The angel of the owl house

Season 1: The Demon Realm

Chapter 11: Mystery of the Divided

Luz stared up at the ten-winged angel spirit in front of her, almost unable to comprehend what she was looking at. To an angel like her, seeing this man was like a witch or demon coming face to face with a living titan! It was as close to a living god as the angels had in their culture! Amity was equally awed, amazed that her attempts to cheer Luz and King up had lead to not only them solving a millennium old puzzle by opening the Black Tomb, but also the discovery of an ancient angel! Or at least an ancient angel's spirit!

King wasn't as awed as the girls were; he was more angry that this guy had seemingly hurt Luz by draining her of so much energy. He stood between Luz and the Angel Spirit and glared furiously; "Hey! Who are you!? What's the big idea with stealing Luz's magic!"

The Angel Spirit looked around with confusion, taking in the room around him, then looking down at his own body, before finally looking to King and the girls. It took him a moment to register King's words, and when he did, he gave a polite bow.

"Forgive me, young one." he said, his voice soft and calm, and carrying a supernatural echo, "My memories are somewhat fragmented at the moment… Might I know your names, and where I am?"

"We'll take your name first, pal!" King snapped back, even as Luz gasped and urgently whispered "Be polite, King!"

The Angel Spirit didn't seem concerned, and just smiled kindly; "No no, it is quite alright. You are correct; I should introduce myself before asking for your names." he said, before bowing formally; "My name is Rasiel, former Seraphim of Crest Humility."

Luz gasped softly and leaned forward to bow to the spirit; "I-I am Luz Noceda, Angel of Crest Kindness."

Amity bowed too; "My name is Amity Blight, a witch of the Boiling Isles."

"And I'm King. The King of Demons!" King declared, not bowing like the others.

Rasiel smiled and nodded; "Wonderful to meet you all. It has been so long since I've seen someone… over 100,000 years I believe. I am extremely pleased to see that one of the first new people I meet is one of my kin."

"I-It's an honour to meet you too, Master Rasiel!" Luz said formally.

"None of that Master nonsense. I am only a former Seraphim. I left the Crest Orders and my kinsmen behind hundreds of years before I wound up trapped here." Rasiel smiled, taking a seat on the ground so he was eye-level with King and the girls. "Now, my memories are still clouded and fragmented, so could you tell me what this place is? Or how I came to be with you?"

Luz nodded and explained everything as best she could, regarding the Caplacier Temple Ruins, the trials they cleared, and the Black Tomb they'd found. King had then angrily added how the orb Rasiel had been trapped in had drained Luz of her energy, making Luz nervously try to say it was fine, while Rasiel apologised.

"I see. So this is the temple my spirit was sealed inside. And you say this place is a Titan Archipelago known as the Boiling Isles?" Rasiel asked.

"Yes. But the Isles are only a few thousand years old, so I'm not sure how you got stuck here if you were trapped over 100,000 years ago." Amity replied.

"How did you wind up trapped anyway?" Luz asked.

Rasiel's face twisted with strain as he struggled to piece together the answer to Luz's question. "I-I don't remember. Not fully anyway. I came to the land of demons with other angels… other Seraphim. We ran into trouble with the locals… and someone called the Divider. The Divider did something terrible, and the demons and witches we found hated us. I was ripped apart… split into several pieces… four, I think. Then each piece was sealed away. My spirit was sealed in that crystal ball, and put inside that black box. I remember waiting as thousands of years went by… then I felt someone touching me. It was you, Young Luz; I felt your magic and I…"

He looked down in shame; "I am sorry. I had been trapped for so long and felt so weak, I reached out and drained away your magic. I used it to finally break the seal on the crystal ball and escape. Now I'm here. That is all I can remember, at least of my personal memories."

The trio of young explorers exchanged looks. As an angel, Rasiel couldn't lie without pain and so he was obviously telling the truth, which lessened King's ire a bit. However his story raised many questions; if he was sealed before the Boiling Isles existed, then how did his Black Tomb end up inside a temple on the isles? And why exactly had he been sealed in the first place by this "Divider" being. Had it been the work of a powerful demon, who disliked angels coming to their realm and trying to spread order? If so, what was the fate of the other angels that came with him? Unfortunately, it didn't look like he remembered, so Luz didn't want to upset him by asking. Instead she asked a different question;

"If you don't mind me asking, why didn't this… "Divider"… just, you know… kill you?" Luz asked nervously, "I mean, I know a Seraphim is partially immortal and can't die a natural death, but if they were strong enough to tear you into four pieces and seal you away, surely they were strong enough to kill you in a fight?"

Rasiel smiled and spread his wings out a bit; "As you no doubt noticed, Young Luz, I have ten wings. When a Seraphim grows stronger and gains their final set of wings, we become True Immortals. Nothing can kill us."

"Amazing…" Luz gasped. She began to feel a bit better, and was able to slowly get to her feet with Amity's help. "I can't believe I'm meeting another angel in the Demon Realm! I have so much I want to ask you! Do you think if we find your other pieces, you'll be whole again?"

"I believe so. I'd be happy to answer any questions that I can, my little saviour." Rasiel grinned. He then looked to King and Amity; "The same goes for the two of you. Young Luz alone could not have freed me."

Amity smiled at him, while King puffed his chest out proudly. Meanwhile Luz saw the opportunity to finally get some questions answered by the only other angel she knew with experience in the Demon Realm.

"Rasiel, since I came to this world, a lot of strange things have been happening to me. I was wondering if you could tell me anything about it." Luz said.

"Well I can certainly try. Many of my personal memories are foggy or missing, but my knowledge seems largely intact. And it is the duty of an elder to educate the young. Ask away, Young Luz."

Luz smiled, then quickly began to explain everything she had experienced in the Demon Realm regarding her magic. She recounted how she'd been a stunted Cherubim, how she'd discovered the light and plant glyphs, how she'd rapidly evolved and matured as an angel after each discovery, and how the glyphs had appeared on her skin after each evolution. She also explained hers and Eda's theories, regarding her relationship with wild magic and the language of the isles. Rasiel listened to it all with a curious expression, before finally speaking again.

"If it is not too much trouble, may I see these glyphs on your skin?" he asked.

Luz nodded, then began to take off her coat. She was still tired, so Amity ended up helping her disrobe, blushing as red as a tomato the entire time, something that made Rasiel smile when he noticed it. When Luz's upper body was down to just her sports bra, the girl was blushing in embarrassment and poor Amity had to stare at the ceiling to stop her blood pressure from skyrocketing.

With the two glyphs exposed, Rasiel peered closely at them, then floated around Luz's body to follow the lines that spread from the glyphs to the girl's wings. He hummed as he floated back in front of the girl, and gestured for her to cover herself again, which she did quickly.

"Neither of those specific marks are familiar to me, but the presence of glyphs on the body does ring a bell." Rasiel said, "Glyphs existed before I was sealed; the witches who helped seal me used them to cast magic, though they weren't the same ones you've got. The glyphs are the written magical language of an ancient race that I believe are referred to as Titans by the people here. If I'm remembering right, ancient witches used these glyphs to harness the in-born magic of the Titans."

The trio gasped; "So the glyphs really are the language of the Isles!" Luz exclaimed, "Does this mean the Titan has been trying to communicate with me?"

"Probably. Titans are partially immortal like Seraphim are. Even if their body is dead, their soul may yet linger in some form. So long as the Boiling Isles Titan's soul hasn't moved on from this world, it's magic should still be working. Perhaps this Titan was trying to help you in some way. I wonder…" Rasiel's eyes drifted down to King, who just looked back at him with confusion.

Before King could ask why he was being stared at, Amity spoke up; "Luz, you realise that Emperor Belos got where he is now by claiming he could speak to the Titan, right? What if our theory about him being an angel is true? It would explain why you're both able to communicate with the Boiling Isles!"

Luz nodded; "I was thinking the same. But why would the Titan want to communicate with angels specifically? And why do the glyphs appear on our, or at least my, skin? And why did I suddenly evolve when I bonded with them?"

Rasiel rubbed his chin; "Titan magic is extremely potent; stronger even than a Seraphim, and perhaps stronger than the ten-winged Seraphim too. Normally an angel will grow through the stages of life slowly and naturally via the natural accumulation of magic and training. Like any other muscle, utilising your magic strengthens it and grows it, and once it is large enough, you progress to the next stage. However angels can also undergo rapid evolution if their magic suddenly grows strong enough to be on the level of a higher order angel, so I suspect your body evolved after the glyphs appeared on you and filled you with some of that Titan magic. Even a small amount would be enough to evolve a cherub into a full angel." he theorised.

"I also suspect the events that caused you to learn the glyphs were insignificant. You were exposed to something that the glyph represented, and the Titan used that window to imprint the glyph on your mind. As for why they then appeared on your skin…" Rasiel tilted his head, "… I suspect it is a result of you bonding with the element that the glyph represents. I seem to remember ancient witches having similar tattoos… perhaps they were the result of reaching some higher understanding, or bonding with the Titan through these glyphs."

Luz and King exchanged curious looks; if that was all true, why didn't King bond with the glyphs like Luz did? Surely he understood them as well as her by this point. Amity was the one to come up with an answer, gasping with excitement as it came to her.

"The elements that the glyph represents! That's the key!" she exclaimed. "Luz, remember when you bonded with the plant glyph? What was going through your mind at the time?"

Luz blinked and thought back to that day in the rain; "I… I wanted to fix my mistakes. I wanted to heal Owlbert, and rescue King, and undo what I'd done to Eda."

"You wanted to restore Owlbert and Eda. You wanted to save King's life! Luz, what does the Plant Element represent?" Amity asked.

The young angel gasped; "Rejuvenation, Restoration, and Life!"

"That's right! Luz, I think you bonded with the plant glyph because you fully embraced what it represented! What about when you bonded with the light glyph at the Conformatorium?" Amity asked.

"I wanted to fight back against Warden Wrath's corruption, and save King and Eda! I cared about them, so…!"

King gasped in understanding; "Light is the element of Purification, Positivity, and Caring! You understood the power of light, so you bonded with the glyph!"

Luz laughed and hugged Amity; "That's got to be it! Oh Amity, you're amazing! How did you figure that out?"

Amity blushed again, but managed to stutter out; "W-Well it's because of this temple, and the trials, and what Rasiel said about the ancient witches having the same tattoos. I thought that maybe Initiates at these elemental temples were taught the glyph by someone else, like you teaching King, then once they proved they understood it by passing the trials, they'd come down here and get it tattooed on them."

Rasiel nodded in agreement; "I believe Young Amity is correct. I suspect you had to learn the glyph, then face some kind of trial to master it, whereupon the Titan themselves marked you, infusing you with their power and triggering an evolution in the process."

"So I need to pass my own trials to bond with the glyphs… but that doesn't explain why me? Or why Belos? Why would the Titan talk to us?" Luz wondered.

Rasiel raised an eyebrow as he glanced between Luz and King. A small smile crossed his face; he didn't know about this "Belos" person, but it seemed obvious to him why Luz was chosen by the Titan. Still, he thought the girl's obliviousness was cute, and she and her friends had largely worked out the rest on their own, so he'd say nothing and let them figure it out.

"I'm sure he has his reasons. Now is there anything else you wanted to ask?" Rasiel said.

Luz still had questions, but it looked like she'd exhausted what she could learn about her body's reaction to the Boiling Isles from the partially amnesiac angel. Anything else she wanted to know could wait until they'd all had some rest. She wondered how Eda would react to Rasiel…

"I think I've got enough to be thinking about for now. But what about you? What are you going to do now, Rasiel?" Luz asked.

The ancient angel stroked his chin; "Honestly, I would like to return to my kinsmen, but after all these years I suspect most if not all of those I loved are now gone. From what I remember, my fellow Seraphim likely lost their lives to the Divider, as I was the only ten winged one among them. I suspect it'll also be difficult for me to return on my own; I don't have any magic of my own without my body, and I can't remember what the other sealed pieces of me are. Perhaps my memories was one such piece?"

"Like Luz said earlier, maybe we can help you recover them?" Amity suggested.

"Yeah, we did manage to open the Black Tomb, so we're pretty awesome." King boasted, "And maybe I'll find a way to recover my powers while we're recovering yours!"

Rasiel smiled happily; "If you could do that, I would be eternally grateful. I already owe you a great debt for freeing my spirit, so I shall endeavour to repay your kindness. In the meantime, I would like to remain with you, Luz." he nodded to the girl, "You're the only one of my kin I know of, after all."

Luz nodded eagerly; rescuing an ancient angel would definitely be a story her Mami would be amazed by! If she fully restored Rasiel, he could talk to her Mami and help convince her that the Demon Realm wasn't all bad! At least not any more!

"I'd love to have you come with us! But we've got to ask my mentor, Eda. She should be okay with it though; she's pretty awesome." Luz smiled proudly.

Rasiel instinctively tried to pat Luz's head, but his hand just passed through her, making him pout. "Darn. I guess things like that will have to wait until I find my body. Anyway, should we leave? After thousands of years in the dark, I would quite like to see the sky again."

The trio of explorers nodded, all feeling exhausted from the night's adventures, especially Luz. She assured King and Amity that she would be fine once her magic replenished itself, but Amity still insisted on helping support her as they began to make their way out of the ritual chamber with Rasiel floating around beside them. Luz hid her wings and gratefully took her concealment stone back from Ghost, just in case the twins were awake when they got back to their camp.

"Rasiel, can you hide your wings like Luz does? We're trying to keep Luz's identity as an angel a secret, and it'll raise less questions if my siblings think you're the spirit of an ancient witch." Amity requested.

The elder angel just nodded and hid his wings away. Considering he'd been torn apart and sealed by angry witches and demons, he couldn't blame Luz for being cautious.

Rasiel was the first person to step out of the ritual chamber, beginning to float down the short steps that led to the hallway back to the spiral staircase. However the instant he passed beyond the boundary of the room, the entire temple began to shake. The stairs Rasiel had been floating down suddenly rose up, completely sealing the entrance and leaving the others trapped in the chamber.

"A booby trap!?" Amity cried.

"I don't think the people who made this place wanted Rasiel to escape…!" Luz said fearfully, as the rumbling continued.

Suddenly, the icy blue flames on the braziers rose up into the air, then combined together into a single large flame, which flew into the giant snake statue's mouth. It went down the snake's throat, and a blue light began to spread through it's body, causing the entire chamber to glow in the same blue, since the walls were made from the snake statue's coiled body. The lines between the snake's scales began to glow especially brightly, turning cyan as the rest of the statue turned white. The snake's eyes then opened up like the ones in the trials, revealing organic looking cyan eyes that peered down on the explorers and Rasiel. A long hiss came from the giant snake's mouth as it began to crack.

Finally, with one last loud and angry hiss, the entire snake statue shattered, and from inside it emerged an equally long, though not quite as thick serpentine creature. King and Amity used plants and abomination slime to shield their group from the rubble of the stone shell, while Luz summoned some more light balls to replace the braziers. When the dust of the shattering stone finally settled, the true form of the serpentine creature was revealed.

It was not a snake, but a long white scaled dragon, with dozens of pairs of icy clawed legs along the length of it's body, thick spikes of ice running down it's spine, a massive mace-like chunk of ice on its tail, and a draconic head with two branched ice horns, and a mane of cyan coloured hair around the back of its head, matching the two long whiskers flowing from its snout. It's eyes looked just like the ones used in the various trials the trio had faced, only much larger, and glowing ominously.

"I-Is that a d-dragon!?" Luz shivered, the air in the room suddenly dropping to an even lower temperature.

"Impossible! Dragons are super rare! They haven't been around since before even the Savage Ages!" Amity cried, shakily holding Ghost out in staff form as the serpentine beast looked around sleepily, obviously searching for the reason it was awoken.

"Speaking as someone who was around when dragons commonly roamed the skies, I can confirm that this thing is a dragon." Rasiel said, completely unconcerned. His spectral body couldn't feel anything and was in no danger from the creature, so he felt no fear. "Specifically, I believe this is an Ice Wyrm; one of the three species of Supreme Dragons."

Amity gulped; normal dragons were rare, but the Supreme Dragons were supposed to be extinct! Dying out millennia ago!

The Ice Wyrm's eyes fell on Rasiel, who began to casually walk away from the children so the dragon wouldn't harm them while trying in-vain to attack him. The giant creature began to hiss lowly, the icy parts of its body glowing brighter as it gathered magic into itself, but Rasiel just smiled serenely and kept walking, until he was on the opposite side of the room, forcing the Ice Wyrm to completely turn away from Luz and her friends.

Now that the Ice Wyrm had awakened and lost its stone shell, Luz and Amity noticed that the ritual chamber now had no walls, instead exposing only the bone of the Titan that had been carved into to form the temple's underground areas. With the exit now sealed and the floor and ceiling still made of impenetrable blue stone, their only way of getting out of the ritual chamber would be by blasting through the Titan's bones; a difficult task, but significantly easier than fighting a dragon!

The trio edged towards the bare cave walls and Luz gently probed it with a light laser, smiling as she successfully vaporised a portion of the bone. "I can definitely get us out of here, but my magic is still low, so I need to find the spot closest to the surface!" she said.

King shrugged helplessly, having no idea where that spot was, but Amity kept a cool head and closed her eyes to think, and put all her practice with memorisation to work. She visualised the ruins of Caplacier and the location of the temple entrance, then mapped out the route they'd taken into the temple and then down into the ritual chamber. Overlaying this with her mental map of the Knee itself, Amity was able to come up with a rough guess as to the fastest way out, which would let them emerge from the side of the Knee if she was judging it correctly. Unfortunately that was not going to be simple.

"I've got good news and bad news." Amity whispered urgently, watching as Rasiel and the Ice Wyrm stared each other down. "The good news is, I think I know a good spot for you to make us a way out of here. If I'm right, you should be able to get us out with one big blast!"

"And the bad news?" Luz asked nervously.

Amity gulped and pointed towards Rasiel; "Those two are right in front of it!"

As Amity said those words, the Ice Wyrm reared back its head then struck forward like a snake, opening its mouth to reveal rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth that went all the way down it's throat. Rasiel didn't attempt to dodge, allowing the Ice Wyrm to phase through him, though he regretted that decision as he got an up close look at the inside of the Ice Wyrm; the teeth went all the way down its body, making the inside of its body look like a fleshy blender. It was rather horrifying, and Rasiel cringed when the Ice Wyrm finally pulled back, briefly confused that it had failed to hit its mark. On the bright side, its attack had broken some of the bone where Luz would need to dig their escape tunnel, so her job was now a bit easier.

"Rasiel! We need to switch places! Can you keep that thing busy and move it over here while we head over there!?" Luz yelled.

The ancient angel nodded and signalled for her and the others to begin moving clockwise around the chamber, while he did the same. As both groups began to move, the Ice Wyrm lunged at Rasiel again, who dodged to the left. He tried to phase through the floor to confuse the Ice Wyrm, but found he couldn't move through the odd blue stone. Whoever had built this temple had obviously wanted to keep spirits from getting in or out, though whether that was specifically for him or to ward off oracle spirits was a mystery.

After several tense minutes and more attacks from the Ice Wyrm, the two groups had successfully swapped placed, with King, Luz, and Amity now where they needed to dig while Rasiel was keeping the Ice Wyrm busy on the opposite side of the room. The Ice Wyrm's tail mace began to glow, and it shook it like the rattle of a rattlesnake, filling the air with a discordant chiming sound that made everyone in the room wince, especially King and the two angels, who felt it resonating through their souls. The Ice Wyrm's mouth opened wide once again, and a cyan light filled it as it gathered energy for a breath attack of some kind. Luz felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, and she couldn't stop herself from yelling to Rasiel.

"Watch out!"

Rasiel smiled over at her, "It's fine, Luz. Spirit, remember?" he grinned.

The Ice Wyrm roared, and the cyan light came blasting out of its mouth in the form of an intense beam of energy, coating the entire area around the dragon in a thin layer of frost from the sheer cold of it. Rasiel felt his astral form begin to freeze even before the beam struck him, and he instinctively dodged to the side to avoid it. The beam struck the wall behind him, seemingly transforming it from bone to solid ice, which spread rapidly as the beam continued for several seconds, whipping up a small blizzard that filled the chamber and forced Luz, King, and Amity to shield their faces from the biting cold. Even with their warm furs, the cold was so bad that they felt almost naked.

When the Ice Wyrm finally ran out of breath and was forced to stop its attack to inhale and gather more energy, a good two thirds of the room had turned to ice, and Rasiel was left stood there, his left arm and wings completely frozen despite being ethereal.

He looked at them in shock, unable to feel the cold but still unable to move the frozen limbs. He grimaced; "So it can freeze even spirits? This might be a problem."

He wasn't able to think on it for long, as the Ice Wyrm began chomping and snapping at him again. Rasiel did his best to dodge this with half his body frozen, as he had a feeling that the Wyrm would be able to make contact with its own ice.

"L-Luz, g-get us out of h-here!" King said, teeth chattering from the cold.

"W-Working on i-it!" Luz replied, trying to cast her light beam spell as her hands shook from her violent shivering. Amity, shivering herself, reached over and helped hold Luz's hands steady, and the young angel was finally able to focus enough to fire the biggest and widest beam of light she could manage, blasting straight through the bone of the Titan's Knee to the outside world. As soon as Luz's spell faded, the girl almost fainted in Amity's arms, as she was still extremely weak after being drained by Rasiel, forcing Amity to put the angel girl on her back.

"Good job Luz, you got us a way out." Amity smiled as she looked at the moonlight streaming in through their new escape tunnel. "Rest up, we'll take it from here."

Luz nodded weakly; "T-Thanks Amity."

Amity positioned herself and Luz on top of her staff, then grabbed King and put him in front of her before kicking off from the ground and preparing to fly outside. At the last moment before leaving, she turned to shout to Rasiel; "Over here!"

The ancient angel saw the escape route and nodded; "I'll be right there. I have an idea." he yelled back.

He then continued to dodge and avoid the Ice Wyrm's attacks, slowly edging his way towards the escape tunnel, while Amity watched him and prepared to flee the moment he got close. She would have left him, but with his wings frozen he might not be able to fly on his own. Still, she couldn't help but wonder why he was being so slow to escape!

Then the Ice Wyrm began charging up for another ice beam attack, and Rasiel suddenly booked it over towards her.

"Go, go!" he ordered.

Amity obeyed and shot off at top speed, Rasiel just barely grabbing the end of her staff by hooking his frozen hand (the only part that could touch normal physical objects) on to it at the last possible second. They rocketed down the escape tunnel as the Ice Wyrm, too big to fit through it, moved its head as close as it could and fired its beam after them. The blizzard whipped up by the beam struck them in the back, covering them all in a thin layer of frost, but also propelling them forward slightly faster. The beam was gaining on them fast, but they just barely got to the end of the tunnel before it struck them, and Amity was able to pull up sharply, narrowly avoiding the beam and flying them up into night sky.

Rasiel's feet had been caught in the beam and frozen, making him frown, and the three kids were shivering and slowly moving around to shake off the thin layer of ice, but they were otherwise alive and unharmed. They looked down to the hole they'd just escaped through and found that the Ice Wyrm's breath attack had completely frozen it shut behind them, trapping the Ice Wyrm underground. There were loud roars and tremours that shook the side of the Knee as the trapped beast tried to escape, but Rasiel was confident it wouldn't break free.

"With any luck, it'll return to its hibernation now." the ancient angel said, "Dragons rarely leave their nests and Ice Wyrms are terrified of the sun, so once daytime comes, it won't even try to escape."

"G-Great… Can we go back to c-camp now? We could all do with warming up and getting some s-sleep." Luz said, her words becoming slurred from exhaustion.

"Don't go to sleep until you've warmed up, Luz." Amity warned. "King, keep her awake."

King nodded and scurried around Amity to sit between her and Luz, lightly patting Luz's cheeks and being cute to make the girl coo and keep her from drifting off. Amity then flew them back up higher, back to the top of the Knee and over to their campsite, taking it slowly and carefully due to the winds that threatened to blast them away. Amity winced slightly as she saw Eda and the twins, along with their Palismen, panicking outside the entrance to the Caplacier Temple Ruins, which had apparently been sealed shut just like the Ritual Chamber after the Ice Wyrm had awoken. Rasiel quickly hid his wings again before they approached.

Orthie and Russ caught their scent before the others spotted them, and began barking to alert their owners, making Eda and the Twins look up sharply. Expressions of relief crossed their faces as they saw the kids were okay, though Eda was concerned by how pale Luz looked, as well as by the presence of the strange, partially transparent and half-frozen man that was hanging on.

"Kids! Thank the Titan you're okay!" Eda shouted, immediately grabbing all three kids into a bear hug the instant Amity had flown them close enough.

"Oof, Eda! Not so tight!" King whined.

"Hush, you! I was scared to death for a while there!" Eda shot back. She still loosened her grip however, which allowed the twins to steal Amity out of the Owl Lady's embrace and pull her into theirs.

"Mittens, we were so worried!" Edric cried.

"The entire Kneecap started shaking, and when it woke us up we couldn't find you! We panicked so much we almost missed your note!" Emira said, keeping it together a bit better than her brother.

Even Orthie and Russ were getting in on the relieved reunion, as they had gently grabbed Ghost and held her between them, whining and licking her, which the cat Palisman graciously allowed.

"I'm sorry I worried you guys." Amity said, "Eda, please don't be mad at Luz or King. This whole thing was my idea. I wanted to cheer them up since they'd seemed down after training today."

"It was your idea?" Emira blinked in surprise.

"Dang sister, you've developed an actual adventurous side? Maybe we should set you up with Luz more often!" Edric said teasingly, making Amity blush.

Eda just laughed; "Relax Boots, I'm not mad. Teenagers sneaking off together in the middle of the night isn't something I'm gonna get bent out of shape about. Titan knows I got up to similar stuff when I was a teen. In fact, a friend and I even pulled the exact same stunt one, sneaking off to the Caplacier Temple Ruins in the middle of the night. I swear we gave Lily conniptions!"

"S-So it's okay that we left without telling you?" Luz asked nervously.

"Sure. I wouldn't have thanked you for waking me up, and you left a note anyway. I wasn't worried until the Kneecap started shaking. By the way, what happened exactly? The Twins and I planned to go down into the ruins to get you once the tremors started, but the place sealed itself up." Eda then looked over to Rasiel, who'd been standing at a distance, trying to get used to moving around with his feet frozen and no wings to help him hover. "And who is that guy?"

"I am Rasiel." he introduced, giving them an awkward wave.

"He's… kind of a long story." Luz said. "We went down into the temple and explored a bit, eventually passing the three trials to get down into the Ritual Chamber."

Eda grinned; "That's my kids! Did you figure out the theme of the trials?"

"Yeah; they were based on what the element of Ice represented." Luz smiled, "Amity figured that one out."

Amity smiled bashfully as the twins ruffled her hair and Eda gave her an approving nod; "Glad to see you paid attention to my lessons, Boots! So did you get a good look at the Black Tomb down in the Ritual Chamber? My old friend and I spent hours trying to figure it out, but we never got further than unlocking the first layer."

Luz grinned proudly; "We did more than get a good look! We solved it!"

Eda and the twins gaped; "You what!? You managed to open the Black Tomb!?" Eda exclaimed.

"Yep!" Luz puffed her chest out proudly; "It needed three different types of people; a witch, a demon, and… someone like me." she said with a wink. The twins assumed she meant human, but Eda knew the truth.

"That's amazing! Well done Luz, King! You too, Boots! People have been trying to bust that thing open for centuries! So what was inside?" Eda asked eagerly, "Some kind of rare and awesome treasure?"

"Kind of? We found a crystal ball. It sucked out my magic when I touched it, which is why I'm so tired, and then it broke and Rasiel popped out." Luz explained.

Eda and the twins looked over to Rasiel with wide eyes. He smiled at them in return, then walked over to Luz and tried to pat her head with his unfrozen hand, passing straight through her.

"You're a spirit? I've never seen one like you." Eda frowned.

"I'm a bit different. Luz here and I come from the same place." Rasiel explained, making Eda gasp softly.

"No way…"

"I'll explain more later, when we're alone." Luz whispered so the twins wouldn't hear her. Eda accepted that answer with a nod.

"Okay, so you solved a millennia old mystery and found an ancient spirit. Any other wild adventures you want to report?" Eda asked with a grin.

"Uh… well you know the giant snake statue in the Ritual Chamber?" King began.

"Yes…" Eda replied, already not liking where this was going.

"Well it turned out it wasn't actually a statue. Or at least not a proper one; it was hollow and a giant Ice Wyrm was inside. When we tried to get the ghost guy out of the temple, the exits all got sealed and we were trapped with the dragon!" King recounted, "Luckily Luz busted us out and Amity flew us to safety, while the Ice Wyrm got trapped underground."

"Froze a few parts of me in the escape though." Rasiel frowned, showing his frozen hand and feet. "Speaking of, do any of you mind trying to thaw me out? The ice seems to be physical, despite the fact I can't move through it like other physical things."

He demonstrated by playfully poking Amity's cheek with his frozen hand, making her yelp and recoil away from him. The twins laughed, while Amity glared daggers at the ancient spirit, much to Rasiel's amusement.

Eda snorted and conjured a ball of flame; "Sure sure, let's give this a whirl."

The Owl Lady put the flame close to Rasiel's frozen hand, and upon him confirming that he couldn't feel its heat at all, she made a second flame in her other hand and placed it inside Rasiel's hand, allowing her to melt the ice from both inside and out. The ice was extremely cold and if Eda tried to move the flames away for even a moment, the melted parts would freeze again, so she had to maintain it for a few minutes until it was finally gone. She then did the same for Rasiel's feet, making him stand in their reignited campfire while she poured more flames down on top of them. When she was done, Rasiel wiggled his fingers and toes and sighed gratefully.

"Marvellous. I may not be able to feel the cold, but being unable to move was still a strange experience, especially as a spirit." Rasiel said. "You have my thanks."

"No problem. You helped the kids get away from the Ice Wyrm, so I owed you one." Eda said.

"Speaking of that thing…" Emira piped up, "Is it safe to just leave it down there?"

"The tremors have stopped, so I suspect it has stopped trying to break free." Rasiel replied, "The stone of the temple cannot be broken, and the now-frozen tunnel we escaped through was too small for it to fit. When the sun rises, its light will shine through the ice and into the Ritual Chamber, forcing the dragon to hibernate."

"Huh, you sure know a lot about dragons." Eda said.

"In the age I was sealed in, dragons were a semi-common sight, though were rarely a threat. They were still extremely dangerous if provoked, especially the Supreme Dragons, but they in particular were also said to be the Servants of the Titans. Legends said that if a witch or demon consumed a bit of each of a Titan's five humours along with a real dragon's heart, they would become a Supreme Dragon and serve that Titan eternally." Rasiel explained.

"Really? I wonder if that means that Ice Wyrm was once a priest of the Caplacier Temple? It would explain why it was sealed up down there, and why it wanted to stop Rasiel from leaving." Amity theorised.

"It's definitely possible! Eda, didn't you say one of those Primordial Wellsprings was around here? Those things made from the five humours?" Luz pointed out.

Eda nodded; "Oh yeah, Eclipse Lake. The place is lost now, but back when the temple was built, it would have still been around."

"Bear in mind, the dragon transformation thing is only a legend. I don't know if its really true." Rasiel said. "But I admit to being curious."

"Ooh, can you teach us more about Supreme Dragons?" Edric asked eagerly. He loved beasts of all kinds, and learning more about such powerful, ancient, and thought-to-be extinct beasts was a chance he couldn't pass up. "Man, I wish I could have seen the Ice Wyrm…"

A rumbling suddenly shook the Knee, causing all but Rasiel to lose their balance and fall over. The rumbling stopped and an eerie silence filled the air, before a very loud and distant roar echoed out from below. The rumbling then started up again, and grew more and more intense as something made its way towards them from underground.

"Edric, if you jinxed us, I'm going to kill you!" Amity cried, struggling to get back to her feet through the shaking.

"It's getting closer! Get into the sky, fast!" Eda ordered, summoning Owlbert and pulling King and Luz onto her staff. Amity and the twins did the same with their own staves (Orthie and Russ shrinking a bit to better fit their owners' staves) before following Eda into air. They flew up high and watched as their tents collapsed from the shaking, and the beasts of the Knee began to flee. A family of Slitherbeasts began climbing trees to get off the ground, until the rumbling once again stopped.

"D-Did it give up?" Edric asked nervously.

The ground beneath their campsite suddenly burst open, as the colossal form of the Ice Wyrm came flying out from underground, swallowing their collapsed tents as they went. Rasiel, who'd remained on the ground since he didn't wish to summon his wings, ran as far from the Ice Wyrm as possible and took cover behind some rubble in the ruins.

"Dang it Edric, stop talking!" Emira yelled before her brother could tempt fate again. For his part, Edric was too busy being both terrified and enthralled by the dragon to speak again anyway.

"How did it get out!?" Luz cried.

"It must have dug out through the Ritual Chamber walls, then up through the Knee below us!" Amity yelled back.

The Ice Wyrm roared into the sky, its icy eyes tracking the flying people above it. It then flew up, producing thick white clouds of mist from its mouth which it could grab onto and climb with its talons, flying like the legends of eastern dragons from the Human Realm. It initially ignored Luz and her friends, instead flying above them until it was flying between them and the clouds above, it's white body gleaming in the moonlight. But then it inhaled deeply, breathing in their scents, after which its eyes suddenly widened and it turned its head to look at Eda, Luz, and King.

"Uh oh!" Eda frowned. The Wyrm roared and flew at them, forcing the Owl Lady to pull a sharp turn to avoid its snapping jaws, though just being as close as they were was enough to make frost begin creeping up them again. Luz and King screamed in fear as the dragon tried to take another bite at them, and Eda began flying away at top speed, tossing a large fireball at the dragon as they went. The fireball shrank a bit before even touching the Ice Wyrm, being diminished by the sheer cold it gave off, and when the flames finally splashed against the creature's scaly face, it did nothing but make the Wyrm flinch.

"I guess regular fire isn't gonna be enough! Hold on tight kids, Mama's gotta pull some fancy manoeuvres!" Eda yelled over her shoulder. Luz stuffed King inside her coat so his head was poking out beneath her own, then wrapped her arms around Eda's waist as tightly as she dared, just as Eda began flying wildly around the sky, trying to shake off the snapping Ice Wyrm.

Seeing this, Amity cried out to the twins; "We've got to help them!"

"We're on it!" Emira yelled, flying at the back of the Wyrm's head. Edric and Amity flew alongside her, and the twins used their new skills with wind magic to help them out; Edric whipping up a tailwind to propel them forward while Emira diverted the wind blowing towards them, reducing their drag and countering the bitter cold winds blowing off from the Wyrm. As they got closer, the twins then peppered the back of the Wyrm's head with fireballs.

"You help too, Mittens!" Edric yelled as he noticed Amity was instead using ice magic to help divert the blizzard now that Emira was focusing on fire.

"I can't do it without the wand, and its out of juice!" Amity countered. "And I need Ghost to fly!"

The twins cursed, and the Ice Wyrm finally stopped its pursuit of the others to take notice of them. Their stream of fireballs had singed its mane, but it had also been constant enough to begin melting one of its ice back spikes, making it growl. It suddenly coiled around in the air and swiped at the three Blights with its tail, managing to clip them and knock them all out of the sky. Thankfully their Palismen were able to catch them before they hit the ground, but they still ended up dazed and forced to land on the snowy ground. The twins ended up flopping over together in the snow, both dizzy as they'd been sent spinning through the air by the dragon's tail swipe. This left them completely vulnerable as the Ice Wyrm began charging an ice breath attack.

"Children, you must flee!" Rasiel yelled, jumping up and down in hopes of drawing the Wyrm's attention to himself. Unfortunately it failed, and the Ice Wyrm shot its attack down on the twins, whose Palismen were trying to drag them out of the line of fire.

"Edric, Emira!" Amity cried, using her staff to magically grab the twins and help Orthie and Russ pull them away from the ice beam. She was only partially successful, as the intense beam of freezing energy passed through the twins' lower bodies, completely freezing them solid from the waist down.

"B-By t-the T-Titan!" Edric cried, teeth chattering.

"S-So c-cold! C-Can't f-feel m-my l-legs!" Emira shivered violently.

Amity began running over to them, but the Ice Wyrm suddenly landed, its head directly over the terrified twins. It sniffed them closely, growling the whole time, then roared into the sky and took off again, apparently satisfied that the two were out of the way. It then proceeded to ignore Amity and go back after Luz and the others, who had been flying around while trying to find a way to deal with the Wyrm. With the dragon continuing its chase, Amity was able to run over to her siblings.

"Are you two okay!?" Amity asked urgently.

"B-Been b-better. C-Care to t-thaw us out?" Edric asked.

Amity nodded and used Ghost's power to conjure some pink flames, which she pressed as close to her siblings' frozen lower bodies as she dared. Rasiel knelt beside her and watched carefully, quietly telling her when to pull back to avoid burning the twins. It took a minute, but she'd successfully thawed Edric and Emira's legs, though it would likely be a while before they regained feeling in them, and they'd likely need some healing magic to avoid long-term damage.

"I'll watch over these two, along with their Palismen." Rasiel said, nodding to Orthie and Russ. He then leaned close and whispered to Amity; "The Ice Wyrm is likely chasing Luz because she is like me. If that thing was tasked with preventing me from escaping, I suspect it is from an age where people had a vendetta against my kind. It will kill or seal Luz in ice if given the chance, so we need to get her out of here and back to warmer climates, where the Ice Wyrm won't roam."

"Easier said than done!" Amity frowned, "The winds made flying difficult even without the blizzard being whipped up by that thing, and we can't possibly outrun or outfly it!"

"Then we need to distract it to give Luz a chance to escape. Without a body, I have no magic of my own, and it must have realised that, so it's ignoring me until the bigger threats are dealt with. That means you and that older witch need to keep it busy!"

Amity bit her lip, then nodded and got back on Ghost; "I'll be back. Please keep my siblings safe!"

Rasiel nodded, then watched as Amity took off in pursuit of the Ice Wyrm, which was already in pursuit of Luz and the others.

At the same time, Eda was pulling out every aerial trick she had in a desperate attempt to shake the beast, which was rapidly gaining on them. She was practically dancing across the sky on her staff, frantically tossing fireball spells at the Ice Wyrm and taking a page from the twins' book by using wind spells to try and speed up Owlbert while slowing down the Ice Wyrm. At the same time, King was desperately tossing out over light glyph he could, hoping the bright light would scare the dragon away.

"Nothings working!" he cried.

"Your lights are bright, but they aren't even close to the sun! It's not enough!" Eda yelled. She cringed as she felt some feathers begin to push out of her wrists beneath her winter coat. "Not now… I can't hold the curse off for much longer!"

"Do you have an elixir in your hair?" Luz asked worriedly.

Eda shook her head; "No, they're all in the tent!"

"Which that thing ate!" King pointed out.

"I know that! Luz, do you still have some in your satchel?" Eda asked, suddenly dive-bombing to avoid the Wyrm's jaws.

Luz nodded weakly; "I do. I think I've got just enough magic left in the tank to summon it too."

With her wings hidden, she hadn't been able to replenish her magic at all since blasting her way out of the Ritual Chamber, so she was almost completely tapped. Eda understood that, but their options were limited.

"Sorry to put this on you kid, but do it." she said.

With a silent nod, Luz shakily drew the spell circle and summoned her satchel into her hand. Unfortunately the sudden drain of the last of her magic caused it to slip from her hand immediately and plummet to the ground. King immediately threw out a plant glyph to create vines to catch it, but the Ice Wyrm had charged up another breath attack and fired it at the trio. Eda swerved hard to try and dodge it, but the dragon jerked its head to the side at the same time, freezing King's vines before they could grab the satchel. Owlbert, knowing he couldn't avoid the beam of intense cold, suddenly bucked Eda, Luz, and King off his staff and took the hit alone, freezing solid and falling from the sky along with his riders.

"Luz! Fly! I'll cover us!" King cried, touching his collar which was still engraved with the light glyph. Luz nodded and held him tight in one arm while grabbing Eda with the other. King then activated his collar's glyph while trying to make the biggest light he could, blinding anyone looking in their direction and allowing Luz to summon her wings to break their fall. She was still too weak to truly fly, so she just glided them down to the ground, then collapsed into the snow and hid her wings again before the twins could notice.

Amity saw this happen as she was pursuing the Ice Wyrm, and quickly dived to catch the dropped satchel and frozen Owlbert before they could hit the ground. She then summoned up as much abomination slime as she could in a massive orb above her head, then tossed it at the Ice Wyrm while it was still blinking spots out of its eyes from King's blinding flash. The slime splattered against its body and bound its mouth and eyes shut, as well as covering its nostrils. Amity prayed it would suffocate into unconsciousness, though she doubted the slime would hold for long against the beast's strength; it was already beginning to freeze.

"Boots! Toss me an elixir!" Eda ordered upon spotting her.

Amity immediately pulled an elixir from the satchel and tossed it as hard as she could at the Owl Lady, who caught it easily and practically inhaled it, restoring some of her magic and pushing back the effects of the curse. The instant the feathers receded, Eda twirled the index fingers of both her hands to make several pillars of rock shoot out from the ground and rocket up into the Ice Wyrm's underbelly just as it broke free from Amity's slime. The dragon roared its displeasure and prepared to fire another ice breath attack, but Eda raised yet another pillar to slam into its chin, forcing its jaw shut and causing its beam to instead be forced out through its nose, firing way over the heads of its targets and stunning it for a moment.

Eda then grabbed Luz and King and tossed them over to Amity. "Take my kids and get out of here! This thing won't go down until sunrise, so I'll keep it busy!"

Amity helped Luz and King onto the back of her staff, but still protested; "Eda, you can't handle that thing alone!"

"Who do you think I am!? I'm the strongest witch on the Boiling Isles!" Eda declared, drawing a massive spell circle and unleashing a torrent of golden flames on the Ice Wyrm. It scorched the creature badly, melting many of its icy back spikes and even destroying a few of its legs, making it writhe around in the snow to try and cool itself back down again. However even as the Ice Wyrm suffered, Amity could see that Eda was using a lot of magic, and would undoubtedly succumb to the curse again soon.

"At least let me thaw out Owlbert and give you Luz's satchel first!" she cried.

Eda opened her mouth to answer, but the Ice Wyrm's tail flicked out suddenly and nearly hit Amity and her passengers. King had seen it coming and used a plant glyph to thorn vault them into the air, forcing Amity to take flight.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Eda roared, repeating her fire spell against the Ice Wyrm, who now countered with another ice breath. The two attacks cancelled each other out, creating an explosion of steam that scalded both Eda and the Ice Wyrm. Eda then cast a wind spell to disperse the steam and blow Amity further away.

Amity bit her lip hard, almost tasting blood; she didn't want to leave the Owl Lady! But if she didn't, the dragon would surely come after Luz again, and if Rasiel was right, the girl Amity cared for so much would be no more!

Luz saw the conflict on her face and hugged her gently from behind; "Do what you've got to do, Amity. I trust you." she said.

"Titan forgive me…" Amity muttered to herself. "I'm getting you out of here. EDA! TAKE THIS!"

Amity then flung Luz's satchel towards her using a sling made of abomination slime. Eda managed to catch it and immediately gulp down another elixir with a grin, then once again blasted the Ice Wyrm, really showing why she was so feared by the Emperor's Coven. Amity then turned her Palismen around and flew in the opposite direction, moving away from Eda and towards the Twins, figuring that with the Owl Lady distracting the dragon, they could all escape together.

The Ice Wyrm saw its quarry getting away with the mint-haired girl, and roared furiously. It coiled its body like a snake, then rapidly uncoiled and struck Eda with its tail. Eda managed to shield herself at the last minute with some barriers of stone and ice, but they merely lessened the impact and she was still sent flying, hitting the ruins nearby with a groan as her old bones creaked painfully. The Ice Wyrm then breathed ice down on its own body, remaking the icy limbs and spikes Eda had melted. As soon as it was done, it raked its mighty front claws through the ground, tearing up chunks of earth and Titan Bone and sending them flying at Amity and her passengers.

King managed to block a few of these projectiles with some plants, but there was just too many and he was running low on pre-drawn glyphs, causing him to become overwhelmed. Amity still managed to avoid the lion's share of the attack thanks to Ghost's nimble flying, but a single large chunk of bone slammed down on the end of her staff, causing them to crash into the snow not far from Rasiel and the twins. Amity and Luz both groaned as their bodies were bruised by the impact, and Amity looked up in horror to see that Ghost's body had been badly cracked by the crash, leaving the poor thing lying weakly in the snow.

Since King had been spared most of the impact thanks to Luz cradling him, he was the one to hurry over and scoop the little Palisman up while Amity struggled to her feet. The mint-haired girl limped over to the two, but the Ice Wyrm suddenly fired another breath attack in their direction. Amity saw it coming but couldn't move out of the way in time, so instead shielded King and Ghost with her own body and braced for the frigid cold of the ice breath, clenching her eyes tight.

"NO!" Luz cried, before Amity heard the crunching of snow, followed by the gasps of the twins. She then felt a bitterly cold wind blow over her, coating her in a thin layer of frost, but not otherwise freezing her. Amity opened her eyes and slowly shook off the frost, which cracked and fell away as she moved.

How was she able to move at all though? Even a spirit like Rasiel had been frozen by a direct hit from the Ice Wyrm's ice beam breath, so why had she only received a light shell of frost? Was it a matter of distance?

Amity got her answer as she looked towards the Ice Wyrm and went deathly pale at the sight in front of her. It was Luz, in full angel form, with her wings spread wide to shield Amity, King, and Ghost from the dragon's attack, while her left arm was raised towards the dragon, as if she'd been attempting to cast a light blast to try and counter the breath attack. But her lack of magic had meant the spell failed, meaning she had taken a direct hit, and was now completely frozen solid, to the point that she almost looked like an ice sculpture version of herself.

"LUZ!" Amity and King cried, rushing over to the frozen girl.

"W-What just happened? What are those wings!?" Emira spluttered. Luz was still disguised with her stone, meaning her wings were invisible, but that didn't make then intangible, so being frozen had resulted in her wings being covered in visible ice, essentially revealing them to everyone.

Rasiel frowned severely; it looked like his little saviour's secret had been spilled. But that could be addressed later; for now they needed to save her life.

The Ice Wyrm paused in its actions as it saw its quarry frozen in ice. It was debating its next move, and as it began to growl, it became clear what it had chosen; sealing in Luz was not enough! With a bellowing roar, it began flying at the frozen girl with the intent to shatter her. Amity gasped and threw herself between them, ready to take the blow for Luz as Luz had taken the last one for her, but the Ice Wyrm suddenly stopped in its tracks and screeched in pain as Eda returned to the fight. She was now gripping Owlbert, who she'd thawed with her own fire magic, and was glaring furiously at the Ice Wyrm as she doused it in flames. Feathers were beginning to sprout from her arms and neck as her emotions went wild and she struggled to contain her curse despite her renewed magic.

"I WON'T LET YOU HURT MY KID!"

The Ice Wyrm roared and writhed in pain under the deluge of fire, and a furious King began rapidly drawing plant glyphs in the snow, summoning massive thorny vines to try and bind the creature's legs to stop it flying away. Unfortunately he was too angry to realise that Eda's flames would effect his plants too, so the ones closest to the dragon's head burned to ash, and the Ice Wyrm reared up and tried to slash at the frozen Luz.

Amity threw herself in front of the frozen angel, but before she could be struck, a large shape slammed into the dragon's underbelly with shocking force, making it flop to the ground with a loud thump and a cloud of snow. This shape, about the size of a horse, landed beside the Ice Wyrm's head and began growling and snarling, revealing itself to be a giant dog. It wasn't just any dog either; it was a massive two-headed dog with a wolf-like body and two, Dobermann-like heads, with blue flame designs on the right side of its body (including both sides of its right head) and red flame ones on the left side (again including both sides of its head).

The youngest Blight recognised it immediately; this was Orthrus, the combined form of her twin siblings' Palismen. Because Edric and Emira had carved their Palismen from a single branch, as was a tradition for twins on the Isles, their Palismen had the peculiar ability to "become one" again. It was why they had been carved into identical dogs and given the names Orthie and Russ; so they could join together and take the shape of the legendary Orthrus, a canine hero from old legends and bedtime stories. The twins couldn't wield Orthrus as a staff like they could the individual halves, but the large fused Palismen was still a force to be reckoned with, which it proved immediately by blasting a torrent of flames from both its mouths, supporting Eda's efforts and further damaging the Ice Wyrm, whose mane and whiskers had been burned away by this point.

"Amity!" Emira yelled, still stuck where she and Edric had been left since feeling hadn't returned to her legs yet. "Eda and Orthrus will cover you! But you need to thaw Luz out! If she stays frozen like that for much longer, she'll die!"

"B-But I can't!" Amity cried, looking at her own hands in a panic; "The wand is out of juice and Ghost is too injured! I can't cast that fire spell without them!"

"You can do it, Boots!" Eda yelled as she tossed an exploding fireball down the roaring Wyrm's gullet, making it briefly swell and expel smoke from its nose. "I need to keep this thing busy, so it's all up to you! Save Luz!"

Amity gulped and turned back to look at Luz, the girl's expression frozen in a look of determination as she'd tried to save Amity from the same fate. But then that was Luz to a tee; how many times had she saved Amity? Luz had saved her future by backing her up at their Covention duel, and hurt herself in the process. She'd saved her job at the Library even though it had meant giving up the book she'd been so desperate to get (though the twins had saved the day on that front). And twice, Luz had saved Amity's life from Arboriel the Mandragora.

A rush of affection filled Amity's heart, and despite everything, she smiled softly; "You really do have a way of working your way into people's hearts. You're always so eager to help others… now I will be the one to help you!"

With more determination that Amity had ever felt in her life, she raised her hand and drew a spell circle, focusing all her magic and intent on creating a flame. She focused on the feelings of fire; destruction, passion, and warmth. She wanted to destroy the ice, she wanted to warm Luz's body, and she admitted, even if only to herself, that the angel girl before her ignited feelings of passion in her chest. Her spell circle wavered for a moment, then transformed into a ball of pink flame, just as she'd wanted.

"I did it! Hold on Luz, I'll get you out of there!" Amity smiled grandly, quickly conjuring a second flame. She placed one near Luz's face to clear the ice from her nose and mouth so she could breathe, then another near Luz's chest to thaw her heart and keep her blood pumping. The ice began to melt and trickle away, and as soon as her face was thawed, Luz gasped and panted, filling her lungs with air. She was still mostly frozen, but at least now she could breathe.

"A-Amity… I-I…"

"Shh." Amity put a finger to Luz's lips, "Don't try to talk just yet. Let yourself get warm first."

The youngest Blight kept one flame held over Luz's heart, then began moving the other around to try and thaw more of Luz's body. She managed to free the girl's right arm and one of her wings, much to Luz's relief, but that was all she could manage before the Ice Wyrm took exception.

Seeing its prey being thawed out, the Ice Wyrm roared so loudly that Eda, Orthrus, and King were forced to cover their ears, feeling the vibrations of the roar passing through their bodies. While they were stunned, the Ice Wyrm broke free from the limited vine bindings King had made for it and flew at Luz and Amity. The young angel gasped, but Amity still felt fire in her blood.

"Stay away… STAY. AWAY. FROM. MY. LUZ!" she bellowed, gathering every scrap of magic she had left and blasting it right down the dragon's throat as it prepared to hit them point-blank with an ice beam.

Amity's pink flames made the dragon stop in its tracks and quickly shut its mouth, but the flames persisted inside the creature, melting its icy limbs and spines from the inside and causing it to recoil from the girl, who was still blanketing it with fire.

Luz, still frozen to the spot, felt her heart beat faster as Amity's words fully registered in her head. Despite the freezing cold, the young angel began to feel warmth spreading through her body, and a bright blush bloomed across her cheeks. Discounting her bad first impression, Luz had always thought Amity was pretty and cool, and smart and strong, with a shockingly cute side, but now she felt something more towards the girl. The physical attraction she couldn't deny having for the girl, as well as the genuine closeness she felt in their friendship, intensified as Luz watched the girl fight back against a dragon for her sake. Her heart beat a little faster as she realised something.

"Am I… am I falling for Amity!?"

That internal revelation set her heart and mind racing, so much so that she almost didn't notice the clouds above beginning to clear, revealing more of the moonlight. The moonlight shone down on the Knee, painting everything in silver light, including Luz's left arm, which was still frozen in its outstretched position. Luz noticed the way the ice on her hand seemed to glitter in the moonlight, then as Amity gave a battle cry and tried to intensify her flames, the pink light of the fire and the silver light of the moon seemed to simultaneously refract through the ice on Luz's palm, creating a bright flash.

Luz yelped as the flash momentarily blinded her, but she immediately began to smile as she realised something. That flash had burned another glyph into her eyes!

"A n-new g-glyph! K-KING!" Luz yelled.

With the dragon distracted by Amity, the others had been able to recover from its roar, and as Eda and Orthrus jumped back into the fray to help her, King ran to answer Luz's call.

"Luz, are you okay!?"

"F-Fine. N-New g-glyph!" she managed to force out through her chattering teeth.

King gasped with excitement and immediately clambered up her still partially frozen form with his notebook and pencil; "Show me, show me! It might be the key to finally beating this thing!"

Luz took the pencil and very shakily drew the glyph that had been etched into her mind. It was rough and a bit wonky due to the numbness in her hand, but it was clear enough that King could replicate and clean up the design. He then tapped it and watched as the glyph glowed blue and the paper it was written on crumpled up and turned into a ball of ice.

"The Ice Glyph! That tracks with our theory about learning the glyphs from the elements… too bad ice isn't too useful right now." King frowned. He was still super excited, but this wouldn't help much in their current situation.

"I don't think you need to be concerned about that." Rasiel said, smiling as he walked forward, "Look to the horizon."

Luz and King obediently looked over to the horizon and gasped as they saw the sun begin to rise. Between their trip into the temple and their long battle with the Ice Wyrm, they'd been up all night! And thanks to their high altitude, the sun's rays would hit them before the rest of the isles!

"Keep that thing busy for just a little longer!" King cried.

"Ice Wyrms take power from the moon and fear the sun! It won't be able to stand up to you once the sun rises!" Rasiel added.

Hearing this, Amity, Eda, and Orthrus let out a synchronised battle cry and continued to push out all the magic they could. Orthrus was spewing flames from both heads, Eda was shooting fire with one hand and chugging Elixirs with the other, and Amity was turning pale as she strained her magic to its limits to keep her pink flames going. The Ice Wyrm roared in agony, unable to replenish its icy limbs or spikes, leaving it grounded. It was trying to gather energy for an ice beam, but it needed all the cold magic it possessed just to keep its entire body from melting entirely.

Seeing Amity flagging, Luz whispered something to King, and the little demon gave a salute before jumping off of her. He drew his new ice glyphs on the ground and created ice skates on the bottom of his rear paws and a long trail of ice over the top of the snow, which he used to skate over to Eda. He jumped into Luz's satchel, draped over the Owl Lady's shoulder, and pulled out the item Luz had told him was there; her own Power Glyph from the Covention, given by Mason and never used. King then rapidly skated over to Amity and slapped the glyph on the back of her neck, giving Amity just the last minute boost she needed to keep producing fire magic.

The glyph fuelled Amity just long enough for the sun rise from beyond the horizon, sending the first light of morning across the peak of the Knee. The instant the light torched the Ice Wyrm, it let out a loud, keening wail of agony as its body began to rapidly melt, the smallest bit of sunlight draining away its magic and allowing the sustained flames of the three magical beings to totally overpower it; such was the Ice Wyrm's weakness to the sun.

Eda, Amity, and Orthrus were able to stop their flames, the two witches collapsing to their knees before Orthrus ran and grabbed them both in his jaws (King hitching a ride on Amity) to drag them away from the thrashing, dying dragon and over to the twins, Rasiel, and Luz.

They watched in horrified fascination as the Ice Wyrm's body melted away, leaving behind a serpentine skeleton of deep blue bones, similar in colour and texture to the blue stone that made up the Caplacier Temple. The skeleton forever preserved the Ice Wyrm's final position; roaring up at the moon, which was still barely visible in the light of the dawn.

"W-We did it…" Amity panted as she went to pick up her injured Palisman. "We took down the Ice Wyrm!"

"YES! I am the King of Dragons!" King proclaimed, throwing his little arms in the air with a victory cry.

"I can't believe it… Our little sister is a Dragon Slayer!" Emira cheered.

"Oh man, now we really can't tease her again! She'll kick our butts!" Edric laughed.

"By the Titan, I need a nap… I think I used a month's worth of Super Elixirs!" Eda groaned, flopping over in the snow as she sipped on one last elixir to force back the lingering effects of her curse.

Luz giggled; "I'll brew them for you. I owe you after you saved my butt today. I'll need to find something else to repay Amity and Orthrus though." she said, feeling the sun's warmth in her bones. With one of her wings thawed, she was now able to gather some energy again and was slowly replenishing her magic, though she'd need to wait for one of the others to finish thawing her before she could do anything more.

Rasiel chuckled at the group's delight and relief, before suddenly frowning as he saw something over by the Ice Wyrm's skeleton. It was a figure, seemingly emerging from the bones themselves.

"Who goes there!?" he demanded, drawing everyone's attention to the figure.

The person got closer, revealing them to be a female witch...and an unusual one at that. Her body was that of a normal witch, with mostly human features and pointed ears, but her skin was covered in snow white scales, and her fingers and bare toes were tipped in icy blue claws. A long serpentine tail ending in a tuft of blue fur emerged from her tail bone, and icy horns just like the Ice Wyrm's sprouted from the top of her head, which featured long blue hair. The woman's face was beautiful, but her eyes were blue and serpent-like, and her expression was pained and furious. She wore some kind of intricate ceremonial robe that looked far too thin for the Knee's climate, but which exposed her sternum, where the Ice Glyph was tattooed, much like Luz had the light glyph on her own sternum.

The scaled woman slowly hobbled her way towards them, using a staff with a miniature Ice Wyrm on the top of it.

"I-Is that the dragon's true form? Did we not kill it after all?" Amity gasped.

"So, the legends of Supreme Dragons being witches and servants of the Titan are true…" Rasiel muttered, eyeing the glyph on the woman's chest.

"Do not address me, Angel!" the woman spat, her voice croaky from disuse.

Edric and Emira gasped, making Amity frown. Looks like that cat really was out of the bag.

"Why are you witches siding with these invaders!?" the woman growled, glaring at Eda and Amity; "Do you have any idea what these things are!?"

"Angels, yeah we know." Eda frowned, "And I don't know what your beef with them is, but Luz here is my apprentice and I won't take you bad mouthing her! Especially after you tried to kill her!"

The woman sneered, then coughed violently, "Fool! That brat will bring nothing but despair to our realm! The Blasphemer that took over this land may have spread his lies that these creatures were agents of the Titan, but I know better! They are twisted monsters and enemies of the Titan!"

"Luz is not a monster!" Amity growled, "She's done nothing but try to help people! And Rasiel is literally a disembodied spirit; he can't do anything to anyone!"

"You can't trick me!" the woman yelled, "I am Zara, High Priestess of the Temple of Ice, and loyal servant of the Titan! I and my order have served his will since before his fur had decayed, and carried out his final orders to guard the Black Tomb, which you foolishly opened!"

Rasiel scowled; "The Titan we currently stand on wouldn't have even been born yet when I was ripped apart and sealed. What possible vendetta could he have against me or my kind?"

"I do not question the Titan's will! I undertook the Rite of Ascension and became a dragon to serve him! If he decrees you to remain sealed, then it is my duty to see it done! The sins of your kind cannot be understated, for it was they who drove the Titans to their deaths!" Zara declared, weakly pointing at Rasiel.

Luz gasped; "Angels killed the Titans!?"

"That is what my forebears taught. Your blood is accursed in these lands, Angel! Leave, or I will kill you!" Zara said, preparing an icy blue spell circle.

With Luz still frozen in place, Amity and Eda stood protectively in front of her, ready to fight Zara to protect Luz. King stood there too, a plant glyph ready in his hand.

"Bring it you scaly weirdo! I won't let anyone hurt my big sister!" King declared.

Zara went pale as she looked at King; "What… impossible! Why would you…? Did you not hear what I just said!? These creatures slaughtered yo-"

"I don't know what any past angels did, but Luz is my friend and big sister! She's got glyphs on her body just like you do, so the Titan obviously likes her! So I won't let you hurt her!" King spat.

Zara looked stricken; "The girl is marked…?"

Luz nodded weakly and pulled at the thawed sections of her chest for a moment, moving the furs aside to reveal the light glyph on her sternum. Zara actually recoiled at the sight of it; "I-Impossible! You can't be… but that is the Glyph of Light!"

"I've got the plant glyph on my tummy too, and I saw the ice glyph in my mind's eye a few minutes ago, during the fight." Luz replied. "I don't know why the Titan put them on my skin, but I'm not like those angels you're afraid of! I don't want to hurt or kill anyone! As weird as it sounds, I'm actually pretty glad you're still alive after that fight."

Knowing angels couldn't lie, Zara could do nothing but gape. "The glyphs are blessings from the Titan. We tattoo ourselves with them to earn their favour, but you were marked by the Titan himself? I can't believe it…!"

"Well believe it sister, now back off! King commands it!" King declared, stamping his little foot.

Immediately, Zara's combative stance relaxed and she stepped back, her look of hate and confusion being replaced by tired resignation. "Very well. I do not know why any of this is happening… I have never been blessed to hear the Titan's voice, even after ascending to Dragonhood to serve him, so I cannot pass judgement here. But be warned, angel; if you prove to be as evil as my predecessors taught, I will return and shatter your frozen soul! Until then…"

She pointed her hand towards Luz, then mimed gripping something in mid air and yanking it towards her. The ice still binding Luz immediately turned to snow and flew into Zara's outstretched hand, causing the young angel to flop numbly to the ground face first. Amity quickly flipped her over so she wouldn't suffocate in the snow, then looked on with confusion as the wounded Zara got onto her staff and began to fly away; "...fare well. Pray we never meet again."

And with that, Zara disappeared into the distance, flying back down the hole she'd burst out from as a dragon, which became covered in ice the instant she passed through it. Eda gave a cursory glance over to the Caplacier Temple Ruins and saw the entrance remained sealed shut, and suspected it would remain that way from now on.

"This has been the longest night of my life." she groaned, rubbing her face.

There were murmurs of agreement from her kids and the Blights. Rasiel, obviously not having a body to feel exhausted, smiled to the group.

"Then I suggest we return to your campsite for rest and recovery. Luz and the twins will likely require medical attention after being frozen, partially or otherwise."

"Easier said than done, Mr. Angel." Emira sighed. "That Ice Wyrm ate our tents!"

Rasiel peered over to the skeleton of Zara's dragon form, which still stood like a statue where it had fallen. A mass of ice could be found inside it, and through the ice he spotted the crumpled and frozen tents. "They will require some work, but I believe they can be salvaged."

Amity and Eda groaned, knowing the task would fall on them. With some help from Orthrus (who divided back into Orthie and Russ), they dragged Luz, Edric and Emira back towards their campsite and propped them up around a new campfire made by Eda igniting some wood grown by King. They then retrieved and thawed out their tents, which had been thankfully swallowed whole, so they and their contents only needed a bit of drying to make them useable again. Once they were set up again, Luz and the twins were laid down together in the Blights' tent while Rasiel watched over them, while Eda, Amity, and King stayed in Eda's tent. There were things to discuss, but everyone was just too exhausted, and after Eda gave the best emergency healing she could to sustain the freezing victims until Luz recovered enough to use her own healing magic, they all drifted off to sleep.

It was about noon before they all awoke, and Luz had recovered enough magic to fully heal the damage that being frozen in such cold ice had done to her body, as well as the twins. It was good timing too, as the twins had begun to show signs of frostbite. Luz also took the time to apply some healing to Ghost and Owlbert, though the bulk of the damage they'd taken had been repaired by proximity with their partners' magic.

With everyone healed and rested, they gathered around their campfire and began cooking a very late breakfast.

"Ugh, today has been crazy. I can't believe we've got school tomorrow!" Edric whined.

"Does all that stuff count as today, or yesterday?" King wondered aloud.

"Well it was already midnight by the time we found Rasiel, so I guess it all counts as today." Amity replied, "At least we didn't have to school immediately after, like with the Wailing Star incident."

"Hanging out with Luz and Amity always seems to lead to all-nighters." Emira chuckled.

Luz giggled; "Yeah… speaking of, I guess now you know why I wanted that book on angels so badly."

The twins nodded; "That's one question we got answered… in exchange for about a thousand more." Edric agreed.

"So, you're really an angel? That's kind of crazy." Emira said.

Amity gave her siblings a sharp look; "Is this going to be a problem?" she said with a hint of warning.

Her siblings put their hands up in mock-surrender. "Easy Mittens, we're not gonna judge." Edric said.

"Yeah, we're cool with Luz. Her being an angel is a surprise sure, but it's not like it changes who she is as a person." Emira said, winking at Luz, who blushed in return.

"You're taking this well. I thought you'd be asking a bunch of questions." Amity said.

"Our little sister solved a millennia old puzzle, freed an ancient spirit, unleashed a thought-to-be extinct ancient dragon, then we all teamed up to fight said dragon, who turned out to be a witch from a thousand years ago. Luz being an angel is basically a fun fact compared to all that." Emira countered.

"That's… fair, actually." Luz smiled. "Please keep it a secret. Besides us, the only people who know are Willow, Gus, Principal Bump, and the Bat Queen."

"No one else can know." Amity said sternly; "Especially Mom."

The twins nodded seriously; there was no way they were gonna spill this particular secret, especially to their mother! If Odalia Blight learned her children were friends with a real angel, who knew what she would do? Exploitation would be the least of Luz's worries…

Emira grinned to lighten the mood; "Don't worry little sis, we wouldn't do anything to endanger your Luz!"

Luz and Amity immediately blushed crimson, and Amity jumped at her cackling siblings and began chasing them around the campsite, while Ghost did the same with Orthie and Russ, the happy canines viewing it as a game. Eda noticed her apprentice's blush and smiled; it looked like Luz was having her first real crush! The Owl Lady was tempted to tease her or give her tips, but she decided that Luz probably had enough on her mind.

Instead, she looked to Rasiel; "So, you're an angel too, right? Now that the secret is out, what's your story?"

"In truth, I don't really remember. Most of my personal memories are missing, and what remains is fragmented. But this is everything I know…"

He then repeated to Eda what he'd told Luz and the others down in the temple, including his own beliefs regarding Luz's evolution and the glyphs on her skin. With all the evidence laid out, it seemed that all of their theories had been correct to some degree… the glyphs were the language of the Isles and Luz's angelic status was why she was learning and bonding with them, and they were why she was evolving so rapidly.

"So the Titan's got something to say to Luz, huh… Kind of ironic that the first person in centuries to learn magic like the Wild Witches of old happens to be someone those same witches would have hated." Eda mused, "And you learned a new glyph through all that stuff, right Luz?"

Luz nodded happily and drew an ice glyph in the snow and activated it, creating a small chunk of ice beneath her palm. "Guess now I can chill our drinks on command, eh?"

Eda chuckled, and watched as King continued to practice with the ice glyph as well. He'd already graduated to making ice sculptures with surprising detail, his skill with glyphs growing larger by the minute.

"We'll need to see if your theory about bonding with the glyphs is true too. If it is, then you just need to feel a strong connection with the principals of ice and water; Fluidity, Change, and Protection. Considering you bonded with the other two while saving one of us, it's only a matter of time before you do it again." Eda said, already wondering what changes to Luz's body a third glyph would cause.

"Maybe I'll finally get taller! I'd like to be taller than Amity…" Luz said, whispering that last part as she wistfully watched the mint-haired girl scolding her siblings, who she'd caught and tied up with abomination slime.

Eda rolled her eyes at the lovesick teenager, and turned back to Rasiel; "So, what are you going to do now?"

"I was hoping to stay with you. Luz expressed interest in helping me recovering my lost pieces, so I hoped to stick close to her." Rasiel said.

"Yeah, well Luz lives we me right now, so I've got the final word on that. Why should I let you stay in my house? Busting you out did get us attacked by a dragon." Eda pointed out. She didn't really have a problem with it, but it'd been a while since she'd scammed anyone, and she wanted to see just how much she could wring out of this ancient angel.

Rasiel gave her a deadpan look; "I don't need food so you don't need to feed me, and I can teach Luz anything she needs to know about being an angel. Is that enough?"

At the mention of teaching, Eda got a gleam in her eye; "Think you can teach Luz how to cure curses?"

Rasiel's eyebrows went to his hairline; "Ah, you're cursed. I noticed the feathers earlier, and the potions you were drinking… Well lucky for you, I know a method for curing any magical ailment or curse, even traditionally incurable ones."

"You do? Spill it! I'll let you stay as long as you want!" Eda said eagerly, Luz nodding frantically beside her as she tuned back into the conversation.

Rasiel crossed his arms with a grin; "Of course. It's called a Panacea Mirror. They're special mirrors made via Angelic Alchemy, and an angel can use it to drain a single magical malady of any kind from themselves or someone else. The mirror then melds into the user's body, granting them the innate ability to cure that same malady at will for the rest of their life. For example, if one was to catch the Common Mold, the angel could cure them with a Panacea Mirror, and then they'd be able to freely cure any other case of the Common Mold for the rest of their life."

Luz gasped in amazement; "It's like some kind of magic vaccine! You cure someone of an illness then absorb it and use it to make more cure!"

Eda narrowed her eyes; "Nothing is that amazing without coming with one heck of a catch." she said.

"You are correct. There are four "catches" The first is the ingredients; crafting the mirror isn't too difficult, but it requires purified silver created through Alchemy, which is a finicky and time-consuming task. Secondly, it requires the blood of TWO angels, each from a different bloodline. Third, it can only be used by one of the angels who gave their blood to create it. And finally, once the mirror is used, the one who used it can never make another. It's a one time creation."

Eda frowned; "The blood of two angels from different bloodlines…"

She didn't dare ask Luz; she'd already hurt the girl in the past by trying to take her tears, and while they'd worked it out, Luz was still not willing to give up any feathers, so the chances of her willingly giving blood was next to nil…

… or so the Owl Lady thought.

"I'm an angel, so my blood can work! Eda, we're practically halfway to curing your curse already!" Luz beamed.

Eda gaped at her; "Y-You'd be willing to donate some blood to make this thing!?"

"Of course! I trust you Eda; this isn't like last time, and losing a few drops of blood won't kill me, right?" Luz replied, looking to Rasiel for confirmation.

"Right. Only a single drop is needed, though more does mildly speed up the final forging process." Rasiel answered.

"See? It's no problem!"

Eda felt her heart swell, and she pulled Luz into a side-hug; "You're too good for me sometimes Luz. It's a shame that the differing bloodlines thing is a factor though; we could have asked your Mom to help…"

"If the two bloods are too similar, then the magic within them will be too, and it specifically needs two distinct angelic magics." Rasiel explained.

"That leaves us with only two options; hope Luz's theory about Emperor Bonehead is correct and break in to his castle… or find your body." she said, looking to Rasiel.

The ancient angel smiled; "Indeed. And I will gladly help Luz craft the alchemical silver needed for the Panacea Mirror, as well as donate my blood in return for you allowing me to stay with you until I am whole again."

Eda grinned; "Deal! When we get your body back, we can shake on it."

Luz couldn't contain her smile; it hadn't been the trip she was expecting, and there had been a few bumps along the way, but she could honestly say they were coming away from it better than they'd started! They had a new glyph, a potential cure for Eda's curse, a new ally, and some answers to Luz's questions about her angelic evolutions.

There was still more to do though; Luz was starting Hexside the next day, and now she had to figure out how to bond with the ice glyph, as well as find the other Black Tombs that Rasiel's divided parts were sealed inside. She was also still curious about the rest of Philip's diary, and the mysterious Cassiel who'd been to the Boiling Isles 15 years ago, not to mention Emperor Belos and whether or not he really was an angel! And of course, if there was a glyph for every element, then Luz had five more to find and master!

Luz looked over to where Amity was now complimenting King's latest ice sculpture (which was of Orthrus). She felt her face heat up and mentally added another item to the list in her head…

Work out what to do about these new feelings for Amity!