Halankuo moved behind the ruins of the stone wall. The doll's head disappeared into the darkness of the hole.
"Hey, head, where did you fly?" a voice came from the dungeon.
This voice seemed to Halankuo similar to the voice of her character.
"Nobody, head just went in the wrong direction," another voice said.
"I want to see what's there."
Heavy footsteps were heard. Halankuo had no doubt who they belonged to.
"Kyotyoryon is coming here," the girl was afraid. "It would be a shame if she noticed me."
The sounds of footsteps grew louder. Halankuo looked around and thought about how to move unnoticed behind some other obstacle.
"Creator, why did you come?" the voice of the spirit of metal sounded.
"Now Kyotyoryon assumes that it is me, because the logic of artificial intelligence tells her so," Halankuo mentally concluded. "If I don't make any sounds, I can try to trick her."
"I told you I don't want to be with you," the voice continued. "I don't want to go back to where there's nothing."
Suddenly, Halankuo realized that this was a good time to talk to her former character. All she had to do was come out from behind the wall and show herself to Kyotyoryon. The girl really wanted to, but her survival instinct was stronger.
"Creator, come out," the voice of the spirit of metal sounded. "I'll finally cut you."
The footsteps resumed. This time, they grew louder towards the wall behind which Halankuo was hiding.
"She has a good sense of metal, even in the smallest quantities," the girl guessed mentally. "I forgot about that."
A horned head with long gray hair and a gray mask that covered the lower part of her face peeked out from behind the wall...
***
Taikuron was thrown to the edge of the lake, but did not fall into the water, but stayed in the air. It noticed the flying fiery object in time and stopped it with his gaze.
The comet stopped a few steps away from Taikuron, and then exploded. The penguin was thrown even further, to the opposite shore. Smoke came out of his antennas.
Sparks slowly fell to the ground and into the water. One of them exploded and left a cloud of fire in the air for a moment. The next moment, Noru appeared in its place.
"Hide in the residence," the dog girl pointed to the wooden wall of the fortress. "It won't get in there."
"Are you going to fight it?" Tuot asked. "It…"
"Can walk through walls, read minds, move objects with it eyes," Noru finished. "Itinit told me about it. But I don't remember it name. But it doesn't matter. Finally, I'll fight someone."
"She just wants to fight," Tuot and Etinnei thought at the same time.
The dinosaur and the arctic fox girl ran to the gate. Taikuron looked at them, but he couldn't do anything. The target was too far away.
"Now it will disappear," Noru thought.
A moment after this thought, Taikuron actually disappeared into thin air, and then appeared above the gate. Noru activated the fire aura, and then pulled her tail.
The smoke on Taikuron's antennas turned to fire. A moment later, the penguin exploded.
A snowflake shield saved Tuot and Etinnei from the blast wave. But the gates were less lucky. They caught fire.
Noru looked around and noticed a penguin above her, from which smoke emanated.
"It didn't destroy itself!" the dog-girl opened her mouth wide in surprise and stuck out her long tongue. "But I exploded it! Maybe I should try again?"
Noru pulled her tail again. An explosion occurred where Taikuron had been, but the penguin himself remained unharmed.
"The explosion didn't work," the dog girl guessed. "If it had, the smoke would have disappeared from it body."
Noru pulled her tail again, but this time nothing happened.
"Cooldown," the dog girl thought. "I completely forgot about it."
Taikuron turned to the gate, which not only wasn't burning, but also had no damage from the fire. The Arctic fox girl and the dinosaur were not there either.
"Taikuron doesn't need you," a voice sounded in Noru's head. "Taikuron needs it other half."
The penguin flew towards the gate, but met a fiery comet. An explosion occurred, from which Taikuron flew out unharmed.
The comet landed on the ground, after which it took the form of a dog girl in a fiery aura.
"Eeeh?" Noru was surprised. "Do attacks really pass through it?"
The dog girl's guess was confirmed. Taikuron approached the gate and then passed through it.
"That's right, Itinit told me that it can pass through walls," Noru remembered. "That means he can pass through attacks too. How could I not have guessed this before? What should I do? Aaah..."
Noru extended her hand forward. A small flame flared up in front of Taikuron, after which an explosion occurred. The penguin did not expect this and was thrown back to the lake by the blast wave.
"It worked!" Noru's breath caught for a moment.
But the animal girl was wrong. A crack of lightning was heard above. Noru noticed an electric clot above her head, which turned into a ball before her eyes.
The dog girl ran forward, but another clot appeared on her way. Noru's body turned into a comet, which then abruptly moved to the side.
Already near the fence, the comet turned back into the dog girl. Noru turned around and saw several electric balls behind her, which were connected by lightning.
"It's good that I'm not there," the dog girl thought. "I can't let those lightings hit me; otherwise I won't be able to fly."
Soon Noru felt one of her arms twitch, and then noticed a weak electrical discharge moving around her elbow.
"It touched me," the dog girl was scared. "It's not dangerous, just a weak electric shock."
Suddenly Noru heard the crackle of lightning near her, and looked around. The electrical clots surrounded her and quickly increased in size.
The dog girl tried to turn into a comet, but couldn't because of the current on her hand. The electric clots took the form of balls, after which they connected with lightning.
Noru was trapped. Several lightning bolts struck her at once, causing every limb to shake along with her head. Her eyes partially popped out of their slots and saw Taikuron standing in front of her, surrounded by an electric aura…
... On another continent, in a dense forest, the "Mausoleum of Nature" opened in front of Itinit. Noru's model in the form of a dog girl stood in the character window, and the screen itself flickered with a red glow and vibrated.
"Sis!" Kimchan was scared.
"Why?" Itinit was surprised. "Noru should be on the island now. There is no danger there."
The red glow on the screen disappeared along with the vibration as suddenly as it had appeared.
"Maybe it's a mistake?" Itinit asked.
Kimchan growled, and then pounced on her creator.
"My sister is there!" the dog girl screamed. "We have to save her."
"But there shouldn't be anything there that needs to be saved from," Itinit objected.
Kimchan turned into a large dog the size of a medium bear, knocked her creator to the ground, and then growled.
"Kimchan is acting strange," Itinit thought. "This is more typical of her sister."
… In fact, Itinit was wrong. Noru was lying on the ground in front of the gate, writhing from the electric shocks. The electric balls were no longer in the air, and they did not attack the dog girl. Therefore, the screen of the "Mausoleum of Nature" no longer notified the creator of the critical condition of his character.
But the danger did not go away. Taikuron was already standing at the entrance to the residence, unsuccessfully trying to open the door. Fortunately for Noru, it did not try to finish her off.
… On the other side of the door was winter. Etinnei in winter form and Tuot were standing near the bridge over the canyon.
"I've already been here," the arctic fox girl said. "Then I never reached that shore."
"Were you scared to walk across the bridge?" Tuot suggested.
"Eeeh... I just woke up."
"Was it a dream?"
"Yes. I always wanted to continue the dream, but it didn't."
"I noticed that. For some reason, dreams always happen in different places."
Etinnei approached the bridge, and it swayed. The spirit of the arctic fox did not dare to go further.
"Do you want to go there?" Tuot asked.
"Yes, but I can't," Etinnei answered. "I'm afraid the bridge will fall down."
"I wouldn't walk across such a bridge either. Let's go to another place."
Etinnei looked ahead. On the opposite side of the canyon grew a coniferous forest covered with snow.
"I want to know what is there," the arctic fox girl said. "Even though I am scared…"
Tuot looked across the canyon and then down. The river at the bottom had not yet frozen completely. Ice floes were carried away by the current, they got stuck in the rocks and formed temporary rapids. The dinosaur became scared, but then he realized something:
"This location is not real. We are inside the residence of the mushroom spirit. I wonder where it is."
"Let's do it together," Tuot said. "If we fall, we will not die. This is not a real cliff."
Etinnei gave her hand to her friend and then looked at him. The Arctic fox girl smiled, but her eyes were still scared.
Tuot activated his aura, took his friend's hand, and stepped onto the bridge first. The long tail no longer disturbed him; it was now used for its intended purpose, to balance a body not designed to walk on two legs.
Etinnei didn't notice how she crossed the bridge. A snowy coniferous forest opened up before her, and her feathered friend was standing next to her.
"It looks like we did it," the Arctic fox girl moved her ears. "It's so strange."
Tuot looked back. The scary wooden bridge, covered with traces of bird paws and "human" feet, swayed from side to side and creaked.
"I won't go there again," Tuot said. "Let's go further. Maybe there will be something not scary there."
Suddenly, the dinosaur felt something grab him by the feathers on his arm and drag him into the forest. It was his friend. Etinnei was too eager to find out what was in the forest that she didn't notice what she was holding her friend by.
The forest was not dense, with thick tree trunks that went somewhere high beyond the white-green snow-covered branches. Under some of the trunks, Etinnei noticed snowdrifts of a strange round shape. The arctic fox girl approached one of them and stepped on it with her foot.
"There's something hard here," Etinnei whispered.
The arctic fox girl let go of the feathers on Tuot's arm. The dinosaur noticed that he no longer had an aura and fell into the snow.
Etinnei destroyed the snowdrift with her foot. Under the layer of snow there was ice, inside which a blue mushroom was glowing.
"There's a mushroom here," the Arctic fox girl opened her mouth in surprise. "I need to free it."
"Don't do that," Minniges' voice rang out. "The mushroom is in the other refrigerator. It won't be able to fit inside you."
But Etinnei did not listen to the voice of her brain neighbor and hit the mushroom with an icicle covered in an electric aura. A crack appeared on the ice, from which blue energy began to emerge...
... The arctic fox girl was thrown back a few steps. Thanks to the snow that was under her feet, she was able to keep from falling.
"The mushroom is gone," Etinnei looked sadly at the energy that was released in a stream from the ice floe and dissolved in the air. "I was never able to reach it and lick it."
"If this mushroom is surrounded by ice, this does not mean that it is ice cream," Minniges objected. "I'm the only one who has real ice cream."
Etinnei looked to the side and found a penguin looking at her. The light bulb on it horn glowed a white-blue.
Tuot saw his friend grab a frozen pine cone hanging from a lower branch and start licking it.
"Is she hungry?" the dinosaur thought. "It's a good thing I wasn't there. I could have been that pine cone now."
At some point, Etinnei stopped seeing Minniges' ice cream in front of her and noticed what object she was actually licking.
"The ice cream isn't real again," the Arctic fox girl frowned. "I was hoping that at least in this place it would be real."
Etinnei let go of the branch with the pine cone, fell to her knees and began to cry. Tuot hid behind a tree trunk and watched his friend from there. The dinosaur did not want to disturb the animal girl at such a moment.
Tuot happened to look to the side and found a blue energy "eye" surrounded by a barrier that "hung" between the tree branches. The dinosaur immediately understood what it was.
"This is the skill of that creature in the bubble," Tuot guessed. "But what is this thing doing here? This is the residence of the mushroom spirit, not him."
The "eye" began to rotate, and soon "looked" in Tuot's direction. The dinosaur hid behind another tree. The "eye" turned to Etinnei and began to accumulate energy inside itself.
Tuot knew his friend was in danger, but he couldn't tell her. He didn't want to attract the attention of the creature that had defeated him without fighting at full strength. But Tuot couldn't let Etinnei get hurt either.
The problem resolved itself. The "eye" accumulated energy, then turned back and released a beam of blue light. Tuot was delighted and ran to his friend.
Etinnei was still crying and did not notice the danger.
"Let's get out of here," Tuot suggested.
The arctic fox girl looked at her friend with a sad look. There were no more tears in her eyes, because they had run out a few moments ago.
"Why?" Etinnei asked.
Tuot told his friend what he had seen. The arctic fox girl looked around.
"I don't see anything," Etinnei said. "Maybe you imagined it?"
"Perhaps," Tuot agreed. "Let's go somewhere else."
Etinnei went ahead and soon disappeared behind the trees. Tuot followed her.
"What if I didn't imagine what I saw?" the dinosaur thought. "I can't leave Etinnei in danger. Otherwise, someone will grab her again."
Tuot couldn't forget that strange man with the carrot nose, although he tried. Then the dinosaur thought that he had lost the creature he had dreamed of meeting for so long.
Etinnei approached the cliff, beyond which the gray sea was visible to the horizon. It almost merged with the sky. Only small ice floes that floated on the water served as signs of distinction.
"It seems to me that I have already been here," Etinnei thought. "But I don't remember when."
"I can't show you this," Minniges answered mentally.
"Why?"
"This ability is on cooldown. I can only retrieve my memories once a day. They are transferred to your brain, but deleted from mine."
Etinnei's mood suddenly improved. The animal girl looked to the side and saw the same penguin in front of her.
"So you can give me all the memories?" Etinnei asked mentally.
"No. Your fridge can't hold that much ice cream."
Etinnei felt sad. The arctic fox girl looked at the waves crashing onto the rocks below, and suddenly heard a bird cry from behind.
It was Tuot who was making it. The dinosaur ran out of the forest, and only the activated aura prevented it from falling off the cliff.
"What happened?" Etinnei asked.
"There," the dinosaur pointed to the sky.
Etinnei noticed three blue energy "eyes" moving slowly above the treetops. One was in the middle and was the size of a small house, while the other two were on either side of it and were the size of a human head.
"What is this?" Etinnei was surprised. "Eyes made of energy?"
"Yes," answered Tuot. "It seems I wasn't imagining things. That eye transmitted a signal to the other eyes, and now they have arrived."
The "eyes" gradually filled with energy and became less transparent.
"We need to attack them before they accumulate a charge and release a beam," Tuot suggested.
Etinnei looked at the water at the edge of the cliff, noticed a narrow crevice between the rocks, and then activated her ice aura.
"We'd better run," Etinnei suggested.
"There is water everywhere", Tuot looked down, but saw nothing but water.
"I can't explain. Just follow me."
Etinnei stepped off the cliff. Tuot tried to grab her friend, but was too late. The Arctic fox girl landed on the water, and it immediately turned into an ice floe from contact with the elemental aura.
Tuot realized that Etinnei had not crashed, but he could not bring himself to jump. Behind him, the energy "eyes" were becoming increasingly cloudy and were about to shoot.
"If I crash, at least she will be with me," the dinosaur looked at the barely noticeable tail of the arctic fox girl. "And if not, she will be with me too. Etinnei will be with me in any case. I have nothing to worry about. But for some reason I am worried."
Tuot didn't know what survival instinct was, so he wondered why he couldn't jump from a high cliff into the water.
Meanwhile, the situation was developing too unfavorably. The dinosaur turned around and saw completely cloudy energy "eyes" with bright blue pupils. Tuot realized that he had no choice. He activated his aura, and then took a few steps back...