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“Ahhh, I figured you would follow me through here,” Belos growled, in his cursed form, “Are you sure you can actually beat me? I suppose third times a charm. Although, the first two times you only survived thanks to outside interference.”
“You’re talking big for someone that’s just a human.” King laughed, “You realize you’re talking to a Titan?”
“Ah yes, the baby Titan,” Belos scoffed, “The one that couldn’t even stop the Collector and set them free in the first place. Honestly, you’re so immature to believe you can do anything.”
“If you’re so powerful,” Amity said, summoning her staff, “Then prove it.”
Willow and Gus got their staves, Hunter and Luz grabbed their glyphs, King got on Luz’s back, and Camila grabbed her bat and some potions. Amity and Willow tried to hold Belos down with plants and abominations, but he easily broke out. Gus tried to incapacitate him using his magic amplifier, but was ignored. King tried using his powers, but it did little but annoy him. Camila sent potion after potion Belos’ way, though it only seemed to mildly inconvenience him. Even Hunter and Luz’s glyphs hardly phased him.
The same couldn’t be said for what he did to them.
A single hit from him sent them flying. His clawed hands ripped through their clothes and skin. His roars rung in their ears.
Within a couple minutes, they were all hurt and down, barely able to fight back, and terrified to try. Belos stalked around them, on two legs but hunched over. He began slowly laughing as they tried to recover. Luz shakily pulled out some glyphs, hoping to manage something, but Belos smacked her away, sending not just her flying, but also King who had been right by her. As he went back to walking around her friends and family, a horrifying smirk on his face, Luz racked her brain trying to think of what she could use.
All the glyph combos she had mastered were ineffective. But what about the ones she got from Phillip’s diary? That water spell was weak, the wind was small, the flesh arm was unpredictable, the petrification was a no-go on principle, and the teleportation would take too long and she didn’t even know how it worked.
Belos stopped in front of Camila and began laughing. He grabbed her and lifted her up to look her in the eyes.
“Luz’s mother? Such a shame you had to get wrapped up into all this. I would offer you trying to show your daughter the light, but she’s too far gone. And considering you’re here and fighting me, it might be merciful to give you the same out I did Luz. Though this time I won’t be swayed by pathetic pleas.”
Belos’ hand began to glow red and Camila slowly began to turn to stone. He dropped her down to the ground and instantly the others surrounded her and tried any magic they could to stop or slow the spell, knowing they couldn’t stop Belos.
Luz’s mind and heart raced as they tried to think of something, anything she could do to stop Belos or the spell. Any combo she was forgetting, any spell she could create fast enough. But, there was nothing.
She was too hurt to move and had to watch as Belos stood over her mom, in his unbeatable cursed form.
Suddenly she remembered one last glyph combo from the diary. She took a shard of glass from a shattered potions bottle and grabbed King, knowing the one spell that would work.
“Camila! You’re going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.” Gus nervously assured, holding Camila’s hand and trying to not break down crying, “Willow can slow the spell. You’ll be fine.”
Willow concentrated as hard as she could, trying to use the small amount of healing magic she had learned. As the petrification began working up her legs, Amity held her other hand and Hunter had her head resting in his lap. They both had no idea what they could do as they sat with the only good mother figure they had was slowly turned to stone.
“Está bien niños, no lloren por mí. Tu eres muy fuerte. Me alegro de haberte conocido,” Camila softly said, “Make sure Luz knows this isn’t her fault.”
As the petrification covered her stomach, it suddenly stopped. It didn’t recede, but it actually stopped. The group looked up and saw some strange creature on top of Belos, tearing into him as he lay on the ground, finally powerless. He tried to fight it off, but could do nothing but tear into its skin, and even that didn’t seem to bother the creature. They tried to figure out what it was, but it was too dark to see.
However it wasn’t too dark to see what it was doing to him.
It tore into his torso and neck, ripping out whatever was inside his cursed form, making him near deafeningly scream in pain. When Belos finally stopped moving, the creature got off him and stalked over to them, becoming fully visible.
It was massive and wolf-like, walking on all fours with brown and black fur. In multiple places was visible bone and muscle, though not from Belos’ ineffective attacks. Its eyes were a dark blueish-green and its face was covered in blood and green goo from killing Belos. Its teeth were bared as it lowly growled, slowly getting closer.
The group began to back away, though Amity raised her staff, preparing to attack. Just as she went to draw a spell circle, King rushed over and grabbed her leg.
“Stop! Don’t hurt it!” He pleaded.
“King! Get out of the way. This thing could hurt you!” Amity said, shoving him off.
She summoned an abomination that grabbed it and held it to the ground, concentrating as hard as she could so its thrashing wouldn’t let it free.
“Amity! You don’t understand! It’s not a monster or demon.”
“Well then, what is it?”
King lifted up a small shard of glass, one with both blue and red blood staining the tip.
“She couldn’t think of any other way to save you guys.”
Camila pulled herself over to the monster, unable to move the lower half of her body but determined to get to it. Amity protested, but Camila caringly held the creature's face in her hands, petting it and softly whispering things. Once it calmed down, she moved over to get a better look at it.
And wrapping around its hind leg was a series of glyphs carved into its skin.
Camila lightly chuckled, a hint of sadness in her voice. She moved back to the creature's face and held its face again.
“No necesitas pelear, mi Luz.” She whispered.
Amity took a moment to translate, before gasping. It took the others a few moments, but they too realized what Camila had told the creature.
Camila motioned to Amity to drop the spell. Though reluctantly, she removed the abominations, letting it stand again. It stared at the others for a few seconds, then ran away.
“Was that really Luz?” Hunter asked.
Camila and King both nodded at him. He clutched at his wolf shirt, recognizing the similarity between the two creatures.
“Why did you let her go?” Asked King.
“My Luz will be okay. She saw what she believed to be the only option available to save me, and did it. Besides, I don’t think she’s going to be gone forever.”
The group got up, Willow securing Camila on her staff and went back to walking, searching for Eda and the others at the head like they were before Belos showed up. They tried to ignore the body of Belos, torn open and gutted from his chin to his waist. They knew that they had to keep moving, because even with Belos dead they’d have to deal with the Collector and would need all the help they could get.
Meanwhile, miles away, Luz continued running as fast as she could, wanting to get away from the others so she couldn’t hurt them. She could still faintly taste Belos and didn’t want to even have the chance of doing the same to her friends. A single tear fell from her eye, knowing that unless she can turn back, she’ll never be able to see her friends or family again.
But at least she could know that one threat was dead, and wouldn’t be able to hurt her friends again.