We went backstage, quickly locating the mirror in question. Phoebe eyed it uncertainly. “If this thing breaks, will it trap us inside?”.

  “My spell is perfectly safe”, I huffed. “We’d just get dumped back into the real world; there’s no danger here. [Spooky Maze]”. We stepped through.

  It really was a dingy room. Hex used his telekinesis to knock the shelves over, shattering all the jars with a giant crash. The ghosts within quickly fled through the exit.

  “Geez… that was a bit much”, Phoebe glared at him, but the object at the back of the room soon caught her attention. The jar sitting all by itself. “What… is this?”.

  She ripped off the cloth covering it and gasped. I floated forward to take a closer look. Inside was… Jack. That shouldn’t have been possible. If this was Jack, then who was…

  A chuckle came from behind us, and we turned around sharply. “Now you see. If that’s my ‘soul’, then what am I?”, he smiled.

  “Completely insane?”, Hex tried to be brave but his voice shook.

  The smile dropped off Jingle Jack’s face. “My teachers said the same thing. They called it horrific and expelled me”. His eyes flitted between us. “And why is that?! It’s because those textbook-hugging fools failed! They failed to escape death! Instead, they’ve placated their fears with this mere illusion. They would rather teach false hope…”, he pointed at the jar, “then face the truth!”.

  We stood around speechless. Even I was shocked. Jingle Jack had managed to fail out of necromancy school! That was a feat few people could boast of! And not just that, he had managed to singlehandedly set fire to their whole curriculum! Even the most basic of concepts in necromancy had just been overturned. What an epic failure.

  “Oh, I’ve been so persecuted!”, he whined. “It’s all so unfair! Unfair, unfair, UNFAIR!!!”. His eyes suddenly snapped back to the jar. “I even fixed the problem”, he hissed. “I came up with the true way to escape death”.

  He pointed his finger at his soul, and the jar shattered. “[Possession]”, he smiled as the pentagram beneath it glowed sickly red. Jack’s soul screamed as it was quickly pulled apart, wrapping around his body like a cloak. His clown suit darkened and fused with him, the jester hat twisting into horns. “I always wondered why ghosts possessed humans. Why not the other way around?”, a smile cracked across his face.

  Many, many reasons, not that Jack would care. There was forbidden magic, and then there was whatever the heck this was. It was impossible. Unholy. A mockery of the rules. And most of all, utterly wasted on a low grade villain like him.

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  “Well?”, I asked. “That’s two now. Any more crazy magic tricks you’d like to show us?”.

  He ignored me and gazed off into the distance. “…Now I see. We’re all just little bits of nothing. But there’s always an audience, always a purpose”. His smile somehow widened even further. “How… beautiful”. Yep, he had definitely cracked.

  “Jack, while this has been lovely”, I broke in. “I’m afraid you’ve already been defeated this arc. You’ll have to come back at a more appropriate time for your revenge story”.

  His gaze finally settled back on me. “We’re one for one now. All tied up. Besides, every villain gets three fights, that’s just how it works”.

  “We do not need a tiebreaker for the likes of you”, I pointed out. “You’ve gotten two full arcs now, and frankly that’s already a few too many”.

  “Money, fame, immortality, petty revenge”, Hex backed me up. “You’re truly human, Jack”.

  “The world laughs now”, he replied. “But soon they’ll be screaming. [Bad End]”. Darkness flowed out from him, obscuring everything in sight.

  Phoebe opened her eyes. She saw her sister walking ahead of her, back turned. No matter how much she ran, she could never catch up. “This is bull”, she growled. “I’m already past this”.

  A laugh echoed around her. “Pretend all you like, darling. But your deepest wounds never really go away! Just wait a little longer and you’ll see”.

  Hex woke up to reality. He saw ghosts and humans killing each other, peace forever impossible. There was nothing he could do to stop it.

  “Hex”, a voice cooed. “The immortal spirit. I’m so glad you came. You’ll make for a fine vessel”.

  I stirred. No people, not even a slime. A black void stretched around me. Just… nothing.

  I breathed deeply, calming myself down. The maze around me shattered, and I fell back into the real world.

  Jack blinked in surprise. “That was your deepest fear. You’re afraid of being alone, aren’t you?! How did you escape?”.

  “Oh, I’m terrified of being alone, all right”, I smiled. “I’m just not afraid of you”.

  “Don’t you know who I am?!”, he screeched. “I am the Devil! The ultimate incarnation of evil! Your final opponent!”.

  “No, you’re just a minor villain”, I corrected. “All of your slaves, all of your tricks, all of this fearmongering is just designed to hide that fact. You’re only strong when we’re weak”.

  Phoebe and Hex soon broke through the trap, realizing the truth. This bad guy had long outlived his shelf life.

  I smirked. “See? You won’t be getting another fight. Everything about you is small, so it’s only fitting we wrap this up early”.

  “I won’t stand for…”. “[Xix sl Gqkjxwxpv]”, Hex’s holy beam shot straight through him. “AAAGGHH!!”, he let out a short cry as the light burned through him, leaving a pile of ash.

  Phoebe slowly turned to Hex. “…But I didn’t release your holy magic…”, her eyes widened.

  The talking cyclopean slime beside us burst apart, forming back into a white orb flanked with wings of glass. Hex had returned.

  And just like that, Jack was forgotten. A fitting conclusion.