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Scarlet was swallowed by shadow as she took Maria and Fiona away from the base camp, moving toward the large mountain in the distance; the slopes were already half-covered by the shimmering bluish fog expanding toward them.  The jungle around them faded before her enhanced vision as she jumped to each new location.

A lump of blood formed in Scarlet’s throat as she watched the glowing cloud, and she forced it down; Rachel’s concerns hung at the back of her mind like an executioner’s ax.

If this stuff radiates solar energy, then … I’ve been hit by it before, and I wasn’t instantly vaporized.  It’ll be fine! Relica’s solar energy ball just drained my strength really fast. Although, this could be much stronger…

Fiona pulled her mind out of its spiral.  “Could you stop for a moment?”

“Umm, yeah?”

Her boots sunk into the mud a little as they appeared at their next location; she did a glance around the area to make sure everything was safe.  “What’s up?”

The feeling of Maria’s bra pressing against her shoulder left as she backed off a little, stretching out her arms before pulling back some loose locks of hair.  “Man, your teleporting is so disorienting.” She mumbled.

Fiona flipped around in the air to face her, smiling brightly.  “I could levitate us, and we can go down from above!”

“Huh, not a bad idea, Fi,” Maria commented, picking between her teeth while scanning their environment.  She had a brooding expression, eyes downcast as if deep in thought.

Scarlet folded her arms, releasing a soft hum.  “Well, yeah, I guess it would be quicker to go over it … I don’t see creatures around us.  It’s so strange; it was so populated before.”

The light orange dust surrounding Fiona flipped to cyan and back to orange as she caught Maria’s expression.  “Something wrong? Do you not want to fly … oh,” she smirked, putting her hands on her hips as she lazily hovered around her.  “Are you scared of heights?”

“What, no,” Maria growled.  “I’m just … do you think the government will keep their promise?”

Scarlet shot a glare down at the mud as she pulled her left foot out, making a squelching sound.  “What promise? The one about clearing our record or some other one?”

A puff of air hissed through Maria’s teeth as she folded her arms under her chest, nose twisted with annoyance.  “I don’t know … I just have a hard time believing the government is good for anything. I mean, they screw-up all the time, and it’s not like they’re honest with everyone.”

Fiona’s lips bunched to the side for a moment.  “Yeah, but it’s gotta be that way for some things, right?  I mean, it’s not like telling us about every terrorist attack stopped would be helpful; it would just cause a lot of panic.”

“And aren’t you the lie detector,” Scarlet replied with a light chuckle.  “Did Tom sound like he was lying when he told us anything?”

“No,” Maria mumbled, “but we’ve already seen that my lie detecting isn’t perfect.  No, it’s just … something doesn’t feel right.”

Maria scratched the back of her head, fingers sliding through her long, flowing white locks.  “It’s just the story of my life; I’d hear some of the oldtimers saying how this politician will do this or that, but it’s all just talk.  I just have a bad taste in my mouth.”

“What started this?”  Scarlet asked, glancing through the black wooden trees at the sea of blue descending the mountain at an even pace.  “We’re kind of on a clock…”

“Yeah, I get that, too,” Maria sighed, twisting her hips to stare at a long gnarled root.  “I do … I mean, we’re like the heroes here, and it’s all crazy, but … last night it was just on my mind.  What if we’re just a piece in the puzzle for them to take over or something or there’s this big conspiracy going on behind the scenes.”

Scarlet covered her hands with her arms, rubbing one of her left ribs with her middle finger a few times; the soft sensation of her clothes pressing up against her skin caused a strange tingle to shoot down her spine as she let Maria’s words sink in, and Fiona had also gone silent while staring down at the ground.

Rachel would have already thought about it, right?  Probably … but what if we just don’t have much of a choice.  Well … they don’t have much of a choice. Rachel, Maria, and Fiona all have their family to lose.

I’m the only one that has nothing left … well, that’s not entirely true.  I have my new friends … I couldn’t have survived this mentally … not at all if I didn’t have them.  Maria’s not entirely wrong; we do need to be careful.

We’re the good guys, though.  Aren’t we? If we don’t stop this, then it’ll destroy the world.  Rachel’s risking her life talking to those aliens. We found out all this information on the crystal, and the government is helping to keep everyone safe.

Her tongue slid over her lips before she said, “Rachel trusts Tom.  He hasn’t gone back on his word yet.”

Fiona hummed thoughtfully before adding her own input.  “Yeah, that crossed my mind, too, but then I thought about one of the things in Maria’s rap songs, and it got me thinking.  You know, Tom’s not the government.”

“Right?”  Maria whispered.  “Yeah, he’s a big shot and has a lot of influence since we’re basically at war, but what happens when all the bureaucrats back in Washington get back in power?  You see what I’m saying? Tom was worried about that, too, and I hadn’t given it much thought until last night.”

They all fell into their own minds, and the soft sound of the cutting wind above took the stage; the unusual silence of the jungle pressing in on her with the looming ax of the possibility of solar energy ahead of her made Scarlet uneasy, and the conversation wasn’t helping.

Tom confirmed that there were people back in Washington that were scared of me, and I’m sure I’m not the only one on that danger list.  We’ve been so busy with everything happening around us that we haven’t really given much thought to what it’ll be like when we get back home.

These deadly crystals will start showing up all over the planet, and we’ve got to figure out a way to deal with it.  On top of that threat, we have The Oscillation and everyone having powers. Our old world is gone … we aren’t going back to a place familiar to us, but to an evolving crisis.  I’d be alone … my mom on the loose…

Her stomach turned at the thought, and she broke the silence with a forced chuckle.  “We can worry about that later, right?”

“I guess,” Maria sighed.  “I’m just a little worried about my family; I’ve got some real blockheads to take care of, and if they start rounding up anyone that’s a troublemaker, then I’ve got a problem.”

“I get it,” Fiona said; her dust had slowly grown a deeper shade of green as they’d talked.  “I was hoping that I could bring my sister to the States since we’ve got some connections with Tom, but maybe I should ask Rachel and him if it would be a good idea.”

She bit her lower lip, and her small hands balled into fists.  “If it gets bad here, then … it might just be better that she says over there.”

“Yeah,” Maria grunted, taking a deep breath while pulling up on her chest before letting the air out slowly.  “I’d like to meet your sister; I was surprised to hear that she was a bartender since she was sixteen.”

“Well, my uncle needed help, and the laws are a bit different in Ireland,” she said, accent suddenly slipping back to her Irish roots for a moment.

“Right, well, I’m all about that smaller government; I don’t need them poking in on my business.  I just feel like we’re looking at a big turn in history, and we have a small part in it. You know?”

“I didn’t really think about it until you mentioned it,” Scarlet admitted, scratching her temple while giving them a forced smile.  “Still, we won’t have a world to worry about unless we solve this problem.”

“Oh, geez … we are wasting a lot of time.”  Fiona laughed sheepishly; her aura mixed with green hues and Scarlet’s stomach did somersaults as she was lifted off the ground with Maria.

Maria released a short yawn as Fiona lifted them a few meters into the air, and she stretched her left arm across her stomach.  “Yeah—man, this all sucks. I…” Her jaw locked as Fiona brought them into the sky, and a sharp frigid gust hit them like a wave, blocked by the massive trees.

Scarlet giggled as the Unicorn hugged herself, arms tucked under her armpits in a death grip.  “Fiona, Maria’s a bit cold.”

“C-c-cold?  It’s … it’s freezing … dang it…”

“Huh?  Oh! I always forget since I can’t really feel it,” she chuckled apologetically, and the sharp gale coming from the mountain faded.  “There. I put up a Wind Shield around us.  Easy peasy,” she chimed while they continued to rise.

Scarlet glanced back down at the shrinking sea of trees as they climbed toward the multicolored cracks in the sky, trapping them inside its bubble.  “What do you think would happen to us if we went through those cracks?”

“Eh, I’d rather not find out,” Maria mumbled, rubbing her shoulders while taking a deep breath.  “In that report, people were teleported to the other side … that’s probably underground. I’d rather not be smashed like a bug by a ton of dirt.”

“I second that!”  Fiona said, flipping upside down while they continued to fly at an angle.  “It is rather pretty, though … in a terrifying world-ending way.”

Scarlet’s stomach tightened as Fiona flipped her around to look at the spectacle.

“I guess,” Maria said, folding her arms as her shining silver eyes slid over the sharp cracks of light.  “It looks more like we’re being invaded by aliens than anything else.”

“Really?”  Fiona cocked her head, green hair fluttering at her back between her energy-like wings.  “I don’t know. It doesn’t really scream alien to me; it’s more like a crazy dooms-day weapon gone wrong.”

A chuckle escaped Maria’s throat.  “What kind of movies do you watch?”

“Probably not the same genre as you,” she replied.

It appeared like they were moving at a slow pace, but in truth, they had reached over a hundred miles an hour, and Fiona’s shield protected them from the sharp gusts being expelled from Azure Frost.

Flipping back around to view the path before them, Scarlet hummed thoughtfully while watching the blue cloud.  “Doesn’t it look like an avalanche?”

“The biggest avalanche ever!”  Fiona mumbled.

Maria cleared her throat, drawing their attention as her cheeks darkened.  “You don’t think … it’s not going to get past your shield. Right? It’s not going to get cold, too; I mean, you have fire spells, too,”  Maria chuckled.

“No clue,” Fiona said with a mischievous smile before her features fell into a brooding complexion.  “This stuff destroys worlds; what’s a little pixie’s bubble, right?”

“C’mon … Hada de mierda,” Maria growled.  “Throw me a bone!”

“Okay, okay,” Fiona giggled.  “I’ll do what I can; I mean, that’s why I’m here!”

“So, what’s up with my hair?  It’s not getting in my face at all.  Kind of strange,” she muttered, playing with it at her neck, but it only shifted a little before falling back into uniform around her back.

“Oh, it’s just a little something I found out I could do!  Useful, huh?”

“I’ll say … I’ve never had long hair like this before, and now that I do … it’s cool—a little.  It’s also super annoying; the flippin’ stuff may not tangle, which is a blessing, but it gets in my face all the freakin’ time.”

“Sucks to be you,” Fiona giggled.  “I just manipulate mine with Levitation to keep it out of the way.”

“Fairy privilege,” Maria joked with a laugh.

“Well, I’m not immortal; Unicorn privilege!”  Fiona shot back.

“Flying!”

“Healing!”

“Firepower!”

“Okay … got me there.  I am a little bit of a living weapon,” Fiona giggled.

“More than a little bit,” Maria huffed.  “What’s up with that massive fireball thing I saw in that video online?”

“Inferno or Conflagration?”

“The big one…”

“Conflagration, then,” Fiona hummed.  “It’s the upgrade to Inferno.  It’s pretty scary, but the only time I used it was when I had Warpath activated, and that boosts its power.”

“Talk about firepower … the thing’s like miniature napalm.”

“It requires a lot of energy.”

Scarlet only partially listened to their banter as they rose; she felt like she wanted to throw-up.  The feeling of Relica’s solar globe attack was imprinted in her skin; the memory of the searing light touching her skin made her legs quiver.

“Scarlet?”  Fiona asked.

“Huh?  What’s up?”  She asked, realizing she’d retreated into her mind.

Both Maria and Fiona were giving her a concerned look.

“What’s up, chica?”  Maria asked.

“Yeah, you were trembling,” Fiona said, slowly bringing them to a stop in the air.

“Oh, no, it’s just … I’m a little scared of the—well, if the stuff radiates solar energy.”  She rubbed her left shoulder, trying to give them an encouraging smile. “It’s just—it hurts … a lot, but don’t worry about me!  We need to do what we can.”

“There’s no shame in going back,” Fiona offered.  “If you’re that scared, then we can handle it.”

“No shame?  C’mon, we both know she’d feel like crap,” Maria huffed, drawing Fiona’s glare.  “Look, I get it,” she sighed, rubbing her neck as she glanced down at the expanding fog ahead of them.  “I hate the cold … hate it! ¡El frío puede chupar una polla!”

Her ire fell as she folded her arms again.  “Anyways,” she turned back to the angry Fairy.  “She knows we gotta do it; we’re all scared.”

“I could drop you right now!”  Fiona sniffed. “No sunlight to make you unkillable.”

“No, please,” Maria rolled her eyes.  “Scarlet’s a big girl.”

Scarlet’s lips lifted a little.  “Thanks, Maria. You’re right; we need to do scary and tough things sometimes.  Thanks for the encouragement; I needed to hear that.”

“Anytime,” she smiled.  “What we hangin’ around for?  The Fairy Airlines sucks! Negative reviews … hey!”  Maria cried out as Fiona cut off her Wind Shield, causing a gust of wind to blow past them and flip their hair back.  “O-Okay—uncle!”

Fiona and Scarlet giggled as the shield enclosed them again.

“F-Friggin’—can’t t-take a—a joke!”  Maria mumbled, teeth chattering.

The conversation grew cold as they continued to climb into the sky along a diagonal line, their focus stolen by the mass in front of them.  It took several minutes before they finally crested the invisible mountain peak, swallowed by the shimmering blue clouds.

The view was a little breathtaking as they got a full picture of the scene below them; it was like the largest firework festival Scarlet had ever seen, mixed with a fog machine.

Swirling mist gently moving below them, and there seemed to be firework-like explosions that shot up from the depths of the fog before expanding in a silent spay of shimmering mist.  The plumes fell back into the slow-moving fog below them, carried along by the strong wind that moved along its surface, causing it to look like the ocean.

“Pretty,” Fiona whispered.

Maria’s lips pursed as they glided over the sea, vision sliding between the streaks of blue lines, erupting from the pool of blue to burst into plumes of smoke before gently falling back into the flowing mass below.  “Sure, but I don’t like those explosions. The hell’s going on down there?”

“Can you get a little closer?” Scarlet asked.  “I can try to look through it.”

“Umm … yeah, but I don’t want to get caught up in one of those blasts.”

Maria studied the Azure Frost’s movements for a second before asking, “How are we going to find the Core thing the birds were talking about?”

“They have names,” Fiona huffed.

“Too hard to remember—so, how do we find it?”

When no one responded, Maria growled, “Perfect.”

“Let’s just take it one step at a time,” Scarlet urged as Fiona changed their direction.

“Alright, we’re doing a quick dive; let me know when!”

Scarlet’s vision tinted red as she activated her Vampiric Vision, and when they reached a mile away from the swirling soup, her eyes widened.

“Keep diving!  It’s only about thirty meters thick before becoming mostly clear.”

“Woah, this is a bit too sudden!”  Maria cautioned, but Fiona licked her lips before taking them into a dive bomb.

“Here we go!  I’ll strengthen Wind Shield.”

They braced as the cloud neared; Scarlet felt the hit as their momentum was quickly cut in half, but they passed into the substance.

“Ugh … it’s draining my energy like crazy!  We’re slowing down, too; it’s trying to push us out … how much further?”

“Not much further!”

“This is such a bad idea,” Maria groaned, glancing around at the fathomless mist pressing in around them as it tried to push into their invisible bubble.

A glob of blood dropped down Scarlet’s throat; she caught sight of small crystals forming around their shield before being spun off.

“It’s like trying to fly through super thick jello!”

“Just a bit more…”  Scarlet trailed off as they broke through.

Fiona slowed their descent; they had entered a frozen alien world.  A light flurry of ice blew across the scene, but they could still see most of the valley.  The green world over the mountain had been replaced by a shimmering blue field of faintly glowing trees with large crystal flowers reaching high above the tree-cover, and given how tall the trees were, the new flora was massive.

The pistil of the colossal ice flowers shot out beams of energy that flew into the thick clouds overhead, and after a moment, a gentle rain of crystals fell back down.  There was nearly no wind in the serene and silent space.

“Wow…”  Fiona whispered.

Their attention moved to massive pillars that stretched high into the sky at the back left corner of the valley, framing a smooth shell.

Maria hummed, quickly scanning the landscape.  “That’s the only out of the ordinary thing, and it looks constructed.  Aliens, right? It’s gotta be something to do with those little orange guys.”

“Could be,” Scarlet said, looking back up at the sky as small ice crystals fell around them.  “At least I didn’t burn up … yet. How are you doing, Fiona?”

“Not great,” she mumbled, looking back up at the fog with a concerned frown.  “That thing took me down to twenty-two percent … crazy, since I was at like a hundred and forty-six percent before going into it.”

“Oh?”  Maria chuckled before reaching into her pocket.  “It’s a good thing I stashed some sugar, then!”

Both Scarlet and Fiona glanced at Maria incredulously.

“You seriously put some sugar in your pocket?”  Scarlet asked.

“Yeah, my life’s on the line!  We don’t need our little firecracker puffing out on us,” she mumbled, pulling out a handful of sugar from her pocket.  They all watched as a third of it slipped through her fingers to be spun out of their protective shield. “Shoot … well, I still got a lot more in my pockets.”

“Unbelievable,” Fiona giggled before hovering down to eat the suger out of Maria’s hand.  “You know—I’m glad you thought about this. We’d be kind of stuck in here if you hadn’t.”

“Well, I could have teleported us out … I could have teleported us in.”

Both Maria and Fiona laughed at Scarlet’s realization.

“Whatever,” Maria smiled, glancing back around the valley.  “This place does look pretty cool, but I bet it would be freezing if Fiona wasn’t repelling the … what would you call it, atmosphere?”

“Something like that,” Fiona said between bites.  “It’s bizarre—when I was going through it, it was freezing my wind, but since I generate wind because I’m a conjuror-type, it just kept getting replaced and spun off.  It was a real battle trying to keep it out.”

“This stuff really is dangerous,” Scarlet whispered.

“You’re telling me … and it’s cold.”

The three of them laughed, and after Fiona had eaten her fill, they made their way toward the see-through dome; Fiona lowered them closer to the jungle canopy, flying by the massive stems of the ice flowers.

“So, how big do you think this Core is?”  Maria asked.

Fiona’s brow creased as she shot a smirk in her direction.  “How should we know?”

“I don’t know, just asking,” she muttered.  “I’m just wondering if we can move it.”

“We’ll find out,” Scarlet whispered.  “It’s crazy, though … I can hardly even see into the crystals.  I’m looking down at the jungle, but I can’t see it because of the ice.  It’s the thickest thing I’ve ever seen; it’s like it freezes things at the molecular level.  I wonder if there’s even air around us, and it’s only Fiona’s shield giving us some breathable oxygen?”

Maria’s lips became a line.  “Not a good thought.”

“Nope,” Fiona hummed.  “My shield is still being eaten away, but it’s not as bad as it was in the cloud, and not nearly as fast.”

Scarlet swallowed another clump of blood that gathered in her throat.  “We should get this done as soon as we can, then.”

“Got that right,” Maria replied.  “Can we pick up the pace.”

“Pedal to the metal!”  Fiona cheered before singing.  “I got twenty-inch spinners on my drop, doin’ one-fifty, so I’m watchin’ for the cops.  Since I’m in the Lamborghini, I ain’t gon’ stop! I keep this three-Hunna; I’m goin’ right.  Pistol totin’, and I’m shootin’ on sight; put in work, run up on a killer, then put him in the dirt.  Fiona in this war, now, that’s a scary sight; yeah, ride or die!”

Maria and Scarlet chuckled as Fiona kept trying to come up with lines as they flew, and after twelve minutes, they came upon the shell.

Fiona slowed to a stop, and they looked up at the monolithic structure to their left, curving around the shell; it was totally clear, without a single bubble or imperfection inside.  “So crazy,” she whispered.

“Can you teleport us through?”  Maria asked.

Scarlet folded her arms, looking through the dome to the unassuming frozen jungle beyond.  “Probably, but doesn’t this look pretty crazy? I mean, why would there be this thing in the middle of nowhere?”

“It could be the start of it,” Fiona offered.  “You see that big crystal flower? Doesn’t that one look bigger than the others?”

“I guess,” Scarlet muttered.

Maria licked her lips before saying, “Am I crazy for wanting to lick it?”

Both Fiona and Scarlet shot her an incredulous look.

“Yes,” Fiona stated.  “Yes, you would be crazy.”

“Yeah, I probably am,” she chuckled.

“Alright, can you get us closer together?”  Scarlet asked, and when Fiona complied, she teleported them beyond the shell.

A wave of chill shot through Scarlet’s body before Fiona’s shield activated again, causing Maria to lock up.  Scarlet even felt the freezing atmosphere past her resistance, causing her to shiver.

She rubbed her arms.  “Wow … that was chilly.”

Fiona’s aura mixed red as she created a small fireball in front of Maria, features creased with concern.  “Hey, you okay?”

Maria didn’t respond; she was locked in place, eyes wide, and she wasn’t shivering.

Scarlet filtered past her skin, examining the insides of her body.  “She’s alive … I think she’s just in a bit of shock.”

“What should I do?  Maria’s the healer!”  Fiona asked with a bit of panic.

“Umm … I saw in a movie that you’re supposed to make them warm and elevate their legs … I think.”  Scarlet offered.

“Okay,” Fiona followed her instruction.  “That’s a movie, though … would that really help a Unicorn?  She’s mostly energy, right?”

“Well, kind of,” Scarlet hummed, cupping her chin before picking her lip with one of her fangs.  After a moment’s thought, she said, “If I remember right, she said she had a Passive Link Skill called Sunlit Body, and it makes her more energy-based.  I think she’s healing right now; the atmosphere out there is well below freezing … I mean, I felt it, and I have above average Elemental Resistance.”

After a minute, Maria blinked and started to shiver; her hands slowly moved to rub her arms as she curled into a ball in the air.  “T-That w-was … cold … d-dang cold…” She stuttered, rubbing her hands beside Fiona’s fire.

Fiona’s brow creased as she looked back at the towering ice flower that almost reached as high as the dome.  “How are we going to take it out if it’s that cold?”

“We don’t know quite yet,” Scarlet replied.  “Let’s hurry, if we can; keep the fire out so Maria can warm up, but we need to stop this before it spreads more, and we’re on a lock for a nuke.”

“Yeah … okay,” Fiona whispered, glancing back at the quivering Unicorn as she rubbed her body, trying to warm up, and suddenly a bright light blinded them.

Maria’s horn appeared, flaring for a moment before disappearing.  “Dang it!” Maria shouted. “That was the coldest I’ve ever felt … like, I was numb; I blacked out!  The next thing I know, I’m freezing to death … crap…”

Fiona breathed a sigh of relief as she got them back on the move again.  “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Okay?  That thing drained like … fifteen percent of my total energy!  I’m down to sixty-two percent … it’s not so easy to get mine back.”

They both nodded with understanding.

“Things aren’t looking good,” Scarlet said, staring down at the frozen wonderland.  “The Azure Frost is really dangerous stuff.”

“You’re telling me,” Maria growled.

Fiona just bit her lip as they moved closer to the colossal stem, and once they were closer, they noticed that the stem didn’t reach the ground; there were dozens of roots branching out at its base.

“You guys ready to go below?”  Fiona asked.

“Let’s get this over with … I want to go back to Florida,” Maria complained.

Scarlet took a deep breath before nodding.  “Yeah, let’s do it.”

Fiona maneuvered them through open sections in the canopy, and Scarlet noticed a layer of what appeared like snow layering the floor from the frozen moisture in the air.  She’d never heard the level of silence that permeated the icy world; it was eerie how there weren’t any cracking sounds coming from the ice.

How many worlds ended up like this?  A frozen wasteland, forever spreading from planet to planet through the crystals.  Could this thing even destroy a star?

“There!”  Fiona called out, pointing at a glowing red crystal in the shape of a hexagram-like star.  “Holy cow, that looks scary.”

“The crystal at High Rollings was red-colored, too,” Maria commented as they approached it.

It hovered a few feet off the ground, and the image it showed was a frozen forest.

Scarlet’s eyes wandered below the structure, and a small delicate flower at the base of the crystal snagged her attention; it glowed with an azure color, and its petals sparkled with rainbow hues.  Even more surprising, there was a wide patch of unfrozen grass and dirt surrounding it. “Look!”

“What the hell?”  Maria mumbled.

“It’s not cold right there?”  Fiona asked, moving them closer.

They hovered before the pulsing red crystal, and Fiona released Levitation; Scarlet promptly landed on her feet while Maria fell on her face.

“Oof … give me some warning next time!”  She growled, picking herself up while dusting her clothes off.

Fiona ignored her while cautiously floating around the icy blossom.  “It’s gorgeous … it looks like a dahlia.”

Scarlet’s vision penetrated the ground, following the frozen rhizomes as they branched out to the larger rhizomes that created the massive flower overhead.  “This is the Core … it’s this flower.”

“Okay,” Maria walked over and knelt beside Fiona.

“Careful, guys,” Scarlet warned, backing up to the edges of Fiona’s shield.

“Oh,” Fiona chuckled.  “Right, we don’t need you turning to dust if things go wrong.”  Her aura mixed brown, and a globe of dirt surrounded her.

Scarlet breathed a sigh of relief as the glow of the icy jungle blackened; she felt a lot more secure inside the tomb of stone.  Her eyes penetrated the barrier while Maria and Fiona talked. She wasn’t able to hear what they were saying, but after a moment, Maria hesitantly reached down, but before she could touch it, a bright explosion of color shot out from the flower.

When the light cleared, Scarlet saw that the glow of the crystals around them was gone, and the light emitting from the flower had faded.  Maria hesitantly closed her hand around the stem and plucked it.

The three of them braced themselves as cracks ran up the large roots leading to the massive pillars of ice, causing a resonation of noise, and after that, nothing happened.

Another lump of blood dropped down Scarlet’s throat, but a full minute passed without anything more happening.

Fiona lowered her Earth Shield, saying, “Well, that was anticlimactic.”

“It’s a good thing you made that shield,” Maria muttered.  “That burst was concentrated Solar Energy.  Topped me off, actually … like, for real.”

“I didn’t feel anything,” Fiona shrugged.

“Resistances, probably; you’re elemental repellant incarnate.”

“I guess.”

Scarlet cleared her throat, feeling a little weak at the knees.  “So … we’re done?”

“I guess,” Maria shrugged, flicking one of the leaves.  “This thing doesn’t feel like ice at all, and I can feel the energy inside it … it’s crazy powerful.”

“Should I really be out, then?”  Scarlet asked with worry.

“No problem, but why the hell didn’t we bring any bags,” Maria sighed, pulling back the top of her winter clothes to tuck the flower between her bust.  “I think it responded to my aura.”

“Aura?  What do you mean?”  Fiona asked, glaring at Maria’s ample chest.

“Well … it just crossed my mind.  It goes into hibernation when the sun comes out, and I have a skill called Sunlit Body.  So, it thinks it’s time to gather energy, not spread its pollen.”

“Wow, I’m shocked,” Fiona giggled, scratching her neck.  “That actually makes a bit of sense.”

“I’m not dumb,” Maria growled.  “I don’t know about the addled pixy, though; I mean, at least I don’t have skills like that.”

Fiona sniffed, glaring at the crystals around them.  “Wait … hey, the crystals are melting … we did it!”

“You’re totally right … this did seem a bit too easy,” Scarlet muttered.  “Well, let’s head back.”

“Why didn’t we bring any radio or anything?”  Fiona asked before looking down at herself. “Well, yeah, I know why I didn’t, but Maria could have carried one!”

“Didn’t we talk about getting some before?”  Scarlet asked. “I can’t really remember … anyways, yeah, it would have been a good idea.”

Maria shrugged.  “It doesn’t matter; it’s not like it would work underground or through that spore stuff.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Fiona said with a low hum.

“Mkay, cool, oh, hey,” Maria’s eyes lit with excitement.  “With this flower near me, I feel like I can teleport without much issue!  What do you say? Want to try out my teleportation?”

“Okay … you sure you’re not going to vaporize me with a burst of sunlight?”  Scarlet asked with a nervous chuckle.

“Umm … nope.  It’s based on being touched by Beacon of Light, and we’ve already tested out my horn on you.  I mean, I purified you with it. Finally, I get to try out Solar Traveler!  Wait … crap, I forgot that I need to be in sunlight to do it…”

Fiona and Scarlet laughed.

“Okay, smarty,” Fiona winked.  “We’ll just take the Fiona highway back to camp.  Let’s go back and tell everyone the good news. We might need to come back in a bit and make sure a new one isn’t growing, but we scored…”

She paused as a loud noise reverberated around them, and Scarlet felt a pulse shoot through her body.

“That came from the crystal, right?  Everyone heard and felt that?”

“Yeah…”  Maria mumbled.

They waited fifteen minutes, and each minute, the sound returned.  On the fifteenth sound, it shattered, leaving behind nothing.

“Okay … now we know,” Maria said in a cold tone while running her hand through her hair.  “We won.”

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