"My creator!" Something grabbed Halankuo by the back of her clothes and pulled her back a few steps.
A girl wearing a brown fur jacket with a large, rounded hood emerged from the cloud of smoke. The gloves on her hands were burning, like in some game.
"My creator, you shouldn't have come here," Halankuo realized she was lying on the ground. "I'll deal with her myself."
Something gray and heavy landed on the ground in front of Halankuo. The girl immediately recognized this creature as her character and wasn't afraid.
"Kyotyoryon, let's get out of here," the creator suggested.
"I don't want to. She did my metal boo-boo."
"What?"
"It's too hot. You can't cut it. My creator, you didn't come here for nothing after all. I've changed my mind."
"This bear girl melted metal? Is her fire really that hot? It's impossible. It seemed to Kyotyoryon."
Several metal spears appeared above Kyotyoryon's head. The bear girl noticed them and extended one of her hands forward. The palm pads of her gloves immediately turned red and felt "hot."
"No, it's just an effect," Halankuo felt with her eyes how the creature's hand was heating up. "There's no character that can melt metal."
The bear girl looked at the spears as if she wanted to eat them, but couldn't yet. They weren't ready.
"Do you know who this is?" Halankuo asked.
"No," Kyotyoryon answered. "But she's very evil. That's wrong. She's the most evil of all the enemies I've ever fought. She's even more evil than the dolls."
"I see. Kyotyoryon has started taking her opponent seriously," Halankuo thought.
The opponent actually turned out to be a serious one. The pads on the glove became bright and heated up so much that the air in front of the character began to ignite.
"You'll see now, creator," Kyotyoryon frowned. "I'm telling the truth. I'm good."
The spears above the metal spirit's head flew at the enemy, but melted in the hot air along the way. A viscous gray mass, like jelly, fell to the ground.
"How does she do it?" Halankuo's cheeks felt a powerful surge of warmth. "She heats the air to a temperature that melts metal. But the air is open, and not very hot. She definitely has some kind of secret."
"We can't do anything with her for now," Halankuo said. "Let's go somewhere else."
The spirit of metal looked at its creator as if it wanted to cut her. All that remained of the mask at the bottom of her face were two stripes on each side, and the tip of her tongue protruded from her open mouth.
"No, I can't force Kyotyoryon even now," Halankuo felt alarm. "She won't forgive me another time."
The bear girl extended her hand forward. The red-hot pads flared and released a stream of fire...
Halankuo activated her pupils. The fire stopped a few steps away from the creator and her character, but this only helped for a few moments. The air was so hot that everything living around could quickly cease to be alive.
Fortunately, the spirit of metal realized in time that she had to retreat. A metal hand extended from the bracelet around the character's neck and grabbed her creator by the clothes...
...Kyotyoryon and Halankuo landed on a cliff surrounded by fog. The silhouettes of mountains were visible ahead, and a light layer of snow covered the surrounding trees.
"My creator, it's not hot here," the metal hand released Halankuo, who no longer had an aura on her.
"Yeah, there's even snow left here."
"If that evil hot bearry comes here, she'll be less hot, and I'll be able to cut her."
Halankuo walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. Between the mountain silhouettes, a basin filled with white mist was visible.
"Kyotyoryon, I think we've flown too far."
"There's something white there," the spirit of metal approached Halankuo. "That white something is covering something terrible, so I can't see what's there."
"It's just a fog from the evaporation. There's probably water down there that hasn't frozen yet."
"The water is strong. I tried to cut it, but it was becoming what it was before."
"That's why you can't cut water."
"Why? Oh, never mind."
Kyotyoryon walked to the very edge of the cliff.
"Something is crawling here," the spirit of metal pointed at the rock with a blade sticking out of the bracelet on her leg.
Halankuo looked at the almost vertical cliff and saw a headless body in some kind of purple clothing crawling along it.
"What's that? Itinit talked about dolls. Could that really be her? But why is it headless?"
"There's more," Kyotyoryon pointed to another cliff, where "something" was also crawling.
The creature already had a head. Its green hair stood out against its red, robe-like armor.
"How do they crawl without an aura? Maybe they have something on their fingers that humans don't have?"
While Halankuo was thinking, the monsters grew in number. Almost all of them had heads and multicolored hair that humans couldn't grow.
"My creator, why is their hair this color? Kyotyoryon asked. "Are they dolls?"
"What?" Halankuo let go of her own hair, which she had been twirling around her finger out of habit. "Yeah, they're dolls. We better get out of here."
"Dolls can be cut. I cut them. I liked it."
Halankuo wanted to answer, but didn't have time. Something grabbed her leg and pulled her down. Luckily, Kyotyoryon conjured a blade in midair just in time, freeing her creator.
"There's a hand there," the spirit of metal said. "It's grabbed you. It's evil."
Halankuo took a few steps away from the cliff. Soon the hand returned, this time it was missing its hand, just a palm.
"Stop, Kyotyoryon!" Halankuo's pupils turned purple. "Don't cut her."
The blade summoned by the spirit of metal stopped near the finger of the doll's hand. Halankuo managed to capture the "enemy" with her gaze and then transport it to herself, where she zapped it with an electric shock from her hand.
Her palm fell onto the rocky surface, but she couldn't do anything because of the lightning between her fingers.
"Let's run," Halankuo activated her purple aura.
The creator and her character rose above the forest. They didn't want to return to the bear girl, so they chose a different route along the ridge that separated the basin from the mountain valley.
"My creator, there's something blue there," Kyotyoryon pointed at the distant background.
Halankuo noticed a grey-blue space ahead that almost merged with the fog.
"Is that the sea? There doesn't seem to be anything like that on the map."
Gradually, the fog receded, and the gray-blue color became more pronounced. Finally, the last slope of the mountain appeared, disappearing into the gray-blue background. This was the end of the ridge.
"It's the sea!" Halankuo said happily. "Have you ever seen it?"
"Yup, but there were evil dolls there."
"I hope that won't happen here, at least."
Halankuo and Kyotyoryon began to descend. The mountainside facing the sea was completely bare of trees, but covered in a deep layer of snow. Winter had not yet ended here, while at sea, by contrast, it had not yet begun. Only isolated ice floes floated on the water, washed up on the rocky shore.
"Look, creator, there's a head," Kyotyoryon said.
Halankuo shuddered but didn't fall. The "head" turned out to be a large, three-horned dinosaur skull, filled with blue energy, hanging over a cliff near the shore.
"It's not just a head," Halankuo noticed.
"Yup, she's naked, but she has horns."
"How does he hover in the air? Its aura is blue, not purple."
"Let me cut it and find out."
"No, Kyotyoryon. You don't have to cut anything to find out."
"I need to show this to Itinit," Halankuo summoned the camera. "He seemed to be looking for this thing."
Her finger landed on the large round button, but instead of a photo, only a black screen appeared.
"What..." Halankuo stared at the black background on the screen, unable to understand what was happening. "Maybe the camera is broken? I need to reboot it."
Halankuo resummoned the camera, and then called it again, but it didn't help. The next photo also showed only a black background.
"I think I get it. The air around this thing is protected from copying. I need to move away and zoom in on the image. Sure, it'll be worse, but at least it won't disappear."
Halankuo flew back a few dozen steps, up the mountainside, and took another photo. Her guess proved correct. Instead of a black background, the picture showed only a snow-covered coastline... and a cliff without the skull.
"There's no protection, but the camera can't see it. It's strange..."
Halankuo resummoned the camera away and only then remembered her character.
"Kyotyoryon left again? Somehow, I'm not surprised."
Halankuo opened the map of the Mausoleum of Nature. The red mark was next to the blue one, though Kyotyoryon was nowhere nearby.
"Maybe she fell into the snow and disappeared somewhere?" Halankuo summoned a wrench. "No, I can't do anything, not with a wrench, not with my eyes. I can't even lift a single snowflake. They're too small."
Halankuo was so lost in thought that she didn't notice the wrench fall from her hand and disappear into the snow. The next moment, something white and cold touched her face...
"My creator, you've lost my metal."
Something heavy flipped Halankuo onto her back. The girl saw a metal hand and the head of a horned character in front of her.
"I took it for myself so that the evil dolls couldn't steal it," Kyotyoryon continued.
The spirit of metal showed a hand wearing a bracelet with a wrench attached to it.
"I thought you disappeared somewhere and I would never find you again," Halankuo said.
"I noticed this white water moving," the spirit of metal removed her hand from the creator's face. "I decided to check what it was, but then I felt this thing."
Halankuo abruptly rose to her knees and began to look around.
"My creator, do you see the evil dolls?"
"No," Halankuo's gaze settled on a rock protruding from the snow. "I was just scared."
"Will these dolls ever run out?"
"I don't know."
"They don't live everywhere? Let's go where they don't."
"Kyotyoryon..."
Halankuo looked at the spirit of metal with a tired gaze.
"What, my creator?"
"Dolls are everywhere," Halankuo continued. "The only places they don't live are where no one lives."
"That's good. We'll live there just the two of us. No one will bother me, and I'll be the one cutting everyone up."
"You won't be able to cut anyone up in these parts."
"If there's no one there, you'll be there. I'll cut you, but only a little, and then stitch you up."
"That's evolution," Halankuo thought.
"Let's find that white water that was moving."
Kyotyoryon took two steps back and pointed her hand at her creator. The wrench returned to Halankuo and soon disappeared into her inventory.
"Do you remember that place?"
"Yup," Kyotyoryon approached a small, barely noticeable snowdrift. "But the water isn't moving right now. It's afraid of us."
"Kyotyoryon, you can't cut water."
"But it's almost solid."
"It's water. You can't hurt it."
"I will."
Kyotyoryon kicked the snowdrift, causing it to crumble. As expected, there was only snow inside.
"You only changed the shape, but the water remained the same as before," Halankuo said.
Kyotyoryon raised her leg, and then thrust it into the spot she'd kicked. The character's leg sank into the snow up to the middle of her thigh, where the plates of her metal armor-dress began.
"My creator, it's capturing me."
"There's just some kind of hole there."
Halankuo approached the character and also fell in, but only up to her knees. Kyotyoryon's creator, though short, was still perfectly human-sized.
"If there was a hole there and the snow was moving, it meant that someone could be hiding there."
"My creator, uh..." A blade-like tongue emerged from Kyotyoryon's mouth, preventing her from continuing her sentence.
Halankuo activated her purple aura. The vibrations caused the snow to shift, as if something was hiding beneath it.
"Now I understand what it is," Halankuo thought. "But where does the energy come from? This pit is too small for a creature even the size of Kyotyoryon to hide there."
"It could be because of the bare head and horns," the spirit of metal forced her tongue back into her mouth.
"Why? Can you feel the metal?"
"Yeah... There's metal in that head and under the white water, and they're definitely connected. And the metal in the horns of the naked head is the main one."
"That's a signal," Halankuo thought. "Itinit told me about it. I need to mark this spot on the map so I can show him later."
Halankuo deactivated her aura and then summoned the Mausoleum of Nature card.
"Uh..."
"What is it, creator?" Kyotyoryon asked.
Halankuo looked at the map, but saw only two marks on a black background. The nearest stretch of terrain was beyond the mountains and ended abruptly, as if the world ended there.
"The map is gone," Halankuo explained.
"That naked head with horns did it," Kyotyoryon guessed. "It does it with metal."
"But that's strange. No creature could do such a thing."
"I think so too. But I can feel the metal, and I can feel what it does. This is definitely it."
Halankuo looked at the skull of a three-horned dinosaur in the distance. From the mountainside, it seemed to hang above the sea by a blue aura.
"There's a rock beneath him that's affected by the blue aura," Halankuo guessed. "That's why he's not falling. The purple aura requires too much energy, besides air."
Kyotyoryon looked at her creator strangely. Her eyes widened, and her tongue emerged from her mouth again.
"What is it?" Halankuo asked. "Did I say something wrong?"
"No, everything is correct," a voice answered from behind.
Halankuo turned around sharply and saw a human head in a yellow beanie, from under which long black hair extended into the snow. The upper part of the creature's face was hidden by a purple mask with no eyeholes.
"I'm glad at least someone has solved the secret of the Mausoleum of Nature server," the head continued. "I've been waiting for someone to come here for years. Today is my celebration."
"Get out," a short blade extended from the bracelet on Kyotyoryon's arm. "My metal will cut you."
The head decided to obey the metal spirit's command. A torso in a yellow-white dress-armor emerged from the snow.
"Did you turn off the map?" Halankuo asked.
"No, the server did. Your horned girl was telling the truth."
"We have to get out of here," Halankuo thought. "This creature will definitely kill us."
Halankuo tried to take a step back, but her legs felt as if something heavy was binding them.
"If you try to leave here, your feet will remain here," the creature's mouth stretched into a smile.
"We ended up here by accident," Halankuo explained. "We were just running away from the dolls."
"You wanted to pass on information to your friend," the creature's mouth closed.
"Where..." Halankuo's eyes trembled.
"The naked head with horns reads our thoughts and then passes them on to the snowdrop," Kyotyoryon explained.
Halankuo looked at the creature and noticed two yellow, open flowers on the sides of its beanie.
"Your horned girl has guessed again," a palm appeared from under the snow, from which grew the same flower, only unopened. "I am the spirit of the northern snowdrop, Iksan. This is a flower that appears when winter is not yet over."
Halankuo's gaze fell on the flower in the creature's hand. At first, the girl thought that it was moving and would soon open, but this did not happen. The flower simply vanished into thin air, as if it were an illusion.
"We still have plenty of time to talk," the flower spirit continued. "Then you'll freeze and won't be able to warm up, or you'll want to eat, but there's nothing to eat here."
"My metal is here," Kyotyoryon thought. "I can eat it, but my creator can't. She needs soft food."
"Yes, you might survive, but your creator will become inanimate," Iksan lowered her hand back into the snow. "You'll have to look at her and see her non-living face, like a doll's."
"No!" Kyotyoryon screamed. "I'll cut you, and you won't be able to do it!"
"Yes, you can cut the flower, but you can't pull out the roots," Iksan answered. "The snow you're stuck in doesn't depend on me. The server controls it."
Kyotyoryon looked at the horned dinosaur's skull. A short spear appeared above the metal spirit's head...