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Luz always wondered what her future looked like. It was never concrete. Years ago, she wanted to be a witch. A childish fantasy. Then later she settled on an author. Still a long shot, but something more doable. Only recently did being a witch become a viable option again. Of course, she had no idea what kind of witch she wanted to be, or how she would use her abilities. All of that thinking was for nothing. Her future was only going to last around an hour.
“Maybe we can find a way. The brand spreads slower for humans,” her precious girlfriend Amity said, though it was very much a thought coming from denial.
Luz looked down at the arm Amity was holding. On it was a bite mark, gold like the brands of the Emperor’s coven, the most dangerous of the branded. The obvious solution would be to chop the arm off, like in the movies. But they knew from experience that the roots spread too fast for that to work. On the surface, they only ensnared her forearm, but she could already feel her lungs tightening from branches.
“Guys, I can’t hold it much longer!” Luz turned to Willow, struggling to keep up back the oncoming horde of branded witches with a large plant barricade. Luz knew what she had to do.
“You guys need to go! I’ll hold them off,” she said firmly.
“Luz, no!”
“We can’t leave you!”
“Are you insane!”
She held her calm despite her friends’ frantic pleas. “You know how fast the brands spread. I’m already done for. The best I can do is buy you guys time to escape. Like you said, Batata, it spreads slower for humans. I can take them.”
Amity was in tears, it broke her heart to see her girlfriend like this.
“Go Sweet Potato. I know you and that brilliant brain of yours will find a cure. I love you so much.”
Luz leaned in and gave her girlfriend a peck on the cheek. Amity yelled out Luz’s name as Gus and Willow dragged her away. Luz exchanged a knowing nod with Willow as she collapsed the tunnel behind them.
Luz turned around and faced the barricade as various spells of the horde started to break down the vines. Luz pulled out her palisman, a small red cardinal.
“This is it Flapjack. I’m so sorry you have to go through this again.”
Flapjack let a knowing chirp, which Luz could tell roughly meant ‘I am with you till the end.’
Luz transformed Flapjack into a staff as she turned towards the onslaught. Witches, mostly adults, entire bodies covered in roots, much like the ones that were crawling up her arm. The roots were in various colours, each one indicating the coven the witch was in, or the coven of the witch that bit them.
Luz clutched Flapjack and charged forward, unleashing a surge of yellow energy as she did.
The first few moments of combat were a blur. Luz swung Flapjack with fierce intent, each strike leaving a trail of light that momentarily held the branded at bay. They reached out with their root-covered limbs, trying to grab her, but she was too fast, too unpredictable.
Luz narrowly dodged a vine sent straight for her head and launched a fire glyph at the witch who sent it. The fight would be near impossible if the same corrupted brands that controlled the witches did not retain their original purpose of restricting magic.
Luz slammed an ice glyph on the ground, tripping up a group of witches and leaving them open so she could launch a volley of Flapjack’s lightning at them. She charged another blast when she felt her staff get pulled. Turning around, she saw a familiar witch wearing a dark gray lab coat and covered in pink roots grabbing onto her with an abomination rope.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Blight,” Luz apologized, before using pressing a glyph onto the ground to summon a group of fleshy claws, similar to the ones used by the madman responsible for all of this. The claws restrained her girlfriend’s father, tying up his hands to prevent him from summoning more abomination slime. She was trying her best not to hurt him, or any of the witches she fought too badly. She still held out hope for a cure to be discovered, though her friends would now have to do it without her.
Luz let out a cough, and she could see a bit of blood on the hand she used to cover her mouth. She barely had time to process before a chunk of stone hit her. Still, she could feel the roots crawl around her neck and up her throat. She didn’t have much time left.
Her vision began to blur, and she began missing more and more of her shots. More of the witches were ignoring her and instead trying to break through the collapsed tunnel. Still, she fought every single one. Amity, Gus, and Willow would have had enough time to make it to shelter.
As Luz felt her lungs fail, she couldn’t help but feel she deserved this. She was the one who helped Belos find the Collector, who, in turn, gave him the spell that caused all of this. Alador, Raine, Hunter. They’re all gone because of her. Still, she let out a smile, knowing that in her final moments, he fought so her friends could live another day.
Using the last of her energy, she slammed two glyphs into the ground. One created a wall of fleshy tendrils, the other petrified said wall, creating a stone barrier.
Luz collapsed onto her knees as all the branded witches stopped attacking her. Some tried breaking down the barrier, but most retreated the way they came to look for more victims. She was one of them now, wasn’t she? She could feel every single root growing within and around her body, and became keenly aware of the fact that she wasn’t breathing anymore. She held two fingers up to her neck. No pulse.
Luz stood up. The pain was fading. Flapjack had returned to his sentient form and landed on her hand.
“You should go, meet back up with the others,” she croaked, blood trickling out of her mouth with every word. Flapjack just let out another chirp.
‘It was an honour.’
Luz smiled. The horde of branded witches had dissipated. Her friends were safe. Luz’s final moments were those of satisfaction, and she had a smile on her face as her eyes turned lifeless, and she began shambling toward the rest of the hoard. She dropped Flapjack, who looked up with sadness as Luz’s body walked away. The palisman flew away, confident he would see her again.