Fourth Event, day 5.

Zaria's PoV:

"Sorry, but I don't remember seeing that girl you're looking for. And I would recognize someone with that appearance."

"Yes, thank you anyway," I replied as I gave some extra coins as payment.

I exited the store and took to the sky in the direction the shopkeeper told me. 

While in the air, I sorted out the info I had gathered: 

No one has seen much of Lily, the chimera-girl from the mountain event, after the temple related to the event she was participating in was destroyed by the Calamity of Explosions, Nian. The monk who used to work at the temple, however, attests that she was alive after the attack, so she's considered MIA instead of KIA.

Iron the walking armor guy quit the Festival to look for her, but is MIA himself...maybe. That butler ghost lost all contact with him some days ago. The latest group of eyewitnesses said that he was fighting some Bloodrush Bulls and was carried away while guarding against their charge...better consider him KIA.

Though, these last few days have taught me to never underestimate people. Especially demons. I think I may never be able to drink a demon's blood again. I tried a drop after that Filyn-person offered me when she heard about my race...

"Tinkletop, I'm sorry, but I have to land for a sec...whoa!?" - Zaria

"*Squeak*? *Squea*-!?!?" - Tinkletop

Both me and Tinkletop in my pocket let out a shout when we saw what had happened to the grassy plain we were flying over. A good 100 square meters had been burned to the point of being a scorched black spot. Several burnt carcasses were spread about in such a bad condition that they could become ashes riding in the wind when touched. Bovine carcasses, I may add...

"I should have guessed it. There's no way the members will stay normal when under leaders like those two." - Zaria

I landed and had Tinkeltop sniff around for the armor guy. He's supposed to use Magma skills, so someone can't come here and tell me that this burning hellscape isn't his work.

"*Squeak*!!" - Tinkletop

Tinkletop pointed in one direction after sniffing for a while. Still not sure why he acts like a dog despite being a rat even after all these years.

The scent was leading to the Mystic Mountains. That guy, he's still trying to find Lily? After getting dragged away by a herd of Bloodrush Bulls? How diligent is he?

I flew directly towards the Mystic Mountains while keeping an eye out for anything suspicious on the ground. I hope I can find him before we reach the Mountains. Those things are the worst...

To be specific, the Mystic Mountains are a mountain range made of several holy mountains that are covered in mist. Some locations, where people have built shrines and temples, are free of the mist. Also, monsters won't approach these areas. The most likely reason is that monsters living in these mountains prefer to live in the mana-filled mist over attacking humanoids. And all those monsters are strong...please don't enter those places.

As we closed in on the first mountain, I could see a pillar of smoke emerging from the forest on the mountainside.

"Looks my prayers were answered." - Zaria

First time in a week. The forest is outside of the mist areas, and only low-ranked monsters inhabit it. In the slight chance that an individual monster evolved, it would leave for the mana-rich areas instead of loitering around in the forest.

I swooped down in between the branches of the trees and got closer to the area where the origin of the smoke-pillar should be. And the sight there surprised me so much that I almost crashed into a tree! ...okay, so I crashed, but anyone would do so!

Because in a clearing made from the intense Fire-type skills used, Iron the armor guy and Lily were fighting in mortal combat!

"*S-squeak*?" - Tinkletop

"D-don't ask me..." - Zaria

The two of us could only look on in confusion. Lily kept on using leg-based martial arts and struck the large shield Iron used to guard against her attacks. She sometimes breathed fire at the walking armor, but the heat wasn't affecting Iron at all.

Rather, he tried to counterattack with his short sword. Lily used the octopus-like tentacles on her back to drag herself towards one of the remaining trees, but Iron pointed his shortsword at her and created an orb of glowing lava, and launched it at her.

Lily used the branches to jump away from the orb right before it hit the tree and exploded, spraying lava all around it. After touching the ground, Lily ran toward Iron like an explosion-, no, the ground exploded as she kicked it! 

Props to Iron for blocking that sudden attack with his shield, but the tentacles on Lily's back started to glow in a dark light as she started to hit Iron with them along with her martial art. She even produced electric sparks on her skin.

Despite all this, Iron just withstood the attacks as if the special skills of Lily's didn't even affect him...ah! They don't affect him! At all! Electricity is useless against someone that's just armor, and the black glow must be some sort of curse, but maybe they don't affect him because he's an undead? 

That didn't stop Lily's assault though. The real pain comes from those explosive attacks she showers Iron's shield with...

But all that's not important!! Why are they fighting each other?! 

"Both of you, stop that now!" - Zaria

I jumped down from the tree and shouted to the two idiots. That's gotta stop-hey, what?!

Lily suddenly attacked me!! All my time in the Demonic Seas had sharpened my reflexes and dodging abilities, but that was too-*KA-BOOM!*-...too...I would have died if that hit...she aimed straight for my head...!!

I watched at the ghastly sight of the tree I had been hiding in having a large hole made in it through Lily's exploding fist. The impact had me frozen in pure shock so I couldn't react and only stood there as Lily came with another punch-

*CLANG!*

"You okay?" - Iron

"Y-yes..." - Zaria

Iron had covered the distance between us in the blink of an eye and blocked the attack with his shield. T-that was too close. 

"This is a copycat. Not sure what its goals are, but it was trying to trick me." - Iron

"I-I see. How did you notice?" - Zaria

"She didn't have the birds with her, and she's not worried about them." - Iron

Oh yeah, she is attached to those guys. I've learned that during the second event when we were mining in the mountains.

"And she didn't accept the boxed lunch I brought her-" - Iron

"That's an imposter no matter how you look at her!!" - Zaria

"*SQUEAAAAK*!!" - Tinkletop

Even someone who's got to know her for around a week can see that!

"Play support. Try to trap her if possible." - Iron

The orders were simple and short. The problem is that I can't imagine being of any help here. This...copy, or whatever, has the same abilities as Lily. At least those she showed me when we were mining at Karnel's home mountain. Some of them are completely new to me as well, and there could be more for all I know.

Iron fended off Lily by creating more of those lava orbs, but the chimera dodged them easily...huh? She's dodging them? Didn't Lily say she was strong against fire? This is lava, but still...

I suddenly got an idea and used my stealth-type skills to slip into the shadows of the remaining trees and proceeded to create needles of winds through the new skill Garami had me take the first day we traveled through that underground sea. 

As the Lily-clone dashed towards Iron again with the intent of some heavy attack, I threw the needles toward her head. But blast those wild instincts of hers! She dodged the needles, but she stopped her dash completely. Compared to the real one, this thing is lacking experience. The real Lily evaded a similar attack without pausing at all.

However, the fact it stopped was great for me! I used [Shadow Chain] and [Shadow Claws] to make chains appear from the imposter's shadow, complete with claw-like appendages at the end. Fake Lily jumped upward to escape the chains, but the effect of Claws lets me control where they are going, so I sicked the chains after her in the air. 

Then, an explosion occurred. The imposter had created it to escape from the chains. Reacting quickly, I formed seals with my hands and sent a [Razor Wind] slash boosted by a Wind Ninjutsu's effect towards where she was planning on landing. But she dodged that attack too! Damn tentacles!!

"Zmey Gorynych!" - Iron

Whoa-!? Iron's not holding anything back now! And why didn't you use that metal dragon before now?!

Still, the dragon's big and scary, but it's too slow to catch the imposter. It's the wrong skill for this job.

"Eh, whatever! [Rust Arrow]!!" - Zaria

Not caring if the dragon got hit or not, I shot several arrows made of corroding rust toward the chimera. And they hit! ...they hit...but she's not stopping!? And coming this way!?

Iron tried to stop her, but the imposter threw purple globes of dangerous-looking poison at him. The muck must be corrosive, as smoke is coming from the ground where it landed. Iron took a quick step back...even he's got something he's bad with, huh.

Taking out my combat fan from the [Shadow Storage], I held my ground as the imposter threw a punch at me. Catching it softly with the side of my fan, I parried the blow and tried to throw the imposter into the tree. However, she turned around in the air with acrobatic movements and used the tree as a springboard to attack me again.

Steady...steady...catch and release...

Following the mantra my teacher had taught me, I kept on receiving the imposter's attacks and fending her off. She tried to attack with the tentacle-arms as well, but she never used more than one limb at a time. It's as if she had only recently gotten used to having multiple arms. 

I kept this dance of death going on for a while, watching Iron's movements as I fought. Not yet, not...

"Now!" - Zaria

"*Squ-squeak*!!" - Tinkletop

Tinkletop jumped out of my pocket and bit the imposter's arm. With this-

*Cling*

Huh? Tinkletop's teeth couldn't penetrate the imposter's skin, and instead, it sounded like he bit into glass. Even so, the attack failed, but it worked as a distraction, just as I hoped.

The imposter looked at Tinkletop with confusion on her face, so I grabbed her arm whose fist had stopped burning and shoulder threw her toward the area Iron had been just before, a feat made possible due to the status-enhancing skills whose importance had been so thoroughly drilled into my head by Filyn last week.

And just like before, the imposter straightened herself in midair, but when she landed, the trap triggered. I didn't know what, but Iron had done something to the ground behind the imposter's back. My [Trap Detection] skill warned me of something, so I expected something like metal chains...

However, explosions and lava were not on my list of traps found in this wide world!!

As for the imposter… it broke. Like, literally. It was a nasty sight, but it also revealed their identity.

"...glass?" - Iron

"A glass doll?" - Zaria

The false Lily had been made solely of glass. And the high heat and explosion had broken her...it into a thousand pieces. No wonder why it avoided Iron's lava. 

Of course, there's no way it was a normal doll. It even used Lily's skills and appearance...

"The queen and the mirror?" - Zaria

"What?" asked Iron who was standing beside me before I noticed.

"No, this made me remember an old fairy tale. An old one from this continent that's called "The Queen and the Mirror", I think. Something among those lines." - Zaria

"I see. Its contents?" - Iron

"Well, there was a princess loved by her people, but after she became the queen, she turned into a monster for some reason. A curse or whatever, I don't remember. But the people treated the queen as if their previous love and appreciation for her was a lie, although the queen at heart was still the same as before. In the end, the people killed their queen, and one of her still loyal retainers cursed the people to take on a monstrous form when they were reflected in a mirror....." - Zaria

"Sounds similar, even if some parts are different. It's not the people, but a doll, and not... not a monster's appearance, but Lily's." - Iron

Hey, if the girl hears you said that, she's gonna cry. Even if her appetite is worthy of being called "a monster".

"Anyway, it's just my tired mind playing tricks on me. Rather, where's the real Lily?!" - Zaria

"I planned to ask the monk in the temple she was at," replied Iron with a tone that seemed calm, but it had a hint of worry hidden within. 

"...okay, then we have to start there. And warn...hey!" I shouted, seeing the "terminal-phone" or whatever this thing that Garami gave me only showed the words "no connection" on the screen.

"Oh, for Terra Sol's sake..." - Zaria

"Could be these mountains' fault. Would explain why we can't contact Lily either." - Iron

Let's hope that's the only reason, I thought while picking up Tinkletop who had been thrown off as I grabbed the imposter's arm before. 

...still better to be here in these strange mountains with glass dolls taking your friends' appearances than in those blasted caverns though~~.

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Skill List:

Title List:

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Kigal-Note/Monsters/Beast: Adventure Rat