Prometheus

Chapter 23: Believing is Seeing

Chapter 23: Believing is Seeing

"Thirty-three...thirty-four...thirty-five!" Steve's familiar voice could be heard before the rustling of paper was heard. "All right, here you go lil' bro. Have fun, and don't get into trouble."

The door to a house could be heard opening, revealing Mattholomule with his hair messed up.

"Yeah yeah, I know. I'll see you later Steve." Mattholomule called back as he closed the door behind him.

Mattholomule smoothed out his hair to its normal style, holding a piece of paper in one hand, before pocketing it. "Man, I hope this finally gets them off my back," Mattholomule said with a sigh, before amping himself up and heading off.

Nearby, a figure could be seen hiding in the shadows. "All right. Let's get me a Galdorstone." The figure said, their hand grabbing the wall and revealing a brown glove, before following Mattholomule.

-

Gus can be seen lying on his back in his bedroom, staring at the ceiling with a few band-aids across his face. Recently, Willow had an issue with some pixies so he tried to lure them away with an illusion. Unfortunately, it seemed to only anger them, causing them to attack Willow. Thankfully, he was able to join the fight using some glyphs to keep Willow from getting too hurt, but it didn't change that it happened in the first place.

Ever since, he'd been wallowing. He moved up two grades thanks to his prowess with illusions and overall intelligence, yet it all seemed to be for nothing. Willow was amazing with plants, Amity was awesome with abominations and has only been getting even better after her training based on that Katara character. Heck, Flint and Luz have only been in the Demon Realm for a few months and already shot past him, enough to even go toe-to-toe with the freaking Emperor!

And while he did think Trixx was cool, he couldn't help but feel jealous of everything she could do. Illusions were Gus' thing, but she was basically made for them.

Overall, he couldn't help but feel...worthless in comparison to all of them. He held his hand up, looking at the Glyph Grafter on it. He thought it was cool, don't get him wrong, but having it and the glyphs just felt like an insult to injury, needing to rely on magic that wasn't even his.

The crystal ball beside him began to caw and beep. He groaned before turning away from it onto his side as his prerecorded message began to play, showing King as he held a script in his paw.

"I'm not reading this," King said to someone off-screen.

"Come on, King. Please?" Gus could be heard responding in the message.

"Ugh, fine," King said before clearing his throat. "Is that a six-footed pig or a floating appendage? Why, no! It's Gus the Illusion Master. Please leave a message." King said with faux enthusiasm, as Gus jumped into frame wearing a cape.

The image then changes to Willow in her room. She could be seen wearing a forearm compression sleeve on her right arm and a bandage on her chin.

"Hey, Gus." Willow's message began, causing Gus to perk up as he turned back to the crystal ball with a smile. He was happy to see she was okay.

"Thanks for sending me all those 'Get well soon' illusions but, uh..." Willow trailed off sheepishly.

Three tiny illusions of Gus jump onto her shoulders and head.

"Willow! How are you feeling? Do you have a fever?" Illusion 1 said.

"Willow, you want me to sing for you? Mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi..." Illusion 2 said.