Yueret walked up to the screen and started looking at the buttons. This attracted his little sister, who always suspected the worst.
"What's happened?" Unana walked up to her brother.
"I want to understand which button to press," Yueret looked from one button to another.
Unana turned away and smiled with joy, as if an important problem had been solved, but then she remembered her brother's last words. The smile changed to a barely open mouth.
"Why do you need to press buttons?" Unana asked.
"Look at what is written here."
Unana looked at the screen and soon found a block of text under the window with the silhouette.
"We need to pass the test and get a character," Unana felt terrified. "I hope it's not Kimchan. Maybe that lizard took Kimchan and is now trying to exchange her. But why would she do that?"
The archer looked at the silhouette and didn't notice anything on his head that looked like animal ears.
"This character is not Kimchan," Unana calmed down a little. "But it doesn't matter. She is definitely a girl. Something needs to be done."
"Why do we have to go through a test and get some character?" Unana asked. "Maybe we should go back?"
"What?" Yueret still did not look away from the screen. "If this transport can return us to the top of the mountain, then where will we go next? There are no trains to this island, and we no longer have Kimchan."
Then we need to get Kimchan back.
"That's what I'm doing. If I open the door behind this screen, I can get Kimchan back."
"How do you know where she is?"
"I just know."
"Is someone telling you?"
Unana looked at the button her brother had touched and read one of the symbols. She didn't know the second symbol, but it wasn't hard to guess.
"This program is somehow connected to the characters," Unana said. "Can you talk to them here?"
"Probably," Yueret answered. "I haven't figured it out yet, but I've figured out a few things. It opens the door to the room where the character is. That means there's someone there."
"Is this Kimchan?"
"No, you can see that the silhouette is not similar. But if you do it like this..."
Yueret touched the bottom of the silhouette with his finger, and then ran it from top to bottom. The silhouette of the unidentified creature was replaced by another silhouette, with pointed ears on top of its head and a tail at the back.
"It's Kimchan!" Unana jumped up and even widened her eyes.
"Now don't bother me," Yueret said. "I have to free her."
Unana stopped asking her brother, of course, not because she wanted Kimchan back. The archer was in such shock that she only recovered from it when she heard a rumble and felt the floor shaking under her feet, and her breast along with it.
... The screen was gone, and its place was taken by a wall that was moving to the side.
Unana jumped back a few steps and saw her brother, who had already activated the aura, summoned a sword and shield, and was waiting for the enemy to appear.
"If Yueret did this, then there must be someone dangerous there," the archer thought. "Maybe it's the creature that was on the screen? But... it's a girl, which means Yueret can't be left alone with her."
Unana summoned a bow with a charged purple energy arrow, and then aimed it at the doorway from which something both dangerous and unknown was supposed to emerge.
But behind the wall there was only a huge hall with smooth stone walls, illuminated by many blue energy lamps on the ceiling. In the center was a stone column with a statue of a humanoid creature with two horns on the top of its head and one on its beak, and around it was a round depression that occupied half of the room.
The sight of this location surprised Unana so much that she didn't notice how the wall stopped, the rumble turned to silence, and the floor and her breast no longer shook.
"What do you need to drill a mountain with to do something like that?" Yueret was also surprised, but much less. "Some skill was definitely used here."
"What?" Unana finally paid attention to her brother because of his voice, to which, like a real little sister, she responded instinctively.
"I remembered something," Yueret said. "Dad loved games and even showed me one of them. But I was very young, so I didn't understand anything."
"So it was he who created that lizard?"
"Probably... Let's go."
Yueret deactivated the aura so as not to waste energy in vain, but did not recall the weapon. Together with his sister, he entered the hall, after which a blue translucent energy barrier appeared in place of the former wall.
"There is some kind of statue here," Unana's heart began to beat faster. "I hope she will not attack us?"
Yueret couldn't answer this question. He knew that statues could come to life, and he didn't want to deceive his sister, who for some reason was afraid.
"There were only two characters on the screen," Yueret looked at the statue. "If this statue were alive, it would appear there."
"Yueret, you're a fool," Unana frowned. "Do you really believe these pictures?"
"These are not just pictures. This is a display of the energy of those beings that are here."
"What?"
Each screen is made of energy. When you call the interface, it displays your energy, in a distorted form, of course. With that screen on the wall, it's a little different. It displays the energy of the place behind it.
"How do you know that?"
"You have to go to school. They teach more than just reading there."
"But you didn't go to school."
"I went to school. You were just little, so you don't remember."
The conversation between the brother and sister was interrupted by a crash behind the statue. A stone platform with a blue energy cage extended from the ceiling, in which a dog-girl sat and looked down in fear.
"It's Kimchan," Unana jumped with joy and her chest "agreed" with her.
"Yup, she looks like Kimchan. We need to free her. Maybe it really is her."
Yueret activated his aura, and then pointed his hand at the cage. A clot of blue energy appeared in his palm, which began to grow in size to shoot a beam.
"You're too smart, brown," a nasty voice came from somewhere above.
Yueret interrupted the skill, and then looked at the ceiling.
"That's the voice of that lizard," Unana noted. "It wants to attack us again."
The archer aimed her weapon at the ceiling, but found no enemy.
"You're not very smart after all," a voice came from behind the statue. "You're just bear cubs. This is normal for you."
Unana aimed the bow with the energy arrow at the statue, but failed to fire. The arrow dissolved in the air, causing the weapon to vibrate for a few moments.
"I forgot that you can't keep the arrow in the bow for too long," Unana bit her tongue.
A tail with gray scales appeared from behind the statue, and then the head of that very lizard girl.
"Are you ready?" Timnichan asked.
"I don't know," Yueret admitted honestly. "If we battle against you together, we can probably hold out for a while."
The head and tail of Timnichan disappeared behind the statue. A few moments later, the lizard girl appeared on the head of the stone "creature" with a smile on her face.
"You have to do a boo-boo to get me," Timnichan said. "I even captured your sis."
"This is not our sister," Unana looked at the dog girl in the cage. "This is a different species."
"But you are brown," Timnichan continued to smile. "And she is brown. And she bites. Are you bear cubs?"
"Now I understand what a creature that does not leave the house looks like," Yueret thought. "Forgive me, Unana. I thought badly of you."
***
The energy harpoon flew towards the pink-haired doll, but she dodged it despite continuing to look at Kyotyoryon.
"This doll was with that man with the nose…" Etinnei was almost paralyzed with fear, but after a few moments the level of this feeling dropped to a safe level.
Meanwhile, the chain that was entangled with the doll was heading towards Kyotyoryon. The harpoon tried to stop it, but the chain evaded it and reached the spirit of metal. The doll seemed to sense the enemy's approaching attack, although it was focused on the target.
Another energy harpoon flew out of the forest, but this time it was aimed at Kyotyoryon. The doll pulled the chain towards itself, and then rose sharply above the trees. The harpoon missed.
"She doesn't pay attention to the attacks," Etinnei thought. "But she somehow dodges. Maybe she senses the air around her? So if I release an icicle or something, she will dodge too?"
While the arctic fox girl was deciding what to do, the doll disappeared into the forest. The energy harpoons began to pursue her, but soon they became entangled in each other's energy and stopped.
The doll rose above the forest and dragged the "prey" towards the crypt. Kyotyoryon couldn't move, but she could think and speak, which, of course, she immediately took advantage of.
"Hey, let me go, evil doll!" the spirit of metal shouted. "I can fly myself."
The doll didn't answer. She looked at Kyotyoryon with lifeless eyes and moved forward in a purple aura.
"This doll is not only evil, but also stupid. She does not understand what I say. So my metal will talk to her."
Several short blades appeared behind the doll's back, and then pierced the back of its head and neck. But the non-living creature ignored the attack. The doll continued to follow the intended route.
"Hey, you have my metal sticking out," Kyotyoryon said. "It cut you. Why isn't there any red juice flowing out of you?"
There really wasn't any blood coming out of the wounds, so to speak. The blades were simply stuck in the skin and wobbled under the vibrations from the aura.
"Maybe she's a robot? She is an evil hairy robot. Then it makes sense why she has my metal. Robots always steal my metal. They even make heads, belly, arms, and legs out of it."
The endless forest of tree ferns gave way to the remains of stone buildings. Yuehei landed on a pillar at the edge of the ruins, and then moved Kyotyoryon to a stone platform nearby.
The spirit of metal immediately tried to escape, but the doll did not allow her to even move her hand. Kyotyoryon looked at her opponent and saw bulging eyes with glowing purple pupils.
"It's her eyes that are holding me," the metal spirit thought. "If they weren't there, she wouldn't be able to do this."
Kyotyoryon imagined several short blades above her opponent's head. A few moments later, they appeared above Yuehei's head, and then flew into her eyes...
Kyotyoryon felt that she could move again. The next moment, she jumped behind the nearest stone block and hid there.
… Yuehei stood on a pillar with blades in her eye sockets. The aura no longer surrounded her, but nothing else had changed. The non-living creature still showed no interest in the damage to its body.
But Kyotyoryon was glad. She cautiously peeked out from her hiding place to see something interesting.
"Finally, I did it," the spirit of metal closed her eyes. "I wanted to pierce the creator's eye, but she didn't allow it. Now I don't have a creator, so she can't stop me from cutting other creatures."
But Kyotyoryon rejoiced in vain. The doll grabbed the blades with her hands, and then pulled them out of their eye sockets. The spirit of metal opened her eyes and saw two black holes in place of the enemy's eyes, from which no blood flowed.
"She doesn't have red juice. She's like me, only not alive."
A pink aura surrounded the doll. The black holes "lit up" with a bright pink glow.
"Instead of red juice, the evil doll has pink air. The pink air doesn't have my metal, but the red juice does. I can't do anything with this air."
The pink glow in the eye sockets began to fade and soon disappeared. Kyotyoryon noticed that the doll's eyes were restored, as if nothing had gotten into them.
"This pink air restores what was cut off from the evil doll," the spirit of metal guessed. "I must find the place where this pink air appears and slaughter it in order to slaughter the doll."
Kyotyoryon imagined a spear above the doll, which rotated and drilled into the head from the top. A few moments later, this object appeared, but did not have time to start rotating. Yuehei dissolved into thin air.
"She disappeared," Kyotyoryon released short blades from the bracelets on her hands. "I don't even feel my metal, which she stole."
As soon as Kyotyoryon finished her thought, a chain clanged behind her. The spirit of metal turned around and saw her opponent. The doll was "hanging" above her in a purple aura. The end of the chain reached the stone surface of the ruins and hit it.
"This is my metal," an idea suddenly appeared in Kyotyoryon's head. "It's so close."
The doll's pupils turned purple, but the character was not taken under control in time. Kyotyoryon reached out to the chain, which was half a step away from her, and imagined how it unwound and came off the doll's body...
The next moment, the end of the chain moved to the bracelet on the hand of the spirit of metal, and then "stuck" to it...
The chain began to wind around the bracelet at great speed and rotate the owner behind it. Soon the doll was left without weapons and clothes. The chain stopped only near the collar, which was partially hidden by long pink hair.
"She also has this thing," Kyotyoryon noticed the collar. "Hey, give me my metal!"
The doll, as usual, did not respond, but its body was surrounded by an electric aura. White-blue lightning quickly engulfed the chain and reached Kyotyoryon before she could understand anything...
Meanwhile, at the other end of the ruins, Halankuo and Sitihi were hiding behind what was left of a stone wall.
"Something is wrong here," Halankuo noted. "The dolls said they didn't want to battle their relatives and returned to the crypt. Could this be a trap?"
"Something used to explode inside me when that happened," Sitihi answered. "It was called joy. These dolls are too strong to battle for long."
"These are the dolls whose heads we saw in the crypt?"
"Yes. There are battle doll and healing doll. They are twins. I forgot their names, but I remember that they are very strong."
Then why are we sitting here? Let's get out of here before they change their minds.
"We need to do everything according to plan."
"What?" Halankuo was surprised. "Sitihi is following the plan instead of running away before it's too late?"
"Dolls cannot change their minds quickly unless they are commanded to do so," the voice in the girl's head explained. "The twin dolls have decided not to fight you because it goes against their beliefs."
"Can dolls have beliefs?"
The voice did not answer. But Halankuo already knew the answer.
"I can't leave her here alone," Halankuo thought. "But I can't do nothing either. While I'm sitting here, something might happen to Kyotyoryon..."
Halankuo opened the map of the "Mausoleum of Nature" to see where her character was. A few moments later, the creator was overcome with horror.
"Why is Kyotyoryon here? Did she come here on her own or her stole? Maybe the enemy found out about our plan? Or maybe Kyotyoryon came here herself to cut me again? She wants to cut me, I know that."
Halankuo forgot about her "sister" who was nearby, about the opponents who were probably also somewhere nearby. The girl thought only about her character.
"Are you going to go?" the voice in Halankuo's head asked.
"Of course," the girl answered mentally. "I have to check on Kyotyoryon."
"It's too dangerous. Your plan was made so that you wouldn't cross paths."
"But without me, Kyotyoryon..."
"Sometimes it's better to be a doll. Now I regret listening to my feelings. If it weren't for them, I would be alive now in reality, not in data form."
Halankuo looked at Sitihi. The doll was holding the weapon-head in her hands and for some reason stroking the top of her head.
"No, mother," Halankuo answered mentally. "You wouldn't live as a doll. You would simply exist and do what you were used to. You wouldn't think about why you were doing it. I don't want you to become like your little sister."