The Forbidden Drink

Ch. 30: Playtime is OVER!

"Hey, guys." Luz said, getting their attention. "I need to tell you both something."

"What is it?" Eda asked, worried that something happened to Luz.

"Well, in the Human Realm, I had to do something." Luz said, putting a hand on her stomach as she remembers being ran through. "Something dangerous and... it caused me to-"

She was cut off, as the Collector arrived.

"Guess who?!" Collector shouted as he flew in on his star.

Luz held her staff, Eda's arm became her harpy arm, and King got in front of Luz and Eda.

"I don't get it King, I really don't get it. I thought you loved playing our games. Why choose these itty bitty spiders over me?" Collector asked.

"Because your games stink, Squirt!" Eda said.

"And spiders are awesome!" Luz said, always loving spiders.

"Especially the itty bitty ones!" King said.

"You act like I'm doing something bad." Collector said, "I'm just having a bit of fun."

"Turning people into toys and controlling them isn't fun." King said.

"Yeah it is. Plus, even if they break I can just fix them right back up." Collector said as he created a small toy version of himself and broke the head off before magically fixing it. "See?"

He tossed the toy to Luz, who caught it and saw that the head was on backwards. That it was NOT fixed.

".....You don't understand how mortals work, do you?" Luz asked, looking up to the Collector. "We don't just get better after getting hurt."

"Maybe but I can make you better with a snap of my fingers." Collector said with a smile. "So playtime can be both safe AND fun."

"That's not how we work and you should know that." Luz said, making the Collector frown as he looked at her. "You might be able to physically "fix" people but that just means they still hurt mentally and emotionally. You can't do anything to change that."

The Collector didn't understand and figured Luz was just talking nonsense.

"Well, you don't have to worry about that, I don't want to scare you guys anymore. I think we'll be great friends, so..."

The Collector began floating and a glow began covering the place.

"Let me show you some of my favorite games!" He said with a wide, excited grin.

'Oh no, not again!' Luz thought as she pulled King and Eda close!

"Hang on!" Luz shouted, slamming her staff to form an energy shield around them!

It wouldn't help as the world changed to a giant maze. As this was happening, "Raine" was limping through the hall. Their wooden limbs leaking goo. Mentally, Raine wasn't having it. The puppet stopped and the sticker on their head came off from the burst of magic that was put into it. Raine returned to normal and was able to take control for a second.

"Let... me... GO!" Raine said, before being thrown back by the mental battle with Belos.

Belos was able to take control again and growled.

"Raine's always been annoyingly powerful." Belos said, wiping goo from his eye, before pulling out the star. "No, I think I'll keep you around a little bit longer."

Belos enlarged the star and got on it, flying away.

His struggle with Raine continued all the way towards the castle, making Belos nearly fall off a few times as he kept control.

'GET OUT OF ME, YOU DISGUSTING SLIME!' Raine thought.

The star landed and Raine was breathing heavily.

"I said... GET OUT!" They shouted!

Raine put their fingers to their lips, which they very much missed having, and let out a whistle, causing a magic shockwave to come out and blast Belos out of Them. Raine fell to their knees, exhausted.

"Fine, I don't need you anyway!" Belos said, dragging himself into the castle.

'So close! So close!' Belos thought, his body falling apart with every drag across the floor.

'I-I have to stop him.' Raine thought, forcing themself up and stumbling to Belos.

As Raine moved through the castle, they had to hope they could get that place before Belos. How did they know?

Simple: when a possession occurs, the person being possessed has access to the mind of the one possessing them and vice versa!

"I can't let him get to the heart." Raine said, picking up the pace to run.

Reaching the throne room, Raine slammed the doors open and looked around for Belos. They didn't see him anyway, not even a trail of his goop, but that didn't mean he wasn't here and he would try anything.

They had lots of experience with this due to knowing Eda since grade school, plus one time they didn't know Eda was sneaking up on them when they were in their 20's and then... well, they won't go into what happened that night, but it was very sweaty.

'Focus, get your head out of the gutters!' Raine thought as they summoned their instrument and prepared to play it.

"You know what this is, don't you?" Belos asked, his voice echoing while hiding in the shadows, "It's the last of its kind, but it still beats. Can you guess what it is?"

"Of course I know what it is!" Raine shouted as Belos slowly formed and rose from the ground.

They gasped and turned before Belos attacked, drowning Raine's upper boat in his melting body!

"It's the Titan's Heart!" He said before biting down on Raine's arm, drawing blood and making them drop their violin.

He jumped off as most of his parts stayed on Raine and held them Down, covering their mouth so they couldn't whistle and eventually couldn't breath.

'No! No No No!' Raine thought as they fell to their knees, pulling goo away to Belos dragged himself to the heart. 'One last shot!'

Glancing towards their violin before being covered, Raine dragged themself to their instrument and grabbed it. They slammed it down, causing a magic barrier to spread over the walls and get most of Belos off them.

"No!" Belos shouted as he jumped towards the heart, but was a second too late.

The barrier blocked him and he fell next to the throne. Raine smiled, struggling to keep their eyes open.

"Take that you... son of a... bitch." Raine said, with a tired smile.

Belos growled back at them, but then realized something. Something that made him chuckle as Raine looked confused.

"You may think you stopped me, but the funny thing is...what good is a heart without the veins to help with blood flow?" Belos asked as his hollow eyes flashed.

Raine gasped and watched Belos flipped the throne over and pulled the floor tile up, revealing the veins of the Titan. He grabbed one and pulled it up, glancing back to Raine as their eyes widened in shock!

Like what was explained said before, they had access to Belos mind and memories. So they KNOW about what happened to Luz. About what happened to the VIAL of Titan's Blood on Earth.

"NOOOO!" Raine said, trying to get up.

"YES! Ahahajahahahahahaha!" Belos laughed before biting into the vein and drinking the blue liquid inside!

The metal taste made Belos smile widely as he drank as much as he could, feeling his body healing and his strength restoring! He chuckled again as he pulled his mouth away.

"Poor Raine, you were so close." Belos said before going back to drinking the blue blood!

Slowly, Belos began to change! His body regrowing, enlarging, and fueling with pure magic power! Raine could swallow a lump that formed in their throat, seeing the creature that's forming.

'Titan, help us.' Raine thought as a shadow washed over them.