“Where, where am I?” Christine asks as she wakes up.
Seeing a shirtless Yu beside her, she screams and tumbles off the stairs, crashing down to the first floor of Wyn’s tent. Wyn, who had been unable to sleep, rushes to help her up.
“You passed out. Yu and I got you back here first, then went back to the club for some rounds with the guys.”
Despite the loud thud of Christine's fall, no one else wakes up. Anish and James remain peacefully asleep on the first floor. Feeling awkward, Christine quickly excuses herself, asking Wyn to call her when they’re ready to head out. Wyn, understanding they’ve just celebrated hard, decides to let the team rest as much as they need.
A few hours later, Lisa is the first to wake, followed shortly by Mira. After a quick stretch, Mira heads upstairs to rouse the remaining sleepers. James wakes, reacting with a bite on his lips to some sort of arousal.
“EH? WHAT THE HELL?!” James screams as his eyes open due to pain.
“What? What’s going on?” Anish asks, awakened by the scream.
Wyn and Lisa hurry upstairs, only to find Mira teasingly heating up James' chest with small flickers of flame, slowly raising the intensity. Yu, awake from the noise, rubbing his eyes in confusion as he catches sight of James, who was once screaming but now has an oddly content look on his face.
“I don’t know what I’m more surprised about. Mira’s way of waking him up or Landon’s sudden change of expression,” Wyn says.
After gathering with Christine in the lobby, the team begins discussing their next move. Lisa brings up a part of Hell’s Ride that her former team never explored – a place blandly named Old Hell’s Ride. To reach it, they have two options: take the rolling coaster from either their current campsite or from campsite number eleven. Committed to their "side quest" of meeting all the campsite cats, they agree to visit the next one, Catuto.
Missing an arm since birth, Catuto sports a gleaming golden pirate hook in its place. With no other props to complete the look, the determined cat does its best to mimic a pirate.
“Yarrr, why ye want to visit ze Old Hell’s Ride? ‘Tis place iz dangerous, yarrr,”
“I think you’re confused,” James remarks.
“You should’ve become a forest cat. There are pirate ships there!” Yu says.
“Doust it now? Yarrr, me must become a cat there, yarrr.”
“Just, please don’t talk anymore,” James pleads.
“What should we watch out for?” Anish asks.
“Yonder, creatures roam free, yarrr. Out in the open too, yarrr.”
After a short ride, the team arrives at Old Hell’s Ride Station, standing before its dilapidated entrance sign – more weathered and faded than the one they visited earlier. Just as they begin to approach the gate, a young female soul rushes toward the other side of the entrance, then grabs the gate, tears streaming down her face.
“Please help my sister, lah,” she pleads.
The "lah" triggers James' "eh," spiraling the conversation into an endless exchange of "lah" and "eh," bouncing back and forth to point that Yu demands for a translation. Wyn, having been exposed to both “lah” and “eh” for a period of time in his previous life, summarizes the situation to the rest of the team.
The girl, who is pleading for help, recounts how she and her close friend, whom she calls her “sister,” ventured into Old Hell’s Ride after learning about essence farming. They encountered a parapsycho, one that wields cyclone abilities. As they fought it, more parapsychos emerged, surrounding them. To protect her, her friend stayed behind to fend off the encroaching horde.
Recalling their past encounter with the Legion Of The Fallen Souls, the team hesitates to get involved. The memories stir a sense of caution among them, and some members suggest that perhaps they should leave Old Hell’s Ride altogether. However, Mira, who once literally went through depths of Hell to search for Lisa, takes a deep breath and, with a determined look, urges her team to help the girl in need. As the rest of the team remains silent, Wyn feels a growing discomfort, torn between the risk of endangering them and the moral imperative to help. Just when the atmosphere seems to weigh heavily with indecision, Lisa speaks up, breaking the silence with a resolute tone.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Sisters forever!”
Lisa steps forward, gripping Mira's hand tightly and giving her a look of unwavering compassion. Together, they approach the gate, scanning their bands. As the requirement of ten thousand essence has been met, the gate slides open, making a loud clanking noise. Wyn follows, telling the rest of the team to stay at the campsite if they're uncomfortable. Then one by one, each of the remaining members slowly scans their band to enter Old Hell’s Ride.
Inside is noticeably smaller and deserted than the current Hell’s Ride. Up ahead, the team notices rusty broken outdoor machines and empty booths. The atmosphere is eerily silent.
“You owe us big time, eh,” James says to the girl.
“For sure, lah. You can call me Judy.”
“It’s nice to be kind, right, Mister James?”
“If you’re gonna call me ‘mister’ all the time, just use my last name, eh.”
“Okay, Mister James. I’ll do my best.”
“...Whatever.”
Judy leads Wyn’s team along a path lined with vacant stores, their darkened dusty windows casting no reflections. As they proceed, the path opens up to reveal a grand castle with a circular pond in front, once used for light displays and fountains. Long benches are arranged neatly in front of the pond. To the sides of the seating area, paths branch off, offering two routes to explore.
“I wonder if we’ll find a choo-choo mcchooface here,” Yu says.
Just before they take the left path, the castle bell rings, summoning a swarm of winged, humanoid creatures from behind the castle. These beings have arms where their heads should be, eyes where their feet should be, and feet where their arms should be. Determined to reach Judy’s “sister” in time, Wyn unleashes a rocky cyclone at the swarm and shouts for everyone to run. As they reach an old merry-go-round, Wyn spots a horde of parapsychos milling about casually.
“C…CHLOE!!!” Judy screams.
Judy’s “sister” has become one with the horde, aimlessly dragging her ax along the ground as she shuffles around the merry-go-round. Judy’s scream draws the attention of the parapsychos, who swiftly converge on the group. Outnumbered, they attempt to flee, only to find their way back is obstructed by the flying creatures from the castle.
Overwhelmed by the swarm, Wyn shields his team with a cyclone, while Lisa fires lasers through it, targeting the parapsychos. Suddenly, an enemy cyclone forms within Wyn's, destabilizing their defense. In addition, a snow pillar rises from the ground, pushing them upward. The combined effect of the weak push and the enemy cyclone propels Yu and Mira towards the outer edge of Wyn's cyclone, causing them to spiral uncontrollably. Anish manages to pull them both back inside before Wyn’s cyclone dissipates.
Lisa continues to blast laser beams at the enemies, while Yu extends his blade to strike their heads. Wyn, Christine, and James focus on defense, intercepting projectiles meant for the team. Mira and Anish provide support from the rear, using fiery wind gusts to incinerate the enemy flyers. Meanwhile, Judy sits on the ground, sobbing.
“This is endless! Do we want to leave?” Wyn asks, frantically.
The commotion draws more parapsychos from behind the merry-go-round, their coordinated movements suggesting some form of communication. A rock pillar suddenly thrusts up beneath Wyn, causing him to fall backward, his back slamming against its side before he slides down headfirst. As the pillar shatters, a cyclone erupts, sending debris flying and hitting Wyn and his team. Anish quickly pulls everyone close and lifts them into the air, with the enemy flyers rising to pursue them.
“Grab onto Wyn, everyone,” Anish demands. “Now, Wyn! NOW!” he barks.
In the midst of the chaos, Wyn uses his cyclone to propel the team and Judy in any direction he can manage. They descend, cushioned by Wyn’s smaller cyclones and Anish’s wind, and eventually land in a peculiar area. This new location is nestled between towering mountains on either side, with a vast cave entrance looming ahead.
“I can’t, just can’t, like, ever get used to this,” Christine says.
“This feels like an arena of some sort,” Anish comments.
On the mountains dwell the goat creatures known as habibis. Despite the seemingly impossible terrain, these goats can walk and even sleep on the steep slopes with impressive ease. Although they notice the team’s presence, they remain harmless. Checking their location on the map, they see they’re still within Old Hell's Ride, but now at the very corner of the area, which is a corner of Hell’s Ride itself.
On a closer look, the cave appears to stretch across the corner, creating the illusion of two separate caves on either side of the corner. The expansive entrance, framed by the towering mountains, is not visible from outside. The team considers leaving, but the grief-stricken Judy refuses to move.
“I’m sorry to say, but we’re gonna have to leave her be, eh,” James suggests.
“Can someone open a portal from her band?” Wyn asks.
Mira carefully descends and gently pats Judy on the back while reaching for her band. Without warning, Judy suddenly screams and bolts into the cave, causing the habibis to panic and leap behind the mountains, vanishing from sight. Wyn intervenes, blocking Mira from following Judy. Moments later, the ground begins to quake, and a massive figure starts to emerge from the cave, gradually taking shape.