Genesis Locorum

While Emily and her group are heading towards the factory on Joyfuller Island. Heathcliff and Elizabeth head to the guild hall at Rosenkreuz.

“You think Emily and Tim can handle this on their own?” Elizabeth says.

“They’re on their own?” Heathcliff asks with a heavy laugh. “Cher, they had Esteban with them, I trusts him to keep them safe.”

Elizabeth is curious about Heathcliff’s history with Esteban Hernandez and Chiron. “How long had you three known each other.”

“Ever since I left ol’ Charlie.” Heathcliff and Elizabeth arrive at the guild halls’ doors. “Now let’s come see what Pauline wants.”

The two find Pauline working at the counter this time, a slimonid adventurer is already there. His gelatinous body is clad in a brass suit of armor, containing his slime body from the neck down.

“Sorry that adventure was a bust, hon,” Pauline says.

“It’s okay,” the green slimomind says. “I’ll find another way to stabilize my body.” He walks away, dripping a green fluid from the spaces between his armor’s plates.

Heathcliff and Elizabeth approach the counter. “Bonjour, cher. What’s up?”

Pauline sees Heathcliff and hands him a paper. “This is a notice from Cerberus, dears.”

Reading over it, the red-haired knight learns that the notice warns of vanishing dungeons in the region, just a stone’s throw to the west of Rosenkreuz. As well as a lesser string of other areas seeing dungeons mysteriously vanishing in the night and sightings of steam-powered automata.

Elizabeth finds this news disturbing. “How on Titania are [Dugneons] just disappearing.”

“That’s what the local guild wants to know too,” Paule says. “Please be careful, dears.”

“Don’t worry,” Heathcliff says. “I’ll make sure Emily is safe.”

“Where is she anyway?” Pauline says.

“She’s at Joyfuller Island,” Elizabeth says.

Pauline is surprised to hear the fairy’s response. “Joyfuller? Did those girls want to go to the carnivals there?”

“Long story, cher,” Heathcliff says. “Any dungeons here up and left?”

“Fortunately,” Pauline says. “Our other dungeons are accounted for. Though I heard that a Mythril Natural Dungeon near Noir was among the missing dungeons.”

“Mythril huh?” Heathcliff says. He wonders if this is related to the factory Emiyl and Esteban are investigating. “Thanks again, cher.”

“My pleasure,” Pauline says. “Do be careful dears.”

Heathcliff and Elizabeth leave. Elizabeth is wondering why the dungeons are disappearing.

✦✦✦

Over the next hour. The group drives towards the new rouge dungeon. Esteban has cloaked everyone as the two vehicles and their two followers drive down the highway.

“Richard used Orichalcium for these armors,” Esteban says, his car had Emily in the passenger side and Rose, Raine, and Streltizia in the back. Lily gallops behind the car with Azalea swimming beside her.

“He did,” Emily says. “Why do you ask.”

“It should protect us from the Mythril projectiles,” Esteban says.

Rose complains in the backseat. Her tail is laid out on the floor where Raine and Strelitzia’s feet and hooves respectively push on it. “Raine, your talons are too digging into my tail!”

“This car is too small!” Raine says.

“My apologies,” Esteban says. “They were rentals. And the lot didn’t have any models accommodating for demi-humans.”

Streltizia reclines a little. Her hooves squeeze the tip of Rose’s tail. “Ow!” Rose says

“Sorry,” the minotaur girl says.

In Julia’s car. She asks Hydrangea, Clover, and Anemone about their run-ins with the mob. Tim is riding in the passenger side.

“We often encounter them while patrolling the Underground Neighborhoods,” Hydrangea says.

“How so? Tim says.

“A lot of them tend to try to racketeer on the streets, usually in places they know the Guards won’t tread.”

“Let me guess,” Julia says. “Grimly alleyways, sewer entrances, and anywhere where they risk dirties their pretty little boots?” Julia says,

“That sounds about right,” Anemone says.

“Small wonder their reports claim there is nothing to report,” Julia says.

Lily keeps pace with the two vehicles. Azalea swims above the centaur, trying to encourage it to continue.

“So…tired.” Lily breaths heavily after galloping fifty miles in ten minutes.

“You can do it, Lily!” Azalea says, using her water magic to keep her hydrated. “Show them the true meaning of horsepower.”

The group drives through a fence opening, breaking the dungeon's perimeter. They find an empty parking lot and everyone exits their vehicles. Lily plops her rear on the ground to catch her breath, the hind legs spread.

Raine and Streltizia exit the car first, much to Rose’s tail’s pain. “Note to self,” Emily thinks. “Ask if Heathcliff and the dwarves can get a customized vehicle.” Rose leaves after them and rubs her serpentine tail.

Everyone in Julia’s car also exits the vehicle. They see Azalea playing with some water constructs she made from the water vapor.

Esteban sees the factory in the distance. “The ‘employees’ should be gone, but we should still expect some resistance. This is still a Dungeon after all, and one involved with the Syndicate at that.”

“We need to be careful,” Emily says as she gestures to the girls.

“Got it!” the Coloraturas say.

Tim wonders if the Magical Girls can handle this type of dungeon, and how effective the Cyberworks armor is at protecting them from bullets.

Esteban refreshes the duration of his cloak and then scouts ahead for patrols. He sees a small manticore being led around by a Vanisher, as they enter a building. Esteban approaches the entrance and sees it is locked by mystical wards.

Esteban returns to the party. “They had warded the place. We’ll need to find a Unseal to enter.”

“An Unseal?” Emily says.

“A spell used to break wards,” Anemone says. “It takes the form of an enchanted item.”

“Ah,” Emily says.

Esteban addresses the group sans Julia. “I am unable to refresh the cloaking magic anymore. The spell will fade in a few minutes. When that does we would be at risk of being seen by the Vanishers. Be careful.”

With the warning given, Emily and her group sneak around the perimeter, looking for the Unseal.”

✦✦✦

The cloaking magic fades as the group draws near a watchtower near the factory. They hide behind some creates and overhear two Vanishers.

“Ey Bugs,” one of them says. “Youse heard about what happened to the base in Cerberus?”

“The place that just up in vanished?” Bugs says. “Ay, Pinky. I know.”

“Think the boss had decided to get rid of the place?” Pinky says.

“Hell if I know,” Bugs says. “All I heard was claims that dungeons in the region just poofed away.”

“Disappearing Dungeons?” Emily whispers.

The group sees two manticores exiting the watchtower, and Bugs and Pinky entering the tower in their place.

“These beasts will be easier to lure away,” Tim says.

“Leave it to me!” Azalea whispers. She uses her expertise as a prankster to create a trick for the brutish monsters. Conjuring up a small rain cloud that causes a nearby mobster to get wet.

“What is the—” The hapless mobster’s clothing becomes soaked.

Rose chases a spell. A lightning bolt emerges from the rain cloud and hits a nearby crate. The boom of the thunder alerts the two beasts. They leave their post in search of the source.

With the manticores distracted, Emily and her friends break the watchtower. They see the two men at the top of the tower, looking not at the soaked mobster or the errant beasts, but instead at the factory itself.

“Why do we bother with sitting at this place?” Pinky says. “No one ever comes here!”

“You want to anger the capo?” Bugs says. “He made it clear that this place is to be secured at all times.”

“You think adventurers would waltz into this place all the way out on Joyfuller Island?” Pinky says unaware of the presence of Emily and her group.

“I could go for some all-the-way right now,” Bugs says.

Rose’s stomach growls. “He’s not the only one,” she whispers.

Julia sees that the two men are distracted and that Pinky has a glowing object in their back pocket. She turns to her husband. “You want force of finesse?”

“I don’t think Finesse is possible,” Esteban whispers.

Julia nodes and sneaks onto the top floor of the tower, her deft footfalls ensuring she isn’t prematurely caught as she silently approaches the two men. She then pokes Bug’s on the shoulder.

“What the—” Bug was immediately knocked out of the tower. Pinky tries to punch her, but she dodges and shanks him for his efforts. With the man downed she relieves him of his unseal. She turns to the others. “They’ll be coming here soon.

Hydrangea creates an ice path for the group to safely descend from the tower. Raine melts it and Azalea takes the icemelt water with her for later use. Emily is a little disturbed by most of the girls’ lack of disturbance towards Julia’s attack.

They sneak towards the entrance of the entrance. After making sure there is no one around, Julia takes the glowing object and presents it towards the door.

The door glows brightly bright enough to be noticed by a nearby Vanisher and two manticores. Tim immediately makes a charging step while Emily sings three notes to strike the manticores with lightning.

The mobster tries to block Tim’s punches and elbow strikes before reinforcements arrive, but Tim knocks him off his feet. Before his fall, the mobster presses a device on his coat that triggers the alarm.

Emily and her group are surrounded by manticore, led by five vanishes. The beasts attack with their feline claws and scorpion stingers while the mobsters attempt to aim at the intruders.

Azalea drenches two of the mobsters with her icemelt and Rose strikes them with lightning.

One of the manticores tries to attack Clover, but she uses her wind magic to propel her away and the attack instead hits another mobster. Anemone uses her gravity magic to make the guns too heavy to lift.

“You dastards!” one of the mobsters shouts before Streltilitiza conks him with her axe. The manticores try to attack her, but Julia lands sneak attacks on them that kill the beasts.

Emily, Tim, Esteban, and Julia rush into the factory with the Coloraturas following suit.

“So much for the element of surprise,” Emily says.

“The Varnishers will be on high alert,” Esteban says.

“Hah,” Rose quips. “Criminal scum like them are no match for the Coloraturas.”

The group follows the corridor into a large factory floor.

✦✦✦

At the factory floor, Emily and her friends see molten metal flowing into bullet molds, the red-hot casings are placed onto conveyor belts attended by several factory workers. They all give the impression that they were not here willingly. Their arms and legs are cuffed to the conveyor belts.

“These are…” Clover says with horror.

“Likely abducted by the Vanishers,” Esteban says.

“Typical,” Hydrangea says.

“That’s horrible!” Lily says.

“It’s what they do,” Raine says.

The group hears a voice from above barking unreasonable orders to the factory slaves with the tone of a man uncaring for their well-being. Clover sees the man and glares at him, before rushing towards him.

“Clover!” Strelitzia rushes after the peryton fawn. Clover reaches the center of the floor and shouts at the boss. “Hey!” she shouts at the mobster. She then uses her fan to channel a surge of wind that destroys the platform he is standing on causing him to plummet to the ground.

The slaver turns down the young girl.

“Who do you think you are?” Clover says to the mobsters. “Forcing these innocent people to do your bidding.”

“I could say the same thing about you, missy,” the mobster says while standing up and dusting off his suit. He takes his hammer out. The Warhammer glows with mana.

Clover silently glares at the mobster.

“Not gonna sing?” the man says. “I’ll go first then, They call me the Whacker.” He brandishes his weapon and tries to swing at Clover, but Strelitizia intercepts the attack and clashes with the man. “Only one getting Whacked her is you!” Strelitzia says.

Three doors open behind the Whacker. Each contains a pair of Manticores. The six manticores move in front of the others, preventing most of them from assisting Clover and Strelitzia.

Hydrangea and Emily attempt to free the slaves but find that wards were placed on the bindings. Tim uses his wind magic to propel himself behind the Whacker and strikes at him. Rose, Azalea, Raine, and Lily deal with the manticores. Esteban and Julia search for the Unseal and Emily takes a page from Elizabeth’s book and sings to enchant everyone’s weapon.

Rose takes out her new sword, a rapier that uses her Rainbow Rose-tiped staff as a sheathe. Sparks fly as she thrusts with her new weapon.

Raine takes her rings and throws them onto another of the manticores. The chakrams blaze bright as they slash the beasts. Lily charges with her spear, using her magic to make it blindingly bright as she approaches the manticore.

Azalia swims around, annoyed by the smoke the smelted mythril produces, and uses her water to cool the molten metal. She uses her knife to direct the water over the metal. A manticore attempts to swipe at her, but she dodges with a swim and counters with a slash of her knife and a dolphin kick.

Emily, Julia, and Esteban fight the remaining three beasts. The one in the middle attempts to poison Emily with its stinger. She does it and slides beneath it, her two swords slashing at the chimera underbelly as she does so. Esteban and Julia work in tandem to defeat the one on the left, with Julia’s enchanted knife allowing her to slash the stinger off the beast. The rightmost one is defeated by all three attacking with dark magic.

Tim, Clover, and Strelitzia fight the Whacker. Clover uses her fan to make larger gusts of wind that blow the mobster back. Strelitzia tries to swing her axe, but the Whacker dodges and slams his hammer at her knees. Knocking her to the ground. Clover uses her fan and staff to create a mighty wind that lifts herself in the air. “What excuse do you have for this?”

The Whacker chuckles. “It’s not like these Exsecreatii’re good for anything else. Lazy good-fer-nuthings.”

Clover is angered by his responses she tries to conjure a spell, but as she does, she suddenly feels a sense of pain. She grabs her shoulder as she plummets to the ground.

Gunners arrive on the upper balconies of the floor, firing at everyone on the floor, regardless of who.

Emily sees the gunmen and parries their bullets as she forces her way upstairs. Esteban and Julia use their abilities to hinder the snipers’ accuracy. Emily arrives on the balconies and draws the gunmen’s fire, dodging their bullets and retaliating with her Chakram and spells of fire, ice, and lightning. One by one, the gunmen are disarmed.

Strelitzia tends to Clover, who is still holding her shoulder. The bullet had bounced off from the fawn’s skin, providing a wound, but the projectile’s force was still enough to break her focus and cause her to plummet. Tim is left to face the Whacker.

“Any more tricks?” the martial artist says.

The Whacker’s reinforcement has been whittled down to nothing, but the man’s pride forbade him from admitting defeat. He attempts to slam his hammer on Tim, but he merely dodges. An Angered Streltizia was the one that dealt the finishing blow. With a mighty swing of her labrys, the mobster is disarmed. His hammer lands on the ground with a mighty thud. Clover stands on her hooves, having recovered from the wound.

The mobster is defeated, but he attempts to fight even though his body is being turned into golden dust. “No!” the Whacker says. “I can handle these fools. I can HANDLE THEM!” The Sentinel vanishes before he can land a punch.

The wards over the slaves are suddenly dispelled and they are freed from their shackles. The freed hostages thank their saviors.

“Where is the core?” Esteban asks one of the freed abductees. They point towards the door. “I think they are on the highest floor, these stairs will take you up!”

“Thank you!” Esteban says.

“You should get out of here!” Rose says. “It is not safe here.”

“It’s also not safe outside,” Raine reminds Rose.

“We need to absorb the core,” Emily says. “I think it would stop them.” She turns to Clover. “Clover, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Clover says. “It’s gonna take a lot more than bullets to stop a magical girl!” Lily and Streltizia.

Tim turns to Emily. He sees that her expression bears doubt and intuits that she is uncertain about letting the Coloraturas accompany her. Clover soon heads towards the door the freed slaves pointed to. “This way, right?” Her strides show her being no worse for wear. Yet Emily still harbors doubts, yet she also realizes that it is too dangerous for them to leave alone while the Vanishers prowl the factory.

They head towards the large door. A chest emerges to the right, and inside the coffer are several Mythril items, including a gun with some of the bullets. Emily takes the gun and ammunition, not wanting anyone to use them. She sees a slab beneath a case of bullets. It reads “Plea5e, h3lp me.” The message is barely legible, but it is enough for Emily to know that the dungeon itself is suffering.

The group delves deeper into the dungeon.

✦✦✦

Emily, Tim, Esteban, Julia, and the Coloraturas arrive at a fork in the hallway. A sign hangs on the wall. Reading that the left path leads to an area called “Foundry” while the right led to a place called “Casting mold production”

“‘Foundry’?” Emily asks.

“It’s the use of molds to create metal, right?” Rose says.

Hydrangea expresses surprise that Rose knew that.

“What?” Rose says. “I paid attention in class…sometimes.”

“This won’t help us find the core,” Julia says.

Strelitzia notices a look on Clover’s face as she looks to the right.

“Let’s take the right, it might be closer to the core!” Clover says

“Are you sure?” Emily says. “The left might be safer.”

“I doubt it,” Esteban says. “The Vanishers likely have Sentinels on both ends.”

“It is also possible that the dungeon’s core might be guarded by both,” Tim says. “Perhaps it is best if we split up, and cover both paths.”

“Alight, then,” Azalea says while swimming towards Emily. “I’ll follow Emmy to the left.”

Anemone takes out her bow. “Me too.”

Rose slithers to Clover. “I’ll help Clover with the right. Streltizia is already at Clover’s side her stance already made clear.

“Great idea,” Azalea says. “Take the mold makers by storm.”

“I’ll keep an eye on them,” Julia says.

“Thanks,” Esteban says.

Lily and Raine follow Clover while Hydrangea follows Emily. Tim goes with Clover’s group to ensure the children are unharmed.

The groups are settled, Emily, Esteban, Anemone, Azalea, Hydrangea, and Lily head to the Foundry while Clover, Strelitzia, Raine, Rose, Julia, and Tim take the right path towards the part of the factory where the molds are made.

✦✦✦

Emily’s group arrives at the Foundry part of the dungeon. The group feels the heat rising as they enter their room, and beads of sweat begin dripping from their skin. Signs are plastered all around the areas warning of the extreme heat. There they see a more elaborate and automated setup, devoid of any people, not even the Vanisher is present. Instead, there are monsters made of metallic sludge patrolling the area. Their hands and legs glow with an incandescent orange and red hue.

“These are Surtrians,” Anemone says.

Emily observes the monsters. One of them holds their arm over a mold, and the molten hand drips liquid metal from the palm.

“Those shouldn't be here. Noir is nowhere near any volcanoes,” Hydrangea says.

“We can add illegal importation of monsters to the list of the Syndicate’s activities.” Esteban notices something is off. “Except, how were they able to smug several six-foot-tall monsters made of metal and magma without anyone noticing?”

“Magma and metal?” Emily says. She recalls her trek through Gatsby Tower with Kasumi and also her ability to generate mist. She develops a plan for getting past these creatures and neutralizing their convection. She loses her charm before preparing a Bardsong incantation.

“Frozen song of ice, sheath us in the cold,” Emily quietly sings. “Protect us from the heat, as we cut down these molds.” An aura of ice mana enveloped the mana. Lily shivers from the enchantment.

Azalea rubs her hands. “They need to chill out anyway. Blow off some steam.” She uses the water vapor from the hallway and moves it into the factory, before the water can evaporate, Emily and Hydrangea coordinate to chill the surrounding air enough to keep the water liquid.

The metal monsters express confusion about the orbs of water coming at them, as they collide, steam forms around them. Soon the room is filled with a fog of steam. The presence of the water vapor and Emily and Hydrangea’s spells lowered the temperature down to the point where they could enter deeper into the room without fear of burning.

The Surtrians feel their bodies harden from the chilled air as everyone moves past them. One of the monsters is rendered unable to move. Its body was rendered sessile from the inability to melt.

Those that can still move, notice the party and try to strike them with their hardened arms, but their cumbersome movements are easily dodged. Esteban uses a kick to cause one of the monsters to topple and fall on another. Emily uses her Cocytus’ Flurry attack to freeze another in the steam. Anemone fires an arrow into the shadow of a Surtrian conjured by Lily’s light and uses the enchanted arrow to bind it in place.

A few minutes later Hydrangea uses her grimoire to turn the steam into a blizzard that slows the remaining Surtrians down to stillness. In the aftermath of the battle, the furnaces were rendered inoperable and the room’s temperature stays at a low enough level for Emily and her group to safely traverse.

They soon enter a hallway at the other end of the Foundry. Charred corpses and refuse litter the corridor.

“Gross,” Azalea says.

Esteban noticed the remains were recent. He examines one of them and intuits that the Varnishers had killed some of their victims by locking them in the foundry.

Emily feels the temperature rising as they approach the edge of the corridor. She repeats her incantation to keep everyone cool enough to fight. They enter a large room with a giant furnace in the center.

✦✦✦

Meanwhile, Clover’s group has finished defeating mobsters in the mold-making part of the factory. Unconscious bodies litter the floor. Clover sees a door to the side of the aftermath and enters it. Her hooves trot into an office filled with several documents.

The others follow the peryton into the office and look over some of the files. One document catches Julia’s interest. Titled “Project Stronghold, Day#412” It is written in the Sigurdtienian language, but notes to the side translate it into Albionan.

Cover sees another document, a memo from a few months back that tells of an operation to claim a dungeon core and infuse it to a man named “Joe the Hazard.” She looks over the documents and is mortified by what they are.

“An artificial dungeon?” Clover says.

Julia gathered as many of the documents as she could. “The Rouges will need to bring these documents to light.”

Strelitzia, Rose, and Raine meanwhile talk about Clover.

“Seems she is riled up tonight,” Rose says.

Raine looks at Clover, noticing an expression of sorrow, shock, and rage.

Strelitzia finds another memo, mentioning the string of dungeon cores going missing at Cerberus in the past few days. And also a few quips about competition for their plans.

Clover finds a strange document. Labeled “Captives (Fawn)”. She curiously takes a look at the document, hoping to find certain names among the list of Fawns abducted by the mob. She pours over the document but does not recognize any of the names. She sighs. Strelitzia sees her and tries to approach her, but she trips to a file cabinet. Raine notices the fallen Minotaur and picks her up. “Thanks,” she says. Raine aloofly ignores her gratitude.

“Raine’s in one of those moods huh?” Rose says.

“Moods?” Tim is confused.

“I’m not in a mood!” Raine says with a raised voice that contradicts her statement. “I’m just mulling over some things.” She looks at Clover, aware that she is still looking for her parents, and sighs.

Rose looks at the phoenixian girl. Ever since they had met, Rose knows that Raine had no recollection of her parents. She is the only one among the Coloraturas that does not know what they look like. Let alone if they are even alive or not.

The lamia slithers to Raine, “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find those memories of them one day.”

“It’s not about that,” Raine lies. Rose sees her microexpressions tell the truth and chides her for trying to hide her true feelings.

“I’m not!” Raine says. “Ugh, let’s get going.” She wants to not discuss this with her or anyone else.

Tim sees the two children and notices something odd. Julia notices Tim’s curious expression. “Thinking of something?”

The martial artist turns to the assassin. “All of these girls are orphans yes?” Tim says. “But they surely must have other family members living in Noir. Why were they living at the diner?”

Julia notices the oddity in this. “From what I heard from Esteban, their family had gone to extant family members first, but they either were not living in the city or considered them cursed.”

“Cursed…” Tim did observe them occasionally sweating out a dark fluid, one he assumed was something else.

“The people in the city that were related to them think them the cause of their deaths. And those that do not think this way are too far away to even know of them.”

“Hydrangea and Anemone seem to be more…refined,” Tim says, noting his observations of their behavior differ slightly from the other six. “What about their families.”

“That I do not know,” Julia says. She is uncertain about Anemone, suspecting she might be connected to the Syndicate in some manner.

Clover soon finds a map of the factory with places marked denoting the presence of Sentinel. As well as notes claiming that the Core is warded and that the defeat of these sentinels would unseal the ward.

The group left the offices with several documents in tow. They are surprised by the lack of mafioso in the building, save the ones that were either stunned or slain. Clover rushes ahead of the group with a look of determination in her eyes. “This way!” she says leading them to an empty room.

Clover takes out her fan. “I know there’s a Sentinel here. Show yourself!”

Tim senses something nearby as the group hears noises clanging above them.

Rose approaches Clover. “Are you okay Clo?”

“Of course, Rosie,” she says in her usual air-headed effect. But Rose senses something off about her. Not the most obscure is how suddenly the fawn went from demanding a fight to her normal tone of voice. It was a shift that is eerie to Rose and Raine, but not to Streltizia.

Strelitzia approaches the center of the room. “You heard her! Come on out you coward!”

A voice echoes out towards them. “So the rats are looking to meet the exterminator huh?”

“We’re not the ones harming innocents here!” Clover shouts in her ditsy tone. The contrast between her statement and tone is unnerving. “Nor are we one forcing people to work against their will!”

More clanging is heard. “Oh, right some of you are Witches. Typical. Wide-eyes lasses and lads think yourselfs bringer of justice in this dog-eat-dog word. Yet people tend to die around you, curious.” The dungeon’s remarks confuse Rose.

Rose addresses the dungeons. “What are you talking about, we try to save people from the likes of you and your Vanishers.”

“Oh you sweet summer children,” the dungeon retorts. “Well ignorance is bliss, and I’d nothing if not merciful. So let me spare you the pain of having the learn the truth.”

The ground rumbles as everyone hears clanging on the walls. A mechanical Sentinel lands on the ground, coated entirely in Mythril and with gunbarrels for arms.

“I call this baby the Gatling Golem,” the dungeon tells the intruders. “This ought to take care of you. Now to deal with the rest of the vermin.”

The machine lets out a mighty roar as it engages Clover and her part in combat.

✦✦✦

Emily, Esteban, Anemone, Azalea, Hydrangea, and Lily find themselves in a warmer-than-usual place. They hear the dungeon’s voice call out to them. “Welcome to me, rats! I’ll be serving as your judge, jury, and tome. The executioner is on your way to greet you right now.”

Emily addresses the other dungeon. “Who are you? Why are you helping the Varnishers.”

“I’m a made man,” the dungeon responds. “I’m da capo of this place.”

The place suddenly warms up as a plume erupts from the opposite end of the area. A giant twelve-foot Surtrerian emerges from the fiery geyser.

“Ah, there’s the Executioner. Deal with these trespassers!” the dungeon commands the Sentinel.

Azalea uses her knife and staff to direct the water vapor to condense, forming a veil of steam. Around the arena. Hydrangea uses her staff to create a spell of ice freezing the legs of the Executioner. The titanic Surtrian slams the ground, trying it incinerate the intruders, but Azazale swims away and Emily’s ice spell freezes the arm in place.

Anemone climbs on the metallic monster’s arm and reaches its shoulder. The monster opens its maw and attempts to burn her its its blazing breath, but Anemone takes several shots with her bow. The arrows land on the tongue of the Surtrian, allowing Anemone to use gravity magic to enleaden it. The heat from the beast’s hand and leg melts the bindings and it breaks free. Even with Anemone’s gravity magic, she cannot prevent it from lumbering around.

The Executioner slams Anemone into the wall, the veil of chilled mana prevents her from burns and the armor saves her from severe injury. She soon stands up. Lily tries to help her, but her advance is thwarted when she hears a barrage nearby.

“There are the rats,” the dungeon commands. “Shoot them dead!” The gunmen shoot but the fog of steam hinders their accuracy. Lily uses her staff to cast a spell that makes the glint from the mobsters’ guns visible through the fog. Allowing her and her friends to anticipate incoming forces and evade them more easily.

Azalea sees the flashes and has an idea. She gestures to Emily. “Hey Emmy, this is a shocking development isn’t it?” Emily is confused by the mermaid’s pun, to Azalea’s annoyance.

“You need to be more direct than that,” Hydrangea says as she creates ice pillars to block the Executioner’s slams.

“Why would I need to do that?” Azalea says. “I think Emmy has the spark to get watt is going on.”

“Shock, spark, watt,” Emily thinks. She then sees Azalea manipulate the icemelt from Hydrangea’s pillars and the steam to create rain from the ceiling. Emily intuits the mermaid’s hints.

“By Halcyon’s grace. Bolt from the heavens,” Emily chants. “Testify, electrify.” She combines her sword into a chakram and unleashes her Thunderclap attack. Bolts of levin strike the drenches mobsters, causing them to let go of their guns. The water makes them slippery thought of their attempts at recovering them to instead cause them to fall on the Executioner as its body heats up.

The dungeon is furious at the gunmen being thwarted like that. “You bozos are swimming with the fishes next!”

The executioner feels pain as the raindrops fall on its gargantuan body. Esteban notices this. “Emily, Azalea, the rainwater!”

Emily sees the monster’s pained expression as the rain drenches it and causes its molten body to harden.

“On it!” Azalea swims around the monster, gathering water from her trail. Anemone uses gravity magic to allow herself, Emily, and Hydrangea to leap higher than usual and land on the shoulders of the monster. There they coordinate their attacks as such to free the being from the inside out, with Emily and Hydrangea using their ice magics to free the water Anemone has gathered as she throws it inside the monster’s mouth. Ice spreads from its bottom then its head and shoulders. Everyone leaps off the Executioner before the ice can freeze them. The Executioner is defeated.

“You nincompoops!” the dungeon says. “You’ll pay for this!” The ground quakes as the floor gives out beneath them, causes Emily and Anemone to fall into the crevasse. Esteban grabs Emily’s arm, but the rain had made her Cyebrworks arm slippery and she slips from the his grasp.

✦✦✦

Meanwhile Clover, Stretlizia, Rose, Raine, Julia, and Tim, fight the Gatling Golem. The mythical clad Construct aims its arms to shoot at them, but its lumbering moments cause them to miss. Clover and Tim use Wind magic to dodge, while Streltizia uses her labrys to deflect its bullets.

Julia uses shadow magic to obscure the Sentinel’s accuracy as they try to find out its weaknesses.

The dungeon laughs at them. “You think you can blind this bad boy?”

Tim makes a charging step and unleashes a barrage of attacks on the leg. Raine throws her ring at the Constrct’s arm and uses the heat to cut off one of the barrels on the arm.

“You…how?” the dungeon exclaims in shock.

“I melted the metal,” Raine says with a smirk. “I thought you were aware that it could be melted given your purposes for it.”

The dungeon fumes and the ground quakes. Rose thrusts at the machine with her sword, zapping wit with her lightning spells, while Tim lands on the back of the machine and stops it with his Qiang. The spear lands on a fold in the back and Tim uses it to pry it open. Revealing gears that are vulnerable to attack. Rose slithers to the exposed gears and thrusts with her rapier. A bolt of lightning emerges from the blade and strikes them. Causing some small cos to bound free from the machine. She then places her sword inside her staff and uses it to lob more lightning at it in quick succession.

Strelitzia draws the machine’s ire by slamming her labrys into it. It peels off of a loose plate of Mythril and reveals more gears. She then takes her staff from the handle of the axe and uses it to levitate large rocks and direct them into the gears. The stones jam the gears enough to the point where some of them leap off the machine in their desperate attempt ow whirl.

“You little rats!” the dungeon exclaims. The ground rumbles one more, and parts of the floor fall into a pit. “I’ll bury you all!”

The dungeon intervenes in the fight. The floor gives way as the dungeon quakes while the Gatling Golem attempts to fend off the intruders. Raine cuts off three more barrels from its arms, hindering its capacity for firepower. Rose, Clover, and Tim use their weapon and magic to remove more of the gears enabling its movement, and Streltizia and Julia work to ensure the boss is not focused on the others. The Golem is defeated, but it only causes the dungeon’s tantrum to intensify.

The floor gives out from beneath Clover. Rose and Streltiiza see this and try to reach for her. Rose is the first to grab Clover’s arm while Streltiizia hands it onto her tail to anchor her. They try to pull her up, but it is futile for the floor fissures beneath the lamia and minotaur. Raine flies to save them but she is unable to reach them in time. Tim and Julia were too far away to reach them and the three girls plummet to the pits below.

The dungeon cackles in triumph as Raine, Tim, and Julia are forced to escape. “I’ll bury you in your fears, and then my men will bury you in lead! And there is nothing you can do about it!” the mobster dungeon gloats.

✦✦✦

At the bottom of the pits created by the dungeon’s lashing out, Emily wakes up. The avatara looks around and sees more conveyor belts leading to a furnace. She remembers she fell with Anemone and looks for the violet-haired girl. Her charm falls from her arm.

“Anemone,” she yells out. “Where are you?”

A hand emerges from one of the scrap piles, and the young girl climbs over it. “I’m here,” Anemone says. “Wherever here is.”

Emily is certain they are still in the factory. She sees several corpses around her. “More victims of the Vanishers,” she thinks.

“Yeah,” Anemone responds. Her eyes widen as she realizes that Emily’s mouth didn’t move as she heard her “speak.” “Where is your charm?”

“My charm?” Emily says. She looks at her arm and realizes that the charm Anemone made to restrain her telepathy is missing. The two search for the missing charm to little avail. The magic item is lost among the litter of scrap and trash in the basement of the factory. They see a treasure chest to their side, their reward for defeating the Giang Surturian. It contains a Mythril crossbow and several bolts. Alongside some mail and enough pairs of earrings for five people. Emily takes these contents and places them in her bag. The two then embark to find a way out of the basement.

At the same time, Clover, Strelitzia, and Rose are on another pile of scrap. The Lamia and Peryton wake up confused before they recall that the dungeon had thrust them into its bowels.

“That was a long fall,” Rose says.

Clover notices Streltitzia’s body is still unconscious, a treasure chest to her side. Containing the rewards from the Gatling Golem. She tries to rouse her, to little avail. “Stre, wake up, please.” But she doesn't budge.

Rose places her palms on Strelitzia’s chest and tries to channel her magic through her arms. She administers a tiny jolt to the minotaur, but the young girl fails to wake up.

“Rats,” Rose says dejectedly.

Clover glares at the empty area and shouts at the void. “You cruel coward!” she screams.

“Hehehe, seems I’m not cruel enough,” the dungeon’s voice echoes to the winged fawn. “Forget about it, you won’t be able to escape this pit. Why don’t you take a breath? Relax, and get to know your new roommates?” He says with a polite tone.

Rose and Clover look around and see several copses in the piles of scrap. Their mouths are agape and their eyes widen at the myriad corpses on and around the scrap piles, some so old that their decayed flesh is fused to the scrap metal.

The dungeon’s voice grows silent. The mad laughter recedes into the void. Clover took Strelitzia’s body nd hoised her over her back. Rose slithers to eh chest and opens it, finding Mythril rings, necklaces, and some Mythril plates. She and Clover place these items sin their bags.

Meanwhile, Emily and Anemone wander the vacuous basement. She talks about how why Emily can project her thoughts here, far away from her true body. A while later, they see two shadows in the distance.

Anemone draws her bow, thinking them to be mobsters sent by the dungeon to finish the job. She fires a shot, and one of the figures slithers away from the arrow. The other makes a small leap, seemingly carrying someone on their back.

As they draw closer, the flash of lightning strikes the scrap metal near Emily, in the scant flash of light, Anemone notices some familiar features. “Rose? Clover?”

The lamia and fawn draw closer to the avatara and the lycanthrope. Rose’s face bears a look of confusion upon seeing the two violet-haired girls.

“Got you too huh?” Rose says.

“What happened? “Emily says. “Did the dungeon…” she thinks.

“Cause the floor to collapse beneath us?” Clover says. “Yeah.”

Emily sees that Clover is carrying a torpid Streltiiza on her back. Anemone looks in horror. “Is she…” She says before remembering that as Sentinels they would return to the Black Box if that was the case.

“We need to get her some help,” Clover says.

“We need to find a way up first,” Rose says.

“A way up you seek, from the depths of hell?” Emily hears a familiar voice.

A dark aura coalesces into the form of a man clad in red and black. He holds a pipe in his arm.

“You!” Emily says. Her brows furrow into a glare.

“Seems I’ve come at a bad time. How awful.” The demonic piper draws closer. “This place is rather dim, wouldn't you say.”

“Is this your doing Pruflas?” Emily says

“Pruflas?” Rose says in confusion. She doesn't see the entity talking with Emily. Yet they do sense an overwhelming amount of malice in the space in front of them.

The demon plays a tune on his pipe, yet Anemone, Rose, and Clover seem immune to this effect. “Interesting. You took on would-be heroes?” he says. “And you keep them ignorant of the truth. What a pity, keeping them in darkness.”

“Shut up!” Emily shouts.

“Has she lost it?” Rose thinks. Emily heard that thought.

“I’m only here to grant the simple truth. It is best if you are on the same page. That is if you want to free these children…” The Piper Pruflas plays his pipe.

Everyone sees a large amount of smoke rising from the ground, as an illusion of Hamlin in flames conceals the piles of scrap. Burning buildings replace piles of scrap.

“What is going on?” Anemone says.

The scent of smoke and ash causes Streltizia’s unconscious body to move. Emily looks at the demon in a mix of fury and confusion.

Pruflas smirks. “The truth shall set you free if you let it. Please give the Truces my sincere regards.” Pruflas vanishes.

Streltizia wake sup on Clover’s back. “What happened?” the minotaur asks.

“Streltizia!” Clover says. “You’re awake!”

The factory’s basement is caught in an illusion of a burning village, must to the minotaur’s confusion. “Are you sure?” she groggily asks.

“She is,” Emily says. The five girls soon find themselves accosted by burning rats as Surtrians emerge in the distance.

Emily tries to use ice magic on them, but the spell melts in the heat. Emily, Clover, Rose, Anemone, and Streltizia try to fight them off, but for every piece of vermin slain, two more take their place. They realize that the rodents are too myriad to defeat and are forced to run. They rush down the illusory village’s streets, looking for a way out. The Coloraturas pick up stray thoughts from Emily all the while.

✦✦✦

Emily and her group of five try to avoid the horde of blazing rats. They leap over a burning wall, but the swarm rushes through the holes in it. Clover tries to blow them away with her wind magic, but the swarm overcomes her attempts at repelling them. Strelitzia tries to erect a wall with her earth powers, but the rats simply climb over it. Emily tries to sue Cocytus’ Flurry to freeze the swarm, but the demonic illusionary heat prevents her from executing the technique.

After a while, Anemone sees something in the distance. A tree that has not been burnt by the inferno around it. “Over there!” she says.

Rose slithers in front of the group, using her lightning to remove some toppled and falling buildings. Clover and Strelitzia use their powers to quell the flames.

They soon arrive at the tree and find the rats are unable to follow them to the roots. Any fire that tries to breach its aegis is quenched. They are safe, for now.

Everyone catches their breath.

“Okay,” Rose says. “We’re safe here, now can you tell me why a burning village suddenly appeared in a dungeon’s basement?”

Emily is hesitant to explain what had happened. She notices that the tree has starflowers on its branches. She tries to think about the beauty of these flowers, she tries to find a way to avoid the uncomfortable topic of how the Hamlin children came to be in the Black Box.

The rising smoke and ash rise to the ceiling of the basement. Rose pleads with Emily to explain what is going on. Soon she sees an illusion of two familiar figures in the cinders.

“Is that,” Strelitzia says as she sees what appears to be two Alraunes in the distance. Rose sees the rats take the form of the Construct children from the Black Box. Each serenely played in the distance.

“Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!” the children chant a nursery tune as they souring the figures representing Clara and Charlotte. The scene causes Emily to inadvertently think about the event.

“Clara!” Emily calls out, but the blaze engulfs the illusion of the alraune mother and daughter. An ember lands on a green and yellow starflower on the tree. A spark that causes the plant to catch fire. A small fire burns on the canopy of the tree, a mere ember, but one that marks that they do not have any time left.

“Emily!” Anemone sees the ember and knows what it represents.

“I can’t,” she says.

Clover tries to blow the fires aware as the cinders inch closer and the smoldering embers on the tree spread. The four Coloraturas piece together this is connected to the Alraunes.

“Why?” Streltizia says.

Clover feels the heat rising as the flames spread. Illusion or not, it is clearly real to them.

“Do you not trust us?” Strelitzia says.

Anemone knows that something is connecting their illusion to the non-Arachne children back at the Black Box. The visages of those who taunt them with their playful smiles and frocking around in the burning village.

Emily sees the top of the tree set ablaze. She tries to do something to save them.

Anemone considers using her gravity magic to make them float in the air, but the idea is soon quashed by the sudden emergence of a pitch-black geyser. A concentration of burning rats swirls into a towering gestalt in the distance, and it crawls towards them, inching closer by the second. They cannot dodge its advance, as what little they have is beneath the burning tree, yet they also know that it is fleeting.

Emily looks at the tower of impending illusory doom. She realizes the demon has given her no choice. She has to confess.

“I’m sorry!” she cries out, tears streaming from her face. The hoard of rats barely misses the group. “It’s my fault.” She begins to explain about Pruflas and his actions with Hamlin and how she had unwitting absorbed his pipe and through it entangled the mana of a hundred and thirty innocent children with her own, rooting them into the dungeon. And the events that followed. The illusion dispels and the Coloraturas and Emily find themselves in the scrap piles again.

The young girls are stunned by the knowledge, yet they think there is more to the story. Clover approaches Emily. “You made a mistake, it happens.”

Streltizia humphs. “Of course, a demon was involved. Lousy dastard.”

Anenome realizes that this is the thing Charlotte was unwilling to talk about. Rose looks at Emily and sees remorse in her eyes. “There there” she tries to comfort the older girl. By now the Coloraturas know Emily long enough to know that she isn’t the type to keep people against their will.

Clover sees a light in the distance, a hole in the ceiling. She spreads her wings and offers a hand to Emily. “We’ll help you. The coloraturas will do everything in our power to help you right this wrong.”

“That’s right,” Rose says. “You can count on us!”

Emily’s tears dry up, she thanks the younger children and stands up. They look at the rays of light. Clover uses her wings to fly to the hole, while Anemone uses her gravity magic to enable everyone else to float in the air. With a great leap, Emily, carrying Rose, and Streltizia jump into the hole and Anemone follows suit.

Now on the first floor of the factory, they find themselves in front of a large door.

“Emily!” the avatara hears Tim’s voice from behind them. They turn to find him, Esteban, Julia, Azalea, Raine, Lily and Hydrangea. The martial artist’s expression is one of relief.

“Are you alright?” Azalea says. “We’ve spent the last hour trying to dig up where you guys were!”

“We’re fine!” Rose says with a cheerful smile.

Esteban approaches the sealed door. The wards on it fade away as all three Sentinels were defeated. Beyond it lies a glowing silver core. It shines with the blinding light of the sun. Julia, Lilly and Anemone cast spells to allow them to not be blinded by the radiant core.

“If you want sumthing done right…” the dungeon echoes to everything. “Fine them, do your worse! I’ll see you all wearing Gardenian Overcoats myself!”

✦✦✦

The group enters the arena, finding it empty.

“Go on toots,” the dungeon impatiently says. “I’m waiting.”

Emily knows something will happen if she tries to absorb the core. Yet she also knows she has to do it and prevent the Vanishers from harming more people. She approaches the shining core and places her hand on it.

“Alert! Alert!” a voice rings out as the room glows red. “Core at risk. Initiating [Last Bastion Protocols]!”

“Hahaha,” the mafioso dungeon laughs. “I’m gonna relish this!”

“You want some ketchup to go with that relish?” Azalea asks.

The core glows brighter than ever. The earth rumbles as the silver core moves above them and the surrounding area contorts itself around it. It takes the shape of a Mythril armored vehicle, with the figure of a man on top of it. The factory’s avatara is a faced man clad in a suit and fedora that shines as brightly as the Mythril. The face that glares at the party beams an excitable smile, yet at the back of his head is another face contorted in agony. The machine he is affixed to has treads beneath it as if it were designed for moving on rough terrain. The chassis has two flamethrowers on the side, with a barrel on top of them, attached to magazines.

“Gaze upon the majestic fruits of Project Stronghold. As defined by me! The capo of the Joyfuller Vanisher. When you meet the Reaper and the Pathfinder, tell them Treads sent you!”

Treads revs up and charges at the group. His weapons before spewing fire as the dungeon spins around. Emily draws her two blades and sings.

“Freezing chains of ice, snare this man with vice,” she sings as she waltzes around the area. Conjured chains of frozen water follow her moments and coil around the vehicle. The ice melts by the fire, dousing the flames and cloaking the tank in a fog of steam.

Treads charge away from the enshrouded area. “You think that you can play that steam trick on me?” Treads try to Ram Emily. Azalea condenses the vapor from the steam into liquid water and uses her knife to spread it on the ground, causing the floor to be slippery.

“You must be really slick huh?” the mermaid quips as Treads continues his attack. Emily leaps out of the way and Treads slides into the wall, unable to brake to turn. The Vanisher capo is trapped. Esteban climbs onto the vehicle and jabs him with some left hooks. Tim leaps onto the vehicle and pries one of the arms off the tank, preventing the flamethrower or barrel on it from being used.

“You dastards!” Treads exclaim. The face on its back yells. “Yes, defeat this vile man!”. “Shut up!” the other face says. The hostile avatara revs up again and drives towards the other end of the road, Tim hangs on by jamming his Qiang between several plates, while Esteban grabs Treads’ shiny coat. The hostile dungeon core drives around the area, trying to remove the two men from the chassis. His plans backfire when Raine uses her staff to melt and ignite the treads. The treads melt causing Treads to topple over.

Clover approaches the fallen boss with her fans, rather than buffeting him with wind spells, the peryton fawn instead whacks him with the metal fan. “How can you be so heartless? Kidnapping people, killing them, forcing them to work against their will!” she says while thwacking the fan at him. Her furious combo ends with her unfolding the fan and using it to create a gust of wind strong enough to topple the vehicle again, and separating Treads’ avatara from the vehicle.

Anemone shoots an arrow at Threads, pinning him and his shadow to the wall.

The Coloraturas, Emily, Tim and the Hernandez couple then unleash several attacks succession, causing the dungeon core to fall. Defeated, the avatara collapses. “You…” Treads says before falling unconscious.

“Even with the Last Bastion Protocols,” Julia says. “He seemed to be way too easy.”

While Treads’ avatara is unconscious the fack on the back of his head is now. “Please,” the face says. “Finish this.” The second face urges Emily to absorb the core and them with it.

Emily sees the pained expression on the face. She realizes it was the source of the message in the first chest. “What happened to you?”

“Wicked men had uprooted me, merged me to this criminal.” The face says. The avatara the face belongs to twitches. “Hurry!” The core rematerializes in its original palce as the avatara and the tank fade into gold dust.

Emily understands. She has little time before Treads reemerges. She extends her arm out to the core and begins to absorb it. The core’s mana begins to to stream into Emily’s avatara. She stands her ground as the silver core turns into raw a mana and is absorbed by Emily. She hears screams of agony as the core is nearly finished. A faint message of “thank you” is also heard among the screams of the local capo.

In the absence of the core, the factory ruins return to normal, bereft of any equipment used for making guns and bullets. The captives take the opportunity to knockdown and bind the mobsters as the manticores flees into the Underground.

Existing the factory, the group encounters the freed captives. They give their thanks to Emily and her party for stopping the nascent rouge dungeon. Esteban gives them copies of the documents of the files Julia and her group discovered. “Take these to the authorities.” He says. “It might be of sue to them.”

The former captive takes a look at the documents, telling of the disappearances of dungeons in the Cerberus area, and more relevantly mentions of “Project Stronghold.” O-of course!” he says.

Emily’s group refuse to give their names, despite Rose’s desire to theatricality declare the coloraturas as part of the reason the Joyfuller mob is vanquished. The group heads to their rented cards and make a return back to the lot.

✦✦✦

The next day. Everyone is back home in the Black Box. Emily, Elizabeth, and Heathcliff talk about Treads and his factory. Following the defeat of Treads and the prior acquisition of the Umbraspehre. Emily now has a total of fourteen thousand and fifty skill points and a maximum total of thirty-five hundred. The radio in the core room tells of how a mysterious band of adventurers had ventured into a factory on Joyfuller Island and freed captives from there.

“You met Pruflas again?” Elizabeth says. She had learned from the Coloraturas about Emily’s subsequent emotional breakdown.

“Yeah,” Emily’s voice sorrowfully echoes to Elizabeth.

“I thought we got rid of that piper!” Heathcliff says. “Carla is not going to like this.”

“We’ll need to make sure Demons can intrude upon Emily again,” Elizabeth says. She brings up the Dungeon skill tree. “Let’s see,” she scrolls through the array of unlockable skills. “Found it! {{Demon Detection}}.” The skill in question cost two hundred points.

“Would’ve been handy the first time the dastard came,” Heathcliff laments.

“Sorry,” Elizabeth says.

Emily allocates the skill points by herself. Leaving her with one thousand, two hundred and fifty.

“The other relevant skills are beyond our grasp,“ Elizabeth says.

“I’m gonna go check out the new Mythril room. Richard and Sarah want to see to more peaceful uses for the metal not that we can make it, cher.” Heathcliff leaves.

Elizabeth turns to the Elementalists’ spheres. The purple Umbrasphere is affixed to the right of the magenta Electropshere.

“Esteban is looking into this [Project Stronghold], right?” Elizabeth says

“Yeah,” Emily says. “Why?”

“You know about the missing dungeons in [Cerberus]?”

“Uh-huh,” Emily says. “It was mentioned in the documents Clover found.”

“I see,” Elizabeth says. “These disappearances must’ve been happening for a while.”

The two ponder what to do next, and if the Vanishers and Project Stronghold are connected to this.

✦✦✦

At the same time. Anemone approaches Charlotte.

“Hello,” the indigo-haired Alraune child says.

“Heya,” Anemone says. “Can you lead me to your mother, I want to talk to her about something.”

“Sure!” Charlotte says. The violet-haired and wolf-eared girl follows Charlotte to her and Clara’s new home, where they find Carla tending to one of the Tatzelwurms. “Charlotte,” Clara is startled by her daughter’s presence.

Anemone introduces herself to Clara. “I’m one of the Coloraturas, we met your daughter when you went to Noir recently.”

“So you’re one of the ‘witches’ Emily adopted?” Clara says.

“We are not Witches,” Anemone insists. She then clears her throat. “I don’t know how to explain this sorry.”

Clara feels a sense of dread around her, as does Charlotte.

“I’m sorry,” Anemone says. “I know this is a sensitive topic, but I think my friends and I might be able to help you with your predicament.”

“What predicament?” Charlotte says, trying to deny something is wrong with her or rather trying to hide that something is wrong with her fellow Hamlin children.

“I must first ask a question. Are you familiar with the name ‘Pruflas’?”

Clara grimaces. The mention of the piper’s name conjures memories of the incident in Hamlin. “How did you learn that name?”

Anemone explains that Emily encountered the demon during their trip to the factory, and how for some strange reason it forced her to reveal the truth of what happened. As Clara and Charlotte hear her explanation, their faces shift from shock to grief to anger. Anemone notices a tinge of relief on Charlotte’s face.

“So, the piper lives still,” Clara says. “But what reason does he have for acting this way?”

“I don’t know,” Anemone says. “But I do know he is the one at fault for what happened to the children from your village, not Emily and not you.”

“Do your friends also know of this?” Clara says

“Clover is explaining it to the others.” Anemone grimaces. I’m sorry I know that I’m butting into your personal matters, but—”

“Relax dear,” Clara says in a motherly tone. “The piper is to blame for your knowing about this. That said, there is a reason we do not want people outside knowing of this.” She asks Anemone to tell her friends to not tell anyone outside the Black Box about the children of Hamlin or of her presence there. Lest they risk inviting retribution from the grieving town.

“Of course,” Anemone says. “Our lips are sealed.”

Charlotte sighs. “I’ll go ask the Arion sisters if they want to meet you guys,” Charlotte says.

Clara also considers letting the Hermandezes know about this as well.

“Before I go, “Aneome says. “I do want to ask Charlotte something?”

“Yes?” the young alraune says.

“Are you still interested in learning gravity magic from me?” Anemone says.

✦✦✦

Later, Sarah returns from a quick trip to Joyfuller Island. “Can’t believe they didn’t get me any churros,” she grumbles. She carries a bag filled with pastries as she enters the atelier.

Inside she finds that Raine is already sitting inside. Sarah drops the bag. “Raine? You’re early! Your apprenticeship doesn’t start for another half hour!”

“It doesn't?” Raine looks at the clock and learns that she is indeed a half hour early. “Whoops sorry, but since I’m already here…”

Sarah places the bag of treats on a table and takes out a churro. “Want one?” Raine takes the pastry as they head to the metalworking room.

“I heard you’ve been to an old steel factory,” Sarah says. “What was it like?”

“You haven’t heard from Emily?” Raven says.

“She claimed she wanted your take on the trip,” Emily’s voice echoes to Raine.

“I also wanted to hear why you guys didn’t get any extra food while you were at the carnival,” Sarah says.

“Sorry,” Emily says, “You didn’t ask and things were rather hectic when we went to the factory.”

Raine chuckles. “The Vanishers were no problem.”

“Glad to hear it,” Sarah says. “Hope the trip doesn't make you sick of furnaces and forges.”

Sarah leads Raine to her forge. The phoenixian girl sees a small furnace, some machines, an anvil, a small pool for cooling the metal, and a cauldron for smelted metal. Sarah dons a smock and gets a sledgehammer.

“Since Emily learned the Mythril recipes, we can start from there.” Sarah turns her head up “Emily?”

“Um actually,” Emily says. “Richard had asked me about that so I brought the ingots we got from the factory here already.” Emily makes a part of the room glow. Sarah looks at the glowing area and sees several white ingots stacked in a small pile.

Sarah shrugs. She takes a few of the bars. “For your first session,” Sarah says. “We’re gonna work on something simple. Sword blades.”

Sarah walks Raine through the process of metalworking, including melting the ingots, pouring the molten metal into molds, hammering out imperfections, and cooling the metal with water. Raine and Sarah collaborate on this as students and teachers, respectively.

Raine finishes her first blade. Sarah examines it. There are bubbles of air in the metal, leaving hollow cavities that weaken the blade and unevenly distribute the weight.

“Not bad for a first attempt…but” she takes the blade and puts it back in the melting pot.

Raine tried again, her second attempt is better, but Sarah noticed some of the edges are chipped. She throws the blade into the pot again.

Though the next few hours. Raine and Sarah talk about their lives. Raine learns of Sarah and Richard’s late father, and how he taught his children various crafting disciplines. When Sarah learns from Raine how she had been wandering the streets of Noir’s underground since she was a fledgling, unable to recall what her parents even looked like, and left to fend for herself until encountering Rose.

“You don’t know what your parents looked like?” Sarah says in shock. “That’s horrible.”

Raine sighs. “It made looking for them impossible.” Unlike Clover, Raine had given up the idea of looking for her parents.

Eventually, Raine’s latest attempt is cooled. Sarah examines the Mythril blade and sees it is free of imperfections. No chips, no air bubbles, and no burned ore. Sarah takes the blade and attaches it to one of the shafts she had forged in advance. “Not bad!” she says. “You still have a long way to go, but if you can make a few more like then then you’ll be a master of the forge in no time!”

After a few more attempts, Raine’s session ends.

“Thank you, Sarah,” Raine says. “It was a lot of fun.”

“Don’t mention it,” Sarah says. “Let me know when you’re ready to continue.”

“I will,” Raine says. She then leaves the dwarfs’ atelier.

Richard returns with little Nina in tow. The two see Raine walking away from the atelier.

Richard opens to door and greets his sister. “How was Raine’s apprenticeship, sister?”

“Kid’s shows some promise,” Sarah gestures to the sword being hung in a display case. “The blade is her doing.”

Richard examines the sword and finds the blade to be of above-average quality. “This is…remarkable. And she made this on her first day?”

“Indeed,” Sarah says. She then turns to the young spiderling. “Now then Nina what brings you here?”

“Mommy wanted me to ask Richard if he can help Auntie Lydia!” she says.

“According to her,” Richard says while looking over spools of dyed thread. “The young Arachne needs fresh sets of clothing. They grow up so fast.”

“Ah,” Sarah says. “I’ll go see if we have some cotton on us.” Sarah looks over some desk and finds the portrait of her, Richard, and their parents. She looks at the picture and wonders how much of her late father does she really know.