[discontinued] the wrong portal

round boy?

"Congratulations, human. You just completed your first mission, you helped capture a sleeping, elderly lady, great job." Hunter dryly said.

"This elderly lady is a powerful witch, and she managed to hurt the emperor!" The human defended herself.

"Well, I can get the powerful witch to the conformatorium, you just report back to the emperor while I finish this off." He dropped the teen off and looked back before flying away.

Luz stopped to look at where she had been dropped off, she was in the castle grounds, not too far from the main entrance, she wandered off to look for the emperor's throne room. eventually finding herself at a large door.

"Hello? Emperor Belos?" She peered through the crack only to notice that nobody was in the room, she walked further in only to see a small door at the back of the room, wide open. Great, maybe he's in there. she pondered as she walked towards the door, peering through, she called out into the dark room only to see that the strange machine that she had entered this world had been moved there, the room was dark, walls, floor and ceiling made of stone and the only thing that accompanied the machine was a small desk, with a large, leather glove and a shiny, round plate like object. it was engraved with a symbol of a moon, a shiny sliver of it a standing out from the rest as a bright silver hue, making a crescent moon.

"Ooh, shiny, I want it!" The excited girl reached out to it, touching it. Suddenly a shadowy figure popped out from the plate, it was seemingly two dimensional, appearing as a shadow on the wall. The shadow spoke, scaring Luz.

"Hey! You aren't Phil! Are you here to play with me? I would love to play a game, I haven't played in years!" The excited, childlike voice rang out, speaking fast as Luz could barely understand the words.

"Where's the Emperor? And who are you?" The frightened teen shot back at the now disappointed shadow.

"I'm the collector! Do you wanna play a game or not? I'm bored!" He said, stretching his shadow in spirals over the walls.

"Fine, but I need to see Belos. Do you know where he is?" She asked. "And stop doing that weird stretchy thing!"

"Alright, I don't know where that guy is, but can you take me with you while you look for him? This cave is so boring! And dark! I hate it here!"

"Fine, do I just bring that plate thing with me?"

"Yes! Yes! That one! Enough dilly dallying! Let's go!" He practically screamed, words getting faster by the second. Luz grabbed the plate and slipped it under her guard's cloak, hurrying out of the cavern and the emperor's throne room.

after a few minutes of walking, she saw a familiar tall figure and rushed towards the emperor, before being stopped by a small voice from within her cloak.

"Shhh! don't let him see me!" He doesn't want me going anywhere. Luz almost questioned him before she noticed the emperor walking towards her.

"So, how did the mission go to capture the owl lady, I assume you were successful and that Hunter is taking her to the conformatorium to serve her sentence." He asked in a reassuring, but commanding tone.

"Uh yep! It went fine and the owl lady has been captured, sir!" She quickly replied, intimidated by the looming man before her. He let out a satisfied grunt, and dismissed her.

"Good, good, you can take the day off, I'm sure you're exhausted." He let out in a tired voice, trudging off to his throne room. Luz let out a sigh of relief and rushed to her makeshift bedroom, flopping onto the bed.

"Nice, Mr Boring Mcboringface is gone, now we can get onto the playing." The excited voice rang out again, a hint of impatience shining through. Luz rolled over on the bed and looked at the figure again, only now noticing his features, he had a simple figure, almost like a children's drawing of a person, with a familiar crescent moon decorating his face. He stared at her expectantly.

"Why are you hiding from him? Am I going to get in trouble?"

"No! No you won't, not if you don't get caught!" He fired back, flashing the teen a cheeky grin. Luz looked back at him with a dead expression.

"So I wasn't supposed to take you with me?"

"Nope!" He excitedly replied. "But I'm no fan of the other guy, you look much more fun!"

Luz just sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'll just sneak you back tomorrow."

"Wait! No! Don't do that, I can help you, I can help you fight, protect you and whatnot! I don't wanna go back!" He panicked, swirling around the room as he begged her.

"Protect me? How can you do that? You're just a shadow on the wall." She asked, confused about his proposal.

"I'm super smart and I know stuff and I can tell you stuff that can help you!" He screeched, trying to sell his protection like a product. "All we have to do is pinkie promise! And then I can possess your body and take your soul to be added to my collection!" He said, noticing the horrified look on the teen's face and changing the subject. "Just kidding on that last part!"

Luz calmed down and held out her hand as the collector did the same. Their fingers linked and the figure disappeared, Luz looked down at the plate from which he came only to notice that it was glowing, it shook violently and shattered, before the pieces turned to dust, blowing away from her lap, she panicked.

"Shit! I killed him!"

"No you didn't, silly! I'm right here!" Luz heard a quiet voice and turned to see the collector, still shadowy but no longer attached to the plate.

"Wait, what happened?"

"We're bound now! We made a deal and now we have to stick together! But for now, you look tired, I'm pretty sure I'm only supposed to make deals with titans! But there aren't any of them left so you will have to do!"

"Wh- titans? What are they?"

"Too many questions, you're tired, we can play tomorrow, sleep now!" He said, snapping his fingers and watching as the girl felt a sudden wave of drowsiness, and flopped to the bed, sleeping like a log.