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Chapter Text

“Tiny trash thief!” Luz yelled as she pursued the owl down the street. She wondered what it would want with her precious Azura book, or how such a small creature could carry its sack of random junk. Regardless of the answers, she wasn’t going to let it get away.

The chase lead up a driveway to an old, abandoned house. The owl rushed inside. Luz briefly stopped. She probably wasn’t supposed to go in there. Maybe she should just let it go. Her heart ached at the thought. The book was too important to her. She steeled herself and ran into the house.

As soon as Luz entered, she heard the door slam behind her, and a blinding light makes her close her eyes. A moment later, the light died down and she was surrounded by shadow. A few paces away, she could see a lit doorway, where the owl was still dragging its bag of stolen goods away.

Luz ran after it, but the doorway didn’t get any closer. In fact, it seemed to be drifting further away into the shadow. After a few seconds, she couldn’t see it anymore. Looking back, the door she entered from was nowhere to be found.

“Oh, beans.”

Suddenly, her mind grew hazy, and her eyes felt heavy. She knew passing out here was a bad idea but couldn’t stop herself from slumping onto the floor of the dark nothing and falling asleep.

Something was terribly wrong.

Hunter stood on the roof of the emperor’s palace, eyes to the sky.

Way up there, wispy black lines formed from nothing into the shape of a tiny diamond, which gradually grew. The diamond was filled with swirling purple colours. There was some depth to it. It looked as if there was a hole in the sky itself.

A small object fell from the hole, which closed shortly after. Hunter hopped on his staff and flew closer to the falling object. Once he got close enough, he levitated it into his hand. It was a closed paper cup. On its side was a drawing in wavy green lines depicting a half-witch, half-fish with twin tails. Removing the top revealed the cup contained a dark brown liquid.

Hunter sniffed the contents. The bold, nutty smell tempted him to drink, but consuming random liquids that fell from holes in the sky is generally not the best for one’s health. He returned to the roof and set the cup down on a random battlement.

Foreign objects appearing in the Boiling Isles is not a new phenomenon. The Titan upon which Bonesborough stands is so powerful that even after death, its blood can pull things from other realms.  What is unusual is the manner. Hunter couldn’t recall the objects falling from the sky before recently. Also, the holes have been becoming more frequent.

Hunter’s unc-- Emperor Belos gave a speech addressing the holes. He said that they are the result of witches returning to wild magic. The sky objects that fall from them are deemed dangerous and should be turned over to the emperor’s coven to be gathered and destroyed. Hunter thought the objects seemed harmless, but Belos must know better. Either that or he is just being cautious. He cares for his people.

Despite his orders, Hunter did keep one sky object he found. There was a shirt depicting a pair of fluffy creatures with big ears and noses. He loved them too much to destroy it, so he decided to keep it. He sometimes wore it under his normal clothes. He pulled the neck of his top shirt forward a bit so he could see it and smiled at the adorable beasts.

“Any sight of them yet?”

Hunter jumped and turned back to see the voice. It was Belos, accompanied by Raine and Kikimora.

“I- Uh- Er-” Hunter stammered.

“Out with it, boy!” Kikimora said “We don’t have all day.”

Hunter was generally nervous around most of his superiors, and some of his inferiors as well, but Kikimora especially put him on edge for some reason. He took a breath and stood up straighter. “No sir. There was just a couple more sky holes. I took care of them, of course,” he said as he subtly elbowed the cup of strange liquid off the wall behind him. A yelp was faintly heard from somewhere below.

Hunter cleared his throat. “The forest has been quiet so far. I haven’t seen them yet.” The reason he was on the roof in the first place was because the Titan spoke to Belos and warned him of an attack by a group of wild witches. They call themselves the Banshees. Belos says they plan to stop the Day of Unity and return the Boiling Isles to the Savage Age. Why would they want to stop Belos from creating a utopia. They must be stopped. Hunter was sent to watch the forest for their arrival.

“Good,” Belos said. “The guards have finished preparing the defenses. We came here to collect you and bring you down to the front for the coming battle. We need to show these radicals what happens when you defy the empire.”

Hunter bowed slightly. “Of course, sir. It would be an honour to fight alongside you.”

“Excellent. We’ll make good use of you yet.” Belos’ expression was unreadable as usual due to his mask, but Hunter hoped it was a proud one.

“Um, emperor,” said Raine. “You might want to take a look at this.” They pointed to the sky.

Above the edge of the forest, another hole had appeared. It was already a big one, and it kept growing. And growing. And growing. It was by far the largest sky hole any of them had seen. The edges warped from their usual, clean, diamond shape into a jagged mess.

Something was terribly wrong.

Chapter Text

Belos took a step back. “What wild magic is this?” he muttered.

The giant sky hole shone with the brightest purple. It started to spin. Rainbow energy crackled around its edges.

“I’ve never seen such a thing,” Kikimora said.

Hunter’s heart was racing. He leaned forwards onto the castle wall.

“Coven Head Raine,” Belos snapped, “prepare to destroy anything that comes through.”

Wordlessly, Raine summoned their violin into their hands. They played an ominous tune which seemed to fit the situation. It conjured a small, dark cloud, which rose up towards the hole.

They all watched as the hole slowly stopped growing and spinning. For a moment, everything was calm.

And then the hole shattered.

The pieces of the hole quickly faded to nothing. In their place was a great black beast. Apart from bright purple lines cutting across its hide, the rest of it was so dark that it was difficult to see the details. It had claws, a tail, and mighty wings, which it beat madly to wrest control of its momentum from gravity.

Unfortunately for the beast, gravity would soon win this battle.

“Now!” shouted Belos.

Raine adjusted their grip on their bow and manually plucked a string with their finger. This produced a low, dull, and discordant note. From their storm cloud, a brilliant flash of lightning, then the resulting thunder echoed back that same note. Now all that was left was to watch the great beast plummet to the ground.

They all heard the crash from up here.

Hunter stared wide-eyed at Raine.

Raine noticed the attention and shifted uncomfortably. “What? Bard magic can be cool.” They tugged at their collar with the end of their bow.

Belos sprung into action. “Raine, go fetch the guards and meet us at the edge of the forest. Hunter and Kikimora, come with me.” With that he jumped off the roof and onto his staff.

Everyone else got on their staves to comply with the emperor’s bidding. Hunter felt the wind rustle his hood as he scrambled to keep up with Belos’ mad rush.

---------------

Belos stopped a few dozen paces away from the crater where the beast crashed. Hunter and Kikimora landed softly behind him.

“Hunter, you are to go into the crater and investigate the beast. Ensure that it has met its demise.”

“M-me sir?” Hunter stammered. “Are you sure?”

“Him?” Kikimora snarled. “Wouldn’t you rather me handle this important task, sire? I’m quite good at making sure things are dead.”

Belos raised a hand. “Now, now, Kiki. I’m sure Hunter is the right person for the job.” He turned to Hunter. “Go on. We’ll be right behind you.”

Hunter took a deep breath then prowled towards the crater. As he approached, he expected to see the colossal beast come into view, but that’s not what he saw. There was a witch-sized being cloaked in black who lay crumpled at the bottom of the shallow crater. He looked to Belos and Kikimora, who were hanging a few metres back.

“Quit wasting time and get on with it!” Kikimora barked at him.

Hunter creeped down into the crater. The being at the bottom was a young girl, or at least sort of. Her hands and feet looked skeletal, as did the horns that poked through her tall, pointed hat. She wore a fluffy black cloak, partially burnt, probably by the lightning.

She was still alive. At least for now. Hunter could see her chest rise and fall from each labored breath. On her chest was some sort of glyph. It seemed familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it now. He noticed that one of her fangs stuck out of her mouth over her lip. She looked kind of cute.

But this wasn’t the time for that sort of thinking. “Emperor,” Hunter called back. “It’s alive, but it’s just a kid. I don’t think we need to kill them.”

“Did you not see that they can transform into a tremendous unholy beast?” Belos shouted from the edge of the crater. “They are a threat and need to be exterminated!”

“But, uncle,” Hunter protested, “They haven’t done any—”

“That is no way to address your emperor you little—” Belos suddenly stopped talking and looked past Hunter.

Hunter turned to see what he was looking at. Stepping out of the trees at the other end of the crater were a half-dozen witches. They wore black armor with large shoulders, and their faces were covered with red and green war paint. A couple of abominations stood by with them. The Banshees. Of course they pick now to arrive.

Luckily for Hunter, on the emperor’s side, Raine arrived with the palace guards, which filed in behind Belos and Kikimora.

The largest Banshee had a pair of feathered wings on their back. It was unclear if they were real or not. They held up a hand for the rest to halt. The others raised their staves but made no further moves.

Both sides were ready to strike at a moment’s notice. The quiet went on for what felt way too long. All Hunter could hear was the wind blowing leaves and the beast girl’s breathing.

“Kill them already and get out of there!” Belos bellowed.

It had to be done. Hunter pointed his staff at the girl. He just needed a moment to muster the will.

Then the girl opened her eyes. They were the brightest yellow and darkest black. They reminded Hunter of the fluffy creatures from his shirt that fell from the sky. He hesitated.

“Do it now! Your emperor commands you!”

The girl tried to pull herself up, but she was too weak and fell back into the dirt. All she could do was look up at him with watery eyes.

Hunter hands were shaky. He knew the spell he was trying to cast. He practiced it in training hundreds of times. Killing her should be so simple, so why wasn’t it? Hunter tightened his grip on his staff. “No, this isn’t right.” He turned back to Belos. “She hasn’t done anything to hurt us. I won’t do it.” He stamped his staff on the ground. Immediately after his mouth went dry and his legs turned into jelly.

Hunter expected Belos to keep shouting, but instead he got very calm.

Belos gave a deep sigh. “I have learned to expect things like this to happen, but each time it still hurts the same.” He closed his eyes. “Kikimora.”

“Yes, emperor?”

“Kill the beast,” Belos then paused and looked straight at Hunter, “and anyone who stands in your way.”

“With pleasure, sire!”

Chapter Text

Luz had not been having a great day so far.

Firstly, waking up after spending so long asleep in the shadow realm leaves one quite groggy. Luz wasn’t quite sure how long she had been asleep, but she could feel that plenty of time had passed.  She guessed two- maybe three- times the length of One Piece. That’s the unit she’s going with.

One way to dispel such grogginess is to awaken falling from the sky. It’s like falling off your bed, if it lasted longer. Conveniently for Luz, she was giant winged dragon at the time. In another situation, she may have taken a moment to appreciate how cool her shiny black scales were or take in the views while flying at great heights. However, she didn’t currently have time for that, or time to wonder why she was a dragon in the first place. She was presently concerned with the great heights becoming rapidly less great.

Luz attempted to flap her wings to slow her fall. It’s trickier than it sounds, trying to use muscles she didn’t even have before. Even the muscles she did have before were of the weak-nerd variety. These were a lot more powerful. She managed to get the wings moving, but more of a mad flailing than an elegant flap. This was not working.

She stopped moving for a moment. Except in the downwards direction, of course. Somewhere deep inside her mind, the dragon instinctively knew how to fly. She let the dragon mind take over. It extended and tilted the wings just so and declined following the rule of gravity until further notice.

Further notice arrived about three seconds later, when a sudden lightning bolt pierced her right wing. She went limp and resumed falling. The hole in her wing looked worse than it felt. It was good for Luz that she had partially retreated her mind. The pain from the wing felt far away, like when she was at the dentist.

What was less far away was the ground, which Luz crashed into. A giant plume of dirt exploded outwards, leaving her in the middle of a crater. She was still alive for now, but everything felt numb.

Suddenly her entire body started brightly glowing, forcing Luz to close her eyes. Her dragon snout sucked in towards her. The lining of her wings folded into her sides. Her tail just sort of melted away. Everything got smaller. Her scales flattened onto her flesh and softened into skin. Luz winced at the sounds of her bones shifting around inside. It didn’t hurt, but it certainly felt weird.

Before long, the glowing subsided and Luz was back to human…ish. Her hands and legs had a skeletal appearance. She also had some fangs, and lightly ran one of them along her bottom lip. She wore a fluffy black cloak with long sleeves, and a pointy purple hat. She could actually dig this look, if she understood why she was rockin’ it.

However, it turns out that draconic magical-girl transformations are quite tiring. Once it was done, Luz was so weak that all she could do was lay there and breathe. A couple minutes later some people had found her. While she heard them talking, her brain wasn’t exactly processing what they said. At least until someone shouted, “Kill them already.” That got Luz’s attention.

Luz opened her eyes to see a figure with a white cloak over golden armor. They wore an ivory mask in the shape of an owl. In one hand they held some sort of wizard staff, which they pointed at Luz. Its tip was sparking a brilliant red. The man standing at the edge of the crater proclaimed himself emperor and further goaded the masked wizard to kill her. She attempted to get up and run away and failed at the first part.

All she could do was sadly look at the mask and wait for what came next. It took longer than she thought, and then didn’t happen.

The masked wizard turned back to the emperor and refused his order. Said it wasn’t right to kill her. The emperor clearly didn’t agree, and sent one of his other minions, some sort of tiny red goblin.

----------

Kikimora waved her hand and generated a miniature landslide which she rode zooming down into the crater. “You’re mine, little snake!” She pointed her finger and shot a purple bolt towards Hunter.

Hunter instinctively dodged by warping a few steps to the side as the bolt singed the other side of the crater walls. At least his training was good for something. His legs were shaky. He hardly had a moment to think before Kikimora levitated a nearby boulder and flung it at him. He warped again before it rendered him even shorter than the witch who cast it.

The Banshees only stood and watched the fight from their side of the crater. The emperor’s guards did the same from their side. No one was sure what they should be doing yet. Belos made no move to do anything.

Kikimora sneered. “Stay still, you brat!” She conjured a giant ghostly hand in the air above Hunter which then slapped the ground below.

Hunter warped himself above the hand and settled onto his staff floating a few metres up. He puffed up his chest. “Now what fun would that be? You’ll have to catch me first.”

Kikimora gave a devilish smile. “Do I?” She held up her hands which became massive and hairy. Long, curved claws grew from her fingers. They glowed with a fiery aura.

Hunter readied himself for her to attack, but instead she went towards the middle of the crater and swiped her great clawed hand at the wounded beast girl who fell from the sky.  Hunter blinked and found himself between them, his staff blocking Kikimora’s claw.

“Well, looks like you caught me!” Kikimora cackled. “Now for the fun part!” Before Hunter had a chance to do anything, she shoved his staff down with one claw while the other slashed towards his face.

The hit smashed through Hunter’s mask and knocked him over. The shattered pieces of his mask landed around him.

Kikimora stood above him. “Ha! Next one is taking off your neck, boy.”

Hunter grunted. “Not today.” He used the pause to get his staff pointed at Kikimora and launched a blast of yellow magic into her stomach, sending her skidding backwards. He barely had time to get to his feet before she had rushed him again. He deftly blocked and parried each hit of the madwomen’s ferocious assault. No more running. He couldn’t let her gain any more ground. She was fast, but he was faster. It took every bit a focus he had but he was successfully holding her off.  

However, Kikimora had one more trick up her sleeve. Her hair came alive and formed into the shape of a third hand. With it, she managed to swat away Hunter’s staff, leaving him defenseless. “The emperor was a fool for favoring you over me. I am his most powerful and devoted follower.”

Hunter stood there frozen as Kikimora’s hair hand grabbed his wrist with the Emperor’s Coven sigil. The sigil glowed, and red lines emanated from it along his skin and up his arm. Once they reached his chest, he felt weak and collapsed to his knees.

Kikimora cackled. "Now you bow to me!"

A sudden loud creaking noise emanated from behind Hunter. Kikimora paused her tormenting. She looked wide-eyed past him. 

For winning this battle, Kikimora earned a prize. The prize was "getting smacked into the crater wall by a giant tree branch."

Chapter Text

Luz watched the witches’ duel with awe. With all the teleporting and boulders flying around, it was like she was watching a scene from Azura. She managed to appreciate the coolness of the duel despite her life hinging on the result.

The now-unmasked man had fought to protect her. She could see through the scars on his face and his pretty blond bangs; he was just a kid like her.

Watching Kikimora delight in tormenting him made Luz’s blood boil. Neither Belos’s guards nor the Banshees watching from the edge of the crater moved to stop this. She wanted to help, but she could barely move.

Suddenly, one of the glyphs on Luz’s chest glowed a bright green. A thick moss grew from nowhere over her skeletal hands and quickly spread over the rest of her body. She grew bigger. She felt a grinding sensation as her jaw contorted outwards and her fangs grew. Her skin stiffened until it was as hard as wood. An equally hard tail shot out behind her, covered in thorny spikes. The glow faded and Luz got to her feet as a wingless dragon, made of trees and moss.  

Kikimora looked up at Luz with a grimace.

With a newfound invigoration, Luz smacked her tail into Kikimora, sending her flying. This felt like a perfectly natural thing to do, as if she always had a tail.

Hunter collapsed onto the ground, passed out. Kikimora groaned from over by the crater wall.

Belos shouted a command, and his guards rushed into the crater. Chaos immediately followed.

Luz stepped between them and Hunter. She smacked a guard and headbutted another before she could even think about it.

A third drew a circle in the air and conjured a purple slime monster. A swipe from Luz’s leg turned it into a puddle with a splat. Another guard threw a bottle of orange liquid. A vine grew from the moss on Luz’s back and swatted it back. It landed with a colourful explosion which knocked over another half-dozen guards.

Despite this, they kept coming. One of them conjured a column of stone around one of Luz’s legs, pinning it in place. The slime monster reformed from its puddle and bear-hugged another leg. A guard in the back had healed Kikimora’s injuries and moved on to its other fallen comrades.

Rookie mistake. Always go for the healer first.

Kikimora pointed her staff at Luz. At its tip, she conjured a giant hand made of fire. “Time to burn, you rotten creature!”

Luz struggled but couldn’t move out of the way with her legs pinned. She hoped this was the point in the story where someone jumped in from offscreen to block the attack on the hero.

And indeed it was.

The Banshees had come down from the other side of the crater. One of them drew a circle with their staff taller than they were and conjured a giant, hollow, stone cube that separated Luz and the Banshees from Belos’ guards. They turned back and smirked “Check that out”.

Luz noted their entirely unimpressive mustache and cute pointy ears.

Another Banshee with three eyes and long red hair threw a potion at the slime monster on Luz’s leg, causing it to evaporate into nothing. It being the monster. The leg was still solid tree.

The big, winged Banshee approached Luz.  They were wearing a red hood that looked like a tiny demon. It was very lifelike. “Do not fear, child. We are friends to those that oppose the emperor. My name is Hieronymus Bump.”

Luz tried to talk, but the best noise she could make was just grumbling.

“Your abilities are most impressive, but we are outnumbered. We must flee at once.”

Luz looked at Hunter, who was still passed out.

“I will take the boy.” Bump conjured his own slime monster to pick up Hunter. “Are you able to return to your witch-form?”

The idea of having a witch form was cool, but Luz couldn’t find an obvious way to change between any forms she may or may not have, nor was she sure how she did it before. She shook her head.

“Matt, open the door. Boscha, shrink our new friend.”

Luz watched perplexed as Matt took a piece of chalk out of his pocket and drew the outline of a door on the wall. But wait, what was that other part?

Boscha rummaged through her bag to find that right potion, uncorked it, and shoved it in Luz’s face. “Drink.”

Luz hesitated for a moment, not sure how she liked the idea of being shrunk.

An explosion rang from outside. Some of the walls of the stone cube cracked.

“Get on with it,” Boscha snapped.

Luz opened her mouth and Boscha poured the bottle in. Luz felt like she was falling while everything else got bigger. After a couple seconds, she was the size of a cat.

Matt grabbed the knob the chalk door and opened the chunk of wall it was on.

“Let’s hurry,” Bump said.

Everyone scrambled through the door. As soon as Luz made it through, another explosion rang out, and the portal behind them turned to static.

Matt looked back at the broken portal. “Now that’s what I call going out with a bang.”

Boscha glared at him.

“What?"