Let me live! | Hunter X Edric The Owl House

2.3 Aftermath

{Back on the Boiling Isles}

[Edric's POV]

We're watching the Collector build a massive construction, not knowing what we should do now.

We sent the others away, they are save. And now we have to deal with the greatest evil this realm is about to face.

"Ed..." I look to King on my shoulder. "We don't have much time. We gotta think of a game, now."

I gulp nervously and I keep staring at the Collector, clueless.

"H-Hey, Collector!!" I yell out for a him, he stops midair and he flies over to us.

"What's up, Eddie?" Asks he, smiling widely.

"Can we go look after the others while you're building up the Owl House? We gotta tell them that we're about to play or they'll start to panic." I say, smiling nervously.

"Oh, of course! Can't have them ruin all the fun we're about the have, I'll see you later!!" He flies back up and continues to build his construction. I take a small breath, King and I exchange a short look and afterwards I place him gently down. While I'm getting my Palisman out, I watch King running over to something. Finally, I recognize his collar with a little golden plate on it. Looks like he lost it at some point during the battle. I sit down on my Palisman, I lean down to King and I place him in front of me, together we fly away.

"I hope they are all fine..." mumbles King worried as he's just looking at the plate on his collar.

"I'm sure they are, let's go check on them!" I fly even faster and we leave the destroyed cave we were in. King placed his collar in my pocket, since the belt is broken he can't wear it anymore and he didn't want to lose it. We fly over to the mountain the spell was happening on and we land, all the Coven heads are awake, slowly and weakly getting up.

"Thank titan..." I mumble and we continue to look around when someone suddenly jumps me.

"Ed!!!" I hear a voice yell and I see Em hugging me.

"Em!!!" I hug her back, smiling relieved. "Oh, you're alright!!! I was so worried!!" I say as I keep hugging her.

"Eda!!!" I hear King yell and he runs over to Eda. She's sitting on the ground, holding Raine in her arms.

"King!!" She reaches out with...her only arm - ??? - to him and hugs him. "King, oh you're alright."

"Shit, what happened???" I ask and I look at Em shocked.

"It was the only way to stop the curse." Mumbles Em and I gulp nervously. I look around and I see Lilith followed by Dad and the other Cat members running up the stairs.

"Oh titan, Edalyn!!!" Yells Lilith and she runs over to her sister.

"Twins!!!" Dad runs over to us and he hugs us both.

"Dad, you're alright!!!" Says Em and we both hug him.

"I was so worried...you're fine..." he let's go of us and smiles relieved. "You saved us. You and..." He takes a look around. "The others...where are they? Where's Mittens?"

"And where's Luz?" Asks Eda and she looks at King who's looking at the ground sadly.

We hear a silent grunt, Darius stands up and Dad immediately walks over to him to support him.

"Darius!!" Dad looks at him worried, but Darius grunts weakly and he stares at me.

"Where is my little Prince...?"

I look at him for a while, Dad also looks at me worried just like Eda.

"They are save..." I mumble, clenching my hand into a fist as I look at them. "We sent them to the Human Realm."

I hear a synchronized gasp and Darius stares at me with wide eyes. "What?? How could you-"

"BELOS IS DEAD!!!" Darius immediately turns quiet and I take a deep breath. "But we've got now a new problem." I step aside and I point into a direction. In some distance, they can see how something's being build in the middle of the sky, something enormous.

"Edric..." I hear Dad say as he stares at that giant thing. "What is happening."

"To defeat Belos and stop the draining spell we had to free the Collector. And now, he wants to play a game. A game called 'Owl House'." I look over to Eda and Lilith, with Raine in between them, looking at me with wide eyes. "We wanted to protect them from what is about to happen. The Human Realm was the safest place. So...now we gotta think of a game with some rules."

All of them look at each other, speechless. Dad moves closer to us, still supporting Darius. "Is there something we have to consider..." grunts Darius, now seemingly calmer.

"It's a game with a lot, like a giant number, of players. And it's gotta have to do something with that thing he's building." I say and they seem to think.

"Well..." Mumbles Lilith quietly. "The only game with a lot of players I know of is...Coven Flag."

"Coven Flag?" Asks Em confused and Dad looks at us.

"It's played on a wide space, for example a forest or on the knee. The original version is played with nine teams, each with their own base and representing one of the nine main Covens. Their bases are marked by a flag with their Coven symbol on it. They have to protect their base and the flag, if the flag is stolen by someone, the Coven will disband and they become wild witches. At first, the game starts out without any wild witches, but the last Coven to get their first flag will automatically become wild witches. Each Coven has to gather three flags, hidden in the wild witches territory. Once a Coven gathered all three flags, they have to infiltrate the wild witches base and take down their flag, if that is done, their Coven has won. The wild witches will try to stop the Covens from gathering their flags, if they are successful to prevent all Covens from gathering their flags and take down their wild witches flag during a specific amount of time, they won." Explains my Dad and we all look at each others.

"It could work." Says Lilith and she stands up. "If we make the 'Owl House' the wild witches territory, it would work."

"You said the Collector killed Belos. We gotta make sure that nobody get's hurt." Says Raine as they stand up with Eda's help.

"Well..." mumbles King. "We can make a deal with him. Or rather a price for winning."

"What kind of price?? I love prices!!!" All of us jump away in shock when the Collector suddenly appears behind us.

"Ehm...i-if you manage to win as...as the Owl beast inside the Owl house, we will keep on playing! But if we, the people, win, the game is over..."
Says King and I take a step forward.

"During the game you're not allowed to hurt anyone." I say and I keep looking at him seriously.

"Urgh, fine." Says the Collector.

"And-" I add and everybody looks back to me. "you will reopen the portal to the Human realm. I'm sure you can do that."

"Mhhh, of course I could. Fine, but first you gotta defeat me in Owl House!!" Says the Collector, spinning around. He turns around and all of us follow his gaze to a giant building in some distance. "So, now that everything is ready..." he turns around again, smirking. "What are the rules???"

We all share some short stares before we look back to him. A giant battle is about to begin.

Don't worry, Hunty. Once it's save again, I'll come get you.