Note: The plan for this Fanfic was written before the reveal of Hollow Mind, so this fanfic is even FARTHER from canon than it already was.
Note 2: This is also being written before Edge of The World
Blood always meant something. When blood was drawn it meant something to the individual inflicting it. It meant something to the inflicted.
But does blood really mean anything after it is so easily spilled?
It was the final battle for the Day of Unity. If Eda, Luz, Hunter, and Amity lost the battle, the Day of Unity would be executed, along with the sacrifice of one of their own. But if they fought back, the hostages, Edric, Emira, Willow, Gus, and Raine would all be forced down into burning hot fires.
"It's customary for the challenger to have the first move in the witches duel." Emperor Belos said. Eda glared daggers, the children stood behind her, being only Hunter and Luz, as Amity was off doing...whatever in the castle.
"Gladly." Eda replied in a spiteful tone, snatching something from inside her pocket. It was a clump of metal with a glyph amalgamation taped to it. The glyph was the same one that Eda had created before, being the one that created the ice creature that nearly suffocated King. (The thing in Escaping Expulsion)
Eda chucked it at Emperor Belos, full force, aiming square for the head. Emperor Belos swiftly dodged it.
"Without magic, you've become more powerless than I thought. Resorting to throwing rocks like a barbaria—" he was cut off as the ice monsters erupted from the glyph.
He yelled out as he hit the ground.
"What were you say Belos?" Eda spat.
"Ugh, you're getting on my nerves." Emperor Belos replied with venom in his voice. He quickly rose from his place on the floor. He could will the souls of the palismen that he has killed over the years, and so, his hand turned into a blade.
Hunter knew the blade all to well. It's cutting edge was enough to slice through skin with no effort.
"Eda!" Hunter called out.
But it was to late. The blade threw itself towards Eda. She dodged it. But before she knew it, the blade retracted back before throwing itself at her again.
Eda dodged the blade again and again, she could feel it cutting through the air around her.
"No!" Luz cried. She tried to help, she really did, but she didn't know what to do. This situation, the state of fear was chocking her.
Eda, at first, didn't feel any pain. She heard the sounds of screams, and cries, but she didn't feel anything. But she felt the pool of blood forming, as she hit the marble ground. At first, she had thought she had fallen down. But she felt the blood.
'Oh, guess I got shot.' She thought. It was so strange. Her body was simply not able to comprehend the pain. She saw Luz and Hunter shaking her, begging for her to answer, to be okay. But she couldn't process any of it. All she could think of, was the quiet sounds of silence.
The Owl Beast, in the rage and pain, cried out one last time, before silencing alongside Eda. Eda's muscles strained and twitched, she didn't have enough energy or focus to go into Harpy Eda form. She was so tired. It was about time that she go to sleep. She decided to rest her eyes a little. It had been a long day.
"No! What have you done?!" Hunter cried, tears clouding his vision as he sat over Eda's body.
"I could ask you the same. If you had just listened to me, none of this would have happened." Emperor Belos said.
Luz gritted her teeth, sharp breathes forced themselves in and out of her lungs.
"You monster!" She cried as she rose from her knees.
"Maybe to you. But in the end, I'm the true savior of this world." He said. He was so tall. He towered over Luz and Hunter.
"With a small payment to the titan, this world will be freed of witches. Of all magic. Cleansing the Boiling Isles, properly." Emperor Belos said, throwing his hands in the air, as if celebrating.
"That's genocide! And everything you've been telling people, it's all been lies!" Hunter cried out as small tears swept down his face, and his greasy hair swung back and forth.
"You're just a scam artist!" He added. Emperor Belos frowned.
"Now that's a little cruel. I'd prefer the name 'mastermind'." Emperor Belos said. Luz was wheezing. She was so angry. So sick. So tired. She was going to kill him. She was going to kill Emperor Belos. Looking from Eda, to Hunter, to her friends trapped above, she was so filled with hate, with vengeance. She couldn't contain it.
"As I was saying before the Owl Lady interrupted. One sacrifice is all I need. One of the two of you. One falls to the hand of the titan. The other bows before me, but lives to see another day." Emperor Belos explained.
Luz was to angry to speak. Hunter's eyes dropped and his expression darkened with fear of his answer.
"What are you getting at...?" He muttered.
"A fight to defeat." Emperor Belos announced.
"One becomes the sacrifice, the other bows before me until I require another sacrifice along the way." He explained.
Luz's eyes widened, and Hunters heart practically dropped. Eda was out of it, cold, laying in a pool of her own blood.
"No! I'd never hurt one of my friends. I know of loyalty! Unlike you!" Luz cried out.
"Oh really? But what about when it's more than just your neck on the line?" Emperor Belos questioned. He snapped his fingers, and the flames that hung below the cage burned higher.
"Luz! Luz help!" Willow cried.
"Hunter?!" Edric shouted.
"Edric!" Hunter shouted back. "Edric! Edric, it's going to be okay, I'm going to get you out of there!" Hunter shouted.
"The stakes are your friends. If you refuse to fight, they will all burn." Emperor Belos said as the flames quieted themselves again.
"You can't do this!" Luz called out desperately. "You can't keep getting away with this!" She yelled out, her voice straining as warm, angry tears forced themselves out of her eyes. Her glare was so harsh that her muscles ached. Her blood was boiling.
Hunter was less angry and more afraid than anything. He was afraid of loosing everything. Because no matter what direction the fight went in, he could lose everything at any moment. If he fought, he could kill Luz, and his friends, and Edric, would leave him. He could die at Luz's hand, loosing everything as he faded into the darkness. Or he could freeze in hesitation, and live a life where all of his friends died because he was to afraid to do anything. The dread was agonizing. He was a few words away from breaking down. But he couldn't. He had people, and himself, to keep fighting for. He could go and break down once this was over.
"I can. And I practically already have." Emperor Belos replied back swiftly.
"Now..." he said, her voice sharpening.
"F i g h t." He said. His voice sent a shiver down Luz's spine. His throne rose to where it was far above the ground, way out of reach of Luz and Hunter. It left the two alone in the throne room, with the quiet body of Eda, and dangerous stakes looming in the air. Hunter's heart thumped loudly. Luz's breath was heavy.
"Time is running out." Emperor Belos said, his voice echoing.
Hunter noticed something. Something in the back of his mind. Say that he did beat Luz, why would Emperor Belos sacrifice Luz if she lost..? He said he needed the most 'meaningful' sacrifice for the titan...so why would he sacrifice the loser of the battle? He had said that the other would live to see another day, while bowing to him. So it was not a battle to the death.
Just a battle to an eternity, burning in the shadow of Emperor Belos. But he had never been specific on who would be sacrifice, the winner or the loser.
So...Wouldn't the winner...
Be the most meaningful sacrifice for the titan?
Edric and Emira could only watch in horror. Raine was holding Gus and Willow, covering their eyes, whispering hopeful words that shook as they spoke.
Edric wanted to find an excuse. Why had Hunter done it? He thought he had changed. He knew Hunter was a good person, deep down, right? If not, who was the person he was talking to for so long? Who was the boy he fell in love with? Had he actually gotten to know him, or had he only met the mask?
He questioned if Hunter was ever the person he thought he was as Hunter attacked Luz.
He couldn't hear anything from so far away. Only small echos.
Hunter made the first attack, to Luz's horror. And to Emperor Belos' surprise. He tackled her to the ground, causing a loud thump. His grip was terrible and Edric knew that. He constantly dropped everything, and he couldn't hold onto the ladder at the library very well. That's how Luz was so easily able to escape his grasp.
The next move to be made was from Luz. There seemed to be a moment of hesitation, but she delivered a firm punch to the face. There was loud crack, even Luz herself seemed to recoil. She had broken Hunters nose as it bled heavily. Now he and Emperor Belos both had matching Clawthorne-inflicted broken noses. He heard Hunter cry out in pain. It hurt him to hear the sound.
Hunter seemed to try and attack again, missing by a little, Luz dodging past him.
Then Flapjack appeared. Flapjack had to be there to stop them, right? Flapjack wouldn't help Hunter try and kill Luz, right?
Right?
Apparently, the bird wasn't as playful or innocent as any of them had once perceived, as he turned into a staff at Hunters command.
It was cruel to make them watch this. Watch their friends try to kill each other.
"Pssp! Hey, over here!" It was Amity...and a familiar looking guard! It was the guard from the great escape! The one that Emira had met. They stood alongside Amity.
They stood on the ledge of the wall. They were what they were stalling for.
Hunter effectively dodged glyph attack after glyph attack.
They were stalling for time. But Emperor Belos seemed entertained. He was sadistic, watching two children fight, at each others throats and drawing blood.
God, his nose really hurt. It was bleeding. Luz really knew how to throw a punch.
Luz nodded at Hunter. As if challenging him, or perhaps signaling something? Or maybe, just maybe, it was a final goodbye?
Because Hunter ran at her, put her in a headlock using Flapjack, suffocating her with his staff.
Emperor Belos' eyebrows raised.
Edric's mouth hung open as he stared down, dead-eyed at what was happening before him. Emira threw herself at Raine, trying to avoid the sight before her. Willow was openly crying, clutching onto Raine as well.
"Don't worry! We're gonna get you out of there!" Amity shouted. Using abomination magic, she created a small bridge. She had the keys to the lock.
She stared down at the sight below her. She couldn't breathe.
Luz hit the ground with a thud. Hunter looked over her.
Static filled Amity's head.
"Amity!" Edric cried, but quiet enough that no one dangerous could hear. Amity snapped out of her state of denial. Her hands shook as he shoved the key into the lock, twisting and turning it. It unlocked the cage. Her mouth hung open in shock.
Amity led Edric, Emira, Willow, Gus, and Raine out of the cage. She gritted her teeth in anger. She and Luz had that in common. She stood on top of the metal cage, sawing at the rope holding it in the air.
Hunter stood before the Emperor.
"Emperor Belos. I've won." Hunter said.
On the left side, lay Eda. She curled in a ball, the red crimson having spilled for so long, it had dried. And Luz, she lay on her side, facing away from the Emperor. Emperor Belos chuckled.
"I will admit, I wasn't expecting that." He said.
"You know, Hunter, even after everything. This is still happening. You're still in the same situation you would have been in, had you not befriended the human, or any of the Blight." Emperor Belos had explained.
Everything he said was open to interpretation. Was Hunter right? Would he be sacrificed, as he had won? Or was Emperor Belos really just going to toss the loser, in this case, Luz, to the Titan?
Hunter held his breath.
"I'm glad you've come to your senses." He stated.
"Step onto the platform." He said, gesturing to a platform that stood in the middle of the throne room, the platform having a eclipse painted on it.
Oh.
Hunter wasn't stupid. It was time. He willingly walked to his own demise.
The throne lowered itself back to its original place in the ground.
Emperor Belos rose from his seat. His throne had been located behind the wall of flames that the hostages were dangling above. The flames were extinguished. Emperor Belos felt satisfied. He stepped directly in front of the eclipse platform. Hunter stared at him, dead in the eye.
"It's time that they collected their payment." Emperor Belos said.
"GOODNIGHT!" Amity screamed, her voice echoing throughout the throne room.
The rope snapped. And with those words, the cage plummeted through the air.
It crushed Emperor Belos, an unsettling crack could be heard, echoing throughout the castle.
"Timber! Haha, lol!" Emira added jokingly, before slowly realizing what they had just done.
The Emperor had been flatted, bones shattered. Dead.
Amity stood on top of the cage.
"You...you are going to pay." Amity said, glaring down at Hunter.
She leaped down from the cage, about to crush every hope and dream Hunter had ever had by permanently crippling him in every way, but not killing him completely, so then he and Emperor Belos could not only have matching nose-scars but also matching shattered skeletons.
"Amity! Wait! I'm sorry for scaring you! I'm okay!" Luz called as she rolled over. Amity paused. Her attention immediately left Hunter and turned back to her precious Luz.
"It was staged! We needed to get the Emperor off the high ground." Luz said.
"Luz! You idiot! Why would you scare me like that!" Amity cried out angrily as she pulled Luz into a hug.
"I'm so glad you're okay!" Amity shouted as angry tears flooded.
"Me too, Ami, me too." Luz replied as she hugged Amity back. Hunter stood alone.
He walked towards the cage where Emperor Belos had been crushed.
Just like that? That was all it took to kill Emperor Belos? All of that, only to be killed in a moment? He had been basically flattened. He had died.
"Eda!" Raine had cried. They had arrived.
"Luz!" Willow and Gus shouted together.
"Mittens! I was so worried!" Emira shouted. Everyone was there.
Everyone but Edric.
The anxiety built up quickly. Had he done something wrong? Obviously he did! He had scared the poor boy off! Who wouldn't be afraid of what they just witnessed?
But then, he emerged from the shadows.
The two stared at each other in silence. Edric silently approached Hunter. They maintained eye contact. But then, Edric pulled Hunter into a passionate hug.
"I knew you could do it." Edric said, clear as day. Hunter was finally used to affections, and so, he found himself hugging him back.
He had somebody by his side. Flapjack burrowed in Hunter's hair, just like he had on the day Edric and Hunter first met.
"Is Eda going to be okay?" Luz asked as she bent down next to Raine.
Hunter and Edric were holding hands, more of an unconscious habit at that point. They turned to see Eda, half-awake.
"I'm still alive and kickin' kiddo." Eda said, her words more jumbled than usual.
"It's not to bad, just a little to much blood loss than what can be healthy." Raine explained.
"Yes! Than you, Rainstorm." Eda said, leaning against their chest, as she was currently to weak to stand. Raine picked her up bridal-style, like how they do at weddings, careful to not hurt her.
"We should get out of here before the guards come." Luz said.
"Right. We'd better hurry." Willow added.
"But how are we supposed to explain this to the world?!" Gus questioned.
"Not to sure, but I guess we'll figure it out...sometime." Luz replied.
But then,
One last stand was made.
"I won't rest until the will has been fulfilled!" Emperor Belos cried. He had survived.
His bone structure had been shattered. He was nothing more than a sack of flesh. The only thing that was keeping him going...
Was the palismen souls.
And his sacrifice,
Well.
At this point,
Any sacrifice would do.
Edric was standing on the platform now, unsuspecting to anything at all. The eclipse, as the moonlight shined onto the platform.
Edric had stood in the cross heirs of the flames of the titan.
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Rose_Vinex, ready for battle!
Hello everyone! This chapter was originally going to be the last one, and was going to be a lot longer but, you know how things are...
I'm moving so I had no time this week and the deadline was Saturday, and I decided that I needed to focus on Edric a bit more, so the last chapter, for real this time, will be about him. And then there will be the Epilogue.
This book has been a really strange ride, but I'm glad that it has worked out the way it has.
And thank you all, for everything.
Hope you enjoyed,
Bye readers!