Isher Notra

Stella:

Her arms begged for mercy.

For about an hour, as far as her temporal awareness was concerned, the Human girl clawed her way through the dirt, even lower than the Atelier's tunnels.

... Right, clawing wasn't an accurate depiction. However, fingering wouldn't be... You know.

Nailing, perhaps? Still doesn't sound right.

If only digging was all that was involved in this embarrassing traversal. No, Stella had to infuse her Saniya into the flimsy earth, acting as a golden safety net, so it wouldn't collapse on them!

...Speaking of them...

The Human turned around, an already impossible task thanks to the infuriatingly narrow tunnel they had made for themselves. Lien obviously didn't have any issues with the dark. However, the constraining nature of the space warranted a few impatient tackles on her back here and there. Kreef, with his serpentine body, was unaffected, thankfully.

Oh, yeah! Kreef was back in action after draining all his stamina in containing Hari-onagu. It still took a while after the fight with the Kamaitachi for the Amikiri to regain enough energy to push forward.

And speaking of the furry ninja devils, they were the ones who tipped them about Yuki-onna's underground Saniya rivers, which would guide them to the rune grid's core. Granted, deciphering all that from vague gestures wasn't the shortest accomplishment. Who knew Kreef was a four-time charades champion?

Excavating to a depth to which Lien could sense the damn energy was a chore, but they eventually pulled it off. And now, they were burdened with dislocating tons upon tons of stone, dirt, and the occasional worm, much to the pup's joy. Ugh.

"Lien, you're up," Stella grumbled, her arms an aching mess that only worsened when she kneeled so her girlfriend could pass and take the lead. "Please, don't lose sight of that Saniya's direction."

"Never!" Lien cried in shockingly abundant enthusiasm as her paws bulldozed a lengthier tunnel. "Follow me, my soldiers!" she said in an attempt at a sterner, grouchier tone. She was clearly going for an imitation of her own mother, only missing by a hair, and hitting Christopher Bale's Batman.

Honestly, can we talk about that shitty voice for a sec? No? If we arrange a better way of communication, perhaps.

"Psst." Kreef pecked Stella's ear. "Do you think the scary captain lady will get mad if she hears I was snoozing while her daughter fought those Weasels?"

"Absolutely," the Human answered, a sly grin forming when she heard the Amikiri's gasp. "I mean, I'm no snitch. But Lien's lips can be pretty loose..."

"Rude," Lien complained, extending the path with powerful taps, causing contained quakes, spanning gradually away from them. "But that's true."

Quickly, Kreef wrapped around Stella's waist, his yellow, googly eyes locking with hers desperately. "One hundred coins to convince your girlfriend to not talk!"

"For each?" The Human cocked an eyebrow, smiling wider.

The elongated crustacean shuddered. "Y-You monster..."

Both girls broke into laughter, their voices mingling and reverberating through the narrow walls. Kreef's cries became more dramatic, his head flailing like one of those inflatable tube men.

...And then, a faint tremor joined in the cacophony, shutting them all up instantly.

"Uh..." Lien slowly retreated her paws, putting them over her chest. "Was that me?"

On cue, the jagged stone walls tore through Stella's protection, the weight of rubble pressing on them from all sides akin to being trapped in a predator's maw. The worst of it all was the unpleasant feeling of Kreef's asperous scales grinding on her skin. At least, it wasn't his beak...

Stella's arms bulged, and her Saniya traveled to the hundreds of rocks in an attempt to repel them. However, it was as if an outside, unflinching force pushed her back.

"Don't tell me..." she murmured between gasps. "Are we busted?"

Suddenly, the trio braced themselves as they started to ascend, their velocity rising by the second until they emerged in...

...a tunnel, the walls infested by neon green sikpha crystals. Fucking hell...

Stella and Lien were covered by rubble only from the neck down. And so, the former could glimpse the sole responsible for their bust - a robust, round Frog whose skin was olive green on his face, back, and limbs and yellow on his throat. His brown eyes were almond-shaped, less pronounced than Akuru's. He wore a similar sash, now matching the color of the crystals in this tunnel, with a light brown cowboy hat and knee-high yellow shorts.

Stella always wished she had fought that Akuru jerk with Lien back then. What a time to scratch that itch.

"Look what we have here..." The amphibian approached with a slow yet confident sway. His grave tone could grind a rock to dust. "What are you fools doing below these tunnels? Did'ja know this is an infraction worthy of at least a few months on the Koraq?"

Using deduction alone, Stella figured this was Spider jail. She wondered if they had their own "juvie" down here.

"Look, sir!" The Human girl raised her voice, waving her constrained hands. "We kinda have to save an entire chunk of Sayama right now. There's a river of Saniya flowing below our feet, and we must follow it to stop a crazy bitch who will freeze everyone we love!"

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Lien rapidly nodded in support. Kreef merely uttered a "Yeah!" muffled by their rubble prison.

The anthropomorphic bullfrog laughed, almost allowing his hat to fall off. "I hope that ain't too urgent, 'cause you're gonna pass through the Matriarch before she can hear your load of bull-"

The anuran's eyes shot open, and the tunnel entered a deafening silence soon after. Stella kept staring at him, her heart gradually hammering with each second passing.

"SIR!?" Lien shouted. "Can we speak to the Matriarch now?!"

The rock prison was dismantled, and the trio was finally able to breathe unimpeded. As much as this was a blessing, Stella guessed it didn't come from a place of compassion...

The sentry kept the same pose, gazing at nothing as if they hadn't moved an inch.

The Human instinctively approached him with a worried frown. Her sensible brain alarmed her at how foolish a course of action that was, but not soon enough before her feet carried her halfway through at that point.

"Sir?" She stopped closely in front of the living statue, slowly waving her hand before his vacant gaze. "Holy shit..." She turned to her companions. "He's having a stroke?"

Lien stood silent, her ears twitching while her muzzle scrunched. "Wait..." Then, every strand of fur on her stood up, looking like she was a cartoon character struck by lightning. "STELLA, LOOK OUT!"

The Human's vision blurred when a cold, electrifying sting struck the back of her neck, prompting her legs to instinctively jump away from the amphibian. When her consciousness realigned to reality, she realized she was back on Lien's side.

"Stella!" Her girlfriend's paws quickly roamed over her face, then down her neck and arms. "Are you okay? Did it catch you?"

"Who is it?" Stella breathed, her hand rubbing the inflicted area. The cold still lingered, weak enough for her to consider it a fruit of her imagination. Still, the uncanniness locked its jaw on her palm like a vicious, rabid dog.

The girl turned back to the sentry, her cold sweat running down her cheek. Her heartbeat imploded when rows of sikpha crystals behind the paralyzed anuran lost their glow, reducing them to their natural onyx color until the darkness swallowed him entirely.

Only the void stared them down. And yet, Stella's eyes could glimpse it wriggling, pulsating, rippling.

The Human was never afraid of the dark, conditioned to dwell in it for so many years. But now... There was no rationalizing the strange sounds and shapes she sensed through it. Because...

...

...somehow, she knew nothing mobile resided in that darkness.

It was no mere absence of light.

It existed all by itself.

And from it, a black, pointy nub emerged, extending and bending until it anchored on the floor, followed by a twin.

"𝓒𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓭 𝓸𝓯 𝓵𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽."

The voice, serene and unassuming in tone, was enveloped by an intense aura in every syllable, sending waves of dread across the very core of Stella's Saniya, shaking the connections between her body, mind, and soul. Lien and Kreef held an arm of hers each, their thoughts and feelings in perfect sync.

Stella's sight and awareness narrowed, however. Their comrades' palpable fear was an inconsequential detail as everything she could hear was the frantic drumming of her heart. Her eyes were solely focused on the weaving shadows, so dark that the green light on the other side couldn't produce the faintest reflection on its ethereal surface.

"𝓘𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓰𝓲𝓷𝓸𝓾𝓼 𝓭𝓸𝓶𝓪𝓲𝓷, 𝓘 𝓼𝓮𝓮 𝔀𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓪𝓻𝓮. 𝓐 𝓬𝓪𝓷𝓭𝓵𝓮, 𝓹𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓼𝓱 𝔀𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓼."

The Human child, amidst all these fantastical, powerful beings, never felt so helpless before this... phenomenon. Her knees buckled, threatening to leave her vulnerable on the floor.

And yet... she pulled the strength to bite her own tongue, the pain anchoring her spiraling mind as her knuckles clenched.

"Y-You think a spooky voice and hiding in the dark makes me afraid of you...?" Stella muttered against her overwhelming terror, her eyes piercing deep through the throbbing heart of the void. "Cut the bullshit and show us who you are!"

That attribute was wholly abandoned by Stella's attention when two blinding orbs emitted a ghostly glow, which spread through the void like a collective of sentient wisps, forming a picture her mind struggled to comprehend.

"𝓕𝓪𝓲𝓻."

Before her, the outlines were shaky, faulty, and disorienting, as if multiple drawings, each mostly similar yet holding a noticeable difference in the slightest details, overlapped on top of one another, battling to form the shape of this horrifying... insect.

The dual tendrils were revealed as sharp appendages akin to a scythe's blade, connecting to its bony forearms. It possessed a lanky torso and abdomen, and yet it towered over even the likes of Hanaken, all supported by a pair of long, powerful grasshopper legs. Stella's entire being shuddered to imagine the lengths such a beast could jump. And with those pronounced forewings, similar to a cockroach's...

...

Still, the most pertinent aspect... resided on its head, harboring the two glowy beacons like an unearthly lantern.

...A deer skull, bearing a broad set of antlers almost rivaling a moose's.

Just now, it had said the word caliginous. Stella's mind associated these clues with astounding speed. Although it had been a whole month, Tash's chalk doodle was still thoroughly imprinted in her memories.

And with that realization, the Human couldn't muster a drop of faux courage.

"𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓸𝓻𝓬𝓮𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓵𝓲𝓿𝓮𝓼 𝓸𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓭 𝓸𝓷𝓮𝓼 𝓪𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓮𝓭𝓰𝓮. 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓾𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓰𝓻𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭 𝓲𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓵𝓲𝓪𝓫𝓵𝓮. 𝓓𝓪𝓻𝓴𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓬𝓪𝓷 𝓰𝓻𝓪𝓷𝓽 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓼𝓮𝓬𝓾𝓻𝓲𝓽𝔂 𝓸𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓾𝓻𝓯𝓪𝓬𝓮 𝔀𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓱𝓾𝓻𝓻𝔂."

It spoke with a quiet urgency, not lingering more than necessary. Every atom that composed Stella's body cried for her to stay as far away from it as possible. And still... its comment about Yuki-onna rang louder on her stubborn sense of justice than any sensible warning of danger her mind could form.

They wasted too much time here. Asra didn't deserve to perish for her. Tash didn't either, much less the Monoke Stella has grown to appreciate over the month.

Alas, her life mattered little. A truth she has learned much earlier than any knowledge of Monoke oppression.

Stella's hand clenched on Lien's, her hot blood pumping in and out of her heart as fear was pushed backstage. Her eyes shifted to the terrified canine, whose mother's fate hung by a thread, then to Kreef, whose comrades might've met their fate, for all they knew...

"A-Anything to stop that bitch," she uttered between stutters. "P-Please, help us, Ti-" She closed her mouth shut. Her mortal consciousness couldn't bring itself to voice its name, unwilling to acknowledge it as anything other than a piece of her paranoid fantasy in a pointless effort to seek control over her fear. As if the shadowy, otherworldly entity wasn't ludicrous enough...

If it truly was who she imagined, then it wouldn't stand for so many Monoke suffering in Yuki-onna's cold, would it? So many spoke its name with such reverence, matching those who worshipped Namadi in her old home...

Even if she stubbornly denied it. She could practically feel its power, freezing and bottomless, grazing her skin without the need for a sixth sense. A potential deity was the limit for her utter disrespect for authority.

Gradually, the creature slid backward, its feet never interacting with the floor. The darkness followed it as if it were its mantle.

The creature's eyes pulsate in immediate response.

"𝓢𝓱𝓪𝓭𝓸𝔀𝓼 𝔀𝓮𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓲𝓷 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓯𝓪𝓿𝓸𝓻, 𝓬𝓱𝓲𝓵𝓭. 𝓓𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝓯𝓸𝓻𝓰𝓮𝓽 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓲𝓻 𝓰𝓮𝓷𝓮𝓻𝓸𝓼𝓲𝓽𝔂."

As it spoke, darkness surrounded them while its shape faded from Stella's view, leaving the trio "alone" in the vast black abyss.

Then, once again, their balance tilted when they started to ascend further.