Steadying myself, I adjust the bag slung around my shoulder and nod to Kay. Kay nods back, taking the lead as we step into the cave. Glancing back at Kal’tsit, I see that she has her notebook and pencil ready to take notes and also map our progress. I return my focus to our surroundings, my hand at the ready for any slugs or other danger that could possibly be lurking in these caves.

Since my first Arts freakout yesterday, I’ve come a long way. The rings that Kay and Kal’tsit made me have definitely been doing their job in keeping my Arts manageable, but even with my Arts dampened I can still do some real damage. Using my Arts feels like second nature to me after my first few tries, but Kay hasn’t been able to manifest her Arts properly. My rings act as a focus for my Arts, but Kay doesn’t have a focus. Kal’tsit offered to help her with some more refining if she could recall what kind of focus she might have had in the other world.

I follow Kay quietly as she wields her huge hammer carefully. She looks prepared to smash in anything that so much as looks at us weirdly. Kal’tsit is quiet for now, the beginning of the caves having been well mapped already by her and Kay while I practiced my Arts. I keep my eyes peeled, looking around curiously. I’ve never really been in a cave before and it’s pretty spooky. Thankfully, it’s not too bad with two of my best friends here.

After a while, the light from behind us fades away and we switch our flashlights on. As we do a slug from deeper in the cave appears in front of us, slinking its way closer slowly. Kay tightens her grip on her hammer, but I’m quicker to the draw. It only takes one well-aimed shot to dispose of the slug quickly and it melts where it was. “You’re getting better at that,” Kay says with a chuckle.

“It’s not too hard.” I drop my hand back down to my side with the danger passed. “How much further until we get to the Originium? It’s been a while already.”

“We’re almost there.” Kay keeps her hammer at the ready, but I can see her relax a bit. I keep my guard up, knowing that it will be easiest if I can deal with anything we run across for now.

Glancing back at Kal’tsit, I can see her following us without much worry. Her expression is neutral when I look, but as she meets my eyes she flashes a smile. It’s a little jarring to see her expression shift from serious to reassuring so fast, but I’m getting used to it. I nod to her, turning back to the cave in front of me.

I notice a shard of Originium sticking out of the wall in front of us, followed by another and then even more. Before long, the walls are teeming with the stuff. I keep to myself, looking at some of the larger chunks. This is a lot of Originium to be around, considering how dangerous it is. “What are we going to do about all of this?” I ask quietly.

Kal’tsit responds quietly from behind me, sticking close as we move deeper into the cave. “I’m not sure yet. It’s too much for us to deal with alone, but involving any more people would just put them in danger. Plus, if the government gets wind of this, they’ll be all over it before anyone else. They were already at your school for the small specimen you gave away.”

“Do you think we will be able to do anything about it?” Kay asks, still leading the way carefully.

Kal’tsit doesn’t respond immediately, so I glance back at her. Her face is neutral as she looks at the walls in thought. When she does answer, her tone is measured and careful. “Yes. I do. However, we need to act carefully, whatever we do.”

Hearing that she thinks we would be able to do something reassures me a bit. I have to wonder what she could be thinking about us doing that would make her sure we could do something about all of this Originium. I don’t have the liberty to ask her what it could be as my attention is pulled away by an approaching group of slugs.

I take the initiative once more, firing off a few precise shots at the slugs. I manage to clear them out before Kay even has to lift her hammer. Nodding approvingly, she continues leading us forward. “Whew, nice shooting there, ‘miya.”

“They’re appearing in larger groups now,” Kal’tsit notes, scribbling into her notebook. “Keep your wits about you, there might be some more dangerous slugs nearby.”

“Do they come more dangerous than this?” I ask as we push forward.

“Yes, they can. There’s no guarantee there are any, but it’s better to be prepared than to not be. We’re diving into the unknown,” Kal’tsit says, writing something down on her notepad.

Kay chuckles nervously from the front of the group. “Probably nothing life-threatening, though, right?” Kal’tsit doesn’t respond, just humming slightly from behind me. “Right?” Kay asks again after a moment.

Kal’tsit sighs from behind me and I feel my stomach twist lightly. “You know that I can’t guarantee anything. Be prepared for whatever, including a retreat.”

I nod, glancing at the rings on each of my fingers in thought. I’m not entirely certain what the limits of my power are, but I do know that I have a significant amount that I could tap into. I thumb one of the rings idly in my offhand while I keep my right hand at the ready. If I take off just one of these rings, would it give me the kind of power to take down a seriously big threat?

Would I be able to control that much power?

Kay stops us after a while, inspecting some Originium growing on the cave walls here. Lifting her hammer, she swings it with precision. The hammer head cracks against the stone wall, splitting the crystal off of the wall cleanly. Some of the rocky wall is still attached to the crystal, but thanks to the way that it was growing, Kay is able to make it a clean split that didn’t seem to compromise the crystal at all. The less chance of Originium particulates in the air, the better.

“Nice swing,” I tell her as she puts away the crystal in her bag. She gives me a thumbs up, hefting the hammer back over her shoulder. She continues leading the way, her eyes scanning the cave walls.

I keep my eyes out for more slugs while Kay looks for more Originium. We’re surrounded by the stuff, so I don’t know what exactly she’s looking for, but she seems to be pretty particular about the quality of crystals she takes. Kal’tsit is relatively quiet behind us, so I glance over my shoulder at her occasionally to make sure that nothing has happened to her. Kay has a hammer and I have my Arts, but Kal’tsit turned down all of the weapons that Kay offered to her. I figured that she knows what she’s doing, so I didn’t push her on it at the time. Knowing that something lethally dangerous could appear, though, I have to wonder if her coming without a weapon was a good idea after all.

I shrug my new jacket closer, appreciating the warmth it provides this deep into the cave. I hadn’t thought about the fact that caves can get really cold the further into them you get. The blue lining on the inside of the jacket feels especially nice, the perfect mixture of soft and warm. There’s also a strange sense of familiarity that I get from wearing it. A familiarity that reaches up from deep inside me. A familiarity that I know would be foreign, if not for the memories that I’ve inherited from another world.

Flinging some Arts at another slug, I hum gently at another feeling of familiarity. Now that I’m more or less used to using my Arts, I can definitely tell that there’s something deep inside of me that remembers the action. It’s like deja vu in a way. With every slug that my Arts pierce, there’s something about the action that clicks into place. It’s a little unsettling to feel so at ease while using my new magic abilities to kill essentially helpless disease slugs… but I also know that it’s not the most unsettling thing about my new reality.

I push away the thought, not wanting to think about the actual most unsettling thing. Even now, delving into this cave full of potentially dangerous creatures… we still haven’t really addressed the elephant in the room.

I glance at Kal’tsit once more, finding her looking at me this time. She nods to me, so I nod back. I have to wonder if she’s thinking about it at all… She’s the one that knows everything about our situation, there’s no way that she hasn’t thought about it. If it wasn’t for everything else she’s told us, I don’t know if I’d have been able to believe that I’ve contracted a deadly disease. Turning into mostly healthy bunny girls just isn’t the kind of thing I would expect a deadly disease to do.

Frowning, I spot another slug in the dark and I take care of it swiftly. Kay looks surprised by my attack as she inspects another crystal, glancing at me approvingly briefly before returning to her inspecting.

Kal’tsit’s whisper catches me off guard, causing me to jump as she speaks into my ear from close behind me. “Do you feel that?” I turn to look at her and she’s closer now than the last time that I looked.

I pause to listen and look around, but I don’t notice anything out of the ordinary. “Feel what?” I whisper back. She doesn’t respond, her eyes locked on the cave in front of us. I follow her gaze, but I can’t see anything past our lights. I keep my eyes trained on the darkness, but nothing comes out of it.

Kal’tsit steps back away from me, still whispering. “Keep going. There’s something up ahead.” I turn to look at Kay and Kay is already glancing back at us.

“Shouldn’t something up ahead be a reason to turn back…?” I ask quietly.

“Maybe. I don’t think that’s the kind of something this is, though.”

“Alright,” Kay says simply, turning back to continue down the cave. I sigh, raising my hand and keeping it leveled at the tunnel in front of us. We continue slowly down the cave, but no more slugs appear. The cave is oddly silent as we continue onwards. Quiet enough that I can hear Kay breathing just ahead of me.

The cave around us shakes and we all freeze. Kay tenses in front of me, her grip on her hammer tightening. She glances over her shoulder, keeping the cave in front of us in her sight as she does so. “What was that?” she asks, her voice is quiet as we wait expectantly for more sounds. “That sounded big…”

“Keep going,” Kal’tsit says from behind us, her voice steady. Unlike both me and Kay, she doesn’t seem scared of the shaking.

“You’re sure?” Kay asks. I have to wonder about that myself at this point…

“Positive.”

Another tremor shakes the cave, but we press forward. The tension doesn’t leave my shoulders as I keep glancing around the cave at the many crevices and dark corners of this cave. There’s another shake, this time powerful enough to cause some dirt and sediment to fall from the ceiling.

“Wait,” Kay says, stopping to look at the wall. She stops and crouches to look at some of the crystals lying scattered on the floor. “A lot of the Originium around here is broken.” I look around the cave floor and I realize that she’s right. There are a lot of broken shards around the floor now, but there were very few broken in the caves before now.

“This section of the cave isn’t natural,” Kal’tsit adds, pointing to some sharp gashes made in the wall. “Something carved out this section of the cave.”

Me and Kay are quiet, looking at each other and then at our friend. She seems unreasonably calm like always, as if she didn’t just suggest that some creature had dug a cave by itself. I look around the cave at the scattered Originium crystal fragments littering the floor. With her having pointed it out to us, I can see the signs all around us. Whatever can dig out this cave is definitely something I don’t want to run into.

A strange roar finally reaches my ears as another tremor shakes the cave. I jump slightly, turning to keep my hand raised at the far end of the artificial tunnel once more. “We should go.”

“We need to keep pushing forward,” Kal’tsit says.

Kay spins around to look at her. “Are you kidding me?” she hisses, keeping her voice quiet, but still raising her voice slightly. Her tone is strained as she continues, “Did you hear that roar? We don’t know what’s down there!”

Before I can agree with her, Kal’tsit steps forward in front of me. “I think I know what it is. And it will be worse if we leave it alone any longer.” She continues walking down the cave towards whatever made that strange roar. As well as towards whatever must have dug out this tunnel. I follow behind her, catching up and keeping my eyes peeled for any more Originium slugs or other creatures. If she’s determined to keep going, I can’t just leave her.

“Ugh… I hope you know what you’re doing…” Kay says after a moment, jogging carefully to take her position back at the front of the group.

We press forward, our pace quicker than before. The cave shakes a few more times, the roars becoming louder as we get closer and closer to whatever is making them. The tunnel that we’re in suddenly widens into a cavern. The cavern shakes as the sounds of a fight can clearly be heard around the corner.

We creep up to the corner carefully and I prepare to use my Arts as I peek around the corner. In a sprawling cavern that is now illuminated by the light of our flashlights are two fearsome creatures.

"Monster," Kal'tsit whispers beside me. I have to agree with the description. They're both frightening beasts in their own right. We're just lucky that they happen to be fighting each other.

One of the creatures is a jagged crystalline monster that looks vaguely serpentine. It looks like it could be made entirely of Originium. The creature that it's grappling with looks like a huge bear that the Originium has taken over. The crystalline creature stabs into the Originium bear over and over while grappling with it. They're lethal attacks that would kill a normal bear, but the Originium infection grants the bear enough power to brush off the attacks. It bites at the crystalline monster ineffectively, attempting to gnaw off one of its appendages.

The fight looks rather one-sided in favor of the crystalline serpent, until I notice that there are more bears behind the monster. They're swiping at the monster, trying to avoid its sharp appendages.

Kal'tsit steps out from the corner, willingly leaving the safety of cover behind. I reach out and grab her hand, stopping her from leaving. She turns to give me a comforting smile. “I need to do this. Stay sharp.” She doesn’t give me a chance to respond before pulling her hand out of my grip easily and stepping forward.

She steps closer, her flashlight illuminating the fight and drawing all of the creature's attention. The grappled Originium Bear doesn’t stop thrashing, but she does manage to capture the attention of the other bears and the crystalline monster.

“What is she doing…?” Kay hisses behind me. I don’t tear my eyes away from the scene, my hand steadied and ready to attack.

“Monster,” she says, seemingly addressing one of the creatures loudly. She lifts a hand and holds her palm out. “Calm down. It’s okay, I’m here.”

The outnumbered creature quickly squeezes the bear it's holding with all of its appendages, instantly crushing and killing the creature. Had it just been toying with it before…? Dropping the lifeless body on the ground, it ignores the bears behind it to quickly dart towards Kal’tsit. The creature is faster than I expected it to be and it’s on Kal’tsit in a second. I start to charge my Arts to throw at it, but it stops directly in front of her. I allow my attack to dissipate, dropping my hand slightly and just watching her and the monster carefully.

The creature seems to look at Kal’tsit questioningly. She brushes her hand against its hard crystalline form gently, petting it like it’s just a big freaky dog. “Mmm, I’m her. As much as I can be right now.”

With the creature distracted, the ignored bears growl indignantly. The now tamed monster whips around to look at them. I watch as it opens its maw wide, charging up a glowing attack that clearly must be a form of Arts.

Kal’tsit’s eyes go wide as she sees the attack that it’s charging. “Wait, Monster, don’t--!” Before she can finish issuing the command, the creature shoots an explosive beam at the bears. Kal’tsit is turning towards us as the beam fires, her eyes intense as they lock with my own. I watch her try to say something to us as the sound of the explosion drowns out all sound in the area. Her mouth forms the word “Run,” as she sprints towards me and Kay.

I turn quickly, the cave already shaking violently. I’m buffeted by a wave of heat as I hear several explosions compounding behind us. Debris is flying across the room and falling from the ceiling as large chunks of rock shift and collapse behind me. Kay is already running back down the tunnel we entered, easily maneuvering her way around the uneven footing of the cave. I follow her path, holding my hands over my head to protect from some of the larger chunks of falling debris.

The cave continues to shake as we run, large chunks of rock falling from the walls and ceiling as we pass. I watch in fear as a section of the ceiling collapses in front of me and I’m barely able to dodge to the side in time and continue running. If this section of the tunnel weren’t so wide, I could have been trapped in a collapsing cave.

My heart is beating in my chest as I’m scooped up from behind. Glancing up, I can see that the tame monster from before has me in its claws. My heart rate spikes once more as I clutch the claw holding me fearfully. Looking over, I see that Kal’tsit is also being held in its grip, her expression one of worry.

The monster doesn’t seem to have any interest in crushing us like bugs, even though I know that it could in a heartbeat. Even knowing that it probably won’t kill us, my heart doesn’t stop pounding. With the sounds of a cave collapsing around us and the sharp claw of a vicious monster holding me tightly by my waist, I feel my breaths quickening. The world turns to black as it all falls apart around me.