The Conserver couldn't be seen by anyone other then Luz right now, not until he at least managed to find a way out so he had to stay hidden. The moment he felt a soul coming close he ran back to his tablet not even taking the time to see who it was that was even coming. If someone saw him they might throw out his tablet, destroy it or try use him which would be the worst thing to happen while he can't defend himself, because of this he needed to make sure as little people knew about him as possible.
It wasn't ideal for getting out quickly but it was a better choice when it came to making sure the people who promised to release him actually did so. The Conserver waited in his tablet resting at the bottom of the orb with the scarf mimic curled around it like a snake coiling around its prey. He glanced over to the cube connected to his tablet checking if it had been uncovered yet, he stared for a few minutes eventually seeing light poke through. He slid over tapping the side of the orb and glancing in. Yep, it was open.
He slid through projecting his shadow outside and into the cube traveling to the physical world as usual.
"Alright, sorry foooooorrr... hello? Luz?" The Conserver paused, he glanced around confused when he didn't see Luz. He looked down seeing his Tablet had been thrown across the floor with pillows thrown everywhere and claw marks which slid across the walls and floor leaving deep gashes in the wood and concrete. The Conserver frowned and slid across the floor noticing that all the lights were out and nothing seemed to be working, he sighed deciding to try find Luz.
He slid out the door and stuck to the ceiling hiding his own shadow in the shadows of the ceiling lamps and furniture. He could project himself this far from the Tablet because Luz had took him around the house once so the light patterns were already somewhat familiar to him, he slid across the ceiling dipping down the wall every once in a while. Eventually, he stopped but not because he found Luz or figured out what exactly was happening. No, he stopped because of something else, or rather someone else. A Titan.
Suddenly, revealing his presence didn't sound like a bad idea...
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King walked forward, his fur standing on it's ends as she held the shoe of his friend in his paws shaking badly from fear. He saw something run behind a door and saw one of Luz's shoes on the ground infront of it, he stopped walking for just a moment but froze when he heard something behind him... wait no... not behind him, above him. A child like laugh started above him before swooping down to the wall, suddenly the shadows seemed to creep and crawl around him despite him not actually seeing them move.
"From a shadow who holds endless hate, to a creature of the night who has re-met his twisted fate. A fallen star who lost all hope, a beast whos strayed too far from home. When the spell is undone and the stars may shine once more, the trouble brought to his kin will be repayed and all will cower in fear at the call of his name. Misplaced trust, all to ever mistreat will be nothing more then dust. When the last star falls and the end draws near, It'll be his time and the clock stops here" the voice laughed
King shrieked, he turned and ran but he didn't even manage to run around a corner before he saw something else behind him. The shadowed form of the creature that had broken into their house. He shrieked once again and turned back to run noticing that it seemed like all the shadows were chasing after him. It felt like a scene straight from a horror movie! He fell to the ground after fleeing to another room and tried to crawl away bit ended up backed up against a wall with no way out as the creature moved closer.
"S-Stay back!" He yelled "Hey- Hey! I am the king of demons okay!? And as such I demand you to barf my friend back up!" He tried to command but his fear making it hard to even say the sentence. The creature roared and tried to strike King with a claw, he ducked down and bolted under the passage created by the lifted claw. He ran out the room with the creature hot on his tail which had horrific shrieks and cries as it chased after him, he ran and ran and ran and ran and ran-
A hand grabbed him pulling him into a seperate room as another forced the door shut behind them, King froze in the grip of the person as the footsteps of the creature echoed down the hall. He glanced up confused when he saw Luz, the very human he had been looking for that entire time. She had that weird staff she made leaning against the wall as well as a weird stone tablet he didn't remember her having placed on a shelf.
"Luz?" He muttered
"King!" She cheered holding him up infront of her, she set him down and grabbed the staff from the wall "Oh, I'm so glad your safe!"
"Where did you go!?" King asked
"Well I was checking on Eda and she was gone, then you were gone! Oh, and I also tripped and lost my shoe but it looks like you found it" She explained grabbing her shoe from King and putting it back on
"He-hey! What's that?" He asked noticing a piece of paper attached to her leg which he pulled off after noticing there was text on it and read aloud "keeps the curse at bay..." he gasped and pulled out the other paper that was on the potion jar "an elixir a day keeps the curse at bay!"
"Curse... wait- what are you trying to say?" Luz asked, she seemed to linger on the word curse
"I was wrong this entire time! That creature is no snaggleback! That creature is-" Lyz grabbed King cutting him off and forcing them both away from the door as a clawed hand burst through the wood lunging through the hole that was created to reveal
"EDA!?" Luz shrieked
"Wait... if that's eda then who was that shadow...?" King muttered under his breath remembering the shadow but having no time to think as beast-Eda ran at them lifting a claw as she got on her hind legs. Luz screamed her phone falling to the ground and taking a picture, beast-eda looked down confused but shrieked and ducked down scratching at her eyes when the flash went off. Luz took the opportunity to grab King and the two ran out a window as beast-eda shrieked.
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"I knew I felt curse magic here..." The Conserver muttered as he crept across the ceiling keeping an eye on the cursed eda.
She looked like an Owl Beast from before he and the Collector were trapped and Titans still roamed the Boiling Isles but he knew that wasn't an owl beast. He could see the state of her soul and that soul was nothing like the one of an owl beast, the thing he saw was a replica not the real thing and a poorly made one at that. It was a lot smaller and bulkier then a owl beast was ment to be and all the feathers were a shade so pale it should have been impossible to achieve even in old age. It was just ugly, not accurate.
The fake owl beast sniffed the air just missing Luz and the Titan, it growled and prowled around to get to another spot in its search.
"Oh my god, did you see her eyes!? They were like" Luz pulled at the skim around her eyes with her hands and made a growl sound "What happened to her?"
"You took her cure that's what" The Conserver muttered no-one hearing him as the Titan said pretty much the same thing in a different way "Seriously, do you not trust me or something? We literally formed a contract that stops me from lying to you about this type of stuff"
"Don't you see!? That elixir I gave you doesn't give Eda powers! It's prevents her from turning into that thing! She's turned into a nightmare and it's all my fault. I'm so sorry Luz..." The Titan apologised arms wrapped around his legs "I just wanted you to be into demons like your into magic. I don't have many friends and nobody even pays attention to me. I thought maybe if I taught you there'd be someone intrested in creatures like me"
"Well, let's finish the lesson" Luz said holding out the shiny pen to the Titan kid
"Huh?"
"Well eda's turned into some kind of demon and we need to save her. So who knows more about demons then the best teacher in the world" Luz explained gripping the staff. If he was remembering correctly then Owl Beasts are mostly nocturnal animals that are sometimes out during day for migration, because of that they're sensitive to light so a light spell could be used to ward it off with the amount of magic Luz knows how to perform at the moment. The Titan Squealed like a school girl who'd just been asked out by their crush and leapt at Luz happily.
"Let's see she was bigger, covered in feathers and had giant black eyes"He grabbed some leaves and pushed them to the floor, he clicked the pen and started to draw out an image of owl beast Eda "demons with black eyes ate usually sensitive to light. That's it! Light! Luz, use your human wonder rectangle!" Luz grabbed her phone and frowned at the broken screen making the Conserver face palm.
"Your staff! Use the staff to create a light spell! I taught her how to draw a light glyph!" The Conserver yelled in his orb not bothering to send the sound outside since it was hopless to even try while a Titan was around. God, he hated Titans!
"I can't my camera is all busted" Luz said holding the phone out to the Titan who's name the Conserver didn't both to remember. He might have if he was still Error but his days as the Destroyer were long since gone. She smiled and put the phone back in her pocket instead reaching for her staff "but I think I know another way to create light"
"Your can't be serious, you can't cast spells!" The Titan objected
"But I can, just gotta get a hang of this and..." Luz held the staff up creating an orb of light at the center of the star which had become transparent similar to glass, the light was a mix of red, green, yellow and blue. The yellow covered the other hues and Liz pointed the staff down setting one of the tips of the star on the ground which the yellow light soaked out of to create a sparkle which expanded into three orbs of artifical sunlight. "Aha! See! I just did magic!"
"We aren't going to stop anything with something that small!" The Titan yelled. Owl beast Eda roared making Luz hit the orbs of light to reabsorb them into the crystal "What do we do now..." he said in a quieter tone
"I think I know how to get Eda back. Will you help me?" Luz asked "boo-boo buddy?"
"I'm kinda over that nickname..." The Titan scoffed "but okay!"
💚
The owl beast prowled the house scurrying across the main room, it jumped up on the door hooty was in and sniffed an open book which had Luz's scent across it. A clicking sound caught it's attention.
"Oh what lovely thing do we have here...?" The Titan said in a fake intrested tone as he clicked the shiny pen, the diamon ordement on the end glimmering brightly "it's just so dang shiny. Oh, my. Oh, dear"
The owl beast marvled at the shine and leapt down bolting after the Titan with a shriek as the Conserver following on the ceiling. He made sure to make a mental note about teaching Luz capture spells next time in case anything like this ever happened again. The Titan ran as the owl beast followed, he turned a specific corner and pressed himself against the wall as the owl beats threw itself through the halls causing it to get tangled in the ropes that had been wrapped around the door infront of it. Luz ran out from the next room lifting her staff and spinning it in her hands to look cool
"I'm sorry eda, but it's for your own good!" Luz yelled slamming the staff down as the Owl beast looked on terrified at the feeling of pure Titan magic which any ancient beast, artifical or not, can recognise. She swung the staff's star crystal in a circle on the ground before lifting it up above her head creating a flash bang.
(Art by me)
💚
"You did pretty good out there" Luz jumped, she spun around and saw a pair of shadow hands reach out from below the pile of pillows on the floor behind her which pulled the rest of the Conserver's body out from below them. The shadow slid up the wall filling the space in a wall mirror to create a black background with white lines inside forming the outline "You're pretty good for a beginner with no magical ability"
"H-huh? Oh- oh yeah! I'm kinda a natural now" Luz flaunted in a voice that radiated confidence, the Conserver tilted his head and gave her the 'are you sure?' look
"Mhm, I'm sure you've already mastered the light spell. But I don't think your anywhere near even my brothers level of power yet, let alone my level, you don't even know a single offensive spell!" The Conserver replied holding up a hand and waving it dismissively in a joking manner. He got rid of his outline swapping his figure for a different glyph "so I'll teach you one"
"Actually, can I ask you something?" Luz asked surprising the Conserver, he nodded slowly letting the human ask their question "were you out? around the house last night I mean, King was telling me about a shadow that spoke to him last night when he was looking for me"
"King...?" The Conserver uttered, he paused trying to remember if he knew anyone by that name but nothing rung any bells "I was out but who exactly is this 'King'?"
"He's this small black fox creature with itty bitty paws and a skull head with two of the cutest little horns" Luz explained in a cutesy doting voice. The Conserver paused, he forgot about that Titan. "Umm, are you alright? You look like you saw someone put pineapple on pizza"
"First off, that is a weird comparison. Secondly, you just ruined my mood by mentioning that thing" The Conserver groaned, his shadow sliding out the mirror and up to the window where the black filled in the glass with a white outline across the cracks that formed the Conserver's Body and scarf. His body was laying down from an above view with his arms crossed.
"H-Huh? He's not a thing!" Luz objected both surprised that the Conserver would call King a thing and questioning where this sudden hatred came from "you haven't even met him! What's your problem with him?"
"It's nothing personal, I just really hate his kind, there is nothing I hate more then those filthy hypocrites!" The Conserver yelled, white swept across the window the Conserver was in filling leaving the window white before it thinned out creating annew image. In this image the Conserver was sitting sideways on the window scarf flowing up above his head while he tapped his feet against the wall. He still looked mad.
"What...? I don't understand?"
"What do you mean you don't understand!?" The Conserver groaned "What is there that you can't understand!"
"Well... you told me the Titan trapped you and that you hated them more then anything...?"
"That's because I do! Why is that so hard to understand... wait... do... don't you understand? Don't tell me... do you not know?"
"Not know what?"
"Your friend King" The Conserver said, the shadows head turned to look at him "he's a Ti-"
"HEY? HEY!?" Hooty called interrupting the Conserver "HELLO? IS ANYONE THERE!? HOOT! I'M ON THE FLOOR! ITS COOOOOOOLD!"
"Oh no- HOOTY!" Luz yelled getting up and scrambling to the door
"you forgot about the bird tube..." The Conserver asked as he slid off the window and along the wall beside Luz as the human ran. He noticed that Luz seemed to forget what they were talking about but he didn't really care as long as the Titan kid wasn't the main topic anymore. Luz left the room leaving the Conserver alone again, he looked around and sighed his mind beginning to wander now that he was alone once again.
He was planning to teach Luz the spells he did manage to memorise the glyph foyrms of and then teach the human about each individual glyphs role in a spell for her to experiment on creating her own spells and copying any existing ones. He was going to teach her a spell called 'rekindle' which was basically an offensive fire spell that used two light glyphs arranged in a triangle with six fire glyphs connected in a circle around it to create a controlled path of fire. The spell itself was ment to be a pretty basic one but the spell could be manipulated to form blue fire if mastered.
Then a water spell called 'floodgate' Iif she managed to learn that quickly. Floodgate was a bit more comex as it required the caster to already have water ready or another type of liquid that can act as a substitute but apart from that it was basically the same as the fire spell. The glyph combination for that one involved a flowing pattern of five ice glyphs with two flowing patterns of fire glyphs above and below the ice glyphs. The spell manipulated the structure and path of water to create shields, barriers and other such spell types.
If she managed to learn both those spells quickly then he'd teach her one of the more complex spells he knew the glyph form of, a spell called 'Tethered Souls' 'Luminous Cage' or possibly even 'Leading Power' which were some of the hardest spells he knew. Luminous Cage was easy to cast but hard to hold while Tethered Souls was easy to cast and hard to hold, however Leading Power was both hard to cast and hard to hold making it easily the hardest for a human to learn so soon. If she managed to learn at least one of those spells then he had no doubt that she could learn the hardest of his spells.
Honestly, he had no idea if that was good or bad. If he found out she could perform the more complex spells then he'd be forced to teach Luz all the strong complex spells he knew as per the terms of the contract which he was forced to abide by if he wanted to get out. God, he wasn't used to having to actually lie or being forced to tell the truth, he was used to being able to say whatever as it was one of the few things FATE didn't limit.
If Luz did learn all his strong spells there was always the possibility that when he was out she'd try to either stop or attack him when she realised what exactly he could do and what he was willing to do to get his brother back. Obviously she couldn't do anything to him but he was more worried about his brother, The Collector was reckless and didn't really care about much. He blindly believed anyone without bothering to make a contract like all collectors are able to do.
He didn't want the Collector getting hurt because he was being reckless with who he chose to form a contract with. He loved the Collector more then anything and knowing another person dear to him was hurt because of his ignorance? That... that wasn't something he wanted to go through ever again... no, never again... What was he talking about? Oh, right, spells. Right now he couldn't cast any spells because of the specific stone his tablet was made of, the Tablet was made of a magic absorbent stone called Limestone that conducted magic across a long distance but stopped it from escaping on it's own.
However, he could still feel and track down magic sources and types meaning he was able to recognise a specific person's magic even if he never met that person face to face. What annoyed him was that it wasn't exactly an ability he could turn off, he was always sensing magic and it clouded his thoughts sometimes since he couldn't focus. Glyph magic couldn't be traced back to a specific person but did smell slightly different depending on who or what it was trying to mimic. It could be pretty annoying sometimes when he was trying to focus on something.
The Conserver sighed, he turned back to his Tablet and slid back inside. He didn't have a reason to stay outside his tablet right now so he was just going to go back and look around with the cubes in the In-Between not-space. Or maybe just sleep... yeah, he's just going to sleep until Luz comes back tonget his tablet.
💚
"Philllliiipppppppppp! I'm boarredddd!" A childish voice said as a shadow similar but also different to that of the Conserver slid across the walls circling the portal's border with white stars lineed across the black.
"Be patient Collector" Another voice said, this one belonging to an old man with dusty light blomd hair and bright blue eyes. The emperor walked down the steps that led up to the artifical portal he'd been building while cluching a wanted poster of the owl lady in both hands.
"Ugh, your boarinngggg!" The Collector cried, his shadow stretching out and curling in on itself before launching up the walls and reforming behind the petrified statue of a witch his arms holding him up above the head of the statue "If my brother was here then this would be so much more fun! Like- ten times more fun! No! Ten billion times more fun!"
"Your brother?" The Emperor asked turning to look directly at the Collector, now this was something he didn't know about "You have a brother?"
""I didn't tell you!? Oh yeah! I have a brother and he's the best brother in the world! We have an amazing bond that's ten times stronger then yours with Caleb has ever been!" The Collector bragged making belos' eyes narrow at the indirect insult towards him and Caleb "He's just like me but stronger and studies magic! Oh! He's also super duper smart and promised to protect me at all costs!"
"So there's two of them..." Belos muttered dropping the wanted poster and putting a hand to his chin. He knew about the Collector but not this brother he was hearing of now, this could be a problem if the other one is just as powerful as the Collector. If someone else gets their hands on the same or stronger power to him... well that would just make his job here harder "Could you tell me a bit more about your brother, Collector?"
"DEFINITELY!" The Collector cheered his shadow spinning around the room faster then he ever had before, the shadow dropped down reforming on the floor in the form of a face before shooting up the wall to form his full body with shaking white stars circling his shrunken figure. "He's the Conserver and technically I'm older since I formed a week before him but hes older in pretty much every other way. He uses this really pretty stardust scarf for his magic output, he's even able to store things in it! He also loves magic for some reason, the grimwalker ritual and the draining spell are actually his but he taught me them when I asked. He was actually trapped with me but not in the same stone" The Collector slid down to the bottom of the wall a cartoonish white tear sliding down his face and the smile rotating clockwise to form a frown "I miss him"
Belos turned away thinking about what he'd just learnt. There were two and it seemed the Conserver would be the one he'd need to worry about more... he needed to find the other one before anyone learned something they shouldn't from the other star kid.