Tianlong snapped his fingers, creating a small flame to appear on the palm of his hand. The light of the fire lit up the area before the group in the cave, allowing for Tianlong to lead the way deeper into the cave.

Tak begged the dragon to tell him how he was able to produce fire so easily. After a while of non-stop pestering, Tianlong gave in and glared down at the boy impatiently.

"I just use it," Tianlong explained, "I don't think about, I just know I have it and I use it as my tool to show dragons are the most fierce. Mages are not as fierce, so it may take you forever, tiny creature."

"So you just hatched knowing you are had fire to use?" Unie asked.

"Well, no," Tianlong admitted, "but I knew I was born dragon, so of course I had to have fire."

"You could've been a water dragon egg that took the place of a fire one." Unie pointed out.

Tianlong shot the nymph a glare. "Dragons cannot be fooled by a simple switch!"

"Did you know that when you were born?" Tak asked.

"No, but-" Tianlong began.

"Then baby dragons are no different than other babies," Unie smiled.

"Just as dumb as a fetus!" Tak laughed.

"Enough!" Tianlong roared, his fire growing bigger and fiercely blazing around him, causing the kids to jump back from him. The dragon calmed down after a moment and the fire on his palm returned to its smaller size to fit on his hand.

Tak and Unie remained quiet for a moment before continuing with their pestering about dragons. Tianlong only sighed with frustration before going on to lead everyone deeper into the cave. Stell giggled silently and wondered ironically why the dragon would never want dragon babies of his own after spending so much time with the two curious kids.

Carla pushed her way past Kabuto and Stell to keep the children from upsetting Tianlong anymore than they already had, leaving the witch and shadow behind everyone else as they all argued about dragons. Tak kept begging Tianlong to tell him how to use his fire while Unie pointed out the flaws of dragons. Carla just told Tianlong to take deep breaths and ignore the kids until they tired themselves out, though she herself voiced that she doubted the two would crash from their questioning rush.

"There's one thing I still don't understand about you," Kabuto spoke after a long while of silence between he and Stell.

"And that is?" Stell asked, keeping her eyes ahead as she thought about what she'd see when she saw the book.

"After all you've been through and returning home after so long," Kabuto began, "you're offered a home and to a life you're used to. Why are you still doing this? Why are you still after the Grimorie when you could just go home and put everything you've been through behind you? It would be a lot less dangerous and you could live the life you wanted before Alabaster took you."

"Well the answer to that is simple," Stell smiled, not looking to Kabuto to see his reaction to her response.

"How's that?" Kabuto asked, annoyance in his tone.

"It's because I'm a coward!" Stell admitted loudly, her voice echoing down the cave. She looked over her shoulder to see Kabuto's baffled expression. "And cowards don't get too far in this world when they let their fears get the best of them," she went on, looking away from the shadow and going on to follow Tianlong, "and if I can't face my fears and a possibility terrifying and dangerous destiny," she looked back to Kabuto as she went on walking, "then what good am I in this world?"

She returned her sight back before her as she went on. She heard Kabuto walk after her, but he kept his mouth shut for the remainder of the trek.

Carla was able to silence Tak and Unie from asking anymore questions and went back to walking next to Stell as Tianlong led the way. Kabuto remained in the back, not saying a word to anyone. Even when Tak began picking on Unie, the shadow didn't say a word.

Finally, after what felt like an entire day of walking, though no one could tell as the cave had gone completely pitch black dark except for Tianlong's fire, the group had come to a dead end.

"Where's the Grimorie?" Tak asked panicking as he ran up to the dirt wall ahead. "It's a dead end!"

"Don't tell me we came all this way for nothing!" Unie exclaimed.

"There's got to be a way deeper in to this stupid place!" Carla cried out. "Why would we come all this way for a bunch of stupid rocks?"

"Everyone just calm down!" Kabuto shouted. "There might be a secret door, password, or something to get through this."

"I don't see any writing on these walls." Tianlong pointed out, holding his fire up to the walls, seeing no etchings or symbols anywhere.

"Did we miss a turn?" Unie asked.

"Impossible!" Tianlong shot. "This was the only passageway I've seen since starting this pointless trip down here!"

"Pointless?" Kabuto repeated. "This lousy artifact was one step to getting rid of Alabaster!"

"That's not my problem!" Tianlong turned on the shadow.

"It will be if they decide to kidnap more dragons!" Kabuto told him. "If they could catch you then who's to say they won't get more of your kind?"

"Dragons are smarter than shadows," Tianlong shot defensively, "they got lucky once, they won't again!"

"How would you know Mr. I-Got-Saved-By-A-Witch?" Kabuto spat.

"Will you all just calm down, there's got-" soothed Carla as she went to stand between the two.

"Shut up!" Both Kabuto and Tianlong glared to the vampire.

"I know you two did not just tell me to shut up!" Carla hissed furiously.

As the three went on the argue, Tak punched the wall and jumped back. He gripped his hand painfully, making Unie point and laugh at the mage. Softening his pain, Tak pounced on the nymph and began beating her, Unie fighting back with more punches and bites to his arms.

Stell stood in silence, away from the fighting in shock. Were they all really doing this now? They were so close and yet they seemed to have taken a huge flight back. A dead-end was what was going to ruin this journey? No one but Stell was supposed to go into this cave, yet they're the ones who insisted. What was happening?

Save me!

The voice was louder now and the pain was more intense. It didn't help when everyone else's arguing echoed all around Stell along with the voice in her head.

Save me! Save me!

"Shut up!" Stell shrieked at the top of her lungs, her voice shaking the very walls and silencing everyone immediately.

When all went quiet and everyone looked to Stell in stunned silence, the young witch snatched up her mirror from her pocket and glared at the reflection of herself. She ignored the life brought back to her eyes and her now perfectly swelled cheeks from finally feeding herself and thought carefully of what to tell the mirror to show her.

"When was the Grimorie put into the Midnight Mountain and how did the one who put it here, seal it?" Stell demanded.

Her reflection slowly began to twirl and distort on the glass. Stell watched as her image was transformed into that of the Grimorie in the night sky. She watched confused as the book opened the moment a star flew over it in the sky. The pages turned too fast for her to process what was on the pages. It made a sudden stop at two pages opposite one another with no words written, but images drawn. On the page to the left, one image was of a person holding a torch, surrounded in darkness. On the page to the right, the same person was surrounded by stars, their torch gone. The mirror then twirled and distorted until it returned to being Stell's reflection and a simple mirror.

Baffles for a moment, Stell realized what it was she had to do to get to the Grimorie. She spun and ran up to Tianlong, his fire still blazing on the palm of his hand.

"Tianlong, could you please let out your fire?" Stell asked the dragon.

"Why?" Tianlong questioned.

"Yeah, can't we keep the light where it's not scary?" Unie pleaded.

"You'll be fine, Unie, I promise," Stell assured the nymph. "keep hold of Carla or Kabuto if it makes you feel safer, but we need it to be dark for just a moment to get to the Grimorie sooner."

Carla made her way to the nymph and leaned down to be face-to-face with Unie and put her hands on her shoulders. "You know how vampires teach their young 'uns from not being afraid of the dark? We tell them to close their eyes and count to ten, once we open our eyes, it's not so scary anymore! Try it with me!"

When the two closed their eyes and began to count up to ten, Stell looked back to Tianlong. The dragon looked to the witch before distinguishing his fire, leaving everyone in a dark cave. It was dark enough to where Stell couldn't even see her hand in front of her own face.

As Carla and Unie went on counting, the walls began to light with silver specks. Stell watched in amazement as the entire cave from where they came in to where they were now lit like the night sky above their heads. Once Unie and Carla had finished, the entire cave was aglow, the wall behind them a painted moon glowing on the wall that blocked them from going any further.

Stell walked up to the wall, looking at it and wondering what to do next. The mirror never told her about a painted moon on the door. She lifted a hand and gingerly placed her fingers on the moon, only for a streak of her purple magic to slither from her fingers and create a curved line over the middle of the moon. Once the top and bottom of her line touched the top and bottom of the moon, the ground began to rumble as the lines broke apart, pushing the now crescent and ecliptic looking moon halves to either side of the walls. Once the painted moons vanished into the walls and the rumbling stopped, Stell could see that the motion had created an opening into a large room filled wall to wall in silver specks. At the back was a long stairway that led to a white, glowing pillar. Lying on the top of the pillar was the Grimorie. It looked different from her dream, only having a skull and swirls to either side of it, but it was the very book she almost died trying to get to. And here it was right in front of her.

Then why couldn't she move? Why was she so excited yet too terrified to even move to the book? She couldn't come all this way with her friends just to back out now. This book was her destiny. She needed to face it now that it was just in her reach.

"Are you alright?" Stell snapped back to feeling normal at Kabuto's voice next to her. She looked to the shadow before snapping her head back to the Grimorie.

"I'm fine," she lied.

Stell began making her way the the book, wanting to leave the cave as soon as possible.

Save me! Save me!

Stell's head pounded at the sound of the voice. She fell to the ground, pressing her hands to her temples, trying to sooth the pain. The pain only grew more unbearable and her stomach churned to a point where she thought she was going to throw up. The witch fell to her knees, holding her stomach, feeling like her magic was what was making the sound worse.

Save me! Save me! Save me! Save me!

Stell looked up and shuddered frightfully under the glare of a dark figure looming over her. Its smoldering pink eyes ripped her apart as it lowered itself closer to her, red magic lights swirling around both of them. The ground shook below Stell's hands and knees as it cracked open all around her. She watched in horror as decayed hands shot from the cracks and began clawing their way out of the ground, flesh and bone bodies pulling their way out after, moaning painfully.

Save me! Save me! Save me! Save me! Save me!

The undead bodies moaned louder as the dark figure raised a hand, the shadows around it slithering toward the bodies and covering them into even more dark figures. They limped closer to Stell as the voice grew louder and ear piercing.

"Stell!" A different voice cried out from the darkness that threatened to swallow her whole.

"I'm sorry!" Stell shrieked, everything suddenly vanishing until she was returned to the room where the book remained sitting on the pillar.

"What?" Stell snapped her head to see Carla kneeling down beside her, a worried expression on her face. "Are you alright? You just collapsed all of the sudden. Your eyes were glowing."

"M-My eyes?" Stell breathed, moving her hands to her face, realizing she had been crying. "I... I was... I brought them back from the dead... I turned them to shadows... I felt good about it... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

She didn't understand what she was saying. She had only felt pain in the vision, so why did she feel so good about it now? Why did she feel so perfect about the magic she possessed? Even with her body feeling weak, as if she had been using magic, she felt unstoppable.

"Relax," Stell looked to see Kabuto walk to her side, "you were forced to do it, you didn't want to. Can you get up?"

Stell was still shaken up about her vision. The feeling of unimaginable power subsided and was replaced by fear. The book seemed to mock her from its pillar.

"Alright," Kabuto sighed, getting back up to his feet, "I'll get it for you. Just stay here and try to regain your strength."

As Kabuto began making his way to the book and Carla ran her hand down Stell's back, a dreadful feeling came over the young witch. Why did she have that vision out of nowhere upon entering the room for the book. She jumped to her feet in sudden realization.

"Kabuto wait!" she called out.

But she was too late as Kabuto froze where he stepped. The shadow took a step back before falling to his knees. Stell ran over to him and fell to her knees before him. She gripped his arms before looking into his eyes, only to see the emerald green was turned to a glowing pink. A haunted expression all over his face.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." Kabuto mumbled as tears fell from his glowing eyes. "I'm sorry..."

"Master!" Stell looked over Kabuto to see Tak running into the room toward Kabuto.

"Tak, no!" Stell got to her feet to stop the mage, but the boy's eyes began to glow pink and he skidded to a stop, falling to his knees. "Tak? Tak!" Stell sobbed, falling to her knees in front of Tak and grabbing him by the shoulders.

"Don't... Leave me... I don't want to be alone again..." Tak mumbled sadly as tears drenched his face.

Stell looked over to see Carla was in the same state, her arms wrapped around her body and face full of terror. "I didn't mean it... I didn't mean it..." the vampire mumbled shakily.

"What's happening?" Unie cried out as she stepped into the room.

"Unie, stay where you are!" Stell demanded as she jumped to her feet and running to the entrance. "I think the book is putting them under some kind of trance."

"The book?" Tianlong repreated as he stepped in next to Unie.

"I don't understand it myself," Stell admitted, "but you two need to stay out of this room! I'll find some way to stop it."

"Maybe I can snap everyone out of this with my water?" Unie thought aloud as she waved her hand, the pale blue water from the rocks in the cave flying over to ripple in her palm. The nymph raised her hand, ready to splash everyone, but she immediately froze. The water fell to the floor as her eyes glowed pink and she fell to her knees. "No... No... I can't... I can't..." she mumbled.

"Unie!" Stell cried out. Tianlong grabbed the nymph by the shoulder and shook her slightly, but she remained in her frightened trance.

"I think the book is showing them their biggest fears," Stell told the dragon as she looked back to the book. "They look absolutely terrified."

"Mortals," Tianlong rolled his eyes. "Dragons fear nothing, I'll get it."

The dragon pushed his way past Stell, her heart pounding at the thought of Tianlong seeing something that did frighten him. She prayed he was right about not being afraid of anything, but the feeling of something horrible happening still hung in the air around her.

Her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach when Tianlong froze just as he reached the stairs to the pillar. She watched in horror as the dragon fell to his human like knees and heard him mumble fearfully.

"Th-They can't do this... They can't do this to us!" Tianlong mumbled, shaking where he sat.

Save me! Save me! Save me!

"Shut up already!" Stell ordered the voice as her head pounded agonizingly. "I just wanted to go home!" she looked to the Grimorie, blaming it for her friends' acting so strangely. "Why me? Why is this happening to me? Couldn't you choose someone who was so terrified of you?"

The book then flew open, the pages turning speedily as red colored magic swarmed out of it. Stell took a step back as the wave of red magic flooded the floor, her friends too trapped in their visions to be bothered by it. Stell watched as the magic inched closer, rising off the ground, and transforming into a dark figure, the pink eyes appearing on its head as it had in her vision. It held out its hand to the young witch, who glared at it suspiciously. 

"Admit it," a raspy voice whispered from the figure, "you want to prove how powerful you really are... You want these filthy weaklings to see you are something better... You can raise the dead... You're the Grimorie's owner... You can do anything... You're even greater than Wendy... Teach those shadows a lesson for what they made you feel."

Stell looked at the figure and its hand before looking back to her friends around her, all still trapped in their trances. She then returned to glaring at the figure, clenching her fists tightly at her sides. 

"No," Stell told it, "I don't care how powerful I am, I just don't want to be used for evil anymore. Wanting to prove myself as being even more powerful than everyone else only makes me the evil one."

"You don't understand do you..." The figure whispered as it began circling her. "The Grimorie is evil... Anyone who possesses the Grimorie becomes evil... The one who wrote it was evil... She deserved what she got... She became weak because she thought she could trust someone... Don't you want to live...? Don't you want to show you're better than the very one who wrote the book that chose you...? You could be the ultimate being and teach these pitiful creatures a lesson."

Save me... Save me... Save me...

"I'm not afraid of being so weak that I'd turn to evil," Stell spat as she walked straight through the figure, "I'm nothing like the Mallors, nor am I like the one who wrote the Grimorie. I don't know why it chose me if that's its purpose." She went on as she began walking up the steps of the stairs to the pillar, the red light growing darker. She could feel the figure following after her, willing her to slow and give up, but Stell went on the walk up the stairs. "All I know is that I know who I am." When Stell reached the pillar, she looked down at the Grimorie, its pages continuing to turn quickly, the light growing black as she felt the figure reach out for her. 

"My name is Stell Mooney," Stell told the book sharply, "you sent for me and now I'm here. You can try scaring me away as a test or whatever the hell you want to call this nonsense, but I have come too far to just run away."

Stop! Stop! Save me! Save me!

Stell flinched at the sound of the voices, but refused to stop there as she began placing her hands on the cover of the book. "I may be the biggest coward you've had come to claim you as their own, but I'm not leaving here without you!"

Same mistakes! Same mistakes! Stop! Save me! Save me!

Stell felt her magic grow inside her as she lifted the book off the pillar, her purple light fighting against the black. "I'm your keeper now!" she shouted painfully as the voice grew louder and the cold figure grip her shoulders. "I'm not giving up! I'm not like your creator! I'm using you for something that'll save this world from darkness, not to make it stronger!"

With that the witch forced the book close, everything blasting about around her as the black light swarmed back within the pages. She watched as the dark figure was ripped from behind her, over her shoulder, and back into to the book. She felt a sharp wind swirl around her and her hair felt lighter on her head. She watched as she saw a huge chunk of her purple hair swirl and vanish into the pages of the book. The witch's heart then filled with a pain worse than death, only to immediately be replaced with a greater power she could never imagine.

However, instead of thinking about everything she could do with it as the book willed her to, she knew she had to get everyone out of the cave and snap them out of their visions. The only trouble was finding out how to do that with these new powers that seemed to make her begin to fade into a black out.