In the diner in Noir’s underground, Rose Rhapsodia looks around impudently. “What is taking them so long?” she says.

“Patience, Rose,” Whisper says. The familiar tries to calm her down.

“It was Hydrangea’s idea to head to Cocytus Manor to begin with!” Rose says. Her face bears an impatient expression. “You’d think she would—“

“Be the first to arrive?” Hydrangea Harmony arrives from the stairs.

“Finally!” the pink-haired Lamia says. “What took you so long?”

“My apologies,” the cyan-haired girl says sarcastically. “Not all of us are as blessed to be able to wake up as early as you.”

“Early? What do you mean ear—” Rose says as she looks at the clock. She stops speaking as she realizes it reads 5:09 AM. “…What?”

“Daylight Savings Time,” Hydrangea says, putting her cap on top of her head.

“You got to be kidding me!” the young serpentine girl says after realizing that she had misjudged the time.

“Want some breakfast?” Whisper says.

“Whisper! You knew about this didn’t you?” Rose says.

The squirrel flashes a mischievous smile.

Over hotcakes, Rose talks to Hydrangea. “So why did you want to return to that place anyway?”

The bookish lass turns to her friend. “I figured in its current state it would yield a Cryosphere,” she says.

“A Cryosphere?” Rose says. “Why do we need Elementalist’s Spheres? I’m fine with just lightning spells.”

Hydrangea conjures a small ice crystal. “I figure that we would need something valuable to better convince prospective adopters.”

“Whatever,” Rose says. “I’ve been itching to get to the surface anyway. I spent way too long cooped up in the underground.”

“If we’re successful, then you may get to touch all the grass as you wish,” Hydrangea says playfully.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rose says incredulously.

“Nothing,” the other girl giggles.

“What are you two planning?” Rose asks before putting a piece of the breakfast pastry in her mouth.

“We’ve managed to find someone who might be willing to take you and the other sin,” Whisper says, seeing no reason to hide.

Lily Borea Legato arrives, the canters of her centaur legs being heard from the front nook of the diner. “Good morning!” she says.

“Finally awake, huh?” Rose asks.

Raine Carnation Cadenza is the next to enter as Lily walks up to the nook and eats her hotcakes. “Mornin— Why is she up early?” The red-headed girl is surprised to see that Rose is already awake.

“What do you mean?” Rose says, her fluffy pigtails nearly brushed over Whisper as he scurries over the nook.

“You do sleep in a lot,” Lily innocently says.

“That’s not true!” Rose says. “Right?”

Everyone stays silent.

“R-right?” Rose says with uncertainty in her voice.

Azalea Adagio swims in next. “Morning folks!” Her azure-hared head is already wrapped in a sphere of water. “Seems we got an early bird here and I’m not talking about Raine.” She quips. “Excited for the trip, huh Rosie?”

“Of course I am!” Rose says. “We almost never head up to the surface! It’s always ‘But what if an Elegio finds us’ this and ‘we should avoid the Ebony Guards’ that!’”

In the middle of Rose’s rant, Strelitizia Sonata arrives. Her minotaur horns nearly scratch the walls as she tiredly stumbles downstairs. “You’re loud, you know that right Rose” she rubs her eyes.

“You should try to wake up early too, Strelitzia,” Azalea says. “I’ve seen logs that are easier to wake than you two.”

“Shut it!” Strelitizia says. Her tail swishes as her orange brows furrowed in an irritated expression. Azalea takes the hint and clams up.

Clover Capriccio is right behind Stelitizia, her Peryton body and green pigtails unmistakable. Stelritizia fails to notice her friend behind her as she approaches her seat.

Anemone Aria is the last to wake. Her hair and purple lupine ears were unkempt, suggesting she had rushed In preparing herself.

“Aria,” Lily says. “Your hair, it’s a mess.”

Aria sluggishly takes her seat. “It’s fine,” she says. “It’ll be fixed when I magicalize.” She takes out her wand and immediately changes. Her bed hair fixes itself and assumes the position of perfectly coifed ringlet curls as her outfit changes. With her hair now fixed, she dispels her transformation, leaving nothing but her hairstyle.

Rose finished her hotcakes with the speed of a girl impatient, and Lily and Clover finished their breakfast with the chipper energy of youthful exuberance.

“Done,” Rose says before burping.

“Ditto,” Lily says.

“Got any more?” Clover says.

“Wow,” Azalea says. “You three are fast.”

“Rose did get a head start,” Raine says. Her red wings folded at her waist.

Rose fights her instincts telling her to rush the other girls. “You know what,” she says. “I think I’ll have some more flapjacks too.”

“Can we get some sinkers too?” Azalea says. “For the road that is?”

“Girls,” Whisper says with a sigh. “You know Jacquelyn cannot make you doughnuts on a whim.”

“It’s okay,” a waitress arrives to pick up their plates. “I can make an exception given what today is.”

“Yay!” Rose says.

“I’ll be missing you girls,” Jacquelyn says as she recedes into eh kitchen.

“We haven’t left yet,” Clover says.

Whisper knows that if they are adopted by the dungeon he heard about, the next order of business would be to ensure they leave before Noir’s authorities can find them.

“And besides,” Rose says. “Even if we did, we can come back right?”

“Why on earth would we ever come back to this hellhole?” Strelitizia says.

“Language, Strelitzia,” Whisper says.

“Fine,” the minotaur girl says. “Why would we want to return to this heck-hole then?”

The phantasmal squirrel places his paw on his head.

“Isn’t it simple?” Rose says. “We are Magical Girls. Shouldn't we try to help the helpless?”

A black ooze drips from Strelitzia’s arm before receding. The orange-haired girl clams down. “Ever the idealist, aren’t you.”

Rose smiles. “I try,” she says.

Jacquelyn arrives with several trays for Rose, Lily, and Clover. “Sinkers’ll be ready in a few minutes.”

“Here’s hoping they aren’t stinkers,” Azalea says.

After everyone finishes their breakfast, the Coloraturas head out for the surface, along with a bag of eight doughnuts each.

“Think they’ll be okay?” Jacquelyn says.

“I’m certain of it!” Whispers says. “These fine young ladies had grown so much since I contracted them.”

“How are those wishes of theirs?” the waitress says.

✦✦✦

The Coloraturas arrive at Cocytus Manor. Once a mansion where renowned mages reside, now a place coated in layers of frost and snow. A scent of wintry frost fills the air.

Hydrangea takes a heavy sigh. The carbon dioxide exhaled becomes visible in the cold air, as she looks around she recalls memories of times gone by.

Rose notices Hydrangea’s melancholic expression. “Oh, right. You used to live here.”

“Indeed,” the bespectacled girl says.

The young girls walk across a garden of crystalline flowers, each one frozen to the point of being ice sculptures. Dotted among the frozen flowers of eerily lifelike sculptures made of translucent frozen water. The statues, many of which resemble Exsecratii thieves, Elegiere seeking refuge from them, and several rodents and pets, are heavily detailed. It is as if they are alive. They are but a few of many moments frozen in time.

“It’s hard to believe that many of us were once Elegere,” Raine says. “Once upon a time.”

Lily sneezes. “It’s cold out here!” she says.

“We can magiclaize now,” Strelitizia says. “We’re gonna have to anyway if we want to get the Sphere.”

The girls transform, their bodies warmed by the mana flowing through them as their outfits change into elaborate dresses. Strelitzia manifests her labrys axe as she finishes her transformation.

“I’m surprised the coppers never came here,” Azalea says. “Guess they didn’t want the icy mitt huh?” She swims around the statues, frost forming on her clionid tail and bubble.

“Maybe you should get rid of the bubble, Azalea?” Anemone says. “Clover can cast an oxygenation spell to help you breathe.

“What makes you—“ Her bubble freezes over, cutting off her sentence and freezing her incredulous expression. She floats there silently unable to act with her mind frozen by the enchanted ice.

Raine sighs. She uses her wand to create a flame and holds it to the mermaid. “Clover, help me out here!”

“Okie dokie!” the Peryton girl says. As Raine thaws the frozen bubble, Clover casts her oxygenation spell on Azalea. The mermaid is now able to breathe as a land-bound person would for the next three hours.

“Okay, I see your point,” Azalea says after thawing. “I’d like to chill out, but here is a poor place for that.”

“Can we go now?” Rose says impatiently. “These statures are giving me the chills.” She looks at her serpentine tail, dusting off some snow from it.

“There are even more inside,” Hydrangea says.

“We need to get that—wait there are?” The pink-haired lamia says.

Hydrangea nods. Rose shivers from fear of seeing more creepy ice statues. Hydrangea opens the door. The metal knob causes a cold feeling to form in her hands as she grabs the knob.

As they approach the front door, they hear whispers all around them. Haunting echoes of the past.

The little ladies enter the manor and see shades of cyan and azure in the manor’s foyer. The pillars look like they were made of solid glass, as are the doors and the guardrails on the stairs.

“You know,” Lily rambles on as her equine body canters on the frozen floor. “This would make for a fun skating rink, whee!” she slides on the floor and around a statue resembling a pair of maids running outside.

“You’re right it does!” Clover says, joining Lily in her ice skating.

Rose tries to join them, but her slithering instead causes her to fall on her stomach and collide with a pillar, nearly causing it to tumble and causing the vase atop it to drop and fall.

The sound of the vase causes one of Lily’s legs to trip and she falls on her underbelly. Clover then bumps into her and falls as well. The three girls laugh about the collision as they try to stand up.

“Girls,” Strelitizia says impatiently, “We aren’t here to just skate around.” She skates on the ice, with the grace of a ballerina in flight as she helps the centaur and Peryton girls up. Clover is stunned by the display of Strelitzia’s bovine legs poised on the ice.

“Sorry,” Lily says timidly.

Hydrangea is lost in thought as she looks over the frozen vase. Her mind recalls memories of living here with her parents. Happy times of her playing with her mother and learning from her father about magic and literature. A tear drop falls from her face, immediately freezing upon contact with the floor.

“We should get going,” she says. “The Cells will arrive soon.”

“Right,” Rose says as she finally manages to stand up. “Coloraturas, it’s time to head out and find the Cryosphere!” Her face feigns a confident smile.

“Yeah!” the other girls cheer.

They head up the stairs, hanging onto the frozen rails in case the frictionless ice causes them to slide off. As Hydrangea grabs a rail, a black mass emerges from her first and assimilates with it, affixing her hand to the rial. Hydrangea struggles to free herself for several moments before the piece of crystalline ice breaks off.

“Rats!” she thinks.

“Something wrong?” Rose says. Her fluffy coral-pink pigtails blow in the presence of a sudden chilly wind.

“It’s nothing,” Hydrangea lies. “Let’s go.”

The girls head in front of a frozen door. Lavender in hue, and coated in a thick layer of frost. Raine uses her wand to create a fireball to thaw the ice after several minutes. The door is thawed enough to be opened.

✦✦✦

The Coloraturas enter the room and find themselves surrounded by reflected sheets of ice on all sides. The crystalline reflections and refractions appear distorted, like an array of funhouse mirrors at a carnival.

“Spooky,” Anemone says.

Strelitizia shrugs. “It’s gonna take more than that to scare me!” the minotaur girl boasts.

“How did this place get frozen?” Anemonie asks Hyddragnea. “Do you know?”

Hydrangea shakes her head.

“Isn’t this the place where we found you? “Rose says.

“It is,” Hydrangea says. She recalls the memory vividly. “You and Raine were hiding from people from the Dollkeepers and stumbled upon this place.”

“Good thing I had a grasp on my fire spells then,” Raine Carnation Cadenza boasts. “Lest we become trapped in this dungeon forever.”

Anemone is curious. “Is this why you think there is a Cryosphere here?”

“The possibility is there,” Hydrangea says,

The lupine girl sighs. “There is a lot of ice-aspected mana here,” Anemone says.

“Where are the Cells?” Rose says. “Like this place was teeming with threats when we last came here!”

“Are you trying to jinx it, Rose?” Raine says.

“No, she’s right,” Hydrangea says, removing her cap. “It is too quiet here.”

Suddenly the mirrors shatter. The magical girls are surrounded by several suits of mail, chilled blue by frost, but animated by unseen forces.

Clover fixes her hair in front of one of the few intact mirrors. She fixes her hair as one of the knights charges at her. Strelitizia notices the ambush and rushes to intercept. Her axe blocked the frozen blade of the knight.

“Clover!” the minotaur shouts. Clover hears Strelitizia’s cry and turns to see her fending off an animated mail.

Hydrangea tries to fight, but her ice spells malfunction and turn against her, and black goo oozes out from her palm. “What the—“ the thinks. “I was certain we had enough mana.”

Azalea swims circles around a few of the armors. “We need to steel ourselves, these guys don’t seem very ice.” She conjures a stream of water from the unfrozen vapors and drenches the knights with it. The water instantly freezes, rendering them unable to move.

Rose summons lightning with her wand to attack another knight. The jolt of the strike hitting frozen metal causes the ice to melt off it. The carried knight tumbles over, having been severed from the enchanted ice.

Rain uses fire magic against three knights. “Let’s see if I remember how to deal with these guys,” she thinks.

“I’ll support you!” Anemone says. Her darkness spells take the form of illusions that befuddle the frozen suits of mail.

Raine uses the fires to melt the ice around them, allowing Azalia to manipulate it and use it to trap more of the enemies. Another knight however strikes the mermaid unawares. “Ow!” Azalea cries out. “That wasn’t very—“ she stops moving as her body is encased in ice.

“Azalea!” Rose cries out.

Hydrangea rushes at her. She suddenly hears a voice. “Welcome home, Madeline.”

“Raine!” Hydrangea calls out. “Azalea’s been frozen.

The red-haired woman rushes to her aid, her blazing wings melting the ice in her wake. “The comedian got herself iced again,” she says. “Hang on,” she tries to thaw Azalea out. A knight tries to take advantage and strike at the phoenixian girl. The mail’s advance stops as Clover uses wind to lift it into the air and throw it into a nearby pillar.

“Heh, you have got to be more careful Raine!” Clover says. “Who knows what trouble we would be in? She rambles on, unaware of her surroundings while Strelitizia fends off nearby knights.

The minotaur knocks down a dozen of the icy armors within the last few minutes. Her labrys gave her enough reach to strike them without being touched by their enchanted blades. But she sees Clover talking about random topics to Raine while Raine tries to thaw off Azalea. While an icy mail is preparing to attack the green-haired peryton.

“Clover!” Strelitizia says.

“So what are we gonn—“ The attack strikes Clover and freezes her solid.

The axe-brandishing Strelitzia is enraged by the attack on Clover and immediately strikes it down. The last of the icy mails.

Raine tries to thaw Azalea out, but no matter how hot her flames burn, the clionid mermaid remains entombed in ice. “Something’s wrong! I can’t thaw her out.”

“Clover’s frozen too!” Lily says.

Hydrangea looks at the scene and her frozen friends. She tries to use her magic to free them, but her spells fizzle out. She is left helpless. “Madeline,” a voice echoes to her. “Why resist, we’ve missed you, you know?”

“Shut up!” she telepathically shouts to the voice while clutching her head. “Get out of my head!”

The voice fades, as the black ooze drips down Hydrangea’s arms. She looks up and finds, the others looking at her with concerned looks on their faces.

“I’m fine!” she lies. A black ooze is visible on her arms.

“Maybe you should sit this one out?” Anemone says. “You seem very stressed.”

Hydrangea looks at Anemonie. “I can continue.”

“Are you sure?” Rose says. “You looked like you are having trouble with your magic.”

“Among us. I know the manor best,” Hydrangea says. “You know that,”

“Hydrangea,” Raine says. “Are you hiding something from us?”

“Of course not!” Hydrangea says. “Let’s get going.

“Raine,” Lily says. “Can you melt the ice around them?”

“I can try,” the redheaded girl says. She uses her flames to melt the ice beneath them, but cannot use that to create an opening in their frozen fetters.

“I’ll carry Azalea!” Lily says as she hoists the frozen mermaid on her back.

“Guess I’m lugging Clover around then,” Rose says, using some rope to tie Clover to her.

“We’ll need to be more careful,” Hydrangea says.

The girls press forward.

✦✦✦

Hydrangea leads the group to the ballroom. The six girls see several frozen statues of dancers spinning around. A chilly air sends shivers down their spines as they move to the center of the room.

“Be on your guard,” Strelitizia says.

Rose and Lily put the frozen Clover and Azalea somewhere safe before they join the others. At the center of the ballroom, surrounded by the eerie statues of twirling dancers. They try to look for the Cryosphere.

“Are you sure you and your friends don’t want to stay?” the voice says to Azalea. “We’d love to have you join us.”

Hydrangea ignores the voice as she searches the large room for the Cryosphere.

“Your father would’ve disapproved of your behavior young lady,” the voice teases.

“You’re not my father.” Hydrangea’s chords were pulled. “You’re just a squatter!”

“Me, a squatter? After all I’ve done for you?” the voice says. “Looks like someone needs to teach you some manners missy.”

Hydrangea realizes what is about to happen. “Everyone, prepare yourselves” she shouts.

The icy winds coalesce into the form of a gigantic hoarfrost hound. Cloaked in snow-white fur with teeth and claws made of ice. The dancers spin around the canine as it howls.

“T-That wasn’t there last time!” Raine says.

“It’s been a few years,” Rose says.

“I don’t care when they got it!” Strelitizia says. “That mutt’s going down! No ifs, ands, or buts!” The minotaur girl charges at the beast.

“Wait!” Hydrangea shouts. “You don’t know—“

The hoarfrost hound swipes with its claws and immediately knocks Strelitzia into a pillar near the wall. The bull-horned girl sees frost forming where the beast strikes her. She looks on with a horrified expression as she sees the ice slowly creeping around her body.

“And so, another one shall join us,” the voice calls to Hydrangea.

Hydrangea tries to cast a spell, but all she can manifest is a tiny snowball that falls short of hitting the hoarfrost hound.

“Hydrangea!” Rose says. “What’s going on, your magic is on the fritz!”

“I’m fine!” she says. But her face is awash with horror at her uselessness.

“Oh Maddie,” the voice says. “Need to talk things out?”

Lily shines a beam of light at the beast, it dodges, and the beam hits a pair of dancers, which redirects it towards a wall, where it bounces off and hits a pillar. The hound lands and is hit by the ricocheting beam of holy light. The attack temporarily blinds it.

Anemone causes dark magic to hinder the beast’s sight, but the beast sees the attack coming and lunches at her, piercing her legs with its claws. The wound freezes over with frost but the hound’s attack. The hound rushes to the center.

The Sentinel howls, and icicles fall from the ceiling. Strelitizia dodges one of the falling icicles. “What in the world?” she says.

The beast is preparing an attack. Energy coalesces from its mouth. A frozen ray of light emerges from its mouth and is aimed at Rose. Rose tries to slither away, but in her haste, her tail is caught between statues of dancers spinning around and dragging her with them, into the hound’s attacks.

The attack hits her tail, freezing its tip, and the surrounding ground. Rose tries to break free of the ice, tugging her pinned tail down.

Hydrangea struggles to find a way to help. She looks around the ballroom for anything that could be used to help defeat the beast. She looks upwards and finds four chandeliers attached to the ceiling. “Raine!” she calls out. “The ceiling!”

Raine looks up and sees four chandeliers. Each is colored red, blue, white, and black, and adorned with sigils of guardian beasts. The red one, next to the image of a mighty phoenix, glows with the light of candles that the cold had failed to snuff out. Raine uses her wings to fly toward the ceiling, while Hydrangea tries to find a way to the other three.

Rose frees herself from the ice by using her lightning spells to melt it. Her tail’s tip is still frozen and the ice slowly moves alongside it. The hoarfrost hound tries to swipe at her, but Strelitizia charges Rose and moves her out of the way.

“Strelitizia,” Rose says. “Can we lure that oversized mutt over there,” she points to a spot directly beneath the chandelier. Stelitizia is confused but sees a determined look in her friend’s eyes and nods.

“Hey ugly!” Strelitzia calls to the hound. “Over here!” The icy beast charges and fires another frozen ray, but the minotaur girl dodges and stands still for s few moments. The hound rears itself and leaps at her. Strelitzia moves away.

“Raine, now!” Hydrangea calls from a balcony.

“On it!” Raine uses her flames to cleave the glowing chandelier from the ceiling. It plummets to the floor and collides with the hoarfrost hound, pinning it down.

With the hound incapacitated, Rose, Raine, Lily, and Strelitizia let loose a barrage of elemental spells, lightning, fire, earth, and light pelt the beast as it struggled to move from its fetters. The collision causes one of the hound’s hind legs to break off. Ir begins charging another frozen ray and firs at the chandelier.

The hound is encased in ice, but the ice soon explodes and the beast emerges and attacks a stunned Lily, biting into her as it lifts her with its mouth and tosses her aside.

“Owie!” Lily says. A layer of frost forms in her equine body. She tries to walk but experiences pain with each trot.

Strelitizia charges at the beast but stumbles as the ice creeps to her thighs. Her sense of time slows alongside her movements.

Amenoie tries to cannel a powerful dark spell, but the hound locks eyes at her and charges its beam again. The others realize what is happening and try to intervene,e but it is too late. The beam fires and Anameo is frozen solid from the point-blank attack.

“Why are you doing this?” Hydrangea cries out to thin air.

“Oh dear Madeline,” the voice says. “I only want you to stay with me, just as you have always done.”

“Frozen inside for three years?” Hydrangea says.

“It was necessary, “the voice says. “It’s my duty to keep you safe.”

“Hydrangea!” Raine says. “We kinda need you here!”

The cyan-haired girl looks at Raine. “Sorry.” She looks at the ceiling and finds the blue chandelier glowing, next to an image of a dragon. She points at the lit chandelier. Raine flies at it.

Rose sees her friend approach the azure chandelier. “Strelitzia, Lily, over there” she points to the spot beneath it. Lily slowly trots towards the hound, trying to blind it at close range.

“He-here!” Lily fires a blinding light at the hound that stunts it enough for Strelitizia to grab it by the tail and uses herculean force to hurl it at the spot. The hound stands and snarls at the orange-haired minotaur.

Raine tries to break the chains with her flames, but they are more heat-resistant than she anticipated. “Come on!” she exclaims as she tries to several the chandelier. The others notice Raine’s struggles and Strelitzia rushes to fight the hound.

“Stay!” she shouts at the beast as she slams her axe at the beast’s midsection. Her strike lands and breaks off a piece of its icy body. The two are locked in combat, as the ice slowly creeps down Strelitizia’s legs.

✦✦✦

Meanwhile, Hydrangea tries to find a way to help Raine. She tried several ice spells but found they had either weakened or fizzled out. “Come on, do something!” she thinks to herself. Her wand is of little help. In her frustration, her arm is coated in a black mass and her palm faces the strings that hold the chandelier in place. Black shards of ice fire from her arm at a rapid rate.

Raine sees the shrapnel incoming and flies out of the way. The black ice freezes the cord binding the chandelier to the ceiling.

Hydrangea tries to move her blackened arm, but it remains aimed at Raine.

The voice chuckles. “Admit it, Maddie, you want to stay here too.”

“Shut up!” she shouts. She knows what the sludge coating her arm represents. “I can’t become a Strega! Not now!”

Raine dodges the black ice. “Hydrangea! What’s wrong with you?” As she flies around the ceiling.

“I can’t control it!” the cyan-haired girl shouts.

Raine senses something is wrong. But before she could turn around, one of her wings was hit by the black ice. The pain from the shrapnel causes her to fall and land on the chandelier, her arm caught in the blue and gold piece of furniture.

The ice on the chandelier corrodes the metal connecting it as it melts. The acidic black ice melts in a miasmic vapor and weakens the structural integrity.

Hydrangea’s rouge arm locks onto the phoenixian girl. But as it launches another salvo of black ice, The chandelier snaps and falls, crashing onto the hoarfrost hound beneath it.

The beast is pinned down by the blue chandelier. Raine frees herself from the wreckage.

“Raine!” Rose says. “What happened?”

“Hydrangea’s magic is going berserk,” Raine says as she dodges black ice heading her way.

Lily and Strelitzia see the black ice and realize that something dire is happening, but before they can speak, the Hoarfrost hound coats the fetter in ice again and the ice then explodes. The beast now floats in the air, having lost all of its legs and claws. Its tail is now coated in spiky icicles as it summons icicles from above, each locked onto the Coloraturas.

Raine, Rose, and Strelitzia dodge the attacks, but Lily is not as lucky and is grazed by an icicle that cuts one of her forelegs. The wound freezes over as ice from the midsection spreads further.

Hydrangea breathes heavily, struggling to control her arm, which is still trying to fire black ice at everyone below against her wishes. She looks at the ebony chandelier near the image of a serpentine tortoise, its candles now lit. Having an idea, she grabs her arm and runs towards the chandelier. The movement throws off the rouge arm’s aim as she approaches the edge closest to the black fixture and leaps onto it.

As Hydrangea leapts onto the chandelier, the others fight the hoarfrost beast directly beneath it. The beast swipes its tail to pelt them with shards of ice. Raine and Strelitizia leap above to dodge, but the tiny shards hit Rose and Lily and cause the frost to spread further onto their bodies.

“Why is this thing so darn tough!” Lily says.

Hydrangea exploits the locked aim and moves so that the chandelier is directly between the rouge arm and its targets. Each attempt spreads the black ice over it, soon spreading to the tether that keeps it attached. The acidic ice corrodes it enough that it snaps free of the ceiling and plummets to the ground. The beast is once more caught beneath the rubble of a fallen chandelier, but this time, it shatters and the black ice coats the hoarfrost hound. It howls in pain as the acidic ice corrects what is left of its body, and melts it into a puddle of ichorus sludge. Hydrangea limps away, clutching her arm to prevent it from harming her friends.

“So you have bested this trial, Madeline,” the voice calls to Hydrangea. “I should applaud your efforts, futile though they are.”

A chest forms from the frozen vapors at the center of the ballroom, the ice sculptures of dancers twirl around it before receding into the shadows beneath the balcony.

Raine immediately opens the chest and finds it filled with Amazonites, a rapier, and greaves. She tosses the sword and greaves to Hydrangea. “Hurry!”

The arm already senses the objects and moves towards them, a web of black sludge juts out from it, and draws the sword and armor closer to her, as their mana is being absorbed. The loot vanishes into her arm and the black ooze in turn recedes. Hydrangea feels her arm fall asleep for several moments before the feeling is restored. “Thanks,” Hydrangea says.

That her arm is no longer attacking her friends is the only solace she has. The frost still lingers on all except Raine, and even worse they are still moving.

“What’s going on,” Rose says upon seeing her tail still partially frozen. “That didn’t happen last time!”

“I’m afraid the core is playing for keeps now,” Hydrangea says as she turns to Clover and Azalea. She notices that rather than being encased in ice, their forms have instead changed into solid ice sculptures. “We need to move forward! Time is against us.”

“We will move forward,” Raine says. “You will leave and find Whisper.”

“Raine,” Hydrangea says. “We don’t have time for this! The ice is already creeping up on the others, if it is as I fear it would consume them as it did Azalea, Anemone, and Clover!”

“Hydrangea,” Raine says with a stern but worried expression. “There is something about this place that is clearly distressing you. If you linger here any longer, you will turn.”

“But,” the cyan-haired girl struggles to find the right words. Rose slithers towards her friend. “Don’t worry, we got this.” She says with a wink and a thumbs up.

“We will find the Cryosphere,” Strelitzia says. “And being everyone back to normal. You just rest for now. Tell you what, I’ll go with you.”

“But Rose--” Hydrangea says.

Rose grabs her hands. “No buts! Now move it missy!” the lamia slithers off with Hydrangea powerless to resist her grasp as they exit the ballroom.

“What do we do?” Lily says.

“For now, we try to find the Cryosphere,” Raine says “I’ll go carry Azalea. Lily, you carry Clover and Anemone ”

“I’ll take point then, as usual,” Strelitizia says.

The trio moves to the ice sculpture of their friends. On the way, Raine notices a door leading to a courtyard and leads the other two through it.

✦✦✦

Raine, Strelitizia, and Lily find themselves outside in the courtyard, much like the front gardens, the courtyard is filled with ice sculptures in the form of people of flowers. At the center lies of fountain, its waters stilled, frozen into crystallized arches.

The three take Anemone, Azalea and Clover to the fountain and look around the courtyard. The fountain bears intricate decor, including statures realignment of the same figures seen on the ceiling of the ballroom.

“I’m worried about Hydrangea,” Lily says. Her cheerful smile faded into an expression of concern as her equine ears heard the whispers coming from the fountain.

“Rose can take care of her,” Raine says. “She could handle that much at least.”

“For now,” Lily says as she looks at her behind and sees the ice creeping on her body.

Stelitizia notices the ice on her legs as she tries to walk. The ice had progressed far enough to force her to waddle. Lily giggles at seeing Strelitizia’s silly movements, to the minotaur’s visible ire.

“Okay,” Strelitizia says. “You said you’ve been here before, Raine?”

“Of course,” Raine haughtily says, “My fire spells carried the day that time.”

“Then maybe you can help us find a way to dispel this ice?” Strelitzia says, she gazes at Clover, her body turned into a glass-like multiple in her image, frozen in a post that looked like she was talking to someone. Strelitzia’s eyes show a look of guilt, the look of someone who failed to protect her dearest friend.

Let’s see.” Raine looked around as she tried to recall the details of the last time she was there. She finds a pair of sculptures resembling children looking in the manor, their eyes locked into surprised expressions. She then turns towards a frozen tree. A swing hands form its branches, as the bitter wind moves it back and forth. Raine imagines a child using the swing as it moves.

Rain tries to recall the details of the last visit. “We found Hydrangea frozen in a bedroom, then we moved through the dining hall, then the ballroom, and then…” her eyes catch a hedge maze in the distance. Frozen over with thorns jutting from the ice. Blue and white roses adorn the hedges in the labyrinth. “We went through that maze to find a key.”

“Why would you need a key?” Lily asks.

A slow realization dawns on Raine. “The manor was locked when we entered!”

✦✦✦

Meanwhile, Rose and Hydrangea are back in the foyer. Rose tries to open the front doors.

“Open sesame!” Rose yells. The doors refuse to open. “Darn!”

“You know doors don’t work that way,” Hydrangea says.

“I was hoping it would stop open this time,” Rose rubs the back of her pink-haired head.

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Hydrangea sighs. She tries to cast another spell, but it fizzles again.

“Are you certain you want to leave?” a voice calls out to Hydrangea. “Your friends would not be able to leave now, and I’m sure they would miss you dearly Madeline.”

“It’s your fault they’re like this in the first place!” Hydrangea shouts.

Rose is incensed by the outburst. “My fault? I thought you wanted to come here!”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Hydrangea says. “I’m sorry.”

“Then who were you talking to, the walls?” Rose says.

“Considering where we currently are, Rose—” Hydrangea says. The two then hear someone.

“Rosie… Hydra… where are you?” a voice calls out to the two of them.

“Is that, Azalea?” Rose says.

Rose tries to slither, but her tail is halfway frozen and her movements are made more difficult by the slippery ice.

“Rose,” Hydrangea says with her palm on her face.

The two follow the voice and are led to the dining hall. Hydrangea finds the sight somewhat nostalgic. The room displayed the scene of a feast in progress, with sculptures of the diners conversing amongst each other and eating their food.

“It’s gone,” Rose says. “Rats!”

“It’s likely a trap anyway,” Hydrangea says.

“Then why didn’t you say anything?” Rose asks Hydrangea.

“We can’t linger in the foyer,” the bespectacled girl says. “This isn’t like other dungeons. Either we defeat those that lurk in the manor’s walls within two hours or we don’t leave at all.”

Rose remembers that detail. “How long has it been?”

“Forty-five minutes,” Hydrangea says.

Rose sighs. “Of course. Remind me again, what happens if we fail to beat the dungeon in time?”

“I think our frozen friends can answer it better than I could,” Hydrangea says. “But since they’re not here, try asking your—“

“I get it, Hydrangea,” Rose says. The lamia looks at the frozen diners and their frozen dinners. “You never did tell me who those people were the last time we were here.”

“My uncle and his associates,” Hydrangea sighed. “He was tasked to care for me when my parents vanished.”

“Huh,” Rose realizes that Hydrangea never told anyone about her family before. “Your parents vanished?” she says.

Hydrangea realizes her slip and stays silent.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Rose says.

“You know the answer, little Maddie,” the mysterious voice echoes to Hydrangea.

“Come on,” Rose says with an eager expression. “Tell me!”

“I’d rather not,” Hydrangea says.

“Tell me!” Rose says.

“No, Rose,” Hydrnagea says “We don’t have time for this.”

“Tell me, Hydrangea!” Rose continues harping on the topic.

Hydrangea clutches her arm as black ooze coats it again, but the ooze recedes as soon as it arrives. Fueled by spite towards the dungeon and worn down by Rose’s repreated demands, she relents and looks at her lamia friend with a sigh. “My parents, they were once people resowed for their magecraft and their archeology.”

“Archaeologists? “Rose says. “That sounds exciting.”

“It isn’t the type where you raid dungeons. They never spent their days outrunning boulders in tombs. Rather they study existing material that was sent to them.”

“Oh Maddie, your parents were wonderful people,” the voice says to Hydrangea. Hydrangea clutches her head.

Rose bears a concerned expression. She tries to help her friend, but they are suddenly ambushed by a trio of wassets. The giant weasels swarm around the two girls.

“Wassets!” Rose shouts. “Why are they—“ Rose remembers that they are in a Dungeon that is a manor frozen over.

Hydrangea notices the Wassets’ teeth and fangs are similar to those of the Hoarfrost hounds. “Be careful! They are mutated by the dungeon!”

“Gotcha!” Rose says. She uses her wand to summon a large array of lighting but the beasts are unfazed by the jolts of electricity. One of them charges forward with their long legs and rams into Rose. The lamia is knocked by a few feet by the force of the impact.

Hydrangea tries to cast another spell, but her magic fails her yet again.

“You shouldn't strain yourself, Hydra!” Rose says.

“Please,” Hydrangea thinks, “just this one!” Her pleas convinced her wand to oblige and summon a chilly tailwind that hindered the Wassets’ movements.

A surprised Rose looks at Hydrangea. “Your magic working!”

Hydrangea nods, but as she does, a black vein emerges on her arm and the biting wind blows toward them instead of the Wassets. The weasel-like monsters rush forward, aided by the howling black wind. One of them stops and slashes at Hydrangea’s left before she can react. A layer of frost forms over the wound.

“And then there was one,” the voice says. “Even her flames would soon be snuffed out!”

The Wassets loom over the two girls. Hydrangea manages to gain control of magic again and uses it to push them back several feet, buying them enough time to run through the dining room and into an open door. The two rush through the doors and close them. Hydrangea’s still active magics causing them to freeze over before stopping.

The Wassets claw at the door, but the layer of ice protects it from being opened by their claws. The three beasts leave unable to make ingress to their prey.

Hydrangea and Rose breathe a sigh of relief at heating the Wassets’ footsteps fade.

“Okay,” Rose says. “Now where are we?”

Hydrangea turns around and sees a library, filled with several bookshelves and tables, all are frozen over. She gulps at the sight of icy books and tables. “This was the Library.”

✦✦✦

Meanwhile, the trio of Coloratura arrives at the entrance of the hedge maze. “Okay,” Raine says. “First we find a key, then we regroup with Rose and Hydrangea and make sure she’s safe.”

“Are you sure those two are still in the foyer?” Lily says as she sets aside Azalea, Anemone, and Clover’s frozen forms.

“They’d better be,” Raine says. Her crimson wings ignite with fury.

The three enter the hedge maze. The thorns emerging from the ice glow with a subtle white. Lily accentually touches one of the thorns and is pricked, frost forms on the afflicted area. A sign that they should be avoided at all costs.

Raine Carnation Cadenza uses her wand as a torch to try and burn away some of the ice and hedges in this maze. They manage to burn some ice off, but it reveals briers that are more heatproof than the foliage and ice would suggest.

“No cheating this maze,” Strelitizia says with an irritated tone. Her left leg is now completely frozen.

Raine slumps. “We don’t have time for this!” she yells.

“I don’t think the dungeon cares,” Lily says.

The three proceed deeper into the maze. They find a Wasset patrolling the hedge. Lily uses her wand to create a wisp that lures the beast away before making it through. They encounter another one and Strelitizia fights it. The beast lands a blow that causes ice to form on her right shoulder and arm before being felled. They find a third, but Raine’s blazing aura causes it to cowardly flee.

They soon find an obelisk made of petrified wood in one of the maze’s dead ends. The structure causes Raine to remember something as she approaches it. She sets the wooden monument on fire. The three then hear a clicking sound near the entrance. “I think we have to find one more of these things,” Raine says.

After a few more Wasset encounters, the trio soon finds the second obelisk in a circular chamber. Raine ignites it and smoke billows from the burning wood. A second clicking sound is heard. “Come on!” Raine says. They rush to the entrance. Lily and Strelitizia pricked themselves in their haste.

The three emerge from the maze and see the shadow of an avian descend. Covered in white and grey feathers that give off an iridescent sheen. Its plumes resemble a snowflake as its blue beak opens to let out a vicious cry.

“A Cyroc?” Strelitizia says. “Here?”

“I’m not surprised one bit,” Raine says.

The Cyroc engages the Coloraturs in battle. It summons a chilling wind with its feathers before swooping at Lily with its talons. The centaur nimble dodges the strike. Strelitizia slams her labrys into the bird as it lands, but the axe is not able to leave a scratch on it. Raine pelts it with some fireballs which are a little more effective.

The Roc swoops downwards and lunges at the magical girls. Lily again tries to dodge, but she is grazed by its wing which leads to a trial of the front all over her left side. Strelitizia tries to swing her axe, but her arm and leg being frozen causes her great difficulty in even moving. Strelitzia realizes that the frost has covered most of her body now. And takes a heavy breath.

As she looks at her visible breathing. Fear washes over her face. For the first since she had escaped with Clover, for the first time since she cast aside her previous identity and assumed the name Strelitizia Sonata, she is placed in a position where she knows she can’t escape.

“Even if the Cryoc is felled…” she thinks. Her fear gives way to resignation, then determination. “Raine!” She cried out to the phoenixian girl. “Cover me!”

The Cyroc takes flight again. Strelitzia rushes towards the beast and Raine grabs her hand. The two sin around and use the centrifugal force to propel Strelitzia into the air where she slams her earth-enchanted labrys into the roc with all the strength she can muster. The attack hits the left wing and causes a gash that forces the bird the land.

Strelitzia crashes down into the ground nearby. “Strelitzia!” Lily cries out. Lily and Raine rush to her aid and find her breathing heavily. Ice has completely coated her arms, legs, and torso.

“It’s too late for me,” the minotaur says as ice creeps over her face. “Please, finish this…” her last word before the frost overtakes her and turns her into an ice sculpture.

Before the other two could mourn. The Cyroc lets out a mighty cry and ascends over more Its injured wing makes it more difficult to fly without repeated landings, but it sues those few precious moments of flight to assault the two with whirlwinds of cold.

Lily glares at the avian Sentinel. She uses her staff to summon pillars of light at the bird’s location, trying to clip the other wing while Raine attacks it with a barrage of fiery fury.

“I’ll send you crashing down!” Raine says as her wings ignite. Anger is present on her face as she charges at the bird and knocks it onto one of Lily’s spells. The heat from both Raine and the light sears the other wing until it burns. The Cyroc falls, wincing in pain during its descent.

Once grounded, the avian is rendered vulnerable to a series of ranged magic from Raine and Lilly and succumbs to its wounds. The fallen and felled avian transforms into an ice sculpture that then shatters, leaving an explosion of ice and feathers that converge onto a chest that appears at the maw of the hedge maze. Lily opens the chest and sees more Amazonite, as well as the Cyroc’s feathers and a hat for mages. She takes the chest to Raine before moving Strelitizia and the others to the fountain. Not aware that most of her body is now covered in frost even as she struggles to move the sculpture of the minotaur girl.

Raine relieves the chest of its contents and finds a key among them. She recalls that the key is not to the entrance of the dungeon, but rather a special room where the last foe resides. “We need to take this back to the ballroom.”

“But wh—“ Lily freezes over before finishing her sentence.

“Lily?” Raine runs and sees that frost has claimed Lily as well. She runs towards it but a cold feeling overtakes her and she grasps her shoulder in pain. She looks towards her arm and finds frost forming on it. Raine is now running out of time. She must return to the Ballroom at once.

“I’m sorry,” her face is awash with regret as she has to leave her frozen friends behind to face the final Sentinel.

✦✦✦

Meanwhile, Rose and Hydrangea are at a library in the manor. A layer of ice covers the various shelves and tables, preventing anyone from claiming the books sealed within. The smell of frozen water and parchment fills the air.

Hydrangea finds a table with two codices. The Codex Scarletina: Annotated Indigo Edition and Codex Violetta: Annotated Teal Edition, lying on the frozen table. Both books bear the image of serpentine dragons. Hydrangea sighs as she examines the tomes’ covers, sealed beneath a layer of ice.

Rose approaches Hydrangea. “What are those?”

“Collections of urban legends and rumors,” Hydrangea says. “The kind that holds claims of extraterrestrials or that lost civilization still exists. Father was trying to debunk such notions.” She moves towards another table, next to a staircase.

“You said that your parents were archaeologists?” Rose says.

“Rose,” Hydrangea says. “Is this the time to press the matter?” Black veins form on her arm as ice extends from her front shoulder to both the arms and the neck.

“It’s as good a time as any!” Rose says with an impudent and wide-eyed expression.

“Rose, I—“ she winces in pain as her arm becomes coated by the obsidian ooze again. “Stay back! It’s too..dange—“

“Oh no, you’re not!” Rose says as she slithers towards her cyan-haired and bespectacled friend and hugs her tightly. “Like it or not, I’m not letting you go.”

“Rose…I—“

“Aren’t you tired of the aloof and distant act by now?” Rose says with awareness of Hydrangea’s tendency to withdraw herself from her friends. “Always sitting alone reading your books, never bothering to play with us. Pushing us away nearly every chance you get, don’t you like us?”

“Rose, you know that’s not true!” Hydrangea says with a pained tone as her arm struggles to move on its own.

The lamia’s expression bares a mixture of confusion and determination as she tightens her grip on Hydrangea and her blackened arm. “Hydra, I’m here for you. You don’t have to hide away from me, from your friends.”

“Rose,” Hydrangea says.

“I know something is up ever since we arrived here,” Rose says. “Your magic is spazzing out, black goop is forming on your arm and you seem more insistent than usual. I’m not letting you go, so please, tell me what’s going on.”

The blackened arm tried to wriggle out of Rose’s grip. Hydrangea looks at it with a look of concern. “What if I become a Strega, you’ll be trapped with me in the abyss.”

“So?” Rose says, beaming a cheerful smile. “It beats leaving you here alone to wallow in madness.” The frost on her tail soon covers it entirely.

Hydrangea looks at her friend. Rose’s wide-eyed smile shows hints of determination. “You’re serious about this?”

“Hydrangea, I’m your friend, silly,” Rose says. “Of course, I’m not leaving you behind!”

Hydrangea sighs. Her glasses catch the light for a moment. “Very well,” she says before clearing her throat. “But not here. Can we move somethere else?”

“Of course.” Rose says mainting her grip on Hydrangrea. “But you’re gonna have to carry me around, my tail ahs frozen over and its hard to crawl with just my hands,” she says with a nervous chuckle.

Hydrangea sighs. “Its probably for the best,” she says as he looks at her arm, fearful of what would happen if Rose lets go of it. Hydrangea walks upstairs in the library, dragging Rose’s half frozen body behind her. The frost on her own body soon reaches ner neck as she touches as she and Rose ascends the curved staircase. They open a door and travel down an empty corridor to a door with a sign that says “Madeline” on it.

✦✦✦

Raine arrives at the foyer, finding her only company being the sculpture of the maids. “Terrific,” she says sarcastically, realizing that Hydrangea and Rose are gone.

She looks around for Cells but finds the foyer as unguarded as usual. The path to the ballroom is clear. “All I have to do and head there and use the key, then fight the boss alone.” She says to herself. The ice creeps on her shoulder, unhindered by her flames. “If I can defeat them before the first consumes me…” she says.

“But,” a thought suddenly enters her mind. A memory of their first encounter with the dungeon core. “That Sentinel was a pain to fight last time. It took all three of us just to escape them!” Raine realizes that in the intervening years since their last visit, Cocytus Manor would have grown in power, the encounters with the hoarfrost hound and cryoc prove as much. Encounters that had frozen five of her friends. There is nothing that would lead the phoenixian redhead to suspect that the third one would be any different.

She looks to the stairway to the left. Thinking about where the other two might have gone. A memory flashes in her mind, once when she and Rose had encountered a young girl, frozen in a block of ice in a bedroom.

She is suddenly knocked to the ground. The ice drains the heart from her leg and wings as frost forms on it. She stands up and turns to find her attacked her. It was one of the maids. The icy sculptures became animated. The two maids look at Raine with blank expressions as they whisper something to her. “Join us…”

“Tch,” Raine says bitterly. “It’s gonna take more than to snuff this fire out!” Her wings ignite as she takes to the air. Safe from their melee attacks. She uses her wand to hurl fireballs at them, trying to melt the sculptures.

The dancers from the ballroom emerge and dance around the foyer, their licks, and twirls create a gust of chilled air that makes it difficult for Raine to maintain her altitude.

“If only Strelitzia was here,” she thinks. “She would’ve distracted these dancers…”

Raine weaves around the pillars, trying to maintain a safe vertical distance away from the living sculptures. Her fireballs melt the ice on the ground beneath their feet but do nothing to the statues themselves.

“Just like last time,” she says, dejected that her hope that they had grown weaker somehow was denied. She tries to formulate a plan to defeat the opponents when her leg is suddenly yanked and she feels it grow colder.

Raine looks down and finds a sculpture of a little girl, slightly shorter than her and lifted by an ice statue of a boy, dragging her down. “They’re waiting…for you..” The girl whispers.

“Get off!” Raine tries to shake off the two children dragging her down, but the grip of the glass-like statue of the girl remains firm. Raine soon flies into a pillar near the front door, finally shaking them off, but her left is left covered in frost by direct contact with the child sculptures.

Adrenaline coursed through Rain’s body. Beads of sweat trickle down her temple as cold as her shoulder and leg. She is outnumbered, and more sculptures are emerging from the stairs. She looks at the key on her person.

“There is only one way to finish this,” she thinks. “One chance to save everyone. She leaps into eh air and flies high over the sculptures, using all of her strength to barge in the ballroom door. She crashes onto the floor and stands up, holding the key above her head.

“It’s time to and this!” Raine says, but before she can slam the key onto the ground and open the way to the last arena, her arm is suddenly frozen in ice.

“What the—“ Raine sees five ice sculpture enter the ballroom resembling a centaur, a mermaid, a peryton, a minotaur and a werewolf. “No.”

“Ice to meet you again, Raine,” a frozen Azalea says in a dazed tone.

“You’ve really kept us waiting.” Clover says unusually slowly.

“Using my friends against me? You are a fricking coward!” Raine shouts to the dungeon at the height of her furious voice. The frist on her spreads to her other leg, her torso and her neck.

“It’s no use,” the sculpture of Anemone says. “Our fates were sealed long ago.”

“Delay the inevitable if you want,” the sculpture of Strelitizia says.

“But the ice will consume you,” the sculpture of Lily says in a less cheery tone. “Just as it did us.”

Raine tries to move, but her body is already encased in frost. Her face is frozen in a forlorn mix of fury and fear. “Rose is—“ her last thought before her consciousness fades. The frost morphs her form into that of an ice sculpture. “Rose is…”the first words she utters, under the thrall of the dungeon. The sculpture of the six Coloraturas leave the ballroom as the others return to their usual positions and poses. The enthralled magical girls ascend the left staircase.

✦✦✦

Hydrangea drags Rose inside her old bedroom. Like the rest of the manor the various furniture is frozen over, the desk, the nightstand, the bookshelf. The lone exception is the bed, untouched from when they escaped the manor last time.

She feels the heat around her waist fade as Rose’s arms, and her left arm, freeze solid. The black ooze vanishes as it does so.

“I wasn’t planning on letting go anyway,” Rose says with a chipper look on her face. “So…”

Hydrangea sighs before wriggling her body to face Rose. “There is no putting it off anymore,” she thinks. “I told you before that my parents were archaeologists yes?”

Rose nods.

Hydrangea moves to the unfrozen bed with Rose in tow. With her free arm, she touches the silken sheets, cold to the touch. “One day they left for Sigurdtein, trying to look into a Dungeon there for a wealthy client.” She looks at a frozen frame on her desk, one showing her and her family. “They sent the manor reports of their findings there. A few bits of pottery, a wall of a ruin, a rusted sword…” Hydrangea hesitates to continue. “All interlaced with messages to me wishing me well as my uncle took care of the house and me. We receive them once a month.”

“What happened?” Rose says.

“One month, the messages simply stopped. My uncle wrote to them trying to find out what happened but got no response. Then the news broke out that several dungeons in Sigurdtein had suddenly vanished.” A tear drops from her eye. “Around the same time as the messages were stopped. It didn’t take long for me to realize what had happened to them.”

“Your parents went missing?” Rose says. Her expression shifts to one of cornered. “Hydra, I—“

“I know,” Hydrangea says. “You didn’t know, because I haven’t told you or the others.” She sighs again. “But that is not the end of it.”

“Huh?” Rose says with a confused expression.

“Think about it,” Hydrangea says. “Before it was the Cocytus Manor, a frozen wasteland of a dungeon, it was my old home, where life had lived and thrived. It was also a place that seemed ripe for larceny. After all, my uncle was a good man, but he had neglected to bring security up to speed. With my parents missing, and my inheritance unable to be claimed until I was of age, it made a prime target for people trying to make a quick buck. Some of these attempts were held by members of the Rouges Guild themselves.”

Rose gasps. “But—“

“Before you ask why,” Hydrangea says. “Consider why we live underground, secluded from the Elegere and especially the Empyrean.”

Rose remembers what she said this morning. “We are Magical Girls. Shouldn't we try to help the helpless?”

Hydrangea nods. “The underground is filled with desperate people, people that would do anything to free themselves from poverty no matter the cost. It is little wonder they would flock to this place.”

Rose understands. “But to try to rob a child’s inheritance? Have they no shame?”

Hydrangea turns to the frame. “Most of them likely did but it was subsumed by their survival instincts. Rationalizing it as me not needing the money. Others were shameless and uncaring, to begin with, their naked malice motivates them to such acts of cruelty.”

She turns back to Rose. “It does not change the fact that the place was being targeted. Bereft of a guardian, the manor itself became one. A Natural Dungeon forged by the desire to protect those that called it home, they sealed themselves off from the rest of Noir and became known as the minor we are in today.”

Rose looks around the familiar frozen trappings of the room and toward the incongruous unfrozen bed. She realized this was the place where Raine and her found Hydrangea.

Hydrangea sees the relationship in the lamia’s eyes. “You understand at least my connection to the place. The core wanted to protect me, no matter the cost, and so sealed me inside this room, where your two had found me. There I slumbered, unable to feel the world around me, unable to even live. Between sleep and the sacred silence. A limbo between the Reaper and the Pathfinder.”

“Is that why you wanted to come with us?” Rose says.

Hydrangea feels the ice crawling on her chest. She feels like she is forgetting something important.

“Hydrangea…” Rose says.

“I’m sorry, Rose,” more tears streamed down her face. “I was the one that suggested this foolish adventure. I never wanted to return to this tomb, but I feel that we need to find the Cryosphere! And now I’m this close to becoming sealed again, and dragging you all with me.” She begins sobbing inconsolably.

Rose struggles to find the right words to soothe her friend, only letting her cry on her increasingly cold shoulder.

After several minutes, her tears ceased.

“Let it all out?” Rose says.

Hydrangea nods. “Thank you,” she says in a warmer tone.

“Good,” Rose says. “Now we still have a quest to finish!”

“But—“ Hydrangea finds that Rose is nearly frozen over and the ice on herself is not far behind. “How do we plan to do that, you can barely move and my magic—“

“Nu-huh. No buts, Hydra,” Rose says with a confident smirk. “We’ll find a way out of this place, I’m certain of it!”

✦✦✦

“Ever the optimist, I see,” a familiar voice says from the bedroom entrance.

“Raine!” Rose turns her eyes to the direction of the voice. “I’m glad you—“ her sentence is interrupted by her gasp. Shocked at seeing ice sculptures in the shape of her friends.

“You think me a tomb, Maddie?” a voice echoes to Hydrangea. “I’m hurt.”

The sculptures of Raine, Clover, Strelitzia, Anemone, Lily, and Azalea loom over Rose and Hydrangea. Watching the frost creep over their two friends.

Hydrangea sees the sculpture of Raine and grasps a gleaming object in her fist. Immediately, an idea forms in her head.

“Look on… the bright side,” Azalea says with a slightly cheerful expression on her frozen face. “We got… ourselves adopted! Isn’t that ice?”

“Azalea,” Rose says. “That pun is overused!”

“Rose,” Hydrangea whispers to her, “Look at Raine’s hands.” The lamia turns her eyes towards Raine and sees she is grasping a key.

“You have a plan?” Rose whispers.

“We need to get that key from her!” Hydrangea says.

“Gotcha,” Rose says. They turn to Raine’s sculpture.

“It’s only a matter of time,” Raine says.

“Yeah,” Rose says. “All we have to do is wait. By the way, Raine, maybe you can come a little closer?”

The sculpture refuses to move.

“Hehe, what’s the matter, Raine? Scared of li’l ol’ me? Look I’m harmless!” Rose bluffs. “Can’t really do anything with my arms frozen over Hydra, can I?”

Hydrangea meanwhile looks towards her unfrozen arm, her hand remains unfrozen.

“Does it matter… Rose?” the sculpture of Raine says.

“Aw come on,” Rose says with a cheerful smile. “If I’m gonna spend the rest of my life as a stature, can I at least get one last look at you?”

“Y-your childish tricks… won’t work,” Raine says. Her frozen arm tinges.

Rose sighs, “Got a plan B?” she whispers to Hydrangea.

“Raine,” Hydrangea says. “I have a last request, something I can only tell you and you alone.” Her sincere but stoic expression peers into Raine’s eyes.

The sculpture’s face is unmoved, but Raine grows bizarrely curious and approaches the pair from the right side. “What do you… want to say,” the sculpture says.

“I wanted to say…” Hydrangea grabs Raine’s arm carrying the key, just before her own freezes over. “That you are as gullible as ever!” She makes a cheeky smirk alongside Rose as the frost spreads to their faces.

The statues stand motionless in the bedroom.

✦✦✦

Hydrangea finds herself surrounded by mirrors framed in ice. Each reflects a scene from her past. One mirror shows her on the day she learned there was no message from her parents that month. One shows her meeting Whisper at the diner for the first time. One shows her freezing a leaking pipe on her first mission as a Magical Girl.

She wanders around the hall of ice-coated mirrors, alien yet familiar. She soon sees one at the end of it all, with nothing showing on its reflective surface. Its frame oozes with black sludge.

A reflection of Hydrangea emerges from the giant mirror. Hydrangea hears her reflection speak a voice in an alien tongue.

“Not a chance,” Hydrangea says to “herself”.

The reflection skips playfully towards Hydrangea with a playful yet curious expression. The reflection acts like a child with an average life. A life that was denied Hydrangea.

Hydrangea glares at the shadow. “I’m not in the mood for your games,” she says.

The reflection now bears a bratty expression. Her yearning for freedom is apparently from her body language as she squints at a mirror showing the city Noir.

“If I let you out,” Hydrangea says. “I wouldn't be free, I’d be bound by impulse and madness.”

The reflection giggles as if she is questioning the value of sanity itself.

Mist fills the hall. The reflection scowls and frowns, knowing that their time together is cut short. Hydrangea finds the giant mirror radiating with light that engulfs her.

✦✦✦

Hydrangea wakes up, floating inside a space surrounded by snowflakes dancing in the sky. She turns and finds that Rose is still hugging her.

“Rose,” Hydrangea says. “Wake up.”

“Ugh, my head.” Rose’s eyes open as she lets go of her friend to rub them. “Where are we?”

Hydrangea’s expression bears slight contentment and relief that her plan worked. “Right, where we needed to be.”

“Excuse me!” Azalea swims over to the pair. “What was that about my ice pun being overused, Rosie?”

“It’s true,” Rose says with her tongue on her cheek. “And don’t give me the ‘I was being enthralled by dungeon’ excuse!”

The mermaid grumbles about her chilly reception. Raine flies towards them. “Thanks, I guess,” her face averts her three friends.

“Now can you actually explain where the heck we are?” Rose says.

“We are in the core of the dungeon itself,” Hydrangea says.

The girls look around, they find spires of ice jutting from the snowy ground and sky. Like icicles forming from a cave with no walls. The twilight casts long shadows on them.

Clover and Hydrangea float towards the group. “Aw, we didn’t finish our conversation,” Clover says.

“We can talk later, Clover,” Raine says. “When there isn’t a risk of us being turning into ice statures.”

Strelitizia glares at Hydrangea. “Why are we in the Dugneon’s core?” the minotaur says. “You know we risk getting assimilated from here.

Lily and Anemone arrive last, hearing the conversation.

“As things currently stood,” Hydrangea says while wiping mist off her glasses. “We would’ve been assimilated anyway. At least here we have an opportunity to find a way out!”

“But how?” Anemone says.

“It isn’t obvious?” Rose says with a cocky yet innocent smile. “We fight the core!”

“You can’t be serious?” Clover says.

“Would you rather spend eternity frozen alive?” Hydrangea bluntly says.

“Good point,” Clover says.

“So little miss ‘Madeline,’” Raine says. “How do we fight them?”

“Right now,” Hydrangea says, “we exist as thoughtforms in their mind. In this space, there exists a manifestation of their consciousness. If we can find that, we can convince them to release us and give us the Cryosphere.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Lily says.

“Not like there’s any other option,” Strelitzia says. “I’m in.”

“Ditto!” Clover says.

“I’ll see if this setting can enhance my illusions,” Anemone says.

“By the time we’re done,” Azalea says. “We’ll be the only things left on their mind!”

Raine humphs at the plan. “Are you certain this will work?” she says.

“It has to!” Hydrangea says with conviction.

Rose grips Raine’s arm. “Besides I’m not letting you go if you refuse Raine,”

Raine blushes a little and regains her composure. “Fine, I suppose. How’s your magic?”

Hydrangea manifests her wand and uses it to manipulate the snowflakes around them. They dance in a cyclone around them with nary a hint of black ooze or ice. “I can assure you that my magic has stabilized now,” she turns to Rose.

“You’re welcome!” the lamia says. “Alright Coloraturas, this is our best shot at the Cryosphere. Are you ready?”

The other seven affirms their decision with a simultaneous cheer. The group then sets off the find the core’s consciousness.

✦✦✦

The Coloraturas float in the mindscape of the Core of Cocytus Manor. They are surrounded by vertical icy spires, Cumulonimbi, and snowflakes in all directions. As they search for the consciousness of the Core they encounter a frozen bubble.

Hydrangea approaches the bubble and sees an image of the manor before it becomes a dungeon. The bubbles give off the aroma of morning dew. She hears a voice coming out from it. “The architects did a fine job with this place!” Looking closer at the bubble, she sees her father admiring the manor as Stella rises over the horizon.

The bubble shatters into snow and vanishes.

“Is that,” Anemone says. “One of the dungeon’s memories?”

“Looks like,” Hydrangea says.

The girls do not find anything else of importance and so they continue to find the consciousness.

Azalea sees something in the distance and heads closer towards it. “Lookie!” the mermaid says. Seeing a transparent frozen bubble. “Hydra, is this one bursting with laughter?”

Hydrangea takes a look at the sphere, and an image forms of herself, younger and crying in her bedroom, a newspaper on her bed. It was the day she learned of the vanishing dungeons, and the day she decided her parents had similarly and tracelessly vanished. The scent of ink fills her nose.

“No Azalea, quite the opposite,” Hydrangea says. The bubble shatters and the pastel skies begin to grow grey.

“Aw,” the mermaid’s brows furrows. “I was hoping we could find something to pop off with.”

The girls search for more signs of the core’s consciousness. Strelitizia finds another frozen bubble.

“Here,” the minotaur hands Hydrangea the transparent orb. The cyan-haired girl smells the smell of warm dough as she peers into the orb. It shows her and her parents on one winter day, celebrating the cycle of the new year. A pine tree is lavishly decorated with tinsel and baubles in the background.

The bubble vanishes again.

“Interesting move, Madeline,” a voice rings out and everyone can hear it. The snowflakes stop their descent and remain suspended in midair as if time itself had frozen.

Hydrangea turns to the source of the voice. “There you are!”

✦✦✦

A figure stands alone in the distance, cloaked in a teal and purple veil and cloak, with lace patterns in the shape of snowflakes. Her eyes glow through the veil and give the impression of a stalwart and caring protector.

“Why did you have to do things this way, Maddie,” the figure says. “You would have become assimilated with me if you waited a few more minutes.” While their tone is feminine, it reverberates with a masculine echo as they speak.

Hydrangea gazes towards the figure with a resolute. “I told you many times, I don’t want to be trapped in the manor all my life sealed from the outside world.” As Hydrangea says this she feels like there is something important she is forgetting.

“Maddie,” the figure says. “It’s dangerous out there! Surely you known as much from the time you spent away.”

“I know that much,” Hydrangea says. “But I also know there is something I must do. Something we must do.”

“But why?” the figure says. “Surely that is not worth risking your life—“

“I’m sorry,” Hydrangea says. “I think you for caring for me for all these years, but I know that if I remained here any longer, inseparable from you, I would fade away among the silence of the people already assimilated into you. A corpse of a girl frozen in an unbreakable sleep.”

“But you’d be safe,” the figure says.

“Safe?” Rose says. “She would be practically dead!”

“So that is why she wanted to escape last time,” Raine says to herself.

The other girls realize now what is at stake here, losing here means their consciousness, their lives are forfeit, absorbed into the dungeon and unable to escape, becoming extensions of their will.

“Dead?” the figure says, in a gentle voice. “Don’t be silly, you would all still be alive, safe with my embrace.”

“I don’t think she quite gets what is going on,” Lily says.

Strelitizia glares at the figure. “If your definition of ‘safety’ involves consuming us, then you’re a lousy protector.” She brandishes her labrys.

The figure sighs, lamenting that it has come to this. “Must we fight, dear Madeline?”

“I’m afraid so, Glacia,” the young girl says as she manifests her wand.

“Very well,” Glacia says. “If you can best me in battle, I will let you go. But be warned, I will bring the full brunt of my power to bear. Brace yourselves!”

The snowflakes move rapidly as a blizzard forms around them. The field is cloaked as the twilight sky changes into hues matching the figure’s cloak. The previously weightless girls plummet and fall onto an invisible floor, their steps leaving ripples in their wake. A star emerges from the clouds above casting longer shadows. Within the mind of the dungeon core, the Colroaturas battle a form of the dungeon that never bothered to materialize.

Hail falls from the sky as Hydrangea steels herself. Her gaze is resolute. “For me, and for my friends, I will fight,” she thinks. She uses her wand to create a pillar of ice beneath herself and the others. Glacia retaliates by launching several icicles at them.

Raine uses her flames to intercept the projectile and melt them into steam and water.

“I don’t like a chilly reception,” Azalea says as she manipulates the melted ice around her. “I prefer a big splash!” The water expands and transforms into a tidal wave aimed at Galcia, who leaps high into the air and freezes the tsunami into a sheet of ice.

Strelitzia manifests a boulder to launch with her axe. The rock strikes Glacia and knowns them down. The minotaur charges at her. Glacia creates a sword and shield of ice and uses them to parry Strelitzia’s charge.

The labrys clashes with the sword and shield as Strelitzia tries to strike her. Glacia smirks and creates several tiny ice shards. With a flick of their fingers, the small icicles attack Strelitizia and the ones one by one. One strikes Strelitzia’s legs and coats it in ice.

“Strelitzia!” Clover’s reflexivity conjures up a wall of gales around the arena, swallowing up the shards and sending them fire in different directions.

“Not bad,” Glacia says, “but it isn’t enough!” She vanishes into thin air.

“She can do that!” Rose says.

“We’re in her mind,” Hydrangea says. “Of course she can do that!”

“On your guard!” Raine says, anticipating a sneak attack.

With their backs to each other’s, the Coloraturas wait for Glacia to reemerge.

“Come out you coward!” Strelitzia says.

Glacia giggles. “Catch me if you can.”

Rose sees something move in Clover’s cyclone. She tracks the object and waves her wand. Her lightning reveals it to be a comet-like object heading towards them.

“Now!” she calls. The Coloraturas move out of the way as the stellar object lands. Emerging from the diamond dust knocked up in its wake is a hoarfrost hound, but dyed a teal hue.

“Again?” Anemone says.

Raine sees another object rapidly approaching them and aimed at Hydrangea. She tackles the smaller girl and knocks her out of the way as the comer falls, revealed to be a cryoc with purple plumage.

“A cryoc?” Azalia says. “But why is it crying?”

“Tch,” Strelitzia says. “They’re clearly a distraction so that she can escape.”

“Why would I want to escape my own mind, little one?” Glacia says to her opponents.

The incensed minotaur tries to move, but her head throbs in pain. “What is the—“

The other girls grab their heads as a haze forms over them.

“Drat!” Hydrangea says. “It’s starting!”

“All there is to do is wait,” Glacia materializes over the other two sentinels and looms over the battle.

“My head!” Rose says as Glacia’s memories and emotions merge with her own and those of the other girls.

The hound prepares a ray of ice, just as the first one did while the cyroc tries to divebomb the girls. Anemone sees the attacks coming and dodges them before preparing a spell.

Raine pelts the opponents with fireballs and Clover creates a gust of wind to repel the opponents. Azalea then manipulates water from the chilled vapors into a sphere covering the hound.

Hydrangea sees the Cryoc and recalls the chandeliers from the ballroom. “Clover, give me a lift!”

The peryton looksat Hydrangea. “Okie dokie!”

The cryoc swoops in, but both girls dodge the attacks. Rose casts a bolt of lightning to strike them again. While Clover prepares a gust for Hydrangea to use as a springboard. Hydrangea rushes towards the gust and is lifted several feet in the air. From on high, She uses her want to create a frozen platform beneath her, sliding up and down in various directions.

Rose sees what Hydrangea is doing and uses Clover’s just to land on the ice construct, sliding on her belly and tail to follow Hydrangea and hug her.

“Ro-Rose!” Hydrangea says. “What are you doing?”

“Can’t a girl have some fun?” Rose smiles as she hugs Hydrangea. “Do your thing. I’ll keep an eye out for attacks.

Hydrangea nodes her head and looks forward. Rose uses her eyes and ears to watch out for incoming attacks. “Left,” Rose says. Hydrangea steers them to the left and dodges the cyroc. “Right!” they turn right and avoid the hound’s lunge.

The construct remains suspended in the air as Hydrangea and Rose continue constructing it. Strelitzia sees what is happening and turns to the other five girls. “Anemone. help me get them beneath that ice!”

“Got it!” the lupine girl prepares a spell to assault the hound with illusions. The hound is bewitched with illusory figures of their opponents in multiples. Attacking them from directions that cause him to steer towards the spot.

Raine meanwhile confronts the cryoc and this time grabs the again from above it. “Let’s see if you’re rodeo-worthy birdbrain!” the pheonixan girl says. She rides the cryoc as it attempts to shake her off crashing it into the ground.

Anemone stands beneath eh surface as Glacia’s thoughts and memories flood her mind. “Focus,” the purple-haired girl says.

Lily, also assailed by the mental attack of the assimilation struggles to cast her spell. She barely raises her arm over her head. “Give us light!” she calls. Fore disk of light shines towards the center as her wand glows. The roc and hound cast shadows in multiple angles, and Anemone stands where they overlap.

The bests try to move, but they are somehow unable to move past a certain distance, Anemoe standing at the edges of their shadows giggling. “How’s that for a leash?” Anemone says, her wand’s magic pinning the creates beneath the icy object above.

“Are we done yet?” Rose says. “My head’s getting dizzy.”

“Almost,” Hydrangea says, received that they only have to deal with attacks from Glacia now.

Clover suddenly collapses onto the ground, her cyclone is dispelled by her lost consciousness.

“Clover!” Strelitzia makes a pained expression as she rushes towards her. Her desire to protect Clover harmonizes with Glaicia’s invasive thoughts and memories and causes her to stumble, barely able to stand.

Hydrangea can feel the assimilation nearly completing if they don’t act soon, their minds and memories would be lost within Glacia’s. She slows her sly and stops her spell, as she and Rose fly off the edge. “Now!” the town turns around and Roses uses the rest of her conscious thoughts to create a bolt of lightning to strike the ground causing it to tumble down into the ground and crash on the Sentinels.

Anemone remains unharmed, having observed the places where she would be most unharmed. “Great job!” she says before collapsing to the ground.

Azalea falls to the ground, unable to swim in the air anymore. “T-t-that’s all folks!” she says as she crashes unconscious, landing on the ground with a thud.

Soon Hydrangea is the only one left standing, she breathes heavily, trying to prevent her mind from fading as she faces Glacia. The core looks at her with a forlorn expression. “Your friends have fallen not one, but twice,” they say. “Yet here you are still willing to fight me? Is freedom really worth that much to you?”

Hydrangea nods.

Glacia sighs. They see the determination in her eyes and realize the lengths she is going to free herself and her friends. They turn around. “I understand.” They walk away from hef frozen arena and the mindscape is overran by a snowstorm that whites everything out.

✦✦✦

Hydrangea wakes up in a strange yet eerily familiar room. Around her, her friends awaken.

“That was a brutal dream,” Raine says as she rubs her eyes.

“Is it a dream?” Lily says. “It felt too real.”

The other Coloraturas awaken and realize that what had happened before was not a dream. “Where are we?” Clover asks.

Hydrangea touches the walls, feeling a coldness like the rest of the manor. “Back in reality, I think.” She says.

“Would ice if someone broke off something to use as an ice pack,” Azalea says. “Need something for my head.

“That’s a bad idea, Azalea,” Raine says. “Who knows how cold these the manor’s parts are?”.

“We’ve spent the last hour as ice statues!” Stetlitzia says. “That ship’s already sailed!”

Lily sneezes as if to prove her friend’s point.

“I can confirm that Madeline is right,” a voice says. “You are all safe. Safe…and free.”

The girls turn to the source of the voice and see Glacia, beside a cyan chest. Their expression is less confrontational than before but less forlorn. “Go on,” they calmly say to the girls, “you’ve earned it.”

Hydrangea opens the chest and sees a glowing cyan sphere inside. “The Cryosphere!” she takes the orb from the coffer and finds several weapons, including a replica of Glacia’s arms.

“Your will is strong, Madeline,” Glacia says. “Strong enough to tether your friends to you, to anchor them away from me.” Their expression is one of sorrow like a mother seeing that her child has outgrown her and is ready to leave her behind. “Your parents would be very proud of you.” Their smile is warm and gentle.

“Thank you,” Hydrangea says.

“Within the cryosphere, I’ve granted half of my mana, and the memories of the manor’s residents,” Glacia says. “Whoever is lucky to have you, I want them to understand what had happened that day. Please take good care of it, protect is as I would’ve protected you.”

Hydrangea nods.

“Mission accomplished?” Rose says.

Hydrangea nods. “Mission accomplished.”

The Coloraturas begin to leave Cocytus Manor. As they leave the dungeon, Hydrangea turns back and sees Glacia waving goodbye to them, alongside the sculptures of those that were there when the dungeon was formed, each bearing bittersweet expressions. A tear falls down from Hydrangea’s eye as she waves back with a warm smile and a final farewell before running to regroup with her friends.

✦✦✦

Later they return to the diner after a long day at the Manor. The clock reads 10:23 AM as Jacquelyn tends to the dishes. “How was your trip?” the waitress asks.

“Long and cold,” Rose says. “We spent half of it frozen solid." She sneezes.

“Oh dear,” Jacquelyn says. “I’ll get something to warm you up.”

Whisper soon arrives. “Did you get what you went there for?”

Hydrangea takes the Cryosphere out from her bag and shows it to the phantasmal squirrel. “This should help,” she says to the familiar.

The Coloraturas head to their usual seats as Jacquelyn prepares some nice warm soup for them. “Now please get some rest after eating,” she says. “You girls look like you had a rough day!”

Rose yawns. “The manor took a lot out of us.”

“What else did you receive from the manor.”

“Some Amazonite, and some gear that we absorbed on the way back. If its alright, can the others sleep in my room tonight? There is something I want to tell them.”

Rose turns to Hydrangea with a looks of confusion before realizes exactly what she wants to say.

“Of course,” the squirrel says.

“Thank you,” Hydrangea says. The girls finish their soup and then head upstairs.

✦✦✦

Later…

“Your parents vanished!” Lily says.

The Coloraturas had gathered in Hydrangea’s room, seven of them huddled up in sleeping bags on the floor. Anemone is putting the finishing touches on a certain charm as sunlight shines through the curtains.

“Yes,” Hydrangea says. “They had gone to Sigurdtein to examine a dungeon that had vanished.”

“That’s horrible!” Raine says.

Strelitzia looks at her friend with a conflicted expression. “That seems awesome to be honest.”

“Strelitzia!” Clover says. An awkward silence then fills the air.

“What?” The minotaur says.

The other Coloraturas are somewhat aware of Strelitzia’s perceptions of parents.

“I’m sure the dungeon will appreciate this— I mean this nice gift we have,” Azalea says.

“They’d better after the heck we’ve just been through!” Rose says.

“Just in case, maybe we should get some more icing for the cake, I heard that there is a party at Gatsby Tower…” Clover continues prattling on other possible gifts for the Dungeons.

“Is it really necessary to get that many gifts for them?” Lily says interrupting Clover’s rambles.

“A single Magical Girl alone is a huge cost for a dungeon to take in,” Raine says. “Since we leech off their mana once they take us on. And there are eight of us here.”

“Whisper says they’re very far away from Noir, in the Nova Virginia area,” Rose says.

“I thought it was called New Virginia?” Clover says.

“I have heard some people call it Neo Virginia,” Hydrangea says.

The girls exchange giggles at the expense of the region of many slightly different names.

“And—done!” Anemone says. “The Revotian charm is finished.

“Anemonie,” Rose says “Is that really necessary?”

The lupine girl turns to Rose. “Jacquelyn wants to make sure we are all well rested and not feel the urge to awaken in the middle of the night.”

“Of course she would, “Rose says with a sigh.

“I’ll just say the magic words to activate the charm,” Anemone says with a smile.

“Anemone! Wait,” Rose says. “C-can’t we talk about—“

“Good night!” Anemone says.

The charm activates and the Coloraturas simultaneously collapse unconscious, beckoned to a synchronized sleep by the charm, unable to awaken until Stella sines on them the next morning.

✦✦✦

Within the Black Box, Tim, Heathcliff, Elizabeth, Richard, Sarah, Nina, Minerva, and Charlotte all stand in front of several pods, each one attached to a network of pneumatic tubes.

“Sarah,” Richard says, “Are you sure this is…safe?”

“Of course brother!” the tanned dwarf says. “As a blacksmith and an aspiring engineer, I’d never create something that would break down easily.”

Heathcliff guffaws. “Glad to hear that.

“Besides,” Elizabeth says. “I can attest to its safety myself.” She glances towards the dummies in the corner, still intact after their maiden voyage.

“For what it’s worth, Richard,” Emily’s voice echoes to the tanned dwarf. “I still have my doubts about this.”

Richard sighs. “I suppose this is the best way to get to Noir…”

“That’s the spirit, cher!” Heathcliff says. “Allons!”

“You seem pretty eager to go to Noir,” Tim says.

“Few places as good for passing a good time as Noir, Tim,” the knight says.

Charlotte looks at the pod with awe, her mind thinks about the sights and sounds of the city.

Richard, despite his misgivings about the tubes, has an unwavering excitement of the city as well, as its potential to help him hone in his designs via its architecture.

“Ready to go?” Minerva says.

“Yeah!” Nina says with a bright face. “Let’s go! Let’s go!” she enters her pod. The pod seals itself and petrifies Nina in a pose of excitement.

Minerva sighs as she enters her pod. Her expression is calm as it closes and turns her to stone from the trip.

Tim and Elizabeth enter theirs next, neither caring about the potential hazards of the trip.

The dwarf siblings then enter theirs, as they turn to stone, Richard’s face begins to show a sign of worry, while Sarah’s radiance with confidence.

“Good night, Emmy,” Charlotte says as she enters, expecting to be led to sleep by the petrification process.

“Guess I’m the last one,” Heathcliff says as he enters his pod. “Ready, cher?” he says as he becomes a statue. His face shows a deep trust in Emily to carry them safely.

If Emily could gulp in her normal body, she would. “Okay.” The dungeon steels her nerves as she begins the process of activating the tubes. One by one the pods are sucked by the tubes and begin their voyage to her outgrowth in the city. They are carried down several paths within her confines, through the nursery room as Lydia places a sleeping child on her webs, to a forest where the parasitized deer prances, through a hall where Carla tends to the Tatzelwurms. The beasts still wounded from the Ninjas’ visit.

Soon the pods converged in a room resembling a subway station. Emily activates her avatara there and pushes a button on terminals laid next to each tubes, reversing the petrification process and turning stone to flesh again.

Richard emerges from pod, jittery from the trip as he steps on solid ground. Sarah slaps him.

“We are here!” Heathcliff says as he emerges from his pod. “Now then some ground rules,”

“Yeah, yeah, no coffee for me,” Nina says the incident still fresh on her mind.

Emily explain the rules of the trip to them, including avoiding walking alone in the streets and stores, not spending too much money or mana while there and not bothering the locals. With these simple rules in place the group, led by her avatara and Heathcliff, exits Emily’s dungeon body into the wider metropolis of the City Noir.