I took about twenty minutes to redo the princesses’ faces and my own with makeup. When that was done, I put on my cloth-flower and black-hair-strand beanie hat and explained to Agatha that I had obtained access to the backrooms of Diamondias from the local Inspector.

Using the back tunnels we relocated to a small, rooftop cafe that belonged to Nemendias. The cafe was mostly empty. I saw a few students in Nemendias uniforms sitting behind tables, drinking coffee and discussing things in hushed tones.

I relaxed and ordered lunch. Emerald excitedly babbled to me about our future in Nemendias. Voltara sent me happy smiles. Arouetta ate in silence. Agatha was intensely staring at me, likely trying to figure me out.

As I bit into my second succulent croissan'wich and took a swig of cappuccino, I felt a very sharp tug on one of my Dominion threads.

Alessi? It had to be her. Another tug came, then another. The pulls came in three short dots and then three long ones. The pattern repeated.

It was S-O-S!

[Report!] I pulled on the Dominion threads in my sister's right hand.

[Bad! Enemy! Trapped!] The rapid signals came.

I gulped.

[Where are you?] I sent.

[Home,] was Alessi’s quick reply. She had switched to writing words in the plate of sand. I felt that her hand was shaking.

I gritted my teeth.

What could have happened to my sister? Who could have threatened her in our dragon-skull-home covered in traps? A dragon? Surely a dragon wouldn't bother attacking a skull of its much larger kin! We had been safe in her home for three years and now this! Did the monster-repelling banners weaken?

[Giant monster outside the skull. Eating at the walls,] was the slower message. [Can’t get out.]

[I’m coming,] I sent. [I’ll be there as soon as I can!]

“What’s the matter?” Emerald asked, staring at my aghast expression.

“My sister’s in trouble,” I replied. “I need to get back to… the village.”

“Oh,” the small princess gasped. “Is it under attack?”

“I don’t know,” I gritted my teeth. “I need to return asap! Agatha, can you fly me?”

“I can take you to your Master’s home,” Agatha nodded. “But… not further down. The glider will lose control if I go any lower than the second level of the Dungeon.”

“Whatever,” I ground out. “I can fly the rest of the way myself. Let's go. Now!”

We abandoned the remnants of our lunch and rushed out onto the rooftop, got into Galissi Seven and filled the seats. The glider took off from Illatius, punching through the clouds and circling the Chasm at top speed.

I changed into my gliding suit, nervously fiddling with the belts.

[Status report,] I sent.

[Still alive,] Alessi's answer came. [It’s not coming in for some reason. It’s just keeping me trapped inside, slowly dissolving the walls. The doors and windows are gone.]

[What is?] I inquired.

[A deathshawl,] was the reply. [A giant slime. Hundreds of levels strong.]

[Where’s Isahcs?]

[He is outside. I was in Still Trance and he was out hunting when the deathshawl surrounded our home. Neither he nor I can hurt it - it’s too powerful. It can cast a shield!]

[Can nobody else help out?] I ground my teeth as I sent the message.

[No. I am an outcast, remember? Stay away,] Alessi replied. [I just recalled this damned thing. It has eaten a few chimera as my ancestor watched and could do absolutely nothing, centuries ago. It is an ancient, persistent enemy and does not leave its victims alive. I was doomed since I learned of our cendai’s crimes and millennia-old plots. This was only a matter of time. Thank you for giving me a few more years to enjoy life, Juni.]

[I won’t let it have you,] I sent. [Barricade yourself in the lowest level. I’ll be there soon.]

[I am already in the deepest room,] the reply came.

[Good,] I sent. [Just wait for me.]

I opened my eyes, my heart hammering in my chest.

“So,” I turned to Agatha. “You’ve been to Eunice’s home before?”

“I have,” she nodded. “I brought her gifts from Mother. Archmage-made artefacts and extremely rare minerals and specimens from distant reaches of the Empire.”

“I see,” I said. I turned, staring out the window at the passing glacier-capped mountains, trying not to stress out too much.

Dark thoughts were dancing in the back of my head.

Was this it? Had I opposed Eunice too much, so she tightened the leash? Did the arch-cendai somehow lead this slime monster to Alessi or was this just an unrelated event?

“We’re here!” Agatha declared.

I stared down. There was nothing there. Nothing but jagged mountains.

Huh?

Galissi rapidly descended. The glider suddenly passed some kind of an invisible barrier. I gaped at the scene as the high-cendai’s skull-residence appeared, painting itself into existence out of thin air.

Ah, Eunice must have used some kind of invisibility-field to hide her home from human skyships if they happened to pass overhead. Clever.

Our glider touched down on the gold sand. I rushed out of the unlocked door that was opened for me by Agatha.

Eunice was standing on a balcony of her ostentatious, rune-covered skull, looking down at me and smiling serenely.

“Master! My sister’s in trouble!” I barked instead of a greeting.

“I am aware,” she said in her usual, unnervingly calm tone, gray, slitted pupils watching me.

I stared up at her. This definitely felt like one of her tests. The damned immortal crone had found a way to get to me, likely because I had rebuked Baroness Amadea nearly a week ago.

“Could you help me?” I asked. “Grant me an artifact that will repel the beast away from my home?”

“No,” was her reply. “I believe that your magic can defeat the beast without my aid, my monci. You have bested Amadea’s allure with your tool of power. If you are strong enough, you can save your little sister. Show me what you can do."

I shouldn't have bothered to ask. Eunice was an ancient monster herself, not caring for the lives of mortal chimera. I wanted to scream at her, I wanted to rage, but I knew that I stood no chance of convincing this monster to aid me.

I turned away from my Master and ran towards the edge of the cliff, spreading my leather wings open.

I saw the damn thing from a distance as I flew towards my workshop. A silver, glistening sheen covered the entire exterior of the skull, rippling ever so slightly.

There was no longer any plant life or moss atop of the white dragonskull - the dastardly slime had dissolved, eaten away at it. Our home smoked, the bony, crystalline surface bubbling beneath the rippling shawl.

Hundreds of eye-like, circular organelles stared at me from the enormous slime that had draped itself over my workshop. This thing was old, intelligent, dangerous.

I circled it, defining the monster in the Astral, memorizing its magic resonance. It was basically a massive organism, some sort of an evolution of a relatively simple slime monster that inhabited the wet, dark caves down on the 11th level.

I defined the death-shawl’s exterior membrane. If I could destroy it, puncture it with Endy then the entire thing would most likely come apart.

I landed on the edge of the cliff that our skull sat upon, right next to Isahcs.

The dark, teenage chimera was aiming another arrow at the monster. I watched as his tired, trembling hand let go of the bowstring. A poison-tipped, white, bone-arrow flashed towards the deathshawl.

I saw a magical pulse manifesting in the air. The slime had formed a shield. The arrow struck the barrier and harmlessly bounced off it. Isahcs swore.

“Juni?” He turned me. "I cannot hurt this thing. I am almost out of arrows! I've asked the other hunters for help but they refused to aid me!"

I nodded at him and pulled a molotov cocktail out of Saccy. I lit the wick with a magitek lighter and chucked the beetle-shaped bottle at the glistening surface of the monster. Another ripple and another flash of magic. The shawl knocked the bottle away with enough force to make it come apart. I watched as burning oil rained down into the chasm. A few drops of it bounced off the shield surrounding the slime. The monster knew how to protect itself.

“I see how it's going to be. Close and personal, it is!” I started walking towards the deathshawl, defining, memorizing the thing's barrier.

“Juni, don’t come closer to it, it will knock you away with its magic!” Isachs yelled.

“I’m a high-cendai,” I said, shaking my helmet-covered head. “Stay here and watch.”

I ran towards the grotesque, glistening shawl, Endy singing in my hand.

The same magical barrier manifested in front of me, visible in the Astral. I struck it with Endy. The shield popped out of existence, came apart like a soap bubble.

"Ha!" I barked as I advanced towards the exposed membrane of the beast.

A spray of fluid came from one of the organelles, fired directly at me. My armor hissed. I rushed forward without stopping.

“Get effed!" I growled, stabbing at the rippling, silver-grey surface of the monster. Endy did her job - whatever magic held the damned thing together suddenly failed.

With a horrid screech the deathshawl came apart, poured all around me, its eyes and organs cascading down the rocky edge of the cliff into the infinite abyss below us.

[+408 XP]

Yesss! I did it!

I noticed that my entire body was smoking, hissing. The belts of my armor came apart as whatever fluid the monster had shot me with ate away at them. Acid! It was an incredibly potent acid of some kind! Nightcrawler bone-plates fell away from me one by one. My glider wings came apart, turned into shreds in seconds.

I quickly pulled away the top pieces of my armor, throwing them aside. My helmet hissed, something dripped down onto my head, burning me. I pulled it off myself and threw it aside before the acid ate right through my face.

The thick, leather bag containing Saccy broke open with a sound of tearing fabric. I yelped, trying to grab at her as she fell onto the rocky cliff and rolled away from me towards the edge.

I was too slow, felt dizzy from the acid fumes. Saccy went over the edge and plummeted down.

I screamed as I tried to make her mangled legs grab onto something, but it was in vain.

My Folding Seed with all of my tools and things was gone! I turned away from the edge trying not to cry.

It wasn’t time to lament about Saccy. I felt my skin boiling away from the acid. My body ached, hurt terribly as I resumed removing, scraping everything off myself. Dawn yelped something incoherent as the canvas containing her dissolved away, crystalline paint gone, magical hexagrams interrupted. She vanished as the dress melted.

My anti-phantom barrier shield and armor came apart, flaking away. It saved me from the worst of the burns, but I was still in horrid, awful pain. I resumed scraping the acid off myself with Endy, defining, destroying it drop by drop. Unfortunately, there were too many drops of it already all over me.

Something white rushed towards me and poured a bucket of powder over me. I yelped and realized that it was Alessi! The stuff in the bucket likely a base of some kind, because the acid stopped eating at my body, turning into bubbles that hissed noisily and finally came off me.

“Thanks,” I whimpered as I stood in front of my sister, shaking, badly burned and deprived of everything I had made. Deep, red scars covered my arms. I didn’t care. Scars could be healed. I could get more tools from Illatius.

I had done it - I saved my sister!

Alessi dried me off with a fluffy, fur towel and gave me a leather skirt to wear. I hugged her, my eyes filling with tears from the pain and relief.

“Thank you,” she whispered to me.

I felt something break, numerous, distant segments of my soul tearing apart. Saccy crashed into a mountain or perhaps got devoured by a dragon somewhere far, far below us. She was really gone now, pulverized, destroyed.

I sniffed.

I heard the sound of clawed feet slamming behind me into the cliff. I turned.

An entire chimera party headed by my dad was there, staring at me with their stern faces.

“Well done on besting this monster!” My father announced with a nod of approval. “Eunice is waiting for you with your reward!”

I looked back at my sister. There was fear and panic in her eyes.

“Don’t go,” her expression stated.

“Alessi - you stay here,” my father ordered. “Juni, come! I will fly you to our high-cendai!”

My heart started to beat faster. I gripped Endy’s handle. The leather belt and sheath that were normally holding Endy were ruined too, but the acid had done nothing at all to the knife - the arcane weapon was completely impervious to it unlike the rest of my worldly possessions.

I felt that whatever my reward was going to be, it wasn’t going to be something nice.

I didn’t want to go, didn’t want to leave Alessi again, but a dangerous glint in the hunters’ eyes and the way their hands tightly gripped at their bone-weapons told me that I wasn’t going to be given any other choice.