“Father,” a soft-spoken voice said. “Is that true?”

Mena, still shaken by the Phantom Orchestrator’s dramatic reveal turned around to see Caligari rise out of the darkness. “Father?!” Mena exclaimed.

Caligari had her head bent in sorrow. “The way you’ve been treating me as Gemini. Was that really you?”

The Phantom Orchestrator gave a deep, demonic chortle. “Of course, I possessed your precious Gemini and made him oblivious to all your advances. No human loving fool is good enough for my daughter.”

There was a rage that flushed across Caligari’s face. Her pupils shrank and she screamed in a terrifying howl, “Says the phantom who mated with a human woman.”

The Phantom Orchestrator shrugged his spike padded shoulders. “It was a means to an end to produce a heir. You could have been my successor at Anguish’s command, but it’s a shame you have too much of your mother in you! You instead chose to help those with the strongest opposition to Anguish’s will.”

“You left me to die in the Nightmare Void,” Caligari cried, tears pouring from her eyes.

“Again,” stated the Phantom Orchestrator coldly, “It was a means to an end to lure that fool into letting his guard down so I could possess him. If you wouldn’t succeed me, you could at least be useful in other ways.”

Caligari’s face was draped in her dark bangs. Mena couldn’t fathom the immense pain she was feeling from being used and betrayed by her father. “For what you did to my mother…” Caligari started, her voice in a low growl. “For what you did to Gemini. For what you did to me, father, I cannot let this continue. I will succeed you…but only because I’ll kill you myself.”

“I’d love to see you try, sweetheart,” The Phantom Orchestrator said, chuckling to himself. An orchestra of massed strings mounted from deep in the darkness. “Let my finest symphony begin!”

A green bolt of ectoplasm charged up in Caligari’s hand and she thrust it directly at her father’s head. He merely chuckled and dissolved into the thick veil of darkness. His baritone laugh echoed around the room as Mena and Caligari stood back-to-back, looking for where he had vanished. The creeping strings plucked all around them, causing Mena to shout, “Professor, what’s that above us?”

In the air, a glowing time signature illuminated in the darkness, followed by a bunch of silver tailed musical notes that followed whatever the orchestra played. As soon as they reached the end of a stanza, a loud wail occurred from the sound of a guitar and the notes whizzed at them like a barrage of bullets, causing Mena and Caligari to leap frantically out of the way.

“I see you’ve gotten a taste of my Metal Concerto!” The Phantom Orchestrator gloated.

The next line of silver notes appeared, prompting Mena and Caligari to hustle away, seeking shelter in any place they could. Mena heard the metal notes ricocheting along the ground, but she didn’t turn around to witness their trajectory. Instead, she looked ahead searching for the closest place to hide. A wide, columned pillar carved in stone emerged from the darkness, and Caligari grabbed Mena and ghosted her through the pillar just as the notes blasted chunks out of it. Mena and Caligari appeared on the opposite side, attempting to catch their breath.

“How are we going to beat him?” Mena asked, panting frantically. “He can attack us without even being there.”

Caligari tilted her head as she took fast breaths. “There is only one way to hurt a phantom. You have to lure them into becoming physical again…”

A look of uncertainty came across the phantom professor’s face. “But how we can stop my father, I really don’t know. Especially because there’s no way to stop his musical attacks.”

Mena thought long and hard as the metal notes rained hard on the pillar. “Stop his musical attack…What could stop a musical attack?”

Mena’s eyes brightened in the darkness. “A-ha!” Her vast imacination had formulated a plan.

“Professor?” she asked. “Can you find a way to distract the Phantom Lord? Is there anything you can do to draw him out?”

“Well,” Caligari said, her green eyes glowing in the darkness. “There is one thing I know he wants from me.”

“Come out, my darling,” the Phantom Orchestrator called in his sinister voice.

The guitars wailed loudly as another barrage on musical bullets readied themselves. Caligari briskly walked out in front of them, her face firm with resolve. She stood before the musical rain. “Father,” she said. “I wish to end this fight between us. You’re right. I would do a lot better to serve Anguish…”

“You would?” the Phantom Orchestrator asked, taken off guard. “How do I know you’re not attempting to play a facile game with me?”

“No game,” Caligari nodded. “I only ask that you leave this place unscathed and together we’ll find a new way to conquer Autolycus.”

Caligari knelt before the onslaught that could kill her in a second. “Father, at long last, we can reunite and subject this world and Dula to the rule of Phantomkind…”

The form of Phantom Orchestrator waved together and materialized, a look of hunger in his eyes. “I never thought I’d hear those words uttered from sweet daughter’s lips. Together, we can even overthrow Anguish and bathe the world in the kind of darkness we flourish in.”

Caligari looked up and a wink came over her face. Mena jumped out from behind the pillar and cast her fireball chant. A fireball zoomed at the orchestrator’s head, but he quickly waved it away with his magical baton. “Oh course,” the Orchestrator laughed. “I knew this was too good to be true. The only bone you’ve inherited from me, Caligari, is the treacherous one! But now, you’ll both die in my grand musical climax!”

Like arrows fired from a sling, the notes zoomed directly at Caligari with the loud crash of a guitar. Mena ran at great speed, reaching her phantom professor just in time. Quickly, Mena chanted, “Magic from all around, create a barrier of sound.”

A beige soundproof wall used in orchestra halls appeared before Mena and Caligari. The notes, much to their surprise, ricocheted off the wall and were sent directly at the Phantom Orchestrator, who howled loudly in pain.

Mena and Caligari peaked out from behind the barrier to see the sinister conductor on his knees, gasping loudly. “Quickly,” Caligari said. “We have to finish him.” She drew a radiating ball of ectoplasm in her hands and readied to blast her heinous father.

Right when she about to launch it. The Phantom Lord gave a chuckle and rose to his feet. Out of nowhere, he materialized a purple violin, shaped like a ghastly skull. He stretched a bow across it, playing painful, shrieking notes, causing Caligari and Mena to stagger backwards.

“I knew I shouldn’t have handled you with kid-gloves, daughter,” he said, with a sinister laugh. “But you, and that little runt of a witch are going to perish before me in my Symphony for the Dead Man.”

He started to play a high pitched, disturbing theme on it. Poison purple haze hovered low on the ground as Mena and Caligari dropped to their knees. The Phantom Orchestrator’s laugh thundered around them as they started to writhe on the ground. Mena looked to her professor, but she could barely utter a word from her mouth. “H…elp…” was all Caligari could say as their energy drained from their bodies.

Mena closed her eyes, praying for some kind of release, even if it had to be the misfortune of death.

But instead of death, she had another vision. She found herself in a bright green field with a beautiful blue sky and crimson poppies. Gently picking flowers was none other than Sir Rocksworth Bugglesby.

“Why, salutations, Mena,” Rocksworth said. “Why have you appeared in my dream? Have you asked Gemini to release me from this cold basement yet?”

Mena gasped and shook her head, realizing she had left poor Rocksworth to suffer all this time, but she knew there were even more pressing matters at hand. “Please, we need help! Is there any chance you can help me?”

The rock golem’s face spread into a kind smile. “What happens to be the problem, little witch?”

“An evil phantom conductor took over Gemini’s body and now he’s killing us with an evil violin.”

“Oh my,” Rocksworth said. “There’s nothing worse than gratuitous violins! Where are you?”

“We’re in the chamber of dreams!”

“Ah, I know the place!” Rocksworth responded. “I’ll be there in moments.”

“Thanks!” Mena cried. “I promise once we save Gemini, I’ll ask him to release you!”

“Ay,” Rocksworth responded in his gravelly but refined voice. “There’s nothing I’d appreciate more than that, little lassie.”

Rocksworth and the green field faded into the either and Mena opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred, and the sinister violin still droned. There was a faintness in her heart; the life she had known was slipping away. She heard one final laugh, but then, the music stopped. A large metallic arm shot out of the floor, punching the Phantom Orchestrator head on and sending him and the violin flying. Mena regained her senses, shaking her head. Caligari sat up too just in time to watch the sinister purple violin shatter on the floor, and the Phantom Orchestrator come crashing down. Much to their surprise, when he hit the floor, the ghostly body of the Phantom Orchestrator separated from Gemini’s body. He moaned low and quietly as Caligari crawled over and scooped the headmaster in her arms.

“Where am I?” Gemini asked quietly.

“It doesn’t matter,” Caligari said with kind eyes, “You’re safe now.”

“Caligari…” Gemini responded.

The tender moment was dashed with a desperate scream from the Phantom Orchestrator. “Not if I have anything to do about it! I can’t maintain my form here without that foolish clown!”

He dove back towards Gemini and the Clown Prince convulsed, his eyes flickered a rainbow of colors, including the light green shade of the phantom’s eyes.

Caligari clutched Gemini tightly as Mena watched nervously. “Can you do something?” Mena asked.

“I…I…” Caligari stammered.

Gemini struggled in Caligari’s arms until he suddenly stopped as his eyes turned bright green.

“It’s done!” Gemini said with a fanged smile. “I’m back! There’s nothing you, or anyone else can do to banish the Phantom Orchestrator!”