Spirit Animal: Pride of the Panther

Ch. 34: Final Confrontation

Several Minutes earlier:

Amity, Luz, Willow, and Gus were led into the skull by Hunter. He was the best option to get them in, he was the Golden Guard after all, of course he would bring "prisoners" to Belos.

"Remember, this may be the biggest battle of our lives." Hunter said, "There's no telling what we'll see, but we need to stop him."

"As long as Eda and the others are able to stop the draining spell, we'll be good." Luz said, gripping her backpack tightly, "We need to keep going, I doubt it will be easy to get to him, he probably has guards blocking the entrance. Hunter, you know everything about Belos, what can we expect?"

"He has magic unlike anything I've ever seen, capable of performing spells without a spell circle." Hunter explained, "And there's also something he can do, I've been told it's a curse from wild witches, but I'm beginning to think that he did it to-"

Hunter began to groan and held his wrist. He fell to his knees and the group surrounded him.

"Hunter, are you okay!?" Luz asked.

Hunter took off his cloak and mask, hoping that will help get some more air, but that didn't help. Luz pulled Hunter's glove off and saw his Coven Sigil glowing and slowly creeping up on his arm.

"What's going on?" Willow asked, looking at the sigil.

Luz's eyes went wide.

"That draining spell." Luz said, "We need to stop him, now!"

"Luz, what about Hunter, he can barely walk!" Gus said.

Luz looked at Hunter and then at the path that leads to the entrance of Belos' hide out.

"You try and help him, I'm going to try and stop him!" Luz said.

"Luz... wait... there's something you need to-"

Luz didn't hear Hunter's warning as she shifted and ran down the path.

"Luz!" Amity called out.

Present:

Luz ran until she arrived at a large door. She shifted back and opened the door, seeing Belos standing in front of the portal, now wearing a blue jacket and his hair was tied into a ponytail.

"So, that's the infamous portal I keep hearing about." Luz said.

"Indeed." Belos said, "Did you know, I've been alive for over 400 years. In that time, I've seen things that some people will never see."

"Really?" Luz asked, "Like what?"

Belos smirked and turned around.

"Well, why don't I show you?" Belos said.

Belos pulled out several slips of paper. Luz didn't look too nervous, until the papers crumbled and Belos threw ice spikes at her. Luz quickly rolled out of the way as the spikes hit the wall behind her. Luz looked at Belos in shock.

"This is the original magic of the Isles." Belos said, "Glyph magic. Amazing isn't it? It took me decades to find them all, almost like the Titan was hiding them from me."

Luz stood up and glared at Belos.

"You're not a witch at all, are you?" Luz asked.

"Hm, you're a smart one." Belos said, "You've probably heard of me. The name is Philip Wittebane."

"Philip WIttebane? THE Philip Wittebane!?" Luz said, "They said you went missing."

"I went searching for my brother. He was lured to this realm, by these filthy creatures." Belos said, "I plan to eradicate them."