In the Underground of Noir. Two groups of magical girls fight. One side, a trio, had ambushed and subdued one of their two opponents.

“Amethyst!” A magical girl cried out for her partner as she lied face down on the street. Black ooze seeped from her nostrils and mouth.

Between them were three women, also witches. Their lamia leader bore curly red locks. “Oh yes,” she said. “Thou shall make a fine offering.”

The trio’s orange haired opponent grimaced at them. Her broadsword manifested in her arms. “Leave…leave her alone.” Her arms trembled with fear against her assailants, but she was determined to save her fallen friend. Citrine Cryst clashed with the agents of the Vorhees Gang.

The blond witch cast a barrier against Citrine. She giggled like a manic schoolgirl. Her expression was unfocused in spite of her acute spellcraft. “Can’t we just use the somitoxin on them?” She said with the feline ears of a nekomata perked on her head.

The older sister chastised her youngest. “Tsk tsk, sister. Thou knowest that Madama Erezbert needs them alive.”

Citrine was repelled by the momentary barrier she looked at the figures looming over her purple-dressed friend. The robes were draped over a dress each, except for the eldest who wore a thin jacket instead of a dress.

“Citrine!” Amethyst said to her friend. “Please, run away, it’s too late for me!” she coughed as blackened bile escaped her mouth once more. The middle sister glared at the witch at her mercy with one eye, the other obscured by dark blue locks. Her dormarch ears listened in to her victim’s plea.

Citrine clashed with the youngest sister, her broadsword channeled earth and ice magic into crystalline shapes. The eldest turned to her still-standing opponent and began singing a tune.

“Hocus, pocus, thou unfocused,” she sang with bardsong enhancing her spells. “Thou are naught but one locust. An insect so tiny and small. Though this spell, thou shall fall.”

Citrine was paralyzed with fear. She tried to cover her eyes, aware of the nature of Bardsong. “You…you,” her trembling grew worse as she was brought to her knees. Her course was sapped by the bardsong.

The middle sister joined in. “Wobbled knees, trembling arms. Thou not the strength to avoid these harms.”

Citrine coughed up black liquid.

The youngest sister of the trio of witches joined the chorus. “Into a dream seeped in the dark, to the Sea of Souls, we cast your spark.” She cackled with glee as Citrine further collapsed.

The red-headed sister finished. “Good night’s faked. Nightmares take. Fall to torpor endless, and never wake.” The three sisters cackled as the bardsong manipulated Citirne’s emotions. The opposing witched attempt to stay awake, to try to save her and her friend both, but the song was too powerful and she succumbed to a comatose state, plagued by nightmares in her unwaking moments.

The Weyward sisters took the unconscious Amythist and Citrine into their vehicle, making sure they were not spotted as they placed the two young girls in the trunk of the car before driving away to their den. There, they waited for their master and prepared a potion in the meantime.

An hour later, Erezbert Camilla arrived. Her red dress a striking contrast to the other gangsters’ attire.

“Madama Erezbert!” the redheaded sister said to their boss. “Look what we have hath obtained.”

Erezbert looked around the warehouse and saw several young maidens. Magical girls, witches much like the sisters themselves. “You have done surprisingly well Hildur,” Erezbert said.

The red-headed sister’s face glowed with praise. “We hath endeavored to please thou, just as we always done.”

The youngest sister chimed in. “We hath honed our craft in the dungeon Hexenflutch! There we hath—”

The middle sister elbowed her. “Savina!” she said. “Thou must knoweth when to hold thy tongue!”

“Ow!” Savina said, clutching her frizzled blond hair in pain. “Sorry Grisella.”

Erezbert noticed the interaction but paid it no heed. “I see whatever you have done hath yielded some fruit.”

“All in thine service, milady,” Hildur said.

Erezbert was pleased. She turned to the torpid captives, dozens of young maidens ripe for the taking. “We can’t let their mana go to waste, now can we?”

The coven were giddy at Erezbert’s suggestion, they continued working on their potion. The three sang in unison.

“Blood of black, thou wills cracked.” The three sang in unison. “Rivals serve us, your wills attacked. Thy bodies enthralled. Thy lives entwined. They blood and hearts, they will be mine. Serve us here, serve us now. Seal your thoughts, in seed we sow.” The cauldron upon which they brewed their potion exhumed a green smoke the toxic fumes wafted into the nostrils of the captives, and their eyes opened in enthrallment as black turned into a sanguine red. Their faces were blank as any thoughts they could have were sealed in the darkness depths in their minds. The children became no more than automata in the service of their captors who have taken them in mind body and soul. The Weywards finished their chant. “To our master we offer you. Chained by this arcane tune. Feed us plasma, feed us life, and escape not. Dare not fight!” With that, their song is finished. Their spell held absolute. The souls of the children were barred from controlling their bodies, and as they were all but dead, they were barred from the Sea of Souls. They were bound to the will of Erezbert.

Erezbert in turn took out her scepter. “Now let’s see if there’s anything special about these brats.” She cast her scepter at them and the victims vanished. Fifty-two new servants to tend to her needs, and fifty-two new sources of plasma and mana to feed her own beauty. The gang leader turned to her three underlings. “I have not forgotten to reward you three,” she said to the Weywards. “Follow me, I have need of company in my bathroom tonight.”

The three sisters variously expressed their excitement. This is how Erezbert shared her gratitude, after all the fountain of youth often spilled over otherwise. The families of these fifty two girls would know not what befell them or why they vanished, now will they ever see them again. The latest in a string of mysteries that few hold the answers to, and most unable to act on them for fear of reprisal from the Syndicate.

✦✦✦

Weeks passed and the Cycle’s Turn is around the corner. The annual celebration of the end of the year and winter both has all around the realm abuzz with joy…and stress as they make their preparations for the the holiday.

On a quiet Duodecember day, Richard and Sarah toil in their atelier running through several designs for the end of the year as they work on a certain outfit for Heathcliff. Their mannequin draped in a red outfit with white trim.

Sarah took a pin from her mouth and used it to stitch the trim onto the coat. “Brother, that addition you propose would add ten pounds to the dress,” she said as she helped put together the outfit.

“If we used normal steel yes,” Richard said as he looked around the red velvet fabric for any holes or misplaced threads. “But I know there is a vein of Cloudsteel in the nearby mountains.”

“Cloudsteel?” Sarah said with surprise. “How did you come across a vein of ore that rare?”

“I noticed that mirror the Truces brought from that dungeon had trace elements of the ore,” Richard said. “If we can procure it, then we’ve have access to lighter yet studier armor, and a complementary material to the Dreamcloth.”

“That is a big if,” Sarah said as she and her brother put the finishing touches on the garment. “How do you know this ‘Hexenflutch’ would—” she suddenly had a stomach ache, and grew disoriented. The platinum-haired dwarfette fell off the stepladder and fell onto the floor. Her leather-hued face convulsed with agony.

“Sarah,” Richard said. “Did you eat all the leftovers again?”

The blacksmith stood up and climbed the stepladder again. “Those were leftovers?” she said as she finished assisting her weaver and jeweler brother by stitching the trim on the neck. “As I was saying?”

“The two possibilities,” the less practically-minded brother said. “Are that either the Dungeon either can create Cloudsteel as its resource, or that it is able to get it from a nearby vein.”

“And you really think your suggestion to the pauldrons and gauntlets would be worth it,” the more practically-minded sister said.

Richard nodded. “I do indeed.” He said.

It was at that point where Heathcliff arrived. “Bonjour,” the knight said to the Smiths. He looked at the finished costume with a smirk. “Excellent quality there, chers.”

“But of course!” Richard said. “Only the finest would suffice.”

“Yeah,” Sarah said. “I just had to dissuade him from bejeweling up the trim first.” She said as she looked around her small body for stray threads.

“Are you sure you don’t want the jewels added?” Richard said. “It can add a touch of elegance here.”

“Heh, If I was in the mood for things that fancy, I’d stayed in ol’ Charlie!” Heathcliff said with a jovial smirk. “Besides, the Solsaint is said to be of humble origins remember?”

“I remember,” Richard said. “Tales tell of how he leads a cadre of faeries and elks to deliver presents to the young and pure of heart.”

“Shame the Astralpios haven’t been clear on who they were,” Sarah said. “One book claims they were raised as an infant found by three traveling wisemen. Others claimed they were a Messenger who gave of himself freely. And there is a third that implies they are an incarnation of Stella herself! I swear there are so many contradictions there.”

“Hehe,” Heathcliff said as she tried on the red and white outfit. “Perhaps that is one of life’s little mysteries. The fit is nice, you two outdid yourselves.”

“Well I had to make sure it is compatible with my Cyberworks designs, especially given you are among the few that prefer to keep it on at all times,” Richard said. “Now I have to ask, does the Guild normally ask you to play the role for the younglings?”

“This is my first time!” Heathcliff said. “And the town asked me to volunteer. Emily also asked me to put together something for the kids living here afterward.”

“Seems like you’re going to be busy, o ‘Sunsaint’,” Sarah quipped.

“No rest for the wicked. Speaking of which she told me you two wanted to explore a dungeon?”

“The Hexenflutch yes,” Richard said. “Carla will be leading us, why do you ask?”

“Well…” Heathcliff said before he began to relay that other people were interested in visiting…or revisiting the dungeon.

✦✦✦

“Hey Charlotte, are you ready?”

Charlotte was playing a sport with the other children during school today. Nancy yelled at her from one of the white plates near her position. The indigo-petaled alraune held a bat in her arms as she was knocked out from her dazed and focused on the pitcher in front of her.

Azalea had a small and firm ball in her hand, white with red stitches. The mermaid looked at her Alraune friend and to the child behind her wearing a brown glove tailored for catching balls like the one in her hands.

Azalea threw the softball, Charlotte tried to swing at it, but her aluminum club missed. The schoolmate behind the alraune caught the ball.

“Strike!” an umpire said from behind the two kids.

The catcher threw the softball back to Azalea. She kept a playful look on her face as the clionid threw the softball. Charlotte saw the ball arc to her left and tried to swing the bat that way, the ball avoided it and the catcher caught it again.

“Strike!” the umpire said again.

The girl with green skin and purplish-blue hair grew nervous. She already missed twice and she knew that a third miss would grand Azalea and her team a point. Anemone looked at her from the plate opposite Nancy and gave a reassuring look.

Charlotte tried to focus, but her mind was preoccupied with certain matters. Azalea made her third pitch, but the softball had passed her before she could recognize that it was already thrown.

“Strike!” the umpire said. Charlotte was shocked, her teammates were crestfallen.

A nearby scorecard was updated. The number for Charlotte’s team stayed static as the score of their opponents increased by one. It now read five and six points. The game continued and Azalea’s team widened the score gap to the point where they won with a lead of thirteen points over seven.

After the game, Charlotte, Anemone, Lily, Euryale, Sthenno, and Nancy looked up the score.

“We lost!” Euryale said with a dejected tone.

“Better luck next time, I guess!” Anemone said. She looked at Charlotte. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Charlotte said.

“You sure, Lotte,” Euryale said. “You seemed out of it all day!”

“Is it because of that mirror?” Nancy said.

“Um, well, I mean,” Charlotte sighed. “Yes.”

“Don’t worry!” Lily said. “We’ll be sure to find something from there that works.”

“I don’t know why you guys are so interested in curse-breaking items,” Nancy said.

The rival team approached. Rose, Strelitzia, Clover, Azalea, Andy, and Molly greeted them.

“That was a good game,” Azalea said. “I hardly batted an eye there.”

Streltizia groaned. “Azalea…”

Rose shot a look at the others, still wearing Mr. Snuggiekins. Her mood had lifted upon seeing people no longer mocking her blanket-turned-garment. “So are you ready to hack back to Hexenflutch?”

Charlotte nodded.

“Wish I could go,” Andy said. “But Sid made an appointment for a medical checkup today.”

Euryale turned to them. “At least you guys can leave!” Euryale said. “We can’t move two steps outside of here without melting.”

“I don’t get why you’re so obsessed with leaving here,” Nancy said. “Don’t you like Emily?”

“Of course I do!” Euryale said. “It’s just that…” she caught herself before finishing. “It’s complicated.”

“You’ll have to forgive my sister Nancy,” Sthenno said. “She is as prone to frustration as ever.”

Euryale tried to protest, but she knew she could not share the truth of Nancy’s circumstances with her. Of what the Piper Pruflas did to them and more than a hundred children.

Raine and Hydrangea arrived. “So how was the game?” Hydrangea said.

“It was pitch perfect!” Azalea gloated. “As were my own pitches.”

Strelitzia rolled her eyes.

“Stre helped too,” Clover said. “She had made three home runs in a row!”

“And Rose was so fast in the outfield!” Lily said. “I barely made it to the base before she caught me.”

The group of children soon headed to their classes. Once school was over, the Coloraturas and Charlotte prepared for their upcoming trip.

In her room, Charlotte looked at the mirror from the Hexenflutch. She wondered why it had failed. Why did Nancy have such an adverse reaction to it? She and her mother were certain that the mirror’s properties would help in freeing the Hamlin kids from the demon’s alterations. That they would restore their minds to normal. Why did it fail?

“Charlotte?”

Carla entered the room. Charlotte looked at the door. “Yes, mom?”

“It’s time to feed the Tatzelwurms,” Carla said gently.

“Oh!” Charlotte said. “It is? Isn’t that for—” She looked at the time and saw an hour had passed since she arrived at the room? She had lost thirty minutes more in her room than she thought. “Oh, right, sorry.” The little alraune walked out and headed won’t to the kitchen. There she took a bag of specialized food and carried it with her. Carla took a second and third bag of feed and followed her to where the feline serpents typically prowled.

“Sorry about that!” Charlotte apologized for her tardiness as she poured the large bag into one of three bowls set aside for feeding them. The trio of serpents slithered to the bowls and salivated over the food.

Carla took two other bags and poured the other bags into their respective bowls. The monsters began to feast on the feed set aside for them.

The two disposed of the packaging and then tended to the other animals and monsters. The swans, the chimeras, the dire wolves, the mountain lions, and the hippogriphs were all fed and cared for. The only one left was the cordyceps deer.

✦✦✦

The alraunes saw Clover and Stretlitzia near the deer. “Clover,” the minotaride said. “You know that is dangerous.”

The peryton fawn disregarded her friend’s warning and petted the exposed head of the zombie deer. Its flesh had revealed strange white fibers coating its brain. The green-haired girl continued stroking the parasite-infested corpse with a strange sense of familiarity as if she somehow known this deer for years. Carla intervened before the deer could transfer its parasites to her while Charlotte looked on in confusion.

“Does she…always does that?” the alraune said.

Stretlizia sighed. “I tried to stop her, but she insisted on it.”

After Carla scolded her the three headed back to her home to make sure Clover was clean of the corrosive parasites.

“I’m fine,” the fawn protested. “Really.”

“We have to be certain,” Carla said. “I do not want to see suddenly hanging from a trees branch spreading pollen everywhere!” Carla said.

“It has been a while since we saw that deer,” Charlotte said. “Wonder where it’s been.”

Carla argued with the younger Clover for several minutes as she inspected her for parasitic infection. Fortunately for her, the winged deerlet was clean.

Anemone arrived shortly after and was surprised to find Clover and Stretlizia were there.

“Long story,” the ax-wildeing minotauride said. “Here to teach Charlotte more gravity spells, I guess?”

Anemone nodded and turned to her student. “Are you ready, Lotte,” the purple-haired Lycanthrope said.

Charlotte followed Anemone to a patch in the Bleumaw, where they focused on lifting apples with apurgy and keeping them in the air.

“Geosynchronous orbit is a rather complex application,” Anemone said as showed Charlotte the relevant page of her spellbook. “It requires you to maintain an apurgy level to keep it floating in the air. Too much and it would fall upwards. Too little and it would eventually descend to the ground.”

Charlotte nodded and began focusing. One of the apples was made aloft and floated into the air, she focused on maintaining its altitude, until a stray thought entered her mind. Before she knew it an image of the mirror emerged in her mind’s eye and she ended up catapulting the fruit into the stratosphere, speeding past the gently falling snow in the opposite direction.

“Okay?” Anemone asked in confusion.

“Sorry about that!” Charlotte said. She focused on the second apple and tried not to recall the mirror again. “Steady,” she thought, “Steady…” Her spell worked and the apple now floated in the air without her help…for now. Anemone noticed the floating fruit and observed that its descent was slight, but still happening. “You were close,” she said reassuringly.

Charlotte continued her practice. After a few tries, she managed to keep several of the fruits in an even orbit. The alraune smiled as she was able to master this lesson…until the floating fruits suddenly moved sideways and collided with the trees. Her joy turned to shock and dismay as she witnessed the apples splat on the frosted bark.

“That is a common pitfall,” Anenome commented. “As Titania turns floating objects are liable to ‘move’ towards the opposite direction.”

Charlotte turned to the lycanthrope. “I see?”

Anemone turned to Charlotte. “You’re doing very well, Charlotte. It took me a year to manage this level of control. At this rate, you’ll be able to keep them in place by the Cycle’s Turn!”

“But that’s in two weeks!” Charlotte said.

“I know, right?” Anemone said.

“Two weeks…” Charlotte then turned her face to the ground. “And then the year is over.” She sighed heavily. “How long? How long were they…”

Anemone sat down and looked at her student. “We’ll find a way to free them. I’m certain of it.”

“Are you certain?” Charlotte said. “It’s been more than a year now, and they still have no recollection of Hamlin! They were still bound to Emily’s mana.”

“I’m certain!” Anemone said. “I know it!”

Charlotte chuckled. “Rose rubbing off on you again?” she asked.

Anemone said. “…Maybe. My point still stands. Just have faith. I know we will free them. Now then, we still have more apples to float.”

Charlotte continued to practice her lesson into the wee hours of the evening. Anemone said good night to the Truces before returning to where she rests with her friends and the two alraunes have their dinner together. The night came and after it, the return to Hexenflutch.

✦✦✦

The next day, Emily and Tim gathered up the party for their trip to the Hexenflurch. Carla and Charlotte were the first to arrive, accompanied by a Tatzelwurm, a Swan, and a Dire Wolf. The Coloraturas and Nina were the next to arrive. Followed by Sarah and Richard.

“Is everyone—” Emily said before she noticed a strange fog rolling in. Kasumi emerged from the mist she conjured.

“Heard you guys were going to a dungeon?” the young kunoichi said.

“Yeah,” Emily said. “Why do you ask?”

“We want to go too!” the excitable ninja said.

“Huh?” Tim said. “We?”

A sprite emerged from a compartment hanging off Kasumi’s dress. “Yes, ‘we’,” the young sprite said.

“Salliandra?” Emily said in surprise. “You want to come too.”

The young sprite nodded. “I wanted to see if the tales of the Hexenflutch were true.”

“That makes, two of us,” Anemone said. Her mind uncertain about it after the mirror incident.

“Will that be a problem, Emily?” Kasumi innocently asked.

“No, not at all,” the avatara said. “Let’s see. Me, Tim, Nina, Carla, Charlotte…” She counted the rest of the party, with the dwarves, the eight Coloraturas, and the presence of the kunoichi and her sprite friend, the total was seventeen, plus three beasts.

“Did you clear it with your guardians?” Tim said to the newcomers.

“Akko and Hoshikage-sensei said I could go!” Kasumi said with confidence.

“I talked it over with Ulrich and Flowena,” the yellow-dressed sprite said. “They said I can go as long as I don’t cause too much trouble,” she giggled.

Tim raised an eyebrow and turned to the eight witches. “And you?”

“Huh?” Rose said in confusion. “I’m sure the school knows we would be absent today…right?”

“They did,” Hydrangea said as she presented nine identical stacks of worksheets. “Mr. Daniels and Julia kindly compiled these sheets for us to work on on the way.” She said.

“I was hoping they forgot the homework,” Rose said.

Hydrangea handed eight of the sheets to her fellow magical girls and to Charlotte. The latter placed it in her bag while the Coloraturas used their abilities to store it in their internal inventories.

“By the way,” Hydrangea said. “Mr. Daniels will fail us and we try to claim consumption as an excuse.” She said as she turned to Azalea.

“I…I was sure the class was aware I didn’t literately eat my sheets!” the clionid said while flustered.

“That was one joke I’m sure the class would never forget,” Strelitzia said.

Carla turned to Emily. “We’re ready, how about you?”

Emily nodded her head. “Everyone else?” the dungeon core said.

“I got the food!” Sarah said as she presented two picnic baskets. “Should be enough for all of us!” she said.

Nina looked at Sarah incredulously.

“I brought my lunch too!” the dwarfette said with little irony as she handed the baskets to Tim and Carla to carry.

“We made sure our friends were well-fed for the day,” Charlotte said as she gestured to her and her mother’s feral companions.

“Lizzie will alert the guild if there are any complications,” Emily said with some trepidation. She knew Heathcliff and Chiron would also be at the guildhall as well.

The group of seventeen adventurers finished their preparations and left the Black Box. Carla led them to their destination, drawing on memories of their previous trip.

✦✦✦

At the same time, a beaten-down car drove far away from its garage Noir.

“Astra, curse ye!” Hildur drove the vehicle. Much of her tale took up both of the front seats before its tip was firmly planted on the gas pedal. “Twas not enough for thou to have us cursed by this mockery of Manatounge?”

“We were hexed by Astra?” Savina said from the backstreet. “I thought it was—”

“Younger sister,” Grisella said, “Hast thou forgot that Hildur curses the gods at every misfortune?”

The Weywards were once again on the way to Hexenflutch, to practice their powers, but also to search for that which avoided them there.

“Art we there yet?” Savina said impatiently. “I’m bored.” Her two tails swayed around her rear. One of them hovered over Grisella’s nose. The dormarch fought to keep from sneezing, a fight she had lost.

“Savina!” the blue-haired girl said to the sister which made her sneeze. “Pray keep your tails to yourself.”

“I shall not!” Savina said petulantly.

“Thou knowest that Hildur needs to drive!”

The car drove down the road lined with sparking crystals. The lamia driver grew more annoyed at her younger sisters’ arguing and bickering. “Sisters! If ye don’t shut up! I will bewitch this vehicle and have it emulate the rides at Joyfuller Island!”

“I love the rides of Joyful—” Sabine was elbowed Grisella’s sister before she could finish.

As the road drove towards its destination, a crystalline mountain entered their view. The glimmer of the nearby river reflected the sky above, clear of impurity. The sparking stones were clear and transparent. The ruins were similarly immaculate as light refracted through their translucent forms.

The car soon stopped. Three of the four doors opened. “We’re here!” The red-headed lamia said.

The three gazed upon what they claimed as faraway stomping grounds. “Ugh, the Agneist stench still rots this place,” Grisella said. She sniffed around with her Bhargest nose as small as a button and as powerful as a bloodhound. Her black crop top and tattered denim shorts were undisturbed by the wind. “But at least there are no actual Agniests here…yet.” She said.

“The bastards still maketh their home in Gardenia,” Hildur said with a mix of ire and nostalgia. “Oh, how we were lucky to hath escaped that wretched place.”

“I heard that several witches embarked on a pilgrimage there,” Savina said.

“Fools,” The eldest sister said. “All of them. If not for those accursed Nighthawks We would’ve…” Her rant was stopped by the appearance of a house cat, glaring at the intruders with crystal eyes.

“So the Hexenflutch wishes to greet us,” Grisella said with a smirk.

The cat hissed at the three invaders before running off. Hildur in turn glowered at the creature. “Come along, sisters. I’m certain that relic will be ours soon. And then we shall quit this place and seek a more suitable lair anon.”

The trio encroached further into the Dungeon, uncaring of its wrath, and unknowing of those that would also set their foot there.

✦✦✦

Emily and her party had arrived at the dungeon. They looked around the precipice of the domain, declared by various colorful crystals.

“Let’s see,” Carla said as she led the group towards the entrance. “I recall there being three zones. A grove, a cistern, and a spire,” the alraune said.

Anemone looked around the crystal grove, drawing from her memories. The entrance to the Cistern was guarded by an Aquaroc,” Anemone said. She looked around for the Sentinel’s shadows. Charlotte was also looking for the avian. The mirror from the last visit strapped to her back.

“They’re so pretty!” Lily said as she examined the transparent crystals. Sarah looked around them and noticed they had no impurities, no trace of anything not even the concentrated ice and earth mana that would comprise the rocks.

Richard polished his stunners as she looked around for anything that would hint at Cloudsteel veins. The dwarves followed the others as Carla tried to search for the Cistern entrance.

As he walked with the others, Tim tried to focus on the events of the Hammerhead Tundra, when they encountered slimes, he attempted to summon fire with his techniques, yet there were no cinders. When the party encountered hostile bats, he resorted to melee flanking strikes whenever he failed to ignite them. As they found a bridge-less river, Time propelled himself into the air with wind.

“Tim?” Emily said to her Sentinel. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to use fire,” the boy said curtly.

“You can…never mind,” Emily said upon realizing that as she has the Pyrosphere, she and Tim are able to utilize the infernal powers of flame...in theory.

“Something is not right,” Tim aid. “I should be able to learn this, but my attempts since the Tundra had proved ineffective.”

Charlotte grew a little uncomfortable with the discussion about fire.

Richard looked around and saw no sign of the Aquaroc or the Cistern’s entrance. “I’m a little curious. You all know our reasons for coming here,” he said, “But I admit I do not know yours.”

“Well,” Emily said. “I wanted to help, and maybe take some Cloudstone for myself.” She said. Her abilities would allow her to analyze the absorbed material and eventually recreate it.

“That would be a great boon to us,” Sarah said. Richard turned to the Coloraturas.

“I think there is…something about this place that warranted further investigation,” Anemone said.

“Like a Stre-le-ga?” Nina asked.

“Stre-ga,” Rose corrected.

“More to the point,” Charlotte interjected. “I wanted to see if what was said about this Dungeon having curse-reversing items is true, given the previous attempt.”

“Indeed,” Carla said. “It is prudent for us to verify the rumors in the wake of what had nearly happened with Nancy.” After all mother and daughter shared a reason why they wished those rumors to be true.

Kasumi heard something approaching. “Hush,” she said to the others. “Something’s coming!” She took a bauble from her dress and slammed it into the ground, cloaking the area in a layer of dense mist.

A larger-than-average slime rolled into the fog. Its transparent skin refracted light as it attempted to find the party. Salliandra used her dwimmers to further befuddle the large slime as Azalea and Hydrangea attempted to counter it with their own gelatinous spells.

The crystal slime merely absorbed the conjured gelatin within itself and grew slightly larger. The water and ice mana faded into its translucent sheen.

Anemone fired an arrow at it, but the projectile was similarly dissolved and violet mana similarly assimilated into clear nothingness.

“It is as Crystslime,” Anemone yelled.

The Crystslime heard the cry and tried to roll into Anemone. Tim swooped in and moved them both out of the way. As the slime rolled around the surrounding mist was absorbed into its body, deconstruction into red and blue mana within and then faded.

“A Crystslime?” Rose said.

“I heard of those,” Emily said. “Lizzie said they absorb and purify mana, and that they were said to be guardians of sacred lands.”

“Did she tell you any weaknesses?” Kasumi said as she threw metal stars at the slime. The kunoichi’s weapons were dissolved into orange earth and pink lightning within the slime. Richard’s stunner bolts were likewise dissolved into pink mana within.

“I have a plan,” Sarah said as she leaped in and slammed her hammer into the slime. The slime was pushed into the nearby meadow. “They might be good at absorbing magic and projectiles, but a good ol’-fashoned smackdown will weaken it!”

The Crystslime split into two from the impact. Each smaller than the original. Emily and Tim attacked one each with rapid attacks from swords and spear both. The two slimes became three, then four, then eight, then sixteen, until they were small enough for Sarah's hammer to squash them flat.

The dwarfette dusted off her palms. “See? Pretty easy,” she said. As she said they they heard a cawing in the distance.

“There!” Charlotte said as she pointed to the northeast. They saw a blue-feathered avian flying overhead. The group followed its shadow deeper into the Dungeon.

✦✦✦

At the same time, the Weyward sisters were locked in battle with a large Moray Steel. The eel-like creature was covered in metallic scales as transparent as the clear waters of the nearby river.

Hildur used Bardsong to conjure up crimson flames that matched her fiery curls to confront the beast. “Burning ire, light my desire. Damn this eel, to the hellish pyre!” The crimson turned to toxic viridian as it engulfed the Cloudsteel-scaled eel.

Grisella sang her own spell to support her elder sister. “Heart of ice, wicked vice. Cleave this beast with your jaundice!” The spell conjured yellow ice to be used in tandem with the hellfire that Hildur conjured. The two opposing forces coated the Moray Steel in an enumerating miasma that weakened it up for the younger and shorter sister to finish it off.

“Levin of the skies, hear my cry. Render thou judgment upon this lie!” Lightning of an orange color struck the metal-clad eel and cast it down onto the ground. The Cell perished with a whimper as the three mobsters walked atop its body.

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“Is it just me,” Sabina asked, “Or did thine foe seem…weaker?” she said with a tilt of her head.

Hildur cackled in triumph. “Who cares, younger sister?” She loomed over her blond sister, being two heads taller than Savina. Grisella was in between, being only half a foot shorter than Hildur.

“Good point,” Savina said, not caring for the eel as it is left to be reclaimed by the land.

The three snuck their way towards the dungeon. Grisella smelling the presence of other witches and trying to follow the scene. “The purity of this place doth work to our advantage, sisters,” Grisella said with a flip of her blue locks. Her canine ears heard faint chatters in the still crystal-covered landscape.

Hildur had an annoyed expression. “We must make haste,” she barked, her serpentine tail tensed up with urgency. “We must find the core before they do!”

“Yes, sister,” Grisella said. “They seemed to hither towards the cistern!”

“We shall breach it anon, and catch them unawares!” Hildur cackled.

“But what if they know our secret passage?” Savina said with her wavy blond hair.

Hildur slapped Savina. “That is a stupid question, younger sister!” the lamia said.

“Yes, eldest sister,” Savina said meekly.

The trio arrived at an edifice, an aperture into the waterways. While Hildur moved to open the door, Grisella turned to her younger and shorter sister, who was unaware of the blue-haired dormarch’s envy.

“I do not understand it,” Grisella said to herself. “How in the name of the Administrators was she allowed to stay so…thin!” she looked at her own pudgy body in contempt. “Thou has vexed me so!”

Savina pranced and frolicked around like a giddy schoolgirl. “The boys will love me, this I know,” she said as she admired her own looks. “A shame so few deigned to cross my path,” she lamented. Her lamentation only made Grisella’s shoot a scornful look at her.

“Sisters!” Hildur called. “The passage hath opened, get thine asses in it posthaste!”

“Coming, dear sister,” Griselda said.

“Coming!” Savina said with a giggle.

✦✦✦

Emily and her party arrived at the entrance of a cliffside. Carved into it was a stone doorway that refracted and radiated with iridescence.

“This is the one!” Carla said as she drew upon memories of her previous trip there.

“Which means…” Charlotte said as a large shadow moved over them.

The group looked up and saw a large avian creature swooped in from on high. The Aquaroc descended with a gentle rainfall following in its wake. Clouds gathered as the water-attuned roc flapped its wings.

“Do you recall how you beat this thing?” Rose asked Anemone.

Hydrangea already had an idea and slid on an ice path of her own making. With her grimoire, she aimed to freeze the bird solid.

“Hydra, wait!” Anemone said. “This is not like the other Aquarocs!”

Before Hydra could respond, the monster ascended into the air and broke the path she slid on. The disconnected icey plummeted by the force of gravity and the bespectacled girl was attacked by crystal pinions, the sharp flechettes pinned her armored clothes to the ground. The avian attempted to encase Hydrangea in a crystal prison, but Clover rushed in and saved her before the rock could form.

“Crystal magic!” Clover said as she pranced away with Hydrangea… “But that has nothing to do with water!” The avian launched more feathers but Clover put her friend behind her and then deflected the projectiles with her fan.

“This Sentinel is tapping into ice and earth mana!” Anemone said. “It can do more than the average aspected roc!”

Strelitzia and Lily combined their magic to create an aurora in the sky to protect them and their friends from the avian’s attacks.

Emily launched herself into the sky and onto the Aquaroc’s back. The avian channeled water magic to try to dislodge the unwanted passenger as she planted her two swords onto the ground.

“Two can play at that game!” Emily said as she channeled her shapeshifting powers and morphed her arms into a crystal binding over the avian’s neck. The Nanomachines that comprised her avatara assumed a rock-solid form that hindered and attacked the Aquaroc with a flap of the wings.

Anemone used the opportunity to aim an arrow directly at it, hoping to use her darkness magic to hinder it. A gravity spell could enburdern it enough for it to cease flight. She let loose the arrow and it pierced the wing of the blue-feathered bird.

With a wail, the avian descended onto the ground. Anemone then fired another arrow to bind its shadow. Emily morphed her arms to normal and leaped off the beast as Carla sicced her Dire Wolf and Tatzelwurm on it. The swan meanwhile took to the skied to assert the dominance the Aquaroc lost, with Sarah clinging onto its talon. At the right height, the short but heavy dwarf let go and used his hammer on an ariel slam.

The Sentinel’s cried pained summoned smaller Crystslimes to assist it. The rain’s aqua mana empowered it. Raine sliced at several with her chakrams, being careful to ignite the rings to prevent corrosion on them. Richard focused his stunner on the bird and bird alone while Kasumi sliced at the additional enemies. Salliandra used her allusions to distract the dimwitted slimes.

Charlotte used an apurgy spell to lift Rose into the air. She zipped into the sky with her lightning-colored rapier as Azalea swam in the Aquaroc’s face.

“Oops! You missed,” Azalea said as she dodged the talon of the beast. “Too bad, “she said as she deftly swam to the side of the wounded wing and countered with a water bubble. “Having trouble clawing your way?” She said mockingly. She then swam away. “Time for a shocking revelation!” she said as Rose thrust her way through the avian.

Strelitzia and Lily then charged toward the beast and used their weapons to sever the wings off for good. Those last attacks finished off the avian and it collapsed into the ground. Water leaked from its wounds as the remaining Crystslimes aborted its remains and rolled off, a treasure chest remaining of their foe.

Emily opened the chest and found several pieces of crystal jewelry and an ingot of both Bismuth and Cloudsteel. As well as two brilliantly shining suits of Cloudsteel mail.

“Light as a feather, hard as steel,” Richard said as he and Sarah took the mails for themselves. “We could prolly break it down into two additional ingots each.”

“That means I could create this metal on my own?” Emily asked.

“Five pieces, usually,” Sarah said. “But since this place apparently dropped Bismuth as well…”

“I see,” Emily said. “There is another business here as well,” the avatara looked at Charlotte still determined to verify the nature of this place, and why the mirror didn’t have the desired effect.

Tim noticed that within the chest were two different keys. One gleamed with silver, the other jet black, yet both had a nacreous jewel decorating them.

As Tim picked up the keys, he noticed Salliandra glaring at him. “May I assist you?”

“No thanks,” the sprite said. “The time for that had passed. Dare I ask why you weren’t pulling your weight in that fight?”

“Forgive me,” Tim said. “I was still—”

“Still trying to find out how to ignite people,” the blond sprite said as she rolled her eyes. “I get it,” she fluttered off an annoyed huff to rejoin Kasumi.

Tim looked back at the keys and handed them to Emily. “I think these might be useful for navigating the Dungeon.”

Emily took the keys and approached the Cistern’s entrance. She noticed that the black one didn’t fit the keyhole so she tried the silver one. With a turn of the lock, the key receded into the door and it opened. The group ventured further into the Hexenflutch. As they entered the Cistern, a herd of housecats watched with curious eyes.

✦✦✦

Emily and her party traveled down a brightly lit staircase. Crystal-clear water dripped from the ceiling as they descended the steps.

Carla looked around as she tried to recall her last trip. “There was a large room with a floating staircase,” she said.

“You mean like this?” Rose said as she slithered down.

“Not quite,” Charlotte said. “It was floating on the water beneath. The room was flooded.”

“It sounds like it was an aqueduct,” Sarah said.

“Last time we were there,” Carla said, “We had to raise the staircase to the highest floor. We also had to rotate the staircase several times to reach certain areas.”

Sarah was interested in that. “Seems like there were a lot of mechanics involved here. Maybe I’ll check out their workings while we’re here.”

“What about the enemies?” Lily said. “This place would surely be protected by Cells!”

“Probably more Crystslimes,” Streltizia said.

“That is true,” Carla said. “But there were also mobile crystal statues as well.”

“They nearly grabbed me once,” Charlotte said.

Tim was dissociated from the conversation. Again focusing on the fight with the Frost Manticore around Flameshearth. Salliandra’s words also lingered in his mind. Kasumi looked at the contemplative martial artist.

“I don’t know what you see in him!” Salliandra said.

“What do you mean?” the kunoichi said.

The sprite rolled her eyes. “You were looking at him ever since we got here.”

“That’s not true” Kasumi denied while her cheeks were adust with blush. “I-I don’t like him.”

Salliandra sighed. “This is going to be a problem,” she thought.

Emily looked around the crystal walls. She can see water pouring down the bright fountains, illuminated by a white incandescence that refracted in rainbow halos around them.

The group arrived at the main hall of the cistern, a vast underground spire where clear water pours down the walls. A large part of the room was submerged in the transparent fluid as the path led towards a different staircase leading up.

Azalea swam around in awe. “This place…is beautiful!” she said. She swam towards the fountains on the walls, the ornate gilding on the crystals, and the growth of translucent ivy on the walls. “I bet the water here is cool!” she said as she tried to dive into the water.

“Azalea! Wait!” Anemone shouted before hastily firing an arrow. The projectile landed on her shadow, stopping her as she was an inch away from the liquid pool.

Azalea struggled to move past the boundary of her pinned shadow. “Anemone! What was that for?” the clionid said.

The relieved lycanthrope looked at her friend. “That water is dangerous. It was enchanted to drain water and mana from your body if you get it on you.”

Azalea contemplated the possibility of being desiccated and reduced into a husk upon touching the water. “…Oh,” she said.

Richard looked around and saw that something was amiss. He gazed at one of the fountains and noticed the stream was more opaque, more murky, though it lost this as gravity sent it to the clear pool below, this still made it a far cry from the pristine and immaculate transparency of the other wall fountains.

Emily walked up the steps and saw that there were four doors from her vantage point. As well as the one they used to enter the room. She saw that there was one to the east, one to the west, and one to the north right behind her. “I see three doors!” she said. “Carla, do you know which one you took first?”

“I’m sorry,” the alraune said as she climbed with her daughter and her three beasts in tow. “That was a haze for some reason.”

“I think we took the east door?” Charlotte said.

“No,” Anemone said. “We took the western one, I’m sure.”

“I thought that was the north one!” Lily exclaimed.

Salliandra saw the three girls arguing and sighed. “Maybe you guys were hit by memory-sealing spells here?”

Anemone pondered on it. “It is possible. There is an ambient amount of dark and water mana in this place.”

“So…we have no idea where to go?” Kasumi said.

“There are seventeen of us right?” Clover asked.

The Tatzelwurm, dire wolf and swan glared at the fawn, incensed over being excluded.

“Settle down,” Clara said before turning to the green-haired peryton. “What are you getting at.”

“Maybe we could split up?” Clover said. “Cover more ground that way?”

“That does seem like the logical step,” Richard said.

“Agreed,” Emily said. She looked around the group and divided them into thirds. Asking Carla, Anemone, and Lily to guide one each. Carla’s group would have Strelitzia, Clover, Azalea, and Nina. Anemone’s will include Emily, Rose, Raine, and Hydrangea. Lily’s would have Charlotte, Richard, Sarah, Tim, Kasumi, and Salliandra. The three beasts were also divvied up accordingly with The Tatzelwurm going with Anemone, the swan staying with Carla and the dire wolf following Charlotte to Lily’s group.

“That’s the groups,” Emily said. “Lily’s will go north, Carla’s will go east, and Anemone and mine will take the west.”

“Okay!” Lily said cheerfully as she galloped past her and lifted the door. “Come on!” she said with a bright smile. Sarah is exasperated.

Carla turned to the Tatzelwurm and instructed it to protect Emily’s group while they were separated, the feline serpent complied and slithered to Rose. The serpent purred as it nuzzled up with the lamia.

“Um…” Rose said in confusion.

“I think it likes you!” Hydrangea said with a small smile.

“Maybe it warmed itself up to you Rosie!” Azalea said.

“Oh no!” Rose said. “I do not do pets!” Her lightning mana on the fur of the Tatzelwurm caused both to stand on end as the cat-headed serpent rubbed its head on her neck. “Ugh, so how are we moving this thing?” she asked.

Carla looked around and saw a switch hanging from the ceiling, hanging over a broken part of the rim. Rose noticed the device was unusual, with a floating octahedral shape with a pale pink glow.

The lamia took out her wand on a hunch and cast a lightning spell on it. The electric shock activated the switch and the crystal receded into the wall. Magenta lines of light illuminated the staircase as it rotated clockwise towards the western door.

“Guess that’s our stop,” Anemone said. “Farewell for now,” the two groups separated.

Carla’s group remained in the stairwell. Nina, ever eager to prove herself simply scaled the walls.

“Nina!” Streltizia said. “What are you doing?”

“Searching for more switches,” the spiderling said as she scaled the cavernous wall. She used her webs to ensure a place to cling onto as she scaled and shimmied her small Arachne body towards the opposite end. She found a different type of switch, attached to the ceiling of the door. Curious, she made a dragline towards it and used it to reach the switch.

“One…two…three!” she said before jumping off and clinging onto the brass bar. Her eight dragged the switch down as golden light illuminated the staircase and rotated it counterclockwise past the northern door.

“I did it!” she said cheerfully.

Carla was as concerned for the spiderling’s reckless behavior as she was relieved that Minerva was not here to witness that. She lightly scolded Nina for running off like that before opening the door. Her party entered through it and reached the eastern part of the cistern.

✦✦✦

As the three groups leave on their respective paths, from the highest ledge, three figures watched over them.

“So thy interlopers hath divided themselves,” Hildur said while slithering around a small pillar.

“What do we do?” Savina said anxiously. “If they find the sword first—”

“Quiet!” Grisella said. “Sister always has a plan!”

“Indeed,” the elder lamia sister smirked deviously.

Savina noticed that some of the people within the group looked familiar. “Hey don’t you think that some of them looked like those ‘Coloraturas’?” the cat-eared girl asked.

“Mere coincidence,” Grisella said. “Those orphans hath never found willing parents.”

“As if anything would ever adopt those freaks!” Hildur said as she slicked back her red curls. She recalled certain rumors about some of the rival witches. “Still…there is something unusual about them. Grisella, find the minotaur!”

“Yes sister!” the dormarch sister said dutifully.

“Savina!” Hildur said. “Find the wifwolf’s party!”

“Leave it to me!” Savina said with glee. “I wanted to get close to that dreamy bodyguard of theirs!”

“Ugh, Ereshkigal spare me,” Hildur tried to suppress the urge to bark.

“Eldest sister, Will that mean you will be seeking out the third group?” Grisella said.

“Indeed, younger sister,” Hildur said. “The alraune interests me so.”

“But why?” Savina said.

“This Dungeon is but a stone’s throw from the village of Hamelin, a village that hath suffered mass bereavement at the alleged hand of an Alraune. Rumors circleth around the missing six score children. Rumors that claim their survival. If we can find them, then we wouldst have a treasure trove of thralls for ourselves and Madame Erezbert!” she cackled evilly.

“I haven’t had a good meal in a long while,” Grisella said while contemplating the possibility.

“You know thy assignments, sisters!” Hildur said. “Tis time to follow them. We shall catch them unawares and then bring them here anon!”

The coven cackled madly before splitting up. Each one was sent to track one of the three parties.

✦✦✦

Beyond the western door, Anemone and Emily’s group explored. The group found a large water wheel, stilled and unmoving. The flow of water stopped with it.

“What exactly is this?” Rose innocently asked.

“I think they were used for generating power?” Emily said. “Water weights down one side turns the wheel, and creates hydroelectric energy.”

“Seems like it’s stuck,” Raine said.

Hydrangea looked at the shallow water beneath their ledge. “Is this also dangerous?”

Anemone nodded. “The water here has an adverse effect, deeper waters here would dehydrate you, drain you of your mana. But even shallow pools have a dangerous effect.”

“Got it,” The cyan-bobbed girl said. She looked around and saw something of interest, a door to the left, deep inside the shallow pool, some water seeping beneath the door. She took out her spellbook and froze a path in the water.

“It should be safe now,” Hydrangea said.

With a frozen pathway before them, Emily had the opportunity to test a recent trick she learned. She tapped her feet on the crystal ground beneath her. A metal arc extruded from her ankle, forming a wheel as it looped beneath from the back of her feet and around towards her toes, finishing just beneath the sole of her covered leg. She tapped the other foot and a similar hoop formed beneath it.

“Lizzie taught me this—” Emily said as she tried to keep her balance. “This neat trick.” With those hoops, she skated on and across the ice. The metal blade moved a slight cut onto Hydrangea’s ice as she moved towards the door. The children followed suit, with Rose making sure not to slide into the unfrozen pure water.

The door opened to reveal a large cavernous pool of water. A gap with a small key hanging on the other side. Interspersed by rotating circular platforms, hanging from gigantic bears that all but replaced the ceiling.

Rose grimaced. “Not really a good jumper here,” the lamia lamented.

Hydrangea had an idea and attempted to make an ice path, she took out her wand and, but hidden from her bespectacled eyes, a small projectile attacked her in the arm.

A crystal shard threw off her spell and knocked her back a little.

“Hydra!” Anemone said as she summoned her bow. “Are you okay?”

“I’m —guh!” The shard on Hydrangea’s shoulder suddenly transformed into a Crystslime. The young girl tried to remove it before it grew and dissolved her body, but her effort futile led to the slime engulfing her.

“Hydrangea!” Rose said before instinctively taking her rapier out. The slime bounced above and bounded into one of the rotating platforms. Rose tried to use lightning spells at range, but the Crystslime’s properties had ensured that it was unharmed by the electric lamia’s strikes.

Raine spread her wings and followed it onto the platform, chasing it across the flooded cavern below. Anemone took her bow and fired at crystal statures, armed with loaded bows that fired the entrapping shards at them.

Hydrangea tried to escape as she felt her body dissolving into the slime. Cyan mana and black sludge seeped from her body as she tried to escape the mobile gelatinous mass. Her attempts at speaking are hindered by the blob.

Emily dispelled the skates and looked at the Tatzelwurm beside her. The serpent latched itself onto Emily as she followed Raine and Hydrangea across the gaps. The gears suddenly stopped rotating and threw Anemone off her platform. Raine heard her yells and turned around to catch her as she fell. The Tatzelwurm bit onto the edge of the platform to allow Emily to swing onto the next one.

The Crystslime took advantage and attacked Raine while her back was turned. The phoenixian girl maneuvered to dodge in time as the slime landed on a crystal platform below. It leaped again and corroded the cord that bound the platform to the gears.

Raine sliced at the Crystslime, splitting it and two and freeing Hydnragena. The two slimes landed at the entrance in front of Rose, who valiantly attempted to use her sword to slice them into chunks, but the slimes instead sandwiched the lamia and captured her within its gelatinous body. Her head sticking out from the slime.

“Help me!” she yelled as she struggled to free herself from the captor’s hold. The slime bounced across several of the round platforms, severing their connection to the gears with its corrosive body as it leaped beneath the platforms. Dragging Rose to the far side of the room with it.

Hydrangea had an idea, and with much of her remaining strength conjured ice around the slime and Rose, freezing them both. Emily then leaped from her platform and threw her combined swords into it and Raine followed with her rings. The three chakrams collided with the frozen slime and broke it into several pieces. Rose’s body was freed from the attacks as the larger chunks of frozen slime plummeted into the depths.

“...Thanks,” Rose said woozily before collapsing.

A while later, Anemone, Emily, and Raine tended to the two girls, making sure they were both alive and healthy after being captured by the Crystslime. Rose woke up and saw that most of the platforms were gone.

While the lamia was sleeping Emily took the key and also an attached note. The note read. “For those that seek the Blade of Lies, turn back now. The cursed blade must remain sealed!”

“Cursed blade?” Emily asked herself.

Raine looked back at the now impassable gap. “Can’t go back that way now.”

“Stupid slime,” Rose grumbled as her body repaired itself. Black slime receded into veins as the wounds on her and Hydrangea prepared themselves. The Tatzelwurm purred with relief at Rose’s awakening.

“You’re lucky Sarah and Richard packed medical potions alongside the lunch!” Anemone said.

Emily saw that there was a corridor to the right and followed it, leading to a locked door. She looked at the key and used it on the door. Lock and key both turned to shining dust as the door opened.

“Guys!” Emily shouted. “I found a door!”

The younger girls followed the avatara’s voice and they delved deeper into the dungeon.

✦✦✦

Charlotte’s group ventured far beyond the northern door they entered through. They soon arrived at a large room where various reservoirs lay beneath them, separated by a transparent crystal floor.

“It seems this was also used as a treatment facility,” Tim mused as he observed the reservoir. “I wonder where the impurities go.”

Kasumi looked at Tim again with longing eyes. Salliandra pulled on one of her braids.

“Ow!” the brown-haired ninja said. “What was that for?”

“Distractions like this ill suit a ‘shadow warrior’,” the petulant sprite said.

Lily cantered towards the two. “You must really like Tim, huh?” the Centaruide said.

“Do not!” Kasumi protested. The two blonds were not convinced. Kasumi humped. “I just happen to respect him a little is all,” she said.

“Right,” Salliandra said sarcastically.

The group continued to walk towards the end of the corridor. The dire wolf at Charlotte’s side smelled something and growled.

“What is it?” Charlotte said.

The beast howled and rammed through the door, revealing phantasmal white flames dancing around the new room. Tim sensed several unholy presences in the unusably darkened room.

“Ghosts!” Lily cried in panic.

“Lovely,” Richard said sardonically as he took out his stunners. Sarah followed the Direwolf into the room and attracted the attention of the specters. Each phantom flame harassing her with its ectoplasmic smoke.

Kasumi tried enveiling the battle in mist and obscuring the specter’s sights, but the cooled steam was dispelled by the white fires. Their blazes colored blue and red by the absorbed mana.

“What are these things?” Sarah exclaimed as she swung her hammers around them. The wisps dodged the swings with ease.

Lily gathered her wits and tried to use her light spells to illuminate the room. Faint shadows were made visible on the stone columns in the dungeon before the uncolored flames grew attracted to the light. Salliandra quickly used a mirage staff to reveal the true form of the specters, allowing Tim, Sarah, and Richard to dispatch them before their wisps could absorb and use Lily’s light against them.

Amidst the battle, Charlotte noticed a panel sticking out from the floor. She tried stepping on it, but her weight was insufficient for its activation. “Lily!” the alraune called out to the centauride. Lily galloped to where Charlotte beckoned her and stood on the panel, but not even her heavy quadrupedic body was enough to activate it. Wisps began to circle them. The wolf tried to deter them with a mighty howl, but the wisps retaliated with water, fire, and light spells.

Assailed, a risky idea formed in Charlotte’s head. She turned to Lily. “I’m sorry!” she said before casting a spell.

“Sorry for—Aah!” Lily suddenly collapsed onto the panel, her body growing heavier by the alraune’s gravity magic. The panel lowered as the centaur struggled to stand back up. Pure water began falling along the walls, separating many of the wisps from their adversaries. The remaining ones attempted to attack, but Tim and Sarah repelled them and threw them into the dousing mana-draining wall of water. The specters were soon vanquished.

With the wisps gone, Charlotte reversed the spell she cast on Lily and helped her up. The centaur smiled at the girl despite the sudden enfeeblement. “That was a close one!” she cheerfully said.

The water stopped falling and a crystalline key was seen on the drainage grate. Tim picked up the key and noticed there was a locked door behind him. He used the key on the door and key and lock both crumbled into motes of light.

In the next room, Charlotte glimpsed a small cat leaving from a ledge. Tim turned to Lily, who graciously accepted Charlotte’s apology.

Salliandra fluttered to Lily, sharing in her blissful exuberance. “Maybe we can use her as a weight more other?” the spite said.

Lily recoiled at Salliandra’s request. “Let’s…not? Suddenly weighing four tons isn’t a lot of fun.”

Richard noticed a small note on the floor. The page had dissolved at the edge and many pieces were missing, but the ink was still a deep contrasting black compared to the yellowed pages. The note read, “I have ventured into this Dungeon on rumors of two things. One was that a cursed sword lay here and that it had purifying properties. After centuries of existence. I believe that if the rumors about this ‘Hexenflutch’ are true, then…” Richard turned to the back of the parchment. “Day two. I noticed the water here…isn’t water. I mean it looks and feels like water, but I do not sense any of its mana or anything that connected it to the Flood. Furthermore, anything that is submerged in it risks dissolution into mana which is then dissipated. I have decided to name it ‘aqua regina’ for now, pending a more appropriate term for this liquid. I’ll also try to avoid it going forward, lest I end up in a different body of water later.”

Richard gave the note to Sarah. “There’s a cursed weapon here?” the dwarfette asked.

“Apparently,” her brother responded. “Wonder how it came to be here.”

Charlotte looked at the mirror she brought. She noticed something unsettling in the reflection. Showing not crystal, but fire. The horrific imagery felt like it was sucking her in before she snapped herself out of it and placed it back on her back. She overheard the Smiths talking about the possibility of a cursed weapon and wondered if that was related to the mirror.

After a few moments of rest and exploration, the group eventually found another key. “Let’s go,” Tim said.

The group returned to the reservoir and saw that a doorway suddenly appeared on the north wall. Tim used the key on this new door and the lock vanished alongside it, granting him entrance. They arrived back at the Cistern’s central pool, on a higher ledge than their entrance, and opposite an already opened door. The dire wolf sensed an unsettling presence behind them but saw no one there. With a whimper it followed the rest of the group as they traveled along the outer room of the large room, unaware that someone was tailing their every movement.

✦✦✦

Carla’s party ventured deep beyond the eastern door. The swan and Nina used their skills in flight and wall-scaling to traverse large gaps. Strelitzia protected the party from opposing threats while Clover repelled them away with her winds. Carla used her knowledge of monster biology to calm the Crystslimes, and Azalea studied the water in hopes of trying to manipulate it.

“That isn’t right!” the blue-haired clionid protested. “This is water, why can’t I move it?”

“Normal water wouldn't dissolve magic,” Streltizia said.

They soon arrived at a room with a locked door. Azalea tried to open it, but the crystal lock kept the door firmly in place.

Carla looked around and noticed a book next to a pristine blade. The cover and spine were well worked and many of the words had faded. The remainder of those that weren’t used glyphs and spellings unfamiliar to her. She noticed there was a note attached to one of the pages, less jaundiced from age than the book. The alraune opened the note.

“I knew it was a bad idea to try to use that dungeon for water treatment. The results were so pure it actually drowned a reverend! Administrators, why did you let us be tempted by this clean place?”

“We have decided to move further west. The Profaned Arm at least would be secure here in this gods-dammned place. No guild shall ever know of it, no fool shall dare set foot here as long as we stay the hells away from it.”

Carla wonders what such a note is doing in a place like this. As she examined the parchment, she heard a small clink fall onto the crystal floor. She looked down and saw a small key. She recalled the locked door and decided to test the key on it.

As Carla worked the lock on the door, Azalea noticed the pristine dagger and took it from the table. The crystal blade was immaculate with hues dancing through its edges. “Ooh, pretty!” the mermaid said.

Carla succeeded in undoing the seal on the door. Lock and key both vanished into motes. The group entered the door.

✦✦✦

After another puzzle, Anemone, Emily, Raine, Rose, Hydrangea, and the Tatzelwurm arrived in a strange room. There, they were attacked by large crystalline mantises. The group made short work of these translucent insects.

Anemone noticed that the mantises had empty jars on them and took them. “What is this?” she asked.

Hydrangea noticed a plaque above the other door. “For those that seem to cleanse the hex, the power of the flutch, you must best.”

Rose noticed that there was a discarded journal on the corner. Worn and out of place leather in this crystal-made room. “Huh?” the lamia said. “Emmy, look!”

Emily picked up the tome and turned its pages. The letters were worn out, the ink faded, but several passages were still legible.

“…it’s been two weeks since I last arrived. Two weeks since I began to search for Danielle. The villagers told me she was last seen there, but I…” the ink faded too much to continue. Emily turned to another page. “…‘We are leaving.’ the Reverend spoke. The village was recently d…d by a Cataclysm. We’re forced to relocate to ... And yet, I knew that Danielle is still ... My beloved daughter, why have you…home?” The words were more faded. Emily noticed that the edge of that page was strained. She turned to another page at the end of the book. “No, it can’t be…I found her earlier…Daniele has…No, I will not let her run rampant. Tomorrow I will … I will bring her peace.” The rest of the pages were blank.

Emily looked at the book in confusion. The state of the book made it clear that it had been here for a long time.

“What has happened here?” Emily said. A curious part of her considered finding the core of the dungeon and asking them, but she knew that would likely be a rough endeavor. The Hexenflutch was not associated with any known guild. For all she knew it could’ve been a rouge dungeon. And yet she didn’t know anything about it until The Truces decided to visit it on rumors.

“Emily!”

Raine called out to the avatara. Her train of thought was broken. “Yes?” Emily answered.

“We found a map!” the red-haired girl said. Hydrangea and Anemone looked it over and noticed that there was a path that led back to the center pool of the dungeon’s Cistern. With that in mind, the group decided to move forward. As they exited the room, Emily looked back, thinking she was being watched. As the door closed behind them. A crystalline cat had emerged from behind one of the columns.

✦✦✦

At the same time, Charlotte and her party had just entered another room. Pipes dotted the walls. Some dripped with tranquil aqua regina, others were dried. A few pressure switches and a small box were present. At the eastern wall was a locked door.

“Hang on,” Charlotte said. “I have an idea,” the young alraune walked to one of the switches and used gravity magic on herself. She fell to her knees and she concentrated on the spell. The panel activated and one of the pipes spewed water over the grate that was the floor.

“Charlotte!” Tim said. “You’re exerting too much pressure on yourself!” The alraune ignored Tim’s words of concern.

With the not-quite water flowing, Charlotte struggled to move her head to face it. She began to lift her now heavy arm to cast another spell. The flow of water was stopped and the small river began to float in midair. She carefully moved her eyes towards a dry pipe and made sure to direct the water’s gravity towards it. Her careful spell worked and one of three pairs was connected.

Salliandra dispels the gravity spell on herself. The alraune breathed heavily as the pressure she placed on herself decreased.

“I have a better idea!” the sprite said before diving into Richard’s bag and rummaging through it.

“Hey, what are you doing, stop that!” Richard said to the nosy sprite.

“Found it!” Salliandra said as she lifted a camera from the bag.

“You brought a camera with you?” Sarah said incredulously.

“You never know when it might be handy!” Richard said defensibly.

Salliandra used her powers to suspend the camera in the air as she took pictures of the dry pipes and the box. She then took pictures of pictures of the dry piped and used her mirage powers to manifest larger copies. She placed the images in midair under the dripping pipes and then used the photo of the box to create a large copy over the switches.

“Okay,” the spite said to Charlotte. “Try making that box heavier!” her tone was giddy with excitement.

“You sure this is going to work?” Lily said.

“It beets watching Charlotte risk mulching herself,” Kasumi said.

Charlotte followed Salliandra’s advice and increased gravity bearing down on the box. All three switches were activated. The first set of pipes acted as Charlotte’s spell intended. The two dripping pipes also flowed into Salliandra’s floating photos. Two jets of water suddenly appeared in midair, flowing into the walls next to the dry pipe.

“Oops!” Salliandra said. “Thought I nailed it!” she fluttered to the photos and adjusted their position. The aqua regina jetting from nowhere soon flowed into the dry pipes. The door unlocked.

“Um…thank you, Salliandra,” Charlotte said.

“No problem!” the small sprite said before she returned Richard’s camera to him. “Can you take a pic of me? Please!” she said childishly. The befuddled dwarf complied. The group entered the opened door and continued their exploration.

✦✦✦

As Carla and her stepped into a new room, they found themselves in a large hallway, standing on the top of a floor that sloped steeply on both sides. Eerie silence was all that filled the cavernous hallway. Carla looked behind her and said the door was suddenly locked again.

The group carefully walked across the path. Strelitzia kept watch for anything suspicious. Azalea, not bound by gravity, swam towards the left wall and noticed an array of pipes.

“Guess this dungeon piped down,” the clionid quipped. Strelitzia looked towards her mermaid friend and noticed the pipes were dripping.

“This place is booby-trapped,” the minotaride said to herself. She was certain that if they made the wrong move, the floodgates would open and the pipes would flood the room with deathly clear fluid.

They soon arrived at the other side. There was a strange pillar, with smaller cylinders extruding from it. A small key hung from one of the cylinders.

“Where’s the door?” Nina asked. “There should be a door here right?”

Streltizia grimaced. “Oh Obsidian’s hammer!” she thought her herself. “Don’t tell me…” The only way out was the way in, and this key, which she is certain would cause the faucets to open and let loose a torrential trial. She gripped her axe.

“Stre?” Clover asked her horned friends.

“Clover,” Streltizia said. “Get ready.” Her expression told her all she needed to know.

Nina noticed the key and skittered towards it. Carla tried to warn her against taking it too hastily, but the spiderling didn’t heed her warnings. She climbed up the pillar and took the key.

“Yay!” Nina said. “We—whoah!” the pillar rotated as the smaller cylinders receded into it. The small Arachne was thrown off the pillar as the faucets opened, just as Streltizia feared.

That water would flow from the crystal walls did not surprise the minotaride, but that the water was pitched black, did. As the jet-black water flowered, Large crystals fell from the ceiling. The stones broke apart and took the form of adventurers and mantises. The adversaries charged towards the group.

“Everyone!” Streltizia said. “Run!” she charged towards some of the opposing, and slammed her axe into a crystwalker mage. The magician tried to use its body as a medium for channeling mana before the bull-horned girl slammed her axe into it.

Another crystwalker clashed with Clover, blocking her fan before she could unfold it. The peryton simply used the folded metal fan as a makeshift club and pushed it against the crystwalker’s blade.

Azalea and the swan leveraged their relative freedom granted by floating and flying over the ground to attack and distract crystwalker archers and mages. The crystal warrior failed to shoot either of them from the sky as Azalea used her control over the water on the sludge. Summoning a small tide that ensnared the crystalline foes and dragged them down the steep sides of the platform. Her small tide eroded the crystal the crystwalkers stood on.

“Azalea!” Strelitzia said wrathfully at the clionid who made their path back more arduous.

“Sorry,” Azalea said. She swam towards the area and tried to help wash away the other crystwalkers. Before she could try to control the water again, she was struck in the back by a crystwalker mage, aiming a curse spell at her. The young girl was overwhelmed with pain and struggled to control the water. Too distracted to notice the other crystwalkers poised to drag her into the inky depths. Carla used her vines to ensnare them and threw them towards the other side where the simulacra shattered against the wall.

The black ooze filled half of the space to the side of the elevated platform. Its flow accelerated as they tried to cross the gap Azalea accidentally made. The clionid struggled with searing pain as she swam towards the other side, Nina hastily excreted small struck threads across the gap for her to cross. Clover propelled herself over with her wind spells, Carla relied on her swan to carry herself over, and Strelitzia stayed back to ensure the others escaped first. Slaying the crystwalkers that dared impeded her friends.

“Strelitzia!” Clover called to the orange-haired minotauride, “Everyone made it across!”

That was her cue escape. The axe-wilding girl focused on a spell and moved her lead. As she slammed her hoof on the ground, the crystal she soon on extruded and lifted her into the air. She leaped off the ledge. She breathed heavily as she landed on the other side.

The group made it back to the door. Carla took the key from Nina and quickly placed it into the lock. The binding on the door vanished and the group rushed through it. Streltizia was again the last to go. As she ran through the door she was struck by a spell.

A crystwalker mage had landed a curse spell on the horned girl. Her shoulder burned from the combined power of dark and flame. Just as Azalea’s back ached from the dread combination. The door slammed before the crystnauts and the flooding black water could flow through. Opposite it, a new path had opened, but that was a little concern.

Carla had taken small petals from her skirt. “Here,” the alraune said as she gave them to the minotarise and the clionid. “These should soothe the pain a little.”

The two girls rubbed it at their cursed areas and found the curse had subsided, but its effects still lingered. “What a horrible night to have a curse,” Azalea lamented.

“It’s not even night!” Strelitzia said as the curse flared up again.

Clover looked at the two friends. “There is only one true way to remove curse magic,” she said. Unfortunately, the means for that were Anemone and Raine, who were in different groups.

Azalea looked at the water pouring from behind her. Separated by a crystal wall. “Well…maybe there is one other way?” she asked.

“What are you talking about?” Nina asked.

Azalea turned toward the wall. “Can you help me smash this? I don’t think I could move this water here.”

“Azalea, are you crazy?” Strelitzia said. “That would drain us of mana completely.”

“It’s only a little bit,” Azalea said.

Strelitzia began to protest, but her shoulder flared up again. She clutched her right shoulderblade in agony. Clover looked at her in concern, her fan folded into a form more ready for striking the crystal wall.

Strelitzia relented, “Fine,” she fought her singed shoulder and she took her labrys. Azalea was unable to help with the curse’s heat wreaking havoc on her back. Clover supported Streltizia as they tried to break a hole in the crystal wall. Carla, Nina, and the swan also assisted.

After several attempts, the fan and axe bore a large enough hole for them to walk through. Strelitzia stretched her arm out first into the clear liquid. Her pain increased as purple and red flowed beneath her wet arm. She kept her arm stretched for five minutes before the faraway hues changed into browns and oranges. She took back her arm before the false water could damage it further and felt relief from the curse.

“It worked?” Strelitzia said with confusion.

Carla quickly took a jar, one of several she retrieved from previous encounters here, and filled it up with the water. She asked Azalea to show her her back. The clionid complied and shifted her body until she was floating face down. Carla applied the water and saw purple and red liquid drip from the clionid’s body. The cyberworks armor moved to expose her afflicted back and only her back.

“Hehe, you know when we’re about to die, we usually go belly-up,” Azalea said. She giggled through her pain.

“Is this really the time for jokes?” Streltizia said.

Nina giggled at Azalea’s remark, to Streltizia’s annoyance.

After a few minutes the water that dripped from Azalea’ turned azure, The clionid celebrated her relief by stretching her arms as the armor moved itself back into place.

With the curse lifted, the group looked at the new path before them, they traveled down this new road and arrived back at the cistern’s central pool. The staircase lifted to their level…and the once clear water beneath grew murkier and blacker.

✦✦✦

Later, Emily and her group have just prevailed against the second Sentinel. A special Crystwalker Guardian who was as silent as he was formidable. As the warrior fell and Emily approached the chest, Anemone noticed something approaching them.

It was a cat, a crystal cat, but a cat nonetheless. Its fur was as pitch as the starless sky. It looked at the group with curious eyes, as if sizing them up.

Rose looked at the cat with confusion. “Hey, Mone,” she whispered to the lycanthrope. “Did you see this last time?”

“No,” Anemone responded. “Why?”

“I think that cat has been following us ever since we’ve arrived here,” the young lamia answered.

Emily gathered the contents of the chest. Crystal-laden robes, cloudstone ingots, and several translucent armaments were either absorbed by her or handed off to Raine and Hydrangea. “We’re ready!” the avatara yelled before she noticed that Rose and Anemone were looking at a cat.

The Tatzelwurm silently slithered to the other feline, trying to access its motive. As it approached the black cat had hissed and then ran off. It ran through the door that was opened by the defeat of the crystallized statue.

“Huh, weird,” Emily said.

“You’re telling me,” Rose said.

The group followed the new path which led back to the Cistern, but on the way, they noticed a creeping darkness envelope them.

“Huh?” Rose cried in shock. “Everything’s dark!”

“Hang on,” Raine said. “I can make a light.” She extended her arm and channeled fire mana into a floating fireball. The incandescence of the flame illuminated the first few feet in front of them. As Raine conjured the flame she noticed a serpentine shadow slither past them.

“Rose is that you?” the phoenixian girl said.

“Nuh-un!” Rose exclaimed. “I was right here.”

The group heard a loud cackle. “Fellow trespassers, thou journey ends here.”

A green flame erupted from the darkness, Hydrangea immediately created a barrier of ice to stop it.

“Curse magic?” Anemone said.

“Show yourself!” Raine said to the voice.

The room was lit by the smoldering green hues of dark fire. A second lamia slithered before Emily and the four Coloraturas with her. Her curly red locks framed a face that made a grin wicked with subtle sadistic glee.

Rose recognized the fellow snake-taled woman. “What do you want?” she demanded.

“So the orphans found a new friend,” the intruder said. “Such a pity. Thou hath stumbled into a world unseen.” She launched another attack, but Raine countered with her own flames.

Emily didn’t know who that was, but she was certain the red-headed lamia was an enemy. She drew her swords and clashed with the serpent. But she evaded her attacks and summoned a sword of dark fire. As Emily clashed again with the interloper, she noticed a kind of mana similar to the Coloraturas and Kaitlyn. The intruder was a Witch!

Cracks on the crystal floor began forming, assailed by the cursed flames.

✦✦✦

As Emily and her group faced a sudden foe, so too did Tim and his group. A blond nekomata had ambushed them after they had arrived back at the Cistern. The poor beneath them were now a murky opaque black.

“Hehehe,” the stranger giggled. “Thoth hath a purty mouth indeed.” She summoned a thunderous spear. “Pray, won’t thou join me?”

Kasumi was annoyed by what sounded like an attempt at flirtation, directed at Tim no less. She entered the fray and clashed with the cat-eared invader. “He’s not interested!”

“Oh?” the blond opponent said. She noticed that Tim never responded to her words with words of his own thus far. “The strong silent type, huh?”

“Not my type,” Tim said as he assumed a horse stance. He made a charging step towards the nekomata intruder and pushed her back with a trike from the hips. The cat-eared witch simply charged forward.

“I love a good fight,” the woman said. “I’ll be sure to be gentle with you.” Her voice remained as eerily smitten as it is adamant. Her focus on Tim was such that she barely recognized the kunoichi also fighting her, nor did she notice the centaur, dwarves, sprite, and dire wolf prepared to enter the fray.

Or so it seemed. As soon as Lily charged in, the opponent dodged her spear thrust. “Lily!” she exclaimed as if referring to an old friend. “Thou hath a new toy? I’m so glad.”

The centaur ignored the opponent’s honeyed words. Her near-constant smile gave way to a scornful frown. “I still remember what you did at Broadway!”

The nekomata was torn. “Thou still hung up about that?” she said. “The manager was so handsome, I couldn't re—” She was suddenly zapped by Richard’s stunner. Sarah rushed in to knock her to the wall, and Tim and Lily followed up with their own attacks. The stranger simply giggled as she took blow after blow. “Yes!” she yelled, “Give me more!”

The floor beneath them began to crack. Charlotte tried to assist, but she was preoccupied by something. A voice in her head that beckoned her to stand back. The young alraune child struggled to keep her mind clear.

Lily and Tim clashed with the lightning-brandishing teenager. Polearms collided as one evaded the other two’s thrusts and answered with rapid strikes of her own. Levin struck the ground, further weakening the floor beneath them.

The crystal floor began to give way. Large chunks fell onto the once pure aqua regina. Black sludge began to rise, like a geyser about to erupt.

✦✦✦

At the same time, Carla’s group was likewise locked in combat with a strange adversary. Strelitzia already locked her axe with that of the ice-wielding dormarch.

“I hath yet to introduce myself, and you greet me with this?” the blue-haired witched said. “Hath thou lost your manners?”

“Don’t need the pleasantries,” Streltizia said. “I can smell the sin on you.”

The blue-haired dormarch smirked before repelled the minotaur back with frigid winds. “Very well, I’ve not the time for pleasantries either. “She began chanting a spell. “Frozen winds, heed my call. Thine enemies be made to fall!”

The crystal floor froze over and grew more fragile. Strelitzia struggled to keep her footing as Clover and Azalea rushed to her aid. Carla commanded the swan to keep the minaotauride on her two hooves, while Nina sneaked behind her and tried to web her unawares.

Those attacks were futile. The stranger froze Nina and her webs in crystalline ice. Clover’s winds were turned against her and rooted her to the ground. Azalea’s water spells were instead redirected away and the water orbiting her head turned into a choking gelatinous orb. Carla and Streltizia were the only two remaining and the latter was the only one of the two that is experienced direct combat.

“What do you want?” the horned girl yelled as she deflected a thrown ice axe with her labrys.

“That is none of thou’s concern,” the blue-haired dormarch said. “But maybe my sisters and I can speak it over some nice juicy steak.” She licked her lips as she said those words. “Now tell me, doth thou prefereth tenderloin, sirloin, or the rump?”

“Stre!” clover shouted as she tried to free herself. “She’s trying to get under your skin!”

“I know,” Strelitzia said calmly.

“Thou art presumptuous,” the stranger said. “Seeing thyself as pure of the crystal that surrounds you? Or maybe thou art hiding from a different sin?”

Strelitzia was incensed. The other witch grinned as she recalled her axe.

“I heard many a rumor about the decline of a certain herd of minotaurs,” the dormarch said. A tide of black sludge was visible from behind the walls. Some jetting out from cracks that formed in them. “Overnight their membership dwindled, slaughtered. Their princess had vanished and the curious faction hath been rend asunder.”

Strelitzia was angered by those words.

“Could it be that this princess doth stand in this ‘hallowed’ hollow?” the stranger said. “Is it a coincidence that one small bull joined a herd of fellow orphans?”

“Shut up!” Strelitzia said as she held her labrys over head and slammed the ground.

“Stre!” Clover tried to calm down her friend and guardian, but it was too late.

Earth mana quaked on the frozen crystal floor and created more cracks in the walls. Carla and Clover noticed that the ooze from beyond risked flowing into this hall and flooding it. The dormarch goaded the horned girl about the things she had done once and the fragile structures that kept chaos at bay were rendered no more.

Like a tsunami, the wave of sludge broke through the weakened walls and flooded it. Swallowing all its path. The three groups were submerged in the slime, separated from each other as they ended up in the confines of a Strega.