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It was cold. Really cold. But Noelle didn’t care.She knew that her ears stung, and that her eyes watered from the freezing wind. But that was nothing compared to the thorns digging into her finger.Kris wasn’t leading her through the city anymore, instead they stood next to her. This usually meant she would have to fight some more enemies.Noelle closed her eyes, she had done this before, freezing the opponent who stood in her way became easier. No, she was just becoming stronger.“Kris, it looks like another enemy. Should I freeze them?” Noelle waited for instructions. Even after taking the initiative for the puzzles, it still felt like Kris had to command her during battles.“N… Noelle?” The voice was familiar. She heard some enemies speak before but they never knew her name. “Noelle, it’s me, don’t you recognise me!?”Her head snapped up, she saw Berdly there, looking scared and confused.“B… Berdly!?” His question stuck in her brain, did she really not recognise him? He was her best friend, they spent all their time together! But somehow, he just seemed like someone standing in her way.“Noelle, are you okay…? What… what are you doing with Kris?”“I’m just, we’re just… Getting… stronger.” She felt as though she was trying to convince herself as much as Berdly. The word “stronger” felt bitter coming out of her mouth.“Getting stronger… How? Kris, what are you doing!?”Noelle looked over at the human, they were still standing next to her… Which meant she was still in a battle.“Proceed” One word responses were usual for Kris, but it felt like she heard it directly in her brain, she couldn't escape the command.“What? Proceed… where? Noelle, what are they talking about!?”She knew what they were talking about. She wished she didn’t. Every single battle she fought in, the enemy died. But this wasn’t an enemy, right? It was Berdly, Kris didn’t hate Berdly, so why would they kill him?“Th-that’s it Kris! I don’t know what you’re doing, but if you’re hurting my friend Noelle…” He drew his halberd and braced for battle. “Then I have no choice but to stop you by force! Kris, ready yourself!”She didn’t want to fight him, she desperately wanted this to stop. But she’d never seen Kris back down from a battle, so she begged Berly to save himself. “W-wait Berdly, stop! Run away!”Kris drew their sword. She heard the familiar, commanding voice ordering her to defend. Noelle threw up an ice wall and Kris switched their sword for a shield.Berdly swung at Kris, Noelle shut her eyes, she desperately wanted this to stop. The clink of Berdly’s blade against Kris’ shield pulled her out of her thoughts.Kris ordered her to defend again. Did they even move their mouth? It didn’t matter. She replaced her old wall with a new one. It didn’t seem necessary, Berdly wasn’t targeting her.The bluebird aimed a gust of wind at Kris, they dodged it effortlessly.Kris defended again. She prepared to imitate them again, but this time, she heard a new order;“Snowgrave”She’d never heard of this spell before, but something about it didn’t sound right. Noelle didn’t want to find out what it did.“S-snowgrave? I… I don’t know that spell.”“Snowgrave” They repeated. Noelle noticed how weird their voice sounded. It was metallic, firm and it exuded a certain confidence that was so uncharacteristic of Kris.“I’m telling you, I… I don’t know what your talking about.”She wasn’t lying. She had never heard of this spell before. But it felt like, deep down, she knew exactly what it meant.“Snow-”It sounded like Kris had choked on the last syllable. They started shaking and they dropped their shield, which clanked loudly as it hit the pavement.“...Kris?” Noelle looked over at the human. Her eyes widened as she saw Kris plunge their hand directly into their chest. How was that even possible? It passed straight through their armour. There wasn’t even any blood.After a few seconds of digging around, Kris pulled their hand out. Squirming around their tight grip, was their soul. It glowed a bright red. It felt uncomfortable to look at, but she didn’t want to look away. Something about it was just too intriguing.It felt like she had been staring at it for an eternity, but it must have been a couple seconds. The moment she looked away from the soul, reality came crashing down on her. What was that?! Did Kris really just rip their soul out?! That shouldn’t be possible!Kris fell to their knees as their legs gave out under them. They rummaged around in their inventory for a minute and pulled out a familiar lunchbox. It was the one Noelle gave to Susie earlier, it seemed to be empty so maybe she enjoyed the chalk.Kris shoved the soul into the box and slammed it shut, they fiddled with the little metal clasps for a moment before letting out a sigh of relief.They turned to Noelle, and opened their mouth to speak. Before getting interrupted by a certain bluebird.“What the hell was that?!” Berdly yelled out, he sounded terrified, and a little confused. The volume made Noelle jump slightly, she kind of forgot he was there.“I'm sorry.” Kris said quietly, it was almost a whisper. Noelle noted the change in tone, this voice was so small and scared and so different from the confident, commanding one that guided Noelle through battles.Before the doe could act, Berdly rushed next to Kris, who was still slumped on the floor.“What did you do?! Why did you do that?! What were you thinking?! “Sorry” What are you sorry about? Kris, answer me!” The intense barrage of questions didn’t seem to reach them. They just stared at Noelle.“That wasn’t me.” Their voice cracked as they pushed down tears. “I would never…”Berdly turned to Noelle. “Can someone please explain!”Noelle ignored the bluebird, instead she walked over and sat down next to Kris. She felt confused, and scared and unsure of everything that just happened. But she knew one thing. That Kris was telling the truth. They were always into pranks, but they never actually hurt someone. At least, not the way they just did.“I know”, she wanted to say. But the words got stuck in her throat. Instead she glanced at Berdly and repeated his question.“Can you please explain what happened?”Kris breathed in shakily, before speaking slowly. “That thing is my soul.” They gestured at the box. Noelle could hear it rattling around inside. It sounded like it was throwing itself against the walls.“Your soul?!” Berdly repeated incredulously. “You can’t just remove it like that from your body. I’m pretty sure you need that!”“I’ll be fine.” Kris said, waving away Berdly’s concerns. “I’ve done it before, I’ll be okay without it for a while.”Noelle didn’t like the addition of “a while”. She began thinking about what would happen afterwards. The thought made her uncomfortable, luckily, Berdly jumped in with yet another question.“But why?!”Kris looked down at the floor, avoiding Berdly’s gaze.Suddenly it hit Noelle. The thing telling her what to do. To proceed, to defend, to cast iceshock.“The voice…” Noelle whispered. Kris nodded slowly.“The soul has been telling me what to do, it tells me where to go, what to say… how to fight.” Tears started flowing from their eyes, and they seemed desperate to explain what happened. “Then it kept making you fight and do the puzzles-” Then they turned to Berdly, who looked more confused than before, and whispered: “And it tried to kill you…”“Kill me? What do you mean? How would it even- oh.” Berdly realised what was happening. He faced Noelle. “So that’s snowgrave?”Noelle just nodded. She wasn’t certain how she knew, but she was sure of it.She stared at the floor, unable to look her friend in the eyes. She thought about the voice commanding her to use snowgrave. And how close she was to obeying.A cough broke her out of her thoughts. It was Kris. Noelle snapped her head up to look at them, they were clutching their chest and gasping for air. The sight reminded her of her dad in the hospital. The reminder made her sick.“Are you okay?” Berdly asked, putting a hand on their back.After a few seconds, they seemed to calm down, taking deep breaths before addressing Berdly. They straightened their posture and nodded.“Yeah, this happens sometimes.” Kris tried to sound composed, but their voice was hoarse and scratchy.“Is this what happens without your soul?” Berdly asked, worried.“I’ll be fine.” Kris replied, clearly avoiding the question.“I told you! You can’t just take your soul out like that, it’s unhealthy!” Berdly’s “I told you so” face was on full display. Before he got serious and said: “I think you should take it back.”“No.” It was a simple reply, but it seemed to confuse Berdly.“What do you mean no?" He turned to Noelle, who was staring at the ground, trying to tune out the argument. “Noelle, can you talk some sense into them? Can you explain to our stubborn friend here that they’ll die without a soul.” He emphasised the word 'die' while staring at Kris, like he was teaching something obvious to a toddler.Noelle thought about the question. It was probably true that they couldn’t survive without a soul; “The very culmination of your being.” She remembered her teacher saying in class. But then she thought about the voice. The monotone whisper that played in her head. The one that made her kill all those darkners, and tried to make her kill Berdly.She didn’t want to go through that again, she didn’t want Kris to either.“I think Kris is right.” She said slowly “If they don’t want to take it back then they shouldn’t have to.” Noelle wasn’t sure if she said the right thing, looking at the human again made her even less certain.Kris broke out into another coughing fit, it looked painful.“This is ridiculous.” Berdly said, standing up. He looked around for a couple seconds and started walking towards the lunchbox Kris had pushed aside.“Hey! What are you doing?” Noelle asked.Berdly stopped and looked Noelle dead in the eyes. “Unlike you, I’m actually trying to help Kris.”The soul was still moving around in its container as Berdly held it in his hands. He undid the clasps holding it together and opened the box. The soul quickly shot out and hit Berdly square in the torso. He fell to the floor, clutching his ribs. Noelle saw the red soul glowing through his chest.Kris looked on in horror. They tried to stand up but their legs buckled beneath them. They swore under their breath and continued to watch on helplessly.Noelle held her breath as she waited for movement in the blue bird.Suddenly, Berdly stopped shaking, and his hands moved away from his chest. He brought his wings up to eye level and stared at them for a moment. Then he spotted Kris and chuckled.“Berdly, huh? Guess I was due for an upgrade.” He stood up and rolled his shoulders, making a slight cracking sound.Noelle stared at her friend. Was this her friend? His voice was almost identical to the one she heard in her head, it was just less, I don’t know, monotone?“Haven’t had a new body for like two chapters.” He summoned his halberd before putting it away, as if he was testing everything he could do.Then he walked up beside Noelle, but she took a step back.“Well then, my dear Noelle. Should we finish what we started?” Her whole body was shaking now. She pointed her finger at the bird.“Y- You’re not Berdly!” She tried to back away further but she bumped into the wall of the alley.The thing approached her slowly, wearing Berdly’s smirk on his face.“Not Berdly? Noelle, I’m hurt.” It said a hint of fake sadness in its voice. “We’ve been friends for so long, I thought you would recognise me.” It chuckled again, it wasn’t Berdly’s falsely confident laugh though. It was just full of malice.He tried to take another step but something hit him in the back of the head. He turned to see Kris’ shield at his feet. And a few drops of blood falling from his head.Kris was still on the ground, breathing heavily. They stared back at the bird, but didn’t say anything. They weren't sure what they could say.Berdly seemed angry, but only for a second or two. Then he smiled menacingly and turned to Noelle.“Well, let’s see if this still works.” He cleared his throat. “Noelle, cast snowgrave.”Noelle covered her ears with her hands and squeezed her eyes shut trying to ignore the command. But it felt like it was echoing in her head, every time it got louder and louder. She could hear her heartbeat accelerate, which just added more noise inside her skull. It hurt as she tried to resist, her head pounded as it repeated over, and over, and over again. It just wouldn’t stop.“Snowgrave” He repeated, it was louder and even more forceful. It hurt. It hurt so much. All of her natural instincts told her to make it stop, to do anything that would quiet the noise.“Fine…” She said quietly, she was desperate to get the voice out of her head. And as soon as she said that, everything went quiet.Noelle’s eyes turned white and floated up off the ground. Kris watched, wide eyed at the display.Almost instantly, the area was filled with snow so dense that it looked like the whole world had gone white. The temperature dropped to well below freezing within a second or two. A pillar of snow shot up from the ground encasing Kris’s body crystal of ice.Noelle fell to the ground. What happened? There was so much snow… She could hardly see a thing.Berdly walked up next to her and crouched down, putting a hand on her shoulder.“You did great Noelle.” His voice was still low and cruel, but now he sounded almost excited.Noelle looked up, she saw the floating frozen prism. She stood up to inspect it, but her body felt slow and tired, like she was walking through water. Why was she so exhausted? She ignored it and made her way to the strange object. She peered inside, it was like looking through foggy glass.But she could still see the figure floating inside. It just looked like a silhouette. It was Kris.Noelle stumbled backwards, the realisation came crashing down onto her. This was her fault, wasn’t it? She cast that spell and now…Then she remembered why she cast that spell. She looked at the blue bird, who seemed to be happily observing the scene playing out before him.She wasn’t quite sure what to feel; she was angry that this thing just forced her to hurt her friend. She was scared of what it was capable of. She was worried for Kris. But most of all, she was desperate. Desperate to help Berdly get free of whatever demon was controlling him. But to do that, she’d need to find someone who would be able to deal with this.“Well, looks like that’s everything in this room. Let’s go.” Berdly sounded impatient. “We might even return to the light world, the rest of the chapter would probably need Kris anyway.”He sounded so unperturbed. Noelle felt sick to her stomach. She glanced at the ice crystal and she felt tears well up in her eyes. They looked so lifeless. The way their body was so perfectly preserved. She could make out the outline of their hair forced to the side by the wind.“Noelle.” Berdly called. “Follow me.”She didn’t want to, every thought in her head told her to run away, to find Susie and get help and fix all her mistakes.But her body moved on its own. She mimicked each of their footsteps and followed their path to the mansion.They weren’t quite there yet but Berdly stopped abruptly. He was staring at the dark fountain flowing out of the mansion. He squinted for a moment, analysing the movement of the shadows spewing out of it.Noelle turned to see what interested Berdly so much, but she was quickly blinded by a white light. It was so bright, and so abrupt that her eyes shut themselves to escape it.Noelle woke up in the library. She looked around for a moment and saw Berdly, still asleep next to her. Kris and Susie were across the table both sleeping as well.She noticed Berdly was waking up, she got scared for a moment and put her head back on the desk, pretending to sleep.Berdly looked around the table and locked eyes on Kris. He got up and slowly walked around the table. His mouth was twisted into a grin, it looked unnatural on Berdly’s face.When he reached the human, he knelt down next to them. He stared for a few seconds. They didn’t move at all. Then he shook them slightly. No response.Berdly chuckled before whispering to himself: “You see this Berdly? This is what happens when my vessels try to rebel.”Berdly walked out of the room. Noelle waited to get up until she heard the door close. Once she was sure that he was gone, she rushed over to Kris. She wanted to tell them to wake up, that Berdly was gone and that they were safe. But she knew it wasn’t worth it. Because it wasn’t true.She looked over to Susie. She was still asleep, but she would definitely wake up in the next few minutes.Noelle walked out of the computer lab and made a promise to herself. She promised that she would find how to save Berdly, and that she would make everything right.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Was it cold out? Nah, it’s probably nothing. Susie had been walking around with Ralsei for the better part of an hour. At first, she was just frustrated that Kris always made all the choices for the team, so she decided that Ralsei and her should explore together a bit. Susie enjoyed hanging out with him, even if he was a bit too overly nice and non-confrontational. She realised this was the first real time she spent time alone with the darkner. It kind of made sense, since they had only met the day prior. “Hey, Susie?” Ralsei asked, he was playing with his scarf and looking up at her excitedly. “Yeah?” She replied. “What is it, dude?” “I think it’s time that you learn some healing magic!” He smiled and the prospect of being able to teach her something. Ralsei really enjoyed teaching the lightners about acting, and since Susie was learning magic, he might as well show her the spells that he knows. “Uhh, the one where you hug people? No thanks. That’s not really my thing.” She said bluntly. She was still embarrassed by the moment in the trash zone earlier. Ralsei smiled again. “That’s the great thing about healing spells! You can cast them in a bunch of different ways!” As he said that, he started walking backwards to put some distance between Susie and himself. Once he judged that he was far enough away, he started casting his spell. After a couple seconds, he extended his arms rapidly as the magic shot out of his hands and hurtled towards Susie. The spell hit her directly in the chest and the force threw her off balance. She fell backwards and hit the floor, but the impact didn’t hurt. Nothing hurt at all. She felt great, actually. The small scratches on her arm healed instantly and her stomach ache from eating all that cotton candy at the carnival dissipated. Ralsei had run up to her, a hand covering his mouth. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t think it was going to push you over like that!” She stood up and put her hands on his shoulders. “S-Susie?” She shook the darkner so violently that his scarf nearly fell off. “That was so cool! How come you never told me you could do that?! Teach me right now!” Susie was practically screaming excitedly. A spell that lets you shoot healing spells like a bullet? It was almost too good to be true! “Ok! Ok! Haha!” Ralsei said as Susie finally stopped shaking him. “But just letting you know, it’s not going to be that strong your first time. I’ve been practising that spell for a while.” “That’s fine. I’m sure I’ll be able to do it in no time!” She declared confidently, putting her hands on her hips. “Ok then!” Ralsei declared happily. “So first, you need to make sure you have enough energy. Most spells require a certain amount of energy to cast. I call them tension points, because you can get more of them in tense situations, like battles.” “Yeah, got it. Now show me how to shoot it out of my hands like that!” She said, imitating Ralsei’s earlier demonstration. “I will in a second, Susie! Just be patient.” Susie crossed her arms, unhappy that she had to wait, but allowing the darkner to continue. “This spell only allows you to heal one person at a time, but as you just saw, it can be much more powerful than one split between multiple allies.” “Ok, is that it?” Susie said impatiently. “Pretty much. So now you just have to learn how to cast it!” “Hell yeah! Finally!” She said, raising her arms in the air. Ralsei bent his knees slightly and gestured for Susie to do the same. “It’s pretty simple, actually.” He brought his hands up to his chest, clasping them together loosely. “I like to think of happy things, just to help me focus.” He slowly brought his hands further apart to reveal a glowing ball of green energy. “And then you just shoot it out like this!” He said, as the spell flew from his hands and hit the wall. “Ok… piece of cake.” Susie said, bringing her hand together the same way Ralsei did. She thought of giant monster movies and skateboarding games. Bringing her hands apart revealed nothing. “Hey! Where’s the spell?” “Hmm… Maybe you weren’t focusing hard enough? Try to think of things or people that bring you joy! I thought about when I met you guys.” He said, smiling. “Psshh.” She scoffed. “Sounds too cheesy.” She tried again, trying to think of other things she enjoyed; chalk, bread crumbs stuck in the toaster, other snacks. She opened her hands again, only to be met with disappointment. “This is impossible!” She yelled out in frustration. “It’s ok if you can’t do it, Susie. It took me a long time to learn it too.” He thought for a moment. “Maybe I could teach you the hug one. Healing spells that require physical contact tend to be easier.” “Hell no.” She said flatly. “I’ll get this one.” She said, reassuming the stance once more. This time, she allowed herself to think about Noelle giving her a fancy pencil. Then she thought about Ralsei making cakes specially for her. She remembered Kris jumping in front of her during the battle with King. Maybe that last one was too much. Looking down at her hands, she saw green light escaping from between her fingers. She jumped slightly in excitement before looking at Ralsei, who was smiling brightly. “Great job Susie!” He said. “Now just shoot it!” He demonstrated the motion of releasing the energy with his hands. Susie matched his movements and stared in awe as the ball of light slowly slid through the air and dissipated once it hit the wall. “Finally! See, told you I could do it.” She placed a hand on her hip proudly. “That’s great.” he said. “As long as you can do it consistently, you’ll be able to make it much faster and more powerful.” “Alright.” She said getting back into position, thinking of her friends and shooting out a spell. “Now let me try it on you!” She said in an excited voice. “I would, but I’m not hurt. We won’t be able to see how much it heals me.” He said sadly. “That’s fine!” Susie replied. “I just want to see if I can knock you over!” With that, she readied herself and let her spell charge up in her hand for as long as possible before shooting it out as fast as she could. The spell reached Ralsei after a couple awkward seconds of silence. As it made contact, he pretended to stumble backwards before regaining his footing. Susie brandished a smile and raised her hands in excitement. “Hell yeah! That was sick!” Ralsei nodded back. “I think you did wonderfully for your first lesson!” Ralsei exclaimed. “We can practise more tomorrow, if you want.” “Yeah, that sounds fun. Can’t wait to show Kris how good I am at healing now!” She flashed a huge grin. “Speaking of the zombie, we should probably meet up with them soon.” “Oh, you’re right! I hope they haven’t been waiting for us.” He looked at the floor shamefully. “Nah, I’m sure they’ve been getting into trouble enough to keep them entertained.” “We didn’t make a plan on where we should meet up, did we?” He said, trying to remember if they had mentioned anything before they split up. “No, we didn’t.” Susie replied, regretting the poor planning brought on by dragging Ralsei with her against his will. “They’ll probably just go to the mansion, right? Since that’s where the dark fountain is.” “That makes sense, I suppose.” Susie nodded back and looked up at the pillar of darkness rising in the distance. “Noelle should be there too. We still have to rescue her from Queen.” “Right, we should probably hurry then. We don’t want to keep either of them waiting.” Ralsei said. With that, they both started walking towards the mansion. As they turned the corner of the street, They noticed a vendor standing in front of a shop. Something about them looked slightly off, the normally straight postured Addison was a bit hunched over and they held a hand up to their mouth, obscuring their usually prominent smile. When she got a bit closer, she noticed they were nervously whispering into their phone. “-gone? And they didn't find anything at the shop… Ice?” She heard part of the Addison’s conversation. She couldn’t make out the other side’s words but their tone indicated they were just as worried as the one in front of her. “Uh, hello? ” Susie made herself known by waving her hand in front of the vendor’s eyes. “Hm?” The Addison looked up to see Susie standing in front of them. “Oh sorry, I’ve got to go.” They muttered into their phone before putting it away. “Hello there, valued customer. This is the hottest tea shop, everything is 50% off.” Their voice was sullen and quiet, very different to the loud and boisterous tone that the Addisons usually took on. Their signature smile seemed to clash with their tired eyes. “Excuse me, is everything alright?” Ralsei asked, worried. “Unfortunately, one of my coworkers has gone missing.” Their smile faltered for a brief moment before returning. “But that doesn’t matter to you guys. Anyway, here’s our collection of teas!” They said, attempting their usual customer service voice. The Addison brought up a list of four different tea flavours. “Hey, do you wanna choose a few?” Susie asked, looking back at Ralsei. “You can pick them.” He said, before focusing his attention pack on the salesman. “I’m very sorry to hear about your coworker. Is there anything my friends and I can do to help?” “Well, If you think you can find the people responsible, we would really appreciate it. All I’ve heard is that there was a layer of ice surrounding their usual sales location.” “Well, I can’t say I’m too familiar with ice magic. None of our recruits use it, as far as I’m aware. But I will be sure to let you know if I find anything.” “Thank you.” the Addison said, bowing their head slightly at Ralsei before turning to Susie, who was holding a few teas. “Will that be all?” “Yeah.” She looked back down at Ralsei. “I got us two of each so we can try all of them.” “That’ll be 800 dark dollars.” They held out their hand for the payment as Susie dug around her pockets, eventually handing them a bunch of wrinkled bills. “Thank you! We’ll do our best to help you find your coworker.” Ralsei said, walking away with Susie. The moment that the two of them turned the corner, Ralsei stopped walking. Susie turned around and stared at him, raising an eyebrow. “You okay?” She asked, allowing a touch of concern to creep into her voice. “I have a bad feeling…” He started to say, he kept scratching at the end of his scarf. “About the missing darkner. I feel like that’s not supposed to have happened.” Ralsei said, looking around his shoulder as if someone would sneak up on them. “The hell is that supposed to mean?” Susie asked, still worried, but a bit more confused. “It-It’s probably not important, sorry. Let’s just keep going.” He let go of his scarf and passed Susie, taking the lead. She didn’t argue. They travelled through the city, each step echoing out through the alley. It was all way too silent. Susie noticed the distinct lack of darkners. They hadn’t seen a single thing since that Addison a little while ago. “Hey,” Susie said, catching Ralsei’s attention. “Have you noticed that like, not a single darkner has attacked us ever since we split up with Kris?” “Th-that’s true.” Ralsei said, squeezing the scarf again. He looked around a bit frantically as if something would appear the moment he wasn’t looking. “It’s weird, right? Like, normally those things can’t go ten minutes without a challenge.” She said, now looking around the corners of the alleyway, trying to see a tasque or a virovirokun. But nothing was there. Susie was starting to get the creeps. The bustling city was eerily quiet. No traffic, no enemies, she hadn’t even seen Queen recently. “Something’s wrong… This isn’t right.” Ralsei said finally. “We have to seal the fountain, now.” He said, as he started walking quickly. “Uh, okay?” She said, trying to keep up with the nearly jogging Ralsei. Out of the corner of her eye, Susie saw a shadow underneath a garbage can sneak around the street. “There!” She yelled out, pointing at the darkner. Susie equipped her axe and readied herself for battle. She waited for it to notice her, whenever they did, they would come running at her and start attacking. Except, this one was weird. Their little white eyes peeking through the shadow spotted her and sped away in the complete opposite direction. “The hell was that?!” She complained, gesturing to the fleeing darkner. Ralsei was right, something is seriously wrong with this dark world. “We need to hurry! Before–” He was cut off by an immediate drop in temperatures. Small snowflakes filled the air, landing on his fur. Ralsei looked as if he’d seen a ghost. He stared wide eyed at a beam of blue ice that shot up towards the sky and disappeared into the darkness above. “Oh no!” He yelled, placing both hands over his mouth. “W-what is that?” Susie questioned trying not to shiver as the cold air bit at her scales. A pit formed in her stomach. “Where’s Kris? We have to get out of here.” The feeling of wrongness invading her mind. “We have to get to the fountain first.” Ralsei said firmly. “We can't waste time.” “Waste time?! What do you mean? We can’t just leave without them!” She yelled angrily. Ralsei wasn’t the type to leave someone so quickly. Why was he acting so weird? “We can, we don’t need them to seal the fountain! You can do that by yourself!” He said, already making his way to the mansion, which was now in view. “That’s not what I mean! What if they’re hurt, or lost, or something. Are we just going to abandon them?” She said, ignoring how worried she sounded. “Don’t worry, Susie! You’ll just meet up with them in the light world. So just come with me.” He said, briefly turning around to look at her. She grumbled and followed closely behind him, assuring herself that Ralsei had a point. As they walked up to the mansion, Susie looked around for any sign of the human. But she had to follow Ralsei as he marched through the corridors. He led her from room to room as if he knew exactly how to get to the fountain. The floors were covered in strange blue… eggs? Susie accidentally crushed a couple in her attempt to keep up with Ralsei, and they exploded into small laughing bullets shaped like the addison’s faces. She kept an eye out for Queen, since she was bound to defend her fountain the same way King did last time. But she didn’t see her at all. Was she out of the mansion? Eventually, the two made it to the dark fountain. Why was it so easy? The card castle was way harder. The fountain glowed as it shifted between colours. The light emanating off of it hit their figures, causing long shadows to creep across the floor. In contrast to the freezing temperatures outside, the room felt warm, almost uncomfortably so. Adding on to the heat, Susie felt a warmth in her chest. Almost as if her very soul was glowing. “O-ok, now you just have to release your soul and the fountain will be sealed.” He said, still nervously looking around and slightly out of breath from all the running. She wasn’t sure how to release her soul. But she didn’t get the opportunity to question it before a loud banging sound drew her attention. Looking behind her, Susie saw a shadowy figure held up by glowing green strings. “HOLD ON JUST A HOT [30 second long advertisement]” The strange being came into view. It looked like a weird version of a Addison wearing some colourful armour equipped with large wings. The strings held it slightly above the ground, it swayed gently from side to side. “WHERE IS THAT [little sponge]??? DON’T TELL ME THEY WERE TOO [scared] TO FACE [the power of Neo]” He laughed crazily. Susie and Ralsei looked at each other, confused. “Uh, and who the hell are you?” Susie said bluntly. “DID YOUR [friend request accepted] NOT TELL YOU ABOUT THEIR OLD BUDDY [Spamton]?!” “Umm, we don’t mean any harm. We just came here to seal the fountain.” Ralsei said, raising his hands up and backing away slightly. “YOU COME INTO MY [city] AND TRY TO [steal] MY [fountain]?” He said, the strings placing him in front of the fountain. “I SEE, YOU’RE JUST TRYING TO [$!$!] ME OVER AT THE GOOD PART!!!” “What the hell are you talking about?” Susie yelled out to Spamton. “NICE TRY [rated for kids]!! I’M NOT LETTING YOU GET [your way] OUT OF THIS ONE!!” He said as he revealed some kind of cannon on his hand. “I'M AFRAID I’LL HAVE TO [discounted funeral services] YOU” With that, he began shooting small blue eggs from the canon. They seemed to work the same way as the ones in the mansion. Susie jumped out of the way, but Ralsei was hit in the leg by some of the bullets that shot out of the eggs. “This guy’s insane!” Susie yelled to Ralsei as she equipped her axe and prepared for a fight. She ran up and tried to hit him in the chest, but her weapon bounced off causing a slight dent in the armour. Spamton only laughed, seeing how Susie was unable to severely hurt him. Spamton summoned more bullets shaped like his head. Susie deflected most of them with her axe, with one of them flying back towards Spamton and causing a bit more damage. Ralsei shot a few fireballs, aiming for the head. Spamton ducked out of the way, and one of the spells hit a few of green strings holding him up. As the wires snapped, Spamton seemed to freak out and spasm for a few seconds. “Aim for the strings!” Ralsei yelled out to Susie, who was already preparing her next attack. She jumped as high as she could, behind the puppet, and swung her axe as hard as she could. The satisfying sound of elastics snapping rang out through the small room. Spamton convulsed violently once more. “Y-YOU’RE FREEING ME FROM THESE DAMN [silly strings]? THANK YOU…” His loud voice sounded almost quiet with the grateful words. Susie and Ralsei looked at each other, a bit confused, but happy this fight wasn’t going to be long. Together, they charged up rude buster and as many fireballs as their TP would allow. Shooting the magic simultaneously seemed to break the rest of the strings. Spamton fell to the floor, unmoving. “That was pretty anticlimactic.” Susie pointed out. Before looking back up at the fountain. A bright white light enveloped it, she covered her eyes to block it out. But she caught a glance of something floating up towards it.
Susie woke up in the computer lab. Looking around, she saw Kris was still sleeping next to her, face down, and lying on crossed arms. Where were Noelle and Berdly? They were also in the dark world, did they leave already? It didn’t matter, Ralsei was right. There wasn’t any reason to be worried about Kris. She was just being paranoid. “Hey idiot!” She said jokingly, hitting them lightly on the back of their head. They didn’t wake up. Susie got that worried feeling in her gut again. “Heh, all that sleeping in class wasn’t enough for ya?” She laughed nervously, ruffling their hair a bit in an attempt to wake them up nicely. Still nothing. “Uh, Kris?” She said putting a hand on their arm to shake them. The moment she touched their sleeve, she noticed how cold they were. Even through their thick wool sweater, she could feel that their skin was several times colder than the room. Still, she shook them, a bit more violently than she had intended, but she was a bit desperate. Still not getting a response, Susie resorted to turning them over. Maybe she could splash some water on their face like they do in movies. She slowly lifted their shoulder, and jumped back when she saw their face. Their expression was frozen on a look of horror. Eyes wide, staring at something she couldn’t see. Mouth slightly open, stuck on words that will never be said. It looked so out of place on the human who hardly reacted to their surroundings. “What the fuck?!” She practically screamed. What’s going on? What happened to them? Was it in the dark world? She needed answers. And she was going to get them.