Genesis Locorum

Meanwhile, Emily found herself in a place resembling a film studio complex. Tim and Nina were beside her, unconscious. Emily woke the martial artist and spiderling up.

Nina rubbed her head. “Where are we?”

Tim surveyed the surroundings. “Looks like a studio backlot.”

Emily noticed that they were the only ones there. “We must have gotten separated when we fell.”

Tim brushed off some dirt from his shoulders. He felt like they were being watched. “She should find the others. At the very least we will need the Coloraturas with us if their theory is correct. And given the strange entrance…”

“Look, over there!” Nina said. She saw one of the entrances glow with an eerie light. Emily saw that the door was slightly open. She and Tim pushed it the rest of the way and before they knew it they found themselves in front of a pet store-like building.

“And there we go,” a familiar voice said. At the other side of the room is Clover, handing a silhouetted customer a small pet. The ears of the critter had been cropped off. “Nex— oh!”

Emily approached Clover. “Hello,” she greeted.

“Emily! Long time no see,” Clover said. “Want me to take care of Nina?”

Emily and Nina needed clarification. “Clover, are you okay?”

“She is not okay!”

Stretlizia had arrived behind them. Her hooves and tail are decorated in usually frilly bows.

“Stre! How have you been.” Clover said.

“Clover, please snap out of it. This isn’t you!”

“What is going on?” Nina said.

“It’s the Strega!” Streltizia said.

“Strega?” Clover said. She then guffawed for ten seconds. “Stre, you and your tall tales.”

“This isn’t a joke!” Strelitzia said with desperation. “Emily, can you help me? She has been stuck in this set for hours, thinking she is some pet beautician.”

Emily looked at Clover, the young fawn remained obvious to her friend’s plea.

“Pet beautician?” Nina then looked around and saw various images of dressed-up critters. Dogs, cats, mice, rabbits. She realized something and furiously approached Clover. “Hey! I am not a pet Clover!”

“Emily,” Clover said. “Nina seems feisty today. Has she been eating well?”

“My mommy is missing, stuck inside some film reel and instead of helping me look for her you mistook me for Emily’s pet?” Nina glared at Clover, her eyes began to glow a reddish hue. Her Bardsong gaze brought Clover into a small gaze while Nina ranted to her that she wasn’t a pet. The entranced Clover began to argue back at her, strangely proclaiming that she also isn’t a pet.

“Nina, your eyes!” Emily yelled.

“What do you mean, my eyes?” Nina asked before looking back at the peryton fawn. “Can’t you see I’m—” The spiderling saw that Clover had dozed off, her eyes half-lidded and blank and her jaw slacked and drooling. Nina had realized that she had lulled her into a trance and screamed in panic.

“Clover?” Nina said while gazing into her eyes. “Wake up, Clover!” she yelled, Strelitzia tried to help Nina wake up the girl through several means.

Eventually, Clover was knocked from her daze. “Huh, what? Is this a pet store?” she said, seemingly unaware of what happened.

“You’re back!” Strelizia said.

“Back?” Clover said, she then suddenly remembered how she had gotten here.

“In any case,” Tim said. “We should leave,” Tim said, sensing a growling malevolence in the air.

The group of five left the entrance and found not an outside street, but another store interior. The bright colors became more muted as several pets approached them. Blackened sludge was secreted from their skin as the animals drew closer to the group. Everyone had sensed a hostile aura from them, and so they prepared to fight off the creatures.

✦✦✦

Later, Emily, Tim, Clover, Streltizia, and Nina were fighting against Small vicious animals. Strelitizia used her labrys to swat away several small dogs, while Clover sliced at a larger cat with her fan. Tim repulsed some toothy rabbits with knee strikes and kicks.

Emily meanwhile slashed at the red-eyed pets with her swords. “Why are they attacking us!” she said. “These were supposed to be cute furry little critters.”

“They’re part of the Strega!” Clover said as she sliced at the increasingly grotesque housepets. Emily combines her weapons into a chakram and throws a Photon Ring towards them.

Clover stumbled backward a bit. She felt something clouding her mind again. She accidentally bumped into Nina, who was trapping the hostile creatures in her silken web.

“Hey,” Nina said, still irate from Clover mistaking her for a pet.

“Sorry,” the fawn said.

The group found their way to another door and rushed through it, they found yet another room filled with mangier pets. Clover heard more rolling thunder and developed an idea.

“Emily!” she said, making a cyclone with her fan. “The lightning!”

The avatara heard the thunder outside and took her swords. She charged the weapons with lightning mana and then them into the gust. The cyclone gathered up the critters as the lightning-charged weapon glided around it. The thunderclap attack and Clover’s cyclone combined into a powerful storm-aspected spell that turned the hostile creature into black sludge and ripped off the roof of the building. Tim lifted himself up to the broken roof and skewered pursuing stragglers while Strelitiza created a jagged rock that pierced the floor and allowed the others to ascent to the open room. The storm’s power soon left the hostile pets unable to chase them as they rushed into the street and outside the studio building.

Everyone panted as they closed the doors leading into the set. After gathering their breath. Emily took a look at those who were present. “Everyone okay?” She asked.

“I’m..fine,” Nina said after collapsing from exhaustion. “Just need…to breathe.”

Clover used oxygenation spells to help everyone catch their breath faster. After some time, the group wandered the eldritch studio complex. In the distance, they saw a large, almost monolithic building with large green lettering. Despite the size of the sign, the inscription is indecipherable.

Nina skittered ahead. “Mommy! Mom! Where are you?”

Strelitzia looked at the tall building on the horizon. She wondered if that is where the Strega’s core lies.

Along the way, they saw another lot’s doors were open and they heard someone muttering inside.

“A little blush here, some lipstick there…”

Sensing something familiar about it. The decided to enter and investigate.

✦✦✦

There the group saw Rose slithering around a damp room.

“Just a few more touches of eyeshadow and you’ll be pretty in no time,” the pink-haired lamia said.

Strelitzia approached her and saw her applying makeup to an unconscious body. “Rose, we’re here!” The magical girl ignored them as she slithered around to a makeup box. Rose gathered a mascara wand.

Strelitzia looked at the body and noticed a bluish-green complexion. She saw some skin on the right cheek sag and was immediately repulsed.

Nina approached Rose and tried to wake her up with her, eyes, but Rose was moving too face for her to maintain eye contact.

Emily noticed a peculiar odor in the cold air and looked around. It resembled a makeup parlor, but the walls were undecorated and grey, and the only things there besides them were several cabinets, a salon chair for hairdressing, a gurney, and the mirror and desk Rose got her makeup from.

Clover grew deeply uncomfortable with the place. “Maybe we can pull her out?” she suggested.

Tim took a look at the lamia child, her tail was long enough for him and Emily to grab. He poked the tail with his Qiang to see her response.

“Ow,” Rose said as she looked toward her tail. She failed to notice Tim or his weapon. “Must’ve been a bug,” she said. She took the unconscious woman on the gurney and placed her on a conveyor belt. She then slithered towards one of the cabinets. She bumped into Emily, but remained unaware of her presence, merely slithering past her and towards a different conveyor belt. She took the gurney and loaded another torpid woman onto it before carting it back to the desk.

“She doesn’t even notice us,” Nina said.

Tim and Emily decide to try to pull Nina out, they grip the serpentine tail. Rose noticed the tug and looked back. She assumed the tail was having a spasm and electrified it. The two were forced to release the tail after taking a small amount of voltage from it.

Nina attempted to use her webs to pull Rose out, but Rose noticed the tug again and sent lighting through the webs. “Maybe I should get a check-up later today. Tail is acting weird.” She verbally mused.

The group knew that had to do something to snap Rose back to reality, but were at a loss for what to do.

Emily glanced over Rose’s shoulder while she applied makeup to her current body. She saw the woman open her eyes and revealed the lack of eyeballs. Rose noticed this and gently closed the eyelids, as if unfazed by the absence of eyes.

The air grew eerie around them as the group tried to find a way to wake Rose up. Eventually, Clover looked at her minotauride friend and developed an idea.

“What?” Stretlizia said.

“Maybe it’s time we gave her a bit of a shock?” Clover said.

“Did Azalea rub off on you, Clo?”

The peryton whispered into the minotaur’s ears. Her eyes widen in shock.

“No, absolutely not. I’d rather be caught dead than wear makeup.”

Clover pleaded with Stretlizia, her quivering expression was accentuated with a pleading puppy-like expression. Strelitzia still refused, but would eventually relent a few moments later.

“Fine, but you owe me for this,” Stretlizia said. Clover shared the rest of the plan with the others.

Rose soon finished applying makeup to the corpse and placed it on the conveyor belt. She then let out a yawn. “Can’t got o sleep yet,” she said. The child took out a pill from a jar and swallowed it alongside some water. Feeling energized, she took the gurney and slithered to the other end.

Clover, Emily, Tim, and Nina poked Rose’s tail to distract her while Streltizia got into position. She took the new body and placed it on the floor before climbing up the gurney. Per Clover’s plan, she closed her eyes and waited for her signal.

The others stopped distracting Rose. “That’s it, I’m going to the clinic after this,” she said as she took the gurney and moved it to the table. She took a look a the serene face and noticed it reminded her of someone she knew. She touched Streltizia’s arm. “Huh, warmer than usual. Must’ve been a fresh one. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you are extra beauteous today!” She took some lipstick from the desk and looked back to the minotauride.

Clover gave the signal and Strelitiza opened her eyes. “Boo!”

Rose recoiled in fear. “What the…? You’re…” she began trembling and the earth trembled with her.

The other end of the mourge room suddenly receded from everyone and Emily and Tim noticed a being emerging from the floor. It was a zombie-like entity made up of several unattended bodies merged together. Nina nearly vomited upon seeing the creature. Tim, Emily, and Clover prepared to fight the beast while Strelitzia continued to scare Rose awake.

“You—you’re alive?” Rose said as she seemingly recognized her friend.

“Of corpse I’m alive, dummy!” Streltizia said. She realized her tongue slipped and she made an accidental pun, but ignored the slip for now. “Wake up!”

“This isn’t happening,” Rose said. “You were dead! I saw them kill you!”

The phantasm’s amalgamated fist attacked Tim, but he dodged it and thrust toward the exposed blue sphere that was its ethereal core. Clover sliced off several chunks of the phantasm with her fan and winds, but the animate pieces reconverged near the bottom. Emily and Nina tried binding it via ice spells and webs respectably, but the silk was unable to bind it and the monster simply broke off the frozen flesh.

Rose trembled in front of her supposedly dead friend as Streltizia tried to reason with Rose. “But they took your life? How could you still be standing here? This has to be a nightmare.”

“Rose, I’m clearly alive. You’ve been brainwashed by the Strega, wake up!” Streltizia said.

The phantasm continued to fight the party. Everyone noticed certain features had emerged on the entity as it attacked the party. Red and green wings, a cyan snow-pattered hat, antlers, horns, a purple tail, an orange sphere in a translucent tail…

Emily used a thunderclap attack to strike the phantasmal amalgamation. Tim made a charging leap to slice at the monster with his weapon. Emily attacked the amalgamation with a photon ring.

The phantasm barreled past them and grabbed Clover. It leaped over Rose and slammed into the wall behind the desk and gurney before grabbing Rose and Streltizia.

Rose squirmed as she struggled to break free from what she saw as an amalgamation of the other Coloraturas. Strelitzia and Clover attempted to break themselves free from its grasp. Emily, Tim, and Nina tried to fight it, but its wounds faded as the phantasm’s parts regenerated from the extant corpses stored at the morgue.

“Rose!” Clover cried out. “This isn’t them! This isn’t us!”

Strelitzia used earth magic to conjure boulders from within the zombified phantasm, but the increased mass only further empowered it and tightened its hold on them.

Rose tried to use lightning magic, but every time she shocked the monster, her head was clouded with false memories. She grabbed her pained head as the mass of necrotic flesh levitated over the floor and into a dark red sky. Black sludge seeped from every orifice on the mass.

Clover and Strelitzia eventually loosened themselves from its grip enough to approach Rose. They grabbed her hands and tried to pull her and themselves out from the ball of flesh.

“Please…I don’t want to go,” Rose said.

“We’re not letting you go, not on my watch!” Stretlizia said.

“We’re make it though!” Clover said.

Rose’s head began to clear up. She began to realize what exactly happening and her fear gave way to lucidity. She began to see the flesh for what it truly is. A trick of the Strega meant to trap her. She, Strelitzia, and Clover began to draw Rose’s rapier from its sheath. Rose channeling mana through it.

“Lucid Lightning!” she yelled. Her head was clear enough to focus. A tremendous power attacks the phantasm from within, as lightning bolts erupt throughout its curst and from it. Emily, Tim, and Nina dodge the wayward strikes as the fleshy mass expands from the attacks. The three witches fall from their captor’s grasp and land on the floor before it explodes, and takes the studio set with with. The group of six now find themselves back at the lot’s streets.

Hundreds of corpses and body parts transformed into puddles of black ink around the ruins, they stained the adjacent lots upon collusion with their roofs. Rose breathed heavily as she tried to compose herself. She knew this was not the first time a Strega had messed with her mind. That’s how they operated after all, befuddling and brainwashing their victims to neutralize threats and consume prey. Yet this time felt viscerally difference to the lamia girl.

She looked back at Strelitzia and Clover then to Emily and Tim and finally to little Nina. She saw that the rest of her friends weren’t with them, nor were those they had came here to save. She remembered that as a Sentinel she and the other Coloraturas were able to be resurrected should they perish, but she would still rather it not come to this point.

The group gathered their bearings, they saw the skyscraper in the horizon and moved toward it the black asphalt soon gave way to golden-hue brick roads and they drew deeper toward the building, certain they would find their wayward companions there.

✦✦✦

Meanwhile, Emily’s group had entered the monolithic building. They found themselves in a large emerald city beneath a dark blue sky.

Rose was still mad about what had happened to her back there. “Making me think my friends, my sisters, were dead, “she grumbled. “When I meet that damned Strega, she is going to get a lightning bolt so shocking it’ll make the one that Stratios sued to strike the Cyclops look like mere static.”

Emily chastised Rose for her somewhat foul language.

Nina called for her mother again, trying to find Minerva. The others tried to call for the rest of their friends. They found several artifices of set design in the building. Props, cardboard backgrounds, cameras, and spotlights dotted the large room.

“This looks more like a movie studio than usual, “Emily noted.

They soon heard someone crying. They headed to the source and found a familiar phoenixian girl in front of shadowed figures.

“I’m sorry!” Raine cried. “I just—”

“Just what?” one of the figures said. A drip of black sludge got on Raine’s face as he swatted her with a scrip. “That was the seventy-third take! How could you fuck up seventy-three takes?” There was a furor in the specter’s voice.

Another voice, more gentle, but equally mad lashed out at the man, “You had her work all night, after an already long day and you expected her to perform perfectly after that?”

“Of course I do!” the man said. “I’d paid good money for the alchemists to supply her with pep pills so that we could get this film finished. The premiere is due in a month and we’re way behind schedule!” The man shouted the last two words before storming off in a huff. Raine was left inconsolable.

Emily and her friend glared at the man.

“He sure looks cheery,” Strelitzia said sardonically.

Rose looked at Raine, still bawling on the floor.

“Why am I such a failure?” the red-haired girl said. “I thought I was the studio favorite.”

Rose slithered to Raine. “Hello?”

Raine was startled. “I-I’m sorry! I'll do better next time!” she had expected the director but instead saw someone else. “O-oh. Are you a fan?”

“Not really,” Rose said. “Want to talk? I don’t bite.”

Raine noticed the pink-haired lamia was familiar to her somehow. She looked younger than her, more cheerful, but she could see a hidden feisty side in her eyes. She felt like she could trust her. “It’s just…”

“This isn’t like Raine,” Rose thought. “It’s clearly the Strega’s influencing her, but…” Rose wonder if she could snap her friend to reality by hearing her confide in her.

Raine began to tell her tale, interspersed with bouts of sniffling and tears. She claimed to have been part of a dance troupe when she was younger, and that her parents had landed her a contract with Leonis.

“Leonis?” Rose said. “That sounds like a big deal,”

“It is,” Raine said. Rose noticed the phoenixian girl’s eyes quivering with tears. A look that didn’t suit the fiery girl at all. “I sang a song for them, the director liked it so they put it in…I was asked to play a role in ‘The Sailors of the Starry Seas,’ my mother said they loved it…they always pushed me to do better. Said my voice was too nasally, my steps too uncoordinated, my tummy too round.”

Emily looked at Clover. “Do you think we should help?”

“I think Rose has got it handled,” Clover said.

“If nothing else, she is good at getting Raine to confide in her,” Streltizia said.

Tim looked around and noticed a room nearby, he beckoned Emily toward the room.

Rose continued to hear Rain out she she continued her tear-laden rant, snot dripped from her nostrils as she continued. “It’s not fair! Why is he always so mad at me? I thought I was his favorite!”

“That’s show business for you,” Rose said.

“I hadn’t even slept in the last week!” Raine said. “They had me taking ‘special medications’ to help me perform my scenes, but I always feel tired right afterward…”

Meanwhile, Tim and Emily looked around the room and saw various illegible documents, as well as pill bottles. “Is this…” Emily said.

Tim looked at the orange container. A tinge of disgust warmed over him. “What were these for?” Tim thought. He was certain that the Hollyland studios were forced to ensure the sick weren’t on set, and Leonis never struck Tim as harboring secret cultivators.

Raine continued to confide in Rose. “It’s just not fair! It’s not!” She then

Rose hugged and confided the poor girl. “There there, let it all out.”

Raine cried on Rose’s shoulder for several minutes. After she was done She looked at Rose again.

“All better,” Rose said.

“Un-huh,” Raine said. “Tha—“ She suddenly grasped her head in pain. “My head.”

“Raine?” Rose said.

“Whose…Raine,” the winged girl said. “I’m Bett…” She collapsed on Rose’s arms again, unconscious. Rose beckoned Stretlitzia, Clover, and Lily to her.

Meanwhile, Tim and Emily exited the room, with more questions than answers. There they saw two girls rush towards them.

“There you are!”

They were Hydrangea and Charlotte, with little Evelyn in tow. They saw Rose trying to rouse Raine from her sudden torpor.

“What do we do?” Rose asked. “Wait are you still…you?”

“Of course, we’re still us!” Charlotte said.

Hydrangea took a look at Raine and placed her arm on her forehead. “Raine’s a little feverish, but she’ll be fine. She just needs some rest.” She took a bag conjured ice within it and placed it on Raine’s forehead.

“Do you guys know where Mommy is?” Nina asked.

“We found Minerva, yea,” Hydrangea said. “But… there is a problem. She and the children were thoroughly enthralled by the Strega.”

Rosed placed the unconscious Raine on her back and tail, she was ready to carry her. She then thought about what Raine said before she collapsed. “Bett…Bett. Do you guys know who this ‘Bett’ is?”

✦✦✦

Emily, Tim, Nina, Rose, Raine, Clover, Strelitiza, Hydrangea, Charlotte, and Evelyn ventured deeper into the set, they passed through several rooms, set pieces, and props. Rose still carried Raine on her tail. Rose and Emily pondered on the mystery of this “Bett,” person.

Evelyn and Charlotte looked around for other people. Charlotte is concerned for her two friends, and fears for their safety. Nina continues to cry for her mother.

The movement of Rose’s tail as she slithered roused Raine from her slumber.

“Ugh, my head,” Raine said groggily.

“Mornin’ sleepyhead!” Rose cheerfully said.

Raine realized her body was being carried on Rose’s tail. She rapidly stood up, but was still too tired to maintain her balance and stumbled.

Hydrangea noticed Raine trying to keep herself upright. “How was your rest?” she asked.

Raine Carnation Cadenza managed to keep her feathered legs and wings straight. “Terrible, what did the Strega do to me?”

Rose made a mischievous grin. “It had you thinking you were someone named ‘Bett’.” She continued to explain the state they found her in, including her bawling and ranting like a petulant child.

“I-I would never do something like that!” Raine said. “Not even if a Strega forced me to!”

“Right,” Streltizia said.

Raine simply humphed.

The group soon arrived in an emerald-colored city. The buildings were more realistic than the sets they walked past.

Emily took a look at the green skyscrapers. It reminded her of what she saw in Noir.

Tim placed his palm on one of the walls. He felt an actual wall instead of cardboard or parchment. “This is within that building? It feels like we’re in another world.”

“We’ve given up on trying to make sense of Strega long ago.”

Tim’s description caused Emily to remember something. “Another world?” she recalled the Network once more and the dream. And that Elizabeth told her Messengers and Divine Dungeons were originally from different worlds. Yet she couldn’t recall anything about from whence she came. Only what was gleaned from her trip to Memoria Medica, the microdungeon of her swords, and she isn’t even sure how accurate that is.

Emily saw Evelyn take out a sketchpad and a small palette, she painted some of the scenery and buildings. She recalled she painted a scenery similar to the microdugneon.

“Hey, Evelyn?”

“Yes?” the young Cell said.

“Could I take a look at your painting?” Emily said.

“Sure!” Evelyn said. She was always eager to please Emily.

The avatara observed her continue to paint several scenes. A large green spire, a castle on a jagged rooftop, and the lot outside were all depicted.

“What do you think, Emmy?” Evelyn said.

“It’s perfect,” Emily said. “May I take a closer look?”

Evelyn excitedly handed her the sketchpad. Emily looked around for anything comparable to the spire and the castle. She eventually saw a giant mountainous tower that seemed to be in the city’s center.

“Everyone!” she beckoned them to follow her as she rushed toward the green spire.

✦✦✦

As Emily’s group ran closer to the emerald spire they saw winged automata swoop from the skies to accost them.

“INTRUDERS, INTERLOPERS, EXECUTE!” their leader shouted.

“Execute this!” Rose said as she drew her sword and summoned lightning to hit one of them.

Tim leaped onto another of them and pierced it with his Qiang.

Clover gathered a giant tornado to gather up most of the machines. Raine then ignited the winds with her rings to create a supercell of smoke. Those that weren’t sucked into the ashen vortex were instead frozen by Hydrangea, or pelted by conjured Boudlers from Streltizia.

Several machines hovered closer to the ground, where Nina tangled them up with webs. Charlotte used her gravity spells to make it easier for Nina to swing at the others, using the capture winged mech as a bludgeon.

Emily saw a machine rise from the spire. Its helm had a rim and a pointed tip on it, resembling Anemone’s hat. The machine allowed the stragglers around it before locking blades with Emily. The mech used a fire-enchanted sword, which Emily countered by coating the weapon with water mana. Mist emerges from the clash and surrounds them. Emily used the mist to her advantage by walking beside the machine and kicking it in the back.

The magical android tried to slash at Emily, but she parried its weapon and caused more mist to envelop her, before using a Thunderclap attack on it.

The machine’s wing is clipped by the bolt of lightning from her sword. “INSOLENT WORM,” the elite mech uttered. “TOPHET WILL HAVE YOUR BLOOD!” The enchanted automaton suddenly vanished.

“Tophet?” Emily said, confusingly.

With no more obstacles, the group ran towards the spire. There they got a glimpse of some familiar faces as the front door closed.

“Is that anemone?” Raine asked.

“Azalea’s there too!” Evelyn said. “She looks kinda different.”

“We’re on the right track,” Emily thought.

Upon ascending the steps, Hydrangea and Raine combined their powers to induce thermoshock onto the doors. This effect caused the emerald doors to break open. The reception is shocked to see Emily’s group barge in.

“Sorry,” Emily said as she and her party rushed the stairwell to the right. Several guards came after them.

“Stop, you’re not supposed to be—”

Clover summoned a cycle to push the guards away, they dissolved into black sludge upon collusion with the wall.

They soon came across an ostentatiously decorated door and pushed it open. Beyond it, they saw Lily, oddly with green hair and fur, Azalea, who looked like she was merged with a sack of straw, Anemone, and Sarah, the latter having prosthetics. They also saw Elisa and Scarlett with them as well, but not Elizabeth.

“There you are!” Emily said to Lily and her group.

“Emmy!” Lily said as she saw her party run towards them. They then saw Sarah pulling down a large rope.

“Heave, ho!” the dwarfette leaped and tugged the rope with all her strength. A large green curtain had received to the walls and revealed a silver-haired arachne woman in front of a mechanical throne. Everyone recognized who that person was. Most of all Nina.

“M-mommy?” Nina said.

The regal-looking Wizardess glared at them. “I am nobody’s mother, insolent brat!” Minerva’s tone was domineering. “For what reason have you intruded on my domain and defiled my dignity with your presence?”

“Yep,” Rose said. “The Strega really did a number on her.”

Nina pleaded with Minerva. “Please, Mommy. It’s me, Nina, remember?”

Minerva remained displeased.

“We’re here in search of some friends of ours,” Lily said. “Can you help us find them?”

“And why should I—Wait…” Minerva looked at Lily and Elisa and took notice of the shoes the younger porcine wore. “Are you the ones that had slain Adra’molech?”

“Well,” Lily said nervously. Her hair and fur were now more crimson. “‘Slain’ is—”

“Yep,” Azalea said. “That’s us! We brought the whole house down on that show of hers!”

Minerva sized up the large group. “So I see, you claim to have destroyed the witch that placed the subterranean in her iron grasp?”

“I was there where it happened!” Sarah said. “I can vouch that did more than you had done. Where were you when she arrived and offered ‘protection,’ to them huh?” Sarah grew closer to being lost in character as she made her impassioned speech. “Tell me why they should look to your leadership when all you had—”

“Silence!” Minerva pointed her scepter and struck Sarah with a spell. She had turned into a brass statue before everyone’s eyes. “You dare question my authority? Heh, maybe you have the will to slay that harlot of the West. Bring me her broomstick or else…” She cast another spell, this time encompassing the whole room. “Fail and you will stand as reminders of what happens to those who dare to defy me.”

Everyone noticed a small piece of brass on their skin.

Emily looked at Sarah, “Will you free her if we bring the broomstick?”

“I shall free the underdweller if, and only if you bring proof of the demise of Tophet.”

“Very well,” Emily said. “We’ll do it.”

“It’s not like we weren’t planning on going there anyway,” Stretlizia said.

“We’ll take care of Tophet,” Lily said.

Nina looked at Minerva, she wasn’t sure if there was anything she could do to break the Strega’s should on her mother’s mind.

Minerva smirked, “Then go ye heroes!”

The group, sans a now ferrofied Sarah, leaves the palace of the Wizard and sets off to find Tophet. As Nina left, she turned ehr head back on her mother. Her eyes quivered with tears.

The door closes and beneath Minerva’s notice, a single tear dripped from her face.

✦✦✦

The party leaves the verdant palace. Nina fuming over what happened with her mother. Emily and Evelyn try to use the latter’s painting to locate Tophet’s castle.

Lily looks at the brass patch on her arm. Rose slithered towards her. They talked about what they encountered after being separated. Pearl joined in, reintroducing herself to Rose.

“…So we have a strawman witch—”

“Did somebody say ‘strawman witch’?” Azalea chimed in, exploiting her altered form for as many jokes as possible.

“Someone named ‘Bett’…”

Lily and Pearl mused on the name. Lily’s hair and fur were now a dark blue hue.

“And the Strega, of course,” Rose finished.

Nina skittered to Rose. “And my mother being brainwashed!”

“Yeah,” Lily said. “That happens a lot.” She smiled.

The silver-haired spiderling glared at the centaur. “Why are you so happy? What if Mommy is stuck thinking she’s for tyrannical wizard-queen for the rest of her life?”

“We just need to find the Strega and beat it. Problem solved.” Nina said with her usual cheerful demeanor. “It’ll be perfectly fine!”

“But what if we can’t?” Nina said.

“What do you mean?” Nina said, innocently. “My friends and I have plenty of experience finding and slaying Strega,” Lily said.

Nina grew more irritated with Lily brushing off her concerns. The other children try to calm down their youngest, but the arachne girl grew more furious with each attempt.

“I nearly lost my mommy once!” Nina said with tears welling in her eyes. “D-don’t you know what it’s like to l-lose someone you loved?”

Pearl aside, all of the children in the party had lost at least one parent. And the Coloraturas especially lost them both. Each of the eight witches had lost their parents to various and diverse circumstances.

Nina’s question shocked Lily. “Of course we do!” She said. “It’s just.”

An inconsolable Nina skittered away. Tim noticed the arachne girl flee in sorrow and turned his gaze towards the children. “What happened?” he said with a sigh.

Everyone’s eyes turned to Lily, who wondered why her attempts to console her had the opposite effect on Nina.

“Lily,” Raine asked. “Have you ever considered that the ‘little miss sunshine’ thing isn’t the solution to everything?”

Lily turned to Raine. “Huh? What are you talking about, Raine?”

“With how younger Nina is than us,” Hydrangea opined, “a little more empathy would have gone further there.”

“She needs a shoulder to cry on,” Rose said. “Just like Raine did.”

Raine blushed upon recalling the hazy memory of her crying on Rose’s shoulder earlier. “Can we please stop talking about that?”

Anemone and Pearl looked at the color-changing centauride with a curious question. “It isn’t healthy for you to keep your emotions bottled up either,” Anemone said.

“Huh?” Lily is shocked by her friends’ responses. “B-but I…” she sighed. “You’re right.” She knew she had to at least apologize to Nina.

Pearl approached Lily. “I’ll help you find Nina,” she said.

“I’m going too,” Charlotte said. “Euryale and Stheno being Astra-knows-where is more than enough worry for me.”

The centaur, porcine actress, and alraune searched for Nina in the nearby woods. Emily and the others stayed here so that they could locate Tophet’s lair.

✦✦✦

Nina skittered to a large forest at the eastern edge of the green metropolis. She moved over a rock and slumped around. In her solitude, betwixt the urban and the natural, she thought about her desire to be an adventurer, to be a hero. She turned her gaze to the emerald spire to the west.

“This stinks,” she said with a frustrated tone. Her mother has been brainwashed, and she isn’t certain if that would be undone. They haven’t found the Strega, and she doesn’t even have a clue what exactly it is. She then looked at the patch of brass on her arm. She saw that it grew a little larger. She looked back on how Sarah was turned into a brass statue and how the same fate could await her if they did not find Tophet or the Strega in time.

A while later, Nina heard a rustling noise from the nearby bushes. She glared at the topiary and prepared to fight whatever monster that would emerge.

“Show yourself!” she demanded.

Lily emerged from the bush. Her hair, tail, and fur are a reddish hue now. “Hey,” she said.

The younger spiderling glared at the centaur child. “What do you want?” she said.

Lily approached Nina and bent her four legs to meet Nina eye to eye. Pearl and Charlotte watched from near the bush.

“My friends and I,” Lily said, referring to the other seven coloraturas. “We all lost our parents when we were younger.” The filly continued as magenta streaks creeper on her hair. “I lost mine when I was about your age.”

Nina looked at the centaur incredulously. “What happened?”

Nina tried to recall the details, but she couldn't piece everything together. “One night I walked into the kitchen and saw them on the table. I thought they were just sleeping and tried to wake them up but they never woke up.”

“But why?” Nina asked.

“I don’t know,” Lily said. “Soon other adults came in and said they had passed on. But they never told me why or how. Following that I was declared Exsecratii and placed in the Underground, where I wandered before meeting the others.”

Nina ruminated on these words, she started to regret acting the way she did back then. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I wanted to say I’m sorry,” Lily said. “And also because I felt you should know that I didn’t mean to brush aside your concerns.”

“Tell me one thing,” the other child asked. “Even if you had…that happened to you, why are you always so smiley all the time?”

“Because it’s fun!” Lily said.

Nina was unamused by the response.

Lily’s fur and hair were now completely pink as she let out a sigh. “Okay, it’s because I don’t want to fret over what couldn't be changed, alright? My parents taught me to never feel burdened by the things you can’t change. That was…that was the best way I could honor their memory.”

Nina hanged her head in regret.

“I’m sorry for not considering your feelings,” Lily said. “I really am.”

“It’s fine, “Nina said. “I’m sorry for acting out like that.” She then looked at Lily’s eyes. “Do you think we can save Mommy and the others?”

“Of course we can!” Lily said with a smile. “Just have faith in us.”

“Okay,” Nina said.

From near the bush, Charlotte and Pearl heard some noise. They turned around and saw the shadow of a plump monster in the distance. Its neck was as long as its body wide. It slowly approached Lily and Nina. The porcine witch and the alraune moved from their hiding spot to warn the two.

“Guys!” Charlotte said, there’s a monster coming this way!”

Before Nina and Lily could react, the monster rushed past them. Its large body and neck held both several spots and wings. The head was beaked and had orange feathers on it. Its long neck also had feathers that transitioned into its spotted fur.

“What in the Admsitrator’s name is that?” Lily asked in shock.

“It’s a Hip-po-gy-ra-phon!” Pearl yelled. “It was a monster created specifically for the film!”

The Hip-po-gy-ra-phon moved with a speed higher than what its rotund build would suggest. The four girls barely dodged its rush. Lily used her wand to shine a bright light to blind the long-necked beast, but its blinding light only enraged it further. It let out a squawking noise as it lashed at them with its neck and head.

The girls try to run away from the beast and try to get help from the rest of the party.

✦✦✦

Meanwhile, Emily and Evelyn are still looking for a landmark resembling the domain of Tophet.

“Are you sure my painting could help us find this ‘Tophet’ person?” Evelyn said.

“I’m certain of it,” Emily said.

“If I recalled correctly,” Scarlett said. “The witch’s domain was to the west of here but...”

“But what?” Emily asked.

“The changes made between the final cut and the original one included changing the locations,” Anemone said. “The first cut had the elevator be to the west of the Wizard’s palace and Tophet’s land be to the east. That was reversed in the final cut.”

“How do you know all that?” Rose asked.

“You’d be surprised what you can learn from film magazines,” Anemone said.

Just then they heard a loud thud to their left. They saw Nina, Charlotte, and Lily rushing toward them with Pearl riding on Lily’s equine body. Emily noticed the strange beast chasing them.

Scarlett recognized the beast as a Hip-po-gy-raf-phon and took out her boomstick.

Anemone nocked arrows from her bow. The arrow grazed the beast’s long neck and landed in its shadow. The berserk animal tried to grab its prey, but Anemone’s magic forbade it from moving beyond where its shadow touched the arrow.

“What is that?” Clover said as she took her fan out.

“A Hip-po-gy-raf-phon,” Anemone said. “It was said to guard the elevator leading to the underground.

“So if it came from there…” Tim said.

The beast noticed the arrow binding its shadow and tried to remove it. The arrow embedded itself between two brass slabs on the sidewalk of the Gilded Path.

“Then that means…” Emily looked in the opposite direction from where Lily ran from. Her eyes spotted a strange mountain with several smaller peaks around its core. She noticed the silhouette was similar to what Evelyn painted on her sketchpad. “There!”

While the Hip-po-gy-raf-phon was occupied with freeing itself, the party ran as far away from it as possible. The beak of the beast gripped the arrow and pulled on it with all of its might. The arrow was soon broken from the ground and the shadow and the Hip-po-gy-raf-phon glared at the party as they ran away from the monster. The beast gave chase to the party.

Rose saw that the monster rapidly grew closer to them and tried to stun it with lightning spells. “Electro-elegy!” she yelled as she drew her sword and made several thrusting motions with it. Lightning struck the beast.

Azalea drew moisture from the air and used it to trap the beast in an orb of water before Rose’s spell struck it. The discharge stunned the beast enough for the party to get more distance between them, but the Hip-po-gy-raf-phon unfolded its wings and took to the skies.

“It could fly?” Raine asked with disbelief.

“It did have wings after all,” Pearl said.

The Hip-po-gy-raf-phon flew into its shadow enveloping the group before it swooped down from above. Raine intercepted it in midair and exchanged blows with it. Her rings against its talons and beak. The red-headed phoenixian girl slashed at the strange beast with weapons and used them to parry strikes from its blinded head and its front talons. The chimeric entity pecked at Raine’s arms with its beast.

With wind magic, Clover propelled herself into the air to save Raine. She took her folded fan behind her and slammed it down onto the large chimera. The peryton fawn then used her wings to glide near Raine. “Are you okay?”

“I think—” Raine suddenly realized that she couldn’t feel her right arm and wing. Clover grabbed her before she could fall and saw that Raine’s elbow was entirely coated in brass.

The Hip-po-gy-raf-phon recovered from Clover’s strike and ambushed them. It swatted them into the ground by using its neck like a whip. Strelitizia attacked the beast by conjuring a jagged rock formation and pinned its wings to it. Azalea and Hydrangea created a gelatinous cushion to protect Clover and Raine as they fell to the ground.

“You guys okay?” Azalea asked.

“We—we’re fine,” Clover said.

Rained looked at her elbow in horror, she tried to bend it, but it wouldn't budge. Her crimson right wing was likely partially turned into solid immovable brass as well.

The Hip-po-gy-raf-phon tried to move, but Nina climbed to the rock rotation and created webs to further bind its webs. Tim struck the neck with kicks, punches, and conjured boulders.

Emily saw that the beast was still able to free itself from both Streltizia’s jagged rocks and Nina’s web and asked Hydrnages to help her freeze the beast. The two channeled ice mana into a frozen coffer surrounding the Hip-po-gy-raf-phon as Tim, Lily, and Nina retreated.

With the Hip-po-gy-raf-phon frozen solid, Pearl made several tap dances. Her mo seismically broke both the rocks and the frozen beast. Finally ensuring it was unable to chase them anymore.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Raine looked at her elbow again.

“How long will it take to get there?” Raine asked.

Scarlett looked at the mountain. “If we could find a way up there.” She then remembered something. “Follow me, I have a plan.”

The group continued their quest and followed Scarlett to where they could find some machines to commandeer. They soon arrived at a junkyard where several of Tophet’s downed machines were sent to rust. They rummaged through the various mechanical bodies there to find enough parts to construct a flying machine.

“If only Sarah was here,” Lily said.

Raine used all that she learned from Sarah to try to piece together a flying machine. After an hour they managed to create something that could carry them towards the mountain. They boarded the flying platform and activated it, ascending to the skies and setting off towards Tophet’s lair.

✦✦✦

The party used their contraption to travel the skies to reach Tophet’s Peak, where the vengeful sister of Adra’molech is supposed to reside. Emily kept her eye out for anything that could block their path. Raine used her fire magic to create thrust for the machine, supplemented by Clover’s occasional use of her fan to create gusts. The others kept their distance from those two both to avoid being singed by the flames and also to keep weight distribution equal.

Scarlett looked around the area for any notable landmarks. She remembered that when she filmed for her cut of the movie, the party of four traveled by land, and that most of the trip to the peak was cut. Leaving a gap in her knowledge of how to navigate the land.

Lily looked down at the scenery beneath her. Instead of the green buildings and trees of Esmeralda, there was instead a beige wasteland littered with the charred remains of dead trees. Any lakes or rivers were replaced by tar-like black sludge. It reminded her of the night she saw her parents’ lifeless bodies. She had always wondered who killed them, but such inquires were banished to the back of her mind as she struggled with other concerns, even after meeting and joining the Coloraturas she was unable to learn more about them.

Azalea broke her train of thought. “Hey there,” the straw-filled mermaid said.

“Hello,” Lily said.

“Why are you so blue, Lily?” Azalea said.

Lily turned her head to look at her hind legs and saw that her tail was a cerulean hue, along with her hair and fur. She then shrugged at her clionid-shaped sack friend.

Azalea giggled a little. “That isn’t quite what I meant, silly.”

Anemone carefully walked towards Lily, being careful not to jeopardize the stability of the aircraft. “Is it about Nina?”

Lily shook her head. Come to think of it, this was the first time she had ever opened up to anyone about her past like that. All her friends knew of Lily’s parents was that they were deceased. Nina, Lily, and Pearl were the first to know some of the details beyond that.

“Is it about your…” Pearl approached Lily as well. But she is hesitant to finish her question.

“My parents?” Lily finished it. The look in her eyes made it abundantly clear that it was indeed about that. Her locks changed to an azure hue as she looked down beneath the craft. “It’s just that,” she sighed. “I don’t know why they perished, or how. And ever since I talked to Nina earlier, that has just been bugging me for some reason.”

“I see,” Anemone said. “You want to know what happened to them?”

Lily nodded. “I know Hydrangea and Clover felt similarly about theirs, but—” The conversation was uninterrupted by turbulence attacking the craft. The flat base slanted towards the back where Raine and Clover were pushing it with their magic and everyone slid close to that edge. Anemone reflexively used a spell to magnetize everyone to the metal floor with her dark gravity magic.

“What is going on?” Strelitzia said.

Evelyn looked to her right and saw a fleet of machines in the distance. With those winged mechs were three gigantic turbines.

“INTRUDERS, TRESPASSERS, DEFENESTRATE!” the leader of the mechs said. Evelyn noticed its helm resembled a pointed hat.

Emily looked toward the machines. She sang a chord of Bardsong to create a veil of darkness around the machines. Scarlett aimed her rifle at them and fired an enchanted bullet. The bullet erupted in a red aurora within the darkness that forced the machines to fly off in random directions.

Some of the winged robots avoided both attacks and rapidly flew toward the party’s craft. One of them caused the device to turn around and cause a part to break off.

“Stupid robots!” Raine said, she tried to grip the ring on her right hip, but she noticed it remained hosted there. She looked at the right arm and saw that it had fully turned to solid brass.

Clover noticed her left wing and arm was also nearly coated in brass as well from Minerva’s curse.

Another one attacked the machine and broke the fragile propulsion systems keeping it in the air. The craft is not fated to crash. Clover tried to use her magic to create wind, while Hydrangea used her magic to create an icy path to allow it to land gently, but as they did the patches of brass on them began creeping more on their bodies.

“Hold on tight!” Hydrangea said. The cyan-bobbed girl continued to channel her mana into cushioning the craft’s crash landing. Frigid air coalesced into solid ice that the clipped machine slid on before stopping at the foot of the mountain.

Winged machines now surrounded the party, Rose drew her sword and wand and used both to conduct lightning spells to attack the machines. One of them avoided the lightning bolt and engaged the lamia in melee combat. Its mechanical fist against Rose’s rapier. Rose eventually used slicing and thrusting motions in tandem with her spells to defeat the machine.

The pointy-headed machine also engaged with the party, this time attacking Lilt and Pearl. The centauride had deftly dodged its spells and retaliated with light magics, barriers, and her spearwork. Pearl assisted by using bardsong channeled through her tap dances to smash adversarial mech with the earth itself.

Strelitzia and Tim meanwhile sued earth magic to wipe out several of the machines. The minotauride then slammed her labrys onto the downed mechs. Time used bajiquan techniques to repel the melee strikes of the mechanical opponents and dismember them.

Rose managed to defeat her opponent, short-circuiting it with her attacks, as the machine fell she tried to slither to assist her allies, only to find out that her tail had been coated entirely in brass. Failing to slink around, she tried to crawl with her arms, only to find they were insufficient to move her now brass tail.

“Great,” the pink-haired child said. “Just great.” She saw that her friends were still being assaulted by the machines and focused on the one attacking Pearl and Lily. She decided to channel a spell. “Andante Discahrge!” Rose summoned successive bolts of lighting between her and her target. One strike followed by another in front of it. The pointed-helmed machine, too busy trying to defeat Lilt and PEarl, became blindsided by the attack.

“SYSTEM ERROR! SYSTEM ERROR!”

The leader of the machine was neutralized and it fell in front of Lily. The now purple-haired centaur looked at Rose, her body nearly turned to brass.

“Guess this is it,” Rose said as brass crept up on her torso. She smiled at Lily.

“Rosie!” Lily galloped towards her serpentine friend. The machines scrambled, bereft of a commander, and retreated to the tip of the mountain.

“I might fall,” Rose said with a smile. “But I know the spirit of justice will persist. Lily, everyone, go on with me. It will be okay in the end, right?” Rose succumbed to the curse, becoming a brass statue.

Lily looked around and saw that Raine and Hydrangea were also turned into brass statues. Pearl, Scarlett, Emily, Tim, Nina, Evelyn, Charlotte, Clover, Strelitzia, Azalea, and Anemone were otherwise unharmed, but they and Lily herself noticed the patches of brass covered more of their bodies than they did before.

The party, now with three less than before, looked at the mountian. There they saw a pitch-black castle with several spires, the place where Tophet lives.

“Let’s go,” Scarlett said. “We have little time to waste.”

Lily looked back at her fallen friends before following the party in their uphold climb.

✦✦✦

The party made their way to the top of the mountain and arrived at the entrance of the lair. Pearl looked at her shoes, the slippers that she knew the film’s antagonist wanted.

They enter the castle and are immediately accosted by animate furniture. Tim dispatched them with his knees and arms. Nina moved around the walls and ceiling trying to find Tophet’s broom first. Pearl and what remained of the Coloraturas followed the spiderling.

Lily and Anemone helped Nina try to locate Tophet’s room. Azalea also tried to lighten the mood with her jokes.

Meanwhile, Emily, Tim, Scarlett, Charlotte, and Evelyn, searched another part of the castle for both Tophet and the missing children.

“Eury?” Charlotte shouted out. “Stheno?” Where are you?

As they searched the castle. Emily noticed something unusual about herself. She can still move the parts of herself that were turned to brass. She turned to Tim.

“Um, Timmy?” Emily said.

Tim turned and saw her move her “brassified” body parts around. “What happened there,”

“Didn’t Elizabeth say that your body, both as a Dungeon and your avatara body were made of nanomachines?” Tim said. He was aware of his lack of knowledge of technology that advanced. “Perhaps that has something to do with it?”

Emily had forgotten that little fact. “…oh.”

Tim sighed.

Emily’s mind looked toward another topic. “Scarlett, do you know any person named ‘Bett’?”

“Bett?” the woman in red said.

“We found the name on the way to this place,” Charlotte said. “But it was incomplete.”

“I see,” Scarlett said. “There is one person that springs to mind.”

Meanwhile, Nina asked the same question to her party while they were looking for Topheth. Anemone and Pearl have an inkling of a possible hint.

“Do you remember Betty Gale?” Pearl said.

“Not a clue,” Nina said.

“Doesn't ring a bell,” Stretlizia said.

“Nothing but straw here,” Azalea said in reference to her head.

Anemone sighed. “Betty Gale was a child actress, she was hired by Leonis to preform several roles. She had made a name for herself for how many films she had starred in.”

“But then she vanished during filming of ‘Metropolitica Esmeralda’,” Pearl said.

“I remember that,” Lily said. “You said your mommy took her place in that film?”

The porcine child nodded.

With Emily’s party, Scarlett explained Betty Gale some more. “Following ehr disappearance, the studio had cast me out of several prospective young girls to play the role of the Messenger child to the city.”

“I heard rumors about her disappearance,” Charlotte said. “The Rosenkreuz guild was abuzz with gossip when it came to light that Pearl was coming to the quiet town.

“Those rumors propagated very heavily, “Scarlett said. “It was enough to lead into an investigation that resulted in the lead of Leonis resigning. Though I didn’t knew it at the time it had led to the studio treating me a little more leniently during filming, but…”

“You retried from show business right?” Tim asked. “What happened?”

“Childbirth for starters,” Scarlett said. “Little Pearly was rather tough to raise.”

“She seemed like a sweet kid,” Emily said.

“I’d hope so,” Scarlett said. “I had never wanted her to turn out with Betty, went to great lengths to ensure she remained as innocent as she was. I fought with the producers and forbade her from interacting with other children off set, all so that she wouldn't fall victim to the studios like Betty was.”

Emily had two other questions. “Can you tell me more about these rumors?”

At the same time, Clover asked Pearl more about Betty.

“Mommy didn’t tell me much,” Pearl said. “I thinks he wanted to shelter me from the other kids. She had express concerned about me turning out competitive and spoiled.”

“The rumors mentioned that Betty had been taking special alchemical concoctions,” Anemone said. “So that she could stay away during filming. It would explain why her films finished production earlier than most.”

“What happened to her sleep cycle?” Azalea said. “Did she get any rest?”

“That I couldn't say,” Anemone said. “There were some anecdotes about her arriving with work with bags under her eyes, and some complaints form anonymous makeup artists about it, but that hasn’t been substantiated.”

“Do you think she is…” Lily asked.

“With what we knew so far,” Anemone said. “The possibility shouldn't be discarded.”

Clover asked Nina something. “What other films did Betty work on?”

“She worked on ‘Pet Shop of 9th’, ‘The Diner’s Daughter’, ‘Princess of the Sword,’ and ‘On the Eve of Still Winds’,” Anemone said.

Back with Emily’s party.

“Did you two head to Rosenkreuz because…” Emily asked

“I’m aware that my efforts had left her rather lonely as a result,” Scarlett said. “Pearl at least deserved some semblance of normality. She is a dedicated hardworking girl.”

“Did you push her into this?” Tim asked.

“Only Astra knows,” Scarlet said with regret. “She had expressed a desire to take to the stage and entertain her, and it reached a fervor whens he found out I was an actress at a young age. She had the taken for it too, dancing like a sprite-child as she played around the lot. I’m not sure how much I influenced those decisions.”

At the same time, Stretlizia asked Pearl one last question. “We you lonely when you were on set?”

“I was at first, “Pearl said. “The adults were kind to me, and I eventually met Lucia.”

“Did someone call my name?” Lucia emerges form Pearl’s bag as if she had just woke up. She noticed that everyone here were halfways covered in brass, but before she could comment on it she sensed a dangerous presence. “Get down, something dangerous is coming!”

The girls hid in a closet, they noticed several walking porcelain figures walked past them. Clad in armor that seemed to be made of the same material as the dolls.

✦✦✦

Meanwhile, Emily and her party followed similar entities around the castle.

“Living porcelain dolls?” Tim asked.

“They were props made for the film,” Scarlett said. “We had artisans in Nu-Wa make them.”

“Ah,” Tim said.

“Something wrong, Tim?” Emily asked.

“It’s nothing,” Tim said.

The group followed the dolls on their patrol, being careful to avoid being noticed by the life-sized constructs.

At the same time, the other party trailed a different group of patrollers. They reconvened at the foyer of the castle, in front of a large door reminiscent of what Lily saw during the elevator to the surface. A giant demonic maw. Lucia sensed familiar energy was emitted from beyond the doors.

The porcelain soldiers left the foyer, and the two groups regrouped and approached the door.

Pearl’s glass familiar touched the door and a shiver was sent down her spine. “The Strega is behind it, I can tell.”

“So Tophet is the Strega,” Lily asked.

“But does that mean that Tophet is Betty?” Pearl asked.

“Who cares!” Lily petulantly said. “I want my mommy back and if we have to destroy that Tophet, then…”

The group steeled themselves as they opened the door. They were enveloped in darkness for several moments. Lily conjured a brilliant light and saw themselves surrounded by several bronze statues. Several of which bore familial forms. Charlotte noticed a pair of mouse-eared ones and ran towards them. “Euryale! Stheno!” she saw that they resembled two of her wayward friends.

Anemone noticed several of the statues looked like arachne children, including classmates Rico and Cassie.

Lily saw among them Sarah, Rose, Raine, and Hydrangea. All of whom she saw transmogrified into brass statues outside the castle.

Pearl looked at a statue of an Arahcne adult, the manager of the theater, as well as several various statues of people besides, including a deerlet with a name tag reading “Jebadissa”

“Cut!”

A voice was heard from the other end of the room. The party turned towards the source, a director’s chair placed before a giant organ. Sitting on it was a short and irate young lady. Her form resembled a porcelain doll fitted with several brass accessories and patches. A large gear jutted out from the right of her head. A large broomstick was beside her, but given the circumstances that detail became irrelevant.

“So, you think you can go all off-script,” a voice echoes towards them. “Do you have any idea how many takes were ruined because of your actions?” Not a word was uttered from the doll’s mouth.

“Never seen a Strega this…chatty,” Azalea said.

An incensed Nina glared at the doll. “Who cares about your stupid scripts? Do you know how many people you’ve hurt?”

“It’s not my fault Betty was so inconvenient to work with. Better befitting of a villain than a hero.”

A tear dripped from the doll’s eyes.

Scarlett took her gun. “Alright ‘Tophet,’ Show yourself!”

The group heard a leonine growl around them. Lily brandished her spear and channeled her mana through it. The radiance of the glowing weapon revealed mirrors, decrepit spotlights, and cameras hovering over the statues. But more importantly, it revealed a large leonid creature made of dark ink among the statues. The Strega.

“Lights…camera…” the monster uttered venomously. “Action!” it lunged towards the group. Strelitzia slammed at the lion-like Strega with her labrys.

“You need new material!” the minotauride said. Clover followed up on her friend’s attack by whacking the beast with her iron fan. Nina then pinned the beast down using a net-like web.

With Tophet down for now, the party uses several attacks on the Strega to weaken it, the most effective being those that came from Pearl, Lily, Clover, Streltizia, Anemone, and Azalea.

Emily, Tim, Evelyn, and Scarlett meanwhile tried to break the strings connecting the porcelain doll to the room. “Come on,” Emily said. “It’s time to go.”

The doll whispered to them. “Please, leave me be.”

The lion roared. “Take two!” Tophet growled as a shock wave repelled Nina, Charlotte, and the magical girls from it. Anemone tried to use gravity magic to keep the leonine beast down, but Tophet leaped before the arrow could pin in shadow. Charlotte’s more direct application of gravity spells proved similarly ineffective. The lion’s claws gleamed as it slashed at the alraune. Her chartreuse flesh immediately turned to brass, as did her indigo petals. The curse had turned her body into a brass statue.

“Lotte!” Anemone cried out. The violet-haired lycanthrope fired another arrow at it, their item aiming to use other dark magic to deter the beast. Azalea helped by attacking Tophet with water orbs and her knife.

“You’re a real pain in the brass!” Azalea said.

“And you are a wretched distraction,” the lion-like Strega said before slashing at the mermaid with his claws. Azalea swam deftly to dodge the attacks as Lily charged toward it with her spear.

“Lumiere Avant!” She charged at Tophet with a blinding light and pushed it into the air. The Strega landed on its claws and growled at them. Clover and Strelitzia grappled with her claws while Pearl performed a tap dance that caused an inferno to follow her steps.

Emily attempted to convince the porcelain porcine doll to come with them, but the despondent fragment rejected her plea. “It’s pointless, they would never be happy.”

Tophet tried to slash at Lily, but she parried its claws with her spear. The fires from Pearl’s dance engulfed the lion, but it only made its inky pelt more dangerous. It lunged behind a mirror and rushed to the party with several slashes. Everyone dodged those attacks, but the fire left in its wake made it more difficult to find places to avoid its subsequent attacks. Azalea began to quench the fire with her water magic, but Tophet lunged at her while she was distracted.

“Look out!” Clover cried out.

Before the Lion could land a blow, it was stopped. “Who dates!” it cried out.

“I dare!” Strelitzia said while grabbing the Strega. Brass crept further on her body. “Azalea, now!”

Azalea channels an orb of water around them both to quell the flame-wreathed Strega. Pearl and Clover then worked on snuffing out the blazes caused by the former’s dance. By the time the flame was put out, Stretliza, still holding the Strega, was transformed into a brass statue.

With the lion incapacitated for now, Lily rushed to Emily and her group, still trying to convince the fragment of Betty to break free. She noticed the porcine doll’s despondency and tried to cheer her up, but despite her warm smiles, Betty refused to go.

“You think that’s supposed to work?” Betty said. “Those fake smiles of yours?”

“These smiles aren’t fake!” Lily said as she tried to plead with Betty to break free. “Come with us, I’m sure it will work out!”

“She’s right, Evelyn said. “I’m sure there are many people who miss you.”

“Oh really?” Betty said. “They ‘miss’ me huh and not the mask I wore on set?”

Azalea tried to contain the Strega within the orb of water. “I know cats hate water, but you’re rather overdue for a bath,” she said.

The lion began to melt, slipping from Stretlitzia’s stilled grasp as it turned into an inky blob. Azalea saw the black mass emerged with the orb and grew into a larger beast. Before should could react, the empowered Strega slashed at her and sent her scarecrow-like form flying towards Lily.

“That’s all folks,” the mermaid said as her body turned into brass. Tophet looked at Lily with a smirk and an evil cackle. “Try all you want, she is far too gone,” the monster said.

✦✦✦

Clover engaged with Tophet, but the Strega easily swatted her aside and transformed the peryton fawn into a brass statue. Scarlett checked her coat for more bullets but found she was all out and instead changed her rifle into a wand.

“O Astra, mistress of the heavens above, hear my plea!” Scarlett said. “Contain this nightmare in your starlit embrace!”

The Strega was contained in an orb of darkness. They clawed at the obsidian sphere, each blow creating a crack in the prison. Scarlett used as much mana as she could to maintain the barrier, her body slowly turning to brass in the process.

Anemone then tried to attack the Strega, but she too was turned into a statue by the monster’s attacks.

“Pearly, please,” Scarlett said. “Stay safe, my daughter.” The red-clad woman had become another brass statue, unable to maintain the barrister for long. Pearl looked at her mother in shock as she succumbed to the curse.

“Lily,” Emily said. “I’ll try to hold the Strega off, can you break through to Betty?”

“I-I’ll try, Emmy,” Lily said.

With that said Emily rushed toward the Strega. “Hey!” she called out to the monster.

Tophet engaged Emily in battle while Tim looked around for any potential weaknesses and Lily, Nina and Pearl tried to get through to Betty.

The Strega attacked Emily, but despite much of the Dugneon avatara’s body turning into brass, she was still able to move. To the ire and confusion of the lionine beast.

“How are you still moving!” Tophet said in furor.

“Trade secret,” Emily cheekily said before using lightning-enchanted weapons to fight the beast.

The three children tried to get Betty to break free.

“Why are you even trying?” Betty said. “It’s all hopeless.”

“It isn’t hopeless!” Lily said.

“As long as we’re still here,” Pearl said. “There is still a light at the end of the tunnel!”

“Please,” Evelyn said. “You don’t deserve this!”

“And you think Hollyland is better than this?” Betty said. “I worked my but off day in, day out, haven’t slept for months, and was only alive because the director suggested necromantic ingredients to go along with the potions! For what, just for the people who called me their ‘favorite’ to work me to the bone again?”

“And you think this is any better?” Lily said. “Being a captive to a monster of your walking, who treated you as poorly as those directors?”

Emily continued her clash with Tophet. “Insolent fool!” the Strega said “You may still move, but you will not be able to best me!”

Pearl had an idea and turned to Lily “I have an idea, think you can help?”

Lily’s eyes sparked with determination. “What’s the plan, Pearly?”

Pearl whispered into Lily’s ear. The two girls then moved a little back from the others.”

“Two taps left, two taps right,” Pearl said she she manifested a cane. Lily used her spear as a substitute as they began their impromptu routine. They began to sing a duet together. Using Bardsong to help break Betty from her shell of solitude. They began to sing about the joy of life in a musical-style routine.

Emily managed to bring Tophet to a wall, though her attacks were unable to defeat the beast she was able to ensure it wouldn't attack anyone else as its rage kept it focused squarely on herself.

Pearl and Lily sang about the light at the tunnel’s end and a world beyond where skies are blue and where dreams come true. They sang that even though there were times when they felt down, where there was nothing but darkness hovering over them, there was still a light to grasp, and how it would dispel the darkness. They have sung of joy, of anger, of fear, and how their faith in a bright tomorrow can banshees the fears of today.

With each lyric, Betty grew more incredulous and irate, yet as Lily and Pearl continued singing, cracks in her porcelain shell began to form. As they sang, Betty noticed something well up inside of her.

Tophet began to feel weaker as Lily and Pearl continued their song. “What is this…” Light emerges from cracks that form in its dark leonine shell. “This can’t be! I am absolute! I am the director of this melancholic studio. You cannot defeat me! You shan’t!”

Emily interrupted its panicked monologue with a Thunderclap. “Seems to be we just did, ehe,” she said.

The accumulated mana of the Strega coalesce into a sphere. Lily and Pearl continued singing to Betty as her original form began to manifest in place of the porcelain doll-like form of the fragment. Emily stuck her arm out and began to absorb the mana. The Strega began to fade and everyone was engulfed in light. Lily looked at Betty and saw that she smiled before all was washed in a blinding radiance.

✦✦✦

Everyone soon woke up in a forest close to Rosenkreuz, many of them with headaches.

“Ugh, what happened,” Jebadissa said. “My head.”

Emily saw Elizabeth nearby and helped her fairy companion up. “Do you remember anything, Lizzie?”

The pink-haired fairy groggily tried to remember. “We found out a [Strega] was in the theater, but after that…it’s all a blur.”

Lily saw her reflection on a nearby lake and saw that her hair and tail were no longer changing colors. Instead, they were fixed at her original blonde hue. Rose slithered toward her. “I knew you were able to do it, Lily.”

“Boo!” Azalea sprung up from the lake and splashed the two, like Lily, she had returned to her usual clinoid form.

Raine approached them. “That was the worst movie I ever lived,” she said.

Lily’s gaze then turned to Pearl and Scarlett as they looked over a third porcine girl.

“She hasn’t aged a bit,” Pearl said. “Lucia can you…”

“On it, Pearly,” the familiar said. She fluttered around the unconscious girl.

“Pearl!” Lily galloped to her recent friend, passing by Charlotte waking Euryale and Stheno up, Nina tearfully hugging her mother, and Strelitzia and Rico arguing with Clover and Cassie watching. “It worked, our song worked.”

“Yeah, it did huh?” Pearl said with a chuckle.

Lily turned to the unconscious girl as the glass familiar roused her. “Ugh, where am I?” She confusingly looked around her and saw she was in a forest.

Lucia returned to Pearl. “Seems like she had forgotten everything,” she said.

Anemone approached Lily. “It seemed like we prevailed.”

“Who are you?” Betty said while rubbing her head.

Scarlett looked at the glassy familiar. “When you say ‘everything’…”

“I mean ‘everything,’ Lucia said. “She could barely remember her name, but not much else. She doesn't even know she was a magical girl or a child actress.”

“I see,” Scarlett looked at the confused little girl. “Lily, do you want to accompany Pearl and I as we take this child to the guild hall?”

Lily nodded and followed the three porcines to the guildhall. Anemone followed her as well to ensure nothing else happened. Emily and the others likewise gathered the recovered victims together and took them to the guildhall to ensure their safety, with the built in hospital checking them for wounds. By the time Stella touched the horizin everyone was safe and sound and back where they belonged.

✦✦✦

That night, Emily, Elizabeth, Tim, Sarah, Minerva, and the children returned to the Black Box. Pearl also followed them home with Scarlett’s permission, she arrived as her untransformed self.

“Bonjour,” Heathcliff said. “Seems like you had a long day, Emily.”

“We did, Heathcliff,” Emily said as she dissolved her avatara. “So did anything happen while we were gone?” her voice echoed to the knight.

“Besides Atsuko, Carla and I getting a crash course in consoling the folk here?” He joked. “Not much.”

Meanwhile, Pearl talked with Lily and Anemone about Betty.

“Pauline had found someone willing to adopt her,” Pearl said.

“It was good timing too,” Lily said. “She said she was just looking for someone to keep her company”

“Did Betty recover her memory?” Anemone said.

Evelyn was painting a painting while the others were talking.

“Didn’t seem like it,” Lily said.

“Had this ever happened before?” Pearl said. “While I’ve rescued several fragments from Strega. This is the first time I saw something like this happen.”

Anemone glanced at the young painter. “Well…”

“I hope Betty would be able to, well you know,” Lily said.

“At the very least, being so far away from Hollyland and it being so long means that the studios would think her dead and wouldn't try to find her.”

“That reminds me,” Lily said. “What are you planning to do after filming’s finished?”

“Well actually,” Pearl said. “I wanted to take a break from acting for a while. Once the film’s done Scarlett and I are looking into a more permanent residence in Rosenkreuz.”

“Really?” Lily beamed a precious smile. “You mean it?”

“We’ve talked it over,” Pearl said. “Scarlett agreed that it is good to distance ourselves from show business for a while. Vulpecula was also accommodating to the resignation. There is the matter of schooling though.”

“Emily can help with that!” Lily said eagerly. “We just got a school in the Dungeon!”

“A school in a…Dungeon?” Pearl said. “That sounds…novel.”

“It’s rather barebones right now,” Anemone said. “But maybe it would have more classes by the time filming’s finished?”

“I’d hope so,” Pearl said. “It would be nice to have some quiet for a change. Aside from the Sterga attacks of course.” She politely said her farewells to her friends and left the Black Box.

“See you later! Pe—Elisa!” Lily said.

“Please, call me Pearl!” the visitor said. “My number one fan deserves that much at least.” She said. “See you later, Lily!” She exited the Dungeon.

Evelyn finished her painting, a depiction of a firestorm in a blue forest…

✦✦✦

Meanwhile, Maurice walked into a laboratory. “How is the analysis of the rabbit statue.”

“We pinpointed the source of this item,” a researcher from the Fallow Institution. “It is traced to a Dungeon that sprang up in Rosenkreuz. It seemed to have developed rapidly and recently.”

“Really?” the baby blue-suited man said. “That is interesting.”

“Are you planning to check out the Dungeon?” the researcher said.

“Of course,” Maurice said. “I'd like to see for myself. If that place is what I think it is, it could revolution several forms of science, arcane or otherwise.”

The researched laughed. “Ever the steadfast man Maurice. I take it you’ll be setting off tomorrow?”

“You know it,” Maurice said. “I’m gonna try to gather an expedition party after arriving in Rosenkreuz. The locals might know more about this place than our men could.”

“It’s going to be a while before you arrive there.”

“I know. May you be blessed in the starlight,” Maurice said.

“May you be blessed in the starlight,” the researcher said.

Maurice left the room to prepare for his imminent trip to Rosenkreuz.