With their eyes set on the prize, Perren’s group avoided prying gems and alarm zombies to gain ground on the spiraling black box. It turned out quite easy if you’ve got the help of the trails of fog left in its levitating circling. Before they could take any measures against it though, they had to deal with its guardian first. 

Perren, positioning Brigit and Goidel in ambush locations with the help of Emile’s abilities, sent them a last minute advice- “ Victor is probably set to wander near it, if we’ve understood Feth’s control accurately. We’re starting in 3, 2-”, he murmured then signaled to Goidel to take his shot. The librarian’s pair of legs squashed like strings closing in on their breaking point, then unleashed them to launch him way above the highest roof around. With nothing blocking his aim, Goidel threw a couple of knives from under his sleeve at the black box. 

Just as they expected, the rounds were stopped; with a lunge that cracked the roof underneath him, Victor jumped in front of the knives and knocked all of them with a swing of his poleaxe.

Perren- “ Now Maci!”, the teacher yelled through their telepathic channel while unsheathing his rapier and lunging it toward Brigit, who welcomed the incoming strike with open arms. Before the duelist could pierce his student’s shoulder, the french teen rotated her arms like a conveyor belt, with no result.

A tinge of worriedness made Perren slow down a bit, but after a 20th tiresome attempt, Maci swapped Brigit position with that of Victor, who didn’t even try to block the piercing weapon.

Perren- “ I’ve lost some momentum”, he thought before barely managing to pierce Victor’s bark of a skin; in desperation, Perren used his left hand to apply extra force to the hilt and dig his way through his lover’s shoulder. Perren bit his lips in frustration, and forced his eyes to close, bottling up unneeded distractions for now. “It's still awful, you know, having to do this to you. But I won’t let you do something you’ll blame yourself over once I’ll free you.” 

Unfortunately for them, though, that wasn’t nearly enough to stop Victor, as even though he was injured, he mechanically swung his left arm in a wide punch that sent a shockwave into Perren, causing tens of small cuts all over his body. Mostly as a distraction, so he could then kick his partner away from him. 

Brigit- “ Teach!”, the girl screamed as she used her fall to increase the force with which she could kick the giant in the face. A headshot that cracked bits of Victor’s reptilian mask, and made him stagger a few steps backward. Brigit swiftly took a defensive stance, checking in on Perren as well. “ Are you ok?”

With a grunt, the duelist lifted himself up and wiped some of the bloody scratches off. “ Just peachy. Lucky for us, he’s not conscious, slower and only relies on his tough body to fight. Bad news-”

Brigit- “ Uncle Victor is like an onion made of titanium, right? Can’t you distract him with your illusions until we figure something out?”

Perren left a concerned laugh. “ Funny story: already tried. But since he’s already in an illusion, mine doesn’t work anymore. Got an idea though”, and he then stomped twice on the ground and yelled for a retreat. “ Both of you, follow me.”

Before the titan gave chase, he extended his arm and two flowers sprouted on him. Perren recognized one with mild healing properties, and the other a “cure for stomach aches?”

With Maci left hidden nearby, the three led the zombie-like warrior on a wild goose-chase around the neighborhood, with Victor stomping and smashing everything in his path, breaking walls and streets just by walking and stomping through them.

Perren- “ Hey, stop destroying the city, I’m already out of vouches for you with the administration already!” The duelist tried multiple times to shake him awake, but none worked so far. Whatever Feth did, it held strong like a tick feasting on blood. 

A corner brought them at a deadend, from which besides upscaling the walls, there wasn’t another way out. Goidel and Brigit shared concerned looks, both becoming unsure in Perren’s plan, who in turn stood strong and prepared for Victor.

Perren- “ Come! People might be scared of you, big guy, but you know me. I can definitely take you on!”, he yelled out, it was another ignored cry to return to reality. 

The duelist was also starting to sweat now, doubt cozying inside his mind with each passing second. His eyes darted from his partner to the people behind, calculating for the worst case scenario. If anything were to go south, he should at least save Brigit and Goidel and take the brunt of the attack by himself.

The brainwashed warrior was ready to plunge with his weapon and crush the intruders in a single strike; he jumped 1 meter off the ground, with the poleaxe in his left arm preparing to swing it vertically to crush their torsos at once. 

A rumble started to shake the surroundings, with lines of dust falling off the buildings, as cracks started to split the ground; two pairs of marble like columns pushed above- then four- and the fifth came with the rest of a gigantic hand reaching from deep underground to catch the lunging warrior midair like a venus fly trap. A snatch, and Victor was suspended in the air by two gigantic arms.

With Victor held tight in her grip, Nizzio stepped on the surface to save her colleagues just in time. Goidel and Brigit cheered and sighted in distress, extremely excited to still be in one piece. 

Perren- “ Leave that for later and give me a hand”, he told Goidel, who swiftly joined Perren’s side.  The two then started to activate their special attacks by lighting up their weapons. “ Brigit, take this chance to grab the box.”

Trusting his judgment, the cloaked firg ran past the corner, made a few meters before taking a glimpse behind her, just in time to see the image of a trapped Victor freeing himself from Nizzio’s grip with a rushed push from all of his muscles. A few steps later, she frantically turned around to see Nizzio being thrown, head up-side down into a building. Then Victor’s numb face peered through the cracks of his mask, locking in on her. Before he could start chasing after Brigit, a combined attack from Perren and Goidel glowing weapons pushed him through multiple windows, scorching off his armor and skin. 

Perren- “ Kept a count, if this was his first fight for today, he burned through 3 plants already.”

Goidel- “ That’s, that’s not nearly enough.”

Perren- “ Didn’t say healing ones, though.”

The duelist stood silent, and shared stares with the upside-down Nizzio, who nodded. Perren then pulled out his knife and told Goidel to “ pair with Nizzio, and cover me”, before closing in the distance between himself and Victor.

…

Standing in front of a damaged Clover Arena, Masso and his group, which now included Ecne, tried to sneak their way through the workers back rooms and hallways of the building; whatever Lian did to wake them up hasn’t alerted Feth at all, as each time they took down on his controlled sentries, no alert was raised. 

With Emile’s telepathic ability, they managed to relay to Perren’s group their intentions and two groups decided to make their attacks simultaneously, made pull Feth’s attention in multiple directions at once.

Once the Lord of Masks was a bit further away, Arim, alongside Giol, Ogda and Finley, acted out their worries regarding the Tuatha joining up with them.

Giol- “ So what’s the deal with him, can we really trust him?” 

Before she could answer though, Temitayo chimed in out of nowhere, spooking Finley on his tippy toes. 

Temitayo- “...Yes. After our talk inside there”, she pointed a wobbling finger at Lian, “ he promised to help us out. He…even apologised for what he did while controlled.” The girl squeezed her pouch, maybe with a hope that it would be magically filled up again. 

Lian-” And we can’t be picky right now, can we? For now, at least, he is on our side.”

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted once they reached an exit door to the largest stadium where Giol remembered to have last seen Tommen. A slight crack opening let in a smoggy gas and a stench of staleness that made their noses itch with dread. Masso and Ecne instantly understood what that meant and both rushed over to see a lake of black water filling up the center of the stadium. 

Before they could react to it the captive, Ashen, unleashed his last blast of fire at a creature flying in the distance, completely ignoring the Head Librarian that sat right next to him. 

Ecne took a look at whatever Ashen tried to take down and he became pale as a ghost. He never, in his wildest scenarios, could have figured that this was the final stage of Feth’s ambitions. 

Whatever plan to sneak up on Feth was shattered by the Tuatha’s abandon of it to give chase to whatever was flying into the distance. Thunder and fire tried to take it down, but Feth immediately intervened, shielding the beast while it ran away from this layer.

Ecne-” Forget about the librarian and help me-”, but he was cut short when a tentacle of dark water sprang from the pool grabbed Ecne’s foot and threw him into the seats of the arena.

Everyone rushed over to him, but he quickly got up and yelled directly at Lian- “ How did he do it?”

Lian- “ I don’t- what are you talking about?”

Ecne-” If you are connected to that Dubnos invader, tell me how he did it. How did he summon that creature from the other side?” The Lord of Masks was speaking fast and erratic, utterly terrified by what Feth had accomplished.

Ogda and Arim got between the two, put off by how Ecne was reacting. 

Ecne- “ You don’t understand. THAT, that-”, he kept repeating, pointing at the being that just passed through the layer into the dark space beyond- “ that is Dubnos’s bell for starting a world destroying event. And he just chimmed so that the doomsday clock would start ticking.”

The group then turned toward the arena to grab a sight of Feth, who was sitting on his back, content, calm and seemingly filled with bliss; in front of a whirlpool of dark water connecting to home, and he only had one single task to complete. After that, he was done. 

Feth- “ And then, finally, I can stop being me .”