Chapter Text
Hunter hadn’t thought much of it when it was announced that he would be Grom King. He actually felt that he was perfect for the job of defeating a monster demon- being the ex-Golden Guard, and all.
“And hey, if Grom takes the form of that wackjob of an Emperor, you’ll get that chance to yell at him like you always talk about!” Eda had laughed when he brought it up when visiting her and Raine.
“I don’t know…” Darius sighed. “Hunter has been through way more than a normal kid. I don’t think this is a good decision on Bump’s part…”
“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here,” Hunter snapped. “I just won’t let it touch me and get that far. It’s not that hard.”
“Alright, but what kind of horrible things are your ‘surface’ fears, little prince?” Darius rolled his eyes.
“Needles.” Hunter said simply, continuing to eat his cereal without a care in the world.
“Well,” A cold breeze hit Hunter’s neck as the ghost of his older brother appeared behind his chair. “I think you’ll kick Grom’s ass. In fact, I bet you’ll kill the thing once and for all.” Thorne boasted, twirling Hunter’s forelock around a transparent finger.
“I don’t think it will be an issue,” Hunter shrugged. “I know its big ‘wild card’ will be Belos. It’s not like it’s going to catch me off guard. If I just remind myself that it’s Grom and not him, I’ll just stab him and get some anger out in the process.”
“Just don’t freeze, alright?” Thorne teased.
“I never freeze,” Hunter scoffed.
Don’t freeze. Don’t freeze. Don’t freeze.
It started easy. Thorne watched his brother fight off Grom’s various forms while Eda held the Oracle Stone while in the crowd. Gus, the announcer, continued to hype up the crowd as Hunter fought. First, an illusion of Head Witch Cutburn trying to sedate him. Second, lots of mud- Thorne fumed when he heard some students laugh. They didn’t know what horrors he went to in order to fear something so simple. Third, Grom took the form of his basilisk friend, Vee, starting to tell him that he was a monster. He ended up yelling that she wasn’t real, thrusting his spear through the fake girl. Unfortunately, Grom climbed up his spear, not only taking the weapon from him, but managing to brush his hand before Hunter yelped, pulling away.
Apparently, it didn’t take much for Grom to find his deepest fear.
It wasn’t like it kept him up at night or anything, scaring Thorne awake with his screams and night terrors, only able to fall back unconscious if someone was there with him.
Thorne felt his non-existent stomach turn when he saw Grom form into the late Emperor.
Don’t freeze. Don’t freeze. Don’t freeze.
Hunter let out an angry yell, drawing a dagger and running at Grom without hesitation. Thorne let out a sigh of relief, but quickly drew it back.
Before Hunter managed to get a hit in, the demon brought down a rough fist, gauntlets tearing through Hunter’s cheek, right over where his old scar used to be before his possession. Hunter stumbled, hitting his head roughly on the concrete floor.
“Such a shame. I had such hope for you, Hunter… but you’re still an unnatural freak, just like the rest of them.” Grom sighed in the hauntingly familiar voice. “Get up. Have you really become this weak?”
Thorne watched as Hunter grabbed his spear from the ground, pushing himself up as he swayed weakly. Titan, he has a concussion. “Stab him, little one, please…” Thorne muttered nervously.
Belo- Grom took Hunter’s chin in his hand, forcing the boy to look up at hi- it.
Thorne felt tears streaming down his face.
The demon growled another insult, letting go of Hunter’s jaw and hitting him across the forehead, gauntlets ripping open another wound on Hunter’s brow.
Thorne tried to breathe. It wasn’t working. Don’t freeze, don’t freeze, don’t freeze!
It shoved Hunter back slightly. He was shaking, but he took a ready stance with his spear, and…
Froze.
Thorne jumped into action as Grom made a fake act- though very accurate act- of Belos keening over and blaming his affliction on Hunter. He snatched the Oracle Stone from Eda, who had been spinning it nervously, running through the crowd and sometimes through people just to try and get to the ramp leading down into the arena. He ignored the various voices calling for him to stop, throwing the necklace down the ramp as he enveloped himself with abomination goo from the spirit world, popping back up into the arena. He recovered quickly, just in time to see Grom, disguising its tendrils as Belos’ palisman-rotted limbs, grabbing Hunter roughly.
“ No! ” Thorne screamed, using as much energy as he could to make contact with Hunter’s body enough to pull him away. He succeeded, stumbling backwards and trying to cushion Hunter’s head from taking another blow.
Grom growled as it had its meal taken from it, but Thorne just hoped it was put off for long enough for this to even work.
“Well, look at that, ladies, gentlemen, and everybody in-between, a new player has jumped into the ring- the ghost of the previous Golden Guard!” Gus yelled into the mic, despite the fact he was obviously nervous. Thorne ignored him.
“Hunter? Hunter, little one, look at me. Can you stay with me?” Thorne tried as Hunter weakly opened his eyes. Hunter, as stubborn as he was, tried to sit up with shaking arms. “Hunter, Hunter, Hunter, it’s okay, lay down. May I… I… I’m
going
to bond my spirit with your galderstone so that I can use magic, okay? Just stay here.”
“Stop- this is my fight, I-”
“Please, Hunter, let me protect you just this once…” Thorne begged. “I’m not watching you die again. ”
Hunter opened his mouth to argue, but just winced in pain. Thorne took his chance.
He had always known it was possible to bond a dead spirit to a living grimwalker’s galderstone, because Flapjack had done it. (He remembered how much Hunter cried when Flapjack summoned himself with the Oracle Stone- but it was happy. It had made Thorne smile as he watched from the spirit realm.)
He let himself connect to the immense magical energy coming from Hunter’s chest, and tried out a small spell circle. Well- two, he guessed. While his normal magenta circle was drawn from his hand, still in the spirit realm, a second circle- gold- was drawn in front of it. It had worked.
Immediately, he sprang into action, drawing a large double-spell circle as he used a Construction spell to make a staff from the stone under his feet. Thorne lunged forward at Grom, summoning abomination matter into a blade on his other hand, slicing through the black goo of the fear demon and twirling his stone staff through the remaining mass. Grom screeched, regrouping as it tried to grab Thorne, only confusing it when its tendrils went right through. Thorne used the chance to cut off the limb again, despite knowing it would, eventually, return to its normal form.
Thorne dodged various attacks as the creature tried to form into Belos again. Thorne, with a nostalgic grin, drew another pair of spell circles and sent a blast of pure energy into the demon’s main form, sending the goo everywhere around the arena.
Unfortunately for him, some of that goo landed on the Oracle Stone necklace at the base of the ramp.
Thorne felt a headache split through his head as he keened over, retracting the abomination matter and holding his head as he propped himself up with his stone staff. The demon reduced into black goo and reformed into a single person, causing confused murmurs from the crowd. Grom dopped the necklace, retracting Thorne’s headache.
“Guys, Gals, and Nonbinary pals, Grom has turned into… a… coven scout?”
Thorne’s eyes flew open in horror.
He looked across the arena to see what was indeed a Coven Scout- but not just any. He felt sick as soon as he- Grom- removed the mask, showing a face Thorne hadn’t seen in nearly seventeen years.
“Basil…”
“This. This is what you’ve become, Thorne?” Grom growled through a familiar voice. “I… I had to pretend to love a monster like you, and you didn’t even try to save me…”
“I did,” Thorne growled angrily as he shut his eyes. “I tried to save him. You are not him .”
“ You got me petrified. You wanted to run away and live some domestic life. You really think I wanted to settle down with some murderous grimwalker? ”
“You’re not Basil.”
“It wasn’t like you actually cared… you died, and instead of looking for me…”
“I did look for him.”
“... you followed another disgusting creature of your own species. And you would protect him over me ?” Grom snarled, walking towards Thorne. “The apple must not fall far from the Ortet, because he’s just as much of a monster as you. He is not your brother, because monsters made from scraps do not have family. ”
“You’re not him…” Thorne shook, squeezing his eyes harder.
“Let me show you how witches treat dangerous freaks like grimwalkers…” The demon hissed before lunging forward.
Thorne expected for Grom to attack him, and he put up his staff defensively, using his hearing to pinpoint where exactly the fear demon was attacking from. Yet, by the time he realized that the monster was running past him, it was too late.
As soon as Thorne heard Hunter’s pained scream, he opened his eyes and whirled around in horror. Basi-
Grom, Grom, it’s Grom-
had stabbed him in the abdomen, pressing the kid up against a pillar by his neck.
“
NO!
” Thorne screeched, summoning a large abomination to crash into Grom, knocking Hunter free of its grip and crumpling to the floor. Thorne dashed forward, disorienting Grom with practiced ease and grabbing its jaw.
“You’re worth nothing,” The demon snarled. “You’re a freak made from death for death…”
Thorne let tears spill from his eyes.
He pressed his lips to the illusion’s.
“I love you, Basil.”
With a blade made of abomination matter, he stabbed Grom through the chest.