“How are we going to get to the surface, anyways?”, Phoebe asked. “Are we really walking out through the throne room?”.

  “No, of course not. I’ll use [Spooky Maze] to take us up. We could go directly to the cave, but if I get the location wrong…”, I grimaced. I would be fine as a ghost and all, but Phoebe could easily end up crushed.

  “You’re the expert here, I’ll trust your judgement”. I nodded and summoned a pocket dimension, one with a spiral staircase heading upwards, surrounded by a starless void. Phoebe looked out into the pitch black. “This power really is incredible… Hey, do you think you could teach me? Jingle Jack learned it, so it must not be ghost exclusive…”. “No”.

  “Eh, why not?”, she swiftly caught up to me on the stairs. “I’d use it responsibly! And I’d credit you as the proper inventor, too!”.

  I finally stopped, a grave expression on my face. “Phoebe. If I taught you [Spooky Maze], there’d be nothing for me to do. I’d just become your cheerleader”.

  She wore a strange, slightly mischievous expression. “…Oh. But you could still scout out rooms underground and stuff! I can’t do that! …Oh, don’t give me that look! Just a hint! A hint!”.

  I gave her a skeptical look. “‘Just a hint’?”. She nodded emphatically, and I sighed. “Fine, fine. But first, we have to talk about parallel universes…”.

  Forty minutes later, Phoebe interrupted me. “…Um, Count Boogula, what is this?”.

  I blinked. “Your hint, of course”.

  “No, this is an entire lecture. And I don’t understand a word of it. Why does it have to be so absurdly complicated?!”.

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  “Creating pocket dimensions is no simple feat”, I replied, slightly offended. “You have to understand this basic theory at least before you can even think of casting [Spooky Maze]”.

  Phoebe shook her head, mystified. “Wow, Jingle Jack must be some kind of prodigy then. And I never really pegged you as the brainy type, honestly”.

  “E-Excuse me?!”.

  “Anyways, let’s get back to Operation Sweet Tooth. Stay focused, King of Scares”. She giggled as we continued up the staircase, enjoying her little win far too much.

  We soon ended out on the surface, finding it only slightly less dark than the Catacombs. Everyone was asleep, and all was still, like time had frozen along with the light. I guided Phoebe along to the secret entrance. She left the dirt path and trodded over the honeycomb floor not meant for human feet, enjoying the small act of rebellion. At least until her foot cracked through a honeycomb and got gooped with the sticky syrup. I stifled a laugh at her disgusted expression, and we continued on, completely unnoticed.

  The entrance to the hidden chamber was quite clever- it was actually located underneath one of the many large honeycomb towers. To enter, a bee would fly up to the top of the tower, where a hole in the center of the roof led straight down to the secret cavern below. Any human invader would have to either break through the thick wall, or scale up and down the whole thing. Unfortunately, their luck had run out the moment they dared challenge me. A targeted use of [Spooky Maze] was all it took to bypass their ‘invincible’ security.

  We were startled to find that the secret storeroom was actually more brightly illuminated than the surface outside. Glowing red eyes cut through the darkness, as a few robots stolen from Mechadream patrolled around. We kept to the shadows, and with a few precise sword strikes Phoebe dealt with them one by one without raising the alarm.

  She swivelled around, scanning the room for any more enemies, before relaxing and turning towards our grand prize- the chocolate.

  “Awfully bold, to hide right under our noses”, a voice emerged from the shadows. “You must think we’re stupid”. Hex crept out of the darkness, glaring at us. The golden iris around his pupil had expanded- once a simple ring, it had now formed little nerve-like tendrils that spiderwebbed around his whole body, wrapping around him. “You can only scuttle in the darkness for so long. And at last, I’ve found you…”.