In front of Halankuo was a creature that only vaguely resembled her character. Long metal horns resembled spears rather than antennas, and the protruding strands of hair between them became a comb. The remaining strands of hair lengthened so much that they reached the bracelets on her legs.
The grey metal corset was divided into separate plates, which, despite this, were almost tightly attracted to each other and did not deprive the character of clothes.
But Halankuo's attention was drawn to the long scaly wings released from the bracelets on his arms, and the tail made of the same material, which fell below the legs and almost reached the floor.
"Here it is the metal bird..." Halankuo almost howled with admiration. "Finally..."
But the admiration did not last long. The character's mask opened and released the end of a blade.
"This is not the bird I wanted," Halankuo sighed. "I hope it flies well. Wait. What am I thinking? This is Kyotyoryon."
The blade from the mouth of the metal spirit stretched out to the length of a human arm, but remained straight.
Halankuo summoned a wrench and aimed it at the "tongue" sticking out of the character's mouth to send it back, but she could only push it aside a little.
Kyotyoryon noticed her creator and began to attack as well. Several human-sized swords appeared around Halankuo, forcing the girl to let go of the tongue blade and deflect the potential attack with lightning from her free hand.
"Go away," the familiar voice sounded in Halankuo's head again. "She can summon as many of those metal things as she wants. You won't be able to deflect them all."
Only now did the young creator of metal products realize what she had gotten herself into. She recalled the wrench so as not to strengthen the character, and then looked at the enemy...
Kyotyoryon was thrown against the wall, but the body of the spirit of metal was too strong, so the stones behind her back took damage.
"It's like fighting a boss of too high a level," Halankuo sighed. "It's possible to play, but it's useless."
The wall behind Kyotyoryon was covered with cracks, but for some reason did not collapse. The tongue-blade froze in the air and no longer tried to attack, but the spirit's eyes were actively moving and trying to find a place for the next attack.
Halankuo tried not to be distracted and looked straight at the character, but this did not last long. A sharp pain in her eyes made the girl blink, and this was enough for a metal chain to appear around her neck.
Kyotyoryon freed herself from control and immediately hid her tongue in her mask. The chain, which was simply hanging in the air, squeezed Halankuo's neck.
"Now I can check will the creator's head come off like a doll, or like a human?" the spirit of metal thought. "If it separates, will it be able to attach itself back to the neck?"
Kyotyoryon flew to the center of the arena, where the chain was already strangling her creator. The spirit of metal, out of curiosity, wanted to see what would happen to a human head if the neck was squeezed tightly. And soon she saw it.
Halankuo's eyes began to close, and the last breath flew out of her mouth. But one of the girl's hands did not agree with this. It grabbed the chain, after which white and blue lightning "ran" along the links.
"The creator strikes lightning like that evil doll, so she's another version of that evil doll," Kyotyoryon flew back a few steps. "If I cut her so that she can't assemble, will the evil doll disappear?"
The chain, struck by the current, dissolved into thin air. Halankuo fell to her knees, but the electrical clot in her hand did not disappear, but turned into a cage-like barrier.
"That thing…" Kyotyoryon remembered something she shouldn't remember. "She summoned it, and then I was there…"
The spirit of metal sank to the floor and touched one of the plates on her belly with her hand.
"My metal, there is still a lot of you," Kyotyoryon looked at her breast, to which the separated plates were drawn like a magnet. "There should be enough of you."
Metal needles the length of a sword appeared around the electric cage, but their size did not protect them from the lightning that periodically flew around.
"It's not ready yet," Kyotyoryon decided. "It's not very powerful. We need more metal."
Kyotyoryon looked at the ceiling, stretched out her hand towards it, but then moved it back to her mask.
"This stone is very thick because it was made by someone very evil," the spirit of metal moved her hand from the mask to the bracelet on her neck. "I will not break through it."
While Kyotyoryon was thinking about where to get more metal for the final attack, Halankuo was deciding what to do inside the electric cage.
"I wanted to talk to Kyotyoryon, not battle. Of course, it's better to run away now, but then I won't be able to tell her what I want."
"Why? Is it because she's your character?"
"I don't know."
"You created her yourself. Do you remember why you did that?"
"I wanted to see the metal bird."
"You've already seen her. Now you can finish her off."
"What?"
The voice did not continue. Halankuo looked at the metal bird that stood on the floor and instead of the admiration she had felt before, she felt sadness.
"I did something wrong," Halankuo tilted her head. "I thought it was so cool that I finally had a metal bird. But in reality, it turned out to be completely different. Kyotyoryon is suffering, and the more she develops, the more she suffers. But even so, I can't destroy her."
"She's your character, so you can."
"No. Maybe I can do it technically, but it's wrong. It's the same as asking you to kill me. Would you agree?"
"You are a being from this world, and Kyotyoryon is just a failed experiment. Then you can create another character, the one you want. This will be the right character."
Halankuo looked at Kyotyoryon, who was already rising to the ceiling, and squeezed the electric clot in her hand. The metal cage disappeared.
"No," the girl's eyes finally filled with tears. "I would rather get rid of myself than of a creature that understands nothing."
"Then I have no choice. Forgive me, Halankuo."
The floor shook. A head with blue hair emerged from the stones in the center of the cave, defying the laws of nature.
"Sitihi..." Halankuo immediately recognized her "sister". "Why did you..."
The head with blue hair turned around. Halankuo was not mistaken - it was the same doll, her mother's sister.
"I came to protect you, sis," Sitihi answered. "You summoned me yourself."
"Mom, when did you manage to do it?" Halankuo asked in her mind.
"I did it when you were sleeping. I created a special passive skill that links my brain and Sitihi's brain. I can summon her through the air, and then through the ground if I think about it. It's good that Sitihi has mastered the earth element in addition to the air element."
A hammer as thick as an old tree trunk and with a handle taller than a human appeared above the doll's head. Sitihi had to go back under the floor to avoid the blow.
At this time, Kyotyoryon was "hanging" near the ceiling and examining it, which is why she did not notice the appearance of a new enemy. Only the hammer hitting the floor, which made the walls and ceiling shake, told her this news.
"This is a doll," the thought flashed through the character's head.
Kyotyoryon looked at the floor and saw a blue-haired doll emerge from there, with a weapon-head in one hand and a shovel in the other.
"This..." the creature seemed familiar to the spirit of metal."Is this a doll that is not very evil?"
Kyotyoryon almost sank to the floor and bent one of her legs at the knee. The other leg remained hanging straight.
"What are you doing here, not so evil doll?" the spirit of metal asked. "You can be broken here."
"I have a head and a shovel," Sitihi answered. "I will not be broken. And what are you doing here?"
"I try to cut the creator, but she does not want to."
"I want to be cut. Maybe you will cut me?"
"No. I want to cut the creator so that she doesn't assemble. She can..."
The tip of the blade extended from the bracelet on the unbent leg.
"She can send me there..." Kyotyoryon bowed her head.
The blade continued to extend, and stopped only when it reached the floor.
"But I don't want to go there..." several metal balls fell to the floor. "I'm alive. I can't be there."
Kyotyoryon straightened her other leg. A long blade extended from it as well. Now the spirit of metal stood as if on stilts, which gave her a very strange appearance.
"You're not so evil doll," the spirit of metal continued. "So…"
Sitihi tilted her head to the side.
"Help me."
"Okay," Sitihi pointed her head-weapon, filled with blue energy, at the metal spirit. "I will help you."
Two blue beams flew out of the head's eyes. Kyotyoryon did not expect such a sudden attack and did not even try to dodge. The beams pierced the wings, and then reached the wall and made a hole in it. Only then did Kyotyoryon look at the doll.
"I lied," several more metal balls fell to the floor. "You are a very evil doll."
A ring of metal balls the size of a human head appeared around Kyotyoryon, connected by a thick chain.
"What is evil will lie in the stone, because the stone is evil," the spirit of metal said. "And my metal will be with me, because I am the spirit of metal."
The chain began to rotate, and with each passing moment it happened faster. Soon one of the balls couldn't take it anymore and flew at Sitihi. The doll, despite the weight of the projectile, deflected it with a shovel, after which she responded with two more beams from the eyes of the head-weapon.
This time, Kyotyoryon was ready to attack, so she folded her wings and rose higher. The beams flew past the character.
"You defeated my metal, but that was because you stole my other metal," Kyotyoryon was apparently talking about the shovel blade. "I will take it, but first I will take off your head. You took off my head, right? Now I will take off your head. I created these round things for this. This is my gift to you."
The chain continued to rotate, but the balls did not fly at the enemy, but simply fell to the floor.
"Hey, my metal why aren't you flying?" Kyotyoryon looked down. "Don't you want to take off the head of a very evil doll?"
The metal balls did not respond. The chain stopped and fell to the floor with a characteristic ringing sound. Only then did Kyotyoryon notice that it was torn.
"That's not fair," the spirit of metal looked at the glowing head in the doll's hand. "My metal is strong. Your glowing thing can't defeat it."
Sitihi released two more energy beams from the eyes of the weapon-head. Kyotyoryon flew back a few steps to dodge the attack and accidentally noticed two pairs of dark holes in the wall.
"These things are against stone," the AI brain made a peculiar conclusion. "So this very evil doll is actually against dolls, because her skill is against stone, and stones are for dolls. So she's not really a very evil doll, she's just evil."
It took Kyotyoryon a while to realize the new conspiracy theory. The enemy immediately took advantage of it. A small clot of blue energy appeared in the mouth of the weapon head, which gradually increased in diameter…
… A thick energy beam flew out of the mouth and headed straight for Kyotyoryon. The spirit of metal could have dodged, but she noticed the approaching threat too late…
A roar engulfed the cave. Chunks of rock of various sizes rained down from the ceiling. One of the stones, the size of a bear's head, even flew past Kyotyoryon.
The spirit of metal finally began to realize what was happening, but despite this, she continued to develop a conspiracy theory.
"These stones were sent by a doll. She must be somewhere here."
The stones from the ceiling stopped falling. Kyotyoryon looked forward and saw a bright column of blue energy in a cloud of dust, in front of which the silhouette of a humanoid creature "hung" in the air.
"There she is," Kyotyoryon released long blades from the bracelets on her hands.
The spirit of metal imagined a long sword cutting off the enemy's head, but the next moment she saw disheveled hair, not at all typical for dolls.
"Creator," Kyotyoryon pulled her knees to her stomach and released another long blade from the second bracelet on her leg.
The spirit of metal was right. When the dust cleared, Kyotyoryon saw Halankuo in a purple aura, with a wrench in her hand, which reflected a thick energy beam sent from the mouth of the head-weapon.
"It was my metal that helped me. It forced its creator to do this because it couldn't do it itself."
Kyotyoryon extended her hand forward to take the wrench, but it "didn't want" to leave the palm of its user.
"Come to me, my metal," drops of gray liquid emerged from Kyotyoryon's eyes, which then turned into metal balls. "You are good. You cut dolls, and even the stones that they send. You cannot serve these evil dolls. Please, take the head off my creator. She is not much different from a doll, only made of meat."
The wrench again disobeyed the order of its "true owner". Metal tears fell on Kyotyoryon's chest and clung to the plates on it.
"Come to me, I won't throw you into the dolls," Kyotyoryon looked at the wrench. "Just take the creator apart so that she does not reassemble herself."
Halankuo shuddered and let go of the weapon. The wrench finally submitted to the spirit of metal and flew towards her.
For a moment, Halankuo had a vision of the scene at the abandoned station, when Kyotyoryon had summoned a train and escaped on it…
There was nothing holding the beam back anymore. Halankuo had managed to dodge with her aura and was now "hanging" near the hole in the ceiling, where something gray-white was visible.
"This… is the sky? Then I'll have to do this. I'm sorry, mom."
Halankuo closed her eyes and folded her hands in front of her. A moment later, a small electrical clot appeared between her palms.
Meanwhile, Kyotyoryon was "hanging" in the air near the wall and looking at the wrench that had landed in her hand.
"I knew you would choose me. Now I have enough metal for my most powerful skill. "Metal Rain" will destroy all the evil and very evil dolls, and it will destroy the creator too. She is a meat doll, that's why she needs so much metal."
Kyotyoryon pointed the wrench upwards, but didn't have time to use the skill. A hand with a glowing doll's head came out of the wall.
Kyotyoryon felt threatened and flew a few steps away from the wall. A rubber tongue, surrounded by a blue aura, flew out of the head's mouth.
The spirit of metal waved her hand to deal with the new threat, but the blade encountered the energy that surrounded the "enemy" and bounced off due to the vibration.
Kyotyoryon flew back a few more steps, straightened her leg so that it took a vertical position, and then struck from above downwards…
Because the leg was heavier than the blade, the blow was stronger, but it did not affect the aura at all. Moreover, the blade did not bounce back immediately, but remained for a few moments on the surface of the aura, which caused the vibration to spread throughout the character's entire body.
The metal plates, which were somehow held near the body due to the magnetic force, rose slightly for a few moments and left Kyotyoryon naked. The chest lost its support and hit the character on the chin. But the leg that was in contact with the energy suffered the most. It twisted in the opposite direction, after which it broke at the knee.
Oddly enough, this helped stop the enemy. The tongue grabbed the lower part of the leg and pulled it towards the head, which allowed Kyotyoryon to retreat even further, towards the center of the cave.
"There are no walls here," the spirit of metal looked around. "This evil doll with the non-living head will not be able to get out of its evil stone."
"You forgot something," a voice came from behind.
Kyotyoryon turned around and saw in front of her that very doll with a weapon-head, with a protruding rubber tongue covered in blue energy, which held the lower part of the leg with a bracelet and a long blade.
"Why did my leg become separate…" the metal spirit's pupils dilated. "I'm not a doll…"
"Open your mouth," Sitihi pointed a wrench at the character's mask.
Kyotyoryon's pupils widened even more, and her eyes began to tremble as if they would fall out. The spirit of metal tried to strike the enemy with the blade on her hand, but only managed to think about it.
… The wrench almost touched the mask, after which Sitihi pulled it back.