Mai put her right hand to the blue magisterial ring below her, which glowed far brighter. Following this, before anyone could react, all five of Mai's foes were bound my chains of ice. Even Kogasa was bound by the umbrella.
"Behold my strongest magic. These chains are made of enchanted, nevermelting ice. They will stop you moving, ever-tightening, constricting the life out of you. Even if you don't die from the constriction, however, the chains will spread their cold throughout your body. Either way, my technique is flawless, and will ensure a slow death."
Mai smirked, a look that you would normally expect to see on Yuuka, and looked at Yuki.
"Poor thing, if only she hadn't stubbornly tole me to butt out. My technique lets Mai use hers to incinerate people with no issue at all."
"Uggh.." Rumia groaned, as the chains pressed ever tighter, and the cold soaked into her body. It felt as if the chains were sapping her energy away, she couldn't even form Danmaku. Her headache was getting worse as well, and her vision was blurring.
"This is child's play. I can kill her in two seconds..." a mature voice in Rumia's head said.
'I can't even move, let alone kill her... who are you anyway?!' Rumia thought back.
There was no answer.
Suddenly, however, a shattering sound was heard, causing everyone to look at the source of it.
"You know, Ice Magic isn't gonna work on The Strongest, I'll just do it, but better!" Cirno said, holding two, small chains, which she had formed and pulled so as to shatter two links in Mai's chains.
Cirno's imitated chains shot towards Mai's chains, and pulled against them, breaking the links, and causing Mai's chains to disintegrate.
Mai looked livid.
"You jumped-up brat! I'll freeze you solid directly!" Mai roared, fireing a blast of cold air at Cirno again, sending the fairy flying backwards in the air.
Cirno smirked.
"That's cold? It feels like you're getting weaker." Cirno said, before she laughed. "How about I show you the power of The Strongest? Everyone, get ready, I'm gonna freeze her frogs!"
"What does she mean?" Kogasa asked.
"It means she's gonna use her ultimate freeze! Get ready to follow us in Kogasa!" Mystia said, looking at Rumia and Wriggle. "You two know the combo!"
Wriggle and Rumia nodded, as the very around around Cirno turned a light, blue hue, snow starting to form from the condensed water vapor.
"Freeze Sign: Minus Kelvin!" Cirno declared, everything around Mai suddenly being covered in ice.
"Minus Kelvin? Don't make me laugh. Zero Kelvin is Absolute Zero, Absolute! I can withstand even that!" Mai bragged.
"I'm not lying. Fairies like me are the embodiment of aspects of nature, in my case, cold and ice." Cirno says calmly. "I may be an idiot, but when it comes to nature, and the magic of nature, I know what I'm talking about! There is no Absolute Zero where I am concerned, nature doesn't have limits!"
"Ugggh..." Mai groaned, moving slower towards Cirno. "This can't be.. I'm feeling... cold..."
"And you know what else? You're strong, but your magic is different to the magic here. You're running on a batt...batt... uh... empty stomach! You don't know how to use this world's magic!" Cirno said. "Unlike me, and the others, you wear out quickly! If you were in your land, I probobly wouldn't have been able to break those chains, the ice became brittle and weak!"
"Ugh... that... makes sense!" Mai muttered. "I thought Yuki's flames were slow too..."
"You can't beat me in ice when it comes to Gensokyo!" Cirno said, as Mai stopped moving, except for her breath and eyes, before Cirno gasped, and started to sweat.
"Now!" she said, the ice in the area around Mai receding quickly.
"Kogasa with me!" Mystia said, flying towards Mai's left side. The karakasa flew to the right, reaching Mai just as the ice around her fully melted.
"Sparrow Talon!" Mystia called, as she slashed Mai's side with her claws.
"Karakasa's Surpising Kick!" Kogasa said, swinging the geta on her umbrella in the same way she did to Yuki.
The two attacks hit Mai at the same time, and sent her flying towards a building, but Wriggle was standing on it ready.
"Wrrrrigle Kick!" Wriggle cried, leaping off the building and slamming her foot into Mai's back, between her two wings, kicking her forward towards Rumia.
Rumia tightened her fist, readying to slam Mai into the ground, near the portal, as her head throbbed more and more.
'You can kill her Rumia...' the voice said again.
'Why would I want to kill her?!' Rumia thought back.
No answer. Rumia swung her fist towards Mai's face, but suddenly, black energy arced along it, and coursed into Mai as the fist hit her face.
Mai was slammed into the ground, and spun over a few times. Her wings shattered into shards of ice, before she slowly picked herself up again, bleeding from the mouth, having bitten her tongue.
However, the expression on her face was not defiance, or the look of someone beaten. It was fear.
"That... energy. It's not possible."she said, sounding scared.
Rumia at this point was holding her head, hearing the voice urgeing her to hit Mai again. Cirno was sitting on the ground, exhausted. Mystia flew over to Rumia, asking if she was alright, but she couldn't even hear the Night Sparrow, all she could hear was Mai and the voice.
"... It's not possible... what's your name youkai!" Mai demanded.
"R...Rumia..." Rumia groaned.
Mai's face turned from fear to terror, and she jumped to Yuki, picking her up.
"She'll kill us... she'll kill us..." Mai kept saying to herself quietly.
'Maybe you should prove her right...'
Mai carried Yuki to the portal, before muttering, "She must be told about this.", and passing through it. With that, the portal sealed, and Rumia collapsed to her knees, the voice and throbbing headache ceased.
"W-what was that..." Rumia muttered.
"What was it?" Mystia said. "Something was wrong, your hand went funny, there was black energy around it..."
"You had a look on your face like Yuuka when she catches me in her sunflower field!" Wriggle added.
"My head hurts around those portals... and there was a voice in my head telling me to kill that Mai woman." Rumia said.
"Hey, does anyone want to hear how I knew to come down here?" Kogasa said, attempting to change the subject for no apparent reason. "I'm sure it'll surprise you!"
Knowing Kogasa would keep bugging everyone otherwise, everyone agreed, and the Karakasa explained;
"I was at the Myouren Temple, like usual, and Reimu showed up, looking for Hijiri. She found Shou, and said to Shou to tell Hijiri it was important that she went underground, and she had already said you lot down here. Shou said Hijiri already knew and was already Underground, and Reimu left. However, I figured I should come and help too!" Kogasa explained.
"So Reimu really is looking for help... not lazing around." Mystia said.
"That's more of a surprise than Kogasa showing up." Wriggle said.
"I was out-surprised?" Kogasa said sadly.
Everyone began to laugh, before the doors of the Palace opened, and Satori, Rin and Koishi emerged, with a new figure with them. She was a bird, although greatly different from the Crow Tengu. She had a third eye on her chest, a large, orange... rod over one of her arms, and a fancy cape which seemed to have the night sky on it.
"This is Utusho Reiuji, Hell Raven who obtained the power of the Sun God, Yatagarasu, and therefor has the power of Nuclear Fusion." Satori said, knowing what was about to be asked. "She isn't very smart, but is very powerful. Apparently all of her bird brain was taken up by Nuclear Physics."
"Sounds like Cirno with her knowledge of ice and nature." Wriggle commented.
"Exactly like the Ice Fairy." Satori said.
"Unyu?" Utusho said, tilting her head. "What are you talking about Satori-sama?"
"Only good things about you Utusho." Satori said, rubbing her pet's head.
Cirno, still tired, flew over to Utusho.
"What's Nuclear Fusion?" she asks, before Utusho forms a small orb of fire on a finger.
"It's the power to make energy! Usually it takes the form of miniature suns!" Utusho said.
"Suns are hot! I use ice!" Cirno said.
"The two seem to be getting along..." Satori commented.
"Better than fighting each other like I expected. That would have been horribly one-sided." A voice said from the rooftops.
Everyone looked up, and Reimu was there.
"Hey, looks like something went down here while I was gone!" she said.