy mentor voice she could muster up, "I have so much to teach you, my young apprentice," she then ran over to one of Eda's supply closets before Nero could respond and sifted through it, knowing she saw some old VHS tapes somewhere.

"Bingo!" she exclaimed, finding some tapes containing classic Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers episodes. They were a bit out of order, but it didn't really matter where you started enjoying a series.

Grabbing all of them, she ran back to the living room and placed them down on the table before running back to said closet, only hearing a brief 'What?' from Nero that was cut off. She sifted through it a little more and found the old TV with a built in VHS player. It was a little small, but that just meant her weak nerd arms could carry it better. And so long as it played the tapes with decent picture quality, that was all she needed.

It was a bit of a struggle, but she was able to carry the TV over to the living room and place it down next to the VHS tapes before plugging it in, static buzzing on the screen.

"Luz, seriously, what are you doing?" Nero asked.

"Oh, y'know, just setting up a TV so you can experience the awesomeness of Power Rangers for the first time. No biggie!" Luz replied, a little winded from carrying the small television as she inserted a tape into it.

"Luz, I'm not really interested in-"

"Oh come on kid, I'm sure it'll be fun!" Eda interrupted Nero by patting his head and tussling his hair, "I remember seeing a few episodes in my gory days, and it's actually a pretty neat series."

"Uh," Luz began, confused by her mentor's wording, "Don't you mean your 'glory days'?"

"Well, that too," Eda answered.

Nero looked between the two of them and sighed in resignation, "Alright, fine, I'll watch whatever this is," he then took a seat on the couch and grumbled, "Can't be that interesting anyway."

"Come on guys, kick that monster's ass!" Nero shouted as the rangers finished their enemy off. If he was ever glad to be proven wrong about anything, it was this.

"So, what was that you said about it being uninteresting?" Aunt Eda smugly remarked at his right side on the couch as the episode credits started playing.

"Okay, ha ha, very funny," Nero crossed his arms, "But seriously, this is actually pretty awesome."

"Hey, I just noticed something," Luz said, prompting both Nero and Eda to turn towards her. "You guys notice that the Black Ranger, Adam Park, kinda sounds a lot like Nero?"

"Really?" Nero asked.

"Huh, now that you mention it, he kinda does sound like Nero," his aunt mused, stroking her chin.

"Well, I don't hear it."

"You guys still watching that crap?" King walked in from down the hall holding a plush toy. "Why? There's no blood. What kind of violence doesn't have blood?"

"Any TV violence is good violence, if you catch my drift," Aunt Eda retorted. Something about what King said caught Nero's attention, but he couldn't figure out what it was.

"And it has some pretty good moral lessons," Luz said, to which Eda and King just groaned. As they did, Nero thought more about King saying that they were still watching the show, which made him realize that he didn't know how long they had been watching for.

"What time is it?" Nero asked.

"7:30 according to the wall clock," Luz said.

"Shit! I need to go, now!"

"What, why?" Eda asked. She looked at him for a second before she said, "Oh, I get it. Better get going before Lily freaks out." Nero nodded and ran for the door, but stopped when he realized he still had Red Queen on him.

"I don't have time to hide this in its usual spot. How am I gonna-"

"Oh! I have an idea! You can leave it here with us," Luz said. He looked down at the sword, then to Luz's wide-eyed face with a perplexed expression.

"I don't know..."

"You said it yourself. You don't have time to hide it, so why not just leave it here?" she pointed out, "Plus, if you leave it here, you can come back later to get it and we can all hang out some more!"

"Not to mention it ain't like you got time to come up with any better ideas," Aunt Eda brought up, causing him to grumble under his breath.

"No, gimmie that sword!" King practically ran up to try and take it from his hands. Good thing the guy was too short and stubby to jump anywhere past his knees.

"Alright, fine. But first, a few things," he pointed to Luz, "No drawing on it, decorating it, or playing with it," he looked to his aunt, "No selling it for snails," and then he looked to King, "And you're just not allowed to touch it. Lastly, if Hooty eats it, I'm gonna kill him. Got it?"

"You got it, Nero."

"Fine, I won't sell the damned thing or let Hooty's mouth near it."

"No fair!"

After getting the respective answers from Luz, Eda, and King, he gave the sword to Luz, who immediately fell to the floor as she struggled to lift it. "Wow," she grunted through the physical exertion, "This...thing's...really...heavy!"

"Stand back kiddo, I got this," his aunt stood up and took the blade from Luz's hands, effortlessly lifting it to her shoulder before looking back to him, "Now get going before Lily starts sending Coven jackasses out to look for you. Because I'm pretty sure she'd do that."

"Alright. And, uh...thanks, for this," Nero said gratefully, not intending to sound as awkward as he did when he ran out the door, ignoring Hooty's ear-grating voice as he ran back to his house. Hopefully his mom was either not home or asleep, so he started coming up with any excuse he could for why he was out for so long.

As Nero opened the front door and entered his home, he noticed all the lights were off, signifying that his mother was asleep. Good, he thought, Guess I can avoid explaining shit. Better have a good excuse for the morning though.

He walked down the hall and entered the living room, the only light source being his glowing right arm. But suddenly, the lights came on.

"Nero." Nero turned to see his mother sitting in the living room recliner with her staff laying in her lap.

"Uh, hi, Mom," Nero said. He didn't know what to say or do. In an instant, any excuse he could come up with had been forgotten as his mother's face shifted to a mix of worry and subtle anger. Instead of answering, she all but leaped from her seat and ran up to hug him. Nero didn't know how to react at first, but he quickly returned the hug.

"Where have you been?" Lilith asked as she pulled back from the hug; the question sounded pleading, but there was a tinge of demand in it, as well. Nero gave her the first excuse to come to mind, that he lost track of time at the library, and she said, "Nero, I want you to be completely honest with me. You promise you were at the library and you simply lost track of time, right?"

The way his mother asked made it seem like she knew he was lying to her, which he already hated doing. But he couldn't come up with a better answer, not without telling her about either his demon hunting or visiting his aunt without her knowing, possibly making her freak out even more, so he reaffirmed his lie.

"All right, I suppose that happens to the best of us. But please be more mindful of the time from now on."

"Don't worry, I learned my lesson on that end," Nero replied, internally sighing in relief that he managed to avoid his mom finding anything out, "I'm gonna go set up for bed, okay?" After his mom nodded, Nero headed off to his room, and while he still disliked going behind his mom's back like this, he still couldn't help but be glad he kept her from finding out the truth.

Nero, why would you lie to me? That was the only question on Lilith's mind as she watched her son go down the halls to his room, leaving her to sit back down on her recliner and rub at her temples with her free hand. Her son was hiding something from her. She could see it in his body language and nervous tone. But she couldn't understand why he would hide something from her. He didn't hide things from her, that just didn't happen.

But if he is, what could he possibly want to hide from me so badly that he would lie to me about it? Lilith thought. Maybe he met someone and was secretly going on dates? Lilith thought of that first, but her son, much to her dismay, wasn't really a social type and often refused interaction with anyone in school. The only two people he really "hung out" with, as the saying went, were the Blight twins, but he recently stopped interacting with them, altogether.

Lilith leaned back into her chair and allowed Coronis to come off his position and rest on her shoulder. She didn't know what her son was hiding, but she intended to find out.

Chapter Text

Nero walked down the halls of Hexside with his hands in his pockets. Under normal circumstances, there'd be a number of students walking down the halls either waving or asking him for favors for obvious, irritating reasons. But at the moment, he was on a free period while most others weren't, so he had some time to himself and figured he'd catch up with an old friend. One of the things he wasn't expecting to see as he turned a corner was his aunt hopelessly attempting to erase said old friend with a mop.

"Uh, Aunt Eda, what are you doing here?" Nero asked. Eda turned to look at him and the graffiti shifted its form to a face wiping sweat from its brow.

"Ugh, hey Nero," Eda said, sounding rather drained, "Look, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have to clean this up."

"Didn't answer my question." Nero pointed to the wall and said, "Plus, Graff is actually a pretty good friend that I've been able to talk to, so you're not cleaning them off."

"Graff? Really?" Eda asked with a snort, "That's the best name you could come up with for graffiti?"

"You try naming sentient hall art."

"Touché. Look, I'm sorry for your friend, but they've got to go. Luz wants to go to Hexside and me cleaning up my old messes is the only way to lift her ban from this place."

"Wait, Luz wants to attend Hexside? Why?"

"Hell if I know, but Luz wants to learn more magic, so here I am," Eda groaned as she hung her head. Nero's mind returned to what his aunt said earlier as he scratched the top of his head.

"So, you said you had to clean your messes to get Luz to come here?"

"Yup," she answered bluntly.

"And Graff here's one of your 'messes', right?"

"Bingo," came her second answer, with Graff shifting to a thumbs up, "They were actually one of my first pranks here, being honest."

"So..." Nero thought for a second, "Does that mean I'm cousins with graffiti?"

"No," Eda said as Graff shifted to a "Yes", causing Eda to glare at them before continuing, "Graff here's just paint on a wall that I magically gave sentience for shits and giggles. They're not your cousin."

"Either way, they're a friend, so is there any way you can 'clean up your mess' without getting rid of them?" Nero wanted to make it clear that wasn't going to let her erase Graff, no matter what.

"Hey, if you can come up with a solution, be my guest, but until then..."

Eda move to attempt to erase Graff again, but before she could, Graff shifted into a series of words that spelled out, "Wait! I have an idea!"

Nero and his aunt looked to each other then back to Graff as Eda slowly lowered her mop and said, "Alright, I'll bite, what's you're idea."

Graff shifted form and took the shape of a right hand print. An arrow was pointed to it with a sign that read "Place your right hand here". To top it off, another arrow was pointed directly at Nero, who looked to his right, reptilian hand in confusion before shrugging and doing as Graff explained. Suddenly, Graff's form started to glow alongside Nero's right arm as the wall art contorted and congregated towards where his hand was placed. Within seconds, the glowing faded and Nero lifted his hand from the lockers, only to see that Graff was gone.

"What the hell?" Nero looked all over the locker wall and saw no trace of them, "Graff, where are-"

Suddenly, he felt an odd sensation in his write arm and looked down to it just as a glowing blue illusion of the word "Sup!" popped out of it. "Huh," Nero said as he lifted his hand to his face just as more greetings flew out, "I didn't know you could do that," he then looked over to Eda and asked, "Did you?"

"Kid, I've been expelled from this place for decades and never paid my old pranks any mind," Eda retorted, "Of course I wouldn't know they could do that. I think we should be asking how they know how to do that."

Nero looked down to his right hand again, with Graff flashing out the words, "It was more of a guess."

Nero and Eda both looked to each other before looking back to his hand as Eda said, "Well, that's one hell of a lucky guess," she then put the mop back in its bucket, "Still, that's one less chore for me to worry about. Thanks for that."

"No problem, Aunt Eda," Nero replied, "Just glad you didn't kill Graff."

"Actually, I was thanking Graff, but you're welcome," Eda answered with a jokey demeanor as Nero rolled his eyes. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta clean out the rest of my messes from the snorefest of a school."

"Curse you and your ability to not have to go here," Nero joked back with a smirk as his aunt smiled and raised a middle finger to him while walking away. Still smiling as he walked off, he checked the time and noticed that he still had a few minutes left before his free period ended. He looked down to his right arm and noted the rather odd sensation now that Graff was basically living in it as it's...passenger? Host? Whatever they were, Nero was about to ask them how this whole thing worked, but before he could, a pair of familiar, annoying voices popped up behind him.

"Hey Nero!"

Nero didn't bother to think or turn and face the Blights as he continued walking down the hall. Frustratingly, but as expected, this didn't deter Edric or Emira at all as they simply walked ahead of and stopped in front of him.

"Nero, hold up," Edric started, "We just want to-"

Nero didn't bother listening or stopping as he shoved past both of them. There was an admitted small part of him that wanted to hear them out, but he shoved it aside every time. He wasn't interested in hearing either Edric or Emira's excuses anymore and just wanted them to stay away from him.

"Wait! Please just list-" Emira didn't get very far into her sentence as Nero spun a spell circle with his left hand and manifested a giant ice wall that blocked the Blights' path. Checking the time again, he was actually grateful that his free period was coming to a close, since that meant he didn't have to deal with the Blight twins and their persistence for a while.

Edric could hear his sister sigh in her bed, and being honest, he couldn't help but do the same from his desk. He was supposed to be doing homework, but he spent most of it either drawing pictures or trying to figure out how to make newer, better, completely legal fireworks. Unfortunately, he didn't even have the drive to do that these days.

"We messed up," he couldn't help but drone out.

"Yeah, I know that already," Emira grumbled out as it sounded like she was shifting on her bed, "You don't have to say it at the exact same time every single day."

"Wait, what time is it?"

"4:30," Emira replied just as Edric looked to the wall clock to see that it was actually 4:27, which was close enough.

"Sorry." Now Edric was the one grumbling. "Guess I'm still...bummed out, y'know?"

Emira stopped looking annoyed and looked down as she said, "Yeah. I get it." The two sat in silence, from there. He couldn't really find anything to say, and he knew his twin enough to know she was the same way right now. Things didn't stay quiet for long, as there was a sudden knocking on their bedroom door, followed by their little sister's voice coming through.

"Hey," Mittens began before she entered their room, "Have you guys seen the-" she stopped herself as she looked at them, "You're moping again, aren't you?"

"PFFT! What, no!" Edric got up and put on his best smile. He had no idea if it looked convincing or not, but he assumed it looked convincing.

"We were just...uh...taking a break from smiling!" He turned to Emira and said, "Breaks over!"

"Right!" Emira put on her best smile, and Edric struggled not to grimace at how forced it was. He really hoped his smile looked nothing like that.

"You both look like constipated ratworms," if Mittens' words were any indication, he did look that way.

"Ugh, you win," Emira groaned as she dragged her hand down her face, "We were moping. There, happy!"

Edric looked back to his little sister and noticed that, if anything, she looked rather unhappy. "Honestly, no, I'm not," she said, sounding sincere.

"I...why?" Edric asked before his brain caught up to his mouth. Knowing it was too late, he continued, "I mean, why wouldn't you? We kinda...sorta..."

"Okay, let's not beat around the bush and get to the point," Emira snapped, causing Edric to flinch as his twin looked to Amity with a sigh, "We tried to humiliate you and almost got you killed. You sure you're not even a bit happy that we're miserable? Wouldn't blame you if you were."

"Look, you guys are annoying," Amity started as she rubbed the back of her head, "Like, really annoying. Even when you try to be nice to me, you're still super annoying about it. I mean, sometimes, I just want my space and you both just barge in and-"

"Uh, sis, how's this helping?" Edric raised his hand and asked. He heard a loud snapping sound coming from Emira and looked to see that she just slapped her own face. Worrying about that later, Edric looked back to Amity, who sighed.

"Right, sorry. My point is that no matter how annoying you guys can be, even if you end up trying to humiliate me, you're still my brother and sister. I'm definitely still gonna get mad at you for it, and I still kinda am, but I just don't have it in me to outright hate you guys forever, y'know?"

Edric looked between his two sisters before he felt his face turn to a smile, and it felt a lot more natural this time. Even Emira had a more genuinely happy grin, though it quickly faded after a few seconds. Edric knew why, and now that it was in his head, he felt his smile leave and get replaced with a frown too.

"At least you're not gonna hate us forever," Edric mumbled under his breath, though from the look on his little sister's face, she clearly heard what he said.

"Let me guess, Nero's still avoiding you two?" Mittens asked.

Both of them nodded as Emira said, "I don't get it. We just want things to go back to normal. It's mostly normal around here, so why is everything all messed up over there!"

"Have you tried...I don't know, apologizing for what you did?"

Edric felt confused at his younger sister's suggestion, "But we already apologized to you."

"Ugh, no Edric, not me," Amity facepalmed just like Emira did, "I mean Nero. Haven't you guys tried doing that?"

"Apologizing? He won't even let us go anywhere near him!" Emira scoffed, sounding really frustrated as she crossed her arms and looked away, "How are we supposed to do that if we can't even get a sentence in?" Edric shrugged and tried thinking of a way around that issue.

Maybe we can try...no that'd probably make things worse, Edric thought. Oh! What if I make a firework that can spell out an apology and he...no, there's a chance he wouldn't see it, after a few more attempts, he slumped his shoulders and sat back down in his chair.

"Okay, maybe we should think about how to apologize later," Emira suggested, "If we can figure out how to approach him first."

"Right, you guys do that. I'm gonna go see if I can find Luz's Azura book," Amity said as she prepared to walk out of the room.

"Wait!" Emira jumped off her bed and rushed over to Mittens' side, "Do you need help finding it?"

Edric jumped at Amity's other side and gave her his most eager grin. He also wanted to help if he could, still feeling he hadn't fully made it up to his little sister for the library incident, plus he needed a good distraction from all the moping from before.

"Guys, it's fine. I can find it on my-" before Amity could continue, Edric turned to Emira for a second and they nodded. They both gave their sister the most pleading faces they could muster, making it clear that they really wanted to help. After a few seconds, Mittens' grunted, "Even if I say no, you're still gonna follow me and help me out, aren't you?"

Both of them nodded as their sister reluctantly sighed and continued out of the room, "Okay, fine, let's make this quick."

"Mom! I'm heading out!"

Lilith could hear her son call out to her as she finished sipping Apple Blood from her favorite mug. In a few short minutes, her son was out of his room and walking through the kitchen as she asked, "Where are you going?"

"Oh! Uh, y'know...out?"

Lilith raised an eyebrow to her son's non-answer and asked again, "Out where, exactly?"

"Just...hanging around Bonesburough, seeing sights and all that," Nero replied with an slightly nervous inflection that made the gears in Lilith's head turn. Ever since he came home late the one time, he hadn't had that issue again so far, but she still couldn't escape the knowledge that he was hiding something from her, and that where he was planning to go now involved where he was previously.

Furthering her suspicions was how he tended to hide his arm from her whenever it glowed, something he never did before. The first time it happened, his right hand emitted a message that read "Hello, Lily!" and she was quick to ask what that was about, as nobody called her by that name except her sister. Her son quickly said he had a few illusionary messages prepped up for class, but he told it so frantically that it was an obvious lie. To top it off, when she walked past his room that same day, she saw the door open by a crack and peered inside to see him talking to the arm as it showcased more messages in the form of a full-blown conversation.

"Very well then," Lilith answered as she stopped pondering over past events for a moment, "Just make sure that you're careful. Okay?"

"I will," he said as he started headed out, "And I'll try not to be out for too long, but I'll call in case I'm gonna be late."

"Yes, please do that," Lilith stood up and gave him a brief hug and a peck to the side of his head, "Stay safe my little raven."

Her son nodded before he walked out, closing the door behind him. After just about a minute, Lilith held out her hand and summoned her staff from the living room. "Coronis," she addressed her Palisman, who lifted himself off the tip of the stave, "Look, I know what I'm going to ask of you may seem...wrong, but I would like for you to follow after Nero and report to me what he's doing."

Coronis just gave her a questioning look that she knew the meaning of. In response, she scoffed and fired back, "Yes, I know that I shouldn't spy on my own son, but you remember how he came home late and how he dodged answering! This is for his own safety. I just..." she looked down, "I just want to make sure he isn't in trouble. Could you please just see where he's going at the very least? You don't have to do much more than that."

Her Palisman stared at her for a few seconds before he gave a small sigh and nodded. He then lifted off and flew out of her sight, opening and closing the front door as he left. How Palisman's were able to physically open doors was something she was never able to understand, but she decided to just accept it as reality.

Speaking of reality, the weight of what she'd asked for sank in as she retook her seat at the table, running a hand through her indigo hair. She reminded herself that this was absolutely necessary for her son's safety. She just wanted to make sure he was safe and not doing anything unsavory.

Please just let it be nothing, she thought with worry, hoping that she was just being paranoid.

Eda whistled as she gathered ingredients to get a stew going. King was playing with that teddy bear she brought over from the human realm and Luz was out with that Blight girl she brought up every now and then, so with some time to herself, she decided she needed a half-decent meal, although she was also waiting for the inevitable moment when the domestic peace would be ruined by someone barging in on her.

"Hey, Aunt Eda." Sure enough, before she could get started, Nero barged into the kitchen.

"Hey, Nero. How's it been?" Eda asked, grumbling a bit.

"Been mostly good, aside from some annoying crap here and there," he answered as he walked in, "Graff said he wanted to visit and try something out. Plus, I figured I'd be able to pick up Red Queen while I was here, so..."

"Sure thing, but first, I want to see what Graff wants," Eda stepped away from the counter as Nero looked to his right arm, which glowed and flashed out a message that read 'Put your hand on the wall'. Somehow Eda knew where this was going, but she still wanted to see what happened. Sure enough, Nero put his hand on the closest wall and his arm glowed for a second as her old wall art exited the hand, morphing into a thumbs up on their new home.

"Yeah, saw that one coming," Eda said as she got back to the counter, "Look Graff, if you're gonna live here, just try not to piss off Hooty. He can be pretty territorial, if you catch my meaning."

Graff shifted and morphed to say, "Okay mom!"

"For the last time, I'm not your-Oh, forget it." Eda cut herself off and went back to her stew as Graff started traversing across the walls to explore the house.

"So, where'd you put Red Queen?" Nero asked.

"Hmm? Oh! I put that thing in the armory in the back. Just head down that hall and you should find it," Eda pointed to the hall where the armory was located.

"Hey, Eda!" Nero's voice yelled from down the halls, "I thought I told you not to mess with Red Queen!" at the sound of heavy footsteps, he walked out, looking a bit annoyed as he held his sword out for her to see. Eda leaned in and smiled as she saw him point out her handiwork.

"Oh yeah! See, you only told me that I couldn't sell the thing. Never told me anything about being able to mess around with it or modify it."

Nero stared for a second before he sighed, "Okay, I should have expected that," he then looked back at the blade and asked, "So what exactly did you do anyway? I don't really recognize the seals or spells."

"That's because I like to think outside the box and make up my own special spells. See, I made some alterations to the fire runes at the hilt to make them last longer and dunked the entire thing in a revitalizing potion for about a few hours, kinda forgot it was there and left it for a few days before I remembered and pulled it out."

"You did what!?"

"Yeesh, cool your jets, kid," Eda casually replied to Nero's outburst, "It didn't damage the sword, plus I was working to make the whole 'Exceed' spell less of a pain in the ass to reapply," she finished, making sure to add extra snark to the dorky name of the spell.

Nero looked down at the blade and flicked his wrist, setting it on fire for a second. Sure enough, the spell charge started restoring itself right after the use, taking a total of five seconds. "Huh, this is honestly pretty badass," Nero turned to face Eda and said, "Thanks, I guess."

"Don't get all sentimental kid, I only added it because I got sick of having to reapply you're little spell every time I used it all up," Eda snarked as she remembered when she was trying Red Queen out. It didn't take her too long to replicate the spell Nero put on the sword, but it was both boring and time consuming to reapply it every single time the thing ran out of spell charges.

No part of her wanted to do it to give her surprisingly cool nephew a small present to fill out her roll as 'the cool aunt'. Nope, not even a little.

"Next time I leave something with you, I'm gonna have to be a lot more specific," Nero bemoaned as he sheathed the sword on his back.

"Hah! Bold of you to assume I'd follow any instructions you give me," Eda laughed off as Nero shrugged.

"Point taken."

"Now, if you'll excuse me..." she then went back to the counter again and removed her hand to hold the cook book open. Though she stopped when she saw her nephew give her a bewildered expression as he stared at her removed hand. Realizing she had to explain some things, she gestured to the stump on her arm and said, "Side effect of the curse."

Nero recovered from his surprise and walked over to get a closer look. "That's...I don't know if that's cool or concerning," he mused out loud as Eda snorted.

"Believe it or not, this is actually one of the fun side effects."

"The curse has fun side effects?" Nero asked unbelievingly.

"Yeah, it's not all bad. There's the whole limb removal thing and..." Eda stopped as she tried to think of any other side effects she'd gone through over the years that weren't so bad. Instead, she could only say, "Huh, actually that's pretty much it."

"EDA!"

"And there goes my chance to relax," Eda groaned at the sound of Luz's voice calling throughout the house. I few seconds later, she watched the kid stumble into the kitchen and plop face-first on the floor.

"Eda! You have to teach me a new-Nero!" Luz dropped whatever she was babbling about earlier as she jumped up to greet Eda's nephew, "What are you doing here?"

"Picking up Red Queen and dropping Graff off. So what's got you faceplanting?"

"And more importantly, can it wait until after I manage to cook myself a meal?" Eda was really annoyed now. All these interruptions and she hadn't even gotten started on lunch yet.

"Wait, who's Gra-you know what, never mind," Luz waved off what Nero said and rushed to the counter so quickly that Eda was briefly convinced humans had latent super speed, "Eda, listen, I need to learn a new spell!"

"Why do you need to learn one?" Nero asked as he leaned his back against the counter and crossed his arms.

"Because it's the only way for me to get into decent classes at Hexside!" Luz exclaimed as she pulled out a sheet of paper with her light glyph on it, "Right now, I can do light magic," she then pressed on the glyph, causing a flash of light to envelop the room that forced Eda to cover her eyes, "But that's it! That's all I've got!"

Being as much of a drama queen as King, Luz collapsed to the floor. "And just whose fault is it that you don't know other spells?"

"Uh, aren't you her teacher? Pretty sure this is on you," Nero casually pointed out as Eda grumbled to herself, Betrayed by my own family.

"Exactly!" Luz shouted as she jumped up, "Don't you have anything! It can be any spell, even evil ones!"

"Why don't you just ask Nero to teach you something?" Eda pointed to her nephew with her still attached hand before she spun a spell circle to summon a pan towards her, "He's here and available, meanwhile I haven't eaten yet."

"Thanks for the offer, but no," Nero said as he looked to Luz, "Sorry to say kid, but the magic you can do is way to different from anything I know. Can't really teach you anything. Hell, I don't even know how to teach in the first place."

"Well neither do I and I think I've done pretty good so far!"

"What part of "I only know one spell" did you not hear?"

"Ugh! Look, I may have been doing some research on wild magic that could theoretically help you learn a new spell," Eda was starting to get tired of being ganged up on here as she started levitating ingredients, "But I'm a bit too busy trying to make a decent lunch here, so if you want to learn some new magic, it'll have to wait."

"Come on, Eda!" Luz begged as her tone grew more determined and a tad more angry as she continued, "You're the most powerful witch on the isles! What would people say if they found out that your apprentice got stuck in Hexside's baby classes."

That made Eda stop what she was doing. Sure, she just had to make sure Luz got into Hexside, which she did manage despite her dislike of the place, but the idea of her protégé being at the bottom level of Hexside's learning curve struck a cord with her. Well played, Luz, she thought with a swell of pride, Well played.

"Alright then," Eda grabbed her other hand and screwed it back onto the stump, "Guess we're doing some magic boot camp!"

"Did someone say Boot Camp!" King suddenly walked in with his teddy bear as all eyes turned to him, "If we're doing one, then I'm running it."

"How long have you been listening in?" Nero asked, something Eda would have wondered if she didn't know King liked to eavesdrop every now and then. Though she wondered where he picked up the habit.

He couldn't have gotten it from her. No siree, no way he got it from her.

"A king doesn't have to answer such questions, now let's get this Boot Camp started!" he shouted.

"Nope. Sorry King, but Luz needs to focus, and she can't do that if you're being all adorable and distracting," Eda said.

"Don't you DARE call me adorable!" King shouted as he stomped his foot all adorable like. As if on cue, Luz went all gaga over him, even when he slammed the door to leave, which he did again, and again, and again. Eda waited for him to do it again, but it looked like he was done.

"Anyway, how'd you like to join us, oh nephew of mine?" Eda asked, looking to Nero, "Even if you can't teach for crap, I could use the extra hand. Preferably one that won't fall off."

"Eh, I don't know," Nero rubbed the back of his head, "I mean, I got nothing better to do, but at the same time I cut it close last time with Mom, so..."

"Oh don't let Prissy Lily get you down, this'll be fun!" Eda interrupted as she rubbed her hands together and called forth some winter coats for the Knee's cold climate, "If we're going to train Luz, we need to head somewhere were magic just flows all over the place. Plus, there could be some big monsters for you to fight..."

"Well..."

"Please! It'll be like one big camping trip!" Luz added with that extremely cheery glint in her eye, "We can tell ghost stories and-"

"I'm in!"

"Eh?" Eda and Luz were on the same page as Nero immediately changed his tune, almost looking just as excited as Luz. The whole giddy look on his face looked...very out of place, if she was being honest.

"I said I'm in. When do we head out?" he asked. But before she could answer...

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON MY WALLS YOU WALL JACKER!" Hooty's voice rang throughout the entire house as a lot of crashing could be heard in the background, "THIS IS MY TERRITORY! STAY OUT!"

From the sound of it, it looked like he and Graff just met.

"I'd say we're leaving right about now," Eda threw the winter coats to her nephew and apprentice before she opened the back door, "Now let's get moving before they get to where we are!"

Not a second later, they were out of the house and walking through her neck of the woods to get to the Knee, the sounds of Hooty's rampage fading in the distance. As Eda looked around in her walk, she saw what looked like a white bird fly out of a tree and out of sight. For a second, the bird looked an awful lot like Coronis, but she shook her head at the thought.

Just a trick of the mind, Eda. Why would Coronis be out here? she thought with bemusement, No way it's to spy on Nero. Not even Mom's that overprotective.

Nero breathed in the cold air of knee as he found himself unable to stop smiling. He was kind of expecting to feel more apprehensive about coming here, given how he got his arm, but instead, he was actually really excited even as he adjusted the hood of his navy blue winter coat. The prospect of getting to go on his first camping trip seemed to erode whatever fears he would have had.

"Huh, that's a bit weird," Aunt Eda's loud musings drew Nero out of his own thoughts as she continued, "Normally you'd see a Slitherbeast here or there. I don't know, somewhere at least. But it doesn't look like there are any around."

The mention of a Slitherbeast did make Nero freeze up for a brief second as he rubbed at his reptilian arm, but he brushed it aside, remembering that was years ago and he was already past being afraid of those.

"What's a Slitherbeast?" Luz asked as she adjusted her winter hat.

"Giant ass monster with white fur, eyes in its mouth, and a pissy attitude," Nero answered with a small growl, trying not to think back on when he was here as a child.

"Eh, I wouldn't say they're pissy. It's more of a "Leave me alone and I won't bite" sort of deal," Aunt Eda waved her hand.

"Whatever, we gonna set up camp or what?" Nero asked as he sped up to the front of the group, even turning to face them while walking backwards, "The sooner we do that, the sooner we can do all the fun camp crap."

"Just remember we're here to teach Luz a new spell, kid," his aunt reminded him as he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah yeah."

"Huh, you know, I don't think I've ever seen you this excited about...well, anything," Luz wondered out loud before asking, "Have you ever gone camping before?"

Nero sighed and shook his head, "Nope, never have. I used to ask Mom about going camping back when I was a kid, but she always shot the idea down."

"Doesn't surprise me. If there's one thing I know about Lily, it's that she sure as shit ain't the outdoorsy kind of gal," his aunt snarked, resting her staff on her shoulders as they walked through the ruins.

"So, if you guys didn't go camping, what did you do for fun?" Luz asked innocently, though the very question made Nero's eye twitch as he stopped and recollected...those times. Those annoying, boring times.

"Mom," a seven-year-old Nero said to his mother on the couch next to her, "Why can't we ever go camping? It looks like fun."

His mother sighed and gently hugged him. "Nero, I know you'd like to do that, but going out into the wilderness can be rather... dangerous, to put it lightly," she retracted from the hug and held him in her lap, "and I don't want you to get hurt."

"Is this about my arm?" Nero rubbed his lizard-like limb.

"No no no, it really doesn't, I promise. It's just that personal experience has taught me that camping isn't fun." Lilith shuddered as if she were remembering something painful or embarrassing. "Besides, there are plenty of fun things we can do from the safety of our home that are a lot more fun."

"Really?" Nero looked up at her with wide eyes, "What can we do?" Lilith smiled and spun her spell circle to bring the Crystal Ball remote to her hand.

"Why, we can watch a show that I think you might like. You know how you like to draw and paint sometimes?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, here's one of my favorites series. I'm sure you'll love it," she then clicked on the remote and the Crystal Ball flipped to a channel just as the episode started.

"And welcome back to part 3 of our 20 part documentary series: Understanding the Drying Walls. Today, we will discuss the process of how ink dries, and the many intricacies of-

Aaaaaand now I'm bored, Nero wanted to get up and go do something, anything, else, but he looked at his mom's smile as she watched and saw how happy the documentary made her. How and why she liked this was something he couldn't figure out for the life of him, but she liked it, and he wanted her to be happy. So he decided to put his personal feelings aside and watch the whole thing from his mother's lap.

And so he sat through it all. All one hour and fifteen minutes of it. One hour and fifteen minutes of pure, unrelenting, unspeakable  BOREDOM . By the time the episode finally, FINALLY ended, he didn't know what was worse; the pain of his arm getting slashed by a Slitherbeast, or the monotony of...this. Either way, he was glad it was done so he could go find something-

"Oh! The next part is starting!"

At his mom's excitement and at the next part's opening credits, Nero could only think one thing, Aw crap!

The sudden snap of fingers rang in his ears as he realized where he was; not watching the most tedious thing on the isles, but actually back on the Knee, this time with his aunt and her apprentice.

"Let me guess, her idea of fun involved the history of balusters or some crap like that?" his aunt snarked as he groaned and shook his head.

"More like watching how ink dries."

"Figures," Eda rolled her eyes and walked forward ahead of the group, "Lily really needs to get a new definition of fun."

"On the plus side, actual camping doesn't have things like that," Luz chimed in as she followed just behind her mentor, with Nero following behind her, "We get to tell scary stories, eat snacks, catch fish in lakes, and make contact with a bunch of poisonous plants!"

Before Nero could say anything, his aunt spoke up, "And here we are!" before she stopped in front of them around the center of the ruins, prompting them to stop too, "We'll set up our little Boot Camp here."

"Yes! Second spell, here I come!" Luz spun around before she started looking at the views.

"You know, this kinda takes me back to when I was a kid," Nero mused as he looked up to the cloud formations in the sky.

"How so, kid?" Eda asked.

"It was when my mom was teaching me how to do ice magic," he explained as he reminisced, rubbing at his right arm again, "Ended up pissing off a Slitherbeast and got slashed in the arm."

"Oh...oh shit, is that how-"

"Yeah, pretty much," Nero interrupted his aunt's aghast question, "Look, that was years ago, and I'd like to think that's done and over with, y'know?"

"I hear ya there," Eda said sympathetically as she looked around, eyes falling on where Luz was, likely thinking about her curse and how she almost killed her apprentice because of it, "It's just that I don't want to make yo-LUZ! LOOK OUT!"

Within a split-second and almost faster than Nero could react, his aunt lunged towards Luz and brought her to the floor just before a light purple fire ball could strike her dead in the face.

"Eda! Luz! You guys okay?" Nero said as he ran up to them as Eda got up and held her staff in the direction of the fire ball.

"Yeah, we're fine," Luz answered, "But what was-"

"Sorry about that!"

Hang, on, was that... Nero turned in the direction of the familiar voice and sure enough, he saw Amity standing far away with a practice wand that still emitted some smoke, meaning she was in the middle of her own training. Now, normally, he wouldn't be bothered by seeing Amity, except for one major thing. Or rather, two major things.

"Hi Nero!"

Edric and Emira were with her.

"Titan fucking dammit," Nero cursed, now officially regretting coming here.

"Y-You can't be serious. Please tell me you're not serious." Lilith probably should have cared about how desperate she sounded, but she was too flummoxed to do so. Unfortunately, the serious look in Coronis' adorable, dopey eyes confirmed his findings as she stood up from her seat in the living room, her Palisman flapping his wings just near enough from her as she walked to the kitchen, clutching at her forehead. "Alright Lilith, there's no need to panic. I mean, just because your son is sneaking out behind your back to visit your uncouth rebel of a sister who just so happened to give him a large, dangerous weapon as a gift, doesn't mean anything bad for him. It's not like Edalyn's going to be a terrible influence on him that will lead to him being branded a wild witch and petrified for the rest of time or anything!"

Needless to say, it wasn't working.

"And don't give me that look, Coronis!" Coronis flapped backward just a tad. "It's not like I'm jealous or anything." Lilith ignored his questioning head tilt. "I mean, sure, based on your descriptions, he seemed to be engaging in casual conversation with her much easier than he usually does with me, and he was smiling more than he has here in recent years. And now they and Eda's human pet are all going out somewhere to have fun. More fun than he has with his own mother..."

Lilith realized she was rambling and said, "But that means nothing! I'm just...concerned for his safety is all! Edalyn's idea of fun is just so damned chaotic and I don't want him caught up in it."

Lilith closed her eyes, but that didn't stop her Palisman from pecking at her shoulder. It was rather funny, how despite Coronis' normal appearance, he could manage a great deal of intensity when pressed. Still, she stood her ground before immediately rushing to the bird perched on the counter and dialing her son's number.

"Nero Claudius Clawthorne," she muttered, "You are in so much trouble."

But as she brought the bird to her ear and heard the tone, one thought ran through her mind.

Please be safe.

Welp, this camping trip's officially fucked, Nero grumbled as Luz and Eda were in the middle of talking with Edric and Emira. Well, Luz was, at any rate, since Eda was too busy trying to fit several snowballs into her mouth. The sight actually made Nero chuckle a bit, but it was still marred by the fact that the dumbass twins were still in view.

"Ugh, just forget it." Nero got up from the pillar, hands in his pockets, as he started looking around the frozen forest. "Better find something to do while Luz's training."

"Hi Nero!" Nero swore under his breath and turned to face the twins.

"Does the phrase 'Piss off' just go through one ear and out the other with you two?" Nero asked.

"It does with Edric," Emira said, much to her twin's chagrin. "What? It's true. So, Nero, we wanted to-" Nero didn't even bother putting up a wall and just started walking away.

Sure enough, however, they quickly walked side-by-side with him, Edric asking, "So, what's with that sword on your back? Looks pretty awesome!"

"Weren't you two annoying your sister earlier?" Nero asked in annoyance.

"First off, we weren't annoying her...this time," Emira fired back, "We were training her, and right now, she's going over some drills we gave her. Secondly, would you just quit the grumpy attitude and listen to us for a change!"

"Hmm, let me think about that," Nero pretended to scratch his head, but before he could say no, a loud cawing came from overhead, followed by the last voice he expected to hear.

"Nero!"

Nero blanched and looked up to see a call bird flap its way down to him and hover close by. "Nero Claudius Clawthorne, I know you can hear this. Answer the bird right now!"

"PFFT! I still can't believe your middle name's Claudius!" Edric giggled alongside Emira, who was trying to clamp her laughing mouth shut.

"Shut it!" Nero yelled before he grabbed the bird and cleared his throat, "Uh, h-hi mom."

"Hello, son," his mom's voice was way too serious for his comfort, "So, care to tell me where you are?"

"I'm-"

"And Nero," she interrupted, "Don't tell me that you're "hanging around Bonesburough". If you do, I'll know that you're lying," her voice calmed down a tad, "Just...be honest with me. Where are you?"

"Uh, I-I..." Despite his mother's insistence that he tell her the truth, there was no way he could say what he was actually doing, knowing she wouldn't take it well at all. For a brief second, his eyes landed on the Blight twins, and he said, "I'm with Edric and Emira."

There was silence on the other end of the call for a second before Lilith asked, "Are you now?"

"Yeah," Nero said. It wasn't a complete lie, seeing as he was currently standing alongside Edric and Emira, much as he didn't want to be. It was just that he left out the part that he was on the Knee of the isles, and carrying a sword with intent to go monster hunting, and that he originally came here with Eda and Luz.

"I see." Just like that, the line went dead as the bird flew away.

"My my, going behind mommy's back?" Emira's questioning dragged him out of his reverie. "Who knew Claw Boy was so-"

"Not. One. Word," Nero snarled.

"Eh, not like we're judging. I mean, we go behind our parent's backs all the time," Edric added, shrugging his shoulders, "Pretty sure Mom and Dad still don't know about my back alley fireworks deals."

"Too be fair," Emira cut in, "Dad doesn't come out of the lab often enough to noti-"

"Would you two just piss off already!?" Nero shouted, but was quickly followed by another loud cawing. Looking up, he saw another call bird flying down, this time towards Emira.

"Hello? Miss Blight," Nero's eyes widened as his mom's voice came from the bird, "Could you please pick up? I need to speak with you."

Nero's blood ran colder than the air around them as Emira gave what was probably the most evil smirk he'd ever seen in his life and grabbed the bird. "You know," she droned out as Edric's own face mirrored his sister's, "I could tell your mom what you're really doing here."

Nero's eyes widened for a second before returning to normal, almost feeling a bit of acceptance. It looked like this was it; his mom would find out, he'd have to tell her the truth about everything, and also probably end up grounded until he was-

"But I won't."

...fucking what now!?

"Miss Blight, if you're there, please answer the bird," his mom said from the other end as Emira talked over it.

"We won't tell her anything," Emira said before her expression turned serious, "In exchange for at least ten minutes of you actually listening to us for once!"

Nero couldn't believe what he'd just heard and, in the span of a few seconds, weighed down his options. On the one hand, he still wasn't in the mood to be talking with the twins for any reason. But on the other hand...

"Fine," Nero groaned, "You want to talk? We'll talk. Just don't tell her anything. Please."

He winced at how pleading his tone sounded, but he couldn't help it given the circumstances. The twins' faces softened up for a second before Emira clicked the bird and answered, "Hey Miss Clawthorne! What's up?"

He couldn't quite make out what his mom was saying, but he was pretty sure she was asking where he was. Thankfully, Emira answered, "Yeah, he's hanging out with us at our place," more talking from the bird came before Emira said, "Sure thing," she then gave him the bird, "It's for you."

Nodding, he took the bird and said, "Hey mom."

"So...you're really spending time with the twins?" she asked.

"Yes. Yes I am," Nero answered, feeling a tad less nervous. Suddenly, Edric took the bird from his hands with a "Yoink!" and started talking to Nero's mother.

"Sorry Miss Clawthorne, but we're all gonna be watching a movie marathon for a while. He might get home a bit late," Edric casually said, Nero realizing that the Blight just gave him an alibi in case he was late again this time, "That cool with you?"

There was silence on the other end before some terse, indecipherable words came from it. They didn't seem to be anything bad, considering Edric nodded and answered, "No worries Miss Clawthorne. He'll be just fine with us. Anyhoo, gotta go, BYEEEEEE!" and with that exuberant goodbye, he hung up and tossed the bird into the air, letting it fly away, "That was fun."

"For you guys maybe," Nero took a deep breath and let all his stress out in one exhale, "I damn near had a heart attack!"

"Well, that's what you get for having crappy lying skills," Emira joked, Nero returning it with a glare, "But thankfully, you're frie-uh, I mean, acquainted, with the masters of lying to adults."

"Right," Nero said, realizing that Emira was about to say "friends" originally. For some reason, it hurt to think about, but he had a deal to make good on, so that could wait. "Either way, a deals a deal," he crossed his arms and stood upright as he looked the twins dead in the eye, "So, what did you want to talk about?"

Looking at the two witches and the Sparda talking to each other from afar, the demoness smiled and licked her lips with her forked tongue before burrowing into the ground. She thought she smelled something familiar enter her domain and was quick to take a peak, always needing new food for herself and her babies. For a brief second, she considered turning tail and running when she picked up the recognizable, putrid, freakish scent of that infernal dark knight, but then she smelled the glorious meals she could savor...and the prey she could torment.

There was the twin witch siblings who smelled of mischief and misery. It was a delightful combination, especially when seasoned with the tears of local cave bats. Well, the ones she didn't force to sit down and have dinner time talks with her at least. Too bad they couldn't actually talk and she had to feed them to her babies.

Then she smelled the younger one related to the twins. If she was being honest, she didn't want to eat her, if only because she smelled like she had a stick shoved so far up her ass she could pull it out of her mouth. The stuck up ones always tasted the worst to her.

But the elder was something else, as she wasn't food, but a plaything. She could smell it in the old crone's blood; that same, disgusting blood that humiliated her in battle and whored itself out to a Sparda. And that whore's...well, whoring led to the one that was all grown up and now walking around in her territory, not even noticing her presence before she left to get a feel for the rest of her prey in the snowy reaches of the Knee.

Snow, oh how she despised the snow. It was cold and constantly damp, leaving her shivering every moment of every day for over a decade. How she wished she had legs so she could kick and stomp on all this damned snow, but smashing it around with her serpentine tail did the trick well enough. As did killing and eating Slitherbeasts, but they never tasted as good as witches. Their screams were never as satisfying. It wasn't even actual screams. Snarling roars weren't screams!

I was thinking about something important earlier, right? Right! New food now, hating everything and everyone later.

It was so easy to lose track of her thoughts these days since she had no one to talk to. Maybe eating the witches stupid enough to wander out here was part of that issue, but really, that was their fault. If they didn't want to be eaten, they should have considered not being born with such delicious flesh.

My thoughts are wandering again, aren't they? she realized. They always wandered, much like her victims. Speaking of victims, aside from the Sparda and the witches, she smelled something else in the air. It was something that hadn't entered her senses in centuries; the stench of humanity. This little group had a human with them.

Oh, this is going to be fun, she smiled. It had been so long since she'd last killed a human. Back when she was beautiful and terrifying to all who witnessed her. Not some pathetic worm hiding from the Emperor's forces, but a true ruler of her little slice of Hell.

Now she had her chance to do so much; get a decent meal in, kill a couple member of the bloodline responsible for her predicament, terrorize a human, and relish in the satisfaction of killing a Sparda.

Then, and only then, will I stop talking to myself! she began plotting her next move as her thoughts turned towards the green-haired ones and the human. Best take care of the weak links first and save the strongest for last.

"So, we're sorry, Nero," Emira said. "We went too far, and you're right to be mad at us."

"Look, you can hate us all you want. We just wanted to apologize," Edric said, "and...if it's what you want, we'll stop bothering you for good." Edric and Emira both turned to get out of Nero's hair, but Nero said, "Hold up," and made them stop.

"What is it?" Emira asked. As she turned back to Nero, a sudden realization dawned on her. "Oh, my Titan." Emira groaned and slapped herself in the face. "Please tell me this isn't going to turn into one of those scenes from Mittens' Azura movies where we make up after one talk."

"The fact that there even are movies of that series concerns me," Nero said, lightheartedly. Emira even took note of the brief smile he had as she and Edric smiled back, giggling for a bit. After that, there was a brief moment of awkward silence before Nero coughed into his hand and said, "Anyway, the truth is, I don't really want to be mad at you two for what you did. But it's just... well... Look, I know you guys tend to do a lot of dumb shit that I just can't get behind, but even knowing that, what you tried to do was a lot to process. Hell, it's still a lot to process."

"We get it," Edric admitted, "We honestly really do. It's still kinda crazy that Amity's even talking to us after that whole fiasco."

"She did say she's still a bit mad about it, but she just doesn't want to hate us forever," Emira reminded her brother.

"And I don't want to either, to be honest," Nero interjected, "Like I said, I don't want to be pissed, but I think I still need a lot of time to myself to think about it. So, how about we just give each other some space to sort this out?"

Emira looked to her brother, and the two exchanged a look. This was probably the best any of them could hope for, so it was better to take it as it was. With a nod, Emira answered, "Yeah, I think we can do that."

Nero nodded back and turned to leave off to whatever he was going to do, but before he could get very far, Edric asked, "Hey, Nero. Do you think thing'll ever go back to normal for all of us?"

He didn't turn back to face them, but instead shrugged his shoulders and answered, "To be honest, I'm not sure. Guess it's just a wait and see thing, y'know?"

"Yeah, we know," Emira said back as she and Edric turned to head back to their camp, "Well, we better get back to help Mittens with her training. See you later?"

After a brief moment of silence, Nero replied, "Yeah, see you later."

And so she and her brother started making their way back, shooting one last glance at Nero before continuing on their little trek. As she walked, she felt a little lighter, even seeing that her brother had a bit more pep in his step than before, now that they were finally able to apologize and everything. Sure, things were still complicated, but at the very least, it was as good a start as any.

Nero shook his head as he continued up to the highest peak he could find that was still close enough to where Aunt Eda and Luz set up camp. As he reached the top, he breathed in and took in the sights of the Knee's environment, planting to his side the snowboard he carved out of a nearby tree. The board was sloppily done at first since precision with Red Queen wasn't exactly something he had down pat just yet, but a little plant magic here and there evened things out and made it useable. The scope of the snowy land around him was breathtaking even as the sun faded beyond the horizon, giving way to night. For a split second, his heart raced in panic at being late to get home, but then he remembered what Edric told his mother, and realized he didn't need to worry about that for today, although thinking about that moment caused Nero to frown.

"Dammit," he muttered as he knelt down and looked to the far away figure of the Blights' personal tent, only slightly obscured by surrounding rock and foliage. For some reason, despite their apology, Nero still couldn't help but feel angry. He didn't want to be, but it was still there and refused to leave.

I know I said to just take some time, but... Nero knew that patience wasn't exactly his strong suit, even with himself. He wanted to get over it faster, especially since it now felt more petty to be pissed off, but he couldn't help it. With a sigh, he whispered to himself, "Just forget it and have some fun. See if that'll help."

Just as he stood up and placed his right hand on his makeshift snowboard, it started glowing brightly. "What the-?" he looked at his hand before a loud rumbling overtook the ground he was on, stopping just as quickly as it came. Wondering what that was about, he clenched his right hand into a fist before getting lost in his thoughts, "Okay, the last time it glowed like that was..." his eyes widened, "It was back when Aunt Eda and I were attacked by those Mega Scarecrows."

Realizing what that meant, Nero looked frantically around the environment for any signs of attackers. Instead of a number of demons attempting to rush him, however, he saw in the far distance of the trees below what looked like a large burst of snow spring upward, almost as if something just burrowed into the ground over there. Suddenly, another burst of snow sprung forth, then another, then another, all in the direction of the camp. The camp where the Blights, Eda, and Luz all were.

"Shit!" Nero grabbed his board and started skating down the peak as fast as he could. He had to warn them before the demon got there.

Or if that failed, kick its ass, whichever came first.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way, we can actually have dinner this time," Amity said as she and her siblings walked back to their camp, having finally got Edric to let the bat go.

"But my pet bat..." Edric whined while she and Emira groaned.

"Ed, there's no way you could hide something like that from Mom and Dad," Amity pointed out, and considering the last two pets he had that ended up dying because of negligence (or in Rooney the bird's case, accidentally flying into their father's lab while he was testing weaponry), it wouldn't have lasted very long anyway.

"Plus, do you have any idea how many diseases those things carry?" Emira added, which Amity nodded along with, "Knowing you, you'd get bedridden a day into owning it."

"I'm not that careless," Edric grumbled and crossed his arms.

"No. You're worse," Amity snarked, much to her elder sister's amusement as they arrived at their tent. Amity pushed the curtain aside and started looking for her practice wand, wanting to get a little more fire spell practice in before they had dinner. But it wasn't where she remembered leaving it. "What?" Amity wondered out loud as her siblings walked in.

"What's up Mittens?" Emira asked, Amity being too caught up in looking for the wand to be annoyed by the usual nickname.

"It's my practice wand. It isn't where I left it," Amity knelt down to where it was, noting that even her Magic 101 book was missing too.

"Maybe you misplaced it?" Edric suggested as he started looking around the tent.

"I never misplace anything!" Amity shouted in frustration, causing Edric to flinch and back up slightly.

"Calm down sis," Emira coaxed and hugged at her side, "It has to be around here somewhere, so we'll just help you look for it. Okay?"

Amity was about to calm down and nod, but the ground suddenly shook, making them all wobble before they regained their balance. "What was that!?" she yelled as the ground continued to shake, but everything went white as she, Edric, and Emira were all suddenly knocked back, the ground beneath them erupting in a burst of snow and rock that obliterated their tent. As she landed on her back, she groaned in pain and started to get up until a loud, shrill voice called out.

"Well hello there, little witchlings."

Amity's eyes snapped open and she saw the largest monster she'd seen in her life. The she-beast had a rather curvaceous adult body with light blue skin that was garbed in what looked like a dress made from large blackened leaves. Everything below her waist, however, was that of a gargantuan, floating serpent, with the area that connected her body to it resembling the maw of a trapping plant that consumed fairies. Rather than hair, her head had twin tendrils covered in brown scales. Her eyes were red with manic white irises, and the cruel smile radiated malicious intent.

"Now hold still so I can feast on your bones, alright?" the snake-demon licked her lips and looked about ready to snatch Amity up. Before Amity could summon an abomination to defend herself, to magic lashes grabbed onto the demon's hair tendrils and pulled her back.

"You stay away from our sister!" Edric and Emira both shouted at once as they held the monster away from her, but they were clearly struggling against the demon's strength. Seeing an opening, Amity summoned the largest abomination she could and sent it charging right towards the beast, hoping to punch her in the face a few times.

That plan flew out the window before her abomination could make contact, as the demon lashed its tail at her siblings and sent them flying right towards her. Amity only had time to gasp in shock before Edric and Emira slammed into her, sending them all tumbling to the floor. As she got up, she could hear the sound of goop being torn apart, and looked to see the demoness ripping her abomination to shreds.

"Now that that's done and over with, let's get back to dinner, shall we?" the demon floated towards them in a near predatory fashion, with her sister and brother quickly recovering and putting themselves between her and the snake-monster. They were both about to form a combined spell circle to force the demoness back, but a sudden, crimson fireball blasted out of nowhere and burned away at the beast's flesh in a large explosion that shook the trees, making her scream in pain.

"Leave them alone!" Luz's voice came from where the fireball was shot, causing Amity to turn and see the human standing side by side with her mentor, who had her staff out and aimed at the demoness. But what really drew Amity's attention was the smoking end of the wand in Luz's hand and the book in the other. Her wand and book, to be exact. "Amity! Are you guys okay?" Luz asked as she ran up to them.

"Yeah, we're fine," Amity took Luz's hand to get up before snatching her wand and book back, "Give me that!"

"I'm sorry, I just really wanted to learn-"

"Luz, save the apologies for after there isn't a giant snake lady hounding us," Luz's mentor interrupted as the demoness recovered and snarled at them.

"You disgusting little worm!" she shouted, "You dare to strike Echidna! The She-Viper and ruler of the Green Hell!"

That thing's a demon lord! Amity's thoughts went into a panic as Echidna circled around them. It would have been one thing if they were fighting your average threatening isles fauna, like a Slitherbeast, but this was an outright demon lord from the lower circles of Hell. There was no way they'd stand a chance against something like her.

"You know, little human," Echinda seethed, clearly talking to Luz as the human girl froze in panic right next to her, "I was planning on saving you and that Sparda for last, maybe even tie you both down and sit you alongside the severed heads of your friends as me and my children eat them in front of you. You know, breaking you down before finishing you off and all that."

By the Titan, she's completely insane, Amity dreaded as she and the Owl Lady got between Luz and Echidna, Edric and Emira jumping in front of them while Amity kept her wand aimed at the demoness' face. But something in Echidna's words got her attention for a brief second. Sparda, Amity thought, remembering how Nero asked about that same name back at the library.

"But I think not," Echidna continued, dragging Amity out of her thoughts, "After that little fire ball, I think I'll take you first! Now be a good little bi-"

"Hey ugly!" came a sudden shout that was followed by Nero coming out from above and slamming onto Echinda's face with what looked like a makeshift snowboard. As the demon staggered back, he reached out with a spectral arm and pulled himself towards her, slashing across her chest with a blazing sword strike before backflipping and landing right in front of them. "Didn't think weed hacking would be part of this camping trip," he snarked as Echidna crashed backwards into the wall behind her before he turned back to them, "You guys alright?"

Amity could only wordlessly nod alongside her siblings and Luz as the Owl Lady smirked and replied, "Nice entrance, kid."

Nero smirked back and looked like he was about to say something, but Echidna rising up again took all their attention back to her. "You!" she shouted, her tail thrashing in the air erratically, "Why must you Spardas always make things difficult!?"

"Oh, good, you know a thing or two on that," Nero said as he aimed his sword at Echidna, the Owl Lady standing beside her and casting a large fireball at the end of her staff. "So here's how it's going to work," Nero continued as he stared the demon down, "We're gonna kick your ass into the dirt, and if you're still conscious when we're done, you'll spill whatever you know on Sparda. How's that sound?"

As soon as Edric and Emira joined alongside them, forming spell circles to fire upon Echidna, Amity looked to Luz and saw that despite the brave face she was putting on, she was trembling. Amity was honestly just as scared, but aside from her wand, she still had her abominations to fall back on. Luz only had her light glyphs (it was obvious that she didn't know a second spell and she was terrible at hiding it) and Amity doubted that they'd do anything against this monster. Seeing that Echidna had yet to make her move, Amity looked down at her wand for a second and sighed before handing it to Luz, "Here, you might need this."

"Really?" Luz almost gasped in excitement in a way that made Amity smile. Even if she was still mad at the human for taking her wand and book without permission, she could understand why to some degree; that drive and passion to learn about magic and get better that Amity shared in. Plus, Luz needed all the help she could get.

"Yes, really. Now take it before I change my mind," she tried to hide her mirth, but she wasn't sure how well she did. Either way, Luz took the wand with exuberance as she jumped in front of the group and pointed it at Echidna.

"NOW EAT THIS SUCKA!" Luz shouted and prepared to fire another burst of flames at the demon. Unfortunately, the wand only sputtered a few sparks that harmlessly fell to the ground. "Uh, why isn't it working?" Luz looked down at the wand as Amity rushed up to her and took the wand back to see that it was low on power.

"You used it all up on the first fireball, didn't you?" Amity groaned at Luz's carelessness. It was basic common sense that you never use the entire magic supply of practice wands so as to keep enough power for emergencies.

"I-I didn't know that was how it worked," she stammered defensively as Amity facepalmed.

That was literally the first thing on page one of the book, Luz!

"Awwww, your struggle is so adorable," Echidna mocked before she backed up, as if ready to charge, "But that's enough talk. Let's have some fun!"

Just as everyone readied for her to charge, the maws at her waist covered her body and roared before diving headfirst into the ground, kicking up snow and dirt that blinded them. Amity waved her hands over her eyes to clear her vision, and soon saw that there was a large hole where Echidna used to be.

"Shit!" Nero cursed and looked around, "She's underground."

"We have eyeballs kid, we can clearly see that," the Owl Lady snarked as she also looked around, keeping her staff ready at all times, "Any other obvious statements aside from "She could pop out from anywhere", or are you all good?"

"How about "shut up and keep your eyes peeled"," he snarked back, getting back-to-back with Luz's mentor, "That work for ya?"

"Amity, stay close," Emira said as she and Edric stood protectively in front of her while Luz joined up with her teacher and Nero. Amity did her part to look around, slowly backing away as she did. She could feel her heart pumping blood so fast she felt she would pass out. Ears rang as she frantically looked left, right, at the ground, and through the trees. There was no sign of the She-Viper anywhere, and that lack of knowledge, that uncertainty, left her more frightened than she was before.

Don't panic, Amity! J-just calm down, she thought to herself, Breath slowly and keep focused. Look for any signs of where that monster could pop out. Stick close to the group and-

The ground beneath her feet suddenly shook, briefly knocking her off-balance before she regained it. As soon as she did, however, she realized she was now a bit too far from everyone for comfort. But before she could think too hard on that, a loud, "AMITY! LOOK OUT!" came from Luz as she found herself shoved to her back. She got up just in time to see Echidna's serpentine maw ensnare Luz in its fangs, trapping her inside.

"LUZ!" Amity shouted, as did Nero, the Owl Lady, and her siblings. They watched as Echidna flew upward and into the air before slamming back down into the ground where they all stood, knocking them to their feet. Amity managed to pick herself up again, this time to the sight of the serpent zooming away through the forest, the sound of trees collapsing down following Echidna's escape.

"No," the Owl Lady muttered in an almost panicked tone as she frantically scratched at her hair, "No no no, oh crap! She took Luz!"

"We'll get her back, Aunt Eda," Nero said in a gravely serious tone before trying to console her. He then, alongside Amity's siblings, started talking with Eda to try and figure out how to save Luz, but all the while they did that, Amity was lost in her own thoughts.

I-I was...Echidna was going to get me, but Luz saved me, Amity thought as she looked down and clenched her fist so hard she was sure she almost broke the practice wand, It should have been me. Luz got captured because of me.

"Alright, sounds like we have a bit of a plan," Eda's declaration brought her mind back to reality as she looked up at the Owl Lady, who looked back to her and said, "Boots, you stay here where it's safe. The rest of us'll rescue Luz."

"No," Amity said firmly, "I'm going with you."

"Amity, it's too dangerous," Emira knelt down, letting Amity meet her sister at eye level, "We just don't want you to get hurt like...y'know."

Amity knew what she was talking about, given the guilt that was easy to see in hers and Edric's eyes, but she stood her ground, "I know, but Luz's in this mess because she tried to protect me. I'm not just going to sit back while she's in that she-demon's hands. You can tell me to stay behind all you want and say that it's "for my safety", but I don't give a damn! I'm helping you save Luz whether you like it or not!"

Her passioned declaration caused her siblings to back up a bit, looks of worry etched in their faces. Nero and Eda just stared down at her for a few seconds before they looked to each other and, after a brief moment, nodded. Nero turned back to her and said, "Alright, welcome aboard "Operation: Gardener"."

"Really?" Emira asked in exasperation.

"Plant demon and it was the first name I could think of, so shut up," Nero muttered before he holstered his sword to his back and started running in the direction Echidna went, "Now come on! Let's go!"

Edric and Emira were the first to follow, with Eda and Amity not to far behind. As they ran, Amity looked to the Owl Lady and asked, "So, what's the plan for saving Luz?"

"Simple," Eda replied, "We rush in before she has any time to think, kick her ass, and get Luz out of there while she's still dazed."

Amity had to resist the urge to slap herself at how awful that plan was. It was less a plan, more so a few basic objectives with way too much in-between details that weren't even thought about. But it was the closest thing they had to a facsimile of a plan, so she had to go along with it.

Hang on Luz, we're going to save you, Amity thought with worry as she picked up the pace, running ahead of the rest of the group as they passed by all the broken, shattered trees marking Echidna's path.

Luz wasn't sure whether to be horrified or grossed out. On the one hand, she was trapped inside the jaws of a giant snake demon that, thankfully, hadn't eaten her yet, but on the other hand, it left her covered in the demon's saliva as she was jostled all over the place, and the stench made her want to vomit. Getting trapped in a monster's mouth was something she wanted to experience before she died, but actually doing it only filled her with regret. Making matters worse, it was getting harder to breathe, but that didn't register for very long as she was suddenly spat out onto the snowy ground. As she got up, she let out a loud, "BLEGH!" while trying to wipe the green, slimy spit off her outfit.

"Welcome to my humble abode, little worm." Echidna's mocking voice came from above. Luz looked up to see that she was stuck in what looked like some kind of crevice, the walls angled in such a way that climbing out would be impossible by hand. At the height was Echidna looking down on her with smug satisfaction that reminded Luz of Gildersnake from Good Witch Azura, only a lot more bonkers in the eyes.

"W-where am I!?" Luz asked, not meaning to sound as frightened as she did.

"Wow, you humans must have some kind of brain damage. I literally just told you. Though to be fair, it's more accurate to say you're in a little nest I made just in front of my personal cave."

Wait, nest? Luz thought. She looked around the crevice and saw what looked like large seeds.

"My babies will be hatching soon, and you'll be their first meal," Echidna sounded like she was almost cooing as she looked down at the seeds, "Normally, my little Chimeras can't handle that much without infesting something first, but they won't have any problems ripping you open and gobbling you up!"

"Y-you don't know that!" Luz tried to think of something, anything, she could do or say, "I'll...I'll give them indigestion!"

"98," Echidna counted off, "Ooh! Looks like we've almost reached 100!"

"What?"

"Oh, just counting how many times someone made that threat before I fed them to my children," Echidna casually waved off, not caring at all how many lives she took, "In isolation, you have to find hobbies, after all. And it's a toss up between that and listening to people's screams as my babies ate them alive regarding what's more entertaining."

Y-you monster!" Luz shouted.

"55."

"Ugh!" Luz bit back the urge to curse, even though she honestly deserved it, "Oh yeah! Well, I'll... I'll..."

"You'll what?" Echidna dropped down into the crevice, blocking out the light of the stars as Luz fell to her rear and scooted back in terror. "Unlike the witches of the isles, you can't perform any of their precious magic on your own. You're just a pathetic little human, so why don't you do what all humans are good at: lie down and wait to be crushed!" Echidna then retreated upward and said, "Anyway, I'll be in my cave getting yesterday's leftovers ready. If my babies hatch early, try not to scream too much until I get back so I can savor it all!"

With that, Luz was soon left all alone with only the falling snow, the stars in the sky, and the unhatched seeds to keep her company. She tried thinking of a way out, but she couldn't see anything in the hole to help her, only a large stone too heavy to lift alongside a few twigs and branches.

Stupid island, stupid demon lady, stupid- Luz's thoughts became more and more angered the longer they went, but one more came into her head as she sat on the rock and let the inevitable wash over her, Stupid Luz. All you're good at is getting into trouble. If only you knew any other magic. Luz pulled out her sketchpad and flipped to a blank sheet before drawing a light glyph on it, "But the island didn't want to teach you anything. Guess this is all you'll ever know."

Luz forlornly tapped the glyph and watched as the paper crumbled into an orb of light. It floated upward against the falling snowflakes, escaping to the one place she couldn't as she watched it go. The orb flew further and further, almost reaching the sky before fading from view entirely. However, as it faded, something else came into view as she squinted her eyes and asked, "Wait. What is that?" Luz's question was almost immediately answered as the stars above looked to form a constellation, one that perfectly resembled her light glyph.

A light glyph? But how? Luz wondered as she reached out to the glyph in the sky, feeling the snow falling to her hand and face. She realized something and quickly looked to her hand where the snowflakes fell. With widened eyes, she saw within the snowflake what looked like a little glyph, this one completely different from the light glyph. She took in its details before the snow melted and washed down her gloved hand, and as she smiled, she remembered Eda's words.

"Magic is a gift from the isles," Luz repeated a couple times before she took one of the twigs and held out her hand again to catch another snowflake. After making sure she had the glyph memorized, she knelt down did her best to carve it into the ground before tapping it. The result was a small pillar of ice popping up from the floor. Magic is everywhere! Luz fully realized with a smile as she looked up to the sky, gaining newfound confidence. Grabbing the largest branch she could find, she looked to the snowy ground and back up to the sky, trying to find a good angle. Once she found that, she began drawing the largest ice glyph she could to pillar out of the hole.

However, once she was halfway done with the large ice glyph, a sudden cracking noise drew her attention. She looked and saw the seeds cracking open, making her feel like her heart was about to beat out of her chest. Crud crud crud crud! Luz panicked as she worked fast to complete the spell circle, managing to finish it just as the first Chimera hatched and flopped to the ground. The only visible parts of it were its clawed arms, with the rest obscured by tentacle-like vines. The moment it looked at her, she jumped, unwittingly activating the ice glyph as she flew out of the crevice and into the air.

"WHOOAAHOO!" Luz couldn't help but shout as she flew up before she fell down, thankfully landing in a large cushion of snow. "YES! I DID IT!" she pumped her fists into the air as she stood up, "I LEARNED MY SECOND SPELL!"

"What's going on out there!?" Echidna's voice came from behind her as Luz clamped her mouth shut.

Luz! You fool! she chided herself as she turned to see the demoness crawl out of her cave with a snarl.

"How in Mundus' name did you get out of there!?" Echidna screamed as she floated to her, Luz discreetly flipping to a page on her sketch pad with an unused light glyph. "Whatever the case, you're getting back down there so we can have our dinner," the demoness said, her face getting dangerously close to Luz's.

"Wait!" Luz shouted, "Before you consider that. Can I offer this as a rebuttal?" she then held out her sketch pad with the light glyph and slammed on it as hard as she could, causing a flash of bright light to erupt in Echidna's eyes.

"AAAHHHHHH! YOU BITCH!" Echidna screamed as she backed away, rubbing at her eyes, "Just for that! I'll gouge out your eyes!"

Not wasting a second, Luz bolted in the opposite direction of the demoness, running as fast as she could. She didn't know exactly where she was running to, only that she needed to find everyone and get out of here. As she ran, she slowed down a tad to draw out a couple ice glyphs she could use just in case Echidna caught up to her.

"GET BACK HERE!"

Which was evidently now, as Luz turned back to see that she was right on her non-existent tail. Picking up the pace, she ran faster and faster, almost running out of breath until she stumbled onto a random twig and promptly ate snow. "Blegh!" Luz spat it all out, only to gasp as a dark shadow loomed over her.

"Got you now," Echidna sneered with a sadistic smile. Luz gave a defiant glare in response and tore out one of the ice glyphs she drew, slamming it on the ground in front of her. The glyph activated and shot out an ice pillar that practically punched Echidna in the face, giving Luz enough time to get up and run away. As she ran, she heard the demon scream something about a broken nose alongside a bunch of cursing that even Eda wouldn't say. Looking back and seeing that she put a considerable amount of distance between her and Echidna, she turned a corner and picked up the pace, only to slam right into something and fall to the floor.

"OWW!" came Amity's voice as Luz opened her eyes and saw whom she bumped into.

"Amity!" she shouted, relieved to see her. Though that relief quickly turned into embarrassment as she realized she was laying atop the witch girl, hands at the sides of her head. Amity seemed to realize it too, if the extremely prominent blush on her face was anything to go by. "I-I...uh, sorry!" Luz stammered, her cheeks heating up as she jumped off and helped her friend to her feet.

"Luz!" Eda's shout came next as Luz saw her teacher rush in alongside Nero, Edric, and Emira. "Phew! Thank the Titan you're alright, kid," she knelt down and rubbed the top of Luz's scalp affectionately. Luz, on the other hand, didn't hold back and grabbed Eda in the tightest hug she could manage. Her mentor felt a bit surprised at first, but after a second, she returned the embrace.

"It's okay Eda, I'm fine," Luz reassured as she pulled out of the hug, her smile growing, "Better than fine, even. I finally learned my second spell!"

Everyone seemed surprised, but quickly gave their congratulations. Well, except for Edric, who instead pondered, "Wait, I thought you already knew your second spell."

"Uh..." Luz wasn't sure how to respond, but the loud, far away shrieks from Echidna stopped any attempt.

"Never mind that. We gotta get out of here before that bitch finds us," Nero pointed out, "So let's get moving."

"Right," Luz nodded as they all ran as fast as they could out of the forest. Soon enough, they were in a snow covered clearing with sparsely any trees. For a moment, it seemed like they were in the clear. That thought soured the moment the entire area was shaken with an ear-piercing roar that was followed by the sound of shattering trees. Luz looked back to see that Echidna's serpentine form had sprung into the air and taken flight, now heading right for them. "Uh, guys," Luz said, eyes following the serpentine, "We should probably keep ru-"

Her sentence was cut off the moment Echidna slammed down at the center of the clearing, kicking up snow and dirt everywhere. Before it settled down, another roar tore through the air and dispersed it, giving them a clear view of the demon, who looked like she was 110% done with them. "That is it! All I wanted to do was eat you all for dinner, but now you've spoiled my appetite!" Echidna screamed with a feral snarl.

"So does that mean you're gonna let us go or-" Edric asked, but was quickly silenced by Echidna.

"So I think I'll just settle for killing you all here and now!"

"...Yeah, I really should've seen that coming," Edric lamented.

"Luz, you stay back. We'll deal with her," Eda held her staff at the ready and stepped forward alongside Nero, who drew his sword and held it to his shoulder.

"But Eda-"

"Sorry kid, but you better leave this to the us," Nero added before he took off in a full sprint towards Echidna, Eda flying on her staff at his side. Next thing Luz knew, Nero jumped into the air and used ice magic of his own to form a large frozen structure to slide on, zooming around the demon and launching lightning blasts at her while Eda threw fire balls, shouting "Spicy toss!" as she did. While their attacks did some damage, Echidna snarled and spun in the air, using her tail to smash Nero's ice slide and force Eda back. Thankfully, Nero used his spectral arm to grab at the demoness' tail and pull himself towards it. The whole thing turned into Nero running along the length of Echidna's tail while she tried to shake him off, Eda launching slashes of magic energy at her all the while. Despite this, it was clear that they were struggling, as Echidna managed to knock Nero off her back and send Eda crashing to the ground with a well timed lash of her head whips.

"Amity, you and Luz wait here," Emira said, getting protectively in front of them alongside her twin, "We're going to go help them out."

"Wait, don't-" Amity tried to stop them, but they were already rushing in before she could get far, using ice magic to form makeshift snow cannons to fire upon Echidna. They didn't do anymore than annoy her, but that did allow Nero and Eda enough time to get up and start fighting back; Nero with a few illusion clones and Eda with a giant stone version of Hooty that bit down into the demon's side, causing her to scream in fury.

Not wanting to wait on the sidelines while everyone else fought, Luz turned to Amity and said, "We need to help."

"No, I need to help, you'll just get in the wa-" Amity began before she stopped and shook her head, "You'll just get hurt."

She attempted to rush into the fight, but Luz grabbed her hand and stopped her. Amity looked like she was about to yell, but Luz gave her a look that made it clear she wasn't backing down from this, and that nothing would make her. Amity relented and said, "Alright, fine. Do you have a plan?"

Luz looked back to the ensuing fight and tried to think of something to get rid of the demoness. Then she remembered how she used the ice glyph previously and saw all the open space she had to work with. Looking back to Amity, she smiled and answered, "Actually, I think I might have one."

Nero grit his teeth as Echidna's tail slam dispersed the last of his illusion clones, getting as close as he could before throwing a spectral arm to her face and pulling himself forward. As soon as he was close, he drew Red Queen and drove it into her chest, unleashing every Exceed Charge he had stored up, and enveloped the humanoid portion of her body in scorching red flames. Her screams grew louder and louder until they turned into a roar of fury as she grabbed him by the face and tossed him off, sending him rolling across the ground to regain his balance.

"Okay, anyone have any ideas?" Nero asked, his blade still impaled in her chest while the rest of her body was etched with scorch marks and inflamed skin.

"Aside from hitting her even harder, I got nothing," Aunt Eda said as she flew down beside him. She launched a barrage of ice spears at Echidna, some of which penetrated her skin while the rest were shrugged off.

"And we're kinda running out of options!" Edric shouted. He and Emira were close to exhaustion, their makeshift snow artillery having melted.

"DIE! DAMN YOU!" Echidna shrieked as she pulled Red Queen out of her chest and attempted to charge them in a state of berserker fury. Nero readied himself to deliver a spectral right uppercut to her chin, but a large magenta fireball exploded in Echidna's face, causing her to back up and drop Red Queen to the ground right in front of him.

"Yes! I did it!" Nero turned and saw Amity jumping in the air, a fireball in hand. Noticing that she was now in everyone's attention, she stopped her jubilation and blushed.

"Huh, didn't think you could do it," Emira said, causing her little sister to bristled slightly. As the youngest Blight ran up to join them, Nero grabbed Red Queen and holstered it before he turned to face the group.

"Look, guys, Luz came up with an idea," Amity explained before pointing to the girl, who looked to be carving something large into the snow, "We just need to buy her enough time to make a really big ice glyph."

Nero looked towards everyone, who had varying looks of skepticism before Eda smirked and nodded, "I think we can manage that." Her response, seemed to also get Edric and Emira on board, though they looked like they were about to argue against their sister taking part in the fight until Echidna's screech tore through the entire forest. They all turned back to see that she had went full flying snake and blitzed right for them. Thinking quick, Nero ran in front of everyone and threw a spectral claw to send himself towards the beast, latching onto her back before pulling up with all he could muster. The result sent Echidna flying upward into the air and away from everyone else.

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME, YOU INSUFFERABLE SPARDA!" Echidna screamed within her serpentine form, her flying becoming more erratic as she tried to shake Nero off. As he clutched down harder, he drew Red Queen and impaled her skin, causing her to veer down for a second and crash through several trees before he pulled and forced her upward again.

"NEED A HAND!?" Eda's yell came from his side, causing him to turn and see her flying next to him on her staff, "I THINK LUZ IS ALMOST DONE! BETTER BRING THIS PUPPY DOWN!"

"GOT IT! JUST GIVE ME A-WOAH!" Nero was caught off-guard as Echidna suddenly veered down, plummeting straight for the ground with no time for him to pull up. Instead, he removed Red Queen and let go, falling at a far slower pace. He watched as Echidna crashed and burrowed into the ground below.

"Gotcha!" his aunt grabbed his arm and pulled him to sit behind her as they flew down to meet with the Blight siblings.

"GUYS!" Luz shouted as they turned to see her kneeling far away from them with a large glyph in front of her, "It's ready! Try to get her to-"

Whatever she was about to say was unheard, as numerous tendrils sprung up from the ground around them, rearing to slam down and crush them all. Thankfully, Eda reacted in time to weave a large yellow barrier that shielded them from the consecutive whips. From behind the barrier, Echidna's humanoid body sprang from the ground just in front of them like a blooming flower, only burnt, scarred, somewhere past crazy town and repeatedly shouting, "Die! Die! DIE! DIE! DIE!"

"Uck!" Eda grunted as she knelt down, hands outstretched and radiating magic as cracks started to form along the shield, "I can't hold on much longer!"

"We need to get her just above Luz's glyph!" Amity shouted.

"And just how are we going to do that?" Emira asked in panic.

"I think it's time we pull this weed out," Nero cracked his knuckles and turned to his aunt, "Drop the shield."

Eda hesitated, but quickly nodded and dropped her hands. The second the barrier fell, Nero sent another spectral arm towards Echidna's face, but this time used his strength to forcibly pull her out. The act even cut her focus, halting her previous tendril whips as they retreated into the dirt. The rest quickly caught on to what he was doing, with Edric and Emira forming their energy ropes and Amity summoning her largest Abomination to grab at where Echidna was planted and pluck her from the ground. It took a good minute, but the demon was out of the dirt and back in the air, floating just a few feet off the ground.

"You guys pull, I'll keep her busy!" Nero shouted as he pulled himself up and got to Echidna's back, throwing a right hook to behind her head. Everyone else, from the twins and their ropes to Amity and her Abomination, all dragged the demon to where Luz and her glyph were. Even Aunt Eda managed to regain herself and manifest an energy cord at her staff's end, using it like a fishing rod to pull, all while Nero wailed used his right hand to repeatedly wail on Echidna every time she tried to struggle out of their collective grip. In almost no time, Echidna was right where they needed her to be: floating over Luz's glyph. Now for the grand finale! Nero leapt into the air and threw one final spectral claw to Echidna's head, grabbing it as he dropped down and slammed her body onto the glyph.

However, rather than Luz hitting the glyph to activate it like he expected, the pattern started to glow all on its own. "Uh, Nero," Luz began, sounding a bit perplexed, "You might want to back up."

"Wha-" Nero looked down and saw that his right hand was just touching the edge of the glyph. Realizing what he just did, he quickly jumped back as everyone else joined together.

"Ugh," Echidna groaned as she raised her head, "You damned little-" she stopped as she became aware of what was happening and looked down, "Oh balls."

Next thing everyone knew, a massive ice pillar rose from the ground as fast as a bolt of lightning, its speed and strength sending Echidna flying far into the air. They heard her terrified scream fade away as she flew higher and higher, becoming little more than a twinkle in the sky that vanished as soon as it came.

"So," Luz began, sounding like she didn't know what to make of what just happened, "You guys think she'll land somewhere on the isles?"

"Luz, I don't think she's ever gonna be landing again," Eda replied, quickly regaining her composure in contrast to her apprentice, "Speaking of, that was some pretty quick thinking. Nice work, kiddo."

Luz radiated an infectious smile that made everyone grin as Eda jostled her winter had, and by extension hair. "Well," Luz said bashfully, "I couldn't have done it without your teaching. I was finally able to make a connection! Isn't that awesome?"

"Heh, it sure is Luz. Guess this old drop out's cut up to teach after all," Eda answered, her smile becoming almost heartfelt.

"Speaking of," Emira looked to Amity, both of them having heartfelt smiles of their own, "Looks like you finally figured out how to use fire without your wand. Congrats, sis!"

"Yeah! Way to go!" Edric scooped his sister up into a tight hug, not noticing that she was starting to turn blue.

"Ed...can't...breathe..." Amity rasped out before Edric's eyes widened and he quickly let her go, Emira giggling a bit as she coughed and caught her breath. As soon as she could breathe properly again, she walked up to Luz and started up a nice conversation, Luz mentioning something about an "Azura Book Club", while Aunt Eda walked up to him.

"So, all-in-all, not bad for your first camping trip?" she cheekily asked.

"Not bad? That was freaking badass!" Nero cheered and pumped his fist up, still feeling some of the adrenaline from the prior fight. Even with all the mortal terror involved, the trip was a complete thrill ride, almost making him sad that it had to end.

"Hey, guys," Emira and her brother walked up to them, Amity leaving her conversation with Luz, as she said, "We're gonna be heading back home now. I think we've all had enough excitement for one day."

"Agreed. Not to mention we need to get back home before Hooty tears up the place and Lily starts freaking out," Eda replied, causing Nero to realize that despite the alibi, he really needed to head back soon.

"Well, we better get going then," Edric said to his sisters before turning to Nero, "And Nero, we'll see you around."

Nero smirked and gave the Blights a two finger salute, surprisingly feeling a lot less mad at them than he was before. Next thing he knew, Luz jumped up into the air and chimed, "OH! Let me get us home! I want to try something out!" she then began drawing another ice glyph big enough for all three of them to stand on, gesturing for them to do so. As soon as they were boarded, she knelt down and raised her hand to slam on the glyph, turning to them and asking, "Ready?"

"Hell yeah, kid," Nero smirked and nodded alongside his aunt as Luz slammed her hand down. The three of them flew through the air across the entire forest in the span of a few seconds, cheering as the wind blew in their faces. Overall, definitely the cherry on top of the ice scream Sunday to finish off his first camping trip.

"Mom! I'm home!" Nero's voice echoed through the house's halls as Lilith lay motionless on her bed. She laid still as he walked to her bedroom, letting a sliver of light into the dark, and whispered, "Oh, already asleep. Well, good night, mom." The door closed, leaving Lilith alone in the troubled thoughts that kept her from sleeping.

After her call with the Blights, she was left wondering what was going on. One thing she knew was that Coronis, honest beyond a shadow of a doubt, really saw Nero and Edalyn leave to do something. Since call birds tracked down whoever's number was dialed, that could only mean one of two things: either Eda went to the Blights' family home for whatever reason, which she doubted, or wherever they went, the Blights just so happened to be there and were covering for him.

Regardless, she couldn't confront him on it now. If she did after all that, she risked alienating him, and that was the last thing she wanted to happen. Of course, it didn't even seem to matter, as that was already happening. He was going out, possibly doing dangerous, life-threatening stunts and shenanigans with her rogue of a sister, and having so much fun doing it as far as she could tell. More fun than he had with her.

"No matter what, it seems I'm always in your shadow, Edalyn," Lilith whispered to herself, burying her head into her pillow. That sour envy that she held in her heart for years, the very same that led to the worst decision of her life, came to the forefront as she felt a few tears stain her cushion. She was going to lose her son, both to her own sister and to the Emperor.

That last thought in particular superseded the envy and replaced it with horror and concern. Nero was already rather scornful of taking part in the Coven System, and Edalyn's influence would worsen that tenfold. He was already on the path of becoming a Wild Witch, and there wasn't a thing she could do about it short of outright forcing him to join the Emperor's Coven.

But he'd never forgive me if I forced him into one, Lilith thought as she rolled to her back and stared at the ceiling. She could live with the distaste of her own family, having grown accustomed to the lack of affection from her mother since she joined the Emperor's Coven. She could live with her sister hating her for trying to bring her in alongside their different paths in life. If she could live with Edalyn finding out about-

Lilith shook her head to stop that line of thought. She didn't know if she could live with that and she didn't want to find out, so neither would her sister. Regardless, she was used to such things, but the very thought of her son hating her, wanting nothing to do with her because she forced him down a road he loathed, was just too much for her. She needed to be subtle, to coax him into the idea of joining the Emperor's Coven without alienating him, but she didn't know how to do that.

Nero, why do you have to be so stubborn? Lilith mused in mild frustration as she sighed, If only you'd give the covens a chance, maybe you'd find something to enjoy and- Lilith realized something and quickly sat up, "That's it!"

After she gathered her thoughts and formed a coherent idea, she rested her head down and finally managed to drift away into sleep. She wasn't sure if it would help convince Nero into the idea of at least giving the covens a chance, but it had to. For his sake, it just had to.

Chapter Text

Nero yawned and stretched his arms out before getting out of bed. It didn't take him long to do his usual weekday morning routine; shower, brush teeth, and get his Hexside uniform on. Nothing worth putting much thought into, but then again, it was a school day. There was never really anything worth putting much thought into when it came to monotony central.

"Mom, what's for breakfast?" Nero asked as he walked down the hall to the kitchen and saw his mother sitting at the dining room table. Any desire for breakfast dwindled a tad when he saw the rather giddy look on his mother's face, almost like she had something to say that she was excited about and was waiting for him to ask. Now that she had his curiosity, he reluctantly asked, "Okay, what's with that look in your eye?"

"First, go change out of your Hexside uniform."

"Uh...why?"

"Because I pulled you out of school for the day!" Mom happily answered, much to Nero's surprise.

"Wait, seriously?" Nero asked as he smiled at the thought. No Hexside meant no boring lectures or putting up with annoying social climbers for a whole day, and while things were getting better, it also meant he'd get more time to himself to sort out whatever issues he had left regarding Edric and Emira. It was all very convenient-

"And you'll be coming with me to the Emperor's Coven!"

Aaaaaand there's the catch, Nero's smile faded as he crossed his arms and firmly replied, "Mom, can't I just not do that?"

"Nero," Mom's own happiness faded as well as she grew exasperated, "It honestly took quite a bit to schedule things for today. And..." she looked away for a second and ran a hand through her hair, "...and I'd like for you to get to see the Emperor's Coven for yourself. To see if anything will appeal to you. Just think of it like those "Take your child to work" days people have."

"Mom, I told you, I don't want to join Emperor Freakshow's coven, can't you just-"

"I know that, I-!" Nero was briefly taken aback when his mother raised her voice and stood up. She briefly took a deep breath and calmed herself down, "Nero, I know that, but I feel you aren't even giving any of the covens, much less the Emperor's Coven, a chance."

"Look, I just..." Nero stopped and sighed, scratching the hair atop his head as he looked to the floor. He felt like he was about to go on a long-winded tirade about how much he didn't want anything to do with the Emperor's Coven, but he felt it'd fall on deaf ears. Mom, especially recently, was pushing harder for him to join up, and the more she did, the more it felt like she'd eventually force him to join. He didn't know why she was so gun-ho about this, but he intended to remain steadfast and avoid joining, or at least delay that outcome as much as he could.

"I...Nero..." at the sound of his mother's voice, Nero looked up and saw that she was now directly in front of him, an almost pleading, desperate look in her eyes. "I know you're...reluctant to join a coven, and I don't want to force you. I really don't," she explained with a light sigh, "I just want you to give it a chance. Just for one day. Could you please do that for me?"

As Nero looked into his mother's eyes, he thought it over. It still wasn't something he wanted to do, but he wasn't seeing what he could do to change his mom's mind about this unofficial "Take your son to work day". It's just a day, Nero reminded himself of what Mom said, Put up with it for a day and make it clear that, no, you don't want to join the asshole's dumbass coven.

"Fine," he muttered just loud enough for his mom to hear, "I'll try to put up with it. Okay?"

Mom looked surprised for a second before she smiled. "Thank you," said before she clapped her hands and started moving around the kitchen, "If you want, you can get changed out of your uniform. I'll start making us some breakfast. Would you like anything specific?"

"I'm fine with whatever," he shrugged as he headed back to his room to shift to his casual attire, reminding himself that this was just for one day and that, hopefully, he wouldn't have to do this a second time. Plus, if nothing else, he was still out of school for a day, so that was a plus.

Not like any of this Emperor's Coven shit can be as boring as school, Nero mused to himself as he got changed.

"Booooorrrrrred." It didn't take long for Nero to learn just how wrong he was about the day. "What?" he asked when Mom gave him a look, "It's true. This shit's boring as hell. Aren't you guys supposed to fight criminals and crap?"

"Well, I'm sorry, but this is how things are," Lilith replied, "Being a high-ranking member of the Emperor's Coven requires micromanaging a lot of finer details, and that naturally leads to a lot of paperwork that has to be filled out, sent, reviewed, and sent back. Like it or not, it's 95 percent busywork and a meager 5 percent seeing action."

"Yeesh, sounds like a torture chamber."

"It admittedly is, but you get used to it after a few years." That wasn't what Nero expected to hear.

"Huh, kinda surprising," Nero leaned back in his temporary swivel chair, "You're normally into this kind of crap. Y'know, watching ink dry, meticulously detailing things down to a point, that kind of stuff? Weird seeing you not enjoy it." His mom looked back at her paperwork and sighed.

"For the first few years, I did enjoy it, honestly. But it tends to get... overwhelming, to put it mildly." She then almost growled as she said, "Having to deal with little shits like Kikimora certainly doesn't help." From there, it almost sounded like she was muttering something about "That bitch" and how she liked to slip more into Mom's already large workload than what was needed.

"Have you ever considered punching her in the face?"

"Hmm?" she looked away from her work, "Oh!" she then gained an almost playful smile, "No, but let's just say that I've been able to get back at Kiki a few times over the years."

"Like...?"

"Well, Steve and I were able to stick a "kick me" sign to her back. She went the whole day getting kicked around and didn't even see the sign until she had to go home," Lilith snickered, "And then there's the time I dropped some fire-bees on her during her lunch break," she practically started laughing almost infectiously, with Nero snickering alongside her. As she wiped a tear from her eye, she finished, "The look on her face was priceless! It was just like when Eda-"

Suddenly, she stopped laughing. Nero stopped too, shocked by the shift in his mother's demeanor, as she shifted from happy and borderline mischievous to melancholic and bitter. Without saying a word, she returned to her work, giving it her complete attention and ignoring all else. For a few minutes, Nero didn't really know what to say or do, only being able to look around the office to keep himself distracted. He then stood up and started pacing around, looking about his mom's workspace while doing what he could to avoid distracting her.

"Huh," Nero whispered as his eyes scanned one of the shelves, seeing a series of books aligning the rows; they ranged from poetry books by that William Blake guy to a bunch of history and biography books. But the top of the shelf drew his attention the most, as he looked to see a series of framed photographs, all kept cleaned and organized.

The first one Nero saw was one of the frontmost ones, it being a picture of him and his mom back when he was just a newborn, based on the hospital gown she was in and the bed she laid on. He couldn't help but feel a warmth in his heart, looking at the smile his mother had in the photo as she looked at his infant self with affectionate eyes.

The one right next to it was back when he couldn't have been older than twelve, dressed up in his new Hexside uniform for the Illusionist Track. He remembered that day, how happy Mom was when he told her what track he wanted to go into, how he went on and on about the things he was hoping to learn in the track, and how she scooped him up into her arms and joyously expressed how proud and happy she was for him. Sure, the track ended up being just as boring the longer it went on, given that it was just as easy as everything that came before it, but he'd always remember that moment fondly.

Nero felt his smile slowly leave as his curiosity shifted to the photos framed behind the two featuring him; all three of which featured his mother. Nero saw her more youthful appearance and realized that they were from her early years in the Emperor's Coven. The first one had her standing upright in her white coven cloak alongside an older woman in glasses who had a whip with a Monkey Palisman at the end.

Must be her old teacher, Nero thought as he remembered the one or two times his mom would mention something about an old teacher in passing; he couldn't place the name, but he was pretty sure it was Dora. At the same time, he saw that his mom had a forced smile and a frustrated look in her eyes.

The next two images looked to be from when she gained the rank of Coven Head and her first joining the Coven, respectively. Nero couldn't believe that the latter was real, not with how different his mom looked. Instead of the straight indigo hair he'd always known her to have, his mom's teenage self had poofy hair of a vibrant red. Her smile still came across as forced, and her eyes, hidden behind thick, round frames, conveyed a familiar sense of self-loathing in them.

But then his gaze shifted to the two photos just behind the three coven images, and for a second, his eyes widened. In both were his mother as a child, but something about them stood out far more than the previous pictures of her early years in the Emperor's Coven, and it didn't take long to see what it was.

His mom was smiling. Genuinely, wholeheartedly smiling. It was the same smile she tended to have around him, only with a child-like enthusiasm added on. And the people she was with in both photos made her smile seem even brighter. In the picture to the left, Nero could tell that the girl she was giving a one-armed hug was her sister, Eda. Rather than the white hair she had today, Aunt Eda's hair in the photo was a bright orange, and her golden fang was absent. Both the sisters were looking happily to the camera with the goofiest smiles he'd ever seen, and they seemed practically inseparable from each other. It was definitely a far cry from how they acted today.

Then his eyes fell on the final picture; a family photo with Mom and Aunt Eda at the forefront, both making peace signs to the camera as two adults stood behind them. The one just behind his aunt's child-self was a women in a purple dress with reddish-brown hair that stood upright at the sides and top. Behind his mother was a man in a blue coat whose orange hair was styled in a bushy beard and pony tail. Both of the adults were kneeling down and happily hugging the children they stood behind.

As Nero reached out to pick up the last photo in his hands, wanting a better look at the grandparents he never got to know, he thought about how they all seemed like one happy family. His mom, his aunt, and his grandparents all looked so loving and joyful in the picture, and it made him wonder what could have happened to put this weird distance between them-

"Nero." his mom's voice came from right next to him. He quickly turned to face her and saw that she was longingly staring at the picture he was about to pick up.

"Those are grandma and gramps?" Nero asked, getting a small nod in response. He slowly lifted the photo frame from the shelf, brushing his thumb over the image as he continued, "You guys look so happy together."

"We were."

"What happened?" Nero regretted the question for a second, watching his mother go rigid as she stared down at the photo in his hands. She reached out for the picture, with Nero meeting her halfway to hand it to her. Lilith turned away from him and gazed down at the frame, a deprecating look in her eyes growing more obvious the longer she looked at it.

"I...i-it's not important right now," she said quickly. Nero wanted to ask what she meant, but he bit his tongue to stop himself. The subject seemed pretty damn painful for her, and he really didn't have room to pry, all things considered. Instead, he watched as she put the picture frame back in its original place, "But what is important right now is that I need to head to the Conformatorium next."

"Prison break?" Nero rolled his arm as he felt a small tinge of excitement at the idea. It'd be his first time even seeing the Conformatorium, but if he was lucky, he'd be able to sneak off and get in a good brawl and kick some ass against escapees without Mom noticing. Sadly, seeing Mom shake her head as she turned to him made it clear that wasn't going to happen either way.

"No. Just a routine check to make sure everything's running smoothly, thankfully," she gave him a more stern look, "Now, while I'm certain the Conformatorium will be safe and secure, I want you to stay near me at all times. And in the event of an emergency, you get to safety as quickly as possible. You never know what could happen with all those convicts gathered in one place."

"Yeah yeah," Nero waved off, though that only caused the look in Mom's eyes to get more steely as she crossed her arms.

"Nero, this is serious. If something bad happens, I need you to get to safety as fast as you can. The prison houses the most dangerous criminals on the isles, and if one of them so much as comes anywhere near you-"

"I get it, mom. Really, I get it," Nero shrugged, trying to hide his annoyance at his mother's usual protectiveness, "We going or what?"

His mother nodded, shoulders sagging in relief as she held out her hand and summoned her staff to it. Soon enough, they were outside the office building and flying into the air. Looking up, Nero felt a bit bad that he was kind of hoping something big would happen while he was there. Still, Nero mused, It's somehow been less boring than the usual day at Hexside. Nothing fun ever happens there.

Crud, crud, crud, CRUD! Luz frantically threw her entire glyph book into the giant magic eating snake lady's mouth, carrying Willow and Gus to safety as the monster screamed in pain.

Yup, Nero thought, nothing but boring ass school stuff.

"Something on your mind, my little raven?" Lilith asked. The clouds in the sky grew darker as they flew further and as thunder shook the air. The moment a bolt of lightning fell from the clouds, Lilith started slowly descending to get away from the electricity.

"Not really, just looking around," Nero said as he leaned to the side to catch sight of the Conformatorium. The prison itself looked like an enormous cauldron with a tower at the center, and the entire structure was surrounded by jagged, building-sized bones. "Son of a bitch! That's the Conformatorium?"

"I know, it's a rather intense sight. I certainly had a stronger reaction when I first saw it," Lilith said as they both landed and got off her staff, "Now, remember what I said back at the office."

"Stay close at all times, avoid trouble yadda yadda, I get it." Nero's mom pinched the bridge of her nose and walked ahead with a sigh with Nero in tow. As they walked, Nero caught sight of a number of statues lined up evenly at the sides of the walkway, all of them carved in states of abject terror.

"Hey, Mom, who are those statues of?" Nero asked.

Lilith looked where he was looking and replied, "Those aren't statues, I'm afraid. They're the petrified bodies of the isles' most dangerous and ruthless criminals."

"What?" Nero asked in shock at the revelation, "Mom, don't you think that seems, I don't know, fucking excessive?"

"Nero, the Emperor's law dictates that the worst of captured lawbreakers be punished at the highest level. I know it seems harsh, but it's a necessity for maintaining peace," Mom explained, brushing a strand of hair behind her ears, "And besides, it's rarely employed anyway. The last time a petrification took place was thirty years ago."

It's still really fucked up, Nero crossed his arms and stared at his mother, asking, "Okay, what was the last guy's crimes?"

"I...I'm sorry?"

"You were about my age when the last petrification happened, right?" Nero asked before he continued, "I just want to know what they did to deserve...well," he pointed to one of the statues, "That."

Mom opened her mouth and raised her hand to speak, but she ended up going silent instead, looking like she was lost in thought. Her contemplative expression turned to shock, but then she shook her head and regained it again. Nero wasn't sure what was running through her mind, but it looked like some kind of repeated cycle was going around in her head.

"Ah, Madame Clawthorne." A deep, booming voice came from behind Mom as they both looked to see a towering demon with purple skin garbed in a white cloak and black trousers. He was wearing a hood and beaked mask that completely hid his face from view, overall making him look kind of like a massive tool. He was joined by two Conformatorium guards who stood to his left and right, "Welcome to the Conformator-" he stopped and looked directly at Nero, "Who are you?"

"Nero," he replied, a bit miffed that his question to Mom remained unanswered as he crossed his arms, "And you?"

"Oh! Nero, this is the head of the Conformatorium, Warden Wrath. Warden, this is my son, Nero," she introduced them before turning to face the warden, "I apologize if this is unexpected. My son is shadowing me for the day to see what the Emperor's Coven is like."

"Ah, well then I hope we can work well in the future," the warden said to him, "There is nothing more rewarding than punishing those who don't conform to the rules of our society."

Well, good to know I was right on him being a tool, Nero groaned and cleaned out his left ear, "Whatever, can we just get this over with?"

"Nero!" Mom chastised before looking to the warden apologetically, "I apologize for that. My son can be rather...impatient. I hope you understand."

"No need to apologize, Madame Clawthorne," Wrath replied, "I have a son myself, and I understand what you mean. Besides, the inspection cannot be delayed any longer."

Mom nodded, "Right, the inspection. In any case, I'll allow you to lead the way, Warden Wrath."

Wrath gestured for Nero and his mom to follow him inside the Conformatorium, first entering the garage where a bunch of prison carriages were parked before motioning to his guards to return to their posts. The warden and Mom started chatting about security measure improvements as they walked down the halls, saying something about "recent recaptures" and how not even "The Owl Lady" would be able to escape.

Somehow I doubt anything here could hold Aunt Eda for long, Nero silently snarked to himself. The guards here didn't seem all that bright or competent for people who were supposed to keep the isles most dangerous crooks locked up.

"And now," the warden walked a bit further ahead of them to open the door, "We get to our current inmates."

Wrath opened the door and they walked into the large spiraling tower of holding cells. Nero looked up and witnessed the dozens upon dozens of prisoners held within. As they walked, he started falling a bit behind, tuning out the warden and Mom's discussion even further, only hearing something about upgrades to the holding cells. That was mostly because he was more caught up in looking at the many prisoners locked up; some seemed threatening, while other seemed so small and miserable he wondered what the hell they could have done to get locked up. Even some of the more menacing prisoners looked pretty sulking the more he paid attention to them.

"And, here we have our two most recent recaptures," Nero's attention was shifted to the warden as he stopped just behind his mom, who was paying careful attention to everything she was hearing. "These two were involved in a prison break with the infamous Owl Lady," Wrath gestured to the two cells at his side. Nero looked and saw the prisoners in question; a fanged, dark-skinned witch wearing an indigo dress whose black hair was done up in a ponytail, and a small white demon with a round body, red hair, and a very prominent nose.

"You won't siwence us!" the small demon shouted in a high-pitched voice.

"Yeah!" the woman shouted in agreement with her fellow prisoner.

"SILENCE!" Wrath shouted back, causing both of them to back up.

"Okay," the tiny demon squeaked.

"What exactly did they do anyway?" Nero asked, getting everyone's attention.

"As Warden Wrath said," Mom began, "They aided Edalyn with-"

"No, I heard that part," Nero interrupted, "But I mean what did they do the first time? You said they were "recaptures", so they were here before. Why were they locked up to begin with?"

"They refused to conform with the normal behavior of the isles, and had to be punished accordingly," the Warden answered, a menacing drawl to his voice.

"That literally answers nothing I just asked," Nero glared at Wrath, resisting the urge to clench his fist in anger. The whole thing was starting to sound more like they were just locking up people they didn't like.

"In any case, we should continue on with the inspection," Mom interrupted a bit too quickly for Nero's liking. The Warden was quiet for a moment before he nodded and continued along, Mom following just behind him. Instead of walking just alongside them, Nero looked to the two prisoners the warden showed him and Mom, seeing the curious looks in their eyes. Looking back to the fleeting figures, he spun a quick spell circle and conjured an illusion clone just behind his mother to follow her.

Figuring that's buy him at least a few minutes before Mom realized something was up, he looked back to the two prisoners once he was sure he wouldn't be heard and asked, "So, why were you two really in here earlier?"

They both looked to each other before looking back to him, the taller woman asking, "How do we know we can trust you? You came in with the warden and the leader of the Emperor's Coven, so for all we know, you could be some coven spy."

"Yeah! We don't twust you!" the round demon agreed.

Nero sighed and answered, "For starters, I'm only here because I'm shadowing my mom while she's at work, and fuck the Emperor's Coven. I don't want anything to do with it in the first place."

That last sentence seemed to surprise them, as they looked at him with wide eyes before the dark-skinned woman smiled, "In that case, name's Katya. Tiny over here's Tinella."

"Yo!"

"And to answer your question," Katya reached behind her and pulled out a book before flipping to a random page, revealing a bunch of drawings of sentient food with hearts around them. "I'm only in here because the warden hates my fanfiction. I mean, what does he have against food being in love with each other?" she slammed the book closed and grumbled under her breath, "Jerkface."

"And he thinks I'm cwazy!"

Katya rolled her eyes and pointed to Tinella, "And she's a conspiracy theorist."

"You mock me now, but we'we all just pwathings in someone ewse's cwazy fanfic! I know we awe!" Tinella ranted.

"Sure," Katya drawled out.

"Wait, but those aren't even crimes," Nero mused out loud, "Those barely count as annoyances."

"Yeah, well that's the coven's crap in a nutshell. Stay in line, or get out of life," Katya muttered, leaving Nero lost in thought, even briefly looking around to the rest of the prisoners. How many of them were just average people living out their daily lives until someone decided they didn't fit in and locked them up? Some of them might have been actual criminals, sure, but if Katya and Tinella were any indication...

"This is bullshit," Nero muttered to himself as he dragged a hand down his face.

"Agreed, but you might wanna get back to your mom before she finds out you're still here."

He thought over Katya's words for a second and moved to leave, but he ended up looking back at hers and Tinella's cells. "Can't just leave them to rot," Nero said to himself as he walked back to Katya's cell and started looking around the doorframe, "Where's the lever to open it?"

"Thewe isn't one," Tinella said and pointed to the side of her cell, "Wath weplaced them with keypads."

Nero looked and saw the pad in question, briefly wondering why they gave it a color scheme that practically blended in with the wall. He heard Katya say something about how figuring the ten-digit code out was impossible, but the longer he stared at the numbers on the pad, the more he noticed something; out of all the buttons, the 1 button was the only one to be chipped and smudged.

Nero facepalmed, There is no way these guys are that dumb. "Alright, let's see here," he brought his finger up to the 1 button and pressed it ten times over. Like clockwork, Katya's cell opened up and she cautiously walked out.

"You mean to tell me the passcode was just one button this whole time!?" she whispered as loudly as she could.

"That's just wazy witing," Tinella deadpanned as Nero moved to her cell and inspected the keypad. Sure enough, it was the same thing; a one button code...with 2 being the only used key instead of 1.

"Man, these guys are idiots," Nero snarked as Tinella's cell opened. As the small demon joined Katya, he looked to the two freed prisoners and said, "Sorry, don't think I can free anyone else. Gotta head back before Mom notices the illusion, y'know?"

"Eh, it's fine. We get it," Katya shrugged and smiled before she and Tinella turned to leave. "Oh!" she turned back to face him for a second, "And thanks for helping us. Don't know too many people who would."

Nero smiled back and ran to the hall where the warden, Mom, and his illusion doppelganger went down. Thankfully, it didn't take him that long to reach them, as he turned a corner and saw they were in a large room with a glowing pillar of light at the center. Good, they're not looking this way, Nero thought as he made his illusion back away a bit and poof out of existence, quickly taking its place just as his mom looked back to face him.

"Nero, is something wrong?" Mom whispered to him.

"Uh, n-no, just...uh," he stammered and tried to think of something before a lightbulb went off in his head as he started rolling his shoulders, "Just gettin' ma stretch on!"

Nero felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead as Mom raised an eyebrow, though she thankfully shrugged and returned her attention to the warden, who was going on about recent upgrades made to contraband security. He didn't pay too much attention, only really listening when Wrath said something about trying to make it so that not even beings from outside the realm of Limbo could bypass it. Though luckily he didn't really have to, since as soon as Wrath finished yammering and turned to ask if they had any questions, one of the Conformatorium guards ran into the room.

"Sir! We have a problem, there..." the guard started before he hunched over onto his knees, panting, "Just...hoo boy, just give me a minute. Titan, why did I skip leg day?"

"What is the meaning of this?" Wrath asked just as the guard finally caught his breath.

"Two prisoners have escaped!" The guard yelled, causing the warden and Lilith to stiffen in shock.

"How is that possible!?" the warden shouted, "Have all the guards begin searching. They couldn't have gotten far!"

"Allow me to help," Mom said before looking to Nero, "Nero, I need you to stay here where it's safe. I'll be back soon."

Whatever Nero wanted to say was cut off by his mom forming a blue barrier around him. Soon enough, she, Warden Wrath, and the guard left the room and left him alone. Not having anything else to do, he summoned his scroll and started playing games to pass the time; he played a racing game, a fighter, and a platformer for a good ten minutes before he got bored and started staring at the ceiling. Suddenly, the barrier around him fizzled out as the doors slammed open and his mom entered with an irritated expression.

"You okay, Mom? Nero asked, "You look pissed."

Lilith took a deep breath and said, "I'm fine, my little raven. It's nothing you need to be concerned with."

"So, I'm guessing that you didn't catch them?"

"No. Unfortunately, they got away from us." She muttered something about how she needed to file another report before saying, "In any case, it looks like we should be going now."

"So what now? We done, or...?"

"No, I still have one more task for the day before we can head home."

"And what would that be?"

"Inspecting the routines of the coven troops at Emperor Belos' palace to ensure they're doing their jobs efficiently." As the two of them left the Conformatorium, Nero didn't really think much of his mom's final task for the day, but as they were flying in the air, he realized what it truly meant: having to walk around in Emperor Freakshow's personal domain.

Shit! Nero thought. Okay Nero, cool it. All you have to do is put up with it for a little while. Just try to avoid that..that... he shook his head, Just avoid Belos and deal. You can manage that.

"My little raven, are you alright?" Lilith asked, stopping her inspection of the palace coven troops for a second. Nero could tell she was worried about him, even as he did his best to not let on how he was keeping an eye out for Emperor Freakshow.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Mom," Nero said.

"Nero, please don't dodge the question." Unfortunately, she didn't leave it at that.

"Look, it's just..." Nero sighed and asked, "Fuck it. Mom, you remember when we came here when I was a kid?" It took a few seconds for her to look like she remembered what he was talking about.

"I...maybe this was a mistake." She handed him her staff, Coronis unfurling his wings at the end. "If you wish to leave, you can. I'll finish my rounds and meet you back at home." It was honestly a good opportunity to head home. More importantly, the whole point of this was because Mom wanted him to give the Coven a chance, and after everything he'd seen so far, he could safely say he wanted to join even less than he already did, so sticking around for anything more was pointless.

"Actually, I've put up with it this long, may as well see the day through. I don't want to, honestly, but...well, you want me to try, so I'll try." Nevertheless, he persisted, if only for his mom.

"Okay, but if at any point-"

"I'll manage. Okay?" Lilith nodded at his response and went back to surveying the scouts and guards; the same boring routine, but he stuck close to his mom, trying not to look over his shoulder on the off chance Belos was just behind them. Thus far, there hadn't been any sign of him.

"Hey Lilith!" Nero and his mom turned around to see a man dressed in standard Coven scout attire, beaked mask and all. "And hey to you too, Nero! Man, you're almost as tall as Lilith now!" It took Nero a few seconds to recognize the voice, though he didn't have to since his mom smiled and walked up to the man.

"Hello Steve!" she greeted, "Good to see you. How have you been?"

"Oh, you know. Standard routine," he shrugged, "Marching from place to place, staring out to search for any potential threats to the castle every hour. That sort of thing."

"Eh, sounds boring," Nero said. Mom gave him a slightly admonishing look, though Steve didn't seem to mind.

"Yeah, it can get draining after a while, but it is what it is. What can you do?" Steve replied, rubbing the back of his hooded head.

"Huh," Mom looked pretty surprised, "I...don't think I've ever heard you complain about your duties before."

Steve and Mom started talking for a bit while Nero slowly started detaching himself from the conversation to wander about. He was going to look around to see if any of the interior had changed since he was last here as a kid, but a sudden, familiar voice almost made his heart stop.

"Hello, my subjects," Belos' disturbing, willowy tone caused him to jump and assume an admittedly sloppy fighting stance before he saw no one but a pair of coven scouts, one leaning against the corner wall and clapping for her friend, who bowed like a stage performer.

"Holy crap! That impression was awesome!" the scout praised while Nero sighed in relief.

Get a grip, he reminded himself,, briefly looking to his right arm and clenching his fist a few times to relax, You're freaking out like a little kid.

"Nero," he heard his mom walk up behind him and place a concerned hand at his shoulder, "Are you alright, my son?"

Taking a deep breath, Nero answered and turned to face her, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just thought I heard something."

"You sure, Nero?" Steve interjected, "You look a bit paler than usual. If you want, I know a guy who knows a guy who knows someone's cousin who's a therapist's secretary. Maybe they can recommend some breathing exercises if you need them."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Nero said a little too quickly for his liking as he looked away. It was a nice sentiment, but he didn't need or want to see a therapist about anything.

"Well, if you ever change your mi-"

"Ahem! Excuse me," they all looked down to the shrill voice and saw the little gremlin, Kikimora, looking at them with snide contempt and superiority.

"Oh, hello, Kiki," Mom groaned, the annoyance almost rolling off her in waves.

"I do hope I'm not interrupting anything important."

"Something tells me you wouldn't care even if it was important," Nero snarked at the tiny, hand-headed demon. Kikimora looked like she was about to say something, but she suddenly gave a side glance to Mom, who had a look in her eyes that almost dared the smaller demon to say something. In an instant, Kikimora took on a more professional posture and cleared her throat.

"Well, child," she started, "If you must know, the Emperor has called an emergency meeting for the coven heads in his throne room," she then turned to Lilith, "All of them. I'm afraid your mother has more important things to take care of, and she could do without any distractions. I do hope you understand."

Nero raised an eyebrow, feeling like the gremlin was trying to insult him somehow, but whatever barb was laced into her sentence flew over his head. It didn't seem to fly over Mom's head though, since her hair was starting to defy gravity and her eyes glared with azure light down at Kikimora. "Kiki," Mom snarled in a warning tone, blue flames enveloping her fist as she raised it into the air. The gremlin looked terrified and started backing away, but thankfully, Steve stepped between the two and tried to stop Mom from scorching the little shit to ash.

Mom glared at him for a second, but the way Steve shook his head made it clear he was trying to keep her from doing something she'd regret in the long run. With a sigh of reluctance, she calmed down and straightened out her hair. "I understand, Kikimora," she said evenly, though Nero could still hear the barely restrained anger behind it, "I'll be there shortly."

Kikimora wiped the sweat from her brow and regained her haughtiness, "Good, we don't want to disappoint the Emperor after all," she turned to leave, but not before stopping and glaring back at them, "And Steve?"

"Yes, Lady Kikimora?" Steve saluted.

"Get back to work."

"Roger that!" he answered as Kikimora continued to walk away, soon out of sight and earshot.

"What a bitch," Nero said.

"Yeah," Steve said with a sigh. Mom, for her part, just kept glaring hatefully in the direction Kikimora walked off in before cooling off.

"Nero, it looks like I have to go now," his mom said. "If you need to head home-"

"Mom, I told you. It's fine. I'll just do some exploring while you're busy," Nero interjected.

"And I better get back to patrol. See you guys later!" Steve waved as he walked off to do just that, leaving Nero and his mom alone. He could tell Mother was nervous to leave him to wander the halls by himself, all things considered, and while he normally found her overprotectiveness grating, he stowed that aside to give her as reassuring a smile as he could.

"You should probably get going, too. Last thing you'd want is to piss Emperor Freakshow off by being late." His mom still looked worried, so he cleared his throat and said, "Look, I'll meet you at the entrance when you're done. I think I can find my way around this place, even if it's been over a decade."

His mom let out a breath and said, "Alright, I'll meet you at the palace entrance in hopefully an hour." She hugged Nero, and it took him a few seconds to return the gesture. "Now, are you sure you'll be able to find your way around? I could set up the locator spell, just in case." Nero rolled his eyes.

"No, Mom, I'll be fine. Just get going." She finally nodded and took her leave, leaving him by himself with no one but the one or two passing guards on patrol in the area that paid him no mind. Surprisingly, he felt a tad more at ease, though he chalked that up to knowing that Belos would be at the meeting Mom was going to and wouldn't be able to run into him.

"Let it go, Nero," he whispered, trying not to think about that monster from his childhood.

With one final exhale, he moved down the hall to explore the palace. It wasn't long before he started walking down hallways lined with all too familiar murals, ones that he'd seen during his first visit when he was four. Everything felt different now all these years later, though. He remembered a time when seeing the murals filled him with this sense of childlike wonder, either because he thought the history behind them was cool, or because the images just looked impressive to him back then. Now, at 17, the longer he looked at them, the more he hated them. All he saw were monuments to a monster.

How do people actually follow this fucker anyway? Nero looked down at the floor and pondered that question a few times over. After what he saw today at the Conformatorium, he could safely say that the system Belos was leading was an even bigger load of bullshit than he already thought it was. At first he figured it must have been some kind of charisma, but besides what he felt on the guy, he remembered the few times his mom either spoke to him via mirror or brought him up in conversation. The tone she had was always fearful and kowtowing towards him, so the only reason Nero could find for anyone to kiss the bastard's ass was simple: everyone was afraid of him.

And as he sighed to himself and absentmindedly pushed a door open, he honestly couldn't blame anyone for that. I mean, I don't really have any room to...say... whatever else he was thinking grinded to a halt when he looked up and saw the relics standing tall on the room's podiums. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he muttered, "Of all the places I had to wander into..."

Much as he didn't want to, he looked around the room, everything as it was from the last time he was there. As he looked around, more memories started to seep into his head; wandering around without a care in the world, seeing the cool looking interiors of the structure, then accidentally hearing a voice and finding his way into the throne room to witness-

"OOF!" Nero snapped out of his worsening memories to see that he bumped into one of the relic's podiums, causing the relic in question to fall to the floor. Thinking fast, he summoned an ethereal arm and caught the relic just before it hit the ground. With a quiet sigh of relief, he put it back and turned to leave...

"You really shouldn't be here," …only to be stopped by someone with a bit of an annoying voice. Nero looked up to see the owner of said voice; a rather scrawny looking coven soldier that was just a bit shorter than him wearing a white hooded cloak that covered his body, which itself was garbed in a yellow tunic, black pants, and brown combat boots. His gloved right hand held a staff with a single wing for the guard and a pommel made of glowing red crystal. Probably the most attention catching parts of his attire were the golden helmet and left-mounted golden pauldron, both of which gave Nero a good idea who this guy was supposed to be.

"Don't worry, I was already leaving," Nero replied as he walked passed the Golden Guard to leave the bad memories from this room behind.

"How did you do that?" Nero stopped at the question and turned back. The Golden Guard seemed to look at him with a curious posture, "That arm thing that you did. Can't say I've ever seen that kind of magic before, and I've seen a lot of them. Is that something you learned or is it unique to you?"

Nero looked down at his right arm, hesitating for a few seconds before answering, "It's kind of a me thing, honestly."

"Huh, so your right arm-"

"Yes."

"And it can make magical constructs of-"

"Yes. Anything else you want to know?" Nero asked, a little annoyed by the questions considering what they were about.

"Look, sorry," the Guard held his hands up in surrender, "I was just curious. It was a new form of magic, and I wanted to know more about it. Y'know?"

Nero sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, I get it. Just don't like talking about it. Anyway, should probably get out of your hair. Need to leave the palace anyway."

"Fair enough," he replied, "By the way, what's your name?"

"Nero."

"Nero," the Guard scratched his helmet like he was trying to remember something. Not a moment later, he perked up, "Wait, you're Lilith's kid, aren't you? The same one she likes to gush about like, all the time?"

For a second, Nero felt his face heat up before he slammed his forehead into his palm. "Titan dammit mom," he cursed under his breath.

"I mean, I think it's nice. If my dad was still around, I'd like to hope he was gushing about me to his coworkers. If he had any, obviously," the Guard placated as he walked up and held out his hand, "Anyway, you can just call me the-"

"Golden Guard. Yeah, all the gold armor may have gave it away," Nero groaned in his hand, still processing the embarrassing new detail. He was able get over it quickly enough to shake the Guard's hand, "Anyway, uh, thanks...I guess."

"No problemo. Say, how about I walk you out?" he asked as he retracted his hand, "It'd be kinda nice to have someone new to talk to. Plus, I don't get much time to talk with anyone on the job, and these are sort of my off hours, so..."

Nero thought about it, briefly remembering what his mom mentioned about her experiences with the Golden Guard; that he was an immature brat. But he honestly didn't come across that way at all, and annoying as his questions were, they reminded him a bit of Luz and her own fascination with magic. Hell, it even reminded him a bit of his own curiosity from when he was a kid. In its own way, it was a little endearing.

"I don't see why not," Nero shrugged, hiding the ghost of a grin he had as they walked out of the relic room. Traversing down the halls, Nero tried to figure out what to talk about, but that was a bit of a struggle. Thankfully, he didn't have to, as the Guard opened up first.

"So...how's life?" even with Nero having no room to talk, he couldn't help but find that opening awkward as he raised an eyebrow. The Guard gave an equally awkward chuckle, "Yeah, I know. Not exactly a good conversation starter, but to be fair, I don't know any good conversation starters."

"Yeah, that makes two of us, GG." at the confused sound he made, Nero explained, "I mean, I don't even know your name and constantly calling you "Golden Guard" is gonna get annoying after a while, so I'm calling you GG for short."

GG raised a hand, "Actually, my name's-" before he cut himself off and started whispering to himself. He shrugged and said "You know what? GG it is. Honestly, I've never had a nickname before. Feels nice."

"Glad you think so. Least you didn't get stuck with "Claw Boy" for one," Nero grimaced.

"That doesn't sound that bad. Why's it a bad nickname?" at GG's question, Nero raised his right arm as if it was obvious. "Ooooh," GG seemed to get the picture, "But how come you don't like your right arm? Doesn't seem that bad to me."

"Long story that I ain't getting into."

"Well, if you ever feel like talking about it..." Nero didn't respond any further, instead just walking beside the Golden Guard in silence for several seconds. Seeing that GG wasn't attempting to say anything, Nero sighed, May as well give it a shot.

"Any hobbies?" he asked, GG looking at him with a tilted head to which he shrugged back, "What? I told you, this ain't really my style."

"Not judging, just..." he went silent again before answering, "Does reading count as a hobby?"

Nero raised an eyebrow, "Why the hell wouldn't it?"

"I wasn't sure if it was or not," GG rubbed the back of his neck, "Anyway, as far as books go, I recently got into a book called Ruler's Reach. How about you? What books do you like?"

"Mostly comics, manga, and anything with intense action or monsters in it," Nero answered before he started counting off his favorite series, "Far as manga goes, there's Berserk, Devilman, Bleach, and Digimon. For regular reading, I used to have some books in this series about a detective of some kind, but I lost track of them a couple years back. I also read a book that goes over the different monsters you'd find on the Boiling Isles, so, y'know. There's that."

"I have no idea what any of those are, but they sound nice."

"Well, what else do you read?" Nero asked. The Guard pondered for several moments, way too many to come up with an answer if Nero was being honest.

Before he could say anything, GG finally spoke up, "Uh, actually, that's it. I've only ever read Ruler's Reach and I kinda stumbled on it by accident when I was in the middle of a patrol."

"That's..." Nero shook his head, "You sure you haven't read anything else before?"

"I mean, I've read all the Coven manuscripts and required learning, but if we're talking about external media, then nope. I got nothing."

Nero almost felt his eye twitch trying to process that, That doesn't even...how!? Does Emperor Freakshow just keep people in his coven from reading anything he doesn't want them to? Granted, wouldn't put it past him, but still... It just didn't add up in Nero's eyes. Sure, after what he'd seen today, it had more than enough basis, but even his mom was allowed to read things outside coven purview and have a life that didn't revolve around the system. The Golden Guard was starting to sound like he was raised on nothing but coven crap.

"Fucking Emperor's Coven," Nero pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered under his breath.

"What did you say?" GG's question sounded shocked and just a tad hostile. Nero sighed as he began to realize that the conversation was now soured.

"Look, I don't know what kind of bullshit you were brought up on, but did you just not read anything other than coven required reading because you didn't have the time, or were you not allowed to?"

The Guard looked ready to retort, but stopped midway and looked down. But after a bit, he snapped up and said, "I just...I was just lucky to find something to read that wasn't "useless drivel" is all."

"Who told you to avoid "useless drivel", as you put it?" Nero asked, despite pretty much knowing the answer.

"Emperor Belos, of course."

"Right," Nero facepalmed, "And Ruler's Reach isn't that because..." He waited for an answer, but was instead met with an uncomfortable silence that went on way longer than it should have. It got to the point where Nero imagined GG cycling through facial expressions underneath his mask. Realizing what that meant, Nero simply stated, "He doesn't even know, does he?"

"I've been meaning to tell him," the Guard defended, "He just...he's very busy. You know, running the isles, maintaining peace and order-"

"More like being an oppressive asswipe," Nero probably shouldn't have blurted that out, but he didn't regret saying it.

"Excuse me?" GG grew indignant, "Emperor Belos is NOT an "oppressive a-"" he stopped and shook his head, "Not even gonna finish that sentence. Look, I don't know why you'd say that, but that isn't who he is."

"Tell that to the people he locks up in the Conformatorium."

"Oh sweet naïve Nero," Nero wasn't liking the Guard's condescending tone or the way he shook his head, "I don't know how to tell you this, but the people in the Conformatorium are criminals and monsters. They use any crime or lie necessary to get what they want. Don't really blame you for falling for them."

"Okay. Enlighten me. What lies have they told you that you, in your infinite wisdom, were able to see through?" Nero asked, his question followed by the Guard scratching the cheek of his helmet.

"Well, I've never actually talked with or interrogated any prisoners before, but-"

"Let me stop you right there," Nero interrupted with a calm glare, "How the hell can you say that the Conformatorium's nothing but liars and monsters if you've never so much as talked with any of them even once?"

"Emperor Belos has been very clear that-"

"Oh my fucking Titan!" Nero felt his exasperation peak, "Are you even hearing yourself? Belos this. Belos that. You're just following everything he says without a second thought!"

"Because clearly, unlike you, I don't ignore the good his rule has brought and make things up!" the Guard shouted back.

"And I don't blindly hang off Emperor Freakshow's every sentence because thinking for myself is apparently too damn hard!"

"Better that than a reckless rebel in the making!"

"And better that than a tyrant's bitch!"

At that, the Guard went completely silent, his posture conveying just how pissed off he was before snarling, "Take it back."

"No."

"I said," the Guard's staff flared with crimson energy, "Take. It. Back!"

Nero gave him one final cold glare, "Make me, Golden Guard."

Lilith stretched as she walked out of the Emperor's throne room, the rest of the Coven heads walking not to far behind her while Kikimora remained behind to speak with Emperor Belos. She was able to hear some idle, friendly chatter between Darius and Eberwolf, and some not so friendly chatter between Terra and Adrian, with the former sending subtle, snide remarks towards the latter. Mason, Scooter, Hettie, Osran, and Vitimir, on the other hand, were further behind from the rest of them, too much so for Lilith to make out whatever conversations they were having, if any.

Not like what they're talking about matters anyway, Lilith thought as she sped up slightly down the hall. The day was over, after all, and knowing her son's discomfort with the palace, it was time to head home. She still admonished herself for not realizing her son's fear until it was too late, but she at the very least was happy he wanted to make an effort to move past it. If he was willing to do that, maybe it was a sign that he was willing to give the Emperor's Coven a chance? Maybe she wouldn't lose her son. Not to her sister, and not to Belos.

Either way, I shouldn't dawdle anymore. He's probably at the entrance by now, She saw the hall split into four ways with the way to the entrance directly in front of her. As Lilith was about to speed up, however, a sudden dark blue blur zoomed past her at speeds her eyes couldn't track. She ran and poked her head around the corner where the blur went, eyes widening to see her son skid to a halt across the floor before rolling upward, blue flames in his left hand with scorch marks running up the sleeve of his coat. His mouth moved, making a taunt of some kind, but whatever it was, Lilith didn't hear it. Instead, she could only focus on the preceding events.

The way Nero was flung across the hall, the burn marks, his defensive posture. Someone had attacked him. Someone tried to hurt her son.

Lilith turned her head and saw her son's attacker: the Golden Guard. The brat stomped forward, staff glowing crimson as he turned into a yellow blur to strike her little raven again. That was his last mistake. Lilith was already right in front of him in the blink of an eye, and she slammed her staff into the side of his head, sending him flying to the wall. Immediately after, she blitzed toward him and grabbed him by the neck before slamming him into the wall a second time, leaving a significant imprint of his body. The Golden Guard's helmet was now cracked open, a single magenta eye looking at her before it winced in pain as she brought the tip of her staff to the front of his mask, Coronis' form burning bright.

"Don't. Fucking. Move." The world around Lilith devolved into white noise as she heard what sounded like shouts for her to stop, even from her son. For a moment, it almost made her cease what she was doing, but she was too focused on making the little shit burn for what he did. She focused her magic into her Palisman to make good on that promise, but suddenly found herself pulled back by an unknown force, and Lilith slammed hard into the wall just behind her and fell with a groan.

"I think that's quite enough of this childish display. Wouldn't you agree?" Lilith's eyes snapped open as she looked up to see Emperor Belos stand between her and the Golden Guard.

"E-Emperor Belos," Lilith stammered as she stood upright in an instant. The Emperor's cold gaze fell entirely on Lilith, leaving her doing everything she could to avoid trembling in fear.

"I don't know what led to your actions, Lilith," Emperor Belos spoke, his tone frighteningly even, "Nor do I care for that matter, but attacking the Golden Guard will not be tolerated. He's much harder than you are to replace. Is that understood, Lilith Clawthorne?"

"Y-yes, my lord. I understand," Lilith's eyes wandered to see the rest of the coven heads now witnessing the events, some with expressions of shock, such as with Darius, and others with twisted delight like Terra. Even Kikimora had arrived and was clearly enjoying the situation unfolding. But then her gaze fell to Nero, and all she felt then was worry.

She could see it in her son's eyes; the fear and trepidation at Belos' presence. It was subtle, but she could see his right arm shake, fist clenching on reflex as his breathing grew louder. For a second, she looked back to the Emperor, who now turned his attention to the Golden Guard, himself rigidly standing at attention while she slowly, but discreetly, made her way to her son to put herself between him and Belos.

"Would you care to explain what you thought you were doing?" Belos asked the Guard, who seemed almost paralyzed.

"I was just-" The Guard interrupted himself before taking a deep breath and kneeling, "I-I apologize, Lord Belos. I lost my temper and acted out of line."

"That much is obvious, as is your injuries," Belos' tone sounded rather dismissive of what Lilith had done to the Guard, "Such lapses in behavior are not to be tolerated. For your own safety, you'd best start living up to what I expect from you. Have we an understanding, Hunter?"

The Guard, Hunter, fearfully looked up at Belos and nodded, and Lilith felt relieved for a moment. If nothing else, the coven's so-called "prodigy" was facing judgment for attacking her son. It obviously wasn't for that reason, but she'd take that over him getting away with it. However, as she prepared to leave with Nero in tow, she heard her son let out a baited breath as she looked back to him. For a moment, he stopped shaking, and suddenly stepped past her to walk right towards Emperor Belos.

"Nero, what are you doing!?" She whispered to her son, who ignored her and proceeded to shout the emperor.

"Hey!" Belos and the Guard looked to Nero, who froze up for a second under the emperor's gaze. Lilith was ready to step between the two, but Nero shook off the moment of terror and said, "Look, asswipe. The only reason Hunter lost it was cause I said some shit, so lay the hell off already!"

For a moment, there was nothing but dead silence throughout the halls. Lilith stood in complete horror at her son's insult to the sovereign of the isles. Nero, do you know what you've done? Lilith's thoughts ran in disarray. For all intents and purposes, he just made himself a target, and one for the only person on the isles she couldn't protect him from. And for what? she glared at the Golden Guard, who seemed almost as shocked as she was at the turn of events, Your attacker? Why would you put yourself in the line of fire for someone like that!?

"Ah, the son of Lilith Clawthorne. How long has it been since you were in the halls of this palace?" Belos' tone betrayed nothing as he narrowed his eyes, "Regardless, this does not concern you. I suggest you know your place, and remain out of this."

Nero sneered and crossed his arms, "Yeah? Well since he and I fighting led to all this, I think it does concern me. So I suggest you quit being such a Titan damned prick already before I rip off that mask and make you uglier than you already are."

"Nero, please just stop talking," Lilith whispered to herself, tightening her grip on her staff as she felt a wave of anger roll off of the emperor. She didn't know what he would attempt, nor could she think of any way to stop him. If the worst came, she could put herself in front of her son to take whatever hit came, but after that, she didn't know.

"You've certainly grown into quite the rebel, haven't you?" Belos snidely asked.

"Coming from you, that's a fucking compliment," Nero's reply was met with another wave of anger, but it left as soon as it arrived. Instead, the Emperor wordlessly turned away.

"I'm afraid I have important business to attend to now, but I suggest you learn manners, boy. Lest you end up with an enemy you cannot hope to escape from," Lilith's throat tightened in rage at the Emperor's undisguised threat, but she kept herself composed as he walked away. "Hunter," he called the Guard, "Follow along. We have much to discuss."

"Yes, Lord Belos," the Guard answered in a resigned tone, standing and following Emperor Belos, but not before turning back to Nero with a look of confusion and, for a split second, gratefulness. The moment they were out of sight, Lilith ran up to her son and hugged him with all her strength, which he returned after a few moments of rigidness.

"Mom, it's okay. I'm fine," Nero said as he let go.

"Good," Lilith smiled before she gave him the most maternal glare she could muster, "But what the hell were you thinking!?"

"I couldn't just sit back and let him take the heat like that," Nero sternly defended.

"Nero, he attacked you. You have burn marks on your clothes and were knocked across a hall because of him. Why would you want to defend him?"

Nero rubbed the back of his head and looked down, "Because like I said, I started it, so him taking all the blame just didn't sit well with me," he admitted, "And even if I didn't, I don't think he has to put up with Belos' bullshit either."

"But-"

"Oh Lilith, lighten up on your kid," Darius walked up from behind her, Eberwolf at his side, "After that display, I'd say he's earned a break from any patronizing." Lilith blushed with a slight tinge of anger at the accusation before noticing that the rest of the coven heads were gone. "If you're wondering where the others went, Terra and Kikimora left as soon as you started hugging your kid. Something about finding the display disgusting," Darius answered her unspoken question before pointing at her son, "The rest ran away somewhere after he started getting mouthy with the emperor. Didn't want to be in the same place on the off chance Belos erupted."

Eberwolf yipped in agreement before he scurried up to Nero and briefly sniffed his boot. "Uh...what?" Nero asked as Eberwolf suddenly climbed onto his back, "What the hell?"

"Eberwolf, stop it!" Lilith shouted.

"Ugh," Darius groaned, "Mutt, would you kindly leave the boy alone?" Eberwolf leapt off Nero's head and returned to Darius' side. "Why are you like this?" Darius asked the Beastkeeping Coven's head witch, though that question went ignored.

"What just happened?" Nero asked in confusion.

"What happened was that the Huntsman was getting a feel for your sent like he does with everyone else," Lilith glared at the diminutive hairball who tried to look innocent.

"Yes, well, I suppose greetings are in order," Darius walked up to Nero and held out his hand, "Darius Deamonne," he pointed down to his fellow coven head, "And you've already met Eberwolf."

Eberwolf yipped out a greeting and a playful wave. "Uh, nice to meet you, I guess?" Despite Nero's look of confusion, he still took Darius' hand and shook it before waving down at Eberwolf. "So, Mom," Nero looked to her and asked, "Think we can head home now?"

Lilith raised an eyebrow, but saw the trepidatious look in her son's eyes as he asked. He was still clearly shaken by encountering Belos again, even if he stood up to him. With a nod, she waved goodbye to the remaining two coven heads and quickly made her way for the palace doors with her son. The moment they were outside, they flew into the air on her staff and made their way home. Along the way, Lilith occasionally looked back at her son, who remained silent the entire time. A small part of her wanted to ask him how he felt about his day, if anything today gave him a new perspective on the coven, but after what just happened, she couldn't bring herself to voice the question. It was all to clear that her intentions, to help him be more open to the idea of joining the Emperor's Coven, had ended in failure.

And strangely enough, there was a small part of her that was actually relieved it had.

Nero took a deep breath as he laid back on his bed, hands rested behind his head. After he and Mom got back home, she went to the kitchen to make dinner rather wordlessly. When he asked her what was wrong, she insisted that everything was fine and that he had nothing to worry about. It was easy to tell she was lying, but Nero didn't press any further than that. Not like he had any room to do so.

Holding his right hand to his face, he felt it tremble again just from thinking about that brief encounter with Emperor Belos. Despite his brief standing up to the bastard, he was still afraid. With a glare, he shook his head and managed to still it as he sighed, "Years later and you're still that same scared little kid." Suddenly, his scroll manifested on its own, showing that he got a text from Edric.

"Hey Nero, where were you at school?" the text read.

Opening the text box, he saw it was a joint chat shared between himself, Edric, and Emira. With a shrug, he texted back, "Mom had me shadowing her at work for the day."

"Really? Sounds boring." Emira texted, to which Nero silently agreed and texted back about what was going on now, making sure to leave out any major details.

"Yup. Pretty damn boring. Just watched her do paperwork, inspect Conformatorium, and later the coven scouts at the Emperor's palace." Nero texted, leaving out some of the more important details, if only because he wasn't sure how to properly talk about it.

"I feel your pain." came Edric's reply.

"Yeah, but at least I got to skip school for a day. So everything was less boring than it could have been."

"Oh...uh...Emira, should we tell him?"

"You already typed it, so we don't have a choice, idiot."

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"What are you two talking about?" Nero interrupted their message chain with a text of his own.

"There was a monster attack on the school today. Something called a Basilisk. Luz and a bunch of other students took it down."

Nero felt his eye twitch as he read Emira's message a few times. After a huff of annoyance, he typed, "You mean to tell me the one time there's anything interesting happening at Hexside, I fucking miss it!?" a few moments later, he got Edric's message back.

"If it makes you feel any better, we missed most of it too. We got our magic sapped out of us by the Basilisk and were out cold for the whole thing."

Nero scoffed to himself and texted, "Yeah, well at least you two were around something interesting."

After a few seconds, Emira texted back, "Oh come on. Something interesting had to happen on your day off. Like, say, you were at the Emperor's palace, so did you run into Belos? Is he as creepy as he sounds?" Upon reading the text, his mind ran back to when he stood up to the Emperor; trying to keep his nerves in check. Every second of staring him down made Nero afraid that he'd mutate into...whatever it was he saw as a kid. He didn't know what to make of it, and he hoped to never see it again, nor think about it at all for a long time.

"No. Didn't even see him," Nero lied in his text.

"Oh well." Emira texted back, "Still, sounds better than being stuck at home all day."

Nero typed, "I guess."

A good ten seconds later, Edric messaged, "We better get going. Dinner's ready."

"Nero! Dinner's ready!" Mom called out from across the house.

Talk about perfect timing, Nero mused before texting back, "Same on my end. Talk later, I guess?"

"Sure thing. See you later!" both of them texted at the same time before closing out the chat. With a final sigh, Nero hopped out of bed and walked down the hall of his house, hoping to put today behind him.

Chapter Text

Nero leaned his back against his locker and took a deep breath, doing everything in his power to ignore that time of year. Unfortunately, every waking second of the day was constantly reminding him of-

"Hey Nero, will you go to Grom with me?"

Nero leaned back against his locker and said, "No," to the Oracle Track student. "Now walk away."

"O-Oh...uh, are you sure you don't—" Whatever she tried to say next went unsaid as Nero glared daggers at her. Thankfully, she got the hint and left him alone. Nero tried to ignore Grom, but it was hard to do that when everything around him kept reminding him of it. Now that he had a moment to himself, he hoped he could get even a little peace of mind.

"Brooding again, Claw Boy?" Edric's voice chimed in from his side as he heard the locker next to his open its mouth.

"Not brooding, Blight. I'm keeping to myself," Nero said defensively. Even if he and the twins had mostly (not completely) moved on from the library incident, that didn't mean he no longer found them irritating.

"Translation: You're brooding and being more of an ass than usual," Emira said from his other side while playing a game on her scroll. "But I guess it's hard to blame you right now."

Nero didn't say anything, just wanting the day to end already. It was the same story every time Grom came about for the past few years; he'd do everything to keep to himself, a bunch of nosy classmates tried to ask him out, he'd tell them no the first time, then, if they got persistent he'd walk away and mutter, "Fuck off!" just loud enough for them to hear, then he'd get home and spend the rest of the afternoon staring at the ceiling of his room with his mom walking in every thirty minutes to check and see if he was okay. It usually ended with him just barely managing to convince his mom that he was really okay, even though that was a complete lie; he wasn't fine. This time of year was never a good one for him, given all the bad memories it came attached with. Still, even he had to admit that the self-isolating was almost as tiring as all the Grom decorum, especially nowadays.

"Moving on from that, mind telling me what you guys are doing for this shit?" Nero asked.

"Le gasp!" Emira dramatically cried in faux shock, "Interest in our personal lives? What have you done with Nero, imposter most foul!?"

"Really?"

"Come on, you gotta admit that was pretty funny," Edric laughed, with Nero sighing in defeat.

"Okay, it kinda was."

Edric wiped a fake tear from his eye and became more serious, "But in all seriousness, why the sudden interest?"

Nero shrugged and looked at the ceiling, "Don't know. Guess even I can get sick of keeping to myself."

Much to Nero's confusion, Edric was leaning in and getting close to his face, looking at him with a surprising amount of scrutiny, "Are you sure you weren't replaced by an imposter recently?"

"Aaaand now you're annoying again," Nero snarked and removed himself from his locker, walking down the hall as he heard the twins' footsteps follow.

"Anyway, to answer your question," Emira began, speeding up to his side, "Edric and I are gonna be going to Grom, as usual."

"Let me guess, the usual round of pranking?" Nero asked, at this point mostly numb to the twins' usual brand of mischief to not put up a fuss about it beyond rolling his eyes.

"Good guess, but no," Edric stepped in right next to his sister, "Cause we've got dates!"

VRRRRIIIIIIP!

Whatever shock Nero had was cut off as they all turned to the source of the noise; a younger student with a record player for a head. As two faculty members walked by, he let out a loud WRREEEK!, getting their attention, and said, "Sorry, I ha-SCRTCHH!" he adjusted his needle, "Allergies."

The two teachers helped the student to the nurse's office, leaving the usual buzz about Grom in the background as Emira explained, "So yeah, we're going out tonight!"

"How the hell did you two even get dates?" Nero asked, finding the whole thing absurd.

"Must be our magnetic charm," Edric said as he and Emira stood back to back, pointing at themselves with chins held high and some illusionary sparkles thrown in to make them look more impressive than they really were. Nero simply rolled his eyes in response, Edric looking to him and asking, "Why? Is it really that hard to believe we can get dates?"

"..."

"Oh that is just cold, even by your standards," Emira harumphed, turning away like a haughty princess.

Before Nero could give his rebuttal, however, the intercom sounded throughout the entire school, "Attention Hexside students, this is your principal speaking."

Oh boy, here we go, Nero felt his breath hitch as he looked over to the Blight twins. Though they hid it well, it was easy to see how nervous they were about being chosen to fight Grometheus. Hell, every student he could see looked like they were about to have a nervous breakdown. About the only reason he wasn't was because after that fateful Grom those few years back, Mom went to have a "talk" with Principal Bump. What that talk entailed, he didn't know nor want to, but it basically guaranteed he was never getting picked to fight Grom ever again. He didn't know whether to be pissed or thankful for that.

"This year, I have the privilege of bestowing our highest Grom honor to..." Bump paused, clearly for dramatic effect, "Amity Blight!"

"Wait, WHAT!?" the twins and Nero all shouted simultaneously, none of them really paying attention to the round of murmuring from the students around them regarding the "meat for the grinder", as they put it each year.

"Shit!" Emira whispered loud enough for Nero to hear. He looked over and saw her and Edric sharing to look of utter mortification, with her running a hand through her hair in an effort to calm down, which clearly wasn't working. Edric tried to calm her down, which was a bit hard considering he wasn't doing much better.

"Uh," Nero raised a hand and moved to them, not sure what he could say to help, but he could try, "Y-you guys oka-"

"Gotta go!" Emira shouted and ran down the halls, leaving Nero and Edric behind before she suddenly ran back and grabbed Edric's hand, "Sorry, but we need to find Amity. Good luck sorting out your issues with today, Nero! Anyway, bye!"

Edric yelped in surprise as he was pulled away in haste, dust somehow being kicked up from the clean floor in the process. As Nero coughed and waved the dust off, now seeing that the Blight twins were long gone.

Well, hope they can help Amity out, Nero thought as he walked down the opposite hall, knowing that at the very least, the twins had gotten better regarding their younger sister. As he ignored another person asking him out to Grom, he decided he needed to sort out his own issues with today. Scratching the back of his neck, he thought, Maybe I should probably start talking with someone about this? At least so I'm not staring at the ceiling or a wall all night.

And he knew just the person he could talk to after class.

Is it just me or is finding this place getting easier? Nero wondered as he walked down the familiar forest and soon enough found his way to the front of the Owl House, the annoying bird tube thankfully asleep. Good, Nero sighed in relief, Last thing I need to put up with right now is that obnoxious-

Suddenly, the door slammed open, Luz standing in the doorway and stomping outside. Nero waved and greeted, "Hey Luz, how are-", only to stop as Luz walked past him, looking rather pissed and muttering something about "fragile", whatever she meant by that. However, Nero's shock at Luz not acting like herself was rather overshadowed by the giant spider currently hissing at him from the back of her head.

"Uh, Luz, you got a giant spider on the back of...your..." unfortunately, she was already out of earshot and well into the forest.

"Boy howdy is she in for a surprise when that bug gets hungry!"

"Oh for fuck's sake!" Nero facepalmed and turned to the now awake bird tube, "Weren't you asleep!?"

"Luz woke me up when she slammed the door. It was super painful! Hoot!" Hooty chirped as Nero resisted the urge to slam his head onto the nearest inanimate object, mostly because said object was the door and that meant Hooty getting even louder. Thankfully, a blur of colors sped along the walls and now rested on the door, swirling into a familiar phrase.

"Hiya Nero!" Graff spelled out.

"Sup Graff," Nero greeted back as the living graffiti morphed into a handprint that he gave a quick high five to. Amidst that, however, Hooty stretched out and started glaring at the hand print.

"Get off my door, Graff!" Hooty hissed as Graff morphed into what looked like a sweat drop.

"Okay that's enough," Nero pulled Hooty away from Graff, "Look, much as I'd like to play mediator, I don't. Right now I was hoping to talk with Aunt Eda about something, so either of you know if she's home right now or?"

"OH! I know!" Hooty suddenly got uncomfortably close to his face, "She's upstairs in her room. You can't mi-"

"Thanks now get the hell out of my face!" Nero quickly shoved the so-called "security system" away and walked in, feeling like he'd beat the crap out of it if he stayed any longer. The loud whoosh that signaled Graff's movements followed behind him as he traversed the halls, as did the swirling sounds they made when shifting form.

He looked back and saw that they now spelled out, "You okay? Heard it's Grom season again."

Nero sighed as he walked up the stairs, "Yeah, that's what I'm here to talk with Aunt Eda about. Got some shit to get off my chest."

Graff swirled and shifted to a thumbs up before shifting again to spell, "Okay then, I'll let you two talk. Need anything, just yell."

"Thanks," Nero waved as he neared the door to Aunt Eda's room, Graff flying down the walls and out of sight. Taking a deep breath, Nero relaxed and brought his right hand to the doorknob, "Now or never."

Opening the door, he stuck his head in to see his aunt and King, the latter helping her with a brown tuxedo. Clearing his throat, he said, "Hey Aunt Eda. What's with the tux?"

As he walked in, she turned to him and smiled, "Oh hey Nero! Been a while. What brings you back to my neck of the woods?" she then gestured to her outfit, "As for the get up, I'm chaperoning for Grom this fine evening."

Nero tried not to flinch at the mention of Grom, but he must not have done a good job, since the next thing Eda asked was, "Let me guess. Personal baggage about tonight?"

"That obvious?"

"Kid, you may as well have "I hate Grom" tattooed on your face," Eda leaned against her drawer, "You want to talk?"

"Honestly, no," Nero walked over to the large nest in the room and sat on its edge, running a hand through his hair and nervously scratching the top, "But I've been ignoring this shit for a few years now. Guess I'm kinda starting to get sick of it. Can't exactly talk about it with Mom since, well, it kinda involves her, but..."

He looked up at his aunt, who understood what he meant and let out a sigh of her own. She looked to King and said, "King, mind giving me and my nephew some space to talk?"

"Ugh, when did you turn into a therapist?" King groaned as he walked out of the room.

"Hey! I am not a therapist!" Eda yelled back as King slammed the door, "I don't even have a license!" she turned back to Nero and smirked, "Well okay I have a license, but I stole it from a trash can, so I don't think it counts."

Nero couldn't help but let out a laugh, "Better than nothing, I guess."

"Anyway, what's up with you and Grom?"

Nero took a deep breath, contemplating how to answer the question. After a few seconds of looking to the floor, he decided to just rip the band aid off, "Around three years back, I fought the damned thing. Still can't stop thinking about it."

Aunt Eda was completely quiet, almost like she didn't know what to say. Next thing Nero heard was the sound of footsteps drawing near as his aunt took a seat next to him and asked, "What it turn into if you don't mind my asking?" Nero stayed silent for a bit before she said, "Don't worry, you have a certified Owl Lady promise that what's said in this room shall stay in this room. And yes, that's a thing I just made up."

"HA!" Nero laughed once more, feeling a bit lighter before remembering that terrible Grom night brought his mood down. Seeing as he was already this far in, he answered, "First it turned into a few monsters I'd fought when I snuck out. Nothing too bad apart from the Slitherbeast that slashed my arm," he absentmindedly rubbed at the limb in question, "Then it turned into-" Nero slammed his eyes shut, hating even thinking about it, but he took a deep breath and said, "It turned into Mom."

"Oh," came Eda's only response.

"She, or it, or whatever, started yelling at me for lying to her, going behind her back and putting myself in danger. Next thing you know, it turned into an ugly ass parody of her and started hunting me all over the arena," Nero continued, noting for as much as he hated remembering that day, talking about it was slowly becoming easier.

"But you did tell that fear to screw itself and beat it, right?" Eda asked, "I mean, you probably wouldn't be here otherwise if the opposite happened."

Nero shook his head, "No, I lucked out when I tried to fight it. It was a fluke, and I still can't get over that whole fiasco. I mean, that was years ago, so why can't I just let it go already!"

Once again, silence, which was starting to become a pattern at this point. Nero continued to keep his gaze on the floor, feeling too pathetic to look up. However, he felt a surprisingly gentle hand on his shoulder and brought himself to look to his aunt, who gave him a sad, understanding smile.

"Nero, I think I'm kinda getting a picture for what's going on," Aunt Eda said, "Now I'm just spit-balling here, but maybe, just maybe, you're not as a-okay with going behind Lily's back as you wish you were?"

"What? I-" Nero wanted to rebuttal, but instead wound up biting his own tongue and looking back down. Running a hand through his hair, he replied, "I don't know. Not like I like lying to her, but...I mean, I like going out and fighting monsters; the adrenaline, feeling like every blood vessel's on fire, cutting loose whatever pent up aggression I have in a no-holds barred battle with everything on the line. I like all that, and Mom's-" he sighed, "I don't want to disappoint her."

"Hey, I get it. Much as I have issues with her, I don't like making my mom upset either," Eda admitted, letting go of his shoulder, "Gonna be honest, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say here. Wish I knew what to tell you, but this whole thing feels a bit too much even for a witch of such renown as myself."

Nero snorted, "Guess there are some things that not even the, quote, "Most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles", endquote, can handle, huh?"

"To my everlasting shame, it appears so," Eda snarked back.

"It's fine. Honestly, it just feels good getting all that out," Nero admitted before leaning back into the nest and staring at the ceiling, letting himself get lost in thought. Aunt Eda was quiet and out of sight, seemingly letting him get some peace of mind now that he aired the problem out. He raised his right hand up and looked at it, flexing his fingers as he remembered the day he received the new appendage and how protective his mother become of him after the fact. It still annoyed him, but over the years, he did start to get it on some level, despite said annoyance never fully going away, yet it always made him feel pathetic. He could handle himself and didn't need to be coddled, and he just wished it felt like his mom could see that. If she knew what he could do, she'd probably be more willing to let him fight his own battles.

Maybe that was the issue? That he needed to open up about this to her? He didn't want to, as while he didn't know what Mom's exact reaction would be, he knew it wouldn't be good. But the fear that haunted him, that was brought to the forefront at Grom, stemmed from her finding out. He was able to come here and open up, so if he could manage that, then maybe he could rip this band aid off for good by talking about it with the one person he most certainly didn't want to? Before he could wonder any further, a loud snapping rang in his ears.

"Kid, you there?" Nero blinked and saw his aunt waving a hand in his face.

"Yeah, I'm still here," Nero replied and sat up, "Thanks for the talk."

She shrugged, "Didn't do much."

"I'd say being willing to listen to me bitch and moan about my problems is enough."

"You guys done?" King's voice came from the door. They looked to see the self-proclaimed "King of Demons", who was tapping his foot impatiently, "Cause of you are, I gotta get back to helping Eda with her suit. The sooner that's done, the sooner I can practice my fight commentary."

"Yeesh, you really need to learn patience," Eda derided.

"Start teaching some, and maybe I will," King fired back.

Nero snickered as he watched his aunt slap her own face, "Why do I keep setting myself up like this?"

"Think I'll head out. Don't want Mom to start getting suspicious," Nero stood up and stretched, walking past King as he looked back one last time, "See you later, Aunt Eda."

"See ya later, Nero!" she waved back just as he walked down the halls and down the stairs. The whole way through the house, he wondered if telling his mom the truth was a good idea. It seemed like the best way to handle his fears, but he didn't know if he could go through with it. As he was about to reach the front door, it slammed open and in ran Luz, seeming much chipper than before.

"Alright, gotta find-WHOAH!" Luz skidded to a halt right in front of him and fell to the floor.

"Luz! You okay?" Nero held out his hand and helped her up.

"Yeah! Just gotta go and get ready for Grom!"

"You're going too?" Nero asked.

"Not just that," she replied, sounding almost excited, "I was talking with Amity, and I decided I'm taking over as Grom Queen. Now she doesn't have to fight!"

"...what?"

Nero stood outside the Owl House just a few feet away from the front door, Hooty thankfully not bothering him this time, though that probably had to do with the headphones he was bopping to. Nero didn't know what the music was, only hearing the lyric "Bang! Bang! Bang! Pull my devil trigger!" when he exited the house originally after failing to convince Luz that what she was doing was a bad idea.

Unfortunately, Luz was dead set on going through with this, and nothing he tried deterred her in the slightest. So, after learning that Amity went to get her siblings to help train Luz for the fight, he offered to help too. Though part of that was admittedly because the more he tried to convince her otherwise, the more he sounded like Mom.

And so he waited for the Blights, all while tapping his foot impatiently. Luz, for her part, was back in her room discussing with Graff what she would wear to Grom. Aunt Eda and King were likely still preparing for Grom in their own ways, but he didn't know if Luz told them about what she was doing. Something in his gut told him she didn't though. And boy does that sound painfully familiar, doesn't it? He pinched the bridge of his nose at that thought.

"Hey Nero!" The simultaneous voices of the twins came in as he looked up to see them walking alongside Amity, who looked up at the house rather worriedly.

"Sup," Nero halfheartedly waved back.

"Luz's inside, right?" Amity asked, but before Nero could answer, Hooty stretched right past him, knocking the headphones to the floor, and got way too close to Amity's face.

"She's upstairs, two doors to the left! Can't miss her. HOOT!" Hooty annoyingly answered, "By the way Amity, did you kno-"

"Get the FU-" Amity took a deep breath and said, "Listen you Bird Tube...thing. Get out of my face before I snap your neck. Assuming you even have one."

"Sure I do, it's-"

"NOW!"

"Okay!" Hooty retracted back to the door, leaving the twins confused while Amity, who now had several feathers in her hair, quietly seethed at the house demon.

"Yeah, he's like that," Nero said, sharing Amity's frustration with Hooty.

"Eh, doesn't seem that bad to me," Emira shrugged.

"He actually kind of looks fun to be around," Edric added as Nero and Amity facepalmed.

"Of course you two would think that," Nero groaned.

"I'm gonna go get Luz," Amity interrupted, calming down a bit, "Wait here, I'll be right back."

Amity ran inside just Emira tapped Nero's shoulder, getting his attention, "By the way," she said, "Edric and I called your mom and told her you'd be hanging out with us, so hopefully that won't be an issue while we're here."

"Personally don't think it'd be an issue anyway," Edric added, hands relaxed behind his head, "Don't think this'll take that long anyway."

"Thanks," Nero nodded, though whatever relief he had at the news faltered just a bit, reminded of what he was stuck on earlier. He needed to get his mind off it, mostly because he had to help Luz prepare for her fight and definitely not because he wanted to avoid the topic for the time being. Suddenly he heard a faint music and looked down in its direction, seeing the headphones Hooty had dropped and didn't bother picking up for some reason. He walked over and picked them up, the music getting louder and rather infectious.

"Whatcha listenin' too?" Emira asked as he heard hers and Edric's footsteps walk up to his left and right respectively.

"Something Hooty was listening to earlier," Nero said as he put the headphones on, figuring if nothing else, it'd make for a good distraction while waiting for Luz and Amity.

"The darkness of night falls around my soul, and the hunter within loses control!"

"Gotta let it out, gotta let it out. Gotta let it out, gotta let it out!"

"This demon inside has ahold of me, clenching its power, trying to break free."

"Gotta let it out, gotta let it out. Gotta let it out, gotta let it out!"

Nero's eyes widened as he bopped his head, Holy shit, this is fucking awesome! He then closed his eyes and strummed his hands in the air, imagining that he was playing the guitar. The beat and energy of the song was thrilling, almost as much as when he got to just be himself and do what he loved most. Hell, he even imagined it playing in his mind during all his prior battles. Though he certainly didn't remember the echoing of his name in any of them. Not to mention it was getting louder and-

"NERO!" suddenly the headphones were knocked away and he looked down to see a rather annoyed Amity. His eyes scanned his surroundings and he saw Luz and the twins staring at him, the latter two outright laughing while Luz was holding back snickers.

"Never seen you get that into music, Claw Boy!" Edric guffawed as Nero felt his face heat up in a mix of anger and embarrassment.

"Shut up!" he snarled back, which only seemed to make them laugh harder.

"AHEM!" Amity shouted and got between all of them, "Could all of you please focus!?"

"Ugh, fine, you big worry wort," Emira groaned alongside Edric as Nero calmed down, though not before he felt something peck at his back. Turning, he looked and saw Hooty stretched out again, only covered in bruises, bandages, and an eyepatch over his right eye.

"Hiya Nero!" Hooty chirped in a strained voice, "Can I please have my headphones back? Owwww..."

"Uh...s-sure," Nero replied, still surprised by Hooty's sudden injuries, and walked over to where the headphones fell. He picked them up, still finding them playing the song, and handed it back to Hooty, who thanked him and returned to the door, bopping up and down despite the bruises. Nero walked back to the twins as Amity started explaining Grom to Luz and whispered, "The hell happened to him?"

"Mittens happened," Emira whispered back.

"Ah," Nero nodded, turning his attention back to Luz and Amity.

"Grom will transform into your darkest fears," Amity explained, pacing back and forth before stopping and asking, "What are you afraid of?"

Luz looked down in thought as Nero, Edric, and Emira surrounded her in anticipation. Edric perked up and said, "Maybe it'd help if we told you our greatest fears? Mine's being alone forever."

"And mine's being stuck with you forever," Emira bluntly stated, much to her twin's disappointment.

"Mine's..." Nero stopped himself, rubbing the back of his neck. While he could be more open with Luz than most, he wasn't sure on going into detail on something that personal, especially today. Still, given that she was now looking at him expectantly, he had to give her something, "Uh, it had antlers and a shit load of creepy blue eyes."

"Huh, monster you fought?" Luz asked.

"You could say that," Nero lied.

"Sorry you all had to bring it up, but it's okay!" Luz pulled out a sheet of paper, "I made a list of the things that scare me, so that should make things easier."

Amity snatched the paper and they all gathered to look around. Nero raised an eyebrow as he read the contents, "Luz, these things don't sound like real fears."

"Hey! They're real for me!" Luz protested, "You've never gone through the horror of debating with online jerks or reading about human souls trapped in cat bodies, so how would you know they aren't scary?"

"Because I think I can recognize a fake out when I see it."

"Eh," Luz gave them all a puzzled look.

"Luz," Nero sighed and walked up to her, "Grom's a tricky bastard to fight. It works by getting its prey to let their guard down with smaller, lesser fears. Once that's done and over with, it'll pull out the real nightmares."

"You sound like you're speaking from experience," Luz said, causing Nero's mind to flash to that terrible Grom night all over again. However, she must have seen this, as Nero immediately heard her say, "Sorry! I didn't know it was-"

"It's fine, Luz. Just forget it."

"Nero, why don't you sit the rest of this out?" Emira said, walking up and placing a hand on his shoulder, "You go somewhere to be angsty and we'll finish up Luz's training for tonight, m'kay?"

"I am not being angsty!"

"And that's exactly what someone being angsty would say," Edric snarked before becoming more sympathetic, "Look, piling your issues on top of helping Luz prepare isn't really a good combo, so best leave it to those without Grom baggage for now."

Nero glared at the two for a brief second before relenting. With a slight huff, he headed inside just as Amity started talking to Luz again. Whatever she was saying, he couldn't hear as he walked up the steps and made his way down the halls, mostly to absentmindedly look around the place.

"So Graff, what do ya think?" Nero heard as he walked past his aunt's room. Backing up and poking his head, he saw her talking with Graff while she was gesturing to her completed tuxedo. Graff swirled to form a thumbs up alongside "Looking good, Mom!", much to Eda's annoyance as she rolled her eyes. Nero chuckled a tad, which drew both their attention.

"Howdy, oh nephew of mine," Eda greeted while Graff turned into a hand and waved, "I thought you went home already."

"Was about to, but then Luz came in and we're helping her train to fight Grom," Nero answered before shrugging, "Or at least I was, but the Blights are handling it now."

"Wait, back up," Aunt Eda walked over to him with wide eyes as she grabbed his shoulders, "Luz is doing WHAT NOW!?"

"Wait, you didn't know that?" Nero asked, now equally surprised.

"NOOOOO!" Luz's muffled cries of terror sounded through the house's walls, leaving Eda, Nero, and Graff in silence.

"I'll be right back," his aunt moved him aside and ran down the halls. As he heard the front door slam open, Nero walked up to the bedroom window and opened it to see Luz in a baby stool sitting in the shadow of a gargantuan illusion of Eda. Graff glided across the window right next to him and shifted form.

"What I miss?" they spelled out.

"I don't know, honestly," Nero shrugged, not sure what he missed regarding Luz's training after he went inside. He listened to Luz and Aunt Eda argue, the latter saying that she couldn't fight Grom and that she was in over her head while the former rebutted that she'll be fighting Grom no matter what. As he watched, Nero couldn't help but find the entire scene familiar; a fourteen-year-old arguing against a protective parent when said parent voiced doubt in their ability to fight Grom. Only this time the parent was more accepting a lot faster while the child was more confident and genuinely happy, not to mention waving up at him and calling out-wait, what?

"Nero!" he blinked as Luz yelled louder, "I think we're all set!"

"Wait, that fast!?"

"No! But since we're out of time, it'll have to do!" Amity answered, "So we're all heading home to get ready!"

"Oh."

"You should probably head home too, kid!" Eda waved her hand and Nero felt something poke behind him. He turned and saw his aunt's staff, floating with Palisman's wing's unfurled, "Owlbert can give you a lift back to Bonesborough and you can get back to Lily's from there!"

"Uh, thanks!" Nero said as he hopped onto the staff and found himself flying out over the forest at high speeds, landing atop the roof of a building in Bonesborough but a couple minutes later. He looked back and saw the Palisman and staff fly back to the Owl House as he waved goodbye. As he jumped off the building and followed the quickest recognizable path home, he thought back on the last interaction between his aunt and Luz, remembering the similarities between him and his mother when he was chosen to face Grom, but also seeing the differences.

"Guess the more things change, the more things stay the same," Nero mused out loud as he put his hands in his uniform pockets and made his way back home.

It was nightfall when Eda lowered herself and Luz right in front of Hexside, the Grom decorum surrounding her former educational prison on every conceivable and inconceivable angle. As Luz jumped off, Eda noticed she seemed to have a bit of a wobble in her step and asked, "You alright kid?"

Luz jumped and turned to her, standing ramrod straight as she dusted off her mish-mash of a Grom outfit; a tuxedo with a ballerina skirt. Trying to look as brave as possible, she answered, "Y-Yeah! I'm fine. Totally fine. Nope! Nothing wrong here! Luz is totally in the zone."

Y'know, considering how long you've been staying at my place, ya think you'd have learned how to tell a better lie, Eda bemoaned that she apparently wasn't a good teacher in the art of fibbing as she stepped off her staff and sighed, "Still not too late to back out and leave it to me. I know it ain't up to school policy, but since when have I ever given a shit about that?"

"No!" Luz sharply said, causing Eda to step back for a second before her apprentice took a deep breath, "Trust me Eda, I got this. You don't have to worry one bit."

Eda stared for a second, "Reassurance is not your strong suit, you know that?"

Luz was about to retort, but an all to familiar voice came from behind, "Edalyn."

Eda swerved around and growled, "Lilith," as she glared at her older sister, who was garbed in a needlessly prim and proper black dress. Nero, dressed in a dark blue three piece suit, stood awkwardly at her side while she and Eda continued scowl at each other.

"Well, looks like you two have a lot of catching up to do!" Luz's voice cracked a tad, "So I'll be on my way. Gonna see how King and Gus are prepping up for their thing. Want to come with, Nero?"

"One sec," Nero got between his mother and Eda, "Could you guys not try to kill each other? Don't think anyone here wants a repeat of the Covention."

Both of them glared at him for butting in with Eda returning her glare back to Lily not a moment later, but she softened up when she saw her sister's own glower falter. With a groan, Eda's arms went limp at her sides, "Fine, we'll behave as long as your mom doesn't go all law enforcer on me."

"Provided that you don't become a reckless child, I won't," Lilith sniped back as Eda's gaze narrowed.

"Good enough for me!" Luz quickly butted in between them before grabbing Nero's sleeve, "Let's go in, Nero."

"WHOAH!" Nero cried out as he was pulled into Hexside. Even Eda had to let out a chuckle at how Luz was able to drag Lily's stronger kid around. Maybe all the chores she had to do were finally paying dividends.

"Ehem!" The loud cough reminded Eda who was in front of her right now as she returned to glaring at Lilith. At this point, it may as well have been a game; whoever broke the glare first lost. After Titan knew how long, Lilith finally spoke up, "Sister," she began, "You certainly look retched. What idiot tailored that suit?"

"Hey! I'll have you know King helped me tailor this suit," she crossed her arms, "And he happens to be the...okay, he's not the best tailor on the isles, but he's the most adorable."

"That explains a lot. Guess that's what happens when you're a dusty old hermit," Lily snarked, with Eda now having the sneaking suspicion she was trying to provoke her. So Eda decided to turn the tables.

"And just what are you doing here anyway?" Eda fired back, "I'd have thought that the oh so mighty leader of the Emperor's Coven wouldn't have time for crap like Grom."

"I'm here because my son is attending and he wants to support Grom's opponent," she answered with restrained anger, her temper clearly as bad as ever.

Eda smirked and said, "Nice to know that your kid's here to support my kid."

Lily's eye twitched, "Isn't Grom's opponent supposed to be Amity Blight? And a student at Hexside for that matter?"

"Oh, you didn't hear?" Eda started having fun as she flicked her hair back, "Luz offered to take Mini Blight's place. And for the record, she's been a student here for a while now."

"And just how did someone like you manage that?" Lily seethed, clenching her fist.

Gotcha hook line and sinker, Lily, Eda gave one last grin, "Just some good old fashion charisma, wit, and an affinity for cleaning up my own messes. Y'know, all the stuff you aren't good at."

Lily's eyes went wide for a split-second before she bared her teeth, "Alright, THAT'S IT!" in an instant, she had her staff out, Coronis burning bright and aimed right at her, "You want to go, bitch!?"

"Try me, sister," Eda drew power into her staff and took a stance now that she had her excuse. But before either of them could make a move, a sudden wall of Abomination sludge got between them.

"That's quite enough," the voice of ol' Bumpikins came in from behind Eda as he walked up and lowered the wall, stepping between them, "Now listen here, both of you. While I understand there is a lot of tension at the moment, you should both understand that Hexside is neutral territory," he looked to Lily, "There will be no attempts to arrest the Owl Lady while on school grounds," and then to Eda, "Nor will there be any provoking of Coven authority. Most importantly, there will be no unsanctioned fighting. Is that clear?"

Eda looked to her sister and for a second, it seemed like prissy Lily was going to ignore the authority figure's words. However, she relented at the last second and withdrew her staff, "Fine. I will adhere to your rules, Principal Bump."

"Thank you," Bumpikins smiled and walked back for the school, "Now please, come inside. Grom is in full swing, and I do believe you're both chaperoning tonight."

As soon as he left, Eda returned her gaze back to her sister, who surprisingly looked down with guilt evident in her eyes, which made Eda feel a tinge, just a tinge, of guilt herself. For once, Eda swallowed her pride and sighed out, "Listen, Lily, I want to say I'm so-"

"No, it's..." Lilith breathed out, "It's fine. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find my son," she walked past her, not even sparing a glance as that tinge of guilt Eda felt earlier grew worse. As Eda turned to walk in, she saw Lilith open the front door and stop just before she entered, "Edalyn," she began without looking back, "Tell your pet...I mean, your apprentice that I said good luck."

Without waiting for a reply, Lilith closed the door behind her, leaving Eda alone outside. Not wanting to stay out here any longer than she had to, Eda put her hands in her pockets and walked through the front door, looking up for a second to see that the halls were sparse with few students. Figuring most of them were gathered at the gym for the big fight, Eda trudged her way there for when she had to bail inevitably bail Luz out.

"Good luck," Amity whispered as she watched Luz step forward into the gym. The crowds continued cheering as Amity walked over to the bleachers where she saw her older brother and sister sitting. As she took a seat between them, she briefly looked behind her to see Nero and his mother seated just a few rows back. Ignoring her still present dislike for Miss Lilith, she refocused her attention on Luz, watching as the floor opened up to reveal the Grom battle arena, twin armories rising at the entrance. Luz looked at both and was about to select a weapon, but a sudden dark blue blur jumped down to where she was, revealing itself to be Nero.

"Hold up!" Nero shouted as he picked out a weapon from the racks; a large silver blade with a winged, draconic pommel. He then ran back up to the bleachers and re-seated himself just behind them, holding the sword at the ready like he was preparing for something to attack him. Amity, her siblings, and Nero's mother all looked at him questioningly until he replied, "Its just in case."

"Ah, that makes sense," Edric and Emira said in sync while Miss Lilith gave her son a concerned look. Amity wondered if this had anything to do with Nero's last Grom. She wasn't there to see it, but her brother and sister were. Yet despite them being the biggest gluttons for gossip she knew, whatever happened on that Grom night was something they refused to talk about no matter how much they were prodded. Still, seeing Nero nervous just made Amity even more worried for Luz than she already was.

Luz, please be safe, Amity turned her attention back to the arena as Luz chose her weapon; a spiked flail that she augmented with an ice glyph. Even with how simple the magic seemed on the surface, it never ceased to amaze Amity at how creative Luz could be with what she had. How even against overwhelming odds and despite what a klutz she could be, she was also so brave. Not to mention sweet and pretty and-

Amity flushed and shook her head as she watched Luz descend into the arena, No Amity! Support Luz now, admire her later.

"Looks like Grom's come out," Nero whispered from behind, his tone incredibly tense, as the oozing mass that was Grometheus manifested behind Luz. The blobs split and morphed into a trio of those weird cat-human things that Luz mentioned earlier. After a brief pause, Luz sent them all flying with a single, ice-enchanted swing of her flail. The crowd cheered and the small illusionist kid, Gus if she recalled right, commented on the fight, but Amity paid none of it any mind, instead finding herself completely drawn in by Luz's battle.

"Eat this, Grom!" Luz shouted, slamming down a glyph that wrapped a giant debating phone in vines before throwing it into another trio of cat monsters, splattering all of them away. Amity felt another blush creep its way onto her face as she watched Luz courageously battle against her fears. She was so...so...

Unlike me, Amity faltered for a second, pulling the magenta paper from her pocket and running her thumb along its edge, thankful that Edric and Emira were too enthralled by the battle to ask or even notice it. Luz was out there fighting Grom in her place, all because she was too much of a coward to face her biggest fear; asking Luz to be her date (possible more than that), and being turned down.

"You okay sis?" Amity heard her sister's question despite how loud the crowd was. She looked to see Emira giving her a concerned glance.

Amity quickly pocketed her love note, "Y-Yeah, I'm good. Just worried is all."

Emira looked skeptical, but didn't question beyond that as she turned back to the battle, Amity doing the same just in time to see Luz destroy another floating phone with piercing ice. Amity once more found herself enthralled by Luz's skills with her magic, her beauty, and her excitement at conquering her fears. She also noticed a distinct lack of commentary from Gus and King, though she just assumed they decided to call it a night.

However, amidst Luz's excitement, Amity watched as Grom reformed behind her, its body pitch black with a face that greatly resembled the Owl Lady. She felt her breath hitch, realizing this was it; the true fear. But Luz had conquered everything so far, and she'd always met every challenge that came her way with that same lustrous smile, as if to tell the world that nothing would keep her down. She didn't back down before, and her posture made it clear to all that she was ready to face what was to come.

Calm down, Amity, she clutched the hem of her dress as she watched Grom's new form loom over Luz. Suddenly, one of its tendrils launched forward and made contact with Luz's forehead. For a second, it and Luz's eyes glowed an ominous bright blue before it swirled, reshaping itself into a door with a large eye. Before Amity could question what was happening, the door opened, and out walked a woman in glasses wearing a turquoise outfit. More notably, her ears weren't pointed, and with how similar she looked to Luz...

"MOM!?" Luz shouted loud enough for the whole gym to hear, confirming Amity's suspicions. She watched as the apparition of Luz's mother walked forward, her words too quiet to hear from this distance, but whatever she was saying left Luz trembling and dropping her weapon. What happened next became a blur, as the apparition mutated into a pulsating, multi-eyed beast with Luz's mother on its back before chasing Luz all over the arena. All Amity could do was clutch her seat as tight as she dared, resisting the growing urge to rush headlong at that monster.

I have to do something, she panicked, Luz needs help!

But if Grom gets to you, everyone will know what you fear most, especially her, she reminded herself, You think Luz will ever feel the same way, you pathetic coward?

Amity shut her eyes and clutched at her head, That doesn't matter anymore! It shouldn't have mattered to begin with! I shouldn't have let her take my place. If I just sit here then Luz will-!

"WWWWWWWAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Luz's scream snapped Amity out of her turmoil as she watched her crush barrel out of the arena and through the gym doors, Grom quickly chasing after her. The entire audience got up from their seats in a frenzy now that the monster was free from its den, many even running out of the gym in the process. But Amity didn't pay any attention to the crowds that continued to exit the room, instead staring straight forward as a ringing enveloped her ears.

Grom was free.

The isles were in danger.

Luz was in danger.

And all of it was her fault.

"AMITY!" Edric and Emira jostled her shoulders, shaking her out of it as she looked between them, Emira continuing, "Sis, we need to get you out of here."

Amity shook her head and stood up, "No, it's my fault this happened, and I need to fix it!"

She didn't even wait for a response as she jumped down from the bleachers and ran out the gym door, meeting Luz's teacher just as they entered the halls, stopping in time to see the crowd of students and teachers run after the ensuing chase. Amity looked up at the Owl Lady, seeing that they both shared the same worried expression before shifting to a determined one.

Luz, just hold on! Was all that ran through Amity's mind as she ran after Grom alongside Miss Eda, and for those first few moments, her fear was completely forgotten.

Dammit! Mom, let go! Nero struggled out of his mother's grip as she tried to pull him in the opposite direction Grom went, away from the crowds that followed the beast, and away from its current victim.

"Nero, you need to get somewhere safe," Mom replied, voice strained as she tried to drag him off, "Don't worry, I know every safe place in Hexside where Grom cannot reach you."

"What about the others?" Nero asked. Mom stopped and went quiet for a second before she took a deep breath and turned to him.

"As soon as you're safe, I'll go deal with Grom myself. The entire student body of Hexside should know to keep away from Grom when it's loose, so they will be fine for now."

"What about Luz?"

His mother looked perplexed at the question, "What about her?"

"MOM!?"

"Look, if she's still alive, I'll help her, but first let's get you to-"

"No," Nero firmly replied and snatched his hand out of her grip, "I'm going to help her now."

"WHAT!?" Mom shrieked just as he turned to head after Luz's chaser, only to be blocked when she teleported in front of him in a burst of blue flames, "Nero, no! You are not going anywhere near that monster!"

"I've fought it before!"

"And look what happened last time!" Mom took a deep breath and calmed herself, eyes shimmering with worry, "After that fight, I watched you isolate yourself for three years. I tried to help you open up, but it felt like no matter what I did, you would always return to closing yourself off soon enough. Now, I know you've made a lot of progress in the past year, but if you fight that thing again and it gets to you..." she stopped herself, unable to finish before she looked deep into his eyes, "Please don't let me go through it again."

Nero looked to the floor, trying not to cry as he remembered every detail of his fight with Grom. But the more he remembered it, the more he thought of Luz's fight; being attacked by an apparition of her own mother for lying and fighting without their knowing. It all just hit too close to home. Seeing Luz run away from it reminded him of how he'd been doing the same thing, even now.

With a sigh, Nero gave his mother a determined glare, "Look, I get that you want to protect me, but if I wait any longer, Luz could die. I'm not just gonna sit back and let it happen."

He walked past her, only to be stopped by a hand on his shoulder, "No, I won't let-"

"Mom," Nero glared at her and shrugged her hand off, "I love you, but with all due respect, get out of my way and let me go help my friend."

"Nero-" He didn't let her finish, instead bolting as fast as he could after Grom, down the halls and out of the school itself. Seeing small bits of black sludge travelling in one direction, he followed, crushing said sludge underfoot as he ran through the forests. He lost track of how many trees he brushed past and how long he'd been running, as it seemed like the forests went on forever. It wasn't until he heard what sounded like screams that he knew he was getting close.

This is it, Nero drew the borrowed lightning sword from his back and charged into the direction of the screams, mentally preparing for the inevitable. There was no turning back now, no more running away, no more letting this beast control him. He was going to stand tall, look it dead in whatever eyes it had, and beat the ever living shit out of it no matter what form it took. He was ready to face what had haunted him these past three years.

But as he continued forward, he slowed down slightly and listened closer; the screams sounding more like cheers. He ran past one final set of bushes and into an open clearing leading to the boiling seas, but what really drew his attention was the giant tree that sat at the edge of the cliff. Taking a few steps closer, he watched its pink leaves flow in the wind, a number of them fluttering to the ground as if in a dance. However, his attention shifted as he heard the cheering again, turning to see the other Hexside students carrying Luz and Amity, both of whom had Grom crowns on their heads.

"Did I miss the whole thing!?" Nero shouted as he watched the group head into the forest, likely heading back to Hexside.

"Sadly, looks like you did," hearing his aunt's voice behind him, he turned back as she walked up, staff rested on her shoulders, "May be for the best, actually. Didn't know if she could actually do it, but she did great."

"Yeah," Nero smiled as he stood beside his aunt, watching the two Grom Queens get carried off back to Hexside. As they left his sight, he couldn't help but let his smile fall just a tad. He'd felt like he was ready to finally face Grom and all his problems, yet after psyching himself up, telling his mom off, and rushing through the forest with sword at the ready, he wound up doing nothing. While Nero was happy for Luz and Amity overcoming their fears together, he couldn't help but feel disappointed that he didn't have a chance to do the same.

"You okay there, kid?" Eda snapped him out of his melancholy.

"Huh," Nero turned to her, "Yeah, I'm good. Just-"

"NERO!" Looking up, Nero and Eda saw his mother swoop down on her staff, landing so fast she kicked up a cloud of dust in their faces. Whatever coughing fit they had was interrupted when Mom waved the dust away and proceeded to check on him, "Nero! Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened? I don't see any scars. Did you fight Grom? Is-"

"Mom, could you please just lay off!?" Nero shouted, getting his mother to back down before he sighed, "Sorry, just...too many questions. Either way, I'm fine. Didn't even get to fight the bastard anyway."

"Y-You didn't?"

"No. Got here just as the fight ended," If there was any disappointment in his tone, Mom didn't hear it as she sighed in relief. His aunt, however, gave him a look, but didn't say anything.

"Anyway," Eda said, her tone sounding like she wanted to change the topic, "Why don't we all head back to Hexside for the afterparty? Night's young, and the whole "Fighting Grom" part is stressful for everyone, so unwinding sounds good to me," she then looked to her sister, "Besides, we're still chaperoning, so it ain't like we got a choice."

Mom looked like she wanted to argue, and at this point Nero was convinced that arguing was as easy as breathing when it came to the two sisters, but she thankfully relented and looked to him, "Nero, what about you?"

He shrugged, "Eh, not like I have anything better to do," he looked down at the sword still drawn in his hand, "Plus I'm pretty sure I need to return this anyway."

"Sounds great! Race ya!" Eda ran down the path the other students did, briefly looking back with a smug look on her face, as if to say she was giving them a chance to catch up.

Nero felt an eager smirk return to his face, "Oh, it's on Aunt Eda!" he started running just as his aunt turned and continued her sprint. However, after noticing the lack of footsteps behind him, he turned back to face his mother, who looked rather downtrodden, "Something wrong, Mom?"

"No, i-it's nothing," she stammered out and forced a smile onto her face, "You two go on without me. I'll catch up later."

"Nero! I can see Hexside from where I am!" Aunt Eda taunted, her voice echoing throughout the forest. Not wanting to get too far behind, he looked back to his mother and nodded before turning to try and get ahead of his aunt. Unfortunately, she'd already left him in the dust to the point where no matter how fast he ran through the woods, he was already certain she'd beaten him. Sure enough, by the time he got back to Hexside's entrance, his aunt was leaning against the doorway with a smug smirk on her face, "And the winner of the Great Clawthorne race is I, the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles. Not too shabby for a gal in her forties, am I right?"

"You got a head start and you know it!" Nero shouted.

"HA! That's exactly what Lily would say," Eda looked behind him curiously and asked, "Say, where is she anyway?"

"She stayed behind and told me to go ahead," Nero answered as he walked through the door, his aunt following beside him, "But she looked kinda sad when I ran off. I think something's bothering her."

Eda shrugged, "Wish I could help you there, but I don't really know what goes through my sister's head these days for obvious reasons," as they approached the gym door, where the music and festivities could be heard, "Either way, I think today's had enough emotional or heavy crap, so why don't you go unwind with your friends. I'll hang out around the entrance here and wait for your mom."

"Kay, see you around, Aunt Eda," Nero waved as he entered the gym, seeing everyone dance and have a good time. After he returned the sword to the armory, he looked around and saw Amity hanging out with Luz and her friends, giggling as Luz tried to fit into what looked like an otter costume. Before he could walk up to congratulate them, however, he saw Edric and Emira out of the corner of his eye, both of them sitting in high in the bleachers and looking rather pissed. Nero wondered what was up with them and walked up the bleachers, getting their attention and ire.

"Piss off, Nero," Emira grunted.

Huh, so that's what that feels like, Nero mused before answering, "Sure, after you tell me why you look like me on a bad day."

Edric snapped, "You look like this on a normal day."

"Yeah, so stop stealing my schtick and tell me what's up."

The twins looked to each other and gave the same frustrated sigh as Emira said, "We got stood up. Our dates didn't show, so feel free to laugh now."

"And why would I laugh at that?" Nero asked.

"Fine, don't. See if we care," Edric huffed and stared at the ceiling, "Guess we're all stuck alone for Grom, huh?"

Rather than answer, Nero sat next to the twins, figuring that he might as well keep them company. The three of them sat in an uncomfortable silence that was slowly giving Nero a bit of perspective on what it was like interacting with him. At least the twins knew, for better or worse, how to break the ice and get a conversation started. He had no idea what to say or do to try and smooth things over, so he wound up watching the students out on the dance floor, all of them enjoying themselves.

Seeing all the students happy gave him an idea, "Say, since you guys don't have dates, how about I take both of you to the dance?"

"Eh?" "Say what now?" came Edric and Emira's respective responses.

"Yeah, can't believe I'm saying that either," Nero admitted.

"So...this a date or something?" Emira asked.

Nero shrugged and replied, "Not really. More or less just hanging out together. Besides, we're already here, so why not?"

They looked between each other, then back to him before regaining their usual mischievous smirks as Edric said, "Y'know, you're starting to sound a bit like us."

"Joy, you're back to your old selves again," Nero groaned, though he still couldn't help but let out his own smile after the fact. Standing up, he asked, "So are we gonna do this or what?"

The twins stood up, both flashing more lighthearted grins as they all made their way down to the dance floor and proceeded to bust a move, which didn't take long to turn into each of them trying to outdance each other. He wasn't sure how long the impromptu dance off lasted, only knowing that it stopped after his aunt tapped his shoulder and told him she, Luz, and King were heading home. Something about the otter costume getting Luz kicked out. Unfortunately, since he stopped dancing, that meant one thing...

"Ha! Blights take home the gold, Claw Boy!" Emira cheered as she and her brother did a victory dance, much to his annoyance and bemusement.

"Oh ha ha!" Nero snarked, "You only won cause I got distracted."

"Exactly what a sore loser would say," Edric replied. Nero was about to give a reply of his own, but was stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw his mother, who looked both tired and sad, though for what reasons he didn't know.

"Nero, it's getting late. We should head home soon," She said, sounding like she didn't want to argue about it. Nero looked back to the Blight twins, who looked understanding and nodded that they were fine with him heading out now. With one final wave goodbye, Nero and his mom walked out of Hexside and flew off into the night sky.

"So," Nero began, wincing at how awkward it sounded, "That went better than expected."

"I'm glad that you enjoyed it, my son," Mom replied, though like her smile before, it sounded forced.

"Mom, you doing alright?" Nero asked.

"Yes. It's just been a long night is all."

"Hm," He hummed in response to her answer before he let out a yawn. While he wasn't lying about finding things more fun than he thought they'd be, he still couldn't help but feel a bit miffed that he didn't get to face Grom, as that meant he hadn't had the chance to fully get over his fears. But at the same time, he also thought back to his time at his aunt's place and what he considered doing, I mean, no time like the present, so just rip that band aid off and tell Mom the truth now.

"Hey, can I talk to you about something?"

"What is it, my little raven?" Mom turned her head slightly to look him in the eye, and suddenly Nero found it a lot harder to get the words out. He tried forcing them out for several seconds, only for nothing to come up but stammers and sighs.

"Never mind," Nero grunted, "Maybe some other time."

"Alright my son, but know that if you wish to tell me something, I'm here," his mom said, and that was the last thing spoken as they flied home. Much as Nero hated himself for not being able to tell the truth, he made a promise to do so when he felt ready. He just hoped he'd be ready sooner than later.

Chapter Text

"Ah, Grudgby season! Oh, how I used to love this time of year," Lilith said to her son as they descended down to just in front of Hexside.

"Didn't know you used to play," Nero said as he got off her staff.

"Played? No no, my son. I was our team's captain." Lilith smirked as she thought back to those days on the field. How she bypassed her opponents' every move, dodged every obstacle, and scored point after point. She still had a couple of her old trophies stored away, though they spent most of their time collecting dust in her closet since her work with the coven began. Even then, it wasn't like she had anywhere to openly put them these days, given their size.

"Sounds like you had a lot of fun. Kinda starting to wish I gave it a shot back in those tryouts."

"Probably for the best that you didn't. It can be quite dangerous, all things considered." Lilith was putting it mildly, given the threat of vivisection, impalement, and incineration among others that the sport entailed. "Besides, last time I played, Hexside had an all-girls team. I don't know if things have changed, but..."

"Point." Nero sighed and turned around to head inside.

"Oh! Wait!" Lilith stopped Nero and said, "After you finish your classes, you'll have to walk home. There's something I'll be busy with, so I won't be here at 3:00."

Though hopefully, if things go well, I'll be finished giving Edalyn an earful long before then, Lilith mentally added, having decided a few nights prior that she'd had enough of her sister's growing influence on her son. And no, it most certainly had nothing to do with how well aunt and nephew got along and how Lilith, even now, felt lost in her little sister's shadow. It most certainly, unequivocally, definitely wasn't in any way, shape, or form related with that. This was about protecting her son from the consequences of letting himself be led astray by a wild witch. If Emperor Belos made good on his threat and petrified her son then-

Lilith shook her head, looked to her son, and asked, "Do you understand?"

"Got it," Nero replied, albeit with a tone Lilith couldn't pin down. She then noted the sudden melancholy in her son's posture and wanted to say something, but before she could, he fully turned back. "Hey, mom," he said, his voice sounding uncertain, "Can I...I was wondering if..."

"What is it, my little raven?" Lilith asked, almost sensing the fear rolling off her son, reminding her so much of his reactions to Grom. Please Nero, she thought, Just tell me what's troubling you. Let me help. You can be open with me. Please.

Nero continued to stay silent, looking away as his face cycled through a mix of emotions; first fear, then sadness, and finally frustration. In the end, he grunted, "Just...never mind. I'll see you after class." He turned and swiftly walked down the pathway to Hexside, entering its halls and exiting Lilith's sight, almost as if trying to get away from her as fast possible.

"Dammit," Lilith cursed and looked down. Every day, it felt like her son was moving further away from her, and there was nothing she could do about it. Though if there is, she looked to the sky, I know where to start at least.

She looked back to Hexside one last time before she took off into the air on her staff. As she flew, she felt her pocket mirror ring, causing her to stop in mid-air and pull it out. Opening the mirror, she grimaced to see that Kikimora was calling her, voice as smug as ever.

"Hello, Lilith. I'm calling to inform you tha-"

"Not now Kiki," Lilith interrupted, "I'm in the middle of something important."

"Now listen here, Lilith," Kikimora's agitation bled through, "As the leader of the Emperor's Coven, you must also report to-"

Lilith closed the mirror and tossed it to the ground far below, an alley cat crying out in pain as the mirror hit its head, before flying off. She had spare mirrors back at home anyway and she had no time for interruptions right now. Stomaching whatever guilt was bubbling up in her throat, she prepared herself to reprimand her sister.

Kikimora felt her eye twitch, "That...that little..." she clenched her fist, "She bloody cut me off!"

A Coven Guard opened the door to her chambers, "Madame Kikimora, I heard-"

"AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGHHH!" Kikimora screamed, throwing the mirror at the idiot's face.

Lilith landed just outside the forests that typically hid her sister's "Owl House" as she so eloquently loved to call it. The last thing she wanted was to have to put up with that irritating pest Edalyn called a security system, so she had to sneak her way through. With staff held at the ready, she proceeded through at a slow pace, avoiding leaves, twigs, bushes, and anything that could draw attention to herself.

So far, so good, Lilith mused, grateful that luck was on her side for a change when it came to visiting her little sister's domain. Provided she did nothing to attract to draw Hooty's attention, everything would work out we-

Cristle

Shit! Lilith panicked, thinking the house demon had found her, and fired a blast of magic at the source. The resulting explosion destroyed a large tree and its surrounding bushes. When the smoke subsided, it revealed nothing but dirt and the remains of at least one family of birds, which Lilith felt at least a tiny bit guilty for. Still, seeing nothing of any consequence was there, she sighed in relief. But just as quickly, she felt the ground beneath her feet rumble as a realization hit her.

"Oh fuck me!" Lilith found herself knocked into the air before landing on her butt. Shaking off the disorientation, she looked up to see the second greatest annoyance of her existence (just behind Kikimora) staring down at her with that ever-present, idiotic grin.

"Hiya Lilith!" Hooty chirped with that tone that made Lilith feel like someone was flossing her brain with a razor wire.

"Hooty," Lilith stood up and spoke with a dangerous edge to her tone, "I'm here for my sister. Stand aside or suffer the consequences."

"See, I would, but I don't have legs. Hoot!"

"You know damn well that's not what I meant!" Lilith shouted as she charged up her staff, ready to burn the bird worm to ashes. But before she could fire the blast, he burrowed into the ground. Lilith cursed and looked left and right, not knowing where Hooty would pop up from. One would think she'd have an idea how to fight this thing, having done so before, but if she could credit Edalyn's house demon as anything aside from annoying, unpredictable would be an apt word to use.

"Come out come out where ever you are," she whispered and waited for the bird worm to make his move, keeping her focus on the ground. While she expected him to burst from the ground, those expectations were shattered as she was suddenly knocked forward. Lilith rubbed the back of her head in pain as she picked herself up, only to be slammed by something in the chin and sent flying into the air. She pushed the pain aside to crack an eye open, seeing that she was now just above the trees. But more importantly, she saw the roof of her sister's house just past them.

"Doody do do doooo!" Hooty started chattering, taking advantage of her distraction to wrap her up in his tube-like body. She couldn't see, she couldn't speak, and she was just barely able to breathe. "Hey Lilith! Want to play a game?" But unfortunately she could still hear the house demon speak, even as she was slammed into the ground, her entire body wracked with pain, "OH! A bug!"

Yet the pain is somehow more bearable than hearing him talk, Lilith groaned from within her fuzzy prison as she heard Hooty chew and swallow on something.

"Hmm, what was I doing again?" Hooty asked, somehow, in his endless stupidity, forgetting that he had her wrapped up. Fortunately, or unfortunately in Lilith's case, he noticed her and said, "Oh boy! A new friend! I gotta show Eda! Hoot!"

I don't know whether to be angry or grateful, Lilith felt the wind in her hair as the house demon rushed back to Edalyn's home. She heard the door open, but wasn't moved an inch.

"Hoot hoot! Eda! Guess who found a special friend in the forest!" Lilith felt herself be pulled inside the house, Hooty shouting, "It was me! Hoot!" as he released her to the floor. She raised her head, panting to let regain her breath, and glared at her sister, who was sitting on her couch and in her old Grudgby uniform for some reason.

"Lilith," Edalyn glared back, putting a lunchbox into her mess of a hairdo.

"Edalyn," Lilith stood up and was about to continue, but the bird worm beat her to the punch.

"HOOTY!"

"Beat it, Hooty," Edalyn walked up, gesturing for the house demon to leave. Thankfully, he obliged and retreated back into his door, leaving Lilith alone with her sister and hoping she didn't have to put up with Hooty for the rest of the visit.

"What's with your old uniform?" Lilith asked, still wondering on that.

"Laundry day," Edalyn said. "What are you doing here?" Lilith opened her mouth to answer, but her sister cut her off with, "Wait! Don't tell me." She cleared her throat and said, "'Edalyn Clawthorne. I, Perfect Prissy Lily, hereby arrest you under the orders of his royal high-ass.' Am I close?"

Lilith pinched the bridge of her nose and said, "Okay, first of all, I sound nothing like that!"

"You sound exactly like that."

"Shut up! Secondly, I'm not here on Coven business." Edalyn stopped laughing.

"Okay then, Lily, so what's with the visit? 'Cause I'm just gonna go out on a limb and guess this isn't to catch up."

"It's simple," Lilith moved just in front of Edalyn, glared at her, and poked her chest. "Stay away from my son. The last thing he needs is you twisting him into a wild witch."

Edalyn raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? That's why you're here? Think you're being a bit paranoid, sis," she shrugged and moved to sit back down, "Besides, not like I run into your kid enough to actually be that big an influence on him."

"Don't lie to me!" Lilith shouted, "If that wasn't the case, he wouldn't be visiting this place and accepting dangerous gifts like a Titan damned fire sword!"

"Oh please that-" Eda stood ramrod straight and swerved, looking at Lilith with wide eyes, "Wait how did you know that?" Now Lilith's eyes widened as she clamped her mouth shut, realizing she'd said too much. She heard her sister mutter something about a "white bird" before glaring, "You sent Coronis to spy on your own kid, didn't you!?"

"Shit!" Lilith muttered as Edalyn rubbed her temples.

"Really sis? I mean, even Mom never went that far!"

Lilith briefly froze at the reminder of their mother before. However, she shook her head and pushed that giant lump of bitterness aside for now before continuing, "Look, my point is that he's sneaking out here and taking after you. If this continues, he'll wind up just like you!"

"An awesome, kickass witch who spits in the face of danger and gets to do whatever, whenever?" Edalyn smirked, twisting her body and flipping her hair.

In response, Lilith sneered, "A wild witch who's one step away from being arrested and possibly even petrified."

Eda frowned and fully turned to her, "Well gee, maybe if you didn't make your own kid feel so suffocated, he wouldn't be coming here to get some space!"

Lilith froze as she tried to process what she'd just heard, "What?"

"Didn't it ever once occur to you that you're being just a bit too smothering towards Nero?" Edalyn answered, this time walking up and poking her in the chest, "You're right, he does come here to visit, but he only really comes here because he needs a break from your overprotective parenting."

"I..."Lilith stammered, feeling her face heat up with rage, "Edalyn, the isles are a dangerous place for any child growing up. Don't you remember everything our parents had to save us from when we were children? You may call it being overprotective, but with the isles the way they are, it's necessary to protect my child."

And that's just the normal environmental hazards, Lilith thought, remembering Berial's words from all those years ago; of how he and others like him hunted those with Sparda's blood, and that included her son. With those rogues now in hiding, who knew if they'd managed to summon other demon lords to the isles? That was also discounting the likes of Echidna, whose whereabouts were still unknown, and Berial himself, who could come to the isles on his own power.

Edalyn glared and fired back, "Lilith, I think you need to start wearing glasses again, because in case you haven't noticed, your son ain't a kid anymore!"

"I know that! But I'm doing this for his own good!"

"And just what makes you know what's best for others?" Eda shouted, "You honestly think me joining Emperor Asshole's coven is gonna undo this curse of mine, but what then? I'll be stuck living the rest of my life as his fucking puppet like you!"

"Edalyn, I-"

"Not to mention that it's just a bit insulting that you don't think your own kid can hold his own," Her sister interrupted her, "I mean, I'll admit I have some doubts in Luz from time-to-time, but she usually always proves me wrong. Much as you want to keep Nero safe, he can hold his own against what the world throws at him just fine."

"And just how would you know that?" Lilith bristled, trying to keep herself in check, "Do you honestly think you know my son better than I do?"

"Well considering your kid can hold his own against a Titan damned demon lord, I'd say you don't know him all that well!" Edalyn snapped before she blinked, her eyes widening as she slapped a hand to her mouth. Lilith felt her mind go a million miles away, everything becoming a loud, discordant static as she lost all control of her body. She tried to comprehend what came out of her sister's mouth until finally, her mind caught up with her mouth, letting her speak.

"What?"

"Uh...curse is making me say random non-sequiturs?" If Edalyn was trying to distract her, it wasn't working. Lilith gave way to complete shock and anger, grabbing her sister by the scuff of her Grudgby uniform and pulling her close.

"WHAT!?" She shrieked, not wanting to believe what she'd just heard.

Edalyn removed herself from Lilith's grip and huffed, "Okay, fine, so when we went to the Knee, we ran into some demon chick named Echidna and fought her. But-"

"Edalyn," Lilith growled, now knowing that her son had an encounter with one of the monsters out for his blood. It took all her willpower to keep her from attacking her sister for such action then and there, "You put my son in danger! Do you have any fucking idea what something like that would do to him!?"

"Wouldn't know since me, him, Luz, and the baby Blights all kicked her ass and sent her into the sky," Edalyn retorted, "So yeah, Nero can handle himself just fine."

"That's not the point! I-"

"Then what is the point, oh sister of mine?" Edalyn interrupted Lilith, glaring deeper than she had previously, "That keeping him tightly monitored and treating him like a baby is better? I may not be mother material, but even I know that's shitty parenting. What's next? Gonna lock him up in his room if he starts acting out, wanting to go adventuring and fighting against the crap the world has in store for him?"

Lilith glared back, "I will do whatever it takes to protect my son. I may not like it, but if it comes down to it...well, better that than hurt, dead, or petrified for eternity."

"If that's really how you feel, then all you're gonna do is make him hate you, Lilith," Her sister concluded as Lilith clenched her fist, an orb of heat forming in her palm.

"Uh..." the high-pitched voice halted their argument as they both looked down to see the small, furry creature with a skull on his head; King, if Lilith remembered correctly. She'd been so caught up in dealing with her sister that she hadn't even noticed him. "Can I leave?" he asked, "This is making me really uncomfortable."

Edalyn's anger faded for a moment before she knelt down to meet her pet at eye level, "Sure, why don't you head upstairs. This'll be over soon, alright?" King nodded and ran out of the room, leaving Lilith alone with her sister, who stood up and levelled one last glare at her, "Lilith, if you're done here, then get the hell out of my house."

"Not yet," Lilith said before looking at her sister's uniform, an idea forming as she smirked, "In fact, given what season it is, why don't we have ourselves a wager. I challenge you to a Grudgby match."

"Eh?"

In response to her sister's confusion, Lilith explained, "Simple, if you win the match, then I'll leave and not return to your abode for about a month. Given my job and your criminal status, that's the most I can manage."

Edalyn nodded, "And if you win?"

"If I win, then you'll stay away from my son for good," Lilith finished, "Do we have a deal?"

Lilith watched her sister ponder on it for but a few moments. However, she just as quickly dawned a confident smile and answered, "Game on, Lily."

Nero walked out of Hexside, same time as everyone else, and let himself get lost in thought. It was the same thought that had been plaguing him since the previous Grom, and what had taken up head space the entire day as he coasted through his classes.

Okay, so Mom, we need to talk, Nero thought. For the longest time, I've been going out and—No, that's not right.

"Yo! Claw Boy!" Emira shouted, Nero stopping and turning back to see her and Edric walking out of school. He decided to let them catch up before continuing down the path. "How's it been?" Emira asked, "You looked kind of out of it today."

"Nothing, just..." Nero sighed, "Just working some shit out."

"This have anything to do with Grom?" Edric asked, dropping the usual mischief and sounding more concerned.

Nero shook his head, "No. Well, sorta," he rubbed the back of his head, "I was planning on telling Mom everything about, y'know, that," the twins looked to each other in confusion before Nero clarified, "The thing with me going out to fight monsters behind her back."

Edric and Emira's eyes widened before they nodded in understanding, though Emira was quick to smirk and say, "So does this mean I won't be able to use it as blackmail material anymore?"

"Oh hardy friggin' har," Nero deadpanned as the twins laughed. Part of Nero wanted to laugh with them this time, if only cause he knew it was a joke, but he just couldn't. At least, not with his mind being such a mess of worry as it was now. Thankfully, Edric and Emira got the hint and stopped laughing. They ended up in a mellow silence that continued all the way until the twins reached their carriage, Nero stopping just in front as the Abomination servant opened the door to let the Blights in.

Edric was about to enter first, but he looked back, "So about telling your mom," he began before asking, "If you're going to, maybe it'd help if we helped?" Nero raised an eyebrow as Edric clarified, "I mean, what if you practice with us so you can get a good confidence boost?"

"I don't know..."

"Come on, Nero, it's pretty obvious that you're not gonna get that boost by yourself. Besides," Emira stepped in and rested and took both Nero and Edric into one-armed grabs, her brother more willing, "It's the least we could do after that whole mess with the demon lady."

Nero remained silent, still not sure on getting help, especially from the Blight twins. If he did want help with this, then his closest option was Luz, but she was busy practicing for some after-school Grudgby thing last he heard. Still, he had a sinking feeling Edric and Emira weren't gonna give him a choice in the matter. As if to prove his point...

"Hey," Edric pulled away from his sister's grasp and stepped up to the Abomination, "Could you maybe drive this over to Nero's? You can pick us up there."

The Abomination nodded, and soon enough, the carriage was on its way and out of sight. Nero sighed as he saw the twins give him smug smirks, "Alright, seeing as you have me in a box, you can help."

"Yes!" they both pumped their fists into the air as they all started walking down the road to Nero's house, Emira asking, "So where do we start?"

"For starters, no overdramatic renditions of my mom reacting to the truth," Nero replied, at this point wondering why he bothered.

"No promises," Edric cheerfully said as he cast an illusion of his mom that walked alongside them, a stern glare piercing into his eyes, leaving Nero to groan and drag his hand down his face.

This is gonna be a long walk.

Lilith stood idly by in the makeshift Grudgby arena Edalyn had set up for their match. Hooty was going over the rules while King stood at the side dressed in a cheerleader uniform he was convinced was "armor of intimidation", something she didn't want to admit to finding amusing.

"Since pencil pushing for all these years may have left you rusty, I'll go easy on you," Edalyn said as she threw the ball to Lilith. Lilith caught the ball with her knee and began performing some tricks with it, all the while smirking at her sister.

"Remember, little sister, you may have been our star player, but I was team captain for a reason," Lilith said, spinning the ball on her finger before throwing it back at Edalyn.

Not a second later, Hooty blew the whistle, and the game began. Lilith struck first and managed to take the ball as it went straight into the air, Edalyn hot on her heels. She weaved past the bird worm as he played the part of a sudden pillar, making a direct b-line towards the haphazardly constructed Grudgby goal.

HA! First blood Edalyn! Lilith happily thought, feeling a rush of excitement as she threw the ball at the net. However, that excitement turned to bitterness and shock as her sister managed to dart ahead and grab the ball midair.

"Not so fast!" she gloated before rushing right past Lilith, who was still processing what just happened. Growling in frustrating, Lilith ran after her sister, watching as she leapt over the house demon's attempt to block her. Not willing to let her get the first goal, Lilith summoned forth spires of ice to impede Edalyn's path. Instead, her sister used them, somersaulting and flipping across each one before reaching the goal and making a direct shot.

"Oh yeah!" Edalyn landed and pumped her fist into the air, "Whose still got the moves? I still got the moves!"

Lilith watched as her sister did a silly dance, all while Hooty pulled the ball out of the net and King drew the first of six tally marks under Edalyn's name. Her fist clenched as memories of the old days started seeping back in. Back on the field, how no matter how hard she trained, nor how hard she tried, her sister would always score more points for their team than she could. Whether it was through cheating or skill, Lilith didn't know, but as much as she loathed to admit it, Edalyn was their star player. Despite Lilith's past position as team leader, she still couldn't compare to her sister's greater skill. The fact that even years later, the gap remained as wide as ever, only infuriated her more.

Lilith shook her head, shaking off her rage and envy, "This isn't over yet, Edalyn!"

"If you want, I can start easing up," Edalyn smirked as they both returned to the center of the field.

"No," Lilith seethed, despite her efforts to calm herself, "Give it your best shot."

"And that's the full truth, Mom," Nero said to the illusion, "You wanna...say anything?"

The twins kept the illusion silent as they all walked across the street and turned left to where his house, and by extension the Blights' carriage, was. Though the thing that took Nero's attention the most was the emotionless stare his mom's apparition was giving him. Are they trying to come up with something? Nero wondered as he looked to Edric and Emira, the gears in their heads clearly spinning. He just hoped whatever they were plotting wasn't-

"How could you!?" the illusion cried out, hands covering her eyes in the most melodramatic display of sadness he'd ever seen in his life, "A-After everything I've done for y-you, how could you go behind my back like this!?"

"Okay, would you two knock it the fuck off!?" Nero shouted at the twins, who were struggling to hold their laughter back.

"PFFT! S-Sorry, sorry," Edric wiped a tear from his eye as he dismissed the illusion, "But at least you got the full confession out that time."

"And it only took you twenty attempts," Emira congratulated as she patted him on the back.

"I thought it was only sixteen," Edric chimed as they all stopped.

"No, it was definitely more than that," Emira argued.

"Uh, guys?" Nero tried to get their attention, but sadly, the twins weren't listening.

"Yeah, well I think you're wrong," Edric fired back as Emira gave him a challenging glare.

"And which of us has the highest math scores?"

"Guys?"

"We scored the same on that last test!" Edric exclaimed, not noticing that they were drawing a bit of attention from passersby, "Remember? We even snuck in the same cheat sheets!"

"Unlike you, I have the wit and wisdom to not need to look at those sheets every half a minute for answers," Emira retorted.

"Guys!?"

"Oh yeah! Well how was your score on those Beast keeping questions in the pop quiz?" Edric asked, sounding smug as Emira's face grew embarrassed.

"I-I, that doesn't matter!" Emira stammered, neither twin noticing the crowd forming around them, "What about that Illusion test where-"

Oh for Titan's sake! Nero brought forth a spectral arm and grabbed both twins, motioning towards the crowd to get out of his way. After a good few minutes of walking, he looked back and saw they were far off from anyone and just another block away from his house. Sighing in relief, he put the twins down and said, "Y'know, you two make me very glad that I'm an only child."

"Eh, sounds boring," the Blights said simultaneously.

"Definitely less of a headache."

"Maybe, but that's neither here nor there," Emira said as they all continued walking, Nero putting his hands in his pockets while Emira rested hers behind her head. Edric, however, whistled a tune Nero heard once or twice on Spellify when he was bored, though he couldn't place a name on the song itself. He remembered it being catchy though.

After turning a corner one last time, they arrived at Nero's home, Blight family carriage parked out front and waiting for the twins. Edric stepped forward as the Abomination opened the carriage door, "Well, guess this is it, huh?"

"Yeah..." Nero muttered, feeling like his heart was about to leap out of his throat.

"If it makes you feel any better, first confession to your parent is always the worst," Emira encouraged before looking to Edric, "Remember when we confessed to Dad that we put kick me signs on the backs of all his workers?"

"But he wasn't really listen-"

"ANYWAY!" Emira interrupted as she looked to Nero, "Point is, you just gotta rip that band-aid off and it'll be smooth sailing after the fact. You know the words now, so all that's left is to put then out there."

"And if you need anything, you know where to find us," Edric added, holding out a closed fist as Emira did the same. Nero looked to them both and felt a brief smile grace his lips. With his right hand, he gave them both a fist bump before heading down his house's walkway and approaching the front door.

"Good luck, Nero!" Both twins said at once, Nero turning and waving back at them as their carriage drove them away. Once they were out of sight, he headed inside and noticed that his mother had yet to arrive. With a sigh, he headed for his room and laid down in bed, mentally preparing himself and rehearsing his confession.

Now or never, I guess, he thought to himself as he awaited for his mom's arrival.

Lilith felt a bead of sweat fall from her brow as she slam dunked the ball into the goal, scoring her fifth point. She landed and returned to the center of the field, feeling her back ache from the strain of the game thus far. It had taken damn near everything she had, but she managed to match her sister move for move throughout the entire game. Thus far, they were at an impasse, with only one point left to decide the victor.

If nothing else, the fact that I'm one point from victory against her is an achievement, Lilith smiled in excitement. After all these years, she was finally going to best Edalyn at something. To top it off, it was Grudgby of all things that she finally got ahead in.

However, that same self-loathing thought entered her head, almost snarling at her, Oh please, the only reason you're even this far is because of what you did to her. If it weren't for the fact that you ruined her life just to get ahead-

"Nervous, Edalyn?" Lilith asked, crossing her arms as Edalyn approached the center ring. She'd long since lost count of how many times she had to push this same line of thought down, and in all likelihood this wouldn't be the last time either.

"Ha! Not even a little, Lily!" Edalyn flashed a confident smirk as Hooty stretched out and blew the whistle one last time. The ball flew into the air as both of them leapt out for it, Lilith baring her teeth as she tried to reach it before her sister. But Edalyn reached the ball first and took it, darting down the field as Lilith gave chase.

I'm not going to let you beat me this time! Lilith leapt for her sister, hoping to take the ball, but Hooty picked that exact moment to pop up. Without missing a beat, Edalyn used the bird worm's face as a platform just before Lilith could reach her. Suddenly, any hope for victory was lost as Lilith landed right atop Hooty's broken face, leaving her to watch as her sister threw the ball into the goal and scored the final point.

"YES! Bad Girl Coven for the win!" Edalyn cheered as Lilith collapsed to the dirt, her defeat washing over her.

I...I lost, Lilith bitterly thought as her hands clutched the ground beneath her. Her eyes glared downward, briefly slamming her fists against the dirt. She lost. Despite everything, she lost. She threw everything she had at her sister, pushed for every advantage she could see, and yet she still fell short.

"Sis, you alright?" Edalyn's question snapped Lilith out of it. Looking up, she saw her younger sister look down at her with nothing but concern; more than she deserved. As Edalyn held out a hand to help her up, Lilith managed to push her pride down just enough to accept it, standing up and meeting her sister at eye level.

"Fine. You...win, I suppose," Lilith bitterly remarked, crossing her arms as she tried, and failed, to maintain a calm demeanor.

"I gotta say, that was pretty fun," Edalyn admitted, "May not have played in a long time, but I don't think any of the games we had at Hexside ever got that intense. Few times back there where I thought you had me beat."

"R-Really?" Lilith stammered, shocked at what she just heard.

Edalyn nodded, "Yeah. You're not half bad," she then muttered, "For a pencil pushing coven crony that is."

Lilith, despite herself, actually let out a bark of laughter at that last sentence. Edalyn was quick to join in as they shared a laugh for the first time in what felt like an eternity. Unfortunately, the moment was killed by Hooty joining in and guffawing in the most obnoxious way possible, leaving Lilith and her sister to glare at him until he finished.

"HAW HAW HAW! HOOT HOOT HOOT! Ah, good times. Good times," Hooty calmed down and noticed his glaring audience, "What're we talking about again?"

"Hooty, I think Graff is on your favorite wall again," Edalyn immediately said, causing Hooty to gasp and rush back into the house, loud clanging and screaming echoing all the way out to where they were.

"Graff?" Lilith looked to her sister, who shook her head.

"Long story, but that reminds me," she turned and faced Lilith, "Deal's a deal, so looks like we won't be seeing each other for a month."

Wait, what de-? Lilith's eyes widened, "Oh..."

"Something wrong, Lily?" Edalyn raised an eyebrow as Lilith pinched the bridge of her nose in shame. Amidst the game and her drive to surpass her sister, she'd actually completely forgotten the agreement they had regarding keeping Edalyn away from Nero. It actually scared Lilith, how she got so caught up in the turn of events that her son was left at the wayside.

Some mother you turned out to be, Lilith berated herself as turned and began walking away, but not before looking back to her sister. "I'm fine, Edalyn," she lied, "Per our agreement, I'll leave you alone. Even if orders come in, I'll keep away from your home. However, I cannot promise that the rest of the coven won't do the same."

"Eh, fine by me," Edalyn shrugged, "I'll just send them crying right back to you anyway."

Knowing that was the best that could be done, Lilith nodded and continued out of the forests and back to the town of Bonesborough. She didn't bother pulling out her staff to fly home, as she decided to take the time to ponder to herself. Her attempt to confront Edalyn regarding her influence on her son ended in failure, and now she wouldn't be able to do so again. The fact that she forgot about that was still fresh in her mind as she constantly berated herself for such actions. She needed to focus on what was important here; protecting Nero no matter what.

Confronting my sister about it didn't work out, so I guess there's only one thing left that I can do.

"No more letting things boil over like this, Lilith," she muttered, "Best confront him about it now before things get worse."

Nero sat nervously on his bed, his foot tapping against the carpet to the rhythm of the Devil Trigger song he'd recently been introduced to. He tried to find different ways to relax, like sleeping, reading, or listening to music, but nothing worked. Taking a deep breath, he whispered, "Calm down. Mom's not here yet. Just take deep breathes and-"

The sound of the front door slamming open rang through the house, "Nero, I'm home!"

Nope! Nero felt his nerves come back in full force as he bolted for his bedroom window and opened it, almost jumping outside. However, he remembered all the practice he had, how Amity and Luz were able to face their fears, as well as the advice he received from the twins just before he arrived, and calmed himself down. He walked back into his room, closing the window behind him as he took deep breaths. Once he was about as ready as he could be, he headed down the hall towards the living room, only to bump into his mother along the way.

"OOF! Oh, sorry Mom," Nero apologized while his mother shook her head.

"No, it's quite alright, my little raven," she said, "I was just going to get you," she turned and made her way down the hall, gesturing for him to follow. With a nervous gulp, he did so and soon enough they were in the living room, Mom taking a seat on the couch while Nero sat in the recliner just to the side. They sat in an awkward silence that neither dared to break. Nero couldn't tell if his mother was trying to say something but couldn't find the words, or if she was waiting for him to speak first. Steeling his nerves and remembering what he promised, Nero loudly sighed just as his mother opened her mouth. Whatever she was about to say, he didn't know. All he did know was that he finally got the words out.

"Mom," he began, "We need to talk."

Chapter Text

"Mom, we need to talk." Lilith watched her son let out a forlorn sigh and fall silent for a few seconds too long, opening and closing his mouth as if trying to force something out. Seeing this, Lilith decided it was best if she start, but before she could, her son stood up and finally said, "Okay, so...truth time." He clapped his hands, took a deep breath, and faced her. "I haven't exactly been the most honest person on the isles."

Lilith's eyes widened in surprise. She was planning on confronting him about what he'd kept from her, but here he was confessing before she could pose the question. Nodding, she replied, "Go on, my son."

"Ever since I was nine, I've kinda sorta been," Nero took another deep breath, "Sneakingoutandfightingdemonsinmyfreetime!"

Lilith blinked, having understood none of what he just said, "I...what?"

Nero slapped himself in the face and shook his head, "Let me try that again," taking another calming breath, he said, "Okay, so it started when I first got into Hexside."

"I remember that day," Lilith said, "You weren't happy that everyone was staring at you or your arm."

"Yeah," Nero rubbed his right arm, "But there was something else I didn't tell you. See, after all that attention, I ran out into the woods around the school to get some space. After a while, one of the teachers found me and brought me back."

"Nero! You shouldn't have done that. The forests can house all sorts of dangerous creatures. You're lucky nothing came and attacked you!"

"Uh...about that..." Nero looked away.

"Y-You were attacked!?" Lilith almost shrieked as she stood up. Something tried to hurt her son that day and she didn't even know it. If she was aware, she would have went into the woods and incinerated everything until she found the beast that dared to lay a finger on him. Seeing that her anger was putting Nero on edge, she calmed down and took a seat, "Apologies. It's just...you were in that situation and I wasn't there to protect you."

"It's fine," her son answered as he looked back, "Besides, I managed to kick its ass."

Lilith's eyes widened again, both at what she'd heard and at the look of pride on her son's face. She felt a growing pit form in her stomach as she asked, "You defeated it?" At his nod, her mind swam with so many questions that she couldn't process them all, instead only discarding them and trying to work through the new information step-by-step. My son got into a fight on his first day and won, Lilith's mind began, And judging by the expression on his face, he enjoyed whatever fight that was. But how? Why? I mean, I know my son defeated Grom, but it was clear how much he hated that fight! I never imagined he'd actually gain joy from something so dangerous, her brow furrowed, But then again, Edalyn said they fought Echidna at the Knee...

"Mom? You there?" Lilith looked up and saw Nero, who bore a worried expression and said, "You look kinda pissed."

"I'm fine, Nero," Lilith lied, "But I'm glad you weren't hurt that day. At the very least, it was a one time thing."

"..."

"Nero..." Lilith's tone lowered, her son looking away once more and scratching the back of his head.

"Okay, so I kinda went out and fought more monsters after that," he admitted.

"How many times?" Lilith didn't mean for the question to have the quiet anger that it did, but her frustrations found themselves bleeding out. She'd hoped that her son's answer would be a small, negligible number, but instead, he sighed and shrugged.

"More than I can count."

Eye twitching, Lilith took a deep breath and calmed herself down, "So you mean to tell me that you've been sneaking out for years, fighting the monsters of the isles and throwing your life in danger like some kind of adrenaline junkie?"

There was an almost palpable silence before Nero finally answered, "Yes."

I don't believe this, Lilith pinched the bridge of her nose as she stood up and paced back and forth, How could I have never noticed? Am I such a failure of a mother that I never truly knew my own son!

"Mom, please say something reassuring," Nero said, prompting Lilith to remove her hand from her face and look him dead in the eye.

"Nero, what else have you been hiding from me?"

"I..." Nero stammered for a bit before he continued, "There was this one time where I snuck out to go to the library during the Wailing Star event, and I might have fought a giant monster along with the Blights and Aunt Eda's kid. Y'know, Luz?"

I know that's not all you're hiding, Nero, Lilith bitterly noted as she blurted out, "And what of my sister? How often do you go visit her?"

Now Nero's eyes widened, "Wait, how do you know about that?"

Shit! Lilith looked away and clamped her mouth closed, Second time today! Ugh! Alright, calm down, she took a deep breath, faced her son, and answered, "I...might have had my suspicions that you weren't being truthful for a while and I may have had Coronis...uh, keep an eye on you for me one day."

"YOU WERE SPYING ON ME!?"

"It was just once and it was for your own protection!" Lilith defended her decision, "You came home late and refused to give me an honest answer! I was worried you were doing something unsavory or life threatening. I didn't want to be right, but what do I find out? You went to spend time with Edalyn, who is a criminal by the way, and I confront her about it today to learn that you fought a Titan damned demon lord!"

"Hey! She's fun to hang out with and actually gets where I'm coming from," Nero fired back, "Besides, in case you haven't noticed, I came out of that just fine," his face dawned a wistful grin, "Hell, it was a lot of fun getting to punch that bitch in the back of the head."

Lilith ignored the growing pain in her heart as she retorted, "That's not the point! I just-"

"Well then tell me what the actual point is!"

"That you could die on any one of these-these escapades of yours! That you could get arrested for associating with a wanted criminal! That you could get petrified for the rest of time!" Lilith's voice reached it's apex as she stomped and stood directly in front of her son, "It's why I encourage you to join a coven. Any witch who refuses will suffer that fate, and if that happens to you, I'd never be able to live with myself."

"So it's easier for me to go along with a bullshit system, huh?" Nero asked, causing Lilith to back away as if she'd just been punched.

"What?"

With a light glare, Nero crossed his arms and answered, "Mom, in case you haven't noticed, you and the rest of your coven are enforcing a pretty fucked up order. Haven't you stopped and asked everyone's gotta pick only one type of magic they can do for the rest of their life?"

"That's because the average citizen having so much magic is dang-"

"Or how it's pretty rich that only the coven working right under the Great Horned Prick is the only one allowed to have access to all the magic?"

"T-The Emperor's Coven needs all the power it can to enforce the laws of-"

"And while we're on that, you never answered what those petrified crooks did to deserve that kind of shit," Nero finished, "Let alone that even if you're arresting actual criminals, you're also locking up people just for speaking out against Emperor Asshole or for crap that wouldn't even count as a minor annoyance at best!"

Lilith groaned and dragged a hand down her face, "You're starting to sound just like my sister," she huffed, "Of course she'd be a bad influence on you."

"No, she isn't. This is just who I am," Nero fired back, calming down not a moment later, "I like doing this. I like fighting. I like getting to head out on small adventures and kick ass, facing down monsters big and small, never knowing what's gonna pop out and try me. And you know what? I'm good at it. This is what I want to do. It's a hard ask, I get it, but...can't you just accept that?"

Lilith's breath hitched as her son's anger seemed to fade, giving way to a desperate plea. And the thing was, a strong part of her wanted to indulge that, to accept this reality. She wanted to be happy at how fulfilled her son seemed to be with what he was doing.

"Should you fail, he will be cast aside as a wild witch, and you know what becomes of their kind, don't you?"

But the Emperor's threat played itself in her head, and she was reminded why she couldn't accept such a thing. And with that, the memories of Berial's declaration to hunt Sparda's kin, as well as those of the Slitherbeast attack. Her memories kept going further back to before even that; to her sister's declaration that she refused to be part of the covens and first mutation into the Owl Beast, and with it, the night prior to that event.

The moment she ruined her family forever.

"Nero, I'm sorry, but I can't accept that," Lilith said as she looked away, "This...it needs to stop. Now."

"Mom," Nero said, sounding more than a bit hurt, "I-"

"Nero, listen to me," Lilith stressed, voice rising as she took a step forward, "I won't allow you to be cast out as a wild witch. And I will do whatever I must to ensure that," she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before giving her son a stern look, "So until I can trust that you won't go behind my back and do this ever again. You're..." the word died in her throat. In all her time raising Nero, she'd never once done this, but she steeled herself and yelled, "Grounded!"

"MOM!"

"No, that's enough," Lilith wove a spell into the air and enveloped the entire house in an azure glow. Once it was done, she said, "This spell will keep you from leaving the house. This is for your own good."

"Mom! Would you please just-"

"I don't want to hear it anymore. Now go to your room!" Lilith pointed to the hall where said room was down. Her heart broke as tears began to well up in her son's eyes, his expression going from shocked to bitter. Nero swiftly made his way to his room, and a loud slam reverberated throughout the house. Lilith was left alone, the ticking of the clock her only company as she sat down on the couch, burying her hands into her face with regret.

Nero was sprawled out on his bed, head buried in a pillow before he turned up and stared at the ceiling. He hadn't really bothered to keep track of how long he'd been grounded, only remembering crying alone for a while, going to sleep, and waking up the next morning in bitter frustration.

He didn't know what upset him more: his being under lockdown or how his mother reacted to the truth. Nero knew going in that it wasn't going to be a happy ordeal, but he at least hoped she'd be more accepting of it. All he really wanted out of this was for his mother to accept that he wasn't gonna turn out like her, no matter how much she pushed for that outcome.

"Nero?" He leaned up at the voice and saw his mother poking her head through the door.

"Hey," Nero said as he dropped back down on his bed and went back to having a staring contest with the ceiling. Ever since being grounded, things were frigid between him and his mom. They weren't awful, and whatever anger from before was gone, but he couldn't bring himself to say more than a few words to her at any given time. Mom, on the other hand, always tried to say something to him, but every time would fall silent before she could say much.

"I'm going to work," Lilith said, "I'll see you this afternoon."

"Sure."

"And don't forget to finish your homework," Mom added.

"Fine," Nero groaned. He'd originally thought being forced to stay at home meant he wouldn't have to put up with any monotonous schoolwork, but then Mom called Principal Bump to inform him and asked that he send classwork over.

"Nero," Mom entered his field of vision, having entered the room and now looming over him. Nero saw the sad expression on her face as he sat up and let her take a seat beside him. "I know things have been...difficult," she said, staring at the carpet, "But I need you to understand that I'm only doing this for your own good."

"You've said that already," Nero grunted, "Starting to sound like a buzz word at this point."

Mom went quiet for a second before she said, "I just...this is the only way to keep you safe. Believe me, I want you to follow your heart and do what you love, but it's too great a risk to yourself."

"Because if I don't, I'll either get killed by a monster or get turned to stone by the Emperor for not following his laws, you've said this already. But I know the risks, and I still want to live life my way. I just wish you trusted me on this."

In response, his mother sighed, "We'll talk when I get back from work," she stood up and walked out of the door, but not before stopping within the doorway and turning her head back to him, "But know that I want to trust you regarding this. I just don't know if I can. I almost lost you once before, and I already lost Edalyn. I won't let it happen again."

"How exactly did you "lose" your sister?" Nero asked.

Mom's breath hitched as she looked away, muttering something he couldn't hear. She turned back to him and answered, "That's...it's not something I can really go into right now, but all I will say is that we have disagreements on how to free her from her curse. Bringing her in to the Emperor is the only way to help her."

Nero raised an eyebrow, "So that's why you put up with High Lord Asswipe's crap? How do you know he's gonna actually help her and not just turn her into a statue?"

"Because he promised me he would."

"And you believe him?" Nero's question did cause his mother to look unsure as he thought, Looks like she's been asking herself that a lot.

Lilith shook her head, "Rest assured, my son, Emperor Belos will help me remove Edalyn's curse. He has to."

"Okay," Nero began, "Let's pretend for a second that he'll do that. Then what?"

"..." Mom didn't answer, the uncertain expression getting worse as she turned away and put a hand to the door. "We'll continue this conversation later," she said before walking out, closing the entrance behind her. The footsteps grew more faint and the front door was soon heard, leaving Nero alone in the house again.

With a sigh, Nero got up and sat at his bedroom desk to do homework. It wasn't like he had much better to do, seeing as he couldn't leave the house (he tried already and it was like walking into a brick wall) and all the fun channels on the Crystal Ball were locked, leaving only the news and boring documentaries that Mom loved to watch. Thankfully, it didn't take any longer than half an hour to finish up the Illusionist Track assignments he had to do for the day. Before he could get started on the rest, however, a loud thud emanated from his closet.

"Huh?" Nero stood up and headed for the source of the noise, opening the closet and looking to the floor where he saw a large hunk of wood. Kneeling down, he picked it up and looked to the shelf just above where his clothes hung, and was about to put it back before he got a better look at it. Since he never really bothered to pay attention to anything on that shelf, most of what he put there wound up being forgotten and left to gather dust. The piece of wood, however, he almost immediately recognized as Palistrom, his mind flashing to the day he received it.

"I'm home, my little raven!" Nero's mother cheerily entered the house while he sat on the couch, skimming through a comic.

"Hey Mom," Nero put the comic down, looking up at his smiling mother, whose hands were behind her back like she was holding something. "What's that?"

"Okay, so today at work, I was monitoring the harvesting of Palistrom wood. You remember what that is, right?" Nero nodded as his mother continued, "Well, while no one was looking, I was able to sneak this out!" She revealed to him a small log of Palistrom wood, placing it on the living room table next to the Crystal Ball. "Isn't it amazing?"

"It's...a log. Why'd you sneak it out anyway?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Mom said as she clasped her hands together, "It's for your Palisman!"

"Huh?"

"I know you haven't been in the best of moods since Grom," Mom's smile faltered, but she was able to maintain it, "I felt we could try making your Palisman together."

As she said this, Coronis flew from Mom's shoulder and onto his, nuzzling against his face and making him laugh. As his laughing died down, Mom asked, "So, what do you think?"

Nero thought about it as he looked at the Palistrom wood on the table. Picking it up, he stared at it in thought as Coronis left his shoulder and returned Mom's. He tried imagining what his Palisman would be, what they'd be like, and what kind of adventures they'd have together. But every time he did, he stopped, memories of the Grom fight and the taunts from the nightmarish parody of his mother seeping in.

"Nero, what's wrong?" Nero shook his head at his mom's question, looking at his hands and seeing that they were trembling.

"Nothing," he said as he got off the couch, "I just don't think I'm in the mood to make a Palisman right now. That okay?"

At the silence, he turned his head to look at Mom and Coronis. Mom was sad while Coronis gave him a nod before pecking Lilith's cheek. She faced her Palisman for a moment before looking at Nero and replying, "Alright. If you're not in the mood, I won't force it. But when you're ready to create your Palisman, please let me know."

"Okay," Nero nodded as he made his way to his room. Opening his closet, he created a spell circle that enveloped the Palistrom wood in blue light, floating it upward and onto the shelf.

As Nero blinked out of the old memory, his scroll poofed into existence next to him. Reading the screen, he saw he was getting a video call from Emira and decided to answer. Emira's face appeared, lockers just behind her as she greeted, "Heya, Claw Boy!"

"Hey Nero!" Edric greeted, scooting into the camera's frame, much to his sister's annoyance.

"Hey guys," Nero replied as he walked back to his desk with the Palistrom log in tow, placing it atop his schoolwork and sitting down, "What's up?"

"Just checking in, seeing how you're doing since you're still on house arrest," Edric said, frowning a tad, "About the same as last time?"

Nero nodded, to which Emira replied, "First grounding's always the most frustrating. Still remember ours from when we were ten. Practically locked up in our room for a whole weekend."

"Yeah, but the looks on Mom's meeting buddies was worth it," Edric added with a snicker as Nero rolled his eyes.

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm actually starting to miss Hexside."

"Truly we are in the end times," Emira shifted to monotone snarking, eliciting a chuckle from Nero and outright laughter from Edric.

"HA! S-So...heh...how are-" Edric caught his breath and calmed down, "How's your day been so far?"

Nero shrugged, "More or less the same: Mom left for work earlier and I started doing schoolwork," he picked up the Palistrom log and pulled it into frame, "About the only difference from normal is that I found this in my closet."

The twins leaned in to get a closer look, though Emira shoved Edric out of the way and gasped, "Wait, is that Palistrom? Where'd you get that!?"

"Mom got it for me a few years back. Never got around to making a Palisman with it, though," Nero answered as he moved the log out of frame, "Why?"

"Dude, Palistrom's really rare these days," Edric said as he moved back into frame, "From what we've heard, the Emperor's Coven is overharvesting the stuff, making it hard for anyone to get a new Palisman."

Nero looked up and remembered what his mother said about the time she monitored Palistrom harvesting. Sounds like Emperor Freakshow's hoarding it all for himself, Nero thought, but he couldn't fathom a reason why. Then again, it was probably just more of his usual self-serving crap.

"You okay there Claw Boy?" Nero was shaken out of his musings by Emira's question. He looked back to his scroll and saw her and Edric's concerned faces as she continued, "You went all quiet there, and not in the usual mopey kind of way."

"Guys, I'm not that mopey," Nero defended.

"No, you're worse," Edric snarked.

"Like, so much worse," as did Emira.

Nero facepalmed, "Why are we friends again?" at the question, the twins erupted in laughter, with Nero doing everything he could to not get sucked in. He failed, and wound up laughing alongside them. After a few minutes of uproarious laughing, he wiped a stray tear from his eye, "O-okay, but...ha ha...give me a sec," he took a deep breath and finally calmed down, "Anyway, I was just thinking about Emperor Bitch and his usual crap."

"Here's to hoping Luz doesn't run into him today," Edric said idly, causing Nero to raise an eyebrow.

"What are you talking about?"

Emira chimed in to answer, "She and a bunch of other students in her grade went on a field trip to the Emperor's palace. Mittens would have tagged along too, but she's still recovering from her busted leg."

Lucky her, Nero mused as he continued the conversation with the twins. He didn't envy anyone who had a run in with Belos, and about the one positive of being grounded was never having to worry about that ever. Still, he worried about Luz, who'd be touring the monster's home turf with the rest of her grade, and his mother, who's job meant she had to be around him every single day.

Okay, now you're overthinking things. It's probably just gonna be a regular ass field trip for Luz and another routine day for Mom, Nero thought as he ended the call and went back to his homework, Luz definitely knows to stay out Emperor Freakshow's crosshairs, or at least, I hope she does. As for Mom, she'll probably just handle some patrols, maybe a shitload of paperwork, and come back home to repeat the cycle the next day. Nothing to worry about for anyone.

"I answer your summons, Emperor Belos," Lilith kept her tone even as she knelt before the throne, but her heart was pounding so fast she thought it would explode from terror. She'd been in her office, simply filling out forms, when she received a call from Kikimora that the Emperor requested her presence at once. Knowing the little troll would never joke about such a thing, Lilith immediately made her way through the palace, saying hello to the Hexside students on their field trip, and entered the throne room, where Emperor Belos sat with the Golden Guard standing proudly at his right.

"One moment," Belos replied in a haggard whisper as one of his servants brought fourth a Palisman on a platter. Lilith tried to keep her composure as she watched Belos consume its life force, but a wince escaped her regardless. As he finished and sat up at full vitality, he said, "Now, on to business. There was supposed to be a raid on the Owl Lady's abode this morning, but you had it called off. I want to know why."

Gulping, Lilith regained her composure and bowed her head, "I had confronted my sister prior to today in an effort to bring her in for her crimes," a lie, obviously, but one she hoped the Emperor wouldn't pick up on, "However, we both dueled with an agreement in mind; that I would leave her abode alone for a month if she was victorious."

"So you failed yet again and are giving me more excuses," Emperor Belos dismissed as he stood up, pacing in front of his throne, "You know, Lilith, these failures to apprehend the Owl Lady are growing quite suspicious. Why, it's almost as if you were protecting her..."

Lilith's breath hitched for a second, "My lord, I swear to you that I am doing everything in my power to bring her in. I just need more time."

The Emperor silently looked down on Lilith, his shadow looming over her before he said, "Very well then. You shall have the time you need."

Lilith calmed herself and bowed her head once more, "Thank you, Emperor Belos."

Emperor Belos sat on his throne once more, "I will give you until twilight to bring the Owl Lady to me. Succeed, and I will heal her of her curse, as per our agreement. Fail, and both you and your son will be cast out as wild witches."

"B-But-" Lilith stammered, the fear of losing her position and place in the coven completely overshadowed by the threat to her son. Unable to contain herself, she looked up at the Emperor with fearful eyes, "You promised that I would have until the Day of Unity to bring him into the fold. That he wouldn't be under such threat otherwise!"

"I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further," Emperor Belos answered dismissively.

Lilith, in desperation, dropped to her knees and touched her forehead to the floor, "My lord, I beseech you. Let me be the only one to face punishment for this. Don't cast my son out as a wild witch for my failures. Please, just allow him to-"

"I've heard enough," the Emperor spoke with a tone of finality. As Lilith rose to face him, he coldly concluded, "You are in no position to make demands of me, Lilith. Remember your place, and obey."

"Y-Yes, Emperor Belos."

"Your time is running short, and my patience is running thin. Now go and bring me the Owl Lady," Emperor Belos gave his final order as Lilith stood up. She bowed her head one last time before she turned and left the throne room, feeling almost dead inside.

I have until twilight to capture my sister, Lilith was in complete turmoil as she walked past the guards and aimlessly wandered the palace halls, trying to come up with a solution to her predicament. But her mind was moving too fast and was split in too many directions. It wasn't regarding the promise she'd made to leave her sister's home alone, seeing as the Emperor's threats applied to her son as much as it did herself. If she had to go back on her word and attack the Owl House, she would do so to protect Nero. No, the true dilemma she faced was the Emperor reneging their past agreement.

In all the years of Lilith's service to the Emperor's Coven, she'd never asked of Emperor Belos anything beyond a cure for Edalyn's curse and a chance to undo her greatest mistake. That promise had been her driving force throughout her career as head of his coven. After her son was born, his protection and well-being became just as important to her as curing her sister. So when the Emperor threatened to have him cast out as a wild witch if he didn't join his coven, she made it a point to keep her end of the bargain and convince him before the Day of Unity.

But now things have changed. She didn't have that time anymore and it was clear that the past agreement was dead in the water. That in of itself filled her heart and mind with a different kind of worry.

If he's so willing to go back on his word like this, does that mean he won't cure my sister even if I succeed? she wondered, the question having plagued her a lot as of late, Were Edalyn and Nero right? Has everything I've ever done been in service to a lie? Lilith felt a light cover her body as she looked up, seeing that she now stood in front of the stained glass window; a depiction of Emperor Belos bringing peace and order to the isles, its people bowing to him as the Titan's hand reached for the sun. Taking a deep breath, she slapped the sides of her head, No! You can't let yourself think that, Lilith. You've given your entire life to his coven! You have to believe he'll keep his word! It's all you have. It's the only way to save Edalyn, the only way to protect Nero, and the only way to redeem yourself. All of it can't have been for nothing!

"Just find a way to bring Edalyn in soon," Lilith muttered as she began to pace, "But how the hell am I supposed to do that? She doesn't have any attachments or weaknesses I can take advantage of in a fight. And I doubt I can take her even with how hampered she is," she clenched her fist and growled with anger. Despite Lilith's guilt, it was infuriating that Edalyn's worst still outclassed her, especially now when she was faced with such dire circumstances. With a yell of anger, she slammed her fist against the wall, only to feel the floor shake beneath her.

That was...odd, Lilith looked down at her hand and wondered if she did that for a second. However, she quickly realized that wasn't the case and looked behind her to see a bright light emanating from down the corner. Moving as fast as she could, she saw the broken door to the relic room and stopped just in time to see a young girl, a Hexside student specifically, running towards it. Seeing the Healing Hat in the girl's hand, Lilith assumed her a thief and stopped her. With staff pointed at the student's face, she removed her hood and recognized the girl.

"If it isn't Edalyn's human pet," Lilith glared at the girl whose name she didn't bother to remember when an idea formed in her head. Remembering how close her sister was to the child, she realized Edalyn did have a weakness, and one that she could use. Lilith looked up and saw that the girl was with two other Hexside students; a young boy in the Illusionist Track and a girl in the Plant Track, both of whom were also playing with relics.

Seems I have my sister's weakness and a pair of messengers, Lilith smirked, relief washing over her for a second as she stepped into the room, the human backing up. All she had to do was restrain the human and send the two young witches off to bring Edalyn here. She'd be able to capture her sister, prevent both herself and her son from being cast out, and keep her promise as a nice bonus.

After all, Lilith thought, I only promised that I wouldn't return to your abode, sister. But you coming to me is fair game.

"Finally," Nero put away the last of his homework before standing from his seat and stretching. At first, he got the urge to head out and grab Red Queen, maybe find something to fight to alleviate the boredom, but then he remembered, Oh right, grounded.

With a sigh, he walked through the house and entered the living room, seeing the Crystal Ball on the table at its center. He mulled over the options between news and documentaries, given that everything else was locked. Eh, Nero shrugged and sat down on the couch, plopping his feet down on the table, May as well see what's going on in the isles. Better that than watching grass grow at least. Grabbing the remote, he turned the channel on, "And boop!"

"-coming to you live from outside the Emperor's castle. Edalyn Clawthorne, known commonly as Eda the Owl Lady, has been captured and has been brought before the Emperor."

"...wait, WHAT!?" Nero yelled and sat up as the short bitch, Kikimora, appeared on a podium.

"For the crime of attacking a coven leader and refusing to join a coven, Edalyn Clawthorne's body shall be petrified in stone today at sundown at the Conformatorium," Kikimora said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Nero's mind went in a frenzy as the Crystal Ball displayed images of other petrified criminals, as if the newscast was trying to hammer the point. Suddenly, his mother appeared on-screen, with her being credited for the capture. "This is just..." Nero sat back down, rubbing at his forehead to calm himself, Okay, there's no way in hell Mom's actually okay with this, he looked at the newscast and glared, And if she is, there's no way I'm sitting back and letting it happen.

Getting up, he headed straight for the door, Sorry Mom, but this-, before he could reach the doorknob, a blue barrier glowed around it, preventing him from opening the door. Nero groaned, "Why did I forget that?"

Pacing in front of the entrance, he tried to figure out a way around his mother's grounding spell, but that was a tough one when he didn't know the counter spell. Hell, this was the first time he'd seen Mom use this brand of barrier magic, so it was uncharted territory for him. After some thought, he decided to brute force it; first blasting it with a fire ball that exploded on impact. All that did was leave an unscathed, glowing barrier and scorch marks on the floor.

"Alright, maybe I can overcharge it," Nero cast lightning that arched around his left hand before blasting it at the door. This quickly backfired as the bolt bounced off the barrier and right back at him. With a yelp of shock, Nero bent backwards and watched the lightning fly just past his face before something behind him blew up. Standing upright, he turned and saw that the Crystal Ball had been reduced to glass and scrap metal.

Growling in increased anger, he focused on the door again and opted for Plan C: Pick the lock and hope that the barrier was around the door and not the house itself. Spinning a spell circle, he summoned a small Abomination and gave it the command to shrink into the lock. However, that plan quickly failed when the Abomination bounced off the force field just like everything else he'd tried and melting into the floor.

"Okay, you know what? Fuck it! Going back to hitting it hard!" Nero summoned an ethereal fist with his right hand and pulled it back, Let's see how much this thing can take!

He let it fly right for the door, but suddenly, it opened, revealing his mother...

"Nero, listen, I-" whatever she said next was cut off as she was sent flying back from the punch, Nero's anger replaced with shock and regret.

"Oh fuck, uh..." Nero stammered, "Mom, you okay?" he tried to go help her up, only for the barrier to push him back. Instead, he watched Mom pick herself up, clutching at her face, as he tried to apologize, "Mom, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"No, I'm alright," Lilith said as she walked in, closing the door behind her. Suddenly, she turned to him with a worried, guilt-ridden look, "Nero, listen. I made a terrible mistake and I need to fix it!"

"You're talking about Aunt Eda's arres-?"

"No time!" Mom summoned her staff and weaved another spell, causing the barrier around the house faded away, "I need you to gather everything you can and leave," she handed him a piece of paper with an address on it, "This is your grandparents' place. Go there and I'll meet you if I come back alive."

"Wait, what do you-?"

"And if I don't, I want you to know that I'm sorry," she hugged him and whispered, "I haven't been the best mother to you as of late, and you deserve better."

"Mom, I-"

"Now I need you to run, keep hidden from the Emperor's Coven, and don't ever let them or any Demon Lords find you," Mom let go of the hug and was about to head out the door, but before she could, Nero ran in the way and stopped her.

"Mom!" Nero held his arms out, "What the hell do you mean you might not come back?"

"Nero, there's no time!" Mom tried to move around him, but Nero got in her way again, leaning against the doorframe and using his foot to block her. This went on for several seconds more until Coronis flew off his perch and rested on Nero's shoulder. "Coronis, what are you doing?" Mom yelled, getting an admonishing look from her goofy-eyed Palisman.

Giving her his most admonishing glare, Nero said, "Mom, I think I'm speaking for both me and Coronis here, but could you please just sit down and tell me what you're doing?"

"Alright, fine!" Lilith pulled Nero inside and closed the door, "I'm going to see if I can free my sister."

"Oh, well why didn't you just say that?" Nero asked, at the very least relieved that his mother wasn't onboard with Emperor Asshole's plan.

"Okay, now that you know, can you please just gather everything and head to your grandparents?" she asked in a pleading tone, "I'll meet you there if I can."

"But I can help!"

"No, you can't," Mom said, causing Nero to grouse in frustration.

"Look, I get that you're hypersensitive about me being 'safe' and all that other shit, but this is-"

"This isn't about that! At least not entirely," Lilith looked to the floor in shame, "All of this is happening because of me. I need to undo my mistakes. No one else can."

Nero was going to press further when he felt Coronis' talons clutch tighter at his shoulder. Not enough to hurt by any means, but enough to get his attention. Looking at the Palisman, he noticed that that the admonishing look he gave Lilith appeared to now be pleading. Nero wasn't sure why, but it made him wonder if there was some deeper reason behind his mother's guilt, and not just for Eda's arrest.

"Mom, what's this about?" Nero asked.

"I..." she stammered, "I can't. You'll hate me forever."

"Try me," Nero said, his mother going silent for a moment before she sighed and walked over to the couch, ignoring the destroyed Crystal Ball and Abomination sludge on the floor. He walked over and took a seat next to her as Coronis flew off his shoulder and onto Lilith's.

"Edalyn's curse," Mom said, voice filled with guilt as she kept her eyes to the floor, "It's because of me."

Nero was confused for a second before realization struck, "You mean you're the one who..." he froze, unable to finish as he felt a mix of things. Shock that his mother put a curse on her sister, rage that she would do something so vile to her own family, and confusion as to why she'd do such a thing. Swallowing his anger for the moment, he asked, "Why?"

"It was during our days at Hexside. We both had ambitions to join the Emperor's Coven, to work alongside the greatest witches on the isles and make it a better place. But on the day we registered to join the coven, we learned that there was only one spot available," Lilith sighed, "Despite me being the elder sister, Edalyn was twice the witch I was even back then. There was no way I could win against her."

"So you cursed her to get a spot on the Emperor's Coven?" Nero almost growled the question out, trying to keep his growing anger in check.

Mom nodded as she brought her knees to her chest, "I found a spell at the Night Market to weaken her for the duel. I thought it would just last a day, but after she turned into the Owl Beast at home and..." her breath hitched as tears started to form at her eyes, "And tore out our father's eye, I realized what I did to her was permanent. During my work for the coven, I made a vow that I'd do whatever it took to right the wrong I committed, and so my deal with Belos was made."

Lilith's tears fell down her cheeks as her pitch rose, "And you want to know the absolute worst part? During the duel to decide which of us joined, you know what happened?" Nero opened his mouth to speak, but Mom got up, causing Coronis to fly up for a second, and screamed, "She fucking quit! She was perfectly willing to let me have the spot in the coven and I cursed her for it! Now she's going to get turned to stone because I was a complete fucking idiot for ever listening to Belos! Her curse, her being a criminal, and now her impending petrification. I ruined my sister's life and broke my family, all for fucking nothing!"

With that final shriek, Mom just...collapsed, falling to her knees as her hands dug into the carpet. From where he sat, Nero could see tears fall from her face and stain the rug as her shoulders shook, Coronis landing on one and nuzzling her cheek in comfort. The anger Nero bore was still present, if muted, as he stood up, not knowing what to do. At first, he wanted to stay silent, but he couldn't bring himself to do so. After seeing the extent of the sorrow and guilt Lilith had kept buried for so long, he instead found himself kneeling down and wrapping an arm around her, pulling her close.

"What are we gonna do to save Aunt Eda?" He asked, causing his mother to look at him in surprise.

"Y-You don't-" she sniffled and wiped her eyes, "You're not mad?"

Nero sighed and answered, "I'm gonna be honest, I'm fucking pissed. If you were anyone else, I'd probably be punching you in the face right now," Mom looked down again in shame as he continued, "But I also don't have it in me to hate you. Maybe I should, but I just can't. Besides, there's more important shit to deal with."

"R-Right," Lilith wiped away the last of her tears as they both stood up, "Like I said before, I need you to run. If Belos doesn't find out about what I'm going to do, I'll meet you at-"

"What part of 'What are we gonna do' weren't you listening to?"

"Nero, no," Mom sternly declared, managing a disapproving glare despite how red and puffy her eyes were.

Matching it with his own determined glance, Nero retorted, "Mom, I'm going to help save my family and there's nothing you can say or do to stop me," he clenched his fist, trying to stop it from trembling, "Besides, if you're going against Emperor Asshat, you'll need all the help you can get."

"You're not afraid of him?" Mom asked, "This is the first petrification ceremony in thirty years, so he's likely to be there in person. So if we're caught..."

As Mom fell silent, Nero looked down at his trembling fist. No matter how hard he tried to hide his fear, it wouldn't stop shaking at the thought of confronting the Emperor. Despite this, he said, "Not gonna lie, I am. Ever since I was a kid, I've been afraid of him. But if I sat back and let him get away with this, I don't think I'd be able to live with myself anymore than you would," he looked his mother square in the eye, "I'm not gonna let that fucker hurt my family anymore. So let's go save Aunt Eda."

Lilith stood there in silence before she wiped her eyes one final time. "Alright, let's go then," Mom said with a slight smile, much to Nero's surprise as she looked to her Palisman. Coronis nodded as Lilith pulled out her stave, with the white raven returning to his position on it. As she headed for the door, Nero walked just behind her until he remembered something.

"Wait a sec," he stopped, his mom turning to him, "Before we head to the Conformatorium, there's something I need to pick up on the way."

"You know, I suppose I should be grateful that Edalyn, in all her recklessness, made that sword for you," Mom remarked just as Nero pulled Red Queen from its hiding tree.

"Huh?" Nero asked, "Aunt Eda didn't make this for me." Lilith raised an eyebrow before dropping the sack.

"Then where did you get that thing?"

"I, uh—Okay, seeing as we're already in the frying pan and today may as well be 'Confess Everything Day', you should probably know that this used to be your old coven saber, and I maybe sorta, y'know, stole it from your closet when I was a kid."

"You STOLE MY-"

"Mom, we need to save Aunt Eda now, so ground me again later." Mom blinked and took a deep breath before she took the sack and placed it inside the untwisted tree.

"Fine," Lilith said. "But we are going to have a talk about this, young man!" Nero cast plant magic with a nod and twisted the tree back up. Assuming they got caught, they'd be able to come back here and retrieve everything before heading to his grandparent's place since, in all likelihood, their house would get ransacked by the Emperor's Coven.

"So, do we have a plan?" Nero asked as the two of them flew off at high speeds.

"We go in, free Edalyn before she can be taken for Petrification, and get out," Mom said as wind billowed in his ears, "I know it's not much of a plan, but it's the best we have for now."

"Eh, I can work with that," Nero shrugged before he thought of something, "Wait, how are you gonna explain why I'm there?"

Mom started muttering to herself, with Nero unable to hear thanks to the wind. As the Conformatorium came into view, she exclaimed, "I've got it! Just follow my lead."

As she looked for a landing point, Nero found himself staring down at its outskirts, seeing a slowly growing crowd of people standing in front of a large stage. Seeing where his aunt's petrification was going to take place, he thought, Okay, looks like we've still got time. Just bust in and break her out. Couldn't be simpler.

They soon landed at the entrance on one of the main towers, where a pair of coven guards ran out and saluted, the one on the left greeting "Madame Lilith! It's good to see you, we need-" he stopped and looked at Nero, "Uh, why did you bring your kid?"

"He's going to be shadowing me again today," Lilith answered, "Is that a problem?"

"I don't know, just seems a bit weird for you to be letting him shadow today of all days," the coven guard replied as he stroked his chin.

"Oh, uh...well, you see..." Mom stammered, apparently hoping they would just accept what she'd said and let them through. Seeing that wasn't going to work and the guard's gaze on him with increasing scrutiny, Nero quickly slapped together a way out of this.

"It's because I asked her to let me shadow her today," Nero said, trying to muster up a passable performance despite wanting to vomit, "I just love the work you guys do for the Emperor's Coven, so I wanted to come see it again."

"Yes, he was quite eager!" Mom added way too quickly and with a forced smile, but it seemed to work, as the guards nodded.

"Eh, seems legit to me," The one on the right said.

Lilith relaxed as her smile became more natural, "By the way, could you please remind me where my sister is being held?"

"She should be down in the holding cell in the dungeon," the leftmost guard answered.

"Thank you, just needed a refresher," Mom nodded to them as she and Nero walked by and entered the Conformatorium's halls.

"I am never saying shit like that again," Nero muttered.

"Now, let's go get Edalyn," Mom said as they started running down the halls. Weirdly enough, there didn't seem to be that many guards in the prison itself, but Nero brushed that off as them being on duty for when the Petrification Ceremony started. They past by several cell blocks and down a few flights of stairs before they turned another corner, stopping just in time to see Kikimora berate Warden Wrath.

"How incompetent can you possibly be!?"

"I'm sorry, Madame Kikimora, but we were overwhelmed," Wrath bowed his head in shame.

"What happened?" Mom walked in, Nero following just behind her.

The warden looked like he was about to speak, but Kikimora cut him off, "These idiots allowed the human girl they'd captured to escape. And to make matters worse, Wrath drew her a map!"

Luz? Nero looked to his mother, who seemed to have the exact same line of thought as she turned to the annoying gremlin.

"Worry not, Kikimora. We will handle the human."

"You'd better, Lilith," Kikimora then pointed to Nero, "And what is your brat doing here?"

"You really gonna complain about the extra help?" Nero scoffed, causing the little demon to glare at him.

"Come, my son. Let's go before I decide to throw someone out the window," Lilith walked past Kikimora and the warden before she turned and glared at the former, who's expression turned fearful. Nero nodded and followed his mother, the two of them walking down the halls yet again, but this time coming across various coven guards in states of humiliation. Many were encased in ice, others wrapped in plant tendrils, and some surrounded by flames.

"Okay, so Luz is also here to bust Aunt Eda out," Nero remarked as they walked past the last of the tangled up coven guards, "Huh, she's gotten a lot better at that."

"I suppose Edalyn did teach her well," Lilith added, sounding a bit bitter.

"Better hurry it up. If she finds Aunt Eda before we do, she's probably gonna need some help getting out of here," Nero ran ahead of his mother, but stopped when he noticed she wasn't running beside him. Turning around, he asked, "Mom, what's up?"

Lilith drummed her fingers along the handle of her staff and sighed, "Nothing, I'm just...silently hoping that we get to Edalyn before the human does."

"What, why? I'd like to think three heads are better than...wait," Nero saw the guilty look on Mom's face and realized something, "Does Luz know about what you did to Eda?"

Mom nodded, "And during the duel to arrest Edalyn, I might have maybe, sort of, kind of used the human as bait to lure my sister out and...might have also used her as a shield during said duel, so..."

Nero felt another spike of anger before he pinched the bridge of his nose and swallowed it, reminding himself that there'd be plenty of time to call Mom out on this later. Closing his eyes, Nero said, "Okay, new plan. If we run into Luz, you let me do all the talking."

"Nero, I-"

"Mom, Luz is way more likely to listen to me than you," Nero interrupted, "So I need you to trust me. Okay?"

Lilith was quiet and looked unsure, but after a few seconds, she answered, "Alright, I trust that you know what you're doing, my son."

The words caught Nero off-guard, and for a moment, a genuine, warm grin etched its way onto his face. As his mother walked up beside him, she nodded and they continued down the halls, with her speeding up just ahead of him as they rounded one final corner.

"Lilith!" An all too familiar, high-pitched voice cried out as Nero and his mother looked down to see King standing in front of a large door that Nero assumed led to Eda. "W-What are you doing here?" King asked fearfully, his attention solely on Lilith.

"I take it the human's already inside with my sister?" Mom asked impatiently. King didn't answer, instead nervously rubbing his hands while trying to stand his ground. Seeing that she wasn't going to get a response, Mom said, "Step aside."

"I-If you want to get t-to them, you gotta go through me!" King stammered as he held his arms out.

"Okay, Mom, let me try," Nero stepped forward, "Look, King, we're not here to-"

"Nero, what are you doing here?" King's asked, his fear replaced with shock as he pointed to Lilith, "And why are you with her! She's the reason Eda's in this mess!"

"I know that, but listen, we're here to-"

"You know! What about how she also cursed Eda? You know about that too?"

Nero nodded, but knelt down and held his hands out in a placating manner, "I do King, but I need you to just listen for one sec-"

"Can it, traitor! You are so dead to me!" King shouted as he lunged right towards Nero and bit into his right arm. However, King's teeth failed to penetrate his skin, leaving him just sort of...awkwardly hanging there. Standing up, Nero held his arm out and shook it, with the small demon holding tight while yelling something he couldn't understand. It almost sounded like King said, "How do you like that, jerk!?"

"That doesn't hurt, does it?" Mom asked, to which Nero shook his head.

"We should probably go in now," He said as he kept right arm held out, the two (technically three) of them making their way to the doors and heading inside. Much to their dismay, Nero saw Luz in a cloak of witch's wool weeping on the floor, the platform in front of her having already risen to its height. It didn't take much to figure out what happened.

"Shit!" Nero swore under his breath.

"We're too late," Mom said, equally distressed.

"You..." Luz outright snarled as she slowly rose up, "You hurt Eda, you cursed her, put her in chains," she reached into her cloak and turned, "And now, I will take you dow-!"

"Luz, hold up!" Nero ran forward and stepped between the two. Luz looked at him, eyes wide as dinner plates, and gasped.

"Nero! What's going on?"

Nero was about to explain, but King decided then to let go of his arm and yell, "He's a traitor and he's selling us out!"

"No, we're here to free Eda!" Nero yelled back, causing Luz and King to look at him and Mom in surprise.

"Wait, huh?"

"Weh!?"

After Luz and King's respective responses, Mom stepped forward and said, "Allow me to explain, I-"

"Give me one good reason why I should trust anything you have to say!" Luz glared at Lilith and drew two pieces of paper from her cloak, ready to activate them at a moment's notice. Mom looked ready to fight back before Nero held his arms out to prevent the two from coming to blows, King having already jumped off his right and ran to Luz's side.

"You're right, I don't have any reason for you to trust me after all I've done. All I ask is a chance to explain myself, and to make things right," Mom said before weaving a spell circle in her hands, summoning, much to Nero's surprise, Owlbert and Eda's staff. Luz's anger faded for a moment as Lilith walked forward and held them out to her. The girl didn't hesitate and took them, cradling the cooing Palisman in her arms.

Luz looked back to Lilith, open but still on-guard, and asked, "Why'd you do it?"

Mom nodded and explained everything to Luz like she did with Nero back at home. While this was happening, however, Nero's eyes started looking around the room and fell on a large, glowing rectangle just to the side of the platform where Eda had been. Huh, didn't see that there, Nero thought as he walked up to it, having been too caught up to notice it before. He got close, and the light faded enough for him to see that it was actually a portal, one that led to a pristine forest in front of a rickety old porch.

As he marveled at the sight, however, he also heard Luz say, "Well, no offense, but I still don't trust you."

Turning around, Nero saw his mother kneeling in front of Luz, whose arms were crossed. While he couldn't see Luz's face from this angle, he was pretty sure she was leveling a strong glare. King, meanwhile, hid behind Luz's leg, but Nero was pretty sure he was also glaring. For her part, Mom sighed and replied, "I understand that, and you have every right not to," she looked down in thought for a moment, "If it helps alleviate things a little, I will allow you to hit me with all your strength one time."

"Whoa, hold up!" Nero ran towards them and said, "Mom, you really don't have to do this."

"Yes, I do," she declared before turning back to Luz, "Now, if you have any compunctions abou-"

"Hiya!" Luz shouted as she punched Lilith square in the jaw without hesitation, knocking her face first to the floor with a loud yelp.

"Mom! You okay?" Nero asked as he helped her up.

"Ooooww," she groaned in pain, rubbing at her jaw, "Motherfucker, that hurt!"

"Never thought I'd say this, but thank you chores," Luz proudly flexed her rather skinny arms. She quickly got serious again and said, "Okay, look, I may not like your whole 'deal', but..." she sighed, "But I think we're all going to have to help each other if we're gonna save Eda."

Mom nodded and stood up to full height, "Since Edalyn's already been taken, we'll need to get to the stage to disrupt the ceremony directly," she made her way to the room's exit, but not before turning to everyone and concluding, "I know where we need to go. Follow me."

"Just give me a sec. Need to grab Eda's portal first," Luz pulled out an odd looking key from her collar and pressed the eye at its center. The portal then sunk into the ground in a flash of amber light. With that done, Luz looked between the two of them and, with King at her side, followed Lilith out of the prison chamber.

"Hey, Luz," Nero walked side-by-side with her and asked, "That place through the portal, that was the human world, right?"

Luz nodded, "Yeah. When I tried to free Eda, she wanted me to head home. She said something about Belos wanting the portal, and she also wanted me to destroy it."

"I recall Belos asking Edalyn about where she hid the portal when I captured her," Lilith added, sounding more than a little guilty, "Though I'm unsure what his designs are for it."

A rather uncomfortable silence followed after that. Wanting to break it, Nero said, "So...the human world seems nice."

"Yeah, it's pretty nice," Luz replied halfheartedly.

"You don't sound all that convinced," Nero pointed out.

"Don't get me wrong, I miss home, and I miss my mom, but I just want to save Eda right now," Luz gave him a somber, but genuine smile, "Besides, when this is all over, I can visit her and show off all the cool magic I learned."

Nero smiled back as they continued following his mother to where they needed to go. While he didn't see much of Luz's world through the portal, it did seem like a pleasant place to kick back and relax, and one he'd like to visit after they saved Aunt Eda.

If we save her, Nero snuffed that thought out. They were going to save her, come Hell or high water.

"So, what are you guys gonna do after we free Eda?" Luz asked as they all made their way through a creepy underground with a bunch of angelic statues covered in weird, rotting, slimy roots. Even with everything she'd seen on the isles so far, this place gave off a whole new level of off-putting.

"I honestly don't know anymore," Lilith said, "A part of me still wants to remain within the Emperor's Coven, if only to make sure nothing like this will happen again, but..."

"No offense Mom, but it might be a bit too late for that," Nero said. Lilith nodded while Luz frowned for a moment and looked to the floor. Despite Lilith trying to help them, she still felt anger towards the woman for everything she did. But at the same time, it was evident from the look in her eyes that she genuinely wanted to make up for things.

"If it means anything, thanks for helping us free Eda," Luz said, drawing a sad smile out of Lilith.

"Thank you, Luz."

"Are we there yet?" King asked, "We're kinda on a time table here."

"Not to worry, the platform is just ahead," Lilith pointed out, and sure enough, Luz saw it. As they walked up to the platform, however, she started getting a sinking feeling, and it wasn't just caused by all the surrounding rot. Something about this place was practically screaming at her to run, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what it was.

And then it hit her.

"Wait, where are the guards?" Luz asked, prompting everyone to start looking around in worry. Suddenly, Lilith and King were snatched up by the slimy roots and pulled away.

"King!"

"Mom!"

Both her and Nero's cries were met by a pair of flames igniting, revealing the Emperor slouching on his throne like about half-a-dozen evil overlords Luz had read about. "Deciding now to become a wild witch, Lilith?" Belos asked mockingly, "Such a poor sense of timing. Don't you think?"

Lilith struggled to break free before she looked to Nero and said, "You're right. I should've done this sooner," she closed her eyes and her staff glowed, Palisman flapping their wings before flying straight for him. Just as the staff came close, Nero easily caught it with his right arm and drew his sword in his left. He pointed his mom's staff at Belos while Luz did the same with Eda's.

"Let them go, now!" Nero yelled, but something seemed off to Luz. She could see that his hands were shaking, small bits of sweat falling down his face. He was scared, and honestly, so was she. After hearing about his power from Willow and seeing what he did to the Palisman in the throne room, Luz knew they were fighting an uphill battle. But they had to win, or at least come out alive. Maybe if they-

"I think not, little Sparda," Belos said with venom in his voice, halting Luz's train of thought.

Sparda, she thought, Wait, didn't that demon lord back at the Knee call him that? But that question went unanswered as she watched King and Lilith get pulled up into the spasming mass above. With a grimace, Luz and Nero attempted to run forward to save them, but something grabbed at her legs while the slime on one of the statues pulled Nero towards it. Luz looked down at her legs to see two sets of claws holding her on the ground,

"Do be quiet for a moment, I wish to speak with the human," Belos said to Nero as he commanded the slime to wrap around the teen's mouth, muffling his yells.

"I have nothing to say to you, you monster!" Luz shouted.

"Oh, if only you knew the truth, child," the Emperor chuckled as Luz's anger grew. She slammed the staff's end into the ground, letting Owlbert fly her out of the grip before she flipped forward and slammed it again, sending a wave of ice shards across the floor. The wave stopped just as it reached Belos, who remained unfazed on his throne. "Impressive, most impressive," Luz felt her stomach squirm at the Emperor's compliment, "For a novice, at least."

Luz stood up and glared, "I don't care what you have to say. You're freeing my friends right now!"

Before Belos could respond, Luz saw a bright blue glow emanate from where Nero was being held. She turned just in time to see the slime enveloping his right arm burst away as he aimed Lilith's burning staff at the Emperor, launching a wave of blue flames so large it consumed everything in its path. After a few seconds, the flames died down, revealing nothing but charred floor and molten stone.

"Woah!" Luz exclaimed as Nero freed his left arm, "That was insane! And way...too...easy..."

"Indeed," Belos' voice echoed all around, causing both of them to jump for a second in fright.

"Guess it was too much to hope he'd go down with that, huh?" Nero ran to Luz, on his guard as they stood back-to-back, looking around the room for where he might pop up. Luz felt sweat fall down her face,

"My turn," she suddenly heard to her left as she was sent flying away, Nero getting thrown in the opposite direction. She crashed into one of the statues with a loud, painful crack. Thankfully, the cloak Eda made spared her from the worst of the damage, but she had a feeling it wouldn't save her from the statue's falling ax.

"WOAH!" Luz cried out as she rolled out of the way, dodging the giant ax and using Eda's staff to fly away. She saw Belos standing a bit aways from her and pulled out a pair of fire glyphs, flying straight after him. But as she got close, a giant worm monster rose from the ground, enveloping the Emperor with its jaws wide open to devour her.

Luz could only panic, closing her eyes as she was about to fly into its maw. However, a sudden voice yelled, "Got ya!" and she was pulled out of the beast's warpath. Turning around, she saw Nero pull the end of Eda's staff as he asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, that was close," Luz nodded as Nero let go, allowing her to fly beside him. She noticed that, unlike her, he was using Lilith's staff like a makeshift skateboard, balancing on it with his feet. Huh, didn't know witch staffs could be used like that, Luz thought before looking down at Owlbert, But I prefer flying like this anyway. Way more like Good Witch Azura when she was fighting-

A sudden roar broke her reverie, and she looked back to see the giant worm chasing them with reckless abandon. They bobbed and weaved past several statues, but the beast bulldozed its way through them, refusing to let them escape. "Got any ideas?" Nero asked as they dropped down and flew just a couple feet over the floor, the sound of upturning stone just behind them.

"I'm open to suggestions," Luz said, turning back to see the worm was getting too close for comfort as it tried to bite at them, only narrowly missing. Her panicking brain tried to come up with something, wondering what Eda or Azura would do in this situation. Suddenly, a brief wave of inspiration hit her, "I think I got it! That thing can't chase both of us, so we should split up."

"You sure?" Nero asked, "I've seen enough mystery cartoons to know that splitting up's usually a bad idea."

"Well we're not in a mystery, and one of us being bait can give the other an opening," Luz pulled out a fire glyph and threw it at the beast, the flame exploding in its face and diverting its focus on her. As she split away from her friend, she saw the beast chase after her, "Now!"

"On it!" Nero shouted, the monster roaring in pain as it stopped chasing and writhed. Luz stopped and floated, turning to see Nero hanging onto the beast's back by his sword and sporting a wide smirk on his face. He flicked his wrist and set Red Queen on fire, burning into the worm's flesh. As he looked ready to start slashing, however, the worm stopped and glared at Luz.

Luz, wide eyed and terrified, bolted in the opposite way on Eda's staff as the beast continued its chase. She turned around to see Nero holding on for dear life, even summoning a spectral arm to maintain his grip and dig ethereal claws into the monster's skin. But as she faced forward, she gasped and saw the slime in the environment start poking outward, forming dozens of pointed tips. She gasped again as one of them went right for her, forcing her to duck. That would soon turn into a bunch of random, chaotic flying as she did everything to avoid the sudden onslaught of slimy spires from almost every angle. However, as she dodged, she noticed something.

Weird, the spikes always slow down just as they reach me, Luz wondered just as she looked back at the beast far behind her, who was equally weaving around them, And that thing's not bothering to just bust through them like everything else. It's almost like they're trying to-, Luz gasped and slowed down, seeing that Nero was no longer on the creature's back. And just after she noticed this, the worm picked up its speed and was now charging her again in full force. She faced forward again to increase Owlbert's speed, but soon found herself skidding to a halt in front of a wall.

As a shadow loomed over her, she landed and turned to see the worm beast roar at her, now trapped at its mercy. But Luz swallowed her terror and gave the monster a defiant glare, holding stave at the ready as she asked, "You with me, Owlbert?"

"Hoo!" the Palisman hooted with a nod as Luz pulled out a plant glyph in one hand while the other aimed Eda's staff, ready to kick some giant worm butt.

"Stupid...fucking..." Nero picked himself off the floor, having just been knocked off the worm's back. Looking around, he couldn't see Luz or the beast anymore, Where the hell did they-

"Looking for someone?" Belos' voice whispered just behind him. Nero gasped and turned, swinging Red Queen right at the Emperor's face, only for it to be blocked by his technological staff. "Pity," he mocked before Nero found himself pushed back several feet, skidding to a halt as he glared at his opponent, "I expected something more challenging from a Sparda."

"Who or what the hell is Sparda!?" Nero yelled. First the frog bastard, then the snake bitch, and now Emperor Freakshow were all calling him "a Sparda", and he wanted answers. Instead of giving him any answers, however, Belos chuckled.

"Seems your mother never told you."

Wait, Mom knows about- Nero didn't get to think too hard on that though, as he saw the sludge on the floor move beneath his feet. With wide eyes, he backflipped out of the way as a sharp spire jutted outward, almost skewering him. He found himself doing so again and again before he landed atop his mother's staff and flew into the air, circling around Belos and launching blasts of blue flame. The Emperor was unfazed though, simply casting forth a crimson shield around him that blocked the attack.

With a grunt, Nero flew higher and jumped off the staff when he was just atop the Emperor, holding it in his right hand as Coronis ignited in blue flames. In his left hand, he held Red Queen overhead and flicked his wrist, igniting all its Exceed charges at once. The second he neared, he slammed both weapons into the shield, enveloping it in a torrent of blue and crimson fire. Nero could see cracks slowly form around the shield, and it broke not a moment later, blade and staff slashing down where Belos stood. But as the flames cleared, his opponent was nowhere to be seen.

"Shit!" Nero cursed as he looked around, "Where'd he-" but he froze as he saw the floor in front of him ooze out the the same flesh colored slime from before. It morphed and spasmed until a white staff with a crimson orb shot out, impaling him in the chest as he cried out in pain. The pain grew worse as he saw the Emperor's staff glow, electrocuting him. Nero didn't know how long it lasted, only knowing that when his voice began to crack from the screams, he flew far away and rolled along the ground. He forced himself up, clutching at his chest as the wound slowly began to heal and seeing that his weapons were now scattered away from him.

"Ugh," Nero groaned, looking down at the torn hole in his shirt. The wound had healed, but the pain was still present as he looked up to see Belos making his way towards him. With each step taken, Nero felt his terror grow, his breathing becoming more labored as his heart raced.

"You're trembling. Good," Belos commented, sounding smug, "Your kind should fear someone like me."

"W-What are you talking about?" Nero tried to keep his voice even, but between the it didn't work, as he found himself backing up, the Emperor taking equal steps forward.

"Nothing you need concern yourself with," Belos said as he walked past Red Queen and Lilith's stave, "But seeing as you know your place, I have a proposition for you."

Nero narrowed his eyes and stopped, "If you think I'm gonna join your fucking coven, keep dreaming!"

"To be frank, Nero, I don't need you in my coven," he replied, as he circled around the young witch, "But I do have need of you for a certain...hmm, let's call it a project. So here's my proposal: You aid me, and I shall allow your mother to live. She will be cast out as a wild witch, of course, but my offer buys her some time."

"That ain't happening, freakshow," Nero immediately responded.

"Shame," Belos' staff glowed and Nero felt the air shift. A sound came from his right as he looked to see a giant axe fly right for him, spinning on its side like a buzz saw. Nero bent backward, just barely avoiding getting sliced in half while everything else behind him was slashed to pieces. "To be honest, your compliance was never a factor, merely a formality." Nero turned and found himself held high in the grip of a pulsating, fleshy claw. Nero gasped for air as the claw choked him, leaving him struggling to find a way out. His sword had been knocked away, as had his mother's staff; he looked down and glared at Belos one final time, but the fear he felt before was being overwhelmed by something else entirely.

"Let...me..." Nero wheezed, pouring as much as he could muster into his right arm before shouting in rage, "GO!"

Manifesting a spectral arm, he launched it forward and slugged the Emperor right in the face, sending him flying to the side as Nero fell to the floor. He caught his breath before hearing a light clinking sound, and looked to see one of the horns of Belos' helm land near him. Looking up, he saw Emperor Freakshow picking himself up, slightly hunched in pain and clutching at the left side of his mask, now missing its horn.

I...that actually hurt him? Nero looked down at his right arm and picking up the broken horn with it. The anger that fueled his attack dying down, but the fear it replaced not returning either. His attack left his childhood terror writhing in pain. For all Belos' power, he wasn't invincible, and that thought left a slowly growing smile on Nero's face. Though as he looked back up, a tinge of that fear returned when he saw the enraged glow of Belos' blue eyes behind the mask.

"You contemptable little devil," Belos snarled, his staff glowing once more. Thinking quick, Nero pocketed the horn and ran as debris and stone began flying around. A number of statues were lifted and suddenly thrown at him, forcing him to side-step, duck, and cast illusionary copies of himself to avoid them. Grabbing Red Queen as he neared it, he held out his right arm and called to the staff like he'd seen his mother do countless times. Sure enough, it flew right to his hand as the last statue was sent straight towards him. The instant Nero grabbed the staff, he somersaulted onto the statue and ran across it, leaping into the air as he reached its end before taking flight once more.

Arcs of crimson lightning flew from Belos' staff and right at Nero's face. Conjuring up a few more illusions of himself, he zipped around with them as the electricity scattered randomly throughout the battlefield to try and hit them. Each clone poofed when the bolts made contact, but he managed to get close to Belos and slashed at his side, which the Emperor blocked with the handle of his staff. Sparks flew across the blade and stave as they slid past each other, Nero flying and jumping off Lilith's staff to land far behind Belos, who wrathfully turned to him. He looked ready to attack again, but before he could...

"LUZ CHOP!" Luz's voice echoed from the left as she flew in at high speeds, smashing Owlbert's glowing form into the right side of Belos' masked face, sending more broken pieces flying. As Emperor Freakshow tried to rebalance himself, Luz jumped back onto Eda's staff and flew to Nero's side, landing and saying, "Sorry I'm late. Had to blow up a giant worm to get here."

"Better late than never, kid," Nero smiled and looked back to their opponent, who was standing tall with pieces of the right eye of his mask broken away. He gave Luz a look that seemed somewhere between pissed off and impressed.

"I think that's quite enough playing around," Belos said as he levitated in the air, blue eyes glowing brighter than before, "Wouldn't you agree?"

Nero sent a glance over to Luz, who looked at him with the same determination, followed by a nod as she looked back to Belos, "Yeah, I agree. Nero?"

"Let's rock!" Nero let Coronis unfurl his wings and burn a vibrant blue, giving the staff the form of a flaming scythe blade. With a spin, he sent a slash of pure flames towards the floating monarch as Luz pulled two ice glyphs into her hands. As the slash was batted away by Belos, Luz slammed the ice glyphs into the ground, coating the floor ahead of them in a layer of pure ice. The frost beneath Belos jutted out shards that threatened to pierce through him, but he teleported to the side right as they were an inch away from him.

In that moment, Belos flew right for them almost too fast to keep up with, but Nero was fast enough to step forward and slam the burning scythe into the ground. Suddenly, all the ice melted and evaporated, covering everything in a white fog. As Belos' shadow could be seen, Nero spun his left finger, creating a circle that commanded the ground to swallow him and Luz. Within the floor, he heard the Emperor's attack come down on where they once were before he ejected himself and Luz out where Belos was previously.

"That was awesome!" Luz whispered before turning her attention to behind them. Nero saw Belos' shade, seeming to be trying to sense them out. Luz took out a pair of plant glyphs and slammed them together, unleashing a torrent of vines towards the unsuspecting emperor. However, Belos was able to react in time and bat the vines away.

Shit! He's too fast, Nero thought as Belos unleashed a burst of wind that began dispersing the fog. Before all of it was gone, an idea popped in his head, Let's see how "all seeing" this jackass really is. Nero turned to Luz, "Hey kid!" that got her attention even with the billowing winds as he formed a spell circle that created several copies of himself and her, "On my mark, get ready to fly!"

Luz smiled and the moment Nero took off on his stave, she did the same as he commanded the illusions to circle around Belos, the fog having fully lifted. With him and Luz hidden among them, Belos calmly looked around the tornado of copies, trying to discern truth from illusion.

"Really? You believe this childish parlor trick will work on me?" Belos asked, sounding almost insulted as Nero felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Luz (the real Luz) pull out a pair of light glyphs from her cloak. Smirking as the sinking feeling vanished, he motioned for the rest of the Luz illusions to do the same.

"Hey, Bellhop!" all the Luzs shouted, "You need to lighten up!" and in that moment, they clapped the glyphs together. Nero shielded his eyes from the massive flash of light that engulfed the entire room.

"ARGH!" Belos screeched, no doubt blinded by the oversized light show. Nero moved his arm from his face and looked down to see the Emperor hunched over, clutching his eyes in pain. He gave Luz a nod and dispersed of the copies before the latter threw a fire glyph at the stunned dictator. The orange flame hit Belos right in the side as he threw his arm out, reaching with a long, mutating claw to slash at Luz, who was already behind the Emperor and out of his reach. Nero followed up by flying close to the floor, coming in hot as he brought out a spectral fist.

"Trouble seeing, Great Horned Prick!?" The second Nero got close, he delivered an uppercut to Emperor Freakshow's chin, shouting, "Then let me give you a hand!" as he knocked him into the air. Within the moments Belos was airborne and dazed, Nero spun, building up momentum. Just as Belos started to descend, he threw another spectral fist, this time right for the monarch's gut. Their opponent flew away, but managed to stop himself in mid-air, eyes glowing as Nero and Luz charged right for him. But before they could get close, a loud shriek of agony shook the air around them, sounding like it came from above. They both stopped, realizing who it was.

"EDA!" They shouted in panic. From the sound of it, they were too late, the petrification ceremony having already begun. However, they didn't have time to process that, as they were suddenly pulled from the air by fleshy tendrils digging into their arms, dragging them down to the ground. As they neared, they slowed down and were forced to their knees, the Emperor making his way to them.

"Well, it would seem that I hold all the cards," Belos said, now standing in front of them before giving Luz his full attention, "Seeing as the fate of those above lies in the balance, why don't we cut a deal, human? And I do hope you'll be more reasonable than your demonic friend."

"Oh get fu-" Nero shouted, but another arm shot out of the ground and clamped his mouth shut.

"Language," Belos snidely remarked before turning back to Luz, "Now, what I'm offering you is a chance to save your mentor. Whether she lives or dies is of no concern to me, but what is of concern is something in your possession," his eyes narrowed, "The portal to the human realm."

Nero heard Luz's breath hitch before she yelled, "No! I'm not going to put my home in danger you-"

"Danger? Oh no, nothing of the sort," Belos paced around Luz, even releasing her from the the tendrils, "The Titan has no interest in conquest of mankind. You'll understand soon enough," as another scream echoed around them, Belos stopped and stood directly in front of her, "Now, I do believe your mentor is running out of time."

"No! I-I won't..." Luz shut her eyes, tears falling before she said, "Fine! Just let us go and-"

"I'm afraid that while you still have time to save those above," Belos gestured to Nero, "This one's fate has already decided."

Nero cursed at Belos, albeit muffled, as Luz shouted, "But that wasn't the-"

"The deal was that I'd allow you to save your mentor in exchange for the portal," Belos turned his back to them and asked, "So will you let one fall, or everyone?"

Nero looked to Luz, seeing the conflict in her tear filled eyes as Aunt Eda's screams grew louder. If this kept up, it really would be too late to save everyone. Reluctantly, he faced Belos and yelled at him to let him talk. Belos twisted his head back, seemingly understanding as the hand uncovered his mouth and sunk back into the ground. Turning his head back to Luz, Nero said, "Luz, give him what he wants."

Luz gasped, "But what about you?"

"Right now, Aunt Eda, Mom, and King are more important. Go help them," he turned and glared at Belos, "I'll find my own way out, I promise."

"Perhaps you will, or perhaps you won't. What do you think, human?" Belos' question, all attention was on Luz as she looked down, another scream prompting her to pull the portal key from her robe. She pressed on the eye and summoned a briefcase, one with a similar eye design on it, and hugged it. Nero heard her whisper something in a language he didn't understand before she stood up and held the portal out for the Emperor.

"Here," Luz said, "It's yours."

"The Titan will be pleased," Belos took the portal from her hands. Suddenly, Nero was released from the arms' grip and shrouded in a crimson glow. Unable to move, he watched as Luz picked up his mother's staff and made her way to the platform, all while pulling the hood of her cloak up. Belos followed along and levitated Nero at his side, tapping his own staff on the floor the moment Luz stood at the center. As more of the flesh-like mass lifted her up, Belos said, "Now then, go on and play the hero."

"Luz," Nero began, "Tell Mom that I..." he gulped and held tears back, "Tell her I'm sorry."

Luz turned back, flashing an angry look Belos' way, "Actually, I think you'll be able to tell her yourself." She slammed both Eda and Lilith's staffs down, Palismen flashing as a glow shimmered at Nero's right. Looking to the source, he saw the portal in Belos' hands was covered in fire glyphs that were set off one by one. Belos noticed this too, but the portal blew up in a burst of fire before he could react, the loss in concentration sending Nero to the floor.

Now's my chance! Nero looked to the elevating platform and sent a spectral hand to its edge, pulling himself towards it and jumping on before it left the room. "Thanks for the save," Nero said, Luz nodding as she handed him Lilith's staff. He took it and pulled his hood up, both of them soon arriving at the petrification ceremony. Looking around, Nero saw a statue blasting a green beam at a small cell on stage, which itself contained his mother, King, and Aunt Eda, who was now in the bestial mode he saw in the picture from his first visit to her house.

"You stop the petrification, I'll free them!" Luz said as Nero gave an affirmative nod and ran to the statue. When he neared, he threw an ethereal claw out and hoisted the statue up, causing the beam to cease as he threw it like a javelin. It flew far and eventually faded from view altogether, the entire crowd cheering like it was some big sporting event.

Nero turned back just as Luz was threatening Kikimora with a ball of flames, prompting the tiny coven member to fearfully dissipate the cage. The moment everyone in it fell to the floor, Nero and Luz quickly ran to them. "MOM!" Nero shouted just as Luz did the same for her mentor. Lilith looked up, eyes widening as she embraced him the moment he was close.

"Nero!" she tightened the embrace before letting go, looking at him worriedly and asking, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine mom, but what about Aunt Eda?" Nero asked, looking at Eda's half-petrified form. Luz was worriedly hovering over her, making Nero wonder if it was too late.

Thankfully, the stone covering Eda began to fade away. The moment it was all gone, Eda snapped awake, "Ugh, talk about a headache."

"Eda!" Luz wrapped her arms around her mentor as best she could, King doing the same. Nero joined in, with Eda hugging them all back as best she could. However, the hug ended when it became noticeable that they were surrounded by coven soldiers on all sides.

Nero and Luz stood in front, ready to fight, but Eda grabbed the latter by the hood. As she set Luz on her back, she yelled, "Everyone, hop on! We're getting out of here!" With no time for arguments, Nero, Mom, and King all got on Eda's back as she flapped her wings. Within seconds, they were soaring in the air, dodging enchanted spears and gliding just above the cheering crowd before ascending higher. Nero looked back, seeing the Conformatorium far behind them as they made their way to his aunt's home.

"With this spell declared, let the pain be shared," the moment those words left her mouth, Lilith found herself floating in the air alongside her sister, both their bodies overtaken by a bright blue light as the curse was split between them. She didn't feel physical pain like all the previous uses of this spell, but she felt something else. She couldn't describe it, but it felt like a physical force of some kind was now gnawing inside her, wanting to overtake her.

The moment they landed, Lilith opened her eyes and saw her sister. Edalyn was back to the way she was before, but with the notable difference of her left eye being grey in color. As the human ran up and hugged Edalyn, Lilith felt through her hair and pulled, seeing strands of grey amidst the indigo. Hearing footsteps, she turned and saw her son look on her with worry, "You feeling okay Mom? You look kinda different."

"I'm fine, my little raven," Lilith answered, "Just getting used to things now."

Nero nodded and smiled, suddenly leaping forward and enveloping her in a hug. The act surprised her for a few seconds, eyes wide before finally closing as she returned the gesture, hugging her son as tightly as she dared. She released from the hug when she heard the sound of magic cracking up, looking up to see her sister trying and failing to create a spell circle.

"Well, that's gonna take some getting used to," Eda looked down at her hands, Lilith doing the same to her own as she tried to create a spell circle. Much like her sister's attempt, it fell apart and fizzled out, the sight of which caused Lilith to sigh.

"Seems to be the same for me," she tried to reach inward to find her magic, only finding faint sparks compared to the wellspring she had before. A fitting irony; she cursed her sister out of selfishness to take away her magic, and now she was met with the same fate.

"Don't worry," the human, Luz, said as she pulled out a glyph and placed it in Edalyn's hand, "I can show you how to do magic my way, and we can learn more about it together." Edalyn touched the center of the glyph, which glowed and shifted into an orb of light. All of them watched as it floated higher and higher, joining the stars in the sky and fading out of sight.

"Looking forward to that, kid," Edalyn ruffled Luz's hair and held her close.

"So, what now?" Nero asked, rubbing the back of his head, likely referring to what he and Lilith were going to do. It was pretty clear that they couldn't return back to their old home, so that left them with her parents place. But if she was being honest with herself, she wasn't sure on that option either. After what she'd done, the thought of facing her parents terrified her, and that was without getting into how she hadn't seen them in years. They needed to find a place to stay, however, and that was their only-

"Tell you what," Edalyn interrupted her thoughts, "You guys can stay with us."

Lilith's mind went blank for a second before she turned to her sister, "Eh?"

"Really?" Nero asked, sounding excited.

"B-But I..." Lilith stammered, "Edalyn, after what I did to you, how can you...why would you be okay with me staying here?"

Edalyn sported her usual confident smirk, "Simple sis," she raised a hand and started counting down on her fingers, "First off, you did bust me out of prison and pretty much gave up your old job and magic doing it. Second, while I ain't the nicest witch on the block, I'm not one who's gonna leave family without a home. And third, I haven't completely forgiven you for cursing me, and you've still got a lot of making up to do."

"I...I suppose that's understandable," Lilith sighed and gave her sister a determined look, "Very well, whatever I need to do to atone for my actions, I'll do so."

"Great! Cause I need someone to handle chores around here," Edalyn clapped her hands, "That includes cleaning, laundry, trash, and most importantly, Hooty duty."

Lilith heard snickers erupt from the side, glancing to see her son, Luz, and King stifling laughter, though at what, she had no clue. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"PFFT! Hooty duty," King giggled, causing Nero and Luz to bark out a laugh. Lilith felt her face heat up in embarrassment as she still didn't get it, but nonetheless, she composed herself and gave her sister a nod.

"Now, if you'll allow me, I would like to go retrieve mine and Nero's things," Lilith received a nod from her sister in return, who gestured towards everyone else to follow her inside. Nero looked between the two just as Lilith turned to head to where their things were hidden, making her way through the forest surrounding the Owl House.

"Hey mom! Wait up!" Lilith stopped, turning back to see her son catching up to her, sword still holstered behind his back while her staff was in his hands.

"Sorry," Lilith said, "I thought you wanted to stay with your aunt."

Her son shrugged, "Figured you could use some help. Besides, it's my stuff too," he held out her staff, "And you sorta forgot about this." Lilith took her staff and gave her son a thankful smile. They both decided to walk to their destination rather than fly, making their way through the mostly empty streets of Bonesborough. The only thing that broke the silence was her son's whistling. Overall, he seemed to be a lot more relaxed and upbeat than she'd seen him previously.

"So..." Lilith awkwardly broke her son's reverie, "You fought Belos?" He nodded, looking down to his right arm as they walked. Lilith saw there was still trepidation in his eyes just thinking about the whole thing, but she also saw something else as well. Clearing her throat, she asked, "And how do you feel about everything that just happened?"

Nero continued to look down at his arm, stopping in place as Lilith turned to him. She worried that asking him might of caused trauma from the unseen battle to resurface, but before she could apologize, he answered, "Being honest, even after decking him in the face, it still creeps me out just thinking about him," he looked directly to her and sighed, "Guess it's not gonna go away after one fight."

"I...I suppose not," Lilith wasn't sure what else to say to her son, but much to her surprise, the frown on his face slowly became a smile.

"But even if I'm still scared of him, it's not as bad as it used to be. Luz and I managed to kick his ass for a bit, so he sure as shit ain't as powerful as he thinks. And I got this to prove it," he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out something that made Lilith gasp; it was one of the horns from Belos' helm. Without even thinking, she took it from him to get a closer look, and saw that it was indeed the genuine article.

"You..." the words refused to leave her throat for a moment, but she managed to get them out, "You managed to hurt him." Lilith almost didn't want to believe it. All her life, Belos projected the image of being utterly unstoppable. Even with his need to consume the essence of Palismen, the power he would often display to those in his coven silenced anyone who dared to bring up the weakness. But her son and the human managed to accomplish something she didn't think possible and shattered that illusion.

"Mom, something wrong?" Nero's worried question went unanswered as Lilith found her mind swimming. When Belos discovered them, she gave Nero her staff to ensure he had every available advantage he possibly could. But even with that, and even when Edalyn was about to strike her down in justified rage, all she could think about was the danger her son was in. She didn't know what the fight entailed, and a part of her didn't want to know so those worries wouldn't weigh heavy on her. Yet at the same time, she wanted to know the details, and felt something else as her mind returned to the present.

Lilith looked to her son, who still seemed worried, and picked him up in a tight hug. "I am so proud of you!" Lilith exclaimed as she spun her child around.

"Mom..." Nero rasped out, "Air..." Lilith gasped and immediately dropped her son, who hunched over with his hands on his knees as he took deep breaths. She tried to apologize, but he held a hand out as he took in air a few more times before finally standing up and asking, "So, you're actually okay with me fighting him?"

Lilith shook her head, "I wouldn't say that exactly," she looked down, "Truth be told, I don't know if I'll ever be fully okay with you taking to such dangerous actions like this," a smile formed on her face as she looked back at him, "But I'm glad you came out of it well. And as much as it scares me to think of what could happen to you, I'd like to try and support you more in such endeavors."

Nero looked at her with utter bewilderment, as if he never expected her to say that. Much like her, he was now smiling, grin almost as bright as the stars in the sky. "Thanks mom," he said before asking, "So...does this mean I'm not grounded anymore?"

"For sneaking out, not anymore, but you did steal my coven saber and turned it into that," Lilith couldn't help but smirk, "So no. you're still grounded."

"Had to try," Nero sighed, but like her, he also couldn't help but smile. After a quick laugh, they continued to their destination, but Nero stopped them again, "Wait, since we're on the subject, there's something I want to ask."

"What is it, my little raven?"

"What do you know about Sparda?"

Lilith almost tripped as she turned back, "What?"

Nero sighed and explained, "During the fight, Emperor Asshole mentioned Sparda a few times and said you knew something about whoever that is. Remember when I said I snuck out to go to the library? I was trying to see what I could find on Sparda from the forbidden areas, but the whole monster fight put a lid on that. Since you know something, I was kinda hoping you could tell me about it. A couple of demons I fought before kept calling me "a Sparda", and I just want to know what my connection is to all this."

Lilith looked up and wondered if she should tell her son. For the longest time, she wanted to keep him away from any and all possibility of encountering those monsters, to protect him from them. But considering everything she'd just learned, as well as everything her son had already gone through, perhaps it was best to just let everything out. If nothing else, the odds of more demon lords showing up was inevitable, and him knowing the truth would help him if they met.

"Alright," she said as they continued their walk, "What do you wish to know?"

It had been just a few hours after he dismissed Kikimora and left the chambers holding the portal door. As Belos entered his personal chambers, he removed his damaged mask and placed it on the nearest desk, which itself held the notes he'd written over the centuries regarding Grimwalker creation. Overall, the day had been far more of a challenge than normal for the Emperor of the Boiling Isles.

Firstly, came Hunter's questioning of him regarding his decision to accelerate the timetable Lilith had to bring her son into his coven. At the end of the day, it was little more than a means to make her desperate, but his creation's sudden bout of defiance irked him, and he made it clear that the boy's punishment would come later. While he knew Hunter's betrayal was inevitable, like all the others and his template, Belos did want to keep him around for as long as possible. If Hunter showed signs of treachery, then he'd force his hand.

Secondly was his battle with the Sparda and human, throughout which he reminded himself to hold back. After all, his plans still required that they stay alive, and perhaps he could save the human child from the delusions she clearly suffered from if she thought well of those she sought to aid. But between allowing himself to undergo the indignity of taking hits from them alongside their horrendous wordplay, he struggled not to unleash all the power he'd accumulated and tear them both limb-from-limb.

And thirdly...

"Yoo hoo! Hello? Phillip!"

…was this.

"Philly! Philly Willy Billy!" the shadow of the Collector floated around the room, taking on a variety of shapes until they rested on the wall next to him, "Why the long face?"

"It's been a long day, Collector," Belos, or rather, Phillip, since he was being addressed by his true identity, answered as he walked through his chambers, the Collector's shade following him.

"Yeah, I got to see some of it," the shadows morphed into a caricature of himself doing battle, "You fighting the human and mini Sparda," before shifting into the Owl Lady's bestial form, "Them all getting away on that lady birdy's back! Ha HA!" they laughed, changing back to their more recognizable form as they floated alongside him, arms behind their head, "Not a fun day, I'm betting?"

"Not quite, but unfortunately, it was necessary for them to get away."

"Don't you need the Sparda kid to be out and about too?" the Collector asked, "So why go through all the effort to make sure he stays put?"

Phillip didn't even face the shade as he walked up to a specific wall of his chamber and pressed a few of the bricks, "The only thing that matters is he give me what I need to rebuild this," a mechanism activated, revealing a hidden compartment containing a wooden chest, enchantments in place to prevent any but him from opening it. "How I acquire that is of little importance," Phillip said, "Only that it's done and that he and the human-"

"Yeah yeah, bla bla bla," the Collector droned, "You've explained this so many times that it's boooorriiiiing! And I don't want to be bored anymore! I want to break out of this place and have some fun! How much longer till the Day of Unity again?"

"Don't worry, Collector. Soon it will pass, and you'll be free to have your fun," Phillip lied as he kneeled down and began opening the chest, "Though I still find it rather perplexing."

"What?"

"For someone trapped where they are because of Sparda, you aren't the least bit interested in watching his kin burn?"

The Collector's shade simply waved a hand dismissively, "Eh, sure the old guy was a killjoy, but I want to see if the others are any fun to play with first. If they ain't, then I'll just go all..." they turned into an apparition of a vaguely insect-like humanoid that shrunk underneath a hand, promptly being splattered, "SPLAT!"

"Yes yes," Phillip rolled his eyes as he finished undoing the locks, "But what I want comes first and foremost, understood?"

"Fiiiiine," the shade vanished from sight.

Finally, some silence, Phillip thought as he opened the chest and looked down upon it's contents; the broken pieces of a curved, demonic saber. The very same once belonging to the Dark Knight.

The Yamato.

Chapter Text

A small part of Lilith regretted agreeing to handle household chores for her sister. While she had every intention of following through on it, the sheer volume of things to clean and maintain, coupled with no longer having any magic to mitigate the workload, put her off. Yet strangely enough, it wasn't the dishes, the carpets, or even cleaning Hooty—the less spoken of that, the better—that irritated Lilith.

"Edalyn! I thought you said you were going to leave your clothes out?" Lilith asked as she knocked on her sister's bedroom door.

The real nightmare was laundry day.

"Huh?" Edalyn opened the door, rubbing an eye as she saw Lilith carrying a basket full of everyone else's clothes. "What? What is it? Trying to sleep."

"Sister, it's almost noon," Lilith said.

"Too early." Edalyn closed her door and, after a good moment, opened it again carrying a gargantuan pile of clothes in her arms.

"Is that everything?" Lilith asked as she took them and put them atop the basket.

"Yup, now if you'll excuse me, I got some sleeping to do."

"Fine, sleep well, Edalyn."

"Just make sure not to curse me this time, m'kay?" Edalyn joked, leaving Lilith to quietly thank her for the large amount of clothes, given that it hid her face from view. The last thing she wanted was for her sister to see her current expression.

"Ha ha," Lilith recovered and let out a monotonous laugh before making her way down the halls to the laundry room. Along the way, a swishing sound could be heard, prompting her attention to the wall, where she saw Edalyn's old graffiti, Graff. "Hello to you, Graff," she greeted the sentient artwork.

The art shifted and formed the words, "Hello Aunt Lilith!"

"I told you, I'm not your aunt," Lilith scoffed, hand briefly slipping as a few things from atop the pile fell. With a sigh, she put the basket down and picked the fallen clothes up. As soon as she loaded them up, Graff came into view and shifted their form.

"Do you need any help?"

"No, I can handle this. Besides, you wouldn't be able to help me anyway," Lilith remarked as she picked the basket up, watching as Graff shifted into a shrugging stick figure and zoomed away along the walls. For a moment, she stared at where they left and continued her way down the hall, eventually arriving at the laundry room. Putting the basket down on the floor, she picked up the first thing she could get her hands on: one of Edalyn's old shirts. "Ugh," Lilith gagged at the stench, shaking it to find feathers falling out, "I swear, sister, you're worse than the bird worm."

Then again, can't blame you either, given that it's my fault your like this anyway.

Shaking her head, she turned on the washer and started putting clothes in one at a time, making sure they wouldn't get tangled up with each other. She started off with Edalyn's, given how that would be the most difficult and would take probably a lot longer than the others. After just barely managing to fit everything into the washer, she turned it on and leaned against the dryer, waiting for it to finish.

As she waited, she looked down and saw a stray sock she'd forgotten, at first getting the urge to stop the washer and throw it in. However, an idea formed in her head as she looked down at her hand. Might as well give it a shot, Lilith thought as she kneeled down and spun her hand above the sock, pouring all her focus into creating a cleaning spell circle. Her heart soared when one appeared and caused the garment to glow, but that was snuffed not a second later, the circle shattering as the glow faded.

"Dammit," she sighed, relenting that it was too good to be true.

"Mom, you in here?"

Nero! Lilith regained her composure and stood up as the footsteps neared. "Yes, my little raven," she said, her son coming into view, "Just handling laundry at th-" freezing, she pointed to his purple shirt and asked, "What are you wearing?"

Nero looked down at the shirt in question. More specifically, he looked at the design on the shirt; it was a crudely stitched image of Edalyn wearing a backwards hat and sunglasses. Said image was also riding atop her stave like a skateboard as the words "BAD GIRL COVEN" shined next to her with thunderbolts on each corner.

"Something I found lying around and thought it looked cool," Nero shrugged, "Why?"

"I...nothing, never mind," Lilith shook her head again and returned her focus to the washing machine as her son walked in.

"You okay Mom? You've been kinda sulky since we started living here, and this is coming from me," Nero said as he stood next to her.

Lilith gave her son a reassuring look, "It's nothing, my little raven," she stared down at her hand, "I suppose I'm still struggling to...adapt, as it were."

"Maybe I can help?" Nero asked, "You did show me how to do a cleaning spell when I was twelve, so I can lighten the load when it comes to laundry."

Lilith thought about it for a minute. On the one hand, some help with her current workload would be nice, especially since she lacked in magic at the moment. It wasn't until she lost it that she started to see how much she'd relied upon it in her everyday life. But on the other, she couldn't bring herself to ask for it. After what she'd done, she didn't deserve it anyway.

"No, it's fine, my son," Lilith answered.

"You sure?"

Lilith nodded, "Yes. I can manage on my own," she looked back at the washing machine with utmost seriousness, I have to manage on my own.

"Well if you ever change your mind, let us know. I'm pretty sure Luz'd also be happy to help if you asked," Nero said.

"I doubt that."

"Still," Nero began heading out, "If you get hungry, Luz's downstairs making something called a pizza. From what she described, it sounds really good."

"Go enjoy yourself, my son. I'll catch up later," Lilith answered as the load finally finished washing. As she took everything out to be dried, she noticed the final, somber expression Nero gave her as he walked away.

Luz pulled the pizza out of the oven and took in the scent, so glad they had a dairy-free one for her lactose intolerance. Bringing it over to the table, she put a couple slices on each plate and called out, "Everyone! Pizza's ready!"

"Oh boy!" Hooty stretched his head into the dining room while King ran in from the halls.

"Yes! Finally, a meal fit for the king of demons!" his royal adorableness hopped into his chair. As soon as Luz plopped into her seat, Nero walked in wearing Eda's "Bad Girl Coven" shirt.

"Huh, that smells pretty good," Nero said as he sat down and poked at the pie. "So this is pizza? What's it taste like?"

"I only eat dairy-free pizza, but it tastes really good!" Luz took her seat, "Now, let's wait for Eda and Lilith before-"

"OMNOMNOM!" Hooty was already gobbling the pie down, eating his slices in under a second.

"Or we could do that," Luz finished.

"That was dee-licious! Could've used some bugs though, hoot!" Hooty stretched back to the door while King started taking bites out of his meal. Seeing as everyone else was already eating, Nero shrugged and took a bite out of his pizza. Luz watched as Nero's eyes went wide, slowly chewing on the piece as he savored the taste. A tiny tear rolled down his eye as he swallowed.

"Holy crap, this is amazing!" Nero smiled and started taking bigger bites, pausing to savor the taste.

"Glad you guys like it," Luz picked up hers and began nibbling, "Still think we should've waited for the others though."

"Last I saw, Aunt Eda's out like a light, and Mom's..." Nero went quiet.

"What's up?" Luz asked, biting down on her pie again.

"This have anything to do with that Sparda stuff you and your mom have been talking about?" King asked.

Yeah, I'm wondering on that too, Luz put her pizza on the plate, remembering how Lilith brought up what she knew about this Sparda character Echidna and Belos mentioned. The whole thing with Nero being related to an ancient demon warrior that saved mankind from the forces of Hell when they attempted invasion, coupled with Sparda killing the Titans and inadvertently creating the Boiling Isles, sounded awesome.

"No, it's nothing related to that, it's-" Nero shook his head and took another bite, "Never mind."

Luz frowned, part of her wanting to ask again, but before she could even think about it, Eda walked in with a loud yawn. "Hey kids, I miss lunch yet?" she asked, plopping down on her seat while scratching her back. She looked down and poked the pizza, "This that dairy-free stuff I had in the back of the fridge?"

"Honestly kinda surprised it was still fresh. You don't want any?" Luz asked.

"Nah, I'll take it," Eda started chowing down, though in weirdly smaller bites than normal. For a bit, the four of them ate in relative silence. Well, as quiet as possible when it came to the Owl House. King was as loud as usual when it came to lunch time while Nero was savoring every bite of his first pizza. The look on his face was a lot like hers when she got to eat one of Mama's home cooked meals; so goofy and bright (and at odds with his usual demeanor) that it would have made her laugh if not for the look on Eda's face. She seemed almost nervous about something, her smaller bites becoming giving way to just staring at her food. "Luz," she said before passing it over, "How about you have it?"

Luz stopped eating and raised an eyebrow, "Eda, is something wrong?" her eyes went wide, "Is it your curse? Quick! Nero! King! Get the potions!"

"What!? No! It's not the curse!"

"Oh," Luz blushed in embarrassment, "False alarm guys, go back to..." she slowed down and noticed that they were still deep in enjoying their pizza to notice she was even saying anything.

"Eh?" Nero paused mid-chew, "You say something, Luz?"

"Weh?" King's voice was muffled as he finished what was left of his food.

"Just asking Eda what's up," Luz looked back to her mentor, who seemed a bit incensed at being put on the spot.

"Alright, I'll talk," Eda sighed, giving Luz her full attention, "You know that was the only pizza I had, right?"

"Yeah," Luz wasn't sure where Eda was going with this, but her tone was definitely worrying.

"It's also the only thing I had left that you could eat."

Luz's eyes went wide before she looked down at her plate, "Oh, I get it."

There was another silence between them, this one much more uncomfortable, before Nero cleared his throat, "What are you guys talking about?"

"That we're out of human food and Luz is probably gonna starve," King answered, "She can't eat anything from the isles."

Nero looked at the adorable "demon king" curiously, "What? Why?"

"Let's just say that human digestive systems and isles food don't mix and leave it at that," Eda answered, giving Luz a concerned look.

"I tried it once," Luz shivered, sticking out her tongue as she wiped it with her hand, "I do not want to relive that."

"Damn, that sucks," Nero said sympathetically.

"Amen. It'd be like a world with almost no Apple Blood," Eda added with a shiver of her own.

"Still," Nero hummed, resting the reptilian fingers of his right hand to his chin, "There's gotta be something Luz can eat around here."

"I mean, I did try find a few things I could eat, Griffin eggs are pretty good for one thing, buuuuut..." Luz droned, drumming her hands against the table.

"But what?"

"The problem is they're pretty pricy," Eda answered her nephew, sighing as she slumped back in her seat, "And that's without factoring in that we gotta manage money for a lot of other things too. Especially now that we got two new mouths to feed."

"Think there's any way I can help?" Nero asked.

"You and your mom are helping enough as is kid," Eda smiled for a moment, which made Luz smile in kind, before the elder witch put on her thinking face, "We just need to find better paying odd jobs. Current ones aren't exactly netting many Snails."

King squirmed in fear, "Ugh, don't remind me. Last job I took was being a party mascot," his eyes looked off into the distance, "Those children were so evil. I can still hear their laughter." Everyone looked at King with worry as Nero, who was closest to him, reached out to pat his head as a comforting gesture. However, King shook and jumped onto the table, eyes closed as he screamed, "No! Put that baseball bat down!"

"Oh King, come here," Luz picked up and hugged her friend, gently rubbing his back. She hummed a melody her father once hummed for her when she was little, and that seemed to calm King down, eventually settling into a small hug.

"Thanks for that, Luz," Eda gave her a grateful, almost proud smile. Nero was smiling as well, giving Luz a nod.

"DAWW! That's so adorable! Hoot!" and then Hooty's voice chimed in from above all of them. Eda, Nero, and King all suppressed a collective groan as everyone looked up to see Hooty smiling down at them. Luz, for her part, simply looked up at the house demon with a moderately annoyed expression while King jumped out of her arms and returned to his seat.

"Way to kill the moment," Nero muttered.

"Just here because the mail came in," Hooty's face scrunched up as he began hacking, followed by him barfing several letters on the table, "Enjoy!"

Luz stared at the vomited, smelly, slightly soaked paper, "Aaaaaand my appetite's gone."

"OH! If you're not having that pizza, can I?" Hooty was about to dive down and take a bite, but Eda shoved her hand in Hooty's face.

"Actually," she began before picking up the plate and giving it to Nero, "Mind if you take this to Lily? Probably still busy with laundry and she's gotta eat too."

Nero nodded and took the plate, "Also, Aunt Eda?" he asked, "While on that, think you could maybe, I dunno, lighten up on Mom's chores? She's been working really hard on them, and I think she could use a break."

"Sure thing, kid", Eda nodded as Nero went upstairs while Hooty retracted out of the room. Those left behind sifted through the assorted papers. Luz, having helped Eda with this kind of thing before, immediately recognized a death hex and tossed it aside, disintegrating a pot on the counter. "Junk, junk, junk," Eda skimmed through several letters, "Angry letter saying I owe a potion dealer from the Night Market some money, bill for the scroll network, bill for the crystal ball cable network, and another angry letter about paying my Apple Blood tab. Ha! It'll be a cold day in the Fire Hell before that happens," but suddenly, her smirk faded as she slumped back in her seat and stared at the ceiling, "Ugh, our money problem's just getting worse, isn't it?"

Luz could only nod and plop her head down on the table. Despite their best efforts, making enough money to keep everyone fed was proving harder than they thought now that they could no longer sell stuff from Earth. Oh, they certainly tried waiting at the beaches for a trash slug to pop up so Eda could open 'er up, but that amounted to hours of nothing. In all the time they'd tried, only one trash slug ever beached itself, and it had nowhere near the amount of Earth garbage Eda normally needed to make a profit.

This led to their current odd jobs, with this week being all about bounty hunting for Nero and Luz. But while the former was nothing but excited about the prospect, Luz just couldn't bring herself to feel that kind of enthusiasm, despite her efforts to hide that fact. How could she feel excited, considering their current situation was all her-

"Okay, finally got mom to take the pizza, she liked it by the way and-" Nero's voice came back into the room, interrupting her deprecation. Luz looked up to see him staring at the melancholic display as he asked, "What's up?"

"Ran into more money issues," King bitterly remarked, pointing to the bills.

Nero took his seat and read over them with a grimace, "Well shit."

"Tell me about it!" Eda shouted, waving her hands in the air so hard one of them flew off.

"Ugh! If only I still had my powers, then we wouldn't have to worry about money," King kicked the letters off the table as Eda's hand crawled back to her, "A King shouldn't have to deal with this! They should be paying us not to kill them for demanding we pay them!"

One of the bills floated on front of Luz just as Eda put her hand back on. The human took the letter and skimmed over the details, "Actually, I think we should be able to better manage this kind of thing. The problem is we need to budget stuff."

"Hmm, that could work, but do you know anyone who's good at that?" Eda asked, arms rested behind her head, "Never been good at that kind of thing. Way too boring."

"Rulers don't file taxes. They do the taxing," King haughtily replied. Probably the evilest thing King said so far.

"I-" Nero immediately slammed his mouth shut in an all too suspicious way, "Never mind, I got nothing to add."

Luz decided not to pry and shrugged, "Well, I guess we could ask Lilith if she knows anything about-"

"No no, hold that thought," Eda stopped Luz before looking her nephew right in the eye, "Nero, anything you're not telling us? Anything related to our current money troubles?"

Everyone was now staring intently at Nero, who sighed, "Fuuuuuuuck. Okay fine," he drummed his fingers on the table, "I might...sorta know how to budget shit. Mom taught me a couple years ago."

"Wait, what!?" Eda stood up so fast she knocked her chair back, "Why didn't you say anything before?"

"Because there was no way this kind of crap would've ever come up earlier."

"...Fair enough," Eda grabbed her chair and sat back down, "Man, Lily must have really wanted you to grow up into an egghead like her."

Nero shrugged, "It was more of her way of helping me out," he looked down at the table, "Wasn't exactly in a good place mentally, so she tried to help me out of it by setting up "fun" activities we could do together."

""Fun" clearly being the operative word," Eda snarked under her breath with a roll of her eyes.

"Eda, your sister has issues," King bluntly said.

"Hey! That's..." Nero grew defensive before he slumped, "Completely true."

"To be fair, I also have issues too," Luz chimed in to lighten things up, "You have issues, Eda has issues, King has issues, I think Graff has issues, point is we all have them and now we can bond over them! Isn't that fun?"

"..."

"...Or we can just never talk about them and go about our day?"

"Yeah, let's do that," Eda said, Luz thankful for it. In hindsight, there were a lot of cans of worms she wasn't sure she wanted to talk about. "Anyway," Eda stood up, this time more carefully, "You two should probably head out and see what bounties are up."

"Yes! Finally!" Nero practically jumped out of his seat and fist pumped the air. He ran down the halls to his room, clearly to get Red Queen, while Eda left as well, leaving Luz behind with King.

"Luz, are you okay?" King asked, "You've been getting kinda mopey lately."

Luz gave a thankful, if slightly strained, smile, "Don't worry King. Just been getting tired a lot easier," she grabbed a fork on the table and started twirling it between her fingers, "I think a quick little adventure is all I need right now."

King tapped his chin before jumping off the table and rummaging around the kitchen. Luz, meanwhile, absentmindedly kept twirling the fork like a pen, her mind swimming around in her earlier guilt. She tried to push it to the side, but it kept bumbling up. Eda's lost magic, their current woes, the Emperor's grip on the isles growing stronger; none of this would have happened if she wasn't so stupid as to get caught in the first place.

"Hey Luz!" King jumped back onto the table in front of the girl, a piece of bread in his hands, "I need your help! The Bakery Battalion's on the move! They'll be arriving any minute!" he pointed to the wall, "Oh no! They're here!" and slammed the bread into his face, falling on his back as he closed his eyes, "Luz...help. It looks like...I'm...toast..."

"PFFFFFFFT! HAHAHA!" Luz couldn't help but laugh at the display, King laughing along with her, "HAHA! Heh-heh, t-thanks King," she wiped a stray tear from her eye as her laughter slowed down, "I needed that."

King jumped up and ate the remaining bread before clearing his throat, "Anytime. Now, by royal decree of the King of Demons, you are hereby ordered to cease moping at once."

"Yes sir!" Luz playfully saluted, though on the inside, she wasn't sure if that was a promise she could keep.

Just like her promise to her mama.

"Okay, I heard laughing, is the comedy hour still going?" Eda walked in, staff in hand and an annoyed expression on her face.

"Nah, we're done with that," King said while Eda handed her staff over to Luz.

"Make sure you take care of Owlbert while you're out, got it?" Eda sternly, but warmly, ordered. Luz answered with a cheerful nod as footsteps echoes, followed by Nero running in with Red Queen holstered on his back and now wearing his blue overcoat over the Bad Girl Coven t-shirt. Honestly, not a bad combo in Luz's opinion.

"All set! We going or what?" He asked, eagerly grinning.

"Ready!" Luz rested Eda's staff on her shoulder. Both of them headed for the door, but Eda stopped them right as they opened it.

"Make sure you both come back in one piece! And Nero?" she gained her nephew's attention, "You're on budgeting duty."

"Ugh, should've seen that coming," Nero whined, much to everyone's amusement, "Do I really have to? Can't Mom do it instead?"

"I thought you wanted to give her a break?" Eda smirked.

Luz couldn't help but giggle a bit as Nero was left muttering, "Walked right into that one," he looked at Eda, "Okay, fine, but just know that if I die of boredom, you're not allowed to sell Red Queen. And I mean that!"

"Of course," Eda held a hand up and hid one behind her back, "I solemnly swear that I won't-"

"She's crossing her fingers behind her back, isn't she?" Nero rhetorically asked Luz.

"Yup," Luz answered, making a pop at the "p".

"Oh, how I miss the days when that worked," Eda wistfully smiled as she revealed her hand, crossed fingers included, "Now you crazy kids go out there and kick some ass!"

"And bring back a new commander for my army of darkness!" King added, Luz making a mental note to buy a new doll while they were out.

"Yeah, we will," Nero walked out first, waving back, "See ya later!"

"Bye!" Luz added as she walked in step with Nero, heading out to Bonesborough. "Ready?" Luz held out her fist to Nero who looked at it and smirked.

"Ready," he answered, returning the fist bump.

"Golden Guard," Emperor Belos' voice reverberated throughout the throne room as he addressed its only other occupant, who kneeled before him.

"You summoned me, uncle?"

"Indeed," Belos began, "You are to journey to the Simmering Shoals and locate a Selkidomus that was recently sighted in the area. Then, you are to slay it by any means necessary."

"Of course, Emperor Belos," Hunter bowed his head, "But why do you need me to kill it?"

"I have my reasons. That's all you need to know for the moment, nephew," Belos answered, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Understood, but I was just hoping I could know-"

"Enough," Belos sharply silenced the boy, "Hunter, what have we said regarding you questioning my orders?" he could hear the clone's breath hitch as he stood from his throne to glare at it, "Is your lack of faith in me truly the due I am owed for taking you in? Such ingratitude, wouldn't you agree?"

"N-No, I..." Hunter bowed again, "I apologize, I wasn't thinking clearly and-"

"Correct, you weren't," Belos sat down, not letting his pain show. Those repulsive Palismen souls within him grew more agonizing with each passing day. But each time they fought, he forced them back, the abominations clearly no match for his will. The very thing that made him human. That made him superior to the filth of Hell.

"It won't happen again," the Golden Guard promised.

Belos ceased his glare, "Make sure that it doesn't. Now, go slay the Selkidomus, and be sure to bring the body to me. Understood?"

"Yes, Emperor Belos," Hunter stood and bowed one final time before heading out.

"And Hunter?" Belos stopped him before he could head out the door, "Good luck. Remember that both I and the Titan are counting on you."

"Of course. Thank you, uncle," Hunter nodded, a slight happiness in his tone at the Emperor's words. He made his way out, leaving Belos to lean into his throne, easing his pain.

He's been growing more questioning in these past few weeks, Belos mused with frustration. Hunter's betrayal was all but inevitable. The signs were making themself known now. First came the questions, then defying his orders, and finally opposing him. He'd been through this process enough to recognize them. The worst part was always having to make a new one, since the materials weren't easy to find. Of course, that's why he'd sent Hunter out to kill the Selkidomus in the first place, as its scales would be necessary for the next Golden Guard. Hopefully, the successor would be more obedient.

"Such a shame. And he resembled him so much, as well." Belos sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Up until recently, this one had been promising, not displaying the sickening aspects of his predecessors. He didn't ask unneeded questions, and he didn't show signs of any...sinful proclivities regarding the witches of this perdition. Still, given how the current Grimwalker was the closest he'd managed to recreating his brother, it showed he was almost there.

Next time, I'll make you what you're supposed to be, Caleb, Belos thought with a smile as he put his mask back on. He just had to wait until he had what he needed, then he could get rid of the current one.

Much as he wouldn't admit it out loud, it was a thought that gave him a certain sense of jubilation.

"WHOOOOOHOOOO!" Nero pumped his fists into the air with how fast the boat travelled at. Granted, he was supposed to be on lookout duty from the ship's bow to alert the crew of when they'd arrive at the Simmering Shoals, but after the sudden acceleration, he couldn't help but shirk that job to enjoy the rush.

"YEAH! This is aweso-OAH!" King fell flat on his back, leaving Nero to chuckle as he knelt down and helped the little demon to his feet. "Thanks," King said as he jumped to the railing and looked out across the horizon, "Now this is a view fit for the King of Demons!"

Nero rolled his eyes but couldn't help but grin at King's enthusiasm. Sure, the guy could be obnoxious, not to mention he didn't buy his whole "dethroned King of Demons" story in the slightest, but he'd been growing on him. "So King," Nero began, deciding to entertain the tale for just a bit, seeing as he had nothing better to do, "You've been living with Eda since you were "dethroned", right?" at King's nod, Nero asked, "How long ago was that?"

"About eight years ago, and I've been dreaming of getting my throne back ever since," King said before jumping down from the railing and pulling out a box of crackers from his pack.

"Then what?"

"Then I'll use my newfound power to take over Limbo! Then I'll take over the rest of the Underworld!" King threw a cracker into the air, the snack landing in his mouth.

"Riiiight," Nero rolled his eyes, "Think this place has had enough dictators for a lifetime."

"Don't worry, I'll make you and Luz my left and right hand in my conquest," King munched on another cracker, "Besides, don't you guys think I'd make a good king?"

"Well, you can't be any worse than the Great Horned Prick," Nero snarked.

"Kind of a low bar," King said, both of them laughing at the joke. Honestly, the whole thing was pretty relaxing from the stresses of earlier today, what with their first bounty being worth barely anything and the asshole skimping the pay. Part of him wanted to just throw the bastard over the horizon, but he kept himself in check, knowing his mother wouldn't approve of it.

Maybe I should've stayed home with her? Nero wondered, remembering how out of it his mom had been since the aftermath of the Petrification Ceremony. She'd been struggling a lot since she lost her magic and probably could've used a helping hand, but something told him she wouldn't accept it, even from him. Every time he asked if she needed anything, she always side stepped it, saying she'd be fine, but always having this look in her eyes like she had something to prove. It kinda reminded him of Luz and how insistent she was on taking this bounty, to prove to Eda that she was "more than a burden", as she put it.

Huh, Aunt Eda's kinda acting like Mom does, the more I think about it, Nero recalled how insistent his aunt was that they take low-level bounties, something his mother was quick to agree with since their magic was gone. Granted, Eda wasn't overprotective like Lilith was, but that didn't stop the frustration of not being able to take on the big fish from coming in. Much as he wanted to help make money for everyone, he wanted to have fun doing it, and that wasn't gonna happen if they kept going after baby monsters like Garlog and the Abominable Cutie Pie.

"You still with me, Nero?" King asked, Nero looking down at him.

"Yeah. Just thinking about my mom," Nero partially lied, "Don't know if she's doing too well, being honest."

"Hah! Momma's boy," King mocked as he ate another cracker, though Nero could hear in his tone that it was all jokes.

"Takes one to know one," Nero joked back.

"Weh?" King looked up at him, "What are you talking about?"

Nero raised an eyebrow, "I mean, hasn't Aunt Eda been raising you for as long as you could remember? Kinda sounds like a mom to me."

"PFFT! What?" King stifled a laugh, "She's not my mom!"

"Well, what is she to you then?"

King was starting to look annoyed, "What's with all the questions, anyway?"

"Hey, if I'm staying with you guys, I'd like to try and get to know everyone a bit more."

"Does that include Hoot-"

"No. It does not," Nero immediately cut King off. The less of that obnoxious bird demon he had to put up with, the better. Changing subjects, he sat down next to King and asked again, "So, what's Eda to you, if you don't mind the question?"

King opened his mouth to answer, but went silent and closed it, instead staring off in thought. "I..." he scratched the skull on his head, his face torn between consideration and confusion, "Huh. I...I don't know, being honest."

Nero didn't know how to respond, leaving a silence only broken by the waves crashing against the boat. After what felt like a few minutes, Nero patted him on the head and said, "If you're not sure on anything now, we can always talk about it later."

"Yeah. Think I just need some time to think is all," King nodded and stood up, stretching, "I'm gonna go check on Luz. Last time I saw her, she had a giant bug on her back and I'm wondering if she noti-"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"Sounds like she noticed," Nero commented, getting a sense of Deja Vu back to the day of Grom.

"Yup," King made his way to the main deck, but not before turning back and asking, "You coming or what?"

"Can't, gotta keep an eye out for the Selkidomus," Nero answered, before pondering, "But just to be safe, how big was the bug again?"

"About the size of her head."

"Oh, then she should be fine. She can handle something like that," Nero chuckled a bit before waving at King, who lazily waved back as he left. Now on his own, he looked out at the sea for when they arrived. And so, he kept watch and waited. And waited. And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

"Man, being the lookout is boring," Nero sighed, leaning against the railing and resting a hand to his chin. He'd been standing here for several minutes, and yet the Shimmering Shoals where nowhere in sight. How long was it gonna take for them to get there anyway?

"Hey, Nero!" the Clawthorne turned and saw Luz make her way over to him, seeming rather excited. As soon as she stood next to him, she said, "Captain wanted me to ask if you see any hazards ahead."

"So far, we got nothing but boiling ocean as far as the eye can...sea."

"HA! Sea puns!" Luz laughed and slapped her knees, Nero bursting out into his own laugh that broke the monotony. Once that died down, Luz used the railing to hold steady as she leaned back against the balls of her feet, "So here we are, searching the high seas, part of a crew on the hunt for a mighty beast," she added a bit of a pirate accent on that last one, "Plus, we get to keep the pirate clothes! Pretty fun adventure if you ask me," she gave Nero a chirpy smile, "What about you? You having fun?"

"Eh, to be honest, it's been pretty boring so far," Nero's eyes went back to scanning the horizon, the wind almost knocking his pirate hat off had he not caught it.

"How so?"

"I was kinda hoping there'd be a lot more sea monster attacks," Nero explained, "I figured it'd be me warning the crew, then I could jump in and fight it off before getting back to the ship. Being lookout's just a whole lot of nothing and it's starting to piss me off."

"Well, I've been having a lot of fun with the crew. I got to help around the ship, make some pirate puns, get rid of barnacles with King, and do a little dance," Luz threw her two Snails in, though she seemed to shiver a bit at that last one. "Besides," she added, whatever grossed her out now in the back of her head, "For me, the joy is in the journey and getting to explore something new."

"Glad you're having fun at least," Nero smiled, "But I'm still hoping we get to the Simmering Shoals fast. Sooner we beat the crap out of that Selkidomus and bring it in, the better."

"And the sooner we do, the sooner we get the money to help the house," Luz added, her bright demeanor lessening with a small, but notable slump.

"You okay, Luz?" Nero asked.

"Yeah!" Luz gave a rather forced smile, "This...this isn't working, is it?"

"Nope."

Luz sighed and looked outward, "Sorry, guess I'm still bothered by everything. If I hadn't been stupid enough to get caught, we wouldn't be in this mess in the first place and Eda wouldn't have lost faith in me."

Recalling her words back at Bonesborough, Nero nodded in understanding, "I think I get what you're saying," Luz looked at him, prompting Nero to continue, "Growing up, Mom's always been just a bit obnoxious when it came to making sure I was safe and sound," he rolled his eyes, "I know she meant well by it, but..."

As he struggled to find the words, Luz seemed to understand as well, concluding, "Felt like she didn't have any confidence in you to handle yourself, did it?"

"Yeah," Nero admitted, "And I know she's trying to be better about that, but she sorta lapses back into it every now and then. And look at me, once again going out somewhere dangerous without telling her," He huffed, "Guess old habits really don't die easily, do they?"

"Guess they don't," Luz agreed, slumping onto the railing, "Making matters worse, it looks like Eda's going that route too, since she only lets us take on small bounties. She doesn't think I can handle anything too dangerous," the human girl shrugged in melancholy, "Honestly, I don't think I can blame her for feeling that way."

The two entered a silence for several moments, Nero relating to Luz's current predicament. "So..." he said as he gave a reassuring smile and held out his fist to her, "To showing we can hold our own just fine?"

Luz looked at the fist and smiled, giving him a fist bump, "Yeah, to that."

Nero nodded before noticing that the sky was slowly beginning to darken. Looking up, he saw clouds blot out the sun, though thankfully, they didn't look heavy enough to carry an acid storm. However, as he shifted his gaze directly in front of the boat, he noticed a submerged ridge whose structures seemed to be made of giant rock and bone, the darkened skies hanging ominously above it.

"Looks like we're here," Nero commented, "Better go alert the captain."

"Right," Luz replied as they both headed to do just that. As the ship neared, the captain ordered everyone to keep their eyes peeled for any signs of the Selkidomus. They passed by the burning wreckage of a ship (signifying they were close), with a few of the crew paying their respects to the fallen. Suddenly, the entire ship shook violently from an unseen impact, which could only mean one thing.

"Luz, you see it?" Nero asked.

"There!" Luz pointed to far off in the boiling waters where a pair of dorsal fins rushed for the boat before slowing at its side. Members of the crew started throwing spears at it, which missed and sent the Selkidomus descending into the waters before jumping out to launch spikes at them. Everyone, barring one who lost his head, ducked for cover. Luz and Nero nodded to each other and jumped out from cover, the former with her glyphs ready while the latter aimed his right arm at the beast to restrain it.

"I'll trap it, you grab it!" Luz said, launching a couple ice glyphs in front of the Selkidomus, turning it around. She threw down another that slanted upward, effectively beaching it on the ice while it roared in anger. Luz gave a thumbs up, which Nero took as his cue and threw an ethereal arm right at the beast. He carefully picked the Selkidomus up, lifting it high above the boiling waters, but before he could move it to the boat, a crimson glow appeared beneath it.

"What the fu-" Nero was cut off when a series of crimson tendrils erupted from the water and grabbed the Selkidomus. As it shrieked in anger, the tendrils tried to pull it back into the sea, pulling Nero forward. "SHIT!" he braced himself into the ground, keeping his spectral arm's grip on the capture as best he could. Luz and the other members of the crew grabbed him and helped pull the beast back, but the impromptu tug of war was cut short when an explosion erupted from behind, knocking them all to the floor. With his grip on the Selkidomus lost, Nero jumped off the ground and rushed to the side of the ship just in time to watch the creature get pulled under by the crimson glow, which promptly darted to the ridge and disappeared beneath the waves.

"Nero, we have a problem!" Luz yelled.

"Yeah, looks like someone else's is hunting the Selkidomus down."

"No, I mean someone's robbing the ship!" at Luz's statement, Nero looked over and saw her and the captain on the opposite end of the deck, both of them looking over the edge. Rushing to them, the Clawthorne looked over as well just in time to see a shadowy figure make their way over to the shoal.

"Think it's whoever took the Selkidomus?" Nero mused.

"Probably," Luz said before tossing down another ice glyph into the water, creating a makeshift boat that she leapt down to. Not to be outdone, Nero weaved a spell circle and sent a blast of ice down to make his own boat just as Luz used a fire glyph to propel herself forward.

Taking a deep breath, Nero readied his right hand. "Okay Nero, like you practiced," he psyched himself up, opening his eyes to see that Luz was pretty far ahead. Forming a spell circle with his right hand, he unleashed a gargantuan torrent of fire that sent him flying as he held onto his makeshift boat. As he zoomed right past Luz, he couldn't help but let the adrenaline take hold as he jubilantly shouted, "YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWW!"

As he got close to the isle though, he felt his footing shrink and looked down to see that the boat was melting. At first, he was worried he'd sink into the boiling sea, but then saw that what was left of it began to float as he and it were propelled into the air. The heat from his flames and from the sea was enough to melt the rest as he looked up and saw the thief park their boat (a bathtub of all things) just ahead. Unfortunately, rather than smash into them like he'd hoped, he flew overhead right past them.

"Woah!" Nero ceased his propellent and dropped to the floor, just barely managing to land on his feet as he skidded across the sands, driving Red Queen into the ground to halt himself completely. "Alright, asshole," Nero picked himself up and pointed his blade at the thief, "Thinking of stealing our paycheck? You got another thing-"

"Nero!?" the thief shouted in an all too familiar voice, at which point Nero blinked and rubbed his eyes.

"Wait, Aunt Eda, is that you?" he asked, despite knowing the answer. She may have been dressed like a pirate with a sash of potions, both her legs replaced by peg legs, she was carrying a sack of Snails and had her face covered with a mask, but it was undoubtedly her.

"Yeah, it's me," Eda removed her mask, "What are you doing here?"

"I was gonna ask you the same thing."

"How about you answer me fir-"

"WHAAAAAAA-" Luz cried out from just behind Eda, who turned right as the human crashed into her. Both of them fell to the ground as Nero ran over to help them up, but in the process, he saw the Snails that Eda had stolen get enveloped by the beach's waves, lost to all of them.

"The money!" all of them shouted before Luz looked at her mentor in shock, "Wait, Eda!?"

"Heh, hey kid," Eda nervously replied.

"Why are you robbing our ship? And where are your legs?" Luz asked, at which point they all noticed that the impact knocked Eda's peg legs off. Instead of responding, Eda casually snapped, causing her actual legs to jump out of the tub and reattach themselves to her.

"Covering my tracks," Eda answered as she stood up, "Now as I was going to ask, what are you two doing here?"

Before either of them could answer, the ground beneath them shook, causing everyone to wobble and look out to the sea. Out from it rose a fist of pure boiling water, which promptly slammed into the sand in front of them, revealing the kneeling, smoking figure of the Golden Guard, staff in one hand and cage in another.

"At the moment, I'd say interfering with Coven business," the Guard said, his casual tone baring a dangerous edge.

Great, this asshat again, Nero recalled his previous encounter with Hunter. He never did get to pay him back for knocking him down a hall. Glaring, he pointed Red Queen at him and growled, "What the fuck do you want, Hunter?"

"Hunter?" Eda and Luz asked in surprise.

"I'm on official business, so it's just "Golden Guard", got it?" Hunter grunted, clearly not liking that the mystique of his entrance was gone, "So I suggest you do as I say if you want this to be as painless as possible."

"Why would we do that?" Luz glared.

"How about the fact that the Owl Lady attacked one of the Emperor's ships," he stated, "And since all three of you lost the money, you have a debt to pay."

"Argh! Are you shitting me!?" Nero slapped his head at that tidbit, "We really should've read the fine print before we took this job."

"To be fair, we were in a hurry," Luz admitted.

"How about a counteroffer?" Eda stepped forward, "How about you and his royal High-Ass leave the Selkidomus alone? It's a peaceful creature and you're provoking it."

Hunter shrugged, "The Emperor ordered me to slay one. I'm just following orders."

"Why does he even need you to slay it?" Nero asked, "Your goons already caught it and took it back here. Pretty sure they could do your job for you."

Hunter tilted his head, "Wait, what are you talking about?"

Nero, Luz, and Eda all looked to each other before turning back to the Guard. "You mean those red bands that dragged it back here didn't belong to you?" Nero asked.

Hunter gasped, his head turning to the cave far behind them, "Okay, change in plans. You three go investigate who took the Selkidomus and report back here You don't even have to fight whoever took it, just give me some intel on the culprit so I can handle them. If you do, I won't arrest you, and more importantly," he pulled up the cage and removed the blanket, "I won't drown the bird."

"WEH!" King yelled from inside the cage, "Where am I? What's-" before Hunter covered it again, "Heh, dark now."

"He's kinda cute actually," Hunter admitted as King started snoring.

Shit, this is bad, Nero looked over to his aunt and her ward, both of whom looked as worried as he felt, and tried to think of something. If they investigated, that'd be handing the Selkidomus over to the Emperor's Coven, and now that he knew the truth, he had no intention of handing it over to them. If they didn't, that meant King would surely be killed. Holstering his sword to think, he looked around to see what he could use, briefly seeing Luz actually consider the offer, before looking down at his right hand and get an idea. "See Hunter, that offer sounds nice and all," Nero held his left hand behind his back and spun a small spell circle with his pinkie, "But I think I'll settle for knocking that chrome dome off your face."

"Eh?" was all Hunter could say as Nero manifested a massive illusion; a huge version of his right arm erupting from the ground. Focusing, he brought it down on Hunter, who created a crimson barrier and braced himself for impact. Of course, the illusion didn't affect it in the slightest since it wasn't really there, but it did distract the Golden Guard, who looked confused as the barrier started to come down. Smirking, Nero held his right arm behind him and let out a small fire spell, using the burst of propulsion to send himself flying forward to deliver a spin kick to Hunter's head. "WHOA!" Hunter barely managed to block it with his staff, but the force of the impact knocked King's cage out of his hands and sent it up in the air, allowing Nero to send an ethereal arm to grab it, all while Hunter yelled, "Hey! That was a cheap shot and you know it!"

"Says the guy who kidnapped my friend," Nero pulled the cage to him and removed the blanket.

"King!" Luz ran up as the cage was opened, letting the little demon out. The two hugged as she asked, "You okay?"

"Yeah, just confused and a little bit hungry."

"Eh, he was starting to smell bad anyway," Hunter shrugged before looking over to the cave, "Imma just go handle the Selkidomus right quick. And since I'm feeling merciful, you can use this time to get out of here. Just be gone by the time I'm do-" as he ran his mouth, Nero grabbed him with an ethereal arm and held him in place, "What the-LET ME GO!"

"Not so fun now, is it?" Nero said before looking over to Eda and Luz, who looked to each other and nodded.

"Think you can hold him off while we go free the Selkidomus?" Luz asked.

Nero smirked and drew Red Queen once more, "Yeah, I'll manage. Besides, kinda got a score to settle with him anyway."

"Alright, let's go!" Eda and Luz ran off, the latter turning back, "King, you coming?"

Nero looked behind him to see that King wasn't going anywhere. "No way!" he jumped up and perched on Nero's shoulder, "I'm staying and helping. No one traps the King of demons in a cage and gets away with it!"

"Stay safe, both of you!" Eda said as she and Luz headed into the caverns just as Hunter's staff radiated excessive levels of magic, forcing Nero off him with a powerful field.

As Hunter floated down, he rolled his shoulder and snarled, "You know, I'm really starting to see why Uncle hates you so much."

"Well, that's a shame," Nero smirked as he stabbed Red Queen into the ground, flicking his wrist as the blade erupted with flames, "And here I was looking forward to the second date."

Whatever magic within the guard's mechanical staff ceased as he tilted his head and scratched his helm, "Wait a sec, are...are you flirting with me?"

"Depends," Nero shrugged, "What's that thing on your face?"

"What thing on my-"

Gotcha, Nero slashed upwards, sending a wave of flame and sand right towards the Guard, who barely managed to dodge as the slash grazed his helm.

"Dang this guy's fast," King bemoaned, with Nero in agreement. From their brief tussle back at Belos' palace, Hunter's speed was gonna be the biggest hurdle in fighting him.

"Trying to distract me?" Hunter rhetorically asked to which Nero smirked and spun Red Queen around.

"Huh, so you can actually figure shit out for yourself? And here I thought the only thing you knew how to do was knowtow to Emperor Asswipe."

"HA! Burn!" King pointed as he and Nero snickered, clearly getting the Guard's wrath as his staff glowed bright enough to almost blind them.

"Alright, THAT'S IT!"

"Luz, slow down!" Eda whispered as she ran slightly behind the girl. They went deeper into the cave as a lot of whispering, arguing, and outright roaring could be heard up ahead. They soon came upon a fissure within the cavern, the mast of a wrecked ship rising out of it. Hearing all the noise coming from down below, she and Luz pocked their heads over the cliff and looked to see a bunch of ominous figures in robes surrounding a giant blue pentagram. The Selkidomus roared at the center, but it couldn't move, being bound by several chains and mythical tendrils.

"We need to hurry this up," a goat-like demon, most likely the leader, said, "The Sparda and the prodigy of the Coven are here. They'll ruin everything if they find us!"

There's that name again, Eda mused, remembering what her sister and Nero said about this guy.

"Boss, you sure about this?" a tall, lanky looking witch asked.

The Goat glared at him, "We may not be summoning one of the Hell Lords, but it should be just as capable of getting the job done. All we have to do is summon it. No need to convince it of anything. Just a simple, rampaging beast that will do our job for us when it reaches the isles."

"Sounds like a lot of people are going to die," one of the other robed members, a dark-haired woman, said.

"Please, the isles can burn for all I care so long as Belos burns with it," the goat said and started preparing the ritual, all while Luz and Eda looked to each other in horror.

Okay, I'm all for taking down Belos, but these bastards are going too far, Eda glared down at them as the Selkidomus screamed, drowning out their chanting as the circle glowed an ominous blue. She was about to try and come up with a plan, but Luz beat her to the punch.

"Eda, you stay up here. I'll go stop these guys."

"What?" Eda looked at her ward like she was crazy, "No, it's too dangerous!"

"I have to, Eda," Luz gave a reassuring, but terrified and sorrowful smile, "It's the only way to make things right."

What is she talking about? Eda saw the guilt in Luz's eyes. The girl was about to jump down, but Eda grabbed her hand, giving a pleading look, "Luz, you can't go it alone. Remember what I said? Us weirdos have to stick toge-"

"I know! But look where that got you!" Luz shouted, causing Eda to let go and back away. The amount of hate Luz was directing at herself was downright palpable. She wanted to say something, anything, to help her kid, but before she could...

"Guys, we've been spotted!"

Shit! Eda and Luz looked down and saw one of the robed guys pointing up at them, followed by a few forming spell circles and launching fire blasts their way. Both of them ducked behind the cliffside as Eda remarked, "Well, looks like I'm involved whether you like it or not."

"Keep them busy!" the leader said, "It won't take long for me to finish this!"

"Oh, not on my watch you ain't!" Eda pulled out one of her potion bombs and shouted, "SPICY-TOSS!" before throwing it down on their attackers. The resulting explosion scattered them as she and Luz jumped down, the latter using a plant glyph to swing using the ship's mast and kick one of the goons in the face. "Alright, now listen here Mister short, old, and smells like crap," Eda pointed to the leader, "Let the Selkidomus go before I smack you around!"

"Oh please, why should we fear you?" the old goat asked as the Selkidomus screamed in agony, "You don't have any magic, Owl Lady."

Eda grunted at the reminder and threw another potion bomb, prompting a yelp from the goat demon as he quickly whipped up an energy barrier. Before she could just run up and punch him in the face, she found herself surrounded by the robed goons, all of whom had spells primed on her. In response, Eda pulled off her left arm and pointed it at them like a baseball bat, which earned her nothing but mocking laughter. Said laughter was cut off when Luz let out a war cry as she swung in on a vine, glyphs turning into fire balls that rained down on a few of their opponents. With some breathing room, Luz landed right behind Eda, both of them standing back-to-back as they were surrounded once more.

"I call dibs on the human! I need a new head to play bowling with," one of the more...deranged robed guys said.

"Dude, you have a problem."

"It's not a problem!"

"UGH! Why do we hang out with you again!?"

Luz and Eda just gave each other a deadpan glance before facing their opponents. Luz combined a pair of plant glyphs and slammed them to the floor, enveloping the first half of the goons in green vines that lifted them into the air. Eda rushed forward and smacked the nearest cult guy out with her bat-arm before ducking under a spell and throwing said arm at the attacker. The witch started shrieking as Eda's arm punched him in the face repeatedly, letting the Owl Lady toss another bomb at a charging foe. Unfortunately, she let her guard down and found herself caught in a hold from behind. She tried to break free, but lacking an arm made that harder than expected. Making matters worse, two of the goons approached, both wielding serrated knives.

"End of the line, Owl Lady," the one at the left mocked.

"Any last words?" asked the girl on the right.

"Yeah, why do you have boot on your face?"

"Wha-" was all they had time to say as Eda kicked her feet off, launching them at the goons' faces and sending them back. She slammed the back of her head into her captor's face and fell to the floor, whistling to gather all her limbs back. In no time, she reattached her arm and legs, standing tall and looking over to where Luz was, watching her kid kick some serious butt. But as Luz threw an ice blast that froze an opponent solid, Eda noticed something about the way she was fighting. It was far more reckless than usual, and that made her recall what Luz had said before all this happened.

I really need to talk to her when this is over, Eda worriedly thought as Luz blinded the last goon with a light glyph that left him reeling.

"You okay, Eda?" Luz asked as she walked over to her. Eda was about to answer, but one final scream from the Selkidomus snapped their attention back to the leader, who faced them as the pentagram glowed brighter than ever. The Selkidomus itself looked to be in immense pain as its body writhed, trying in vain to break free.

"You want some too?" Eda held her fists up, ready to throw down, but to her surprise, the goat demon smirked.

"No, just leaving you to your fate is all. Have fun with the Leviathan!" he said as he wove a spell circle that caused the ground beneath to swallow him and his goons, leaving them alone with the Selkidomus, whose screams now shook the entire cavern.

Gasping, Luz ran towards the pentagram, "Eda, we gotta get rid of that circle!"

Eda ran alongside Luz, but suddenly, the pentagram's glow became blinding. As both of them shielded their eyes, the screaming stopped, and it was then that Eda knew it was too late. Thinking quick, she grabbed Luz and bolted in the opposite direction, despite her kid's protests, and hid behind a broken off piece of the ship. She shielded Luz, eyes welded shut until the flash of light ceased. Opening her eyes, she made sure Luz was alright before noticing that an enormous shadow now loomed over them, and it only grew larger with each passing second. Fearfully, she looked out from behind cover, eyes going wide at the sight of the beast. As she panicked to find a way around it, the beast roared.

Eda could now only think one thing, We're dead.

Nero grit his teeth as Red Queen clashed against Hunter's staff, putting them into a blade lock. The Golden Guard managed to push him several feet back, zooming forward to follow up with an energy slash. Nero managed to flip to the side, launching a trio of sword slashes that Hunter avoided one after the other. Delivering one final, downward strike, Nero was caught off guard when his opponent instead teleported in a crimson flash. Feeling the air behind him shift, Nero turned back just in time to see Hunter's staff aimed point blank at his face.

Crapbaskets! Nero just barely managed to bend backwards and avoid the powerful laser blast, though the bangs of his hair were singed and his pirate hat was vaporized. He backflipped to put some distance between them before lunging forward, becoming a streak of dark blue that struck at the Golden Guard. Hunter side-stepped his attack, clearly intent on countering before King jumped from Nero's shoulder and right onto the Guard's helm.

"Hey! Get off me you little-" Hunter reached for King, who kept crawling all over him to avoid capture. Seeing his opening, Nero smirked and darted back before darting forward at even greater speeds, delivering a burning sword slash that sent sand and flames flying everywhere. The distracted Guard was sent upward alongside King, who flailed about with a high-pitched shriek. Sending a spectral hand towards the little demon, Nero caught him and pulled King back to the ground.

"You okay?" Nero said as King jumped back up to his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but how about a little warning next time you do that!?" King yelled.

"Sorry," Nero sheepishly replied as he saw Hunter flailing in the air, trying to regain his bearings. Thinking quick, he launched an ethereal arm that grabbed him mid-air, pulling Nero right towards him. As he neared, he struck, only to be met with empty air. He looked back and saw the Golden Guard now casually floating about, his staff holding him aloft. Before Nero's descent could slow down, he used his right arm and let off a fire spell, the blowback sending him flying right toward Hunter at a speed he wasn't expecting. The Clawthorne delivered a dive kick to the Guard's helmet, sending both of them crashing to the ground and rolling to regain their footing. Both of them stood tall, panting and covered from head to toe in dirt, sand, and grime. There were several tears in their attire that exposed the lacerations and burns they'd received throughout the fight.

"Okay, I'll...admit," Hunter caught his breath, rubbing at the new dent in his helm, "You're a lot tougher than I thought you'd be."

"Same to you," Nero coughed as he felt his wounds begin to heal. Even still, it was taking a lot out of him just to keep pace with the Guard's speed, having to make sure the hits he could connect counted. With his opponent still drained, Nero quickly drew up a spell circle that sent arcs of lighting Hunter's way. Unfortunately, Hunter recovered quick enough to block them all with his staff and blitz towards him. Right as Hunter came near, Nero struck the stave with Red Queen to block, sparks clashing as they flew past each other.

"Would you just give up already!?" Hunter's frustration was now reaching a peak as he skidded to a halt a ways away.

"You first, bucket head," Nero grunted, ignoring his exhaustion as Hunter was enveloped by the energy from his staff. The Golden Guard rushed for him, once more being blocked by Red Queen and landing behind before striking again as a scarlet blur. From behind, the side, from everywhere Nero wasn't immediately looking, he was attacked by an onslaught of powerful staff strikes that took everything he had to keep pace with. Gritting his teeth, he blocked over and over again as he struggled to find an opening. However, he noticed that the Guard was slowing down, pausing for breath while skidding to a stop once more.

Now's my chance, Nero readied himself as Hunter became a crimson comet one final time. Right as he neared, Nero sent an uppercut straight for the Guard's chin that managed to connect. As it struck, however, he saw that Hunter's staff connected to his chest, emitting a blast he had no time to dodge.

"ARGH!" Nero was sent flying back as the Guard was knocked into the air. He rolled against the ground, clutching at his chest and picking himself up.

"Nero! You okay there bud?" he heard King yell as he looked up, seeing the demon rush to his side. Clearly, the blast knocked him off his shoulder.

"Yeah," Nero groaned, "Fuck, that hurt." He looked over to Hunter, whose helmet was knocked off as he started getting up, and sighed, "Guess this shit isn't over yet."

"Ugh, I know," King added, "This was fun at first, but now it's just exhausting."

"What are you talking about? I'm the one doing most of the fighting here," Nero pointed out as Hunter stood at full height, shaking the sand out of his ash-blonde hair before glaring and gritting his teeth at them. This would have been somewhat intimidating if not for the goofy looking gap in his front teeth. He aimed his staff while Nero pointed Red Queen for what would likely be the final round. Before either of them could make a move, however, the ground shook and knocked them both off balance.

"What in the name of the Titan is that?" Hunter asked, struggling to maintain his footing as Nero did the same. A loud "BOOM!" sounded behind him, forcing him to turn just in time to witness the height of the ridge exploding into enormous chunks of rubble and dust.

"What the Hell!?" Nero shouted as some of the rubble flew right towards them. King hid behind him while he slashed away at any large rocks that got near, cutting them to pieces. Hunter handles them his own way, firing lasers from his staff that blew up the rest. Looking back at the Guard, he said, "Thanks."

"Just making sure I don't get crushed too," Hunter replied with a glare, "Don't assume this means our fight's ov-WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!?"

Nero followed where Hunter was pointing, his eyes growing wide as dinner plates as a roar filled the sky. Flying far above them was a colossal aquatic demon with three tail fins and four orange eyes that circled back for them. It opened its mouth, a pulsing glow roaring out that launched a massive energy blast down on the beach. All three of them were forced to duck out of the way, avoiding the blast radius that left a massive crater behind.

"Is everyone still breathing?" Nero asked.

"I think I am," King squeaked out.

"Ugh," Hunter stood up, looking to the monster that circled them overhead, "Giant, super powerful, and doesn't seem native to Limbo. I'm betting this thing's from one of the lower circles and the Rogues summoned it."

"Rogues?" Nero asked, "You mean those robed guys?"

"You fought them?"

Nero nodded, but a buzzing in the pocket of his pirate jacket caught his attention. Reaching, he pulled out the device Luz gave him and Eda, a tama-whatsit. He couldn't really recall the name, but they were kinda like scrolls and birds in that they allowed them to keep in touch, with this one sending a message from Luz. A series of shapes and symbols appeared on the tiny screen, but Nero couldn't read any of them.

"What's Luz saying?" King jumped to his shoulder.

"No clue. Can't read any of this," Nero scratched his head, "I think maybe she's trying to warn us the giant asshole flying overhead, but it's a bit late for-"

"Wait, turn it to the side."

"What for?" Nero's question was met with King jumping to his hands and doing just that, letting him see the words the symbols made out, "Oh...that makes way more sense." Nero cleared his throat and spoke out the message, "Trapped in Leviathan belly. Please help."

"You mean to tell me they're inside that thing!?" Hunter asked, pointing to the beast as it continued circling the small isle. Whether it was mocking them or waiting for their next move, Nero didn't know.

"Seems so," Nero put the device away, staring at the creature with worry for his aunt and friend trapped inside it.

"But how are we gonna reach it?" King asked, "Last I checked, neither of us can fly and I'm not so sure waiting for that thing to come down to us is a good idea."

Good point, Nero pondered over that fact, trying to figure something out, but then Hunter coughed and drew their attention. Annoyed, Nero asked, "You're still here?"

"Yes," Hunter's staff glowed, grabbing his helmet, "Now, I'm gonna be completely honest with you," he put the helm back on, "I don't like you, and you don't like me."

"Gee, what gave you that idea?" Nero deadpanned and crossed his arms.

"But we're both exhausted from fighting each other. I can't kill it by myself, and neither can you," Hunter pointed to the Leviathan, "And if neither of us can kill that thing, it's gonna rampage across Limbo until it reaches the isles. If it does, countless innocent people are gonna die."

Shit! Can't let that happen! Nero glared at the beast for a second. Between his family trapped in its stomach and his previous fatigue, he didn't even think about that.

"So rather than make a big speech about a common foe or anything like that," Hunter sat on his staff as it floated in the air, "Let's just skip to the part where you hop aboard so we kill this monster."

"All while keeping in mind that this changes nothing, and we go right back to trying to kill each other when we're done?"

"Exactly."

"Fine by me, now move over," Nero got onto the staff, riding it like a board and holding his hand out for King, who jumped on and climbed to his shoulder. Seeing that everyone was on, Hunter flew them upward at high speeds, flying them just behind the Leviathan and following its trail.

"Man, this whole sequence reminds me of when Ruler and his subordinate, Francoise, were forced to team up with their sworn enemy to defeat the Great Usurper!" King excitedly said.

"Wait, that sounds like-" Hunter looked back at King as they flew high above the Leviathan, "You read Ruler's Reach too?"

King started looking rather smug, "Read it? Who do you think wrote it?"

Despite wearing a helmet, Hunter somehow managed to look both flabbergasted and awe-struck, "You mean you're the author!? W-Wow, this is so awesome! Can I get your auto-"

"Dude! Fight now, fanboy later!" Nero chastised as he looked down and yelled at King, "Hold on!" before leaping off the staff and free falling for the Leviathan's back. As soon as they neared, he threw a spectral arm and latched on, pulling himself towards it. Holding onto the beast's back, he stabbed Red Queen into it and clung for dear life.

"Please tell me you have a plan!" King screamed.

"Nope!" Nero started stabbing the Leviathan's hide over and over again, Dammit, this thing's though! Just hang in there you guys!

Luz ducked under the scythe swing with a loud yelp; it was one thing to get eaten, but there being demons inside was even worse. Luz threw out an ice glyph that froze the demon on impact, hoping to give herself some breathing room. There was hardly any time for that, however, as a yell from Eda forced her to turn just in time to avoid getting hacked to pieces by another scythe-wielding demon who then shattered its frozen ally without hesitation. Besides being hostile enough to make those flesh-eating fairies seem nice, they were also tall, lanky humanoids with weird masks and large bulbs of flesh on their backs. Probably the most disturbing thing about them was that none had any skin and were just shambling masses of exposed muscle.

If I hadn't already been eaten by a demon once, I'd probably be puking right now, Luz thought. She whipped out a plant glyph and ensnared the demon in vines before throwing it off the current pathway, sending it far below and probably into stomach acid. Just behind her, she heard an explosion from one of Eda's potion bombs, diverting her attention to see Eda kick another demon off the fleshy walkway while her severed head was biting into the arm of another. As it shrieked in pain, Eda's body walked up to it and delivered a powerful kick right in its crotch. Oof, demon or not, that had to hurt. Luz watched the demon slump to the ground before Eda stomped on its head, crushing it into green goop. The rest of its body melted away in what looked almost like bile.

"That was...gross," Luz said as Eda reattached her head.

"Sadly, I've seen grosser things at the Night Market," Eda said as the entire Leviathan shook. "Sounds like a fight's going on out there."

"Then we better keep moving. There's gotta be an exit around here somewhere," Luz added as she began walking down the walkway, where they entered a mucus and slime filled hall. Ignoring that for now, she pulled out her notebook and started writing down everything she could about her current environment for later magic training notes, as well as using the pages to draw up more glyphs. Throughout their travels in the Leviathan's stomach, they came across what looked like a giant Spanish Gallion, the ruins of an old Victorian castle, and leftover buildings among other stuff, all of which could only mean one thing.

"How did this thing get to Earth to eat all that?" Luz wondered out loud. For a second, she thought an answer to her current "stuck with no way home" problem might involve whatever brought this thing to Earth, but then she recalled how the Leviathan was summoned in the first place and chucked that idea into a fire. Anything that required sacrificing someone else to get her way was an avenue she wanted nothing to do with.

"I don't know," Eda replied as the two of them avoided the puddles of acid that littered the halls. Soon as they brushed past a membrane-like entrance and into what looked like an intestine, which thankfully didn't have any acid puddles from what could be seen.

And how badly do you have to screw up that no acid puddles in a giant demon's stomach is the silver lining? Luz admonished herself, but kept to writing in her notebook as a distraction, First Eda loses her magic because of me, then she has to sacrifice so much just to make sure I can eat, then that innocent Selkidomus dies because of me, and now we're stuck in a demon's belly because I was too slow to stop those guys from finishing their-

"Luz," Eda snapped her out of it, both of them stopping, "I think we need to talk."

"Can it wait until we're out of here?"

Eda shook her head, "No, it's about what you said earlier." Her expression became terrified, something Luz wasn't used to seeing on her mentor, "When you said that what you were doing was 'the only way to make things right'. What did you mean by that?"

Luz wasn't sure she wanted to answer, but thankfully, she didn't have to. The ground shook, and the walls spasmed, a high-pitched roar echoing from behind Eda. They both looked down the intestinal hall and saw what looked like a giant tapeworm crawling right for them. Running ahead, Luz yelled, "Eda, get behind me!" before throwing a pair of ice glyphs that froze its head, "I'll hold it off."

As the beast smashed its head among the walls to try and shatter the ice, Eda yelled, "Luz, you can't! We have to stick together to get out of here!"

"Why? So I can make your life worse?" Luz snapped, facing Eda as her voice became more strained, "Look around! Because of me, you lost your magic, you almost died, and you can barely afford to make ends meet. You wouldn't even be stuck in this thing if it weren't for me!" Eda went quiet as Luz's breath heaved. A sudden roar and the shattering of ice forced her attention back on the freed worm. "Eda, just go. I'll catch up to you as soon as I can, but if I'm gonna set things right, I have to handle this alone."

Luz heard Eda yell at her, but she didn't listen, instead letting off a fire glyph that the tapeworm withstood before charging. As it neared, she combined a pair of light glyphs that emitted a giant flash, causing the worm to back up and screech. However, it recovered quickly and started charging forward again, the narrow tunnel giving no way past it. Luz was about to set up a barrier of vines that would hopefully slow it down, but a trio of potion bombs flew overhead and into the beast's mouth. A series of booms came from inside its throat before it coughed up smoke.

"Hang on!" Eda grabbed Luz, despite her protests, and bolted down the hall. From Luz's position, she could see the worm recover and speed right for them. Eda ran as fast as she could, just barely staying ahead until she managed to jump into a small opening that led into another passageway. The worm ineffectually banged against it, unable to fit through, letting Eda run down and gently place Luz on the floor when they were safe.

"Eda, what are you-"

"Luz, just stop and listen for a minute!" Eda yelled as she knelt down, "I get that you want to help me, but all this recklessness isn't going to work, and this is coming from me! You keep saying you've made my life worse, but I don't see it that way," her expression softened and sounded like she was starting to tear up for a moment, "You helped me find King's crown when you barely knew me. You saved me from Belos, helped me at least start patching things up with Lily. Hell, if you hadn't dragged me to that Covention, I'd never have met my nephew. Bad things happened, sure, but so did a lot of good stuff too." Eda looked away, as if trying to find the words, "So no matter what you believe..." she then looked her dead in the eye, "My life's pretty great because I'm friends with Luz the Human."

"E-Eda, I..." Luz sniffled, her own tears threatening to spill out, which ceased when Eda poked her forehead.

"Now, please, for your own sake, don't feel so guilty about everything," she stood up, holding out a hand, "So that us weirdos can get out of here together."

Feeling a genuine smile return to her face, Luz nodded and took the hand. Both of them started down the passage, once more pushing past gross slimy walls, all the while Luz felt lighter than before. The guilt she felt was still there, but she could put it aside, at least for now. It also helped that she was too focused on the light at the far end of the tunnel to truly pay that any mind, running alongside Eda to the end and exiting to find themselves in another pulsating, spasming room made up of tissue and membranes.

"Where are we now?" Luz asked, looking around before her eyes landed on the room's centerpiece. Behind a large, transparent, membranous wall was a trio of giant...hearts? She assumed they were hearts at least, though one to the left had several red crystals in it, not to mention what looked like teeth at the bottom end and all of them had weird lines and symbols running throughout. Before she could wonder any further, the Leviathan shook again, reminding her of the fight outside.

"Damn, doesn't sound too good out there," Eda remarked, concern evident in her voice, "Wish we could do something."

Staring at the hearts and pressing a hand to the barrier, Luz got an idea, "Maybe we can." Eda raised an eyebrow at her while Luz pulled out a sheet of paper and smirked, "Want to learn your first glyph?"

Hunter soared higher, following the Leviathan as it flew directly upward into the sky. For a moment, he looked back down and saw the ridge they were on now far below. He looked back, only able to make out the silhouette of the demon as he caught up, soaring through the clouds and reaching its back. Eventually, they burst above the clouds and into the afternoon sky, the sun shimmering of the Leviathan's scales as it roared. Hunter watched as it fired off a blast into the air, turning and facing him to shoot him down. With a spin, he narrowly avoided it, briefly seeing Nero and his demon friend hanging on for dear life from one of the Leviathan's eyes. He ducked under the beast came up with a new idea.

Hide on its back's too thick, let's try the underbelly, Hunter thought and took aim, firing a precise blast that ran the length of its stomach. Unfortunately, it didn't work, as the scales underneath were just as thick. So far, he and Nero have been hammering away at it and nothing could put a dent. Better regroup, see if we can come up with something else, Hunter flew as fast as he could, catching up to the Leviathan and nearing its face.

"Hey!" Hunter shouted as he saw Nero and the demon on the eye with Nero's sword impaled through it. "Hop on!"

Nero removed his blade, now slicked with blood, from the eye, and the Leviathan roared in pain and tried to shake Nero off. Its flight path grew erratic, forcing Hunter to veer away from it while Nero found his footing, running along the snout before leaping off into the air. He threw out a spectral fist that grabbed one end of Hunter's stave and pulled himself aboard.

"Good news! I found a weak point. Bad news is there's only four and they're a pain in the ass to get to," Nero said.

"And that mouth laser almost shook me off!" the small demon screamed.

"Alright, I got an idea." Hunter increased his speed, firing a few energy blasts at the demon's face to aggravate it. The Leviathan was hot on their trail, but Hunter zoomed far ahead to get enough distance for his plan. Once they were far enough, Hunter jumped and hung from his staff, letting it act as a makeshift bazooka like the ones Blight Industries sold. "Steady, easy..." he stilled his breath, waiting until the beast neared enough and its eye was in position. "NOW!" A beam of pure energy struck the Leviathan's upper left eye, blowing it to smithereens.

"HELL YEAH! WAY TO GO!" Nero yelled while his friend punched the air. Despite their alliance being temporary, Hunter couldn't help but smile at the praise. Of course, it was understandable, as praise and respect were only deserved for accomplishing one's tasks efficiently.

"HA! Two down! Two to-LOOK OUT!" the small demon yelled, forcing Hunter's attention back to the Leviathan as it charged for them. He was able to get aboard his staff and veer them out of the way as the beast flew high above them once again. From the looks of it, the Leviathan was gonna fly so high that it'd be impossible to reach. He had to act quick and blind it before-

"KING!" Nero yelled, making Hunter aware of a high-pitched scream as he looked down to see King plummeting. Before he could even process that, Nero jumped down after him, entering a dive.

"Oh you gotta be fudging kidding me!" Hunter slapped his helmet and looked back up at the Leviathan. If he went after it now, he could take out the other two eyes and leave it helpless. But then Nero and King would plummet to their deaths. He shook his head, his thoughts sounding almost like Uncle's voice, You have a job to do, Golden Guard. The Clawthorne and his pet are an obstacle. Leave them to their fate. It's the boy's fault he decided to do something so foolhardy in the first place. But then he recalled how, despite having the opportunity to stay silent, Nero spoke up in his defense against the Emperor, willing to share the blame for something that was entirely his own fault.

"Ugh! Titan darn it!" Hunter became a crimson blur, zipping down at blinding speeds and catching up to Nero right as he caught King. Holding out his hand, he grabbed the two and pulled them back on. As he flew back up, he asked, "You two okay?"

"Yeah, I-I'm good," King whimpered, still shaking off experience.

Nero, meanwhile, gave a smile and thumbs up, "Yeah, thanks for the save."

"Don't mention it. Let's just say I owed you one," Hunter replied before focusing on the Leviathan as he flew through the clouds, "Let's just hope that thing didn't get too high up for-" suddenly, the air around them shook. An ear-piercing roar echoed around them and drew closer. It sounded like the Leviathan, but this wasn't the rage from before. It was almost like it was in agony. It kept going and going until it finally ceased, leaving only the sound of billowing winds. "What the heck was tha-" Hunter was cut off as the beast's familiar giant shadow drew close.

"WOAH!"

"WEH!"

"SHIT!"

Hunter flew out of the way, barely avoiding a fin as all three of them looked down to see the Leviathan sprawled out, not moving an inch. He followed it, bursting out from beneath the clouds and watching as it plummeted to the ridge with a mighty crash on its back. It landed on its back atop the destroyed structures of the miniature island, head hanging above and covering half the cave entrance.

"Did...did it just die?" King asked, equally as befuddled as Hunter was feeling.

"Looks like it," Hunter landed, allowing his passengers to hop off and run up to the giant corpse, "No idea how though."

"I think I might know how," Nero hummed before pulling out that device from earlier and started pushing buttons, King helping him figure out how to send a message.

Hunter looked over Nero's shoulder and asked, "You think the human and the Owl Lady killed it?"

Nero nodded as he finished sending the message, "They probably fucked something up inside the thing. Can't think of any other reason why it'd just drop dead after only getting two eyes blown out." Hunter thought it over and accepted the reasoning, not seeing any other way. All three of them stared at the device, waiting for a response, but after over a minute, nothing came up. Nero typed another message, looking a lot more nervous than before, whispering, "Come on. Pick up you guys."

"I'm sure they're fine," King said before staring at the demon corpse with worry, "A-At least I hope they're fine."

"Think one of us should try to enter it and-"

"WHAAAAA!"

Hunter was cut off as he looked far in front of him, where the human seemed to have landed on her backside. She sat up and shook her head, at which point the Owl Lady came out from somewhere behind the Leviathan's head and landed on her feet.

"Or they got out just fine," Hunter finished, watching as the outlaw helped the human up while Nero and King ran over, yelling their names in relief. They started doing...something with each other. Hunter didn't know what it was, but they all had their arms wrapped around one another. Was it some kind of display of affection? Either way, he headed over, looking up at the corpse until the eyes were visible. From the looks of it, the duo manages to get out through one of the empty eye sockets.

"BLEGH! You two definitely need to clean off when we get back. You reek!" King pinched his nose, Nero seeming to pick up on the scent as well and waving it off. Hunter would admit that the stench of blood and demonic innards was starting to stink something fierce. The human and Owl Lady, however, simply laughed it off.

"Ha! Yeah, I guess we do," the Owl Lady wiped a piece of a flesh-like membrane off her coat, "Blowing up a demon's heart with fire glyphs will do that."

Glyphs? Hunter mused. Were they talking about the Wild Magic the human used? Could the Owl Lady use it now too? Did that mean it could be taught? Despite Uncle's warnings about Wild Magic, he listened in on the conversation, wanting to know more.

"Damn! Talk about a serious case of heart burn," Nero chuckled.

"Don't keep us in suspense. Tell us all the squeamish, gory, gruesome details," King demanded in excitement. Hunter wasn't sure if that was worrying or not.

"Technically it was three hearts, and I'd rather not think too hard about that. But I'll say that it was super awesome! And really gross, but mostly awesome!" the human cheered, but to Hunter's confusion, that smile faded away. Why? Weren't they successful?

"Luz, something up?" Nero asked.

The Owl Lady knelt down and met Luz at eye level, "Hey, you're not going all guilty on us again, are you?"

"Sorry," the human shook her head, "Guess I'm a bit bummed since I couldn't save the Selkidomus from those guys."

Ah, that makes sense, Hunter mused. In spite of killing the demon, she still failed in her mission. The girl was clearly worried she'd be facing punishment for said failure. For as much as he didn't know nor care for the human, he could understand her fears and hoped that her mentor wouldn't reprimand her too severely.

"It's okay Luz. You did the best you could," the Owl Lady did that thing with the arms again, wrapping them around Luz as she did the same. Nero gently placed a hand to her shoulder and looked understanding, and expression that King shared. The sight further confused Hunter as he tilted his head. Weren't they supposed to be chastising her for failure? Why were they providing comfort for it?

"EHEM!" Hunter coughed, gathering everyone's attention. Luz pulled out a piece of paper while Eda readied the last of her potion bombs, prompting Hunter to raise his hands in peace. "I'm not here to fight anymore," he said, "I'm simply saying now that the Leviathan's dead, I'll be taking my leave. As thanks for helping kill it and thus preventing it from reaching the isles, you're free to go for now."

"Huh, that's...pretty generous for the Emperor's top goon," Nero raised an eyebrow.

Hunter scoffed, "Call me what you want, but with the Selkidomus dead, my mission's already complete," a lie, given that there was no longer a corpse to return with, "So I have no further reason to stay here," with that, he turned and made way to leave and hopped aboard his staff. He gave the outlaws one last glare and warned, "Try to stay out of trouble, or you will face the Emperor's wrath next time we meet."

With that as the final word, he flew away, not feeling particularly jubilant with his failure to secure the Selkidomus for his uncle. It was likely he needed it for something important, and Hunter blew it. All he could do now was report everything that happened. With the involvement of the Rogues, perhaps the emperor would be a touch more lenient?

Right?

Eda watched as the coven's golden boy vanished, becoming a red comet soaring across the sky. Once he was out of sight, she clapped her hands and said, "Welp! We better start heading home. Gotta make sure Hooty and Graff haven't burned the house down. Or that Lily hasn't tried to kill Hooty."

Nero let out a loud yawn and rubbed his eye, "Yeah, after all that, I'm exhausted."

"Me too! King wants nappies!" King added, though he seemed too energetic to be tired.

"Wait," Luz held a hand up and looked back into the cave, "Do you guys hear something?"

Eda opened her mouth to ask what she meant, but then she heard it; a loud, scared cry that echoed within the cave. Narrowing her eyes, Eda took a step forward and saw something move in the cave's darkness. Luz gasped and ran towards it, the figure backing away slightly.

"Luz, get back. Whatever it is, you're scaring it," Eda said, slowly walking up to her kid, And when a wild animal's scared, it's a roll of the dice on if they'll bite back.

Luz nodded, but still approached it, hands placating, "Hey little fella. It's okay, we're friendly," she knelt down, "You can come out. I won't hurt you. I promise."

Eda could make out the silhouette of the creature as it backed away a bit more, though not as much. She could see the eyes and how they shimmered in the dark. Slowly, but surely, it was coaxed out, revealing the animal to be a grey-purple little thing with black eyes and a sapling on her head. Upon sight, Eda realized what she was and gasped, "A baby Selkidomus."

Eda heard Luz's breath hitch as she moved a touch closer, the Selkidomus trusting her enough to close the gap. Holding her arms out, Luz embraced the sea creature as it let out a low, sad whistling sound.

"I'm sorry," Luz bitterly whispered, nuzzling the Selkidomus' cheek, "I wish I could've saved her."

Eda turned to Nero and King, who looked about the same way she felt. She walked up to Luz and knelt down, arm rested on her kid's shoulder, "Luz, I-"

"That's it!" Luz suddenly perked up.

"Wha-"

"Eda, we're bringing her home with us."

"Whoa, wait a minute Luz," Eda stood up and gave her student an utmost serious look, "We can't just bring a baby Selkidomus home with us. They belong out here in the wild."

"She won't last long out here without her mom," Luz countered, causing a whimper from the baby. "Shsh, it's okay," Luz whispered to her with a light hug, "I miss mi mama too."

Eda sighed, "Okay, point, but we're struggling financially as is."

"Then we'll take up more bounty hunting jobs! Whichever ones pay the highest," Luz then added, "Uh, after we read the fine print so we don't accidentally do Belos' dirty work, of course."

"I...I just-" Eda found herself unable to say no as Luz's eyes grew more pleading. The Selkidomus' own sad eyes made it downright impossible to fight back. She snapped her head back to Nero and King, "Guys, please back me up here!"

"Nah, I'm with Luz on this one," Nero immediately said, seeming to enjoy Eda's inability to resist the sad eyes.

"As long as that thing doesn't try to eat me or usurp my place as Luz's best friend, I'm fine with it," King harrumphed and crossed his arms, opening one eye and looking at the Selkidomus, "I guess."

Feeling her eye twitch at being outvoted 3-to-1, Eda dragged a hand down her face and groaned, "Fiiiine, you win. We'll take her home with us."

"YES!" Luz cheered, giving the baby a squeeze as it cooed happily.

"BUT!" Eda added, "We gotta set some ground rules. First and most important, this is temporary. Like it or not, she's gonna have to head out into the wild eventually. So she'll only stay with us until we can find her a new home with another Selkidomus pack, okay?"

"Got it!" Luz saluted, drawing a light chuckle out of Eda.

Clearing her throat, Eda continued, "Second, we need to keep her away from prying eyes. We know that the Emperor's Coven's hunting these things down. They find out we have one, and we'll have more on our plate than we can handle. Third and finally, until we find her a new home, you'll be responsible for her. I already got my hands full with Hooty, you, and those two back there."

"Hey!" Nero and King yelled.

"It's a hard truth you two, live with it," Eda snarked and asked Luz, "So, think you can handle that?"

Luz nodded and, with a determined stare, said, "Don't worry, Eda. You can count on me."

Smiling, Eda hugged Luz, "Always will, kiddo. Always will."

Luz hugged back, and the five of them stepped into Eda's flying bathtub. After a rough start, Eda managed to get the motor going, the group flying above the boiling sea and back to the mainland. As they flew, Eda couldn't help but get a bad feeling about this. They didn't get the money, were adding a new mouth to feed, and were probably just placing a bigger target on their backs in doing so. She'd just started learning glyphs, so she didn't have confidence in her ability to ward off threats to the Owl House. Sure, Hooty would be able to manage, but there was only so much he could do.

But then she saw Luz gently hold the Selkidomus up, letting Nero pet her. Lily's kid smiled and commented on how he'd always wanted a pet, but could never get one. King pointed at the animal and tried to tell her she was part of his "Dark Army" now, only to be licked in the face for his troubles. As King wiped the saliva away, Luz and Nero laughed their asses off. It took a bit, but even King joined in with them as the Selkidomus clapped her flippers. All of them were safe right now, but more importantly, they were happy. Her family was happy.

Know what? Eda let a small grin make its way to her lips, Worth it.

Chapter Text

"So, Nero, mind if I ask you something?" Luz asked as they walked the path to Hexside, Hooty having just dropped them off. Normally, Mom and Aunt Eda would have done that, but they were busy trying to figure out the basics of Glyph magic. It was pretty funny, seeing what an overeager teacher's pet Mom turned into when it came to learning.

Focusing on the present and ignoring other passing students, Nero replied, "Sure. What's up, Luz?"

"Well," Luz looked up in thought, like she was trying to find the best way to ask a question, "You know about those glowy ghost arm things you can make with your right arm?"

Nero looked down at his reptilian appendage, "Yeah, what about them?"

"What are they called?"

Nero raised an eyebrow, "Uh...I'm sorry?"

Luz blinked, "Wait, so you're telling me they don't have a name?"

"Never really occurred to me," Nero mused, holding his right arm up and looking over it. "I'd have to name my actual arm first since it's what makes them. Not even sure on what I'd name it to begin with."

It felt extra weird to try and give it a name anyway since it'd been a part of him since he was a kid. Even though it still bothered him, he'd gotten used to it. Sometimes, he'd forgotten that his right arm wasn't exactly normal anymore. He wasn't sure if it felt right or not, but for better or worse, he had a hard time picturing life without it.

"Well's coming up empty on names." Nero shrugged in slight frustration, thinking back to all the cool names he gave his sword techniques as he made them up, "Normally I'm kinda good at this shit. What about you? Any ideas?"

Luz hummed as Hexside came into view, then she snapped her fingers and said, "I got it! So, you know how your arm can bring you closer to demons or bring them closer to you?"

"Yeah?"

"Well why don't we call it... the Devil Bringer!" Luz held her hands in a "Ta-Da!" pose, as if she were expecting some sort of reaction. "Yeah, you're right. It's probably stupid. Just forget I said anything."

"No, wait! I was just thinking the name over. Honestly? I like it."

"Really?" Luz's face lit up like a Krampus tree.

"Yeah," Nero nodded, chuckling as the human fist pumped the air, "You're pretty good at naming shit. Y'know?"

"I thank my many years of writing fanfiction," Luz smiled proudly as Nero stared down at his right hand, flexing his fingers.

Devil Bringer, he thought with a smile, Has a nice ring to it.

"Well, this is it," Luz breathed as they approached the front doors of Hexside, "First day back after the Petrification Ceremony."

"You nervous?"

"What? No," Luz answered in an all too obvious tone, "Of course I'm not nervous. Why? Is it obvious? How do I make it not obvious? Is everyone staring at me or-"

"Okay Luz, you need to chill out!" Nero shook the human's shoulders to calm her down.

"I need to chill out!?" Luz frantically asked, "How are you so chill about this? Please teach me this "chill" you seem to have!"

It didn't work.

Standing up, Nero felt a ghost of a smile, "Believe it or not, I've kinda been looking forward to coming back here."

"Huh?"

"I mean, ever since I started Hexside, I've kinda had to deal with a bunch of assholes wanting to buddy up just because I'm the son of the Emperor's Coven's leader," Nero stared at the height of the doors, "But things are different now. Mom's not with the coven anymore, so I'll never have to put up with that annoying crap ever again."

"Oh," Luz blinked, her face contorting in confusion, "So, you didn't really have any friends before?"

"I mean, unless you count Blight 1 and Blight 2, who more or less welded themselves to me for funsies, not really," Nero leaned against the doorframe, "Why?"

"Just seems kinda lonely," Luz commented with a sad tone, "Didn't really have many friends back on Earth. Most people would rather avoid me if they could."

"Sounds like paradise if you ask me," Nero rolled his eyes, envying the human.

"It wasn't," Luz's sharp tone caught him off guard, as did the light glare she gave. "Nero," her gaze lightened up, "Everyone needs a friend, even "edgy bad boys" like you," she chuckled, but for whatever reason, Nero wasn't sure. Probably an inside joke. Shaking her head, she continued, "My point is, maybe try opening up a bit more. Being all closed up all the time just doesn't seem right. I mean, look at me! I'm probably a bigger mess than most of the isles, but I managed to get Willow, Gus, you, and now Amity in my life!"

You sure you don't want to be more than friends with Amity though? Nero thought, recalling how much Luz liked to talk about the younger Blight back at the Owl House. Seemed pretty obvious to him that she had a crush on her. And if what Edric and Emira texted him about their sister held water, so did she. Not cool to be texting me that shit though, Nero grimaced, imagining Amity having a freak out that involved crushing her siblings with an Abomination if/when she found out they were gossiping about her crush, even if it was just to him.

"Heck, why don't you hang out with me, Willow, and Gus?" Luz offered as she reached for the doorhandle, "I'm sure they'd love to have you around."

"I don't know..." Nero scratched the back of his head, recalling the first time he encountered Luz's two friends. They didn't seem all that bad, though Gus' fanboy reaction did kinda put him off. He'd already had to deal with that shit for years, and it was the last thing he needed right now.

"That's fine. I don't want to force you or anything. Just try to keep an open mind," Luz opened the door, peering inside. Suddenly, she gasped, tears in her eyes as she ran in, shouting, "Hey guys!"

Sounds like her friends, Nero stood alone, staring at the school's front door. Shrugging, he walked into Hexside's halls and took a right to where his first class would be, waving at Luz and her reunion until they were out of sight. But as he made his way through, he felt as if all eyes were now on him. When he became aware of the sound of shuffling feet, he turned and saw the large collective of students following behind him, all bearing excited, awe-inspired faces. "Uh," Nero looked around in confusion, "Can I help you or some-"

"Nero, that was so awesome!" The first of the students ran up to him.

Eh?

"The way you busted up that statue and threw it," another student cheered.

"I heard coven soldiers found what was left on the far shores," chimed another, "That's like, mondo far away!"

"Did you and that human girl fight Emperor Belos?" asked another, "Where you scared?"

"Tch, why would he be scared?"

"Because it's the Emperor. And he said he let them go."

"Oh yeah."

"Who cares? I just think it's cool that someone fought the Emperor and lived!" a boy Nero's age with black hair and four eyes ran up and held out a sheet of paper, "Can I get your autograph?"

"No, mine first," a girl with large, exposed mandibles and cat-like eyes shoved him out of the way. She pointed towards her face, as if asking him to sign it. Then another pushed past, then another, and suddenly the entire thing devolved into a massive brawl that kicked up a cloud of dust, Nero caught in the middle as he was pushed and shoved about.

Nope! Nero cast a spell circle, letting the floor swallow him and spit him out far behind the crowd. Before they could notice him, he was already blazing off for a place to hide. First day back at Hexside, and he somehow hated the place worse than ever.

"Huh, didn't see that coming," Luz said as she, Willow, Gus, and Amity all watched the crowd turn and chase after Nero.

"So..." Willow trailed off, "Should we go help him or-?"

"You can't just barge in here!" Bump said over the intercom, almost making Luz drop the fairy pie Amity gave her.

As they all turned to the speaker, another voice, this one an old, entitled sounding woman, said, "Yes we can! We're the Parent Creature Association! Luz Noceda, Willow Park, and Augustus Porter, report to Principal Bump's office, now!" her voice then gained a low, almost sickeningly sweet tone, "And you too, Amity."

"MOM!?" Amity shouted, Luz's jaw dropping in disbelief.

Oh, this can't be good, she thought as all of them nervously made their way to Bump's office.

Edric stretched as he and Emira got out of their last class for the day, entering the rapidly filling halls. From the looks of it, everyone was scrambling to get to their lockers and go home, though there were some that seemed to be staying behind for rather obnoxious reasons.

"Nero, where are you?" one student went.

"Didn't see him in any of the classrooms-"

"Well, I'm not leaving without an autograph! Or at least a photo op!"

"Right about now I'm sorta glad we never got that popular," Edric commented as they weaved past another group of fanatics, "Still, that is a good question. Where is he?"

"Ed, maybe don't ask those questions out loud," Emira whispered as they headed for their lockers, with Edric clamping his mouth shut. Despite disliking how often his sister proved to be smarter than him (and how much she liked flaunting it), he would admit she was right. Finding Nero would be a lot smoother if they didn't draw the attention of the gaggle of obsessed lunatics.

Once they were out of earshot from anyone, he asked, "Okay, so if I was a tall, dark, brooding, difficult teenager with a glowing demon arm, where would I hide?"

"Behind a gargoyle?" Emira joked.

"Yeah, but that was the first place those guys looked," Edric pointed out, which was true. He recalled seeing students on free period looking around the school gargoyles for Nero. Got to the point where said gargoyles snapped at them to, in their own words, "Fuck off!" It actually surprised Edric that Nero never hung around there, since he had a similar personality to those stone beasts. Then again, maybe he tried to once and they ended up being too similar.

"True," Emira arrived at her locker and got it to open its mouth, taking out her books and putting them in her pack. "So, where's the second place he'd be?"

"Hmmm," Edric hummed, tapping his chin before looking at Nero's locker, "Not sure," he proceeded to poke just the right spots to open it, "But I'll grab his books and drop them off at his aunt's house. If he already left, he could use them." The locker opened, Edric reaching passed the white-haired teen inside, "Excuse me, Nero. Just gotta get your books to drop off at Miss Eda's," pulling the books out, he closed the locker and said, "Thank yo-" before his brain caught up with what he just saw, "Wait a minute."

"Edric," Emira muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose, "By the Titan, you-" she motioned for him to move, which he did, allowing her to re-open the locker. Its jaw unhinged, revealing Nero, cramped inside and looking at them in a mix of fear and annoyance. At the moment, it leaned more towards the former than the latter. "Nero," Emira asked, "What are you doing in there?"

"What the fuck do you think I'm doing?" Nero glared, the annoyance taking over as he punched the locker wall, forcing it to close its maw. Edric just awkwardly looked to his sister, who had that look where she was trying to seem like she wasn't worried. Knowing her long enough to see through the facade, Edric's face mirrored hers, feeling the same way. Looking left and right to see that no students were coming, Edric turned back to the locker, its eye wincing in discomfort. Wasn't hard to guess why.

"Nero," Edric knocked on the locker, "Nero, listen to me. You can't hide in there forever."

"I CAN TRY, DAMMIT!"

"No, I mean the locker's gonna start digesting you eventually."

"Listen to Ed, Claw Boy," Emira added with a playful smirk, "He's speaking from experience."

"One time. It was one time!" Edric whispered to his sister, who looked away and shrugged. Trying not to think of the second most embarrassing moment of his life, he re-focused on his hiding friend, "Look, I get it, you prefer the whole 'lone wolf' thing and the mobs are getting in the way of that, but you really gotta-"

"It's not that."

"Huh?" Edric and Emira said, both equally confused.

"Look, just...I don't really want to talk about it right now," Nero's muffled voice came through, sounding rather sad, "Could you guys leave me alone, please?"

Before Edric could say anything, the sound of clamoring students came in from the right. Turning, he and Emira saw the same fan group from before, all looking around the halls for Nero. Thinking quick, the twins casually leaned against their lockers and tried to look as cool and laid back as possible. They didn't escape the group's attention though, seeing as one of them, a tall insect girl, walked up to them. "Excuse me," her buzzing tone got their attention, "But have either of you seen Nero? You're always hanging around him, so you have to know where he is."

"Sorry," Emira answered casually, "Haven't seen him all day."

"Must have to do with how everyone's been hounding him," Edric shrugged, raising an eyebrow to the bug teen, whose compound eyes glared at him. "What?" he raised his arms in mock surrender, "Just saying, you think he's gonna come out with the manhunt around?"

Keeping up her glare, as everyone else started to leave, bug girl asked, "So you don't know where he is?"

Suddenly, the mouth of Nero's locker opened, causing Edric to panic on the inside. Thankfully, Emira was fast enough to get in the way and stretch to block bug girl's view. "Heh, N-NOPE!" Emira's nervously laughed, "No clue. If I had to guess, he probably went home already. You're out of luck, now learn to live with it." Bug girl didn't reply any further, only glaring at the two as she walked away. Once she was out of sight, Emira sighed, "Phew! That was close."

"Yeah," Edric sighed before giving the locker his full attention. The look in its eye screamed 'Get him out of me right now or I will throw him to the wolves'.

A hand to her chin, Emira pondered, "How exactly are we gonna get him out of here without anyone noticing? Or without waiting until school closes?"

"Hmmm," Edric thought before jumping to a solution, "Wait right here!" He ran down the corner and found the nearest trash can. Grabbing it, he emptied it out and carried it back to the lockers. Making sure no one was looking their way, he said, "Nero, you can hide in here while we get you out of Hexside."

The locker opened just a tad, letting Nero see the plan. He seemed a bit hesitant, but he relented, "Guess I got no choice, huh?"

The twins laughed, "Nope."

With a groan, Nero crawled out of his locker's mouth and fell into the trash can. "Huh, y'know, when you get passed the smell, it's actually not that bad in here."

Chuckling, Edric placed the lid on it, keeping it open just a bit so Nero could get some air. Bending down, he motioned for his sister to go to the opposite side to help him pick it up. "Okay," Edric whispered as they lifted the container, "Now we just have to get you to the front door and-"

"Actually, could you take me to the Grudgby field instead?"

Edric and Emira looked to each other. "Why?" Emira asked, "You've never really been into Grudgby before."

"Not that," Nero sighed in such a way that the twins could almost picture his frustration, "I was thinking that we could...talk while we're there. Need to get some shit off my chest."

Well, that's unexpected, Edric blinked. Usually, they had to coax or bug Nero into wanting to talk with them. Clearing his throat, he replied, "Sure, we can do that. I know a place there that's private enough to avoid anyone."

"Let me guess," Emira smiled, "It's that spot behind the bleachers where you sell fireworks to students?"

"Yup. That's the one," Edric returned with a smirk of his own, proud of the awesome explosions his homemades could make. Sure, none of them were legal and could probably level a forest if they weren't set off carefully, but it was only breaking the rules if you got caught. Besides, none of them started any forest fires yet.

Well, none that he knew of, at any rate.

"Hey, wait a minute," Nero began as the twins hefted the trash can up by its rim, "Isn't this just gonna draw attention?"

"HA!" Edric laughed, he and his sister carrying it through the halls, "Bold of you to assume I haven't stolen a trash can from school before."

"And bold of you to assume I never help him," Emira finished as they walked past a couple students, both of whom looked at them before shrugging and moving on.

"...know what? Fair enough," Nero replied.

Nero let out an "Oof!" as he pressed his hands against the walls of the garbage can, keeping himself still while the whole thing jostled around. He wasn't quite sure if they were at the Grudgby field yet, but he was too afraid to ask the twins. If they got caught talking to a trash can, someone would get suspicious and potentially follow them. Then he'd have to put up with a mob all over again. To make matters worse...

"Hungry..." he groaned, grabbing at his grumbling stomach. Staying in a locker all day didn't leave him with room to eat, and now he was paying the price for it. For Titan's sake, why didn't I run through the cafeteria first? Nero mentally slapped himself, It was right there! I could've grabbed something then hid! Ignoring the stench, he laid down on his side, Not like I can just ask Ed and Em to stop by the cafeteria either. How the hell am I gonna-

Suddenly, his nose picked up on a different smell in the can with him. It was...well, it was still rotten, but a different kind of rotten. Sitting up, he looked around, sniffing for the source, until his eyes landed at the space next to his boots. laying there was what looked like a half-eaten sandwich, bread moldy with a crushed, headless fairy corpse between them. Picking it up as the can's jostling slowed down, he stared at it.

Yeah right, like I'm starving enough to actually consider eating shit I found right out of a- his stomach growled again, prompting him to huff, Oh who the fuck am I kidding?

He brought the sandwich up to his face, ready to take a bite, but then, the lid of the trash can opened. Nero's eyes slowly gazed upward to see the twins peering down at him. Unable to make a retort of any kind, Nero could only give a blank stare, jaw hanging open with the sandwich inches away. The twins, for their part, mirrored his expression until Emira finally broke the awkwardness with a mocking, "Dude, put that thing down. You don't know where it's been."

"Don't care anymore, I'm starving," Nero grunted, his stomach growling to punctuate his point.

"You can't be that hungry," Edric said with a grossed expression, interrupting Nero's second attempt to eat. Feeling his eye twitch, he glared at the twins and almost yelled at them, but Ed held his hands in surrender and pulled out a candy bar from his pocket. "Here," he said, "Definitely better than days old trash." Nero instantly jumped out of the trash can and took the candy bar, not even bothering with removing the wrapper. His hunger satisfied, he turned to Edric and was about to thank him, but then he let out a burp as the wrapper flew out of his mouth. It hit Edric smack on the forehead, causing Emira to burst out laughing while her brother uncomfortably removed it, "Eeeewwwwww."

"Sorry," Nero rubbed the back of his head, face heating up in embarrassment before he shook it off and took in the surroundings. Aside from the bleachers, their only company was a couple buildings used by the Grudgby teams to recuperate after matches. From the looks of things, both were dead empty, not a single sound coming from either of them. Other than the occasional bird tweet and light breeze, the trio were all alone.

"Good news is that school's over, so no more crazy fans," Emira said.

"Yeah," Nero sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Fuck, that was annoying. Hope Luz had it easier."

"Eh, about that, she kinda got ex-" Edric opened his mouth, but Emira elbowed him in the side, shutting him up. Instead, he started whistling while Emira checked her nails with a nervous demeanor.

"Guys, what happened to Luz?" Nero asked, eyes narrowing at the two.

Emira sighed and poked her fingers together, "Okay, truth is that earlier today our mom went to Principal Bump's office. She more or less got Luz and her friends kicked out of Hexside."

"She WHAT!?"

"Yeah," Edric reluctantly confirmed, "I think I saw them try to sneak in a few times. Didn't work, obviously, and I personally would've tried sneaking in by digging underground, but y'know, they tried."

"Dammit," Nero pinched the bridge of his nose, "First the mobs, then the expulsion. Talk about a shitty day back."

"If it makes you feel any better, Luz wasn't putting up with any fanatics when I saw Mittens go up and talk to her. If anything, seemed like they barely acknowledged her," Emira happily pointed out, "I know that's not much at this rate, but you gotta take the good with the bad."

Nero looked at Emira like her head had fallen off, not believing her in the slightest. Turning to Edric, his nod gave Clawthorne the confirmation he needed to know it was the truth. "Well, there's that at least," Nero walked over to one of the steel beams holding the bleachers up and leaned against it, feeling a surge of jealousy run through him, "But why didn't they chase her too?" noticing the look the twins gave him, he backtracked, "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they didn't, it's just...well, everyone saw both of us go against Bellhop's whole petrification bullshit. You'd think people would be clamoring all around her just as much. Doesn't make sense to me."

"I think I can answer that!" Edric took centerstage and pretended like he had glasses to adjust. Then again, Nero did see the concealment stone he was wearing. Maybe he was wearing glasses beneath the glamour? In any case, he took on a more 'lecturer' voice and explained, "See, as someone up there in the chain of high school popularity, I know for a fact that the student body will always consider some people to simply be beneath notice regardless of certain accomplishments. And our sister's dear crush-"

"EHEM!" Emira interrupted her brother before Nero could, "Edric, how about we not mention 'you know what' out loud where anyone could hear it?"

"Tch, like you're one to talk," Nero scoffed.

"Hey! We only sent you the text about it because we knew you'd never tell anyone else!"

"Pretty weird amount of faith for you to have in me, Em."

"Because we know you, Claw Boy."

"Uh, guys?" now it was Edric's turn to interrupt as he cleared his throat, "Anyway, like I was saying, the point is that a lot of the school just sees Luz as 'that human girl' and not much else," he pointed to Nero, "You, on the other hand, are pretty much the strongest guy in Hexside. Not to mention your whole antisocial schtick makes you cool to a lot of students." In annoyance, Edric rolled his eyes, "Though why people think an antisocial grouch is 'cool' is something I'm never gonna get."

"You and me both," Nero grunted, agreeing with him despite the insult.

"To top it off, pretty much all the Boiling Isles saw you chuck a petrification statue over the horizon," Emira added, "Speaking for myself, that was one of the coolest thing's I'd ever seen. I'm sure Luz did a lot, but it wasn't a total spectacle like what you did, so it didn't really change anything for her," she sighed, hands to her hips, "A sad fact of life is that some people are just really superficial. They'll only ever care about how something looks and not much else."

"Speaking from experience?" Nero asked, noting the melancholy in Emira's tone, as well as the bitter, guilty look the twins shared.

"Yeah," Edric answered sadly, "Guess you could say we have some experience on both sides of that mess."

Nero let those words wash over him, his mind flashing back to four years ago. He remembered a high society party he and Mom had been invited to at Blight manor, where he was acquainted with the rest of Edric and Emira's family. He didn't remember much of Alador other than how he looked like he really didn't want to be there and got distracted by something, but he could recall his first meeting with then ten-year-old Amity. Overall, the kid seemed nice, even if she tried talking to him about Good Witch Azura, which he couldn't understand or enjoy for the life of him. In the end, she respected the fact that he just wanted to wait out the storm alone and left him to it, which put her above the twins in his book.

Odalia, on the other hand, was someone he could've gone his entire life without ever meeting, what with how she looked at him like he was some medal. Even the way she talked, what with her praising how "accomplished" he was, comparing his status to her own kids, and asking his mother how proud she was, felt more like she was trying to endear herself to Mom than anything else. The look on his mother's face made it clear she saw through the facade and motioned for him to duck out and avoid the Blight matriarch. Based on the wrathful look she was giving Odalia, Lilith was probably struggling not to throttle the woman.

That just left him wandering around all the grownups in complete boredom, looking for something to do. Then he saw the twins chatting away with the other rich high society kids. He recalled them seeing him and waving hello, asking him to join in, the rest seeming way more eager to want to talk with him. Not wanting to put up with it then, he walked away, but before he did, he noticed something off about the twins' eyes and smiles; the way they seemed almost pleading for him to stick around, how the grins they wore looked almost stapled on. Back then, Nero thought it was just a trick of the eyes.

It was only now that he realized what it actually meant.

"Nero! You still there?" Emira yelled, snapping Nero out of his musings.

"Huh?" he asked, "Uh, yeah, I'm still here," still leaning against the steel beam, he sat down, "Just got lost in something's all."

"Is it about why you wanted to talk?" Edric asked, him and his twin sitting at his left and right respectively.

"No. I mean, kinda, I think? Guess I just needed someone I could vent to about all this shit," he sighed, "Look, remember when you said this shit got in the way of my 'lone wolf' crap?" Edric and Emira nodded, letting Nero continued, "Well, I don't like it as much as you'd think."

Blinking, the twins looked to each other before looking back to Nero, Emira asking, "So, if I were to take a wild guess, I'd say you wanted actual friends who see you for you, right?" Nero nodded, to which Emira groaned, but smiled lightheartedly, "Dammit, this is starting to sound like a friendship plot straight out of Mittens' books."

"Should I be concerned about our lives being a bucket list of cliches?" Nero asked, though even he couldn't help but grin.

"Eh, nothing wrong with cliche if you ask me," Edric started chuckling, Nero and Emira joining him for a bit before things calmed down. "Guess that means you're gonna give finding friends a shot?" Edric asked, "I mean, aside from Luz, Mittens, and her friends, there's bound to be a few people at Hexside who ain't rabid lunatics. Hell, give it a week and I think the hype should die down enough to be tolerable. Maybe you can find people that understand you then?"

"Guess so," Nero leaned the back of his head against the beam, "But first, I should probably start here," taking a deep breath, he looked over to Emira then her brother before leaning forward, resting his chin on his knees and wrapping his arms around his legs, "I'm sorry."

"Excuse me?" the twins asked simultaneously.

"Looking back, you guys kinda already got where I was coming from," he explained, "You already knew what it was like; everyone around you not seeing you, but what you could do for them. And if it wasn't that, it was just them looking at this cool person they could gawk at. Point is, you were kinda going through the same thing I was going through, and I just ignored it. So, I'm sorry."

"To be fair, we didn't really make it easy for you to want to be around us or deal with our problems," Emira reassured, "What with the pranks and jokes and everything an overly serious brooding jerk would hate. Honestly, don't blame you for being so closed off with us half the time."

"Considering what your parents are like, I get it. Everyone's got their ways of dealing with those kinds of things," Nero remarked, looking up at the clouds above, "You have pranks, I have fighting shit."

"To be fair, it's not the only one, but yeah," Edric shrugged, looking at the clouds as well, "In hindsight, we weren't really good friends to each other, were we?"

"Nope. We most certainly were not," Nero bluntly answered, the three of them staring at the clouds in silence as they began forming shapes. For some reason, a couple looked like a winged skull-headed beast standing alongside an equally large, winged warrior with a sword. He wasn't sure what they were supposed to be, but for some reason it felt like both fluffy figures were almost staring at him. Probably just my imagination, Nero blinked and rubbed his eyes, the shape of the clouds becoming something else entirely.

"Know what?" Edric was the first to stand up, "Why don't we just put the past in the past? You're just starting class here again, so let's consider this a fresh start on all accounts and take it from the top," he held out his hand, "My name's Edric."

His twin followed suit, holding out her own hand in a mirror image of his, "And I'm Emira. Want to be friends?"

Nero looked between the twins and, without a moment's hesitation, took their hands as they pulled him up, "Sure. Let's be friends." While he wasn't sure what compelled him, Nero held his arms openly and expectantly, with the twins staring at him in surprise. Thankfully, that surprise turned into joy as the two embraced him in a hug, which he found himself returning with equal vigor. This... he thought, This feels right.

Once they retracted from the hug, Emira asked, "So, what now? Gonna head home? If you have nothing else to do, you could always come with us to hang out. Our mom and dad are putting on their usual weapons showcase tonight that we gotta to attend. But we could find a way to sneak off and do something in town."

Nero thought about it for a second before he shook his head, "Much as I'd like to, I can't really do that. Since Luz got expelled, I want to see if I can help her find a way to get back into Hexside. Besides, I gotta check in on Mom and Aunt Eda." Nero recalled earlier today with Luz teaching them their first proper glyph lessons. While Mom was taking to them like a Selkidomus to the Boiling seas, Aunt Eda was struggling quite a bit. That reminds me, should probably also check in on Selki if Luz hasn't already, he recalled before concluding, "I'll see if we can hang out later. That sound good?"

"Yeah," Edric replied, "Sounds good with us. Right Em?"

"Sure thing. See you around, Nero," Emira started waving goodbye alongside her twin as Nero did the same, walking off to Bonesborough and feeling a lot better. Despite the shitty start to the day, it turned out not so bad.

The sun had was already starting to set by the time Nero arrived back at the Owl House, being greeted by the site of his mom sitting on an ice sculpture that looked like a combination of Hooty and a swan. Gone was her usual two-tone dress, and in its place was a low battery t-shirt and ragged grey skirt. On her lap was Selki, whom, she was hand feeding a snow cone, and hovering near them was-

"Ugh, Hooty," Nero grumbled, watching the Owl House's guardian nibble on a popsicle. The whole friendship his mom recently started with the annoying bird tube was definitely a shock for him. He wasn't sure why Mom had this sudden 180 towards Hooty, with the most she said being that he helped her when she needed it most. Probably had something to do with the Scrying spell she made that let them peer into Belos' castle. If so, then Nero was grateful to Hooty for helping his mom out, but that didn't make the bird brain any less insufferable.

"Hey Nero!" Hooty cheered, dropping the popsicle in the process. Nero did his best to ignore the usual annoyed feeling as the house demon ate it off the floor.

"Hello, my little raven!" Lilith happily greeted as patted Selki's head, the infant Selkidomus finishing the last of the snow cone. Nero gave a warm smile and pushed the rest of his issues towards the house demon down. He reminded himself that, aside from sharing the same roof, Hooty and Lilith were now practically best friends. Much as it bugged him, he'd put up with it for her sake.

"Hey mom," Nero waved as he approached, looking at the ice sculpture with a whistle, "You've been getting pretty good with these glyphs."

Mom leapt off the sculpture, gently putting Selki on the ground and marveling at her work, "Indeed! Experimenting with them has been so delightful as well," her smile morphed into a smirk and she entered what Aunt Eda once called 'nerd mode', "It's quite fascinating, really. Did you know that while glyphs act like the basic elements, they don't contain magic like a witch's Valknut. Instead, they command surrounding magic around them. They actually function similar to words," she pulled out a sheet of paper and started drawing, "And chaining glyph combos together, like so, is like forming entire sentences that can specify what the caster wants," She showed her work, revealing circle with an ice glyph on the top and fire glyph on the bottom. Placing it on the ground, she tapped it, enveloping the immediate environment with a cloud of mist.

"Woah," Nero watched in awe as the mist slowly fade, Hooty cheering and Selki clapping.

"I know! An entire magical language that can potentially create spells never seen before," Lilith's excitement grew as she sighed wistfully and clasped her hands together, "It's just so beautiful."

"Starting to wish I didn't sleep in this morning. Could've attended Luz's glyph lesson before school," Nero admitted, remembering how he forgot to set his alarm.

"Speaking of school, how was your first day back at Hexside?" Lilith asked, snapping out of her reverie. At Nero's silence, her expression turned to worry, "Was it that bad? Were students mean to you because of the petrification day events?"

"No! Just..." Nero sighed, rubbing the back of his head, "Started off shitty, but it had a decent ending." Selki waddled up to his leg and affectionately rubbed her head against it, clearly trying to make him feel better. With a bittersweet smile, he knelt down and petted her, being careful with the sapling atop her head. "Can we talk about it later?" Nero asked as he stood up, "Right now, there's something I want to talk with Luz about."

"Uh, about that," Lilith stammered, "Luz hasn't returned yet."

"What? Then where is she?"

"I have no idea! Hoot!" Hooty chimed in, giving his unneeded, needlessly high-pitched answer, "But don't you worry. If she can handle the Emperor, I'm sure she's fine wherever she is."

"Blegh!" Luz spat out a glob of the Abomination slime that stuck her to the wall, the crowd's applause muffled by how it also covered her ears. As it died down, she overheard Amity's mom say something about peaceful not being someone's thing and tried to remove the gunk from her eyes. The moment she saw the green flames errupt from the gun, she wished she didn't.

Oh crap!

"I guess so," Nero shrugged, trying not to bristle at the mention of the fight against Belos. Thankfully, his stomach rumbled again, letting him focus on his hunger instead. Turning to his mother, he asked, "Think you could show me how you made those ice treats?"

With an excited smile, Lilith pulled out some paper and got to work, clapping two ice glyphs together to form a pair of snow cones. Holding one out, she said, "Here you go, my son."

As Nero took it into his right hand, he noted that both the snowball and the cone itself were made from pure frost, making it cool to the touch. Mom handed the other to Hooty, who nibbled on it as she sat on the ground and let Selki into her lap. While she started drawing up another frozen dessert, Nero took a bite of his own. "Hey, this is pretty good," Nero said as he chewed on the snow. Swallowing, he did note the lack of taste, "Could use some flavor though. I'm gonna head inside and see if there's any syrup."

"Could you ask Edalyn if we have blackberry?" Lilith asked as Nero walked up to the front door.

"I will," Nero replied as he opened the door, "Hey, Aunt Eda, I'm back! Was wondering if-" cutting him off was the sight of a slowly growing, spiky ball of ice at the center of the room; Eda and King were nervously backing away while Graff kept darting along the walls, shifting from "F*CK" to "SH*T" and back again. "If we have...uh..." Nero regained his bearings, "W-What's going on here?"

Snapping her head back, Eda gave him a forced smile, "Hey oh nephew of mine! Just doing some clean up. Nothing to see here! Why don't you go hang out with your mom for now while we take care of the house?"

"Should I do somethi-"

"And don't say a word of this to Lily!" Eda yelled through grit teeth. Without a peep or blink, Nero slowly backed out of the room and closed the door behind him, spending a solid minute staring at the front door trying to figure out what he just witnessed.

Once he figured he was better off not knowing, he clapped his hands and turned. "On second thought," Nero said as he walked back to his mother, "Flavor's overrated. Let's just stay out here and eat flavorless frozen stuff."

Mom looked up at him from the ground, raising an eyebrow, "Nero, is something going on with Edalyn?"

"Uuuuuuuh," eyes nervously darting left and right as both Lilith and Selki gave him scrutinizing looks, he answered, "Nope!"

"...Alright, I'll play along for now," Mom shrugged, forming another snowball for Selki to eat.

With a sigh of relief, Nero sat down next to her, "Okay, good," before taking another bite of his snow cone. A few bites later and he finished it, Mom already making more frozen desserts with a smile on her face. "Y'know mom," Nero grinned in a good-natured manner, "Feels like you're enjoying one upping Aunt Eda at something."

"Hmm, maybe just a bit," Lilith smirked, unable to help herself as she combined two ice glyphs and shot them into the air, letting snowflakes fall down on them.

Chapter Text

The time has come, and so have I.

I'll laugh last 'cause you came to die.

The damage done, the pain subsides, a nd I can see the fear, clear, when I look in your eye!

Nero bobbed his head as he sat in the dark of his room, the headphones blasting the track into his ears. It was a new piece of music he discovered and downloaded to his scroll's music player. It was very quickly becoming one of his favorite tracks too, though the one that Hooty unknowingly introduced him to, "Devil Trigger", was still at the top of his list. Definitely made great music to modify weapons too.

Just one more adjustment to the rune here, and...DONE! Nero wiped the sweat from his brow, removing his goggles as he picked up Red Queen from the worktable. He took a few minutes to admire his handiwork, checking to see if anything else was needed. With a nod of satisfaction, he set it back down on the table when he heard the door to his room open, the hallway light revealing a familiar human's shadow.

"Hey Nero!" Luz greeted as she turned on the lights to his room. Nero blinked a few times to let his vision adjust. Looking back, he saw her walk in with a recognizable bundle of paper in her hands. "Got us some new bounties to hunt!" she handed him some of the papers, to which he gladly took.

"Thanks Luz," Nero removed his goggles and headphones as he started sifting through potential targets, "Huh, not a lot of Snails for most of these, are there?"

"Doesn't look like it," Luz mused sadly, which Nero related to. While he preferred to think more on the joy of getting to fight these guys, there wasn't a whole lot of that with how easily most bounties tended to fold, leaving him worrying about their current financial state.

We really need to start finding some decent payouts soon, Nero recalled that the highest bounty they'd received so far was from doing a combination of several jobs back-to-back over the course of about a few days. Altogether, it totaled out to 250,000 snails. Not bad, but not enough either, even with him and Mom working around the clock to make sure they stuck to a tight budget and kept financially intact. It felt like if they couldn't rake enough money in, it'd fall on them.

"Hey, how about this one?" Luz held up a bounty from her pile, "It's over 5,000,000 snails! That should be enough to keep us afloat for a while. Says "Wanted: DEAD" though, and it also says we gotta bring back proof of the kill to get the bounty."

Nero whistled, "Sounds good. So, what and where is it?"

Luz looked at the paper and squinted, "Not sure what it is. Closest image they got was this," she flipped the paper to show him, revealing what looked like a giant stinger tail impaled into the ground, a hand extended out, which indicated the camera man was running for his life. "As for the 'where', it says it's at..." her eyes went wide for a second, "Lake Lacuna?"

Huh, Nero held out his right hand, reptilian fingers taking the bounty as Luz handed it to him. Reading over the details (which admittedly were very little), he took note of Luz's reaction to the location and asked, "So, have you ever been to Lake Lacuna? Sounds like you're familiar with the place."

"Uh, no. But back at Hexside, I saw it in Willow's memories when I was with Amity, so..." Luz's face turned bright red as she scratched her cheek. Nero struggled not to smirk at how obvious the human girl's crush was on the youngest Blight, it having gotten so much more prominent after what went down at the Blight Industries showcase. He wasn't privy to all the details, but he knew enough, especially with how Luz just wouldn't stop gushing (while blushing) over how awesome Amity was when she saved her. Part of him almost wanted to let her know that Amity was crushing on her just as much, but he wouldn't say anything.

It wasn't his place to say anything.

"Hey, Nero..." Luz interrupted his train of thought, blush still on her face as she asked, "H-Have you ever had any crushes?"

"Say wha?"

"Okay, let me try that again," she took a deep breath, "Let's just say, there's a girl I know who has a crush on...o-on another girl," she rubbed the back of her head and looked down, "A-And I-SHE'S worried about getting made fun of when she asks because it's happened too many times to count. How should she, y'know, go about asking Ami-I mean, this other girl out?"

"..." Nero almost wanted to just cut to the chase and point out exactly what Luz was talking about, but he held his tongue. Shrugging, he replied, "Honestly, I don't really know what to tell you. I'm just as clueless when it comes to this shit," he looked at his ceiling in remembrance, "I mean, I did have crushes before, but I never really got to even talking with them."

Nero hummed and leaned back in his seat, arms behind his head, "My first crush was back when I was ten on a girl in my class. Never learned her name, and the most that comes to mind thinking back was that she had hazel eyes. Second crush I had was on an auburn-haired boy in my homeroom classes when I was thirteen. Think he was on the Bard track, 'cause I remember he had a nice singing voice. Never got around to asking or talking to him either. Most of it was because of my own issues with how everyone treated me," he sighed, "Then Grom happened and...well, didn't bother even thinking about a love life for the longest time."

"Oof, sounds rough," Luz patted his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile, "Maybe that could change later? You could meet a nice guy, gal, or enby pal who sees you for you and likes you. Y'know?"

Nero couldn't help but smile at Luz's optimism. No matter how down anyone here was feeling, the kid always knew how to lighten the mood, "Yeah, that honestly doesn't sound too bad," facing her, he said, "And I wouldn't worry too much about your crush," he winked, "I'm sure you'll get the courage to ask her out."

"...heh, I guess I was kinda obvious, wasn't I?" Luz blushed again and looked away before her gaze returned, this time admiring, "Thanks anyway. Y'know, it's also kinda reassuring, what with the isles not having homophobia like back on Earth. Makes it a bit easier to talk about," she made a pinch motion with her fingers, "Just a little, anyway."

Nero's smile started to drop at something in Luz's words. Raising an eyebrow, he asked, "Uh, the fuck's homophobia?"

Luz's eyes went wide, "OH! Uh..." they darted around the room and landed on Red Queen, "N-Never mind! Anyway, what were you doing with your sword before I got in? Let's talk about that instead! Hahaha!"

His smile was now gone entirely, in its place a worried grimace. Whatever Luz was talking about, it sounded like a...personal subject. Opting not to pry (for now), he sat up and directed her to the worktable, where he explained, "I was making some modifications to Red Queen. Figured I could build off what Eda did to make the spell charges self-restoring. Took me the entire afternoon, but I think I got the Exceed upgrade down. Or as I like to call it: EX-Act." Nero ran a hand along the edge of the blade, his smile returning, "I haven't gotten to testing it out just yet, but in theory, I should be able to accelerate the recharge rate while in direct combat to the point of being almost instant. If I activate the spell circle on the hilt at just the right time, preferably when it makes contact to absorb the kinetic energy, then I can basically keep using them nonstop as long as I keep swinging it at something. Still working on something to make the charge more perpetual, but I haven't gotten that far yet."

"Cool!" Luz looked at the blade with stars in her eyes, making Nero's smile grow even further. It honestly felt good to get a chance to explain this kind of thing with someone who wanted to listen, especially since it was something he really loved doing.

Also helped that Luz was just so enthusiastic about anything magic, reminding Nero of back when he was a kid. No stress over keeping secrets, no wallowing in issues that didn't exist then, just happily learning new and exciting magic under his mother's tutelage. It was a lot of fun, and Mom was just as happy to indulge his curiosity. Speaking of...

"What about you? Learn any new glyph combos lately?" Nero asked, with Luz's eyes somehow getting even brighter at the question. Haphazardly throwing the other bounties away and scattering them on his room's floor, she pulled out her notebook and revealed some very detailed bullet points accompanying the glyphs she'd found. He tried not to chuckle at the chibi image of Luz's confused face to the left of the Light Glyph and paid more attention to the incomplete, scribbled glyphs on the right page.

"I've been working with the Light Glyph a lot, and I figured that if it can manifest light, maybe it can also control it? Sorta like bending light around things for either barriers or cloaking. So, I've been working ooooon..." Luz did an air drum roll for dramatic effect, "An invisibility glyph!"

"Wait, like full on 'now you see me, now you don't' invisibility?" Nero asked, getting excited as Luz nodded, "Holy shit! That sounds awesome!" he got up, knocking his chair to the floor, and started picturing the possibilities, "Okay, if you can figure that out, picture this: We could sneak up into the center of a bunch of Coven assholes, decloak, yell 'Surprise fuckers!' and beat 'em up before they know what's happening!"

"Honestly, I was thinking more about sneaking past things like that. But I guess that's another option," Luz shrugged, still smiling as she closed the notebook, "I asked your mom for some history books to figure anything out about Wild Magic, and I got the idea from there."

Huh, so history's actually kinda helpful? Neat, Nero was never really one for the history books outside of whatever cool battles took place in the past, made up or otherwise. His mom certainly tried to get him invested in history like she was, but he tended to tune those specific lessons out. Probably for the best too, considering she was in full "Coven dedication" mode back then, meaning they were likely full-on revisionist bullshit.

Still...things were getting better with Mom. At least, he hoped they were. Maybe he could give it another go?

Gonna have to wait till later though, Nero headed over to the bed and grabbed his blue overcoat. Putting it on over his Bad Girl Coven shirt, he then holstered Red Queen to his back and smirked at Luz, "So while you're figuring out the invisibility glyph, want to test out any other new glyph combos on the Lake Lacuna bounty?"

Luz's face lit up again, "You bet I am!" she whipped out a few glyphs, "Let's go kick some demon a-" Suddenly, a loud slam echoed from the front of the house, followed by Hooty yelling out Eda's name, which could only mean one thing. "Oh! Eda's back!" Luz cheered as she and Nero ran out of his room. They made their way to the living room, prepared to greet his aunt, only to see a VERY disheveled Eda covered in scorch marks and bruises. She held a rather terrified Selki under one arm and her stave in the other, all while Hooty hovered around them in curiosity. Eda, eye twitching, looked like she was about to explode from annoyance and exhaustion at Hooty's many, many questions. "Uh, hey Eda," Luz stepped in, clearly wanting to save her mentor/mother-figure the headache, "How was Selkidomus searching this time?"

"Trust me kid, you don't want to know," Eda sighed as she shoved Hooty's face away from her, which didn't seem to bother the house demon. She held Selki out to Luz, "Here. You take care of her tonight. Mama bird needs a Titan damned nap." Luz nodded, taking Selki as Eda stretched and scratched her rear before heading down the halls, muttering something about "palicoes" and a "giant fucking serpent."

Suddenly, Nero was kinda disappointed he opted not to go with her in favor of working on Red Queen.

"Good night, Eda!" Hooty chirped before returning to his door, leaving Luz, Nero, and Selki alone in the living room. After a few seconds of silence, Selki began to whine.

"It's okay, little Selki," Luz kissed the top of the baby Selkidomus' head, "We'll find you a new family soon. Don't worry," as she placated her, Nero leaned down and gently rubbed the top of the baby's head. Once Selki looked to be feeling better, Luz looked up to Nero and said, "Looks like you'll have to go to Lake Lacuna without me," she snuggled Selki's cheek against her own, "I gotta stay here and look after this little gal."

"Alright, take care you two," Nero stood tall, "I'll make sure to kick this thing's ass on your behalf too," he smirked, with Luz smiling back in kind, "Maybe even pick up a souvenir from whatever it is while I'm at it."

But before he could head out the door, Luz stopped him, "Wait! Before you go, maybe check with your mom and tell her you're heading out?" Nero looked back and raised an eyebrow, to which she looked down, lost in thought as she muttered, "She worries. It's what...what all moms do."

From the way she spoke, Nero got the sense that Luz might've been thinking of her own mother. He didn't know much about Mrs. Noceda, other than that Luz made a video showcasing the Owl House and its residents for her, but it was clear as day how much the human girl missed her. Wanting to put her at ease, he gave a more reassuring, gentle smile, "Okay, I'll let her know," getting a small, but noticeable smile in kind, he headed down the halls to his mom's room, yelling back, "Good luck with Selki! Kid's a handful!"

"I know! I take care of her more than you!"

Chuckling, Nero eventually arrived at Lilith's bedroom and knocked on the door, "Hey, Mom! You there?"

"Just one second, my little raven!" Lilith replied to her son from behind the door. Currently, she couldn't afford any distractions, as she was looking at her reflection in a mirror, reapplying her contact lenses. Once they were in, she blinked a few times for her eyesight to adjust, Coronis giving a feathery thumbs up to clarify that they looked good from his perspective as well. Smiling, she stood up from her seat and turned, "Alright, come in!"

He entered the room and Lilith noted that her old-no, HIS sword, was holstered behind his back. Her son seemed rather apprehensive as he rubbed the back of his scalp. A small, somewhat sinking feeling entered Lilith's chest as Nero said, "Hey mom."

"Hello, my little raven," Lilith felt Coronis perch on her shoulder, his talons giving a gentle, reassuring squeeze to calm her down. Clearing her throat, she asked, "So...I take it you're going on another bounty hunting mission?"

She already knew the answer, but it never hurt to have clarification.

"Yeah," Nero answered, looking her in the eye, "There's a pretty high bounty that should keep us afloat for a while. Some demon at Lake Lacuna. Luz asked me to let you know," he went silent and looked a bit ashamed, "Sorry I don't normally tell you when I'm going out to hunt. It's just...y'know?"

Lilith nodded, knowing exactly what he meant. Old habits die hard after all, something she knew all too well. While he wasn't quite sneaking out behind her back anymore, he also wasn't really letting her know he was going out for bounties either. Usually, she had to learn that fact second-hand from either her sister, Hootcifer, Graff, or Luz. Even though she understood, it still hurt, feeling that her son didn't trust her enough to be in the loop about this sort of thing. She wouldn't deny that she still had many, many compunctions about how he was throwing himself into danger, even though he could handle it.

She was trying, or at least she hoped to come across as such, but the loss of her magic, her rigorous desire to understand these glyphs, the fact that the scrying spell she made wouldn't last much longer, and how little it felt like she'd done anything to amend her mistakes was taking its toll.

She wanted to do more. She needed to do more. She needed to...to be better, but she didn't know how.

Just as her son was about to turn and leave, her thoughts caught on to what he'd said. "Nero, wait!" Lilith reached forward, almost grabbing her son by the shoulder to stop him, but he turned to her before she could do that. Clearing her throat, she asked, "Did you say the bounty was at Lake Lacuna?" Nero nodded, to which she added, "Was the only visible showing of the creature a stinger tail?"

"Wait, how do you know that?"

"Because that sounds like an incident I'd heard of from several years prior," Lilith hummed, looking up for a few seconds before snapping her finger at the memory, "Yes, now I remember! There was a series of attacks at Lake Lacuna that'd been gossiped about amongst the Emperor's Coven. Why, the rumors were that a demon lord had made the place its home! I asked Belos if I could lead a team to take care of the problem before anyone could be hurt, but he refused. Whenever I asked over the years, he sent small groups of scouts and soldiers instead. He always said I had more 'important duties' to fulfill, which usually amounted to office work," she frowned and pinched the bridge of her nose, "Honestly wishing that I ignored him and just went on my own. Perhaps if I wasn't such a blind idiot who clung to the words and empty promises of a fucking madman, then-"

"Mom," Nero cut her off, gently holding her hand, "It's okay."

Taking a deep breath, she forced that train of thought down and smiled, "Thank you, my little raven."

He affectionately nodded before backing up a bit, "Anyway, I'll try to get back before it gets too dark. If it's a demon lord like the one from the Knee, then it might take a while," he turned and began to exit, "See you later, mom."

"Actually," she stopped Nero again and grabbed her notebook, filled to the brim with Glyphs and combos she'd been working on in her spare time, before snapping her finger to call Coronis to her side. The instant he took staff form, she holstered him over her shoulder and declared, "I'd like to join you!"

Rather than the reaction she was hoping for, her son looked unsure, looking away, "I, uh...I don't know if that's a good idea, mom."

Lilith grimaced, knowing that tone as she tried to smile, "Nero, I know I've been...struggling with supporting your desires, but I want to do better on that front. And the best way I feel that's possible is by lending you a hand," her smile became more genuine, "Besides, I haven't seen any action since that incident with those Fire Bees, and I haven't gotten the chance to test glyphs in combat yet. So, I suppose I'd also like to use this as a learning experience, both in how to use glyphs and how best to support you."

Nero still didn't seem convinced, avoiding her gaze as he stared at the walls and ceiling. Lilith hoped to do a better job reassuring her son that she wanted to help, that he should let her in, but worried that doing so would just push him away again. Thankfully, he sighed and relented, "Okay, I guess you can tag along," Lilith almost jumped for joy before her son added, "Just promise me you're not gonna go all big bad smother on me, please? I can handle myself. You gotta trust me on that."

A bit hard when you won't trust me, Lilith wanted to say, but held her tongue. She didn't deserve such trust anyway. Instead, she calmed herself, cleared her throat, and gave a quick bow, "You have my word."

That seemed to be enough for her son, as the two entered the halls for the front exit. Once they were outside, Lilith briefly glanced at the setting sun, taking in its warmth as cool winds shook the trees. It took her back to when she and her sister were growing up, chasing each other in the forests as their parents watched over them like hawks. And now that she was joining her son, it bought forth happier times of when, as a child, he tried to climb the nearest tree, all while she hovered nearby to catch him. For a moment, just by thinking about them, she couldn't help but feel lighter.

"See you later Lulu! You too Nero!" Hooty's joyous voice interrupted her reviere. Turning to him, she smiled and walked up, giving him a gentle pat on the head that he nuzzled into.

"We'll be back later Hootcifer. See you soon."

"Have a happy hunt! Hoot!"

"Can we please go already?" Nero grunted, obviously annoyed by Hootcifer's tone. While Lilith understood everyone's frustration with her best friend (she'd been in the same boat until recently), she hoped that one day, she'd be able to turn their opinions on him around. There was more to Hooty than just an annoying voice and nightmarish appetite. He deserved to be cherished by the people he protected.

Unlike me, Lilith shook her head and joined her son, sitting atop her staff as it began to fly. Patting the space just behind her, Nero took his seat and they rose into the air. Within seconds, they were off at high speeds towards Lake Lacuna.

As she briefly looked back to her son in worry, Lilith silently hoped whatever awaited them wouldn't be a nightmare to face.

"Okay Amity, just breath in and out. In and out," Amity Blight whispered to herself as she walked through the woods leading to the Owl House, backpack slung against her back. Inside it was her textbooks and notes, all brought with the intent to help Luz study. From what her siblings told her, she'd been struggling a lot with classes recently. And, as one of Hexside's top students, she had a moral responsibility to lend her support.

Y-Yeah, that's the ticket. I'm just here to help Luz get her grades up and not get lost in those gorgeous golden-brown eyes. Those eyes that shimmer with such kindness and adoration for magic, behind which is a soul so tender and gentle, even to those who don't deserve it. A beauty so bright that could light the darkest of caves and- Amity slapped herself in the face, which currently felt like it was on fire, "Ugh! Get it together! You won't be able to help her at all if you're stuck like this."

Amity would have to put her absolute willpower into focusing on Luz's education. She'd help her crush study, spend just enough time with her to help, hopefully not turn into a gibbering idiot like most times she was around Luz, and be out before she melted into a puddle.

Simple as could be.

She'd also do everything in her power to ignore the desire to stay the entire night watching and reading Good Witch Azura with her, because the minute she thought of doing that, a downward spiral was inevitable. Amity could see it now: the two of them sitting on the couch together as the movie played out, exhaustion creeping in as it entered the final third, the Crystal Ball being the only illumination in the dark living room. Just as Amity's eyelids grew heavy, she'd plop right down on Luz's shoulder, the human doing the same as they held hands, breathing entering a steady rhythm that, when coupled with the end credit's theme of Field of Deadly Fates, sounded so much like the most mellifluous lullaby that-

Amity slapped herself again right as the Owl House came into view. Taking a deep breath, she ran forward, hoping to get this over quick and not make a fool of herself. As she approached, Amity noticed that it looked like Hooty was staring off into the sky, almost like he was watching something in the distance. Nerves forgotten, she snapped her fingers in front of the house demon, getting his attention.

"Oh! Hi Amity! When did you get here? HOOT!" Hooty asked, thankfully respecting personal boundaries by not stretching his face into hers.

"Just now, actually," Amity looked to where Hooty's attention was before, "Were you staring at something, or...?"

"I was watching Lulu and Nero fly away. They just left to go bounty hunting!" Hooty answered, to which Amity tried her best not to grimace at the mention of...that person. Oh, she had no problems with Nero whatsoever.

His mother, on the other hand...

Don't, Amity. It's not worth making a fuss over, shaking her head, she turned to Hooty and asked, "Hey, is Luz home? I'm here to help her with something."

"Sure, let me go get her," Hooty stretched out, forcing Amity to step back as he flew upward and bashed his head into a window on the second floor, loudly screeching, "LUZ! AMITY'S HERE TO SEE YOU!"

Amity felt her face heat up again (alongside her desire to beat the bird tube up) as she straightened out her outfit. She decided to dress casual for this, wearing her black mid-sleeved dress with brown tights and black boots, to try and feel more...well, casual. Hooty stretched back to his post and Amity heard footsteps approach, forcing her to take another deep breath to calm her burning nerves. As the door began to creak open, she repeated to herself that she could do this; that she was a Blight and could excel at anything and everything she set her mind to.

"H-Hey Amity!" the most angelic voice, paired with the most angelic face, greeted her once the door opened fully. And just like that, Amity lost control of her nerves all over again.

"H-Hi Luz," the Blight stammered, "Uh...y-you..." she gulped and leaned to rest her hand on something...and completely forgot nothing was there, resulting in her plummeting to the floor. Quickly picking herself up, she coughed, "L-Lovely afternoon, ain't it?"

"Yeah..." Luz rubbed the back of her head, her face practically glowing a vibrant scarlet. Amity wasn't sure why though, since she sure didn't seem angry. Perhaps she was under the weather? Would explain why she needed help with school.

And with that now on her mind, Amity could force her nerves down and reach for her backpack, "So, I heard that you were having trouble with class and figured I could lend a hand with that," she pulled out several books covering a myriad of subjects, "I didn't know what you were struggling with, so I just brought a little of everything. Y'know, to cover all the bases."

"...uh, Amity," Luz began, looking and sounding very confused, "I appreciate the help and all, but I'm honestly doing just fine in class," she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, "Sorry if I wasted your time and all that."

Ignoring the comment about wasting time (because any time with Luz was never a waste), Amity raised an eyebrow and lowered her books, "Really? You're doing just fine? Because I heard from Edric and...Emira..." she slowed down, the puzzle pieces assembling in her head as her eyes went wide. Oh. Ooooooh, dropping her books, her fist clenched, face flashing hot with pure anger, "Those...those..." it took all her willpower not to curse at the sky, instead letting out a very frustrated, "UGH!"

"Y-You okay, Amity?" Luz asked, mostly calming her down as she started picking up her books.

"Yeah, I'm...fine, Luz," Amity didn't mean to get snippy with her, but she was so angry, "I just have to go back home and start planning my siblings' funeral."

Luz gasped, "WHAT!? A-Are they dying!?"

"No, but they're about to be," Amity growled, slinging her pack over her shoulder as she prepared to head back home, already thinking of all the ways she could make the twins suffer for tricking her. Before she could take a single step, however, she heard an animalistic cry from behind her. Turning back, she saw something crawl out from behind Luz, the human looking down at it.

"Selki! Daw! Followed me downstairs, did you?" Luz knelt down and gave the creature head pats, to which it nuzzled its head into her hand. Amity, meanwhile, took in its features, noting it to be a small, rotund, greyish purple thing with a sapling on its head and two leaf bristles on its muzzle. The more Amity looked at it, the more the animal seemed familiar. She'd recognized it from somewhere in Edric's Beastkeeping books, but she couldn't place it. But the name Luz called it made a lightbulb go off in her head.

"Is that a baby Selkidomus?" Amity asked, stepping into the house to get a better look. Getting a nod from Luz, who kept playing with it, Amity couldn't help but chuckle as she tried to reach out and pet it. However, the baby shirked away, clearly seeing her as too much of a stranger. Amity pulled her hand back in understanding, trying to maintain her smile as she crossed her arms, "So, a Selkidomus named "Selki", huh? Not exactly original."

Not that she could talk. She was pretty sure at least half the names she gave her Good Witch Azura OCs were far less creative than that.

"I think it's cute," Luz explained as she looked up at Amity, the act briefly making her heart and Valknut skip a beat, "And I didn't name her. Nero did."

"Speaking of, heard he left with...Lilith, to go bounty hunting, yeah?" Amity tried not to growl the former Coven Head's name. Judging by the way Luz's eyes briefly went wide, she failed. "Sorry," Amity sighed, "Just...never mind," she sat down and joined Luz, "So, where were they headed, anyway?"

Luz returned her attention to Selki as she booped the Selkidomus on her cute nose, "They're going to Lake Lacuna to hunt down something with a stinger tail. Don't know what it is, but there's a pretty high bounty on it, so-" whatever else Luz was saying grew muffled as Amity felt herself grow distant. She stared off into space, wide eyed as the memories flooded in; both of Lake Lacuna and everything it meant to her and Willow, the terror that struck in that place, and how it became the catalyst for everything crashing down on them. Blinking, she managed to snap herself out of the stupor, but when she turned to Luz, the human was clearly worried, "Amity, is everything alright?"

"Y-Yeah," Amity looked away, this time not out of embarrassment, but fear and guilt, "Just...bad memories is all."

"Want to talk about it?"

"I..." Amity wanted to say no, but one look into Luz's eyes and she was at war with herself. Not helped by the surprisingly concerned look Selki was giving her. How does a baby Selkidomus manage to pull that off? Amity sighed, feeling that if she could talk about this with anyone, it'd be Luz. The human was...she was honestly so amazing, having done so much for Amity despite all she'd done to her. Every insult, snide comment, and the attempted dissection when they first met had all forgiven with utmost sincerity.

Sometimes it made her wonder if she even deserved to have Luz in her life.

Refocusing on Luz's question, Amity huffed and looked away, "There was...an incident several years ago at Lake Lacuna, back when Willow and I were still friends," she smiled, "Didn't have any swimming lessons that day, so we were playing games in our fort together. Her dads and mine watching us from far away, and everything was going great," her smile faded, "But then we felt a shake, heard our dads yell at us to run, and next thing we knew, we were flying in the air. Got lucky our dads caught us in time. Was kinda dizzy for a bit before I saw..." Amity shuddered, "I-I can't remember all the details, but I saw a giant, lava-like stinger tail...thing coming down at me. It's...it was honestly one of the scariest moments of my life. My dad and one of Willow's summoned Abominations to stop it, and I kept my eyes closed after that. Last thing I remember was the Parks handing Willow to my dad and yelling at him to make a run for it while they held the monster off."

And after the encounter with Echidna at the Knee, Amity wondered if what she'd encountered was a demon lord. She was just a child at the time and unable to think much of it, but she could now as a teen, and it scared her all the more. Her fears were interrupted by a gentle hand placing itself in her shoulder, and she looked to see Luz's comforting, worried eyes. Coupled with that same warm smile, she said, "Amity, it's okay. You guys all got out of there, right?"

"Yeah, barely," Amity crossed her arms and rested her forehead against her knees, "Willow's dads got out, but they were pretty banged up. Spent a few days in the hospital," she clutched her fist into her arm, pinching the skin, "And the worst part? Mom used the whole thing as the biggest black mark on Willow to break us up. It's what triggered that whole argument you saw the end of in the memory spell. She called her dads weak for getting all banged up and said Willow would equally amount to nothing. That she'd hold me back and...well, you know the rest."

That made Amity glower at the blatant hypocrisy, given how her own father was barely involved in the fight and had to make a run for it. She didn't blame him for that, especially since Willow's dads left him little choice, but she was more than angry at him for going along with Mom's words despite the fact that the Parks saved his life and hers. Talk about ungrateful.

"Well, at least things are getting better now," Luz tried to cheer her up, "You and Willow are friends again. And hey, Nero and Lilith are gonna get rid of that thing now! Light at the end of the tunnel and all that."

"Heh, yeah, I guess," Amity didn't look up, but she did let out a small smile. In spite of that incident, things were getting better. She had her old friend back, she had new friends, she had her siblings, and she had Luz. Sure, Mom was still breathing down her neck, Dad rarely ever listened to her, the twins could still be annoying, and mending things with Willow was...a process, admittedly, but they were still better. At least, she hoped they were better.

That she was getting better.

Her train of thought was interrupted by something nuzzling against her leg. Looking up, she saw Selki cooing against the fabric of her tights. The baby stared up at her, all wide-eyed and cheerful before moving up, clearly expecting affection. Chuckling, and unable to resist the sheer cuteness of the animal, Amity gently rubbed her hand against the top of Selki's head, brushing past the sapling. Selki cooed again and pressed the top of her head into Amity's palm, receiving even more affection.

"DAW! She likes you!" Luz said in excitement as she scooted up to Amity, the Blight's heart racing a bit at the gesture, which only accelerated even further when the human also started petting Selki's head. Amidst all the head pats, their hands briefly touched, and they stared into each other's eyes. Amity quickly retracted and looked away to get her heartrate down, but she could've sworn she heard a squeak escape from Luz's lips.

"S-Sorry!" Amity squeaked, face burning, "I-I was just-"

"I-It's fine!" Luz said as Amity looked back at her. Cheeks a bright red, the cute human girl asked, "S-So, even though I don't need any help studying or anything like that, would you..." she poked her index fingers together, "Would you like to stay and hang out? We can take care of Selki together!"

"Really?"

"Yeah," Luz patted Selki again, "I love her, but she can be quite a handful sometimes. Plus, with Eda sleeping, King doing something with Graff in his room, Hooty being...well, Hooty, and Nero and Lilith out to Lake Lacuna, it wouldn't hurt to have some help. It'd almost be like we're playing pare-" she snapped her mouth closed, blushed, and looked the other way before regaining herself, "S-So yeah, you okay with that?"

Amity, though a bit unsure, would admit that the idea was rather enticing. She'd get to spend the entire afternoon helping Luz, and Selki's sheer adorableness actually did distract her quite a bit from her own nerves. And from what little she knew of baby Selkidomus from her brother's books, they were a major handful for any dedicated Beastkeeper, let alone a single human teenager whose studies were more spread out. So, she'd do what she could and ease Luz's burdens, just like Luz always managed to do for her.

"Sure," Amity smiled, brushing her hair behind her ear at Luz's excited expression, "I'd love to help."

Nero hopped off his mother's stave as they descended to the shores of Lake Lacuna, eyes scanning the rather eerie, abandoned environment. He didn't really know what it looked like beforehand, only knowing that it was a popular site for swimming lessons. Not something he'd be involved in, given how Mom made sure all his swimming lessons were with indoor pools. But even then...

"Place looks like it's seen better days," he commented as he stepped forward.

"The last many years have not been kind to this place," Mom added, "And we have that beast to thank."

Nero hummed and took in the details, seeing the decaying corpses of Coven troops, innocent civilians, and random wildlife littering the shores of the lake. All of them looked heavily mangled and like they'd been chucked into an incinerator, covered in third degree burns and scorch markings, and some looked old enough to have decayed into nothing but bone and rotten flesh. Even with everything he'd seen, the sight left his stomach churning, as well as brought a burning anger into his heart. Even freakier was that there weren't any fairies or insects swarming around, when they'd normally be near corpses to feed on them.

Either the burned, decayed skin was unappetizing, or whatever lurked here freaked them out so much they didn't want to be near this place. He had no idea which was worse, especially since his arm was beginning to glow again.

Lilith walked up to one of the newer bodies and started inspecting it. She rolled it over and removed the charred mask of the Coven soldier, revealing his lifeless eyes and partially melted face, "This is..."

"What is it?" Nero asked, kneeling down to meet his mother as he saw the disturbed look in her eyes.

"These corpses," she looked forward and stared at those ahead, "They don't have any bite marks or indications they were feasted on. Only burned skin and mutilation."

As his eyes followed Mom's, Nero quickly picked up on the implications and began comparing whatever this thing was to Echidna from the Knee. A psychotic monster she was, but whenever she targeted people, it was for sustenance. Hell, it was practically all she ever ranted and raved about when first attacking them. But this thing, whatever it was? It slaughtered the innocent for sport, and if the appearance of the corpses were any indication, it took sadistic joy in the act.

Feeling the pit of rage grow even more, he watched his mother gently close the dead soldier's eyes and lay him down. It made him wonder if she was close to any of the troops under her old command. Only one he knew her to routinely chat with was Steve, so probably not. But if the sorrowful, horrified look in her eyes at the other troops (and the dead civilians) was anything to go by, she must've cared in her own way. Body moving before he could even think, he placed a gentle, glowing, reptilian hand on his mom's shoulder in comfort, which she placed her own hand on in thanks. After a few moments, she released him, to which he stepped forward and began looking for clues.

The first thing he noticed was when he felt himself step on a snapping twig, to which he looked down and noticed a broken flag beneath his foot. Picking it up, he saw that the cloth was heavily faded and filthy, though he could still make out a plus sign and the letter W. He briefly wondered who it belonged to before his right arm glowed even brighter, drawing his attention to the wooden dock. Or at least what was left of it.

Walking up to it, he noticed something about the waters of the lake. "Hey Mom!" he yelled, "You may want to come see this!" Lilith quickly joined him and stared at the lake with wide eyes, noticing it as well. Drawing Red Queen, he asked, "The water here isn't supposed to be boiling, is it?"

"No Nero," she answered through grit teeth and worried eyes as she drew her staff, "No it isn't."

Sure enough, Lake Lacuna looked more like the boiling seas, bubbling in a miasma that invaded his nostrils. He and his mother couldn't help but flinch, covering their faces as intense steam was let off the waters and a shadow within made its presence known. The steam's intensity reached an apex, blanketing the entire surface and slowly enveloping the shoreline, corpses consumed by it.

Suddenly, a massive figure leapt out of the water, sending a torrent of boiling liquid overhead. Thinking quick, Nero cast a circle that shielded him and his mother from it, scalding substance harmlessly dripping off the bubble before it dissipated at the sudden earthquake. With the beast having made landfall, he and his mother turned to face it, briefly gaping at the sight.

Whatever the thing was, it looked like a giant spider with a long, violently shaking stinger tail more befitting a scorpion. The beast had a single, enormous right forelimb, the other looking like it'd been torn off. It looked to have six eyes that were blue in color, but three of them had been ripped out, and from the scarring surrounding the sockets, rather violently at that. And those weren't the only scars littering its body, as the thing was covered from front to back in cracks and wounds that leaked the magma of its molten body, steam and heated air surrounding it. Nero almost wanted to pity whatever this thing was, but the savaged corpses surrounding him and his mother killed whatever sympathy he could've had.

"All things considered, I'm gonna guess this fucker's a demon lord," Nero snarled, flexing the fingers of his glowing Devil Bringer. It only ever seemed to get like this when it came to shit from the lower circles of Hell, after all.

"Most definitely," Lilith nodded, eyes glowering with fury as she drew a few glyphs. The demon narrowed its remaining eyes at them, letting out a loud, thunderous roar that shook their surroundings. It looked ready to attack before it sniffed at them, letting out a low, cruel laugh.

"Sparda."

Nero's eyes went wide for a second, getting the final confirmation on what this thing was. Stepping in front, he said, "Mom, get behind me."

"Nero, wait, what are-"

"HAHAHA! Well, isn't this just...fun," the demon lord rumbled in a rough voice that oozed in pure rage, "All these years ripping open witchlings, and a Sparda stops at my doorstep!" he sniffed the air again, sadistically smiling at Lilith, "And the whore that birthed him." Nero grit his teeth, too angry at the demon lord to come up with a witty remark. Nobody insulted his mother like that. Ignoring his anger, the demon let out a chortle, "Hopefully you'll put up a fight. These parasites were getting boring to melt alive. After a while, the screams all start to blend together, if you know what I mean."

"Whoever or whatever you are, your slaughter of the innocent ends here!" Lilith pointed her staff at the demon lord in an overly dramatic fashion, completely unaware of her own ridiculousness. Only reason Nero didn't laugh or facepalm was because they had bigger fish to fry.

Well, that and he did more embarrassing, overly dramatic action poses in his room, but that wasn't important right now.

"Heh, alright then. Name's Phantom, nice to meet ya!" the demon, Phantom, introduced himself, "Please, do me a favor and try to make this last. I want to savor listening to your bones crunch!" he slammed his forelimb into the ground, shaking the earth as the air grew hot beneath them. Looking down, Nero saw the ground glow and yelled at his mother to get back. The next instant, it erupted in a torrent of magma, forcing the two the dash out of the way, but that wasn't the end of it, as another geyser erupted beneath them. They dashed, flipped, and (in Nero's case) flash stepped away from each and every one, with Lilith taking flight on her staff and grabbing her son as they took to the air. "HA! That's right!" Phantom blasted a large wave of fire at them in midair, "Dance! Dance! Dance you puny, pathetic roaches! HAHAHA!"

"Okay, Mom, just stay in the air," Nero said as they evaded another fire blast, "I'll handle this thing."

"Nero, no! I said I would help you, and I'm going to," Lilith retorted, yelping just as another blast almost hit them, "I'll find a weak point to strike at. Once he's staggered you and I can finish him off."

"No, listen, you need to-LOOK OUT!" Nero saw not a fire blast, but a coven corpse thrown right at them with such speed that it was practically a bullet. With no time to dodge, Nero instead jumped off the staff and right into the body's path, using his own to take the hit. The corpse slammed into him, shattering on impact and leaving him disoriented as he began to fall, hearing his mother cry out his name. A slight pain enveloped his entire body as he crashed into the ground, getting up from the impact crater with a groan, "Ugh...fuuuuck, that hurt."

"Nero!" his mother landed and rushed to him, checking for injuries, "Are you hurt?"

Before he could say he was fine, Phantom chortled, "Figures a Sparda wouldn't die from that. But you're still a chump. Why don't you let mommy handle all your fights? Little deadweight."

Nero snarled, almost getting up and charging at Phantom so he could cleave his scorpion/spider ass in two. But right as he stood, his mother all but shrieked in pure rage and flew forward, zipping past magma columns on her staff as she approached the demon lord. Nero, feeling his heart clench in worry, immediately started dashing to the ensuing fight.

Nearing, he watched his mother deftly avoid Phantom's slow, lumbering claw swipes before throwing three light glyphs at his face, blinding him. The scorpion rubbed at his eyes just as Lilith landed to the ground, planting an ice glyph that froze the floor and made him lose balance. Now that he was off-guard, she charged, staff like a lance as Coronis became enveloped in his own magic, turning into a large spear of pure ice. Lilith leapt towards Phantom's face with a roar and drove the blade into one of his remaining eyes.

"DON'T! TOUCH! MY! SON! YOU! FUCKING! ASS! HOLE!" Lilith screamed; impaling Phantom's eye socket with each word and making the demon lord scream in pain, growing louder as the stabs increased. Nero would admit to being a little giddy watching his mom in action, but that mirth quickly died when he saw Phantom's tail move. Mom was too blinded by fury to see the attack coming, so he reached out with his Devil Bringer and shot a spectral arm forward, grabbing and pulling her back before the stinger could impale her. "NERO! What do you think you're doing!? Lilith seethed, still caught up in her anger, "I had him!"

"Mom, stay back!" Nero didn't elaborate any further, drawing Red Queen and preparing to attack Phantom. However, Phantom's roars of pain became furious as he slammed his legs into the ground, melting the ice beneath him in a wave of heat. Magma surrounded him, briefly looking up to glare at the two witches before burrowing into the shore. Nero and his mother looked around, searching for any sign of where the bastard would pop out. Come on, where the hell are you? Nero began to sweat, both from nervousness and the sheer heat within the area. At that last thought, he noticed the air was growing even hotter and looked down in time to see the ground glow, "SHIT!"

Casting Earth Magic, he launched himself high into the air via a stone pillar alongside his mother, soaring just in time to watch the entire shoreline rapidly become enveloped with magma. The corpses littering it all melted into the molten slag, while what reached the lake began to form into a delta along the underwater slope. Right as they began to descend, Lilith took flight on her staff and was about to reach out and grab him, but he was quicker and aimed his Devil Bringer to the inferno below. Forming a large, body-sized spell circle, he fired a blast of ice magic that kept him aloft, freezing everything on the surface. The magma coated shoreline, the burning dock, the surrounding trees, halfway through Lake Lacuna itself; all of it froze into an uneven, ice-covered waste that left a permanent chill even as high up as they were.

Nero managed to stop pouring magic into his right arm, ceasing the spell blast. He almost fell back to the ground had Mom not been there to grab him, which he was grateful for, even if a fall from this height wouldn't have been much of a problem. As they landed, Nero knelt down and tapped the ice, getting nothing in response. He might've even overdone it, considering everything was frozen deep into the underground. Hell, even his Devil Bringer wasn't glowing anymore either. Standing up, he snarked, "Sorry for the cold shoulder, burn breath."

"Well, I suppose that's tha-wait," Lilith narrowed her eyes in confusion, "Was...was that a pun?"

"Yeah. Every fight needs good wordplay," Nero answered like it was obvious.

"My little raven, I mean no offense when I say this, but if that was wordplay, it wasn't good."

He rolled his eyes, "Didn't know you worked part-time with the fun police."

"No, I don't. Frankly, I always hated the Fun Police. Every time the carnival came to town when I was a child, they'd try to arrest me simply for "reading books" and "counting dust motes" and "being boring". They can go fuck themselves for all I care," Lilith complained with a bitter huff, all while Nero stared at her with a blank expression, trying to process the fact that apparently Fun Police were an actual thing. "But clearly you enjoy this thing," she hastily added, "So perhaps I can help come up with suggestions?" she pondered for a second and clapped, "OH! How about 'It looks as though you are now on ice!'? Eh? You...you get it?"

"...no."

"Then perhaps 'What's wrong? Couldn't keep your cool!'" Mom looked at him for appraisal, "Is that one not...cooler?"

"Y-You gotta stop."

"HA! You got your ice kicked!"

"Please."

"Why don't you chill out?"

"Okay that...uh..." Nero scratched his head, "Okay, that kinda works." Lilith beamed at her successful pun while Nero looked down at the ground where Phantom had burrowed, "Now the hard part's gonna be digging to the corpse so we can bring back proof of the kill. I can try using Earth magic while you use a plant glyph to-" he froze, noticing a glow on his right side. Staring at his right arm, he saw it was glowing again. Nero's eyes went wide, realizing what this meant as he looked to his now worried mother and shoved a spectral arm at her, "MOM, GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Wha-" was all Lilith could say as she was sent flying far, just in time for Phantom's pincer to surface and impale Nero. The witch barely managed to dodge it just as the stinger tail came flying for him, to which he drew Red Queen and blocked, sending him upward and landing far behind the fully surfaced Phantom.

"Not a bad trick, kid. I'll admit, you and your mom almost had me there. But you're still a long way from the big leagues," Phantom turned to face him, "And definitely nowhere near the last one I fought."

Last one? Nero gasped, This guy fought a Sparda before?

"Now DIE!" Phantom lunged at him with shocking speed. Gritting his teeth, Nero backflipped to avoid his swipe, noticing the stinger attempting a jab him midair. With a spin, he managed to avoid it and use the Devil Bringer to pull himself towards Phantom's ugly ass face. Landing on his back, Nero twisted, holding Red Queen overhead and slammed it down, igniting the Exceed as the hit connected in a torrent of fire. As the demon lord screeched, Nero repeated this several more times, activating Exceed with each hit before finally impaling it into the newly formed crack on Phantom's shell and slashing.

"ENOUGH!" Phantom's pain was now superseded by anger as his entire body was set ablaze, overwhelming Nero. The witch found himself forced to jump off as his skin was scorched, putting some distance between him and the demon lord. Panting, he checked himself and saw that his skin wasn't burned, but it sure as shit hurt. His coat, on the other hand...

"Crapcrapcrap!" Nero yelped in a panic and rushed to put out the fire on his coattails, taking it off and slamming it into the ground a few times for good measure. Thankfully, while charred, his coat was still intact. After just as quickly putting it back on, he checked Red Queen and saw that the Exceed charges were still at full capacity, as if they never depleted to begin with.

Heh, it worked, Nero gave a toothy grin as he formed a spell circle with his right hand, unleashing a torrent of fire that sent him blitzing to the left and narrowly dodging Phantom's downward slam attack. The scorpion tail was now lashing out wildly in an effort to hit him as he circled around the demon lord, flipping, spinning, and blocking with Red Queen while sliding on the ice. Unfortunately, he found himself losing his footing as the floor became rough, tripping and entering a roll to regain balance. Now behind Phantom, he noticed that the ground was wet, all that fire having melted the ice in the immediate area. As he shook his hand of the liquid and Phantom started to turn, Nero got an idea.

"Lookin' tired, Phanny!" Nero holstered Red Queen and cast a lightning spell, enveloping his left arm in a torrent of electricity, "Here's a wake-up jolt!"

"What did you just call me you little shi-" was all Phantom could say before Nero slammed his hand into the water-covered ground, sending torrents of lightning towards Phantom that coated his entire body. Screams blanketed the lake as arcs of electricity flew everywhere, some reaching for the sky like a beacon while others tore through the ice terrain surrounding them. When Nero finally ceased them, he stood up, staring at Phantom's twitchy form as it emitted smoke. "Heh...lightning, just like back on Mallet Island," Phantom groggily picked himself up, "Same hair, same eyes, same thunder, same fucking obnoxiousness. Don't tell me you're Dante's little brat, are you?"

Dante? Nero's thoughts started to wander at the name. For some reason, something about it just felt...familiar, but he couldn't tell what it was, Is...is he talking about my fa-

"GOTCHA!"

Huh? Nero blinked and realized Phantom's tail was headed right towards him. With no time to draw Red Queen or form a barrier, he managed to side-step and grab the appendage. "Alright bug bitch!" Nero snarled as he began to pull, "You're gonna tell me who the fuck Dante is or I'm ripping that tail off your ass!"

"Interesting offer. Now here's mine!" Phantom used his tail to lift Nero into the air, the witch holding on for dear life as he found himself slammed into the ground. It hurt, but he kept his grip in the hopes of regaining his footing. Instead, he was smashed into the ice here, there, and everywhere until his whole body hurt. His hold grew slack, causing him to let go mid-slam and be sent flying far across the frozen lake. He didn't know how far he went, only that he crashed into the ice a couple times before reaching the cold waters and skipping across it like a stone. Just as he started to slow down...

"NERO!"

M-Mom? Nero felt himself flying again as something grabbed his right hand. Blinking, he looked up to see his mother, who had a few twigs in her hair alongside some scrapes across her skin, carrying him to the small island at the center of Lake Lacuna. Hiding amidst the trees, she gently put him down on the floor as his body started to heal. Sitting up, he clutched his head to ease the pain before looking at her with worry, "Mom, what happened? Are you okay? You look banged up."

"Yes, I'm fine," Lilith pulled the twigs and leaves from her hair, "You may have pushed me too far and I crashed through a few trees. I was out cold for a bit until a giant lightning pillar woke me up."

A wave of guilt ran through the wide-eyed Nero, "Mom, I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine, my little raven," she shook her head, helping remove the remaining branches (and a few bugs) from her hair as she stood up, helping him up in kind just as the Devil Bringer started growing again. Hearing the sound of thunderous steps far in the distance, Nero faced his mother.

"Mom, you need to go, now!"

Lilith looked shocked for a second, but much to Nero's frustration, she wouldn't budge, crossing her arms with a firm glare, "No. I'm not going anywhere. You can't expect me to just leave you alone to face him!"

"If I fight him alone, you won't get hurt!"

"And you pushing me away is better?" Lilith's voice rose in pitch, her posture emphasizing the scrapes and bruises he accidentally gave her, furthering his guilt, "Do you think that just because I no longer have magic, I shouldn't fight anymore?"

Nero shook his head, having seen firsthand that the opposite was true. "No, it's..." he heard the steps increase in volume, followed by a large splash in the lake, "Look, there's no time. I need you to trust me and let me handle this by my-"

"Trust you!?" Mom looked downright pissed, "How can you expect me to...I...you..." her eyes became obscured by her hair, a calming breath going in followed by an equally calming exhale, "Nero, I do trust you. I know now that you can handle anything Limbo throws at you. You've fended off the Emperor, a Leviathan among countless more monsters, and I know you held yourself well against this...Phantom." Lilith clutched at her hand, hair parting to reveal her eyes that shimmered with pride, "You've accomplished so much that I haven't even seen. That I haven't been part of. I just...I wish you would trust me too, and not just push me away. You clearly trust Edalyn, Luz, and even King, so why not me?" her voice almost quivered, "Please, my son. Please just trust me. If you would allow me, I'll have your back in this."

Feeling his guilt become a maelstrom, Nero's eyes felt glued to the floor, his mother's words washing over him and slapping his face repeatedly. He wanted to apologize, to explain himself and tell her that he wanted to trust her, that he didn't mean to push her out like this, or at all for that matter. But the Devil Bringer glowed even brighter, drawing his attention as he heard what sounded like a loud geyser in the distance.

"Okay," he said as they started running through the trees to find a hiding spot, Phantom's steps having just made landfall, "But we'll need a plan. So far, head on isn't working."

Lilith beamed and pulled out a number of plant glyphs, "I think I may have one," she rapidly explained the idea throughout their run. By the time she concluded, they'd found a large rock to hide behind, "Well?"

Nero thought it over and smiled, "Actually, it sounds pretty good," he held out his left hand and formed an illusion spell, "Mind if I help add to it?"

"I'd be delighted," Lilith nodded, sounding downright giddy as they started setting everything up for their trap.

"Come out, come out wherever you are!" Phantom sneered as he started searching through the miniature island. His massive frame knocked a few of the trees down, which revealed nothing. Just trees, rocks, sand, dirt, but no witchlings. Neither a mother nor Dante's brat. Huh, now that I think about it... Phantom sniffed the air to try and pick up their sent, When I was throwing the brat around, he didn't smell much like Dante.

In fact, he smelled more like the other one.

Sense of smell's just about the only thing the boss didn't fuck up, Phantom grumbled, body aching at the reminder of his torment. After his failure on Mallet Island, King Mundus revived him in Hell, all just to torment him. He didn't know how long it lasted, only what he'd lost: eyes plucked, arm severed, abdomen crushed, and thousands of light spears impaling him every hour of every day. All while the King of Hell refused to let him die. And just to make matters worse, by the time he'd finished, King Mundus exiled him to the realm of Limbo.

A mercy, he'd called it, to live the rest of his miserable existence within this...backwater for parasites. But he knew it was the cruelest fate he could bestow, a crippling attack on Phantom's pride as a former general from the Fire Hell. He'd served proudly under the reign of Lord Berial for countless centuries, and this is what he was reduced to? Frankly, it would've been more merciful to just kill him. From what he'd heard, Griffon got off easy for his failures.

Oh well, I guess it isn't too bad. Got plenty of witchlings to take it out on. And now I can add a baby Sparda and mommy dearest to the list! Phantom felt a black joy at the very thought. Finally getting to make someone from that bloodline bleed out would make his predicament completely worth it. Sure, killing anyone who got close to his turf was fun and all, especially when they were little brats who screamed their lungs out as he crushed or burned them to death, but to kill a Sparda? Oh, that was a delight no demon had ever gotten the pleasure of.

Not even with Sparda himself, what with his sudden disappearance. Seriously, whatever happened to him? Meh, didn't really matter in the long run anyway, seeing as it gave Hell the opening they needed to try and kill off his bloodline. Speaking of which...

"Where are you?" Phantom stopped at the island's center and sniffed the air again, trying to pinpoint their location. Strange, he mused, not being able to pick up on the Sparda brat anymore. Almost like he'd vanished into thin air just like his gramps. Either that or Phantom's nose was more damaged from his torment than he realized. Then again, he was picking up on the mother, who-

"Phantom! Come and face me!" Phantom turned around and saw the diminutive, navy haired witchling with the low battery shirt. Her arms were crossed, staff in one hand and some papers in the other.

"Heh, finally decided to stop hiding?" Phantom sneered, "Where's your brat? Too much of a coward to fight me?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, you son of a bitch," the witch sneered back with that same annoying maternal protectiveness. Why couldn't all mothers just ditch their kids when shit got tough? It helped toughen them up! It's what Phantom's mother did for him after she laid the egg.

Phantom laughed, "Oh well, I'm sure burning you alive will send him running over." He prepared to attack, but the witch was faster, slamming the paper into the ground. Within seconds, the entire area was covered in a thick mist that his remaining eyes couldn't see through. "What the-" Phantom looked left and right, "Where did you go!?" Since he couldn't rely on his eyes, he shifted back to his sense of smell. Strangely, he could sense the Sparda brat somewhere in the area, but he couldn't get an exact read. The mother, however, he smelled just to his side. He turned, seeing her just standing there with a mocking smile as he lashed out with his tail, only to hit nothing but thin air. Smelling her just behind him, he turned to deliver a pincer strike, "ARGH! Hold still!"

Once again, he hit nothing. He tried again and again to hit her but was met with the same result: empty air and a sardonic smirk. The mist made it impossible to tell if she was teleporting or he was just seeing things, with his missing eyes making it worse. Topping it off, he could hear something echoing in the background, similar to every single time the witch activated one of those magic papers. But combined with the mist, the echo made it impossible to tell where it was coming from. Frustrated beyond belief, he roared and held his tail high, spinning it rapidly like a propeller. The act produced a powerful gale that dissipated the makeshift fog, finally clearing his vision.

"Hmm, so you're actually smart. Can't say I was expecting that," the witch's mocking voice called out from just behind him. Turning once again, he saw her lying flat on her back, arm held out with a white raven perched on her hand. She faced him with that same mocking glint, clearly not taking him seriously at all. Then she smirked again, making him see red as he lunged forward to wipe it off her face. His pincer slammed clean on her as a cruel smile dawned his face. He lifted his pincer to see what her mangled corpse looked like and-

"What the fuck!?" Phantom couldn't believe it. The witch was still there, lying in the same relaxed position as if she'd never been crushed, "How did you survive that?"

"Huh, guess you really are as dumb as you look, shit for brains," the witch mocked, sounding an awful lot like-

"Okay my little raven, I think we have him," the same voice came from behind the trees directly in front of him. Phantom looked up in time to see the witch walk out from behind them, staff still in hand and leaving his eyes darting between the two look-a-likes. Glaring at the nearest one (the one with the shit-eating grin), he slowly poked at her lying form with his pincer, only for it to go right through.

"An illusion!?" Phantom gaped as said illusion vanished in a puff of blue smoke. He glared at the real witch and sneered, "Why you little-"

"Hold that thought, please," the witch slammed her hand against the tree, removing it to reveal one of those magic sheets. In an instant, green veins sprouted from it and into the tree. The ground beneath it erupted a series of tendril-like vines that grabbed his pincer and tightened to hold it in place. Before he could react, he felt another series of vines from the trees behind him grab at his tail and restrain it. Then another, and another, and another all grabbing at his legs one by one. Suddenly, he couldn't move an inch. He could only struggle as the witch walked up to him, hands on her hips as the staff turned into that white raven, now perched on her shoulder.

"ARGH! This won't hold me forever, witch!" Phantom heated up, ready to burn his way through the vines. They seemed strong enough to handle his basic flames, so he'd have to crank it up a notch. Burn down everything else on this little island too, while he was at it.

"Trust me, I know," she said simply before placing a pair of fingers in her mouth, letting out a very loud whistle. Phantom could feel the earth beneath him shake as the witch took a few steps back and waved goodbye. That's when he realized where her brat had been this whole time.

Oh no, Phantom felt a massive punch toward his gut that sent him flying high into the air as he flailed about, feeling something latch onto one of his legs in the process. Daring to look down, he saw the spectral arm from before stretched out, latching onto him and pulling the brat up towards him. He leapt to Phantom's back as the former general continued to soar upwards, eventually reaching high enough that the Titan's corpse in its entirety could be seen. Right as they began to descend, the Sparda jumped off, another spectral arm grabbing Phantom's tail.

"Now for the spin cycle!" the Sparda began twisting in the air, forcing Phantom into a series of rapid rotations around him that turned the whole world into a giant, dark blue blur. After several seconds, Phantom was released and sent flying downward at a rapid pace. Amidst the spins he made whilst approaching the ground, he was able to make out the mother stepping away from something, followed by a giant, jagged spike of pure ice formed where she'd been.

"NONONONONONONONONO!" Phantom cried out as he reached it stomach first, the familiar sense of impalement becoming intoxicating, as did the absolute chill that overtook his body and hardened his internal magma. Well, guess this is it then, he felt his strength leave him in droves. Within an instant, he could only twitch and wait for the inevitable, At least things can't get any worse.

"Oof," the Sparda landed right in front of him and knocked a fist against his face, "Talk about a bad case of freezer burn."

Nope, it got worse.

"Yeah! It was ice to beat you!" the mother added, somehow sounding more irritating.

"Still a shit pun," her son said, despite laughing about it.

"Like yours was any better," she smirked and stared at the ice currently impaling Phantom, "But do you think this demon lord got the point?"

The kid shrugged, "Touche, and I don't know. Think we should run him through it one more time?"

Oh please sweet death, take me now.

"Perhaps we should," she cleared her throat, "Let this be a lesson, Phantom..." she raised both her hands and, alongside her son, proceeded to flip him off, "Don't fuck with the Clawthornes!" The mother then proceeded to...dance? She was doing this really weird shimmy that was making even her kid look embarrassed, "~That's right! Who's awesome? We are! You're not~!"

Yup. This is somehow worse than Mundus.

"Mom, please stop," the kid said, right hand almost welded to his face.

Huh, actually agreeing with a Sparda, Phantom mused before his remaining eyes went wide, Oh shit, my last moments in life are gonna be me agreeing with a Sparda.

"I mean, she's right either way. Same goes for Spardas while we're at it," the kid knelt down again and poked Phantom's unmoving face, "The guy killed the Titans, so you think demon lords wouldn't underestimate his family, but here we are."

Phantom blinked, the last echo of strength abandoning him as the world went dark.

Wait, do these idiots seriously believe that? They actually think Sparda killed...the...Titans...

"Not buying it."

"Not buying it!? Your bounty poster said to bring back proof of the kill, and we did!" Nero yelled indignantly at the bounty stand's cashier while pointing to the severed tip of Phantom's scorpion tail as well as the slashed off pincer claw. Unlike the four-eyed, pig-snouted cashier from the last few times, this one was a smaller, beige skinned pig demon with circle-rimmed glasses and a purple vest. Introduced himself as "Tibbles" when they got there.

"We even brought back photos of it! That's more than sufficient evidence!" Mom added, slamming the many pictures she'd taken of the deceased, impaled Phantom on the counter.

"Sorry, but there's no way a little kid and his mother could've killed the thing haunting Lake Lacuna for years. I've seen enough convincing fakes to know what I'm talking about," Tibbles said with all the confidence of a cheapskate who clearly wanted the money for himself, "Tell you what though, for the claw and tail, I can give you, say..." he clapped his hands together in a particularly devious fashion, "500 snails! How 'bout it?"

"Now you listen here, sir," Lilith sneered, leaning down to meet him at eye level, "My son and I worked very hard to kill this thing, so would you be so kind as to give us our owed 5,000,000 snails before I personally-"

"You'll what? Last I checked, you're powerless. And a powerless witch is a worthless witch. Now move along. I have others to sucker-I mean, give their bounties," Tibbles sneered back with a smug expression.

That's it! Nero brought the Devil Bringer forth, grabbing Tibbles' head before Mom could pull out a glyph. He held the screaming cheapskate high in the air and snarled, "Listen here, bacon bitch. Like it or not, we did our job, so do your damn job and pay up!" lowering the large, ghostly arm down, he brought Tibbles to eye level, "Oh, and if you insult my mom again, I'm throwing you over the horizon. Wanna place bets on if you'll land in the Boiling Sea?"

"W-Wait!" Tibbles glanced at Lilith, "You wouldn't let your kid do that, would you?"

"..."

"...uh, m-ma'am?"

"I'm thinking about it," Lilith crossed her arms with a bemused expression, causing Nero to grin at the squirming pig demon.

"W-What about 501 snails!?"

"..."

"502!?"

"..."

"499?"

"You just went down," Nero said, flat tone betraying his frustration.

Tibbles just chuckled awkwardly, "Heh, I-I'm a haggler?"

Lilith briefly put her index finger in her mouth before holding it high as the wind blew, "Nero, try aiming about 57 degrees to the right. Less wind resistance, so you'll be able to throw him much farther."

"Wait, this isn't even my-"

"What's going on?"

Everyone turned to the new voice to the old cashier, standing with an exhausted look in his four eyes and a nasty bruise on his face. Everyone turned to Tibbles, who let out an awkward laugh, "Heh, did I mention that I don't actually work here? I was just helping out since he was on break."

"Think I remember something hitting me in the head," the demon clutched at his face, "Woke up behind a trash can."

"...Nero, throw him," Lilith turned to the actual bounty stand attendant.

"Wait wait wai-" was all Tibbles got out as Nero nonchalantly tossed him away, retracting his spectral arm as a loud crash sounded somewhere in the background. Meanwhile, the attendant got back to his usual spot, still rubbing at his aching face. Recalling how he treated Eda way back when, as well as the last few times Nero and Luz came here to deliver bounties, the young Clawthorne prepared for the off chance he had to punch the bastard. Only reason he didn't do so before was because Luz held him back. Now? Well, if the guy said some shit, it was doubtful Mom would step in, assuming she didn't do the deed herself.

"Okay, what do you guys want now-" just as the attendant finished rubbing his eyes, he saw the large claw and tail sitting just behind mother and son, "Holy..." wide-eyed, he looked at the counter and saw the photos of Phantom's corpse, as well as the Lake Lacuna bounty, "Is...i-is that really...?"

"Yes," Nero and Lilith both nodded.

"And you two actually managed to-"

"Yes."

Wordlessly, the attendant cast a spell circle, telekinetically lifting the claw and tail behind the stand before taking the photos and bounty poster. He then placed five massive bags, each about as large as Nero and Lilith were tall, down in front of his workstation. Before anything could be said, he slammed the doors of the stand closed and ran out the side in fear.

"He was smart to run," Lilith proudly said as Nero nodded. After both of them finished checking to make sure the snails were legit (perks of living with a master con artist), he summoned the Devil Bringer's ghostly apparition again to carry the five sacks with them home. By the time they were halfway through Bonesborough, however, Nero started to feel something eat away at him. That same guilt from back at the lake...

"Mom," Nero began as he and Lilith walked side by side, "I'm sorry for pushing you away."

Lilith turned to him as they continued walking, "I already told you, my little raven, it's fine. Unpleasant as getting slammed into trees was, I understand that you were just-"

"No, that's not what I...I don't mean-" he sighed, briefly looking up at the night sky, "Can we sit down for a sec?" His mother froze, looking at him in surprise before cautiously nodding. Nero took a seat on the sidewalk, Lilith joining beside him as he twiddled his thumbs in an effort to find the right words. Come on, just get the words out, Nero opened his mouth, only to close it, whatever he was about to say having died on his tongue, Dammit. I thought this would've gotten easier after telling her about the demon hunting. Guess I really haven't gotten any better, huh? taking a deep breath, he managed, "I...haven't been letting you in lately, have I?"

Mom went quiet for a second, making Nero worry before she drummed her fingers against her knees, "I...Nero, you've..." she reluctantly sighed, "No, I guess you haven't."

"Yeah. Yeah, I figured."

"If it means anything, I don't blame you for that either, given how I can be," Lilith admitted, and something about her answer just left him more frustrated with himself. Why wasn't she angry with him?

"At least it feels like you're trying," Nero admitted, staring at the ground, "Me? I don't know. I want to think I've been trying, but after today, it doesn't feel like I've been doing that. I honestly don't want to push you out Mom, it's just..." he sighed, once again struggling to find the words, "I don't know, maybe I'm just scared of you getting hurt? But at the same time, I'm also scared you're gonna end up treating me like a helpless little kid again." Lilith looked worried and a bit hurt, to which Nero clarified, "I mean, you lapse sometimes, but again, you try. Definitely more than me."

Mom relaxed and chuckled a bit, "I'd hope so, my little raven. But you're trying more than you think. We wouldn't be having this conversation if you weren't."

Nero felt a brief warmth in his heart at that, smiling, "Thanks, but I still don't know why I'm having a hard time with this," he looked at the night sky again, "This whole devil hunting's always been a me thing since I was a kid. I think a part of me wanted it to stay that way, but like you said, I don't have a problem letting some people in," his head hung in shame as he wrung his hands together, "I don't want you to be some exception to the rule. But I keep making you one and I just don't know why."

"...Edalyn and I once spoke about this," Mom reminisced with a chuckle, "Actually, it was less speaking and more just yelling over each other. She said that the more I tried to hold onto you, the more you'd push away, and that I need to acknowledge that you're not a child anymore. Obviously, I didn't listen back then, but..." she bit her lip, "Sometimes I feel like you've grown up too fast. Combined with everything from Belos to the demon lords coming down on our heads, it's...hard, for me to accept. A lot of things are hard for me to accept, really." Lilith turned to her son with an apologetic look in her eyes, "Still too stubborn for my own good, I suppose."

"Guess that makes two of us," Nero muttered loud enough for her to hear, eliciting a chuckle. Apparently, between his own bout of overprotectiveness and his stubbornness, he was more like his mom than he wanted to admit. His brief mirth died down as they sat in silence, just letting everything continue around them in the moment. Unconsciously, Nero felt himself lean to the side, his head landing on Mom's shoulder. Without a word, she wrapped her arm around him and gently stroked his hair.

Fuck, maybe he really did want to be treated like a little kid.

"It happened to me too," Lilith whispered, "As I got older, my parents and I became more...distant. I wanted their attention more than anything, but after what happened with Edalyn, I was scared they'd find out what I'd done. With father's injuries and mother focusing all her efforts on my sister, I buried myself in work just to get away from it all. Hadn't been in contact with them since I was your age."

"...is that gonna happen to us?" Nero asked, feeling the start of tears pricking at his eyes, "We're just gonna grow distant and never talk to each other? I...I don't want that. I don't want you out of my life. I just want...I want you to accept me. I want you to be proud of me and what I like doing."

Nero heard a sniffle, not knowing if it came from him or his mother. But then Mom spoke, sounding like she was fighting back her own tears, "Nero, I am proud of you. I know I haven't been the best at showing it, but I've always been proud of you. I always will be proud of you, no matter what you choose to do with your life," Lilith ceased her stroking and embraced him, a dampness trickling onto his shoulder, "Please, just let me be part of it."

Now Nero felt his tears escape to Mom's shoulder as he returned the embrace. He didn't know what else to say, or if he could even say anything amidst his weeping. Yet despite it, something did escape his lips, consciously or otherwise, and he smiled as the words came out.

"I love you, mom."

He felt his mother freeze at the words, once more making him realize how much distance he'd put between them. Those words were...rare, coming from him when they shouldn't have been. Mom never failed to express how much she loved him, yet only now was he realizing that he hadn't really done the same. Amidst his turbulent emotional state, he began to worry if his mother would realize that too and-

Suddenly, Lilith tightened her embrace and kissed the side of his head, "I love you too, my son."

Tears falling again, Nero let out another smile, imagining how goofy the display must've looked to an outside observer. A mother and son, crying and hugging on the sidewalk like a pair of sad saps. But Nero couldn't bring himself to care, just happily accepting the hug and feeling the weight of the entire day rolling off him. If he was a sap, then he was proud to be a sap, and nothing was going to change that.

Then he heard what sounded like the rustling of coins and struggled grunts in the background, "Mom?"

"Yes, my little raven."

"Some assholes are trying to steal the bounty, aren't they?"

"Quite."

"They making any progress?" Nero felt his mother look over his shoulder to see the assailants try and pry it out of his spectral arm's grip. Lilith shook her head as Nero chuckled, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Are you going to teach them a lesson?"

"Honestly, I'm emotionally beat," Nero retracted from the hug and wiped away his remaining tears, "Want to do the honors?"

Without a word, Lilith smiled and pulled out a glyph, summoning a large ball of fire in her hand. She stood up and turned to the would-be thieves, who only just now realized how fucked they were. As he watched her kick their asses, he found himself accepting an easy-to-forget reality.

His mom, no matter how embarrassing she could be, was actually pretty cool.

The moon hung directly above them, not a single cloud in the sky by the time Lilith and her son returned to the Owl House. She greeted Hootcifer, giving him a gentle pat on the head as he opened his door, and said goodnight to him.

Nero walked in first, "Hey guys, we're back!"

"Hey Nero!" Luz said just as Lilith followed in after him. But as she entered, a second, all too familiar voice also greeted her son, and she looked to see the source was Amity Blight. The minute the girl saw her, the pleasant, greeting smile on her face shifted into a steely, cold frown. Combined with how she was wearing her hair down, it reminded Lilith so much of the cold glare she had most of the time during her Coven days. After the emotional high earlier in the night, the sight certainly brought down her mood a few pegs.

"Oh, it's you," Amity all but sneered, which bought her mood down even lower, though she kept that hidden. With how she'd hurt Miss Blight, it was deserved. However, Luz gently held Amity's shoulder, making Miss Blight look to the human with a light blush as the scowl slowly faded. A splash in the room drew Lilith's eyes further downward, and she saw Selki swimming in a small, inflatable pool. Based on the bubbles in the tub, as well as the towels on the floor, the two had been giving her a bath.

How did I miss that? Lilith wondered.

"Hey Luz," Nero called out as his spectral arm dissipated, dropping the five colossal bags of snails on the living room floor, "I'm kinda beat right now. Think you could help me carry these things to the storage room?"

For a split second, Lilith assumed her son was trying to get her and Amity alone in the same room. Something to force them to work through the blatant tension in the air...and then he yawned. She realized that, no, he was genuinely tired and actually asking for help with the bounty.

"Sure thing, Nero!" Luz replied in a very forced tone, not getting the memo, "Lilith, why don't you help Amity with Selki until I get back?"

"I...of course," Lilith replied as the two witches picked the bags up: Nero lifting three while Luz carried the final two with surprising ease. It still impressed her, how someone she'd once deemed weak had grown so strong. Though now that she was left alone with one of her former students, all she could do was awkwardly cough and wave, "Greetings, Miss Blight."

"...Lilith," Amity almost sounded somewhat welcoming. Almost, anyway.

Nodding, she looked down at the still bathing Selki, who seemed much happier to see her. Gesturing to the baby Selkidomus, Amity reluctantly nodded and knelt back down beside the kiddie pool, letting Lilith kneel across from her as she grabbed a cloth and affectionately scrubbed the top of Selki's scalp. In response, Selki cooed, making Lilith smile before looking up at Amity, who also had a brief smile to her face before it just as quickly vanished. The former coven head sighed, knowing this wouldn't be easy.

"So...how are things?"

"I have been improving in my magical studies and am currently excelling in all my classes, if that's what you're wondering about," Amity said with all the emotional investment of someone getting a root canal, which made Lilith wince. She tried to think of a way to lighten the mood, but she was coming up empty on that front. While she may have taught several students, she'd never actually been personally close to any of them, not even Amity. As such, she knew nothing of Miss Blight's interests, nor how to ease things along.

Scrubbing at Selki's side, Lilith decided to start there and asked, "Has Selki been behaving?"

"She's been a sweetheart, mostly," Amity slowly gained her smile back as she spoke, "Luz and I have been playing a lot of games with her, which was a lot of fun, especially when we all tried rolling into balls and just...well, rolling around," she started blushing, "Miiiiight've landed on top of Luz in the middle of that. Heh, and it was...nice." Amity blinked and had a look of realization, "H-Having fun with her, I mean. Selki, of course! I-I'm referring to Selki."

Lilith ceased scrubbing Selki before she looked down at her. Sure enough, Selki somehow had the same knowing expression she did. It was pretty obvious just how strong Amity's infatuation with Luz was, reminding Lilith of Edalyn and her romance with Raine Whispers back in the day. And just like with them, the display was adorable to watch. Seeing the opening, she prepared to ask Amity about Luz in the hope that it would lighten the mood and allow them to work out the wedge she'd created...

Actually, Lilith shook her head, deciding against such a decision. She'd already used Amity once as a means to one-up Edalyn in petty jealousy, now she was considering doing so again? Using Amity's feelings for Luz as an avenue to apologize just wouldn't be right. What if Luz overheard and the conversation? Sure, Lilith had eavesdropped on Luz loudly gushing about Miss Blight, so it was very likely she returned those affections, but even she, in all her nonexistent wisdom regarding romance, knew that there was a time and place for these things, and this most certainly wasn't it. What if it just made things awkward between them and destroyed whatever potential relationship they could have?

She wouldn't take that chance. She'd ruined enough lives already.

Instead, she opted to just take the plunge, "Amity, I...I know you don't want to hear this, but I just want to say that I'm sorry for what I did to you." Sure enough, Amity looked away and crossed her arms, not wanting to listen. Despite this, Lilith pressed on, feeling Selki's head nuzzle against her palm to help her forward, "I was selfish, petty, and used you for my own ends. I humiliated you, I lied to you, and...and I'm sorry. I hurt you, I hurt my son, I hurt my sister, and I hurt Luz. Almost got those last two killed because of my selfishness." Amity bristled at that last one as Lilith went further, "I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, or anyone's for that matter. I know I can never take what I've done back, but-"

"It's not that," Amity interrupted, still refusing to look at her, "I mean, it is all those things, but...there's more to it."

"What do you mean?" Lilith couldn't help but tilt her head. Selki did the same, making a confused sound as well.

"Growing up, I wanted to become part of the Emperor's Coven more than anything. Or at least, I thought I did," Amity went quiet for a moment before sighing, "But then so much happened: I met Luz, you hurt and used me, and you tried to kill her. And because of everything, I wanted to be part of the coven less and less. First just because you were there, then because I started looking more into things and started taking a look at the whole system. There's just so much..." she clenched her fists in anger, "The whole thing's just so shitty and-" her frustration began to peak as she reached into her hair and started pulling, "UGH! You messed up everything, okay! That's what's pissing me off! I had my whole life set out, now I have all these fucking questions I never wanted and I don't know what to do anymore!"

Silenced followed, for what could Lilith say or do after that outburst? Even Selki had completely frozen in shock as Amity curled into herself, forehead rested on her knees. With a tentative gulp, Lilith stuttered, "A-Amity, I-I-"

"And you want to know what's really fucked up?" Amity mumbled, cutting Lilith off, "There's this weird part of me that's almost...glad for the questions, and I don't know how to feel about that. Like, if I hadn't started asking them, I could've ended up like-" she raised her head, glaring at the ex-coven leader. Lilith tried to think of something to say, but any words she could muster died on her tongue. She blinked and, for a brief second, Amity was gone. In her place, Lilith saw a young, glasses wearing teenager with fluffy, orange-red hair, glaring at her with such malice that she almost came apart at the seams. She blinked again, and Amity was back, still leveling that same glare before it slowly dwindled. Sighing again, Amity spoke more clearly, "Look, I don't want to be this angry. You're trying, I know, but...you were everything I wanted to be. Now? Now I don't know anymore."

Another uncomfortable silence passed over them as Lilith looked down in shame, wordlessly scrubbing the soap off Selki. "If it means anything, I'd rather be anyone but myself," she began, which seemed to get Amity's attention and, with a nurturing chirp from Selki, Lilith continued, "When I was first inducted into the Coven, I started seeing the faults in Belos' system and reign overtime. But despite my growing concerns, I...I chose to ignore them. In my selfishness, my cowardice, and my obsession with undoing my greatest mistake, I pressed onward, committing countless more mistakes that I'll never be able to undo. At any point, I could have done the right thing, but I didn't until it was too late. And after everything, I didn't know what to do with myself. Even now, I'm still not sure."

Once all the soap was off, Lilith lifted Selki out of the tub and grabbed a towel to start drying her off, "Knowing what that's like, I'm sorry I forced it on you. No one should have their future thrown into such disarray like that. If I could go back in time and undo my mistakes, and believe me, I've been looking into it for a while, then I would. But I can't. I'll learn to live with it. And I'll learn to live with the hate, yours and mine."

For what felt like the millionth time tonight, another wave of silence hit, the only sound coming from Lilith's towel scrubs and Selki's cooing. But then the sound of rustling carpet joined in the air as Lilith looked to see Amity stand and walk around the kiddie pool, grabbing a towel along the way. Kneeling down in front of her, she proceeded to help her in cleaning the baby Selkidomus, who nuzzled into the cloths like they were blankets. Surprised by the act at first, Lilith couldn't help but smile just a bit as she continued. Perhaps she needed new contacts, but she could've sworn she saw the smallest ghost of a smile on Amity's face as well.

"You know, bad as it was, I'd like to think some good came out of the Covention fiasco," Amity commented, making Lilith stop as the Blight girl continued drying Selki off, "After what you did, after I ran off, Luz followed me. She..." the teen's smile grew as a bright blush reached her face, "She comforted me, showed me the kind of magic she was learning. She was kind to me, even though I didn't deserve it," she regained her normal hue, finishing the drying process, "And thanks to her, a lot of things in my life have been changing for the better, even with all the confusing stuff coming hand in hand."

"She certainly seems to have that affect," Lilith commented, having seen how her uncouth, reckless sister had grown more responsible (more so than she ever was), as well as how her son had grown more cheerful and open around her.

"Yeah, she really does," Amity hugged the now dry, chirping Selki before looking up at Lilith with a serious expression, "I'm still mad at you, and I don't know if that'll ever stop. But you're trying to do better, just like me. So, I'd like to try and meet you halfway," she sighed, "If everyone else's willing to give you a chance, I guess it couldn't hurt."

Lilith went wide eyed for a moment, almost unbelieving that Amity would even entertain such an idea. Yet here Amity was, willing to try and let go of her anger for everyone's sake, including her own. A tinge of envy crept its way into her heart, but an even stronger admiration followed as she began to smile at the girl, so much like her yet not at the same time.

Perhaps your fears of turning out like me are unfounded, Amity. You're already a better witch than I ever was, Lilith felt a warmth and, as Selki crawled over to her lap, she nodded. The two witches shook hands on it, and as Lilith was about to stand up and take the baby Selkidomus to bed...

"AW! Nice to see you guys making up!" Luz's voice called out as Lilith and her former student looked to see the human leaning in from the hall. Amity and Lilith found themselves looking to each other and raising an eyebrow. Luz's tone and posture were just far too knowing.

"Luz, were you eavesdropping?" Lilith asked, unable to help the amused smirk on her face.

"Uh...kinda-ish?" Luz looked right at Amity, her face blushing bright.

"How much did you hear?" Amity covered her own, currently crimson face.

"...most of it, maybe?"

Lilith couldn't help but laugh while Amity looked like she wanted to melt into the floor right then and there. With her growing skill and immense talent for Abomination magic, maybe she'd develop the ability someday. Standing up with Selki in tow, the former coven head yawned, "I'd better get Selki to bed so I can get some sleep too."

"Good night," Luz said while Amity simply waved. As she left, she overheard Luz and Amity talk for a bit before the latter said goodbye in a quick tone, followed by the sound of tripping and another, more awkward farewell from Miss Blight as the house's front door closed. It seemed in her haste, she tripped over herself.

Ah, to be young and in love, Lilith mused happily, remembering how Eda and Raine occasionally tripped over themselves around each other. Sure, romance wasn't for her, nor would it ever be, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy watching it unfold for others.

After placing Selki on her makeshift bed, she petted her goodnight and proceeded to her son's room. She gently opened the door to find Nero flopped down, face first, on his bed, snoring louder than Phantom's roars. Smiling, she stepped in and kissed the back of his head goodnight before exiting into the halls for her own room. After everything that happened today, she actually felt...good? She ended the day feeling honestly good about herself.

And that for once, just once, she'd finally managed something right.

Chapter Text

Nero grinned with excitement as the episode played out, watching as Jean-Pierre and got ready to duke it out with the dog, Iggy. It'd been a slow day, so, noticing everyone's boredom, Eda went to one of her supply closets and grabbed a DVD set for a series called JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. After everyone was seated on the couch, she pressed play, and what followed was a pretty fun adventure romp for the past eight episodes that made Nero want to learn more about the series. About the only issue was that not everyone could join, what with Luz being too busy with her glyph research for the past few days.

Speak of the devil... Nero's gaze shifted over to Luz as she entered the room, note and history books in her hands, "Hey Luz! We're watching JoJo's. Wanna join in? Looks like you could use a break."

Luz shook her head and plopped everything down at the foot of a book fort she'd been setting up for the past several minutes, "Sorry, but I'm this close to cracking that new glyph combo. I gotta finish it first." She sat down and pulled out her pencil, "Besides, the David Productions version is better anyway."

From beside him, Nero could see Eda's eyes narrow as she growled, "You traitor."

"Wait, there's another-"

"Shush nephew. Do not listen to the blasphemer," Eda all but hissed as she directed his focus back to the Crystal Ball. Getting the feeling that asking her again would start up some sort of fandom-based shit storm (of which he'd seen too many consume the halls of Hexside), he shrugged and continued watching the episode.

"Mom, are you okay?" Nero asked, looking towards his mother as she held Selki in her lap, "You don't seem to be liking the show."

"Of course I am! Does my excitement not come across?" Lilith gave a smile so strained that Nero swore he almost saw stitching holding it together. Raising an eyebrow, he gave her a look, which became shared by Eda, King, and even Selki. Graff turned into an eye that directed their gaze at Lilith, and even Luz looked up from her notes for a split-second before returning to them, muttering something about getting the right pattern.

"Mom, if you're not having fun, we can watch something else."

"Eh, so long as it ain't your usual boring docu-schlock, I'm game," Eda cleaned out her ear as everyone on the couch (and behind it in Graff's case) turned to her, "What? Not like I'm gonna sugarcoat it."

"No no, you're right, Edalyn, it's just..." Lilith placed Selki down beside her and hugged at her legs, "I know what interests me isn't really something that everyone enjoys, and I won't apologize for liking those things. I always have and always will find joy in them. But I wanted to see if I could enjoy the things you love." She looked to her sister, "You and Nero just get into these things so easily, so I figured I'd put up with it for your sakes since you've done the same for me. Sometimes unwillingly," a grimace overcame her face, "Okay, often unwillingly."

Nero grimaced himself, having gotten a bit too caught up in the show to pay much attention to his mother's discomfort... which reminded him a bit too much of all the past times Mom made him sit through boring ass documentaries and history channels as a "bonding activity". Sighing, he gave Selki a few head pats that she nuzzled into, helping him feel a bit better before pressing pause on the remote, "Sorry Mom. Maybe there's something we can all watch?"

"Yeah," King threw his two Snails in, "Being honest, this isn't really my 'thing' either."

"What, why?" Nero, Eda, and even Lilith asked all at once. Graff formed into a question mark while Selki just looked confused. Luz, meanwhile, was too caught up in her notes to notice. Knowing the kind of stuff King tended to enjoy (and ramble about when he made his "plans"), you'd think this would be up his alley.

"Kinda having a hard time following things, plus I don't get half of what they're referencing," King explained, eyes scrunched behind his bone mask, "So, I get these Stand things and that most of them are based off Hexes Hold'em cards-"

"They're actually based off tarot cards," Luz chimed in without even looking up at them.

"Yeah, whatever. They look like Hexes Hold'em cards, so, as King of Demons, I decree that they're Hexes Hold'em cards!" King stood on the couch and pointed at the ceiling, making Nero chuckle while Selki clapped. Meanwhile, Graff formed a laughing face, Lilith merely groaned, dragging a hand down her own face, and Eda... weirdly grimaced for the smallest second before letting out her own, much smaller chuckle.

That was something that confused Nero, admittedly. Whenever King made his usual off the wall proclamations of taking over the isles (sometimes including plans to conquer Earth like Rita Repulsa... even down to straight up quoting her proclamation), everyone gave their usual reactions. Luz always catered to him and played along with it, with Nero doing the same, even if it was too amusing for him to not laugh. Selki seemed to unironically hang off the little demon's every word, Graff just laughed, and Mom always expressed frustration at his antics. But Aunt Eda? She was a confusing mix of different reactions that seemed almost random.

Sometimes, she'd play along with it like him and Luz, other times she'd roll her eyes, and then came the times where she winced during King's usual hype up session or assembling of his minions. Whenever that happened, she'd immediately shift right back to amused encouraging. It wasn't something that happened too often, but just often enough to be noticeable. Despite that, Nero couldn't figure out why, nor did he really know how to broach the subject to his aunt.

Rather than dwell on it any further, Nero focused back to the conversation, "Either way, you gotta admit the Stands are pretty damn awesome," he sighed wistfully, "Kinda wish I had something like that."

"HA! Tell me about it. What I wouldn't give to have some cool power like that," Eda leaned back, hands behind her head, "I remember watching Dragon Claw Z in theaters way back in my Gory Days-"

"Oh Titan, not this again," Lilith groaned once more.

"-and they had some badass transformations. Always wanted to have something like that," Eda slumped back in her seat, "Instead I got stuck with the cur-" her eyes went wide as she cut herself off and everyone winced. Slowly, their eyes turned over to Mom, who looked like a "deer in the headlights", as Luz once put it. Coughing into her fist, Aunt Eda muttered, "Uh... never mind, moving on."

King was the first to recover, "Yeah, those are pretty awesome, but I wasn't getting into the rest of it. Think what's really making it hard to follow is everyone speaking some weird gibberish."

"Japanese. And it's because you're watching the sub version," Luz helpfully pointed out as she continued with her notes. Nero nodded, having wondered what the language was called.

"Look, I'd rather watch something I don't have to learn another language to follow," King huffed.

"Personally, I don't really mind. I mean, that's what the subtitles are there to help with," Nero gave his two snails.

Lilith nodded in agreement, "I tend to prefer them even when I can understand what they're saying."

"I'm fine with whatever. Besides, I don't even need the subtitles to understand the characters," Eda added, everyone looking at her again in surprise. Blinking she gave them a raised eyebrow, "What? You don't become a con artist in two dimensions and not pick up a few languages here and there. It's helped me scam plenty of crime bosses and their cronies over the years," She sighed wistfully and continued to reminisce, "Had plenty of fun messing with those Mad Gear Gang schmucks back in Metro, and that's without getting into all the black-market deals I screwed over and swindled during those days. Wonder if the bounty that Irving guy put on me is still active."

As Aunt Eda hummed, she got a little too lost in the past, leaving everyone to look at each other before Mom coughed, "EHEM! Sister, you were saying?"

Eda blinked, "Huh? Oh, right! Anyway, the mafia, cartel, and yakuza? They all want my head and none of them came close!"

Yup. Definitely gonna ask Aunt Eda about all of that later, Nero made a mental note. Besides getting more curious about Earth (he'd been meaning to ask Luz, but never found the time), his aunt's adventures sounded like a blast and a half. Having seen that world once back at the Conformatorium, he couldn't help but feel drawn to it. Why? He didn't know, but maybe visiting that world would help him understand.

"BAH! Who cares about that junk? I just wanna watch something fun, and this," he gestured to the still paused Crystal Ball, "Isn't fun for me."

"Then how about we watch something you'd like," Nero glanced over at his mother, "As long as it's something we can all enjoy, that'd be enough."

Selki and Graff seemed receptive to the idea while King looked contemplative. Mom gave him a thankful nod, with Eda standing and stretching, "Thanks, but no thanks. I'm beat. Think I'll hit the shower and nap for a day." She walked out, waving as she left into the halls, "You girls enjoy yourselves!"

As soon as Eda's footsteps faded from their ears, King snapped his clawed fingers, "I got it!" and ran down the opposite hallways. The sound of rummaging, shattering glass, and shrieking rats could be heard before King finally emerged with a set of DVDs, "I got really into this series when Eda brought it from Earth. Was on the Season 4 finale, so we'll start from there."

He placed the DVDs on the table, letting everyone still on the couch look them over. "This is a kid's show about unicorns?" Nero took the DVD out of the case, "Man, Earth kids sound pretty hardcore."

"Honestly, I don't know what to think of humans if they're willing to allow children around those savages," Mom bristled, clearly remembering that one carnival trip from when Nero was seven. He saw the unicorns at an enclosure and snuck off to try and feed them. Instead, he got snarled at, with one of them biting down on his right arm and pulling him in for what was a pretty insane ride through. It didn't hurt, given how durable the Devil Bringer was, and most of it was actually pretty fun.

Well, except for the part where the unicorn started attacking everyone while he held on for dear life. Or when a fairy flew right into his face and tried biting his nose off, to which he got payback by eating it whole (tasted like shit). Or the part where Mom had to pay a fine for murdering the unicorn in cold blood after rescuing him, but that was beside the point.

"Actually, the show's pretty family friendly," Luz said, looking up from her notes and smiling at them, "Believe me, it gave me the wrong idea on what unicorns would be like here." She shuddered, muttering something about "the carnival" and a "tent of tiny terrors" before focusing back to her glyph studies, "Either way, I think you guys will like it."

"I don't know..." Nero handed King the DVD, not sure what to make of it as the little guy plugged it into the system, the Crystal Ball flashing the episode selection screen.

"Come on! We watched what you, Graff, and Eda wanted, now it's my turn!" King impudently stomped his foot on the table, which was adorable and goofy enough to draw giggles from everyone, with Selki giving her claps of agreement.

Nero looked to his mother, wanting to give her an out if she wasn't up for it. Now knowing how much of a slog JoJo's was for her, he didn't know if this would be similar. Much to his surprise, she nodded, "I'll admit, I'm rather curious."

Looking over to Graff, they shifted to a thumbs up. With Selki still clapping, that was all the confirmation needed as Nero nodded to King, "Alright, oh fearsome 'King of Demons', play away."

With a toothy grin, King preened and grabbed the remote, clicking it to let the episode begin.

"HOLY FUCK!" Nero found himself muttering alongside his mother as the two watched the on-screen battle, which currently involved an empowered alicorn blasting so much magic at a demonic centaur that it resulted in a cataclysm of energy.

Damn, human kids really are hardcore, Nero was at the edge of his seat watching the bout unfold as King cheered to his left, Gotta look into the rest of this series later.

Selki, however, looked almost afraid while she watched, clinging to Lilith, who hugged back, yet was screaming in joy as the alicorn blasted the centaur in the face, "Yes! YES! Incinerate that bastard, Twilight! Tear off his horns and gouge out his eyes! SHOW HIM NO MERCY! AHAHAHA!"

... okay, that's... concerning... Nero side eyed his mother as she stared at Tirek with malicious, borderline sadistic intent. It was almost like she saw something or someone in the centaur and wanted to see him suffer in place of whomever she was thinking about. And I think I have a good idea who that is, Nero just barely managed to avoid shuddering at the thought of that masked freak, Much as I'd like to pound him into the dirt too, I... I don't think I'd enjoy it as much as Mom clearly would. Besides, not sure if I'm ready to be anywhere near that fucker again just yet.

But he was gonna have to face him eventually...

"Hey, could you guys maybe tone it down just a little bit?" Luz called from where she was sitting, "I mean, I know I can get more than a little excited with Good Witch Azura films, but I'm kinda sorta still trying to crack the code on this new glyph so could you please lower the volume juuuust a bit?"

"Sorry," Everyone said, Graff shifting to the word as Nero lowered the volume. They continued to watch the final battle with a quieter enjoyment, though King was still cheering and hollering, either unable to tone himself down or flat out refusing to do so. "Uh, King..." Nero poked the little demon's shoulder, "Remember what Luz said?"

"Oh please, the King of Demons silences himself for no one! Not even Luz!" King decreed before blinking, backpedaling, and looking over to the human in question apologetically, "Uh, no offense, Luz."

"None taken, and it's fine, you little demon king you!" Luz gushed a bit before returning to her studies, effectively giving King a free pass to be as loud as she wanted. At the same time, though, she did whip out a pair of headphones right at the climax of the fight, it being another cataclysm caused by a clash of beams. Good thing she did, since King went full ham again like the demon king he thought he was.

"You really get into this, don't you?" Nero asked, even though it was obvious. Not that he was against it, given his own investment.

"Yup!" King chirped before preening, "Y'know, I do intend to model my eventual rule and conquest after this show."

"Oh really?" Nero chuckled and rolled his eyes, seeing his mother do the same thing, only in annoyance.

King rubbed his claws together in an adorably sinister fashion, "Yes, and once I regain my rightful place as the King of Demons, I'll rule the Circle of Limbo, loved and adored by all. Just like Princess Celestia!"

Nero almost sputtered out laughing had he not clamped his mouth shut. The whole idea was just too absurd for him not to. Still, he managed to swallow it down and affectionately rubbed the top of King's skull, "Whatever you say, little guy."

While King laughed as the episode ended, Nero could see his mother giving him admonishing look from the corner of his eye. Turning fully to her, she had an expression on her face that just screamed, 'Why are you encouraging this?' In response, Nero could only give her a shrug. He just couldn't help but find it a little funny. Mom seemed to understand his non-verbal response, giving an audible sigh as she clicked off the Crystal Ball.

"Well, since that's done," Lilith put Selki down on the floor and stood up, stretching, "I think I'll work with Luz on developing my own glyph combinations." She started heading for the halls to gather supplies from her room, "Perhaps I can come up with something new as well."

"You do that, I'm gonna assemble my minions for tactical training," King jumped off the couch and turned to the baby Selkidomus. "You and Graff wanna join? I can appoint you two my First and Second Lieutenants." Selki happily clapped as Graff morphed into a smiling face that glided along the walls, following King as he walked out, "Great! Now, to properly serve my army, you'll need to stamp out any possible rebellion. Now, I don't want to point fingers, but François' been getting-"

King's voice became muffled as he, Selki, and Graff left, likely to gather said "minions" from his own room. Nero now alone in the living room, a highly focused Luz as his only company, he was left wondering on what to do now. At first, he thought about working with his mom and Luz with their glyph studies, but then a loud rumbling echoed from his stomach. Deciding to get a snack before doing anything else, he made a bee line for the kitchen and began rummaging through the fridge.

"Let's see, what do we have here..." Nero saw a frozen meal at the forefront of the fridge's contents. With stomach growling again, he pulled it out and took it to the table, removing his blue overcoat and placing it on the seat as he sat down. He formed a Spell Circle and tapped the food, enveloping it in heat and quickly cooking it. Licking his lips, he scarfed it down just a bit too fast, almost choking as a result. Just as quickly, he got up towards the sink, after a few coughs, poured himself a glass of water to swallow everything down. With a relaxed sigh, he put the glass away, stared out the kitchen window-

"Hiya Nero! HOOT!"

-and immediately regretted it.

... what the fuck? Nero blinked a few times, trying to comprehend what he was looking at. At first, he thought he was seeing things, but no, it was actually Hooty with his actual fucking skin removed, leaving nothing but a talking, freaky skeleton staring back at him. Blinking a few more times (slower than previously), Nero panicked, Yup, it's still there even when I'm not looking at it.

Not wanting to deal with that for the rest of the day, he formed another Spell Circle with his left hand, telekinetically pulling a container of bleach from beneath the kitchen sink. Aside from making a good surface and pipe cleaner, it also doubled as a nifty way to forget something you saw from just a couple minutes prior. Sure, it often resulted in grogginess and possible nausea for about a couple hours from what he'd heard, hence why Mom never let him anywhere near it, but Mom wasn't here right now, so...

"Bottoms up!" Nero poured himself half a cup and took a swig of it. He didn't feel any different, wondering if it even worked. He picked up the container to read if he'd used it right, but the words looked like a blurry, jumbled mess and-why was everything getting... fuzzy.

"Whoah..." Nero slurred out as he stumbled across the room, bumping into a few things as clattering sounds echoed across the cavern-like kitchen. He managed to stand up and open the door, plopping face first into the grass, which felt especially ticklish today. "Heh," Nero giggled, muffled by the now neon grass, "The ground's funny."

"Tell me about it!" Hooty's voice sounded weirdly distorted. Looking up, he saw the house demon, whose skin was now pink with swan wings on his sides.

Wait, did he have skin before or-

"Boy, Nero, you don't look so good. HOOT!"

Nero struggled to get up, "I'm... fine... Hoots..." he stumbled back, falling flat on his ass, "I think I just..." he yawned, "Need nap."

"I can help with that!" Hooty chirped and wrapped himself around Nero, lifting him up and carrying him at the speed of light. At least, Nero assumed so, since there was a blinding amount of light everywhere as the ground vanished entirely. An even brighter light showed up in front of him, becoming bigger and bigger until it enveloped all surroundings as he covered his eyes. When he uncovered them, he blinked to adjust, seeing that he was now in a blank white room with a bathtub in the center.

"You can sleep here. I like to use this room to hide from the fact that nobody likes me. HOOT!" Hooty said in an infectiously cheerful voice.

"Thanks Hoots," Nero mumbled as he was plopped into the tub, stretching and yawning, "You're a... a good friend."

"Daw! Thanks Nero! Now get lots of rest!" Hooty stretched away, letting Nero curl up and place his head down on his hands, drifting away to the world of sleep.

"Ugh... five more minutes Mom," Nero groaned, trying desperately to sleep, but he found that hard to accomplish. There was so much background noise, like the billowing winds, the hum of a rickety sounding engine, and vibrations that made it feel like he was floating midair. He didn't want to acknowledge any of that right now, only wanting to nurse his headache and sick stomach with a good night's rest-

"Oh, didn't know you were back there."

What? At the sound of his aunt's voice, Nero forced himself awake, struggling to sit up This ended up being a mistake, as his stomach felt like there was acid in it, making bile rise in his throat. Throwing his head over the edge of the tub, he let out the contents of his stomach down into the Boiling Sea below and... wait...

"... what the fuck?" Nero blinked and rubbed at his eyes, his vision clearing up to witness that, yes, the Boiling Sea were far below them and that he was currently in Aunt Eda's flying bathtub headed for Titan knows where while the sun had mostly set over the horizon. With wide eyes, he yelped and jumped back to the other end of the tub, now fully awake as he sat up, "What's going on? How'd I get here? Where are we going!? Why-"

"In order, we're flying over the Boiling Sea, obviously, I don't know how you got here, and we're going to the uncharted island where I found King," Eda answered his questions in order without missing a beat. She didn't even bother looking back at him, too laser focused on piloting to... King's Island?

"What do you mean by that last bit?" Nero asked, getting a grunt from his aunt in response.

"Nero, not now! I'll... I'll tell you later."

Narrowing his eyes from how familiar his aunt was acting, Nero pressed, "Eda, seriously, what's going on?"

"I said I'll tell you later! Right now, I have to get there before he does and finds out-" She slammed a hand over her mouth, briefly looking back at him with that exact same worried expression he had whenever lying to Mom. At the sight, he softened his glare and sighed, despite the frustration.

"Aunt Eda..."

Now it was Eda's turn to sigh, "Fine! Something tells me you're all gonna find out either way, but what I'm about to say, King doesn't hear a word from you. I'll tell him. He... he deserves that much. Got it?" Nero nodded, to which Eda turned her focus back to piloting as she explained, "It was eight years ago when I was hiding from coven patrols on the seas. I ended up stumbling on an island that just... popped right out of the mists. The whole place left me feeling uneasy, but I needed shelter from the boiling rain and the tower there was a good spot."

Realizing where this was going, Nero asked, "And that's where you found King?"

His aunt nodded, "Found him stacking rocks in a large room. At first, I thought he was just a stray dog, so when we were attacked by this weird polymorphic golem looking thing, I grabbed him and flew out of there," she looked back and reached into her hair, pulling out a small horn, "He ended up losing this to it."

"Huh," Nero picked himself up and gently grabbed the horn from Eda's hand, the texture feeling exactly like King's skull, "Why didn't you give it back?"

Eda's eyes turned guilty at that, "I couldn't. Not after what happened." She faced forward towards the seas again, "When I brought him back home, I was gonna just have him for a pet because... well, I didn't know he wasn't some wild animal then. Then I made a joke about him being 'a king amongst his subjects' and learned he could talk." His aunt let out a low, wistful, almost happy chuckle as she smiled back at him, "That ended up being his first word, you know? 'King'."

At the sight, Nero smiled slightly too, though it was marred by a sinking feeling, "So, that's why King acts like he's some ex-demonic dictator? Because you lied to him?"

She winced, almost making him regret asking, but she relented, "Yeah, I... it wasn't meant to be a lie. I was just telling him fun stories about kings, conquerors, armies and so on. But when he started taking them seriously and thinking that's where he came from, I played along with it. He was finally happy and I didn't want to ruin it for him." His aunt's tone grew more and more somber the longer she spoke. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she muttered, "I'm a complete piece of shit for that, aren't I?"

Nero opened his mouth, trying to find the words, but nothing came. The whole thing felt almost too similar to him and Lilith, what with both of them hiding things out of guilt and fear. Sure, Aunt Eda's was a lot more one-sided, but it was making him wonder if this kind of thing was hereditary in their family. Knowing what that was like, you'd think he'd have a clue on what to say and do here, but he just... didn't. Even then, that didn't matter right now. His aunt, his family, needed a hand in this.

"Look, I'm not sure what you want me to say here. Still kinda going through my own shit with Mom when it comes to this kind of thing," Nero stood up, all grogginess gone as he kept his balance and got close to his aunt, "But it doesn't sound like an easy thing to be in, and I'm not sure if it's supposed to be. Maybe it wasn't right, but I don't know what I'd do if I was in your shoes." He held out King's horn to her, "I'd like to think you did what you could, if that counts for anything."

Eda didn't say anything, only having a worried, almost terrified look on her face as she wordlessly took the horn back and held it in her hand. She stared at it for a few seconds longer before heading back to piloting. Nero reached out, concerned what he said just made things worse, but relented just before his reptilian hand touched her shoulder. If he really did make things worse, he didn't want to risk doubling his aunt's turmoil.

Sighing, Nero sat down, resting his back against the tub's side. He kept himself just a few inches apart from his aunt, just in case she needed him for anything. But as the flight continued for Titan knew how long, he felt his worries bubble up even more, not just for his aunt, but for King. Telling and learning the truth wasn't easy, something Nero found out the hard way. What would King think of himself, of all of them, when he was told? Nero wanted to think he'd be alright, but...

"Get in gear, kid, we're here," Eda said as Nero picked himself up, seeing the island in the distance. A thick cloud of mist far below them dispersed around it, yet remained close, as if willingly revealing the place. It was surrounded by an abnormally smooth, almost cylindrical rock formation that opened to reveal the island itself, which was rather small and covered in a thick forest. But what truly stood out about it was the tower at its center, moonlight beautifully shimmering off the stone structure.

"This is where King was born?" Nero asked, amazed as they landed at the shore and jumped out, Eda strapping on a sash of potion bombs.

"Maybe," Eda stepped ahead of him and surveyed the area, "It's where I found him, at least," she stared down at the ground and knelt, Nero following her gaze to notice the mishmash of footprints, all belonging to Luz, Lilith, and King. "Shit, looks like they're way ahead," His aunt stood up, staring at the tower, "Well, only one place they could've gone. And if that thing's still there..." she shook her head, "Follow me!"

Nero nodded and followed after Eda, both of them running through the woods at equal pace. As he did, the younger Clawthorne reached a hand to his shoulder, intent on having Red Queen at the ready, only to pause when he felt nothing. Blinking, he stopped and looked at his back, only now realizing he didn't have either his blade or the coat he wore over his Bad Girl Coven shirt. A few more memories came in, making him realize he left it at home as he slapped his forehead.

"Here," He opened his eyes to see his aunt handing him a few potion bombs, "I know you still have your magic and that arm, but it never hurts to have backup options."

Looking down at the bombs, he gave a thankful smile that slowly shifted into a smirk, "Think you can manage without them, old timer?"

"Ha! You know I can, brat," Eda smirked back as the two started running for the tower, Nero forming a spell circle and manifesting an ice replicant of Red Queen (he opted on calling it Ice Queen) to heft over his shoulder. No Exceed and it'd only last a few hits by his estimate, but he'd make them count before switching things up. Sifting through countless trees, branches, and bushes, they eventually made it to the tower entrance, which looked like a giant keyhole with rubble blocking a good chunk of it, though enough was still clear for them to get in. Before they could take another step, however, the sound of ominous chirping and cricking echoes from within the tower alongside a series of loud footsteps.

"Oh no," Nero and Eda muttered at the same time before turning to each other and nodding. The two ran to the top of the rubble pile blocking the entrance to see Luz, King, and Mom (who had a birdhouse looking backpack on) facing down an assailant with staves in hand. Nero couldn't make out all the details, but whatever this thing was, it seemed to be made of jagged stone and sludge that reminded him a little too much of what the Emperor used. As it shifted its hand into an axe to bring down on his family, he and Eda threw a pair of potion bombs at its back, knocking the creature down.

"All of you, get out of here now!" Eda yelled as she and Nero slid down, surrounding it from both sides with the Owl Lady having its full attention.

"We'll hold it off!" Nero added as he charged at it with Ice Queen, delivering a downward slash while its back was turned to him.

"Wait, we can fight it together!" Luz shouted, the tower guardian facing Nero and coming down on him with an axe strike. Nero blocked it with Ice Queen, the blade cracking from the force of the blow as Eda threw a pair of bombs at his current foe. While staggered, the creature remained undeterred and kept its focus on Nero, though the look in its glowing blue eyes seemed almost analytic. But before he could make a move, something shifted in its demeanor as it ceased the attack.

"Huh?" Nero stood tall and watched as the thing backed away, keeping its eyes focused on him the entire time. Suddenly, it leapt to the ceiling and crawled along the surface, disappearing from sight, the echo of its cricks and chirps not far behind. As everyone came close, watching where it left, Nero could only mutter, "What just happened?"

"I... I honestly don't know. It never did that before," Eda replied, tearing her gaze from where the creature had gone.

As Nero dispersed Ice Queen, his mom hovered near him with Hooty's head coming out of her backpack. "Are you injured, my little raven?" She asked, wincing slightly, "I... sorry if it's a bother. Still working on that habit."

"No, it's fine. Besides, bastard ran off before it could really do anything," He smiled back to put her at ease. Good to know that both of them were working on their old habits.

"Good," Lilith sighed in relief and turned to her sister, "Edalyn, what was that thing?"

Eda shrugged, "Not sure. All I know is it attacked me the last time I came here, though thankfully it can't seem to leave the tower."

"Sounds like some kind of guardian. It must be protecting this place against intruders," Luz hummed, still holding Eda's staff close as King hopped off her shoulder, confusion evident in his eyes.

"That doesn't make any sense. It's my castle. How could we be intruders?"

"Uh..." Luz's face scrunched up as a nervous sweat fell from her brow, Nero and Eda's own faces mirroring hers. While Lilith and Hooty looked at them all worriedly, King became downright hurt.

"Y-You guys don't believe this is my castle, do you?

"I... I, uh..." Luz stammered but couldn't get any words out.

"But it is! I know it is! You gotta believe me!"

"King," Eda got their attention and walked up to the little demon, kneeling down to him, "Listen, there's... there's something I never told you..."

And so, Eda began to tell King everything: How she found stumbled upon this place to hide from the coven. How she found him in the tower, playing with rocks. How the stone guardian attacked them, and she grabbed him in retreat. How his horn broke when the guardian's arrow hit him. And finally, she explained how his "demon king" persona was solely from stories she'd told him growing up, and how she played along because it made him happy to believe it.

Throughout it all, Eda had a constant look of regret on her face, with his own, his mom's, Hooty's, and Luz's faces mirroring it the longer she went on. By the end, King looked to be on the verge of tears, hurt mixed with anger as he yelled, "Y-You're lying!" Rather than answer, Eda wordlessly reached into her hair and pulled out the horn, getting a gasp from King before he nervously took it into his claws. He looked at it contemplatively for several seconds, eyes slowly going wide as he tossed it away, "Get that thing away from me! It's messing with my head!"

"King, it's gonna be okay," Luz knelt down, reaching out to him before refraining as he backed up.

"Y-You're all just making fun of me again, right? R-Right? Please tell me you're making fun of me!" King begged, but none of them said anything. Nero wasn't sure if they could say anything. "N-No. Nonononono! I-It's a lie! It's just gotta be a lie!" The little demon clutched at his skull, sniffling as tears fell down his cheeks, "Nonononono!"

His own heart aching at the sight, Nero walked up and tried to reach out too, "King, we're sorry, we-"

Before he could get another word out, his hand was shoved aside as King ran deeper into the tower, his anguished wails echoing throughout.

"KING!" All of them shouted, but it was too late. He was gone and lost from them now. Nero looked at his family, and like before, they all had the same worry and self-loathing in their eyes. He felt like punching himself in the face now; all those times he laughed at King's little story just because he thought it was funny, and it helped lead to this.

What did I do?

"I messed up, didn't I?" Eda asked, now sounding like she was on the verge of crying. Nero didn't see any fall, but with the way her eyes shimmered, she was pretty damn close, "I… I should've told him sooner."

"I don't know if that would've worked, sister," Mom knelt down, gently placing a hand on Eda's shoulder, "I fear that King might've been too set in his narrative by then. I'd know a thing or two about that." She sighed, severing her gaze, "I kept denouncing his story, made him desperate to prove it true, and look where that led us. I won't say you did the right thing. I… I honestly have no idea what the right thing even is in this case, but I think you went with the best option you had available."

Ignoring the sense of deja vu for the moment, Nero knelt down to meet his aunt at eye level, "And if it means anything, you're not the only one who fucked up." He looked down at his right hand, "I always laughed at him when he went on about it. Felt like it was in good fun and all that shit. Now I feel like all I did was just make fun of him, and all over something make believe."

"And all I did was go along with it," All eyes turned to Luz as her grip on Eda's staff tightened, "I… I knew it was a lie too. He trusted me to believe in him and I let him down," she looked to the floor, tears building up, "I just saw how happy it made him and didn't want to hurt his feelings."

"This is… IT'S JUST SO SAAAD!" Hooty wailed, his own tears pouring out as he stretched out and limply hung from Lilith's shoulder. Nero watched as his mom comforted the house demon while Eda let out a light, mirthless chuckle.

"Guess we're all eating shit together on that, huh?" Eda stood up and steadied herself, Lilith and Nero standing up in kind, "Let's worry about that later. Right now, we need to find King." Nero, his mother, and Hooty nodded as she continued, "I don't know the layout of this place, but he couldn't have gotten past the ground floor. We'll stay in a group and look for him that way."

"Wouldn't it be faster if we split up?" Nero asked, having seen it in enough mystery shows to know that was usually the go-to strategy for covering more ground.

"Kid, that thing's still out there. We split, that'll let it pick us off one-by-one," Eda explained, "Besides, for some reason, it really doesn't want to be near you. You're basically gonna be our repellent."

"An admittedly crude reason, but I can accept the logic in it," Lilith gave her sister a light glare, clearly not happy with the idea of using her son as "repellent".

"Fair enough," Nero shrugged as the group started moving, but not before he turned back and realized Luz hadn't moved from her spot, "Luz, you coming?"

"Y-Yeah!" Luz wiped her eyes and speed walked over to them as she, Eda, and Lilith activated a trio of Light Glyphs to illuminate the path ahead. Nero, despite the natural light emitted by the Devil Bringer, crafted a spell circle and summoned his own light orb, its blue glowing as bright as their yellow. As they searched, Nero looked to Luz, who kept her eyes glued to the floor.

"Hey, we'll find him," Nero reassured her.

"I hope so," Luz tore her gaze from the ground, looking ahead sorrowfully, "I can't imagine what he's going through right now."

He huffed to himself as he crawled deeper into the small crevice within the wall. He couldn't cry anymore, having run out of tears somewhere between running and burying himself into this place. Through it all, he tried to convince himself that it was all just another one of Eda's pranks, that she was just lying for a quick laugh. But those memories he got from that horn, his horn, told another story. The very idea that this was all some joke grew more impossible to believe, as while Eda may have loved her pranks, she'd never do something so cruel to him.

But she did. She lied to me. They all lied to me! King curled into a ball, breath hitching at his own name. Could he even call himself that anymore? He'd always called himself that, believing it was his birthright as "King of Demons", but it was just another lie Eda told him. He wasn't king of anything. He was just a nobody from a nothing island in the middle of nowhere that everyone lied to.

And I was too caught up in the fantasy to realize it! He clutched his head and let the tears fall. He was mad at everyone, but especially himself for never looking past his own reflection. What am I going to do now!? He wiped his eyes, Might as well just live out the rest of my life in this stupid hole like the stupid nobody idiot I am.

Upon that though, however, he felt a light shine on him and removed his hand from his eyes, seeing a blue glow envelop the hole he was in. Sighing, he realized the others found him, "Look, guys, I'm not in the mood right now. Please just leave me alo-" He turned, only to see that it wasn't Eda or Luz or Lilith or Nero. No, it was that thing from before, cricking and chirping as he backed further into the crevice, "AH! W-Whatever you are, s-stay back! I'm warning you!"

As his back hit the wall, he closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable, only to be met with nothing. Nervously opening one eye, he was surprised to see that the blue glow was gone, but the tower guardian's feet could still be seen… backing away from the hole? Curiosity briefly overriding his turmoil and self-preservation, he crawled out of the crevice and found himself looking up at the guardian, who tilted its head looking down at him.

"Great, guess I'm so much of a nobody that you don't even want to kill me anymore," He sat down right next to the crevice entrance, seeing no further need to hide, "That's fine. I'm getting used to being a nobody." He didn't get any response from the guardian, which he expected as he let out a huff, "Don't suppose you'd want to sit down and talk, huh?"

Much to his shock, the guardian actually sat down next to him, mimicking his sitting position down to the thumbs twiddling on its knees. Blinking, he muttered, "Ooookay then, I guess I'm doing this now…" Clearing his throat, he began, "So… I… I don't know who or what I'm supposed to be. I thought I did, but now I don't and everything's just a hot mess," His tears started to build up again, "I don't even know why I wanted to be King of Demons in the first place! Why!? What was I gonna get out of it anyway!?"

Why did he want to be a king? Watching and learning about all those monarchs from stories, the same ones he deluded himself into believing he was part of, they seemed to have everything he ever wanted. They were powerful, they were respected, and they were loved. Was that all there was to it? On some level, it felt like he still wanted those things, but did that mean he had to be a king to get them?

I honestly don't know anymore.

"King! Where are you!?"

He looked up as he heard his… his name and saw a series of lights shine from around the corner. Not even having the energy to hide, he watched as everyone rounded it and turned to see him. All of them seemed happy at first, but then their faces turned to shock and anger. He couldn't help but back up in confusion at the sudden turn, only for him to bump into the guardian, who picked him up and shifted its other arm into a blade. Just as quickly, he realized what set everyone off.

Oh, right.

"You!" Nero yelled as everyone stepped forward with staffs, glyphs, and fireballs, "Let him go, NOW!"

Much to everyone's shock, the guardian tilted its head in contemplation for a few seconds before obeying Nero's demand, gently putting him down. That left everyone blinking as Eda quickly ran up, grabbed him, and pulled him away from it.

"Uh… go away?" Luz ordered in a testing tone. Unlike before, the guardian didn't do anything. Nervously, she walked up and waved her hand in front of its stone, boomerang shaped face, getting no reaction. "Huh, looks like it stopped. I think we're safe now," Luz turned to him and knelt down, "Are you okay, King?"

He looked away, unable to stare anyone in the face, "No. I'm not. I'm not okay, I'm not a king, I'm not… I'm nobody."

"But you are, and we love that somebody very much, right guys?" Luz asked the others, getting affirmative responses, "I'm sorry I lied to you about what I believed."

"It's fine, I honestly don't think I can even be mad about that anymore," He kicked a random rock away, "I was the one dumb enough to believe it."

"No," This time, Eda knelt down and gently held his shoulders, looking him in the eye, "King, no one's to blame for that but me. I lied to you first, gave you that fantasy, and didn't even try to stop it. I was too much of a coward to be honest with you," she turned her head and stared at the ground, "I'm sorry King. I'm so, so sorry."

He was taken aback by the clear sincerity and warmth in her voice, despite how sad she was. Maybe there was a small part of him that was still mad about it, but it kept getting smaller, and he didn't even know what to do with it, or if he wanted to do anything with it to begin with. So instead, he did the one thing he knew he wanted to do.

"Boop!" He poked Eda's cheek, surprising her as she looked to him, "You're forgiven. Just don't keep anymore secrets from me," He held out his pinky claw, "Promise?"

Eda's heterochromic eyes went wide for a second before a warm, tender smile made its way onto her face. She held out her own pinky, "Only truths. I promise," and shook his, but the minute she let go, he leapt up, arms around her neck, and hugged her. Eda's body went rigid at the contact, but just as quickly softened as she embraced him, a gentle hand rubbing at his back. For several more seconds, they remained like that until he finally let go, Eda once more smiling at him, "Feeling better, King?"

King smiled back, "Yeah, I feel a little better. I think I'm ready to go home now."

Eda nodded and happily stood up, allowing King to lead the group forward as they started for the tower exit. He looked back at everyone, seeing them all still concerned for him, but alright. Though he couldn't help but wince a bit as the guardian followed behind them. None of its movements were threatening, but that didn't stop Nero from constantly glaring at it most of the trek, right down to giving it an "I'm watching you" gesture.

It wasn't long before they were back in the central room, the rock figures he'd deluded himself into believing to be his army still there. Right now though, King didn't want to think about that. If he did, he'd probably spiral and get worse. But amidst his efforts to not dwell on it, Luz chimed in from behind, "Wait, something isn't right."

Everyone looked to Luz, who was gazing at the ceiling. Nero asked, "What do you mean?"

Luz pointed up to the sky hole from before, still blocked by rocks like usual, "King, didn't you say something about how you fell from a great height?"

King pondered for a second, Yeah, I did say that. Probably just something else I made myself believe. He looked up to Luz, "Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Maybe that's where you fell from?" Luz ran over to the murals from before, "You said something about a roar from up in that shaft. Not to mention there's these!"

She gestured to the one depicting a larger version of what looked like him, then she ran and pointed to the second one depicting the same figure fighting an even larger, partially obscured demonic figure as comets and stars hung over them. And that was before she ran to the final broken, but still mostly intact mural: The bone-masked beast holding his spear in one hand, the other joined with an equally large, insectoid-looking demon with downward facing horns that held a massive, curved, single-edged crimson blade. Upon seeing them, Nero ran his right hand over each one in curiosity, his eyes lingering on the final one especially.

"If you came from this tower, then maybe there's a clue at the top about your real past! Even if you weren't some demon king, I don't think anyone would put these murals here if this place wasn't something, or for someone, important."

King stared up at the blocked sky hole, feeling this sense of hope, but then he huffed, just as quickly snuffing it himself. "I don't know Luz, I wouldn't get my hopes up," He sat, playing with a pebble on the ground, "What if we go up there and find out I really am just some nobody?"

Hearing steps, he saw Nero kneel down next to him, "And? Being a nobody doesn't sound that bad."

"Easy for you to say," King grumbled, feeling this tinge of bitter envy that he tried to swallow. Getting a look from Nero, he sighed, "Look at you! You're big and strong, you've got a mom by your side even if she's a bit of a wacko," He went wide eyed for a second and glanced over at the woman in question, "Uh, no offense, Lilith."

"None taken," She answered casually.

"And you're the grandkid of this Sparda guy!" King pointed at the guardian, who motionlessly watched the conversation, "Then there's this thing! It listens to you and does whatever you say. If it's guarding this place, maybe the tower has more to do with you and Sparda than it does with me." He stood up, better meeting Nero's eyes, "So if it's better to be a nobody, what would you know about that?"

King didn't mean for it to sound accusatory, but with the hurt look in Nero's eyes and how he looked away, it definitely came across as such. He balked and reached out to apologize, but before he could, Nero spoke, "King, I honestly don't have any clue what being related to this Sparda guy even means. Not like my deadbeat of an old man was ever around to tell me a thing about it." King noticed Lilith wince out from the corner of his eye, but kept that to himself as Nero continued, "And with all the shit in my life going on because of that… I don't know, sometimes I feel like I'd rather not be a Sparda at all."

Suddenly, Nero smiled, "Besides, you're not some nobody no matter where you came from. You had Luz, Eda and Hooty," he gestured to the three, who smiled back, before standing up and standing beside Lilith, "And you have me and Mom now too. If it means anything, you're somebody to us."

Not knowing what to say, King looked between them all, getting nothing but encouragement from everyone. Still uncertain, but reassured nonetheless, he took a deep breathe, "Alright, let's head on up there." Now feeling lighter than before, he walked to the rocks he'd posed on before to get a better look at the sky hole, "So, how exactly are we gonna-"

"I got this," Nero stepped forward and held out his left hand, forming a finger gun as he spun a spell circle. Once formed, closed one of his eyes and yelled, "Bang!" The blue flame shot out, impacting the rocks with an explosion that shook the entire tower. Dust and stone cleared away, revealing the path to the top as Nero blew the smoke off his fingers, "Going up, anyone?"

"… showoff," King muttered, even though he thought it was cool. Eda chuckled and picked him up to her shoulder while Luz returned her staff. Nero, on the other hand, got behind his mother on her staff as all of them flew up the shaft, the guardian still following behind.

"My little raven, if this thing obeys your commands, could you perhaps order it to stop following us?" Lilith asked as wind blew in everyone's ears, "It's really starting to freak me out."

"Yeah, I'd prefer if we discovered something without tall, dark, and ominous looming over us," Eda added, holding King close so he didn't fall. Not that he ever did, anyway.

"Sure," Nero looked back at the still following guardian, "Hey stone head! Could you leave us alone!?" Shockingly, the guardian didn't listen and kept following them at the same pace, "Ugh, the one thing it won't listen to me on."

"It was worth a shot," Luz said before focusing her gaze upward, "Besides, it looks like we're here anyway."

True to her word, they reached the end of the shaft and exited into a small room. Landing, Light Glyphs and Nero's arm illuminated their surroundings, revealing an empty room filled with cobwebs, bronze lining, and floor tiles that seemed to have been broken and chipped. King's eyes landed on a closed doorway, the only other thing in the room with them. He walked up to it, something about it feeling almost… familiar…

With wide eyes, he turned to everyone and pointed at it, "Guys, guys! I know this door!"

"That's great!" Luz ran up, joined immediately by everyone else, guardian included, "So, you gonna open it?"

"I… I don't know-" He wanted to say "how", but something gnawed inside him, telling him he did know how. Yet the more he wanted to open the door, the more he hesitated. "I-I'm scared," King looked down at his paws, "What if I don't like what I learn? What if there's nothing to learn? I know I shouldn't keep going on about this whole thing, but..."

He stood there for what felt like forever, but then felt a pair of hands, both of which felt distinct yet familiar, on his small shoulders. Turning, he saw Luz and Eda giving him an almost sisterly and maternal gaze respectively. He'd seen it a lot, been subject to it a lot, but something inside him just clicked as he looked into their eyes. Like even if none of them knew the answer, everything would be okay despite it all.

It felt like it'd always been there, but he was only starting to see it now.

Luz smiled, "King, no matter what we find in there, you'll always have us."

"And that's our promise," Eda concluded, both of them enveloping him in a hug that he gladly returned. King decided that even if whatever his past entailed turned out to be great, it'd never be better than this very moment. When they finally let go, King gulped and stepped up to the door.

"Okay. Here goes… something."

He made contact with the door, and almost immediately, waves of blue energy enveloped it. Both doors flashed, opening to reveal a small room that was illuminated by own sky light. They entered, almost entranced by the place. King heard Lilith say something about the room being old, but he didn't pay attention, focused solely on the large, familiar golden symbol at the center. It was surrounded by leaves and covered in what appeared to be the remains of an eggshell that also felt familiar.

Everything about this room sparked familiarity within King, but he just couldn't explain why.

"YES! I knew there was something up here!" Luz cheered for herself, muttering stuff about mystery jargon King wasn't familiar with.

"Hmm, judging by the murals, the guardian must have been programmed to protect whatever was in here. It certainly explains its initial hostility," Lilith ran a hand along the walls, outlining the images of other guardians that were drawn as if watching directly towards the center. Nero, after having done the same, broke off from his mother and walked up to the guardian in question.

"Don't suppose you can tell us what was up here, can you?" Nero asked, getting no response from it, "Yeah, that figures."

"I think I'm starting to remember this place," King walked up to the center of the room, standing atop the golden symbol and eggshell fragments, "And I might know how to jog my memory." He looked up at Eda and held out his claw, "I'm ready."

Worry in her eyes, Eda hesitantly pulled his broken horn out of her hair, "Are you sure?" King nodded, and despite her clear concerns, she held it out to him, "Good luck. We'll be right here."

Closing his eyes, King put the horn back on his skull, fitting it like a puzzle piece. A perfect fit, and with it, he gasped as the memories rushed through his head.

He remembered the roar, followed by an earthquake, but he couldn't move or do anything but sleep. Yet before he fell to slumber, he recognized the voice of the roar, and how it sounded like it called him "son."

He remembered the second time he awoke, once more seeing nothing but a blurry orange space with red lines everywhere, but this time, he wasn't alone. Beyond that space was a figure of some kind. He could make out downward horns and glowing red eyes, a hand reaching out for the edge his space. The figure's gaze felt gentle, and he said something King couldn't remember, sleeping taking over once again.

Then he remembered the final time he woke up. A bright light entering his vision as the orange space parted, falling to pieces as he plopped against the ground. The first thing he ever saw outside his shell was that skylight, the symbol now etched into his brain. He remembered crawling to the door and how it opened at his touch, revealing the guardian who took him care of him. The last thing he remembered was its gentle embrace as they fell down the tower shaft.

"I… I remember," King whispered as he removed the horn. Seeing everyone's eyes were now on him, he ran up to the guardian and said, "Pick me up!" Without hesitation, the guardian did as asked, King now gently held in its embrace. It felt exactly like it did in the memory. Curiosity satisfied, he ordered, "You can put me down now."

Once more, it obeyed, with Luz walking up behind him alongside the others, asking, "So this thing listens to you too?"

"Yeah, I think it was put here to protect me," King motioned for the guardian to kneel down. When it did, he poked where its nose would've gone, "I'll call you Jean-Luc!"

A sudden flash of light came in from the other side of the room, everyone turning to see Lilith taking photos of the murals. Sighing, Nero gave a light glare, "Really Mom?"

"Oh! Sorry, got carried away," Lilith blushed and held the camera out, letting Hooty eat it, "I'll just do this later. Anyway, you were saying? Something about a Jean-Luc?"

"I said he was put here to protect me. That roar I heard? It meant 'son'. I don't know how I know that, but I do!" King hugged at his horn, "And then I remembered someone watching over my egg. It looked like one of those guys from the mural. The one with the sword, and I-" He looked over to Nero, "I think that was Sparda!"

Nero gasped, "Wait, really!?"

"Yes! I mean, Jean-Luc listens to you, so Sparda had to be involved with making him. Maybe he was programmed to listen to any of Sparda's descendants?" King started piecing the puzzle together, "And then there were those murals that had the spear guy. The one who looked like an older me. There was that last mural where the two were together and joining hands, and I heard a roar that called me their son, which must mean-" He gasped and looked up at everyone, "Guys, I think I get it now! Sparda and the masked demon? They're my dads!"

"… eh?" Nero slouched, arms limp with a face of utter bafflement, as if he was trying to process what he'd just heard. Lilith looked uncertain, but Hooty looked approving. Eda was smiling, and Luz?

"I knew it. I KNEW IT!" She gasped and hugged King, spinning him around, "When I saw that mural, I knew there was something between those two figures. Never doubt a lifetime of shipping, baby!" She placed him down, "So, they're your parents?"

King nodded, "I think so," He looked down at his horn, tears welling up again, "Even if I wasn't a king, I was still important to someone. I was important to them."

"Hang on, I'm still stuck on that last part," Nero, having recovered from his bafflement, pinched the bridge of his nose, "So… Sparda, my grandpa, is one of your dads?"

"… yeah," King wasn't sure where Nero was going with this.

"So that means you're my uncle?" Nero's stare became completely flat, "My eight-year-old uncle."

King blinked, processing what he'd just heard, "Okay, yeah, it sounds weird when you say it like that, but I know what I'm talking about!"

"I'm not saying you don't. Just trying to process all this," Nero shook his head.

"It's certainly more than I was expecting to learn today," Lilith threw her two snails in as she looked around the room, "Still, we've learned a new detail about Sparda's history. Since I've discovered nothing else thus far despite my best efforts, I'll take what I can get."

"Same on that end," Nero looked down at King, "So… uncl-Yeah, no. Too weird."

"Way too weird," King thought about it for a second and held out his hand, "How about… cousins?"

Nero went wide eyed, blinked, and smiled before shaking his hand, "Yeah, I think cousins can work."

King felt his heart grow a bit more, whatever family he had now feeling just a bit bigger. As the subject filled his mind, he looked up at the symbol on the skylight, "You think my parents are still out there?"

Everyone looked between each other, Eda seeming just a bit downcast for some reason before she asked, "What makes you say that?"

"I mean, I'm eight! I'm not that old! And if they're still around, then I want to find them!" He blinked away his quickly forming tears, pleading eyes staring into everyone's souls, "Will you help me?"

Luz was the first to step up, leaning down and smiling at him, "Of course. I'd do anything for you, buddy," she looked to the others, "Right guys?"

"Well, I'm already trying to decipher Sparda's lost history for my own reasons," Lilith looked to her son before turning back to King, "But even if I wasn't, I'd still like to lend a hand in this. If I discover anything about both your parents, I'll make certain to tell you."

"Me too! Hoot!" Hooty outstretched from the portable birdhouse on Lilith's back, with the ex-Coven head affectionately scratching his head. Annoying as King found the House Demon, and for as much as he felt the odds of Hooty discovering anything on his own wasn't likely, he was touched by the gesture.

Nero knelt down next and patted the top of King's skull, "You can count on me too, cous," King beamed at the new title: Cousin. He had a cousin! Just then, Nero gestured toward the horn and held out his hand. Handing it over, Nero pointed to where the horn on his head was broken and asked, "Would you like for me too…"

"Yeah, I think I'd like that," King answered, Nero's smile growing as he connected the horn to where it'd broken off. His left hand glowed for a second before the energy concentrated into his index finger, which he smoothly ran along the crack where horn met skull like a blowtorch. In seconds, King felt his both of his horns atop his head, like he'd never lost one to begin with.

"Thanks!" King gave Nero a thumbs up, receiving one in kind before looking over at the only one who hadn't spoken, "Eda?"

Eda wasn't meeting his eyes, and she held onto her arm in a nervous way King couldn't recall seeing from his… his mother-figure? He still wasn't sure what Eda was to him, but thinking of her like that just… it felt right. King opened his mouth to ask further, but Eda beat him to the punch with a sigh.

"Alright King, there's a lot I'm not sure on, but I can figure that out later," She regained her trademark cocky smirk and focused her attention on him, "I'll do what I can to help you find them." Her gaze softened just a bit as she rubbed the top of his head, "And no matter what happens, I'll be there for you. Okay?"

King felt his tail wag as he tightly hugged Eda one last time. Letting go, he couldn't help but yawn, "Think we can go home now? Today's been exhausting."

"Yeah, let's go home," Luz said, everyone else nodding along.

But then, as King turned for the door, his eyes fell on Jean-Luc, whose vacant blue eyes continued to stare back. With how quiet the guardian was, he'd almost forgotten about him. Pointing to his previous caretaker, King asked, "Can we bring him back home with us?"

"YES! New friend!" Hooty immediately agreed as he wrapped himself around the others in a hug.

"NO!" Everyone else yelled with a glower as Eda forced herself out, Hooty releasing them right after. "King, we're not bringing that thing back with us," Eda glared at Jean-Luc, "I don't feel comfortable having it around. Besides, I got my hands full enough with you guys, Graff, and Se-" Suddenly, Eda's mismatched eyes went wide as she panicked, "Oh FUCK ME!"

"What is it, sister?"

"WE LEFT SELKI HOME ALONE!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"… does anyone know if she can feed herself? Hoot!"

"SHIT!" Everyone but Hooty shouted as they all rushed out of the tower, Eda in particular grabbing King, Luz, and Jean-Luc all at once while Lilith grabbed Nero. The two adult witches shoved everyone into Eda's flying bathtub and squeezed themselves in at the front. Turning on the tub's engines, Eda took to the sky and flew faster than King thought possible for the rickety old thing.

King let out an "Oof!" as the tub crash landed in front of the Owl House, Eda and Lilith pulling everyone out. Jean-Luc, now inactive, just fell to the ground, but everyone was too busy rushing for the front door to care at the moment. Without hesitation, Eda kicked the door open as everyone rushed in.

"Selki! We're here! Are you… okay?" Eda slowed down, King leaning out from behind her leg to get a better look at the scene. In front of them was Selki, freshly cleaned off and eating food out of her bowl. On the wall behind the couch, Graff took the form of a surprised face that swirled in a series of colors.

"Hey guys!" They formed the words before swirling into another set, "I took care of her," then shifting into, "Don't worry about it."

"… you took care of Selki?" Lilith asked, Graff becoming a thumbs up in response, "All by yourself?" the thumbs up remained, "Without any help whatsoever?" once more, the thumbs up didn't change, "… HOW!?"

Graff started to swirl again, but King interrupted them with a yawn, "Know what? I've had a long day and I'm way too tired for this. Can we just go to sleep?"

"Yeah. HOOT! I'm exhausted too," Hooty agreed and stretched out, proceeding to detach himself from the portable birdhouse and reattach himself back to the front door. Having seen this earlier today, King didn't have much of a reaction, though his stomach still churned when he witnessed all the… nauseating details.

Nero, however, had the look of someone who'd just witnessed a war crime.

"But-but I need to know how Graff-"

"Sis, just let it go. Selki's okay, so no use worrying," Eda patted Lilith's shoulder.

"Yeah..." Nero said, still shaking off the disgust from Hooty's act, "How about instead, we focus on figuring out what you guys found at the tower? Anything to get keep my mind off the shit I just saw."

Lilith beamed, removed the birdhouse from her back, and placed all the photos she took on the living room table, "Ooooh! A night of extensive study? I'll get my notebooks!" After her song-like statement, she ran down to her room, but not before poking her head out from the hall entrance and adding, "Don't begin deciphering without me!"

"I should probably get Jean-Luc," Nero made for the front door and opened it, doing everything in his power not to look at Hooty as he made that large, spectral arm of his and reached for the now dormant guardian.

"Can you put him in my room, please?" King asked, Nero nodding as he took Jean-Luc down to his cousin's room. Yawning just one more time, King stretched out his hands and felt one bump into his collar. He looked down on it and held the gold material in his claws. It reminded him so much of what his egg laid on, and he could almost picture the symbol from before on it.

"Something wrong?" Luz asked, kneeling down to get closer to him as Eda sat on the floor just in front of the couch, Lilith returning with a plethora of notebooks and textbooks.

"No, but could you maybe get me a fork? I'll meet you in my room," King answered and went down the hallway.

There was just one last thing he needed to do before going to bed.

Chapter Text

The bell screamed, signaling the end of class. With a relieved sigh, Nero got up from his desk and stretched his arms and legs, walking out of the classroom with graded test in hand. Just behind him, he heard the Blight twins moan and groan, Edric muttering, "Man, that test almost killed me."

"Don't be so dramatic, Ed," Emira grunted as the twins got side-by-side with Nero, the three of them taking the fastest route to the cafeteria for lunch. Daylight was burning and they were starving after the test.

"Don't act like it didn't almost kill you too…" Edric said as Nero only half-listened to the full conversation, too caught up in his own thoughts to give it total attention.

"I mean, it did, but don't be a drama queen about it," Emira snorted and smirked, "That's my job."

Edric's own smile became far more teasing, "Oh really? Then tell me, dear sister, which one of us got the star roles in last year's school play for drama class, and which of us was a background character?"

Nero chuckled and rolled his eyes, knowing exactly where this was going.

Emira's expression turned sour, "Oh please, you didn't get the lead role either. Nero got the lead role, and he didn't even audition for it!"

"Yes, but I wasn't a background extra."

There it is, Nero remembered that old play they all did, it being a production of Rotten that the whole class had to participate in. He auditioned for being a background extra while the twins were both vying for the role of main lead. Somehow, he got the lead role while Edric was a minor supporting cast member and Emira was a background extra. Nero was at least 99.9% sure that there was either a mix up or the Blight twins tried to cheat the system and got found out, with the given roles as punishments.

Not that Nero minded, since it turned out to be a lot of fun and helped get his mind off the troubles he'd been having back then, if temporarily.

"I… you… ugh, you're impossible."

"My greatest skill and achievement," Edric said with smug satisfaction before asking, "That was a fun play though. Right Nero?"

"Yeah, sure…" Nero halfheartedly replied, still trying to figure something out about-

"Nero, you there?" Emira poked his shoulder a few times, turning his attention to the twins, both of whom had a worried look. "You're not relapsing into Brood Mode again, are you?"

Nero blinked, "You did not just call it that."

"What else would you call it?"

Nero opened his mouth to retort, only to close it. He opened it again, and closed it again, finding that he had no retort to give. "Touche," He huffed and kept walking, maintaining the same speed as the twins, "And don't worry, I'm not falling back into old habits," at least, he hoped he wasn't, "I was just thinking about some of the research me, my mom, my aunt, King, and Luz did last night about-"

"Wait a minute, you actually spent time with your mom?"

"You actually needed to study stuff for once?"

"Okay, how is that such a shock to you guys!?" Nero angrily responded to Emira and Edric's respective questions, both of them just looking to each other without flinching in the least to his outburst.

Upon the two of them shrugging, Edric was the first to reply, "It's just that it feels like you've been pretty distant from your mom the past few years. You kinda just went through the motions with her. So, pretty odd by your standards to be hanging out with her again," Edric then gave a much warmer smile and asked, "Was studying with her any fun?"

"Ed, since when is studying ever fun?"

"Well, Mittens thinks it's fun, and I mean more the spending time with Miss Lilith part."

Nero thought back to last night and the many nights before. They'd all spent many long hours trying to uncover what they learned on King's Island, both to learn about King's currently nameless father and Nero's own grandfather: Sparda.

They started off by building up a few theories based on what little they knew beforehand, then tries to decipher the meaning of the iconography and murals in the tower to see which held water and which ones would be debunked. So far, the most they could piece together was that Sparda and King's father were war buddies of some kind, the two of them fighting… actually, none of them could figure out what exactly they'd been fighting. Their first assumption was that they were fighting against the Titans, given that Mom's previous research into the Emperor's personal library told her, but Nero wasn't so sure. If they'd fought the Titans together, Belos's book probably would've mentioned that, and there weren't any signs that the information had been redacted from it. Not to mention that, given Belos's penchant for lies, Mom was admitting to how she wasn't sure if the book was accurate or not.

The more they tried to figure out, the more questions they had. But was any of this actually fun?

There was the way Luz's eyes lit up, the way Eda playfully rolled her eyes at how everyone was in "absolute dweeb mode", the way Nero's… uncle? Cousin? He was still unused to that, but regardless, the way King always excitedly came up with as many theories about his parents as possible, never wavering even when what little they decipher started to disprove them. It always tuckered him out early, with Eda always carrying him affectionately to bed. Even Nero couldn't help but admit that the sight was adorable, and Mom always teased Eda about it, welcoming her sister to the wonderful world of motherhood.

Nero snickered upon remembering Eda's embarrassed reactions, though she never seemed averse to it either.

Speaking of moms, his own was practically having a non-stop thrill ride the whole way through each late night research marathon. Nero often sat next to her during them, and whenever he was trying to decipher ancient symbols and runes, she'd always be at the ready with several textbooks of matching symbols from both times gone by and more modern eras. And throughout all the researching that Nero would've found boring at any other time, he never stopped smiling.

"Honestly? Yeah, it actually was," Nero admitted, still smiling even now.

"DAW! Look at you, spending time with your mom! That's so sweet!" Emira cooed in what Nero could only describe as a teasing manner, to which he rolled his eyes.

"Stop."

"Come on, it's kind of adorable," Edric added, his tone equally teasing as Nero's face started going red.

"Seriously, quit it."

"Please, there's nothing embarrassing about it. Really, we're happy you guys are patching things up," Emira said, her tone more honest before it gained a sad cadence, "Besides, it sounds… nice, having a parent that wants to be around when it matters."

Nero raised a concerned eyebrow, remembering all the complaints the twins had about their folks that they'd shared since the three of them made up. "Let me guess. The usual issues with Odicklia and Aladouche?"

Edric and Emira started snickering for a few seconds, the latter being the first to regain herself as she wiped a stray tear from her eyes. "HA! Good one." Emira said, opening her locker's maw and pulling out a… lunchbox?

"You brought lunch from home?" Nero asked, pulling out his own lunchbox from his locker.

"Yeah, both of us did," Edric started, lunchbox in hand, "Dad made it for us. Our parents kinda suck, but they're not all bad. They have their moments every now and then."

"You still have Miss Lilith make stuff for you?" Emira asked, looking down at Nero's lunchbox.

"Yeah? That a problem?" Nero grunted, expecting another round of teasing as he looked down at it. Even after all these years, he still used the same one his mom got him for the first day at Hexside. Call it sentimentality, but he honestly couldn't bring himself to part with the simple red carrier.

"Nope," Emira shook her head and gave a more genuine, non-teasing smile, "Like I said, I think it's sweet."

Nero's eyes went a bit wide for a second, but just as quickly returned to normal as he smiled and walked ahead of them.

"Thanks."

The three of them arrived at the school cafeteria, lunch rush in full swing with students of all grades finding and taking seats. As Nero expected, they divided themselves into the usual Hexside cliques: Grudgby team, book club, gamer geeks, etc. His eyes scanned the room for an empty table to sit at, ignoring the ever present "fans" begging for him to sit at their tables. Sure, it wasn't as bad as it had been in the aftermath of the whole Petrification Ceremony or what it was like before even that, but…

Still annoying, Nero grimaced as he took his seat, waiting for the Blight twins to take their usual spots side-by-side with him. He hadn't liked it at first, but over the years, he'd come to accept that they'd sit wherever they damn well pleased, and next to him was just that. In recent times, he'd even come to welcome it, especially after they'd decided to start their friendship over. Much to his surprise, they didn't immediately sit down. Instead, their eyes started darting around the cafeteria, as if looking for someone, so he asked, "What's up?"

"We're trying to find Mittens," Edric answered.

"… why?" Better not be slipping back into old habits either.

"Oh, no reason. Perfectly innocent and not the least bit teasing, we can assure you," Emira said in a tone that wasn't the least bit believable, "Now, if you'll excuse us, we must find our dear sister so that we can follow through on said perfectly innocent reasoning."

The twins very quickly power-walked away, making Nero roll his eyes and rub at his forehead with his palm. He stood up and grabbed his lunch.

"Titan fucking… ugh!" Nero pulled out an Invisibility Glyph, grateful to his mother for making a surplus of extra glyphs alongside Luz, and took a deep breath. Now invisible, he cast a spell with his left hand and placed an illusion of himself eating lunch at the table before taking off after the twins, running to catch up and following closely behind them. The three weaved past tables left and right, the twins periodically looking behind themselves in ways that made Nero tense up, until Amity's was in sight, Nero seeing that she was sitting alongside Luz and her two friends, the first of whom had her scroll out while the latter had a large beige bag sitting behind him. What were their names again? Willow and… Goops?

"Hey Mittens!" The twins said simultaneously as they hugged their little sister, both of them pulling back as Emira jostled her hair, much to her annoyance.

"Edric. Emira." Amity greeted, her tone even, but with an underlying affection.

"Hello, Luz and the other two whose names escape me!" Edric waved to the rest of the group. Luz and Willow giggled, the latter taking Edric's humor in stride. Goops, however, took it a lot more personal and seemed a bit morose that Edric didn't remember his name, judging by how he slumped over.

Sorry about that, kid, Nero wasn't really sure about him, only remembering their brief interaction where he acted like one of the typical fans who tended to bug him. It didn't really make for a good impression, but he still felt bad for the little guy.

"So, where's Nero?" Willow asked the twins, who looked to each other and sighed reluctantly.

"Back at the table," Emira pointed in the sea of tables to their old one, where his illusion was still sitting and eating, before turning to Luz, "It didn't work."

Wait, what?

"Drat! I thought it would," Luz huffed, looking a little down in the dumps before she brushed it off and smiled, "In that case, it's time for Plan B!"

What!?

Amity gently put a hand to Luz's shoulder, a placating look in her eye, "Luz, maybe we should just leave it be? If he wants to be by himself, there's no use trying to trick him to come over. Besides, he's not gonna take it well and-"

"WHAT!?" Nero yelled, everyone turning to him as his invisibility wore off.

"I rest my case," Amity raised her hands, "For the record, I was completely against the idea."

Ignoring for now that his invisibility was gone, Nero shifted his gaze from Amity to Luz and the twins, lightly seething, "You three, talk. Now."

"Ugh, fine. Whatever you say, Claw Boy. Luz, why don't you handle this one?" Edric groaned, not the least bit intimidated by Nero's angry expression, nor was Emira for that matter. Even Luz merely raised an eyebrow at his glare, not taking it seriously.

"Weeeeeellll," Luz started, drumming her fingers on the table, which Nero now noticed had a pair of Good Witch Azura books on it alongside lunch, "We all noticed that you kinda kept sitting alone and I figured that it must get pretty, uh, lonely." She beamed and pointed to the twins, "So, I talked with them about it, and we all came up with a plan to bring you over to sit with us!"

Nero's eye twitch as he ran his right hand down his face. "And you didn't think to just, oh I don't know," He threw his hands into the air, "Ask me to sit with you!?"

"Because we know you," Emira cut in before Luz could say a word, sounding almost fed up, "You'd come up with every excuse imaginable to avoid having to sit next to anyone else. Sure, made sense after Grom and maybe even before that, but it can get kinda depressing to see after almost ten years."

"I don't come up with excuses all the time."

"Remember drama class? We all sat together for lunch to practice our lines for the play of Rotten?" Edric drawled out with a sass that would make Eda proud, "We invited you and your excuse was that you had food poisoning. While eating lunch."

Nero turned red at that memory. Honestly, he just went with the first thing he could think of at the time. But that was still only one time, and he opened his mouth to explain as such-

"Uh, I also actually kinda sorta did invite you to sit with us somewhere after Grom, but you turned us down. Something about it being 'too soon after Grom' or something?" Luz raised her hand and interrupted before quickly lowering it and hastily adding, "Which I totally get, by the way. I mean, you've got your whole lone wolf thing going on, but still."

"No, I… huh…" That made Nero go quiet. He remembered that moment, but he never gave it much thought. It was all just second nature to him.

"Or the time we invited you to sit with some new friends we made recently? You went all dodgy and said you were, and I quote, 'Too busy'," Emira added, sounding equally as snarky as her twin's statement from before.

"… wait, you guys made new friends recently?" Nero blinked, As in, actual friends and not rich kiss asses?

"… now that just plain hurts," Edric huffed.

"We have a life outside of you, Claw Boy," Emira added in just as low and huffy a tone that caused a swell of guilt to bubble up in Nero's stomach. He didn't mean it like that.

And I didn't know it bothered them this much, Nero resisted the urge to drag his hand down his face to hide his shame away.

"So, what do you say, Nero?" Luz hastily said, noticing that the conversation was going downward as she tried to get things back on track. She twiddled her index fingers together as she pleaded, "Want to sit with us? Come ooooon! Pleeeeeaaaaase?"

"I-I don't know," Despite all the pleading looks everyone at the table was giving, Nero still wasn't sure. It was uncharted waters for him and honestly, that guilty bubble was making him feel less inclined to do so. All he could do was stand there, rub at the back of his head and try to look away from them until he heard Amity clear her throat.

"Look, Nero, you don't have to hang out with us if you don't want to, but..." Amity sighed, a guilty look in her own eyes as she looked between Luz and Willow, "I have... experience with this sort of thing. With pushing people away when they try to reach out to you. Maybe you're scared that you're setting yourself up for disappointment, or that they won't understand you. Maybe you're scared of hurting them, or scared they'll get hurt because of you, so you push and shove and lock yourself up to stop that from happening. But all that does is make it happen, and way worse than what you were scared of."

Nero scoffed, "I'm not scared of-"

"Yes, you are. Trust me, I know what that's like." Amity's defiant glare actually shut Nero up. He could only nod slowly as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just... just stop trying shove everyone away and come sit with us. We're not trying to be annoying or anything," She looked up at him with, a challenging smirk slowly appearing on her face, "We want to spend time with you because it's you. We're trying to hang out with someone who we're proud to call our friend, even if he's too stubborn to see it. We want you to be a part of our lives, so just do yourself a favor join us already."

"Please, just let me be part of it."

His mom's words rung in his head as he stared at the group, all of them earnestly trying to let him in despite his best efforts. He had no problems opening up to Luz, Amity, and the twins, so why was this different? Why did he find it so difficult to just accept an invitation to join a group?

Guess I'm still a work in progress, And he was probably gonna stay one for a while, but at least he was getting better at the "progress" part. Sighing, he smiled and finally relented, "Alright, you guys win." As Luz applauded, he took a seat next to Willow while Edric sat at his left, Emira sitting across from her twin while Nero sat across from the Illusionist track kid who. Speaking of which, "So, kid, could you remind me what your name is? Because I'm pretty sure it isn't Goops."

Groaning for a moment, his expression picked up and he held his hand out, "Augustus Freeman Porter! But my friends call me Gus!"

Nero shook the hand, "Nice to meet you, Gus. I'd introduce myself, but... you already know."

"Yeah, and uh, sorry if I made you uncomfortable when we first met," Gus looked down, a bit ashamed, "Luz told me you really hated that kind of stuff."

"Eh, water under bridge," Nero shrugged, finding himself surprisingly at ease. He opened his lunch and began digging into it. After a few bites, he swallowed and turned to the spectacled wearing, blue haired witch next to him, "And you're Willow, right?"

She let her scroll float to the side and waved, "Yep. The name's Willow Park."

Nero nodded, but fell into an awkward silence, not really knowing where to start conversing with Luz's friends. He didn't know anything about them or what they liked, leaving him stumped. Looking over to Willow's scroll he saw it was playing a muted video in the background and tried starting there, "What are you watching?"

"Oh, just some Flyer Derby games," Willow showed him the video and unmuted it, letting him watch a minute of one such game.

"Huh, I've heard of it, but don't really know shit about it," Nero admitted and asked, "Is it any fun?"

Willow nodded and looked over to Luz and Amity, "I've never played it officially, but I've been looking into it and practicing a lot at home ever since we played Grudgby together."

"You guys joined the Banshees?" Nero looked at Luz and Willow. He knew Amity used to be part of the Banshees as their team captain, just like his mom used to be, but he hadn't heard anything about Luz joining. If she joined, Nero didn't doubt that she would've mentioned it back at the Owl House.

"No, it was part of a bet to try and get Boscha to leave me alone," Willow answered.

"We lost, but she did leave us alone after that, so... technically we won?" Luz shrugged, sounding happy, but something Willow said distracted Nero.

Boscha, why does that name sound familiar? Nero tried to remember where he'd heard that name before. He recalled plenty of his talks with the twins over the years, as well as how they often gossiped about their little sister's social life. Somewhere in one of those conversations, the name "Boscha" cropped up a few times, and Nero remembered them saying something about Amity hanging out with her and someone named Skara. But if Amity was trying to get her to leave Willow alone... Looking over to the youngest Blight, he asked, "Amity, isn't Boscha a friend of yours? Why was she bugging Willow?"

Amity grimaced and crossed her arms, "We're not friends and never were. I only ever hung out with her because my parents are business rivals with hers and they forced me to."

"Speaking of Boscha, she's glaring at us again," Gus pointed over to another table, where all of them looked to see a group of students laughing and chatting among themselves. All but a light-skinned, three-eyed witch in a Potion Track uniform with magenta hair that was tied into a bun, who glared daggers at their table, and more specifically seemed to be glaring at Amity and Luz. Amity glared back, as if daring Boscha to make a move. Boscha never made one, but she never stopped glaring, even after Edric and Emira joined in and glared back at the Potion student for glaring at their sister.

Nero found himself joining in, not liking the look the brat was giving his friends. While he liked to think he'd gotten pretty good at replicating the terrifying death glare his mom seemed to manage as easily as breathing back when she was with the Coven, Boscha only flinched slightly before shaking it off and continuing her own glare without a hint of fear.

She's got guts, I'll give her that.

But then Nero saw Willow level her own glare at Boscha, and behind those glasses was a blistering rage that actually made him sweat a bit, especially when her eyes flashed green. And it was apparently enough for Boscha, as she finally relented and focused on her meal, stabbing her food with a fork without a word.

"Finally. What the heck's her deal?" Luz groaned, having spent less time glaring and more time just looking bored. Clearly, she'd put up with Boscha enough times that it barely phased her beyond annoyance anymore. It made Nero idly wonder if she'd ever dealt with people like Boscha back on Earth.

"I don't know. She's been like that since the day I met her," Willow seethed ever so slightly before sighing, rubbing at her temple while Luz reached over and gave her a pat on the back, all while Amity looked down in shame for reasons he couldn't understand, though Luz flashed her a look that helped console the youngest Blight. But then his mind went back to Willow and the look she had.

That anger... It reminded Nero of his own, how he often seethed to himself over all the headaches, big and small, whether they be over how he was put on a pedestal, how his mother coddled him, how the Blight twins got on his nerves, how he was expected to go along with Bellhop's bullshit system. All that anger, but nowhere to put it, not knowing if putting it anywhere would hurt anyone. If Willow had been holding onto that anger for a while, then he kinda got where she was coming from.

And if Amity had been forced to befriend Boscha in the past, Nero could understand that too. Sure, they were on good terms right now and working to get better, but he'd pretty much been all but forced to befriend the twins by the twins themselves attaching to him. He was also pretty damn sure that they were forced to befriend him by their parents because of social climbing bullshit. They never said anything, but from what he knew of the Blight family's parents, it was a surefire bet to be the case. Either way, he didn't think the reasons for their friendship mattered anymore compared to where they were at the moment.

But between the twins and how they struggled with phonies who only sought them for their family name, Amity struggling with being forced to have "friends" she didn't want, Willow having all that anger built up... maybe he could open up a little bit more?

Maybe he'd find more people he could connect with here?

"I know Boscha's leaving you alone right now, but if she tries anything later on, I think I can set her straight," Nero cracked a few knuckles. Friends offered to beat up people bothering them, right? And either way, he didn't like bullies.

Weirdly, Willow shook her head, "Thanks, and I'm glad to have people in my corner, but I think I can handle Boscha on my own now."

"Trust me, I think a lot of students know better than to get on Willow's bad side at this point," Gus added, Nero remembering something that came up when he first met these two.

"Oh right," He pointed to Willow, "You unleashed vines all over the school." Honestly, that was so long ago he'd almost forgotten about it, "You're pretty good with plant magic. Way better than I am, anyway."

"Really? From what I heard, aren't you kind of a magic prodigy?" Gus asked, genuinely confused, and judging by the look on Willow's face, he wasn't the only one.

"Yeah, I mean, I know I'm good with plant magic now, but I don't think I'm that good."

"Plus, I see you do all kinda of crazy magic combos when we go bounty hunting," Luz added, eyebrow raised and sounding unsure, "Kinda surprised you don't know a lot more than us about magic."

"Knowing and being able to do are completely different," Nero shrugged. Sure, he could understand everything about how all the different types of magic worked, but that didn't mean he could pull off what Willow did with plant magic. Granted, he didn't know if it was intentional or not, but he could tell that she had way more potential for it than he did.

"Nero's always been pretty lazy about that sort of thing anyway," Edric joked, earning a snicker from Emira.

"I'm not lazy, I just prefer to do shit my way," Nero defended, cheeks red as he glared at the twins.

"Yeah, like how you almost never study for any exams," Emira snarked, though Nero couldn't help but sense a tinge of bitterness. He just didn't know why it was there.

"Not seeing why I need to do that anyway," Nero pulled out the exam from the previous class and showed off the grade to prove a point, "See? Made a 92. Been making these kinds of grades since I started here." Without saying a word, Edric and Emira pulled out their own exams and put them side by side with Nero's. Much to his surprise, both of their grades were much higher than his, being a 97 and 99 respectively. "Huh..." Nero blinked. He and the twins did share each other's tests every now and then (okay, back then, it was more like they yoinked the tests from him while he wasn't looking and just showed him theirs), and he couldn't recall a time when they scored higher than him. Looking at them, he asked, "Okay, what the hell's your point?"

"That wasn't us coasting by on luck and talent, Nero. We had to work for those grades," Emira rolled her eyes and put her test away.

"You guys have to work for your grades?" Amity asked, raising an eyebrow at her older siblings, "I didn't know that. Whenever I see you, you're are always goofing off. It's not like I ever saw mom or dad get on your case for it."

"Oh, trust us sis, it takes a lot of effort to make it look easy and please those two. It especially takes a lot of effort to look smarter than you," Edric affectionately rubbed at the top of Amity's head, stealing her ponytail and eliciting a huff from her as she turned red-faced. Everyone barring Nero and Luz chuckled at the sight, the latter of whom too busy blushing at the sight of Amity with her hair let down. In Nero's case, he was thinking too much on the twins' words about him "coasting by", looking down at his right hand.

Am I really just lucky or some shit? Ever since his first day at Hexside, he barely paid any attention to what was being said in class beyond the bare minimum, since at home, his mother always gave far more thorough lessons that went beyond Hexside's curriculum. Even that was never too difficult for him, and he took to those lessons very quickly, though he increasingly found them boring after a while, especially when Mom started running out of new things to teach him. Still, sitting down every day for a couple hours just to teach him something always made Mom happy, and Nero was genuinely happy spending time with her.

He just wished he was better at showing it earlier.

Nero didn't want to think he was lazy, since there were things that he sincerely worked hard at and found rewarding, like hunting and engineering. But looking back, he never considered himself lazy in his schoolwork and studies because of how easy it came to him.

The more today went on, the more he realized that there were a lot of things he didn't consider before.

Looks like I have a lot to think about, Nero sighed and looked back at the large beige bag sitting behind Gus, "Hey, what's in there?"

Gus looked back and smiled, "Oh, this? Luz helped me find a lot of new artifacts from the human world, and I'm gonna be showing it off for the Human Appreciation Society later today!"

"Hexside actually has that?" Nero asked, curiosity piqued. He'd never heard of it, but at this point, he was willing to assume that was because of his whole loner habit.

"Yup! And you're looking at the founder and leader!" Gus blinked and rubbed the back of his head, "I mean, I used to be the leader, but I kinda lost it after I snuck Luz back in when she got banned."

"Sorry about that, Gus," Luz apologized, looking down with clear guilt as Amity gently patted her back.

"It's fine. I'm the one who lied that you were unbanned, so... kind of deserved. Besides, I still have plenty of fun there, even if Mattholomule's in charge now," Gus said the name with clear disdain before muttering a few things.

Nero would've tried to listen in, but he was still too focused on this little club and asked, "So, what exactly do you guys do at this... Human Appreciation Society?"

"We try to understand human culture and customs through whatever artifacts we find," Gus pointed to Luz, "Like I said, Luz helps me out a lot with getting new artifacts."

"By that, he means Eda sells stuff from her shop to him and I gotta keep him from getting swindled," Luz teased, causing Gus to blush a little.

"PFFT! I don't need you to do that for me. It's not like Eda's ever swindled me. Except for that one time, and the other time, and uh... every time I went there, actually." Gus began to sweat a little while the entire table, Nero included, giggled at his realization. The human enthusiast shook his head and got back on track as he looked over to Luz and Willow, "Anyway, you guys wanna come to the meeting? I'm pretty proud of the haul I'm bringing today. Plus, I might need Luz to help me out with identifying these things."

"Sure, I'd be happy to help!" Luz cheerfully answered before looking over to Amity and asking, "You want to come with? We can mix clubs up." She picked up her book, "It'll be the Azura Book Club meets the Human Appreciation Society!"

Amity blushed, but smiled, "I mean, this whole Human Appreciation Society isn't really my thing-"

"It totally is," Emira joked, Edric quickly joining in.

"Well, one human in particu-" He quickly went silent when Amity, entire face crimson, glared bloody murder at him with purple glowing eyes. She manifested Abomination substance around her right arm, forming a gauntlet with spiked knuckles.

"Please, do finish that sentence."

"... I'll shut up."

"Thank you," Amity calmed down and dissolved the gauntlet, "Anyway, I'll join." She smiled at Luz, "We do need to finish that chart detailing why Azura and Hecate are statistically perfect for each other."

"They're not the only ones who are perfect for-OW!" Emira's snarky comment was cut off when a (thankfully) not spiked Abomination fist flew at her like a rocket, knocking her to the floor. Nero and Edric looked down at her now bruised face with concern as she wobbled back up, hand on the table to balance herself, "Okay... I deserved that."

"Yes, you did," Amity looked over at the rest of the table (barring Luz) and glared, "Anyone else?" Everyone else rapidly shook their heads as Emira started applying healing magic to her face while Amity sighed, "Good."

Luz, on the other hand, blinked a few times and asked, "What was that about?"

Amity blushed and stuttered, "N-Nothing! A-Anyway, about that chart we were working on-"

The table quickly fell back into what Nero assumed was old routine: Luz and Amity chatting away about everything from Good Witch Azura to different types of magic (glyph or otherwise), Willow occasionally chiming into their conversations while chatting with Gus about if he's heard of any human plants in his work for the Human Appreciation Society, and the twins talking the latest gossip while Emira was busy healing herself. All of this went down while Nero wasn't sure whether to join in, or how to join in the first place. Eventually, the twins noticed his silence and Edric elbowed him in the side, gesturing for him to try and join in, but he was still caught between whether or not he really wanted to.

He didn't want to get between Luz and Amity's bonding session, especially given their mutual crushes on each other. As far as he knew about Willow, her interests were in plants and Flyer Derby, and talking about those things would die too quickly when it came to him. At the same time, it sounded more like he was making excuses to avoid having to actually enter any conversations with them, just like he'd spent his whole life until now doing.

Titan dammit, they're right. I really am lazy and scared about this shit, Nero heard a rummaging sound and looked over to Gus, who was trying to find something in his sack full of human "artifacts" and pulled out a series of potted plants. Wondering about them, Nero managed to ask, "Hey, Gus, what are those?"

"Hmm? Oh, these?" Gus gestured to the red, green, and blue plants with a flourish, "These, my friend, are plants from the human world. I got them from Eda."

"Eda said that she found them while exploring the Arklay Mountains years back. It's a place near Racoon City, which..." Luz started explaining before she stopped herself and shook her head. "Never mind, it's really not all that important. Anyway, since then, she's been growing them in her backyard to use for potions she can sell," Luz picked one up and helped show it off to the rest of the table, "They're honestly pretty effective. They've definitely helped me out a few times when I got hurt or sick." Her smile faltered just a tad, "No good against curses though."

Nero felt a pang in his heart and Valknut for a second, knowing that his aunt and now his mother were suffering the effects of that damned curse. There wasn't much he could do about it no matter how much he wanted to, aside from helping them find a cure. Not wanting to dwell too much on that now, he looked at the human plants and let his mind wander to the human world.

He still remembered that day at the Conformatorium when the portal door was briefly active, letting him see into the human realm for the first time in his life. The pristine green forests and clear blue skies framed by that rickety old porch were a sight to behold, no matter how brief it was. More than that, just thinking of the human world, he couldn't help but feel this odd sense of longing. It was like that world was calling out to him, but he didn't know how to put into words.

There were a lot of things he didn't know how to put into words, the more he thought of it. But he at least knew how to put this into words.

"Gus, can I ask you something?" When the young illusionist looked toward him, Nero sighed and asked, "The Human Appreciation Society... is it accepting new members right now?"

He practically heard a pin drop when the question left his mouth, as now everyone at the table was looking at him. Their expressions ranged from shock (Amity and the twins) to confusion (Willow) to excitement (Luz and Gus).

"Say that again," Gus practically had stars in his eyes, his excitement matching Luz's in a way that Nero just couldn't say no to.

And he honestly didn't want to say no anyway.

"I'm saying..." Nero managed a smile, "That I want to join the Human Appreciation Society."

Chapter Text

Nero once again found himself walking down the halls of Hexside after the lunch period was over, this time following behind Luz and her friends for the Human Appreciation Society. For some reason, he felt anticipation and nervousness bubbling inside of him in equal measure, and he couldn't explain why that was.

Maybe it was because he was skipping his next class to attend the meeting? Sure he often walked out of class growing up for the sake of doing some demon hunting, but he always returned before anyone knew he'd left campus. This was skipping out on an entire class period from start to finish.

Not even sure why I'm worrying so much about that, Nero sighed and pinched between his eyes, reminding himself that the twins offered to cover for him by way of Emira disguising herself as him for the time being thanks to a combination of Illusion Magic and her concealment stone. She'd skipped a few classes before, so skipping this one wasn't a big deal for her.

"You okay back there Nero?" Luz asked, looking back at him, but still walking alongside the others, "You're looking a bit… intense."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Nero immediately lied, but the expression on everyone's faces made it clear they weren't buying it.

"If you don't want to join, there's no shame in backing out," Gus said, sounding understanding, though Nero could hear a tinge of disappointment somewhere in there.

"No, it's not that. It's just, uh…" Nero scratched his temple with his right hand, trying to find the words when he couldn't even figure it out in his own head.

"Worried about skipping class?" Amity asked in an annoyed tone, holding her books close to her chest as usual. Her hair was still down, having never gotten her scrunchie back from her siblings. It seemed to bother her, but she looked to be adjusting. Although, Nero was pretty sure that had more to do with the occasional glances Luz sent her way, all of which were averted the moment Amity looked back.

"Not exactly sure if it's that either," Nero decided to ignore Luz and Amity's baffling inability to see the obvious for the time being and answered, "Though not gonna lie, it is bugging me." His reply caused everyone to chuckle for a bit, confusing him, "What's so funny?"

Willow struggled to stifle her giggles for a bit, "N-Nothing. Just that you kind of have this reputation as a "loner bad boy", so it's funny seeing you so nervous about breaking the rules."

"Hey, I break rules all the time!"

"Really? Name one." Nero opened his mouth to answer Amity's challenge before she added, "That the teachers know about."

He almost immediately clammed up, trying his damndest to think of one, but he couldn't come up with any. In all the time he'd attended Hexside, he actually never did anything to piss off the teachers or staff. Sure, he remembered how some of Eda's pranks she'd left behind interested him and were funny to look at, but he never actually did anything like that himself after the twins's antics turned him off to things like that. He hated all the rules and shit that ran the isles itself… but he stayed between the lines here.

"Huh…" Nero was starting to question a lot about himself, and was still asking them even as they stopped in front what he could only presume to be the door for the Human Appreciation Society's room. Before they could enter, Gus stopped in front of the door and held a hand out for them to wait.

"You might want to give me a minute. I need to tell everyone that we have a new member and also to give you space."

Nero nodded, "Thanks."

Honestly, the last thing he needed was Hexside treating him with its usual pedestal bullshit. He wanted to give this thing a shot, to understand why he felt so connected to the human realm, and he didn't want it ruined by way of him being seen as some idol to gawk at or butter up for easy favors.

Gus entered the room, leaving Nero outside with Amity, Luz, and Willow, all of whom he asked, "So what's this club like?"

"It's pretty welcoming," Luz answered.

"I don't really interact much with the members whenever I'm here, so I can't really say," Amity shrugged, "Pretty sure their president hates me." Her face slowly started to become melancholic, "Can't say I blame him if he does."

Confused, Nero raised an eyebrow, unsure of what to say before Willow stepped in and gently tapped her shoulder, "Amity, I know you messed up a lot. Mostly from firsthand experience," She gave a side glance to the floor in an awkward tone, Amity scratching the back of her neck in shame as she continued, "But trust me, you don't have anything to be sorry about here."

"Yeah, you can trust me on that too," Luz gave a reassuring smile that made Amity's eyes brighten ever so slightly, "Having had to interact with Mattholomule at every single one of these things, I can confirm that you never did anything to him. He's just a total jerk."

"Okay, I feel like I'm missing a lot of context," Nero rubbed at his chin.

"Long story. I'll just say there's a lot of stuff I did that I'm not proud of and leave it at that," Amity replied, rubbing at her arm and getting reassuring shoulder pats from Luz while Willow just stood back, arms crossed, but smiling. Still, there was a sadness in both her and Amity's eyes that made Nero wonder what they were talking about.

I know Amity said she and that Boscha girl were never really friends, but… It was pretty obvious that Boscha was a bully, and based on Willow's anger, she had some serious run-ins with her. If Amity was forced to be friends with that girl, did she take part in the bullying, or did she sit back and just let it happen? Neither one was good, and the look in Amity's eyes made it clear how much she hated herself.

Then again, it's not like I can really judge her for shit, can I? Nero sighed and scratched the back of his head. Sure, he didn't know any of this, but he hadn't really bothered to pay attention to anything outside his bubble of personal issues. In all the time he'd been here, he could've noticed something was wrong with Amity, but didn't. Same thing with the twins, where he noticed that they were going through similar shit to him, but never even tried to alleviate it. A lot of things, from the fiasco at the library to whatever Amity's bad history with Boscha was, probably never would've happened if he tried to be invested in other's well-being.

And amidst it all, he kept asking himself why this all sounded so familiar.

Gus opened the door, interrupting everyone's outer and inner going ons, "You guys can come on in now."

Nodding, Nero looked at the others, who all gave either thumbs up or nods of their own. With a deep breath, Nero entered the classroom and looked around, seeing a small group of students. Among them, he saw a pale, brown haired healing student with freckles on her nose, a blue-haired potion student with an eyeball for a face, and a goat-like, single-horned bard student with white fur and a single eye. At the front of the classroom was a short, beige skinned Construction Track student with a paper crown on his head that read "president"; and behind him was a large wooden chest. All of them looked his way and blinked in surprise, no one making any sudden moves, leaving Nero uncertain.

"Really Gus? Another one?" The crowned student, whom Nero assumed was Mattholomule, asked with obvious annoyance, "Between him and Blight, you might as well be turning the Human Appreciation Society into a "cool student" club."

Guess he doesn't like popular kids, Nero lightly glared at the little shit. Part of him was grateful that he wasn't getting any of the same obnoxious treatment as he always did. If only it wasn't coming from a total ass.

Though for some reason, he looked familiar, and Nero just couldn't figure out why.

Gus glared at Mattholomule and sneered, "Don't insult my friends, President. Besides, the rules of the Human Appreciation Society make it clear everyone's allowed to join no matter who they are. I should know. I wrote it."

"Well maybe I should change it?" Mattholomule smirked, "I'm president now. New leadership, new rules."

"Principal Bump's the one enforcing the rules, so go ahead and ask him if you think he'll listen."

"Well, I can tell him you're trying to overstep my authority. And last I checked, you're lucky he let you back into the Human Appreciation Society to begin with after that whole fiasco."

"Last I checked, he let me back in because I did my time in detention after he fixed it up, and because I was voted back in," Gus retorted, the rest of the Human Appreciation Society nodding and affirming him in their own ways, "You'd have to get the majority of the society to vote a person out if you don't want them around." He then looked over to the other members, "All in favor of Amity and Nero staying as honorary and/or official members, say aye!"

"AYE!" Everyone raised their hands and smiled, causing Mattholomule to huff. Nero, meanwhile, was too busy trying to figure out why the kid seemed so familiar-

-wait a Titan damned minute! Nero blinked and pictured him with a horn on the right side of his head. He walked up to the president, who backed up a little like he thought Nero was gonna hit him or something. Deciding to wonder on that later, Nero asked, "You're name's Matt, right?"

"Uh… y-yeah? M-Matt Fenris Tholomule, s-sir," Matt stammered, looking rather scared of the taller teen in a way that Nero didn't know what to make of.

"Hold up, your last name's been Tholomule this whole time!?" Gus asked in total shock.

"And your middle name's Fenris?" Luz asked, baffled by the name. Nero wasn't sure why though. It was honestly a pretty common middle and surname. So, he decided to focus on his follow up.

"And you wouldn't happen to have a brother named Steve, right?"

Matt's face immediately fell into a harsh frown, "Oh. You know him." He huffed and kicked the floor, "Yeah, he's my older half-brother."

"Who's Steve?" Luz, Willow, and Gus asked all at once, Nero turning his head to them.

"Member of the Emperor's Coven and a friend of my mom's, so I hung out with him a few times." He rubbed the back of his scalp and stared at the ceiling, "Shit, he used to babysit me a few times when I was a kid."

"Good for you. You spent more time with him than I did," Matt growled, finding the nearest wall more deserving of his attention than anyone else in the room.

Now that I think about it… Nero blinked, staring at the bratty society leader with just a bit of concern. He remembered from Steve's time babysitting him how he tended to bring up his younger brother a lot, though there was always this melancholic tone whenever he talked about him for too long. He also mentioned how hanging out with Nero was like "Getting to spend time with my kid brother", almost like he lamented not being able to do so himself for some reason.

Then again, with the Dictatorial Dickhead in charge, it wasn't too surprising that he didn't get a lot of free time. It was frankly kinda lucky that Mom's position netted her a decent amount of free time, and she always devoted a good amount of it towards him (even when he didn't want her too). Yet maybe that was only because Belos needed her to have that free time, since she was after Eda during a lot of it?

With that fucker, it was hard to tell if he just didn't care or actively had it out for you.

"Uh, Mattho-I mean, Matt, you there?" Nero blinked out of his train of thought at Gus's sudden question, looking between him and Matt, who looked more than a bit grouchy and out of it. With how he acted before, Nero would've chalked it up to him just being a prick, but it kinda reminded him of… well, himself. Or at least how he was when his mother used to be more smothering.

… okay, she still kinda was, and things were still a work in progress on both ends for them, but that was neither here nor there.

What was here though, was him getting the sense that this was for the opposite reason.

Before Nero could open his mouth to say something, Matt huffed and walked past them to stand behind the front table and address the rest of the Human Appreciation Society.

"Know what? Forget it, let's just get this over with. Nero take a seat with the others. Or don't, do whatever for all I care."

Looking between Luz, Amity, Willow, and Gus, all of whom were in varying states of confusion and concern, Nero sighed and walked on over to where the other society members were sitting. Upon taking his seat, Luz and Amity found a pair of seats further back in the classroom and whipped out a pair of notepads, no doubt to start their Good Witch Azura discussion. Gus and Willow joined right next to him not a moment later, the former giving him a thumbs up while Matt cleared his throat.

"Okay, so, since the Human Appreciation Society has a new member now, would said new member kindly introduce themselves with their full name? And will the other members just as kindly introduce themselves in return?" He asked, an obvious disdain in his voice that made Nero huff, though he still complied.

"Name's Nero. Full name's Nero Claudius Clawthorne," He answered, expecting the worst from the other members. To his surprise, everyone just casually greeted him, not a hint of ass kissing present. Hell, they didn't even laugh at his middle name the way the twins would've.

In fact, the only one to comment on that was Luz, "Still can't believe that's your actual middle name." She wasn't being admonishing in the least. Like with Matt's, she was just baffled, "Did Lilith read about Roman Emperors or something?"

"No, she actually…" He blinked, at first wondering what the hell a Roman was and figuring that it was something from Earth, "Hold the fucking crow phone," Nero muttered to himself and turned back and faced her after processing what she'd just said, "Earth has its own emperors?" Great, so even they got the same bullshit we have here. And apparently I'm named after one of those assholes!

Nero definitely had a few questions for his mother when he got back to the Owl House.

"I mean, from what Luz told me, they used to have emperors. Though there are still a couple sorta-emperors over there, just with the serial numbers filed off and much of their influence on the world heavily reduced," Amity explained, voiced refined and finger pointed upward like the teacher's pet she was rather proud to be, kinda like how Mom was just as unapologetic about being one.

"Huh, didn't know Earth had their own Belos," Gus hummed before looking to the floor, "Or I guess, Beloses?"Is there a plural for Belos?"

"Belosi?" Willow tried the made-up word, grimacing at how it sounded, "Is there a plural for Belos?"

"Titan, I hope not," Nero dragged his reptilian hand down his face. One Belos was bad enough for a lifetime.

"EHEM! Can we get back to introductions?" Matt glared at his audience, who all shared the same annoyed expression the others (sans Gus) started opening up.

"Nice to meet you Nero, I'm Bo," The Healing track student introduced herself, holding out her hand, which Nero took.

"I'm Gorty," The goat-like Bard student waved alongside the eyeball-headed Potion student, whom he introduced, "And this is Eileen."

"Hello!" Eileen greeted cheerfully, her voice sounding muffled, yet still understandable as she held out her hand.

"Uh, hi. It's nice to meet you guys too," Nero shook her hand awkwardly, finding himself growing a bit more comfortable with these people.

"So, why'd you want to join the Human Appreciation Society?" Bo asked, a friendly smile on her face as she talked to him like he was, well… just another student. It was a new feeling, and honestly kinda weird for him.

Weird, but nice.

"It kinda started back at the Conformatorium. Saw a bit of the human world through a portal and, well…" Nero shrugged, still unsure what to make of his feelings, "Something just clicked for me when I saw it."

"Wait, you got to see the human world!?" Gus gasped, light shimmering in his eyes.

"Only for about a minute. Didn't get to see much," Nero clarified, not wanting to get Gus's hopes up.

"So you got to see the human world, fight the Emperor with a human, and get away unscathed?" Gorty asked, awe in his voice, but much of it more directed towards Luz as he looked back to her, "Humans are hardcore."

Luz overheard and blushed a bit before playing into it and flexing her sleeved, skinny arm with a smirk, "Yeah, not gonna lie, we can be pretty hardcore when we want to be."

Nero chuckled at the display, hearing Willow and Gus do the same while the rest whispered about how cool their local human girl was. However, his smile faltered just a bit when he saw Amity blushing and happily staring at Luz's flexed arm like it was a slice of freshly made pizza… and yet Luz still didn't notice!

"How long before they figure it out?" Gus whispered into his ear. Evidently, Luz and Amity's obliviousness was starting to bug him too.

"I don't know," Nero whispered back.

"Should we tell them?" Bo asked, clearly having long since seen what the happy not-yet-a-couple didn't see. Nero shook his head, having made his own choice long ago.

"No, better to let them figure it out."

"Okay, but if we don't, the rest of the school just might," Gorty quietly pointed out, forming a spell circle with his horn that made it glow, levitating a nearby bag of spicy cockroaches to him. He grabbed and tore it open, holding it out to share with the rest of the group, Nero and Gus being the first to take a few.

"You're kidding, everyone knows?" Nero asked before chowing down on a roach. He knew how obvious it was since he spent a lot of time with Luz back at the Owl House, but he had no idea everyone else was aware already.

"Teachers, students, and other staff members," Eileen whispered as she held a roach up to eat, "There's a betting circle around when they'll finally get together, and another on who confesses first."

"From what I've heard, Edric and Emira put down the highest bet on Amity making the first move," Willow whispered in an unsure tone. Nero was pretty sure that Willow felt the Blight twins's purported faith in their younger sister was misplaced and they'd be losing a lot of Snails, just from her tone. And if Nero was being honest…

… yeah, no, the twins are losing that bet, Nero shook his head and gave an unsaid apology to Amity. Between the two lovebirds, Amity could be way more closed off while Luz wore her heart on her sleeve. Not literally like some Isles goers he'd seen, as he was pretty sure humans couldn't survive like that.

However, not a moment later, Luz and Amity took notice that they were being watched. Both of them turned bright red as Luz asked, "Uh, w-what are you guys looking at us for-"

Just then, Eileen's eyeball closed and turned into a large mouth with many rows of jagged fangs, growling as she threw the spicy roach into it, filling the room with aggressively loud chomping noises. Nero winced as bits of saliva drooled out from the maw, Willow seemed mildly amused, Gus was nonplussed and Gorty looked worried as he leaned a bit away from Eileen. Bo, meanwhile, was smiling almost affectionately as if she found it cute, her cheeks tinted a shade of red as Eileen's eyeball closed again and reverted back to normal.

Thus, Nero's suspicion that all school clubs had some form of romantic drama was confirmed.

Eileen's lack of eating manners did knock Luz and Amity out of their embarrassment. Amity looked pretty disgusted while Luz was all wide-eyed and blinking, rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things. It was almost like she'd never seen an eyeball turn into a… oh, right.

She probably hasn't, Nero realized as he grabbed another roach and ate it.

"Yeah, sure, human anatomy is fascinating and all that, now getting back on topic!" Matt clapped his hands in frustration and breathed, getting all their attention. "Gus!" He pointed to the former president, "Do you have anything new from the human world that you'd like to present?"

Despite a quick glare, Gus nodded and stood up to walk to the front desk, briefly looking back at everyone, Luz and Amity included, with two thumbs up. Nero returned the gesture and looked back to see the happy not-yet-a-couple do the same before pulling out a pair of notebooks as they began discussing their book thing.

Taking his sack, Gus approached the front desk as Matt begrudgingly stepped aside. With a confident smile, he emptied out its contents on the desk and declared, "Human Appreciation Society, I give you new wonders from the human realm!"

Everyone went "ooooh" and "aaaah" at the objects Gus had put on display. Nero already knew about the plants from this "Arklay Mountain", but the other stuff he'd never seen before.

The first item he took notice of was a small, empty plastic pill bottle whose label seemed highly damaged, and what little was legible read out "Aqua Cure". The most notable thing about it was the logo on the cap that looked like the top of an umbrella in a red and white pattern. As Willow picked it up to examine it, Nero couldn't help but get an uneasy feeling just from looking at the logo. He couldn't explain why, it was just a logo.

The second item didn't seem like anything special, just being a golden, hexagonal badge that looked like a small letter D inside a larger letter C. However, much like the umbrella logo, he couldn't help feel discomforted at the sight of it. He'd have to ask Luz if this symbol meant anything bad on Earth when she wasn't busy with Amity.

The third item, one that Gorty picked up and opened, was a poster that featured a brown haired human with a ponytail wearing pink robes that looked like they were designed for combat. He seemed to be in an over-the-top pose, posing for the camera with symbols around him that Nero could only assume was some kind of human language. In a way, it wasn't too dissimilar to the recruitment posters Mom did for the Emperor's Coven. If that was the case, then while he had zero interest in what was being sold, the human and the organization he was advertising must've been pretty tough. Besides, Nero knew better than to underestimate a guy in pink.

The fourth and final item, which Bo and Eileen examined, was a silver bangle bracelet with a large opening that resembled a V, and at the center was a red circle with a triangle, over which was another V. Nero wasn't sure if it was a common human fashion statement, but something felt special about this bracelet. With how the center-most V resembled the arrows of a clock, maybe it had some sort of connection to time? Did humans have their own magic that let them manipulate time?

Bangle of Time does have a nice ring to it, Nero mused and gave all the items another once over before picking up the golden badge, "What's this for? Reminds me of a coven badge the more I look at it."

Gus opened his mouth to speak, but closed it and hummed, thumb to his chin, "Y'know, I'm not sure. When I first got it back at the Owl House, I asked Eda, and she didn't have an answer. The most she could say was how she went to the human wold years ago, blacked out, and hacked that thing up when she came to."

Sounds like she went Owl Beast on Earth, Nero remembered how his aunt described turning into the Owl Beast and looked down at the badge again. If this thing was akin to a coven badge like he assumed, then it means Aunt Eda attacked some kind of human law enforcement organization… or they attacked her.

"And Luz didn't know anything about it either?" Nero asked, wondering if their local human had any idea who or what this badge belonged to as Gus shook his head.

"I asked Luz about it and even she doesn't know, and she can't really connect to any human networks right now to look anything up."

"Right," That's kind of an issue right now, Nero nodded, remembering some of the complaints Luz made in private when she was in a dour mood. Without the portal door, she couldn't access the human networks on her phone, though the issue was less about using its features and more about trying to get back in touch with her mom. From the way Luz talked about her, the two sounded very close. The way Luz became morose (despite her efforts to hide it) when the topic came up left a guilty feeling in Nero's guts, especially since he still had his own mother around to talk with.

All the more reason to build a new portal door as soon as we can, Nero thought about all the money they'd been making from bounty hunting missions. In addition to covering the houses expenses and taking care of Selki, they also needed to start buying building materials to begin construction on their own portal door. Right now, the problem was that none of them knew where to start right now. They had no idea as to what materials the portal door was made from, and Eda made it clear that she never bothered learning anything about the door or how it worked beyond the fact that it took her to the human realm. That little tidbit left him slapping his forehead silly.

Much as he enjoyed spending time with Aunt Eda, those moments made him realize that his mother had a few decent points about her.

"This is sooooo pretty!" Eileen held up the silver bangle and even tried it on, Bo happily taking a closer look.

"What kind of bracelet is it? Do human bracelets have special powers? This one looks like it does," Bo asked, mirroring Nero's own questions about it.

"Eh, I don't know. Let me ask the expert," Gus leaned over, mouth open to try and ask the local human for her expertise on the subject. Instead, he paused, seeing Luz and Amity still knee-deep in their discussion and now staring at a couple white boards, their backs turned to the Human Appreciation Society while Amity's foot tapped against the floor.

Where the fuck did they even get those!? Nero knew for a fact that those white boards weren't in the classroom beforehand, and he was almost positive that those two never left the classroom at all.

As he wondered on that, everyone else looked their way, Nero hearing something about Azura's battle against a vampire lord named Maxwell Dimitrescu and how the two "used to be a thing before she got sick of his bad boy vibes" or some shit like that. Honestly, aside from the white boards, he was more shocked by the writings and notes on one of the white boards featuring all the Glyphs and Glyph combos Luz had figured out so far. Not only that, but there were several red strings connecting those notes to the ones on the other white board that had their Good Witch Azura analysis… at least half of which was shipping related.

Either Luz and Amity were simultaneously doing research on Glyphs alongside analyzing that series they loved so much, they were trying to make connections between the two, or they thought that they could do both and were now getting everything all mixed up. Knowing how obsessive Luz and Amity could get, it was probably everything at once.

"Luz?" Nero called out, "Amity?"

No response, the two of them lost in their own little world.

"I'll get them," Willow shook her head with a smile and wove a spell that caused a plant by the windowsill to sprout into a large vine. It snaked its way over to the two and tapped both of them on the shoulder.

Luz and Amity quickly faced the group, the former blushing and rubbing the back of her neck, "Oh! Sorry guys, got caught up. Need anything?"

"Could you explain some of this stuff to us? I'm confused," Gorty held out the poster with the fighter in pink, looking at it with a squinted eye, likely in an effort to understand what it said.

"That's an advertisement for a martial arts school. I think Eda said she found it while she was in Japan," Luz clarified, tilting her head at the image, as if even she was perplexed by the guy's goofy poses.

"What's a Japan?" Bo asked, not seeming too miffed that her questions about the silver bangle were interrupted and happily going with the flow.

Luz smiled and happily answered, "It's an island country in the far east, and Earth's central hub of manga, anime, and kaiju!"

"And island? Like the Boiling Isles, but it isn't the corpse of God?" Eileen asked, eye wide at the very concept.

"Honestly, still kinda weirds me out that humans don't live on corpses," Willow admitted, humming to herself, "I mean, the concept of a giant landmass that isn't an ancient deity is pretty mind boggling."

"It's weird, but it's so very, very fascinating," Gus practically shook with excitement, leading Nero to assume all this was new to him too.

"To be fair, Luz told me that there are a lot of human mythologies where the Earth itself is made from the body of a then recently deceased deity," Amity helpfully added, once again entering "teacher's pet" mode.

"Yeah, there's things like Pan Gu from Chinese mythology, Cipactli from the Aztecs, Ymir of Norse fame, and Taimat from ancient Mesopotamia," Luz counted off a number of them on her fingers, "That last one's probably the oldest." She shrugged and continued, sounding almost lost in thought, "Honestly, I didn't think any of these could've been real, but after everything I've been through here, I've been thinking that a lot of these could actually be true. And I'm saying this as a Catholic!"

What's a Catholic? Nero wanted to ask, but figured he'd do that later, instead leaning forward, arms crossed and asking, "I'm more curious where and when you learned all this. Learn it on your phone before the portal door got destroyed?"

Luz proudly shook her head, "I actually learned it a few years ago at the Gravesfield library, uh, Gravesfield's my home town, by the by." She clarified and cleared her throat, "I was mostly looking up all this stuff to help with world building for a fanfic project I was working on. Still haven't finished it yet, but I learned a lot of useful stuff I wanted to use." Smiling, Luz shook with excitement before pointing to the floor, "For starters, with the Aztecs, blood sacrifices keep Cipactli from eating your feet!"

"That sounds so awesome!" Bo gasped, in awe of what even Nero thought was disturbing as shit, and he fought malicious demons for a living. Though Luz's knowledge on these human mythologies made him wonder something else.

Anything on Sparda? Nero also wanted to ask, the question almost making its way to his tongue, but it died just as he opened his mouth.

If Luz knew something about Sparda, she would've told him already.

"That sounds deeply disturbing," Apparently, Gorty agreed with Nero on that. The goat-headed student looked back at the poster he was still holding, "Anyway, back on this... martial arts school. It's like a Fight Coven, right? Where you learn a specific style of fighting?" Luz nodded as Gorty sighed, "You know, I kinda wanted to join a Fight Coven a few years back. Getting to learn all those moves seemed cool to me, but after a while… I didn't want to do it anymore."

"Why?" Nero asked, oddly curious as Gorty lowered the poster, almost seeming to look through it and stare at the floor.

"Because I didn't want to feel like I was contributing to all this… y'know, coven stuff."

"Wait, really?" Nero went wide-eyed, surprised to hear another Hexside student not be into the Coven bullshit like everyone else was.

Gorty nodded, "Honestly, I didn't think a whole lot on the Coven System growing up, but when I entered Hexside, I started noticing a lot of things I didn't like. I tried not to think too much about it, but…" He sighed, closing his one eye, "I think ignoring it just made it worse."

Nero wasn't sure what to say to that, going quiet for several seconds before finally finding something, "Me too, kid."

"Me three," Bo added, also surprising Nero, "My dads never really liked the Coven System in the first place. I grew up hearing all the bad stuff going on. They always protected me, but… well, let's just say I lost some aunts and uncles over the last couple years whenever they tried speaking out against the emperor." Her expression grew bitter, Eileen gently taking her hand and rubbing at it, which seemed to help her mood a little before she saw Nero staring at her and stammered, "Uh, d-don't worry! Your mom had nothing to do with any of them disappearing, if that helps!"

"It… honestly doesn't help," Nero sighed, not knowing what else to say, "I'm sorry that happened to you."

"It's cool. Not like you had anything to do with it," Bo replied, not knowing that was the problem.

Ever since the Petrification ceremony, feels like I've done fuck all to actually fight that masked bastard, Nero clenched his fist, still feeling a wave of fear move down his spine at the very thought of the emperor. Even after his first fight with him, it still didn't go away. He did have to focus on his family, yeah, but he also knew that one day, Belos would come for them just like he came for everyone else who was already going against him, and something told him that flipping off the statue of him whenever he walked by wouldn't cut it. Hell, the fact that people were already opposing him (and suffering for it) while he wasn't doing anything just made him feel worse.

Some rebel I'm turning out to be, He bitterly chuckled, remembering how Belos called him that at the palace when he was shadowing his mother. Back then, he wore the obvious insult with pride, but now it felt hollow. Fighting the emperor once and losing like a useless fucking deadweight wasn't enough.

He needed to do something more, otherwise more people were gonna die one by one, and then his family would be next on the chopping block.

"Hey, since you and Luz fought against the emperor, by any chance did you see what he's really like up close?" Gorty asked, poking at Nero's arm as he put the poster down. Nero would've found it annoying, but he was thankful, since it felt like he was starting to sink somewhere he couldn't get out without punching something into a crater.

"Yeah, what's he like under..." Gus gestured to his face and waved a hand around it, "All that?"

"Oh, well, we never really got a good look," Luz rubbed her chin in thought.

"I've heard some interesting rumors," Willow chimed in, loudly whispering, "Like, there's just a mirror underneath his mask. The real emperor is actually society itself."

Nero blinked at the ridiculous rumor, "No, that's definitely not it. I haven't gotten a good look either, but trust me, there's a person behind that mask and he's…" His eyes went wide for a split second, remembering when he was a child. His first encounter with that horrific beast, all green and skeletal, covered in eyes of pure blue, face glaring down at him in pure hatred. It was as if Nero's very existence repulsed him to no end. Shivering at the memory and how he just barely managed to escape when the beast attacked, Nero muttered, "A monster."

"Really? I've heard a few times that he's apparently so handsome, people don't pay attention to what he's saying when he tries to deliver a speech," Gus threw in his own theory, which Nero shook his head at. If nothing else, it was silly enough to help him forget, if briefly.

"Personally, I've heard that he's scarred from wild magic," Amity added, and honestly, Nero could believe wild magic was the reason Belos looked like that beneath the mask, even if he wasn't sure.

"I've heard that he isn't a witch or demon of the Isles at all," Bo got all their attention, "Before she disappeared, my great-aunt Lydia said that he was secretly a creature from another world, likely one of Hell's lower circles, and that he was planning to wipe out all life in the Circle of Limbo." She rolled her eyes, even with her expression sad at the memory, "I didn't really believe it at time, and I honestly still don't think that's it either. It just seems way too far-fetched for me."

"Yeah, seems pretty out there to me too," Nero nodded. It was obvious that the emperor couldn't give a shit about the people of the Boiling Isles if he tried, but Nero just couldn't see what Belos would have to gain from wiping out his own people. Scum like him always wanted something – usually more power – and killing everything would leave him with nothing.

"I know what's behind his mask," Eileen raised her hand with a tone so knowing it was downright believable, making everyone turn her way.

"What?" Luz asked, leaning in as everyone else did. All the while, Eileen's eyelid lowered in a way that could only be described as pure, proud smugness.

"A bitch."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"PFFFFFTHAHAHAHAHA!"

Nero clutched his stomach and fell to the floor, laughing his his ass off. Even amidst his laughter, he could hear everyone else following suit, a symphony of bodies collapsing to the floor and kicking their feet into the air.

"H-Haha! G-Good one Eileen! Funniest shit I've heard all da-heh-haHAHA!" Nero failed to calm down and just went right back to laughing like crazy.

"Y-Yeah! Good one babe!" Bo managed to get out before she started laughing again. Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus, and Gorty couldn't even talk, all of them still busting a gut at Eileen's statement. Even Eileen herself was slowly losing it to the room's wavelength and collapsed to the floor in a fit of giggles.

But amidst it all, as Nero finally managed to slowly calm down, he noticed an absence among all the laughter. Now that he thought of it, it felt like there had been an absence since all the discussion about human stuff started. And the sound of the classroom door opening and closing in a loud slam confirmed that absence for him.

Forgot Matt was even here, Nero slowly stood up, looking around to see that everyone was too caught up in their laughter to even notice something amiss. Curious where the society president was going, he got to his feet and made his way for the door, opening it to find Matt leaning against the wall just next to it. His face looked to be in a near permanent grimace with an almost miserable look in his eyes.

"What do you want?" Matt grumbled, not even looking at him. Not that Nero expected him to.

"Seemed weird that you weren't joining in. Aren't you the president of this thing?" Nero stepped outside and closed the door, leaning against the wall right beside Matt, who refused to look at him.

"Yeah?" Matt finally looked up at him in a seething glare, "And as president, I can do whatever I want. Why do you care, Mister Popular?"

"Kid, you're being less social than me right now. Trust me, as a professional, habitual loner, that's a really bad sign," Nero sighed and bumped his head against the wall. He had absolutely no idea what he was doing. This felt like something Luz and her friends were much more qualified for. Part of him wanted to just go back into the room, grab Luz, have her talk to Matt, and sit things out, but…

Well, in for a Snail…

"Why do you keep calling me kid? You called Gorty that too, and I'm pretty sure we're only two or three years younger than you!" Matt said, sounding exasperated. If nothing else, Nero was glad he was at least willing to talk.

"Aren't you and Gus, like, twelve or something?"

"I'm thirteen!"

"And I'm seventeen. How am I wrong to say you're a kid?"

"Doesn't explain everyone else."

Nero shrugged, "Like I said, force of habit. Also kinda hard not to when you're taller than most of your classmates."

"Sounds like the popular ones have all kinds of habits they just can't help," Matt muttered looking down, clearly trying to go unheard.

"I heard that!" Nero made it equally clear that it didn't work, "So, between "popular" students like me and Amity, the hell's your deal?"

"None of your business! Just go back in with the rest of this stupid club and its stupid members!"

"Well, Senior El Presidente," Nero drawled, throwing in a little bit of that Spanish language Luz frequently spoke with, "I would love nothing more than to leave you to your bitching and moaning, but unfortunately for you, I just joined this "stupid" club and am now one of its "stupid" members." He bent down slightly and glared at the now trembling club president, "And if I'm gonna be part of it, then I don't want to put up with your bullshit. So make it easier for both of us and spill it. What the fuck is your deal?"

For a few seconds more, Matt kept trembling in fear, but soon ceased and glared up at Nero, snarling, "You want to know what my deal is? My deal, is that I want power. I want drama! But I don't have either of those things! I'm the president, but no one listens to me because I'm a proven fraud who just wants the limelight. Ever since he came back, everyone still acts like Gus is the president, and it's even worse with that human coming over."

He pointed to himself with his thumb, "My deal is that I'm a jerk, plain and simple. I don't need or want some stuck up coven kid or rich girl swooping in taking away all the attention, but I don't have a say in that. So go back inside and enjoy your little kiddie kindness parade. It's what you all deserve anyway."

"… yeah, no. Not buying it."

"Wha-not buying it!?"

"For starters, you keep mentioning "popular" students like they killed your pet. Then there's how you reacted when I brought up your brother-"

"Leave Steve out of this," Matt sneered, being given pause when Nero glared down at him.

"Why? Think he'd want to know his kid brother's being a prick?" Nero asked, hoping for a rise to get the answers he was looking for.

"Tch. Doubt he'd actually care," Matt mumbled just loud enough for Nero to hear, leaving the older teen to sigh.

"Trust me, he would," Nero caught his attention and continued, "He talks about you, ya know? And… he does care about you. Wants to spend more time with you too." Matt didn't seem to believe him, so Nero shifted gears, "Haven't you tried talking to him?"

"Yeah right. He's never around," Matt groaned, finding the ceiling easier to glare at.

"I figured. You can thank the Emperor's Coven for that bullshit," The nod Nero received in response at least made it clear Matt agreed on that much.

"Whatever, like I even need him."

"Sounds to me like you do," And now Matt was glaring at him again. Once more, Nero glared in return, and he backed down. Maybe it was the recent talks with Luz's friends about Boscha earlier today, but between that, Matt's derogatory statements toward him and Amity due to them being higher in the school's so-called hierarchy, and the fearful reactions Matt gave him throughout this whole time, Nero was starting to get some ideas.

"So…" Matt slowly began, tearing Nero away from his musings, "How's my brother doing anyway?" His expression became bitter, "Considering that you actually get to see him more than me."

Yeah, I picked up on the whole jealousy thing already, little brat, "Last I saw, he's doing pretty good. Granted, haven't seen him since my mom ditched the coven, but he's been fairly popular there. One of their best even though he's just a scout," Nero shrugged, not wanting to mention how last he saw, Steve also seemed to be developing doubts in the system. On the off chance there were any prying eyes or coven loyalists lurking nearby, he didn't want to say or do anything that'd put him at risk.

He did, however, note that Matt's face grew ever so slightly more bitter, "Go figure. Steven Tholomule: Golden boy once again. First at Glandus and now in the Emperor's Coven. Why can't he just suck at something for once!?"

The way Matt mentioned Glandus high made Nero raise an eyebrow, "Steve went to Glandus? Didn't know that."

Matt nodded, "Top of his class and everything. All the students there respected him, but not-" He shook his head, "Whatever man! Can we shut up about my brother already? The kids and teachers at Glandus compared me enough to him already, I don't need that crap following me here."

And I have the answer I was looking for, Nero narrowed his eyes, recalling everything he'd heard about Glandus High.

From everything his mom and the Blight twins told him, not to mention all those Glandus kids that got invited to the latter's parties, the place was all about survival of the fittest, the most powerful students bossing around anyone they deemed inferior while the teachers sat back and allowed it to happen. Hexside had its fair share of problems, but even at its worst, it may as well have been a peaceful sanctuary compared to Glandus at its best. But Steve didn't strike him as a Glandus graduate, unless he did a lot of maturing somewhere after leaving. Still, Matt didn't seem like much, and if he attended Glandus High before transferring here…

That explains a lot, Nero sighed and tried to shift gears, "Look, Matt, I don't know if you've noticed, but Hexside sure as fuck doesn't work like Glandus does."

"Gee, I hadn't noticed."

"And why do you think that is?" Nero's tone grew increasingly annoyed.

"Because as far as they care, I'm not strong enough to deserve respect," Matt huffed the statement out like it was a point of fact.

"If this whole conversation's taught me anything, it's because you're a prick," Nero grunted and glared, earning a glare in kind.

"Of course I'm a prick! That's how things work! You step over people and they fall in line! That's how people like you, my brother, and the Blight girl got where you are!"

"You seriously think that?"

"I know that!"

"Then how come Gus is running the show and you're not, President?" Matt prepared a retort, only to find that he couldn't get a word in. Silence dominated the hallway as Nero shrugged and continued, "I may not have known him for long, but from the looks of it, people prefer Gus to you because he isn't a jerk to them. Same deal with Luz."

"Tch, more like they like her because she's an interesting commodity," Matt grunted and crossed his arms, "She's the only human on the isles, so of course the Human Appreciation Society would like her. And she gets to validate all of Gus's stupid human stuff too."

Alright, let's try that. "Sounds like you're just as pissed Gus has more to give to this place than you do, Mister Proven Fraud," Nero pointed out, needling to see if he could figure anything else out.

"Hey, I have plenty to give!" Matt retorted in anger as Nero snorted.

"Okay, so where is it?"

"In a wooden chest in the room. I got it all from a Trash Slug on the beach," Matt sounded almost proud of that.

"Huh, was wondering on that," Nero muttered in thought, tapping his chin before facing Matt again, "So why don't you do your job and show everyone else?"

"What part of "proven fraud" did you not understand?" Matt asked in anger while Nero rolled his eyes.

"Then we'll just get Luz to verify it. That's at least part of why she's here."

"Weren't you listening? She's only here to do that for Gus. Anything I show, she'll just discredit."

"… okay, tell you what," Nero pinched between his eyes, getting sick of this brat, "Let's make a deal." He formed a spell circle with his left hand and stuck it through to create an Everlasting Oath, "You'll show off the stuff you brought to this thing, and if Luz ends up discrediting most of it, I'll leave the Human Appreciation Society and never come back. If you're right, then that's one less "popular" kid you have to put up with."

Matt took a step back, staring at Nero's outstretched hand in shock. He was at a complete loss for words before finally stuttering, "A-And if she doesn't?"

"And here I thought you were sure that she would," Nero let himself smirk a bit at Matt's indignation before shrugging, "If I win, nothing really happens. The Human Appreciation Society just continues as normal. Sounds like you got nothing to lose and everything to gain here."

Well, that wasn't quite the case, since there was something Nero was hoping to get out of this. Namely, Matt being less of a complete ass.

Nero didn't feel like he was getting anywhere with this brat. He wasn't like his human roommate, who could get people to open up beyond their worst aspects as easily as breathing. His entire attempt just made him wish all the more that she was handling this and not him. He had no desire to play nice with Matt anymore, but he got the feeling that getting aggressive with him would just prove his point. So, he needed a different approach.

And that approach was… get Matt into a situation where he'd have interact with everyone on their level. He wanted power and drama? Then he'd have to get it by playing things the way Gus and Luz did. Maybe Matt would enjoy it enough that he'd cease being a such a standoffish prick and stop caring about those things altogether.

Nero doubted it, but short of punching him in the face, this was the only other thing he could think of to help with his issues. After all, he learned to enjoy the Blight twins's company and better understand them, so perhaps Matt just needed to learn via the same method of forced interaction.

"I…" Matt looked between Nero's face and outstretched hand and attempted a smug smirk, "I accept." He shook the hand, sealing the Everlasting Oath before the glow faded and he walked for the door, "Now, let's get this over with, soon to be former member."

Rolling his eyes and shaking his head, Nero followed back inside, where the other members of the Human Appreciation Society were still inspecting and marveling over everything Gus brought to the table, with Luz taking the time to explain them in further detail while Amity was having an awkward conversation with Willow. Nero couldn't tell what they were saying, but his eyes soon fell on Gus, who was sitting ramrod straight in his seat with a nervous look on his face.

"Ahem! Human Appreciation Society," Matt announced as he took to the front desk, "Take your seats. I have something important to showcase to you all."

Despite some hesitation, everyone else sat down, Nero taking his spot next to Gus, who whispered to him, "Dude, what were you thinking?"

"You overheard?" Nero whispered back, surprised. He expected Luz to have overheard or eavesdropped in on the conversation (they certainly weren't quiet), but Gus threw him for a loop.

Gus nodded as Matt used his Construction magic to lift the wooden chest to the table, "You do know that if he brought more fakes, that's game over for you, right?"

"Honestly?" Nero shrugged casually as Matt made his declarations of having "authentic" human artifacts this time, "I'm not all that worried." Matt did say that he got this stuff from a Trash Slug, and that's where Aunt Eda used to a good chunk of her human shit. Odds are high that it's legit.

"And if Luz says they're not real?" Gus asked, wincing as Matt struggled to open the chest with his bare hands.

"Why wouldn't she?"

"Uh, because it's Matt? Because there's a high chance that they're fake? And because even if they're somehow not, he's a total jerk?" Nero said nothing in response to Gus, just watching as Matt continued to struggle. He contemplated if he should step in and help open it. After watching him struggle for a solid minute, everyone else's faces shifting from annoyed to pity to even some measures of sympathy despite Matt being… well, Matt. With a sigh, Nero decided something had to be done.

"Gus, you know her. You really think Luz would do that?" Nero asked as he stood up to help Matt open it, not giving Gus a chance to respond. He didn't have any real faith in the club's prick of a president, even if he was highly certain that the "artifacts" in question were real this time.

But he had complete faith in Luz.

"Okay Pres, step aside," Nero grabbed Matt by the hood and put him down just behind him. Holding the wooden crate down at the side with one hand, he grabbed the lid with the other and casually tore it off the hinges, revealing the contents inside as everyone gathered around.

Among the various human wares, he saw a set of old, rustic armor with a belt that had a bird emblem on its belt, a black DVD case, a surprisingly intact figurine of what looked like a blue-haired cat lady wearing what could only be described as white straps glued to the intimate areas and literally nothing else, a large yellow head that had a silver bolt at the top and a blank, open mouthed smile, and a shimmering locket of pure silver with a rose design that caught Nero's eye the most.

"Whoa! That looks like armor from the human Savage Ages! I read about this stuff in a few books my sister lent me," Gorty picked up the helmet and put it on, surprisingly managing to fit his horn.

"Wait, what?" Matt's question was cut off by Luz, who took a closer look at the helmet Gorty wore.

"Actually, we called it the Middle Ages. I don't know too much about it, but that definitely looks like armor from back then. I've seen replicas in museums back on Earth, but it's weird seeing actual, authentic medieval armor like this."

"Cool!" Gorty closed the helmets mask and started walking around with it, Luz joining him and answering whatever questions he had. Meanwhile, Amity picked up the cat woman figurine with slight recognition while Bo and Eileen picked up the DVD case and opened it.

"Looks like these are all by the same human," Eileen said while Bo took one of the damaged CDs out and turned to Matt.

"Any idea who this is?" Bo asked, Nero walking over to get a better look, seeing a man with long flowing pink hair, sunglasses atop his head, a purple fur coat, and a star beneath his right eye and on one of his black polished nails. He was doing a rather flamboyant pose and winking to the camera, the word "Sergei" hanging above him.

"Uh…" Matt was still too baffled, likely from his showcase being proven thus far as legit. Eyes darting to Luz, he stammered, "Huma-uh, I mean, Luz. Could you maybe, uh, tell us what this is?"

Luz stopped chatting with Gorty about the human Middle Ages and looked over, "Oh! I know that guy. He's a pretty popular idol singer back on Earth." She shrugged, "Never really found his music all that interesting though, but that's just me."

"Too bad it's damaged," Amity checked out the CD the others were holding before looking down at the figurine in her hands, "I would've loved to hear more Earth music like those Felicia soundtracks you showed me."

"Is that who the figure's supposed to be?" Nero asked, his bet with Matt forgotten for the moment.

Luz stepped in and looked at the figure alongside Amity, "Yup! She was a pretty huge singer back in the 90s. Led a musical group and everything. My parents were pretty big fans of hers, so I grew up with a lot of her soundtracks." She looked away, blushing slightly, "Also, I… may have realized a few things about myself thanks to her."

Nero wasn't sure what Luz meant by that.

"Why's she a cat though?" Gus asked, now wearing the yellow, smiling head.

"Yeah, I'm wondering that too," Nero admitted, scratching his head, "Because I'm pretty sure humans don't have anything cats have."

"I mean, maybe it's just a costume for drawing a crowd?" Matt suggested, voice rising as he sounded more invested, "Humans could just be really interested in cat women for some reason."

Nero skeptically shook his head, "Matt, there's no way that's-"

"No, he's actually right on the money."

"Eh?" Nero and Matt simultaneously gawked at Luz's answer, everyone else nodding along (or in Gus and Gorty's cases, bobbing their masks).

"Yeah, we learned a while back that humans are VERY obsessed with cats," Bo happily pointed out, "Kind of like how we have a bunch of cat-themed covens."

"A pretty big chunk of their internet is dedicated to cat-related things," Eileen added.

"You would not believe the amount of stuff Gus showed me about Cat Cafes over a year ago. I honestly didn't think they were real until Luz confirmed they exist," Willow shook her head, smiling.

"I saw those too and couldn't believe my eyes. They're just so cute!" Amity gushed, hands to her face to muffle her squeeing. Of course, she realized the stares she was garnering and turned red, immediately trying to recompose herself, "I-I mean, I'm glad that humans take joy in such things and greatly respect them for it, even if I do not share their extreme opinions on the undeniable, objective, and beyond factual cuteness of cats."

… ooookay. Don't think I've ever seen Amity do that before. It's actually kind of- Nero tried his best not to start snickering at Amity's attempt to save face, only to fail as one by one, everyone started doing just that. The youngest Blight began glaring with puffed cheeks, only to stop when Willow put a hand to her shoulder.

"Girl, you know you don't have to hide yourself like that, right?" The Plant Witch asked, Amity blushing once more and rubbing at the back of her neck, the smile making it clear she was touched by her words.

Still don't see the appeal with this whole cat thing, but sure, Nero shrugged. He'd never really been much of an animal person in general. Sure, he liked birds such as his mother and aunt's Palismen, but even then, they weren't really his thing. Even now, he really couldn't think of any type of animal that truly spoke to him. For some reason, that bugged the hell out of him, but he couldn't explain why.

Out the corner of his eye, however, he did see a small light slowly start to enter Matt's eyes as he asked another question, "So, uh, aside from cats, is there anything else humans find interesting?"

"Lots of things!" Gorty jumped in, the rest of the Human Appreciation Society – and Luz and Amity and Willow – seeming taken aback by Matt's sudden interest. "For starters, most humans don't live on small islands or Titans like we do, but giant landmasses called Continents, which all have their own histories and cultures that-"

Within seconds of Gorty engaging Matt's question with a long recount of everything he'd learned about humans, everyone else quickly got over their surprise and just as much started engaging with him. They talked about everything they knew about humans, their history, their hobbies, and their commodities, with Luz eventually stepping in to help clarify a few details here and there. With everyone now talking, Nero found himself easily stepping into the conversation as well, wanting to know as much as he could and asking whatever questions popped into his head about Earth and its people. He tried to pay attention to everything said and asked, both by him and others, and while nothing on Sparda came up, that was honestly in the back of his mind right now.

He just couldn't stop smiling amidst all this talking about humans.

And from out the corner of his eye, he could see Matt Tholomule slowly engaging more and more with a smile of his own that wasn't the least bit smug or sardonic. He was asking his own questions about humans – quite a few about how they made their houses and buildings compared to those of the Boiling Isles – and coming to his own observations that he shared.

More than that, however, was how he went on about this with barely a hint of his previous attitude. Oh it cropped up a couple times, but it looked like he was enjoying himself too much to keep it up, and it lessened the longer things went on.

At the same time, Matt seemed to be actively avoiding talking with Gus, content to talk with everyone else. Nero saw that this was mutual, as Gus (still wearing the novelty mask) just as much avoided talking with him, and they both seemed content with talking around rather than with each other. While Nero wasn't sure what their deal was beyond Matt's petty jealousy, he wasn't sure if he could do anything about it short of locking them in a room until they sorted everything out which… yeah, he wasn't gonna do that.

Unless he needed to, obviously. But this felt like something they needed to sort out. It felt like dumb luck that what Nero did was working, and the last thing he needed was to push said luck and ruin his newly budding friendships right when they started.

Before long, the bell screamed out for the final time, signaling that classes were over and it was time to head home. Nero felt his smile falter as he filled with disappointment. He didn't know if it was the company or that the odd connection he felt to Earth was being satisfied, but he was having a lot of fun. It was damn near as much of a joy as demon hunting and kicking ass, if he was being honest with himself.

And now it was over.

"Drat! I better get going. My dads worry easily," Bo quickly made her way to the door before going "Oop! Almost forgot!" and ran back to Eileen, who closed her eye as Bo kissed the side of her head, "See you tomorrow Leeny!"

"Bye Bo!" Eileen happily waved, watching her girlfriend leave before casually walking out the door herself, "I better get going too. Have to stay late to help tutor one of my classmates."

Gorty followed not long after she was gone, pointing to the knights helm still on his head, "Hey, can I keep this?"

"Uh, s-sure, go right ahead," Matt uneasily answered, causing Gorty to fist pump the air as he ran out, leaving Nero and his friends alone with Matt. The Human Appreciation Society president faced them, looking even more awkward than Nero felt before managing, "So, that was… not bad."

"Yeah, I had a lot of fun too," Nero said, regaining a bit of his smile, at the very least knowing there would be a next time.

"So, Pres, sounds like you're cool with Nero being a full-time member, right?" Gus asked, having taken off his novelty mask. The question got a surprised look from Matt as he looked down at his wrist. From the looks of it, he'd gotten so into the discussions about humans that he completely forgot about his and Nero's deal. As if on cue, their wrists started glowing and quickly faded, signifying that the Everlasting Oath had been completed.

"Yeah, sure. He can stay. I guess your new friend isn't bad. For some popular asshole, of course," His smile regained some of his old smugness as he stretched and headed for the door, "Welp! I'm heading home. If you want to take anything I brought home, feel free." He rolled his eyes, though the light in them seemed almost endearing, "Not like a really care or anything."

With that as his final word, he exited the room, leaving the five of them by themselves before Nero felt a stinging sensation in his arm. Wincing in pain, he looked down and saw Amity, fist held up with an angry expression.

"Really Nero? You did an Everlasting Oath with Matt?" She asked as Nero blanched. Leave it to Amity to notice the tiny details.

"Hey, it was all I could think of to get him to drop the attitude," Nero held his hands up in surrender, "Also, I was pissed."

"Still, you really shouldn't have done that," Amity glared, but there was something in her eyes he couldn't make out. There was an anger, but it didn't feel directed at him. At least, not entirely.

"Wait, you made a bet with Matt?" Luz asked, jumping in front of Nero. Unlike Amity, she didn't sound mad or bitter, just curious, "What and why?"

"Something he really shouldn't have. Honestly, kinda just feels like luck that he won," Gus added, the novelty hat under his right arm.

"Fair enough," Nero stretched, willing to admit that it probably wasn't one of his best ideas. Then again, he wasn't an ideas person to begin with, "I'll explain it on the way home."

Luz nodded and pointed to the chest Matt brought, "So, are we gonna take anything home with us? He said he was cool with it."

"More like he doesn't care," Amity shrugged, still holding the figurine, "I think I'll take this. Like I said, really enjoyed the Felicia music you showed me, so might as well have the collectibles too."

"I'm keeping this!" Gus put the mask back on, clearly enjoying having another cool thing from Earth. At least Nero assumed he collected these things. If he was the previous president, odds were pretty high.

Willow picked up the DVD case Bo and Eileen left behind, "I think I'll take this home with me. I've actually read a few books from the library about CD repair, so maybe I can use them for a workout mix?" She faced Nero and Luz, "You two want anything?"

"I'm good," Luz shook her head, looking down sadly, "Honestly, I'd rather avoid filling my room with too much stuff from Earth." Nero wanted to ask what was wrong, but Luz very quickly smiled and looked to him, "Anything you want to bring home?"

Nero blinked at the sudden shift, opening and closing his mouth as he wanted to say something, but couldn't. It was clear as day that Luz was homesick, and with the portal door gone, there wasn't anything they could do about that right now. He wanted to ask if she was okay or tell her not to worry, that they'd find a way to get her home, yet current company held his tongue. Airing her problems in front of others like this would probably do more to scare her off opening up about them. Hell, he especially didn't want to force out Luz's issues in front of Amity and end up hurting both of them.

Besides, with everything else that happened today, he wanted things to end with as little drama as possible. However, he made a mental note to at least try talking about it with her privately tomorrow. Even if he didn't have any answers right now, he wanted to at least help figure something out.

Titan, I suck at this shit… He looked away, glowering for a brief moment before walking up to the open chest, "There might be something I'd like to bring with me. You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up." His friends nodded and all left in a group as he stayed to peer into the chest, a silver shine flickering within, "There it is."

Nero once again stared at the rose design of the silver locket, this time picking it up. He held it by the chain and brought it closer to his eyes, examining every detail to get a clue on why this thing felt like it was calling out to him.

Like it wanted him to understand something.

Taking the locket itself into his hands, he opened it, eyes briefly going wide at the images within, and the two humans in them.

To the left was the image of a man with slicked-back white hair and bright blue eyes, one of which was hidden behind a monocle. He seemed to be wearing a fancy purple coat with a white scarf and a red gem wrapped around his neck. To the right, however, was a pretty woman with long, wavy blonde hair and gray eyes. She wore an elegant black dress with a red, seemingly silk shawl draped over it, giving her – and the man at her side – a rather noble appearance. Both of them held smiles and gazes that showed how content they were with each other.

Nero knew how lockets were designed, with the two images inside facing each other when closed, and yet with it opened now, with the two humans looking at him, he felt…

"Why do they feel familiar?" Nero asked aloud, rubbing a thumb against one of the pictures. He didn't know how to describe this weird connection other than that it felt as strong as what he'd been feeling when looking at the human world for the first time. Walking up to the window, he stared at his reflection in it before looking down at the locket again, closing it up and putting it on.

With the locket now dangling around his neck, he touched the rose emblem on it, briefly smiling at the unknown warmth it seemed to fill him with.

"Nero!"

Hearing his name, Nero looked down and saw Luz, Amity, Gus, Willow, and even Edric and Emira all waving down at him from the ground below. His smile still bright, he waved back from the second floor of Hexside and was just about to join them, until…

What the- Nero blinked, believing himself to be seeing things, but it looked like there were two other people just behind his friends; a man and woman, the former with an arm wrapped around the latter's shoulder in a tender embrace.

Two people who were looking up with love and care in their eyes, smiling and waving at him.

Two people who looked exactly like the images of the man and woman in his new locket.

Nero blinked several more times trying to make sure it wasn't a trick of the eyes, even rubbing his eyes and blinking again.

They were still there behind his increasingly confused friends.

Opening the window, Nero stuck his head out, pointing as he asked, "Hey, guys, who're-"

Nero froze, seeing that the man and woman were gone. His friends all looked to where he was pointing behind them, turning back when they saw nothing.

"Nero, are you alright?" Luz asked. Nero could only rub the back of his head and wonder what he just saw.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Guess it's just been a long day." Seriously, today lasted way longer than it should've. Where the fuck did all that time go?

"I hear that, Claw Boy!" Edric called out, "How about you come down and we can all head home?" Liking the sound of that plan, Nero nodded and jumped down from the window, quickly joining everyone as he noticed his backpack in Edric's hands, which the Blight held up, "Stopped by your locker and got your things for you."

"Thanks. Knew I was forgetting something," Nero took the backpack and slung it over his shoulder.

"What are friends for?" Emira patted Nero's shoulder, drawing another smile out of him as they all made their way home. All the while, however, Nero's thoughts kept going back to the two humans he saw just behind his friends. As they walked, he opened the locket and looked at them in picture form, wondering just who they could've been.

"Who are they?" Nero looked to see Luz peering from his side, staring at the images in the locket. After returning his gaze to them, Nero tried to articulate the things he felt – that sense of familiarity – from just looking at the two, but struggled to find the right words. He thought and thought and thought some more, until finally, he settled on the one thing he could think to say.

"I wish I knew."

Chapter Text

Lilith hummed to herself as she walked down from her room, Coronis perched on her shoulder. She joined King in the hallway as she carried her notebooks and documents in hand. The previous night, she'd promised (or more like King pestered her until she promised) to spend this morning helping him figure out more about his two fathers, Sparda and the mysterious skull-headed warrior. Despite her complaints of doing it so early, Lilith went along, having just as much a vested interest in discovering more, given that Sparda was her son's grandfather.

Besides, much like how King believed them to still be out there somewhere, Lilith hoped it to be true as well. Perhaps reuniting a father and son would help make up, in however a small capacity, for the harm she'd wrought on the poor child. Perhaps it would even give Nero a chance to finally meet at least one of his grandparents. Something he'd never get the chance to know because she was too much of a complete and utter fucking coward to just walk up to where her parents lived and tell them-

Biting back, she froze for the briefest second, so much so that King thankfully never noticed as they stopped by the kitchen for a quick breakfast, noticing Luz sitting there. The human teenager was snoring damn near as loudly as Eda, surrounded by books and energy drinks. Clearly, she'd pulled one Hell of an all-nighter, and based on the books she'd been reading, it seemed she was back to figuring out portals to the human realm.

Hearing a whine, she looked over and saw Selki poke at Luz's dangling leg, food bowl in hand. The little Selkidomus noticed Lilith and scooted over to her, eyes pleading for food. Smiling and petting her, Lilith quietly walked around Luz and opened the fridge, finding Selki's food before pouring it into her bowl. As the Selkidomus ate up, Lilith looked back at the snoring human, feeling a guilt pang in both her heart and Valknut.

She's so desperate to find a way back home, and who's fault is it that she's trapped here? Lilith looked to the floor in shame. She was the one who captured Luz to draw Edalyn out. By her actions, she'd forced the human to take drastic measures in saving her mentor. And by her carelessness, she got herself captured, forcing the human and her son to do battle against the Emperor, leaving Luz trapped in a position where she had no choice but to destroy her only way home.

It was all because of her, all because she was so obsessed with undoing the mistake of her teenage years, yet she didn't dare voice it. Not now, at least. If she did, this… this rot that was festering inside her, it would all come burning out with no way to stop it.

She'd felt it for a long time, yet today of all days, for some unfathomable reason, it felt like it was getting worse.

Noticing that one of the books Luz was studying had fallen to the wayside, Lilith picked it up and saw the title: "Human World for Idiots".

"Hmm," Lilith stared at the book before getting an idea and turning to King, "King, perhaps we could try helping Luz with her own research before we begin our own?"

"What? But you promised-"

"SHSH!" Lilith knelt down and quickly placed a finger to King's lips, waiting a few seconds as Luz snored before she continued, "I know, and we will, but the huma-I mean, Luz, seems to be struggling, so I think we should help her. We're more awake than she is, so perhaps we'll find something that she missed?"

Besides, she needed some distraction from the building negativity. Adding this onto her current workload seemed like a good way to keep busy.

"Fine, but after that, we get right to figuring out my dads, okay?" King huffed, accepting the book Lilith handed him as she took a few more from the pile Luz was currently using as a pillow. Carrying those, plus her Sparda notes in hand, she felt something nibble at her leg and looked down to see Selki, who'd just finished her breakfast.

"Would you like to join us?" Lilith asked, getting an affirmative, but quiet, clap from the Selkidomus. With that positive answer, the three of them made their way for the living room, Lilith taking her seat on the couch while King sat on the floor in front of her and began reading. Selki decided to take a seat next to King, who gave her some affectionate head pats without looking away from the book.

"Not seeing how this is gonna help Luz," King flipped a page, "This all looks like public library stuff. I don't think they have anything about human door portals like what Eda had."

"We might as well try, but I don't disagree," Lilith read through her own books in search of something noteworthy, admiring all the notes and details Luz had written down on the pages. It still astounded her how well Edalyn had taught the human. She didn't seem like the type to ever in a million years mentor anyone, yet here a student was, flourishing under her and learning a lost art that Lilith delighted in learning herself. Perhaps Edalyn just needed to find the right student to come into her own?

Or perhaps she's a far better teacher than you'll ever-

Lilith shook her head again and kept reading through the book and all the notes Luz had taken. There were several theories on how to get between the realms, but they were all either impossible to get towards – finding a portal in a lower circle of Hell – or just flat out one-way trips like Trash Slugs. She at least knew that Trash Slugs came to and from the human realm through portals created by Titan's Blood, but the only known reservoirs of such were found near the bottom of the Boiling Sea, which no human or witch could ever hope to survive.

Ugh, what I wouldn't give for some sort of key to the human realm to just magically appear in front of me, Lilith stared down at King, who seemed to be impassively reading through his own book, telling her that he wasn't finding anything. Either that or he was bored. Honestly, the skull mask made him hard for her to read at points.

"Hey, mom. You busy?"

Lilith looked up from her book, Coronis fluttering around before landing on her head, as she turned to see her son walk into the living room.

"Sup cos!" King greeted his older… cousin. Lilith wasn't sure if she'd get used to that. Though she supposed since King was adopted by Edalyn, he and Nero would be cousins regardless.

"Do you need anything, my little raven?" Lilith put the books to her side as Nero took a deep breath and sat down on the floor next to King and Selki.

"Something I'm wondering on," He began, "Since you used to run the Emperor's Coven, I was wondering if you've heard anything about groups that went against His Royal High Ass."

Lilith looked at her son with worry, "Why do you want to know?"

Nero shrugged and looked down at the floor, "Because it feels like I'm doing jack shit to actually fight against that fucker. And I get it, we're trying to make money for living and figure out the portal back to Earth, but…" He clenched his fist, "Belos is gonna come for us eventually. I just want to be able to do more to stop him." Nero turned his gaze to her, seeming almost pleading, "I figured maybe finding some rebels would be a good place to start and figured you'd know someone." He tried his best to smile, which became somewhat genuine as he affectionately pet Selki, who leaned into it, "Hell, maybe we could all join? Make it a… y'know, family thing?"

"Ooooooh! I so want in on that!" King jumped for joy, "And if there isn't one, we can start our own and fuck Belos up!"

"Looks like I'm a bad influence," Nero smirked at King cursing.

"Dude, I lived with Eda for eight years. You really think I wouldn't have used any big curses by now?"

"Point," Nero conceded before looking back at his mother, "So, anything you can tell me, Mom?"

Lilith wanted to nod, and was at least glad her son wanted to include her in this, but she wasn't sure if Nero should've been asking her these kinds of questions.

After all, you'll just give your son all the wrong answers.

Choosing to ignore that voice of doubt in her head, she answered, "I don't know if that's a good idea, Nero. My experience with rebel groups hasn't exactly been pleasant. Even knowing that they had every right to go against the Emperor, the ones I've encountered often went too far. By any chance, have you encountered a group of rogues who summon Demon Lords from the lower circles?"

"Those same guys who summoned the Leviathan?" King asked, comforting Selki at the reminder of her mother's killers. Lilith could only nod, remembering what her sister told her of their encounter on the Simmering Shoals.

It terrified her to know the gargantuan monstrosity her son had fought, and angered her that both it and the Golden Guard dared to hurt him. Yet it made her so proud to know that he gave as good as he got. It made her proud to know how strong her son had become.

A strength you've done nothing but hamper by being a coddling old-

Lilith breathed in deep, suppressing that line of thought once more.

"I actually ran into them before that. Snuck out one time and saw them summoning a frog fuuuuuuu…" Nero froze and quickly course corrected, "I mean, I ran into them when-" Only to pause and sigh in reluctance, "Okay, yeah, it was when I was sneaking out behind your back."

"… putting that aside for now," Lilith sighed in kind, understanding why her son did that, even if she was still adjusting to being accepting of it, "I've encountered those rogues a few times, and they're nothing but bad news. They sacrifice dozens upon dozens of innocent people to summon those Demon Lords in the name of their so-called 'greater good'."

You're one to talk, you sychophantic Coven Crony.

Stop it! Lilith pinched between her eyes, I-I'm not that person anymore.

Are you?

"Mom?"

"Huh?" Lilith blinked and looked to her son, King, and Selki. Seeing the worry in their eyes, she quickly put on a smile and tried her best to seem okay, "Sorry, just a sudden dizzy spell is all." Before any of them could say anything, she continued, "In any case, as far as other potential rebellion organizations against the Emperor's Coven that didn't stoop to such lows, there have been… a few…" Lilith buried her face into her hands, "A few that I might have helped put down."

She refused to look at anyone in the room. She just couldn't feel good, knowing that all those people suffered because of her. How she helped gather and arrest the dissenters when their hideouts were found, how she helped cart them away to the Conformatorium when they couldn't even fight back, and how one by one, they were all petrified over the years. Some of them were still statues standing outside the very prison once housing them, and others? Smashed to rubble, just so they could make room for more.

And it only took your sister's arrest and the threat on your son's life to finally get it through your head just how awful you truly were. Because you don't care about anything unless it suddenly affects you.

SHUT. THE FUCK. UP! Lilith once more tried to silence that voice and took deep breathes, trying to keep as composed as possible when she faced her son, "I do know of at least one rebel group that's still active."

"Who are they?" Nero, despite continuing the discussion, still looked upon her with worry.

"They call themselves the Bards Against the Throne. Or the BATs, for short."

Nero looked over to King, who shrugged, "Don't look at me, I've never heard of them. Eda never really went out to join or hear about any rebel groups. She was honestly way more focused on her personal life." He started counting off with his claws, "Making enough to get by, figuring out how to live with her curse-"

Lilith flinched at that last one. Only Coronis noticed, if him fluttering back down to her shoulder and pecking her was anything to go by.

"-and taking care of me and Hooty. I don't think she ever gave herself time for anything else."

Huh, that's… Lilith's eyes went wide for a bit, realizing that she and Edalyn had something else in common. Outside the Emperor's Coven and making sure to provide for her son, she never truly allowed herself to have much of a social life at all, though even before then, she'd never been much of a social butterfly. It was… almost reassuring to know that they were more alike than she first assumed.

And whose fault is it that she couldn't have a social-

"So! The BATs," Lilith cut off that train of thought with a rebellion of her own, "They primarily specialize in freeing any wild witches that the Emperor's Coven captures. As the name implies, they employ Bardic Magic, both to disrupt the coven's own and restrain them. Personally, I've never encountered them, but I've kept up with all their appearances, and they've shown up in almost every town on the Boiling Isles, though they've yet to make any major appearances Bonesborough."

"Any idea where we could find them?" Nero asked, sounding eager to join.

"Maybe you don't have to," King suggested, "We know Belos's been increasing coven activity in Bonesborough lately, so that means they'll probably be arresting a lot of wild witches. Wild Witch arrests will draw the BATs attention, so we can let them come to us!"

"Huh, good idea, cos," Nero smiled and high-fived the little demon, though the very thought of her son doing so filled Lilith with a deep worry.

"I'm… not so sure that's wise."

"What? Why not?" Nero asked as he, King, and Selki all looked to her, forcing Lilith to swallow and explain what she feared most.

"Nero, it's just that, well…" She stood up and gestured towards herself, "Most rebel movements on the Boiling Isles aren't going to have a high opinion of Emperor's Coven members, former or otherwise."

Her son could only shrug, "I mean, the BATs don't really sound like "most" from what you've said. Hell, even if they hold a grudge, I don't see why it's not a good idea to try and find them." Nero pointed to himself and reminded her, "I like to fight, and their focus is on freeing people, so I can do all the asskicking. Y'know, a distraction while they're saving wild witches."

Lilith sighed again, "We don't know that, my little raven. Everything I've heard paints them well, yet I don't know if we can go off rumors alone." Without realizing it, she began to pace, "And if they want to take their anger out on former coven members, who's to say that their rage wouldn't extend to the family of those same former members? If we try to seek them out, you'd be putting yourself right in the cross-hairs. They'd trap you and they… they'd hurt you. Or worse."

And it would all be because you threw your lot in with the Emperor. It doesn't matter what you do, Lilith. Your choices will always damn your family.

"Mom, if it comes to that, I think I can handle it," Nero replied, sounding more than a bit annoyed.

"I know you can handle yourself! But if something happens, it would be because of me and-" Lilith cut herself off and pinched between the eyes again, trying to stave off the stress and headache as her brain kept spiraling to the worst possible outcomes for her son. She just couldn't not think about them because… because…

Because you can't let him grow beyond you.

"Uh… mom?"

Because the minute he does, there won't be a need for you anymore.

Lilith's breathing grew more erratic. Her skin became itchy.

"L-Lilith?"

Because you don't care about your son. Only how me makes you feel.

Selki's chirping whined between the voices. A sharp pain ran through Lilith's spine.

Because he's a prop to you. A means to ease the guilt in that shriveled husk of a heart. All because you're a burden. All because you don't deserve to be happy.

"MOM!"

"WHAT!?" Lilith shrieked, her voice echoing with a deep reverb. She looked upon her son and his companions, her vision sharper and clearer than ever before, as all three looked back on her with terror. The sight filled Lilith with regret as she reached out to make amends, "N-No, Nero, I'm sorry. I didn't-"

Until she saw her hand, gasping at the black feathers erupting from her arm, nails sharpened to dark claws that grew sharper by the second.

"No. Nononono!" Lilith backed away and tore the feathers from her skin as quickly as they appeared, not giving a single thought to how her efforts tore away at her flesh in the process. But try as she might, the feathers (and her skin) kept growing back faster than she could tear at it.

Lilith screamed as she felt her bones shatter apart and pull back together, over and over and over again. She keeled over, her skin spasmed and expanded beneath her clothes, voices echoing out from everywhere. She could hear her son crying Edalyn's name, yelling something about potions. She could hear Edalyn yelling something about cushions. She could hear Luz saying something about deep breathes. She could hear King panicking and running. But beyond all those sounds, she heard a deeper, uglier voice overtake them all, reducing everything else to a whisper.

Feel this agony, Lilith. This is what you put her through for decades. This is the price for your sins. This is what you deserve.

"Please, m-make it stop," Lilith choked a sob out, feeling something sit her up as a glass was brought to her lips. Slowly, she felt that same voice fade into a quiet ringing, her bones putting themselves back together, her skin less itchy, and the pounding in her head coming down. With blurred vision, Lilith blinked and slowly opened her eyes, seeing her son and sister holding her with looks of worry. Nero looked so close to tears that it threatened to break her heart all over again.

"Mom, it's okay!" Nero blinked his tears away and pulled her into a hug, "You're… you're okay."

"Don't worry sis. The first time's always the worst. Trust me," Edalyn managed a smile, despite what had just happened. Lilith looked around, seeing that everyone was still here. Selki was rolling up to try and comfort her, Luz seemed glad that she was okay, and King was hiding behind Luz's leg. Everyone was still here. She was still here.

She was… okay.

"Sis, say something to help reassure me," Edalyn got her attention and she snapped out of it.

"You… you've had to live like this for the past thirty years?" Lilith managed, her voice so hoarse it hurt, "How have you managed something so horrible?" And how could I have done this to you?

Edalyn held her hand out to help her up, "Well, it ain't easy. Especially when you're stressed. Makes the curse go haywire like you were doing." Lilith finally took her hand and let her sister and son help her up, "But since you split the curse with me, the potions seem to be working again at least. By the way, you may want to pick up your left hand."

"My left hand?" Lilith lifted her left ha- "WHAT THE FUCK!?" She screamed alongside everyone else (barring Edalyn) and stared at where the bone stuck out of the stump, "What-where-HOW-WHY!?"

"In order: Side effect of the curse. It fell to the floor," Edalyn picked the hand up and helped reattach it with a snap, "Don't care how, and as for why?" She shrugged, "I don't know, but it's hilarious. Fucked up, but hilarious."

"Got anymore potions just in case?" Nero asked, still hovering near his mother and giving her worried glances. In a way, it reminded Lilith of how she did it whenever he got sick. Or how her own mother would do so for her as a child. It was probably the only time she could recall as a child when she held her mother's attention more than Edalyn. How it often made her long for getting sick just so it could happen again.

Safe to say I got my wish, Lilith bitterly thought, watching as Edalyn showed her and Nero all her potion stashes for managing the curse. Her sister handed one to Nero, who in turn held it out to her. Taking it, Lilith sighed and stared her reflection in the glowing, orange elixir. "Edalyn, I'm sorry," She barely managed without croaking, "It's because of me you're stuck like this. Had I known what the scroll would've done, I-" Lilith froze and closed her eyes, "No, that's no excuse. Even without knowing, I shouldn't have done it, and you've paid the price for my selfishness. I-"

"Mom," Nero rubbed at her back, "It's okay, remember?"

"He's right Lily. Now enough of the self-pity," Edalyn touched at Lilith's shoulder, "Sure, my life's been a shit show, but it's had plenty of ups. Honestly, I'm just glad I ain't alone with this anymore. I got you, and you got me." She smiled, and for a moment, Lilith thought she saw the bright-eyed, orange-haired girl she used to grow up with, "We'll figure this whole curse thing out together. Like sisters, okay?"

Lilith nodded, Nero helping her move to the couch as she heard Edalyn and Luz exit the house, master and student discussing the portal door. Lilith laid down, staring at the potion again before she heard the pitter patter of tiny footsteps, turning her head to see King cautiously walk up with Coronis hiding in his hands.

"You kinda scared him off. N-Not me though!" King held Coronis out while trying to puff his chest and seem tough. The act did draw a chuckle from her, so it helped a bit.

"I'm sorry, Coronis," Lilith took her Palisman in hand and nuzzled him against her cheek, "I didn't mean to scare you."

Coronis chirped, telling her it was okay. Okay. That word was being repeated by everyone ad nauseam. Her son was okay, her sister was okay, everyone here was okay.

… So why didn't things feel okay?

"Mom, what was all that about?" Nero asked, on his knee and at eye level with her. Lilith wanted to say it was nothing, but not even she would've believed a lie that blatant, so she tried as best she could to answer.

"There's… it's a lot going on and I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't even know if it has anything to do with the curse, or if that's just making it worse than usual."

"Usual?" Nero blinked, "How long's this been going on?"

Lilith opened her mouth to answer, but closed it and looked away, not sure if she could give an honest answer here. She wanted to, but there was the worry that trying to let it all out would just lead to the curse acting up again. Only this time her son would be hurt by her own hand. Lilith didn't deserve forgiveness for what she'd done already. Harming her son would be far, FAR worse.

"Hello little witchlet! Come here!"

"Wait, was that-" Blinking, Lilith recognized the voice, but thought she'd misheard. She stood up and slowly walked to the door, pressing her ear against it. Her son and King joined her in quiet confusion.

"I'm your mother, call me mom!"

Almost immediately, Lilith slammed the door open and immediately went wide eyes at the woman in front of her sister and the human.

"MOM!?" Lilith yelled, as did Nero, Luz, and King. Watching Mother check up on an impassive, downright annoyed Edalyn as she rambled on about the Petrification Ceremony, leaving Lilith to look and see how many years had gone by.

All of her brown hair had faded, giving way fully to an upward pointing gray. It felt like she'd gotten just a bit shorter in her old age, or Lilith failed to account for how she'd gotten so tall over the years. She also seemed to have gotten a new necklace with a large, odd looking rune on it. Perhaps she joined a club? Either that or it was a new fashion statement.

Yet despite those differences, she was still recognizably Mother. She still wore purple, ankle-length dresses, she still adorned herself with white fur around the collar, she still had Hawksley by her side in staff form, and she still wore those half-crescent glasses over her olive-green eyes.

The more Lilith looked, the more overwhelmed she became. Without even thinking, her legs moved forward, rushing past Eda before remembering herself and gently pushing her aside to greet their mom, "Mother! It's uh… it's good to see you again! And uh, speaking of the ceremony, I was there too!"

"Oh! Hello to you two, Sweet Flea!" Mother greeted back, happily brushing a strand of Lilith's hair aside, "Still dyeing your hair, I see. How cute! Now-"

"Hold up! Wait, wait, wait!" Nero ran forward, still wide-eyed as he stared Mother up and down. He looked at Lilith, pointed to mother, and asked, "Is she really your mom?"

"Yup. Meet Smother 1.0, kid," Edalyn groaned, still unhappy that Mother was here for some reason.

"Indeed my dear," She held out her hand, "Gwendolyn Clawthorne, at your service. But please call me Gwen. Now, if you'll excuse me-" Mother stopped and stared at Nero before she began blinking, wiping away at her eyes and even cleaning off her glasses. It was like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Slowly, she reached out and cupped Nero's cheeks, almost whispering, "You look just like Sweet Flea."

"I… do?"

Everyone could only watch in silence as Lilith realized that in her surprise to see Mother again, she'd forgotten her son's presence. It was something she'd always wanted, but never knew could've happened, and yet now here it was when no one was prepared.

I'd best just rip off the band-aid now. "M-Mother," Lilith walked behind Nero, hands gently on his shoulders, "I… I know this is going to be a lot for you to take in, but there's someone important I'd like you to meet."

She took a deep breath, and smiled proudly.

"This is Nero. He's my son."

Once more, silence filled the air, all focus on the three generations of Clawthornes as grandmother and grandson met for the first time. But the longer it went on, the more Lilith worried, especially with how unreadable Mother's expression was. Even more worrying was that her son shared the exact same face. Were they angry for the absence? Scared to finally meet? Confused and ready to bombard Lilith with questions she didn't know how to answer just yet?

Lilith wanted to do something to break the silence, but suddenly, a clatter filled the air. Looking down, she saw that Mother had let go of her staff and let it fall to the ground. Her entire body was rigid with shock, eyes slowly becoming glossy as tears formed in their corners. She covered her mouth, not a whispered word was said.

Until finally, they were.

"I've missed… so much."

Chapter Text

Eda stood there, completely quiet, not sure what to say or do with the sight in front of her. She watched as her sister introduced Nero to their mother for the first time – the fact that Mom didn't know shit about having a grandson was a whole other can of rat worms – and watched as the elder Clawthorne dropped her staff, tears filling her eyes.

"I've missed… so much."

The instant those words left her lips, Gwen all but leapt forward and pulled her daughter and grandson into a tight hug. Even from where Eda stood, and even with Mom's eyes shut tight, she could see the regret deep in them. Slowly, but surely, Lily returned the hug as tightly as possible, her own shoulders shaking in sadness. Nero didn't return the hug nearly as fast, seeming far more confused and put off by the sudden display of affection, all of which made Eda just as confused as her nephew, if not more.

Lily's acting like she hasn't seen or hugged Mom in forever. And Mom's never met Nero before? Eda would've thought Gwen at least visited and met her grandson during his early years and he simply never remembered. Hell, she had her own reasons for never talking about her mom, even if she thought about her and… and dad almost constantly. But the fact that Mom didn't even know Nero existed until now…

Eda was still iffy about her sister after everything, what with all the hardship her life's had thanks to the curse. She was almost as iffy about her mom, what with how she kept barging into her life with some new quack "cure" for her curse every single year, not getting the hint that her elixirs were good enough for keeping it at bay (or the fact that she quite literally tried everything else at this point already). But despite everything, it still hurt so much to see them like this.

Watching Mom pull away from the hug, removing her glasses and wiping the tears away, she quietly asked, "Please, tell me everything."

"Okay," Lily nodded, wiping away her own tears, "Let's take this inside first."

Taking Mom's hand and Nero's, Lily led them both inside. Both grandmother and grandson seemed almost limp, the former looking so hurt despite being in good health (especially for her age) and the latter too caught up in his own shock to get a word in. As the door closed, everyone was left outside to stare, Hooty stretching outward to join them while Graff zoomed to the front of the door, forming into a question mark.

"Are they gonna be okay?" Hooty's voice was disturbingly low, none of his usual annoying high-pitched exuberance present. Shit, he was even ignoring Graff's presence on his door!

"I'll… get back to you on that, Hooty," Eda muttered before she heard a sniffling at her side. She looked down and saw Luz's own eyes fill with tears as she tried to keep the snot in her nose. Hoooo boy, Eda pulled a handkerchief out from her hair and handing it to Luz, who took it and blew her nose. Rolling her eyes, Eda asked, "You hanging in there, kid?"

"Y-Yeah. I'm s-sorry it's just-" Luz sniffled again, Selki nuzzling her leg, "It's so beautiful!"

"Maybe if y-you're a dumb baby who likes that stuff, b-but…" King tried his best to sound tough, but quickly devolved into tears and hugged Luz's other leg, the Human Witch kneeling down and hugging him and Selki while Hooty gently wrapped himself around all of them. Once again, Eda was surprised by how tender and thoughtful the house demon was being, since he'd normally have constricted them in a bone crushing hug while balling his eyes out like a baby by now.

After what felt like forever, they all released from the hug, wiping their eyes (well, Luz did for Hooty) before Luz looked at Eda and asked, "Should we go in too?"

Eda shook her head, "Nah, give them some privacy. Besides, Mom's visits are never a good time for me."

"What do you mean?" Luz looked like she couldn't believe her, "I'd kill to see my mom right now, and Lilith looks so happy to see her. Why don't you want to see your mom? She seems so nice!"

"She is, but it's…" Eda crossed her arms with a sigh, kicking the dirt to try and take some of the edge off, "It's complicated kid." Hearing a thud, Eda looked and saw Luz, King, and Selki all sitting on the ground attentively and leaning forward. Getting an idea where this was going, Eda narrowed her eyes, "You're gonna hound me until I spill, aren't you?"

"You have a backstory, and I want to hear it. Backstories are my life!" Luz whispered that last part as it it were the most sacred thing in the whole of creation, hugging Selki, who chirped in kind.

"Plus, she's your mom, and you took me in, so when you think about it… that kinda makes her my grandma too!" King cheerfully added, causing Eda to repress a gasp. For some reason, hearing him say that filled her with a warmth that she just couldn't put a finger too.

"Come on Eda, pleeeeaaaaaase?" Hooty stretched right into Eda's face, which she was way too used to at this point. What she wasn't used to, was the pleading face Graff was forming on Hooty's door, which proved to be the last straw.

"Ugh. Fiiiiine," Eda groaned and leaned back, arms limb behind her before she straightened herself up. Giving her impromptu audience one final look, she relented and began, "It all started sometime after I was cursed. Mom started doing everything she could think of to try and help, but-"

"-I found out I was pregnant three weeks after."

Gwen listened in complete silence, seated at her eldest daughter's bedroom desk. After all but begging for answers, Lilith brought her here to explain. She started from the beginning with how she went to a bar and got drunk, later waking up in a rented apartment room, and even later learning of her pregnancy. Her Sweet Flea went quiet after that, nervously rubbing her wrists as she sat on the bed, leaving Gwen to look between her and Nero. The way her grandson crossed his arms and leaned against the door, glaring at her with a flat expression, left her feeling rotten on the inside.

"W-Why didn't you tell me?" was all Gwen could ask, voice trembling all the while Lilith looked to the floor. Her mind already started coming up with excuses for why her daughter never contacted her about this: She was too busy with the Emperor's Coven. She was too busy raising Nero. She was too busy teaching. And so on and so forth.

Yet not even Gwen could bring herself to believe any of those excuses. Her Sweet Flea had always been so self-sufficient, able to multitask and handle many responsibilities at once since youth. If anyone could find a way to balance all of those things at once, it was Lilith. And even if by some circumstance she couldn't, surely she would've called her and Dell to help out. They would've done so in a heartbeat, so why didn't she call or write to them?

Does she hate us? That thought threatened to bring more tears to Gwen's eyes. Why would Lilith hate them so much?

"I… I was…" Lilith swallowed, still refusing to look at anything but the floor, "I was scared. I didn't think I deserved your attention… and I didn't think you'd listen to me anyway."

Gwen blinked before her eyes went wide. Why would Lilith think she didn't deserve their attention? Why was she scared? Why did she not think they'd listen?

"Sweet Flea, you could've called. We… I… your father and I would've listened."

"Would you have?" Nero's question sounded downright biting.

"Yes, I would have," Gwen answered honestly.

"Really? Because the whole bit with you never showing up for seventeen fucking years doesn't exactly give me a shit ton of confidence."

"Nero!" Lilith admonished, though her son didn't seem to back down at all.

Sweet Flea, your son is more… vulgar than I was expecting, Gwen blinked a bit, surprised that grandson was so caviler about such language. She'd known Lilith to have always been such a clean mouthed child growing up. If anything, Edalyn was the one throwing curses left and right since she was eight years old. Lilith often got on her case for it, though pretty much all of them gave up on that and just let Eda swear as she pleased. Of all the things she expected from her grandson, this wasn't one of them.

Then again, she had no idea how her eldest raised him. She had no idea what he was like.

And she desperately wanted to know. More than anything, she wanted to make up for lost time.

Yet Nero didn't seem to want to give her that chance.

"Just saying," He told his mother before turning to Gwen, "You could've called us yourself. Or wrote. Or just… I don't know, something!"

"Nero!" Lilith once again admonished, and this time, her son seemed to relent. After the fact, however, she sighed and faced Gwen, "Mother, as glad as I am to see you right now, I do have to agree with my son. I'm scared to ask, but... why didn't I ever hear from you after all these years?"

Gwen looked between her daughter and grandson, unable to hide the sadness as she sighed, "It's not that I never wanted to visit you, Sweet Flea. It's just that I was too caught up. Between having to take care of your father after he was injured and trying to find a cure for Edalyn, I was… busy." She practically spat out the word. Not at them, but at herself. She shouldn't be giving herself any excuses like this. "I never forgot about you. I wanted to write or call, but I kept focusing so much on them."

Things went quiet for a few moments, Lilith finally managing, "How is he? Father, I mean."

"… Better than before. He'll still never carve a Palisman again," Gwen saw her daughter flinch at that. She likely still remembered that day. When Edalyn transformed and attacked him. It still haunted them all. "But he's been finding hobbies to keep himself busy. He's been… happy, for the most part, but I can tell he still misses the old days." Gwen looked her daughter in her mismatched eyes, "He misses you too. You and Edalyn."

That seemed to raise Lilith's spirit for the briefest second, but it suddenly all came crashing down again as sadness entered her eyes. "Y-You said that you were busy trying to find a cure for Edalyn," She began before asking, "Any progress?"

Gwen shook her head, "No. I've been trying, but nothing I've found has worked so far." She looked down sadly and pinched the bridge of her nose, "And with how this curse has created a rift between us, she doesn't seem to accept any cures I try to give her anyway." Lilith nodded in understanding, only for her eyes to briefly go wide, as if she'd caught up with something Gwen had just said. Worried for her eldest daughter, she asked, "Is something wrong, Sweet Flea?"

"You… you visit Edalyn… regularly?"

Nero's own eyes went wide with worry as he looked to Lilith, "Mom?"

"You've been visiting Edalyn all this time but could never do the same for me?" She asked, voice desperate as she stood up and slowly made her way towards Gwen. "Was it really so hard to just stop by our house after visiting Edalyn?" Her voice began flaring up in anger, "You were too "busy" to even give that much!?"

The more she loomed over her, the more feathers started protruding from her skin, eyes morphing into an all too familiar inky black that made Gwen gasp.

"Sweet Flea, what is-"

"Why couldn't you ever be there for me?"

"Mom!" Nero got between Gwen and Lilith as the feathers started spreading around Lilith's neck.

"Why did you always love her more than me?"

"I… I never meant to-" Gwen stepped back as Lilith stepped closer, her voice sounding like a hundred.

"WHY COULDN'T I EVER BE ENOUGH FOR YOU!?"

"MOM!" Nero got between them and grabbed Lilith by her shoulders, "You need to take a breath! The curse is acting up!"

"Curse!?" Gwen stood back in horror, My Sweet Flea's been cursed too?

Lilith looked at her son, then down at her body, gasping and clutching at herself to desperately keep the transformation at bay.

"Shit!" Nero turned Gwen, "Grandma, stay here and try to calm her down. I need to go find something."

Before Gwen could ask what that something was, he was already gone in a blur of blue, purple, and white. Lilith's screams of pain forced her attention as she knelt down, holding her daughter's shoulders. "Sweet Flea, it's okay. I'm here. Momma's here now. Just follow my voice."

"M-Momma, just… just go…" Lilith whimpered out, sounding so small in her arms.

Gwen shook her head, voice resolute despite her terror, "No. I've left you alone for too long. I'm not leaving you again."

"But I'll hurt you," Tears were pouring out of her eyes, "That's all I ever do."

"Lilith…"

"All I've ever done is hurt my family," Her voice started sounding more distorted. More distant. It frightened Gwen, realizing that she was losing her daughter.

"No, Lilith, that isn't true at all! I'm the one who-"

"You'd all be better off if I just disappeared."

Gwen gasped at her daughter's words. Does she… Was it the curse talking, or was this truly how Lilith felt? How long had her daughter felt this way? How could she have felt this way?

And how could I have been so ignorant for so long? Gwen desperately hugged her daughter and closed her eyes, feeling Lilith grow in her arms. Her eldest began snarling and thrashing, a sign that the curse had fully taken hold, but Gwen refused to let go. She refused to leave her daughter aside.

Never again.

Before it felt like she could be overpowered, Gwen felt her daughter's movements cease. Opening her eyes, she saw a large, blue, ethereal hand at Lilith's back, holding her and her massive wings down. Turning to the door, she saw her grandson, his right, reptilian arm outstretched as his hand mimicked the larger one's movements. Just behind him was Edalyn, the human girl, the bone-headed demon, and the Selkidomus. On the walls, there was also a moving image of an exclamation point for some reason.

"Mom. Can you hear me?" Nero took slow, calming steps forward, a bag filled with what sounded like glass in his left hand, "Wasn't sure how many we'd need, so we got as much as we could." Lilith didn't seem to care and just kept snarling and screeching. Nero looked to his grandmother and asked, "Let me talk to her."

Gwen hesitated, not wanting to let her daughter go. She'd failed her enough. She'd failed both of her daughters enough as it was. But she didn't know how to help Lilith, let alone either of them.

But if anyone knows Lilith and how to reach her… With some reluctance, Gwen nodded and let her daughter go, taking steps back as Nero took those same steps forward. He knelt down and met his mother face-to-face, staring into her massive black pits with his bright blue ones.

"Your name…" He began, "Is Lilith Carmilla Clawthorne. You're 47 years old. You love William Blake poetry, and documentaries, and studying."

Lilith snarled again, coming within just a hairs breadth of biting off Nero's nose.

And yet he didn't so much as flinch.

"My name is Nero Claudius Clawthorne. I'm 17 and… I am your son." Lilith's snarling entered a low rumble. Almost like she was contemplating his words amidst all the feral rage. Seeing this, Nero continued, "I remember the first time you took me out to eat Ice Scream when I was four. It was the day after I first ran into Belos." Gwen saw him tremble slightly, "The day after I saw the monster he really was. You wanted to cheer me up, so we went out the minute you got off work." He chuckled, "I kinda got excited and threw the scoop in your face by accident, but you laughed it off. Both of us were laughing for like an hour."

Gwen could see her grandson's smile grow just a little brighter, "You remember how you were trying to fix the bathroom's faucet when I was seven? I walked in and accidentally caused you to break it. You pretty much got blasted in the face with scalding hot water. It left you cursing for a good thirty or so minutes."

Now that made Gwen blink a bit, with Lilith herself blinking in remembrance. Her Sweet Flea swearing like a sailor? She thought it impossible. She remembered the young teen she used to be, cringing whenever she accidentally said anything stronger than "damn". Just how much as Lilith changed from then?

How much have I misjudged my own children?

"You started panicking like crazy when you realized that I heard everything. Almost started bawling your eyes out on the couch over how you "ruined everything". It hurt a lot seeing you like that. You remember what I did to try and cheer you up?" Nero waited a few seconds, clearly not expecting an answer as he went ahead, "I asked, "So does this mean I can say fuck now?" You remember that?"

Lilith blinked again, and this time, her bestial form started chortling, as did Edalyn, her wards, and the living wall art that morphed into a laughing face. Even Gwen couldn't help but giggle as she tried to suppress her mirth. It was so immature, so unlike what she knew from Lilith, and yet it was still her daughter.

"Remember…" Lilith growled out, her voice sounding smoother despite how it echoed, "I… remember…"

"Sweet Flea!" Gwen breathed out, covering her mouth as she began to cry.

"What do you remember?" Nero's voice trembled slightly. He let the ethereal arm holding his mother vanish, Lilith remaining in her position before she rose up and slowly extended her head towards him. She sniffed the air, staring at him curiously, and then she nuzzled her face against his.

"My little raven."

"Y-Yeah," Nero sounded like he was sniffling a little as he reached out and hugged her, "I'm here mom. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

"… you should," Lilith stopped nuzzling and looked away.

"Mom…"

"I've only ever hurt my family. My mother, my father, Edalyn, and you. I cursed my own sister-"

Gwen gasped in horror. It… it just couldn't be true. Her Sweet Flea was the one who cursed her Witchlet?

"-caused her to attack our father-"

Gwen saw Edalyn flinch, her eyes filled with guilt.

"-made mother spend all her years trying to clean up my mistake-"

"Lilith, I-" Gwen didn't know what to say. She didn't know what she could say.

"-and all I've ever done was restrict you. Limit you. I shielded you when you never needed it. I refused to let you grow up."

"Mom, I told you. It's okay. You're trying and-"

"NO IT'S NOT!" Lilith shrieked, wings flaring out in such a way that everyone but Nero went on the defensive, readying themselves if she went on the defensive. "Every time I try, I feel like backsliding into old habits, and I don't know what I'll do if I slip. I just…" Her eyes shimmered as large, pearlescent tears started to fall, "I didn't want you to grow up the way I did. I didn't want you to feel unloved and unappreciated. I didn't want you to feel like you weren't good enough. But I made you feel like that anyway. I went too far. I always go too far. You're better off without me."

Though none of the words were directed at her, each one felt like a spear in Gwen's heart.

I… I never meant to make you feel like this.

And yet she did.

As memories came pouring in, she wondered how many times she should've given Lilith the attention she deserved. How often had Lilith tried to impress her, be it with magic or some auxiliary skill she was honing, only for Gwen to brush it aside in favor of Edalyn? Her adorable little Witchlet, so full of potential, so driven to cause chaos and mischief, that she always needed someone to help her out, to pull her back and make sure she didn't hurt herself. Gwen thought her Sweet Flea was always so responsible, so capable, that she didn't need her help. She never realized-

No.

Gwen shook her head.

She should've realized it sooner.

"Mom… don't ever say that again." Nero leaned forward and hugged his mother again, much to Lilith's surprise, "Don't ever say that I'd be better off without you. I'm always gonna want you in my life, even with all the crap it comes with." He pulled back from the hug, "Not gonna lie, you being yourself can kinda suck. Felt for a long time like you didn't believe in me or that I could handle myself. Sometimes, it crops up again and I get scared we're both gonna go back to old habit. And yeah, you… you hurt a lot of people, family or otherwise."

He looked his mother in the eye again, grabbing the sides of her face, "But that doesn't mean your a bad person. You just… made mistakes. Huge mistakes, yeah, but you honestly want to make up for it. That's worth a lot more than you'd think," Sighing, Nero let his mother go, "You're probably gonna screw up again in the future. Hell, we're probably all gonna screw up something at some point, and thinking about it scares me. But I'm never gonna want you gone, no matter how many times you fall back. I don't think any of us do."

His eyes turned back to Gwen as she nodded, turning to everyone else and seeing them nod in kind. She could see the tears welling up in the eyes of the human girl and the little demon, with even her own vision becoming glossy again. Despite Edalyn's best efforts, she was wiping away at her own eyes.

"See?" Nero faced his mother again, who still looked shocked at everyone, "And you know the best thing about screwing up?" He then reached into the sack and pulled out a round flask filled with an orange, glowing potion, "You can always start over." Holding it out to his mother, he asked, "What do you say? Want to try again?"

Once more, though not directed towards her, Gwen couldn't help but feel touched by her grandson's words as she removed her glasses and wiped away her tears. She watched as Lilith nodded, accepting as her son held the flask to her mouth, drinking down to the last drop. When it was all gone, Nero put the glass away and hugged his mother again, who first nuzzled her face against his as the transformation slowly reversed itself. Once she was back to normal enough, she hugged her son tightly, tears falling from her closed eyes as the last of the feathers retreated into her skin.

"I'm sorry," Lilith sniffled out, her chin rested against her son's shoulder. From where she was standing, Gwen could see Nero's own shoulders shaking, and she walked around a bit to see that he was crying as well. Though he said nothing, the smile on his face said all that was needed.

"It's okay Lilith," The human walked up, still wiping her eyes with her shirt as she knelt down. Mother and son retracted a bit, both of them looking to her. Smiling at Lilith, the human joined into the hug and said, "If it means anything, it starts with sorry."

Lilith teared up again, melting into another hug with the both of them as she whispered, "Thank you, Luz."

"Hey, don't do group hugs without me!" The small furry demon rushed in alongside the baby Selkidomus and hugged at Luz's side, which she gladly accepted, as did Nero and Lilith.

"Eh, what the hell?" Edalyn wiped a stray tear and walked up to everyone, joining in on the group hug in a way that reminded Gwen so much of years gone by. Back when she, Dell, Lilith, and Edalyn would do this so often. But now she was watching it with an all new family. One that both her daughters had become a part of.

A family that I haven't truly been a part of, Gwen lamented, looking down sadly. She wanted to join them, yet couldn't bring herself to do so. She didn't think she'd earned such a privilege, not after what her actions had wrought.

She failed to give Lilith the affection she needed, always assuming her daughter didn't need her attention when it was now glaringly obvious that she did. It left her wondering if her neglect was what caused Lilith to curse Edalyn, and the fact that she cursed her at all left Gwen sick to her stomach, showing just how much she'd failed them both. Further rubbing salt in the wound was that her ignorance meant she'd missed the first seventeen years of her grandson's life. A grandson who, for all she knew, probably hated her for it.

She failed to give Edalyn the space she needed, always barging into her life, believing she'd finally found a proper cure for the curse. Yet now she saw that even those attempts at cures were fruitless, as Edalyn had been right all along with her potions. Gwen never believed that those nasty things were of any real help, but seeing what they did for Lilith just now…

I'm sorry. I failed you. Both of you, Gwen pulled off the necklace she wore, staring down at Master Wortlop's rune on it. He'd promised her a cure for the curse, and after years of dealing with everything from the Beast Keeping Coven to the Healing Coven, Gwen thought she'd finally found a cure through him. But after what she'd just witnessed, what she'd just realized she'd been contributing to, she decided to trust her daughter's judgment. Without a second thought, she dropped the necklace to the ground and looked back on the affectionate display with a sigh, one final question left in her mind.

How do I fix this?

Gwen walked up to the group and gently tapped her grandson's shoulder. He looked up, as did all of them. Nervously, Gwen tapped her fingers against her staff and asked, "Nero, Lilith, would it be alright if I spoke with both of you alone? There's… a lot that I need to say."

"… okay," Nero nodded, seeming unsure as he pulled away from the hug and stood up alongside Lilith, everyone else leaving one-by-one. The little demon was the first to leave, the living art following not far behind. Luz picked up the Selkidomus and smiled at them all before walking out the bedroom door, leaving only the Clawthornes behind.

"You too, Edalyn," Gwen managed, looking her youngest in the eye, "We can talk later."

Edalyn didn't seem to mind, simply nodding before tapping Nero's shoulder and whispering something in his ear that sounded like, "Go easy on her, kid." before she started for the door. She briefly stopped upon seeing the necklace Gwen had dropped to the floor, picking it up and biting it for a bit. Edalyn continued examining it as she walked out, no doubt planning to sell it. Not that Gwen minded, since she didn't want nor need Master Wortlop's services anymore.

"What do you to talk about, mother?" Lilith asked, worry creeping into her voice. The way she nervously rubbed at her wrists, just like when she finished explaining everything, just like how all of this started, made Gwen loose control of herself. Almost instantly, she grabbed her daughter, who yelped as she was pulled into a tight hug.

"I'm sorry!" Gwen whispered into Lilith's ear, "I… I never meant for any of this to happen."

Lilith hesitated for a second, but then hugged back, "Mother, none of this is your fault."

"But it is! Sweet Flea, I… I should've been there when you needed me. I should've realized something sooner. But I never did, and look what happened."

Lilith sighed back, "I should've sent you a message, or visited you to explain everything. Even just a letter telling you I was fine and inviting you to the house would've sufficed. I was too much of a coward to face you or father."

"You wouldn't have been so afraid to reach out to us had I done better as a mother," Gwen looked down at her hands in sadness, "Had I given you the time of day, perhaps you wouldn't have cursed Edalyn. Perhaps we'd all be the happy family we should've been."

"Please don't blame yourself for what I did to Edalyn, mother," Lilith took Gwen's hands into her own, "You made mistakes, but my sins are my own."

"I can see where Mom gets all her problems from," Nero cut in, crossing his arms and leveling a flat stare at them, "Looks like she got all her self-hating from Grandma." His eyes went wide before he blinked and covered his face with his right hand, groaning, "Shit. Starting to think I have it too."

"Oh Nero," Lilith let go of her mother and raised a hand to reach out for her son, hugging him until he sighed and she let go.

"Nero, I'm sorry I was never there for you either. I was so obsessed with curing Edalyn that I failed Lilith, and because of that, I missed out on getting to be part of your life as well," Gwen looked away, feeling undeserving, "I know that no apologies will ever make up for it, and I understand if you hate me, but…" she closed her eyes and sighed, "Just know that I'm sorry."

She waited for her well-deserved admonishment, but after a few seconds, nothing happened. Instead, Gwen felt something lightly flick her nose, making her gasp and snap her eyes open. She saw her grandson's hand retreat from her face as he looked on her and said, "All's forgiven."

"Was that necessary?" Lilith gave her son the look, with Nero flatly looking back.

"Wanted to snap her out of the guilt binge. Sue me."

"You don't… you're not mad?" Gwen still wasn't sure what to make of this, especially when Nero chuckled slightly.

"That's literally the exact same thing Mom asked when she told me about the whole curse thing," Nero said before rubbing at the back of his neck, admitting, "Honestly, I'm not sure what to feel about all this. You suddenly show up and I learn a lot of new shit I wasn't ready for. But like I told Mom, you just made a mistake. A huge one, sure, but you're honestly sorry about it. And like Luz said: It starts with sorry."

Feeling tears well up in her eyes again, she nodded, "Thank you." Despite the smiles from her daughter and grandson, Gwen felt her mood falter, "But there must be something more I can do. There's still so much I have to fix."

"As do I," Lilith held her mother's hand again, "We can figure it out one step at a time."

"In that case, it step one's saying sorry, then can step two be us not hating ourselves for the rest of the day?" Nero asked, somehow sounding japing yet fully serious at the same time, "This shit's exhausting and I don't like all of us looking like we want to punch ourselves in the face."

Lilith and Gwen found themselves looking to each other before both faced Nero, Lilith replying, "I promise I'll do my best, my little raven."

"Me too, but still…" Gwen sighed, wishing she could do more. She wished it didn't strain her husband so much to travel these days. He always seemed to know what to say whenever her worries over their family came to a boil. Oh how she wished he was here instead of- "I know!" Gwen got an idea and smiled brightly at the two, "Why don't you two come home with me? At least for a week?"

"Huh?" Nero blinked.

"You want us to… really?" Lilith asked, expression and tone somewhere between scared and hopeful.

"Yes! I know your father will be happy to see you," Gwen took Lilith's hand before taking Nero's in the other, "And I know he'll be happy to finally meet you. I want to make up for all the years I missed, finally making up for lost time with my daughter, and finally getting to know my grandson. So, what do you say?"

"Oh my Titan, YES!" Lilith jumped up and down in excitement before hugging and lifting Gwen into the air, "This is going to be so much fun! I can't wait to meet father again!" She gasped, "I need to start packing!"

Immediately, Lilith started tearing through her drawers and haphazardly throwing clothes, books, and amenities into piles. Gwen and Nero both looked at the scene with amusement. Even after everything that'd happened, Lilith was still so easily excitable.

"I should probably start packing too," Nero shrugged and made his way for the door.

"Need any help, dear?" Gwen asked as Nero reached the door handle.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I don't really like anyone going through my shit," Nero opened the door and waved before heading out, leaving Gwen feeling a little bit down.

"Don't be upset, mother. He never lets me go through his shit either," Lilith casually said, putting all her books in individual stacks sorted by genre alphabetically without missing a beat.

"I think that's the first time I've ever heard you swear like that," Gwen couldn't help but chuckle. It was so different than from when Lilith was a girl who could barely bring herself to say even the smallest curses when pressed.

"I've been doing it a lot more over the years, even if I'm not proud of it. Between everything with the Emperor's Coven and having to raise Nero, it helped relieve a lot of the stress," Lilith answered, now organizing her clothes before she froze, "You're not upset about it, are you? That I'm not the same Lilith you raised?"

Gwen smiled and walked up to her daughter, enveloping her in one final hug, "On the contrary, I can't wait to get to know you again, Sweet Flea."

Within her arms, she could feel Lilith beam and hug back. Mother and daughter stayed like this for a while before finally releasing, the two of them packing bags together.

"I'M GONNA MISS YOU SO MUCH, LULU!"

What a drama king… Eda tried and failed not to roll her eyes, watching as Hooty ensnared Lilith in a bone-crushing hug. Her sister took it in stride, giggling and hugging the house demon back with one hand while her other held her staff and sack of belongings.

"I'll miss you too, Hootsifer," Lilith replied, voice full of affection, "And don't worry. We'll only be gone for a week at most."

"THAT'S STILL TOO LONG! HOO-HOO-HOOT!" Hooty sobbed his big brown eyes out. Once again, Eda rolled her eyes, but smiled a bit this time before looking over to Nero, who was saying goodbye to Luz and King.

"See you later, cos," Nero knelt down and rubbed the top of King's skull. The little rascal tried to look put off, but it was clear he enjoyed it, based on how he was laughing.

"Cut it out!" He said, still laughing as Nero stopped. The minute Nero retracted his right arm though, King jumped up and hugged him, "I guess I'll miss you."

"Sounds like you're gonna have a lot of fun," Luz stepped in from behind King, picking him up into her arms.