Strelitzia finds herself in a maze, fleeing from a stampede of bulls.

The bulls encircle the mintauride with a ravenous look in their eyes As she stands on a giant table. She turns around and sees her fellow Coloraturas lying motionless on dish-shaped platforms. Strelitzia looks at her fallen friends with horror.

The bulls around the table make squeals like famished animals. Among the noises, Strelitzia can hear cries of “join us.”

Looming over her are two tall shadows. Both of their silhouettes are horned. She could reconcile them but dared not utter their names or titles. She runs around the giant table avoiding falling utensils. She tries to wake up her friends, but before she can reach them, she sees them moved away by a giant spoon one by one. First, it was Rose, then Azalea, Then Raine, then Lily, then Anemone, then Hydrangea. All that was left on the table was her, and Clover.

The orange-haired girl rushes to the green-haired fawn. Hugging her as she tried to get her to wake up. But it was to no avail. The two young girls were lifted high into the air. Strelitzia looks on in horror she sees a person resembling a larger version of herself the one that has them impaled on the fork. She tries to free herself and Clover before the utensil enters the giant’s mouth, but it is no use. All she could do was scream as the farm entered its destination.

Streltizia wakes up. Stella’s solar rays are barely peeking over the horizon, her light unable to reach the Black Box yet. Strelitzia notices the other children in the room are still in their trance-induced slumber and remembers her nightmare.

“Not again,” the minotauride sighs.

Lydia enters the room, maneuvering over the heads of the unconscious children until she sees Streltizia awake.

“Nightmares again?” the Arachne broodmother says.

Streltizia sighs. “Yeah.”

“They have to be pretty bad to break through these trances,” Lydia muses. “Is something the matter, dear?”

“No, they’re just bad dreams, “the minotaur lies.

“I’ll go help you up,” Lydia says, “It’s almost morning.” The Arachne digs Streltizia out of her bed.

“I’m sorry for troubling you,” Strelitzia says,

“It’s no trouble at all,” Lydia says. “These things happen.” She allows Streltizia to climb on her abdomen as they leave the room. “They happen to you a lot though,” she says.

Even before she moved into the Black Box, Streltizia was plagued by recurrent nightmares. She had hoped they would cease when she and the other Coluraturas moved into the Black Box and became Emily’s Sentinels, but instead, they grew more frequent. Like something was gnawing at her, turning every dream she had into a tortuous reminder of what she had escaped long ago.

✦✦✦

Three days later, Stella’s light illuminates the wilderness where the Black Box resides. The first of many parties sent by the guild to train themselves and the dungeon arrives.

A centaur ranger arrives at the entrance of the Black Box. A minotaur, a fawn herbalist a dwarf, and an elfin druid accompany him. The druid and herbalist look at the Divine Dungeon in awe and horror.

“Why did the guild want us to enter this place again?” The dwarf says while she tinkers with some drones. Various gears and cogs of all sizes stick out from the drones’ chassis.

“The Rosenkreuz Guild says that they wanted to prepare us for something,” the centaur says.

The minotaur muses on the encounter. “I’ve heard that another Divine Dungeon is marching from Cerberus. Perhaps it is related to that?”

“An astute observation, Carlos,” the herbalist says sarcastically. “Verily, you are wise for stating something as trite and obvious as that.”

“Faye,” Carlos says. “Must you always respond with biting remarks?”

The fawn rolls their eyes. They bear an androgynous appearance. Their long hair cascades to their nape, with

“I sense great power from this place,” the druid says. “Its influence could be felt for miles wide. Whoever is the dungeon, they seem to be very well developed.”

“There are rumors of a similar dungeon in Noir,” the centaur says. “That reminds me, where is Lissa?”

“Coming!” a lamia with purple scales slithers towards the others. She carries a staff. “Sorry,” she says. “I got lost on the way.”

The ranger turns towards the others with a look of ire.

“Hey,” the dwarf says. “It wasn’t my fault she lost us!”

Carlos turns to the centaur, putting a pair of cestuses on his arms. “Been a while since I used these, Eponus” the minotaur says.

“How’s your wrists, Carlos?” The centaur ranger says—his brown hair billows in the wind.

“Fine,” Carlos says. “They’ve healed from the sprain back at the Diomedes Waterways.”

“Sprain is putting it likely,” Faye says. “I spent all my potions trying to heal you that day.”

“I’m sorry, Faye,” the minotaur says. “I was careless that day.”

“Is that the reason you decided to take up the path of a tactician?” the dwarf says. Her hairband rested on her short-cut hair as she walked towards the Dungeon.

“Part of it, Bronda,” Carlos says as he practices some punches. “I also want to inquire about being a dungeon master one day.”

“Huh?” Bronda says.

“You haven’t heard?” Lissa says.

“I was too busy perfecting my arcane buggy blueprints,” the dwarfette says.

“Typical,” the druid says.

“Hey, it’s hard finding the right thaumaturgical designs to make the engine work!” Bronda says.

Faye sighs. “Well, I got some ragweed, some spearmint, some cinnamon, and enough bergamot to make effective healing potions. This should make sure we survive the experience at least. But please be careful. That goes double for you Carlos!”

“Noted,” the minotaur says.

“What about you Merriweather?” Eponus says.

“I’m ready,” the druid says. He is uncertain how effective his druid magic is in such a clearly mechanical place. “I have enough rune stones to help just in case.”

Lissa takes out their staff and stardeck. “Let me do a reading!” they say. She draws their Ascendant card. She draws a metal card with a symbol resembling a pair of scales. “Libra. Looks like I’m using the Eosphoros deck today!”

“Hmm,” Carlos says. “That means we could potentially have the boons of invincibility, binding chains, or piercing enchantments.”

“Or Lissa could hinder us with an anti-aggression spell by mistake,” Bronda says.

“We should also note the element of light that Lissa can now use,” Eponus says.

“Remind me again,” Merriweather says. “What is their Astral card?”

“Scorpio,” Lissa says. The lamia takes their staff.

The group consisted of Eponus the Centaur Ranger, Faye the Fawn Herbalist, Bronda, the Dwarven Artificer, Merriweather, the Elven Druid, Lissa, the Lamia Enchantress, and Carlos the Minotaur Tactician. Enters the dungeon.

✦✦✦

Earlier, a pair of Adventures were busy fighting tatzelwurms. The Skald uses a saxophone to channel his Bardsong. The jazzy tune provides covering fire in the form of conjured rocks that attack the opponent as his partner in crime a mermaid paladin as they fight Calra’s Tatzelwurms.

“Chris,” the armored paladin says. “You got this?” she says as she blocks a lunge from the feline serpents with her shield.

The bard nods. He then sees one of the creatures preparing a charge on their left. Marian! Over there?”

The mermaid knight takes her sword and slashes at the incoming tatzelwurm. The bard assists her by playing three notes and summoning fireballs. Soon they prevailed over the three creatures.

The Tatzelwurms dissolve into gold dust. “That was a painful first boss,” Chris says.

Marian turns to the arriving Alraune. “You’ve trained them very well,” she says.

“Thank you,” Clara says before leaving. She directs the visitors to the chest.

Marian swims towards it and sees coins as well as three bismuth knives and an ingot of Orichalcum. She hands the metal to Chris. “Might make a handy new sax one say,” she chuckles.

Chris takes the ingot from the green-haired mermaid knight. “You want the knives as well?”

“Not really that good with them,” Marian says. The pair venture deeper into the Black Box.

✦✦✦

Meanwhile, the Coloraturas are preparing for their proper debut as Sentinels.

“I’m so excited!” Lily says. “Our first dungeon defense!”

Strelitzia sharpens her axe. “We better be careful, Heathcliff wants us to also train these guys.” Any tiredness she had from waking up early is now gone.

“It’ll be a cinch!” Rose says taking her rapier and its staff-like sheath.

Hydrangea uses her staff as an oversized pen to inscribe thaumaturgical glyphs from her grimoire. She had used her memory of the designs found on Spearhead’s glyph to create these designs. Azalea practices her knife-throwing skills. “I think we’d do very well. We have such sharp minds, after all, she quips.”

Raine looks at the pink-haired lamia. “You seem rather chipper today,” the phoenixian girl says.

“No use fighting it,” Rose says. “Much as I want to kick back today, the whole ‘Engines’ thing makes it rather difficult.”

Anemone takes some practice shots. She nocks an arrow at a wall.

“Ow,” Emily’s voice echoes to Anemone.

“Sorry,” the wolf-eared girl says.

“I should look into making training walls next time,” Emily says. “Are you girls ready for your first stint as bosses?”

“How could we not be?” Clover says with her fan drawn. “Tim and Elizabeth taught me a lot about using this fan.”

“That reminds me,” Raine says. “Have you learned about today’s guests?”

“Two parties have entered me so far,” Emily says. “The first was a pair, a knight and a bard. The second had just entered, a group of six.”

The girls know that with four Sentinels now, they can divide themselves into pairs. The Coloraturas and the spider Construct would be one pair, while Clara’s beasts and Tim would be the other.

“What about the microdugneons?” Lily asks.

“We will explore them after both parties are dealt with,” Elizabeth says as she arrives. “Atsuko says she wants to focus on your weapons next.”

“Which ones?” Strelitzia says, reminding her that they now have a staff each as well as a unique weapon.

“She wants to start with yours first, since you used the labrys the longest, Streltizia,” Elizabeth says.

Charlotte, Nina, Euryale, and Stheno arrive. “Greetings!” Stehno says.

“Hi!” Lily says. “What brings you here?”

“We want to see you guys at work,” Charlotte says. “Our mothers agreed to let us see you before we head out to further reinforce the jungles.”

“And by ‘we,’ they meant these two,” Euryale mutters while pointing to the spiderling and alraune.

“I see,” Rose says. “We’re sure to dazzle you with our feats!”

“You can do it!” Nina says.

“Did you guys see Sarah?” Raine says. “I checked in at the atelier and she isn’t there.”

“Mommy said she and Richard went with Esteban to help ask for help,” Nina says.

A while later, Elizabeth ushes the spectators to a part of an arena where they cannot be seen by the guests as the Coloraturas prepare for their first fight.

✦✦✦

Chris and Marian arrive at a room in the Black Box, the room is shaped like an oval, with only two curved walls.

“Heard we’re only fighting two bosses today?” the bard says.

“Something about the invading dungeon thing,” the mermaid knight says.

The pair had been adventuring together for a year. Chris as a wandering musician concerts along the way while Marian serves as his protector from both rival adventurers and people of ill intent.

Exploring the room, they find both webs on the walls and also three beams pointed at each other. Marian observes the walls and sees several rings on the walls. She swims to one of the sources of the beams and turns it. She moves the direction of the beam until it hits a hidden mirror. The reflected stream of photons is now close to one of the rings. Chris notices it and tells her to turn the beam a little to the left. Marian turns the beam emitter as directed and the ray is not hitting the ring. It glows orange as the light of the beam shines on it.

The pair try to find the other rings, but the webs prove to be too difficult to see them. Chris decides to ignite them by playing a small tune on his saxophone. The brass instrument lobs a lire magic missile at one of the webs. But as the threaded obstruction burns away a trap door suddenly opens and Arachne crawls out from it to attack the pair. Marian and Chris fend them off over the span of ten minutes.

“Okay so we have about fifty minutes left,” Marian says.

“We got time,” Chris says as he sees a ring on the now cleared wall, as well as several mirrors of various sizes and angles. He helps Marian turn the second beam towards the ring. Eventually, it reflects off one of the mirrors and then bounces off a mirror from the opposite wall, hitting the second ring and causing it to glow orange.

“Two down, one to go!” Marian says. She enchants her sword in ice and uses it to create a beam of chilled air at the webbing on the other wall.

The spell freezes the web and causes it to shatter, but it also causes a second trapdoor to open and unleashes more Arachne.

“You thought it would work that way?” their leader says. “How very foolish.”

“You better have that swing if you wanna tango with us,” Chris says before playing his sax. The pair work together to defeat the Arahcne. With the opponents defeated and retreating. The duo aligns the last beam to hit the last ring. A click is heard as part of the walls morphs into a doorway.

The pair enter the doorway and find themselves in a golden room. They see a young man meditating before standing up. He closes his eyes and makes a cocky smirk.

✦✦✦

Tim sees the two challengers. He takes his recently empowered Qiang in his hand and assumes a horse stance. Marian swims rapidly toward him, but Tim dodges her slash and counters with a thrust from his weapon. He can feel it moving faster than before as he stabs the mermaid knight in the shoulder.

Chris plays his sax and creates a gust with his Bardsong tune. The gust propels the knight into the air as she tries to fight Tim. Kasumi is watching the fight from a place overlooking the fight.

Tim parries the sword with his elbow and then makes a specific lag movement. With a stomp, he creates an updraft that levitates the mermaid before making a charging step. Christ swings his saxophone as a weapon to deflect Tim’s thrusts. He then tries to knock Tim back, but his attack doesn't budge the martial artist one bit. Tim counters by swatting the instrument away and then doing a snap kick. Chris is knocked back several feet but before Tim can advance. Marian manages to fight the gale and swim between them, her shield blocking Tim’s attack.

The battle rages on for twenty minutes, and Chris and Marian are getting tired. Tim feels the power that is now surging through his Qiang. She he fights he thinks about Master Wu and the fate of the school. He thinks about the Engines. The reason why the guild had decided to send more adventurers than usual to the Black Box, to help them train for the coming fight. He thinks about Emily.

The battle continues for the next ten minutes and Tim eventually defeats the pair. They collapse from exhaustion with fifteen minutes on the clock.

The unconscious adventurers are escorted by Emily to a nearby ward for medical healing.

“Good job, Tim!” Emily’s voice says to Tim

“Thanks.” The young man examines his Qiang. He sees Elizabeth enter the room.

“The other party had just defeated the [Construct],” the fairy says.

“Guess that means the Coloraturas’ first fight is about to begin,” Tim says.

Kasumi leaps down with her perch.

“Kasumi,” Elizabeth says. “What are you doing here?”

“She wanted to watch Tim’s fight for some reason,” Emily says.

“And you didn’t tell Atsuko?” Elizabeth says.

“I thought she already knew,” Emily says. “Sorry.”

“Why were you interested in my battles?” Tim says.

“I just wanted to see how your skills are compared to mine and Hoshikage’s is all,” the kunoichi lies.

Tim sighs.

“The first party is being tended to as we speak,” Elizabeth says. “Though they will not have enough time to attempt fighting you when they wake up.”

“Does this always happen? “Kasumi says.

“I think so,” Emily answers. “It’s rare that people lost to the second or third sentinels and has enough time to try to fight them again.”

“How’s the Qiang, Tim?” Elizabeth asks.

“It feels a little lighter,” Tim says. “Yet also slightly more powerful.”

“Hey, Lizzie, is there nay way we cna use the microdugneons to speed things up?” Emily says.

“I’m not sure,” Elizabeth says. “You two might be able to try getting enough mana for creating a foundation for [Albedo], but I don’t think we would be able to get past the other two steps before they arrive.”

“If we are to become Cultivators,” Tim says. “Then we must assume out path would be long and arduous.”

“Let’s tak about that later,” Kasumi says cheerily. “I want to see the witches work their magic!”

“I will let Atsuko and Hoshikage know about your location, Kasumi,” Elizabeth says. “I suspect they will want to talk to you about your vanishing act.”

The orange haired girl pouts.

✦✦✦

Eponus, Faye, Bronda, Merriweather, Lissa, and Carlos had just finished defeating the chimeras under Carla’s care. The beasts flee the battle.

Lissa puts her deck away. “Phew, those were some tough fights.”

“This dungeon holds some surprises,” Merriweather says.

Eponus looks at the loot they recently acquired. Several silver coins, A bow, a talbard with spaulders, and a robe and wizard hat. Faye takes stock of her inventory of potion ingredients. “We’re down to enough ingredients for five more potions.” She then turns to Carlos.

“It is to be expected,” Carlos says.

“Sure it is,” the fawn says. “You know a dungeon master has a responsibility to stay alive.”

“I know,” the minotaur boxer says.

Lissa feels tension between the two. “Um, you guys aren’t…”

Faye realizes what the androgynous lamia is trying to say. “No, we aren’t.”

“Aren’t what?” the tactician says.

Faye simply storms off, and scopes out the next room. Eponus sighs.

Merriweather approaches Lissa. “So why did you become an adventurer anyway?”

Lissa sports a shocked expression after hearing the elven druid’s question. “Oh um, I just felt like I exploring the world, that’s all.” They draw a card from their stardeck.

Bronda approaches Merryweather, “I heard they came from something called a ‘sect’,” she says while tinkering with some arcane bombs.

“A sect?” the druid asks. The artificer shrugs as she tinkers with her gauntlet.

“Prolly not best to pry into things,” she says.

Lissa overhears them and shies away. “It is because I’m…” They think.

“If it was because of that, they wouldn't have joined this group,” the ranger says as she canters towards the lamia. Lissa’s face makes a wide-eyed expression of shock.

“You’re really bad at hiding your emotions,” Eponus says. “I don’t know about wherever else, but the guilds will accept anyone regardless of who they are. Trust me, you’re in good company.”

“U-um, thank you,” Lissa says. She draws her three cards. They are the Taurus, Chameleon, and Telescopum cards. She saves these cards for later.

“The other room’s clear, just a rigged chest,” Faye says.

The party enters the next room and examines the chest.

“What do you think will pop out?” Bronda says.

“A mimic?” Eponus asks. He obverses that there are no other pathways.

“That would be pretty nasty to deal with,” the druid says. He senses something in the air. The presence of others.

“Maybe they decided to hand out the treasure?” Lissa asks.

“It’s against the guild’s rules,” Bronda answers.

“The church and scripture claim that the Forgemaster created Dungeons to serve as training grounds. To leave a coffer like this out in the open is against his very wishes,” the druid says.

“Come to think of it,” Lissa says. “How did you guys meet?”

“We’ve been together for a while,” Eponus says. “Merriweather and I were the first, then we found Carlos and Faye after a few dungeon runs.”

“I hired them to guard me while I was handing off my company to my heirs,” Bronda says.

“Wait, what?” Lissa asks.

“Oh yeah I had a business focusing on magitech research,” the dwarfette says. “My kids are in charge now. How about you?”

“Um…” the lamia says. “I was kicked out of my village.”

“Is it because—” the centaur asks.

“It wasn’t because of that,” referring to their nature as not quite female or male. “I had attempted some thaumaturgical sigils and…”

“You caused an accident that destroyed part of the town?” Eponus says.

The lamia meekly nods.

“That’s rough,” Bronda says.

“It was an accident, I swear!” they say.

“I know,” the centaur says. “You never struck me as the type to do things maliciously.”

“Quite,” Carlos says. “We all made our mistakes.”

“Some more costly than others,” Faye taps her shoulder.

“So are we ready?” the dwarfette asks. “Seems like opening this chest is the only way forward.”

“We only have a half hour,” Eponus says. “We must make haste.”

The others nod and Eponus attempts to open the chest.

✦✦✦

The room goes dark. Lissa impulsively thinks of trying to use her light-aspected cards to light the room, before remembering they already drew their sleeve.

“On your guard,” Merriweather says. His pointed ears pick up the sound of giggles and chuckles.

“R-right!” the lamia says.

Faye draws her bow, her arrows are laced with chemicals that are designed to paralyze their targets.

Eponus also draws his bow. He uses the fiery arrows as a torch to light the room.

Carlos assumes a fighting stance with his arms, drawing on his boxing training.

Bronda takes some drones out and sends them to find a light switch. The machines crawl around the floor but fail to find anything used for illuminating the room.

The elvish druid takes his runestones and uses them to arrange a spell that would light the room.

The group is shocked to discover eight young girls before them.

“You did well to make it this far, travelers,” says one of them, a blond centaur with a cheerful smile on her face.

“But this is where your little trek ends,” another says. Her cyan hair and glasses framed a stoic cold expression.

“Witches? Here?” Merriweather says.

“I’d appreciate it if you do not refer to us as witches,” says the purple-haired girl, in an ironic contrast to her attire.

The minotaur among this group notices Carlos. Carlos in turn sees a look of apprehension in his counterpart’s eyes. Faye instead sees her own counterpart leaning on a giant metal fan with an absentminded look on her face.

A blue-haired clionid mermaid swims around the group. “I see there is a druid around you guys. You know I already expressed an interest in druidic arts,” she says.

Merriweather glares at the mermaid. The elf notices the knight she brandishes as she swims around the area.

The mermaid then notices the minotaur boxer, “I hope you’ll pull your punches,” she says. “This is our first fight as Sentinels.” She then giggles.

“You first,” Eponus says.

“Already ahead of you,” the red-winged girl says, having been made aware of the effects of the dungeon’s “Fair Fight” skill.

Lissa then stares at her shorter, pinker counterpart. The other lamia boasts a confident expression. “You face the Coloraturas, seekers of justice. Protectors of the weak!”

Bronda turns to the group of young Sentinels. “So we fight you, we win the run, got it.” The dwarf cracks her knuckles.

“Now then, let the show begin!” the lamia says as the arena is lit once more. With less than a half-hour remaining, Everyone prepares for a fight.

✦✦✦

Hidden from the visitors are special seats Emily has made for certain spectators. Charlotte, Euryale, Stheno, Nina, Tim, and Kasumi watch the fight begin.

Strelitzia is the first to attack, she tries to swing her axe at Faye, but Carlos intercepts it and blocks the weapon with his armored cestus. Strelizia is knocked from the recoil and attacks to use the moment to her advantage. Carlos however lands the left hook before she can land her blow. She is knocked back several feet.

The minotauride glares at Carlos. “You think that will be enough to topple me?”

Faye fires an arrow at Streltizia, but she uses her wand to create a wall of rock to intercept the shot and lift herself into the air. She tries to slash at Carlos with the axe, but Carlos parries it. He notices that there is a ferocity to her attacks and that they seem focused on him specifically.

“Where’s the fire?” Carlos says.

“Shut up!” Strelitzia says she makes another heavy swing.

Clover rushes to Streltizia’s aid, using gusts of wind to throw off Fawn’s aim as she tries to fire more arrows at the minotauride. Anemone provides support to Clover by firing her own arrows. The fawn herbalist notices and tries to aim at her winged counterpart, but she finds her arm grew heavier for some reason. She sees an arrow has landed on her shadow.

Before she could react, Faye collapses to the ground. She tried to get up, but the increased gravity forbade her.

Carlos is distracted by Strelitzia to notice Faye is unable to move. The two minotaurs try to attack each other, but each dodges the other’s attack.

“You’re a feisty one,” Carlos says as he tries to land a left hook on Strelitzia.

“I won’t let you eat me!” The young girl says to Carlos.

“What?” Carlos thinks. He has no time to dwell on the baseless accusation as Strelitzia uses her axe to trip Carlos. The boxer and tactician collapses on the ground and sees Strelitzia stand on him. She uses her wand to conjure up earth to bind him to the ground.

“There! Gnaw on some dry leather for a change!” Streltiiza says.

“What in the name of Crete is that supposed to mean!?” Carlos asks.

“Hmph,” Streltizia says. “Disgusting…” She leaves the two to focus on the other four. Carlos struggles to free himself.

Meanwhile, Lyssa had used the Telescopum card she had drawn to enhance her vision. She gazes around the arena. Looking for the clionid. She suddenly grows wet and turns around.

“You’re quite the starry-eyed lamia,” Azalea says with a giggle as she swims around.

“Um, thanks?” Lissa says.

“You’ll need more than that to defeat us!” Azalea enchants her knife with water and makes a swift swing with the blade. A stream of water emerges from the blade as she tries to slash the androgynous lamia.

Lyssa dodges, but sees part of the water land on her robes and leave a cut on it. She takes the Taurus card and uses it. “Ta—Taurus!” Her mind is overcome with a berserker rage as astral horns form on her head. Overcome with bloodlust, she slithers around and charges at the mermaid.

Bronda sees Lyssa going mad and tries to help, but she has to deal with Rose and Lily. Her drones are short-circuited by the pigtailed lamia’s lightning strikes. Lily uses her light magic to focus these bolts into linear rays of light and lightning. The dwarf leaps to avoid the beam.

Hydrangea and Raine fight Eponus and Merriweather. The centaur ranger tries to fire his arrows at them, but the two Coloraturas create a veil of steamy fog to obscure his vision. The druid uses his connection with nature to beckon the ground to bind them. Roots starting to piece through the floor of the Black Box. Leaving behind ripples.

Raine dodges the roots emerging from the ground, while Hydrangea freezes them. Raine then throws her rings at the druid and ranger. But the two woodsmen evade the attacks of the hot chakram.

Faye and Carlos are still pinned to the ground. The fawn tries to move her arm towards her arrows while the minotaur tries to break the rock that binds them. Carlos sees Merriweather fighting with Raine and Hydrangea. “A little help here?”

The elf sees his two comrades trapped and uses his staff to direct the nature beneath them to free them. The roots break the earthen bindings on Carlos and he in turn kicks the arrow from Faye’s shadows.

Faye’s gravity returns to normal and Carlos helps her up. “Thanks,” the fawn says.

The three are then assailed by blobs of multicolored gel, a result of Azalea and Hydrnagea combining their magic. They try to avoid the spheres of sticky mass.

Merriweather is soon hit by one of the blobs of gel and his left is stuck to the ground. He tries to use his staff, but another hits his arm and pins him to the ground. Carlos tries to block the subsequent attacks. Faye uses her supplies to try to craft a potion that can harden and enfeeble the gel bindings while Carlos tries to stop the attacks from the mermaid and the bespectacled girl.

Meanwhile, Streltizia is fighting the still-berserk Lissa. Streltizia has flashbacks to her time with her family, and then flashbacks to her parents’ bloodied corpses.

“No, I am not like them!” she thinks as she locks her weapons with the spectral horns of the lamia. She then has visions of times gone by. She saw her fellow minotaurs eat dinner, and several humanoid bones were left on their plates. Hers being the lone exception.

With a furor, she takes her axe and swings it at the purple lamia. His axe knocks Lissa to the wall. The Taurus card’s power faces and her mind returns to normal. She sees an angry Streltizia and panicky uses the Chameleon card to vanish from sight. The minotauride sees her opponent fade away while breathing heavily. With her current opponent gone, she moves to protect her other friends.

✦✦✦

Emily notices something is off with Stretlizia as she observes the battle within her.

“Something isn’t off,” Emily thinks. She notices Stretlizia’s more vicious demeanor in this fight.

Meanwhile, The Coloraturas have fought Eponus’ party for fifteen minutes. There are fifteen minutes left before Eponus, Merriweather, Carlos, Lissa, Faye, and Bronda are ejected from the Black Box.

Clover uses her staff and fan to summon a cyclone to try to push the intruders. Hydrangea uses her ice magic in an attempt to frostbite their opponents.

Carlos is encased in Gel, and with Merriweather now freed, Faye attempts to free her minotaur ally from his bindings.

Eponus tries to fire flaming arrows, but the wind throws them off course. Eventually one of them lands on Rose’s tail, between the segmented armor that coats it—the flame-tipped arrow. The younger Lamia feels the burn on her tail as she slithers in pain.

“Focus,” Rose thinks. She tries to use her lightning spells, but Eponus gallops away from the imminent strikes. Her accuracy is hindered by the singed tail distracting her.

Strelitzia rushes to Rose’s aid and uses a combination of her earth magic and her axe to block the arrows. “I won’t let you hurt them any more!”

The gel that coats Carlos is hardened by Faye’s potions. The fawn and the elven druid work to break the fragile encasing and free Carlos. As they dine so Faye remembers her younger winged counterpart is the cause of the winds buffeting them and tries to observe her attacks for an opening.

Lissa slithered to near Clover as the Chamaeleon card’s effects faded. Faye saw them emerge and sight and nocked an arrow near them. Clover sees the arrow coming and dodges it.

“Did you know that the headwinds can slow arrows down,” Clover says at the beginning of a long-winded tangent. In her distracted rambling, she fails to notice the purple-tailed and androgynous Lamis behind her.

Lissa draws a card from the star deck. The card revealed resembles a lowercase “m” with a pointed tail. They realize that it is the symbol of their astral Card, Scorpio. Lissa knows what she must do. they hold the card in front of them. “Scorpio!” they call out.

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“Huh?” Clover hears Lissa’s cray, but before she can turn, she is stung by Lissa’s tail, now changed into an insectoid stinger. They inject Venom into her neck. The peryton fawn collapsed from the envenomated nervous system lying unconscious on the ground. A small drop of saliva drips from her mouth as her eyes lie open in her sudden torpor.

The minotauride hears the thud from Clover as the gale ceases. “Clover!” she calls out. She and Rose try to come to her aid, but Rose is hit by an arrow from Faye and is rendered paralyzed. Whirl Carlos intercepts Stretlizia.

“You…you’ll pay for that!” the young girl says as she clashes with Carlos. The boxer trades blows with the younger axe-wiling girl. Her axe parries his hooks and uppercuts, while his cestus-clad fists block her swings. His goal is not to calm her down, but instead to distract her.

Strelitzia, distracted by Carlos, is struck by an arrow from Faye and is unable to move. Carlos places a finger on her forehead and gently pushes her to the ground.

Three of the Colorturas are defeated, but the remaining five are determined to prevail in their first stint as Sentinels. Anemone launches a volley of arrows at the shadows of Eponus and his party, trying to pin them down while Raine and Lily try to fight them. Lily’s lance and Raine’s chakrams strike at the party as Eponus aims at the lycanthropic girl.

Twelve minutes are left on the clock. Azalea floods the room with her water magic. “Hide tide is coming!” the clionid says.

Raine gets the three unconscious girls to safety as she sees that they are turning into golden dust. As Rose, Streltiiza, and Clover vanish, Raine with a fire in her eyes swoops in at Eponus and his party. Her attacks take Carlos out of the fight.

Merriweather beckons the ground to his call with runestones. Rootes emerged from the flooded floor, draining some of the water behind Raine. Faye takes one of her arrows and takes aim at Raine, striking the phoenixian girl with a paralyzing arrow and rending her body numb. Lissa, still under the influence of the Scorpio card, takes down Hydrangea with her empowered tail’s venom. The ice-wilding girl is unable to move with the dark venom inside her and falls on eh damp ground. Lissa’s card’s effect fades and her tail is turned back to normal. She tries to draw a card but is frozen by Hydrangea before she collapses into a numb trance.

Anemone leaps onto the ground, trying to snipe at the opponents at a closer range, but the herbalist and ranger can parry her arrows with her own and Bronda restrains her with her drones. Lily attempts to gallop to Anemone but Faye has sniped her with her arrows. Eponus meanwhile aims at Azalea, now the last Colortura standing. Less than ten minutes remain. Azalea manages to use the water to defeat Bronda and Merriweather, leaving only Eponus and Faye to try to fight her. Faye throws one of her potions at a frozen Lissa, hoping to corrode the ice that encases them.

The centaur ranger fires arrows at Azalea, but the mermaid’s nimble movements evade the arrows. “This is rather pointless,” she quips as she throws her knife at him. Eponus uses his bow to deflect the projectile. Azalea swims to reclaim her weapon and leaves behind pillars of spouts in her wake. One such spout emerges beneath Faye and propels into the air, separating her from her bow.

Lissa is freed by Faye’s potion as Faye herself is knocked out by the spout. They see Azalea fighting Eponus and immediately draw a card. The card depicts a symbol in the shape of a bird’s torso viewed from the side. The symbol of the Columba card. They have an idea and slither as close to the mermaid as possible.

Azalea flashes a kind smile as she is face to face with Eponus. Five minutes remain on the timer. “That’s all folks,” she says as she attempts to strike the ranger down. Before she could land the finishing blow. Lissa manages to place the metal card on the mermaid and activate it. Her aggression dimension along with her will to fight. “I suddenly feel tired.” The Columba card lulls her to a peaceful sleep.

The last of the Coloraturas are defeated with only three minutes to spare and fade into gold dust flying in the air. The chest in the room is now unlocked. With only minutes to spare. Eponus gallops to the coffer and relives it of the contents. He sees an axe, a hammer, several staffs, two talbards, an archer’s breaches and several arrows and spools of dreamcloth, as well as several coins.

Eponus sees Faye wake up while claiming the treasures. “What did you use for these arrows?”

The fawn herbalist grasps her shoulder. “Atropine from the belladonna plants of course. You got the loot?”

Eponus nods. A minute later, he and his party are wisked away to outside the Black Box.

✦✦✦

A while later, the Coloraturas emerge from their pods, their bodes reconstructed after their defeat at the hands of Eponus and his party. Nina and Charlotte left with their mothers to further reinforce the jungle.

“We lost?” Rose cries out.

“Can’t win them all,” Emily’s voice echoes to the witches. “Still you tried your best.”

“If that is our best…” Rose sulks. “Then we have no chance against that other dungeon!”

“That’s not true,” Tim says. “We still have time to prepare.”

“Besides,” Elizabeth says. “The purpose of these visits is to help us improve as much as it is to help them improve.”

Rose sighs.

“Cheer up,” Lily says with her unflinching smile. “There’s always next time!”

“I guess,” Rose says.

Emily’s voice echoes to Stretlizia. “Stretlizia, is something the matter?”

“What do you mean?” Stretlizia says.

“You were acting unusually viscous when fighting that other minotaur.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the minotauride says.

Clover makes a sad expression upon hearing Emily’s inquiry. Azalea notices something off with Streltizia’s tone.

Atsuko arrives. “How is everyone feeling today?”

“Fine!” Lily says.

“We’re doing my labrys next right?” Strelitzia says.

“Correct!” the nekomata says to the young girls. “The Kaguya Parallel Mirror and Microcosm Viewer are ready, we just need that axe and we’re good to go.”

Stretlizia hands Atsuko the Axe.

“What do you think that microdugneon will be like?” Lily asks with curiosity.

“I don’t know,” Streltizia says.

“If the previous visit is any indication,” Anemone says. “We should expect Stretlizia’s memories to have some influence.”

“That is something to consider,” Atsuko says. “Yes.”

“My…memories?” Stretlizia says. She begins to realize the implications. “Um, maybe we can take a rain check on—?” She notices that Atsuko has already left the room.

“Try to eat first,” Emily says. “It’s lunchtime.”

Strelitzia is overcome with a sense of dread. Clover approaches her. “Don’t worry, I’m sure, they won’t influence the dungeon that much.”

“I hope you’re right, Clover,” the minotauride says.

Later, the girls have lunch, prepared by Carla and Charlotte in advance. After they finish their lunch they meet up with Elizabeth, Atsuko, Tim, and Heathcliff.

“Heard your first stint didn’t do so hot,” the knight says.

“Yeah,” Rose sighs.

Azalea looks at the labrys attached to the Kaguya Parallel Mirror. “So are we ready? We got an axe to grind!” she says with a cheerful look.

Heathcliff looks at Stretlizia. He notices the minotauride has a look of dread on her face. “Something wrong, cher?” Heathcliff says.

“Like I’d tell you,” Streltizia says. Heathcliff knows something is off.

“What happened?” Heathcliff thinks. Emily’s telepathy hears that thought and tells him about the orange Coloratura’s reaction to another minotaur’s presence.

“Alright, so we have two hours before the next wave comes, yes?” Atsuko says

“Oui,” Heathcliff says. “Though Since Clara is still working on the jungle, these next waves will be done with the Spider Construct, the Coloraturas, and Tim each.”

“That should give us time to do one item between runs,” Hoshikage walks in with Kasumi in tow. “Kei, Kasumi, and I will handle the mirror, so if you want to see the mircrodugneons firsthand Lizzie…”

“Oh, um, thank you,” the fairy says.

“I’ll also tag along,” Heathcliff says.

“So that’s me, Emily, Heathcliff, Elizabeth, and Stretlizia,” Atsuko says. “Any other volunteers,”

“Me! Me! I wanna go!” Nina dangles down from the ceiling.

“Nina?” Tim says.

“What are you doing here?” Emily says.

“Mommy says I can help you guys with your expedition!”

Atsuko is taken a little aback by the spiderling’s desire to accompany them. “It is rather dangerous.

“So? You let them go with you.” Nina gestures to the eight witches. She continues to harp on the matter until Atsuko relents and lets her come. “Yay!” she cheers.

“Anyone else?” Atsuko says.

“Nope,” Strelizia says. “Can we—”

“I wanna go!” Azalea says. “Here are so many questions I want to ax!”

“I’ll go too!” Lily says. “I’m sure it will be fun!”

“But—” Streltizia says.

Anemone sees Streltizia act suspiciously. “Is something the matter?”

Strelitzia tries to find an answer. “What if the axe is more dangerous than that spear? What if there are dangerous monsters inside?”

“I think we can handle it!” Rose says. “It’s not like they would be worse than that party from earlier.”

Clover tries to help Strelitzia make her case. “But what if they are? There is a chance that they—”

“—could be as powerful as the Engines.” Hydrangea interrupts.

“In that case, if we can beat that, then we can take a swing at old smog breath when he comes,” Azalea says.

Rose notices that Strelitzia is coming off like she doesn't want her or their friends to accompany her. “Is something wrong?”

“No, of course not!” Streltizia says.

“Are you sure,” Raine says. “If you want we could sit this—”

“That won’t work,” Hoshikage says. “We need Streltizia to enter the microdugneon in her labrys.”

“Can’t you remove it and try another weapon then?” Raine says.

“We could, but,” Atsuko says. “It would delay the trips by a day and with the Engines marching towards our doorstep that means we’d be all the weaker for the inevitable confrontation. We need to make every second count.”

Strelitzia sighed, realizing that it was too late to change things. “Fine,” she grumbles.

“Alright!” Rose says. “Let’s go!”

The party is decided and will be led by Atsuko, Emily, and Streltizia, while also having the other Coloraturas, Heathcliff, Elizabeth, Tim, and Nina. Everyone but Emily is prepared to enter their pods as Hoshikai and Kasumi activate the Takarabune and send it towards the labrys with the Femtonauts already inside.

✦✦✦

Through the Femtonauts and Emily’s avatara. The party’s minds are streamed into the labrys’ microdugneon. They are immensely greeted by the sight of white, black, and brown marble walls, Doric architecture, and gardens that feel like forests. Strelitzia takes a look around the microdugneon of her weapons and sees no reminders of her past. No memories she has to hide from the other Coloraturas. She soon feels her waist-length hair grow wet.

“Azalea!” the minotaur says.

“It wasn’t me,” the mermaid says. “Look!”

The party looks up and sees that the tessellating sky is now shrouded by dark and stormy clouds. Rain falls from the sky as the sound of thunder roars in the distance.

“Interesting,” Atsuko says. “So microdungeons can exhibit weather and climate patterns as well.”

The party takes shelter In one of the many corridors of the dungeon. The floor is labyrinthine in structure with black images of bulls overlaid on the bronze and marble walls. As is someone took a Macedonian vase and designed the walls after it.

Stretlizia draws her staff, the fragrance of the Apus Astra flower on it fills her nostrils as she moves her wand around. Her arm trembles as she moves it. Anemone notices her minotaur friend’s shaky movements. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Streltizia says. “Just not used to not having my axe on me.”

Anemone and Clover notice that Stretlizia is more tense than usual. “Are you—”

“She says she’s fine,” Clover says. Anemone looks at Streltizia and shrugs.

“Thanks,” Stretlizia says.

“Don’t mention it!” Clover says.

Atsuko examines the walls. “Let’s see, the Doric architecture makes sense. Crete is where most of the minotaurs are from. The vase-like walls are a strange detail though.”

The pitter-patter of the rain and the thunderous notice are drowned out by the sounds of flickering flames, taurine noises, and a haunting melody.

The party soon comes across a large crevasse, surrounded by mirrors.

“Dead end it looks like,” Heathcliff says.

“Maybe Elizabeth, Azalea, and Raine could carry us?” Lily says with her unflappable smile.

“Lily,” Azalea says. “You know I can’t carry you across, the gap between my strength and that needed to carry a growing centauride is as insurmountable as this gap.”

“Oh,” Lily says.

“Maybe we could leap across?” Emily says.

“Doubt it,” Tim says while touching an invisible barrier.

Nina tries climbing the walls, but they are as slippery as they are reflective, and her spider legs are unable to grasp the smooth surfaces/ She tries to make a wed, but her threads are as unable to attach to the walls as her legs. “Drat!” she says. She then notices something in the reflection. A red tile, she looks behind her to where the tile would be but sees nothing there. She then looks back and sees the tile in the reflection. “Hey, is this mirror playing tricks on me?”

Streltizia sees Nina glaring at the mirror and inches closer to it she too sees the red tile. “Okay…” an idea forms in her mind as she uses her staff to conjure a rock and lift it over where the photon tole is before dropping it. To everyone’s shock, the rock landed on an invisible floor.

“What in the?” Rose says.

“Look at the mirrors,” Strelitzia says.

Everyone does so and finds there is a path of tiles visible in the reflective walls but not in the gap in front of them. Strelitzia climbs onto the boulder and makes another boulder, using the reflections as a guide. Before long she bridges the gap by making builders from thin air and plopping them over the invisible tiles. The others follow her as she crosses the gap to the other side. Once everyone had crossed, the boulders suddenly fell down into the pit and the red tiles had vanished in the reflections.

“Invisible pathways, huh?” Heathcliff muses on whether the and Emily could sue the idea.

As they traverse the labyrinth. Clover and Hydrangea talk about certain myths involving the mazes, to Streltizia’s mild discomfort. The party eventually arrives at an unusual room. A crimson arch stands before them.

“Is that…meat I smell?” Atsuko says. She takes another whiff. “Ugh, it’s rancid!”

The stench emanating from the gate reeked of rotting flesh. Strelitzia ignored any conversation surrounding the smelly gate as Emily approached. Pinching the nose of her Avatara, Emily touches the space between the arch, and everyone is engulfed in light.

They emerge on the second floor of the microdugneon. They find the white marble has grown a little grayer.

They turn back the arch and smell nothing from this one. Instead, they see two keystones instead of the one on the previous floor’s arch. The party continues on their path and Stretlizia sees that the murals on the walls now depict fallen humans and demi-humans beneath the bulls, and that some of the columns were replaced by statues of forks and knives. She hopes no one with her catches on to the implications of these symbols.

✦✦✦

Streltiiza and her group search the maze for the other arch. The maze’s walls shift as they try to find the arch leading to the third floor. Along the way, Strelizia unusually quivers in jumpiness. Something that surprises the rest of the group, especially the other Coloraturas.

“Is she okay?” Azalea says. “She’s usually more confident.”

“I don’t know,” Rose says. “It’s like she’s scared of something,”

“I’m not scared!” Strelitzia could overhear their discussion of her. Though she tries to present a facade of bravery, her jittery movements tell a different tale.

Clover is the only one among them who knows the true reason why the minotaur is acting unusual. She approaches Strelitzia.

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell them, Stre?” the fawn whispers.

“Tell them what?” Strelitzia whispers.

“You know,” Clover whispers.

“They’ll hate me,” the horned girl says. “They’ll think I’m a monster.”

While Streltizia and Clover whisper among themselves, Azalea notices the cutlery-themed statues. “Stre, do you think you’re axe is hungry?” she asks.

Strelitzia ignores Azalea's question.

Meanwhile, Emily, Heathcliff, and Elizabeth look at the murals on the walls.

“These seem to depict bulls trampling over people,” the fairy says.

“Do you know where she got the labrys, Lizzie?” Emily says.

“If I could hazard a guess,” Elizabeth says. “Strelitzia might’ve obtained it from her family. I’ve heard that [Minotaurs] often hand their children such weapons when they are of age. It might be a reminder of her parents.”

“Maybe we could ask her?” Emily says.

“I don’t think I can help with that, cher,” Heathcliff says. “The lass doesn’t seem to trust me that much.” At that point, he notices a pungent odor. “You smell something?”

Emily and Elizabeth smell the area, aside from the flowers on the Coloratura’s staves, they do not smell anything.

Tim meanwhile talks to Atsuko about something.

“I know little about the cultivators,” Atsuko says. “Even without the fear of extermination, they were not the kind of people who would want to share their knowledge easily barring cases like Wu Jingyu’s. They could be analogized to Macedon’s Mysteries in that regard.”

“What about Alkahestry?” Tim says.

“There are scant references to homunculi, but as an alchemist in general and a period where they wanted to obscure their knowledge for their own reasons, the interception had led to a reliance on symbolism to encrypt their works, this can be used to tell if this is mean to be literal or not. Of what the steps of Nigredo, Albedo, Cirtrinas, and Rubedo entailed. For all we know it could be an obtuse metaphor for something else entirely.”

“I see,” Tim says. He suddenly senses something approaching. “Get back, something’s coming.”

Emily notices Tim is assuming a horse stance while facing one of the corridors. She draws her twin blades and rushes to his side as they try to anticipate what is coming next. For a few moments, there was no noise except for the ambient sound of crashing thunder. After those moments passed, the walls started to shift and a gigantic bull was suddenly seen charging toward them.

The three dodge the beast as its headlong rush trampled the floor beneath them. Tim uses his Qiang to try to stab the beast, but the bull proves too fast for him.

The bull rushes towards Clover and Streltizia. Clover is petrified by the sudden emergence of the bull. Strelitzia pushes Clover out of the way and the head of the bull collides with her body.

Azalea sees the bull run off with a defiant yet terrified Streltizia and swims after the beast, using her water powers to conjure a sphere that is thrown at Clover’s face.

“Come on!” Azalea yells. “Don’t be a deer in the headlights.” The water snaps Clover out of her stupor and she follows Azalea.

The two Coloraturas try to chase the bull through the maze, getting separated from the others, Emily and Elizabeth try to find the bull through the shifting walls, while the others end up separated from them and each other.

Strelitzia hands on for dear life to the phantasmal bull as it stampeded all around the maze. Clover uses her fan to create a tailwind to increase her and Azalea’s speed, while Azalea tries to use water magic to hinder the movements.

Streltizia manages to gain enough composure to try casting some spells of her own, she begins by conjuring a rock wall. The bull simply charges through it and breaks it. She tries again, hoping to at least slow it down so that she can leap off. The bull crashes through the second one and continues unhindered, the third is also destroyed, and the fourth was removed by a sliding wall before the bull would even make contact. The bull, carrying the young minotaur away is barely hindered by her attempts.

Clover and Azalea catch up the the taurine beast and The former proposes them both onto the pull. They Streltizia holding onto the bull in panic.

“Stre!” Clover says. “I’m here!”

The minotaur sees her green-haired friend beside her, and the blue-haired mermaid on her opposite side. They both grab her shoulders.

“Rodeo’s over, cowgirl,” Azalea says.

Strelitzia gulps and lets go of the fur of the bull. She and Clover leap while Azalea hover over and the three jump off the bull. The bull is unaware that its target had escaped its clutches as it charges away from them. Streltizia breathes heavily as Azelea looks at her.

“What is going on?” Azalea says. “You’re not usually this scared.”

“I’m not scared!” Streltizia says.

“You were clinging onto the thing that kidnapped you for dear life!” the mermaid says.

Clover shoots an understanding look at Stretlizia. The minotauride refuses to explain herself.

“I’m fine,” she says. Black ooze spills out from her shoulder before receding.

“Stre…” Azalea says. “Is there something you’re not telling us?”

“Don’t be—” the orange haired girl says before she sees what is behind them. A pair of statues. One depicting a minotaur looming over statue of a younger looking fawn, the latter is lying on a platter-like disk. Clover and Azalea turn and see the ghastly pair of stonework. Clover and Streltizia understood the significance of the statue, but Azalea does not.

Streltizia’s face bears a look of horror upon seeing it. “No, I’m not like that!” she blurts out.

“Like what?” Azalea says. “The statues?”

“Let’s just go,” Strelitzia says. As they leave Azelea notices a black stair on the ground.

Meanwhile, Emily and Elizabeth are unable to find the bull and realize they are separated from everyone else. They did however find the second arch.

Emily looks at the crimson archway. “Should I touch it?” she asks Elizabeth.

“I don’t know what would happen.” the fairy says. “For all we know we could end up even more separated.”

Before they could think about what to they they soon see a heard of bulls stampeding into them, the walls receding to make a straight path connecting them to the pair. As the stampede draws closer, emily tocues the vortex in the arch and the two are whisked away to the next floor.

✦✦✦

Everyone arrives on the third floor, to everyone’s surprise. They look back at the arch and see that it has one keystone but two voussoirs now

“How did we get here?” Tims says.

“We found the arch, “Emily says. “There were a bunch of bulls rushing toward us and…”

“So that means if Emily finds the entrance to the next floor, she can carry us along?” Rose says.

“That would make sense,” Atsuko says. “The Takarabune was also carried with us between floors last time if you recall.”

“Huh?” Nina says. “What is that.”

Atsuko gestures toward the shuttle-like ship near them. “I’m not going get into the specifics, I don’t think you can comprehend them yet, but this is how we can transport the Femtonauts into the microdugneosn and get items back from them.”

“Wow!” Nina says.

Strelitzia sees that the gray marble has grown even grayer and the image of human skeletons on disks now adorns the orange and black walls. The oranges and browns on the walls also looked redder than on the previous floors.

“Are you—” Rose tries to ask

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Streltizia says. “Just stop asking that.”

Rose looks at Clover and Azalea’s faces, their concerned expressions tell a different tale.

“So we gots bulls and we got creepy murals,” Heathcliff says. “What’s next?”

“We have delved three floors deep so far,” Atsuko says. “There are some patterns, but we need to go deeper to confirm them.”

Streltizia sighs.

The group searches the maze for the next arch. The Coloraturas notice Streltizia’s unusual behavior has increased as they do. They eventually find it and use it to head to the next floor of the microdungeon.

✦✦✦

As the party travels through the microdugneon’s layers. Strelitzia sees reminders of her past. With each floor traversed, the whites on the columns and ceilings darken, and the bronze hues of the walls shift to a more rusted scarlet color with each floor traversed. The murals and statues add more details such as people lying on the ground, minotaur shepherds overseeing cauldrons, and a line of youths being led into the labyrinth corridors. The young girls grow further on edge with each passing floor.

They soon arrive on the fifth floor, the Doric columns are now more gray than white, and humanoid skeletons litter the floors.

The party passes by several weapons among the pile of skeletons. Nina and Rose sight an axe among the discarded arms. They remove the bladed weapons and move toward Strelitzia afterward.

“Hey!” Rose calls out to the minotauride. “Look what we found.”

Strelitzia sees a rusted axe in the lamia’s hand. The rust on the blade matches the hues of the foreboding walls. Strelitzia looks at the axe with apprehension.

“We notice you were struggling without your trusty labrys,” Rose says. “We found this, so we thought you could use it in the meantime!”

Strelitzia takes the rusty axe from Rose. “Thanks,” she says. She feels an imbalance in the weight of the axe.

“No problem!” Rose says with a smile as she slithers away.

Strelitzia takes a look at the coral-pink lamia. Nina looks at Stretlizia. “How long did you two meet?” the spiderling says.

“About a few years,” the minotauride says. “Why?”

“Was she your first friend?” Nina says.

“No,” Streltizia says. “Clover is.”

“Can you tell me how you met them?” Nina innocently asks.

Beads of sweat drip from Streltizia’s forehead. “Um, I—Um.”

“Hey, Nina!” Azalea swims towards the pair. “Want to hear some of my new material?”

The mermaid lures the spdierling away, to the minotauride’s relief.

Soon, Emily finds a red arch, with two keystones and four voussoirs. They use it to enter the sixth floor.

A while later they emerge from the arch with a keystone and six voussoirs, the mark of the seventh floor of the labrys’ microdugneon. Strelitzia is approached by Azalea.

“Can we talk?” the mermaid says.

“What do you mean?” Stretlizia tries to put up her usual tough personality, but Azalea sees through the facade.

“I have something I want to share,” the mermaid says. She gestures to a corner away from the others. Streltiiza is uncertain about following Azalea.

“Is this another one of your pranks?” she says.

“Nope,” Azalea says cheerily. “Now come on!” she grabs the minotaur’s arm and tugs her with her. Colver notices Azalea pulling Strelitzia and follows them.

The three arrive at the corner. “Fine, what it is?” Strelitzia says abrasively. Behind the trio is a horned shepherd-like figure wielding a pitchfork.

“I want to say I’m sorry. I haven’t been quite honest with you guys,” Azalea says.

“About what?” Clover says.

The clionid begins to tell her tale.

At the same time. Emily is searching for the arch. With her are Heathcliff and Atsuko.

“That last floor was rough,” the knight says.

“I’ll say,” Emily says. “I haven’t expected the skeletons to move around.”

“They seem to be more focused on flight than fight,” Atsuko says.

Heathcliff pinches his nose. “Ugh, this whole place smells like death warmed over.”

“It certainly feels less clean than the earlier floors,” Atsuko says she sees puddles of dried blood on the floor and walls.

Emily doesn't smell anything, to her surprise. “Huh what…”

“My nose is admittedly rather sensitive, cher,” Heathcliff says. “Not that most dungeons cared, of course. It actually came in handy when trying to find people.”

“Like a human bloodhound?” Emily says.

“Not quite,” Heathcliff says. “Those are usually over in Macedon, Gardenia, and Pacifica.”

“Noboru told me those tend to be a cynical bunch,” Atsuko says.

“They are rather loyal,” Heathcliff says. “Playful too when you earned their trust.”

“Um…” Emily says.

Elizabeth flutters in.

“Did you find something, Lizzie?” Emily says.

“Tim found the Arch,” the fairy answers. The group follows Elizabeth to where Tim is.

Meanwhile, Azalea finishes her story. Clover and Strreltizia are shocked to hear it.

“You…what?” Streltizia says. “Is this one of your stupid jokes?”

“It’s not!” Azalea insists. “And my jokes aren’t stupid!”

“Why tell us this?” Clover says.

“I knew you guys had to know eventually,” Azalea says. “But I wanted to make sure the time is right. Unfortunately, time decided to move up the schedule.”

Stretlizia notices black ooze dripping from her pores, mixing with the sweat.

“But that should be impossible?” Clover says.

“Should it?” Streltizia says. “After all, Emily and Rose managed to save Kaitlyn from herself, remember?”

“I’m sorry for not telling you sooner,” Azalea says.

“Why now?” the minotauroid asks.

“Well,” Azalea rubs the back of her head. “As I said time isn’t on our side. It’s always run away from us. But also…”

Clover begins to understand the mermaid’s motive. “You have faith in us, our friendship?”

“Of course I do,” Azalea says. “I think we’ve been through too much for something like silly little dark secrets to tear us apart.”

“Did Whisper knew?” Streltizia says.

“They asked that I wait until the time is right,” Azalea says.

“Have you told anyone else?” Clover says.

“Just Hydra, right now.”

Streltizia sighs. “Look I know what you’re trying to do, but I can’t tell you. I just can’t.”

“I understand,” Azalea says. “Just know that we won’t think less of you.” Azalea cheerfully swims away.

Streltizia sits down and breathes a heavy sigh Clover sits next to her.

“She’s right,” Clover says. “At least I think so.”

“I know,” Streltizia says. “But.”

“We’ve been through a lot back when we first met,” Clover says.

Strelitzia begins to recall how she met Clover. How her parents had brought her to her a month before a rite of passage.

“Things would’ve been different if we hadn’t met. So much simpler,” Strelitiza says.

“But we wouldn’t have met each other, or Rose, or Raine, or any of the others.”

“Should we tell them?” Streltizia wonders. The revelations of the mermaid have gripped her with fear. “I don’t want to be a monster, I really don’t.” She looks around at the grotesque trappings of the maze, the innards of her own labrys, imbued with her mana and memories from years of use. Reminders of a past that haunted her still.

“You know Rose tries to be a kind and accepting girl,” the fawn says.

“Yeah, and Raine tries to put up a front,” Stretlitzia says.

“And Lily is ever so cheerful,” Clover says.

“Too cheerful to be honest,” the minotaur says. “And we learned so much about Hydrangea back at that manor.”

“Tell me,” Clover says. “Are you thinking of abandoning Azalea after what she told you?”

“What? Of course not?”

Clover giggles. “I heard from Anemone that she is stuff suffering from nightmares.”

“Can’t be surprised. Those spiders know how to knock us out but they can’t prevent dreams from happening, can they?”

“Not that they wanted to to begin with,” Clover says. “The Arachne are always rather helpful.” She begins to stand up. “You remember what Charlotte told us.”

“The demon, the kids and mana entanglement right?”

“Do you think she is a monster?” Clover says.

“Of course not, Clover!” Streltizia glares. “What makes you think that?”

“I dunno, what makes you think our friends would leave us if they knew the truth?”

The question shocks Strelitzia. “The others were always gung ho about getting adopted if they found out how my parents died they—”

“I’m certain they would understand if they knew,” Clover says. “If they knew that you had no choice.”

Strelitzia sighs. “Rose is always prattling on about justice this, heroism that! How can you be so sure she won’t see me as a monster.”

“How are you so sure she will?” Clover asks. “After all she also wants to lend a helping hand to everyone she meets.”

“I’m…I—“ Strelitzia sighs. “Okay, you win.” She stands up. “We’ll tell Azalea at least.”

Clover smiles at Strelitzia’s response. “Thank you.”

“I can only hope you’re right,” the minotaur says.

A bright light soon engulfs them and everyone is whisked to the next floor.

✦✦✦

They eventually arrive at the ninth floor, as evidenced by the arch now having a keystone and four pairs of voussoirs. As well as the near-black columns and the near-red walls. The maze, despite the lack of wear on the walls or columns, gives the feeling of being more like a ruin.

Elizabeth and Heathcliff make sure everyone is accounted for. The rain intensifies as lighting is finally seen from the open sky above the labyrinth. For the first time, a replica of Streltizia’s labrys is also visible at the center of the maze.

“We’re almost there,” Atsuko says. “Who knows what secrets this maze yields.”

“Yeah,” Streltizia says. “Who knows? Hey, would it be alright if I talk to Azalea alone?”

The mermaid’s ears perk up upon hearing that.

Emily says, “Sure!”

“Is there something you want to say?” Azalea says.

“Not here,” the mintoauride whispers.

“Ah, gotcha,” Azalea says. The two wait until everyone else leaves to search the labyrinth for the next arch.

Clover looks back as she leaves with Rose and Lily.

“Look, what I am about to tell you is something I don’t want the others to know yet. Please keep this between us!”

“My lips are sealed!” Azalea says while bringing her fingers across her lips.

“Alright,” Strelitzia says. “Here goes…”

Meanwhile, Tim, Hydrangea, and Anemone confront a bull that is nearby. Throughout the party’s trek through the floors, they had observed the bull’s attributes and weaknesses. Anemone uses her darkness magic to befuddle the bull and cause it to see double. The bovine tries to gore Tim, but the ailment ensures it is unable to. Hydrangea tries to freeze the beast’s legs to immobilize it but even addle it can break through the ice binds. Tim deft misses its inaccurate charge and counters the bull with a simultaneous elbow and knee strike. The nightmarish bull is pushed back a few feet and slams into a wall. Time makes a charging step and follows up with palm strikes. Anemone steps on the shadow cast by the bull to prevent it from moving and Hydrangea assists her by freezing the Bull’s legs. The bull is unable to break free and the cyan-haired girl seals it in an icy coffin.

At the time time, Atsuko fires several arrows from the longbow. The shots hit a nearby bull and enfeeble with. Elizabeth and Emily use Bardsong to strike the bull with Lighting, the arrows being used to cause it to bound all over the bull’s body. The taurine beast is felled.

Elizabeth sneezes. “We should’ve brought an umbrella,” the fairy laments.

“How is the Avatara functioning, Emily?” Atsuko says.

“It’s doing great.” Emily looks at the various walls. She sees the grotesque images on them and wonders how much of them is the result of the labrys and how it is from Stretlizia’s memories. Heathcliff meanwhile fights another bull as the walls shift around them. He manages to block its attempt to gore him.

“Woo-ee, a swamp would smell better than you,” He says to the beast. The bull charges at Heathcliff, but he rolls out of the way and his horns instead collide with the wall. The walls shift and Emily and her group find Heathcliff fighting the bull. Emily hums three notes to enchant her blades in light as she helps her dungeon master fight off the bull.

Through the combined efforts of Heathcliff, Emily, Atsuko, and Elizabeth, the beast eventually falls.

“These bulls are a load,” Heathcliff says. “Why are they so tough?”

“That might be because Sarah and Richard upgraded the labrys,” Elizabeth says. “The Cyberowkrs were designed to be adaptive remember?”

“…oh,” Heathcliff says.

“We should get moving,” Emily says. The part contineus their search frot eh arch.

While the others were searching for the arch. “So there you have it,” Strelitzia finishes.

Azalea makes a surprised expression. “…wow. So you did..?”

The minotauride nods.

The room where they were talking stays silent for a few moments. “I don’t know what to say,” Azalea says.

Streltizia sighs. “Are you—“

“I do now I’m not leaving you behind!” Azalea interrupts. “You did it to save Clover from being eaten right?”

“Yes.”

“And they were blocking you from doing that?”

“Right.”

“It’s not the ideal outcome,” Azalea says. “But I understand at least.”

Streltitzia feels like a weight has been lifted from her. She observes her arms and can see no trace of the black ooze.

“I’m glad you were able to get that off you chest,” the mermaid says. “I don’t think I could stomach being in your shoes that day.”

Strelitzia chuckles before catching herself. There is a suddenly flash of blinding light as levin touches the ground.

“Don’t worry,” the blue haired mermaid says. “I won’t tell a peep. You should be the one to tell them.”

“I know,” the minotauride says. “I will, when I’m ready.”

“So with that out of the way…” Azalea says.

“I think you should be the one to tell them about yourself,” the orange-haired girl says. “It just doesn't feel right for me to tell them.”

“Understood!” Azalea playfully salutes as she says that.

“So you say you don’t really much before that?”

“Nope,” Azalea says. “Could barely recall my parents.”

“I’m sorry,” Stretlizia says.

“If not your fault,” Azalea says

“No I mean for not trusting you more.”

“Oh,” Azalea says. “Don’t worry about that. All water under the bridge now.”

A second flash engulfs them, and when it fades they too vanished.

✦✦✦

The party arrives at the tenth floor of the microdungeon of Stretlizia’s labrys. They immediately notice that this floor is vastly different from the previous one. Instead of a maze, a pitch-black amphitheater looms over them.

“Everyone ready?” Emily says.

Tim, Elizabeth, Heathcliff, Atsuko, Nina, and most of the Coloraturas give their responses. The one exception is Strelitzia. The minotauride is lost in thought over the sight of the amphitheater. She recalls that the labrys she wielded were given to her as a part of her rite of passage, imported by Macedon itself and gifted from her parents. It was her only memento of her parents. She recalls who was the first to bleed by its blades with a lamentation of the irony involved.

“I’m ready,” Strelitzia says. “Let’s put this labor to rest.”

The party enters the amphitheater. Prepared to face what lies within. They rush into the center of the structure, surrounded by specters of minotaurs on the seats of the arena.

“What is this place?” Rose says.

“Seems like the people here want a show,” Azalea says.

Emily looks up at the sky. The tessellations visible through the eye of the storm above reveal the world outside the microdugneon. A ground trebles and quakes as the phantom speculators ritualistically cheer for the emerging beast. The core of the labrys microdungeon.

A two-headed bull lands at the center of the amphitheater, it looms over the part with its labrys. Chains are seen around its torso and arms. But they do not connect to bull to anyone. Its body holds patterns resembling Macedonian art on its arms and chest, as well as patches of fur that resemble wounds.

Stretlizia takes a look at the eyes of the beast. Cold, dead, lifeless, yet ravenous, wild and manic. She notices that one of the heads has broken horns while the other has sharpened ones.

“This looks like a rather, bullheaded individual.” Azalea quips.

Emily notices that, unlike the more human-shaped heads of minotaurs like Strelitzia, the two-headed monsters are more bestial, closer to the heads of the bulls they encountered here in the microdungeon.

The beast makes the first strike, swinging its chained labrys at the earth. Everyone leaps to avoid the shockwave. While in the air, Emily uses lightning magic to try to slay the beast, but the twin-headed behemoth’ shrugs off the shocking spell like it had a body of rubber.

One of the heads opens its wide maw, revealing teeth that are both irregularly spaced and serrated. Its forked tongue hangs outside its mouth as it launches fireballs from the mouth.

The rain does little to stop the black fire from erupting from the bull’s maw. Amenonie realizes that the dark fire is actually curse magic and rushes everyone to stay away from it.

The fireballs land on the ground. Hydrangea creates a shield by freezing the rin and preventing the fire from reaching them. She then takes her grimoire and taps thaumaturgical glyphs from its pages, manifesting a spell that turns the thunderstorm into a snowstorm. The snow does little to prevent the beast’s advances towards her.

Streltizzia and Clover see Hydrangea is about to be attacked. “No no no!” she cries out as she rushes to her friend’s aid, with Clover changing the wind direction to help the minotaur move faster.

She successfully blocks the opponent’s own axe with the rusted one Rose gave her, but the clash causes the smaller and rusty axe to shatter into dozens of metal shards. Nina tried to use her web to root the beast to the ground, but the wet mud beneath meant that the two-headed monster was able to move their legs despite that.

Stretlizia and Hydrangea try to fight off the beast while Heathcliff tries to grab its attention. Emily and Tim launch an assault of blade slashes and rapid thrusts against the Axe-wielding bull.

The monster rears its axe high up in the sky. Its two heads snort as it prepares to slam it into the increasingly snow-cloaked mud. As it does so. Rose uses her staff and rapidly channels lightning towards the axe before slithering towards it thrusting with the thin sword. Unlike Emily’s attack prior, Rose’s spells were able to stun the beasts. Nina takes the opportunity to disarm the monster by using her web to pull the large axe away. The bull manages to grip the chain.

Azalea swims to Streltizia and the two girls combine their powers to manipulate the mod, Rine then swipes in and uses her staff to set it ablaze and dry off the mud covering the feet of the bull. The beast is trapped for a few moments.

“Stre, over here!” Nina beckons to Streltizia and tries to hand the heavy axe. The minotauride tries to lift the heavy axe, but its weight means that she cannot wield it properly. Worse still the two-headed bull has its grip on the chain attached to it.

The trapped bill tugs at the chain, pulling Streltizia closer to closer to it. As she tries to lift the axe, thoughts race into her mind. Memories of her time with her parents, her first encounter with Clover. The times she had talked to her against her parent’s wishes and finally their escape.

Filled with determination and adrenaline, she lifts the axe and swings it over her shoulder. The tension on the chain, as both the bull and Streltizia pull the weapon in opposite directions, causes it to break. With the chain broken Strletizlia is free to rush forward and attack the monster.

“You. Will. Not. Hurt. My. Friends!” she cries with each step she takes. She swings the heavy axe and strikes the side of the monster.

With the landing of the attack, she flashes back to a memory of her and Clover looking over the corpses of her parents, tears streaming from her eyes as their faces are frozen in horror. Before returning to the present and moving the large axe in a crescent arc.

The phantasmal crowd gasps as they witness their idol now has a gaping wound on its chest. The gladiatorial two-headed bull bellows in agony at the mortal wound and desperately spells toxic miasma from the other head in a desperate bid to take the opponents down with it.

Emily, Tim, Elizabeth, and Clover counter with wind magic and technique that blow the miasma away and back towards the bull. The mist accelerates the already certain demise of the two-headed bull. It struggles to get up as flesh begins to melt off its bones. The corrosive mist causes it to crash onto the ground with a heavy thud before before dissipating. The corpse is soon buried in snow as the ghastly spectators vanish.

Breathing heavily, Streltizia drops the heavy weapon and collapses to her knees. Clover and Azalea rush to her.

“Stre!” the peryton fawn cries. “Are—”

“I’m fine,” Streltizia says. “Just need time to breathe.”

The snow stops and the storm faces. The light shines on the ebon amphitheater

A moment later, Strelitzia stands up. Fighting every urge to scream into the heavens in triumph.

Atsuko looks at the children. “We have defeated the core, for now at least.”

“For now?” Streltizia asks.

“Atsuko nods. “I hypothesize that, unlike other dungeon cores, the microdugneons will repair their cores to protect the integrity of the item. As such if we return here again there is a high probability we will have to fight the monster again.”

“I …I understand.” She stands up. “Of course, it wouldn't be that easy.” She looks at the blade of the giant axe and recognizes it as her own labrys, only larger. The weapon begins to shrink bereft of its wilder and the chains that bind it. Atsuko takes the axe in her hands.

“Fascinating,” she says. “It matches the original perfectly!” the teal-haired nekomata turns to the minotauride. “Do you want this?’

“I’m good,” Streltizia says. “I don’t think I could hold two axes at once.”

“Understandable.”

“Does this mean…?” Emily asks

“We have enough data from this microdugneon. We can return now.” Atsuko takes the weapon to the Takarabune.

“Good, I’m tired,” Streltizia says.

“We still have a few guests comign over later,” Heathcliff says. “We still have to greet them, cher.”

Streltizia eyes widens in shock of her forgetting about the guests. “On second through, can we stay here for a day, get some rest?”

“The time dilation would allow, that,” Atsuko says while flashing a sly smile. “Take your time.”

“Thank you,” Streltizia collapses onto the ground, excused physcially and mentally.

Rose and Clover overlook their tired friend. “You did well, Stre!” Rose says.

A while alter, after everyone is well rested, they Femtonatus board the Takarabune and it prepares to exit the microdugneon. Refereed to as the Labrys Labyrinth by Atsuko pending a better name.

✦✦✦

After returning from hyperbolic space. The Coloraturas prepare for the dungeon’s next visitors. The first was a barbarian-looking man accompanied by a druid and an archer. They had edged out a victory over those, the second was against a group of fellow witches. They triumphed then as well. The last proved to be insurmountable for the eight friends as they involved eight Arachne pugilists from nearby Websdale.

That night, after a very long first day as Sentinels. The Colortruas prepare for bed. As Lydia and her assistants prepare them for sleep, they ask the girls about their day. They talked about their encounters with the visiting adventures and the microdugneon. Strelitzia meanwhile is lost in thought.

“Mom, Dad,” she thinks. “Why?” Her mind is left with many questions about how things turned out the way they did. Azalea turns to the minotauride and winks at her. Strelitzia smiles back, knowing that at least the mermaid could be trusted with the knowledge of what happened on that fateful day. “Someday,” she thinks. “I’ll tell them.”

A while later. Lydia uses her hypnotic gaze to beckon the Coloraturas to slumber. The children’s eyes glaze over as they drift off to sleep. Once her tasks are complete, Lydia cheerfully checks on if the other children near them are ready to nap. Hopeful that Emily can protect them from the advent of their most dangerous visitor yet. As she leaves, she notices Streltizia smiling in her sleep, for the first time ever, Lydia can tell her rest will be peaceful tonight.

✦✦✦

That night, The Engines continued their rampage through New Virginia. A village burns in their wake as the dungeon core marches with his mechanical army.

Carnegie’s stoic expression hides a face of concern for his liege. “Sire, I know the village is in the way, but don’t you think this is a bit too much.”

The Baron Roberts turns towards his Dungeon Master. “We must make haste,” he says. “Every second we waste dawdling is a second that wretched dungeon has to prepare.”

“I’m well aware,” Carnegie says. “Surely there could’ve been another route,” he thinks.

“I will absorb that dungeon,” the Baron says. “Then I will get my vengeance on that damned cat!”

As the villager flee from the machines. A young boy with a plush bear sights the bronzed steam-powered armor of the Baron. His face is frozen in horror as his sister arrives to drag him away from the chaos. The Kybernetes and the Cells gather as many victims as he can, under the orders of the Dungeon, wanting to see is he is able to absorb them and their mana like he could Dungeon cores. “Its their fault for being in the way,” the Baron thinks. “But now, they will be apart of something grander their their miserable little existences.”

After the villages had either escaped or been capture, the army moves forward. The Piper Pruflas watches the fire in the distance.

“And you too, will be made part of something. An existence that’s grander than your own.”