Anya POV:

After exploring around the place and scanning the doors one by one, even the interiors after opening them briefly, I finally had deduced what they were all about, especially since each one had a very tough monster on the other side that stayed dormant if I didn't make a sound. I also sensed for their powers and saw that they each had different levels of danger. The weakest of them I listed was the one in the town square, right in front of Jibral Castle. And some of the doors could only be accessed at a later point, as they needed a barrier removed at first as well as others needing the weaker doors to be slain before one could enter them.

After all of that was finished, we then met back up with Jibral and told him of our findings as well as learning that Awakened Shadow had gone to bed with Bouquet joining her. It didn't take a genius to know what they were probably planning in there. But they had told the tale of what happened during our trip to the ruins and the message from Nene. And I also told of what I'd found out about the simulations. That some doors required a barrier device to access, some needed to be unlocked by beating the weaker ones, and that the doors I could access had very strong monsters that were tougher than most others we'd seen. The weakest was a giant dragon and the toughest of what we'd found was a giant whale that flew in the air.

"Hmm... it appears that a lot of things are happening as of late that are very concerning... First, a giant golden egg sucks our shadows out of our bodies, then a human with an amazingly strong shadow wakes up from cryogenic sleep, then we find out this human can bring out three shadows a day from people who have lost their shadows... and now Nene himself, when he is sane for a change, gives us a message about finding an heir to the royal throne... things are getting too much for me to handle..." Jibral said as I noted that, from his emotions, he seemed troubled. He then got up and looked at me with a sigh.

"I'm going to go take a walk outside... you can watch over things in my stead, right, Anya?" Jibral asked.

"Um... sure... I guess," I said, me then staying still and going into a semi-sleep mode. I had my eyes open to sense for danger, but I still was able to sleep whilst standing up... I also had my ears turned up in volume in case anything interesting hit my ears. I slept for roughly 6 hours before I caught something. Zola speaking with Jibral.

"Oh, Zola... how are you?" Jibral asked.

"Your highness, I was wondering if you wanted some company," Zola said with a sigh.

"I see..." Jibral sighed. "I've been thinking... I feel a bit conflicted... almost like I am useless without the shadow I've been using for years... I know it sounds wrong, but... I feel that I want it back if I'm to be a good king," Jibral said with a frown.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing, Jibral. A true king wouldn't be troubled by these things. He'd be strong and face danger no matter how tough his enemies were!" Zola said with anger in her voice, which made me wake up.

"Even so... I fear for the kingdom... I've already disbanded our Shadow Guard and gave them their old positions as Royal Guard or castle staff..." Jibral said, me gasping audibly at that.

"I cannot believe what I am hearing! You're going too far!" Zola shouted, which made me even more shocked. She NEVER backtalked Jibral before!

"Zola, was that backtalk?" Jibral asked.

"Yes, it was! You and your Royal Guard used to fell monsters numerous times in the past! Steel-Eating Tigers, the Wind Dragon, and even the dreaded King Poo Snake were slain by your mortal, non-magical hands! To say that your troops or you are weak without shadows is utter blasphemy!" Zola shouted in anger as Jibral was left speechless. "Hmph. I'm leaving now. It's pointless to get into your brain," Zola said as Jibral then shouted out to her.

"Zola! Zola, wait!" Jibral shouted... but I then went back into the main hall and saw that Zola was completely missing. And Jibral was searching high and low trying to find her.

"Ahem!" I said loudly, which made Jibral look at me in surprise.

"Anya! D-Did you see where she went?" he asked as I frowned.

"No, but I certainly heard what she said. And you," I spoke, him then gawking before then hanging his head in shame. "Yeah... forgive me for saying this, but I think that you may have done this to yourself. You know that something's wrong when even Zola gets that mad at you. I don't think I've ever heard her say anything that nasty to you," I said, him frowning at me.

"Do you think you can help me or are you going to keep lecturing me?" he asked.

"How about help?" asked none other than Awakened Shadow as she appeared from the front entrance, which made me surprised. "If you want to know where I was, I was helping a friendly robot called Yasato with something at his place. But even as that happened, my ear heard it all. We're going to go find Zola and get her back... but as for the shadow thing, Jibral? I'm going to hold off on giving one to you until you can prove to Zola that you're everything she said and more," Shadow said, Jibral frowning at her and nodding. I felt that was a fitting punishment for his behavior earlier.

"Thanks... we should ask around as for where she went," Jibral said as we then proceeded to search as a unit before we finally found our answer to the eastern dungeons, where a guard said he saw Zola go into the deeper parts of the dungeon, which was not only filled with monsters, but it was also where we found Okuni and Korin in the past.

"Let's go," I said as we then ventured down into the dungeon. We had to deal with a couple different monsters in the form of some ghosts, Birai Birds, and some more Zombie Monkeys. We ventured forward through the first four floors until we eventually found Zola, who looked to be practicing sword swings at the wall, me noting that she looked very pissed off.

"Hya! AUGH! HYARGH!" she shouted with every swing before she got an eyeful of us, her then stopping herself mid-swing and leaning on the sword against the ground.

"You followed me down here?" Zola asked, me frowning at that.

"We believe that Jibral has something he has to say to you," I said, Jibral then stammering a bit before then sighing.

"I... apologize..." he said.

"For what?" Zola asked.

"For... being unbecoming of a king," Jibral sighed.

"You don't get it, do you?" Zola asked, me looking at her in confusion.

"Uh... Zola?" I asked.

"I need to know. Why did you come down here so shortly after I shouted at you? To reprimand me? To beg me to come back? Or is there another reason?" Zola asked. And Jibral looked to be stammering again as Awakened Shadow then held onto his hand and he then sighed.

"I get it now... he came down here because he cares about you in the special way," Shadow smiled, which made Zola gasp and for Jibral to immediately blush. I honestly was impressed that Awakened Shadow could sense emotions by touching someone.

"Y-You... yes... that..." Jibral said. "Thanks... I've been meaning to say it for a long while, but... I was afraid of rejection..." Jibral said with a sigh.

"Rejection? What do you-" Zola was about to ask before Jibral then knelt onto his knee and presented something that made me shocked. It was a ring with a diamond on it! "Y-Your majesty?..." Zola gawked as I could sense it. She was shocked, but she felt nothing but warmth and bliss within her cold exterior.

"Will... you marry me?" Jibral asked.

"I... I..." Zola was about to say... but then, just before she could say anything else, a small rumbling around us happened before the ground underneath Zola suddenly started to suck her in!

"GAGH! A quicksand trap!" Zola shouted in shock before Jibral then rushed in and proceeded to try and pull her out! Noticing that he was beginning to get sucked down too, Awakened Shadow grabbed onto his arms before I then grabbed onto hers, us acting like a chain to try and pull Zola out of her predicament!

"I will not allow you to die!" Jibral shouted as I then pulled harder, and we then start to get her out of the quicksand. I then activated my jet thrusters to give extra strength, which did the trick as we pulled Zola out of the trap, and we then fell down on the ground in success. Then Zola looked at the sandy pit and gasped.

"J-Jibral!... The ring..." Zola shouted in dismay as I saw what she meant. During the struggle, the ring had fallen into the quicksand trap.

"The ring itself doesn't matter... does it?" Jibral asked, me facepalming myself.

"Of course, it doesn't matter, Jibral! Forgive my language, but that was a question that only a dunce would ask!" I groaned, him then giving me a look as I sighed. "Look, the ring doesn't matter. What does matter is if she says yes or not, and if you both feel love for one another," I said, Zola then sighing before finally giving a small smile.

"Though it may make Marumaro upset... I accept... and thanks for saving me," Zola said with a smile.

"So... you forgive Jibral?" Awakened Shadow asked with a smile.

"I forgave him the moment he sprang into action to rescue me," Zola smiled warmly.

"For now, we must return to the castle... we have things to discuss," Jibral said... but then, Awakened Shadow proceeded to use her powers to reawaken Jibral's Qulin Shadow and Zola's Killer Bat Shadow! And it seemed that Jibral's got an upgrade from Guardian Qulin to Protector Qulin!

"I feel... stronger... does this mean that you feel I've earned it back, Shadow?" Jibral asked.

"Yes, it does. Now let's go back. I want some breakfast," Shadow said, me smirking and petting her head for that comment.

"I wish I could enjoy food like I used to... stupid android conversion getting rid of my digestive tract," I frowned.

"Then how do you recharge yourself?" Shadow asked.

"I can go for up to a week without needing a recharge, so long as I don't use any of my stronger weapons. Me using my jet thrusters there made my reserves shorten by a good 4 hours, but I can still operate for the next 6 days and nights without a recharge. And my systems only need me to go into sleep mode, which I was in when I waited in the throne room for Jibral to return... only for my heightened hearing to pick up his 'conversation' with Zola.

"That's selling it short, and you know it, Anya," Zola frowned at me.

"I feel that we shouldn't mention any of what happened to the others, since that'd make them upset. We'll just say that we came down here to try and find out anything about Awakened Shadow, since this is where we found Korin and Okuni," I smirked.

"I'd be forever grateful if you did that," Jibral smiled. We then finally went back to the throne room, where Jibral then allowed us to have some rewards in the form of a duo of treasure chests from the treasury, which contained a wrist ring, some money, and one of the Jibral Crystals, which were very rare to find, but we'd found some more in ruins on the Neo Jibral Cube as well as the Lago Cube in the past... but just thinking about that made me concerned for Marumaro and his family. They were probably just as confused as everyone in our situation was with the shadows. And when we had returned, we saw that Jiro was at work inspecting the machine that had been discovered roughly 5 days ago that we salvaged from the ruins.

"Jiro? How comes the research?" I asked, him looking at me with a serious smile.

"It's a little difficult, but I think I've deduced that this machine is linked to the one that you and Shadow used to summon all those weird doors. But it won't work without a good amount of magic," Jiro explained, me then looking at Shadow and her smiling.

"I can do that in my sleep. I just want some breakfast after and I'll be perfectly happy," she smiled. Jibral nodded and we noted that Bouquet listened in and immediately ran to go to the kitchen to prepare some food for her new girlfriend.

"Go ahead, then," Jiro said as I then looked at him and whispered something to him in private.

"I know you've still got your shadow, Jiro," I said, him not even flinching from that. "Blanko told me that you, him, and Sahlia were unaffected as you were exploring some ruins," I smirked, him nodding at me... but then, before he could respond, the machine hummed to life from Shadow's magic and proceeded to play a hologram message. And the one on said message made Jiro and me both gasp!

"C-Can you hear me?... C-Can you?" the voice asked. As for the one speaking, it looked to be an Ancient that looked extremely similar to Blanko. As in, a Destroy-themed Ancient! The only thing to note was that it was female (she had a visible chest) and that she had black hair on her head that partially covered her eyes.

"Um... is that... Blanko's sister? Quince?" Jiro asked, that making the visage look at us in surprise.

"Blanko?! And you know my name?... Please, I beg of you to find me!" she said with concern.

"First we need to know where you are, or at least let us know if you can see anything," I said.

"I... I can sense that there's a piece of Megametal nearby... and that I'm very far underground... but that's about it... my capsule is preventing me from doing much more than this," she said with concern.

"Don't worry, we can work with that. I have a sensor on me that can sense for metals, which I added with help from Kesu and mom. I can sense around until I sense Megametal and start finding a way to you... are you on the cube we're on? Neo Jibral Cube?" I asked.

"I know we're on the same cube... this is my only means of speaking to you, so it means I'm on the same cube as this machine... please, find me. I want to see my brother again," she said, me smiling at that.

"We will make that happen and get you out of your prison as well... we could even adopt you," I smiled.

"Two kids, Anya? You really are dedicated," Jiro smirked, me then looking at him and flicking him on the nose. "Fine, I deserved that," Jiro frowned. I then noted that Bouquet had given Awakened Shadow her breakfast... but then she shocked all of us when she proceeded to gobble up the food in one bite for every single piece and swallowing all of it whole! Two eggs, three pancakes, and two pieces of bacon were all downed with one swallow for each individual piece!

"Uh... that's uh... amazing," I gawked.

"What is? Don't you guys eat like this, too?" she asked.

"No... most humans don't have the stomach to do that. I think a Gorgo Giant could, but only if they were the bigger, bulkier ones. I'd choke if I tried to eat a pancake whole," Jiro admitted. I also noted that Awakened Shadow's stomach was distended from all the full food she ate.

"Um... I think I can remember that most humans where I come from had this feature... we could even eat small animals and monsters if we wanted, but it was very frowned upon," she admitted.

"Very odd... but incredibly awesome and interesting! You want to get going around the town to try and find Blanko's sister? Maybe have him join us?" I asked.

"Yes," she smirked.

Shadow POV:

We found Blanko visiting a house to the western side of the town, him speaking to a very old man that had big muscles and a very puffy beard. And when they saw Anya, the old guy then smiled.

"Ah, Anya! Come, I need to tell you some things," he said, me being confused as Anya then groaned.

"Ugh, not this again, Fushira... I don't want to listen to your unending rant stories. Instead... wait..." Anya said before I saw that her eyes were beeping. "Ah! I can sense it right underneath our feet, roughly 300 feet underground! She's right underneath the floorboards!" Anya smirked widely as she then went into the house, and I looked at her in surprise.

"Who is under the floorboards, now?" Fushira asked.

"Blanko's sister," I said, that making the kid gasp.

"QUINCE?! We've finally found her?!" Blanko asked with a big smile on his face.

"Yep! She said she was in an area where there was Megametal, and I can sense that there's some Megametal under these floorboards. Now help me out!" Anya said as she then got to the area that was in the dining room and she proceeded to smash the floorboards... but one hit was enough to reveal a giant hole underneath! "Huh... never mind!" she smirked.

"Haha! FINALLY! I can go on a grand adventure again! Come on, let's get going down there!" the old man called Fushira laughed heartily as I then held onto him and did one thing before he jumped down the hole. I called his shadow back to him... or, at least I thought I could. But it didn't work because he still had his shadow on him!

"Huh? You still have your shadow? How?" I asked him.

"Because I was in the basement of Jibral Castle when it happened. I was exploring that place with Anya's mom and her dad, but we didn't find anything interesting," Fushira frowned.

"Well... that's great!" Anya smiled as we then went down the hole and found it was roughly a 50-foot drop, but we could cushion our fall with some Wallus magic from Anya. We then went to explore and shortly found that there were some Coquet monsters and some lizard soldiers, but they didn't last too long against us, especially my shadow. We proceeded down a few more holes along the way until we soon found a big room, one that was guardeed by a giant bear with one eye.

"I sense that this Lazy Bear is guarding the quarters to Quince. We need to kill it to rescue her," Anya said.

"He's a pretty big boy," Blanko gawked.

"Not big enough for us! Let's get 'im!" Fushira smirked, us then rushing in as the bear woke up from his shouting. We proceeded to attack the bear until it finally keeled over, which was 3 minutes' worth of pummeling. And after that, it then coughed up a hunk of metal, which Anya then smiled at.

"Aha! We've got a hunk of Megametal! Good thing, too. Our Mechat needs a new engine," Anya smiled widely.

"A Mechat? What's that?" I asked in confusion.

"A flying machine that can be operated with magic. We accidentally burnt out the old Eternal Engine in it roughly a week ago, so we need a new one. The only major issue is combining the Megametal with an Eternal Engine Fragment..." Anya frowned, me smirking and giggling to myself. "What's so funny?"

"When I helped out the robot named Yasato, his big pot gained the power to combine items together. All we do is get the fragment of the Eternal Engine and we can combine them at his place," I smiled.

"That... actually sounds incredible!" Anya gawked as we then went into the next room... and Blanko gawked when he saw the sight of the century. He then rushed to the glass and placed his hands against it to see the one on the other side.

"QUINCE! It's really you, isn't it?!" Blanko asked in excitement, which made Quince look at him with a big smile.

"Blanko... oh, I'm so glad you're okay!... Shame I'm not, though... ehe..." Quince said, me being confused.

"What do you mean? We just bust you out, right?" I asked.

"Ugh, if only it were that easy," Quince frowned at me. "I've been in this tube for over 1000 years. If I were to leave right now, I'd end up melting into a puddle when I step out of this machine... I need to eat magic seeds in order to gain the strength to keep my form when I get out... there should be one nearby in a chest," she said, me then looking to the left and finding a chest. I then opened it and found 4 different seeds, all of them blue in color. I then took them to the machine and placed them in a small compartment before then pushing it in, the seeds then entering her containment pod and her then eating them after. "Ah... my first meal in a millenium... thanks. I think that I'll need roughly 50 total seeds in order to get out of this containment pod. But now that I've had that first bit of magic, I think I can talk to you at any point," she said, me then nodding at her.

"We'll get you out of that thing safe and sound, don't worry. And don't worry, we'll give you some real food when you get outta that thing!" I smiled at her.

"I'd be forever grateful to eat bacon again," she said with a small smile... but then she looked at where I was looking and then covered herself. Her chest. "Please stop looking there. I've been unageing in this place for centuries and I was 17 when I was placed in here," she frowned at me.

"Oh, sorry... ahem... I was just blushing at how they were bigger than mine," I admitted.

"At least you have a chest. I do not," Anya said with a frown.

"I think I hear jealousy," Fushira smirked.

"You think? She mentions it all the time," Blanko smirked, Anya then petting his head with a smile.

"You're lucky you're so cute," she smirked as we then said our goodbyes and then proceeded to leave via Anya using some kind of teleporting machine that had us return to town to a mini cube that was in a small lab of sorts.

"Now we need to find an Eternal Engine Fragment. Where to find one, though?" I asked.

"Maybe we can ask the ones at the Mechat Lab? They have a machine that could tell us," Anya smiled. We then went there, wondering what we'd see. I mean, it was hard to imagine anything more amazing than reuniting brother and sister after over a thousand years.