"Why how strong are y-"

"Wait a minute," Tamara interrupted. 

"If Calice knows that Rake is Billy, she wouldn't be here wasting her time," 

"Yeah, how is this-" Tamara looked at Calice with widened eyes. 

They all gasped as Calice smiled and began vanishing bit by bit into thin air until she was gone. 

"This was a distraction! Chris controlled our minds and made us think we were actually fighting Calice!" Hayden vented. 

"Oh and there's no way we assumed our crest without a full moon," Hunter said. 

"But she can," The four diverted their gaze towards the husky voice. 

"Chris," Tamara crossed her arms, glaring at him as if she were to rip him apart. 

"Yoongi," Hunter looked at Yoongi. 

GRRRR

Yoongi growled at him, scaring him a few steps away. 

"Wait, if she can assume her crest even without a full moon then-"

"She's an Illictus," Tamara finished Tia's statement. 

"And she can imitate other protectors' powers,"

"She can help you four," Yoongi suggested, giving them all a composed countenance.

"What?"

They looked at Yoongi with a desperate gaze, demanding an answer. 

"I was cursed too, like you four and she lied about giving me Julia's blood to cure it because to be very honest, it was her blood,"

"Would she truly help us? After what we did?"

"That's the point. She doesn't care about what you did,"

"Then?"

Yoongi reached around his back and withdrew a mini-trunk, extending it towards the Gemini. Tia took it before lifting the lid of it. Four vials of  Calice's blood. 

"She cares more about what you went through,"

***

"What happens now?" Julia asked, Julian sighing as they looked at Arya's body, a huge hole in her chest, her heart stumbled away from her blood-smeared palm.

"We remain alert for whatever comes forth," 

Arya's body caught fire before it burned to ashes. 

"Of course, The Fire of Desertion,"

(Note: The Fire of Desertion [A term created by me] deserts one's soul forever, isolating their soul from agony, as well as the instance of rebirth. Those who receive this fire will never be born into the world again.)

"I assume Calice is on her way to Billy now?"

"Yes, we better get there first and let her know,"

Julian nodded as Julia proposed the idea. A moment of silence followed before Julia neared Julian, burying her head into his chest. 

"Father, you have no idea how alone I was all these years," The side of her head lay on his heart. He wrapped his arms around her after assuming his normal form. 

"I assume you finally remember what happened back then?"

She withdrew, slightly frowning at him. 

"How did you...?"

"It's not so hard to figure you out," He smiled at her before pulling her head slightly closed and placing a peck on her forehead. 

"I am proud of you, my Phoenix,"

Julia smiled looking at him. 

"I'll tell you everything once we're done dealing with this,"

"Julia!" Someone called out to her on the astral relic in her ear. (Not a comm)

"Thankfully, Billy made these for Calice," Julia pressed her fingertip on it. 

"Yoongi?" 

"We could use your help here if you're done,"

"Alright, we're on our way,"

***

"Argh!" Billy stumbled out of his burning chalet and fell 9 feet away from it, facing it. He looked down before swallowing in fear. 

"Now, I know I did some shitty things coming here and- guk," He tried to finish while turning around, just to be grabbed by his throat by fingers blazing with green flames. 

"Give me one good reason why I mustn't rip you apart into shreds now," 

Billy was consumed by fear, a fear he had never known. Calice's anger knew no bounds. Her grimace felt enough for every one of his bones to shudder and his spine to run colder than the South. He thought he'd see nothing but the desire for revenge but this was not the gaze that wanted revenge. 

It was the soul that craved his demise.
It was the mind that craved his suffering.
It was the heart that kept on looking for reasons to spare his life.

"I suppose you finally realise why other protectors fear me as well,"

Calice threw him towards the burning chalet, the wood by the doorframe shattering due to his body. She walked in through the huge hole and opened her palms while raising her chin, her mouth agape as those palms sucked in all the fire from the chalet, putting it out. 

"Cali- Argh!" 

"That filthy mouth is not allowed to contaminate my name anymore,"

She shoved him away with her essence, making his back hit the wall. He grunted hard before getting up. 

"Do you really think you can kill me?" 

Calice didn't reply to that and sighed. 

"That's what I thought and I know why," 

Billy slowly helped himself to his feet before wiping a little blood off the side of his forehead. 

"Because you're the one who saved me in the first place!"

Calice's eyes gleamed in the light as tears pooled into them before they trickled down her cheeks. The flames in her palms went down before going out as she looked down. 

Pitter. 

Her tears pitted on the wooden floor as her hair hung at the sides of her head.

"You're right,"

"What?" 

"She said you're right!" Calice continued to look down. 

"They followed you?"

Calice raised her left hand to her right and swiped it across to the left, the chalet reducing to wooden planks. 

"As a matter of fact, they didn't need to," Calice looked up at Billy, backing away slowly, Chris's hand slithering towards her palm from the back before their fingers interlaced. 

"Because the twins chose to side with their-"

"-pack?" Calice scoffed at Billy's interruption. 

"More like their kind," 

_________________________________________

(Play audio here: Dzanum - Teya Dora.)

_________________________________________

The Gemini stepped forward, ready to kill him. 

"Wait," Calice stopped them. 

"You know, back in the day, your coven made your life a lie?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"When your coven enlightened you about wolves massacring them, they were massacring their own people,"

Billy looked at Calice, horrified. 

"You see, your ancestors learnt of dark magic not too soon after beginning to live along their line. They made sacrifices alright, beginning with little ones like rats and little animals but..."

"But what?"

"...things began to get out of hand. They began using human beings for it and not just any human beings,"

"Don't tell me,"

"Well with what you put these wolves through, you deserve it," 

Calice neared him, looking him in the eye, trembling with tears trickling down her cheeks. 

"They used witches from their own coven,"

Billy brutally stumbled back, his breath becoming heavy, his chest beginning to heave and his heart pounding in his chest. 

"Not only that, even the council went crazy and decided to make a living off of it back then," 

Calice knelt before him, almost face to face with him. 

"You wanna know the worst of it all?"

Her facade broke because she knew she was going to be consumed by regret for saying it. 

"They even tried to sacrifice you!" She grabbed his collar and shook him. 

"You hear me? YOU! 6-month-old you!" 

Her head voluntarily hung as she broke down right there, releasing him. 

"That is why, I saved you. Not only that but I am afraid to let you know that you are the last of your coven,"

"N-no," Billy pressed his palm onto his lower face, almost feeling sick to his stomach. His stomach hurled in agony, his lungs feeling like they'd burst any minute and his heart shattered into pieces that even eternity isn't enough to count. 

"That's all it has been, A lie," 

God no, please no, it can't be. 

He couldn't help but break down along with her sobs. 

"Just so you know, Pacio was not created to protect the wolves," Chris knelt, holding onto Calice, comforting her. He looked down as she continued. 

"It was to protect witches like you,"

She looked at Billy slowly before pulling his collar again. 

"And as ironic as it sounds, it was created by witches like you,"

Chris helped her up as Billy looked up at her. 

"So know this, that's all it truly was all along,"

"A lie, for a life,"

~To be continued