One of Jell’thuzad’s tentacles smashed into the pool, sending a surge of glowing water cascading over the battlefield.
It hit C.H.I.P. first.
The robot froze mid-step, eyes flickering erratically as sparks danced across his plating. “ALERT—CONDUCTIVITY—EXCESSIVE SWEETNESS DETECTED—SYSTEMS—” pop! “—CANDIFIED!”
He locked up completely, his limbs stiffening like a statue made of steel and toffee.
Arcade swore under his breath. “Oh, perfect! He’s a bloody chocolate fountain now!” He smacked the side of the robot’s head, trying to reboot the circuits manually, but C.H.I.P. just stared blankly and began humming elevator music.
Kirrin, hovering nearby, caught the flicker of his systems failing. “Arcade, get him outta the water!” she shouted—just as a massive tentacle blindsided her.
She shrieked as she was flung across the chamber, slamming into the sand hard enough to leave a crater. Sparks still danced along her staff as she groaned, wings twitching.
“Kirrin!” Celeste shouted, spinning mid-dash.
Plum stopped snapping photos and ducked behind a broken stalagmite, aiming her laser pistol. “Get off her, you overgrown blancmange!” she yelled, peppering the tentacle with hot bolts. The laser fire seared through syrup, giving Kirrin just enough time to roll aside and get to her knees.
Meanwhile, the chaos only deepened.
Jell’thuzad bellowed, his voice shaking the cavern like an organ pipe from hell. “TAFFY TENDRILS!”
Tentacles stretched outward like molten toffee, glistening pink and amber. They slapped against the terrain, sticking fast—each pull drawing boulders, debris, and even the knights themselves toward the pulsing center of the chamber. The whole floor lurched like a sticky whirlpool.
Ray gritted her teeth. “Not today!” She planted her feet and wound up her hammer. “Skyhook Uppercut!” Her weapon blazed with phoenix light as she drove it upward, catching one of the smaller tendrils and launching it skyward in a fiery burst. Ember trails spiraled after it, briefly lighting the cavern ceiling like sunrise.
“Sweet trick!” Mezzo shouted, sliding past her and twirling his blazing guitar-axe. “Let’s turn up the volume!” He jammed it down into the ground. “Amped Overdrive!”
The arena shook. A massive pillar of fire erupted around him, blazing outward in a shockwave of molten orange and gold. Gummy flesh blistered and popped under the heat, candy steam filling the air like burnt sugar.
Plum, still half-hidden behind a broken stalagmite, lifted her recorder with shaking hands. “This is incredible,” she whispered. “Horrifying, yes, but visually incredible—”
A tentacle snapped out of the glowing water.
It wrapped around her waist.
Plum screamed as she was yanked into the air, her recorder clattering across the sand.
“Plum!” Celeste shouted.
The tentacle pulsed.
The pink glow flooded over Plum’s body.
Her eyes went glassy.
“No,” Plum gasped, but she wasn’t looking at the cavern anymore. “No, Grandmother, I said no.”
Ray froze.
Plum’s voice cracked, fury and hurt tangled together until they sounded almost the same.
“I don’t care about the family tradition! Someone needs to spread the truth! Someone needs to say what they’re doing!”
The tentacle tightened.
Plum choked, claws digging into the candy flesh.
“Go ahead,” she spat, tears streaking her face though her eyes still saw somewhere else. “Disinherit me. I don’t care. I don’t care!”
But she did.
Everyone could hear it.
The words came out brave, but the pain underneath them was raw enough to bleed.
“I don’t care,” Plum whispered again, smaller this time. “I don’t…”
Ray moved.
With a snarl, she charged through the syrup, Heartbreaker blazing in both hands.
“Let her go!”
She swung hard, smashing the hammer into the tentacle with a brutal crack. The candy flesh split, spraying glowing syrup across the sand. Plum dropped, and Ray caught her before she hit the ground.
For half a second, Ray went completely still.
Her eyes widened.
The fire around her hammer dimmed.
Plum trembled in her arms, gasping back into herself.
Ray stared down at her like she had seen something she had no right to see.
Then she blinked sharply and shoved the horror behind her teeth.
“Plum,” she said, rougher than usual. “You with me?”
Plum nodded weakly, face pale. “I… I think so.”
Ray set her down carefully behind a rock, then turned toward Celeste.
Her expression had changed.
Not fear.
Warning.
“Celeste,” Ray snapped. “Do not let those things grab you.”
Celeste’s ears flattened. “Why? What did you see?”
Ray’s jaw clenched.
“Just don’t.”
Celeste stumbled to her feet, her breath ragged, her clothes slick with syrup. She steadied herself, one eye glowing faintly. “Right… your turn,” she whispered.
Her blade flared with divine light as she charged forward. “Radiant Slice!” She swung once—clean, precise—and a line of holy fire carved through the nearest limb. The impact burst into shimmering motes, burning the attached zombie spawn like paper lanterns before fading into stardust.
Meanwhile, the chaos only deepened.
Pitch, still tangled in broken chains, jerked his head toward the collapsing walls. Something in his gaze changed—instinct overriding fear. With a guttural snarl, he lunged upward, claws digging into the cliffside.
“Pitch! Wait!” Ray shouted, reaching after him. But he didn’t stop. He climbed, fast, vanishing into the higher ledges of the cavern.
“Stars damn it,” Ray hissed. “He’s bolting again!”
Celeste barely had time to turn before another tentacle slammed down beside her, showering her in shards of glowing sugar. Mezzo zipped in front of her, slicing through one tendril and shouting, “Oi! Jelly guts! Try hittin’ someone yer own size!”
“OH, I INTEND TO,” bellowed the kraken—and it did.
Celeste’s breath hitched, the syrup glowing around her. “No, no, not again! I’ve— I’ve had quite enough of your grabby nonsense!”
A massive limb caught Celeste square in the chest.
The world went white.
She flew backward, tumbling through the air before crashing into the sand with a wet thud. For a heartbeat, she couldn’t breathe.
And then—
—her vision wasn’t the cave anymore.
It was marble halls. Cold. Empty.
She stood small in the middle of a gleaming chamber, light bouncing off the pillars. A version of herself from a year ago, trembling, trying desperately to channel mana between her palms. Nothing happened.
Her father’s voice cut through the silence—calm, sharp, disappointed.
“Again.”
Celeste strained, her core flickering weakly. The glow sputtered and died.
“I—I can do it,” her younger self pleaded. “Please, Dad, I’ll try harder—”
But he turned away. As he always did.
Wouldn’t look at her. Wouldn’t see her.
The memory cracked, falling away like glass.
Celeste gasped, snapping back to the present as she hit the ground hard enough to send sand flying. The echo of her father’s voice still lingered in her head—a disappointment.
Her fingers twitched, gripping her katanas tight.
Across the cavern, Mezzo’s voice rang out, brash and bright.
“Princess! You good, lass?!”
Celeste blinked, eyes glowing faintly blue. “Aye… I’m fine,” she murmured, voice small, trembling—and then suddenly fierce. “I just… needed a reminder.”
And with that, she launched herself back toward the kraken, blades igniting with light as the battle reignited in full.
Suddenly, another massive tentacle burst from the pool—slick, shining, and fast as lightning. It wrapped around Celeste and Mezzo, crushing the air from their lungs as it dragged them upward toward the ceiling.
“Gotcha both!” Jell’thuzad thundered, laughter like a bubbling cauldron of syrup. “SWEETNESS LOVES COMPANY!”
Celeste gasped as the sugar began to glow—faintly pink, then blindingly white—and once again, her world fractured.
This time, she was in her father’s study.
The light was dim, filtered through curtains of pale blue. The air smelled of ink and dust. Papers were stacked in neat, suffocating piles.
Across the desk, Kenaz Astallan sat like a statue of marble and authority—hands folded, jaw tense, every inch the general and father she feared and adored.
“Dad,” she said quietly, twisting her hands. “I—I was wondering… the university in Clawdiff—they teach mana control and mythic theory, and I thought—”
A sharp crack split the air as his fist struck the desk. The sound echoed through her bones.
“You will never ask me that again.” His voice was calm, cold. “You are not leaving this mansion. Not until I say you are ready.”
“B-but I just want to learn! I'm sorry. I just want to be better—”
“Better?” His eyes burned like frozen steel. “You are already a risk, Celeste. You will not embarrass us further.”
Behind the door, a younger Lumina peeked through, her eyes wide and wet. “You can do it, Cece,” she whispered, unseen.
But Celeste’s younger self lowered her head in silence.
The walls melted. The light shifted.
And the tentacle tightened.
Celeste screamed, jolting back to reality—her breath ripped from her chest.
“GET—OFF—HER!”
Ray’s voice roared through the cavern as her hammer came down like a comet of flame. The phoenix-shaped head exploded in a flare of molten gold, searing through the tentacle and slicing it clean in two.
Celeste hit the ground hard, coughing up syrup, gasping for air.
But before she could even call out, she heard Mezzo shouting—laughter at first, the usual cocky grin in his voice.
Then it turned to panic.
“No, no, don’t—don’t go! Dad, come back!”
Celeste’s head snapped toward him. His eyes weren’t seeing the cave anymore—they were glassy, distant, caught in some old nightmare.
“Mezzo!” she cried, stumbling through syrup. “Please, come back! We need you here, not in the past!”
But another tentacle coiled around his waist, dragging him back toward the pool. He swung his axe wildly, but it barely grazed the slick candy flesh.
“CELESTE!” he yelled—panic breaking through the bravado.
“Hold on!” Celeste cried, running, slipping through the syrup-soaked sand.
But another tentacle coiled around him, dragging him toward the pool. He swung his axe wildly, yelling, “CECE! Get the feck outta here! I don’t care how shiny it looks—run!”
“Not without you!” she shouted back. “You daft dog-bird, you’re not leaving me too!”
Arcade dove for him, C.H.I.P.’s small form projected beside him, trying to grab Mezzo’s arm—
—but the water erupted, swallowing them both.
Then silence.
The ripples stilled. The cavern went dead quiet.
Too quiet.
Even Jell’thuzad’s laughter stopped.
The glowing pool shimmered like a mirror of liquid glass, reflecting the wide, terrified eyes of the knights staring into it.
Celeste whispered, voice trembling, “Mezzo…?”
Nothing.
No movement. No bubbles. Just the still, endless surface—
And a single, red streak of light sinking deeper into the dark.
