Summary: Fluffy school time
Luz walked with Lucci, both of them staring at the door. "We walk in together, and face the music on three." This was it, heading back to school, after everything they went through. "And this time, I packed enough Glyphs to last. Along with the sword." Luz held up the blade, finally able to lift it. "I can now confidently say I no longer have weak nerd arms."
"No, just firm and sturdy nerd arms." Lucci snickered, looking up at the door. "What if we just wait another day? Or better yet, you go in while I hang out in the woods, that way you can tell me how bad the rumor's have gotten about me so I can mentally prepare."
"Nope." She responded firmly. "You're not gonna be a social freak Lucci. And anyone that calls you one will have their butt kicked by me!" She lifted the sword high up…and almost lost her balance. "Phew, close one."
"I feel safer already." Lucci rolled his eyes. "Let's just get this over with." He pushed the doors open. "Okay Hexide, hit me with your best shot."
The students instantly stopped moving around, staring at them awkwardly. Luz slowly reached for a plant glyph to teach someone a lesson. "It's Master Pink!"
"The Manticore Menace!"
"The Devil in Witch's skin!"
For some reason they were all said with revelation, and a smile.
"Um … what?" Lucci asked, before the students rushed at him.
"Sign my head!"
"Can you show us some cool spells!"
"Would you mind going out with me!?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, one at a time, just, just give me a chance to think!" Lucci exclaimed, taking out a shield and using it to cover himself from anyone that came close. "Okay, did not expect such a welcome wagon. Figured someone would be firing death hexes at me by this point."
"Why would anyone do that to the kid that's strong enough to fight off petrification, the spell no one ever escapes from, ever!" Turning to their sides, they saw Viney and the rest of the former detention rack push themselves even closer. "You really are the next Lord Calamity!"
"Wait, so Lucci's famous?" Luz asked with surprise.
"Yeah … Well, except for the decorations committee, they're still trying to get him kicked out of the Bard track." Jerbo pointed to the group of students standing menacingly in the edge of the hall.
"Bark." And Barcus pointed to the group of boys and girls giggling next to a locker, holding a piece of brown hair.
"Huh, never thought I'd ever have to use mom's advice on stalkers before." Lucci commented blankly. "And here I thought you'd all think I was some kind of freak of nature, you know, being half a vicious crystal devil and all that."
"About half the school finds that more appealing than you think." Viney smirked. "So…how open are you romance wise-"
"Hey, look, I think I see some of our friends in the other direction, don't want to be rude, let's go Luz." Lucci pushed her down the hallway.
"And here I thought you'd revel in your fame, or are you just getting flustered at being the school heartthrob?" Luz snickered.
"It's better than getting hunted, but you know I'm a one witch kind of guy, Luz." Yes, the same witch that was a complete maniac. "Willow, Gus, what's up?"
"Hey guys." Gus spoke in a deeper voice, looking taller than he did before.
"Whoa, you had a growth spurt? We weren't away from school for that long, were we?" Luz asked. She swore it was a week at most.
"Witch puberty." Willow answered.
"... I'm almost scared to ask how different that is from human puberty." Luz muttered.
"Well imagine how scared we were seeing the two of you on stage and getting petrified." Willow answered back. "Seriously, I don't know whether to hug you guys for being alive, or groan at how op Lucci's powers are getting."
"Honestly, the entirety of my week has been spent stressing the limits of those, and …" Lucci looked down at his own hands. "I saw that I'm not that strong at all …" He gripped those hands into fists.
"Come on man, don't be hard on yourself, you did a lot, you're still stronger than most of us." Luz asked.
"Am I? I spent the last fourteen years of my life thinking it was all just gonna be fine. That me and mom would be strong enough to take on any Witch or enemy that tried to take us down if we were smart enough. But we all nearly died and got outsmarted on multiple occasions …" The boy sighed. "I'm gonna head to class now."
The three of them watched as the boy just walked down the hallway, ignoring the cheering he was being given as he did. "Lucci's… heading to class… early… Oh Titan, this is serious." Willow's expression summed up the situation.
"What exactly happened?" Gus asked.
"I think I can sum it up." They watched as Amity walked by with Skara. "Between Lilith knocking him out with a simple sleep spell, the Golden Guard using Skara as bait and not even giving him a second to breath, and Belos being … the emperor ." True, Luz still had nightmares about that. "Lucci finally got the first Ego check of his entire life."
"Yeah… that would break someone." Luz read plenty of stories where the op protagonist started off weak but gradually became the strongest… what it must've been like to start off the strongest but end up weaker than you imagined. "His encounter with the Rainbow devil probably didn't help…"
"HIS WHAT !?" Everyone around her shouted.
"People of Hexside, the Manticore Menace has evaded the Rainbow Devil!"
"Does the Devil of Pink overpower the Devil of all Colors?"
"A war between two devils, one clash for the right to reign in hell!"
Great, now she started a rumor train, just what he needed. "This is exactly why I need to start upping my glyph magic. Belos hit our fusion with some kind of complex and complicated one that took us down with a single wave…"
"The two of you fused!?" Amity squeaked out, her face getting red all over like it tended to do for some reason.
"Oh yeah, we did." Luz nodded. "We've gotta check up on that at some point. Like, what rules does fusion have? Because despite being unfused I'm pretty sure I got a feather lodged in my throat somewhere." The girl coughed.
"Does it just take a life threatening situation for that to happen?" Skara asked. "Because that would've been really helpful when the Golden Guard almost chopped off my head."
"I wanna say it's more conceptual than that." Luz nodded. "You felt it right Amity? That weird feeling where everything you had in common became its own thing?"
"Huh, ooh, oooh yeah, yeah totally! That totally strange and completely natural feeling when two people get along perfectly, like us! I mean, not like us because I don't, we aren't… Ah, I need to get to class!" Amity ran away, but not before tripping over a crack on the floor. "Why does this keep happening to me!?"
"Man, she needs better time management." Luz noted. "She's always running away with a really heated expression lately." For some reason Willow was just staring at her. "What, something on my face?"
"I am surrounded by so many… I can't even…." She turned to Skara. "How do you keep your emotions in check when you're dating someone?" What did that have to do with anything?
"Best thing to do is go with the flow and not overthink it. Me and Belfry get along great, and half the time we're just sitting together enjoying the serenity of silence."
"Aww, so cute." Luz smiled. "I hope you two have an awesome school year." Hopefully they'd have a normal day for a change.
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Amity tried to focus on her school work, she really did … but that was very, VERY hard to do when her lab partner was taken into account. "So you have to make abomination goo by hand before you use magic for it?" Asked Luz with that adorable curiosity she's come to admire.
"Highly advanced users can make it out of thin air, but yes, usually it's pre-made material, with lots of focus going into the construction of the muck itself." Amity explained, trying to keep her words concise and not stutter around.
Ever since the petrification ceremony, the feelings she's had deep within herself only seemed to have amplified. Sure, seeing Lucci getting petrified was bad enough, but seeing the possibility of Luz suffering the same fate, Luz dying… being forever out of Amity's life… that was just too much for her to bear the thought of.
So now that Luz was back in school, now that Luz and her were sharing the same class, Amity resolved to get as close to the girl as possible and use every possible excuse possible to stick around. All she had to do was make sure that she didn't get so flustered she ran away … yeah, she could do that, right? This was just a simple magic tutoring… a scenario for many romantic roleplays in romance novels-aggghh!
"I see, but what is it made of?" Luz inspected the goo they were working with, practically burying her face in it. "I know I've called it magic mud before, but there's got to be more to it than that. Why else would it be one of the main nine?"
"The main component is necrotic flesh." Amity explained. "From there the quality of the muck depends on how fresh the corpses are, the capabilities of them, how much material you could densify, etc."
"So not so much mud men but goo zombies. Neat." She played with a ball of it in her hands.
"Yeah, it's not as wild life, like plant or beast keeping magic, but the pure artificial nature means it's more moldable and adaptable. I think my dad once found a human world book and compared it to a … 'au~tomo~bile'." She remembered the faint bedtime stories. "Metal built around the liquid of dead reptiles or something."
"That's strangely accurate to the whole reality, not going to lie." Luz commented, practically pressing her eye against it. "I just wonder, I was able to find glyphs from either nature or someone else's spells. That means magic, and possible the whole world has glyphs or glyphs symbo-aha!" Luz shouted, grabbing Amity's face. "Do you see what I see!?"
"Not really….your hands are squishing my face and obstructing my view." She answered, blushing once more from the intimacy. Not that she was complaining per say … "What is it?"
"What I've been trying to look for the past week." Luz took out her magic rectangle, her 'phooon', and took a picture, enlarging the image. "You see that, embedded in the sludge?"
"A… symbol?" She asked. "It looks like … multiple circles held together by a jagged line."
"The Abomination Gly-wait what?" Luz paused, looking closer at the small image, before groaning as her head hit the table. "I already have these glyphs. It's just plant, ice, and fire." She spoke with a disappointed tone. "Seriously, I am genuinely considering the lightning strike at this rate."
"No, Luz, don't get discouraged, this is still good news." Amity was quick to try and pick up the girl's long face. "You said that you've been working all week to find new glyphs?"
"Within the dirt while at home, within the water while we were stuck on an island for a bit, and within the air by staring at it really hard as I walked." The human nodded.
"And you haven't found any?" She got a short nod in response. "Lilith, before I realized how rotten she was, taught me that all magic starts with the base elements as a foundation. What if the key isn't to find more glyphs, but work with them together."
Luz tilted her head. "Mixing them up … but, a lot of them don't mesh well." The girl began idly scribbling on the counter. "Ice and fire would cancel, light would just make a bigger plant …" They muttered, effortlessly drawing multiple circles across each other as she created lines without even looking. "If I mix ice with light it'll probably just be shiny ice. Like this." Luz tapped the counter … as it vanished . "Did…did I just do that?"
"I think you did …" Amity reached out her hand, feeling something. "You turned it invisible."
"I can make combos … combos can make anything …" Luz began vibrating in her seat, before screaming. "Glyph magic rules!" And then glomped onto her. "Thank you, you amazing, beautiful girl!"
"Wha-huh-bawah-.." She thought Amity was beautiful? Did they want to start dating? Hold hands?! Was this the moment to kiss?!
"Luz Noceda!" From this day forward, vengeance was sworn on professor Hemonculus. "I know we accept multitracking now, but this is still Abomination Class, not Illusion."
Luz gave off a feral grin, pulling out paper and scribbling onto it. "Don't worry sir, one awesome abomination coming right up!" She shouted, drawing together jagged lines.
"Luz, maybe you shouldn't start with something so complex right now-"
Booooomf
The glyph closed in on itself, and a massive flow of abomination goo began flowing on the floor, the mass getting up to table levels and flooding the room within five seconds. The class stared at the bubbles that were once their short teacher. "... Does this mean class is out?" An urchin kid asked.
" Bzmanfbfb." The incoherent mumble of their teacher responded as the bubbles popped.
"This is going to land me in detention, isn't it?" Luz hesitantly laughed.
Amity checked the quality of the muck. "... Yeah. Bad quality and attacking the teacher are never a good combination." If it was top level she would have gotten away with it like Boscha and Willow could do on occasion.
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Professor Scabtington walked around the room, watching the students progress. The best way to learn quickly was live experience, so they just sent any student or teacher nearly killed over here.
She started with Bo, who was currently tasked with a broken leg. "Just another few minutes and you'll be good to go. So, how has that secret search been going?" They didn't have much of a bile reserve, but the dedication and desire to interact with her patients did prove she might be suited for a nursing position in the future.
The professor nodded and turned to another student, Cat, who was focusing on two people at the same time, healing a collapsed lung and relieving Magenta fever on another. "Mind your stamina, Cat, you'll burn yourself out if you continue to go at this rate." Scabington warned.
"Can't slow down… gotta push my limit before the next Grudgby game… I can't walk around with a displaced shoulder again… never again." Motivated by determination, fear, and self preservation, a great combination. There was potential for a great doctor within the girl.
"Now puddles, gently lower the man's heart into his chest." Then came one of the more obscure students she had taken on with this year's policy on multi-tracking. Viney was creative, there was no doubt about it, though the girl had one or two screws loose in her opinion.
"Hey, they're not gonna scratch it … right?" The janitor asked nervously. "The heart is a delicate organ after all."
"Let me worry about delicacy. I'm the healer here after all." Over confident, just like Scabington was in her day. The teacher had an emergency line to the closest healers just in case of emergencies. "Now puddles, gently, gently…no, bad girl! Stop licking it! Just because you ate a basilisk heart doesn't mean you can eat everyone you see!" And she would just leave it at that for now.
Scabington looked over the rest of the students, healing various injuries and illnesses … all but one. "Maybe spinning," Spoke Lucifer Clawthorne, messing with a handful of pink bubbles. "Spinning makes everything dangerous, right? And it would increase their speed to …"
"Ahem." She cleared her throat, getting the boy's attention. "I know multitracking requires you to work with more than one, but if your going to experiment with your powers in the healing track, might I suggest experimenting with healing magic?"
"But I've hit a dead end with that. I lick my palm, I pat a sick guy, and they're right as rain in two seconds, watch." He lazily did as he explained; pressing his wet palm on a man in a full body cast. "You're better now, get up."
The man looked around, getting up and testing his limbs. "I'm fine as rain!" They laughed, running outside.
"And besides curses, I haven't really found anything I can't cure." The boy responded, going back to his bubbles.
"What about illness?"
"Cured Big Pox and the Weasels yesterday." The boy answered. "Broken spine, stuffy nose…"
"Ahhhh!! Puddles! He needed that heart!" Viney shouted l.
"The closest thing I've got to variety is this." Clawthorne made a noise with his throat, before spitting into his bubble, pushing it over to the very injured body of Viney's patient, as it popped and landed on his chest wound, which began closing instantly.
"Hey, I can feel my heart beat again!" They shouted. "And my blood pressure is cured too! You're a miracle worker, Manticore Menace!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, throw your parade outside." The boy waved off what should've been the freaking miracle of the century and went back to his bubbles. "So yeah, that's my dead end. Nobody here has a problem I can't fix up."
Scabington was around when the previous Clawthorne was a student. She had seen the infamously dangerous yet strangely intelligent Edalyn's in action. Previously, she had thought that the trouble making was more of a matter of a talented student wasting their potential, but seeing the boy cure massive life changing injuries like it was nothing, she was beginning to suspect it was more of a matter of not being challenged enough.
"You said that you've struggled to heal curses?" The professor asked him.
"I only managed to half heal the Owl Curse, but it grew immunity." … That was still far more than anything the Healing Coven managed back then.
"If that's where your limit lies, then that's where we shall start." She pulled out a box from her desk and presented the boy with it.
"There's a curse in here?" He asked curiously, looking the box over.
"Yes, a small but potent one if not treated carefully." She answered. "Curses more often than not are sapient in some capacity. Most acts to remove them are difficult because they're literally fighting back attempts at removal."
"Sapient …" The boy looked it over, now picking up the box as his eyes were filled with a spark she hadn't seen from any student in a long while. "Beast Keeping class said there was a difference between Sentience and Sapience … are we saying these things can feel empathy and question their own existence?"
"Well, I'm not one to boast an expertise in curse psychology, but I can say that curses are often affected by the stress and irritation of the bearer, so they are able to 'feel' negative emotions and react accordingly."
Lucifer studied her for a moment, before spitting into a bubble. He then extended it, somehow phasing the box through the bubble, and opened it from the inside, pulling his hands back instantly as if it would burn him.
The moment the box opened, a Smokey red mist filled up the bubble, a mischievous and troubling nature forming felt from within. " Hehehehe." It cackled, before half the mist became pink.
"Hey, can you understand me?" The boy asked with pleading eyes.
" Hehhahaha." It continued to laugh as it formed a devilish looking face, a mouth being created as it stuck out a misty tongue.
"So you're a jerk, Got it." The boy grumbled. "Then you won't mind if I do this." He began shrinking the bubble, forcing the curse to come into contact with the saliva at the bottom of it.
"AHHHHaaaahhh!" It screamed, the mist getting smaller and smaller, getting bipedal in shape, simple horns on its head along with a tail. "Agh! Watch it! Wa-huh? Are words coming out of my mouth….weird."
The two of them stared in silence. "... For the record, this isn't normal." Scabington told him bluntly.
"Maybe, but it's the only progress I've ever had healing curses." The boy answered, gazing at the bubble. "You and I are going to get really well acquainted with each other, so get comfortable."
" Got it, can I just not look at your big fat head while we're doing it? It's such a huge eyesore."
"Okay, we can do that, or I can constantly do this to you all day." He spun the bubble on his finger effortlessly like it was a ball, before stopping it.
"Was that inertia? How the hell am I feeling inertia? Oh I think I'm gonna vomit, but I don't have a stomach." Scabington would just leave this be for now. She wasn't sure if this was a good or a bad sign, but it kept the boy's mind occupied on healing magic in her class, so the teacher would take the small win while she could.
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Belfry wasn't like your typical witch. He didn't have most of the worries or cares most of his classmates experienced. While most people stress themselves out over essays and sports and that sort of thing. Belfry, at the age of nine, found the key to true happiness… blissful ignorance.
Who needed to focus on how short life was, how bad karma was, or how disastrously chaotic the social structure of all living things was, when you could just munch on a screamwitch with your girlfriend? And as such, he did not need many things to succeed. Good grades and or popularity was quite irrelevant. "How was class?" He asked her.
"Oh, pretty great actually. Got my Bard buddy back so class was actually pretty fun, even if he's started to get moody again." Skara answered as they both enjoyed the bliss of the moment.
"Bard buddy … the Lucci kid, right?" Belfry asked. "I think he actually tamed his first beast today. Had it inside one of those pink bubbles."
"Oh, he had that inside of Bard class too. He told me it was a curse he brought to life… I'm not sure whether to be more impressed or amazed at that."
"Lucci, you better not be starting a curse epidemic!" From the far end of the table, they could hear Amity Blight yelling at said kid.
"I'm not! I'm just keeping this sapient creature trapped in a bubble until I can erase it from existence!" The boy in question argued.
"Pfft, what you should be erasing are the thirty plus pounds you have around your butt. That's more of a curse than anything I could ever do."
"And back to spinning you go." The boy casually began rotating the bubble. "How was class for the rest of you?"
"I figured out something awesome!" The human shouted out, messing with those strange papers. "Hey Skara, check this out." The girl placed her fork on the circle, tapping it, as a glow shifted the utensil into a lute. "I'm getting close to Bard magic."
"Whoa, how'd you do that?" Lucci asked. "I thought you could only do four elements with the glyphs?"
"I linked together a lot of plant glyphs for the basic object, some ice glyphs to represent the concept of carving, and fire glyphs to represent vibrant and fast energy." The girl grinned madly.
"You can mix glyphs together?" Willow Park questioned.
"Yep! And it's all thanks to this amazing girl right here!" The human hugged Amity tightly.
"Ahhh, yeah yeah, totally, just, being a super helpful and supportive friend, nothing less and definitely nothing more than that!" The girl squeaked in a high pitched voice. "Just two friends being friends with each other-anything else completely normal happen to anyone else today!?
"I got another F on my assignment." Belfry put in. "Completely normal by my books."
"You're failing?" Skara asked with confusion. "Why? Is the written work hard?"
"Nah, apparently I lack the 'killer instinct' needed to tame Demons." Something he was completely content with. "Lucci apparently has the same problem."
"Professor Catscratch said it's because my presence is 'too intimidating', so whenever I try to get an animal to trust me, what they see from their point of view is another predator about to pounce." The boy grumbled. "I'm barely passing that class just for the fact that getting mawed on by flying snakes technically counts as 'progress'."
"Right now I'm trying to get accepted back into the Human Appreciation Society." Gus responded. "Just have to get Mattholomew's permission …"
"Never going to happen, loser!" Some short kid passed by with his lunch, hurling a spoonful of mashed gortatoes at the illusionist's head.
"Hey, don't pick on my friend." Lucci glared.
"Oh, what are you going to do about it, devil?" Everyone froze the moment he said that, most notably the Clawthorne boy, who's eye began a notable twitch.
Lucci stared silently for a moment, before letting out the first smile he's seen on the kid all day. "Hey Willow, Amity … remember the snowballs on the knee?"
"I still get the shivers from being buried." Willow answered as she began to grow vines from the salad on her plate. "This is going to get messy, isn't it?"
"Absolutely." Amity nodded, summoning some abominations on the side. "Don't worry Lucci, we'll help keep the destruction contained to the lunchroom."
"Awww. Wholesome LAW bonding." The human cooed at the sight at what was undoubtedly going to be a murder taking place. "Save some for me Lucci, I made a promise to beat up anyone who'd give you a hard time."
"Sure sure." The boy waved off as he stood up. "Let me make a declaration, Matty." Lucci jumped onto the table, bubbling their food as it began to rise. "This will not be a food war." A shadow began to form over them. Belfry looked up to see … well, bubbles for miles on end, all containing food as the cafeteria gaped in silence. "This…. will be … a food massacre." The boy snapped his fingers.
POP!
"Aww nuts." And the entirety of the food came crashing down on the construction student, piling him under a whole mountain of soggy milk cartons, Beaned Kidneys, Scream Cheese, and various other homogeneous mixtures that made up the semi-edible lunch food.
"You heard the Manticore Menace, FOOD FIIIIGGGGGGHHHHT!" And the chaos began reigning supreme as the entire cafeteria entered the warzone.
"Oh for the love of Titan, would that name just die already!?" Lucci shouted, already gathering more food to fill his bubbles.
"Of course, Master Pink!" Viney shouted out with a smile as she tossed food across the cafeteria.
"For once I'm participating in a food fight I didn't start nor feel guilty about participating in!" Luz cheered as she began scribbling down more drawings on those pads of paper. "Hope you like your apples fried and spicy!" She flung the flaming fruits into the air like cannonballs.
"Man, school is fun." Belfry grinned as a knife went flying by his ears. "All the stories parents tell us don't do it justice."
"I know, right!?" Skara smiled back as she blasted a wall of mushing pudding and gravy into the air with her viola. "I was just expecting to fall in love here, I didn't expect so many misadventures along the way."
It was never the destination, just the journey. That's what made their lives so amazing, wasn't it?
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Boscha was working on a hair straightening potion, which would hopefully dislodge the bone stuck inside of it from the food fight. She groaned, having trouble deciding who she wanted to murder more from the whole incident. For once it was actually difficult to decide, given who was involved.
The human, the half a witch, and Blight? Yes, Boscha would have no qualms and second guesses about crushing into cream. Two of them were useless nobodies and the third one was a traitor. The transfer student? Obliterated without a second thought. That detention track student. A broken body would be acceptable for a first offense.
Skara…she was more difficult to decide the fate of. Yeah, the girl had a habit of constantly getting on her nerves more and more lately, but she was also the most decent person out of Boscha's group of 'friends'. Maybe she could let it slide after some extra Grudgeby training.
She glanced over at the most important culprit however … the Clawthorne idly mixing with many potions. "Let's see if one of these can erase you from existence." He spoke to something locked in a bubble.
"Wow, you must be the life of the party with such a lovely disposition." The smokey looking thing groaned as its bubble was filled with the mixture he was working on. " Hate to see what you do for fun." The mist came in contact with the potion, and began changing technicolor. " Oooh, nice party trick. Now everyone can choose what flavor of curse they want before I make them suffer."
"Alright, the next potion isn't even going to be an attempt to kill you, just one to shut you up." The boy angrily flipped through pages. "Silent foods, ingredients that absorb sounds …"
"If you're going for a silencing potion, you need to start with bat dandruff." Boscha commented off to the side just loud enough for him to hear. "After that, you need six echo berries, the skin of a boiling sponge, and five scoops of silicon."
The boy was taken out of his musings, staring at her with sparkling eyes. "Oh, um, thank you, Boscha." Why did him thanking the girl make her chest feel so warm?
"Ooohhh, is this a little chick you're attracted to? If I get out I'll make sure it's extra painful for them." The bubble giggled.
"SHUT UP!" The boy shoved the little nuisance into the boiling pot, his face blushing. "Sorry about that, I accidentally brought him to life, and now I'm trying to remedy my mistake."
"Whatever." She shrugged it off. "Soo… I saw you at the petrification ceremony…. Turning into stone… that looked… painful." Boscha awkwardly stated, not sure how to exactly proceed with the conversation. She was UNBELIEVABLY curious about what the heck that was all about.
"Pain is temporary, I heal fast." He answered. "Honestly I'm just glad everyone focused on the fact I could do that instead of my lack of clothes at the time."
"Yeah, I'd want to block that out of my brain too." Except Boscha couldn't forget about it, and how much he looked like a big, pink and feral cat she wanted to snuggle up with. "You're finally a big time criminal, just like you wanted." She didn't completely understand why he wanted to be one, but it was impressive he managed to reach his goal. "Congratulations, I guess."
"Thanks …" He groaned, hitting his head on the table. "Only now I keep getting hit with the deep end of all situations instead of the daily stuff, and now I realize I'm weak."
"... You're weak?" She asked for clarification.
"Vitimir, Belos, Golden Guard, and the Rainbow Devil, one problem after another." Boscha would argue about it being weak to lose to them . "The Golden Tool hurt the most … he didn't even need to overpower me, he just planned better."
"Snk, Golden Tool." She snorted. He clearly had some confidence in him if he felt brave enough to insult the Emperor's second in command. "Most people would probably be dead already after fighting just one of them, so the fact you're still here after facing all four of them is more impressive than you think." Why was Boscha feeling the need to compliment this dork? Why did it make her feel good to do so? "Heck, you survived the Petrification, you're stronger than most of the losers at this school."
"Yeah, but that was only because of luck, and that luck is only because I'm half….." He groaned. "Half… crystal devil. Whether I'm sneered at in the street or praised here at school, I'm only famous for being a monster."
"Only morons care what people are, actual smart people care about what you can do." She responded. "Half a witch and the human are weak and pathetic, so they're at the bottom of the totem pole." Who cares how freaky you were, it was all about the results. That's how coven heads got where they were.
"I would argue about that second half, but I get what you're saying." At least he wouldn't be stupid and say she was wrong and try to change her mind. "So it doesn't bother you that I'm half crystal devil? That I'm one of the most hated creatures on the Boiling Isles?"
"It doesn't matter if you're hated." She spoke up. "As long as they fear you enough to back off."
"Oh, is that what I do?" He sent her a playful smirk. "Are you afraid of me?"
She felt her face get warm, before shaking her head and turning it. "Titan no. Your face is too round and cute to be afraid of." Wait what!? Did she just say that!?
"My face is what now?" Why did the density look so cute?!
"Just forget it." She tossed and drank the finished potion, finally popping out the bone tangled inside of her hair. "Just, use this or whatever for your bubble problem."
"Thanks Boscha." He grabbed the little thorn in her hair for the past few hours. "I'll be sure to use it well."
"Whatever." She groaned, turning her face away so she didn't look like some kind of moron in front of the guy. "I just don't like seeing someone so strong and powerful look so pitiable. You have my number, call it when you need someone to actually show you how to do something right."
"I thought that was just to call for Grudbgy practice?"
"It can be used for other things!" She yelled back at him.
"Okay, understood." He nodded quickly, pulling out the bubble. "Now, let's get back to work on your demise."
"You sure we shouldn't focus on your failure of a love life?"
"And back into the boiling pot you go." Why did this dork look so cute when he was vindictive?
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Celene idly gazed into the finite expanse of the future… as she and quite a few others sat in the detention track. After Matt got covered in a mountain of food, let's just say she was more than a little miffed at the sight and tried to retaliate, even though the future showed how futile that actually was.
"Never thought we'd see you in one of these rooms, little Mittens." One of the older occupants, Emira Blight, said to their younger sister as she sat right next to the only Blight boy.
"Boscha tossed a bone at my friend, I was just retaliating." The girl responded.
"You threw a table at me!" The alpha bitch called out.
"Mind quieting just a tiny bit, Three eyes?" The older Blight boy asked. "We gave the man a sleeping potion, not a death one." They gestured to the 'teacher' of the detention track, snoozing on the desk.
"Honestly surprised they didn't throw us into the regular detention room, pretty sure it's fixed by now." Skara asked, plucking a rubber band idly.
"I think Bump's worried me and Luz would just destroy it again after what happened last time." The clawthorne boy shrugged as he tossed a bubble containing something misty and smoky up in the air. "Not that I'm complaining, it'll give me and Hexel a lot more time to get to know each other."
"Oh, conversation. Can we talk about your mother issues, your dating life, or your insecurities about your own power?" The little weasel questioned.
"Wow, no shots held back." Agustus muttered. "Surprised you haven't killed it yet."
"Not for lack of trying, but I'm getting there." Lucifer spun the ball on his finger. "Until then, giving him nausea is the best I can do."
"So we're stuck with him in our lives, lovely." The plant girl rolled her eyes.
"Unless …" The troublemaking human gave a grin. "We start taking advantage of one of the most underutilized magics of our group."
"Underutilized?" Amity asked. "We're pretty well rounded, not sure what you mean by underutilized."
"Because we have one surefire way of getting an answer instantly." The human raised her hand … and pointed at Celene. "Looking at the future for it!"
"Wait, what?" The Moon Girl asked.
"You're in the oracle track, which means you know how to look into the future!" The human got up from her seat and got in close. "Which means you have the answers to all our problems!"
"Ah, it's not exactly as simple as you're assuming it to be." Celene put some distance between herself and the human. "For one, Oracle magic doesn't necessarily mean everyone in it is all knowing. Oracle magic is the study of magic on a spiritual and spectral level, which includes fortune telling, spiritual summoning, possession, telepathic communication, anything on that level."
"Don't you have a fortune telling business in the school cafeteria?" The bat kid Belfry asked in a bored sounding tone.
"Yeah, but even that's off." Casper came out to chat. "The more locked into fate something is, the more visible it is. Anything else is kinda … how did you put it?"
"Off streams that delve into infinity." Celene responded. "For example, if I tried to predict your breakfast for the next couple years, I'd get an aneurysm from all the results. That's why I focus on singular paths, or near future, or things that are absolutely going to happen no matter what anyone does." For example, that day.
"Even someone as simple minded as you shouldn't fall for whatever load this girl spits out, human." The alpha bitch rolled her eyes. "She gave me and my friends phony baloney fortunes and none of them were remotely believable." The fact they were sitting next to the Clawthorne boy spoke otherwise.
"I understand you have a reputation of a destructive student that puts everyone down, but do you mind not aiming it at my girlfriend?" Mattholomew asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Your what?" Nearly everyone in the detention room said at the same time.
"It's just casual, nothing serious." Celene rolled her eyes. All it was was two dates hanging out after Grom, nothing more.
"So then I should throw out the pictures of you two feeding each other under a tree?"Casper asked with a mischievous grin. He was in for it later.
"Heh, I like this spook." The curse in the bubble laughed. "Whataya say? You, me, a bottle of light fluid, and we burn down the school and dance on all the corpses."
"Nah, I personally like people … and life." Her partner responded.
"Shame, I'll have to look for someone else to cause genocide with." Lucci immediately began spinning the little imp around. "I regret nothing!"
"I will find a way to feed you to Centi or Hooty without killing them, I swear." The boy groaned. "Anyways, so are you still up for a fortune telling?"
"Depends, they're not free." She held out her hand to the fellow scammer.
"Oh, she's fun." The older Blight girl grinned. "You should really add her to the friend group Mittens."
"Maybe you should mind your own business and find one of your own." Amity rolled her eyes.
"Oh, but we wove hanging out with our baby sister and her friends, it gives us all time to know each other on a personal level." Edric leaned playfully on Lucci, who immediately bounced him off with a bubble.
"You could always just feed the curse to Edric and work with a live patient." Willow suggested.
"True… nah, I'm working on trying to cure people of crushes, doesn't sit right to give one to somebody, even if they deserve it." Lucci shrugged. "So how much does it cost for a fortune?"
"Four snails, or any object of equal value."
"Bit pricey for one fortune we're not even sure of will happen…what a great scam." The boy laughed, taking out the snails. "Okay Luz, ask your question."
"Alright." The human rubbed her hands together. "How long will it take for Lucci to cure curses?"
Such a vague timeline to work with. "Give me a second." She took out her crystal ball, and began focusing her power. The path started flooding everywhere into every corner of her brains. Stay calm, she had to narrow in on one path. Come on… why were they all fighting coven head one on one here?! And what the heck was the Rainbow Devil building. "You'll first make headway once you heal C-"
AGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHh!
A voice, no, a scream of pain cried out into her head. Misery, suffering, agony , intolerable pain on a level she's never truly experienced before. "AGGGGGGGGH!" Celene nearly fell over, gripping her crystal ball tightly as she continued to feel nothing but insufferable pain and entropy.
"Hey, what's going on!?" The human and Matt were on her, trying to keep her upright.
"Something … something's screaming …" She panted. "It's angry."
Lucci walked over, looking over the ball. "What did you see?" He touched the ball himself, before his eyes widened and his pupils dilated, tossing away the crystal as it shattered against the wall. "I … gah … what the hell was …" The Clawthorne held himself tightly.
"Something… is angry..." She walked around in a daze, feeling both cold and overwhelmed. "A presence in the school that's everywhere… something that woke up when I connected to the spiritual plane… something… not of this realm."
"Did you send a poltergeist after us?" The human asked innocently.
"Whatever it is, we need to get out of here before it hurts Celene again." Matt looked around the room. "Let's smash open the window."
"Already on it!" Lucci threw a shield at the nearest one.
"No, don't!" She shouted.
Shatter
The glass was broken … and remained floating in the air. "That's … new." Lucci muttered.
"AAAAHHH!!!" The same voice as before cried out, as the glass shards began flying to the Clawthorne, intending to cut him open and stop the agony.
"Look out!" Amity shouted, building a wall of abomination goo to block it. "I'm going to break down the door!"
"DON'T!" Celene wanted as Amity was preparing her abomination. "It'll-!"
"WAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHH! " The door morphed, growing teeth as the room began to shrink .
"-hear you." The moon girl sighed.
"Hear us… the room?" The human asked as they were all being forced closer together. "Are you telling me this entire room is alive!?"
"No… it's not the room… it's the school itself." Celene faintly whispered.
The speaker began to make a high pitched noise. "AAAGGG!!" The entire school shrieked out. "AAAAHHHH!!!"
"Well, my nightmares have fuel for the next two weeks." Augustus faintly muttered. "Anyone have a plan?"
"Construction magic!" Matt touched the ground. "I'll outmuscle it and-" The boy began coughing. "Nope, nope, don't do it. I'm already losing feeling in my body. We can't control it."
"We can't control it, but we can still run!" Lucci ran to the chalkboard and opened up some hidden door on it. "This leads to the school's hidden tunnels mom used to use! We can at least make a break for it in another room!"
"Everyone in!" Willow shouted, trying to hold off the walls as they all moved inside.
"AGGG!!" The desks began to walk, the legs sharpening themselves like spears as they tried to jump at the plant user.
"Mom always said detention led to the death sentence, but I always thought she meant it metaphorically!" Edric shouted.
"Ed, you fool, you know mom always means it!" Emira shouted as the all crawled through. "Where are we supposed to go, there's a million doors!"
"ANYWHERE! JUST KEEP MOVING!" Skara shouted as they all began to scatter.
"AAAGGHH!!" This was it … this was how Celene died.