Palla followed her small team into another large chamber. Against the wall on the far side was a tower of large blocks. Facing the tower was a metal cannon. Intrigued, Palla approached the cannon for a closer look. A strange, colorless gem was attached to the back of it. Palla peered inside the barrel, but it was empty.
Another puzzle of some sort. Palla decided. There must be something to load the cannon with, and a target to fire at somewhere.
"Hey, look!" Est shouted from across the room. Palla looked over to see her youngest sister pointing at the top of the tower. "Is that...?"
"Mae!" Catria interjected. Palla took to the air, finding her friend trapped inside a glass ball. To Palla's scale, the ball was roughly the size of one that a child might play with, and Mae had been shrunken down to fit inside it. The tiny mage wasn't moving, lying down at the bottom of the ball. Watching for a moment, Palla could see Mae's chest rise and fall. She knocked on the glass, but Mae didn't respond.
"It is her!" Palla called down to the others. "She seems to be sleeping." She tried to pick up the ball, but it was stuck to the stone block below. She didn't expect it to be that easy. Deciding to land for now, she joined her sisters at the bottom of the tower.
"How do we get her out?" Est asked.
"I suspect that cannon has something to do with it." Palla said, showing her sisters where it was.
"These must go in there, then." Sonya said. Palla jumped, she had almost forgot Sonya was still around. She joined the mage in the corner, who had found five stone spheres that seemed to be the right size to fit in the cannon.
"So we just have to fire the cannon five times?" Catria asked.
"When is it ever that simple?" Palla remarked. She tried lifting one of the balls. It was quite heavy, but she was able to carry it easily enough. Reaching the barrel of the cannon, she dropped it inside.
"I think this clear gem may react to magic," Sonya said from the back of the cannon. "Clear the way, let me try it out!"
Palla quickly stepped aside as Sonya fired off a spell. The colorless stone glowed red in response, and the ball inside was launched with great force towards the tower. On impact, both the ball and its target exploded into dust. The blocks above fell downward, the tower now shorter.
"It worked!" Est cheered.
"So we need to keep doing that?" Catria asked.
"It seems so. Four more times, I think," Palla said.
"Fine. I'll stay here, let's hurry up and get this over with," Sonya said. Mae had been woken up by the blast, and was calling out to the others, but they could not hear her.
The sisters moved towards the stone balls when a loud click echoed through the room. Without warning, vents opened in the walls and a green gas started flowing into the room. The only exit slammed shut.
"No! This again?" Catria cried.
"I can't use magic!" Palla informed the group, trying to grow everyone.
"Really? I still can," Sonya said, invoking a spell to test her abilities. She then noticed everything slowly getting bigger, an experience she was far too familiar with by now. "Not again..."
The sisters were also quick to notice their steady shrinking. "We need to spread out!" Palla instructed. "Form a relay to the cannon! We need to use all of the shots before we shrink too small to load the cannon!"
Est was first to the ammunition, lifting a ball. It was very heavy, but she could just about carry it. Walking a short distance, she handed it to Catria before hurrying back for another. Straining with the weight a bit, Catria carried the ball to Palla, who took it and dropped it down the barrel. Wasting no time, Sonya triggered the shot with a fire spell. Est struggled with the next ball, almost too big for her to get her arms around it. She was grateful to unload it onto her sister, who struggled even more as she shrank smaller. By the time she got it over to Palla, it was too big for her arms to reach all the way round the ball. The barrel was now higher than Palla's head, so Catria assisted her sister with loading the ball. Sonya fired the cannon quickly, worrying that she might shrink too small to hit the gemstone. Est had given up on carrying the next ball, instead rolling it on the floor. Catria hurried over and helped her push the rock. Palla joined shortly afterward, nodding to Est to head back, and the two elder sisters pushed the ball to the cannon and threw it in with great effort. They both ran back to assist Est as the cannon fired again. All three pushed the final ball together. Now they were smaller than the stone and shrinking by the second. The rolling of the ball got slower and slower.
The sisters reached the cannon, but they were now much too small to even reach the barrel, let alone load the shot.
"Lift on three!" Palla instructed, "One, two, three!"
All three of them lifted the shot at the same time, their tiny bodies straining under the weight. Gasping with the exertion, Palla shifted herself so she was facing roughly towards the barrel.
"Throw on three! One, two... Three!"
On Palla's signal, all three sisters pushed the ball upwards with as much strength as they could manage. The ball hit the rim of the barrel. For a dreadful second, Palla worried it would fall back out. Fortunately, the ball rolled in, a thud echoing out of the barrel as it hit the bottom.
Jumping into the air, hand outstretched, Sonya invoked the last fire spell. The stone launched, hitting and shattering the block below Mae's prison. Falling down what remained of the tower, the glass ball rolled along the floor. The vents shut and the gas started to dissipate. A new exit opened next to the tower.
"Thank goodness," Palla sighed with relief. She and the others had shrunk even smaller than Mae.
"We did it!" Est cheered.
"Whew, glad that's over. Does that count as a triangle attack?" Catria wondered aloud.
"Growth, please!" Sonya impatiently demanded, hurrying over to the sisters.
Palla laughed but grew everyone back to an inch tall.
Est hurried over to the ball containing the other pink-haired girl, picking it up.
"So do we fire this one now?" she asked, looking down at the panicking mage.
"I don't think so," Palla said, taking the ball from her sister. Twisting the sides, she was able to part the two halves of the prison.
"Boy am I glad to be out of there," Mae gasped, "it was getting hard to breathe!"
Smiling, Palla plucked the tiny mage from what was left of her container. She set her down on the ground and grew her back to an inch tall.
"Thanks, Palla," Mae said, "so where are Genny and Celica?"
"We don't know," Est answered, "maybe they're through there?" she pointed through the new doorway.
"No use waiting around here, then. Let's go!" Mae declared.
The two girls hurried ahead, Catria and Sonya following behind. Palla lingered for a moment, having noticed another inscription beside the door.
"The chosen one will kill the high witch..." She read aloud, puzzled. Noticing that the others had left, she hurried after them. She hoped they would find the rest of their friends soon...
