Rumia looked at Gensokyo. It was smothered in plants. All of the settlements were completely overgrown.
"You said that you can feel this energy coming through Vina as well..." Rumia said.
"It's affecting every world. The origin is near Gensokyo, but is not Gensokyo." Shinki said. "It's coming from the World of Magic, or, as those in Gensokyo call it; the Dream World. A world which connects every world, for every world has dreams. It would be faster to reach the likely source from Gensokyo, looking at the progression of this overgrowth, and time is of the essence."
"Take us back then." Rumia said, looking at Alice and Marisa, who looked horrified looking at Gensokyo.
"Yes, there is no time to waste. I shall handle things from this side. You have to try and handle it from Gensokyo." Shinki said, before she opened another portal, returning Alice, Marisa, Yoshika and Rumia to Gensokyo, or, more specifically, Alice's house.
The house was filled with vines and flowers, many of the dolls ruined. Alice looked outside the windows, and shuddered.
"There are... giant plant things... moving around outside." Alice said.
"How giant?" Marisa asked, walking over to the window, before saying 'Oh'.
Rumia floated over, putting her head between the pair, with her arms reached out as per usual.
"Oh yeah. That's big." Rumia said, looking at the three titanic golems of vegetation looking around. They had muscular, humanoid shapes, but instead of a head, they had a flower. One had a Tulip, another had a Daffodil, and the third had the blossom of a pear tree.
Then, that third one's head vanished, a blurr slamming into it and ripping it off, before the body collapsed. The other two reacted, sending extending vines towards the blurr.
"Quickly!" Rumia shouted, as the four ran outside, just as the tulip-headed golem crashed down next to the house, notably on fire.
"They can't be so tough, whoever this is is fighting three of them at once." Marisa said, as the third golem turned towards them and began to run at them, seemingly seeing them as a greater danger.
Only for a firey hole to be ripped through it by the stranger, who then landed in front of the group, breathing heavily.
"You have no idea... how glad I am to see you back." The stranger said, with a vaguely familiar voice. "I hoped you'd never have to see me like this, but hey, it was needed."
The stranger got up, and after a few seconds, Rumia made the connection. The stranger had long red hair, and a well-built body. She had patches of rainbow scales, complete with a tail and wings, making it clear this was a dragon.
"So this is the secret you didn't want people to know, eh, Meiling?" Rumia asked.
Alice stayed quiet, but showed a little surprise, while Marisa's eyes bludged in disbelief.
"Wait, you're saying all this time, China, you were a dragon?" Marisa said.
"Yes. I am a Chinese Dragon. No relation to the God-Dragon of Gensokyo. I fled China because my kind were being hunted for various reasons, but I was cornered, when M'Lady appeared and saved me. They happened to be in China at the time. Since then, I've been in hiding, dragons are, after all a type of youkai which draws a lot of attention." Meiling said.
"What happened?" Rumia asked.
"Don't know." Meling said. "Plants started to overgrow, and people who went to sleep never woke up, their faces freezing in a state as if they were having a nightmare. Then, on the third day, the Golems rose and started knocking people who wouldn't sleep out. There are not that many of us awake anymore. Only the strongest youkai... I was forced by M'Lady to leave the mansion, and protect this."
Meiling reached under her hat, and pulled out a small box.
"Maribel and Keine sensed the danger, and Maribel and Renko... sealed the Human Village, and quite a few youkai, in time, inside this box. M'Lady picked it up afterwards, and gave it to me, since my job is protectin' stuff and all."
"Maribel managed to seal the entire human village in a box? I'm impressed!" Rumia said.
"Well, she left instructions as well that it was to be opened when you returned, and she'd let out those who took refuge, and could help." Meiling said, before she opened the box, and with a flash of purple light, some figures appeared.
Rumia rubbed her eyes, before noticeing Maribel, Renko, Keine, Rika, Mystia, Wriggle, Cirno, Daiyousei, Kogasa, and the Myouren Temple's crew, including the frequent visitors to the temple of Mamizou and Nue.
"Good to see you didn't die in Makai." Rika said.
"Good to see you guys didn't die here... what the hell is going on anyway?"
"The day the growth started, Sanae told me she was going to stop it with Kanako and Suwako. They never came back. She said something about facing an evil God." Maribel explained. "Other than that, I don't know."
Maribel looked away.
"I'm pathetic. I could only save the village. If I was stronger I could have saved more. I couldn't even find Reimu to keep her safe..." she said sadly.
"Hah, Maribel, you did great. I'm not sure if Yukari would have thought up what you did. Sealing the most vunerable and some powerful fighters into a box until I came back to keep them safe, and then giving that to Remilia of all people to keep safe... Yukari wouldn't have done that, I'm sure." Rumia said, putting her hand on Maribel's shoulder, before looking at Renko.
"I know you helped her too, right, Renko? Your space magic probably helped her with the resizing of the village."
Marisa looked at Meiling.
"Who's... left awake?"
Meiling scratched her head. "Well, I've mainly been guarding Alice's house, since that serves as the connection point between Makai and Gensokyo. I know the Tengu Village is holding, although they are slowly flatering due to fatigue. I've seen Youmu flying around and putting her gardening skills to use, and the Mansion is fine, Remilia has gone so far as to cover it in her Scarlet Mist so she can fight any time of the day. After all she doesn't have to worry about adverse effects on humans."
"I would wager that the Taoists are alright in Senkai." Byakuren said.
"I don't know about underground." Meiling said. "The Kappa are all asleep, as are most of the weaker youkai. I've seen Ran, but not Chen."
"Well, we should go underground." Marisa said. "I mean, the Oni are strong fighters, so they should be able to help out, right? And Koishi's connected to the subconscious, so she should be great in figuring out what exactly is going on."
"Wow, a good idea from Marisa." Alice said. "However, there is another place that may be good for aid. Eientei. The place is encapsuled in a state of eternity due to Kaguya, and I doubt the immortals are in danger. And Eirin. If she's not immortal. Yumemi might even be awake there, she might know something seeing her interactions with other worlds."
"We shouldn't split up, I think." Renko said.
"I think we should. Time is of the essence, and we need to gather all the allies that we can. We're all pretty strong, and these Golems are not that tough, they work on the idea to wear us down so we fall to sleep from fatigue." Meiling explained.
"Easy for you to say, you're a dragon!" Mystia said.
"Eye'm the strongest! If I go with one group and the dragon with another we'll all be fine, right?" Cirno said.
"Cirno, oh why do I even bother..." Daiyousei said, throwing her hands up.
"Oh come on." Rika said, as a nozzle extended from the pal of her right hand. "No plant is gonna beat me. I can literally spew as much fire as Mokou, and I don't tire either."
"No, you run on batteries." Rumia said. "Last thing I want to do is drag your butt back to your not so secret base and plug you in for a day."
"Heh heh... you know I won't let myself fall to 0%." Rika retorted. "Do you think I'd let you ever drag me anywhere? I'm the one who should be dragging you about after you use up all your energy regenerating after letting yourself get hit too many times!"
Rumia opened her mouth to argue, before she realised Rika had a point. Almost every major fight she got into she ended up being out of the loop for a while from exhaustion. And Rika did drag her away from the Heart.
However, everyone started to argue about who should look for who, and Rumia just decided that was a waste of time.
"I don't know about you guys." She said. "But if we spend all this time splitting up into groups, we won't get anything done. It sounds like the Tengu are in trouble, so I'm going there now. Anyone who wants to back me up, come with me. Every second we waste is more and more dangerous."
Right on que, Aya arrived, looking pretty ragged and tired.
"Just as I thought." The Tengu said. "That much energy being around this area means you're back, Rumia."
"Aya, you look like a mess." Rumia said.
"I've not slept for over a week. We all look like a mess. Tengu need to sleep occasionally." She said, before yawning. "Anyway, when we felt the energy of you lot, Tenma sent me to investigate, and mobilized the village's remaining forces. We're going to push the golems back so buy us time to help you lot stop this disaster, but there's something else."
"What is it?" Wriggle asked.
"We're not the only ones fighting the Golems on Youkai Mountain, despite the fact we know the Kappa have fallen and Moyria is abandoned." Aya said. "If it wasn't for whoever's been attacking the golems, we probably wouldn't have made it so far, but we don't know who it is either. We just occasionally find their bodies ripped apart. At first we thought it was Ran, but then we heard she went underground, so we thought it might be Youmu, but it's not her either, the damage isn't the sort she would cause."
"And you of all people can't recognise who might have been the attacker?" Rumia asked, an eyebrow raised.
"That's the thing... no-one belives me when I say it. That sort of damage, with Marisa in Makai... it could only have been Yuuka." Aya said.
"But Yuuka's the one behind this!" Marisa said.
"Not precisely." Byakuren interjected. There are two Yuukas, and even then, Yuuka is not the enemy, it is something inside the original Yuuka, an ancient, fallen Goddess, Mother Nature herself. It could be possible that the Yuuka who resides in Gensokyo, the cutting of the original, still exists. Although who's side she is on is questionable. This could be a trap, or it could be that she is even more bipolar than usual due to what is happening. She may have even gone mad."
Aya looked confused.
"Two Yuukas?" she said.
"I remember fighting a different-looking, stronger Yuuka in the past." Marisa said. "Me and Reimu teamed up, and she duplicated herself. So, yeah, Yuuka can duplicate herself, so it makes sense that there could be two Yuukas."
"Well then." Aya said. "I can take someone to the Tengu Village a lot quicker than the rest of you could get there. Even weighted down, I'm still the fastest in Gensokyo. Our supplies are starting to run low, so Tenma wants to push back the golems as quickly as possible."
"How fast can you go?" Renko asked.
"I don't know how fast I can go exactly. But I can outspeed someone who can cross 200 Yojana in the time it takes to make a single slash with her sword." Aya said.
"That would mean you can travel at least a quarter of the speed of light." Renko said, stunned. "I don't know how anyone can even do that, the air friction alone would burn them to a crisp."
"I can use my powers to thin the air somewhat, although not to the extent Tenma can, and moving at my top speed does put a heavy strain on my body, but I never need do so for long." Aya said. "I think if I kept up my top speed for… ten seconds, I'd be roast crow."
Aya looked at Rumia.
"But there is someone here who should be able to come along with me without dying. I haven't heard of a shadow having issues with high speeds, after all, and even then, you can regenerate."
"Wait, you don't need to take someone." Maribel said. "I can just open a dimensional gate…"
"Mary, we both know you wouldn't be able to take more than a handful of people while you are shrinking the entire human village. You're pushing yourself as it is." Renko said.
"Well we can go and help the Tengu at least!" Maribel said insistently. "Gensokyo is in trouble. My friends are in danger. I can't not push myself."
Rumia looked at the pair of humans and chuckled.
"You two… you've really taken to Gensokyo, haven't you? Do you think you can take one more besides Renko, Maribel?" Rumia asked.
"Yeah, I can do that easily." Maribel said. Renko looked like she was about to argue, but knew it would be pointless.
"Because I have a plan to help keep the Tengu Village safe… and I can almost not believe I am saying this… but Cirno's probably the best option for that." Rumia said.
Everyone looked at Rumia as if she had just said something completely unforgivable.
"Cirno can create ice. With the water of the Youkai River, and the waterfall, she has loads of water to work with. Youkai Mountain is fairly cold anyway, she can make ice walls to defend it, or freeze over the local vegetation. This sort of situation is perfect for Cirno. Especially if we can lure the golems near the waterfall. If we can fight near there, the spray of the waterfall making the golems wet should make it simply for Cirno to flash-freeze them in a heartbeat."" Rumia explained. "Even if we can't lure them there, Maribel might be able to help with that."
"I… like that plan." Aya said. "We have to use the least energy possible, we're tired. Cirno is like, an endless ball of energy; she's a fairy."
Cirno looked a combination of surprised and confused that suddenly everyone was acknowledging her strengths. She puffed up with pride.
"Well; since you all asked so nicely; the Strongest will help the birds!" she said.
Author Notes:
Yeah, I decided to give Cirno a bit of spotlight here. She's not had much. Also showing off Rumia's brainpower at this point. She came up with a plan that uses Cirno's powers to great effect. Long gone is the derpy youkai of Part 1. She's not Eirin by any reach, but she's got good fighting sense.
This last arc is obviously not gonna have much character development, unlike the others. Prepare for combat and moments of awesome for a lot of the cast!