Timnichan stood on the head of the three-horned creature's statue and smiled stupidly.
"My creator said that the bear cubs would growl," the spirit of the cold lizard said. "Why don't you growl? You're bear cubs."
Unana and Yueret looked at each other as if trying to figure out what was wanted from them. After a few dozen moments, they simultaneously turned to the enemy and imitated the growl of a large predatory animal.
"My creator said that after this you will become big bears, which means you can be beaten like adults," Timnichan continued.
"This is not adult, this is childish," Unana answered mentally.
"Apparently, dad still thinks of us as children," Yueret thought. "But this monster is not at all childish. This is twenty-plus content."
Timnichan opened her mouth wide. A thick, long blue tongue with an oval tip fell out of her toothless, pale red mouth, and in a few moments it reached the floor.
"Is this statue a stand for her tongue?" Unana summoned her small purple bow.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it is," Yueret answered. "But at least there's no water here, which means she can't kill us with bubbles."
Timnichan jumped, rolled, and then landed on the tip of her tongue.
"I think she's going to ride on her tongue now," a red arrow with a burning tip appeared in Unana's bow.
"You speak as if you created this boss yourself," Yueret activated his aura.
Unana blushed, but managed to point the bow at her enemy. Timnichan summoned a white and blue crossbow in the shape of an icicle, and then…
… She goes on her own tongue. Unana couldn't release the arrow, as several icicles flew at her from the side. Yueret didn't have time to summon a barrier, so the archer had to dodge with the help of a purple aura...
Unana rose above her brother's head, looked around and saw a thick blue tongue rail, twisted in a spiral around her and her brother, along which the same lizard girl was sliding and shooting icicle arrows from an icicle crossbow...
Yueret extended his hand with a clot of blue energy forward. A dome-shaped energy barrier appeared around the brother and sister. The next moment, several icicles broke against its wall.
"It's good that it's not energy," Yueret said. "It won't accumulate inside the barrier, and we won't explode."
"It would be better if it was energy. I know how to deal with it."
"It's a rail tongue. Dad overdid it. I don't even know what to do with this thing."
"I know. I just have to hit the lizard. But that's impossible."
The archer fired a fire arrow, but as expected, it missed. The burning arrow hit the tongue and disappeared.
"You can cut this thing," Yueret suggested.
Unana looked up. Timnichan was rising higher and higher, and the source of the "rails", the tongue, was in her mouth.
"That won't help," the archer answered. "Unless I cut the tongue right at the mouth, but that's impossible. I can't even get close."
"Use the homing arrow."
"To do that, you have to point the bow at the enemy for at least a moment. But I can't even do that. This lizard is too fast."
A purple energy arrow appeared in Unana's bow. The archer pointed the weapon upward, but then moved it to the side. Timnichan was moving too fast and was too far away for the attack to be successful.
Yueret looked up and noticed the blue lizard rail growing longer and longer.
"Soon it will fill the entire hall with its tongue, and then it will stop. The main thing is that I don't run out of energy before that happens."
Timnichan really did rise higher and higher on her tongue. Despite this, the crossbow still released one icicle after another, as if it had an endless source of energy.
"If I had such a bow, this lizard would already be lying on the ground and telling everything she knows about dad," Unana frowned. "But I'm just a human."
"You're a bear cub," Yueret "objected." "You have brown hair."
"You too are a bear cub."
"I think we just admitted that we are bears."
"Yup, we are little bears. But I am big."
Unana looked down and saw her "companion", who nodded in response.
Meanwhile, the icicle arrows shattered upon contact with the barrier and then disappeared.
"That skill of hers does too much damage," Yueret swiped his finger in front of him and saw a blue bar that was less than half full. "No, there are just too many arrows. Each one is very weak, but when they fly out so often, it does a lot of damage. The barrier will start to disappear soon. It's a good thing Unana can't see that health bar."
Soon the tongue led Timnichan almost to the ceiling. The lizard almost hit her head on the ceiling but noticed it after some time.
"It will end soon," the thought appeared in the character's head.
Unfortunately, Timnichan did not expect how soon it would happen. A few moments later, the lizard girl felt that there was free space in her mouth.
"It's over," Timnichan guessed.
The tongue actually reached its limit and broke off. The spirit of the cold lizard flew down, but instead of the floor, it landed on its own "rail", only one level lower.
"I'm standing," Timnichan smiled. "I can't get caught by them, otherwise they'll cut me into pieces, and then I'll have to recover for one hundred and two moments."
The lizard girl looked down and tried to aim, but then she saw a purple energy arrow flying straight at her, and realized that she wouldn't make it in time.
"Aaah," Timnichan covered her mouth with her hand.
The lizard girl jumped onto the "rail" at the level below, but it didn't help. The arrow changed direction and cut into Timnichan's belly, after which it exploded...
… The spirit of the cold lizard flew to the side, turned over in the air, and then began to fall on the floor with its head down.
"That's all," Timnichan closed her eyes, but did not stop smiling.
But that was not all. A copy separated from Yueret's aura and reached the enemy when the distance to the floor was less than half a human head...
... Timnichan was thrown back against the wall and saw another arrow flying at her, this time an electric one...
...Unana and Yueret stood next to the smoking body of the enemy, lying on his back. Timnichan was still twitching a little from the electric shocks, but she was smiling.
"My creator said that this day would come one day," Timnichan said. "I don't know how many years have passed since the creator left. But I believed him. I waited, and finally everything happened as he said."
"Where did your creator go?" Yueret asked.
Timnichan raised her hand, which was shaking from the after-effects of the electric shock, and pointed at the ceiling.
"He flew away, but where?" Unana guessed.
"My creator did not say," Timnichan answered. "He got into a large metal bird, and it carried him north."
"That's a hint," Unana and Yueret thought at the same time.
Timnichan rose to her feet, but then flinched from the last lightning strike, so she knelt down.
"I have done my job," the spirit of the cold lizard said. "The creator said that if the bear cubs defeat me, I will become their character."
Timnichan turned away, and then swiped her finger in front of the wall. A large virtual screen appeared in the air next to the character. Inside the blue-green frame was a black silhouette of a humanoid creature, and next to it was a large blue button in the shape of a spiral.
"Now I am no longer the character of my creator," Timnichan turned to the "cubs." "Touch this large button, and this account will become yours."
"But…" Unana looked at her brother.
"Nothing," Yueret answered. "If that's what dad wanted, then we need to fulfill his wish. Otherwise, we won't find him."
Unana looked at the floor, waited a few moments, then grabbed her brother by the hand and pulled him to the screen.
Timnichan took a few steps away from the wall, but continued to smile and watch the "bear cubs".
"They are so similar," the lizard girl thought. "How will I distinguish them?"
Unana and Yueret pointed one of their hands at the vibrating button and then placed their palms on it.
The black silhouette on the screen took on color and turned into a lizard girl, whom Unana immediately recognized as her former enemy.
"This is the screen that was at the entrance here," the archer noted. "But where is Kimchan?"
"I completely forgot about her," Yueret admitted. "She was in a cage somewhere up there."
Unana looked at the ceiling, but instead of a cage, she saw a large fireball flying straight at her.
"Yueret…" the archer hid behind her brother.
Unana wanted to ask her brother to react to the threat, but only managed to call him by name. Despite this, Yueret almost instantly summoned a dome-shaped barrier. The fiery comet met with blue energy and scattered into many sparks.
"Here is Kimchan," Yueret sighed. "She's fine. She even exploded."
Unana peeked out from behind her brother and saw a rain of sparks falling to the floor.
"I'm sorry, Kimchan, for shooting electric and fire arrows at you. At the time, I thought it was right, because you were threatening Yueret, but now I realized that you're just a harmless puppy who can steal food and explode."
Unana buried her face in her brother's shoulder. The girl did not see how one of the sparks turned into a fiery humanoid silhouette...
"Unana, why are you crying?"
"Aw..."
Unana wiped away her tears and saw Kimchan in front of her in the form of a dog girl.
"Nothing," Unana turned away. "There were just too many sparks, so my eyes started leaking."
"But you were inside the barrier," Yueret raised his hand to his chin. "I took it off when the sparks had already disappeared."
Kimchan looked at Yueret, then at Unana, then lay down on her chest and crawled towards her "injured" owner.
"Kimchan, don't…" Unana asked. "My eyes didn't leak out."
But the dog girl didn't listen to her owner's words. She looked at her with a guilty look, and then...
... Rushed at her and knocked her down to the floor.
"Kimchan, stop it," Unana tried to throw off her pet, but couldn't due to the lack of energy after the fight.
At this time, all three of them did not notice how on the other side of the screen they were being watched not by a virtual, but a living character.
"Now there are three of them," Timnichan noted. "Maybe I should give them numbers based on their height, or their weight? No, then I'll have to weigh them. Maybe based on their hair length? Stop. I'm thinking about the wrong thing. The creator said that only two bears would come. We must take them away from here before there are four of them."
***
"My metal speaks to me."
The sound of a chain clanged in the air.
"It says he's sick. It's been stolen and forced to do things he doesn't want to do."
The clanging stopped, but was replaced by the sound of a small object hitting a rock.
"I have to free it."
Kyotyoryon opened her eyes and saw a fern branch against the grey-violet sky. The sounds of metal had almost stopped, but the smell was still there.
"I can't lie down while my metal is sick. I have to walk or fly to get it back."
The metal spirit rose to her feet and looked towards where the sounds were coming from. Several tree ferns and one bush with small dark green leaves covered the very spot…
This time, Kyotyoryon didn't think. A long blade appeared in the air, which cut off all the excess vegetation with one blow and revealed what she wanted so much...
Above a large stone block, a doll with long pink hair with chains instead of clothes was "hanging" and looking at a girl with long black hair, who was also "hanging" above the remains of the wall.
"It's my creator."
Kyotyoryon could not understand what was happening. Only after several dozen moments did any thoughts begin to appear in her head.
"The evil doll is against the creator, so she is not evil, but evil."
While the spirit of metal was thinking, a fiery comet flew at the doll and blew it away. Nothing held Halankuo back any more, and she fell onto what was left of the wall.
"Get out of here before the doll is assembled," a voice said next to Halankuo.
A man in black clothes with brown hair fell on the remains of the wall. Halankuo immediately recognized him as her friend and the creator of the dog girls.
"I'll take care of the doll," Itinit said. "You go to your character."
Halankuo nodded affirmatively. She hadn't noticed that Kyotyoryon was standing a few dozen steps away from her, so she had no idea what danger threatened her.
"The creator is coming here," Kyotyoryon thought. "I need to hide so she doesn't notice me."
The spirit of metal found her in the thicket of bushes in one jump. Halankuo approached the forest and called up the map to see the character's location.
"Kyotyoryon is still somewhere here," Halankuo shuddered. "She hasn't gone far, but she seems safe. If the "Mausoleum of Nature" was more accurate..."
The girl closed the map, and then released lightning from her hand, which cleared the passage. But for Kyotyoryon, the crackle of electricity and branches meant something else.
"My creator wants to release lightning at me, like that evil hairy doll that steals metal. Then she will take me to where there is nothing."
Something seemed to move inside Kyotyoryon. The metal spirit felt pain in her stomach and chest, which spread higher and higher and soon reached her head.
Kyotyoryon began to fall to the ground, but short blades that extended from her hands saved her from contact with the surface. The pain left her head, and the metal spirit was able to think again.
"The creator is as evil as that evil doll. I used to think that she was not so evil, but now it is clear. The creator fought that evil doll because she wanted to become more evil than that evil doll."
As soon as the thought ended, Kyotyoryon's body shuddered as if after an electric shock, then the crackling of lightning and branches resumed, but from the other side.
"My metal is coming here. My creator has been stealing metal for a long time, like that evil doll, and she won't give it back."
The cracking sound gave way to the rustling of leaves and footsteps that grew louder. The pain inside Kyotyoryon intensified, but this time it didn't reach her brain. The spirit of metal cut down several thin tree ferns in front of her, and then waved her arms.
The short blades from the bracelets on Kyotyoryon's arms turned into wings and lifted the character above the forest. The spirit of metal finally got out of the potential trap, but quickly realized something...
"There are no pillars up here like there are down there. They were in my way, but I could hide behind them. Now the creator can see me. I need to find a place where she won't see me."
The only suitable place was the top of the mountain on the horizon, with an area cleared of vegetation...
... Halankuo looked up at the sky and saw a flying object with large wings, similar to a bird's.
"This... is Kyotyoryon?" the girl fell to her knees in surprise.
Halankuo couldn't get over the shock for a long time, but the interest in the flying objects was stronger. The girl activated the purple aura and rose above the treetops to make sure that she wasn't imagining things.
"It's Kyotyoryon. It's her! It's a pity I didn't see her fly the first time, but what difference does it make now? I have to fly to my bird!"
"She'll kill you."
The voice in the girl's head stopped her for a few moments, but couldn't land her.
"Mom, I want to talk to her," Halankuo mentally objected.
"She will speak to you in her own language," the voice warned. "It will hurt."
"I am ready to speak with Kyotyoryon in human language, or in the language of lightning and metal, just to say what I want."
"It won't be easy. I probably won't be able to help you."
Halankuo didn't answer. She flew towards the grey dot that her character seemed to be from afar.