We managed to reach the exit from the Youkai Forest, and Daiyousei flew me to the Human Village, where we see Mokou sitting beside a sleeping Reimu on Keine-Sensei's porch.

"How's she?"

"Doing better. Haven't you told Marisa the good news? She'll probably be happy to hear her best friend is now safe and sound."

"Alright then." I replied almost immediately.

But then Daiyousei tugged on my clothes, saying "Maybe we shouldn't. I have a bad feeling about this."

"Bad feeling? But I went to her house and there's no one there but her!"

"That was previously, Cirno-Chan. And if it's more dangerous, we need to replace those pads of yours... I don't think they would last much longer if it kept getting damaged."

"Oh, about armor huh? Well, I found a dead beast outside the village, just narrowly entering the barrier. I managed to make an armor out of it's leather."

Mokou told me. I smiled at Daiyousei smugly, as she pouted.

I put on the armor Mokou gave me, moments later. I looked at the mirror on how I look like by now.

"It's a little heavier than those pads, but this'll do."

"Ah, it's nothing! I am the strongest after all!" I boasted.

Afterwards, me and Daiyousei moved out. She flew me towards the Forest of Magic, avoiding the zombie fairies down there and we reached Marisa's home.

I knocked on the door, but then we heard a voice.

"Looking for her?"

Turning around we see...

"You will never speak to her again. But you still have to pay the price for talking to her before."

Alice Margatroid, the doll manipulating magician. She is corrupted by the moon as well. Seeing how I once beat her when trying to find the Daidarabocchi, facing her again would be much easier, but then there's Marisa, the very person I was going to meet next to Alice. Her eyes are empty, and her arms are jointed.

"What gives, Doll Maker?" I asked her.

She laughed maniacally before replying, "She's my property, and you dare to stain her with your words last time you met her."

"But I was asking her if she knew where Reimu would be! There's no need for you to act like this!"

"Reimu Reimu Reimu... That name gives me a headache! Why does everyone mention that name... Even Marisa? That's why I sealed her fate here as well. That armpit miko has corrupted her badly enough!"

Then several eyes glowed behind them, they were her dolls, each carrying melee weapons.  Swords, lances, maces, spears, and more.

"Dai-Chan, get out of here." I told Daiyousei, as she nodded and flew off.

I conjured a sword of ice, and pointed it at Alice. "It seems, that we won't get away from this forest without a fight."

"You're right... This is your punishment after all."

Several of her dolls then marched forwards, with their lances trying to skewer me, but I managed to slash their bodies off with one swing from my sword, before I noticed that their insides were glowing.

"Explode." Alice said, and the glow becomes brighter.

I quickly conjured an ice shield, which shatters almost immediately as the explosion from the self-destructing dolls. That stunned me for a second, and Marisa fires off danmaku at me, under Alice's control.

I managed to duck down and dodged the incoming danmaku, before a laser flies straight to me, piercing my body, and hitting a tree behind me. I coughed out, as the laser dissipates and I knelt to the ground in pain.

I managed to reach my flask, but then a doll swiped it away before I can take a sip. It was then when the Marisa doll, on her broom crashes onto me head-on, knocking me back to the ground. But at the last second I managed to fire off an icicle to tear off the doll's torso, and it's body was severed afterwards.

"W... What have you done!? My Marisa... Broken... You..."

Alice's voice became darker, and heavier, before she casts her arms upwards, and dolls with all sorts of weapons then emerged from the darkness. Some of them fired lasers at me, which I barely dodged as I prepared to conjure another ice shield. After it's made, I fired off more icicles, towards the dolls that are off-guard, and exploding them in the process.

one of the explosions knocked my flask off from the doll that stole it, and it flew right onto my mouth, making me gulp down it's whole content. Feeling better than ever, I pulled out my spell card "Ice Sign - Perfect Freeze!" as I dashed forwards, and raised my arms to the skies. A moment afterward, a blizzard, alongside with circle shaped danmaku came out from the eye of the storm, hitting most of the dolls, and some hit Alice as well, but then she casts a pentagram barrier in front of her, making the other danmaku missed her, while sacrificing the dolls that were hit to a suicide charge towards me.

I snapped my fingers, and froze the incoming dolls, freezing them on their tracks as I pulled out Roukanken.

"Nature sign - Change Element, Hika Cirno."

I tapped into my light element form, and chanted again "Light sign - Immortality severance!", which imbues a bright light onto Roukanken's steel, and I plunged it onto Alice's chest before dragging it upwards until the sword gets off from her shoulder.

She knelt down, before dissipating into cinders as she made one desperate reach towards the Marisa doll's corpse.

Immortality Severed

I took a breather, before sitting down on the ground and checking my flask. It really ran out of it's healing waters. I've lost so many people I knew, but to what end?

Daiyousei came out of her hiding, and hugged me from behind, calming me down from my dilemma... if that word is even correct.

She then carried me over back to the Human Village to rest, at Keine-Sensei's home. After a couple of hours resting, I woke up to see Daiyousei sleeping next to me, apparently taking care of me as I'm out. She woke up, when I tried to get up and she told me.

"This incident... Makes me suspect the Mansion near our Lake."

"Is it so, Dai-Chan? What made you think that?"

"The moment everything turned into nightfall, I see that it's source coming from right where the mansion is. We need to get there, Cirno-Chan... And end this."

"You're right. Let's get up and head there. Although I think the gate guard there might not be friendly at times like this."

"You beat her once, though. So maybe you can do it again?"

"I think so. Thank you Dai-Chan, for being at my side..."

- To Be Continued