Anya POV:
Once we got past a few more robots, our group came across what looked to be a duo of service bots, them looking at us and not attacking. "Excuse us, but is the door to the cockpit open?" I asked them.
"As far as we know, yes. But we are not allowed to let anyone inside unless they also have magical powers like Master Maro," one of them said.
"Well, does this qualify?" I asked them as I let out my mermaid shadow and my friends did the same thing.
"Yes, I believe that would qualify. Would you like for us to heal your wounds and magic?" the other one asked.
"That would be well appreciated," Kluke smiled, the group sighing contentedly as a coolness washed over them in the form of healing waves. "Thanks," Kluke smiled again as they then proceeded up and to the cockpit in question, going into an area where they saw the owner of the drill and were quite surprised as to what it was.
"Huh? A member of the Devee Tribe from Lago Village? What are you doing in here, little one?" I asked him politely.
"Maro could ask you same question! What are you doing here?!" he asked as he let out his shadow and I gasped. It was the Sabertooth Shadow, one of the shadows that Nene had split for his soul to be completed.
"Whoa, whoa, we don't intend to fight you. We just want to know why you have a drill owned by a murderous madman," Shu said, Maro looking at us in surprise before letting his shadow down.
"Murderous madman? You mean that creep with the frog, right?" Maro asked, me then noting his appearance. He looked no older than 7 in Devee years with his body being the shortest of us, being completely round and in a purple leotard with pant legs, a single hat on his head that was fashioned out of leather with two spikes at the top to make it look like he had horns. His body was completely yellow, his eyes were small and barely visible, and he had a cute black nose on his face to mark the fact that he was partly animal. And when he had calmed down, he then started to do a dance, which I joined in, as was custom.
"Devee Dance of Friendship!" Maro smiled, me smirking at him when he did that, but then we happened to get a bit of turbulence as I looked out the front and saw that we were entering a large cavern area. And there were tall towers as well.
"Could this be... the Ancient Hospital?" I asked.
"You know this place?" Maro asked.
"Yes. You're not the only one who hates Nene, young one. Though I had more time to spend with him, it was an unwilling 10 years, as you can see from this," I said as I showed him something that everyone looked shocked by. I turned my head around and out of its socket, my body still active as I looked at them with a small, sad smile.
"M-Maro scared!" he said in fear.
"Please, do not be scared... I am still alive, I'm just not a human anymore. I'm nothing more than a machine," I sighed as I then put my head back in place and Maro calmed down a bit, though still shaken.
"Oh right! Need to find special medicine for village! Follow Maro! More people means more strength!" Maro smiled.
"Okay then. My name is Anya. This is Shu, Jiro, and Kluke. We're trying to take the fight to Nene and make him hurt for all the people he's hurt. If you say you need medicine for your village, I have a suspicion that it was because of him. Let's try and find out what this medicine is," I said as we followed the young Devee out of the cockpit and down an elevator once the Drill Machine had touched the ground.
"Devee Dance of Greetings!" Marumaro smiled as he did another dance again, everyone but Jiro looking confused at that.
"The Devee tribe have a custom to dance whenever they want to express emotions. They have dances for everything. They dance when they pray, before they eat a meal, they even do a dance before going to bed for good dreams," I smiled.
"There's much more than that though," Maro smiled.
"I know there are over 200 different dances in the Devee Tribe's customs, so it will be cool to see them firsthand," I admitted to the cute little guy as we went down the ladder and started to go into the entrance of what looked to be a giant set of underground ruins set up like a futuristic hospital. "So what are we looking for, Maro?" I asked him.
"Miracle medicine! He said it would be here to save village!" Maro said, me looking at his emotions and gasping. The person in question just so happened to be Nene.
"Maro... I don't think that the medicine in question is going to help the villagers," I said, him looking at me in shock.
"Why not?" Jiro asked.
"I can sense it. This 'he' that you mentioned. It's the same man that murdered over 30 people in Talta Village with the Land Shark, tried to send my friends falling from over 6 hundred feet in the sky to the ground, and converted me into machine and tried to program me to do his every command," I said to him, Maro looking quite angry as he then looked at the others and started to cry.
"Maro, please do not cry... I think that, if I go to your village, I may be able to see something in the villagers that may show us what kind of disease is afflicting them. Do you trust me?" Kluke said, me smiling at her.
"You think that'll work?" I asked her.
"My parents were doctors before they were killed. I remember numerous different diseases and treatments, even as young as 4 years old... do you think you can take us to Lago Village so we can see the disease for ourselves?" Kluke asked Maro.
Maro then thought for a bit before then nodding and doing a dance. "The Devee Dance of Trust! Let's go, quickly!" Maro exclaimed, us going back into the drill and jetting off again through the rock and, after drilling for a bit, we popped out of the ground and started to drill through mountains and gigantic boulders until we finally stopped just outside of the Lago Village, a few Devee residents being stunned at the size of the machine. And honestly, who could blame them?
We then departed from the giant drill and proceeded down to the area with the Devee tribe, me locating the chief as Kluke went up first.
"Hello... Marumaro, did you bring the medicine?" the chief asked, me smiling at how Maro was his nickname.
"The one who promised the medicine was lying about it. But we have a doctor on our side that might have seen the symptoms of this disease. Do you mind if our friend Kluke could look at the patients?" I asked the chief.
"But of course," he said as we proceeded into the main hut and I gasped at the disease that the different villagers had. Kluke didn't even need to give a diagnosis, because I had seen this disease before myself!
"This... this is a disease caused by a poisonous flower native to the far northeast in Devour Forest! The rashing, the raspy cough, and the severe weakness... how long have they had this disease?" I asked them.
"Ever since the violet mist appeared in our village. Anyone who breathed it in ended up becoming afflicted with this disease... and what's even stranger is that it emanated from our fountain," the chief said, me growling at that, knowing exactly who was to blame.
"Nene... guys, let's go check this fountain out before we leave! If Nene really is behind this, the answer to getting this disease defeated should be there," I said, our group then rushing out along with Maro and, just as soon as we got to the fountain, we gasped as the purple fog started to appear from the sky. The fog that contained Nene's flying airship.
"Nene..." I growled lowly as I searched the bottom of the fountain really quickly and gasped when I found a capsule with Nene's insignia inside. And it looked like it was completely empty. I then focused some of my magic into the fountain and I smiled as a purple liquid left the fountain and evaporated into nonexistence. And then a large flash of light happened in front of us as Nene and Szabo came down from the sky.
"YOU! You tricked Maro! YOU LIED! Medicine no save village! And you poisoned village on purpose!" Marumaro exclaimed as he tried to attack, but his body suddenly seized up out of nowhere, me noticing that Nene had used the paralysis spell on him.
"Master Nene, you must stop this madness! Murdering innocent people for kicks and giggles are the works of a monster!" I exclaimed at Nene, him smiling at me as he then approached me with his floating chair.
"You wish to oppose me, do you, AM-A? I thought I had programmed you to obey all of my orders?" Nene smiled at me.
"You may have taken me away from my home, you may have transformed my body to be nearly completely robotic, and you may have given me the curse of eternal life... but there are 2 things you will never be able to take from me!" I exclaimed at him.
"And what would those be?" Nene smiled.
"My memories... AND MY POWER!" I exclaimed as I then let out my shadow and Nene gasped at it.
"What is this? You have magical prowess as well, and without my assistance, no less?" Nene looked gobsmacked at it.
"For every single person in Talta Village you killed, for poisoning the Devee Tribe, for kidnapping me from Noluta Village AND for converting me into a robot, I will DESTROY YOU!" I exclaimed as I activated a spell from the Black Magic tree and used a Windus on Nene, him looking amazed at my power as he got flown back quite a distance and Szabo looked on in shock.
"Your shadow may be strong, but mine will always be stronger!" Nene exclaimed as he summoned his shadow and it attacked me with a blast of fire, me simply deflecting it with a blast from my fingers piercing it in two and the others gasping at that. "You've got guns in your fingers?!" Kluke gawked.
"I suggest a retreat to be in order, your Excellency. We cannot hope to be taken on all at once," Szabo said with obvious concern in his voice.
"Indeed," Nene said, the little green thing then saying "Indeed, indeed!" afterwards. He then activated a barrier around himself and Szabo as they retreated back to his airship, me snarling in anger as I smashed my fist into the ground again, causing the ground underneath to crack hard.
"Miss Anya?" Marumaro asked me as I felt his tiny hands touch my side. I sighed and looked at him with a small smile.
"Marumaro, I know of a cure for this disease that these villagers happen to have, but first, I need to know how long they've been afflicted by it," I said.
"They've been sick for 2 days," Maro said.
"Then it's not too late. The cure for the disease caused by this poison lies in the Forest of the Dead, to the south peninsula. There is a special flower there with red petals and a yellow center. The leaves of this flower, when crushed and diluted into water are the cure. But we'll need to move quickly. The disease will kill all of them in 7 days minimum. If we aren't back within 5 days, then they will be goners," I said.
"O-Okay..." Marumaro said with concern as I saw a bunch of smaller Devees nearby. "Good luck, Maro! We'll be rooting for you!" said one of them, her being cute with a blue dress and blue hair on her head.
"Thanks, brothers and sisters... let's go," Maro said, me grabbing Shu, Jiro, and Kluke from the Devee's house and taking us down the path that would lead us to the area in question.