Disclaimer: I do not own Stella Glow or it's characters, they belong to Imagepoch. Please support the official release.


Chapter 3: Answers

Elcrest and Lisette reappeared in the town center. Hilda and Dante were waiting on Elcrest to be done with his tuning. Before anybody could say anything. Lisette began to glow a bright blue light and transformed.

"Aaaaaaagh!" Lisette felt her body burning up as she changed. From the waist up, she wore a corset; from the waist down, a deep blue silky dress reaching down to her knees. She donned a blue and white cap with two bristles attached to thin strings by the ends of her cap. The light around her began to fade as everyone looked her new outfit.

"Well done, Elcrest," Hilda complemented. "We now have the Water Witch."

"So what exactly happened?" Dante asked. "What was that light just a moment ago?"

"That was a tuning…" Elcrest began. "It's a somewhat...complicated process. However, turning a girl into a Witch is something that's new to me…" He turned to Lisette. "How are you feeling? Nothing's wrong, I hope?"

Lisette took heavy breaths as she regained her composure. "I-I don't know…" She panted. "It feels...really hot…!" She looked at Elcrest. "I-is that normal..?"

"I really can't say..." Elcrest pondered this. "I have never had seen someone turn into a Witch to know; I've only tuned them. This is my first time seeing someone turn into a Witch." Elcrest didn't have any experience on turning people into a Witch, so who knew if what Lisette was feeling right then was normal or a bad sign. Still, nothing seemed to look physically wrong with her. Discarding the thought for now, he turned to Hilda.

"So what are we supposed to do from here on out?" He asked Hilda. "Do you suppose we meet with Veronica to have her point us in the right direction?"

"Can't really say…" Hilda started, sounding a bit peeved at the mention of the scientist. "Her lack of sympathy to any of us is the reason why I use my Song of Ruin."

"What does Veronica have to do with that?" Elcrest asked, confused on the matter. Just what reason did Hilda have to blame her for crystallizing people? Could the Time Witch simply just be pointing fingers at people to make her doings justified, or did she actually have a reason to blame the mad scientist for everything she has done at this point?

After being reminded of what Hilda told him about Veronica, Dante started to feel annoyed. "Because that damned bitch only cares about herself!" Dante shouted in anger. "Despite having strong ties with the kingdom and hands-on proof, she didn't care enough to help!" Dante jabbed his spear into the ground.

"Dante, that's enough." Hilda said, feeling a bit on edge after his rant. "He's already on our side, do not create unnecessary tension."

Dante's only response was looking down at the ground as he quietly muttered to himself, saying something about having no other choice as he pulled out his spear.

He's...interesting… Elc thought to himself, looking at Dante questionably before turning to Hilda. "I assume something bad happened between you two while I was gone?" Hilda turned to Elcrest and sighed before beginning to explain, despite the discomfort it gave her.

"We had...complications..." Hilda started. "When I first discovered what my song could do, I asked Veronica to tell the people what I was doing. Like Dante said, she had strong ties and had proof." She crossed her arms and made a disgruntled face. "She, however, declined to help, believing any further resistance would futile - and to just let it be." Just out of earshot, Dante muttered something under his breath. "Futile, my ass..." or something of the sort.

"Well, regardless," Elcrest said. "She could at least tell us where to go next, even if the objective is simple; just having only the 4 of us isn't enough." Elcrest looked behind him to see if Lisette was still there. Unfortunately, she wasn't, and Elc looked around for a moment before asking aloud, "Hey, where did Lisette go? Wasn't she just here a few moments ago?" Looking around once again, he didn't see her at all. "Lisette!" He called out. "Where are you?" Upon hearing this, Lisette appeared from one of the small paths of the village behind one the houses, with Rosa behind her.

"O-oh! Sorry I just left out of the blue there!" Lisette said. "I was worried about Mom so I went looking for her." Behind her, Rosa smiled and gave a little wave at Elc.

Oh, thank goodness she wasn't harmed during the attack. Elc thought, letting out a sigh of relief as he looked at Rosa, who seemed to be unharmed.

Lisette looked towards, who was unknown to her, Hilda and Dante. Both of them looked at her plainly as she stared back at them. "Um..." Lisette started, continuing to study them.

"What? Got something to say?" Dante asked, interrupting the silent staring.

"Elcrest...?" She whispered to Elc. "Why does that girl look like she isn't wearing anything?" Upon hearing this, Elc felt really confused at the question. Who looked like they weren't wearing anything? Is she referring to Hilda? He asked himself, looking at Hilda and her clothes. Is Lisette sure she wasn't seein-...

Upon seeing Hilda's clothes again, he knew exactly what Lisette meant. "Um...Hilda?" He asked.

Hilda looked at Elc. "Yes?" She asked. "Is something wrong?"

"Did you really wear clothes like that this whole time? Even when we first met?" Much to Elcrest's bewilderment and realization, he completely forgot and paid no mind to Hilda's clothes the whole time they traveled together one thousand years ago. He was so focused on taking down Mother Qualia that he didn't pay attention to what Hilda wore at the time. Now with Lisette pointing this out, he wondered himself how something like Hilda's clothing would slip past his mind.

"What's wrong with it?" She asked. "I think black suits me."

"That's not what i'm talking about." He said. "You look ridiculous in those clothes."

"How?" She asked, crossing her arms. "I don't think it does."

"You look like you not wearing anything." Lisette added in. "I had to check twice to see if I was sure I wasn't seeing things."

"Oh my, she does look like she isn't." Rosa decided to partake in the conversation. "I wonder if she has anything else to wear..."

"Oh yeah!" Lisette said. "How about we have her wear that pink onesie I don't use anymore?"

"Are you sure, Lisette?" She asked. "I'm not sure myself if that old onesie would fit."

Hearing the comments on her clothes, Hilda turned her back against them, hiding her blush of embarrassment as they made fun of how she looked. Especially when Lisette and her mom were talking about having her wear a onesie. "A-as if I would wear something so ridiculous!" Hilda told them.

"It's better to wear it than what you're currently wearing." Elc commented, smirking as he saw her face turn even redder.

"E-Elc!" She stammered. Much to their amusement, Lisette started giggling while Elcrest chuckled. Rosa was still thinking whether or not if she could make a onesie for her or give her one of her daughter's older ones.

Meanwhile, Dante kept a straight face, but didn't partake in the conversation. As much as he hated to admit, they were right about Hilda wearing something so indecent. Secretly, he always wanted to make better clothes for her but wasn't sure what she would think of it.

Finish chuckling, Elcrest recomposed himself and cleared his throat. "When we have to time," He said. "Will you change into something more...appropriate?" Elcrest couldn't find the exact word to describe it, but he did get the point across. Hilda sighed and turned around to face them again.

"Fine, I'll change my clothes when I can." Hilda said, she then looked at Dante. "Dante, once we get back, make me a new set of clothes that are deemed 'appropriate'."

"As you wish, Hilda." Dante responded, feeling some satisfaction knowing he would be able to make better clothing for her. "I'll get out my sewing supplies and get to it when we get back."

"To Veronica's lab then?" Elcrest asked them, only to realize he didn't ask Rosa if it was okay to take Lisette with them. While he had no choice to take her with him, it was rude to not ask in the first place. Turning around to face Rosa, he began to ask, "Excuse me, Rosa. If I may ask you this, do we have your permission to take Lisette with us?"

Rosa simply tilted her head in confusion. "To where?" She asked.

"Well, I won't get into the specifics but we're going on a journey of...sorts." Elcrest said. "We need Lisette's help to accomplish this and I'm asking you to be allowed to take her." As much as Elcrest wanted to be straight with her, he couldn't be completely honest and say that they were planning to recruit Witches to fight something that threatened this world. He hoped this will only be the time he will have to give vague answer and expect to be trusted. Strangely, to his satisfaction, he didn't have to be vague by some curse or spell that bounded his blunt tongue.

Rosa stared at Elc for while, eventually smiling at him. "Okay, Elcrest!" She said. "You can take Lisette with you. But promise me you'll take care of her for me, alright?"

"It's a promise." Elcrest said. He looked at Lisette. "Lisette, are you ready to come with us?"

"W-what!?" Lisette exclaimed. "Where are we going exactly!?" Not a day ago she met him, the day after the village was attacked not long ago, a while ago she was turned into a Witch, and Elcrest happened to be the hero in the folklore from one thousand year ago. Now, she's going on a journey with said hero to who knows where. To her, all this information was so much for her to take in. She wondered when stuff like this would happen at a steadier pace rather than just everything happening at once.

"I'll explain on the way." He said, looking around cautiously at the soldiers left unconscious from being consumed by Lisette's heart. "To be frank, we best leave now before anyone of these soldiers regain conscious." Truth be told, he wasn't in a hurry at all, he just didn't want to explain to them what happened here. He walked off to where Hilda and Dante were.

"O-ok..." Lisette trailed off, following after him and joining up with him and other two as they walked out of the village, with Elc and Lisette waving their goodbyes to Rosa before she went inside her house. Hopefully, the walk there wouldn't be long as Hilda guided them towards the forest.

Rosa closed the door to her house and looked at the living room. Taking a deep breath, she decided to walk into the storage closet and took out what looked like a box of sewing needles, rolls of yarn, and what looked like a tomato made of cloth with several needles put into it. She went to sit on the couch and began to sew. With Lisette gone, she could go for hours at a time making sweaters and onesies.

Outside, a squad of soldiers, most likely reinforcements, marched into the village. The group looked at the unconscious soldiers and proceeded to help them wake up. Among them, a blond man in white armor looked around the village.

"...What happened here?" He muttered to himself.

-time skip to 10-15 minutes later. Back with the Elc and company, they are nearly a mile away from the village and the group seems to talk among themselves, with Dante talking to Hilda and Elc talking to Lisette-

"So the Harbingers will no longer crystallize now, huh?" Dante asked Hilda. "It feels weird to just stop all this just because of that boy over there." He gestured to Elc behind them. "I won't go against you and the choices you make...but what's so special about him to stop what we originally planned?" He asked this question before in village. He wondered if this was a good time to ask again now.

"In time, Dante." She said, simply keeping a straight face as she looked ahead of the thick forest bush. "I'll explain once we regroup with the others and head back." She didn't want to explain no more than once what's the situation to them, so she planned to tell all of them once they regrouped.

"Alright." To Dante, at least the explanation won't take long for him to finally hear. Still, he couldn't help but wonder how Elc stopped her. Did they know each other or did he have something Hilda wanted from him? Strange to him, both of the acted as if they did know each other for the longest time, the way he casually talked to her and Hilda not being frustrated when they teased her about her (questionable) clothing without even the slightest hint of anger within her made it seem so. Again, at least he will be given an answer soon enough.

Back with Lisette and Elc, they didn't share a word since they left Mithra. Only sharing a few glances every now and then. It was then Lisette broke the silence between them.

"Hey Elc..." She began, whispering as she watched the other two ahead of them, making sure they didn't hear. "I have a question about Hilda..."

"Sure...?.." Elcrest said, wondering what Lisette wanted to know about Hilda all of a sudden.

"Is Hilda the same Hilda?" She asked, voice filled with worry. "Like Hilda, the Witch of Destruction?"

Witch of Destruction? Elc asked himself, looking at Hilda. Just how bad did the situation with the Song of Ruin escalate to gain such title? To Elc, Hilda's title was the least of his problems, he expected Hilda would've done something like this while he was asleep. The problem is that what type of reputation has Hilda established herself among the kingdom? Being labeled as a criminal or outlaw isn't concerning in the least, being infamous and possibly be known no matter where is a different story. Elc then remembered what he said to Hilda when she first revealed her plan to him. "Crystallizing seems...inhuman..." He said to her. Since he was the one who said that to her, then it was most likely the second conclusion, and that will become a problem. This is more complicated than I once originally thought...traveling with Hilda would certainly create complications when trying to find the other witches of this time period...not only that..but potential allies would refuse to join the moment they knew Hilda was with us... Elc clenched his teeth in frustration. Hilda lived one thousand years waiting for him, telling her to leave for the time being would upset her, possibly refusing to separate from him. There must be some way..!..

"Elcrest?" Lisette snapped him out of his thoughts. "You've been staring at the ground for awhile now..." Her worrying voice still lingering. "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, no no." Elcrest trying to discard her worry. "I was...reflecting back on what you said." He sighed for a moment. "Hilda told me that she crystallized people but she was never the one to elaborate on how bad that...method escalated. It's likely possible that we can't reach our goal the way we are right now. However because of me, she halted her crystallization so you don't need to be worried. But...to be frank..." He paused, sighing again, then looked at Lisette. "I have not the slightest idea where to start."

"..." Lisette looked at him questionably. Why did I have high expectations from him... She mentally sighed. "A-anyway, I want to ask another question." She said. "Why am I with you guys? Does it have to do with me being a witch?" She asked, taking a breather as she held her hand over her chest. "My body still feels...heavy but at the same time...I feel energized..."

"Yes, it does have to do with you being one." Elcrest replied, then remembering that he never told her about his goal. "My goal is to gather the witches so we can fight against our true enemy, God."

"W-what!?" Lisette stammered, trying to keep her shock within her whisper. "But the story-"

"Was made up." Elc cut off. "I didn't subdue god, and another thing to add is that God isn't the supposed holy figure the story makes it seem to be." He closed his eyes for moment and shuddered, even the hero himself seemed terrified by God's power. "It's the complete opposite and it's far more horrifying than what i'm trying to describe it is. It's a menace, a monster with terrifying power. I fought against it, and lost." His voice was filled with dismay.

"Is that why you were in that pond?" She asked.

"Indeed, it was because of my failure that I needed to heal from my 'wounds' from that battle." He explained. "And when I wake up, i'm suppose to do this again, ensuring that this time I won't lose to it."

"O-okay..." Lisette said, pretending she understood so she can take in all what he said. At first, she was hesitant coming with him on this journey. Now, she's downright terrified and believes that going with him wasn't the best idea. Although, she would've been convinced to get on board with them if he wasn't so honest about it. Does the hero's tongue know no bounds?

"Stop you two." Hilda interrupted them as all four stopped walking. "Don't come any closer than where we are."

"What's going on?" Elcrest asked. "Did you hear something?"

Hilda summoned her scythe and lifted a nearby bush. Under the bush revealed a metal contraption of sorts with a blinking red light on top. "It's one of Veronica's inventions...how considerate of her to have excuse throw her defenses at us..." Hilda said coldly, she wasn't interest in the mad scientist's games as she brought her scythe down and destroyed the sensor. "When we get closer to her lab, i'll warp us inside." Dispersing her scythe and walked ahead of them. A minute or so had passed before arriving in front of a metal building of sorts. The building wasn't big, a automated steel door can be seen in front of it and small tower next to it had a small glass dome on top of it. Inside the dome, you could see a particular large telescope.

"Stop here, we're close enough." Hilda said, before putting her hands together and chanted something under her breath. Reality started to warp as Elcrest and Lisette felt their feet lift off the ground for a moment before they felt solid ground again. The group were inside a room filled with various contraptions and paper littered all over the floor. A green chalk board with various formulas and calculations can be seen at against one of the walls.

"Who's there!?" An unknown voice said. The voice belonged to a women and it was coming from the nearby room next to them. "Whoever you are, get out! I'll send my Ange-" The woman stopped herself mid-sentence the moment she appeared in the doorway and saw the 4 standing in the middle of the room, looking at her in question.

"Oh! Heeeeey Hilda!" She said, complete change in her attitude upon seeing the time witch. "Long time, no see!"

"Hello Veronica." Hilda tried to keep a straight face. "I see you're holed up in your lab as usual."

"Ooh, don't be like that." The woman, now known as Veronica stepped out of the doorway into the room. Nothing much could be described about her. Her hair had a ginger red color and a side ponytail and wore glasses. She wore a large white lab coat with black leggings and strangely, bird slippers. She looked at the other three. "I see you brought some people over as well, mind introducing yourselves?"

"Dante's the name." Dante said, sounding a little peeved.

"M-my name's Lisette!" Lisette squeaked.

"..." Elcrest said nothing, expecting Veronica to recognize him.

"Oh, talk about rude." Veronica said, failing to recognize him. "I only asked for your name."

Elcrest raised a brow at her. "You...don't recognize me?" He asked.

"Not in the slightest." Veronica said, adjusting her glasses. "Though, you do look very familiar..."

"It's me, Elcrest." He simply said, mentally sighing as he failed to be recognized yet again.

"Oh...Ooohhh!" Veronica realized what his name was. "I see you're doing fine, I presume the contamination is gone?"

"Yes, that's why I woke up." Elcrest said. "I'm healed from the negative emotions."

"Alright, so now you're here...hmmm." Veronica's face tensed a bit as she examine Elcrest's face.

"Um, what are you doing?" He asked.

"Oh, I was wondering why I didn't recognize you at first." Veronica examined him a bit more before leaning back and finding the cause. "You de-aged...so that's why I couldn't recognized you at first." She put her finger over her lip. "Hmm...but how did you manage to look younger..?.."

Veronica then grabbed a device from the nearby table of gadgets. She went back to Elc and steady the device in front of Elcrest. Elc's only response was a raised eyebrow. The device beeped a few times, possibly indicating it was done what it was doing. Veronica pulled back the device and examines the device. "Oh! Now this is interesting..." She remarked. "You have traces of the water qualia with a mix of Hilda's qualia in your qualia's energy..."

"Elcrest has a qualia inside him?" Hilda asked, surprised at her findings. "That...shouldn't be possible..."

"Actually..." Elcrest started. "It's the reason why I have the power to tune a witch's heart."

"That's correct, the Celestial Qualia grants him this power and is the opposing force of The Mother." Veronica explained. "You never told her?"

Elc turned to Hilda. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you when we first traveled together." He said. "I never seem to find a good time to explain so I never said anything about it."

Hilda sighed. "It's fine." She looked at Veronica. "Although, i'm worried about what she said about having your qualia energy having traces of the water and my qualia."

"Right." Elc turned to Veronica again. "Is what you said a bad thing?"

"It depends on how you look at it." She said. "It seems like the water qualia reverted your age somewhat when you were under the stasis."

"But why would it make me look younger?" Elcrest putting his hands on his face as he was feeling his cheeks. In fact, his face felt softer than he expected.

"Who knows, maybe it would've been easier for it to contain you in the stasis." Veronica said, before randomly pulling out what looks like a chicken wing out of her coat and began eating it. "I wish these angel wings would do that, though."

Meanwhile, Dante is coming up with ideas on Hilda's new clothes design to pass the time while the two sort out their business with the mad scientist.

Lisette is both confused and scared at what's going on. At this point in time, she just feels like going home and doesn't know what's going on anymore.

"My age aside." Elcrest said. "You mention that Hilda's time qualia also left some traces too?"

"I had to stop your aging process by stopping your internal clock." Hilda added in. "If I didn't, you wouldn't have recovered."

"That's not all." Veronica said, spitting out a curved bone before taking out another wing and eating it. "Haven't you noticed Elcrest lacks golden eyes?"

"I do?" He asked.

Veronica grabbed a small mirror and showed it to him. True to the fact, he did lack the golden shade in his eyes. His eyes were now back to his original blue color, the same color eyes he had before he obtained the Celestial Qualia. He touched his face again, noticing how he did in fact look younger in the mirror.

"Why..?..." Elc said. "Why did this happen to me?"

"I think I got a theory." Veronica started. "Heavy amount of exposure to the water qualia's power must have repressed most of your qualia's power. Which is why you no longer lack the golden eyes but yet, you can still tune." Spitting out an angel bone, she took another one out her pocket, much to the other three's disgust. "And since it did, you can't use that one attack you had when the qualia was at full power. What was it called? Ragnell Breaker?"

"Ragna Break."

"Close enough." She said. "Anyway, you can use it since you're aware of that attack. You can't use it in succession, you'll pass out if you do and you have to wait another day or so to use it again. I wouldn't recommend it." Spitting out another angel bone, she didn't take out another one. Possibly ran out of them in her coat. "So is that all you guys need from me?"

"Actually..." Elc started. "Because we're gathering the witches again. I was hoping you can tell us where to go first. I don't know the current situation with the witches in this time period."

"Oh, you're doing that again?" Veronica curved her lip. "There's no stopping you is there? I suppose you can go to Lambert. From what I hear from the soldiers that come here to get a report, they're making some program to gather the witches. I don't know the specifics but hey, they have the same goal in mind. I suggest you go there."

"Thank you Veronica." Elcrest said, turning to the four. "We now know what we must do. We go to Lambert and see what this 'program' is."

"Well if that's really all you need, then you can go." Veronica said, before grabbing a remote out of her coat and pressing a few buttons. "I deactivated the defenses so it's safe to walk out."

"Goodbye Veronica." Elcrest said, he exited the lab and the 3 followed him out shortly after.

Once the group was out of here lab. She walk into the other room. In this room, several fallen angels that were deactivated were sitting against the wall. A table with a fryer and several containers of sauce were found on top of it. "Ugh, I really wish they fought my angels outside." She pouted. "It could've really saved time prying wings off these guys."

Outside the lab, once the group had reached a far enough distance, they stopped. Hilda was the first to speak. "I need to find my other subordinates and tell them what happened." Hilda said. "Once we regroup, we will return to our base and tell our forces as well."

"I'm kinda surprised you didn't say anything or call out Veronica on her unwillingness to help you." Elcrest said. "Didn't you hold a grudge against her for that? And why not come with us?"

"I do but I know you would disapprove of it if I did." Hilda sighed. "And if I don't recall my forces, then they will continue to do what I first told them. As much as I want to, I cannot come."

"We will meet again someday." Elcrest said. "I promise."

"Even if it was for a little while." Hilda said, smiling a bit. "It was nice while it lasted."

"Well...this is it." He said. "We'll go our separate ways."

"Indeed, goodbye Elc." She said. "May we meet again another time."

"Goodbye." He said. Hilda and Dante turned and walked in the other direction. Once they were gone Elc turned to Lisette. "Shall we go?"

"Y-yeah..." Lisette hesitantly said. Elcrest noticed how frightened she look. He walked over to her.

"I'm fine..." She lied. Unfortunately, he saw right through her.

Elc sighed. "I know you're afraid. I know that being a witch and being in this situation is frightening for you. Please, trust me on this. I will make sure no harm shall come to you." He tried his best to reassure her and calm her down but isn't entirely sure if what he said wall all that convincing. It was a bit tacky for his taste, even for a person like him who consoles witches to complete a tuning.

"Okay..." Lisette said. "Okay, I'll trust you."

"Alright, we shou-

"But if you let even one finger touch me, I won't forgive you!" Lisette sternly said, suddenly a change in attitude.

"...!" Elcrest was taken back at her sudden change. "O-okay, okay. I promise."

"Good."

"We should head to Lambert." Elc looking towards the direction of the capital. "Veronica said we should go there to start."

"Let's go then!" Lisette said cheerfully, already started walking towards the direction of the capital.

What a sudden change in attitude... Elc thought, following Lisette and eventually going ahead of her as they made way to the capital. Their journey to gather the witches has just begun.