Beyond Your Expectations

Viviane sighed to herself as she arrived in front of the school. By all accounts, she didn't have much expectations; she didn't know how being trained as a deity would help her performance talents.

"Musician, and thats about it…" she mumbled, doing her best not to stumble too often as she walked forward. It was such a pain; having to use legs. Everyday when she grew up, not once had she needed to use her legs. It was the perks of living in water.

"They better have a decent pool," she thought, glancing down at the map in her hands to try find out where she needed to go.
 
It was a particularly drab morning.
Clouds were grey, and a steady stream of drizzle was breezing down to the ground.
Perhaps it was because of that that Ren had decided that he was staying in bed today.
Or perhaps not.
Kheire was using his tarot cards to see what was in store for he and his friends today. Misteloph was assisting him in interpreting their meanings. He called out to his lazy fellow student. "Looks like we will have difficulty finding something today and that it will be dangerous. Any insight into what that could mean?"
"Maybe it'll be finding motivation," grumbled the half-asleep boy in response, his face still buried in a pillow. "Elian's taking his time…"
"Do you want to get some extra training in while we wait?" Miki prodded the white haired boy's head.
"Sure. How about magic training? Meditation starts now."
He shut his eyes and nestled further into the bedding.
Miki's spirit gave what could only be described as an indignant snort and took advantage of his loose leash to pester Ren with less than appropriate imagery, giving a mental cackle at the extra liberties its contract gave it.The gheist shrugged and turned his attention to the veela, "What about you Miss Val? Would you like to join me?"
Val blinked awake, "Join you in what?"
The door swung open, Lild stripping off a damp hood, a basket of fruit on her arm.
"Morning, kids. Elian's off scouting today. Reports of something skulking in the forests around outside the mountains. Iselotte decided she'd start training you in magic instead from today."
Miki perked up, "When do we start?"
She asked me to bring you guys to the peak, so I guess as soon as we get there. How many of you can fly?"
Val nodded her head, "I can," it's one of the only things I can do right.
Kheire raised his hand, "If the sparkly wings didn't give it away, I believe I can fly."
"Wonderful. We'll be using the window, then."
With that, Lild grabbed Ren by the back of his neck, and extended an arm to Miki, her bronze wings spreading.

Their flight was surprisingly short. It seemed like there was an optical illusion of some sort in terms of the distance, or maybe it was just being in the air, but it did make sense that a royal palace on a mountain would be close to the peak.
It wasn't until they reached said peak until they were made aware of why exactly it wasn't on the peak in the first place.
Landing on the rim of a large smouldering hole, Lild dropped Ren and Miki opposite a stern woman slightly shorter than herself, with glasses and a frankly enormous pair of horns that didn't befit a stern but meek look like she had.
"You're late." she said dryly.
"And you're rude." Lild responded. "But next time, I'll arrive early. Have fun, kids."
Kheire lifted a hand to wave goodbye, wondering what new torturer they have been delivered to. His spirits looked at the damp group with pity.
The woman watched Lild fly off, adjusting her round-rimmed glasses with a faint snort.
"Good morning," she told them.
"Not really," Ren replied.
"Well we get to do that magic training you were talking about, Master."
Ren shuddered. "R-right. Yeah."
With a glare, the woman cleared her throat. "My name is Princess Iselotte. I am the Throne Mage. And yes, I will be training you today with a certain trial."
Miki deadpanned even further. "Are you going to throw us down the volcano and make us climb out."
Kheire perked up, "I'd be okay with that."
"No, although the volcano is involved. Specifically, geographically speaking, we are in the middle of a tectonic plate. There's no real reason for there to be a volcano here. Rather, Mt Vortigern is not active by way of geological activity, but rather due to an enormous deposit of Exinessence left behind in the ground where the original dragon Vortigern was buried," she explained. "So as to not let a valuable resource go to waste, we of the Royal Mages have set up channels for the Exinessence to crystallise into Black Diamonds in eight different places under the volcano. Today, you will be retrieving them, a task usually reserved for only magicians of our caliber."
Ren frowned. "No matter how you look at it, this is just manual labour."
"Correct. Any questions?"
"Can you give us directions? Are there any resources we cannot use? Is there a special method to harvesting and, or, transporting the crystals?" Kheire shot off a few questions that seemed relevant enough, given his background as a craftsman and their previous challenge.
"Just follow the staircases. I don't care what else you do so long as you bring me all eight," Iselotte said dismissively.
"What is dangerous down there?"
"Besides overwhelming amounts of Exin flooding out of the body of a godlike dragon king, very little, even to mere children such as yourselves."
That, in and of itself seems dangerous to me.Val thought to herself, before laughing internally at the thought of small Sammy next to something like that.
"Seems fine to me." Miki made a move down the stairs looking back at the others expectantly, "Can we go now?"
Ren nodded, following suit with the slightest hint of actual enthusiasm at the thought of delving into a volcano.
Kheire fluttered his wings and hovered along with them.
Val, however, was reluctant, dragging her feet as she went. There was none of that Veela grace in her steps.
The steps themselves were rather narrow and precarious, especially since they were suspended over a several hundred-metre drop into magma and pure energy, but Ren seemed cheerful enough hopping down them one by one, humming a small tune as he went.
Kheire's eyes shone with blatant greed as he started seeing all the platinum in their surroundings. "This will come in handy later…" He began to harvest a few chunks to stuff inside his amulet.
"Are you sure that's a good idea considering some of the other stuff we've been through here?" Ren asked. "I mean, yeah, you're right, but… Eh. I guess nobody will notice."
Eventually, the steps led down to what seemed to be a carved-out corridor dozens of metres tall, walls still lined with the precious metals.
"Wow… This is so cool…" the short boy whispered, eyes transfixed on the walls and ceiling.
"Don't dragons like, really, really hate it when you take their stuff?" Val asked, although she definitely knew the answer from her own experiences.
Kheire was comparing the purity between samples as he answered, "The dragon is too big to go to the small tunnel we went through, so he'll never know it's gone. Besides that, I don't know about you, but I don't plan to meet them. A dragon strong enough to make something like this just through their extended presence is a little scary."
"Shouldn't that encourage you not to take any chances?" Val sighed. She didn't particularly want to die to a insanely powerful version of the thing that curls up next to her at night and squeaks.
"Well, if it encourages anyone, Vortigern is dead anyway. This whole mountain is basically just his spirit's remains," Ren explained. "Lild told me this story. Centuries ago there was a warlord named Vortigern who felt threatened by King Arthur's growing power and challenged him. He knew he couldn't win, so he sent out his finest men to slay a dragon, and then with the help of his court magicians, he enchanted the dragon blood to become one with him when he drank it. It ended up turning him into a godlike dragon monster that even Excalibur struggled to bring down, but Arthur won in the end. The body of Vortigern began to leak its essence into the land around it, forming a mountain. That lava below us is actually his rotting body, basically. It's kinda creepy."
"Coooooool. I'm taking some home when we get deeper." Kheire grinned, excited. Beside him, Scyte grinned as well. He knew it would be a big help to his medium.
"If I was Vortigern, I would feel very violated if you started harvesting my remains Dorm Advisor."
"Would you, really?"
"I would…" Ren mumbled. "Hey, down there," he pointed.
At the bottom of the stairs there was a large chamber that opened up into a much larger hall. The floor was lined with intricate glowing patterns spreading from one end of the room.
Kheire fluttered down to the new room, wondering what could be inside. Upon arrival, he saw a crystal. "Well, this is a lot less complicated than I expected." He pocketed the crystal and looked around for any other passages.
"Was that the Diamond?" asked Ren. "That was quick. Should we turn that pedestal off? The vortex there seems a bit dangerous."
Miki trailed behind the two, keeping pace with Val. "That was sort of disappointing."
"Yes, it was the Diamond. Be glad it was easy."
"Yeah," Ren nodded. "It's not every day that we find something that we can just do. How is this even training?"
"How is your meditation training?"
The short boy smiled brightly. "It isn't!"

The channels on the ground did not stop feeding the pedestal with Exinessence.
If anything, it fed more.
The vortex sparked a little.
It flashed, taking the shape of something familiar to all of them.
The ground rumbled, a spectral dragon taking form.
[glow=green][/glow][glow=green]"LIFE! GIVE YOURSELF TO ME!"[/glow]
"Sorry, did I say we could just do this?" Ren murmured. "I meant 'we need to stop'."
"Oooh. I like him. Can I keep him? I want it." Kheire was jumping up and down in excitement, pointing at the big, ghostlike dragon. Beside him, Scyte was cackling and egging his Shaman on as he rubbed his claws together.
The beast took one look at the spirit and roared, preparing some form of attack as Exin swirled around its jaw.
"I don't think it wants you!"
Evading was much easier than expected, however.
It might have been something to do with that it was shooting its entire form into the ceiling, leaving only a dispersing wisp behind.
"What was that?" asked Ren, looking around wildly.
The walls began to dribble what looked like turquoise magma from, of all places, the cracks that the platinum was filling.
Oh.
"Uh, run, run, run, run!" the short boy spluttered, rushing towards the door and shoving at it.
The platinum slowly crawled out of the walls like molasses, forming dozens of odd piles that seemed to wind higher and higher, gradually taking humanoid form and plodding slowly towards the four.
Kheire rammed into the door with Ren to try and break it down or burst through.
The door did not budge in the least.
"I-I think it's sealed…!" he squeaked.
Miki took aim at nine of the constructs, launching his swords through all of them, destroying them instantly.
Kheire threw five lava projectiles with great accuracy compared to the slow metal constructs.
Val sent out her exploding fire darts to take out five of her own.
Ren spun around, firing six blasts of light to take out the remainder, sighing with relief.
"That was surprisingly easy. I thought it'd be harder."
"Why didn't you open the door?" Miki channeled electricity through his gauntlets and punched the door, allowing it to swing open.
Ren blinked, shifting a little in place. "It… was locked…" he mumbled.
A squelch echoed from the back of the room.
"What was that noise..?" Kheire peered through the doorway to see.
The magma was taking form again, becoming humanoid once more and continuing to trudge towards the group.
"Uh-oh," Ren mumbled, firing more blasts of light at the golems.
Val and Kheire send out blazing projectiles of their own to take out the rest.
Miki punched the other door, locking it once again.
"What the hell?" Ren protested. "This is ridiculous! Why are we training here?!"
"THIS WAS ALL YOUR IDEA, REMEMBER?!" Kheire was heavily upset at things not dying like they were supposed to when they are killed. It was quite rude.
"Don't blame me for this! You're the one who pissed off the ancient immortal dragon wraith ghost god!"
"Yes, well, can anyone here truthfully say they would've done anything different?"
"I told you that dragons really really hate when you take their stuff, even if they're dead!" Val snarled at Kheire. She had been trying to not do anything stupid, still embarrassed from her behavior during their last training session, and apparently a certain party member didn't get the memo!
"You just took it! At least turn things off!"
"I scanned that entire room beforehand and there was no way in sight to turn it off first. Besides, we were not told to look for anything to turn it off. We were told to take the gem. That was it. Did you see a way to turn it off? I didn't. There was nothing revealed when we asked for further information."
"It was in the air surrounded by mana! That's a pretty clear sign that you're supposed to do something!" Ren exclaimed.
The door began to glow behind them.
Miki erected a crystal wall in front of the door, slowing them down slightly. "You two spent too much time talking. We have to go."
"Sorry, Miki! Come on!" Ren hurried further down the hallway, magma leaking out the walls more as he went.
Kheire and Val followed close behind.
The next Diamond was in sight, around fifty yards away or so.
It was also at the other end of a cavern over a rope bridge.
"Oh, this is going to go really badly," whispered Ren.
"Can you two fly us over? I don't think that will hold." Miki shifted forms so they could carry him.
Kheire lifted Miki into the air and Val did the same with Ren to fly everyone over.
They got about halfway over, and Miki was the only one who didn't notice what was above.
Huge globs of lava were falling all around like a rainstorm, very intent on knocking them out of the air.
Ren made a loud noise that wasn't quite a scream.
Kheire is barely able to grab onto the rope keeping the planks in line after getting hit and sent falling and begins to pull himself and Miki up with his vines and bandages.
Val, on the other hand, was even less lucky, and she and Ren dropped down into the abyss below, screaming.
The lava took form into a golem on Kheire's back, preparing to crush his skull.
Miki tried his best to aim at the golem on Kheire's wings, hitting it and causing it it to fall into the gaping chasm beneath them.
Kheire pulled them both up onto the bridge. "Think the others will be okay?"
"I can't… I can't tell." The ghiest leaned over the edge, peering down at the seemingly bottomless drop. "...Either way we better keep going. Knowing Master he should be fine..."

"Val? Val! Wake up! Are you okay?"
Val groaned, blinking her eyes, her voice heavily accented from drowsiness and head injury, "Am I dead? I can't see."
"You hit your head," he said. "You cushioned my fall, didn't you? I'm sorry for causing you trouble again…"
"Huh? Trouble?" She began to sit up, bright flashes accompanying her sight's return, shooting pain into her brain, "How'd we get down here? How did I live? Did you save me?"
"I used my powers to increase our endurance as we fell. I shot the monster on your back too, but I don't know how far away it landed," he said. "Is there even a way out of here? I can barely see…"
He began tugging nervously at his sleeves, the faintest trickle of white flame spilling out from his wrist.
"I would summon my wings, but I'm guessing that there's plenty of damage and the pain would be for nothing."
Ren nodded. "I don't know how long it would take to completely heal us… I can do it as we move, but we'll probably find a way out before then."
He looked both ways. "Where should we go?"
"Uh, pick a hand," she said, holding her hands behind her back, mentally attaching a direction to either one.
"Uh… Um…" he looked at each arm, looking anxious and troubled, becoming increasingly frantic. "W-w-which one should I pick...? U-um, uh, this one!"
He tapped her left arm much like as if he was trying to check if a stove was hot, withdrawing it straight away nervously.
"Okay, we are going right."

Miki switched off the vortex, grabbing hold of the Diamond as it drifted down. "Well we can't go back now." he turned back to the burning remains of the flimsy bridge. "Where do we go from here, Dorm Advisor?"
Kheire removed his Kirin's core from his storage amulet and commanded him to ram the door and channel lightning to his body while he did it. "Thanks, Sasuke. You can rest now." He pet the Kirin and returned him to storage.
The pair walked through the twin doors, sealing it behind them.
The adjacent room was a plain set of stairs leading downwards as platinum dripped from the walls.
"Move." the brunette quickly made his way down the stairs without looking back with the shorter male not far behind.
After entering the new chamber, Kheire ran up to the pedestal. Upon reaching it, lava golems covered up the switch with five trying to attack him.
Miki summoned his swords, impaling all of the constructs, allowing Kheire to flip the switch and grab the gem.
The ghiest shot his electrified claws at the door and threw it open where three golems met them.
"For the record, I blame you for this."

Ren was using a mote of light on his fingertip to light the way, holding Val's hand as they walked to maximise the healing.
"It's kind of dark," Ren observed anxiously.
"I can kind of see, a little," Val stated, squinting.
"At least that means there's no lava monsters," he said, a little more cheerful. Just as he said that, there was a turquoise flicker in the darkness just ahead. "Oh dear. Um."
He looked up at her nervously, and then past her. "Th-there's a door over there!"
Val nodded, and began to walk over, trying to be as quiet as possible, although Ren hindered that fact.
Ren pushed at it, but to no avail.
"It's locked again! Can we reverse them?" he asked.
"Uh, I may be able to help?" Val wondered.
"If you could!" he replied excitably. "If we're quick we might be able to get away without it seeing us. Make sure you only reverse one polarity, though, or they'll stay stuck."
"I understand," she said, then she punched the door. To her amazement it opened.
Ren gave a triumphant cackle, hurrying in, inadvertently dragging Val by her hand into the hall and up some stairs.

Miki stared at the high ceilings, warily watching the bluish lava as it steadily flowed down the centre of the room. The circular chamber was only punctuated by the way they came and a pitch black passageway.
"Dorm Advisor we should go before those things can catch up."
Kheire ran towards the corridor alongside him. "Hopefully whatever is up ahead isn't as bad as what's behind."
A small flight of stairs were lit by a turquoise light as Miki ran down them, steering clear of the right as more golems formed from the lava.
Kheire ran to the left, taking the nearest door, "It doesn't matter where we go as long as it gets us out of here!"
The next chamber was near identical, with the only difference being an open doorway that led down another flight of stairs. With no other choice the brunette quickly ran down through the doorway revealing a rectangular room with the pedestal in the centre.
Kheire threw out Everless and told her to fly up and hit the switch. Upon the switch's activation, the molten platinum around the crystal solidified, trapping it.
Miki threw another charged punch at the door, throwing one of them wide open as Kheire lashed out with his vines to break the still-soft platinum around the crystal. "Everless, grab the gem and let's go!" The large bird chirped and did as told, uncomfortable with how tense the situation was. They ran through the door, shutting it behind them. They were met by another set of stairs, far longer than all the others and pitch black.
He glanced at Kheire. "After you."
Kheire shrugged and returned Everless to their core, storing the gem away along with them as he made his way down the stairway in front of the taller boy. Along the way, he pulled out the core for his more aquatic pet, Gemma, and requested she give both of them her regenerative bubble. Afterwards he returned her to storage. The foot of the stairs didn't give them a decent vantage point. At some point the ceiling and far wall faded into darkness, showing only twelve pillars backed by a turquoise glow. "I say we rush it." Miki spoke quietly as he concentrated on finding any Exin in the room.
Kheire nodded in agreement and began to run forward.
The end of the room was kind of a disappointment. All that awaited them was a featureless wall.
The ghiest's face faulted and he backtracked to examine the pillars.
After recovering his wings, Kheire flew up to the ceiling, using a glob of magma-aligned exin to light his way. Nothing of interest was found.
Not finding anything of use, Miki traced the molten platinum that flowed into the room, finding that it seemed to come from a system of vents that fed from a room above them that kept the metal from solidifying. Along with this there was a point in the wall that seemed to be devoid of the molten metal. "Dorm Advisor, there's some space below us."
"I'll try and break through." Kheire charged up an explosive magma projectile and threw it at the floor below, creating a hole a couple meters in circumference. "Anything interesting down there?"
"Get ready!" The ghiest swiftly retreated from the gaping hole as the visage of a forming hand reached for them while Miki changed forms and took aim at the limb.
Kheire swooped down and grabbed Miki while launching his own magical attack, their combined exin blowing the giant hand to pieces. Their next issue was the golems climbing up the wall. Near the ground, there was a newly exposed door on the back wall they originally thought to be featureless. Using one hand to throw another magma explosive and break down the door, he flew through the opening with Miki in his other hand.

It was very nearly pitch-black in the lower chambers, lit mostly by Ren's magic.
The stairs were pretty steep, but Val and Ren reached the top before very long.
After that, there was little need for Ren's light.
"Wow," the small boy breathed.
An enormous turquoise crystal, easily twenty metres tall, joined the ceiling and the floor, segmented by stone and iron and intertwining patterns not unlike the channels they had seen earlier beneath the pedestals.
"What do you think it is?" Ren asked.
"I have no, uh, hold on," Val said, then mumbling in what could either be a foreign language or gibberish. God, her head hurt.
She walked around the room, looking at the patterns.
The crystal seemed to be embedded into the floor, and Val had a vague recollection of Iselotte mentioning how the channels had been deliberately set up to funnel the Exinessence into the Diamonds.
It was entirely possible that this was the funnel.
"Hey Ren, do you remember was Iselotte said about the channels funnelling the Exin somewhere?"
"Something about that. The Diamonds, right?" he nodded.
Val made a sound of confirmation, walking over to the crystal and putting her hand on it.
"Oh, I get it. This is the thing that makes the channels, right?" he said thoughtfully.
He was silent for a moment, and then let out a little gasp of excitement. "Val, Val. Help me tilt this a little."
She nodded and pushed against the crystal.
Ren moved around the other side and pulled, tilting it slightly to one side.
"Okay, this is fine, stop, stop!" he cried, very eager that it didn't fall on top of him.
"Sorry!" She did her best to hold it up.
Pushing back himself, the pair managed to stabilise the gem.
"Whew. Do you have a potion?" he asked.
"I don't believe so, I think they all broke in the fall."
"Oh, you're right… I would have liked some kind of liquid, but I guess this works," he muttered. He pressed a hand on the crystal and lit the part under his palm on fire for a brief moment. "Alright, we need to get out of here in twenty minutes. This should make it easier, though."
"Why twenty?"
"If we fell as far as I think, it'll take the flow twenty minutes to get to the top. If we fly, we can get there. It should turn off the golems while we go."
"How do we get out though?"
"I guess we just go through the halls. There's a door over there, so that's where I think we start," he pointed.

The chamber was clearly less developed than the previous ones. Ores lined the walls and it led into a larger cavern. Kheire gently put Miki down so he could transform back into humanoid form. "Touch. NOTHING. Everything is going to kill us otherwise. I am ready to get out of this cave. Let's just run, okay?"
"I guess." The ghiest stood and dusted off his pants and kept pace with Kheire.
They got about halfway through the first chamber before Kheire was interrupted.
Arms of lava sprouted from his storage amulet. Miki's immediate reaction was to try and skewer the limbs with his swords, narrowly missing the boy's head. Kheire expelled the rest of the platinum from his amulet. He nearly shed a tear at the loss of all the shiny loot. He felt so betrayed by his precious, stolen goods. The pair moved past the reforming mass, into the circular cavern with the molten constructs not far behind. The next room held the Diamond, sitting on a seemingly deactivated pedestal. Kheire took Gemma out of her core and placed regenerative bubbles around both of them before stepping back. "You can take care of this one." Miki flipped the switch and waited. Only for apparently nothing to happen.
Kheire checked their surroundings, not noticing anything out of the ordinary. He looked over at Kheire, shrugged and picked up the Diamond. Kheire returned Gemma to storage and went towards the door with Miki to progress to the next area. Behind them the golem from Kheire's amulet had frozen.

The seventh chamber was once again not particularly refined. It seemed to be carved out into curved paths that went left and right, veins of unresponsive platinum covering the walls and ceiling. Along the wall on the right-hand side, there seemed to be around a paragraph of writing and an arrow pointing down the rudimentary corridor, though what exactly it said was up for debate since neither Miki nor Kheire spoke Vortigean. Miki instantly gave up on the endeavor of reading and continued down the path towards the Diamond.
Master is nearby…
Kheire turned to the undead sword, "I wonder how Ren and Val are doing. What do you think they're up to?"
"Miki! Kheire!" cried a voice from down one of the partitions.
The ghiest snapped to looked at the source, seeing the aforementioned pair coming down the corridor. "Master! You're safe!"
Ren leapt towards Miki, flying into him and wrapping his arms around him. "Are you two okay? You're not hurt or anything, right?"
"I should be saying that… You guys are a mess." He pressed a healing potion into Ren's cheek.
Kheire let out a heavy sigh and wiped away a single tear. "No. No, I am not okay. All that valuable platinum… Gone…"
Miki deadpanned. "The platinum tried to kill us. We should be glad it's gone."
Ren furrowed his brow, taking the potion. "I did think it was a bad idea…" he popped the cap off the bottle and started taking sips of it. "Gabugabugabugabu…"
The brunette watched his wounds mend as he downed the liquid with a frown. "I shouldn't have said anything about flying back there. I'm sorry for getting you hurt..."
Ren looked between him and Kheire, smiling brightly. "As long as no harm was done, it's fine, right? I still need to help Val heal a bit though."
"I'm fine," Val stated, and, ironically, a shot of pain exploded through her head. While her wings seemed to be just fine now, head wounds seemed to be harder to heal.
"The golems shouldn't be forming for a few minutes, so we'll be safe for now," said Ren. "We can get a few minutes of rest as long as we move fast after."
Val begrudgingly sat down, although she was actually kind of relieved, because she hurt everywhere and didn't know how much longer she could move.
Miki patted Ren's head, "Master, you can use my exin to heal her."
The recipient of this petting immediately found himself in enough bliss to need to do a double-take on what he had just said. "I couldn't do that," he insisted. "Your power belongs to you. Besides, I don't think it would go faster. Thank you though. I'm surprised you'd say that," he smiled amusedly.
"I can get Gemma to do it. She has been such a helpful girl today with her healing bubbles." Kheire grinned and brought out her core. "Any takers?"
Ren looked to Val expectantly. She did really need healing, though it made him feel a little inadequate that an animal was doing better than him.
"Can't Ren do it?" Val asked. She didn't particularly trust this pet.
"Just let them both do it. It'll go faster and I don't want to wait for the golems to catch up."
"Don't worry, they won't," Ren promised. "Val and I already took care of them."
"I guess we can stay a while… Miss Val, there's some writing on the wall there. Can you read it?"
"I cannot."
He shrugged. "It was worth a shot."

It was a little while later that Val was finally largely healed, though Ren had warned that there may have still been a "teensy bit of concussion" remaining for suddenly voicing a surprising eagerness to get moving.
The next door, like many others, led down a staircase, which would have been a very common sight had this particular one not spanned a far longer distance.
In particular the chamber it led to was much smaller.
Magma, glowing orange, was a relief rather than intimidating, and it lined a short set of stairs up to the pedestal. It almost looked like a throne room.
"How old is this place anyway?" Ren pondered aloud.
"We can ask Iselotte when we get back to the top." Miki paused. "How do we do that?"
"We should be able to just go back the way we came if we're quick," the short boy said.
The ghiest switched off the pedestal and picked up the last Diamond, hesitating for a second as if expecting something to happen.
After a few moments of nothing, Ren began to fidget. "Alright, we need to get up to the top as fast as we can. If we're quick, we can make it."
Miki passed the crystal to Kheire and turned to the white haired boy. "Master, if you'd like, I can carry you."
"If you could… I would boost my speed, but I don't have any charges left," he replied sheepishly. "So… That would be good…"
He scooped up Ren, supporting his back and legs with his arms. "Is this fine?"
Ren flushed a little at the bona fide princess carry, but nodded. "If we hurry, we can make it."
Everyone ran towards the exit, with Val shifting into her bird form and Kheire enhancing his agility with his soul tool to speed through what seemed to be the last area.
The group made their way up to the ascending staircase to take them up to the lip of the volcano.

They didn't quite make it.

The lava below flared turquoise, shattering the steps just in front of them before they even got halfway up.
It was in the gap between the broken ends that a formless entity began to take shape.
"Oh, that's big…" mumbled Ren.
Two slits of light formed in the lava.
[glow=green][/glow][glow=green]"DID YOU THINK YOURSELF CLEVER, BOY? ALL YOU DID WAS DIRECT MY FULL ESSENCE INTO THIS PIT. NOW I CAN MANIFEST THANKS TO YOUR DESPERATE EFFORTS!"[/glow]
"I wish this was a really bad jokes Master." He quickly set the boy on the ground, rushing forward to attack the shapeless mass.
"W-wait!"
Miki's attack made its mark, slashing across the constituting mass, but did little overall. More lava simply moved over the wound as it took a slightly more precise form.
Val took a step back, her feathers tightening to her body in fear. She grabbed a hold of Ren, and it was unable to be determined whether this was to keep her there or to take him with her if she ran. It was actually both.
Kheire drew a tarot card, readying his spirit defenses. He knew it wouldn't help much, but it was better than nothing.
Ren was charging a blast of light, holding off on attacking just yet. In a second… Any second now…
Miki brought out his rapier, shooting a jet of water at the lava.
A hissing jet of steam sprayed off the body of the magma titan to no real effect.
｢Miki, I'm going to need your help in a few seconds,｣ Ren told the ghiest mentally.
「Got it.」He retreated from the massive form, falling back near the others. Kheire began to charge a spell of his own.
Val's thoughts were going a mile a minute as she charged her rifle, when she realized something about the diamonds in her friend's pockets.
They're full of exin, aren't they? And don't crystals amplify light, and these carry exin…
"Kheire give everyone a diamond please."
Kheire started tossing out diamonds like a pinata tosses out candy after being beaten into submission by a child with a blunt object, keeping one for himself to boost his own power.
"Oh," Ren blinked, taking one. "Good idea. I hadn't thought of that."
The ghiest formed a crystal wall in front of the creature's body, looking between the others and the eight Diamonds with a slight nod.
Kheire let loose a blast of magical power through the crystal, shouting about some kind of wave. Unfortunately, his voice was drowned out by the massive beam.
Valentina shot through the crystals.
The two blasts overlapped, wrapping Vortigern's half-made form in Exin and tearing it away bit by bit.
The blasts themselves kept travelling, making an unnecessarily large hole in the volcano that Iselotte had to jump out of the way due to.
When the dust cleared, Vortigern was merely reconstituting scraps of molten metal, the occasional whisper of a snarl passing through the chamber.
Not quite killed, but very nearly.
"I guess I didn't even have to do that thing earlier after all," Ren observed. "But I'll wait. Just to be safe."
It was only a few moments later that the lava flickered to a dimmer white light.
"There it is," the short boy nodded satisfiedly, firing his own blast into the monster that was already falling to pieces.
This entire experience inspired Kheire to take a rock from nearby that wasn't part of the mountain on their way out of the region, a few days later. He named it Vortiturd. In the present, he flew Miki up to Iselotte.
Val sighed loudly, and grabbed Ren for what seemed like the millionth time in the last couple of days (not that she was complaining but she'd be damned if anyone knew that), and flew, flying ahead of Kheire.

"Well done," the woman said dryly. "You're alive. I trust you have all eight from that little display."
"Thanks for noticing." Miki murmured with clear irritation. "Hope you enjoyed the show."
"The fireworks were scheduled for ten minutes ago, little ghiest. Anyway, you already have what you came here for, so go ahead," she said dismissively.
Ren cocked his head. "Didn't we come here to train?"
"Yes," Iselotte sighed. "And you did. You also took a shortcut and collected eight specifically designed vessels for a dead god's power to absorb."
Miki's response clearly displayed his intelligence, "What."
"What, what?" frowned the princess. "Did you think I advocate child labour or something?"
"Yes. Very much so in actuality. We just need to absorb one of these, right?"
"Feel free to take two. We don't actually need any energy for another few months," she explained. "Actually, I'm curious. Ren, was it? What did you do at the end? It turned completely white for a moment before you shot it."
"I'd put some of my own mana in the funnel earlier. It was only for a moment, but it replaced Vortigern's power with mine, so we would have been able to beat it much more easily," Ren explained proudly.

A bright flash from afar.
A shockwave passed through the ground without warning, shaking the earth below.
A wave of heat.
A fierce blast, in a single moment, had engulfed the front gate of Vortigern, large enough to dwarf even the peak of the mountain itself.
Iselotte took a sharp breath in.
"Elian, you useless bastard," she hissed under her breath. "You go off to scout for something shiny, and now we're under attack. Just wonderful."
Ren's eyes shrank to pinpricks in horror, taking steps back one at a time. "Again… Not again…!"
Miki stared at the explosion like a hawk, clenching and unclenching his fists. "I'm going to kill her." he said plainly.
Val was digging her talons into the dirt in a desperate attempt to not flee. She knew what day it was, and that if they didn't beat Zhihao today they would die anyway, but instincts aren't so easy to fight off. Where is the bloodlust that normally would come during something like this? All she felt was fear.
It was then that a thud resounded behind the group.
Iselotte snapped around, ready to annihilate anything that stood there.
"Before you say anything," a familiar man in full-plate armour frowned, "this isn't my fault."
"Too late," his sister glared.
"Kids!" yelled a voice from afar.
Ren looked up, opened his mouth to cry back.
Elian interrupted.
"Lild! Get down, you're in firing ran--!"

A bolt of light like a thunderbolt.
A flash that shook the very sky.
A direct hit.
"Lild!" Ren tried to scream over the deafening rumble, but was completely drowned out.

A burning shadow fell, shattering the ground in a crater.
And then Lild stood up, glaring over her shoulder towards her assailant.
Unscathed.
"Yeah," she growled, brushing off some lava that had gotten onto her skin. "Okay. I'm pissed now."
"L...Lild…?" whispered the small boy.
"You kids don't worry about a thing," she said calmly. Terrifyingly calmly. "We're going to deal with this."
"Lild, you're… not even…" whispered Elian.
"You should be focusing on other things," Lild snapped. "There are three of them at the gate, splitting up. You and Iselotte can take the giant. For these four… Well, I think it's personal with the kitsune, judging by the look on Miki's face a few moments ago. As for me… I'll take the big fox."

A pair of wings exploded from her back as if they were jets of flame igniting from a thousand suns of pressure.

"Nobody messes with my family."

With a single movement, she vanished, leaving nothing but a gust of wind behind.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
-Thank you, GM Ren!-

Viviane tried her best to still her hand as she grabbed another flask to bring with her, the shakes having started five minutes ago and had yet to stop. "Stupid," she chided herself, placing the flask in a plastic bag, that bag into another, and slinging the satchel bag of supplies over her shoulder. Waterproof, as would be required for her dungeon "There's no reason to be nervous. It's just…hands on experience."


Doing her best to reassure herself (in her own way), Viviane walked to the portal for the water dungeon. "Think about the good things. At least this is still in your element. A desert dungeon would've been horrible," she thought. "You won't have to walk much; you can swim instead. That'll be nice." Taking one more deep breath to calm herself, Vivian then stepped into the portal in front of her…


…and into a puddle of freezing water. Doing her best not to shiver, Viviane took off the shoes and socks she'd worn thus far while attending school. Cursing under breath as she regarded the soaked (and frankly ruined shoes), she shoved the socks and shoes into her satchel, making note to find another bag to put them in later. "Honestly, stay above land for too long and you can't even handle surface water," she thought, shivering and glancing around for a moment as she let her eyes adjust to the darker lighting.


"…no way to go but forward," she mumbled, delving deeper into the cave, trying to ignore the tingling feeling that came with cold water washing against her skin.


…she'd maybe taken a hundred (or two hundred; she didn't really focus on counting steps) when she noticed just how much her teeth were chattering, and paused for a moment to dip a hand into the water. "…yeah, colder," she thought, briefly considering what to do. If the water were deeper, she would probably just turn and swim forward, and get used to the cold as she went forward. But as she was, the water was still not high enough…yet she also didn't want to risk continuing to walk in cold water, and bring risk to her already mediocre stamina.


"…just tough it out for now," she thought, gritting her teeth as she continued forward. She would've cast "Ice Shield" and then surf forward…but she needed to save her Exin, as well as be able to turn when needed. Who knew what would happen in the dungeon.


Hearing a distinctive splashing sound around the corner, Viviane wondered briefly where all this water came from and went when she saw the small waterfall. Taking care to stand out of the way of the current directly, she peeked over the edge to see where the water went. "…frozen. Of course," she mumbled, about to try think of some way to deal with the ice blocking the path when a larger current of water struck the back of her knees.


At least it was a small waterfall.


Sputtering as she pushed herself out of the way of the waterfall, Viviane shivered uncontrollably for a moment as she entered the new river. "W-why couldn't the water be w-warmer…" she stuttered, wading through the water as she neared the ice.


"Get dry you idiot," she thought, shivering something horrid as she moved her arms to pull herself out of the water. Feeling the cold sap her energy quite swiftly, Vivian soon forced herself to her feet, knowing that staying in one spot would be akin to freezing to death. "Dry your clothes too, while you contemplate death," she mumbled, casting fire armor as she stood up, leaving little puddles in the ice as she walked forward.


Growing up, Viviane always thought it was somewhat odd she would be able to conjure fire to surround her like armor. She spent a good deal of her time underwater, so the ability to create fire wasn't really needed (she only ever learned of it after a very…interesting trip to the surface). Needless to say, standing on ice, having just pulled herself out of freezing cold river, Viviane wasn't particularly upset about her seemingly useless ability.


"I wonder how the river was frozen," she thought, the very fact that she could walk on top of the ice without falling through already amazing. If she looked closely, it was almost like it had been frozen to the bottom. For the ice to freeze so suddenly, and so completely…


"…who am I kidding, it was probably magic," she mumbled, already dreading what else could be in the dungeon. She'd heard horror stories, and it suddenly made her very unnerved, thinking about the possibility of diving into water, into her element, then suddenly being frozen in ice. "…maybe stay out more often…"


Being lost in her thoughts, Viviane almost didn't notice the subtle sound that came from ahead, and paused for a moment as she tried to place it. "…cracking maybe?" she thought. Maybe the ice was cracking up ahead naturally, turning back into water. Glancing around the corner, she froze completely as she saw what was actually making the sound.


It was like…a giant lizard, with a stubby tail, neck-whiskers and a bright blue, just eating the ice. And not just one, six of them. It was a miracle she hadn't heard them earlier. Immediately stopping her flame armour spell before she drew attention to herself, she tried to assess the creatures. "They don't look hostile…" she thought. "But maybe it would be best to stay away…they could be territorial…"


Glancing about the cave, Viviane tried to look for another path, to see if she could somehow detour the ice-eating lizards completely. Spying a crack on the other side, she nibbled her lip as she debated whether or not to go for it. "What if I go in and there are more monsters?" she thought, sighing as she looked at the lizards again.


"…maybe I can lure them away by singing," she thought, smiling as she cleared her throat and began a lullaby.

"~Sleep, you lil ****s, sleep~"

"~Go to sleep or face my wrath~"

"~Sleep, you lil **** ***s, sleep~"

"~And stop impeding my path~"


Quietly congratulating herself as the lizards each fell asleep, Viviane quickly slid across the ice to the hole in the wall, peering inside to see if there was anything inside. Seeing nothing that would seemed to be overtly dangerous, she glanced back at the lizards one last time to make sure they were still asleep before slipping in.


"Another stream? Really," she mumbled, before sighing and continuing forward, taking care not to accidentally get her clothes caught or ripped on either rock wall. "At least my feet aren't freezing this time," she thought, letting her foot down as she expected the floor to come up to meet it again.


…it didn't. Not immediately, at least.


Sputtering for a moment as she suddenly dropped into the water, she quickly slapped her hands and feet to the sides, stopping her movement before she was swept away. "Thank goodness you took off your shoes," she mumbled, craning her neck up a little to breathe before letting her arms and legs relax. It wouldn't do well to edge forward slowly while fighting the stream; at the moment, it seemed to be easier to simply let the stream carry her for a bit.


It was actually quite relaxing for a while; simply going with the flow. She would've been able to fall asleep if she hadn't kept bumping into the walls. "Current is slowing," she thought, preparing herself for what may come. Would it be more lizards?


Finding the stream come to a small outcropping of rocks, Viviane carefully pulled herself up, taking care not to scratch herself on the rocks. The walls in the stream had been smoothed thanks to the moving water against it; she would be lucky if these rocks were the same. Sighing as she felt the wet squelch of her clothes again, she thanked whoever was listening that 'at least the water wasn't so cold', before standing up to inspect the area.


"Looks okay…" she mumbled, slowly spinning to inspect the area. The stream continued in a corner, and there was also a skeleton nearby said corner.


…


Needless to say, after Viviane got over the screaming, useless hiding, and general prayers to an unknown deity, she finally pulled herself together long enough to take a closer look at the skeleton. Or, more accurately, half-skeleton. Whoever had died there, had been dead for a long time. "And lost half his body at the same time," she thought, shuddering for a moment as she thought of what could've ripped him in half like that.

Taking another step closer, she knelt down in front of the body, inspecting what it held. "Rope or sword…" she mumbled, shaking her head as she mumbled an apology to whoever's corpse it was and taking the rope.


"Thank you for this," she mumbled, stuffing the rope into her bag as she looked over the sword, thinking back to the lizards from before. On one hand, she would definitely feel safer having a sword, even if she couldn't really carry it. On the other hand, she didn't know if it would be a good idea to try do things while holding a sword in one hand…


"…like jump into the big hole just above me," she thought, having finally turned her gaze skywards. Rubbing her hands together, she glanced at the skeleton again, almost marvelling in how serene it seemed to be, before hopping to pull herself through the hole.


Viviane sighed as she heaved to pull herself up, before heading forwards, pulling out to inspect the rope.


She could almost…feel the magic in the rope, and was suddenly all the more glad for taking it with her. Smiling to herself, she wound the meter-long rope around her shoulder as she continued down the tunnel the hole she'd climbed up lead to.


Finally coming to deep hole, Viviane smiled as the first opportunity to use her rope presented itself. Spying the stalagmite on the ceiling, Viviane briefly considered the possibility of the rope slipping after she tried tying it around before shrugging. It was either tying it, or a long, long drop.


Throwing the rope, Viviane marveled for a moment as it seemed to just…continue to extend, wrapping itself around the stalagmite again and again. "That should be long enough…" she thought, tightly grasping the rope in both hands as she hopped down the hole, wondering briefly how she would get the rope to untie before shaking her head. She'd cross that bridge when she reached it.


Reaching the bottom, Viviane gave a brief tug, and marveled again as the rope seemed to coil around her arm. Smiling, Viviane pet the magical silk rope for a moment before looking around.


Spying the ledge where the ground suddenly dropped away, Viviane carefully edge towards it to get a better look. "Should I go further down…" she wondered, glancing about the chamber. Why would there be a room like this? A sacrificial pit?


"No, don't think about that," she mumbled, shaking her head as she looked into the pit. If she squinted, she could just make out a switch on the floor, where the edges of the switch didn't perfectly line up with the floor. Smiling to herself, she regarded her magical rope as she threw it at the switch.


And missed.


Grumbling to herself, she considered simply trying again before shaking her head. Who knew how long it would be if she continued trying to hit it from so far away. She may as well just go into the pit and slap her hand on it.


Looking around the chamber, she quickly spied a protrusion along the edge of the ledge. Walking over, she looked the protrusion over, before tying her rope around it. "Please don't slip off," she mumbled, holding the other end of the rope as she lowered herself into the pit.


Reaching the bottom quite quickly, Viviane didn't pull her rope down, knowing it was her one way of getting out if things went south. Similarly, she didn't go straight to the switch, instead spending a moment to inspect the pit from her new vantage within.


"Someone must really love circles," she mumbled, glancing at the one right below her feet, and each successive one that would make a ring of circles around the pit. Gingerly stepping forward, Viviane chose not to think about the possibility of herself having entered a fight pit as she came to the switch. "Please don't drop the floor below me," she mumbled, using her bare foot to press down, her other hand tightly gripping her rope in case she needed to make a run-climb out of said pit..


Quite suddenly, each of the tiles around the pit opened up, and began filling the pit with water from below. "Must be under a lake or something," she thought, holding tight to her rope as she ran back to the wall, intent on reaching the larger chamber to try work out a plan before the water got too high.


Gasping as she managed to yank herself out of the pit, she scrambled to her feet, pulling the rope back to her arm as she spun to face the rising water. "Please don't get any higher…" she thought, dreading the idea of the water rising so high that she would end up going all the way back up the hole in the ceiling.


Holding her breath, Viviane watched as the water rose up to the lip of the pit…then keep going. Cursing to herself, she was about to dive in to see if she could try swim through one of the holes in the floor when she paused, a shadow flickering across the water.


A huge shadow.


Scrambling away from the edge, Viviane failed to suppress the shiver that ran through her spine as the water kept rising, already at knee-height. "Shitshitshitshit," she sputtered under her breath, keeping to the wall, as far from the pit as she could. She had probably…two or three seconds before that thing would be able to swim out. Feeling the ever-mounting dread, Viviane almost didn't notice when the water rose to hip-level.


"Thank goodness for being a mermaid," she thought, her tail coming back to her almost naturally as she unwound the rope around her arm. She could simply dash past it; there were few things under the sea capable of reaching the speed of a mermaid. But at the same time, she didn't want to be chased in underwater tunnels by a giant water-monster. What if she came to a dead end?


Grasping the rope tightly in her arm, she took a deep breath as the water rose above her head, preparing herself as she swam forward as quick as she could, prepared to bind this creature and bring it under her will here and now so she wouldn't need to deal with it again later.


Seeing it clearly, she could finally tell what it was.

A crocodile, or maybe an alligator.

Its skin and scales were transparent, rainbow light speckling the gaps between.

Thick-layered internal organs were fully visible, each and every tooth of its cello-sized jaws bared at her.

The rope missed completely as it darted out of the way, and it rushed her hungrily.


Viviane gave a sharp scream of surprise (which, being half-siren and half-mermaid, was easily transmitted underwater) as she came face to face with the huge beast, quickly flicking her tail and trying to evade the monstrous teeth coming at her.


It bit down on her tail, only just managing it. It only lasted a moment. There was no way it could swallow her with that, but it drew blood.


Screaming in pain as she felt teeth rip past her scales, Viviane tried to ignore the sharp pain that came whens she moved her tail. "At least it isn't a shark…then I'd have teeth stuck in my tail," she thought, glaring at the crocodile with malice as she took a deep breath.


And screamed.


Which, mind you, being a half-siren, was nothing to sneeze at.


The sheer blast of noise would not normally have had much visible effect.

It was because if its transparent skin that Viviane could see the monster's innards being churned to ground meat by the concussion of the sound.

Clearly, it was far beyond what it could take, because the beast just about died instantly.


Coughing after she finished her scream, Viviane rubbed her throat gently as she watched the transparent crocodile sink to the floor of the chamber. Swimming down, she carefully opened her watertight sealed bag to pull out a small carving knife. "Skin, teeth…" she mumbled, slicing and storing the items into more waterproof bags that went into her satchel. As an afterthought, she also popped an eyeball out out and took that as well. Maybe she could make some freaky door-greeter with it.

Having spied the core of the monster on its chest from earlier skinnings,Viviane proceeded to swim over and yank the crystal from the dead crocodile's corpse. "Thank you," she mumbled, throwing the core into her bag to use later as she finally regarded the chamber. "…let's hope those tunnels lead me out of here," she mumbled, swimming over to the pit and into one of the holes that had opened up.


After making quite a few turns (which, to be honest, was actually quite quick being half-mermaid), Viviane soon surfaced in a lake, pausing as she dove back underwater. This was probably the small time in the dungeon when she wasn't being hunted by a monster. Seeing a glint out the corner of her eye, Viviane swam over and plucked the pearl from it's spot, placing it in her pouch as she headed for the shore. Shivering again as she got out of the water, she winced as the bite marks transferred when she shifted back to normal legs. "Ripped my dress too," she grumbled, gingerly examining the area wounded before shakily standing up.


Only to collapse again.


Grumbling to herself, Viviane simply took a potion from her kit and drank it, waiting for a moment as the healing effect took place. "Now to finally get out of here," she mumbled, walking out of the cave with small sigh.


"Couldn't just open a portal to go back," she mumbled, shivering slightly as she looked forward to getting into dry clothes, a warm bed, and some food.
 
The armoury was crowded with soldiers yelling to one another, and Elian hurried the children inside with haste.
"Come on. If you're actually going to fight, you're certainly not doing it with those rag and sticks," he said, pushing them towards a weapon rack just as a man in armour came around the corner.
"Lord Elian, we're…" he began, and then stopped. "Are those outsider children?"
Elian glared him dead in the eye. "Yes. Specifically, they killed Cath Palug and lived with Lild for around a month, and I've been training them every single day under Father's nose."
The man blinked, partially in shock, partially in confusion. "Why… Why would you tell me that?"
"Because you're the only person not involved who knows now, so if anyone finds out, I'll know who to execute for treason."
"Ah. Clever."
"Little trick I learned from Iselotte. Tell the men to hold the lines best they can while I get these four outfitted."
"Sir."
With that, the man left.
"Take what you need," Elian said. "This stuff should all fit you guys."
With that, he turned to leave, clearly headed to the barracks. "Do not kill yourselves."
Miki quickly looked over the equipment, fishing out a plain leather chestplate. "Is there anything else that won't weigh me down?"
Ren looked around. "Uh… There might be something in that box," he pointed.
Specifically, it was an old chest at the back of the room. So old, in fact, that it could well have been centuries since it was touched.
The ghiest moved and picked up the chest, cracking it open, seeing as it wasn't locked.
"Whoa," Ren murmured. "These must be Elian and Iselotte's old things from when they were small."
A sword, staff, and spear sat inside accompanied by a set of light armor with a pair of rather out of place glasses. "Well they aren't using it now."
Ren nodded, smirking a little at the glasses. "Do you think these are Iselotte's battle glasses or something?"
Miki shrugged, picking it up. "Probably do something interesting." He pushed his hair out of the way and put them on, turning to Ren as if asking for input.
"Whooaaa. You look really smart all of a sudden, Miki," Ren smiled cheerfully. "Those suit you!"
He hummed and turned back to the other weapons, picking out the bladed weapons in the chest and a sturdy bow.
Meanwhile, Kheire had his back turned to the two as he fished out some greaves and a breastplate of his own. After Miki left the chest open, he took the rod and began tinkering with ut to switch out the core and change the alignment.

Val was visibly shaking as she tried to at least look like she was searching for armor. She was gonna die, she was gonna die!
Ren moved over to her, tugging at her sleeve. "What kind of thing are you looking for?" he asked, astoundingly calmly.
"Uhm, something that doesn't let me get my heart brutally ripped out?" Val nervously laughed.
Ren's eye twitched for a mere moment. "Uh. I think if you stay far away, she can't get you with that ability. It's just a long arm, right?"
"I suppose. In that case, maybe something that makes me harder to find?"
The boy nodded ponderously. "They have invisibility cloaks in Avalon, I think, but I don't think dragons would have them. Maybe something that will make you faster will do the trick… Or… Oh! Stay here!"
Quickly, Ren activated his camouflage, turning invisible and creeping out the door.
It was around a minute later he returned with an arm full of thin pouches full of some sort of dust.
"How's this?"
"What is 'this'?" She said, picking up one of them.
"They're like water balloons, just filled with soot!" he beamed. "Smoke bombs! They're kind of simple compared to some of the other bombs I found in there, but I think they work better, since they just have to hit something to go off."
"Wow, this is actually really useful!" Val picked them up gingerly, putting them in her bag for now, "Do you want one?"
"I think I'll be okay, since I have my invisibility. I can make flashes at her too, so you keep them. You need them a lot more than I do," he said. "Don't get hurt, okay?"
"Hey, I really don't think I can ensure that, but I'll try my best." she sighed, but then genuinely laughed, poking Ren's cheek as she said "Don't get into a bad situation where you're falling, okay? I won't be able to catch you this time."
He giggled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head in such a manner as to indicate that he really doubted he'd be able to manage his end of the deal either.
"Although, I wish I could have a situation to catch you again. Maybe we could hit Elian even more!"
"I really don't think he'd be very happy with that…" he mumbled awkwardly, but laughed anyway.
It was silent for a moment, "Ren, if I die will you take care of Sam for me?"
Ren shook his head forcefully in sheer denial. "That won't happen. I won't let it happen. It can't. We're not gonna die. We're gonna live forever."
Val looked at him sadly, but couldn't find the heart to say anything but "Okay."
"I'm not lying! We are! We're going to win and we're going to go home! Everyone's going to be okay! We'll go to the library and we'll find books to learn about Sam together! I'll train with Miki and I'll go on adventures with you and I'll study crafting with Kheire and we'll all eat dinner together!" he insisted. "We're not going to die! We're stronger than that! We're stronger than we were when we came up here! I couldn't save Blue, but now we're strong enough to do anything!"
"We do still have to avenge Blue, don't we?" Val tried to not be overly touched by this conversation, but how could she not be. How could she let herself die now? Not that she wanted to, but she had definitely come to the edge of giving up and asking Zhihao to make it fast.
Ren grabbed both her hands and pressed his forehead against her, standing on his tiptoes to do it. "We will. I promise we will. I know it."
Val lost her words for a moment. All the languages she knows, and she couldn't think of a single word except "Okay," which seems to be a go to of hers.
Then the moment is over, and reality comes to crush her again, "I need to make potions."
"I'll get you guys more time to prepare." Miki spoke resolutely, looking over his new equipment. "Master, can you come here and give me a boost?"
"Of course," he nodded happily, bouncing over and holding out his hand.
He ignored the hand, instead reaching for Ren's sari and pulling it over his eyes.
"Uwah?!" he scrabbled at it, trying to pull it back up.
"For luck." Miki quickly pressed his lips over his forehead and the bridge of his nose, simultaneously looking over at Val with a clearly smug expression.
Ren pulled his sari up just in time to receive Miki's kiss, blushing furiously and staring in awe. "Um. Uh. Um."
If he noticed Ren's stare he didn't comment. "I already know where Zhihao is so I'm going ahead. I hope you're all in one piece later." With that, Miki ran into the streets and was eventually out of sight.
Ren hurried over to a window and yelled out after him. "Miki! Kick her ass!"
Beaming happily, he hurried over to Kheire and Val like an overexcited schoolgirl.
"Alright! Let's make some potions!"
Val scowled, mumbling curses wishing death unto a certain rapier weiner in Veela.

The roofs of the city streets in Vortigern were surprisingly flat. They were angled, of course, but not nearly as much as the tiles had seemed to be from the ground.
It was, however, just a small risk, as the paths themselves were mostly elevated walkways over at least a five-hundred metre drop.
As such, Miki's capacity for precision and care came in handy when traversing them.
The blonde jiuweihu was within eyeshot, seemingly not noticing Miki as he took aim.
Clay weapons rained down upon her, but Zhihao noticed just a second too soon, evading all but one of the twenty attacks.
"Gheist," she observed, picking herself up and drawing her swords. "Miki, wasn't it? I assume you're here for Viper Wedding."
"How perceptive. Do you want a trophy? A medal? A sword through your throat?"
"Your metal is a good enough prize for me," she retorted. "Do you understand what you're challenging? I was holding back the last time we fought. I don't intend to do so again."
He produced his swords, readying them in front of him. "Don't restrain yourself then, Zhihao."
With a predatory grin, she gladly took his advice, leaping at the gheist with fang and blade bared.
The ghiest shifted and was knocked out of the air.
His sword form was sent clattering down a gap in the streets, falling down a drop, much to the jiuweihu's chagrin.
Shaking her head, she decided Viper Wedding would just finish him off even if she left him, so she was on her way.
He clung to the wall by jamming his swords into it. He peered onto the tiled roofs, judging the distance between them.
She was too far away to catch up with by dashing, but she was, in theory, still within attacking range.
Miki reached out to Fulmine, feeding it more exin, causing his gauntlets to pulse.
「You owe me so much for this.」The electric armaments shifted into a vaguely humanoid shape that created a loud crackle when its paws hit the roof.
Zhihao didn't so much as turn around, likely not even hearing from a combination of distance and forward focus.
Miki hid in wait as Fulmine growled when it wasn't noticed, roaring as it extended the claws of its gauntlets to drag the blonde back.
The claw pierced her right leg, and Zhihao screamed in pain as she was dragged back across her chest by her wound, rending her foot a bloody mess comparable to a stump.
The raiju snarled and began tearing into the prone jiuweihu, barraging her with its claws as its shape began fading.
Zhihao gritted her teeth in terror as attacks began to rain down, and shrieked.
"Samay, dheema!"

Without warning, something changed.
Everything seemed to suddenly turn to molasses.
It was almost impossible to move, and the barrage was grinding through the air like a drill through lead.
It was nearly impossible to even think at a normal pace.
And yet, Zhihao rolled freely from underneath the pseudo-gheist's attacks, and climbed to her bloodied foot.
Heavily breathing, she took a moment to catch her breath, standing up straight and raising her blades. "Samay… saamaany."
Everything suddenly fell as fast as before, reality returning to normal, and Zhihao slashing at Miki from the side before he even had time to adjust.
Repeating his action, Miki fed more exin to his spirits, forming a feminine figure this time. It lazily waved its hand, creating several clay tools that shot towards Zhihao. It didn't register at first, but Miki released the edge to avoid her blades. He hit the ground, not completely unharmed but in a much better condition than he would've been had he not let go. Repeating his action, Miki fed more exin to his spirits, forming a feminine figure this time. It lazily waved its hand, creating several clay tools that shot towards Zhihao.
Zhihao evaded them one by one, but failed to take into account her destroyed right foot, taking several hits as she went, drawing blood. The jiuweihu gritted her teeth, slotting her swords together and drawing back her bow. She'd had just about enough of this.
Miki drew the spear he picked up eariler, Miki drew the spear he got earlier. He leapt at Zhihao, skewering her with the weapon.
The spearhead was forced in through her chest and out the other side, and Zhihao choked up red. Gritting her teeth, she glared up at Miki, thrusting with the bladed bow as she leapt backwards and into the streets below, vanishing.
And, in turn, something that had been wrapped around Miki's neck dissolved.

Val was flying back from making potions. She knew that there was a good chance Miki was dead, and maybe even Kheire, wherever he was. Val had a plan for her own fight, however, and if it worked she wouldn't even have to fight Zhihao at all.
She landed, walking into the armory while scratching her skin. She had been really itchy lately, but it was probably just nerves.
"Ren, are you still here?"
Kheire poked his head out from behind a rack of weapons, "Hey, Val. Do you have a potion I can borrow?"
"I did make a potion I thought you might need." Val said, taking a small bottle out of her bag and handing it to him.
"Thanks. Did you happen to find anywhere in the castle with potion ingredients and more equipment?"
"Potion ingredients, yes. It's just a little ways from here."
Kheire took off at a sprint, needing every advantage he can get.
"Val, are you back?" Ren called from around a corner. "Did you see anything that was happening?"
"I did not, no." Val said, sitting down and dumping small potions into two large bottles.
Ren pulled a small face, wondering where Miki was, and then looked over at what Val was making. "What's that?"
"A charisma potion, well," Val looked down and counted the bottles, "eight charisma potions."
"All in one?!" he spluttered. "I… why...?! What are you doing?"
"I'm a Veela, -----. I can do things."
"Things?" Ren blinked. "I mean… Yeah, but… Well… Yeah."
He had exactly zero idea what things she was referring to, but he did agree that she could, in fact, do things.
"I wonder if Miki's won yet," he pondered. "If he did, then it should be possible for all of us. I think."
"If my plan goes well, I don't think I'll even have to attack or dodge." Val stated, confidence slowly returning.
"Ah, you've got a plan?" he said happily. "That's great! You have backups though, right? I don't want you getting hurt if it fails."
"Ah-, not really, no."
Ren's face went solemn. "Be careful."
"Do you have a plan, Ren?" Val asked, putting a hand on his arm.
"Well… I have a lot of stuff, so I guess I'll make something up," he shrugged.
"When do you think she'll find us?"
"I don't want to find out," he said. "I think I'm going to go find her."
Val startled "What? Ren you can't. Are you ready?"
"Maybe?" he said.
"Is there anything I can do to help you?"
He shook his head. "I don't think so. It's a one-on-one anyway, so I should be okay."
Val looked at her hands, "I think you can do it, I think."
"I hope so," he nodded. "I'll see if I can get high up and look for her. Good luck, you two."
Opening the door, he stepped outside, hurrying up a flight of stairs.
Val blinked, "Alright Kheire, good luck to you." And with that she was out the door and flying away.

It was only a few metres into the air before she noticed movement.
Zhihao was running towards the armoury at a worrying pace, fully armed and uninjured.
Val's heart beat harder as she uncapped her potion and drank it. She hoped this would be enough.
However, when she landed in front of Zhihao and let her feather fade away, and began to release her Veela pheromones into the air all at once, she accidentally triggered something else.
She suddenly and painlessly had white wings where her arms were supposed to be. Which was strange, and also hilarious because her plan worked. Zhihao was looking at her with a glazed, adoring look. To a girl with wings instead of arms. It was even funnier when she drooled as Val struggled to open the other potion with her feathery appendages.
Valentina walked closer to Zhihao, fearful of the charm breaking, but doing what must be done.
"Zhihao, I have defeated you."
"Y-Yes…!" she breathed eagerly, the snakes around Val's body vanishing.
"Thank you, dearest." Val giggled as she proceeded to make a nearby pillar collapse on her through a barrage of fire. She then flew away as she heard a moan of pleasure from under her handiwork.

A few moments passed before the pillar began to glow.
It was not any kind of special magical process.
It was just melting.
An arrow of light exploded out of it, blasting it to pieces, and struck the armoury, an enormous ball of flame engulfing everything around, blowing Val and even Ren away.
With a single leap, Zhihao entered the crater that was the armoury a few seconds prior, looking around for her target, teeth gritted with humiliated fury.
A predatory gaze scanned the area.
But Kheire Hecatox was not here.

Kheire was running through the halls, setting up traps and covering up sources of light with layers of ink, plant matter, silk, sand, dirt, and whatever else he could produce or find. He was panicking, he knew he had to make every second count.
He had only gotten through enough rooms to count on his fingers before he heard the sound of the doors being slammed open.
"Hecatox! I'm going to make this quick!"
It was a promise to herself as much as anyone else.
Zhihao was very close to losing it and she was not letting herself get beaten for a third time in a row, least of all by a sentient flower.
Kheire sniggered to himself, using Octavia's power to sneak around more effectively in the dark. He was going to drag this out for as long as possible… He could feel her anger. It almost felt like he was feeding on it. Meanwhile, Gemma, having been encased in stone nigh completely in the ceiling above her was able to send out her curse and revert back to core form to avoid harm and detection.
Zhihao felt the curse as a pressure from above, and shot a fireball up in retaliation, blowing up the ceiling above her and sidestepping to avoid the falling rubble.
"Well then," she frowned. "If we're playing that way, so be it."
With a single movement, she vanished.
Kheire knew his first curse had taken effect. He wondered how the second would fare as he continued to shroud the rooms in darkness, laying another trap in the process.
Sasuke perked up as he sensed the enemy enter the area. He had been keeping his power charged for a while now, unlike the others. He released it onto the metal-covered room below him, boosting its effectiveness.
Not even a second passed before Sasuke was suddenly subject to a crushing force, strangling him and trying to pull him off the ceiling.
He managed to keep his grip, but only just.
Without warning, Zhihao appeared, grasping him, clinging to the ceiling as well.
With a single swing of Agneyastra, she pierced it, climbing up to the next floor and dropping the pet into its own trap, debris falling all around it.
"I'm not going to be played for a fool," the jiuweihu said quietly, advancing to a staircase and climbing even higher.
Kheire could feel his pets dropping after their job is done and felt anger of his own bubbling up. He continued to set up the environment as he made his way through the castle. He heard her break through the ceiling and started to move towards the middle of the gauntlet.
It was a few seconds' wait before he noticed an arm twisting from something behind him.
Kheire notices which trapped room she is in and sets off the charges, explosions of sharp shrapnel flying throughout the area.
Swinging blades, she deflected the majority of the shrapnel with ease. Only a few fragments of wood scratched her; enough for her to basically ignore her wounds.
Kheire growled in annoyance at how ineffective everything seems to be as he launched a multitude of poisonous thorns at his adversary.
Zhihao managed to deflect all but four of them, proceeding further and tossing a fireball into the room in front of her, setting it on fire from the floor and letting the flames crawl to everything flammable in the room.
Kheire reared back his arm as he saw his enemy approach, lobbing an explosive to her, spraying the debilitating liquid all around.
The moment Zhihao stepped into the flames, she seemed to blink out of existence for a moment, reappearing a moment later in the doorway, but she didn't move, waiting for the flames to spread to the last room.
Kheire charged up an explosive magma charge before lobbing it at the pillar nearest Zhihao, hoping it might at least put some distance between them.
Zhihao, having seen that move before, simply took a step back to avoid it as it shattered the burning wooden ground where she had been standing.
Taking another step forward, something snapped.
The floor beneath her gave way, the pillar even shattering the scaffolding below that was holding the castle to the mountainside.
Leaving Zhihao falling and the walls along with her, she barely managed to jam a sword into the mountainside to keep herself from simply dropping into the clouds and out of sight.
It was a double-edged sword.
Basking in the sunlight, Zhihao hissed something through gritted teeth and using her blades to climb slowly back up towards the castle as the last of the debris collapsed and fell into the abyss below.
Kheire traveled to the next floor, using his wings to stay up above it as he blasted the other pillar that held up the floor.
The jiuweihu saw her chance.
Tossing a fireball up to the falling debris, she leapt up as it fell.
Letting it throw her into the air like a rail, she soared towards Kheire, blades drawn.
Kheire panicked and launched a volley of magma projectiles from Iselotte's old staff.
The blasts exploded on impact and, leaving Zhihao with no way to dodge or block, send her dropping down into the clouds.
Kheire peered into the abyss. "Well… This seems like it's over." He shrugs and leaves to collect his pets' cores. "I should probably fix Iselotte's staff back to the way it was, too…"
It took a minute or two, but eventually the marks disappeared.

Zhihao's cursed arm was not only good for ripping out hearts, it seemed.
If it hadn't been for its length and size, she probably would have fallen off the mountainside entirely.
She was getting tired now, and she found an outcropping on the mountain to sit and drink a potion to heal her reasonably minor wounds.
It was a good thing, she mused, that the damned bird hadn't attacked her, or she'd already be on her last one.
For something so powerful, she'd never imagined she'd need to use so many.
"What a pain," she muttered to herself as she tossed the bottle down the cliff glumly.
This was supposed to be easy, and she was very ready to just curl up and sulk for a while, but she had probably disappointed Namacuix enough.
Besides, she didn't want him to get into trouble with that Li woman. Perhaps it was because they were both foxes, but something about that old hag creeped her out immensely.
Whatever.
Stretching, she leapt up to the upper layer of the mountain in a single bound.
Narrowing her eyes, she spotted something moving around in the uppermost streets of the city.
Not hesitating for a moment, she drew her swords again, moving towards her target menacingly.
Seeing the paramatman had reminded her of what she had almost forgotten.
Zhihao was one hundred and ten percent done.
She'd been humilated once. She could handle that. She'd been humiliated twice by that bird that had twisted her mind and made her stupid. She had started to get pissed off. She'd been humiliated thrice, and one of them was the goddamn flower.
So, with now Ren was stood in front of her, she was just about ready to abandon her objective entirely and outright murder him.
"You're looking kind of intense there, Miss Zhihao," he told her, edging back a little.
"Don't you start," she growled. "This was an easy task made as difficult as humanly possible. I'm capturing you, and then I'm going home and getting some sleep."
"I don't suppose we can just skip the first part and nap together?"
"Don't push it. I'm close to killing you as it is."
"Killing me?" Ren said, reaching into his sari. "Is that so?"

Zhihao's eyes widened in shock as she moved to defend.
When did he get that? Where did he get it from? Why did he even have it?!
She shoved the questions aside for now and instead focused on blocking each and every one of the hundreds of bullets firing from the assault rifle in Ren's hands.
The hail of bullets lasted a mere few seconds before stopping, Zhihao not sporting but a scratch.
So this is her true strength... he observed, slipping the gun back inside his sari.
"That was your incredible trick?" she scoffed. "I thought you were meant to be cleverer than some street magician, paramatman. These are the quick wits that felled Cath Palug?"
"Yep, you're right, that was an absolute failure," he nodded satisfiedly. "It was a pretty weak weapon in comparison to our powers now. Seriously, what the hell? It was okay at the time."
He shook his head. "Well, that's my gimcrack done. Guess you can cut my head off now."
Normally, she would be at least a little skeptical, but frankly, at this point, the jiuweihu was taking what she could get, dashing forward and slashing him.
Her strike was deflected.
Not by him, but by something else; some invisible blade clashing against her own.
Vishnu, she realised. She had completely forgotten.
Ren grinned again, clearly noting her jogged memory. "Yeah, those swords won't help you. You're way too fast for me to dodge, and you'd cut my in half with a single hit, so this power activated. You're gonna have to go easier than that. I, on the other hand..." he said, reaching into his sari again, "can go all out!"
More slashes, but not from the invisible sword.
Ren swung two draconic swords at his opponent, actually landing a hit before she dodged the second.
"Where are you keeping all of this crap?" she hissed.
"I dunno," he shrugged, then rushed her again.
She evaded with a degree of ease, but it was a little harder than last time. Fate wasn't on his side, that much was obvious at a glance, but he was wielding those swords with a degree of skill he had no right to have.
It seemed an absurd thought.
A small, luckless, clumsy little boy couldn't possibly, but...
"Are you copying me?" she demanded.
"I guess your technique inspired me," he grinned. "Really heavily inspired."
This was bad. If she was actively teaching him by attacking him, then there was no guarantee she would even be able to hit him before long.
She had to finish this quickly.
Magic, then.
Launching ten fireballs, Ren found himself unable to evade even one, each and every single attack exploding on impact, sending him sprawling.
And, just for a moment, his body glowed as he got up.
Zhihao, all of a sudden, felt a little thinner.
"Sorry," Ren grinned. "Arjuna says you deserve it, but it looks like I just received some of your fate."
My fate? What did that even mean?
Not wanting to risk any more, she fired another barrage of flames at the boy.
One hit its mark.
Two hit its mark.
Three hit its mark.
But the rest were child's play for the small boy to avoid.
Okay, enough was enough. Zhihao sheathed her blades and held her arm out.
A wrapping of flame and flesh came together to form a hand of nightmares.
It lashed forward.
It buried itself through Ren's sari.
And Ren screamed as it pulled back, gouging something round and red.

Zhihao sighed.
The Great Black One would not stand for such insolence, but she thought it was worth it just to see the boy struggle.
"My... my...!" he breathed, panicking and feeling around his chest. "It's...!"
He pulled his sari aside and opened his coat.
"...still here," he smiled.
Zhihao blinked.
"What."
"It was, uh, just a little prank. See? I'm actually fine."
The jiuweihu shook her head. No, she had ripped out his heart. She had reached in and grabbed it. It was exactly where it was meant to be.
She still even had it in her hand.

Oh, no, wait.

No, that wasn't a heart.

It was a grenade.
Wait, wha--?!
"Ka-boom!" Ren cried excitedly over the sound of the crystalline explosion. "Hey, Zhihao! Turns out there's all kinds of bombs in the dragon's armoury! I found smoke bombs for Val too!"
When the smoke cleared, Zhihao was a bloody mess, and Ren had lost a pair of snakes.
"Son... of a..."
"That was for Little Blue," he said. "We hope you have enjoyed our slow-cooked, carefully prepared, lovingly seasoned vengeance."

That was around the time that a certain familiar three-metre tower of a man landed with a crash between the pair, looking the jiuweihu in the eye.
"Lord Namacuix..." murmured Zhihao.
"You've done all you can. Leave the rest to me," he told her.
"Hey, Mr Namacuix!" Ren chimed, clinging onto his shoulder. "How've you been doing?"
"Don't touch me unless you wish to die, paramatman."
"Noted, noted," he laughed, taking a few steps back. And then a hop forward and back again, poking at his back a couple of times as he went. "Hey, you're it! Gonna fight me?"
"Were you listening to a word I just said?" glared Namacuix. You might have defeated my apprentice, but do not think for a moment that I cannot simply end you with a thought. All I need to do is kill you in two hits instead of only one, and Vishnu will abide."
Ren smirked again. "Well, yeah. But do you think I'd just rely on cheap tricks like that? No, see, I rely on cheap tricks like this."
He clenched his fist and pulled it back with a ching.
"You mean a cheap trick like that fire grenade you left on my shoulderblade earlier?" Namacuix asked, grabbing said grenade and tossing it aside.
"Nice catch," the small boy said. "But you should really have spent more time in the city, jungle man!"
Ching, ching, ching.
Namacuix broke his own neck to look behind him.
Three more grenades were hooked around his loincloth.
The pins had been tied to the one he had thrown away, and had come free with it.
Panicking, he turned to his blessing for aid.
"Samay, dhee--!"
Too late.
With three near-simultaneous explosions of flame, there was also the sound of screaming.
Namacuix had fallen to the ground, bleeding.
"Good," he rasped. "But not enough. I can just heal from this."
A fifth grenade rattled as it landed in front of him.
"Can you do it before I pull the pin?" Ren asked.
The Xelhuan was silent.
Even if he attacked now, he couldn't kill the boy in one hit.
Vishnu would prevent that.
And if Ren did not die in a single attack, he would have time to detonate that grenade.
Namacuix wouldn't survive that.
"Do you admit defeat, Namacuix?"
"I do."
The second pair of snakes, which had not even reached Ren's elbows, vanished.
Namacuix got to his feet, dusting himself down, staring intensely through all the blood.
"It seems our secondary objective will not be accomplished today."
Ren froze. "Secondary?"
"Indeed. Lady Li is tasked with our primary mission."
The small boy racked his brains desperately. He was only secondary?
"Did you think all of our actions revolved around you?" chuckled Namacuix. "She should be already at the peak."
"The peak?" he echoed.
What was at the peak?
No, that was the wrong question.
But that could only have meant one thing.

Ren turned and ran up the mountain as fast as he could.

Valentina, of course, had been watching and listening the whole time, but instead of attempting to sneak around looking like herself, she was a falcon instead. Funny trick that was.
Speaking of funny tricks, she had never been so proud/amused by her little friend so far. That was immensely satisfying to watch. She would definitely have to ask him where he kept all of those weapons as well.
However, there seemed to be a bigger issue at hand, and although it was definitely not one she wanted to deal with, she would probably have to.
Val flew directly above Ren, flapping her small wings as hard as she could. Unfortunately, she could not speak in this form, making asking for information kind of difficult.

The paramatman reached the mountain peak just in time to get the crap kicked out of him.
He had just spotted a figure on the top when he felt something sharp all over his body, and he cried out in pain as he was thrown away by the force.
Looking up to see his attacker, something snapped inside.
A lifeless familiar face.
"M… Miss Renya…?!"
And yet, it wasn't.
This seemed to even freak out the weird bird following him around, and it screeched, as if telling him to turn around, run.
Ren scrambled back a little. This wasn't his friend.
He could tell at a glance.
This was a body, dancing as if on strings.
The woman at the peak called down to him.
"Paramatman, welcome," she giggled. "You're just in time to see the show."
"Sh-show?! What have you done to my friend?!"
"Nothing worth getting angry over. She'll last a lot longer this way, believe me," the fox-woman replied. "My name is Li Ji-Su, and I'm one of the Pitris just like the two small fry you just fought."
Small fry? Is that what she called that pair of monsters that could have easily killed all four of them in a heartbeat?
Ji-Su smirked. "You must have a lot of questions."
"Why my friend?!" he demanded. "You could have used anyone!"
"Ah, that's where you're wrong. It took a long time to find a suitable candidate for this process, but it just so happens that you happen to be contracted with a ghiest who I've seen some incredible potential in. So, why not go and pick up what was left of one of his sources?"
The puppet, the corpse, the body, Renya, turned and began to climb to the lip of the volcano.
"Now then. Shall we begin?" she said, walking the remains over to the very edge.
"I don't really get what you're talking about." Countless clay weapons shot towards the puppet's body. Miki stared at the body with slight interest. "Are they supposed to be important to me?"
The puppet darted aside with a flick of the woman's finger.
"But of course, dear," she smirked. "This is the body of something that… reincarnated into you. You are as much it as you are a blade. In fact, I would say that spirit you're carrying around with you might even still remember her body."
The bird dove down and into Ren's sari. It was quite freaked out.
Kheire, his sparkling wings fluttering overhead, was frozen in shock at seeing one of his first real friends being used like this. That couldn't actually be her, could it?
The incessant thoughts from that spirit confirmed her words. "Should that matter? It's just a skin sack now."
The puppeteer tutted in disappointment. "Sad. I had hoped for some measure of difficulty at least accepting it, but it seems however the reincarnation happened, the memories of Miki Hao Kuin are much stronger. Or perhaps this girl was just that apathetic in the first place. I wouldn't know," she shrugged. "Well, if you're fine with it, then I might as well get on with it."
The selkie's body took a few final steps towards the absolute edge.
Kheire's face turned bright red in rage, never having felt this strongly about much of anything before.
Ji-Su closed her fist and the body went limp, and Renya fell into the volcano.
"Eat up, Overlord of the Immortal Shape," she smirked.
Emptying a pouch of silvery powder into the still-turquoise lava below, she laughed as the earth began to shake.
The falcon flew out of the sari, and became a larger avian creature commonly known as Val. She moved quickly, stumbling once as the tremors grew stronger, and picked up Ren, flying as far from the earth as she could while still watching.
"My apologies, Ren."
"Don't be sorry," he said. "I get the feeling we were probably going to die down there."
He suddenly froze. "Miki!"
Val sighed, yes, of course she would need to save Miki, how could she be so blind.
And of course, she would have to be the one to go get him, because Kheire is too damn slow. Great.
"Kheire, will you hold Ren for me while I save Sir. Rapier Weiner?"
"Sorry." Miki shifted, allowing Val to hold him in one hand.
"Oh, yes, that works too," Val said, now holding both of her teammates, one which she adores and one which she hates.
Ren, on the other hand, would have been in his own little corner of Heaven under different circumstances.

The volcano, for a split second, seemed to erupt, magma spewing out in all directions.
And then it stopped.
It didn't fall.
Instead, it seemed to congeal, condense, compress.
The molten rock seemed to simply fade away, leaving only an ethereal turquoise glow.
Renya floated there, enormous spectral dragon wings, tail, horns and claws setting her apart from what she was before.
"A flimsy body," her voice said dryly, "but at least it shan't rebel."
"You are very welcome, Lord Vortigern," Li smiled, a grin like a slash wound. "I trust you remember our terms."
"Do not test me. I will aid you now that I have physical form again, as per my word," she snarled. "In the meantime, we depart."
"Of course, Lord Vortigern."
The selkie… The dragon glared down at the pit from which it spawned. "I never want to see this wretched place again. In fact, for good measure…"
She inhaled, and then roared.
From the roar came a blast.
Shadow and iron intertwined in a vortex-like beam that blew a sizeable chunk off the mountain's peak.
"It will fade away in time," she concluded. "Now then, we leave."
"At once," Ji-Su nodded, looking up at Kheire and vanishing, leaving him with only the image of her sinister smile burned into his mind.

Flying away to the castle, Val sighed, "I guess it's time to get Sam, maybe Zeph, if she's not too pissed at me."
In the distance, through the halls, there was a low grumbling from around one corner and the sound of bickering from around another.
Flying through a window, she put Ren down and put Miki into his hand.
She ran away, yelling, "Sammy-, it's Mommy!"

Unknown to the party, there was another player about to enter their game, someone who's target had shifted from following the Pitris to the small white haired boy they seemed to be hunting.
"Not again," she mumbled, and ducked away out of sight from the window where a girl and her dragon gazed out of. They shouldn't have been able to see her.
But of course Miss D'maris did, even if it was simply luck. Whether it was good or bad is impossible to tell.

Val raised her hand to get one of her teammates attention, but was quickly distracted by them walking away.
Ren, however, ever observant of his precious bird friend, tried to slide over suavely, only to trip over his own foot.
"Ow. Did… Did you need something?" he asked from the floor.
Val offered her hand to him, "I think I saw something, I'm not sure, but it moved fast… let's just be observant on the way back, okay?"
He nodded. "Good idea. I trust your eyes."
Meanwhile, yelling came from down the halls.
"So now this is my fault?!"
"If you had held him down like I asked, I could have hit him!"
"And me too!"
"So?"
Indeed, Elian and Iselotte were limping down the halls throwing insults and snipes at one another, whilst Lild slowly made her way from another corridor, leaning on the wall for a moment.
"How'd you kids do?" she rasped. "You don't even look hurt. I mean, Ren and Miki have a couple scratches, but…"
"Lild!" cried Ren, rushing in for a hug, squeezing her as tightly as humanly possible.
"Whoa there, slow down, little one. I think you're stronger than me now," she fluffed his hair with the slightest hint of chagrin.
"Are you okay? You seem hurt!"
"Yeah, just some rotting lungs. Nothing major."
Iselotte looked over, inspecting the growing black mark on her sister's body.
"Lild, that's necrosis," she frowned. "You should be dead."
"Immortal, remember?" she raised an eyebrow in response. "All that's happening is that some field somewhere is being skinned a few grains of rock every second or two. No big deal. More importantly… it looks like Father's been killed."
Elian gritted his teeth, and Iselotte took a step back in shock, but Lild only shrugged. It was evident that she hadn't cared much for that father in the first place.
"So one of you is going to have to ascend. Wanna arrange that fight to the death?" she asked.
The pair glanced at one another.
It seemed they had already reached that conclusion.
"Go sit on the chair, Lild," Elian sighed.
She paused, blinking. "I don't think I'm qualified for that."
Iselotte folded her arms. "You're more qualified than we are. The system of ascension is designed so the strongest leads us. We need skill in battle, so we have it. It's all we have. You're the one who's observed people. It's you that would make the better leader."
"But… can we just tear down our system of government like that?" she said.
Iselotte shrugged. "We'll have to. I saw Vortigern's spirit leave. With nothing to maintain the mountain, it'll fade away in less than a week. We'll have to find somewhere else."
Lild was silent, but sighed. "Well, if you think I can, you're the ones convincing the people, not me."
"Oh, I think you'll do a better job of that," Iselotte said, placing a hand on her shoulder as she passed the group. "I'm going to make up some strong healing potions. Elian, with me."
"Why?"
"Heavy lifting."
"Oh, thanks."
The pair made their way down the hall and around a corner, with Elian just glancing back for a brief moment to say, "See you around, kids."

Lild sighed as they left. "Way to drop a bridge on someone, huh?"
"Isn't that what you do?" Ren mumbled.
"Hilarious."
She sighed again.
"Well," she shrugged, "you kids had better get home. We Vortigites are going to have to start from scratch, just about, so you don't want to be around when dragons start migrating, believe me."
She was silent for a moment.
"But you did help out, even if it was your fight. It's only right to give you guys something before heading you on your way, right?"
Kheire perked up, hearing something along the lines of "free stuff" coming from Lild's general direction. He had been sulki- ahem, "thinking" about what had happened to Renya's body, but the promise of easily acquired loot was too good to pass up. "Aw, you shouldn't have. But you did, so what'd you bring?" He grinned, his eyes shining.
"I didn't bring anything," she said, gesturing to the necrosis that was still spreading. "But we can go and get something. Come on."
Leading them up a flight of stairs, she opened a set of doors to what looked an awful lot like a treasury. She picked out a handful of objects, bringing them out to the children.
To Kheire, a plant in a glass jar.
To Miki, a bow.
To Valentina, a raiment.
"Use these well. They're some of the best-crafted items in the kingdom to be in here," she said. "Which helps me assure you of their quality since I have no idea what they are. I do know what they do."
Miki examined the bow. "Well what do they do?"
"The leaves on that plant will neutralise any damage, but it will destroy the entire plant doing so. Be careful. The bow can be equipped with a core, and then can create arrows of magic that will strike like metal would. The raiment is enchanted with an aura of beauty, but it can also be used as a weapon," she explained. "Use these well, but don't hesitate to cast them aside if you need something stronger. I don't expect even these to last forever, after all."
Kheire nodded in understanding, "Thank you. I will do my best to make the most of it."
Ren looked up at her, almost expectantly.
"As for you," she said, gesturing to follow, and she led him up a few flights of stairs into sunlight.
All around, vibrantly coloured flowerbeds covered a small walled stone plaza, and Lild led Ren to the very centre, picking a handful of orange-coloured flowers.
"What are these?" Ren asked.
She smiled, handing them to him. "These are called underlilies. They're the opposite colour to the sky to seem brighter. Watch this."
She blew on them, and in an instant display of fireworks along the petals, they flickered to the colour of the evening sky before finally settling on a brilliant blue.
Ren's eyes lit up in wonder, holding the flowers tightly.
"Here," she said gently, filling a spare pot with water and handing it to him. "They give an iridescent dye that changes colour, so people like to crush them and sell it. They're endangered, so keep good care of them for me so we can plant them when we find a home, okay?"
Ren nodded firmly, clutching the pot tightly. "I will."
"Alright. I have to go and start preparing for this… queen thing, I guess," she sighed. "Good luck, you four. I wish you the best, and I hope to see you again some day."
Sam ran to Lild and sat on her feet, actually saying things in dragon to her. Val walked to her and took the burden away, "Thank you for all you've done."
"It was nothing, really," she rubbed the girl's head and the dragon's chin. "It's been wonderful having you here this month. If only things could have stayed this way."
She smirked knowingly at Sammy. ｢|You be a good boy, okay? I'm going to miss you.|｣
Val struggled to try to understand the dragontongue, getting one or two words, but Sammy seemed to understand completely.
"Thanks for helping us Miss Lild." Miki bowed his head, eyeing the orange blooms inquisitively.
"Honestly, it's mutual," she said. "You take care of that, uh, 'Master' of yours. Ren, you need a hobby."
"Wha…?! I have a hobby! Stop trying to make it sound weird!" he protested.
She chuckled, shaking her head, and Ren just about managed to hold back some tears as he hurried to hug her one last time.
The pair held each other for a few seconds in silence before finally letting go, and Ren stepped back to the rest of the group.
Lild said nothing, and watched the clouds in the sky as they left for the portal back to the Academy.

"Seems the world just got a little colder, doesn't it, my nosy friend?" she asked to the thin air.
The woman emerged from her hiding place, "I've felt that way forever, Lild."
The dragon-woman nodded slowly. "You carry yourself like someone who has lost a lot of things. It makes me wonder if they were even taken from you."
She knelt down and got to watering the flowers, probably for the last time.
"Perhaps you just lost them yourself."
Kneeling herself and touching a petal, the woman smiled sadly, "Perhaps."
"Tell me, do you know those children well?"
"Not at all," Lild said fondly, almost wistful. "I hardly know anything about a single one of them. It's a shame, really. Crushes your soul when you only have a few people who'd even be willing to talk, but you don't."
She nods, almost sympathising, almost.
"How close are they?"
"Closer than anyone I've ever seen. It's a narrow superlative, but it's something."
"I see… I'm going to follow them, you know."
"I'd be disappointed if you didn't," Lild chuckled. "Maybe you'll find something with them that you thought you'd left behind."
The woman was walking away when she froze, looking back at Lild with a sorrowful look in her eyes.
"I really hope I do not."

And so, a gust of wind blew, and Lild Avanors was alone again.
 
-Cowritten with Random-

It took around a day for the four to return, but a good night's sleep in the dorm was still achieved.


It did absolutely nothing to stop Ren from managing to be a good ten minutes late for his Craftsman class.

Stumbling loudly into the room and dropping all his books on the floor as he did, even Breghin was struck with silence as the small boy crouched to pick his stuff up.

"You're an entire month and ten minutes late."

"I know..." he mumbled. "Sorry."

"To the back. There's a new student you can partner up with. Fill the blanks together," the teacher instructed. "Actually work for once, okay?"

"I know, I know..."

"Nikolai still wants your essay on solutes too."

Ren froze for a second. "Can, um, we not just put that off for a while?"

"No. Alright then. As I was saying..."


Awkwardly shuffling to the back of the room, he awkwardly took a seat besides the girl he didn't recognise.


Viviane was in the midst of furiously writing notes (because…honestly, she didn't have much else to do to try maintain interest in craftsman class. It wasn't really something that was crucial to the life she wanted) when the white-haired boy burst in and was made to sit with her. Turning her head slightly, she inspected the boy, trying to figure out his race at a glance. "How did you get to be a month and ten minutes late?" she whispered, having little interest in what the teacher was talking about now. If it were important, she'd read about it later.


"Viviane Saphalea, by the by. Started a few weeks ago," she whispered, sticking one hand out. "Its nice to meet you, Mister…"


"Ah, uh..." Ren rubbed the back of his head, flushing slightly. "Things... came up. I've just had a month off."

He shook her hand a little tentatively. He had started to try to build confidence around new people, even if minimal progress had been made.

"I'm Ren. Ren Vedas," he introduced himself. "It feels a little weird being called Mister, honestly..."


Viviane gave the boy a suspicious glance for not giving her a straight answer before nodding.

"Hey, come on, at least pretend to believe me," he pouted.

"Oh, I believe you. Things come up, stuff gets in the way," she said offhandedly, scratching another note down.

Ren mumbled something about him only having his life in danger and it not being a big deal.

"Hey, if you started a few weeks ago, doesn't that mean you arrived pretty much just after I left?" he wondered. "No wonder we got away with it."

"Got away with what?" Viviane asked, her interest piquing again as she glanced back to the white haired boy.

"Going off to a parallel dimension for a month," he replied casually. "There's probably a few cases of child abuse we should be reporting, but we're not cursed anymore. So that's a good start."

Viviane could feel her brow raise, before nodding as she looked back at her notes. "Parallel dimension you say…" she mumbled. "And here I thought that transparent crocodiles was weird enough…"

"Transparent crocodiles?!" Ren echoed excitedly, attracting a few glares from around the room. He meekly shrank back into his seat, flushing, before whispering, "Transparent crocodiles?"

Viviane nodded back for a moment, smiling as she opened her satchel bag under the table to retrieve a piece of the transparent skin she'd taken from the crocodile, handing it to him under the table.

Ren's eyes quite literally sparkled with delight. "This is so cool! I can see my hands through it! You could make this into something really cool!"

He put it up to his face, examining the scales closely. "You could probably make something lightweight and stealthy with this, actually. Clothes or armour or something useful like that."

"Clear clothing? Are you sure about that?" she asked, smiling despite herself. "I don't think the school allows exhibitionists. At least, during the day."

Ren flushed brightly enough to outshine a bonfire. "I-- Ah-- You're right, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that…!"

Viviane chuckled, before lightly elbowing Ren. "Calm down, I'm just teasing you," she said lightly, writing down another note. "That aside, I don't have the…skill, perhaps, to try make clothes or armour without a good possibility of ruining the scales entirely."

"Oh, I can make clothes," he said. "I mean, I'm horrible at weapons and small things, and I can't sharpen Miki to save my life even if it actually would, and I can really only carve magic circles onto rocks in terms of enchanting, but weaving is easy!"

Viviane nodded along at Ren's words, writing down more notes as she reached inside her satchel again. "I have maybe…15 square meters of skin. What can you make from that? Also, you named your weapon?"

Ren blinked. "That's loads, I can probably even make an armoured cloak," he said. "Oh, Miki's not my weapon. He's my friend. He can just turn into a sword."

Viviane's pencil tip broke at that, and she scowled before reaching for a sharpener. "Some people can turn into swords," she thought, making the mental note as she sharpened her pencil. "Armoured cloak you say…" she mumbled. "How much protection do you think it can afford, at first glance?"

"No idea," he said, pulling a pencil out of his satchel.

He folded the skin over itself three times and stabbed at it with the pencil as hard as he could. The utensil immediately snapped into wooden shrapnel with no real effect on the scales.

"About that much," he concluded.

"Well, at least I'll know I'll be safe against wooden arrows. The sacrifice of the pencil was worthy," she mumbled, looking at the scales again. "…how long would it take you to make it?"

He looked around at the stuff in the classroom. There were plenty of tools and such around, so he wasn't exactly short of resources.

"Well… Uh… If I can copy your notes later, I can do it before the end of the lesson. A cloak is simple enough if you know how," he said.

Viviane nodded, absent-mindedly scratching down more notes. "You have yourself a deal, Ren," she said, focusing on her note-taking more as she kicked her satchel bag over. "The rest of the scales and skin should be in one of the large plastic bags. Don't touch the one with the eye in it."

Ren's eyes widened in terror. "What. What eye."

Viviane blinked as she turned her head again. "The eye of my dead mother of course," she said with a straight face, before snickering and shaking her head. "Eye of the transparent crocodile. Wanted to stick it into my door to…I don't know, scare people maybe. That or keep it as a souvenir."

Ren was very close to blurting out his alarm at Viviane's mother being a transparent crocodile before suddenly realising that she probably didn't want clothes made out of a parent's skin and correcting himself very quickly.

"Um. Um. If you have a style you like for your dorm then that's always nice," he attempted.

Vivane gave him a questioning glance, before shrugging slightly. "You're probably the first person to take it so well," she said. "…I'm probably not going to do that, to be honest. The rotting eye wouldn't make for a very appealing greeting," she continued, wrinkling her nose at the thought.

"I did know someone who wanted to paint his walls in blood," Ren mused. "He was blind, so I had to explain that blood goes brown when it dries, so he'd just have to keep the wall wet."

Viviane hummed as she thought about how to make walls of blood. It wasn't too hard, to be fair; having permanently flow that cycled back to the top upon reaching the bottom would work. "But the smell would, again, be horrid," she thought, frowning before shaking her head. "Anyways, don't you need my height or something to make a cloak?" she asked, going back to their original topic.

He put his hands on his hips proudly, his chest puffing up with pride. "Heehee. Don't underestimate my power, Miss Viviane!"

Removing his sari and laying it on the edge of her chair besides her with a single swift movement, he folded the topmost segment over until it was an equal height to her.

"Ta-da!"

"Ren, quiet down and do some work," Breghin sighed.

"I am doing work…" he protested quietly.

"Is it work you should be doing?"

"It's… crafting…?"

He received a disappointed look from the teacher, but the bear-man said nothing more and continued.

Quietly, Ren picked up the bags with the skin in and crept over to the loom at the back of the room, turning invisible as he placed a finger on his lips with a mischievous grin.

Viviane, through all of this, did the proper thing one did after engaging a deal to get clothes made during class, and continued to write her notes. After all, it was what amounted to her 'currency' in this exchange. "A transparent cloak with decent protection…" she thought. "You can always get someone to enchant it to lighten it if it ends up being too heavy."


While Ren was invisible and the skin was transparent, the loom was neither of those things, and so it was rather painfully obvious once he began work on it, but it was only a few minutes before there were some visible results coming together.

He rustled through the bags for more skin as he went, pulling folds out one by one.

Abruptly, he let out a cry of alarm. He'd found the eyeball, then.

This was probably the least stealthy instance of invisibility known to any civilisation in existence.


Even Viviane jumped slightly when she heard Ren cry out, before sighing as she wondered what he'd done. "…probably prick his finger on a tooth, considering I already told him about the eyeball," she thought, going back to note-taking.

"Oh god, there are teeth, that hurts!"

"Would you two be quiet back there? Ren, specifically," sighed Breghin, apparently having finally realised that moving Ren next to someone new and expecting him to work, or even expecting him to work at all, on what the lesson was actually about was a stupid idea.

Viviane sighed, nodding half-heartedly to the teacher as she continued taking notes, occasionally glancing backwards to see if Ren had somehow managed to injure himself in some other random way from an item in her bag. "Like my shoes, for example," she thought sarcastically, still needing to air and dry them out after the dungeon.

Somehow, Ren had managed to also pull three molluscs and an entire starfish that had no way of even getting into the bag out of it, alongside a significantly wetter section of skin. On the other hand, his invisibility seemed to have worn off without him noticing, this being evident with Ren taking his ankhan off to try to dry it a little.

-----

Viviane resisted the urge to yawn after the class was finished. It wouldn't look good on her record at school to be bored with half her classes. Snapping her notebook shut after one last note, she stood up to walk over to the loom where Ren had been working. "Are you done?" she asked lightly, trying not to sound like a pushy, impatient customer.

Ren grinned, buttoning up his ankhan and presenting Viviane with an iridescent translucent cloak.

"Four layers," he beamed proudly. "Here you are."

He pointed up to the open window with some clips and string.

"Also, I hung your sandals out to dry."

Viviane nodded as she took the cloak, pulling it around her neck as she looked over it. "Perfect," she mumbled, smiling briefly as she glanced at her sandals outside. "You know, it's a small miracle those haven't been blown off by wind," she said, walking over to retrieve her sandals.

Just as a stronger wind blew and almost knocked them down…but Viviane was quick enough to snatch them.

"Well Ren, when do you want to copy my notes?" she asked. "A whole month's worth of them. If you can finish copying them in three or four days, I'd just lend you my book. Otherwise, I still need it to do homework."

Ren awkwardly tried to phrase his aversion to actual schoolwork but gave up before he even started.

"It'll be okay, I'll abridge them whenever you don't need it," he shrugged. "...Wait. Homework? We have that? For this class at the moment?"

Viviane nodded slightly as she flipped open her notebook. "I'm not entirely sure how much of the missed work you need to do," she started, flipping to the notes she took that day. "But at least for today, we need to research at least five different materials for armour that have the ability to negate lightning."

"Uh. Metal," Ren said. "There, work done." With a self-satisfied nod, he tried to hide the hole that his will to live was draining from. "Ugh, he's gonna make me do all of it, isn't he? It wasn't as bad back when I was doing basically the same thing as everyone else and he wasn't really looking at mine specifically… He's gonna kill me…"

Viviane sighed, before shrugging as she handed Ren her notebook. "Who knows. Maybe he'll be lenient with you this time. Though if he isn't, I would look towards finding some expert craftsman to help you skip through the easier assignments," she said.

"Maybe he'll see I made a cloak and forgive me," he mumbled. Wishful thinking if he had ever done any. "Well, anyway, if you want to field test that cloak any time soon, I'll be happy to go with you. Seeing strengths and weaknesses of your stuff helps you patch it up if it does goes wrong somewhere, right?"

"Sounds good," Viviane replied, looking over the cloak as she also retrieved her bag. "Uhm…Ren?" she asked. "You didn't happen to go through everything in here, did you?" she asked, sighing at the amount of water that had spilled inside the bag.

"Not everything," he said, "though I did stab myself in the hand. Surprise teeth are scary."

Viviane nodded slightly, before pulling out a syringe with a healing potion in it. "Here, take it," she said. "I can always make more in my chemist class later, and it is sort of my fault that you got your hand stabbed."

"Oh hey, I have chemistry, I could do that too. I mean, I won't, but I could," he said. "It's alright, though, I won't down your hard work just because I'm bad at watching what I'm doing when I go invisible."

Viviane frowned, before shrugging and slipping the syringe back into its proper place in her bag. "If you say so," she said, sighing as she thought about how she would try out her bag later. "Do you have time to go field test my cloak right now?" she asked, throwing her sandals that were drying in her bag as well.

"I probably can in about an hour," he said. "I do have to make my mandatory trip up to visit my stress relievers now that I have all this homework… But after that I'm more than happy to go and pick a fight with something."

Viviane raised her eyebrow for a moment. "Stress relievers?" she asked, smirking slightly. "Should I be concerned, Ren? Are you on drugs to lessen the strain of school?"

Ren flushed, his face literally lighting up. "I-it's not like that!" he protested. "It's… It's… It's like being on drugs, only there's no risk of brain damage or organ deterioration or anything really except for some hormone imbalances."

Viviane gave him another quizzical glance, before shrugging to herself. "Well, I guess I'll see you in an hour or so. I'll be in the library, searching up materials for the homework," she said, waving as she left the classroom. "Enjoy your stress relief."

Ren smiled, a little giddy. He intended to.
 
Viviane sighed as she scratched out a few more notes on the complex nature of synthesis of ingredients that would later on create a 'charisma potion'. It was interesting…to a degree. At the same time, she was also quite miffed with Ren. "An hour," she grumbled, checking the time with a small frown. He was almost an hour late! Having had enough, Viviane began packing her notebook and work away, grumbling to herself about the lack of reliability in others.

It was about then that Ren awkwardly crept around a corner.

"Viviane…?" he murmured.

Viviane spun with a death-like glare, stalking over to the boy with increasing malice. "Tell me, Ren," she said. "How long is an hour?"

Ren froze, a chill running up his spine.

He'd only felt true murderous intent a few times in his life. It never had ended well. He knew full well when it was time to roll over.

Screw Zhihao: in this moment, Viviane far surpassed her.

"Um. Sorry. I'm late. I was testing potions and might have lost track of time a little…" he blushed, fiddling with the wrinkled folds of his clothes.

Viviane raised one of her eyebrows, giving Ren a quick once over before smirking as she leaned backwards. "Ah yes, your…'stress relief'," she said, before taking a deep breath to calm herself, burying the anger. She'd have time to express it clearly later. "How was that? What did you say again? Hormones and something?"

Ren's face got much, much brighter, his expression mortified. "I-i-it was just meant to be chatting! I didn't mean for--!"

He covered his mouth before he accidentally said something better left unsaid. "Um. Sorry. Are you still up for testing that cloak?"

Viviane's smirk practically grew from ear to ear at Ren's reaction, before slinging an arm around his shoulder. "I will get you to tell me everything," she said, before nodding as she glanced to the door of the library. "And hells yes, I am definitely still up for testing the cloak. Sitting around for two hours in a library is quite taxing in its own way."

He smiled in a combination of excitement and relief. "Great. Good. Well. I heard there's a dungeon that got set up like a house recently," he suggested. "It's apparently full of spirit-like creatures. Poltergeists sound like a good thing to test it on, right?"

"Have to start somewhere. Poltergeists throwing stuff at me sounds like a good place to start," she said, already heading towards the door. "Oh, before I forget, what do you usually do in a fight? As in, are you more fight or flight, I guess."

"I am one hundred and ten percent down for flying as fast as I can," he said, as if it were something to be proud of. "What about you?"

"Fly is always good," she replied. "I don't exactly have much fight in me past screaming at things until they pass out. Now then, shall we?" she asked, actually quite excited to go test out the cloak.

"Let's do it," he grinned enthusiastically.



The portal took the pair to some kind of antechamber.

It looked rather refined, actually, as if it was genuinely lived-in.

In fact, if it hadn't been for the unlit candles and the mildly tense air, Ren might have even considered going to take a nap somewhere.

"It's surprisingly…" he searched for a word, and then just gave up, "...nice."

Viviane nodded back, reaching into her bag before making a small 'tsk' sound. "I didn't bring anything that can light a fire," she grumbled, walking over to one of the candles mounted on the wall by a sconce. "Think you can break two of these down? I'd rather not walk around in the dark."

Ren raised his arms to indicate he was much to small to reach them, but then smiled.

"What do you mean, you didn't bring anything?"

Snapping his fingers, a tiny spark of… something blinked in and out of existence.

"Oh come on, that was going to be cool," he grumbled, holding out his hand and creating a small orb of bright silvery-blue light.

Viviane clicked her tongue upon seeing Ren make light from thin air, before stepping to the side. "Well then, lead the way," she said, moving to follow Ren. The last thing she needed was to lead and walk straight into a monster or something just because she couldn't see them.

Leading the way into a large lounge-like room, the small boy peered around for anything of interest. Besides the typical "rapiers over the fireplace", he didn't seem to notice much that held his attention, and so he hopped over to the fireplace in general to inspect it.

"No wood," he frowned. "I was hoping we could light it, but apparently not…"

"Why would there be a fireplace without wood?" Viviane replied, frowning as she looked about before smiling to herself. "My bet's on secret path behind the fireplace. Think it'll open if we move something in the room?" she asked, looking at the rapiers especially. Mostly because they were just above the fireplace.

"My first guess is that something ate the wood, but you might be right."

Curiously, Ren stuck his head and the fireplace and peered up the chimney.

He quickly scrambled back out, screaming and hiding behind Viviane to avoid at least a dozen skulls of various animals flying out, locking their glowing eyes onto the pair.

That was quick.

Viviane jumped a little too at the animal skulls that came flying out. "Oh hell no," she mumbled, backing up (and pushing Ren along) as she took a deep breath and began singing.

(Confuse song)

"Floors, ceilings,"

"Under the couch."

"Check them yourself,"

"Know if we're there."

"You think you see people"

"On the carpet right here."

"You don't see f*cking sh*t, so back off."

"Skulls f*cks."



The odd undead rattled a little bit before floating back up to what was apparently their nest.

"Oops," Ren laughed sheepishly. "That was my fault. Sorry."

Viviane sighed, shaking her head as she glanced at the fireplace. "No, it's fine. It was probably bound to happen at some point if we were to follow up on my 'secret door' idea. Do you think we should take another look around the room before coming back to the fireplace? I'm not entirely keen on facing a small horde of animal skulls again if I don't need to."

He nodded.

"Good idea. Want to try and grab one of those swords just in case? I don't look it, but I'm actually kind of strong," he announced pridefully.

Viviane nodded slightly, glancing at the swords. "It'd probably be best if you held onto the sword if we took one though. I'm not exactly a…well versed in using them," she said, one hand going to pet the rope wrapped around her upper arm.

"Me neither," he admitted, "but Miki is a good teacher and Zhihao somehow taught me a lot from trying to kill me. I could probably use both at once, I think."

Viviane nodded again, before grinning to herself as a thought came to her. A perfect thought at that. "Think you'll need another stress relieving session after those skulls?" she teased, gently poking him in the ribs with her elbow. "I'm sure your friend will have some potions for you to sample again when we get back."

Ren's face glowed brightly enough that it was a legitimate point of contention as to whether his magical light was even needed. "I-it's not like that! It was an accident! B-besides, the only thing that really stresses me out is homework!" he protested hastily. "It's not what you're thinking at all! Well, it is what you're thinking, but it's not for the reason you're thinking! Sort of! Why are you thinking of it, uuuuu!"

He lightly thumped at her arm with scrunched-up fists, hiding his face in embarrassment.

Viviane snickered at Ren's seemingly overreaction, and filed away some of what she could…assume from said actions. "I didn't assume anything about your method of 'stress relieving', Ren. I simply thought that you would be in need of stress-relieving services given how tense you got from the skulls in your face."

"I was just a little spooked!" he insisted. "They're spooky, so I jumped! Bones aren't that weird! They're weird in a different way! Stupid creepy house…"

He pouted a little, still flushing and trying to wrap his face in his sari to mask himself.

"Mmhm," Viviane replied, looking at the swords hanging over the fireplace before reaching over and trying to yank one down. "Well, we best get a move on before you get spooked again," she replied, grinning over her shoulder.

Ren mumbled something about just wanting to have a fun day out as she unlatched one of the sword's scabbards on the wall and getting it down without much trouble.

Holding the sword in her hands, Viviane seemed to balance it in her hand before she shrugged and looked around. "Any idea where else we can try go?" she asked, her mind still stuck on the fireplace-entrance idea. It was hard to escape from it.

Ren frowned. There wasn't exactly a door, but he'd read enough mystery novels to know the clichés around here.

"How about a secret switch on the wall, or a fake book on a shelf?" he suggested.

"I'll take the walls if you take the shelves," she offered, already walking off to look over the walls for any out of place dents or bulges, poking each one with her newly acquired sword.

It wasn't long before it locked into a hole in the wall with a faint click, much like a key in its hole.

Ren, on the other hand, found nothing worth pointing out. Probably because he had found a book that he was rather engrossed in.

Viviane smiled to herself after managing to make progress, leaving the sword in the wall as she turned to see how Ren was doing. Frowning, she quietly walked over, reading over his shoulder for a moment. "Stars and life cycles," she said, loudly to startle him from his reading. "Anyway Ren, I think we need to take the other sword and find a matching wall-hole," she said simply, pointing at her own. "Maybe you can read the book later? You know, save it for after we get out of the haunted castle."

"A-ah. Right," he murmured. "Sorry. It was interesting. Wait, wall-hole?"

He peered over her shoulder at the rapier.

"Did you try turning it?" he asked. "Looks a lot like a key in a lock to me…"

Viviane paused, before snapping her finger. "See, didn't think of that," she said, walking back over to the sword and trying to turn it counter clockwise, the clockwise. "There we go," she mumbled, feeling a solid 'click' as the rapier turned and locked in a new position.

The segment of wall seemed to come loose, as if it had been on hinges all along.

It had probably been on hinges all along.

"…well, okay," she said, turning back to Ren. "Lead the way again please. And don't worry; when you get spooked, I'll be right behind you. Forcing you to stay in place and be spooked more."

Ren shuffled in place, but made his way up the steps beyond the hidden door.



The steps were old and a little rickety, made of old wood and older fixtures. Even the walls were lacking in things as basic as plaster, and Ren was concerned as he led Viviane through the narrow hallway that it could all collapse at any time.

"At least we'll see stuff coming," he thought out loud.

Viviane nodded (even if Ren couldn't see behind himself) at his words, still occasionally glancing left and right. She didn't really like the fact that the walls were missing plaster and such. If she screamed too loud, she could bring everything down on them. "And that would be a whole other level of 'shit'," she thought, still following Ren down the steps.

Ren came to a halt very near to the bottom, waving his light around.

"Hey, I can't see anything."

Frowning, he waved it a little more.

"It's like there's some kind of dark aura stopping my light getting through," he mumbled. "That's kind of suspicious."

Viviane paused, before carefully pulling Ren back. "Switch with me," she mumbled, standing in front of the 'dark aura' with a small frown. "Please don't have a zombie on the other side," she mumbled, before leaning forward, sticking her head into the murky darkness.

All of a sudden, it became alarmingly difficult to breathe, like she had her head in some kind of… Oh.

Wisps of smoke rushed past her, reappearing behind the pair in a vague form that sprouted eyes.

"Eeeeeeee! Nopenopenopenopenope!" Ren hurried behind Viviane again, really not keen on fighting these things.

Viviane sighed (more coughed, really. Shoving your head in a ghost wisp did that to your breath), and glanced back at Ren. "Any ideas?" she hissed. She didn't know if singing would work against ghosts/wisps/whatever they were, and was more than ready to blast them away with her voice if it didn't mean risking the collapse of all the wooden beams they'd seen before. "Shitty ass place to fight," she grumbled.

Ren looked over the sentient smoke cloud, and then his hands. "I don't think taking the rapiers with us would have really helped here," he said anxiously. "M-magic? Maybe…?"

Viviane made a small 'tsk' sound at at that idea. "My magic could cause the wooden beams to break, so you may have to take this one," she continued. If she could see how large the room was, and maybe know where the sound was going, then maybe she would risk it. But given that they were still standing at the bottom of the steps…

"I make fire and shoot lasers!" Ren replied, stumbling back as the cloud monster moved closer. "That's a bad idea in a wooden room!"

Viviane grumbled, before shoving her hands over Ren's ears so he wouldn't go deaf as she screamed at the ghost.

The echo reduced the ghost in question to a fine mist in mere moments, which Ren, judging by the grin on his face, found extraordinarily fun to watch.

"I want that!" he cried excitedly.

Viviane shook her head, before yanking up the collar of her dress, motioning for Ren to do the same. "I don't want to accidentally inhale ghost bits again," she mumbled, motioning for him to take the lead. "And the screaming-thing I just did? Siren blood. It's a little…hard to get."

"Without dying, you mean?" he smirked, a little too proud of a small and slightly racist joke as he wrapped his sari over his mouth. "I wonder if the boss is going to be that difficult…"

Viviane gave him a quizzical glance at first, before sighing and shaking her head. "Come on, lead us," she said, waiting for the shorter boy to go forward. She wasn't going to walk in a dark room where she just killed a ghost. She'd walk in a lit room where she just killed a ghost.

Ren nodded and obliged, lighting up a small broom closet-like room with a single door in it. It didn't seem to be barred or locked.

"A non-descript door. Reminds me of the time I hit a nondescript button," she mumbled, walking over to the door. "Ready? I'll open it on three," she said, poised to fling herself out of the way.



"THREE."



Nothing came out.

Ren did, however, actually scream.

The back of the door was covered entirely in claw marks.



Viviane winced again at Ren's screaming, mumbling something about him being part-banshee before she looked over the claw marks herself. "Do you how to tell if they're new or not?" she asked to Ren, trying to remember what she could from her tamer class. She wasn't sure if they had learned it…

Ren looked over it a little more closely, anxiously prodding at it.

"Some of these are old, but this one and this one have freshly carved splinters still. The wood is lighter here, see?" he pointed. "Which means we… might have found that boss."

Viviane sighed as she looked into the room, motioning for Ren to follow her. "Those were long claw marks," she thought, glancing back and forth in suspicion. In reality, she thought it was probably a weapon rather than long claw marks. For something to be able to make a consistent scratch that long…it would've been huge. Like a panther, at least. "Keep your eyes open," she whispered to Ren.

He nodded carefully, heading down to the bottom of the basement.

He wasn't too keen about what they would find down there.



What they did find down there was, of all things, an old bedroom, complete with a bedside cabinet and a dressing table.

"This is…" Ren murmured, "...unexpected. It's so neat and everything."

"…it's too neat," Viviane mumbled, glancing at the cabinet. She could feel the genre savvy in her screaming to not touch the cabinet because there would be something inside it. Swallowing to suppress her nerves, she quietly walked next to the cabinet, grabbing the handle as she flung it open.

In it were four bottles that would be recognisable at a glance.

For healing potions to be lying around in here was a surprise, but a happy one, it seemed.

Viviane hummed, before taking all four, turning and walking back to Ren as she passed off two of them. "Here you go," she said, giving him two of them as she threw the other two into her bag. She was glad there wasn't actually anything inside the cabinet…but it also made her nervous. Where could the boss be then?

"Ah, thank you," Ren chimed happily. He seemed to have been inspecting a glass bottle on the dressing table around the size of his own head, filled with a strange powder of some kind.

Viviane left Ren to inspect the bottle, instead looking towards the bed now. "…oh please don't be under the bed," she thought, making sure she was a safe distance away before pressing down to the floor to check.

There was actually nothing under there except for what looked like an old chamber pot. Charming.

Ren, meanwhile, had taken the lid off of the bottle and started sniffing at the dusty powder.

Viviane made a small tsk sound as she stood up, turning to ask Ren what they should try when she saw him sniffing the powder. Scowling, she quickly walked over, snatching the bottle from him and capping it. "Ren, don't you know how dangerous that is?" she snapped. "Haven't you taken a chemist class?" she continued, pulling out her chemistry kit as she planned to properly look at the mysterious powder.

"Well, yeah, but my way is easiohhhhhhhhhh."

Stumbling around for a moment, he suddenly fell onto his backside, unable to keep his head up straight.

"Whoa."

Blinking it off in a few seconds, he stood up again, regaining his balance slowly. Just in time, in fact, for Viviane to get her results.

It seemed to be some kind of soporifically drugged cosmetic powder. It wasn't concentrated enough to put anything to sleep, or even really impede reason, in its current state, but it was strong enough to daze and disorient with scent alone, and it could probably have been refined with a little work into a much more effective drug.

Viviane scowled as she glanced at the state Ren was in, and considered trying to sing (or in this case, shout) him out of it before shaking her head. She didn't know enough about the powder to try shock him out of it, and doing so may bring more harm than good. "Lets just hope he doesn't end up getting himself hurt while its in effect," she mumbled, carefully sealing the bottle in a plastic bag before placing that in her bag as she turned back to the drugged-Ren, who was still obviously in a daze.

Ren stifled a nervous laugh, looking dizzily around the room for some kind of exit.

"I, um… I think there's a door here," he said, gesturing in the general direction of a familiar-looking hole in the wall.

Viviane blinked, turning to face said hole-in-wall before sighing. "One moment," she said, opening the dressing table to see if there was anything of interest in them before dragging Ren along.

As a matter of fact, there were two more potions in there; one healing, and one that seemed to be for speed and agility. She pocketed and bagged both of them.

"Come on, light please," she mumbled, taking the lead (Ren couldn't with how he was) as she dragged Ren down the next path.

He just about managed to make his way down the stairs behind, shaking off his disorientation as they went.



Eventually, the pair found a near-pitch black room with two large vases by a set of double doors.

Viviane didn't like the darkness of the room, starting to use Ren more and more as a light source now than her ally. At least, while he was dizzy. Holding his hand above one of the large vases, she peered inside to see if there was anything…well, inside.

As a matter of fact, there was.

Bones.

Bones that proceeded to glow, float out of the vases -- or perhaps they had been urns -- and build golems out of themselves.

"Shit shit shit," VIviane mumbled, quickly pulling Ren back as she took a deep breath, singing a quick chant.

(Confusion Chant)

"Clear and through, change my face."

"Under the skin, thoughts and strength."

"New to the eyes, hidden from sight."

"Turn me to bones,"

"So I may live."

The skeletons gave them a quaint look, or as well as they could without actual faces. As if to try and test something, they drew rapiers off the wall and slashed at the pair with them.

"SHIT," Viviane shouted again, pushing Ren aside as well to dodge the rapier slash. "Of course singing fails me now, against giant skeletons," she grumbled, falling back to plan B as she threw her rope at the golem on the left.

Fortunately, she was much too fast for it to have any hope of evading her bind.

Sighing in relief that she managed to snag the enemy, she barely paused as she cleared her throat to try another song.



"SLEEP YOU B*TCH."

"FOR F*CKS SAKE."

"PASS OUT FOR MY BENEFIT."

"C*NT SKELETONS."



The bound skeleton didn't move, but the unbound one lunged at her for an attack. It would seem that skeletons did not sleep.

It didn't quite manage to reach her before Ren leapt into the fray, punching it in the head with a flaming fist.

The silver-blue blaze was apparently enough to heat its skull to the point where the bone marrow had boiled over, because the head in question exploded like a frag grenade, sending burning chunks of bone in all directions.

Viviane mumbled her thanks to Ren as she looked at the skeleton still bound by her. The explosion caused by Ren's flame-punch was actually quite effective, having taken a few chunks out of her skeleton as well. Taking a more shallow breath, Viviane let out a weaker scream to try bring the skeleton down entirely. No need to take a sledgehammer if a normal one would do.

Indeed, the scream carried enough concussive force to blow the upper body of the skeleton clean off, leaving the room uninhabited save for the siren hybrid and her inept companion.

Ren let out a sigh before glancing at the double doors.

"Do we want to see what's behind that?"

"Yes we do," Viviane replied, pulling the rope back to its place, wrapped around her arm as she walked over to the doors. "Can you take the other door?" she asked, waiting for Ren to come up too before she started pushing open the door.

Reluctantly, Ren did as asked, pushing his own door at the same time, the pair opening with a clank.

This seemed to wake up the large black hound on the other side, clad in bones like armour, which snarled at the intruders as they entered its kennel.

Viviane barely paused when she saw the hound, taking a deep breath as she let loose a scream at it. She didn't want to try bind a dog if it ended up dragging her around. That, and because the last time she'd tried to bind a boss, it'd ended up biting her.

The blast of noise seemed to really irritate the dog's sensitive ears, and it responded by opening its mouth and filling the room with a smokescreen.

Ren tried to move in, but suddenly found himself with both no idea where to aim and burning lungs as black fog clouded his vision completely.

Vivian was about to try scream again when the dog blasted smoke everywhere, and coughed harshly as she inhaled the smoke too deeply. "Shit," she mumbled, pulling the neck of her dress to try filter the fog as she glanced back and forth, taking care to try not make any sounds. "The dog shouldn't be able to smell us either in this fog, right?" she thought.

As it turned out, it appeared to be able to see perfectly fine, as it leapt at Viviane, fangs bared.

Viviane gave a sharp cry as the fangs bit into her arm, and glared at the dog as she took a deep breath, ignoring the burn in her lungs as she screamed at the dog that still had its fangs in her arm.

She successfully managed to blast it back off of her arm, apparently severely injuring it this time.

It had apparently had more than enough of this noise stuff, and it opened its mouth again, hissing red smoke at her.

Viviane coughed madly as the dog opened its mouth, taking the chance that it opened its mouth again to to wrench her arm away. Wincing as the burn in her lungs worsened, she did what she could and kicked the dog away, trying to get some distance while she thought out her next step. She couldn't very well keep screaming at the dog…she could only do that a few more times. "Oh yeah, crocodile cloak," she thought, pulling the transparent cloak around her as she thought of her next step.

The dog caught itself, trying the red smoke out again.

Viviane stared at the red smoke coming at her again, wincing as she expected another burn in her lungs as she failed to properly filter it out. Only…it smelled incredibly sweet this time. "Shit," she mumbled, feeling her eyes droop as she crumpled to the floor, breathing evenly (or as even one can in a smoke-screen) as she fell asleep.

Seeing its prey cease movement, the dog made its next move, its jaw glowing red as it bit down with absurd force against Viviane's head. However, the hood that it hadn't seen was easily tough enough to prevent it from even drawing blood.

Viviane jolted awake at the hard jarring bite around her head, and quickly sat up as she kicked at the dog again. "Shit," she mumbled, grabbing a healing potion from her bag and downing it as quick as she could. "Tastes like cherries," she thought.

The dog made its move, throwing out red smoke yet again.

Vivian coughed as the red smoke came for her again, waving it as the burning feeling returned to her lungs. "Ugh," she grumbled, waving the smoke out of her face as she took a deep breath of fresh air, the smoke screen around her finally clearing.

In fact, the cloud had dispersed just in time for her to witness the dog leaping aside in panic as Ren plowed another burning punch into the ground where it had just been standing a moment ago, evading narrowly as a crack formed across the stone floor.

Ren grumbled a couple of harsh words about being fateless before preparing another attack.

Viviane grumbled to herself from where she sat on the floor, before taking another deep breath as she pushed Ren to the side a little, just in case he was caught in her screaming.



"F*CK YOU YOU STUPID B*TCH."



The dog, having long since accepted it couldn't really dodge these, was blasted against the wall with a sharp crack, and didn't move.



"Man, that thing took way longer than it should have to deal with," Ren muttered. "Even Cath Palug didn't take that long. And Vivi was yelling for that."

Viviane grumbled, rubbing her throat gently as she tried to ignore the pain. "Yeah, it did take awhile," she replied, her voice quite hoarse from all the screaming she'd done as she picked herself up. "Good news tho, your cloak works magic," she said, rubbing the two red bite marks along her neck. "If I hadn't worn it, I might've just lost my head," she mumbled, walking over to the dead dog.

"So, what should we do?" she asked, not entirely sure if she could harvest the bones off of it in a reasonable fashion.

Ren, proud of his handiwork, folded his arms and happily decided.

"There's usually a treasure box of some sort near the boss," he explained. "If you harvest the body, I can collect the stuff and bring it to you."

Viviane spun at this. "Treasure box," she said flatly, cussing a storm as she thought of the transparent crocodile before sighing. "Fine, I'll get the body then," she replied, taking out a knife as she started on the body. "Core and bone-armor first," she mumbled, rolling the dead body over as she yanked the stone piece out of the dog. Opening a plastic bag, she threw the core as well as the bone-like armour that surrounded the dog, even if she didn't know what she'd use it for. "Now stomach and intestines," she mumbled, ensuring herself to be as thorough as possible as she dissected the body.

Meanwhile, Ren returned with a curious quartz cube. "Well, there was a box in the box," he mumbled bemusedly.

"There was a smoke gland in the dog," Viviane replied, throwing said organ into another plastic bag as she stood up, carefully wiping the knife she'd used as well as she returned everything to her satchel. "Any idea what the cube does?" she asked, not paying mind to the blood on her hands.

Ren shook his head. "It looks like it's segmented, but I've never seen anything like this. Would you like it? You did all the work this time around," he admitted awkwardly.

Viviane shrugged, fishing out the smoke core before passing it to Ren. "A trade. I don't want to even think about that smoke monster again," she said, coughing again as her lungs continued to heal from the red smoke.

He handed them both back together, shaking his head. "You'll get more out of these than I will. Besides. I. Can't really. Use cores. Um."

Viviane raised an eyebrow, before nodding as she threw the items into her bag. "If you say so," she said, before sighing. "Do you know how we should get out of here?"

"Oh yeah, there's a portal out near where the treasure box is usually kept," Ren nodded. "Oh, by the way… It's a weird hunch, but I think you should try to keep it warm. The cube, I mean."

Viviane raised her eyebrow at what Ren said about keeping the cube warm, before nodding as she fished it out of her bag and holding it in her hands. "Well, let us go to this portal," she said, eager to get out of this haunted house. Warm bed and rest called out to her.
 
Miki stared disinterestedly as Jouh began his lecture, tuning out most of his words while only catching the repeated mentions of 'spirits'. Kheire, sitting next to him, gently poked his shoulder. "Would you like to train in the arena after class? It's been awhile since I participated in a match, and I think it would be a good idea to let off some steam." The smaller boy seemed troubled.
It took Miki a second to answer, not really paying attention. "Hmm? Oh yeah. Sure."
Jouh, meanwhile, was bored out of his mind as he gave his lecture, "As you all know, or I hope you know, Spirits cause the effects of their abilities by manipulating the power of the soul of their user. We allow them to do this by forging contracts with them that bind their souls to ours. Along with this, I would hope you also have chosen a medium for your spirits. As you grow together, the item grows along with you, getting unique traits that have to do with what type of spirit is possessing it. Now, another factor that must be taken into account is what monsters you choose to take spirit abilities from. They must be compatible with each other in some way. Otherwise, it will damage you upon trying to assimilate it. So remember, whenever thinking about absorbing a halo, check for similarities first."

Kheire was messing around with the environmental settings of the arena, "Any preset you are partial to? I prefer the forest."
Miki adjusted his glasses. "Anything that isn't a forest."
Kheire frowned and replied in a petulant tone, "Sea floor it is, then."
The arena floor shifted through various phases and environments, land growing and changing before settling on one.
The environment in question was a rocky black ground, large slabs of dark rock from end to end.
It was also filled to the top with saltwater, sunlight flickering across the false seafloor.

Kheire floated at one end, taking on arachnid traits and gesturing in Miki's direction. It did nothing.
Annoyed at the fact neither of them seemed to need to surface for air, Miki cut through the water as he shot towards the faerie with his swords drawn. His charge went unimpeded by the water, closing in on Kheire in an instant.
Kheire looked a bit panicked as he took on an aura of armor, slowing down his surroundings and dodging the attacks.
Feeling himself grow sluggish, Miki electrified his blood to speed up his movements with a barely audible crackle that didn't quite travel through the water.
Kheire's arachnid features returned as he crouched lower, preparing to dodge.
He made no move to attack, instead summoning a feminine form a ways away that shot weapons of clay at the faerie.
Kheire avoided all but one of the blades, taking a small cut to the side. He retaliated by launching a quick, poisonous thorn.
Miki's skin crystallized after feeling the light sting, with an unnaturally fluid movement he backed out of the aura's range, no longer treading from the weight.

Kheire moved closer and responded with another dart, hoping to wear him down. His "battle of attrition" against Zhihao didn't work out the way he expected, but maybe it will work out this time.
The ghiest produced sixteen swords, quickly launching them at Kheire.
The hybrid was struck by the majority, but didn't let it show when he shot another venomous dart at Miki.
Miki gritted his teeth as the venom took its toll and tightened his grip on his swords. He launched a final barrage of attacks and made a movement to summon something, but the poison finally did its work. Miki collapsed in front of the bloodied boy.

Then in an instant, it all vanished.
Their wounds disappeared and the arena returned to its normal state as if nothing had happened. Not even a drop of water remained.
Miki picked himself up and dusted off his clothes. "I think I felt something there for a second… can we do that again?"
Kheire just gave him a disbelieving look and left wordlessly, leaving Miki without a vent for his sudden inspiration.
 
One of Octavia's many eyes saw, as Kheire was walking along the street to bring his wares to the merchants to sell, a mysterious stranger nearby. For some reason, she was suspicious of him. He looked almost familiar, but she knew she had never seen his face before. Then it hit her, as all eight eyes widened, "Kheire! Oni, five o'clock!"

Kheire did his best to not show any kind of alarming response as he slowed down a bit, enough for the much larger stranger to be by his side. He made a small show of looking around before seeming shocked at the appearance of the stranger, "Hello there! You wouldn't happen to be an Oni, would you?"

The wanderer slowly looked down at the child to his left before grunting a seemingly affirmative response and nodding his head.

Kheire smiled up at who might be his new friend, "Cool, I'm an Oni too! Well, half an Oni. My name is Kheire, what's yours? Oh, and would you like to get lunch? I'm buying and I'd like to learn more about Oni and what their culture is like."

The man's voice was deep and rough like gravel, as he responded, "Name's Damasen. As for lunch…" He shrugged and motioned for Kheire to lead the way.


Kheire led them to a nearby inn, where he paid for a room for his new friend and plenty of food, along with a keg of something strong for Damasen. Kheire didn't really get why, but wasn't going to question the man's tastes.

"So… What are things like in our homeland? What are the people like? The food? The art? The weapons? The crafting methods? Main export and import? Agricultural methods? Just start anywhere, because I want to know anything." Kheire was gushing with excitement at the thought of learning about his people. He knew his father was not a good man, but he didn't believe in judging the many by the few.

Damasen shook his head, realizing that this would be a long talk. The kid paid for his room and meals, so the least he could do is answer a few questions. "Let's see… The people are big, and more than just in the physical way. We are generally a bit loud and enjoy large celebrations. We have a weakness for alcohol. To answer one of your questions, our main import is generally alcohol and different kinds of food, usually meat. Our main exports are weapons and armor. Agriculture… I believe a friend of mine said we use something called hydroponics? I can't remember. We don't have much in the way of art outside of a few tribal songs and some metal sculpting.Our weapons are usually clubs, and for good reason. After all, it is our bloodbound weapon."

"Woowww… That's really interesting! We have a bloodbound weapon? This is my first time hearing about it."

Damasen's eyes widened to comic proportions, unable to think of how this kid could've even survived without their bloodbound weapon, "Here, let me unlock yours and you can see for yourself." He pulled up a small empty bowl, chanting a short incantation before slicing open his palm and squeezing some blood out. "Drink this in acceptance of your heritage and as a link to all Oni kind. Oh, and here is the incantation." After pushing the bowl towards Kheire, he used his blood to scribble the words down on a napkin.

Kheire made a slightly uncomfortable face before downing the thick, dark liquid. After gulping it down, he coughed for a minute, to which Damasen chuckled and thumped his back until his breath returned.

"That tasted horrible! But I can feel it in. Something physical that I can call on. Hmmm, if I just…" In a moment, particles originating from his body collected into a massive, rectangular shape. "A black club? Cool. It already does things, too! It's nice to have something grow with me without having to drag new abilities out from the soul part left by a monster corpse after looking for something particular that'd I'd like."

Damasen nodded in agreement, "It's real convenient, that thing. Just you wait. It'll save your life. If you want to meet more of us, look right around… here." He had pulled out a map and pointed to a mark that signified an island just outside the borders of the Faerie lands.

Kheire nodded, a contemplative expression adorning his face. "I may do just that…"

They talked late into the afternoon about various customs and other things Damasen had learned along his travels.


The next day, the only sign of Kheire was a note pinned to his door. The message on it said, "Left to learn more about Oni. Be back soon. If you need me you can find me here." Below the writing was a map with his destination marked.

Kheire had barely reached the outskirts of the island before he was set upon by guards and knocked unconscious. His last words before blacking out were something along the lines of "I should've expected this." They imprisoned him below ground in the center of the main village of the island. There he lay, beaten, confused, and a little frightened. The entire cell was warded against, leaving him powerless and unable to even talk to his spirits.

"Excuse me! Guard! Someone? Why am I here?! What did I do?!" Kheire shouted out until he heard footsteps heading his way.

A moment later, a guard came into view with a sneer on his face as he looked down on him. "What do you want, Faerie?"

Kheire was taken aback before thinking that the relations between his two races are obviously not good. "I'm not just a Faerie. I'm half Oni, see?" He summoned his new bloodbound weapon, which seemed to have changed. There seemed to be an almost reflective look to it…

The guard's sneer turned to a malicious grin, "Well, isn't this interesting…" He swung his own club, and that was all Kheire heard before he woke up again, choking on someone's blood for the second time in… he wasn't sure, really. What he was sure of, was that he had the Faerie bloodbound weapon forced upon him. He could feel it. It felt different than the Oni's club. Two Faeblades, built for speed… His thoughts were interrupted by a tray slipping into his cell through a small opening. "Eat up, treehugger scum. You'll need it for what's in store tomorrow."

After swallowing his disgust, Kheire gulped down whatever was on the tray, struggling to avoid tasting it for long. As he lay in the corner in the cold, all he could do was hope he could survive whatever cruel fate was in store for him.
 
A grey sky and a rainy day was normally the perfect time to laze around. Nobody ever felt especially motivated to go outside and do things.
Even those working inside would experience a plateau of procrastination.
Unfortunately for Ren, whose procrastination was already at the highest level possible for a mortal person, that meant he had nothing to distract himself from his homework with.
In other words, a weather that practically induced laziness managed to bore someone with an affinity for it.
The boy was reclining on his windowsill, a textbook in his lap as he glumly sketched the diagrams on the pages onto the fogged window besides the numerous drawings of snacks.
｢Miki,｣ he called through the haze of Exin. ｢Are you around?｣
「I'm outside. Did you need something?」 Miki stayed in the shade of a tree, not entirely shielding himself from the downpour as he continued training.
｢O-Outside…?｣ Ren shuddered, looking out at the water running down the window. ｢Aren't you cold? It's really wet out there. You could catch a cold. Come inside.｣
So I can bug you, he added to himself. The boredom was approaching levels that could have him in an asylum at any moment.
「Alright.」 A short moment later was followed by a knock on Ren's door.
Ren almost fell off his perch in surprise. He's fast. Scary.
Slowly climbing down, he tweaked the door handle the wrong way before clicking his tongue in frustration. He'd done it the first couple of times when he had first arrived, and it ended up becoming a habit.
Turning it the right way this time, he opened the door, peering eagerly through the gap before it was even big enough to see through.
The ghiest stood on the other side, utterly drenched and combing through his dripping hair with his fingers. "Hello Master." Eyeing the crack in the door as he spoke.
Ren's wide eyes were a mark of both shock and admiration. He really had been outside. "You're really quick. How did you do that?"
"I think Miss Val would've been faster." Not really answering the question. "As much as I enjoy having your eyes on me, are you going to let me in?"
"Ah."
An extremely eloquent response answered that he hadn't even realised, and he opened the door much wider, taking a few spring-filled steps back to give him some room.

Ren's dorm was actually rather fitting. It looked simple enough, with the only real furniture being eight wooden bookcases arranged evenly around the room, leaving only room for a bed under the window, albeit the bed in question apparently having been long been replaced by what looked like a huge shapeless plushie of some kind.
As such, it was not the furniture that attached the room so firmly to the boy so much as the clutter.
Books of all kinds; spellbooks, textbooks, history books, story books; were scattered across the floor wide open, with only the occasional pile at the foot of a bookcase.
Among them were blank papers, some that had intricate patterning sketched on, and a few tools and random trinkets that Ren had clearly picked up at some point around dungeons. It likely wouldn't have surprised anyone to learn that said trinkets were usually on the windowsill when Ren didn't feel like sitting on it.
The bookcase was not only lined with books either. In fact, the mess on the floor only allowed more room for miscellaneous objects, and a moving Newton's cradle was the thing that most easily caught the eye.
Miki picked up on of the books lying at his feet and turned it over. "Stars? So you're interested in stuff like this Master?"
Ren did that sheepish head-rub of mild embarrassment that the ghiest had seen many times before. "Well… Only recently," he admitted. "I starting thinking about them the other day and got to wondering. If they're basically fireballs, I should be able to make them, right? There's nothing they can do that I can't. That's what I thought. But, well…"
"That would be useful. Being able to make stars would probably be very helpful." He put the book back on the floor, trying his best to avoid the other objects obscuring the ground.
Ren's slightly disheartened eyes lit up with an enthusiastic nod.
"I think so too! It's hard, but I'll keep trying," he vowed. "I don't really like having this be so much of a headache, but if you think I can do it, I'll definitely manage eventually."
He scoured the floor, unearthing a piece of paper with a ridiculously complicated magic circle on it.
"This was my first prototype of a protostar-making spell. You know, before it's a real star," he explained. "When it's still small and stuff. It ended up being far too simple because I have to find a way to apply force to the outside so it doesn't just pop. It's hard to do that with my magic."
Suddenly talking about something he was deeply interested in, his voice picked up a musical tone as he spoke, his words flowing just a little faster than usual.

Miki picked up another stray book and flipped through it, smiling slightly at Ren's obvious excitement. "How are you trying to form them?"
"At the moment, I'm trying to direct the flow of the combustion so the expansion only happens in one direction. That way I can layer it so the outside pushes in and the inside pushes out," he explained cheerily as he attempted a quick sketch of circles on a blank sheet to represent what he was talking about. "It hasn't worked at the moment because the surface area-to-volume ratio of the core versus the outer shell is much lower, so the outside layer has to give off much more power than the core to keep it all in. But if I do it that way, see, the energy doesn't come out, so I can't use any of it, and I end up wasting mana just trying to keep it all together without any benefit. So I'm trying to come up with a new model right now."
Miki took a while to process what Ren said before slowly giving his thoughts with uncertainty, "What if you tried to internalise it?"
Ren cocked his head in confusion. "Burn it inside my body?" he murmured. "I don't think that would work. I think I would die."
"I assumed since your blood is…" he gestured at Ren, "that it would do something, but I'm not entirely sure."
"Oh. Oh yeah." The alabaster boy blinked in small surprise, as if he'd forgotten. "What is that stuff anyway?"
"You don't even know?" Miki murmured dryly.
"Nope," he shook his head, searching around the floor for something. "I never met my real parents, and I've never met anyone of my race either, whatever I'm supposed to be. I guess it doesn't really matter, but now I'm kind of curious. Ah, here it is."
Picking up a small knife, one ordinarily used for skinning dead monsters, he tentatively pressed it against his pale flesh, as if having to push himself to go through with it.
"Master?!"
Ren jumped a little in surprise, the fang biting into his hand.
Ren jumped even more in shock and pain.
He let out a brief scream, partly from the cold burning sensation metal piercing his hand, but mostly from the fear of it.
Yanking it out, licks of light spilled into the air, floating like cinders.
Ren stumbled back onto his makeshift bed, holding his hand out and clutching his wrist to stop the shaking.
From the wound rolled silver-white wisps of ghostly flame, moving lazily with the air, the occasional spark floating slowly away.
"What is it…?" he wondered aloud, albeit mostly to himself.
"Why did you do that?!" Miki tentatively grabbed the boy's wounded hand, putting pressure on the cut and trying to slow the flow of silverish fire.
"I-I only meant to draw a little!" Ren protested. "It was an accident! It just passed through so easily, like there was nothing there under the skin!"
He paused for a moment.
Nothing? Really?
No bones, no cartilage, no tendons? He swore he could have felt some from the outside, but…
"Hey, Miki? Let go a second. I want to try something."
He hesitated for a moment before relenting.
"...Don't hurt yourself."
The smaller boy frowned thoughtfully, moving each of his fingers one by one. The extensions of his hand obediently curled up and stretched one after the other, and he made and then unclenched a fist.
"I can move it," he observed. "I should have cut the tendons, right?"
The ghiest flexed his own fingers experimentally, "I think so?"
Ren looked up at him in concern. "I… don't think there's anything inside my body."
A hollow form would have explained it perfectly provided his skin mimicked the hardness of bone externally. In fact, it would have even explained how flame was drawn equally across the cut instead of where the veins would be, now he thought about it.
"Can you heal yourself? I-I don't have potions and I can't heal. Just, we can figure this out later."
Despite everything, Ren giggled, closing his wound with magic.
"You're kind of cute when you're nervous, Miki," he assessed. "But I'm sorry if I worried you. I'm okay now, see?"
"Have you seen Dorm Advisor?" he asked, pointedly ignoring the comment. "We sparred a few weeks ago but I haven't seen him for a while."
Ren pouted a little, not that happy about being blown off, but decided if it was a genuine question, it probably deserved an answer. Probably.
"Well, I did find a note the other day. I thought he'd just gone to a dungeon, but apparently he's gone off alone to find Oni for some reason," he recounted.
Miki hummed and slumped into the makeshift bed. "Do you think something happened?" he asked, his words muffled by the bedding.
"It's not the first time he's just gone and done whatever he wanted," Ren grumbled, curling up a little, Miki's own relaxation encouraging him on some level to take a nap despite the conversation still going. "But it has been a while, even for him. Knowing Kheire, he's probably just trying to find some kind of rare material, but…"
"He doesn't normally stay away for this long." Miki supplied.
Ren nodded affirmatively. "Normally about a week at most."

The boy's thoughts retreated into his mind, ticking over quickly.
Kheire could get caught up in a lot of things. Crafting, hunting, and even spelunking. Spelunking not only sounded stupid, it was also super boring.
But to get caught up in something for him meant to set up his dorm as a base until it was completely done. His crafting was done in his room. His hunting involved pit stops to drop off his catches. Even mining necessitated him planning out routes at his desk past midnight by candlelight.
There was no way that Oni could possibly accommodate his needs like that.
There was in turn a degree of concern growing like ivy in the back of his head.
Something might have come up.
It was only natural to take that course of action as a result.
"Miki, Miki! This is the perfect time to go play surprise pranks on him!" he grinned maniacally. "You know, he doesn't know we're there, and it's possible he got so caught up in his work that he forgot to come back! Pranks solve everything here!"
"Maybe we should just ask around first."
"There's no time for that, Miki!" he protested. "It might be too late by the time we do! Or someone might spread the word that we're going to find him and play pranks on him!"
Miki deadpanned. "Right… Let's go ask around."

Viviane hummed to herself as she walked down the halls, the small quartz golem marching alongside her. It had been maybe 5 days since she'd gotten the quartz box to open up, and she had spent the next five learning how to get it to work. "I wonder how Ren knew what it was," she mumbled, passing by the boy's room before pausing. After all, he was the one who recommended she keep it warm and all…
"Might as well ask," she thought, knocking on his door.
Since it was already unlatched, however, it swung open with just the force of her request of entry so reveal the two boys laid on a large plushy cushion that seemed to be the room's makeshift bed.
It was too easy for Viviane.
"Hello Ren. I didn't know you were having a stress relieving session now. I thought you said you were tasting potions last time? What is it this time then, inspecting your 'weapons'? Make sure they're ready for use?" she asked, a cheshire grin across her face.
Ren waved cheerfully to her as he processed what she'd said.
He looked at Miki.
He looked at her.
He looked at the bed.
"Eh? Eh?"
Blinking slowly, his glowing blush crept onto his face.
"I-i-it's not…! I wasn't…! We…!" he protested.
Miki flipped himself over and propped himself up on his elbows.
Completely nonchalant, he nodded at the girl. "Oh. Hello. You're a new student right?"
Viviane smiled, leaning against the doorway before nodding. "Yup, Viviane Saphalea. Nice to meet you, Mr…?"
"Miki. Miki Hao Kuin."
Viviane nodded again. "Miki Hao Kuin. Nice to meet you," she said, before turning her attention back to Ren. "Anyways, Ren! How did you know what the quartz cube was?" she asked, letting the small quartz golem walk into the room.
Ren's eyes twinkled as he sat up. "Ah, it's cute!" he chimed. "I thought it was a bit like an egg, but I didn't expect a baby to come out!"
Viviane sighed, resigning to herself the fact that Ren probably just gave her some random advice before letting the golem march over to the bed. "Yup. He's great…outside of nearly punching a hole in a wall. But that was probably my fault," she said, glancing around Ren's room. "You know, you should actually clean up a bit. The only place anyone can sit is your bed."
Ren pouted a little upon hearing her anecdote. Something being that cute and that strong just wasn't fair. It shouldn't have been allowed.
He pouted even more when Viviane suggested putting actual effort into a task. "You can just move things out the way…" he mumbled. "Besides, it's comfy here. And that's not true. I was sitting on the windowsill, see? That's why those things there are on the floor, because I threw them off to make room."
Viviane sighed as she looked around the room, before leaning down to grab some books, making a small pile nearby. Her golem started going the same, and in a few moments, they'd cleared away a small space. "Do you have a chair somewhere under all of this?"
"Probably," the small boy answered, completely serious. "The books are probably soft though. Mostly. The covers are slightly squishy. Hey, Viviane? Do you know anything about Oni?"
Viviane shrugged as she sat in the small clearing, making the small golem walk over to her as she sat down, playing with the golem like it was a doll. "I do not. Why do you ask?"
"I was just wondering," he said. "Kheire, the Dorm Advisor, hasn't been back in a while. You've probably met him. He's basically a walking, talking flower. He left a note saying he was going to visit some Oni, but it's not like him to take quite this long. So Miki and I were going to go prank him!"
Viviane frowned, stopping her playing as she stared at Ren. "Aren't you worried about him?"
"Not really. I've met a few Oni before, and they're pretty bad-tempered, but we've wiped out way tougher things than them. I doubt anything bad has happened to him apart from maybe forgetting we exist."
A blatant lie, of course, but it didn't show at all.
Ren was actually beginning to get a little paranoid.
After all, their victories had been team efforts against single opponents, no matter how vastly they had been outclassed by such godlike beings.
Viviane frowned, before sighing as she stopped playing with her golem altogether, standing up as well. "Do you want to come with me to go check on him?" she asked, going with the most direct question. "Because I'd be worried if our dorm advisor suddenly disappeared for too long, regardless of what he should be facing."
"Great idea! He'll never suspect a prank from someone he's never met!" cackled Ren.
Miki just shook his head. "...Did… did slicing your hand open do something else to your head."
"I don't think so," he blinked. "Hey, wait, that's mean!"
Viviane sighed, shrugging her shoulders. If they were to do this under the guise of a prank (at least, she hoped that was what Ren was thinking, and not actually pranking the dorm advisor) so be it. "Any idea where he went?" she asked, already carefully making her way out of his room without stepping on one of the many books still strewn across the ground.
"H-hey! Viviane! Wait, we still need to get Val!" he protested, getting up and hurrying after her. "Miki, come on!"
He picked himself up and followed, wondering if Viviane even knew who Val was.
Viviane, in this case, did not know who Val was. "Who's this Val?" she asked, already heading down the halls.
"Ah, she's a special friend, like Miki," Ren explained. "Actually, she's the one I was going to visit after that class."
Viviane smiled as they walked. "So she's the one I have to thank for your stress relief lasting so long," she said. "She better be really 'distracting' if she managed to keep you there for so long."
"Th-that was an accident!" insisted Ren. "Miki was there too, anyway!"
As if trying to prove a point, he reached over and clung to the taller boy's arm.
"You're just digging yourself further into a hole, Master."
One could almost see Viviane's pointed ears perk up at Miki's words. "Master, you say? Funny, I thought it would be the other way around between you two. Never took you for the commanding type, Ren," she said, slinging an arm around the smaller boy's shoulder.
Miki gripped Ren's hand in his own, smiling plainly at the mermaid.
"Never took you for the type to have legs either. What a surprise."
Viviane shrugged as she glanced down at her legs. "I'd keep my tail out if it didn't mean flopping around like a fish everywhere," she said, sighing under her breath. "I swear, this is the longest I've gone without stumbling…"
"Stumbling?" echoed the centerpiece of their arrangement, before inadvertently managing to demonstrate what that looked like.
Viviane gave a sharp yelp, having been leaning a decent amount on Ren when he fell down, taking her down as well.
The pair's spectacular fall was quickly followed by Miki, who tripped on Ren's leg when he hit the ground.
Ren's squeak upon the pair landing on him was not even incomparable to a rubber chicken.

"Uuu… Go team…" he mumbled.
Viviane grumbled to herself as she pulled herself up, looking over herself and the others to check for any bruises or cuts. "Let's not do that again," she mumbled, brushing invisible dust off her dress. "Fast, rough, and not fun at all."
Miki shifted off the smaller boy, going through the same motions as Viviane before reaching out to help him up.
Ren, as usual, did not go through the motions, and was in fact as reluctant as expected to move at all, but accepted Miki's aid. "Thank you," he smiled. "I'm only taking half the blame for that."
Viviane sighed as she shook her head, carefully fitting her shoes back on. "Well, whatever, let's go," she said, glancing to the small quartz golem that had more or less watched them all fall. "Better not laugh…" she grumbled, not even sure if the golem could laugh.
A little ahead of them a large wolf was lying down, with a look that definitely could be interpreted as amusement.
Viviane jumped slightly as she saw the large wolf, her quartz golem immediately moving in front of her before she remembered where she was. "Probably someone's pet," she thought, sighing as she tried to calm down.
Ren frowned thoughtfully as he met its gaze. He had never seen it before, but it had a familiar aura about it, as if the way it moved translated much too easily to a demeanour he was already comfortable with.
"Could that be you…?" he wondered quietly.
The wolf sauntered over, and lied down on Ren's feet.
Smiling warmly, the small boy brushed a hand through the fur on its neck.
He wasn't really sure, but it seemed like she had found even more uses for that ability he'd briefly glimpsed before she'd descended on Zhihao.

As Valentina turned back into, well, Val, a watcher was nodding, taking note of abilities that these possible opponents may have. She would never want to hurt children, powerful or not, but if the past was to not repeat itself it may be necessary. She was confident, however, that they wouldn't be a problem.
Well, not necessarily confident, but if she could destroy creators of worlds, she could take care of these children.
"I give you my apologies in advance."

Viviane tried not to jump as the wolf transformed back into a girl. Say what you will, she didn't see many animorphs from where she was from. Sighing as she looked back at the girl, she shook her head as she leaned over. "Who's your friend, Ren?"
A wide entertained grin spread across his lips. "This is Val! I didn't know you could change into other animals!" he said excitedly. He was under the impression that it had only been avians, so this was a surprise. "Val, this is Viviane. I think you're in some of the same classes."
Viviane paused as she stared at the other girl, humming as she tried to think back to her classes. To be fair, there were a lot of people in them. "Healer, tamer and…" she said, struggling to remember if there were anymore.
"I think we're all in Chemistry together," he suggested.
"She's the one that started the 'stress-relief' incident I'm pretty sure you keep talking about." Miki supplied, giving a half wave sort of gesture to the white haired girl.
"M-Miki! It wasn't meant to be an incident!"
"So it's going to be a regular thing?"
Ren flushed and buried his face in his sari, letting out a muffled cry of "You're all horrible!"
Shuffling a little in place, it made sense that the one looking straight down noticed something on the floor.
As it happened, a scrap of paper was poking out from under the door.
Upon pulling it out and inspecting it, Ren realised it was Kheire's door.
This was primarily because of the note and map.
"Hey, I found him," he announced.
"That was… very convenient." Miki peered over Ren's head, skimming through their contents.
"I know, right?" said Ren ponderously. "Well, he wasn't lying. Definitely Oni territory, if I'm remembering this place properly."
"You've been there before?" he made a grab for the note, leaning into Ren more than the action warranted.
"I only passed through it," Ren replied. "The Region, that is. A couple of people warned me to stay away because of the Oni, so I went around, but I do remember some walls around some area. Nothing flashy, but I expect that's where we're looking for."
Miki hummed, "How dangerous do you think they are?" Are they going to be like Zhihao?
Ren shook his head. "Not that big a deal. Oni are generally pretty bad-tempered and warlike as a rule, but they have a lot of huge weaknesses and they're not very quick or clever," he said. "I wouldn't want to have to deal with a lot at once, but you can generally reason with them if things go sour, especially if there's a blue one around."
"So this has been what Kheire's been doing?" Val asked, moving to try to see the map as well.
"Looks like it," Ren nodded. "I think he's half Oni… He mentioned something like that, even though he really does not look it."
"I see… Yes, he really doesn't look it, or even act it," Val pondered, "I'm guessing he isn't on the best terms with them, then… Although, I'm not on the best terms with the Veela, and I look just like one."
"I don't think you act much like one though," he replied. He had never actually met Veela in person, but he'd heard a couple of stories.
"In all honesty, I don't know if I act like either. The only Vila I ever met was my mother, and I've only met one clan of Veela," Val quickly realized that the two words sounded the same, but hoped that she would be understood regardless.
"Your mother was a clan?" Unfortunately, this was Ren she was talking to.
"Ah… Here, let me explain."

Her way of explanation was even more confusing, even to someone who had been close to both kinds of Veela. Strange, though, that the girl called them such.
So there's a sword boy, a Veela hybrid, and a… him, to worry about.
However, she had a plan. How fortunate it is to be herself.

"Ah."
Ren had listened intently to the entire explanation, and had summarised what he had learned with a small noise and an expression that would not be out of place on a person who had just consulted a map to look for a signpost and realised what they were doing.
They had begun to walk as she explained, and the small boy was considering a detour in the back of his mind.
"Do you guys think we should check the library?" he pondered. "It's usually good to see what we're up against, but if we already know where we're going…"
"You already know how you're going to prank him Master?"
Ren grinned at the ghiest. "Water balloons are tried and true, I think. He's a plant, he can handle it."
So, with the trio of quite possibly and justifiably reluctant friends in tow, the short boy led the way to the library with haste.
What inspired said haste was probably just enthusiasm at pulling a prank, but...
 
Kheire felt terrible as he was dragged out of his cell and his ears were assaulted by incoherent shouting. From what he could gather, he was going to be participating in some kind of fight. Soon he was thrown to the ground and a bag was thrown at him before the door slammed shut behind him. Shaking himself awake, he looked into the bag to find his equipment. "At least they aren't sending me out to fight with nothing." After donning his armor and such, he manifested his faeblades and entered the arena to find some huge monstrosity facing him from the other side and a crowd of oni populating the stands, shouting for blood.



A cage door on the other side of the arena rattled a little as two oni tried to subdue something in the dark, yanking chains as a third slowly opened a gate, dragging out a menacing, green-brown creature some nine feet tall.

It had a largely reptilian body, scales, a tail, four legs with clawed feet, snarling through sharp teeth, but its back curved upwards as if it were a biped, making room for two huge bladed "arms". It seemed to be some sinister fusion of a komodo dragon and a praying mantis.

Making a noise somewhere between a screech and a hiss in Kheire's direction, the three oni retreated into the metal gate again, dropping the chains and closing it.

Kheire wasted no time, using his faeblades to boost the speed of his magma projectiles before launching a volley at the abomination, "Where did they even find something so ugly? I'm doing nature a service."



Clearly, the creature took offense to either that or being blasted with lava, because its immediate reaction was to leap forward at him, slashing with its blades as they cloaked themselves in blood, forming some kind of razor edge.



Kheire bit back the pain, not willing to give them the entertainment they crave as he sent forth a barrage of magma just as strong as the last.

Searing the body of the beast, it broke through and killed it instantly.



The crowd let out a resounding echo of disappointment, throwing food at the young man as he clutched his bleeding side and walked back to his cell. He knew the next fight would not be nearly as easy. They would find something stronger, something that would kill him. He needed power, fast.



Later that night, while he was reading through his mother's journal, he heard some kind of whispers and other noises emanating from one of the pages. He had never noticed this section before, it would require further study...
 
The staff and students using the library had long since become accustomed to the increasingly large group of pupils who, every so often, would march into the library, make as much noise as humanly possible, then take around a dozen books out without asking and never bring them back.
They weren't exactly happy about it, but it wasn't something that anyone could do anything about at this point, and so when the doors opened to reveal them, the only reaction was the librarian's sigh.

Viviane tried her best to control her golem. She did. She honestly did. (Not). So when the golem clanked in, all loud and…well, disruptive (crashing into tables, carts, etc), she didn't bother with it much. She just let it be, really. "So, Ren, we're looking for books about…oni?" she asked.
"Yep," he nodded. "An island of oni, near fairy-owned mainland."
He cracked his knuckles, before crouching down and clutching them.
"Owowowow…! That hurt, what the heck?!"
Viviane shook her head as she walked over to the librarian. "Yeah duh it would hurt," she said, sighing as she turned to the librarian. "Excuse me, ma'am, could you please direct us to the books about an island of oni?"
The librarian sighed again, pointing at a row of shelves before halfheartedly shooing them away.
Ren beamed in thanks as he rushed over, arms outstretched sideways, as if mimicking a bird or something.

It didn't take him long to find a table to drop some half-dozen books on with a thud either, apparently having picked them out completely indiscriminately.

Miki picked up one of the larger books, flipping through it loudly. "I thought you wanted to get there quickly…"
"I do!" he replied. "Which is why you don't waste time looking through all the titles one at a time, see?"
Picking up something about history of derivant tribes, he began to skim through it for anything that looked vaguely like a map.

It was at the point where all the pages seemed to blur into one that Miki found what looked like an acceptable map. "Is this it Master?"
Producing the note from his sari, Ren compared the map on the page and the map on the note.
"Yep, looks like it," he nodded. "I mean, Kheire's drawn it upside-down for some reason. Writing too, now I look at it. Amateur mistake, really," he sighed chidingly, not quite realising what was wrong with that statement.
Miki face faulted. "That's your own fault."
"Hey, don't blame me, I didn't write the note," grumbled the small boy. "At least we know for sure where we're going. There doesn't seem to be much on it…"
"Most of the books just said they were strong and violent. Do you think Dorm Advisor is fine?"
"Relax, relax," Ren waved a hand back and forth. "We already ran into trolls. He should be able to deal with something as weak as oni, right?"
"Did you forget Dorm Advisor is also an oni?"
"Kheire doesn't count," Ren said firmly. "He's way too much of an outlier. Scary strong. Menace to society."
Miki pointed to a book with an oni on the cover, "He isn't that bad… Scary strong sure, but…" he motioned to his head and mimed a pair of pointed ears, "the jiuweihu."

"Zhihao? I don't think she'll show up there, but…" muttered Ren.
Well, he couldn't be sure about that. He didn't really know what she was after, so he couldn't say with total certainty that there was no way she'd appear. It bothered him a little, but hopefully her defeat at Vortigern City was enough to keep her off their backs, at least for now. "Hopefully..."

The ghiest sighed, "Well either way we still have to get Kheire. Are we going?"
"Soon," he nodded. He was still just a little uneasy. "We should get sharp things. You know. For the trees."
"Trees?" Miki parroted. "Oh. I think I'm fine." on cue, he held up two swords that seemingly came from thin air.
"That's dangerous," mumbled Ren in response. "That power seems really illegal."
Viviane glanced back and forth between the two, a frown on her face as she tried to figure out exactly what they were talking about. Eventually giving up on trying to follow a conversation she knew nothing about, she was glad after they went back to the topic of 'getting the dorm advisor back'. "So what is our plan exactly? We go there, and then what?"

Ren grinned. "I have no idea! We go exploring until we randomly bump into each other, I guess," he figured. "That kind of convenient thing is bound to happen eventually."
"Maybe we'll find him faster with another good luck kiss."
Viviane groaned as she held her head in her hands. Sometimes, it hurt inside when she had to deal with…lets say, Ren's optimism. "So we'll just be one group roaming around the island until we find wherever Kheire is," she said flatly.
"How bad could it possibly be?" Ren smiled. "We might even find a new recipe there, or a sword in a stone being all legendary and stuff, or maybe a magical ancient piano or something."
Viviane took a deep breath as she pulled herself together, doing her best to remain positive (despite heavy evidence mounting against her). "Fine. Maybe it will be fine," she replied tirelessly, before glancing at the map. "What else do we need to know?"
"Well, it says there's a settlement we could drop by at," the small boy pointed out. "A few actually."
"I don't think the book said they would be welcoming, Master." he flipped through a few pages and pointed at a small paragraph.
"See?"

"Ah, that's fine, I'm sure they'll be friendly," Ren dismissed instantly. "You should know better than to trust everything you read, Miki. This thing could have been written by anyone."
"Like an expert on oni," Viviane grumbled to herself, glancing over to read what Miki had flipped the page to. "Better than aimlessly running around, I suppose," she continued, looking to place the settlements on the map.
"I'm sure people that peel off the skin of the innocent as a job will welcome us with tea and cookies." His sarcasm was tangible even through his unfaltering monotone.
"They have tea and cookies?!" Ren cried. "Why haven't we visited earlier?!"
Placing all the books back on the shelves in a bona fide random order, he set off without another word.
Viviane groaned as she held her head again. She could feel the migraine building behind her eyes. "Just…go," she thought (to herself), standing up as she followed after Ren. At least they were finally on their way to the island.
 
It took maybe all of five minutes to convince the others to let Viviane go do her own little preparation before they went on the whole crusade to save Kheire. "Stupid wax pole-arm," she mumbled to herself, testing the ability out a spear of cold wax just appeared in her hands. Snapping it with her knee, she sighed before looking for a trashcan to toss them in. It was most likely her most useless ability, one she needed to improve. She did not want to be the weak link for the next mission.

Yui being the anti-social fuck that he was decided to go for a walk around the academy. He'd notice the woman with the broken spear and walk over to inquire her about what was wrong exactly. "Excuse me, if I may ask, what's wrong with that weapon? You don't look too happy."

Viviane sighed and turned as she threw away her weapon, brushing her hands as she did. "Consoling myself on the weakness of the weapon," she said in a flat voice. "A wax weapon when I don't even know how to use a spear? It feels like giving an adult a toy hammer to fight with."

"Understandable. If you'd like we could go on a dungeon together. It may even help you strengthen your skill or whatever it is to do that shit." For the past few days Yui had been wanting to gone on a dungeon. Either by himself or with someone didn't matter as long as he went on one. On top of that he had a nice little idea forming in his head about an 'ability' he could put to use.

"That would be very nice, thank you," Viviane said, glancing back and carefully shoving the spear into the trash can more. Didn't need anyone seeing the failure of an ability. "Viviane, by the way. What's your name?" she asked, turning around again with one hand extended.

"Well uh, it's kind of a girl's name but it's Yui. I'm pleased to meet you." He'd grasp her hand and shake it gently. "That's a nice name you have." He'd give off a warm smile which was odd because Yui was usually a fucking dick.

"You know, if you didn't tell me, I would never know," Viviane said in response to Yui giving his name. "And thanks, I guess. I didn't pick my name, but still, thanks. Anyways, I'm planning to head for a fire dungeon," she continued, already wincing at the thought. "That's fine, right?"

"Of course it is." He decided to tell her about his little idea. "I was actually needing a fire core to begin with. Ya see, I have this little idea to combine fire and ice into my limbs to do some pretty stupid powerful shit. And on top of all that it'll almost be a crossed. So to put it bluntly, one leg will have ice and such. I'm pretty sure you're a smart enough woman to figure it out."

Viviane nodded as they walked to the portal rooms. "That sounds pretty cool, actually. I just need a fire core so that my wax spears.." she said, waving her arm in the general direction of where she had tossed the failed weapon in the trash. "Are more useful than a brittle weapon. Throwing melting hot wax sounds a lot better than just hitting someone with a large, sharp candle."

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait for that," a voice informed them as they approached the portal rooms. The Warrior teacher, Knil, was stood in the hall, his tone stern. He seemed firmly and stubbornly placed, clearly not about to move. "Dungeons are off-limits at the moment."

"Well fuck, eat my ass and call my daddy." Yui would be slightly upset about the news they were just told. He'd sigh, crossing his arms. "Is there any way at all to possibly get you to let us go on a dungeon sir?"

"They're off-limits for a reason," Knil informed them. "It's too dangerous for you to head in there right now. There's a rampant boss that's been storming the other dungeons and killing everything in there. It's already grown to a ridiculous extent. We're going to have to send a team of teachers in there to rat it out, but until then, I'm going to have to send you two on your way."

Viviane gave a practiced smile to the teacher (even if this was more or less her first time meeting him and he already made a bad impression on her), and nodded once. "We understand sir. We'll just wait back in the commons for when the dungeon's are…less dangerous." She did her best to drag Yui back around the corner before lowering her voice. "So, we need to sneak past this fuck. Any ideas how?"

"Give me a moment please." Yui would approach the teacher. "Sir, I do believe you underestimate my abilities far too much. While I am aware this poses a great threat you need to give us a chance. If you think about it a little bit you'd see it's a great chance for us to get stronger. And give us some experience along the way. If anything you'd be a bad teacher by holding us back from doing this."

"I'd be a bad teacher if I let you go. This thing is a Whispering Minutes. With the amount of growth it's had, it could wipe out the entire student body in the space of half a day, maybe less," he warned.

"If I may say, do you know what I am capable of exactly, sir?" Yui would have an expression that of a fairly displeased father.

"Admittedly, I don't," Knil nodded. "But you are still a student here. Even the top students at this school wouldn't stand a ghost of a chance against this, solo or banded together. We're sending in teachers for a reason."

"Do you know of the seventy-two kings of hell sir? I'm one of their sons and sadly, I dislike being told I am too weak to handle something like this. While I do understand I am still very young, being raised in an environment like that you learn a few things about just how fucked up certain creatures are. That being said you should at least come with us just in case the water gets a little too hot and we need some help."

"I think you're sorely underestimating the power of any Minutes, let alone this one," the teacher frowned. "Even I might have some difficulty taking it on alone, and it could well slaughter you both before you could even return to the infirmary. It's not worth it. Just be patient."

"I politely refuse, bring in more teachers. Hell, bring in the whole god damn faculty and the entire student body to take this damned thing on. If it means we get rid of it then taking the chance is worth it."

"Is it worth killing most of our students and staff?"

"Yes, if it means it dies. Why even keep weak links of the school here? They'd just be worthless cannon fodder only good for nothing but keeping the enemy distracted."

"Training," Knil pointed out, "is to make the weak links strong. Social Darwinism aside, if we get the weak students killed, we have failed as a school."

"It'd be their fault if they die anyways. And I trust the stronger people of this school would go out of their way to ensure they don't die. That is the ultimate sacrifice isn't it, sir? For one to put their life on the line to protect another shows how strong they really are. While I do think some of them should just it might also be worth doing that."

During all of their chatting, Viviane had decided that she'd had enough waiting around, and had snuck around to a room two or three doors down. "Okay, distraction, distraction…" she mumbled, smiling as she found herself in a potion-making class. "Perfect."

"Listen, boy. Your strength doesn't decide your worth," frowned Knil. "It's what you do with that strength that counts. Deliberately killing off the weak? Until you can best me in battle, you're only suggesting your own suicide."

Two minutes later, Viviane had finished tossing random ingredients into the pot, nodding as she watched the brew change from a light, golden green to a sickly brown, giving off smoke too. "Yup, probably good enough now," she mumbled, brushing taking off the gloves and smock, throwing them aside as she ran back to the portal rooms.

"SIR," she shouted, panting hard as she leaned on a nearby wall. "IWASPRACTICINGMYPOTIONMAKINGANDMAYBEIADDEDTHEWRONGINGREDIENTSBUTNOWTHEPOTIONISTURNINGBROWNCOMEQUICKLYPLEASEIDON'TKNOWWHATTODO."

"Girl, calm down. Explain to me slow...ly…" he looked up at the hall, the smoke clearly in view. "Holy…!"

Running down the hall, he darted around the corner as fast as he could.

Yui would shout as he watched the teacher run. "Thank you!" He'd then grab Viviane's wrist and bolt for the portal. He'd make a clean dive through and as they landed he'd redirect it to his homeland, the fire depths of hell. This was so no one could follow them of course.

Viviane, being the spiteful soul she was, stuck her tongue out at the retreating teacher as Yui dragged them through the portal.



The dungeon itself was not that dissimilar to what they would expect. A shadowy cave was lined with shards of ruby protruding from the stone walls, a narrow cavern leading down underground.

What they did see out of the ordinary at the bottom of the slope were dozens, if not hundreds, of panicking salamanders fleeing for their lives.

"Oh that's wonderful. Just fucking wonderful!" Yui would shake his head. "I assume this is where it is since there's so many things running away in fear. You ready V?" Yui would just begin to call her V. It was easier that way. Saved time too.

Viviane was marveling the rubies, actually, when they first got into the dungeon. It was only after the first salamander brushed her leg did she look down and notice all the fire lizards. Frowning, she carefully stood to the side (or tried to, with five salamanders all over her feet), waiting for them all to run as she turned back to Yui. "Yeah, just…one second, I'm going to try something," she mumbled, turning to try get some ruby shards.

A minute or so later, she had 12 rubies, throwing them all in her bag. "Ugh, why does it have to be so warm," she grumbled, pulling a hair tie out from seemingly nowhere as she put her hair into a ponytail. "Let's go," she finally said to Yui.

Yui nodded, leading the way down the cavern. "Before we go any further, are you going to be okay with the heat? If not you can just hang back and let me handle it."

Viviane scoffed as she wiped a light sheen of sweat from her forehead. "I'll live, thank you." she said, a light bite behind her words as she walked down the steps. "Worry about yourself more, Yui."

"I'd rather protect a friend. And besides, I'm used to this kind of heat." Despite being used to it he was sweating. His mind started to wander, wondering what this thing would even look like when they found it.



The pair shortly made it to the end of the tunnel, which opened out into a large chamber. Much to Viviane's initial joy, there was in fact a large lake of dark blue water in the center, but the amount of steam coming off it indicated it probably wasn't safe for swimming in.



Viviane gave a short string of curses as she viewed the steam coming off the lake, shaking her head as she looked around the chamber. "You can always use ice shield later if things get really annoying," she thought to herself.



Her movements were not quite soft enough and not quite quiet enough to stop her from making an echo.

Something stirred in the steam.

Yui's own movements were enough to stir it just a little bit more.

Or rather, it confirmed their location.

Three minor wyverns dashed out of the steam, blasting the ground around the two with fireballs.

Yui would quickly grab Viviane and leap back. "Fucking hell. Already we've got problems to deal with."

Viviane grumbled as Yui dodged the fireballs for them. Stupid wyverns. "Cover your ears please," she said, taking a deep breath a few seconds later as she let out a scream at the wyverns.

Yui, within these few seconds, would cover his ears.

The wyvern in the middle was struck directly by the sound waves, but the other two managed to evade, swooping in for an attack with their claws.

Yui would uncover his ears. After doing so he'd summon his kusarigama Okin. Yui would get the same unlocking feeling he got before. He felt a sudden surge of power flood into him. Raising his hand forward he'd flick in the general direction of the wyvern.

The sheer force of the air caught the small dragon's wings, blowing it massively off-course; not killing it, but forcing it out of sight in an instant.

Viviane didn't have time to marvel at Yui's ability to flick a finger and send a wyvern away; she was busy dealing with her own. Grumbling to herself, she took another deep breath as she screamed at the wyvern in front of her.

Her aim was easily enough to blast the creature's organs out of its back, sending it splattering across the rock floor and into the lake to boil.

Meanwhile, Yui's wyvern was rushing back towards him, preparing another attack, this time with flames.

Yui would just simply flick it away again, chuckling as he watched it die.

The fire wasn't quite enough to do it, but the blast of air that came with it carried more than enough force to snap the reptile's neck.

Viviane grumbled more to herself as she rubbed her neck, walking over to the dead wyvern. "Ugh, I need to scream less," she mumbled, reminding herself to sing more lullabyes instead of trying to rip apart her enemies with her voice. Kneeling down, Viviane took a knife to the wyvern, looking for anything of use.

Yui would land, easily at that. "Your screaming is fucking annoying. Stop that. Never do that again." He'd brush himself off before giving an annoyed glare at Viviane.

"Well, unless you want to try beat up everything we come across, I'm going to keep screaming," she replied, cutting off the wyvern's claws to turn into powder later and yanking out the teeth. "Now the scales…"

"I'd rather do that than have you screaming in my ear for every enemy we see." He'd spin Okin around before wrapping the chain around his hand.

Viviane scowled, before shaking her head. "Fine. But if you end up falling asleep when I sing a lullaby instead, not my problem," she said, rubbing her throat with her free hand.

Once she was content that she'd gathered enough materials from the dead wyverns, Viviane walked over to the lake of steaming water, tugging out the ice water core from her first dungeon. "May as well bring some weapons with me," she mumbled, using the core to create ice spears.

Something happened.

It was not obvious what at first, but something reacted.

A whispery howl was breathed up from the depths of the cave, like a quietly roaring wind.

Immense power resonated from below.

In an instant, the entire room froze over.

The ceiling, floor and walls were, without giving even a moment to react, encased in ice.

It only took a few seconds for the crevices in that ice to hum a little.

From the tiniest cracks in the glacial sheet that had filled the chamber, flames spilled, not violently, but watchfully.

"Fuck all this fucking shit I'm so fucking done. Fucking ice sheets and a bunch of other fucking shit. What else could possibly go fucking worse in this fucking fire dungeon?" Yui, being mildly upset now, would once again get the same unlocking feeling. Unwrapping Okin's chains completely he began to spin it around. "V, do me a fucking favor because I am so fucking done with this shit would you?"

Viviane sighed as she looked at the room turn to ice. At least she was from far under the ocean; cold climate was something she could live with. "Depends, Yui. What 'fucking favour' do you need?" she asked, the ten ice spears from the boiling lake hovering around her, ready to impale whatever came next. "And it better not be 'stand aside' or some shit like that."

"Let me throw you." He'd say calmly, looking directly at her. "Just trust me on this and let me throw you at the monster."

Viviane gave him a look. Not a very kind look, more like "the fuck you just say boy you seriously going to try throw me into a monster"? "You better not hit me too if you try that shit," she grumbled, already thumbing a healing potion.

"Relax, I gots a plan. It's one hundred percent foolproof. You will not take any damage what-so-ever when I throw you. I promise."

Despite the ice, the temperature was rapidly beginning to… increase? The flames were beginning to die down a little, but the air was getting hotter and hotter.

Viviane groaned as the heat change got to her, swaying for a moment before crumpling onto the floor like a paper doll in the rain, passing out from the heat-change this time.



As she lost consciousness, she felt an immense pressure from the other side of the chamber.



A human-shaped figure, made from what looked like black glass, floated up from below.



There was no mistaking it.

This power was unlike anything Yui had felt in his entire time at Schism Academy. This was in the scope on a genuine demon of hell.

This was undoubtedly the Whispering Minutes.

An aura of hot and cold surrounded it, fluctuations, wisps of freezing mist and blazing flames.

"Well ain't this just my fucking luck. Miss scream bitch has passed out and now I got some bastard that feels really fucking strong coming out of butt fuck nowhere for me to solo. Just fucking great. Thanks buddy." Yui would start swinging Okin more violently. Almost as if his rage grew more and more as each second passed.

He'd sigh, once again releasing what was that surge of power he felt. "No avoiding it so may as well get it over with. Come on then."

The being watched him as his wrath burst forth, waiting patiently. After a few seconds, it raised a hand toward the icicles on the ceiling.

Those spears of ice were engulfed in flames, immediately breaking off, firing around a dozen frozen missiles of fire at him. Yui, being struck repeatedly, would scream in pain and shortly after cough up a decent amount of blood.

Viviane groaned as she pushed herself up, rubbing her eyes as she looked at what was going on. "Oh yeah, boss shit." she thought, groaning as she shook her head to try focus as she ran over to Yui. "Here, potion." she mumbled, shoving the healing potion into his mouth as she cast her Ice Shield ability.

"Fuck you for taking so fucking long to wake up." He'd keep his sight on the thing that just barraged him. He'd have a strong hatred for the creature. So much that he wanted to make it suffer now more than just kill it. "V do something. I do not care what. Just fucking do something right now." Without thinking, it was almost as if his body reacted itself, he'd stomp the ground with full force.

The resulting shockwave caused the Minutes's aura to fluctuate for a moment, but it didn't react to it all that much. Instead, the flames of the aura flashed to life.

Viviane gave a small yelp as the shockwave threw her backwards, grumbling as she rubbed the back of her head. "Ouch."

Yui would run towards her, leaping up and grabbing her. He'd then twist his lumbar and throw her towards the boss. Landing he'd run in the general direction. He'd spin Okin before jumping up to use her back as a platform and push forwards. He'd swing Okin outwards towards the figure in an attempt to at least scratch it. While this was going on he'd prepare to flick with his left hand.

The figure clearly wasn't completely sure where to look, its head darting around wildly as it tried to follow Yui and his weapon.

It was as a result no surprise when he scored a direct hit, slicing into the thing's shoulder.

Viviane followed up by forming a wax spear, tossing it like a javelin at the Minutes.

Catching it off-guard, it chipped at its body, but to no real effect.

Yui would yank Okin's chain backwards wanting to rip the blade right out of it's damn shoulder. He'd raise his now charged flick in front of the figure, releasing. He wanted to disorient his enemy for just a few seconds at least.

Viviane, doing her best, threw another spear.

While ripping Okin's blade free didn't do anything resembling damage, it did throw the Minutes off for a second, pulling its left side forward and stopping it from aiming an attack.

That was just enough for the flick to knock its head aside too.

Yui would grab the spear that would now be flying past him and throw it at Minutes. As it flew forwards he'd flick again to boost it's speed.

The moving statue seemed to dance with its momentum right into the spear, which was immediately embedded in its torso.

It seemed to look at the weapon bemusedly before snapping it in two. The frost around it seemed to flash for a moment, and the strange thing fired five bolts of ice at Yui.

Yui would dodge and swing Okin at it's torso. Being careful not to repeat the same attack over he'd charge up another flick.

That aura flared again, this time seeming to take tangible form around the Minutes' arm.

Swinging a flaming blade of ice, it deflected the archfiend's strike and dashed towards him.

It slashed at him, but it was a sash that was still slow enough to see.

Yui would dodge once more, releasing the flick in an attempt to distance himself.

He'd raise his left hand and let out a barrage of fingernails. One of his abilities was to control his bones after all.

With a quick dash to the side, the Minutes evaded the burst entirely, slashing again.

Yui would pull Okin in and go for another slash at it's torso. Leaping up at the figure once more an extending his left arm's bones to make what would be an attempt at a spear of sorts. The bone weapon would be arching on the sides and connecting in front of the hand's knuckles. He'd go for a clear stab at the throat.

He ever so slightly missed. Instead, he pierced the thing's head, which proceeded to explode like some kind of overripe fruit.

Its body shuddered.



It roared. Its aura flared.



Yui had successfully managed to piss it off.



He'd quickly retract the bone into his arm and land, bolting for the ice shield Viviane had made to protect his ass.

He literally just made it behind the thing as a hail of icicles rained down onto it, but it didn't shatter it.

Rather, the shield was simply built up as more and more ice was added.

Viviane sighed in relief that the ice shield held. Given how the ice had actually nailed Yui before, her hopes had been…less than high. Seeing how the shield growed as ice was added to it, Viviane smiled as a thought came to her. "Oh this will be fun," she mumbled, casting fire armour, trying to ignore the heat flickering off the fire that now surrounded her.

"Hey V, do me a favor again would ya?" Yui would lower his tone to avoid the damned thing hearing him. After all, death was not a good option in this fight.

"Better not involve throwing me again," she grumbled, before sighing as she turned slightly to face Yui. "Sure, what is it this time."

"Just distract it long enough for me to hang from the ceiling above it. That's all I need." Yui, being the total dumb ass he was had yet another plan to finish this thing off once and for all. "That's all I need. Nothing else."

Viviane sighed, before nodding her head slightly as she stood in front of Yui. "Yeah, fine," she mumbled, pausing a moment as she stood in front of the headless monster. "Hey, Yui, make sure to cover your ears up after this thing attacks."

"I mean, that's going to be a little hard when I'm climbing a wall but I'll at least try." Yui would begin sprinting to one of the walls and covering his ears as he ran.

The strange being seemed to blink out of existence for a moment.

Oh, wait, there it was.

In an instant, it had traversed the distance between itself and Viviane, and threw a punch at her the second it arrived.

Viviane actually did blink (whoops) when the boss moved to hit her. Still, she was just able to roll as it threw a punch at her, the thing's fist flying through the air where she just was. Grumbling to herself, she threw her silk rope, marveling as it wrapped itself around the boss. "Didn't think that would work," she mumbled, before clearing her throat and singing.

(Add lyrics here later)

Yui would be at the wall by now, jumping up he started running as fast he could. He'd push right off towards the Minutes, drawing Okin as he did and holding it like a normal sickle.

Viviane, despite her comparably bad muscle mass, made yet another wax spear, ready to throw at a moment's notice.

Yui would slam his entire body weight into the Minutes and wrap his arms around it in an attempt to restrain it.

He smashed into the crystal silhouette with extreme force, waking it up near instantly as its aura flared back to life and it began to shake back and forth.

"Fuck it," Viviane grumbled, tossing the spear at the boss.

It struck, chipping it ever so slightly as it spasmed in the rope.

Yui would extend the joint in his elbow making it into a spike roughly three inches and slam it into the Minutes chest.

He managed to piece a hole all the way through, cracking its body severely. The thing fell back, but exerted a massive force, tearing the rope off its body.

Yui would pass out due to overuse of SS and just plain exhaustion.

Viviane quickly snapped her wrist, having the rope grab Yui instead as she yanked him over. "Jeez that doesn't look good," she grumbled, erecting another ice shield to block whatever last-ditch attack the boss would throw at them.

The boss did not throw anything.

As a matter of fact, ice began crawling up its body in some kind of attempt to save itself.

"Oh hell no," Viviane grumbled, clearing her throat again as she screamed at the boss to shatter the creeping ice.

The Minutes's attention now drawn to her, it launched a wave of cold, dispelling her fire almost instantly.

Viviane sighed as her fire armor disappeared, shaking her head as she summoned another ice shield, trying to stall it out till Yui woke up again.

The Minutes reacted on instinct, rapidly raising the temperature of the air around the mermaid hybrid's head, just as it fell to pieces from its injury.

Viviane groaned, the heat change making her pass out again, her face so intensely red from the sudden increase.

Yui groaned as he just now woke up.

Viviane pushed herself up a moment later as well, blinking as she rubbed her eyes. "Oh hell yeah," she mumbled, picking herself off the ground as she brushed her dress. "Its dead." Walking over, Viviane picked up the flame core from the dead boss, pocketing it as she looked for other things to take from its lifeless corpse.

Yui walked over and watched from behind her shoulder. He spotted an ice core and decided to take it for himself. He did deserve a little prize after all his silly little stunts.

"Oh hey, treasure box too." she said soon after, snapping the gold-rimmed box open with ease as she perused its contents. "Oh, dagger." she mumbled, pocketing it as she tossed Yui the ring. "How do we split the diamonds?"

Yui replied in an almost painful tone. "I take all of them. Simple as that."

Viviane glanced back at him, shaking her head for a moment. "Can I have the blue one?"

Yui nodded no. "It hurts to talk even so I'd prefer not to, but no. You can take it's mangled body whatever else you find but let me take all the damned diamonds for fucks sake."

Viviane sighed, shaking her head as she stood up and went over to the body. "Fine." she called back, taking out her knife as she prepared to take what she wanted.

Yui would traverse back to where it's head exploded and began to pick up the pieces. "If you want you can carry the things." He'd yell over at her.

Viviane sighed, throwing the entirety of its body into her bag, ignoring the way it now bulged and dug into her shoulder as she stood up. "Oh yeah, here," she said, tossing Yui a health potion.

"I don't need it. I'm going to be fine for now. However, we should start heading back now before the teachers really lose their shit."

"Yeah, fine." she said, huffing as she looked around the room. "…where's the exit?"

"Hell if I know." The shards from the Minutes heads rested on top of all the diamonds he was carrying in his hands. Yui would walk back to his dungeon buddy. "And if we don't know then we should most likely start looking don't ya think?"

Viviane sighed as she looked around the room, tapping the wall in spots to see if there was a way out. "Hey, maybe the exit is the frozen lake," she said jokingly, continuing to tap the walls of the room.

Yui chuckled as he helped search. "Do you have something I can put this dismantled head in V?"

Viviane paused for a moment before she rummaged around in her bag and tossed an extra plastic one she had from her first dungeon before going back to searching for an exit.

Actually, instead of finding the exit, she found an odd broken padlock where the crystal-ghost boss was. Picking it up, Viviane frowned, unable to read the inscription before shrugging and tossing it in her bag as well. Maybe it would come into use later.
 
While traveling away from his current job/quest, Akio went straight into a dense wilderness area in search for some peace and quiet. Chieko was curled up on Akio's shoulder as they traveled until something caught his eye.

The air of the forest distorted not unlike it would on a hot day, which by itself wouldn't have been out of the ordinary had it not rained a few days ago.
Akio sensed this and out of pure curiosity, continued through the wilderness while following the the distortions in the air.

Sparks scattered from where his feet touched the ground lighting the nearby flora but the dewy plants only sent up wisps of smoke. Tall trees blocked the sunlight and his path was only lit by the stray flickers of light springing from nothingness.

Akio, fearful of the unknown, began to walk the path with slight caution. Chieko woke up to the change of tone and position his owner has taken.

A cold goo seeped through his clothes and Akio out of instinct, spun around and swung his katana at whatever touched him. The small slimy lump squealed, more scared than hurt, hastily dislodging itself from his back and left a trail of shining golden goop as it retreated.

After the scary exchange, Akio's sense were heightened and he became more cautious. He proceeded with his hand on the handle of his weapon.


As he moved onwards the glow intensified, bringing with it the rustle of leaves that seemed to surround him on all sides.
Chieko's feathers puffed up and struck a defensive position. Akio on the other hand switched his weapons and pulled out his long bow with an E Rank light core.

Whatever was in the leaves didn't seem to care, rather they made a sound as if they were laughing at him. The smell of burning wood met his nose.
Akio's pride got the best of him as now he is searching for the creature that is causing all the noises.

While he searched he realised the sound was like a bird's call, but despite his efforts the birds seemed to only laugh louder, at times sounding as if they were directly behind him only to vanish whenever he turned around.
Not pinpointing where the noise came from, Akio shot his laser arrow at a tree to make an explosion. Chieko flew high above to get a bird's eye view of things.

Akio's arrow was met by the screaming of tens of crying birds, letting his pet catch a glimpse of black iridescent flecks flickering between the leaves, leaving black burns in their wake as they flocked together.


Chieko cawed what he saw to Akio. In response, Chieko became Akio's eyes so if she spotted any weird movement Akio would respond with an explosive arrow.

Without warning countless feathered bullets shot out of the forest, never coming close to hitting the Angel but leaving a smoldering mark in the earth around him.

Since their position was given, Akio had no problem picking them out with his bow and laser arrows. Chieko stayed up in the air just in case of any unseen attack.

The simple act of flying was what threw Chieko into shark infested waters. With a shrill cry a tiger sized green pheasant burst from the foliage and leapt onto her, seizing her with its talons.
In complete shock and utter fear, Chieko turned completely metal and out a blood-curdling cry. This alerted Akio and as soon as he spotted the scene, Warth started to corrupt his mind. He opened up his wings and pulled out his katana with an electric core and flew straight after the pheasant. He wasn't going to stop until Chieko was safe.

The bird let out a familiar sound of laughter but it didn't last as the Angel's sword came down, cleanly splitting it in half with Chieko still in its grasp. The pair weren't given a chance to respond when an equally wrathful Nue creature pounced on Akio, knocking him to the ground.
Chieko became wrathful and turned completely metal after seeing the creature attack her dad. In response, she came down on the Nue in a drill formation on the snake's head. Seeing this Akio used his sword to try and cut off the monkey's head.

The Nue reared its head and smacked the approaching blade with its hand, completely unfazed only getting a small cut from Chieko's assault. It hissed and let out a loud shriek. Spittle freely flowing from its mouth as it bit down on Akio's shoulder, only to bite down on a metal plate to no avail.


Akio pulled out one of his Light arrows and just stabbed the monkey's eye and shoved it further in its skull. Chieko let his beak be the only thing metal and attacked the snake's head at the throat. It howled and writhed for a moment before falling still. The air vibrated, only for a moment before the two were blinded by a white flash of light.

Akio like before covered his eyes and ordered Chieko to go into his core form and hide in his sleeves. He than began to search for an item if the creature dropped any. He managed to pull out a core, three small colored marbles, and a notched bluish arrowhead before an orb of light shot out of the trees, missing him completely. A figure crawled out of the forest on all fours and shrieked.

Akio, hearing the shriek, used only his sense to guide his bow and arrow towards the figuring. He has his wings at the ready to dodge another attack.

The fleshy creature showed no signs of pain even as the arrow embedded itself into its flesh, carving out a large hole that it didn't pay attention to as it leapt up, spawning five orbs of light that flew towards the Angel.
Akio used his wings and flew above the boss and pulled out his katana activating its E rank eletric core and dove at the creature with full force aiming for the head.

With extreme excessive force the fleshy monster's head splattered against the ground like a melon, not even giving its body a chance to react as it seemed to try and stand up with little success before falling over in a smoking heap.


Akio searched for items if any and stuck his sword in the creature to claim victory.

After getting a core from the burnt carcass Akio found the dungeon's treasure. Surrounded by black iridescent feathers he found a chest that cracked open to reveal a pair of shining arm braces.
He grabbed the arm brace and tried it on while taking his blindfold off. He examined the details of the braces.

Semi-translucent blades erupt from the new equipment, barely grazing Akio's fingers on their appearance.
Akio began to like the braces and stored it on his back. He now went back to his group and continued on the quest.
 
Coming along to a cave that shined as if there were diamonds in it is tempting for anyone, even more so to someone looking to learn to cast lasers. Naturally, Akio had to go inside.

As he went into the entrance he noticed that he could see far below him, almost as if there was no floor at all. There definitely was one though, because he wasn't flying or falling.

Chieko hid in one of Akio's big sleeves and waited. Akio himself adjusted as he prepares his weapons for the upcoming beasts. He has his katana half drawn and his bow and arrows are begging to be used. He moved calmly but cautiously.

In the darkness below he notices a flash of light and a distinct mechanical groan. It slowly grows louder until it's silent. It seemed to be gone.

Akio focused part of his light powers on his hand in order to get light in the area. Chieko puffed up his feathers trying to sense their surroundings. Akio began to speed up the pace but remains cautious.

There was a sound of a gear turning, and what seemed to be a room was illuminated adjacent from the hallway Akio was moving through. There's a bundle of cloth in the corner of it and he could hear the squeaking of door hinges moving.

The hall then splits into three, the only thing visible was the room. He could not see where the hallways went.

Akio goes down the one on the far right, triggering another room to light up, with identical contents to the first.

There's stairs now, one set going down, one set going up.

Akio ascends, and the mechanical roar grows nearer somehow, shaking the glass prison that's keeping it from him.

Once again it fades, and he's free to progress. The rooms are gone for now, encasing him in darkness further than his immediate range of vision.

Akio sped up just a bit more getting eager to fight any monster or beast. Akio pulled completely pulled out his Katana wanting to taste any kind of blood.

In his speeding, he didn't notice an opening into the chasm below, and fell directly into it.
Akio thanks to his cautiousness quickly opened his wings and caught himself from falling to the bottom. He slowed down the speed and realized that his eagerness is getting the better of him. Chieko turned into a small rock hidden into Akio's clothes.

It was impossible to see here. The chasm seemed dark before, which directly conflicted with the sight before Akio. The room was incredibly bright, so much that if Akio wasn't an angel he would have felt incredible pain bursting through his eye sockets.

The mechanical sound that could only be assumed to be a terrible beast was now so loud it was agonizing, but no attack came.

Akio looked around trying to see but it was all in vain so he came to the conclusion that this battle will have to do with no sight. He took out a cloth and wrapped it around his eyes resulting in his other senses raising.

Something small bumped him, a shot of pain flying through his leg as it did so.

Akio, knowing the issue, decided to head home because of fear of putting chieko in danger.
 
(Excuse the shit tier writing from me. Random's was beautiful tho.)

What had at first seemed a rather innocuous action in the heat of the chase for the Whispering Minutes about a week ago had been more or less overlooked when recounting the incident later.

Specifically, when the teachers and students involved alike had to explain themselves to the headmistress, they had explained how Knil had been distracted by Viviane's ploy, how the pair had cut off any pursuers, and how the pair had defeated the Minutes itself.

What they did not think to recount was how the portal had been redirected to the depths of hell, or more precisely, the Black Realms of Cephiet.

As such, when a certain rumour began circulating Schism Academy, Yui managed to get away without being caught responsible for the possibility of a demon escaping in from the other side.

The murmurs that spread like wildfire suggested that there was something that had come through into the dungeon behind them and left immediately after, which would mean it was presently roaming the forests outside of Schism. Yui was sitting in his dorm room, contemplating what had happened the earlier week with the Minutes. A small fragment of the Minutes kept in his pocket was dug out as he examined it closely. If anything he wanted to know where the damn thing had come from, what it was made of and just how exactly it even came to be in the first place. He was surprisingly still tired even though a full week had passed since the incident. He needed rest and that was all he could think about for the time being. Yui had, eventually, dozed off still holding the fragment in his hand.


Dark. The room was almost identical to before, save there was not a hint of light and colour. The walls were only separated from the unending void by the dark grey turbulence that rushed against it.

He couldn't feel anything. Even the bed beneath him seemed to be an illusion. It was as if he was in freefall. The only force that could touch him was a pressure from far, far away.

A voice.

"GIVE IT TO ME."

Yui was startled by what sounded like three voices all together. He had so many questions on his mind but he wasn't sure if he was even able to speak at all. After a few seconds he mustered up the courage to finally say something. "W-Who are you?"

"YOUR KING, RAIZEL."

"Where am I? And how the fuck do you even know my last name? Where the fuck are you coward?!"

"MY KNOWLEDGE SPREADS TO THE ENDS OF THIS EARTH," sneered the voice. "YOU HAVE NOT MOVED, AND NEITHER HAVE I. I COMMAND YOU THUS: FIND ME, AND GIVE IT TO ME."

"What is it that you even want?! I can't give you anything unless you tell me! And besides, I don't even know where the hell you are."

"YOU WILL KNOW. AND YOU WILL COME."

In that instant, without the slightest warning, his flesh was shredded away by hundreds of arrows.

He instantly snapped awake, he was sweating but that didn't matter however. He rushed directly out of his dorm and ran straight to the forest. He was holding the fragment of the Minutes so tight that it was nearly puncturing his hand.


The spot he was beckoned to was surrounded on all sides by shadowed trees.

"Leave it there," a whisper commanded.

Yui snickered as he raised a brow. "You expect me to leave a part of my hard earned reward to some punk or whatever that I can't even see properly? As if I would even do that."

"If you insist," the voice responded.

Each of the shadows between the trees opened glowing eyes, and from the center stepped…

Uh…

A five foot tall demon girl, folding her arms indignantly.

"There, now you can see me. Give me the fragment."

Yui poker faced. The fact a small little girl was trying to command him really, made him upset. But height didn't matter at the moment, it was almost if she had an aura emanating from her. He sensed that she was powerful. He had to choose his words very very carefully.

"W-what's that look for?!" she demanded. "Don't you know who I am? My name is Dia Irius, Raizel, and I am the 72nd King of the Black Realms! Show a little respect!"

"I get you're the 72nd and all but you really expect me to respect a pipsqueak like you?"

The girl gave him a glare. "I am not a pipsqueak! I am a grand demon lord! You will obey my orders!"

"That's real funny because I plan to surpass a pipsqueak like you. So just shut your little fucking mouth and tell me why you need it why don't ya."

"Because as a Lord of Pride, I outrank you, and I say I need it! Stop questioning me!" she huffed.

"And I outrank you as a Lord of Wrath. So shut the hell up and tell me why. Do you even know what the hell kinda power I possess, child?"

"Listen, until you're a King of the Black Realms, you don't get to boss me around! Give me the fragment so I can get home already!"

Red hot wrath spilled over, shattering Yui's seal and flooding his body with Exin.

The girl reacted immediately, her entire body flashing gold for an instant as the light on her body began to mimic his.

"The Crimson Break of Wrath demons, huh?" she said. "Don't you know that a Pride demon's Aureate Break is just as good?"

Yui had chuckled to himself. "So you're just some little copy cat pipsqueak child huh? Please, don't make me laugh anymore than this. I'd prefer, again, you just tell me why the hell you need it in the first place. I'd be more than happy to take a nice little walk skipping and holding hands with you down to hell but I have a feelings your stubborn ass doesn't want that. And besides going home. I mean the real purpose for it."

"Look, not all of us can make portals at will!" she grumbled.

"Oh? Is the wittle baby tired? Does the wittle baby need a nap? Well too bad. Deal with it buttercup." Bending his knees ever so slightly, placing his hands on them and leaning forward.

Instantly, an arrowhead was pointed between his eyes.

"Don't call me buttercup."

A Bloodbound longbow had been conjured from nowhere, a furious expression on her face before she calmed herself after a few seconds.

"That's right, yeah," she nodded. "My weapon is way too good for the likes of you. Of course I wouldn't just shoot you."

Yui ducked down and tackled her. Pinning her within a few seconds and staring right into her eyes. "I'm not actually trying to fight you, but like, you need to calm the fuck down. Please. I am too tired for this shit and I honestly don't want to deal with anything else. You're already annoying the hell out of me." He'd remove one arm restraining her to boop her nose just for the sake of pissing her off more.

Her face instantly went a brighter red than Crimson Break. "Insolent perverted molester!" she yelled. "Underlings!"

From the shadows in the trees, a few demi-humanoid demons darted forward, blades snapping out of their arms and snarling at him.

He sighed as he placed his hand back over her arm to restrain her. "I may be a pervert but I am most certainly NOT a molester!"

Five of the monstrous demons dashed forward, thrusting their blade-arms.

Yui extended the bones in his shoulders as if it was near instinct. Just to be sure he killed them he'd send the bones upwards like a stalagmite.

Each of the bones exited the monstrous demons' heads in an explosive mist of gore, causing them to hang limply from the spikes.

"Bones," Dia observed, almost surprised. "I knew it, but that's…!" With a surge of force, she shoved him off her and leapt back. "Get him!"

The remaining five monsters snarled as they rushed forward at Yui.

He would retract his bones, swiftly summoned Okin and swung it around in a circle attempting a five person beheading all at once.

Sadly, it was not a perfect beheading, and at least one of the monsters had its shoulders taken off with its head.

"Why, you…!" Dia growled, drawing her bow again. "Tristram!"

An arrow of magma formed near instantly, solidifying into a bolt of Exin as she released it.

In midair, around halfway, it split into five, each soaring right on target.

Yui dashed to the side and bit at the first arrow.

He missed by a fraction of an instant, his movements getting it embedded in his shoulder. Luckily, this also caused all but one other to miss, with the fourth piercing between his ribs.

Yui, now being mildly upset, would raise his right arm and send out a blast of ice towards the girl. Using the core's second function, Yui teleported the heat as far away as possible from the girl, etching a trail of flames in the sky for a brief moment above the pair. He wasn't trying to cause her major harm. [spoili](Note: apparently this can be done because it's BYE and magic) [/spoili]

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Dia cried, wriggling around in her attempts to break free.

"Not killing you obviously idiot." Yui walked over and walloped her over the back of the head, knocking her unconscious in an instant. Yui would begin a lengthy thawing of the girl.


It was a while later that Dia came to, rubbing her bruise as she sat up on Yui's bed. "Where…?"

"My room. In my bed. Not dead. Idiot." He'd sigh, standing.

"I-I'm not the idiot here!" she said. "For a start, I could easily destroy everything here! Why didn't you take the safe option and kill me, stupid?"

"You really think I'd start a civil war with a very large bounty on my head and possibly face execution? You must honestly be stupid. Oh and have fun trying to destroy everything with the teachers here."

She raised a hand to refute, but apparently couldn't think of anything, and just glared into the distance. "Well, now that you've done a great job of making me look stupid, can I have the shard now?"

"Nope!" Yui pat her head as he walked out of the room towards the portals. "You lost after all right?"

"H-hey! Don't just leave me behind!" she demanded. "Even if I lost, it's not like I want it for anything bad!"

"Then hurry up and let's go- wait fuck I gotta change!" He quickly ran back to the room. "Yeah just turn around I can't go to a hot place in hot clothes."

"N-nobody gives a Pride Archdemon orders!"

Yui'd poker face. "Does a kid like you honestly want to see me naked?"

She turned as red as a fire truck and immediately spun around. "J-just be quick."

"Alright alright." Quickly changing, Yui would grab a small bag stuffing a bit of water and other miscellaneous things inside. "C'mon, let's go kiddo~."

"Are you just going to set off somewhere?" she frowned. "Listen, I have a serious problem here! If I get caught, I'm going to be in big trouble, you know!"

"Then why do you think I'm telling you to come on? Jesus even for a Pride demon you're dense as horse shit. I said let's go, unless, you want to get ssssspanked by the council."

"What did you just say?" she snapped. "Y-you better not be imagining anything weird!"

"I always imagine weird things about decent looking girls like you now come on, I'm not gonna wait any longer. The more you sit there the more it makes me want to abandon you." He'd now start walking back to the portals, Dia in tow.

"Where are we even going? You can't just expect me to follow you somewhere that I don't know anything about."

"Where do you think? I didn't know cute girls could be so damn annoying. Hell obviously, since you want this damned fragment so bad."

She was silenced immediately. "C-cute…" she mumbled, speeding up a little.


The pair reached their destination in a matter of minutes, with the small girl looking around in curiosity at all the doors.

"What's this?" she asked.

"Portals." Yui would redirect the portal to the 72nd's kingdom, grabbing her hand and yanking her through.

"He-- wha--!" she spluttered.

Instantly, they were in a hostile outside that flared in what felt like hostility. The soil was made of crumbling iron, the sky a pitch black, howls of all kinds echoing from over the horizon. Just beside them, a towering fortress of steel, a burning blue in the tallest tower.

Dia looked on in awe. "My… My palace…" she mumbled. "You…"

Her expression flickered between anger, indignance, gratitude, bitterness, relief.

"Th… Th...anks… I guess," she bowed her head.

Yui would imitate her. "Y… Y...ou're welcome… I guess." Chuckling as he did so.

"D-d-don't make fun of me! I was really lost, okay?!" she cried. "It wasn't fun at all, so stop it!"

"Shhhhhhh cutie, it's fine. Just playful teasing." He'd pat her head once more before walking onwards.

"And where are you going now?" she said. "Hey, are you just going to drop me here and walk off like it was nothing? Get back here!"

"Of course not! You're like the only cute demon I know sooooo. Anyway who do we gotta give this to?"

"That was for me," she mumbled. "So I could make a portal home. That was it."

"Why make a portal home when you could get your very own Yui for only a low low down payment of your hand in marriage cents a month. Now that's a deal no one could deny!"

"M-m-m--! I-I…! You…!" she stuttered, stumbling over words like she was on some sort of time limit. "M-marriage is stupid! Don't be stupid! Stupid! Just get inside so I can do something regal for once!"

"It's not stupid, it's practical, silly. Just c'mon. It'll be fuuuuuuun."

"I-In the first place, I'm way too young to be thinking about something like that! I have my duties as a king, so getting wrapped up in that kind of stuff is an absolute red flag, got it?" she said firmly.

"I'd say it'd be better to have someone to rule with. Don't you? We're both strong. And we both have the possibility to make strong children and carry on the legacy. It'd be great."

She flushed even brighter than the first two times, looking as if she was either about to cry or explode. "Children are absolutely not allowed! I have to do… king… things! Okay? So no! Absolutely not! Quit it already!"

"Personally i think we should do it. Strong children mean a strong legacy. And a strong legacy means something really really good in the long term. If anything it'd make you a better king to marry and fuck me!"

Dia took a deep breath. "Ab-sol-ute-ly not!" she yelled. "I changed my mind! Out! Get out of here! Go! Your stupid face is stopping me from thinking straight!"

"Alright alright fine, I'll leave. But have fun watching me slaughter all your people. Because you do remember I plan to surpass you, right? Then you should know that I'd have no problems killing a cute little girl like you if it meant I got the power I wanted."

She folded her arms. "Is that a declaration of war, Raizel? Because I'll win. It's about time I got to do something kingly like a war!" she said, actually cracking a smile.

"Oh really? I will take down the Silver King by any means. Out of all people you should know once someone wants a goal they stride all the way for it. I'm merely offering to marry you that way I wouldn't need to kill you off little girl. Like I said before I'd do it but it'd pain me a little. I can't pass up a strong wife like you. That's a steal. And you're so young too. It'd be a shame to end your life so early."

"The Silver King?" she echoed. "Sounds interesting. Alright, how about this. If I beat you, then you become my general, and we go do that! If you beat me, then… uh… I guess… I-I'll marry you. Not straight away. When I'm older. But that's fine, because I won't lose!"

"But listen, it's not a win lose condition. But I guess I could if it will make you happy. So it's settled then. Whomever wins the duel will uh, you get it."

"Got it. I won't lose, you hear?" she declared.

"We'll start right now then."

"Eh? What? Right now?" she blinked. "H-hold on! I don't have my armour or anything!"

"Too bad we're starting! A good king would always be prepared! Haha!!"

She pulled a face. "Fine. Just because you're right." She drew her bow. "En garde, Raizel."

Yui'd begin stripping his clothes to his undergarments. Readying his fists he'd have a cold expression on his face. "Ladies obviously go first. I mean, you outrank me too."

Dia looked as if she was about to boil over, immediately releasing her arrows. "Pervert! Lech! Put! Clothes! On!"

Yui had rolled to the left, staying in a crouched position. Concentrating, he'd fire three fingernail bullets at the girl.

Two of the arrows struck him mid-dodge, but one of his bullets managed to make their own mark on Dia.

Snapping her fingers, the arrows embedded in Yui's body instantly exploded, throwing him back.

Yui would grunt due to the explosions. Dashing forward, creating a baton from the bone in his right arm. He'd leap up and spin as he did, summoning Okin from his neck.

The baton struck first, the feeling of rupturing organs travelling down Yui's bone as it threw her backwards into the spiralling kusarigama, sending her sprawling across the ground.

Coughing blood onto the damned earth, Dia aimed her bow again, firing not five shots, but one very quick one, skewering it through Yui's stomach.

Yui'd throw his baton directly at her head and dash forward, covering his hands in the bone almost like boxing gloves.

She ducked under the baton, sliding across the ground and swinging her leg at Yui's ankles in a failed attempt to trip him.

He'd spin around attempting to slam his fist into her head. As he did he'd use the fire from the core in his arm to rapidly heat the bone marrow for an explosion.

The fragments of bone pierced the pair of them all over, causing Dia to scream in pain as she was thrown back by the force, blood spurting out of her wounds. Raising a twisted hand, she snapped her fingers with a grunt, causing the arrow still in Yui's abdomen to detonate.

Yui rushed forward, trying for a drop kick right into her neck.

Ducking out of the way, she evaded the attack and fired another arrow into Yui's back.

Rotating his lumbar to shift his body around he'd grab her by the hair and throw her down, causing even the ground to shatter.

Attempting to get up, but obviously thinking better of it, Dia stopped moving.

Calmly walking forward he'd gently flick her in the forehead. In a pained, weak tone he'd softly say. "I win." before collapsing due to fatigue and damage.

"What… do you think… you're doing… collapsing when you've… taken less damage… than me…?!" she coughed.

Yui was out cold within a few seconds after he had collapsed.


He woke up, apparently some time later, in an unfamiliar room, lying on a large bed in an even larger room. The walls seemed to be made of steel, a dark sky out the windows.

"Ehhhh?" He sat up rubbing his head.

His torso stung a little as he moved, drawing his attention to the bandages over his body. Someone had tried to patch him up, albeit they apparently didn't have anything like healing magic to do it with.

He'd wince at the stinging pain he felt, slowly looking around the room almost as if scanning it for something. "Huh. Is someone hiding under the bed or somethin'?" Assuming no one was in the room with him.

There was a knock at the unnecessarily large room door as he called.

Yui reluctantly got up out of the bed and walked to the door opening it. "Yeah?"

A demon woman in a maid uniform was stood in the doorway. "Good evening. You would be Lord Raizel?"

"Uhhhh yeah why do you ask maid person?" His tone was groggy and his eyelids were heavy.

"My name is Hestre, and I will be your head maid from today onwards. Miss Dia requested that I check your condition."

"She did?" He almost looked surprised. "Alright I guess, say, is she absent at the moment? I need to speak with her."

Hestre gave a small bow. "Of course. A few moments, please," she requested, walking down the hall.

"Right…" Yui had gone to lay back down. He was still tired. After all, it was a decent fight.

Dia didn't take long, entering the room with Hestre in tow.

"You're awake," Dia observed. "How are you feeling?"

"Like absolute shit honestly." He was sprawled out on the bed, lifting his head to look at the pair before sitting up. "I mean, not like my body was blown up multiple times by sharp things that scream murder."

She folded her arms arrogantly, as if she was being complimented. "Well, I'm not exactly a weakling," she grinned. "Still, you did a number on me too…"

Hestre sighed. "Did either of you take your own stamina into consideration?"

"I probably didn't. Not that it really mattered to me." He got out of bed, walking to his clothes and getting dressed. "And I gotta go somewhere again. I'd prefer if you two came with me as well."

"Go somewhere?" Dia said. "Hold on, I still need to announce your new title. Hestre's not even allowed to leave."

"Not without permission," pointed out the maid.

"Yeah yeah do that quickly. And Hestre or whatever you name is, I hereby give you permission to leave the premises and come with me. You've been appointed my head maid or whatever right?"

"That is the case, yes," she nodded.

"H-hey! Are you ignoring--"

"Milady, please be quick."

"Fine, fine," sighed Dia. "Listen. I lost to you, right? That proves you're stronger than I am, so that makes you the 72nd King of the Black Realms. So… you get my territories and everything."

"Yeah, I know, and as your king I'm telling you let's go. I need my wife with me for this." Yui shook his head as he grabbed his pack and started walking to the door.

"Wait, where are we going? Are we going alone?" she asked.

"No, Hestre is coming with because I said she was. We're visiting my father shorty." He pat her head as he brushed past them. "Wait..where do I go from here? Where's the exit?"

"Allow me," offered Hestre, leading the way.

"Your father is Raizel as well, right? He's the 28th King, if I remember," recalled Dia.

"Yep, and I need to announce to him my position for one. And the fact we're engaged." He grasped her hand as they walked, doing this just to embarrass her. "And it's fine if I do this right?"

"I-I-I…!" she spluttered. "S-sure."

She held his hand back, flushing and staring at the ground.

"You don't have to hold it I hope you know. Anyway, Hestre do you have any idea how long it will take to get to Falazure's palace?"

"I-I'm fine…"

Hestre sighed. "Well, there are shortcuts. Space does not move as normal in the depths of the Black Realms, so to get from the Iron Dunes to Lord Raizel the 28th's realm, we should be able to find a way to get there within the hour. However, it will be difficult to return. Do you have any unfinished business in the academy that you came from? I suggest you take care of it now."

"Not that I know of anyway.." He tightened his grip around Dia's hand. "Can't we just, like, use a portal?"

"It is because space is so contorted that an expert would be necessary to even find the right country," Hestre shook her head. "It is not static. That is a key factor in establishing links in space like portals."

"Riiiiiiiight. So we basically have to foot it correct?"

"Precisely. Trying to create a portal is akin to attempting to walk on water."

"Dia, do we have an carriages or somethin'? I don't wannnnnna walk all the way. Especially after you 'sploded me all over."

"Hmph!" she puffed up her chest. "Even if you can't, a little walk is child's play for someone like me."

"There's a chariot," Hestre cut in.

"Hestre!"

He'd stop dead in his tracks. "Ahhhh screw it. Since little miss perfect wants to seem so strong we'll all walk."

"W-well, don't be afraid to admit it when you're getting tired!" she said nervously. "I'll accommodate all of you if I have to."

"And what if I want to carry you?"

"Heh. Well, if you recognise my greatness, I can't stop you if you insist."

"You're not even that great. You're mediocre at best but that doesn't matter really. Just let me know if you get tired alright? And that mediocre thing was a lie. Please don't murder me in my sleep."

She looked like she was about to burst in indignance. "Stop insulting me! Just because you're a little tougher than I am!"

The maid coughed, or perhaps cleared her throat. "So you wagered a hand in marriage in a duel?"

"She did. And she lost. But that's okay because she's adorable and dangerous. Hestre, do you have an estimate of how long it will even take us to walk to Falazure's?"
"As I say, within the hour," she replied. "Once again, I must ask you to finish up any other business you might have. Even contacting your peers will be difficult."

"I'll be fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. Let's just go."

"Very well."
 
When the time came around for the Kheire Rescue Pranking Party to set off, it likely surprised nobody that Ren wasn't ready at all.
He seemed to be trying to pin some kind of flask to the inside of his sari when he finally joined the group, struggling in part due to the size of his fingers.
"Hold on, hold on, hold on," he mumbled. "I almost got it…"
Miki tucked his satchel under his arm. "Do you need help with that..?"
He gave a smile to fail to hide the pain. "P-please."
"What is this anyway?" Miki fixed the flask to his clothes after inspecting it in his hands.
He gave an awkward half-flush. "I-I just thought I'd take Lild's flowers with me in case we found a home for them. Oni live in jungles, right?"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"I think it's a better idea than trying to go back if we do find a spot," he attempted to construct a surprisingly sound argument. "Anyway, the important thing is that we have balloons."
The ghiest face faulted. "What."
"Water balloons, Miki! Did you forget why we're going?" Ren cried.
Viviane sighed, gently rubbing her temples as she looked back at Ren. "Well, Ren," she started. "Provided you are serious about 'pranking Kheire', are you sure water balloons are a good way to go. Why not bring a whoopee cushion," she said. If it wasn't already clear, the sarcasm was probably dripping from her entire body.
"Viviane, we can't just go all the way to the edge of Onogoro to drop a whoopee cushion," Ren protested. "Besides, he's a plant. He won't mind."
"If he is a plant he wouldn't mind a whoopee cushion either." Miki pointed out.
"Whoopee cushions aren't as funny!"
"Being drenched in water isn't so funny either," she added.
"Well, maybe not for him," Ren admitted. "But it will be for me and that's what counts."
Viviane sighed, grabbing a small plastic bag from her larger bag and walking to a nearby water fountain. Filling it to the brim with water, she carefully sealed it off, weighing it in her hand before tossing it as hard as she could at Miki.
He caught the bag on instinct, not really noticing until a second later. "...Why?"
Ren stifled a small laugh, albeit less at the balloon and more at the failed attempt to use it.
"Don't underestimate Miki's power," he warned.
Miki raised his brow at Ren, tossing the bag at the shorter boy.
In a flash, Ren went to grab it with both hands, and, for a moment, succeeded.
However, the still-wet exterior of the bag only meant that his efforts served to throw it in his face faster, soaking the front of his head through.
He was silent for a second or two, looking as though he was about to cry.
"Muuuu…"
Viviane barely paused as she filled another bag, tossing it at Miki again. "Catch," she said in a deadpan voice.
He caught it like he was told, but threw it back at the girl with a monotone, "Catch?"
Viviane blinked as Miki threw the makeshift water balloon back at her. "Shit," she mumbled, not even bothering to try catch as the balloon nailed her in the gut. "Ow," she grumbled, ignoring the sting from the bag all but exploding on impact as she prepared another. "Don't throw it back this time please," she growled, tossing the next balloon at Miki.
"Got it." He held out the water filled bag to Ren.
Ren looked tentatively at the bag, then up at Miki. He was very close to throwing it at the ghiest, but was stopped by two factors.
Firstly, he valued Miki's contentment.
Secondly, he valued his life.
He instead opted to carefully drain it out and put the bag in his pocket for later reballoonification.
"Water balloons," was all he said.
Viviane sighed as she shook her head, looking down at her dress. "Eh, it'll dry," she thought, wincing as she touched the spot where Miki had hit her with the balloon. "Anyway, did you guys find out where we need to go exactly, or is the plan still just go there and find out?"
Rubbing his face with his sleeve in an attempt to dry it, Ren gave a small shrug. "We found an island. That's basically it."
"If we get close I can probably find his Exin." Miki supplied.
"It'll be quick and easy," the short boy agreed.
"Nothing is ever 'quick and easy' with you," Val entered the room, sighing. She had a bag slung over her shoulder with a tiny bat face poking out of it. Sam was nowhere to be seen.
"That's mean!" Ren said, shrinking a little, in part because he knew it was true. "Oh, it's Zeph!"
He rushed up to the two and raised a finger to the bat's face, apparently debating whether or not to boop her nose. "Is Sammy not coming? Did something happen?" he asked. "Oh, has he reached that age? The week in his life where it becomes physically impossible to stop eating pistachios?"
He placed his hand where his heart might been assuming his circulatory system was remotely similar to everyone else's.
"I understand your pain, my friend," he said solemnly.
Miki took a deep breath and reminded himself this was his life now. "Miss Viviane. Pass a balloon."
Viviane didn't really pause as she threw over another sealed plastic bag.
He stared down the bag as if it was the root of his problems and promptly smashed it into his face without flinching.
Ren almost screamed. "What kind of violence is this?! Miki, hurting yourself won't fix it!"
"Will this fix it?" The still dripping plastic was flung at Ren's face.
Ren squeaked, trying to bat it away like a terrified kitten and failing, having to peel it off after a few seconds of useless flailing. "Why are you doing this?! What did I do to you guys?!"
"What are you even doing? Is that our drinking water? Are we going to a desert?" Val asked, then going on to state "About Sam, I'm not actually sure where he is."
Rubbing his face of the water, Ren raised his eyebrows. "Really? Did he run off somewhere?"
"Oh, I mean I probably know where he went, he's been quite fond of chasing the strange new student's little fluffy griffin thing," she pondered, "I was hoping that he would be following them here."

Akio, with both Chieko and Sam on his head, appeared looking for the owner of the small dragon as he entered the portal hall. "Hello? Anyone?"
"Oh, hey," Ren blinked. "It's you! I know you! Kind of! You're in our dorm, right? I'd recognise an ultra-creepy face like that anywhere!"
"What is that suppose to mean?" Akio said becoming defensive about his curse of wearing the mask as Chieko kept Sam occupied.
Val had a conflicting look on her face as she walked over and plucked Sam away like the little asshair he was, "See, I told you that's where he would be."
Chieko began to whimper because her friend suddenly disappeared. Akio wasn't pleased by this action but focused on Ren in the meantime.
"W-well… I mean… It's a pretty creepy face, you can't deny it," said Ren, doing his best to keep up an amicable smile.
Akio ignored the comment as he placed his grasped hands by horns of the mask and tried to pull it off. As the mask wrapped some sort of black phantom hands around Akio's head and violently reattaching itself to his face. "I wish i had a choice….." He began to recollect himself. "My name is Akio son of Haru and brother of Michael. And who are you?"
Ren flinched at the mask's reaction, almost crying out to Miki and Val for help, but just about managed to keep it together.
"O-oh. That's. A cursed artifact. Right," he cleared his throat. "I-it's rude to assume, right? Um. I'm Ren. Ren Vedas. Son of I Don't Know and brother of Do I Even."
Akio bowed slightly while Chieko puffed up his feathers and started to slightly growl but in a playful matter. "Nice to meet you Ren." he paused
"Oh! Where are my manners." he picked Chieko from his head and held him. "This is my lovely companion Chieko." Chieko cawed.
Miki made a sound of abstract horror and looked between the griffin and the dragon. "My god there are two of them."
"Nothing wrong with that," Ren said, petting Chieko slightly, but very anxious to maintain the personal space of any unfamiliar creature. "This one might not even bite me when I make jokes!"
Sam became jealous, jumping out of Val's arms and running in between Chieko and Ren, saying something angrily in the tiny bit of dragontounge he knew.
"Hey now, don't worry. I didn't forget about you," Ren assured him, picking up the tiny flying reptile and lifting him in the air a little. "Anyway, you guys, ready to head out?"
Chieko began to like Ren until Sam cockblocked her. Chieko violently cawed at the reptile. Akio became curious "Wait may I ask where you guys are heading?"
"We're going to find our dorm advisor," Ren explained. "He hasn't been back in a while, so we're going to play a prank or two to remind him we exist." He looked thoughtful for a moment, before tentatively voicing a suggestion. "We probably ought to make a round trip through Onogoro."
"May I join this adventure? I mean, Chieko and I would seem to be alone and in addition I would like to meet some of my classmates."
"Are… you sure…?" muttered Ren carefully. "It's not like a trip to a dungeon. Anything we run into could probably maul us all to bits."

"Well, not so much maul us as crush us," Viviane added, checking her bag. "They're oni, after all."
Akio cracked his neck resulting in bone breaking sounds. "Sounds like fun". The mask quietly whispering in his ear but Akio shook it off.
"D-does it now?" Ren laughed anxiously. "Well, you know. It's just pranks, right? We'll probably be... fine…"
"It always goes wrong," Val groaned, wiping a hand across her face, "but we have not died yet so I wouldn't worry."
"Yeah, like the oni are gonna know how to cast death curses, right?" Ren nodded.
Val quickly slapped a hand over his mouth, "Do. Not. Say. Anything." Never Again.
"Right," Miki said with more false cheer than he thought he was capable of, "how are we getting there?"
Akio excitedly "Let me go change into my Knight Armor real quick and i'll be ready to go." Chieko decided to stay and see if she can play with Sam.
Sam enthusiastically joined
Viviane stretched her arms as she waited for their newest member to return, sighing as her bag dug into her shoulder a little. "I should drop off some of this stuff soon," she mumbled, still carrying the corpse of the last boss inside.
Akio quickly came back with shiny knight armor similar to that of Michael's armor. "Oh and one thing." Akio placed a helmet on Chieko "there you go"


Well this greatly assists her plans. They will definitely welcome her help if they're to go into the Oni lands.
It should be fairly simple to get on their boat as well, provided that they actually use a boat. Yes, that is when she would make her appearance.
Her name, should she tell them it? It would be unfortunate to be caught in a lie, but if they know who she is, will they fear her or be in awe? It's unlikely they'll know of her. Maybe the Samodiva or the boy, but the others? Not probable.
Most don't use her name, but that doesn't mean it's not well known.


After finding a nearby "Axolotl Mount Salesperson." the party traded one of the swords Ren used to fight Zhihao to buy a group of four giant axolotls. Over a period of a few days, they made it over land and sea to arrive at the island, landing in the shadow of a snow-capped mountain.


Axolotls? Really? She scoffed. How demeaning can you get? She almost felt personally offended.
She could fly to them, but not without a high chance of detection, and she would definitely be noticed on an Axolotl, and she would never lower herself to that level anyway. The woman sighed, then began stepping into the water, walking along the ocean floor, far below the waves.



Ren was first to dismount petting the creature on its… uh, nose, and allowing Miki to shift away from his blade form.
"Okay," he nodded. "That's step one."
Viviane hopped off her axolotl, stretching her back as she glanced up at the mountain. "What's step two?"
"Step two would be getting there without being seen," he said. "I can go invisible, sort of. I can scout ahead."
Miki grimaced at the idea. "Are you sure you can get go around without being heard?"
"Relax, relax," he said, waving a hand. "I snuck around Vivi. It's not much of an achievement, but I don't think even Vivi has worse perceptiveness than an oni."
Viviane sighed as she listened to Ren. "And what happens when you inevitably trip and fall during your scouting?"
"Then they won't see me! It's a perfect plan!"
"But they can hear you then," she replied. "And if they can hear you, can't they then try to hit you?"
Ren folded his arms, puffing up his chest with a smug grin. "Poor, naive child. Don't you know? I don't make any sound when I fall over!"
Shrouding himself in light, he seemed to all but disappear.

Moving quickly and quietly, he crept to the edge of the mountain, peeking around the side.
Not far away, there was a wood cabin with idols out the front, emanating Exin like nothing he'd seen in a good while.
Hm…
There were windows, so a proper investigation wouldn't be completely out of place if he were to just peer in and--
An oni was staring back.
In a panic, he dropped down the ground, back to the wall.
And then, for the faintest moment, he cracked a smile. Sure, that was a plan.
He dropped his camouflage, standing up straight and clenching his fists, scurrying around the back of the hut.
The oni's voice rumbled from the window, "I know you're there. Might as well stop hiding."
Ren yelped in astonishment, and then immediately covered his mouth, hurrying around the other side of the hut.
Slowly, he peeked out there as well, staring at the front door as if attempting to will it to do… well, something.
Staring back at him were two glowing, wooden, golem-like creatures with decidedly unfriendly expressions. Their hulking forms stood at each side of the door.
Ren gave a tentative little wave, laughing anxiously as he made his way quietly back to the other side of the hut. A direct fight in conditions like these wasn't really something he was comfortable with right now.
One actually waved back, resulting in its twin smacking the back of its head.
Thinking for a bit, Ren decided to make an ultimatum. Specifically, he crept out from behind the corner, just in eyeshot of these odd doorguards, and crouched, practically sitting, indicating he wasn't about to move, and he watched them carefully.
They stared back, showing no sign of intending to pursue him.
The boy sat for two or three minutes, fidgeting impatiently, before grabbing a nearby pebble.
Okay, how about this?
He tossed it at the side wall of the hut, then hurriedly rushed all the way back around, waiting to see what happened, if anything at all this time.
The pebble bounced off the wall, making a strange sound.
A barrier? he pondered.
He knocked lightly on the wall, to little effect, but a second time with more force prompted the same sound.
Definitely a barrier. Does something often come to bother this guy, if he has so much security…?
It seemed to extend all the way around the house too… Didn't he know that force-responsive barriers had a ton of holes in them…?
Well, the golems were there too, so it was probably enough insurance so long as anyone trying to get in didn't have some kind of intangibility, or they could just outright wipe out the golems first… It probably needed fireproofing too.
No, no, he wasn't here to break into this guy's house.
In the first place, wouldn't the ideal thing to do have been just ignoring it?
It didn't matter now anyway. Ren peered through the window, invisible again, trying to check for any progress.
The oni is still leaning against the window, drinking from a large keg in a nonchalant manner.
Come on, you big lug, get out of your house already…!
He slowly lowered his hands and head again, crouching so as to remain hidden as he took off his invisibility, moving around the back once more.
Picking up a bit of gravel, he crept back around and tossed a tiny pebble in through the window.
The pebble clattered across the floor. The oni's eyes flicked towards it before he shrugged it off. "You're still there, then? I'd have thought you would've gotten bored and gone home by now."
Yeah, me too! he hissed mentally.
Darting quickly against the base of the wall just loud enough to make a noise, he frowned.
So he knows when someone appears, but unless they do something where he can see it, he doesn't know if they're still there? That explains why he hasn't gotten pissed off with me yet… Ah, but that might mean...
Turning invisible again, he very slowly and carefully attempted to lift himself over the windowsill.
The oni was looking straight at him with a curious and cautious expression.
Reasoning that probably meant that he didn't have a death sentence just yet, Ren looked around at the inside of the room, analysing his surroundings.
Large containers of some kind of drink, probably alcoholic, were placed in different spots in a quasi-organised fashion, with shelves and jars and even the ceiling being home to all kinds of ingredients, with a couple laid atop what looked like a cauldron with a slab of wood over the top. A table substitute? That seemed startlingly ineffective for a number of reasons that Ren pushed aside for the moment. There were some potted plants on the other side of the room too, which he reasoned were likely also for making this stuff. There were all sorts of totems and masks as well, accompanied by an unfinished idol in the corner. He made all this himself? Well, it made sense. This place did seem to be in the middle of nowhere.
Now he was inside, he would definitely need to adapt his original plan a little, but boredom was boredom.
Still shrouded and sneaking through the room like someone who hadn't noticed he'd already been seen, he approached a cabinet and looked up and down it at various ingredients, trying to discern what was immediately edible and what was not.
The oni had been tracing his path, definitely knowing where he was, but still unable to "see" his uninvited guest. "See anything you like? I grew those myself, or harvested them nearby."
It was very easy indeed to leap in surprise at the man's voice, which was something the small boy continued to do. This time, he hid behind a cabinet, staying completely still.
"I already can't see you. Trying to obstruct my vision seems a little pointless. How about this? If you can tell me how I know where you are within three tries, you will be safe. Sound fair?"
Well, you've just proven it's not sight, Ren rolled his invisible eyes. Someone doesn't play poker very often.
A game within a game though? That seemed interesting. He already had a theory or two from earlier, so it couldn't be difficult.
Cupping his mouth with his hands, he gave his first guess.
"Y-your barrier…?" he suggested.
"Nope. Try again."
Ah, there it was.
Ren had cupped his mouth, focusing his voice.
If it were hearing, then the man would have followed the echo. So that wasn't the case either.
Not the barrier, not hearing, and not sight.
He cupped his mouth again, this time blowing at the wall silently before making just as much noise crossing the room two or three seconds later.
Noticing what he was trying to, the oni responded, "Hearing is a good guess, but still wrong."
Satisfied with that answer, Ren moved into the middle of the room, slowly and deliberately, and threw his invisibility aside.
"That's not what I was going for at all, actually," he grinned. "But thanks for the tip. In return, you can count that as a guess. In fact, I was just checking to see if it was another sense completely. But since that didn't even seem to occur to you in the first place, I'd say that feeling the motion of the air currents around you is out too. That just leaves you with, in a room like this, a really good sense of smell to pin me down through the musks of all these things, especially since I don't have a scent naturally. That is, you didn't pick me up at all, did you? It's the scent of Onogoro on my clothes that tips you off, right?"
"You are simultaneously right and wrong. But you won still, so welcome to my home. My name is Ephialtes. Would you like a drink?"
The boy had to physically restrain his scheming grin, a slightly anxious expression taking its place.
"P-please. Salt water is terrible."
"That it is. Which is why experienced travelers bring their own water. Here, try this." He handed the small boy the smallest keg he could find. The drink smelled sweet and fruity, which immediately put a fluorescent blush on Ren's face.
"A-a-a-a-are you sure this is safe to drink?" he stuttered. This was pretty likely to be a problem. It wouldn't normally have occurred to him, but after that time, it definitely seemed really dangerous to drink something that smelt sweet and fruity…
"Well. I suppose I could get you water. I understand that alcohol is not for everyone."
"Ah, i-it's not that! I appreciate it, but this just brought back some bad memories all of a sudden. Good memories, actually. Kind of both. Kind of uncomfortable. Scary. Embarrassing. Not for human consumption."
"Then it's a good thing neither of us are human."
"I… don't really know that for certain," admitted Ren sheepishly, though he was fairly sure that probability was pretty low.
"Trust me. I have seen humans. You are far too shiny to be one. At least a normal one."
"Then it's possible I'm a strange one?" he concluded. That was an odd thought indeed. "I'm sure Viviane would laugh at me if that turned out to be true. I wonder what Val would think too… Miki probably wouldn't care at all."
"Anyone that discriminates based on what you are instead of who you are is not worth being around anyway, kid. Trust me, I would know."
Ren stifled a small giggle. "Someone said those exact words to me before. He could probably do with your sense of smell too!"
Somewhere, a certain someone narrowed empty eyes at an hourglass in their hand. Whoever it was who just said that was definitely getting an earful later.
"Even if you say that though, it's not like you should just ig… Wait, wait, wait a second. What did you just say?" he stopped himself. "Something something something else races and discrimination, right?"
"Yeah, that definitely sounds like something I would probably say. What about it?"

The group, minus Ren, were all sitting around a fire. The details of making said fire were not newsworthy to anyone above a human level.
Val was sitting with Zeph on her chest when she heard a loud squeak from behind her, then had Sam curled under her crossed legs.
"Why are you frightened, Sam?" Val asked, scratching his head.
Miki stood up from his place around the fire, eyes sliding across their makeshift camp. "Something feels… off."
Vivian was idling humming some tune, sorting through her bag to make sure everything was in order. "What feels off?" she asked Miki, not looking up from her bag.
"Well if I knew what I wouldn't have just said 'something'." he drawled.
Akio fell asleep sitting up.
"Miki, do you see any exin traces or whatever?" Val asked, scooping Sam up into her arms and sprouting wings. Whatever was going on was bad, because Sam was scared, and Sammy was never scared.
Miki shook his head, still scanning the area. "It's just… something that's strong enough to snap me in half? Like Namacuix. It's just nerves. Probably from being away from Master is all."
Viviane sighed, making a mental note to ask about this… Namacuix later as she pulled out some s'mores from her bag. "Well, if you do think there's something out there, why not investigate?" she asked. "Unless it's as Miki said, 'just nerves'."
"I don't that's the best idea…" Val whispered out.

It was time. Now seemed a perfectly good time to integrate herself into their group. If she can get their trust while the boy is away, then… Actually, that may not matter. Well, she supposed it wouldn't matter either way.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" The woman asked, trying to seem as submissive as possible. That was important, you don't want anyone feeling threatened.

Viviane turned her head at the voice, frowning for a moment. "Nose goes," she mumbled.
Akio had woken up from his very short nap not knowing why everyone was in the motion to leave him and Chieko.
Val snapped her wings and went to a tree. She held her hand over Sam's snout to muffle any sound, holding her other hand over her own mouth.
Akio rubbed his eyes to wake himself up. "Chieko get out of the fire and get your helmet." he says tiredly.
Viviane didn't have any special power or escape technique. She sorta just…stood up. And moved to put herself between the woman and the fire. "Who are you?" she called, one hand stuck in her bag, ready to whip out whatever she needed.
"I'm just a traveler. I have my camp set up near you, and I saw a light," the "traveler" stated, walking casually into full view, 'I'm awfully lonely, you know. I have a distinct lack of companions!" She let out a pleasant laugh at the last sentence, sitting cross-legged, looking around at the others, wide-eyed.
Akio looked at the stranger and slid closer to his sword sitting across from him. "Well hello," he said worryingly, "May I ask who you are?"
The woman directed her attention to him, "Of course! It's only to be expected, after all. My name is Varuna."
At this point Valentina had slid down the tree, and was crouched at the tree line. Something wasn't adding up, and something seemed familiar.
Unlike Akio, Chieko was terrified and in response, she puffed up and turned slightly metal. She began to caw at Varuna. This alerted Akio and put him in a defensive position. For the first time, He was scared.
"Should we know you?" Miki snapped with more force than was probably warranted.
"I don't see why you would," Varuna answered calmly, glancing to the side.
"Any reason you came to Onogoro for company?"
Varuna laughed again, "Of course I didn't come here just for company, that was just a coincidence. I'm just visiting some business acquaintances."
Akio slowly sneaks towards his sword.
Miki hummed. "If you came alone then you must be pretty confident. You're strong right? You probably don't need us for anything since you got pretty close without us noticing."
"You did notice though, or you would've been a lot more surprised," Varuna said, gesturing to the group. "As for my being alone, I can hide pretty well, and I'm not completely defenseless," she winked, pulling a long dagger out of a sheath.
Val inched closer, holding her bag to her chest, holding the top closed so her now contained pets couldn't get out. She definitely was familiar, and alarms were going off in Val's head.
After some more questioning, all which seemed to have convenient answers, Varuna went back to her camp, and everyone seemed to draw a little closer to each other and the fire.
 
Tick headed to a nearby metal dungeon in order to get some metal to help him make his first puppet at noon one day.

The school dungeons were, as he knew, artificial, which meant that they were carefully pieced together and rearranged daily. It wouldn't be too confusing at first. This was the first time he had entered one, after all. But of course, there were monsters that had been moved into these dungeons in an attempt to challenge students.

That said, in the mouth of the cave, there was absolutely no sign of monsters nor metal to be seen.

It seemed that he would have to head deeper into the darkness.

Tick saw this and headed towards further in the dungeon.

Perhaps a step too far already.

The cavern was more or less pitch-black inside, and Tick could barely even make out where the walls were. It was evidently only going to get darker the deeper he went.

Tick decided to stop and head back out because he thought he may have jumped the gun on going to the dungeon without preparing first.

Tick went to search the woods to find and get materials to make couple of torches. After getting a couple materials for torches, a very short person, perhaps 2 and a half feet tall, dropped down from above as he left his seat amongst the tree branches. This fellow, a halfling, was Flint, another student of the school.

Tick was shocked and asked, "Who are you and why were sitting on a tree branch?"

" Hey there, I'm a student from the school that made that dungeon," the halfling gestured towards the metal dungeon, "and I was just climbing trees because I like to."

"My name is Tick and I was going to cut down some trees to make a couple puppets."

"Well, before you cut any trees down, make sure there's nothing in the branches like, say, a bird's nest full of eggs in the tree I was just in. Oh, and I forgot to tell you my name: it's Flint."

"Can you help me cut a few trees down?"

"Sure, if a weirdly-shaped arrow can help," Flint says as he turned himself a little, showing Tick the arrow that's quite long compared to the halfling's short height as he looked up at Tick.

"Sure, I was going to cut them down with wires." Tick showed the halfling the wires.

"Oh, then I guess we won't be needing the arrow.. But be warned, I'm not very strong since, well, it's proportional to how much muscle I have." Flint was a tiny person and he wasn't a macho man either, in fact, he's quite frail-looking. "Anyways, let's begin sawing a tree down, shall we? And I'll tell you which ones are fine to cut down since I don't want any broken eggs!"

"Sure." Tick stands back and waits for the halfling to find the right tree.

Flint looked straight at a nearby tree, not the one he was sitting in, and turned his head up checking for nests before giving the go ahead. "Let's cut this one down."

Tick nodded and tried to cut the tree down with the help of Flint.

It took several dozen strikes, but eventually, they managed to fell the single pine tree, leaving it laying on the ground, its leaves flattened against the forest floor. As they were cutting it down, Flint was trying his very best to not fly into the tree as they sawed it down with the force of Tick's pulls.

Tick gets to work on the tree and created a shield puppet.



It took a little while, but he managed to construct something at least recognisable. It wasn't exactly humanoid, and could be best described as a "shield on strings", but it would do the job of protecting him.

Flint, seeing as he likely couldn't help with cutting into the tree with his meagre strength

decided to go through the forest to gather any herbs he could use to craft with at a later date.

He managed to gather a good handful of eight healing herbs, and a rudimentary glance showed that they were a type he recognised; he could make a healing potion out of these for sure.

Tick turn to Flint and asks, "I finished what I need for the metal dungeon. I was thinking do you want to join?"

Flint, back from his herb gathering, replied, "Why do you think I'm still hanging around and not up in a tree? Of course I'll be joining you! I mean, surely you won't be able to do that dungeon alone."

Tick smiled and headed towards the metal dungeon with Flint.


The cavern was exactly as dark as last time, but the fading daylight meant that it was near impossible to see anything.

"Got a torch, bud?" Flint asked.

"Yep." Tick lighted his torch and used the flames to create a fire surfboard.

"Not exactly a torch, but it does it's job."

In the corner of his eye, Flint noticed something scurrying off into the shadows. It looked like some kind of four-legged animal, but it also seemed to reflect the light of the torch. Either way, it went deeper into the cave before he could ascertain exactly what it was.

"Did you see that?!" Flint exclaimed in surprise.

"Yeah… we better keep our eyes peeled" Tick slowly floats on his fireboard and raised his shield puppet bit forward in front of him and Flint.

Flint raised his bow a bit, placed his arrow one the string and pulled the arrow back as he continued the journey into the dungeon's depths.

Tick turned off the fire board and landed on the ground softly.


The dungeon seemed a lot more complicated the lower they got, with intersecting catacombs forming an underground web of tunnels, walls lined with what was unmistakably iron ore.

Occasionally, one of the pair would hear a scuttle or catch some movement at the edge of the light, but nothing seemed to be creeping up on them.

Tick took iron ore while Flint and him go further in the dungeon while keeping watch.

He was watching the wrong spot.

Behind the ore Tick extracted, there was a hole, and out of this hole, what looked like a giant woodlouse made of iron leapt out at him, screeching.

Perhaps out of reflex, Tick raised his shield the moment the woodlouse appeared while Flint, somehow perceiving the monster before it could strike, aimed his bow at the creature, shooting at it.

The arrow pierced through the monster's hide easily, skewering it to the cave wall in an instant, killing it without a moment to blink.

Tick walked towards the body and tried to take the metal body parts and it core.

It was relatively easy to strip down its body and take what he needed, leaving him with a couple of metal-esque scales and a magic core.

As Tick had stripped the woodlouse and showing the world it's bare insides, Flint re-summoned his arrow out of the corpse.

Tick wondered if it was the creature that they saw from before. He shrugged and continued to walk forward with the shield in front of him. Flint followed Tick again, bow raised, slightly drawn, and arrow ready to eliminate the enemy.

The enemy was not quite having that.

From the shadows, three of what appeared to be lion cubs leapt, fangs and claws bared. It seemed that the pair had aggravated the cave's residents.

Ticks tried to calm down the lion cubs with his shield in front of him. It seemed to make it even worse.

Tick tried to fly over the the cubs with fire surf board and used the shield to help Flint fly over the cubs to head forward deeper into the cave.

The cubs slashed over their heads, but didn't quite managed to claw their prey as they dashed overhead.

Just up in front of the pair was a large cavern looked like the very end of the dungeon. The entire chamber looked to be lined with ore, perhaps even being made of it, but there was also a menacing aura blowing through...

"Can you feel that?" asked Tick.

"If you mean that scary-feeling… feel, then yes, yes I do," Flint replied.

The pair stepped in.


Something stirred.

From the other end of the chamber, rising to its feet apparently from the depths of a disturbed slumber, stood a silver chimera.

It did not make a sound, but its imposing figure, taller than the both of them combined, blended into its glare.

Tick shot an ink oil ball at the chimera, which hit exactly on the mark, covering its eyes in black.

It snarled in fury, immediately leaping into a battle stance.

Seeing that the enemy was blinded, Flint aims his bow at the chimera's eye, planning on trying to semi-permanently blind the creature and avoiding the hide that's likely hard as iron.

The arrow skewered it in the side, slashing across its face as it did.

With a flick of its head, it splattered the ink over its face across the ground and opening its eyes.

From its back, the chimera's second head rose up, mouth open, a purple light gathering in front of it.

In a moment, that light had expanded into a beam of repulsive energy, firing at Tick.

Tick raised his shield, the blast colliding with the wooden shield.

That shield shattered completely, with part of the blast piercing through with ease.

The beam rocketed through, but…

In response to the beam attack, Flint attempts to conjure his shield, recklessly putting power into it to get it up as fast and strong as he can.

Bang.

The blast shattered through the barrier.

Regardless of the pair's attempts, the beam still hit Tick.

And yet…

He survived.

Feeling nauseous, evidently suffering from some kind of magic venom laced in that blast, but alive.

With a roar from the chimera, it leapt down at the pair.

From its mane, it fired a rain of blades down at its two opponents.

Seeing the rain of literal blades coming out of its mane, Flint tries to dodge all of those that are coming his way, while at the same time trying to re-summon his arrow.

Tick blocks the swords with his scales.

Flint managed to dodge all four blades, Tick managing to block two.

The first blade slashed at his side, and the second pierced through his arm, severing flesh and bone alike with a sickening rip below his left shoulder, splattering gore across the ground and leaving his arm completely limp and hanging by a single stubborn patch skin alone.

Seeing that Tick seemed to be slightly ill, likely poison, Flint runs up to the puppeteer while shoving herbs onto him.

Tick starts to turn the herbs to a potion to heal him.

Roaring, the chimera turned its attention to Flint, apparently considering him a great deal more problematic, and slashed at him with its claws.

Seeing the chimera come down at him, Flint tried to pre-emptively dodge the incoming slash, planning on disappearing before it's very eyes, but only after screaming, "Fuck you too!"

The chimera narrowed its eyes at him, in spite of his vanishing.

Tick made the potion and drank it.

His arm healed next to instantly, though he was still losing blood, although the worst of it was over, and the poison seemed to have subsided.

The chimera could clearly tell where Flint was standing: well within its range.

But it didn't swipe at him.

Instead, it stabbed its claws into the ground.

Metal spikes thrust out of the ground all around its body, with Flint still in its radius.

Seeing the chimera stare at him before slamming its claws into the ground, Flint knew he was fucked. He looked at the ground and tried to dodge the incoming spears of death trying to skewer him.

Flint managed to dodge it by a hair's breadth. Knowing that the illusion sucked and didn't work, he turned it off.

The chimera was not happy about this at all. In fact, it seemed pretty pissed off.

Knowing he'll live even if he 'dies', he'll still live and if he could defeat it, he'll get a good reward from it, he aimed his bow at the chimera, pulled back the arrow, and let go.

The arrow struck the beast's hide, causing it to roar in pain. It stumbled, just for a moment, and was utterly furious.

"I did say fuck you!" shouted an indignant halfling.

Tick launched himself towards the monster and tried to punch it.

The monster glared.

Was it in defiance? Refusal?

Who knew?

What was important was that it dashed backwards at bullet-like speed, evading the blow, and firing the poison blast from its second head again.

Seeing the chimera send another beam of death and decay, Flint tries once more to bring up another magical shield, using the last remains of his magical strength.

The barrier shattered once again under the onslaught, with only a fraction of the beam making it through.

That was enough to save Tick.

Tick tried another punch against the monster.

A snap rang out through the chamber.

The sound of a shattering spine.


Finally, the chimera collapsed, still.


"It's finally dead!" shouted Flint in glee.

Tick goes over body to take its metal core.

"Hey, gonna say anything?" the halfling goes up to the chimera and take his most prized item. The fucking arrow. He honestly doesn't really care for getting the corpse- he's no crafter. A core, however, is something he wants. Cores are quite valuable in this universe.

After, Tick takes the metal core and the body. He then saw a chest and went over to open. Flint followed too, assuming that he has some rights over the treasure since the.. Whatever race he is, took the corpse.

In the chest was a magnificent bow, a disgusting feeling dagger, a copper shield, and a couple healing potions. Eagerly, Flint claimed the bow and a potion before taking the dagger almost hesitatingly, leaving his companion with the shield (he definitely needs that) and a healing potion.


"Well, that was scary- thought you were dead there a couple times, my quiet friend?" Flint badgered the silent person.

"Yeah that was a close one". He was able to take what he needed from the chest and turned the chimera's body into a puppet. Then Tick starts to gather as much iron ore as possible.


"Oh yeah, what are we going to do about the lion cubs?" questioned the halfling.

"We will leave them alone". Tick thought they will be able to survive.

Tick and Flint left the dungeon, avoiding as much danger as possible as they wanted to get the hell out of there (for no reason, really, they just really wanted fresh air. It stank of iron in there.)
fFlint and Tick went their separate ways, promiseing to meet later. Tick went to the school forges and starts to turn the iron into steel. Tick then made the steel into a steel knight(hp: 30, str:30, DEX: 30 AGL:30 ) and install a common metal core( 25% physical damage resist).
 
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It was another day when it was time for Flint and Tick to meet up together for another go at a different dungeon. Flint, however, decided to go to the forest in front of the cave entrance to the artificial dungeon an hour before Tick came. He climbed a tree and sat on one of the branches, checking his newly-obtained bow from the last dungeon as a dagger was sheathed at his side, waiting to be drawn.

Tick went to the woods to meet with Flint, but he gathered materials for torches.

Eventually, Flint spotted Tick, and seeing as the Svartalfar was gathering materials for the torches, he jumped down behind him and tapped his back while stretching his arm up.

"Hey dude, ready to explore?" Flint suddenly asked the dark-skinned creature.

Tick says, "not yet, we need to be more prepared this time."

"Glad you remembered what happened last time, when you only made a shield! Nice puppet, by the way," Flint said, referring to the metallic knight that was with him. "I'll be looking for herbs as you do whatever you need to do."

Tick nodded and gave back 5 herbs for Flint to use. Tick used his Chimera , his steel puppet, and himself to knock down trees.

While Tick went off to bring some trees down, Flint went around the forest, a little further away from the crazy chimera puppet, to find some herbs. After a bit of rummaging around, the little halfling found 7 fresh healing herbs that could be made into useful potions in addition to the 5 the got from Tick, totalling a number of 12 herbs.

Tick was able to get five trees. For one of the trees he made a solid wooden shield for his knight.

He then used three trees to make his puppet to stronger and tougher(200 points to added to hp and 100 for STR ).

As Tick was building a shield and reinforcing his steel puppet with wood (seriously?), he made some potions as he waited, completely using up all of the herbs he had found.

After Tick was finish, he decide to head to the forge to use up the last 20 units of wood, a whole tree's worth, at a later date.

"Finished with the puppets now?" Flint asked as he found himself on the knight puppet's shoulder. He soon jumped off though.

Tick nods and these two started to head towards the dark-aligned dungeon.


The dungeon definitely lived up to its name. It was a good thing that the pair gathered torch materials beforehand.

The ground seemed to be smooth, but it was covered in what looked like black sand. There was no movement, however.


Unliked the last dungeon, Flint, instead of his bow, had his newly-obtained dagger unsheathed and in his hands, prepared to respond to a possible ambush.

Tick tried to sneak through with his chimera, steel knight(with the copper shield), and shield puppet in front of himself and Flint.

"Give up sneaking, my friend. Much less the sound of your steel knight walking, the torch is an obvious marker." Flint continued while trying to push the steel puppet, his meat shield.. No, walking shield, forwards.

Tick tried to check to see if there was any monsters nearby. Flint was already watching out for hostile creatures. But they saw nothing that stood out.

As Tick and Flint walked forward in the dungeon, Tick looks around to see if there was any good resource, like minerals and/or iron.

Nothing in particular, once again, stood out. The interior of the cavern seemed to be made of black rock of some kind.

Flint, despite having seen nothing in particular, still kept his guard up and eyes peeled for danger, dagger still poised to slash at anything that comes at them.


Flint was the only one of the two to notice high-pitched clicking behind them.

At this, the little halfling turned around to face what creature could be making that awful ruckus while shouting, "Behind us!" to Tick.

A four-foot-long black scorpion had its tail poised to strike at them.

Without a moment of hesitation, Flint swung his dagger despite the fact he was not within slashing range of the scorpion. Why had he done this? This was answered when a near invisible horizontal arc flew at the scorpion's tail.

It was sliced off near immediately.

Tick`s knight could attack with its fist. The rest of its body was crushed under the force with a screech.

The "group" continued forward, for sadly they knew the core was crushed by the knight's immense strength.

The tunnels opened up into a second chamber. There didn't appear to be much in here beyond a pool of water in the centre, and even then, considering such a thing "significant" was a stretch at best.

The two living things in the group knew that there must be something there as it was a dungeon made for combat training, and it would not do for there to be nothing in place to combat the dungeon's intruders. However, the two focused on two different places; Flint looked around the cavern while Tick found more interest in the body of water.

Both of them noticed a large, coconut-sized silver pearl at the bottom of the water. There was nothing else around it save for a bunch of rocks, and there was not even a fish in the pool.

"There's definitely something in the pool," Flint verbally communicated.

Tick nodded and used his wire to try and to grab the pearl in the water.

The strings wrapped around the pearl with ease, giving him a firm hold on it.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Pull it up!" The halfling was a bit impatient, waiting for something, anything to happen. Like, say, a surprise attack by an invisible fish. Not like that could happen.

Tick attempted to pull, with the chimera and the steel knight grabbing him to give the extra strength to pulled the core.

Their combined strength was more than enough to pull the pearl up from the depths, dragging it through the water.

Bang.

In an instant, they had other things to worry about.

From the water had exploded an enormous black claw, which had pierced the ground in front of the duo, severing Tick's strings.

The entire cavern seemed to rumble as a ridiculously large monster rose from the water, pitch-black, skeletal in appearance, with four huge claws easily twice as large as a person. Six glowing eyes seemed to pierce their bodies.

Whatever it was, it seemed to be guarding this pearl, and it was very obviously the most powerful creature in this entire dungeon.

Flint looked in awe at the enormous being before shouting, "Let's bring it down!"

Knowing that he's faster than anybody here, Flint gathers his magical energies to laser beam this skeleton down.

Despite its colossal size, it managed to dodge two of the three beams, hissing in pain as one struck it dead in the skull. It raised one of its claws, with what looked a lot like fire, except that it absorbed light instead of emitting like some kind of inverted sun. Exin radiated from the claw like a hurricane. It was clearly preparing an attack.

"Well shit, that doesn't look good," Flint stated the obvious.

Tick said,"F@#$!"

Tick launched forward with his puppets and swung his fist at the guardian.

The knight did not aim quite right.

Tick was flung to the creature's side, clearing it completely and landing on the other side of the room with a thud.

"Idiot! Why did you toss yourself?!"

Flint decided to not attack the creature and instead rushed to hide behind the steel knight while waiting to see what the skeletal giant would do.

The guardian turned around, seeing Tick on his own without cover, and slashed at him with the unblazing claw.

He never had the slightest chance to evade the attack, and it would have sliced him in half if it hadn't been for the white light that caused him to vanish instantly.

"And he's gone.." Flint stood there for a moment in shock before the puppets too lit up and disappeared.

"Shit." Flint knew he had no chance against this monstrosity alone, so he decided to book it.


Whether it was because the bone catastrophe cared little for the fleeing halfling or if it was simply too slow to turn around and attack it, Flint never knew why he was able to leave the dungeon in its entirety unharmed as he never looked back and sprinted through the cave's opening.
 
Tick bring the torches from his last dungeon crawl and head back to metal dungeon to gather more metal and get stronger.

The dungeon was just as dark as he remembered, and the layout was pretty much the same.

Even the ore he had mined was still gone. But there was no hint of movement anywhere to be seen.

Tick keeps walking forward with his puppets in front of him.

It wasn't long before he reached the chamber where he had fought the chimera with Flint. The room still looked pretty much exactly the same.

Tick along with his puppets start to mine the iron ore.

He only managed to retrieve a small piece. The walls seemed pretty firm, like he'd gotten at the looser bits before. At this point, he was already tearing from bedrock. There really didn't seem to be much here, though… It was strange. The dungeon should have refreshed already.

Tick looks around trying to figure what is happening.

Naturally, he didn't pick up much. The problem was precisely that nothing had happened. Perhaps the teachers had simply forgotten?

Although, there did seem to be a cavern behind the chimera's old resting place…

Tick curious head towards the cave with his puppet close by him guarding him.

The path seemed new. It was covered in dust of some sort, so it might have even been recently dug. Either way, it didn't go very far before it began to curve downwards into some kind of drop.

Tick looks at the cave walls, trying to figure out what dug it, while he is walking forward with his puppet guarding him.

The walls seemed completely round, as if it were drilled out. Tick couldn't progress much further, however, or else he was definitely going to fall.

Tick stops and look down to see how deep it was.

The light from his torch faded to nothing long before it reached the bottom. There was no way of knowing for sure… besides the obvious.

Tick uses his fire board to fly down safely and the puppets are climbing down.

It took a few minutes to even be able to see the bottom. It seemed to open out into a chamber of some kind, but Tick couldn't tell much without entering.

Tick enters, with his puppet guarding him closely, checking for any enemies and/or traps.


He didn't have to look very hard to notice a huge spiked ball of steel rocketing towards him.

He uses the fire board to help him dodge the spike ball.

It didn't help much. The ball hit him at a high speed, knocking him out of the air and onto the ground, snapping and cracking echoing into the cave as bones shattered under the force.

Tick grabs a potion and drinks it.

The ball landed, unfolding and landing with a crash to reveal some kind of huge steel woodlouse. Roaring, the beast swung a claw at him, attempting to crush Tick's body.

Tick tries to parry the woodlouse out of the way with his steel knight, ramming it with its shield.

The claw was knocked aside, and Tick managed to make contact with the monster, but it didn't seem all that amused.

Screeching, it began to curl up in a ball with Tick directly underneath it in an attempt to crush him.

Tick and along with chimera try to toss the woodlouse near the hard across the ground in front of them.

He couldn't toss it by any stretch of the imagination, but he just about managed to keep its body open enough to be able to move.

He uses a ink ball on the woodlouse.

It didn't seem to do even as much as his ram. At this rate, he was going to be in serious danger.

That said, he still just about managed to keep its body open, but it was becoming a real strain…

Tick punches, along with his chimera body slam forward and steel knight punching the louse together.

It was that that did it. Tick couldn't hold the giant bug's body open any longer, and it closed on him, causing him to vanish, bones shattered.

He and his puppets teleport to the school`s infirmary. He thinks on what happen and he knew that he will try again later, this time with help.
 
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