Coming Up Next: The spies continue their journey through Aeos, their sights set on Eastabarieth and the next fragment of the Soul Dew. However, it seems they now have a new foe in their path, known as an Integrity Knight. Stranger still, the Integrity Knight seems to know that the spies aren't from this world. Can they fight off this foe and find their way to another fragment of the Soul Dew before the Dark Territory comes calling?
Act 2: The World All Around Us
8:56 P.M. – Norlangarth/Eastabarieth Crossroads
"Man, these roads are long," Clover sighed as the spies continued making their way through the crossroads that would take them to Eastabarieth. "I really wish we had our Jetpack Backpacks, then we could just fly there and cut down on all of this traveling time..."
"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure Nick can't carry all of us with his powers for that long, right?" Alex wondered.
"Nailed it in one, Alex," Nick answered. "Carrying all of you at once would be pretty tricky, and I'd rather have my power reserves as close to full as I can at all times."
"True that," May quipped. "We have no idea what... you know what, I'm gonna shut my mouth before I jinx myself."
"Wise choice, May," Melissa stated.
"Here's my question," Blaine asked. "Are we getting any closer to Eastabarieth? Because it's getting pretty late, and I do not want to know what prowls these woods at night."
"I wouldn't be too worried," Haruka responded. "Ronye told us that there aren't any nocturnal predators out here on the crossroads, and we'd definitely know if someone from the Dark Territory was approaching us thanks to Nick."
"Does that mean it's smooth sailing to Eastabarieth?" Bridget wondered.
Nick glanced just ahead of them and saw someone standing at the intersection of another crossroad. The figure was wearing a set of full body, light purple light armor completely tinged with a refined orchid radiance and a helmet modeled after the wings of birds of prey.
"...why do I never learn from advice for heroes number two?" Bridget sighed.
"Hold on, Bridget, we don't know if this person is friend or foe yet," Nozomi stated. "Let's try asking them first."
Nozomi took a few steps ahead of the group to approach the knight in question. "Um, excuse me, can you tell if this is the way to..." Nozomi started, though she didn't get to finish her question due to the knight drawing their sword and attempting to slash Nozomi in half with it.
Nick raised his hand to snatch Nozomi in his psychic grasp and pull her to safety so that the knight's sword only carved into the ground.
"You are going to pay for that," Nick proclaimed.
"We shall see, warriors from another world," the knight responded.
"W-wait, you know we're not from around here?!" Alex gasped.
"But of course," the knight answered. "Word travels fast from Centorea. But, as an Integrity Knight, I cannot allow you to pass through these roads."
The Integrity Knight rushed forward and swung their sword towards the spies, but Nick was there in a flash to both knock the sword away with a psychic pulse and kick the knight in the side of their helmet, actually knocking it off in the process.
The spies all gasped in surprise when they saw that the knight was a woman with flowing, silky, wavy, long deep black hair and reddish-brown eyes.
"Okay, wasn't expecting that," Mat quipped.
"I suppose you're not going to take me seriously now?" the Integrity Knight retorted.
"...and that's supposed to mean what, lady?" Clover asked.
"I know people don't take me seriously when they find out I'm a woman," the Integrity Knight responded. "That's how it's always been!"
"We're not like that, trust me," Sam answered. "Where we come from, we've taken down our fair share of female villains, and we didn't hold back against them, either."
The Integrity Knight looked at the spies, searching for any signs of treachery. When she found none, she straightened up and re-drew her sword.
"I am Fanatio, an Integrity Knight of the Kingdom of Eastabarieth," Fanatio proclaimed. "I protect these lands from threats big and small."
"And I don't suppose you're just going to let us through, then?" Blaine quipped.
"If you wish to prove yourself, you must defeat me in battle," Fanatio stated. "Good intentions or not, I need to make sure you can stand up to greater threats."
"All right, then, Fanatio," Nick proclaimed, his psychic aura flaring to life around him. "If that's how we're gonna do this, then let's rock."
To say that Fanatio was surprised at Nick's psychic aura was an understatement, but she didn't let that scare him.
"Prepare for a thrashing you won't forget!" Nick exclaimed as he came after Fanatio.
He immediately drew first blood by firing several psychic shots at Fanatio.
"Should I predict an easy win?" Fanatio taunted as she dodged every shot.
"Never think I'm easy," Nick remarked as his eyes glowed.
With that, Nick's psychic shots began going in every direction and aimed at Fanatio.
"Try all you want, Fanatio," Nick smirked. "My psychic shots are trained to never fizzle out until the target's down begging for mercy."
"We'll see..." Fanatio sneered as she drew her sword again and, to Nick's surprise, swung it wildly around her, creating a field of violet energy blades around her that dissolved Nick's psychic shots.
"...okay, wasn't expecting that," Nick admitted. "But that just means this is gonna be fun."
May sensed an opportunity to help Nick out and hurled her anchor at Fanatio, but she saw it and batted it back in May's direction.
"Outside help is strictly forbidden!" Fanatio proclaimed.
Fortunately, everybody avoided May's anchor.
"Talk about rude!" Clover complained.
"But you can't blame May for trying," Haruka quipped.
Nick rushed in while Fanatio was still glaring at May, hitting her with a psychic pulse that knocked her backwards, allowing Nick to fly behind her and kick her in the back, sending her stumbling forward.
"Checkmate!" Nick proclaimed as he delivered the coup de grace to Fanatio by way of a Final Shine Attack that knocked her to the ground.
Fanatio realized it and surrendered to Nick.
"What'd I tell ya?!" Nick humbly stated.
"Well, you're a worthy opponent," Fanatio commented. "And because Miss Anchor Girl attempted interference, she's next up!"
"Another battle?!" Alex chastised.
"Well, if that's the way you see it," May replied, sounding irked. "You got a deal..."
May swung her anchor around in a hopefully intimidating manner before rushing to meet Fanatio halfway, their weapons clashing loudly.
"You must be very strong to wield a weapon like this with such ease," Fanatio quipped as she raised her sword, channeling her magical power into it before swinging it down to send a barrage of energy blades towards May.
May spun her anchor around to deflect the attacks. "When you've trained for as long as I have, you tend to pick up some skills," May responded as she threw her anchor like a boomerang to knock Fanatio down.
"Nice shot, May!" Alex proclaimed.
"Don't underestimate a woman with an anchor," May emphasized, knowing she still had the Jellyfish Pirate leader in her.
"No doubt about it," Haruka giggled.
"You see what we're capable of then?" Mat told Fanatio.
"I do now," Fanatio replied.
"You don't underestimate your opponents, after all," Mat pointed out, knowing that all too well.
Momentarily, Fanatio conceded her defeat and began to tell the spies the information they needed to know.
"What exactly are you searching for in Eastabarieth, if I may ask?" Fanatio asked.
"Well, we have reason to believe we might find another one of these somewhere in the kingdom," Nick replied, showing Fanatio one of the Soul Dew Fragments.
"H-hold on, where did you find one of those?" Fanatio gasped. "You know what they are, right?"
"Yeah, the Soul Dew is said to hold a piece of Nahida's power, right?" Alex quipped. "Since you already figured out that we're from another world, we'll just come straight out and say that we're searching for Nahida."
"She may be the only one in this world who has the power to get us back to our own world," May continued. "Princess Sortiliena from Centorea loaned us the fragment she had so we could search for Nahida."
Fanatio chuckled slightly before relaxing her stance. "I guess I had nothing to fear from you if you are friends with Centorea's princess," Fanatio quipped. "Everyone loves her, aside from, of course, the Dark Territory."
Fanatio stepped to the side to allow the spies passage into Eastabarieth. "You may pass," Fanatio proclaimed. "I am sorry I put you through so much trouble."
"You're just protecting your kingdom," Sam stated. "There's nothing wrong with that."
As the spies headed into Eastabarieth, Fanatio pondered something she'd heard about recently. A prophecy of warriors from another world who would show up when the Day of Darkness approached, to help avert such a disaster.
Are they truly the ones? Fanatio thought.
During the spies' exploration of Eastabarieth, they went around and asked everyone they could about any strange activity lately, knowing it might be a clue to where they needed to go.
Eventually, a few citizens pointed them to the forest that lay just outside the city they were in, a forest that acted as a sort of bridge between this city and the kingdom's castle. Apparently, strange magical activity had been seen there recently.
"Guess that's where we're going," Clover quipped. "You think it might be another anomaly?"
"Only one way to find out, I guess," Blaine responded. "Let's go see what's up."
The spies all crossed into the forest, searching high and low for any sign of trouble. However, they heard something different instead.
It sounded like... singing?
("Yoru no Niji wo Koete" by Luna Haruna plays)
"They've got a really lovely voice, whoever that is," Nozomi quipped.
"Wait," May proclaimed. "...I know this song."
May took point and took a few steps forward, peeking through the bushes and into the nearby clearing, where she could now clearly see the source of the singing.
It was a young girl, no older than fourteen, with long, silver-grey hair and violet eyes, wearing a very pretty flowing silver dress. She appeared to be dancing around while singing her song.
"...is that Seven?" Alex gasped.
"Or at least this world's version of her?" Mat quipped. "After everything we've seen, I wouldn't be surprised."
May motioned to everyone to stay put, at least until Seven was finished with her song.
Once Seven had finished singing, she turned around towards where the spies were waiting, indicating she'd known they were there the whole time. "You can all come out now," Seven giggled.
"I guess we're busted," Nozomi quipped.
"Relax, everyone, I mean you no harm," Seven answered as the spies made their way into the clearing. "I figured you were just watching me practice my singing."
Seven bowed respectfully to the spies. "My name is Seven, and I am a traveling bard in service to the kingdoms of Aeos," Seven proclaimed. "What brings all of you here to the forest?"
Their conversation was interrupted by the rustling of nearby bushes, after which a small pack of demonic wolves burst out, all of them aiming for Seven.
"Um, yeah, that's about twenty different kinds of nope," Haruka stated.
"Let's see how they handle some speed, then," Bridget quipped. "Sonic Mode, online!"
Once Bridget had transformed, she charged right towards the wolves and started running around them even as they tried to snap at her. Eventually, Bridget's running created a small whirlwind that lifted the wolves into the air with it, and this gave Nick an opportunity to fly into the air and aim his Soul Dew Fragment towards the wolves.
The fragment unleashed a burst of silver light that instantly disintegrated the wolves on contact.
"Huh. That was easy," Nick quipped.
"You possess a Soul Dew Fragment?" Seven gasped. "You must be the warriors from another world, then."
"Does everybody know that about us now?" Melissa stated.
"As a traveling bard, I hear many stories passed down between the kingdoms," Seven responded. "Naturally, I have also heard the prophecy that warriors from another world will be summoned when the Day of Darkness nears, so that they may help us avert a disaster of unfathomable proportions."
Seven shuffled her feet before looking back at the spies. "If you wouldn't mind, could you all do me a small favor?" Seven asked. "As you can probably tell, I am not much of a fighter, since my skills are more suited for entertainment. Could you escort me to the Eastabarieth castle? I have something to deliver to them."
"Hey, it's the least we can do," May quipped.
With all that said, the spies followed Seven's directions to lead them through the forest to the castle in the distance.
Along the way, though, they stumbled upon a side path in the forest, and at the end of the path was another swirling red portal much like the one they'd encountered in the mountains.
"Hey, there's another Anomaly," Dawn stated.
"Let me give it a shot this time," Mat replied, fishing out the Soul Dew Fragment they'd found in the mountains and holding it towards the Anomaly to expand it.
Sure enough, when Mat got close to the Anomaly, it shined and sucked him inside of it. When he landed on his feet again, he found himself on what appeared to be the coastline of Eastabarieth, only, much like what Nick had encountered, that many of the buildings around him were arranged in a way that mimicked places in Hawaii.
"Holy crapbaskets, Nick was right," Mat quipped. "These things really do tap into your memories to mold the landscape around you."
Shaking it off for the moment, Mat made his way down the coastline, hoping to find something that would lead him to a Soul Dew Fragment.
"What in the world...?" Mat stated as he looked around.
It turned out he'd been on one of the many beaches in Hawaii. While they all looked the same to him, he couldn't help but get callbacks to home.
"If I didn't know any better, this must be the North Shore of Oahu," Mat deduced.
After reminiscing, Mat looked ahead and noticed a much larger house that seemed to be a stand-in for the Iolani Palace. And there was something glowing on the top of the building.
Nodding to himself, Mat began climbing up the side of the building, using the wood planks as footholds until he reached the roof where the third Soul Dew Fragment was waiting.
After looking around to make sure nothing was going to ambush him up here, Mat reached out to claim the fragment before being sucked back into the portal and returning to the forest, the Anomaly closing up and disappearing.
"Well, Mat, did you find anything in there?" Melissa asked.
Mat held up the Soul Dew Fragment he'd found to answer that question.
"That means we have three fragments now," Nick stated. "What was it like in there?"
"You were right on the money, Nick," Mat responded. "Though everything inside that portal looked like this kingdom, the way they were arranged gave me flashbacks of Hawaii."
As Nick pocketed the third fragment, he looked up towards the castle in the distance. "Now that we've got that, let's get Seven to the castle," Nick proclaimed. "We made her a promise, after all."
"You'd think that Idol Opportunity would be here, too," Haruka commented to May.
"Yeah, true," May stated, knowing how big a fan she was of Marnie and the rest of the band.
The spies then meandered to the castle. On the way, since Seven was with them, May had a pretty good feeling that the rest of Idol Opportunity were holed up inside the castle.
"I think the Soul Dew Fragment might have just tapped into May's memories," Bridget deduced.
"I think you're right," May told Bridget.
They then reached the castle with no apparent extra troubles... at least not yet, anyway.
"Holy crapbaskets," Nick proclaimed when he noticed that the castle looked extremely old-school.
The spies were cleared to enter and did so.
"Hello?" Clover called out.
"We've been expecting you," A voice boomed out from who-knew-where.
This voice sounded all too familiar to May – it sounded like Marnie, the lead singer of Idol Opportunity.
"Yeah, it tapped into May's memories now," Nick groaned.
"I'm almost cringing at what memories it gets of me," Bridget commented.
"Well, as Sortiliena said, don't think it won't happen to you," Mat replied.
"I certainly won't," Melissa quipped.
"Same," Sam added.
Alex and Clover were no different; the three main spies had some memories that were good and bad to them.
"I just hope it doesn't happen sooner than we think..." Alex shivered.
The spies were escorted by April and Rain that stood before two thrones. The thrones then rotated to see Marnie, the lead singer of Idol Opportunity, and Mira, the new leader of the Jellyfish Pirates, occupying both of them.
"Wow, did they move up," Clover commented to herself.
"Crapbaskets... my memories have been tapped into!" May cringed.
"Well, well, well," Marnie remarked. "If it isn't our biggest fan?"
"At your service," May stated, playing along.
"You remember us, right, Marnie?" Mat wondered.
"Of course!" Marnie laughed. "After all the times you helped us, why would we?"
"I certainly didn't myself, May," Mira giggled.
That was when the rest of the Jellyfish Pirates and Idol Opportunity came out of hiding.
"We bet you have a lot of questions, right?" Akira wondered.
"You got that right," Britney sighed.
"Well, Marnie and I double as queens and owners of the castle here," Mira started.
"But we do double as the entertainment around here," Marnie replied.
"We alternate," April told them.
"Yes, one night, Idol Opportunity performs some music tracks, and the Jellyfish Pirates double our own way," Mira continued.
"Well, that fills in a lot of blanks," Alex commented. "Sure never a dull moment, then."
"Yes, that's an understatement," Rain answered.
Seven went up and explained everything that had happened.
"Yes, we were hoping you could fill in some more blanks for us," Nozomi stated.
"You can probably already guess that we know you're all from another world, right?" Marnie asked.
"That seems to be the whole thing," May admitted. "Apparently, there's some kind of prophecy in this world that says a group of warriors from another world that'll show up when the 'Day of Darkness' approaches, right?"
"Exactly," Seven replied.
"As for why we remember all of you despite this being our first meeting, it appears that, just like you theorized, the fragments of the Soul Dew are tapping into your memories and allowing us to experience those memories," Mira stated.
"So... does that mean we're changing the story just by being here?" Alex wondered.
"That may be precisely why you are believed to be the ones to avert the Day of Darkness," Yuki quipped.
Marnie reached behind her throne and brought out what appeared to be another fragment of the Soul Dew. "If you're looking for these, we can help with that," Marnie proclaimed as she handed it off to Nick. "Each of the four kingdoms of Aeos has a fragment held by their royalty."
"Which would explain why Princess Sortiliena was holding one," Mat stated.
Just then, before the spies could ask a question about Nahida, the entire castle started shaking and rumbling.
"W-what the hell?!" Bridget shouted. "What's going on now?!"
A loud, screeching roar cut through the silence around the area, and Marnie immediately jumped to her feet, knowing what was about to happen.
"Oh, no... not this thing again..." Marnie gasped, leading the spies through a secret passageway behind her throne that led to an observation deck on one of the higher towers of the castle.
"Um, if I can ask this," May quipped. "Who summoned the kaiju?!"
Flying and twisting through the skies of Eastabarieth was a giant, robotic-looking dragon with a mainly grey-colored body that was very narrow and thin, with pulsing red streaks along its sides, two large arms and two massive sets of jaws.
"It is the Wyvern," Marnie proclaimed. "A monster from the Dark Territory."
"I guess their leader knows we're here if he's bringing out the big boys," Melissa stated.
"Okay, so here's my question, and the question I'm sure is on everyone's minds," Haruka responded. "Exactly how in the heck are we going to stop that thing?! Because it looks like it's itching to destroy that city down there, and if you all forgot, we don't really have any gadgets that can help us!"
"Yeah, and we can't fly towards it without out Jetpack Backpacks," Clover admitted. "This looks bad..."
As the group all tried to think of anything they could do, Nick thought of something.
"Hey, how many Soul Dew Fragments do we have?" Nick asked.
"I think we've got four, counting the one Marnie just gave us," Sam answered.
Nick looked back towards the Wyvern as it approached the kingdom, its burning red eyes conveying its obvious intent of destroying the kingdom.
"I guess that's gonna have to be enough," Nick quipped.
"What exactly are you going to do?" Akira wondered. "I mean, look at that thing!"
"Simple," Nick responded. "I'm going to channel the power of these fragments and, well, use them to kick that thing's non-existent keester. I just hope Nahida won't mind that I'm borrowing her powers, since we can't exactly ask until we find her, whenever that may be..."
Mat, May and Sam handed off their Soul Dew Fragments to Nick, who raised his hands so that the fragments started spinning around him.
"I'll see you guys in a flash," Nick proclaimed as the Soul Dew Fragments lifted him high into the air above the castle.
("Break Through It All" by Kellin Quinn plays)
The Wyvern noticed Nick rising into the air, and started flying towards him in an attempt to get rid of him, but before it could reach him, Nick absorbed the four Soul Dew Fragments into his body.
A bright silver flash erupted from Nick's body and drove the Wyvern back. When it cleared, Nick was surrounded by an utterly gigantic aura of pure silver light, almost like a stage curtain of energy instead of the simple body-glow it normally was. Nick's hands were surrounded by spheres of silver light, and his eye color had changed from brown to a neon green.
"Wow," Marnie quipped.
The Wyvern roared loudly in Nick's face, only to turn around and start flying back towards the city below.
"Okay, so we're doing this the hard way, are we?" Nick taunted as he flew off after the Wyvern.
The Wyvern craned its head back and saw that Nick was actually chasing it down, and started firing missile-like projectiles from along its body in hopes of shaking Nick off.
Nick dodged the ones he could before eventually catching one in his hands, noting how easy it was in this powered-up state, before throwing it right back into the Wyvern's body. This forced it to twist its body around and attempt to slash at him with its claws.
Nick raised his hands to create a bright field of silver light in front of him that parried the claw swipe and stunned the Wyvern briefly, allowing Nick to get in close and start attacking the Wyvern's head with various different attacks.
"Look at him go!" May laughed. "He's wailing on that thing!"
"Being empowered with pieces of Nahida's power would allow you to do that," Mira quipped.
Eventually, the Wyvern broke free from Nick's attack and flew off again, firing more projectiles as it did so. Nick caught another projectile and tossed it at the Wyvern, only for it to swipe at it with its claw and knock it away.
"Okay, so the same thing won't work twice," Nick noted as he continued to chase down the Wyvern.
Eventually, the Wyvern opened its double-jawed mouth and prepared to fire a powerful blast down at the city below them.
"Oh, no you don't!" Nick shouted, flying forward, ducking underneath the Wyvern's jaw, and rocketing back up to strike the Wyvern's chin, causing its energy blast to instead shoot off into the sky where it swiftly dissipated.
Naturally, the people of the city, who had all retreated into their houses or wherever they felt safest, came back outside to witness Nick battling the Wyvern.
"You're not putting a dent in this city as long as I'm here," Nick proclaimed.
The Wyvern roared in response before flying in circles around Nick and firing dozens of projectiles in an attempt to box Nick in and keep him from dodging.
However, Nick had seen this song and dance before, and raised his hands to psychically grab all of the projectiles around him, still thankful he could do that in his powered-up state, before snapping his hands together. This caused all of the projectiles to coalesce into a large, boulder-like lump that Nick kicked right into the Wyvern's face.
"Ooh, dragon boy didn't like that," Blaine laughed.
In response to this, the Wyvern unleashed another salvo of projectiles, this barrage moving much faster than before and forcing Nick to fly around while the missiles chased him.
As he continued to fly and lead the missiles around, Nick looked back at the Wyvern and suddenly thought of a rather devious way to finish this thing off.
Nick abruptly changed course and flew directly towards the Wyvern.
"Wait, what's Nick up to?" Alex asked.
As Nick got close, the Wyvern clamped its jaws shuts on top of Nick, who raised his hands and feet and used his Soul Dew-enhanced strength to hold the jaws open and keep the Wyvern from eating him.
Nick glanced back and saw all of the missiles flying right towards him.
Jackpot, Nick thought as he forced the Wyvern's jaws wide open so that all of the missiles flew straight into its body and exploded, causing the Wyvern's body to bulge in multiple spots before it froze in place.
Nick wisely flew away as the Wyvern finally exploded in glorious fashion, erupting into a gigantic dome of crimson-red light before dissipating and leaving nothing of it behind.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" May shouted as Nick returned to the castle's observation deck. "Way to show that blowhard who's the boss, Nick!"
"Naturally," Nick quipped as he landed and relinquished the Soul Dew Fragments from his body and returned to his normal self. "Can we count that as the biggest foe we've stomped?"
"I'd say that Metal Rave Knight thing was a close second in terms of size," Bridget chuckled.
"That was quite impressive, indeed," Marnie proclaimed. "The Wyvern has been a real pain lately, attacking our settlements without mercy."
"Well, they won't have to worry about that thing any longer," Haruka responded. "I'd say we just dealt a huge blow to the Dark Territory."
What the spies didn't know was that, sure enough, they were still being watched by the Dark Territory's leader, and she sure wasn't happy about the recent events.
"They destroyed the Wyvern?!" the leader shouted before quickly composing himself. "...no, no. This is only a minor setback. After all, remember the plan. Let those off-worlders collect the Soul Dew Fragments. When the Soul Dew is complete, I will rip it from their carcasses myself, and then I will rule this land unchallenged."
The leader looked behind him and smiled wickedly at what he considered his trump card. It wasn't time to send it out just yet, but he knew the time would come.
Meanwhile, back with the rest of the spies, they were still reeling over Nick's impressive battle with Wyvern.
"You really ARE something else, Nick," Marnie quipped.
"Well, all in a day's work," Nick humbly stated.
"So, where's the next Soul Dew Fragment, then?" Dawn wondered.
"There should be another one in the kingdom of Wesdarath," Marnie answered. "Remember, each kingdom's royalty holds a fragment of the Soul Dew."
"Then I suppose that's where we're going next," Sam replied in her leader tone.
"More importantly, who's our ultimate foe?" Britney asked.
"That's a good point," Blaine remarked.
"Whoever it is, it's certainly someone not in our rogues' gallery," Alex commented.
"Totally," Clover replied. "Plus, this villain of ours also has to have a gawdy taste in fashion on top of that!"
"I won't argue with that," May commented.
With that, the spies set forward on their next destination.
"By the way, spies, be careful!" Marnie called out.
"And there may be thirteen of you, but the Jellyfish Pirates are always available if need be," Mira added.
"We'll keep that in mind," Mat replied, very appreciative.
10:08 P.M. – Eastabarieth/Wesdarath Crossroads
"I'm getting bad feelings here," Bridget told everyone.
"But we have to be close to another fragment," Nick told the others.
"Just stay alert," Melissa told everyone.
"Crapbaskets, did we wind up back where Nick and I are from?" Haruka wondered.
"We might have," Dawn quipped.
The spies continued forward, but Haruka couldn't help but highly think her memories were being tapped into.
"Damn, my memories are being tapped into, guys," Haruka groaned.
"I don't need three guesses to figure out this is Umi no Hoshi," Nick added.
"This totally beats out Bev High and maybe Mali-U..." Clover remarked.
"The fragment's vibrating harder and harder," Nick told everyone.
Much to Haruka's dismay, it happened to be in the pool area of the school.
"It had to pick this one?!" Haruka groaned, remembering how many times she'd teased Nick with her swimsuits, especially the occasional two-piece she wore.
Fortunately, nobody was around.
"I can see something in the water," Alex told everyone.
"Let me check it out," Haruka told everyone as she jumped into the water and swam down to the bottom, where another Anomaly portal could be seen.
Haruka waved to Nick, and he dove into the water as well so he could use his Soul Dew Fragment to open up the Anomaly. Haruka nodded to Nick before swimming into the portal.
When Haruka came out on the other side of the portal, she found herself in what appeared to be an ancient underwater city, though the ruins and buildings here were all arranged in a manner that resembled the Tachikawa neighborhood around her old middle school, Umi no Hoshi.
"Oof, that is definitely weird," Haruka quipped before realizing she could breathe down here. Indeed, the water surrounding her looked almost transparent, like it wasn't really there to begin with. "Maybe the 'water' is just a visual effect. But regardless, I think I need to find that fragment before this water actually becomes real and dunks me."
Haruka set off into the sunken city, searching high and low for the Soul Dew Fragment and making sure that nothing was trying to ambush her.
Even though both Nick and Mat hadn't seen a single hostile entity in the Anomalies they'd explored, Haruka was just erring on the side of caution, given how strange everything about this place was.
Just as expected, Haruka knew this area up and down, and it didn't take her long to run into a large temple building, no doubt the stand-in for Umi no Hoshi. After double-checking around the area, she headed inside.
"Wow, this is bringing back memories," Haruka stated as she explored the temple, still in awe of how the inside was arranged almost exactly like the old middle school had been. "I hope Umi no Hoshi's doing all right back in our world..."
After noting a secret passage down a nearby hallway, Haruka went down the stairs that way and ended up in a room with what could only be a pool-like structure, the place where she'd often teased Nick.
And at the bottom of the pool was the next Soul Dew Fragment, just as expected.
As she jumped down into the pool to grab the fragment, Haruka couldn't help but wonder why exactly the fragments were tapping into their memories and changing the world around them.
Was it really because they contained Nahida's power, and it was just reacting to them?
Or was there something else going on?
All the same, Haruka put those thoughts aside for the moment, since she knew they probably wouldn't get any answers for sure until they found Nahida.
When Haruka had the fragment in her hands, another portal opened up behind her, allowing her to return to the crossroads.
"Did you find it?" Bridget asked.
"Right on the money," Haruka replied, showing the others the Soul Dew Fragment. "That should be five fragments now. Does anyone know exactly how many fragments Nahida split the Soul Dew into?"
"No clue, honestly," Alex answered. "I guess we'll just have to keep questing until we find them all."
"Yeah, these kinds of quests are never short," Nick quipped. "May and I have played more than enough RPGs to know that for a fact."
"So you are the one."
Nick looked around, wondering who exactly had said that, as he was pretty sure that voice had just rung in his mind.
Before he could ask the other spies, however, Nick suddenly felt sleepy, and he fell to the ground, out like a light.
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When Nick was finally able to open his eyes and see properly, he was all alone in what appeared to be a massive field of multi-colored flowers.
"Okay, if that don't beat all," Nick quipped. "Where exactly did I end up this time?"
After glancing around the flower field in hopes of finding a way onward, Nick eventually caught a glimpse of a silver ball of light floating in front of a passageway to the west.
Wondering if it was related, Nick followed the silver light, only for it to fly away from him, the light seemingly morphing the landscape around it and causing more flowers to bloom wherever it moved.
As Nick continued to follow the silver light through the flower fields, he started to wonder about something in particular.
But that thought was quickly stopped when one of the nearby trees collapsed and shattered into pieces, the bark pieces quickly reforming into small tree golems that approached him with obvious intent.
"Um, yeah, no," Nick proclaimed, his aura bursting to life around him as he jumped forward to attack the tree golems, blasting two down with a psychic pulse before spinning around and frying a third with a point-blank Final Shine Attack.
When the last of the golems was gone, the tree they'd been formed from reformed as if it had never fallen in the first place.
"Okay, this just keeps getting stranger and stranger," Nick quipped as he moved back to the main pathway and continued to follow the ball of silver light, hopefully to some kind of answers.
Eventually, Nick made his way to what appeared to be a gigantic birdcage over a small shrine in the middle.
And sitting on that shrine was a young girl with long silver hair with tinted green tips and, emerald green eyes with a four-leaf clover symbol in them. Her hair was pulled into a braid on the right side of her head and a ponytail on the left side of her head, and she wore a large green headpiece on the left side of her head and a green leaf on the right side.
She was wearing a white dress decorated with green and gold details, short detached sleeves made of patterned green fabric, and a gold bracelet on her right wrist, her dress adorned with a number of green gems and decorated with intricate golden patterns, and a split pale green cape on her back.
The silver ball of light that Nick had been following flew over to this girl and absorbed itself into her body.
And though Nick didn't recognize this girl, he immediately realized that she could only be one person.
"Nahida," Nick proclaimed.
"Correct," Nahida responded. "I am Nahida, the Physic of Purity and the goddess that watches over the continent of Aeos."
"Are you... still asleep?" Nick wondered.
"Technically, I am," Nahida answered. "I haven't regained enough of my strength as of yet, but I can still project myself into your dreams. ...sorry I had to put you to sleep like that."
"To be fair, dream projection really only works if your target is sleeping," Nick chuckled.
"True," Nahida giggled. "I cannot project myself for long, so we must make this short and to the point."
"Good idea," Nick quipped. "So, if you're contacting me in my dreams, I would assume you know that my friends and I are searching for you?"
"You would be correct," Nahida responded. "You came from another world thanks to the machinations of a sinister mage."
"That's pretty much the plot synopsis," Nick quipped. "I have a few questions to ask, if you're able to answer them."
"I will try my best," Nahida replied.
"Okay, first question," Nick stated. "Everyone we've met so far says that the Soul Dew contains a big chunk of your power. Is that why you had to go to sleep?"
"Mostly," Nahida answered. "With the Dark Territory and... shall we say, other humans with twisted desires, all searching for me, I decided that it would be best to channel a part of my powers into a vessel, and then split that vessel into fragments so that only someone who has such a fragment could find where I am waiting."
"And the only way we're going to actually find you is if we recomplete the Soul Dew, right?" Nick wondered.
"Precisely," Nahida stated.
"All right-y, then, second question," Nick asked. "Apparently, a lot of people and places in this world are mirror images of people and places from our world. Even the Anomalies are resembling places from our world, too!"
"Yes, the Anomalies tap into the memories of the person who enters it and shapes the surroundings into something similar to them," Nahida explained. "It is meant to guide them to a Soul Dew Fragment. But as I am sure you have noticed, only the pure of heart and deed may enter an Anomaly, even if they already have a Soul Dew Fragment."
"Yeah, those orcs in the Norlangarth mountains tried, and it didn't end well for them," Nick quipped.
"As for the rest of the world around us, that is quite strange," Nahida admitted. "My only guess is that the Soul Dew Fragments you all are carrying are reacting to your memories and subconsciously influencing events."
"Yeah, my girlfriend May has a bunch of friends from our world that have counterparts here, and they know about us," Nick responded. "Mira said that the Soul Dew Fragments are resonating with us and allowing them to experience our memories, which is apparently why they know us despite... well, you know."
"They would be right about that," Nahida replied.
"Okay, so, one more question before we have to wrap this up," Nick asked. "...can you get us back to our own world when we find you?"
"I do indeed have the power to send you all home, but... there is a problem," Nahida proclaimed. "Her name is Rukkhadevata, and she has stolen some of my power."
"That would explain why you're asleep right now, since half of your power is in the Soul Dew, and the other half's with this Rukkhadevata person," Nick realized.
"I have a favor to ask, if it is okay with you," Nahida proclaimed. "I want you and your friends to defeat Rukkhadevata and take the rest of my power back. She does not know what my power is truly for, and she may use it to ravage the land under the command of the Dark Territory's leader."
"Wait one deep-fried minute, Rukkhadevata's working for the Dark Territory?!" Nick gasped.
"Naturally, Rukkhadevata let such power go to her head and now desires to destroy Aeos alongside the Dark Territory," Nahida answered. "If you can defeat her and retrieve the power she has stolen from me, I will have all of my strength back, and then I can send all of you home. Can you do that for me?"
Nick's only response was to nod in assent.
"Then we have a deal," Nahida proclaimed, her body flickering and fading slightly. "It would appear that our time is up, Nick. I look forward to talking with you again, somewhere down the line."
With these last words, Nahida faded away entirely, and the flower-filled landscape around them began to do the same while Nick's vision blurred, indicating that he was probably waking up back at the crossroads.
And sure enough, when Nick could see again, both Alex and May were staring at him in wide-eyed concern.
"Hey, I think he's awake!" May exclaimed as the other spies came running.
"Holy crapbaskets, Nick, what just happened?" Alex gasped. "You just kinda zonked out on us back there."
Nick looked around and noticed that it was now morning. "Yikes, I was out for that long?" Nick quipped. "It didn't seem like I was talking with her for that long..."
"Wait, who did you see in your dream, bro?" Mat wondered.
"It was Nahida," Nick responded, making everyone gasp in surprise. "As for what we actually talked about, let's get moving towards Wesdarath and I'll explain on the way."
To be continued...
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Next time...
May: Man, Nick, you have some odd dreams, don't you?
Nick: I'm used to it, really.
Britney: So, basically, we're stuck here until we can defeat this Rukkhadevata person?
Alex: Just when we thought our quest was getting easier, huh?
Nick: I'm used to that, too.
Sam: I'm kinda curious as to who we'll see in Wesdarath. After all, if the world around us is tapping into our memories because of the Soul Dew Fragments, then I wouldn't be surprised to see someone else we know here.
Nozomi: Like that, maybe?
Sam: ...wait a minute, is that...?
Nick: I guess we'll have to go and find out for sure, next time on Totally Spies the Movie: Once Upon a Time, "Memory of Light and Waves"!
May: I gotta commend the set department again. I mean, did you see that flower field Nick was in earlier?
Alex: Hey, give props to the prop department and that Wyvern they built. I actually thought it was gonna come to life and attack us!