Incrementum

by Nuclear Pigeon One

After the gum war, everything has calmed down, and new adventures are rare to come by. So when Finn and Huntress Wizard go to investigate a strange energy reading left behind by GOLB, they find a whole new load of adventures greeting them. (Chapter one has been remastered!) (Discord (spoilers beware!): TwJ2bMH)

57. Chapter 57 Security

Sorry for the long wait, big chapter again (with more plot development!)

An hour or two drifts by as the trio sit in the magic forest the wood nymph had made, the group quickly realising how dark it actually was. There was some light from the lights surrounding the elevator, but they had mostly been blocked out by the number of trees this far deep. But Finn and Ice Queen did not care, for they had an unconscious wood nymph to worry about.

They were regularly checking her status, making sure she was breathing just fine atop the hero as he never once moves her sleeping form off him. Ice Queen mumbles as she stares at the duo, trying her best to deal with their boredom and not let Finn's worrying mind drift to his father, "Well, what else can I tell you?... How about… the time I faced off a vampire?"

He shivers, "Ah, I remember having to deal with some myself. Not a fan of them."

She giggles, "Well then, I guess we can trade stories there then. Especially since this story has a continuation..." She spaces out for a second, then clears her throat, taking a quick glance at Huntress's condition again before then beginning to spin her tale, "Well, you see…

Dark clouds of doom loomed above the destroyed wasteland of earth, a void of nothing but pitch black as it shades the world in darkness, not all too similar to the state the citadel was currently in. Nuclear winter was ravaging the land, everything around the scared survivors withering up and dying, yet one person was thriving in it. And it was the half water nymph. Atop her head sat her tiara, a monument to her power and status amongst the living, Sarah's title as the queen of it all. Her transformation to Ice Queen had begun, her form becoming more solid, her water hair increasing in size and changing shape to become the same as the blue royal's iconic style.

She didn't mind however, in fact, it felt nice to have this much power, and the body changes were no way in any shape or form bad. She had, however, noticed a slight change in her mood, she had become more... clingy? Desperate? A slut- no, not that bad… yet. But she was clearly changing. She knew it had to do with the beautiful tiara she wore with pride, but she didn't care, and it honestly helped her a bit at times. Guys are hard enough to find now, hesitation was not something that she needed, especially when her water people were already too scared to hit on her. Maybe acting a bit wild or slutty will bring their views of her down enough for someone to actually try something.

However, the jealousy plaguing her? That was being a bit of a problem. She's gotten snappy too, and as a result, has failed multiple trades and peace talks with other scavengers.

Eh, she didn't need them, she can rule her world of ice by herself.

She climbs a mountain of rubble with a massive smile, her eyes searching the land for a certain building of interest for her to learn more for her people. She admits she doesn't know much about the old humans who had built then destroyed the massive buildings around her, but by Glob were they mesmerising! She wanted to know more about them, but she had only ever met one, his body melted by nuclear fire as his skin drooped from his body.

She had made the mistake of underestimating it because of its wounds however and was promptly reminded when it fired a warning directly at her tiara. Luckily it didn't break, nor even had a scratch, but it didn't matter as she had soon promptly sat down and listened to the human read a science book to her. He was nice, yet affirmative, not letting himself be threatened or mocked, only to cause the woman to wonder oh so much more about his people.

She shakes her head free of the memory to focus on the present, wanting to know more about their engineering so that she could possibly build them herself. Thus, she came here, a reported workplace of the former engineers.

She strolls forward, revelling in the biting cold in the air as she does a little spin with a massive grin, her feet trudging through the thick layer of snow coating the ground. Her eyes scan the houses as she walks by them, counting the remnants of the long since faded numbers on them, humming a little tune. Eventually, she comes across the one she had desired: facility 236.

She eagerly steps towards the massive closed doors, bent and collapsed from the nuclear blast wave long ago, causing her to roll her neck in preparation. She aims both arms forward, then closes her eyes with a groan, grunting as her limbs shake, channelling all her focus to her hands. A second later, a massive ice boulder the size of a child launches from her hand, smashing into the door as it collapses inside the weak building.

She stares for a second, then yells in joy, "Whoo! New record! This practice is really paying off!" She mutters to herself with a prideful grin, a tad of her mad side showing with her self-conversation before she shakes her head free and cautiously steps inside.

She takes a large bound into the room and snaps her arms up, scanning about in every direction for any sign of a threat, but comes up empty-handed. She stares for another second, then moves deeper into the massive building, eyeing the knocked over shelves that have made a sea of metal. Whatever was once of value here has long since been raided as empty boxes and smashed locks litter the place.

Hopefully, nobody thought of taking house designs and just went after food or ammo.

She finds a plastic, yellow safety hat on the floor, and immediately gawks at it, getting onto her knees as she leans her face close, "Whoa." She prods it, "Is this like my tiara? If I put it on does it give insane crafting magic!?" She hurriedly takes her royal symbol off her head, and quickly plops the dusty cracked worker's hat on, before promptly humming in thought, 'Radiation remover!'

...

Some awesome machine blueprints weren't implanted into her mind as she sighs, and angrily chucks it off, "Some stupid butt broke it!" She yells in annoyance as it bounces away, then hurriedly place the soothing feeling of her tiara back atop her head.

Standing back up, she steps before the pile of metal and random assortment of objects, then begins to sieve through it all with a sigh of annoyance.

Then she hears a slight metal groan behind her.

She snaps around with her arms raised, yet finds nothing as she squints in anger, "Who's there!?" She demands into the white world outside, yet gets no response. She huffs in annoyance, and slowly turns around, keeping her gaze locked on the entrance, all the while she forgets about a infamous hunting rule.

Prey never looks up.

She is suddenly dived bombed as she releases a cry of pain, smashing face-first into the metal before her. Her tiara, fearing a loss of an actual willing user, instantly responds as her hands blast out a massive ice boulder beneath her and her attacker.

The result is it launches them both into the air where the royal flails her arms, before hitting the ground with a grunt. Adrenaline pumps through her veins as she scrambles to her feet, snapping around to face her attacker. She discovers it in the corner of the room, out of the light as the male hissing at her, a serpent tongue and long fangs revealing itself to her.

A vampire.

She grimaces as her heart thumps within her chest, grunting as her arms snap up and release a spell. She releases an icicle that rockets for his heart, yet he simply swats her projectile out of the air before charging straight towards her. She hurriedly makes a long blunt baton of ice and tries beating him back, yet he was unbothered by her strikes.

He swipes for her, causing her to dodge to her left then jab the stick into his mouth. He chomps down on it, shattering it with ease but distracting him enough for her to rocket her left hand into his face. Her punch stumbles him back for a sec, before he was right back in her face with a savage hiss, spit covering her.

She reals back while swinging her shattered stick from under its head, the spiky end piercing into the bottom of his jaw. She screams back as she then follows the attack up with a boot in the chest, the undead losing his balance and falling over. She hurriedly uses the chance to create some distance from the super killer as it flips itself back to his feet.

He growls, rips the ice spike out of its head, then grabs a fallen metal shelf, screaming in rage as he flings it towards her. She ducks while shooting out another icicle, the shelf flying over her as her projectile shoots for him.

Her hurried aim however only leads to him being struck in the gut, causing the undead to move forward unbothered. She grimaces then actually charges him, surprising him for a second before he grins sickly. He lunges for her, maw wide as his razor-sharp teeth calls for her blood.

She suddenly skids, arms to her chest yet palms facing upwards. He flies over her as she releases a dual icicle, firing two more into his gut, causing him to hit the floor hard. He groans as he glances at his wounds, then roars in rage as he charges at the woman who hurriedly gets up. She fires another dual icicle at one of his feet, one of them piercing his foot as he trips up, slamming into the ground before her.

Before he could do anything she swiftly boots him in the face to stun the vampire, then points both palms at him and groans in effort. He recovers and swipes at her leg with his claws, scratching them something bad just as she creates another ice boulder.

He becomes a splat underneath it, yet due to his nature he was still alive, and slowly began to heal. However, since his organs were everywhere, she quickly spots its beating heart, and fires an icicle straight into it, piercing it with her cold weapon.

Like that, the undead suddenly poofs into dust, the royal staring for a second before releasing a sigh of relief, stumbling backwards a little. The movement causes her to suddenly grimace in pain, and snap her attention down to the wound now covering her leg.

Her water blood simply poured out the semi water nymph as she grimaced, and immediately snapped a hand down to it. A tiny burst of magic shoots out of her palm, creating a block of ice around the wound as she sighs. It won't heal the nasty damage the savage claws made, but it will stop her blood loss as she rises back up with a groan. However, she then spots a slight anomaly where the undead used to be, causing her to squint in confusion and lean forward to investigate. It was a wooden symbol of three circles combined together, like a Venn diagram, and was completely flat with little to no accents or details.

She raises an eyebrow and grabs it, dragging her inquisitive gaze over it, before shrugging and holding onto it for now. She's not sure why a vampire was carrying a symbol, but it may help her in the future, or at least make a very nice trinket. She twists back to the knocked over shelves and sighs as she begins her search for a book that may not even be there.

… And, well, it took me a few hours but in the end, I had found the book." The royal finishes explaining her tiny tale, "It's why, as you had pointed out, the ice homes I made were near-exact copies of human homes. I had memorised the designs by reading it a few hundred times."

Finn raises an eyebrow curiously, "You were solid enough to actually touch paper at that point without ruining it?"

She nods sadly, "Yeah. My sanity only went downhill after that though. Due to me now being able to read books to everyone, my respect and title from my people only grew, causing the men or 'princes' that the curse was making me go for only become even more disheartened. I was now even further out of their grasp, even more unlikely to be in a relationship. My snap… wasn't long later."

He grimaces, longing to give her a hand of support yet was still holding Huntress, "Well… what was that symbol about? The one the vampire had?" She freezes up, and immediately he knew he had hit a hot memory, "You don't-"

"I know Finn. It's just… that symbol has a lot of meaning now… a past I don't want to talk about… right now that is. Look, if we make it out of this alive and return home safe, I'll explain the story to you."

He finally tears an arm off the wood nymph atop him to hold her hand comfortingly, "You don't have to if you don't want to."

She shakes her head, "No, I need to."

He does a little nod with a comforting smile, "I understand, I'll listen to your problem." She gains a small grin when a sudden movement from Huntress catches both their attention.

She stirs, groaning as she lifts her head up weakly, yet the stubborn wood nymph then aggressively pushes herself up completely to glance about at her situation. She flicks her eyes to the silent duo, then down at herself, discovering her lighting like wounds caused by magic madness, causing her to grimace.

Ice Queen clears her throat, "Morning." The wood nymph glances at her, then with a sigh flops back down atop Finn, who instantly wraps his arms around her again.

She grumbles out, "How bad?"

Finn shrugs, planting a comforting kiss on her cheek, "Not too bad I think, other than the wounds of course. You were crazy, wrapped us up in the plant ball, then tried to fuck me. I held you until you fell asleep, where Ice Queen then arrived."

She nods, "I remember what I was doing, just that I didn't have control… it is like screaming at myself in some void, watching my actions through a screen."

She explains almost casually, making Finn raise an eyebrow, "You don't seem overly bothered by it."

She shuffles, staring him in the eyes, "I'm tired, I'm hurt, and I'm well beyond used to magic madness."

"Eh, fair enough."

She sighs, and lifts herself up, pulling herself free of the hero's grasp as she glances at the blue royal, "How long? How much time have we lost?"

Ice Queen shakes her head, "An hour, but now we've rested we can move on."

Huntress rises completely to a stand as Finn scans her injured form, "You… good? Ice Queen never had glowing magic wounds before..."

She grimaces, "I'm in pain, but I've had worse. And the wounds are something I suffer from... No madman is ever the same, no magic madness is the same. Every wizard can suffer side effects that are all completely different, some like Ice Queen suffer nothing. But I guess these ones were caused by me going right at the limit of destruction. But trust me, bear, this is nothing to worry about."

He sighs as he gets up as well, watching Huntress disintegrate the plant cage around them before asking, "Need help? I would heal you, but we've used up all my cyclops tears…"

She shakes her head, "No, I never need help, I can do everything by myself. And I should be able to heal myself back at home by absorbing some plants and having more rest. I'm half plant, remember?"

He nods, then stares at the environment about them, "What about this stuff? Can you absorb this to heal?"

She shakes her head, though does start absorbing it all, "It won't heal me, but it will give me a tiny bit of magic back, nowhere near efficient but every little bit helps." As she explains, the forest around them rapidly disappears as it is slowly absorbed back into her.

He sighs, "Shame." Then raises an eyebrow, "Is there actually a way to, you know, regain magic without sleeping or meditating?"

She freezes up for a second, "... Yeah, and I think I did so when I was lost in magic madness earlier, it's a form of death magic. Absorbing the essence or bodies of the living or dead can regather a lot of magic, that's partly why some specialise in the arts of death magic. That's, you know, illegal."

He nods, remembering his fair share with the deadly wizards, then remains silent as he processes what she had just said, "Wait, so how do you know it?"

She stops, then glances over her shoulder, "... I'm… hard meat. I wanted to survive no matter what, no matter how tough or bad a situation got, I wanted to thrive in it… no more magic is a major killer for wizards. So I went to any length to prevent it from happening to me."

Ice Queen and Finn stare at her, the royal whispering out, "Diana."

She puts a hand up, "I don't want to hear it. I don't ever use it. How many times have you guys seen me use that spell? Never. I only used it then because magic madness was making me fling out practically every spell I know."

Finn nods unsurely, then shakes his head, "Well… as long as you don't use it again we should be fine… though let's continue." She nods, glad to move on from the questionable spell she had in the presence of OOO's hero, and finishes absorbing the forest she had made. The few three bodies that had remained in her forest were now sitting in the open for all the world to see, but she simply shrugs it off as she moves towards the elevator with a slight limp.

The other two swiftly follow, Ice Queen wrapping an arm around the nymph to give support, "Us injured girls have got to stick together, right?"

Huntress, however, wiggles out of her grasp, "I don't ever need help. Sorry." The royal nods in understanding, while Finn gives them both a worried glance.

He's failing as squad leader this adventure, his team, his loves, are injured. Ice Queen because he was rushing, but Huntress, "... Diana? Why did you go all mad on some low-level shrimp?"

She stares for a second to decode his message, then shifts her unsure gaze to the floor, "I don't know… I heard something… and felt something pull on me from above. It was far away, yet it was incredibly powerful, and I just… went berserk for some reason."

Finn snaps his head to her, "That's worrying. You have no idea what happened except something made you go all crazy?"

She nods, causing Ice Queen to shuffle nervously, glancing at her hands, "Oh no. That's not good, that's not good at all! What if it makes me nuke you guys with a bunch of ice!?"

Huntress smirks weakly, "Sarah. You'll be too busy snogging Finn to do that." She regains her serious expression however, "But it is a worry. What could have made me crazy with magic? I remember screaming 'Egeria', but I don't know what that is."

Ice Queen hums, her face twisting in thought, "I have a crazy theory, but it is so random and stupid that I won't bother even mentioning it. I don't think I'm even correct."

Finn shrugs as they reach the elevator, the doors not opening for the group as Finn shrugs, then yanks his blade free. With a yell he charges the door, stabbing his sword into the gap before pushing on his blade from the side. He forces the doors open, before they automatically open fully, causing the hero to roll his neck in a job well done. He peeks inside, and finds no horrible tentacle monster in waiting, but does find something a tad more horrifying.

No matter what direction he looked, up or down, there was an endless void of nothingness, a tube that went on forever. "... How long will it take us to travel up an elevator the size of a planet?"

The other two remain silent, before Ice Queen mutters out, "We did not think of that…"

Huntress shakes her head, "There's got to be a faster way. I doubt the aliens would make something as important as the security room so far away. If the thing went mad or they need to turn it on to attack a threat, they would need to be able to get to it quickly, right?"

Finn nods, "I mean, that makes sense… but I don't see anything that will allow that, do you guys?" Ice Queen peers inside the empty elevator as well, while Huntress hangs back since she would have no idea what to look for.

The royal hums, "... No, I don't. Alright, new plan! Let's see if there's a way to traverse this elevator in a reasonable amount of time!"

They all stand there awkwardly.

Huntress glances at Finn, "So how do we do that?"

He raises an eyebrow, "How am I supposed to know that?"

She shrugs, "You always seem to have the answer."

Ice Queen clears her throat, "How about I start flying us about in there? See if we find something because they've got to have an emergency shoot or teleporter in case the elevator ever broke. No one is stupid enough not to add something!"

He nods, and he and Huntress step back while she flaps her eyebrows and disappears into the tunnel, leaving the wood nymph and human alone as they instantly glance at one another. They swiftly hold hands and just stare at the tunnel as they wait for Ice Queen, Finn smirking, 'Got any interesting tales I should know about while we wait?'

She shakes her head, 'Nah, they'll take too long to tell.'

He nods in understanding, then squeezes her hand, 'But what about you? Are you actually doing alright? And no tough girl act, I want to help you.'

She smirks, 'I'm in pain, but I can easily handle it. Though, I won't mind a cuddle of support.'

He wastes not a second as he leans in and wraps an arm around her, just like Ice Queen did a second ago. This time though, the wood nymph does not push him away, in fact, she gains a small smile and closes her eyes, leaning their heads to rest against one another. Huntress purrs slightly, 'We should do something when we get back, to cool off.'

He holds her tighter, 'Other than the hunt we already are going to do?'

She nods, 'Yeah, another thing… I mean, we've explored my world a lot, we even did our bond. We're going to make our Crivingnuh… actually, that's what we can do! You need to gather me a bunch of swords, so…' She pulls back and beams at him, 'Want to go on a dungeon crawl?' He freezes, and she feels a flood of embarrassment and fear go through his veins, 'Alright, what's wrong with going on a dungeon crawl? You know I'll listen.'

He sighs, 'Well, I took Flame Princess in a dungeon crawl date once… it went terrible. She did not like it at all.'

Huntress smirks, 'Maybe she didn't, but I think I will. Why didn't she like it?'

He sighs, 'It was boring, I took the lead practically through the whole thing, and the loot wasn't that good.'

She raises an eyebrow, 'That's it? Bear, I think I have a bit more patience than a young girl craving constant destruction, I can understand why and appreciate an experienced member leading something he knows well, and the loot will literally be as many weapons as we can carry. I can't be disappointed about that.' She leans forward and gives him a reassuring kiss, 'And I doubt I'll stop loving you because of a boring date. Being together and doing something together with you should be enough.'

He beams, then snuggles up to her, rubbing his cheek against her as they both blush, Huntress releasing a cute giggle as she grinds back into him. Their eyes closed as their hands find and play with one another, squeezing each other as joy and pure love flows through their bond.

However, Ice Queen's flaps of eyebrows fill their ears, and the duo part from their more intimate and cute snuggle, though do still keep their hands locked. She arrives at the elevator door with a massive grin, "I think I found something. Not too sure since it is in an alien language but definitely looks interesting."

Finn raises an eyebrow as the duo head towards her, "How far is it?"

She shrugs, "A short distance. I can carry one of you there."

He steps aside and gestures to Huntress, "Go ahead, I'll wait."

Huntress, however, shakes her head, "I'm not leaving you alone in possible danger Finn. I can become a bug, remember?"

The other two immediately violently shake their head the royal yelling, "No way! Your low on magic, and we have no idea if you'll get called out by that thing again. You've got wounds already, we should not risk you getting more."

The green woman stares for a second, then opens her arms, "Fine, carry me up." The royal swoops in, and immediately tugs her into the air as Huntress glances at Finn, "Stay safe." She worriedly wishes before she is pulled up the elevator shaft.

The hero glances about, noticing just how quiet and dark everything was in the station. He has faced similar situations in dungeons in the past however, and quickly walks away, hoping to find the arrow he had launched to distract the scared civilians earlier. It took a bit, but he eventually finds it lying atop a pile of rubble, quickly grabbing it and checking it over for damages, before placing it back into his quiver.

"FINN!?"

He jumps around and discovers a scared Ice Queen searching for him at the elevator, causing him to quickly yell out, "Sorry I was grabbing my arrow!"

She snaps to him, immediately wrapping him up in a tight hug as she hurriedly tugs him away, "Jeez my knight, don't do that again!" He sighs into the bosom he was now smothered in as she carries him up, causing the royal to grumble, "This is what you get." They slowly rise, the woman eventually humming a little tune as she holds her knight to her, the hero returning it with a firm grasp as they enjoy the moment.

Only a few moments of flying later, they arrive at where Huntress was, a little nook in the wall where glowing lights sat. Finn squints, and the royal lands beside the woman now curiously looking over some machine in the wall just like a bird would. He strolls up to her, "What have you found?"

She shrugs, backing away from the mechanical devices, "No idea. I don't do technology." He shrugs and glances at what she was staring at not a second ago.

In the wall sat four, rectangular machines, with their longest side facing up and what appears to be a circular jet on both ends. They were larger than a person, with a cockpit in the middle, and had four handles bar within, clearly designed for the tentacle aliens who man the station. The hero hums before stepping up to one, running a hand across one of their forms, then starts actually staring at each individual part inside the cockpit. There were several buttons, but the largest ones were two arrows pointing up and down, and a button symbolising a cockpit with an arrow.

He hums, "Well, guessing by these buttons and the engines, it seems we have something that can fly."

Ice Queen rolls her neck, "This better be faster than I can, or we'll be travelling for quite a while."

He shrugs, "I don't know, we have to try them out first."

Huntress raises an eyebrow, "Yeah, but do we actually have any knowledge on how to fly these things? I don't want to risk it if we don't. I'm not dying yet." He stares at the wall, noticing the alien language painted on in white. He raises his arm and just starts hitting buttons, but unfortunately, no secret function reveals itself to magically scan the wall and translate it. Seems to be his arm doesn't hold the magical solution to all his problems.

He sighs, "Well... Who wants to find out how to turn on unknown alien technology?"

Huntress immediately shakes her head, "Nope not risking my life."

Ice Queen grins, "Sure, I'll give it a shot."

Finn raises an eyebrow, "You sure? Won't hurt your gut?"

She shrugs, "If my injuries haven't flared after us flying up just then or when we fought, then it shouldn't now. Besides, if anything goes wrong I can break out and fly back to you guys."

Her knight grimaces, "Not if you become a splat against the wall you won't."

She waves her hand nonchalantly, "Psh, you worry too much. Now step aside."

He does so, and she steps up to the machine, humming in thought, before simply grabbing it and tugging it out with a loud grunt. It was surprisingly light for its size and material, proving more evidence it was meant for flight as she nods. She hurriedly takes it to the edge, wobbling towards it then peeking over the edge at the endless abyss beneath her.

She takes a deep breath to iron her will, then glances at the cockpit again, and takes a step inside quickly grabbing two of the handlebars. She glances about a little, staring at everything around her, then takes a big sigh as she presses the button with the cockpit symbol. Sure enough, glass slides over her and seals her inside with a hiss, before she suddenly begins to float inside a little, causing her to panic.

She quickly, however, discovers that nothing else was happening, and probably a safety feature, 'Can't feel the effects of g-force if there's no gravity.' She stares out the glass, watching Finn and Huntress watch her with gazes full of worry. She gives them a nod of confidence, then presses the button with the thruster and points upwards. Suddenly the engine beneath her ignites, becoming a ball of fire as her little shuttle hovers in the air, a metre of the ground where the OOO duo stares in wonder and fear.

She flicks her gaze about inside the pod she was in, waiting for something else to happen before realising nothing else was. She hums in disappointment and begins searching her tiny cockpit for the next step she has to take, only to find nothing button wise. She slowly turns her attention to the four handlebars above her, blinking as she constantly scanned their designs. One set could go up and down guessing by the slot in the walls, while the other two behind her the other could be pulled forward and backwards.

As of right now, both sets sat in the middle, causing her to sigh and grab the ones behind her, then close her eyes as she tugs it backwards. The tiny pod instantly jolts as it slowly moves away from Finn and Huntress, and drift over the abyss that was the empty elevator. It maintains its altitude in the air, yet doesn't stop reversing until she finally moves the handlebar back into its neutral position. Then she glances at the sticks in front of her and discovers it had two notches for up and down, probably for different speeds. Of course, she experiments, and pushes it up the first notch, causing it to jolt upwards before slowly drifting higher, causing her to sigh.

Grimacing in preparation, she pushes the two bars to the second notch. The pod becomes a blur as it rockets up at insane speeds, though there was no g-force for the royal thanks to the anti-gravity she was in. She quickly pulls the bar back down, bringing it to a slow before a halt, then sighing in relief, though quickly freezes up. She has no idea when to stop to get back down to the others, or if they were to go upwards until they reached the security room when to stop to prevent themselves becoming splats against the roof.

She mumbles, flicking her eyes to every button there was before shrugging and pressing any that she hasn't so far. She got lights, a welder, a spray of confetti, before finally hitting a button that protected a map onto her cockpit. There were several flashing lights, with two being orange, one of which was her, the other likely being the holding station where she had left the others. She nods, and quickly pulls the handlebars downwards, launching her into a controlled descent.

A few moments later, and a few height adjustments, she slowly lowered herself back down to the scared duo below. They both immediately rushed to her as she brought the pod in, and when she opened the cockpit and came out, both immediately checked over her for injuries.

She smiles sweetly at the thought of them being so worried over her, but quickly pushes them back, "Alright, I figured these things out. Grab your own." They swiftly do so, and a few instructions later, they were rocketing up the elevator.

Meanwhile, far, far above them Hekate paced up and down, grumbling about the situation she was currently in. It was extremely annoying- it's fun to watch and she hopes the show continues! Finn and his friends have disabled the reactor core, and with some simple spying magic, she has discovered the Citadel has descended into chaos. Yay! More work!

That boy certainly loves to cause mayhem, that's for sure, just like his father. Martin had broken oh so many laws, but disrupting the godly beings from doing their jobs was his most recent and devastating crime. Including lying, tricking, and backstabbing her! But she can't hold a grudge against him... she wishes she can skin him! But among the cosmic beings, things were shifting, and the trial of Martin has more than one reason, more than one motivation behind it.

Besides making him pay for his crimes, it was meant to bring Finn to them. Earlier plans had failed what had caused them to simply say he wasn't ready, yet this one will seem to succeed, and she'll be the first to meet him. Oh, they have so many plans for the boy! Well, a man now after a certain night~

Heh, Egeria won't like that.

His... friends, Huntress? There is stuff planned for her too, but they do not involve her; she has no interests for the woman, she is a meaningless piece of flesh to her. But she cares about all life! Besides! It was fun to make her go mad with magic madness downstairs! Especially when she started flirting with Finn~

Ice Queen? There was nothing about her, she was never meant to be near the other two, but then GOLB sent them to AAA where they promptly met... That god is always mucking up everyone's plan, but he's simply too powerful to be stopped, only worsened by the human mind that joined him. But the royal to her is a loose end that needs to be tied up, she has to be killed- she can't wait to meet her again and have a friendly chat about Finn! Maybe she can share an embarrassing secret~!

She takes a deep breath and flexes her hand, watching a lightning bolt the size of the universe simply appear and light up outer space. She watches it through her protective see-through barriers, then glances at the control console, the one she can use to manipulate the whole citadel. It is here she can send word to the other cosmic beings to collect Martin, and they'll do it instantly, tearing him away from Finn forever.

Huntress, Ice Queen, and Finn stare at the maps on their cockpits as they shoot up the elevator at insane speeds, rapidly approaching the security room above. Each of them mentally prepares themselves, checking their gear, glancing over wounds, forming plans for what-if scenarios. They doubt the most important part of a prison, a security room, will be easy to breach, let alone take over and access a terminal. An arduous fight is ahead of them. But after that, it's simply grabbing Martin, then finding their way home.

This will soon all be over.

They finally approach the top, causing them to bring their speed handlebars down a notch, slowing their pods way down. Another minute of a slow crawl and they arrive, discovering a completely circle roof around atop them, and the wall around them having four stairways. They hover towards them, discovering a nice large padding around the doorway for them to safely land on.

The group hurriedly exit their pods, glancing at one another at different doorways, silently whisper one another best of luck, before making their ways inside. All three had their own spiralling staircase, a system designed to be hard to assault and to wear out any attacker if they had to climb them all. They waste no time in scaling them, reaching the top to discover narrow paths leading to one another, the surprised group joining back together.

A very short glancing about later, the squad discover ladders, all leading upwards into a very large, yellow room. They take a deep breath, before beginning to scale up, poking their head out to stare at what awaits them.

They discover a massive circular chamber the size of a mansion, wherein the centre of it sat a grey mess of metal, pistons, pumps, wires, tubes, and red lights, all shrouded in a cloud of steam. In the room sat four cooling blocks locked away behind doors, responsible for making sure the war machine was cool and functional. The wires and tubes on the human creation fed into the ceiling, disappearing into who knows where as hisses and whirls escaped the machine's work.

The four doors were built into the wall and glowed red with security lights, a warning for anyone to not meddle with. Worse, they weren't on floor level but actually raised above on platforms with ladders to reach them, meaning to reach them the group would have to fly or worse slowly climb it while being completely vulnerable to attack.

The group cautiously made their way up and off their ladders, stepping into the room as they glared at the massive core in the middle down. Underneath it, a ball spun, revealing a glowing red eye as it stared at them, before speaking in its dark, robotic voice, "Intruders detected... including the capture priority."

Immediately all around them, four large poles raised up into the air, before a wall of lightning arced between them, creating a large cage in all directions. Then before them the floor disappeared as an elevator came up, revealing another machine, the lion that was designed to capture Finn, but upgraded. On its back, the claw was gone, but a net gun had replaced it. On its shoulders sat four flamethrowers, which immediately snapped to the women made of wood and ice, a powerful countermeasure for them both.

Huntress could already see its armour had been improved, most probably now acid-proof, and the gaps she had exploited last time were now sealed up.

The metal beast wasted no time in waking up, the camera eyes around its body powering up and snapping to the trio. It pounces for them, the net gun on its back firing in fully automatic mode at Finn who desperately tries to evade. Ice Queen and Huntress Wizard swoop in with ice and arrows flying, already trying to find a weak spot.

Like before their attacks do nothing but piss it off as the flamethrowers roar to life. Burning hot flames lunges for the women, who desperately back away as much as they can to avoid incineration.

The scorching heat licks at their feet as their backs get uncomfortably close to electric walls behind them. Finn, however, shoots to the rescue, skidding under a net while swinging his blade at its head. It strikes the metal but it proved too strong as his weapon bounces off, causing the hero to growl and grab its head with his hand.

Quickly he is able to get a solid arm lock around its neck, allowing him to wail on its face with his sword. Although it did no damage, it made the machine try to shake him off, the flamethrowers deactivating for its own safety. Huntress immediately bounds in, chucking some seeds before becoming winded in pain.

It seems using spells is indeed agitating her magic madness wounds. She grimaces and retreats as fast as she can, letting her seeds grow into tangling bines while she backs away. They shoot out their green ropes, wrapping around the machine's limbs and tying them down, restricting its movements.

That is of course until the flamethrowers light up the spell, burning the vines. However, the fire travels up the dead plant and onto plants actually wrapped around the machine itself. They burn, heating up the armour, and although doing nothing to the protective shell, it does do damage on the inside.

The airtight sealed cooling system struggles with the sudden increase in heat, however the flamethrowers blast again. They try to strike Ice Queen who was on the side and trying to snap-freeze the armour, but when she evaded the attack the fire instead only heated up the metal. The combined heat promptly proved too much for the small compact cooling system, and promptly shortened itself out.

Deep within the metal beast, the temperature started to rise.

Finn meanwhile continues to wrestle with its head, an apparent blind spot to the automatic net cannon that he was promptly exploiting. He tugs, trying to keep the metal beast pinned in a still position for the others to do damage, but it was no use.

The much larger creation promptly swings him about, and he eventually loses his grip thanks to only using one arm. He arcs through the air for a second before hitting the ground, slamming his sword down to skid himself to a halt on his knees. He glares upwards from his kneeling position up at the beast, who stares right on back, cannon taking aim.

It promptly fires a net just as he rips his blade from the ground and charges the metal monstrosity. The hero swings his weapon and cuts it out of the air before opening his arms wide and tackling into the beast. It slides backwards at his momentum as the hero cries in rage, his arms tucked underneath its form and lifting it upwards. The machine flails, trying to get him off as he slowly lifts its immense form up, before screaming as he tries to flip it over to its side.

It rolls, using its momentum to flip back into its feet but its side hits the lightning barrier. Two flamethrowers are fried, their gas tubes exploding and traveling down into the main tank within the beast. A muffled bang is heard as two fuel tanks explode within the beast, raging a fire that swiftly ends due to a lack of oxygen.

Still, the flamethrowers on its right side were now dead, smoking and smouldering as Ice Queen grins. She waits until it charges towards the hero again and away from the electric fence, before rocketing towards it. She slams into it, bending her body as she crushes her gut, causing her to grimace but she stays focused.

Releasing a massive explosion of ice, she freezes half of the war machine as it promptly flips with half its joints frozen. The royal swiftly backs off in pain, clutching her core while Finn and Huntress moved in. The wood nymph cries out to Finn, "Bow!"

He pulls it free from his back and chucks it to her before yelling as he ground slams on the lion's head. She catches it and quickly loads an arrow, taking aim at the beast as she scans the net gun for a weakness. The other side of flamethrowers, however, snap their aim to her and let rip, causing her to dash backwards.

She fires her arrow at one of them, hoping to knock or damage the dangerous weaponry, but it simply ricochets off. She growls, and glances at the electric cage around them, 'That's the only way to injure this thing.' But how can she lure it to it without magic?

Finn meanwhile continues his pounding on the war machine's head, hoping to distract enough for the others to deal with it. It was clear it was meant to capture him, to be an anti him, his sword was going to do nothing against it. Spells might, yet at the same time, both Huntress and Ice Queen are practically out of the fight.

The behemoth releases a robotic groan before the ice covering it shatters, its joints exploding free as the lion hurriedly scrambles up. It rams its head into the hero, sending Finn flying before hurriedly backing away, its net cannon taking aim.

The moment he hits the floor and skids from the impact does it fire, the spinning mess of rope wrapping him up. He scrambles in his restraints as the metal giant bounds for him, its metal jaw opening wide to snatch him up.

Suddenly Ice Queen yells in a mix of bloody rage and pain as she stomps her foot down. A humongous wave of ice shoots forth and slams into the metal lion, sending it flying upwards. The Electric cage wall above shocks it, the force exploding as it launches the giant back down and smashing into the ground.

A crater is formed while Huntress dives for Finn, the hunting master swiftly freeing the trapped prey as she cuts the net. The hero quickly scrambles free, snapping his eyes to the metal lion as it picks itself up from the crater it had made. He snaps to Huntress, "Find any weaknesses!?"

She shakes her head, "No, so you stay in its blind spots-" Another net flies for them, causing Finn to slice it out of the air, "- until we find one!" The duo gets up and charge the enemy, Finn leading the tip of the spear as he stares the behemoth down.

Its top gun fires again and again, and he cuts the flying rope down again and again. He yells a war cry as he shoulder rams the giant beast of metal so hard he makes it skids back. It tries to bite his shirt, to get a hold and drag the hero out of the electric cage, but Finn swiftly grabs its snapping jaws.

With a yell he uses all his might, teeth clenched and eyes closed as he lifts the war machine. He flips it over his shoulder, slamming it into the ground upside down so hard that sparks fly and the ground shakes.

The human security core hums in the background then executes new orders. The ground beneath the group begins to shuffle before regular guards with shotguns sprout out of holes. Ice Queen releases a spray of magic, creating her ice army once more as they all weld long spears of ice.

They charge, impaling the guards that keep on coming, using up the last of the security force on the Citadel. Ice Queen has to keep on replenishing her troops, creating mages and archers to keep the heat on the guards.

Finn and Huntress meanwhile dance around the lion as it gets up, wailing on it from all angles to find some weakness. The heat within it from the failed cooling system starts to rise, though with every ice spell Ice Queen does it cools it back down. But she was no longer focusing on it as its temperature rapidly rises once more.

Finn skids under its head and under its belly, where he promptly tries stabbing again, hoping to have found a weak spot. More sparks as his sword deflect off. He growls as he rolls out from underneath it, the lion leaping back as the gun in its back fires at the hero. The net was about to hit the human again, until Huntress snatched it out of the air, chucking it back at the gun.

It hits it, flopping atop its form as it continues to turn and fire at Finn unbothered. The hero continues to evade while Huntress swoops in, leaping atop the metal goliath's armour and quickly flipping onto its back.

She glances at the flamethrowers and discovers them too busy melting Ice Queen's forces to pay attention to her. She lunges at the turret and first plays with the net now around it, tightening it as she attempts to lock up the gears. No use, the powerful motor within is able to overpower the tightly wrapped net, ripping the rope after a moment's of struggle.

She growls and grips the torn up net and stuffs it back into the barrel, blocking it up. It fires again, and immediately the nets become stuck tangled and blocked within the tube. She smirks, before the lion swiftly rolls, causing her to dive off before she becomes squashed under its form.

Finn catches her as they both stare at the giant annoying pest, watching it get back up on its leg and aim the flamethrowers at Huntress. She climbs out of Finn's arms yet sticks close to the hero, the beast not risking killing its capture target. So instead it rushes towards the hero duo again as Huntress fires an arrow, "We know electricity can hurt it but I don't know about killing it... maybe we can lead it into the walls again?" She yells her suggestion. "At the very least it will put the other flamethrowers out!"

He nods, scanning its form, "On it!" He looks over its charging form, trying to find a way to tip it over or trip it into an electric wall. He eventually growls and counter-charges, swinging his sword high above his head while screaming a war cry.

The metal lion's jaw opens up to grab a hold of the hero, yet at the last second the hero skids diagonally to the left. He slides under its body and its snapping jaw to pop out on its right side, where he springs up and grabs a hold of its body.

With a strained grunt, he pushes with all his might, un-stabilising the beast but unfortunately not rocking it onto its side. Still, the hero pushes on as the machine spins to try and get him off, yet the hero holds on and is dragged along with it. The result was for it to bound towards the nearest fence in hopes the human will remain holding on and bring the hero out with it.

However, Finn lets go, causing the beast to slam all four paws down to skid itself to a halt. It twists around to its right to face him again but discovers the hero already upon it. He slams into it with all his momentum and strength, knocking the metal giant back hard enough for its left side to touch the electric wall.

Immediately lightning arcs across its form as the flamethrowers burst and explode, though any fire was suffocated within the giant. But, thanks to the rapid increase in heat, the metal was expanding beyond expectations. The airtight seal is broken and air is able to be sucked inside by hundreds of little gaps.

A small fire breaks out thanks to the little amount of oxygen available, the smoke and light escaping the war machine for all to see. Finn blinks, then grins as he aims his sword, "We need to work this thing! Tire it out, make it overheat!" They had no way to injure it, but if the temperature within slowly rose to the point of melting then it will either be dead or they'll be able to pierce its weaker armour.

The now walking oven hurriedly rushes to complete its objective, all restraints gone as it rushes Finn again. It, however, takes a massive swipe with its paws, whacking Finn and sending him flying where he hits the ground and bounces.

Like a cat playing with a ball, it knocks him about a few times before he can recover, hoping to stun him. Huntress however hurriedly ruins this plan by snatching him away mid whack and continues to evade with the recovering human.

Slowly, an orange spot appears on the surface of the giant lion, its body heating up due to the fire raging. Loud bangs and pops echo off as its armour bends and grows, nuts and bolts snapping as the heat makes the metal expand. It snaps to Huntress as she puts Finn down before the wood nymph then lunges for their foe.

The lion slashes its paw towards her, only for the woman to grab its paw and flip over it. She skids across the ground as she pulls back her bow, firing an arrow directly at its glowing spot. It ricochets with a shower of sparks, yet a small chunk is chipped out of the metal hull.

She smirks as the giant beast roars and reared itself up onto its back legs, its top paws raised up to smash her. She spins out of the way of the paws as they slam into the ground, flicking up dirt and dust as she readies another arrow and lets loose. It takes a bite out of its softening head, the metal quickly weakening as the flames within actually starting to escape its armour.

She dives away to collect her spent arrows while Finn swaps in, holding his sword defensively as he stares down the lion. It roars as it does another slash at him, the hero crying out in rage as he counter-swings his sword in a massive overhead arc.

The sword and paw meet, and this time the hero wins as he slices completely through it, sending the now severed limb flying. However the attack put the hero in a kneeling position, and as he rose up to continue his assault, he was slapped by the injured paw. He is sent flying by the beast's damaged arm, the lion immediately hobbling after him.

Huntress growls as she clenches her recovered arrows, and immediately sheathes them as she runs full speed towards her foe. She clenches her jaw, then releases a muffled grunt of pain as she summons her spear, her magic madness wounds flaring.

She ignores her suffering for the sake of Finn as she rams her spear into the side of the war machine. The glowing hot armour simply implodes at her blow, the spear piercing inside and striking the melting circuitry within while it flails about. Although it seemed she hadn't killed it as it quickly tried biting at her, the wood nymph probably only having destroyed non-critical functions.

She smirks, and with a grunt rips her spear up and into the melting armour, tearing a massive hole before she rips her weapon free of its glowing form. With the new massive hole in its side oxygen rushed into the blazing fire, and not a second later it erupted.

A massive stream of flames spewed from its side as its whole form becomes a walking fireball, circuits and parts quickly melting within. With the last of its life its dives for Finn, who hurriedly runs away from the flaming charge. He runs around their electric cage as the burning lion rams everything out of the way, Ice Queen's soldiers and even the other citadel guards.

Suddenly it started snapping at everything, anything within range was getting chomped on by its massive metal jaws. Its friend or foe detector has now fried, causing it to go rogue and kill everything in sight.

It rushes Ice Queen who swiftly creates a wall, letting it ram headfirst into it. The melting armour crumbles at impact, crumpling up as the top half of the robot's head disappears within itself. It flails about, whipping its back legs out in every direction and kicking the royal's troops like it was a horse.

It, however, sets its multi-robot eyes gazes back onto Finn, a whisper from its failing code to attack. It charges forward with its slight limp, jaws snapping as the hero dashes away for safety.

Huntress hurries to his rescue, the only one with range attacks that won't cool the beast. She unloads arrow after arrow into its side, piercing holes through it and shredding its insides before popping out on the other side.

It stumbles, more systems going as it now turns only on its back legs, the front half dead as the head opens wide. It rushes forward towards the wood nymph as she readies her spear, hoping the range will allow her to attack without getting burnt.

After all, she is made of wood, a single spark could end her.

She stares it down as it approaches, before at the last second diving to the right while it shot past her. She thrusts her weapon at its back legs, piercing and damaging the motor as the giant goes still in the centre of the room. With its one final leg, it attempted to spin its huge form around and bite her, but it was at its end.

She rushes to the side of it before a Citadel security member could shoot her, and aims her spear at its chest. She spots a large circular core within it that hadn't melted, a sign it was meant to withstand high temperature. Its reactor core.

Huntress readies her spear, before with a scream of pure rage stabs it, piercing its weakened shell. It hisses around her weapon, before violently shaking as streams of light shoots out of it in all directions.

Her eyes widened before she hurriedly yanks her spear free, absorbing it as she rushes towards Ice Queen. The lion meanwhile spasms in the middle of the electric cage as it becomes a near blinding ball of light as its ruptured core goes critical.

All around it lighting arcs out, the electromagnetic field being disrupted by the insane amount of energy released. The floor becomes singed as the lightning of the cage is pulled towards it, electrifying and killing Citadel and Ice Queen's guards.

Huntress arrives at the royal as Finn hurriedly joins them, where he promptly yells, "Ice shield!" The light blue wall of magic envelopes them as they all huddle together and grimace in preparation. The lion explodes into a humongous fireball, light and flames shooting everywhere as the metal pylons keeping up the electric cage are snapped like twigs.

All the guards are deleted from the world, now just a piece of flesh here and there, with some snow dust splattered against the wall from Ice Queen's guards. The shockwave slams into the trio's protection, shaking it violently as it is thrown upwards, before coming crashing back down. The group got new bruises as they bounced around inside the tight ice shield, everyone but Huntress releasing grunts of pain.

Finally, it all stops as everything becomes eerily silent except a slight metal creaking noise. Finn puts his hand against a cold wall and with a thought undoes the spell as the group flop free of one another. Only to find themselves on the edge of a massive hole, and a burning lion lunging for them!

They panic and scramble backwards, Huntress using her agility to flip away while Ice Queen flies. However, Finn has nothing and the burning hot maw bites a hold of his ice armoured leg as he yelps in shock.

The explosion from the lion's core had destroyed the floor, revealing the elevator drop the size of a world as they promptly fell into it. Only to be stopped by a bunch of wires as they dangle in the air.

The wires that used to power the electric fence cage were now wrapped around the lions blown in half form. The electricity arcing off it was powering the should be dead war machine as it tries one final time to secure its prey.

Huntress growls and immediately dives into action despite seeing the deadly electricity and burning hot metal before her. She leaps over the edge for Finn while he struggles, burning hot metal digging into his ice armour while electricity flows through his form.

The hero uses his robot arm and puts it against the lion's jaw, "Drill!" He destroys the joint to make it let go just as Huntress arrives. With electricity no longer covering the boy she grabs his hand mid-fall and yanks him close to her as she spins around.

She yells in pain as she flings out a vine, magic madness wounds biting her as a result. The vine wraps around some bents metal, where she promptly yanks herself back up, Finn hurriedly moving onto her back. She eventually reaches the top where she sits atop the broken metal, then glances at the flailing half dead lion.

She snorts in anger and pulls Finn's bow off her back, the hero quickly handing an arrow as well from his position. She growls and takes aim at the largest electric wire holding it up, "You think you're the ultimate hunter? That you can hunt my Finn? Wrong. I hunted this exceptional beast way before you. And now I've hunted you twice." She releases her arrow, snapping the large wire as the lion flails, the other smaller weaker wires breaking as the beast falls into the elevator. She hisses, "I'm the best hunter, no one will beat me, there is no one better me. Not even something designed to hunt."

With that final burst of anger at something intruding on her territory, she turns around and tries scaling up the broken metal with Finn still on her back. She climbs up the hole with ease despite her wounds, discovering Ice Queen awaiting her at the top as she offers the wood nymph a hand.

She accepts it, the royal then groaning in effort and pain as she drags the duo up onto flat ground, where Finn promptly flops off, Huntress smirking at him, "You alright there bear?"

He shakes his head, "No, that was too close for my liking. I used not to mind like during the GOLB fight, but now..." He glances at the women as they stare back, "... I have a new reason to make sure I stay."

He grunts as he lifts himself up, what brings his gaze to lock onto the human security core, what stares unrelentingly at him, "You are human, and my prime objective of capture is no longer possible. What nation do you belong to?"

The hero blinks, "... Country? I'm from OOO, or AAA if you're from this dimension."

It releases a robotic gargle, "Island not recognised in the list of allies of the great war. Can not be trusted. Rest in hell." Immediately red lights lit up the room, casting it in a dark bloody hue as warning sirens blared. The human war machine warns in a deep, dark robotic voice, "You are not an ally. You are a threat to this facility. Previous orders of your capture are now unachievable, moving onto the next available command: Your destruction. Rest in hell."

The room shifts around the group as they all instantly bear arms, staring at everything moving about. The middle of the room rises, a massive circle platform the size of a house now forming underneath the human-machine. The floor changes from smooth to one filled with lines like a chessboard, hundreds of squares the size of a car now dotting the place.

The trio dash as fast as they can forward towards the robot, eyes locked on it as Ice Queen summons a horde of ice minions around them. They all had arrows as they took aim and fired at the human-machine, only for the arrows to uselessly deflect off a barrier that suddenly projected up.

Finn, Huntress, and Ice Queen skid to a halt upon seeing their failure, and immediately curse as they watch things shift around them. Turrets spring up all over the walls, six miniguns snapping to the trio with barrels spinning. A sea of burning hit lead rockets towards them just as Finn hurriedly raises his tech shields before the bullets struck.

They rain down upon him as he grimaces, knowing the barrier could only take so much of a pounding. Luckily the royal's archers leap to the rescue, all of them releasing a volley of arrows at the sentries and destroying all six in a matter of seconds.

He disabled their cover as Ice Queen snapped to him, "Suggestions!?"

He hurriedly flicks his gaze about as the room shifts again, locking onto the raised four doors at the edges of the room, "Let's try to overheat it! It worked on the lion and melting down the reactor, the aliens seem to have poorly made cooling! See what's in those rooms, I'll try to overwork it."

The girls nodded as they all dash towards the north core right before them, moving as a group as more sentries pop up. They unleash more lead as Finn protects them at the base of the ladder to reach the unknown doors, where Ice Queen flings out spells. She creates more minions, a horde of summoners as they deal with the rest of the work by creating archers.

While they sniped out sentries now mowing them down, the trio glanced at the ladder to figure out a plan. In the end, Huntress leaps on and begins to climb, while Ice Queen hops onto her back and creates a shield of ice, leaving Finn at the bottom.

He sits behind his barrier as they slowly climb up, just in case a stray bullet was to strike him. Then right before him, the ground opens up and a tall animal guard with its double-sided spear pops up.

It immediately thrusts at his shield as it absorbs the blow, the cyborg pulling its arm back as Finn drops his cover. He swings his sword at his foes gut, but the towering unit quickly jumps backwards to evade, before swinging to counter-attack. Finn slashes his blade at the same time, the weapons meeting in the air with a shower of sparks.

Finn's monster hunting might wins as the guard's weapon is knocked backwards while the hero's blade continues on by. He follows the momentum up, using it to do a full spin and swing at the guard's midsection, who's hand it hurriedly protects.

Finn cuts it clean off but the attack is knocked off course, leaving the cyborg handless but alive. Its leg shoots up and boots Finn backwards as he goes flying, slamming him into the ladder before crumpling to the floor. The animal guard rushes forward and rears its arm back, before thrusting it forward and stabbing at the hero.

He suddenly rolls to the side to evade, the hero faking being stunned to let the cyborg get close as he scrambles up and stabs with his night sword. The move of trickery works as the drone had no time to react before the sword plunged into its insides.

Finn smirks as he rips his weapon free, the towering guard's guts falling out as it clutches its wounds, before falling over and flopping onto the floor. Then the room shifts, random parts of the floor rising up while others sink, creating a nearly untraversable environment.

The hero blinks in shock, before the square he was standing on suddenly shoots up. He is launched into the air with a scream, momentum keeping him going despite the platform stopping already.

He starts to fall, and hurriedly creates an ice shield as the sentries that have finished off all Ice Queen's minions snap to him. The bullets all bounce off his protection as he hits the floor, grimacing, 'This is going to be fun.'

Huntress meanwhile had reached the top of the ladder, where they hurriedly rushed towards the red light, approaching the door sitting underneath it. Quickly opening it they hurry inside, where they promptly stare at a massive metal dome.

It was the size of a house, with cool, cold steam or clouds rolling off it, the royal instantly nodding, "I can feel it, that's definitely something to do with cooling, though if we were to break it then you'll likely become a popsicle."

Huntress nods in understanding, "I'll wait outside, but be quick!" She darts back outside the door with her bow drawn, ready to help Finn.

Though rushes back inside as a bunch of miniguns sprout from just outside the door and attempt to light her up.

The royal blinks at her, then cautiously peek outside to analyse the situation, only for bullets to fly her way. She darts back behind the wall for safety, humming as she glances at Huntress, "You're not going out there. That's way too dangerous with your wounds... We'll have to leave together, which means we have to destroy this together." She explains in annoyance as she stares at the coolant.

Huntress flicks her eyes to her, "Any suggestions on how to do that without me becoming a 'popsicle'?"

She inquires, causing the royal to shrug, "A controlled release or sealing up a valve, so something like we did when you crawled through the gas pipe."

Huntress spins around, quickly finding the coolant pipe leading towards the security core, "... I'm on it. There should be a console on the pipe?" The royal nods, causing the wood nymph to silently get up and make her way towards the pipe that goes diagonally upwards into an engineer's tunnel.

She hops onto the curved pipe, then rushes up it, quickly hopping off and into the engineering tunnel and sprinting down beside the pipe. She spots a terminal ahead at the very end on the tunnel, directly at the entrance to the human war core. But before her was an infestation of goo.

Simplings.

The spikey red worms rush towards her, their four maws opening up as they lunge to bite her. She kicks one out of the air while whipping her knife free to stab another, but a third one crashes into her. She growls and rips it up to her face, where she promptly bites into its flesh with her razor-sharp teeth and rips off a chunk of its flesh.

She chucks its corpse away and flips onto her feet, where a large one charges towards her. She whips Finn's bow free and quickly loads an arrow, letting it fly just as the worm creature pounces at her. The projectile shoots inside its open maw, killing it as Huntress rushes forward and rips her arrow free of its mouth.

She stares at more ahead of her and hisses as she quickly releases arrow after arrow, firing into as many as she could see. Once her final one is spent she quickly whips her skinning knife free again and slashes and stabs and swipes with it, rending flesh apart with fluidity and grace.

She hisses as she guts the final worm, chucking its corpse aside before rushing to the terminal and staring at it. She has no idea how to use one. Her eyes scanned its many buttons and levers, before simply hitting the big red button. There was a loud hiss and the groaning of gears moving as the pipe was sealed off, pinching the cooling supply off to the security core.

It grumbles outside noticing the loss of fluids and the slight rise in its temperature, earning an immediate response. Four miniguns are created around the room, who all snap up to the ceiling where the wood nymph was, and fire.

Luckily she was already hurriedly making her way back towards Ice Queen when the bullets tear up the floor behind her. She snaps at them then scrambles down the hall like a bat out of hell as the bullets start to fill the engineering tunnel, swiftly turning the floor into Swiss cheese.

She dives out of the end, barely flinching at the roaring pain her magic madness scars inflict upon her as she arcs through the air. She lands silently before Ice Queen, immediately snapping up and pointing at the door back out into the main room, "How are we getting by the turrets?"

The royal suddenly grins, and raises a ball of solid ice, "I took my time charging this spell up, it puts less stress on my body." She strolls forward towards the door, then presses herself against the wall next to it.

She leans forward, then throws the door open while chucking the ice ball at the sentries awaiting them. It explodes as she slams the doors shut, letting the swarm of ice shrapnel fly in all directions to shred the turrets.

Smirking smugly, the blue woman opens the door and strolls outside, Huntress swiftly following her as they stare at the shredded threats. However, other sentries across the room now shift their fire to them, Ice Queen hurriedly creating a wall of ice as the bullets slam into it.

Hurriedly, Huntress spins around and presents her back as the royal awkwardly hops on, before the blue woman creates a cocoon of ice around them. The only part not finished is the leg area, where the wood nymph within swiftly dashes around the wall.

Bullets slam into their protective shell as Huntress dives off the edge over the ladder, hitting the ground where they promptly bounce a little. Lead bullets no longer pound them, causing the royal to hurriedly dispel their cocoon, finding themselves back on the ground.

And surrounded.

Guards holding spears, shotguns, rifles, even a commando with two pistols snap aim at them as Ice Queen panics. She quickly waves her right arm, releasing an arc of ice magic that slams into the hostiles, freezing them all solid.

As they tumble over and shatter, the female duo glance to their right and locate Finn still in his ice cocoon protection, being pounded by a hail of bullets. They move to help, but then the floor before them launches upwards as a solid platform block, denying them their advancement as they are completely caged in.

Huntress readies an arrow, "We need to take out those turrets." She says matter-of-factly, causing the royal to spray a thin ramp to the top of a platform. The wood nymph hurries up it and instantly locks onto the closest turret scattered around the room and fires.

The arrow shoots through the air with a whistle, before striking the barrel spinning weaponry right in its ammo feeder. The supply chain is broken as the sentry continues to spin it barrels, no more smoking hot lead flying free. At its death six more turrets spring up, all of them spraying their deadly load at the wood nymph.

She hurriedly ducks back down, skidding down the ice ramp as she glances at Ice Queen, "We need a new plan."

The royal shakes her head, "Other than me making us a shield as we rush across to the other coolants, I can't think of another one. And I don't exactly want to pop my head up to see if I can find a new solution." Huntress nods as she puts her bow onto her back again, then presents it to the royal, "Then that's what we'll have to do."

She hops on just like Finn did during the Grumbo, before creating a wall of ice on her arm. Huntress wasn't a major fan of anyone being in a spot only Finn is usually allowed in, but she'll give it a pass this time as she leaps over the wall around them.

She darts across the uneven ground as bullets pound into the ice barrier the royal was constantly having to repair.

The raised floorboards shift, rising and lowering themselves yet Huntress is easily able to keep up, leaping and jumping over gaps as she makes it to the next coolant room. Suddenly a sentry sprouts up right before her, just out of Ice Queen's protection as it barrels spin, firing a beam of lead towards her.

The wood nymph grunts as she leaps into the air, the barrel rising up to track her just as she flings some seeds. They hit the sentry and explode into a swarm of vines that wrap around and crush the weapon, causing it to explode violently.

While its rounds cook-off, she hits the floor with a pained grunt as magic madness stings her, messing up the landing and skidding painfully across the floor platform. A floor platform that promptly sinks down then launches back upwards, throwing them in the air while they flail.

Bullets from other turrets still slam into them as Ice Queen desperately attempts to protect them both still, grunting as her wall struggles to hold as she glances at Huntress. Luckily she was alright as she hurriedly gets up, and carries on, ignoring any pain she was in to complete her goal.

She makes it to the ladder, where she grunts as she gradually lifts Ice Queen and herself up it. The royal suddenly baulks as the ice wall she was projecting begins to fail, and when she tries to put more magic into it her gut wound roars with pain. She spasms and yells out with eyes wide, "Hurry!"

The wood nymph reaches the top of the ladder and into the small platform to discover two sentries waiting for them. She rushes by them towards the door before they could even fire, the sentries now firing into the ice shield that Ice Queen was struggling to hold up.

Huntress grabs the door leading to the coolant room, ripping it open and rushing it inside and slamming the metal door shut. She stares at a room full of guards, armed with shotguns. She pushes Ice Queen off her as the other woman flops onto the floor with a yell of shock, while Huntress charges her foes.

They focus on her with her being the only threat, snapping their guns to her and firing away, causing her to dash to the side to evade. The hot plasma strikes the coolant tank, causing a rupture as freezing cold coolants flood out.

The wood nymph's eyes go wide before she desperately jumps upwards as far as she can just as the freezing liquids flood by her. She reaches atop the coolant tank and glances downwards at the guards below, discovering them now practically statues as they are frozen solid.

She snaps to Ice Queen, who she discovers is glaring up at her from the sea of cold liquids, up to her waist of the rapidly growing coolant levels. She was unharmed, completely immune to anything cold but was utterly soaked as she grumbles.

She steps up to the coolant tank and grunts as she flaps her eyebrows, lifting herself to the air with a struggle. As she approaches, Huntress does her best to help her up, though holds back at her insanely low temperature, trying not to touch her.

The woman eventually gets up, sitting atop the leaking, damaged coolant container with a sigh, clutching her gut. Huntress moves to check her wound, but Ice Queen quickly pushes her away and points to the pipe, "Go! The hole will lower its levels but won't stop the flow completely. Go and shut off the pipe."

She nods and sets off with haste, whipping her bow free again as she jumps onto the struggling pipe. She snaps her bow up as she scans down the hallway for threats, but luckily doesn't discover anything this time.

She stares for another second before making her way down it with both haste and caution, staying alert for some threat. Strangely, nothing appears as she reaches the console, where she swiftly activates the big red halt button. The pipe seals off from the human core, starving it of more coolant as she spins around to return to Ice Queen.

Only for a four-legged beast that had smashed down doors and ice walls to charge towards her. She spins to the side to avoid it while it smashes into the terminal, broken electrical equipment sparking like hell as a result.

Uncaring about the burning hot sparks burning her incredibly flammable body, she whips her knife free and plunges it into the back of the armoured beasts. It screams and flails, but she is quickly able to tug the knife to a spot where she severs its spine nerve endings.

It goes still as it loses control of most of its body, causing the wood nymph to silently whip her weapon free and rush towards Ice Queen again. She is unbothered this time, hopping out of the tube to find the woman nursing her wound with one hand and readying a spell in her other.

She nods at the green woman leaping towards her, "I'm good to go, but we should be as quick as possible, especially since most of the turrets are distracted on Finn right now. We need to do this as quickly as possible."

Huntress shakes her head as she this time grabs the royal with her arms, holding her bridal style, "I know. But I trust him to hold on for a long time." She darts towards the metal door out of the room, takes a deep breath in preparation, then boots it off its hinges as Ice Queen creates a protective bubble of ice around them.

They both could immediately feel and hear the bullets pounding their protection as they rushed forward, although the wood nymph's vision was severely obstructed. Which is the explanation for why she runs their protective bubble into a guard.

They trip on the hostile when they had suddenly collided into it, falling to the floor as Ice Queen keeps up the protection with a broken expression of pain. The soldier immediately jams his gun into the massive leg hole Huntress had to run, but the wood nymph swiftly boots it away.

The weapon goes flying off the edge of the platform, causing the guard to whip its bayonet knife free in a desperate attempt to stab her. However, she had already had her own skinning knife free by then, and as it jabbed its tentacle limb in to stab her in the leg she thrust her blade into her attacker.

Blood squirts out of its serious wound on its arm as it spasm and drops its weapon, quickly retracting its injured limbs. Huntress grunts as she suddenly dives to one side of her sphere protection, the ice ball rolling to the side and away from the alien. The sentries what were still pounding them tracked their moving target, the stream of lead fire mincing the guard as they rolled behind it.

Upon hearing the sickening sound of flesh being torn apart, Huntress hurriedly picks up the royal suffering from her wounds and gets onto her feet. Ice Queen was now struggling to hold the ice barrier as the wood nymph rushes forward, sudden cracks appearing in their protection.

She was struggling to focus on the spell with the burning pain in her gut. That fall had harshly pulled on something which should not have been pulled. Huntress wears a stoic expression at her friend's pained expression in her arms and hurries as best as she can to the next coolant. What was a bit hard considering that she could no longer see, the royal not removing the frontal protection from earlier.

The floor still bops and waves, trying its best to knock her over and play her like ping pong, but her agility prevails as she keeps her footing. She bounds and leaps over the holes of lowered platforms, sticking close to the wall for a point of reference. Then one of her jumps brings her over a burning pit of fire.

Her eyes go wide and she yells in effort as she dives to the back of her ice cage, causing it to spin forward, sending them upside down. The ice bubble acts as a shield as they smash into the fire and bounce forward and out as Ice Queen groans. Huntress gives her a worried glance, before focusing back on their mad sprint for survival as she lands the bounce back on her feet.

However, the cracks on the ice shield only get worse as Huntress frowns, and pushes her speed to its limits. It was not enough though as their protective bubble shatters, the royal no longer able to keep it up. Luckily Huntress was mid-leap when it happened, and dives into a pit instead before the turret could turn them into mincemeat.

They crash inside, a raised platform protecting them from the barrage of bullets as Huntress hurriedly checks on Ice Queen. The other woman waves her back, "I'm fine! I just wasn't able to keep it up anymore." The platform they were on rises while the one protecting them lowers, Huntress's eyes going wide.

She grips her best friend tightly then dives atop a platform, bullets streaming towards her as she desperately sprints to the ladder right before her. She travels the short distance, evading bullets by ducking, diving, dashing side to side, any frantic evasive moves that might save them.

A bullet strikes Ice Queen's armour and bounces off, a too close of a call for the wood nymph as she dives at the ladder. For obvious safety reasons, there were no moving platforms at the ladder, giving a moment to think for Huntress. She stares up the ladder, down at the blue woman in her arms, then behind her where turrets were waiting to shoot her.

She grimaces and flicks her attention to Ice Queen, "Can you do any spells right now?"

She shakes her head with a pained gasp, "Nope, hurts too much to focus on a spell."

The wood nymph returns to her stoic expression as she glances behind her at her unmoving cover of some raised pillars. She carefully puts Ice Queen down, "I'll be right back after I destroy this coolant. Just stay here."

The royal weakly shakes her head however, "No, there are guards about now, remember? They were just in the other cooling room, and I think some were around Finn."

Huntress remains silent. "... Then I shall have to carry you inside with me… but how?" She glances about, then stares at the ladder, or more accurately the wall it was attached to.

She hums in thought, and reaches forward, feeling the white surface until finding the seam of where metal slabs were. Smirking, she rips one of her four remaining arrows free and jams it into the seam and cautiously begins to attempt to pry it off. No good, not enough leverage. She stares for a second, then to her ice blade she still had and quickly ripping it free.

With a grunt of effort, she rams it as best as she can at the metal slab, just like Finn has done for the doors several times now. She fails and admittedly takes multiple attempts before she is able to get her blade into the gap, not as efficient as a sword master. Finally, with a much bigger weapon, she tries to pry the metal slabs apart again and succeeds as they break apart with a screech.

She pulls her weapon back before using her bare hands and might to tear the metal slab completely off. Peering curiously inside, she grins at what she finds, discovering a mess of pipes and wires, a hollow room.

She grabs Ice Queen and holds her tight as she ventures inside, cautiously making her way into the inner workings of the Citadel. She walks across electrical cables, using her skills of traversing vines in the forest to her advantage, slowly making her way deeper.

She heads up and forwards, eyes locked on a massive amount of pumps and tubes pumping something to a massive container. The coolant chamber. She smirks as she sneaks forward and glances at the whirling machines as they carry the cold fluids from deeper within the Citadel. She unfortunately doesn't see a weakness, not without her using magic that is, ruining that plan as she sighs and makes her way upwards.

Finding the floor plate, she silently pulls her arm back then harshly punches at it, breaking it off its bolts as it goes flying into the room.

She swiftly pokes her head up and frantically scans around for any possible threat, only to discover nothing waiting for her as she nods in approval. She lifts herself up, grabbing and tugging the royal out as well then gently laying her to rest on the floor next to her, giving her a look over.

Her breathing was heightened, and her hand was seemingly glued to her flared up wounds, eyes squint shut in pain as the wood nymph shakes her head, "Alright, you're staying here for a bit."

Ice Queen nods, "Yeah, but I'll only need a minute or two, I'll come back to help when I can." She sighs, flexing her hand a bit to make a tiny ice cube to sit atop her wound, cooling her burning hot wound, "I'm already feeling better… I think the tiara might be doing something to help null the pain."

Huntress raises an eyebrow, 'The tiara gives her ice powers. How is it messing with her body?' Shaking it off for a question to ask later, she hurries on back to the mission. Finn was in an ice shield distracting sixteen turrets, and Ice Queen was out for now.

She was all alone to handle a pre-war human AI. She hurries up the coolant tank, quickly scaling its large damaged form before climbing up its pipe to the engineering deck. To discover two shotguns waiting for her.

Her eyes go wide at the duo, and backflips immediately out of the tunnel. Her foot swings up and kicks one of the weapons aim off just as they fired, the second soldier missing due to her falling out the engineering level.

She follows the momentum of her backflip as she falls back down to land next to Ice Queen perfectly on her feet in a squat. Her hands snap to her back and pull free her bow and arrow, hurriedly drawing and taking aim as she stares up at the tunnel.

The guards rush out with guns up as well, where one of them immediately gets an arrow to face before it could even fire. The second one again, however, is able to fire, the plasma burst shooting towards her as she dives backwards in hopes of escaping.

Suddenly an ice wall sprouts up, blocking the burning hot plasma as Huntress's eyes go wide. Still, she hurriedly loads another arrow and releases it at her foe as it pumps its gun for a second round. It falls over the edge dead as Huntress nods in approval, then snaps to Ice Queen, "What do you think you're doing?" She orders to the groaning royal on the ground, clutching her wound.

She smirks smugly a little, "Being in pain to help my best friend. Now get in there and turn off the pump." Huntress grits her teeth, before shooting back up to the engineering deck, whipping her skinning knife free for close-quarter combat.

There were no other troops waiting for her, however, causing her to swiftly recover her spent arrows while she could. The Citadel is definitely feeling the crunch of no power with their lacklustre guard force as she rushes down the corridor. She arrives at the control panel and hits the button to seal up the pipe of coolant, earning a warning to be blared out in an alien language.

She could likely bet it was about the core's temperature.

She rushes back down the engineering deck and leaps free, landing down next to Ice Queen. She glances at the royal, "I'm carrying you."

The royal shakes her head, "No, I need time to have a quick cool down, and I will only weigh you down. Go on, find a way. You and Finn always do."

The wood nymph snorts, "And leave you alone? You'll be killed by some guard while I'm gone."

Ice Queen giggles, "My magic is returning HW, but just not that strong yet. I can summon icicles, then maybe a turret in a minute, then my guards. A shield to withstand multiple machine guns will be out of my reach for a bit. Go, I'm not dying to some lowly guards."

Huntress grits her teeth again, shaking her head as she moves to the dislodged floor plate and slips into the depths of the citadel again. She stares at the innards of the prison, then hurriedly begins climbing across and atop wires and pipes, making her way towards the final coolant tank. Being below ground, the sentries were unable to spot her, making her stop for a second to plan.

Eventually, she carefully makes her way to a wall slab, then grabs some sturdy pipes above her as she raises a leg. With all her might she boots the wall slab, the part flying off, creating a window into the main security room as she stares inside.

The turrets had seemingly not noticed her, too focused on firing onto Finn's ice shell and keeping aim locked on the spot they had last seen her. She immediately goes to help Finn out, pulling an arrow free once more as she takes aim at one of the eight pounding him.

She has only four arrows, and no way to recover them.

She grimaces, then sighs as she decocks her weapon, humming for another solution, before going wide-eyed. She swiftly glances over the edge at the workings going deeper into the Citadel, and makes her way down.

She glances about the mess of moving pistons and wires, and eventually finds the things she was looking for: the sentries power supply. To pop out of the floor and walls, they had to be powered on motors, to move and track her, it had to be powered, and that was its weakness. Ahead of her, a bullet chain fed up into the gun from a massive ammo drum, and right next to it were a bunch of wires.

It was clear what the wires were connected to as she cautiously flicks her attention upwards at the platforms moving up and down above her. If she was careful, then she should be able to crawl underneath them without being crushed. She silently gets down onto her chest and begins her long journey to the first sentry to disarm it.

If she was lucky, then this will be all the security the room will have.

She slowly makes her way over, massive pressurised pistons pumping all around her as they move the car-sized platforms, keeping her nervous but focusing on helping her Finn.

Finally, she arrives at the base of the sentry, squinting as she stares at the solid, in-uniform collection of wires, all combined into a block like a honeycomb. She simply rolls her neck, and pulls her ice sword free, glancing at the bullets in a chain to her left, shooting up into the weapon trying to kill Finn. She scowls and slashes her sword at the wires.

They split, releasing a nasty burst of electricity what easily travels up the watery ice form of the sword. Her eyes go wide as she is filled with electrical currents, before exploding as she is launched backwards in smoke.

She falls limply with her mind scrambled into the heart of the Citadel, where grinding gears and smashing pistons await her. She suddenly snaps back to her senses, her limbs snapping out in all directions as she swiftly grabs a hold of a bunch of pipes. She jolts to a halt as the metal pipes shake and groan at her sudden weight, but hold as she moans in pain, still smoking slightly.

She recovers and glances up at the turret, discovering the sparking wires swinging in the air, the bullet chain next to it no longer moving. She smirks weakly and lifts herself into the metal pipe she was holding onto, quickly flicking her gaze at the environment to find her way back up to other turrets.

The infamous metaphor of cities and factories just being steel and concrete jungles proves true as Huntress uses her forest climbing skills to leap from wires and pipes with ease. She smirks as she swiftly makes her way to the next turret, quickly stopping to find a new way of severing the power supply. She hums, before glancing up at the top of the wires, staring at where it connected to the turret for a clue.

She discovers an emergency shut off, a multi-lock system to stop it from jiggling free yet still allowing for an emergency turn off in case it went rogue. She grimaces at her previous stupidity while reaching up for it, yanking open to slabs to find two pins inside. She pulls them both out, then grabs the wire stuffed box, and squishes two buttons before yanking the wires out.

Immediately the turret loses power as she smiles, 'Alright, two down, fourteen to go…' She notes, before hurrying off to disable security for Finn and Ice Queen.

Finn meanwhile remains seated in his protective shell, worrying profusely while also going deaf at the sound of six miniguns pounding the ice shield. He has no idea where Huntress or Ice Queen were. He had no idea about their state or health. He doesn't know if they're alive or dead. He doesn't know what he should do.

He was stuck in the ice spell until the miniguns stop shooting him, and the only way they'll do that is if the women can somehow destroy them. But they could be dead, much to his deepest fear. They may be alive, he had heard thumps next to him earlier, but he can't be sure. He releases his breath and simply waits. He trusts that his hard huntress and stubborn royal will refuse to die.

Suddenly he hears another machine gun go down. That's the third one now. He can't help but smirk, already knowing who was behind it, 'You go girls!' Gradually, he hears the bullets stop pounding his position in his ice cocoon, the turrets going down one by one until finally, it goes silent.

He hesitates, then drops his protection. He immediately rolls evasively, but nothing attacks him, causing him to rise. Then he gets launched skywards by a floor platform, the hero yelping in shock as he flails his arms. He tumbles towards the ground as he swiftly rights himself and lands, before bursting forward into the violently shifting floor platforms.

He snaps his gaze about, yet the women do not appear before him, slightly worrying him before he shrugs it off, 'Ok, focus on the AI.' He orders himself, staring at the giant human-machine staring at him from the centre of the room before dashing towards it.

It projects a barrier up, though it wasn't a full three-sixty tech shield due to the power struggles, making him grimace, 'Where are you, girls?' He snaps his attention about and discovers that half of the turrets, though were now disabled, were locked onto some door at the perimeter of the room. He snaps towards the elevated platform, darting from raised and lowered platforms with ease.

Until they suddenly become lava.

He gives a cry of shock as he swiftly swings his sword downwards, the nightsword plunging into the melted rock as he flips over the hole. He tugs his weapon free as he lands, snapping back to have a quick glance at the lava pit that came out of nowhere before rushing forward. The human war core hums, 'Tactic ineffective. Plan scrapped. Rest in hell.'

The lava pit disappears and the floor platforms all go flat to act as a floor again, much to Finn's worry. He carefully watches the machine still protecting itself with a barrier, where the cylinder in the middle of the room changes. Its infinite faces slide into the floor to reveal an inner layer, covered in smaller circle disks that all begin to grow red.

The hero wastes no time and leaps at the ladder, swiftly climbing up as massive red lasers shot out of the disks. He had luckily just reached past the danger point as he climbed onto the platform while the lasers shredded the ladder behind him.

He snaps around to face the human core as more objects move about the room, causing the hero to rush into the room before he discovers what was next. The moment he steps inside he suddenly has to jump to the side as an icicle shoots past him, Finn already getting into a fighting stance. He and Ice Queen stare one another down before they both release a sigh and lower their arms.

He raises an eyebrow at the woman still resting on the floor by the popped open floor plate, "What happened? Where's Huntress!?"

He inquires in worry, causing her to giggle slightly, "We're fine Finn. Huntress is below the ground, currently navigating through the wires and pipes to the other coolant. But how did you escape your ice cocoon? I thought sentries had you pinned?"

He shrugs, "They stopped, so I'm guessing Huntress did something to them. All of them, there are no turrets out there now, though there are lasers now." He shakes his head, "But we both know what I meant just then. I want to know what happened to you, why are you on the ground?"

She sighs, "Yeah, yeah, I knew what you meant… I… pushed myself a little too far." She admits with a blush, "Held up an ice barrier longer than I should have. But I'm fine now!"

He picks her up anyways, holding her blushing form close as he glances down into the hole Huntress had climbed down into, "Is she coming back?"

Ice Queen shakes her head, "No, she was going to continue to fight, and I was to come out when I was ready. She's going to the last cooling room, likely to shut it off so we can try to overheat the core."

Sure enough, in the final engineering tunnel, Huntress stabs her skinning knife into the skull of a rifleman. She lets its body flops beside her as she silently strolls up to the control panel, and presses the shut-off button, sealing up the cooling pipe.

Sirens blare as she spins around then hurries out, hoping to find the others fast in case the core overheats and blows them all to smithereens. She dashes out the tunnel and towards the door, jumping over the hole in the floor where she had burst in.

She darts out of the room, staring at the core as it glares back, before she snaps around for the others, expecting to see them in battle. She can't see Finn anywhere but does see deadly lasers, causing a lump of panic to form in her before she calms herself, then charges at the core. It suddenly activates its shield, the one-third barrier causing her to skid as it releases a deep mechanical groan, calculating its heat levels.

Finn and Ice Queen were just about to dive into the hole to find their missing wood nymph when they suddenly heard its deep groan. They stop and glance at one another, before they both rush towards the door, Finn going first with his tech shield ready.

They discover Huntress staring the human core down as it hisses with heat release, "Temperature build-up detected, searching cause… coolant valves manually closed by personal. Estimated time to overheat… six hours and twenty-eight minutes. Conclusion: crush intruders so engineers may undo commands. Rest in hell."

With that, Huntress growls, then she catches sight of the other duo as she releases a sigh of relief. Ice Queen then shouts as loudly as she can to the wood nymph, "THAT DIDN'T GO TO PLAN!"

Huntress simply squints, then focuses back on the core, "Then we need a new one." She yells back.

Ice Queen grabs Finn, then grunts as she flaps her eyebrows, lifting them both to the air while scrunching her face up in pain. She gives a cry of effort as she carries her knight over towards the wood nymph, her gut wound crunching her insides. They shoot over the spinning lasers as the human core grumbles in annoyance, computing a solution to the pests, 'Power levels are still low. Accessing lower energy level purge functions.'

The royal makes it to Huntress, who swiftly helps Finn from her arms then checks on the royal, who smirks, "Told you I just needed a break. But I have a plan." The other two immediately snap to attention as she continues, "That protective barrier it had is only covering a third of it. So we're going to split its attention. I don't know how you're going to injure it, Huntress, but I brought Finn here to help defend you while you do whatever you're going to do." She then rolls her shoulders, "While I'll fly about and blast it with what magic I can muster."

Huntress squints, "The thing is, I don't think I have anything I can do to injure it. You said to find a way to do so but I don't have a way to. We have nothing on us, we can't injure it. And I thought you were injured? You can't strain yourself." She challenges while Finn watches the core, discovering it shifting as it sends off new orders, and the room shifts.

His eyes go wide as the laser plates deactivate, then a thunk behind them as he spins around. He sees two thick wires touch the metal floor they were standing on, and he immediately dives at the women, tackling them off the edge.

He lands on his feet just as the wires activate and electrocute the platforms in the room, causing him to swiftly let go of Ice Queen and Huntress. They all immediately rush towards the core, Ice Queen splintering off to the side to distract it while Finn yells, "Drill!" His robot arm activates as the core groans, the human war machine trying to split its attention.

In the end, it focuses completely on Ice Queen and her powerful magic, keeping the barrier locked on her while Finn grins. With a yell, he leaps into the air and lands on the small platform underneath, instantly swinging his arm up to smash his spinning hand into its grey metal shell.

Sparks fly as his hand drills into it, causing its emergency subroutines to kick in. It creates a hole in the ground beneath it, where several mechanical arms pop up and slash and snatch at the hero. He hops back, swinging his sword desperately to push the numerous limbs back, unaware of an incoming giant saw.

Huntress dives at him, yanking him to safety as they fall off the platform and onto the floor. They stare at the massive spinning saw, discovering it coming from an arm that had popped out of the ceiling. In fact, several more drop down all about the core as it still focuses its shields on Ice Queen flying around it. Finn glances at Huntress, "... I think we just found our way to hurt it."

She nods and immediately dashes off towards the threats as the roar of the spinning blades fill her ears. One comes from her fight, causing her to leap forwards to evade, the massive saw cutting the ground instead of her with a rain of sparks. The next comes from ahead, causing her to spin to the side as it swoops by her, and the final came from the left.

It shoots towards her and she hops into the air, spinning onto her back as she arcs over the deadly spinning blade. She lands onto the arm the saw was connected to, and immediately it jolts upwards to shake her off. She holds on tight, then carefully crawls her way to the arm joint, then waits until the perfect moment.

With a scream of rage, she uses her entire body to push the saw downwards, just as its crazy spinning brings it in line with the core. The spinning blade bites into the metal hull with a screech, a massive wound being cut into the human war machine's back.

It spasms and orders a hard shut off, stopping all saws immediately as the arms retract and pull away. They rise up to the ceiling as Huntress hurriedly hops off, landing beside Finn as they both stare down the core for whatever it was going to do next. The electricity at the cooling platforms shut off, but the laser plates around the core warm-up as they both go wide-eyed.

The duo desperately spin around and dash away as fast as they can, rushing to the platform with their lives on the line. They reach it, where Huntress promptly jumps on Finn's shoulder for him to give her a boost up, the woman pulling herself up the rest of the way.

She spins around and hurriedly gives her hand to the hero while he jumps up to reach, their hands clapping together before she grunts in effort. She tugs him up to safety just as the lasers activate, red beams of death now sweeping around the floor below as they stare.

Finn sighs and glances at the walls near the door to the coolant room, staring at where the electric wires used to be, "... The core is not doing much, is it?"

He notes, causing Huntress to raise an eyebrow, "What?"

He flicks his gaze to her, "It's not doing anything crazy or major, is it? Like it's not even having the lasers and this electric floor on at the same time," He taps the ground they were on, "Why not both? We would have nowhere to run and surely would die."

The wood nymph immediately slaps a hand over his mouth, "Finn, don't give it ideas." She casually warns, causing him to pull her hand off his face.

He points at the ceiling where the saws were now hiding, "No, what I'm trying to say is its power is limited due to being on emergency generators. It can't do much right now. We literally just have to split up our efforts, attack from multiple angles, and it won't be able to stop all of our attacks." He stares at her, "We need to make too many threats for its power supply to manage."

She nods with a smirk, "Get Ice Queen to create all her minions."

Immediately Finn waves his hands, yelling for Ice Queen when another thought struck the wood nymph, who immediately turns around to face the door to the cooling room. She rushes forward, darting inside and locking onto the engineering level, swiftly climbing up into it.

There, she finds the guard she had killed and the plasma rifle it had owned laying on the ground, causing her to smirk. Picking up the weapon she gives it a quick look over before nodding in approval, finding no damage to her admittedly untrained eyes. Rushing back outside she discovers Ice Queen and Finn had already discussed the plan, and the royal was now flying circles around the room.

On all four coolant room platforms, she sprayed them full of ice archers, who then released a barrage of ice arrows. They all pinged off the cores armour, but small wires and pipes were severed or punctured all around it as it spasms, more systems failing.

It releases a robotic screech, "Stop at once, lay down and die. Rest in hell." Huntress simply smirks and aims her newly acquired automatic rifle at the human core, pulling the trigger. A stream of plasma smashes into the side of the robot's face, the giant viewing optic jerking away to protect its head. An action that moves its barrier, allowing Ice Queen to launch magic at it unhindered, ice spikes smashing into the core's hull.

They pierce through, breaking more circuitry as it spasms, and eventually roars, "Enough!" The spinning lasers stop while its protective energy barrier spreads, completely encasing it in a full three-sixty wall.

The arms from below it come up again and begin to repair it as Finn grimaces and snaps around for a solution. There was nothing. What just meant he had to create his own solution. He turns to Huntress, "Think you can go below the ground and destroy whatever is creating its shield?"

She nods, "Yep, come on!" She spins around and rushes into the coolant room again, the hero right behind her as she heads towards the hole she popped up from. Sliding back inside, the duo begins to crawl around, heading towards the human war machines base.

They swiftly arrive, finding the pistons and gears moving the arms that were repairing it, but in fear of being crushed by the moving parts, they leave it be. Instead, they focus on where the barrier was being projected from: a bunch of cylinders with the barrier likely coming out of the top. Huntress points at the underneath where some incredibly thick, heavy-duty wires were plugged in, "Go at it, you're immune to being electrocuted."

He nods as he pulls his sword back, yelling as he swings into it. His sword bites into it, causing electricity to arc through him, though he simply pulls his sword back out and swings again, chopping away at the cable.

It eventually breaks, snapping off and falling downwards with a *twang*, the duo watching it for a second before shifting their attention to the other cables. They had a few to go. They sigh and start to get to work on the next one, Huntress supporting Finn as he cut away. Ice Queen meanwhile grins as she stands on the floor and stares up at the core.

The barriers obviously took a lot of power to run, for it was not doing anything else to harm her, just staring at her as it repaired itself. Then a small sliver of its shield disappears, and immediately the royal snaps her arm up, creating an ice ball in her hand.

Desperately the human core deactivates some more barriers so it may instead turn on the saw arm above its foe. It pops out of the ceiling before she could lob the ball, roaring towards her as she rolls to the side to evade. She flings the ice orb at the arm, the attack colliding and exploding into a biting blizzard of icicles.

They shred the spinning blade completely as it promptly shatters, the exploding fragments flying in all directions. The large bits luckily miss Ice Queen, and the tiny bits bounce harmlessly off her ice armour as she protects her face with her arms.

Her archers, however, exploit the moment, using the small areas where the shields had dropped to fire more arrows at the core. They damage more wires, and then another part of the barrier suddenly drops thanks to Huntress and Finn below. The core gives up, deactivating its barriers to go on the full offensive, activating the electric floors and all the saws.

Ice Queen's minions are all instantly fried while the woman herself stares at all the saws coming for her. She fires a large ice projectile into the floor so hard it shatters the metal plate, and swiftly yells, "Guys get up here!"

The duo stop their chopping of another wire to stare at the hole she had just made, then rush towards her cry for help. They reach the hole, Huntress hoping up first, grabbing the lip of the sharp metal before flipping herself up silently. Then she spins around and swiftly offers a hand to Finn, swiftly lifting him up as well while Ice Queen goes crazy with spells.

The moment he is lifted up into the main room again, he discovers the situation as a saw comes straight for them. He swiftly shoves Huntress away from the danger then activates his tech shield, the spinning blade slamming into him.

It is completely halted in its tracks, which allows Huntress to swiftly latch on and fiddle with the saw, trying to find something she could break or turn off. She is rewarded with nothing, causing her to grimace just as the arm moves away from its fruitless efforts of harming Finn. The hero lowers his shield as he watches Huntress ride the retreating limb, Finn yelling up, "You see a weakness!?"

She shakes her head as the saw tries to remove her, swinging her about the room, "No!"

Ice Queen flicks her gaze to the staring core, "Try and protect me! I'll throw a bunch of spells at it!" She demands, causing her knight to immediately dash to her side, sword and tech shield at the ready. She creates another blizzard ball and swiftly lobs it just as a saw buzzes towards her from the side, Finn dashing in to the rescue.

He blocks the spinning blade with his shield again just as the orb strikes the core, exploding into an icy hell. Icicles shred the human war machine as it screeches in pain, causing Ice Queen to smirk and ready another.

Suddenly the saws go dead, the electric floor stops, and the working barriers go up, protecting the core from her attacks. She huffs and makes her way around to a part where its shield was down and draws back her arm. Only to hear a gun power-up behind her.

She spins around with eyes wide to find a guard with a shotgun gun pointed at her gut, right where she was shot last time. Finn acts the knight that he is as he tackles Ice Queen to safety while Huntress lights the guard up with plasma. Her rifle mows the alien down while Finn picks a grimacing royal up, quickly snapping his head about, "Where did it come fro-"

He stops upon seeing several more crawl free of the massive hole in the floor caused by the human hunter's explosive death. He snaps to Huntress, "Can you hold them back?" She nods, instantly firing the gun poorly, not using the scope at all. She fires in their general location as they climb up, the stray homing plasma nailing them all while the other two focus on the core.

They find its barriers down again and the saws shooting towards them. They both immediately evade to allow a spinning blade to scream past them, the duo flicking immediately scrambling towards the core again. It activates its repair arms again, who all immediately snap at the couple with pinching claws and burning hot soldering irons.

Finn backs it up, glancing at Huntress as she has to stop firing to leap away from a saw slamming down on her position. He snaps to Ice Queen, "We've got to find a way to actually kill it!"

They dash backwards to avoid another spinning blade, the royal snapping about, "What can we hit if it somehow constantly makes us back away from it!? And in one hit because it's just going to repair any damage we do!"

Finn grimaces and scans the room as well. They had to do something it wouldn't expect, nor really counter.

He looks upwards.

"... Can you bring down the ceiling?"

She stops and stares up above them. "We don't know until we try." The hero snaps to another saw coming flying towards him and flicks his attention to the arm it was connected to. Which was connected to the ceiling. He charges it unflinchingly as it rockets at him head-on. At the last second he spins to the side, the blade shooting past him as he snaps a hand out, grabbing the arm as he is yanked into the air.

The saw, upon realising Finn was on it, immediately shakes about violently, attempting to fling him off. He holds on, refusing to become a splat against the wall while at the same time crawling up the metal, unaware of another saw coming flying towards him. The incoming spinning blade is slammed by ice, sending it careering off course as Ice Queen growls on the ground.

The rest of the saws in the room rocket towards her with her death on their CPU minds, though she smirks smugly. Immediately she takes to the air as they cut where she just was, the royal grunting in pain as she strains her magic and blasts downwards.

She is able to freeze three solid to the ground, but another two escaped and were now trying to swat her out of the sky. Her response is to spray some snow around the room while blasting forward to evade, hiding near the human war machine's core. It can't hurt her without hitting something important.

The core growls in a robotic groan and turns off the arms to activate the barriers due to her being right next to it. Luckily for it too, because the moment it did so, ice arrows patter off its barrier, the snow Ice Queen had made becoming archers. It analyses them, then orders more guards to appear, holes opening up and around the room to attack.

Huntress snaps around at all the new threats around her and starts lighting them up with her plasma rifle, slowly getting overrun by the ones escaping the damage hole. Finn meanwhile reaches the top of the ceiling, and pushes his metal hand above him, "Drill!"

Instantly his arm got to work at creating a hole for him, all the while he glances below at the others. He needed to end this fast. They had no cover and guards were rushing out. But how could he break an entire ceiling? He finishes in drilling a large enough hole and with a grunt lifts himself up, glancing about at anything helpful.

His eyes widen at what he sees, a massive grin appearing on his face. The whole human war machine was supported by only a few security beams and the sea of wires coming out of it. All of which can easily be destroyed with a certain royal's spells.

He snaps back down, hanging onto the saw arm with one hand while he cups the other around his mouth, "ICE QUEEN!" The royal stops her fight with the guards to look up at him, finding him gesturing to her to come.

She snaps to Huntress, who had also heard the yell, and upon realising what was going on, immediately started to run to one of the coolant rooms. Ice Queen swoops towards her, picking her up and carrying her up to the platform where she could safely make a stand without being overrun by guards.

Finally, the royal rockets towards Finn, who hurriedly scrambles back into the ceiling, allowing her to shoot straight through the hole he had made. She snaps her head about in the upper level, then glances at Finn, "What am I doing?"

He instantly points to the support beams, "Breaking those," He shifts his arm to the wires coming out of the core, "And those."

She hums, spreading creating a blizzard ball in her hand, "I can try, it will be a bit of a strain for me."

He nods in understanding, moving to stand behind her, "Then I'll make sure to catch you in my arms when you faint~" She smirks at his tease, and chucks her spell at the first pillar, the orb smashing into and immediately bursting into a blizzard. Swirling large icicles begin to shred away at the metal, taking bites out of it with painful screeches as the duo grimace.

Eventually, it is broken, snapping with a large metal *twang* as the formerly strained beam releases pent up energy. Ice Queen nods with a smirk and begins on the next one: the wires. If they damage that, then who knows what the core will do? Might even outright kill it.

She charges the next spell for a second, then with a grunt throws it at the huge block of wires the size of a truck. Just like the support beam, the black heavy-duty wires are shredded, snapping and bouncing about as it gets destroyed. The human core freezes up beneath them, having lost communication with the rest of the planet-sized citadel.

It could no longer call any more guards. With the lack of incoming orders and the security group already lacking in numbers thanks to the factories being destroyed, they order a halt of support and send them to the rest of the citadel to crush the riots. The core was all alone, there's no help coming for it.

Ice Queen waits for a second, and upon hearing a robotic roar of rage immediately gets back to work on the other support beams.

Huntress meanwhile hides within the coolant room, gun aimed at the door and simply waiting for one of the guards to charge inside. She can hear them outside, still fighting the few remaining archers Ice Queen had summoned earlier, but they won't last forever.

Sure enough, as the archers die off the guards make their way towards her, climbing atop one to reach the raised platform. A soldier rushes through the door only to immediately catch a burst of plasma to the head, courtesy of Huntress.

She grimaces from her position atop the coolant tank, being unable to use her magic to set up traps really holding her back right now. Usually, she could do fine without magic and create normal traps, but in a station without anything for her to use? She was struggling.

Another guard cautiously opens the door to peek its head inside, and she fires again, but it darts back to safety in time. She grimaces, her foes now knowing her exact position. She glances up at the engineering level above the door, and swiftly climbs the pipe to hop up there again.

She positions herself at the edge, aiming downwards at the door literally right below her with a smirk, 'Prey never look up.' The guards burst in, firing their rounds at where she was just moments ago atop the coolant tank.

They puncture holes in the tank, coolant spilling out and freezing them all before they could even react. Her grin only gets larger as the rest hurriedly slam the door shut to stop themselves from meeting the same cold fate. That is, until she realises she is now stuck in the room.

She hums, spinning around to stare down the tunnel she was in, discovering the dead simplings she had killed earlier. She approaches them, and the slime they had laid down to make a nest, curiously prodding a bit with her ice sword. She discovers that the slime was covering a hole, the way that the worm-like creatures had broken in.

She wastes no time, crawling inside to find where it leads, eyes open with huntress vision in case she wasn't alone. She travels for a bit before feeling a weak spot in the floor beneath her hands, a spot that buckled under her weight. She squints, then rearing an arm back she struck at the floor, causing the weakened metal plate to break and go flying off.

She pokes her head down, and discovers herself in one of the many pipes outside the security room, the very ones she had she hopped across to get to the turrets' wires. She crawls out, and cautiously makes her way out, heading to a certain spot.

She leaps across cables and tubes until she reaches the hole she had popped out earlier, where she had seen the miniguns pin Finn. She flicks her gaze between the core and the guards outside the coolant room they believed she was in.

She grins and crawls through the missing wall piece, silently standing tall in the security room, aiming her gun at the guards at the other side of the circular room. She lights them up, plasma mowing them down as they panic and spin around to return fire, but they were too slow and had no cover. In the end, she mows them all down before they could even fire a single shot, causing her to snap her gaze about the room again.

There were no more guards, and it seems no more were coming.

She turns her attention to the core that has already popped up its defensive barrier and activates the saws again. Then the core suddenly buckles with a screech of metal, the ceiling above it bending and weakening, dipping downwards as she smirks and looks upwards, 'Well you two must be having fun up there.' She notes picking up her missing fifth arrow from earlier.

Sure enough, Ice Queen was flinging out another blizzard at another support beam, with Finn supporting her. The floor beneath them was collapsing, the weight of the core becoming too much for the metal to handle with every broken support beam.

At the moment half were gone, and the floor had jolted beneath them, buckling in stress. The royal's knight stood behind the woman, arms around her waist so he may protect her for when the inevitable happens. The blizzard she had just thrown breaks another beam, and the moment it does so the floor drops with a screech.

Finn tightens his grip on Ice Queen and is about to dive backwards with her in his arms when it all suddenly stops. They look around for a sec, then the royal sighs, eyes locked onto another beam, "We're close, just one more…" She warns as she charges up her final spell.

There was a desperate, scared deep robotic roar beneath them from the human war machine, corrupted due to severed wires.

She tosses her spell.

The ice orb strikes the large metal beam.

Hundreds of icicles shred the metal beam.

It snaps.

There was a humongous metal screech as the floor collapsed, metal fully snapping as everything collapsed. Finn swings them backwards, landing on his back at the edge of the snapped metal with Ice Queen atop him, while they both watch the core drop its small distance.

The eye at the very bottom is crushed instantly under its own weight, before the whole mass of the former war machine tips to one side and smashes even further into the room. Hidden power lines in the ceiling are instantly snapped and, at last, the security centre dies.

Huntress dives to the floor and covers her head as metal and sparks rain all around her, though due to her distance from the destroyed core, she was luckily completely fine. She lifts her head, quickly scanning her magic madness wounded plant body for any fires, and sighs in relief as she lifts herself up and glances at the core.

It was definitely out of the fight.

She grins in pride and glances up at the ceiling, giving the staring duo above a thumbs up at their success. They sigh and get up, Ice Queen promptly spinning herself around in her knight's arms and wrapping him up in a tight hug. They enjoy it for a second, before the royal grunts and lifts them both to the air with her eyebrows, peacefully drifting out over the hole.

Slowly she lowers them down to Huntress, who smirks and holds out her arms, staring pleadingly at Ice Queen, "Please."

She giggles and lets go of Finn, letting him fall with a yell of surprise into the wood nymphs awaiting arms, the man staring her in the eyes, "... Hi." She smirks with him, before immediately leaning forward and planting a kiss on his lips, the hero accepting her advancement.

She pulls back a second later though, immediately focusing back on task, "Well, that should have been the last fight, right? We can now just grab your dad and leave?"

He nods, "Yeah, unless we meet anyone on the way, we should be fine…" He glances at himself being held bridal style, "... Any reason for you wanting this?"

She shrugs, "We'll just put it under some remnants of magic madness."

He raises an eyebrow with a cheeky smile, "I don't think it is~"

His tease earns a smirk from the woman, "You're right. But if you want to sleep together when we get home you'll say that's the reason, understand my bear?"

He nods, and she turns around to face a smug Ice Queen, who had her hands on her hips, "Well, if she won't let you in with her, you are always welcome in my bed~"

He shakes his head with sigh and smirk, then shuffles slightly to get out of Huntress's grip, who immediately lets go of him as he quickly checks himself over for any wounds, "Alright, enough post-winning teasing and more trying to free Martin. We need some sort of terminal…"

Everyone stops and starts glancing about, eyes flicking about the grey environment. Ice Queen fidgets, "Erm… I can't see one." She notes. Indeed, there were currently none at all in the room.

They shuffle about, taking curious glances at random points, trying to spot a terminal of some sorts, before Ice Queen grabs Finn and brings him into the air. She lifts them up through the hole in the ceiling, the couple searching around outside of the room, only to find nothing once again.

They land, Finn sighing in frustration, "Don't tell me… don't tell me we just wasted out time! That we just fought that core and lion thing for no reason!" He yells in anger, causing Huntress to squint,

"Keep your cool bear." She then glances at the core, "I'm guessing they for some reason didn't have a failsafe? They kept all the records on the machine here?"

Ice Queen shrugs, "Seems to be they have."

The wood nymph suddenly snaps behind her, eyes squinting.

The others follow her gaze and find… nothing, just like with the terminal, nothing was there. Finn flicks his gaze back to her, "What are you looking at?"

She continues to stare, "I don't know… I just felt something though…" She explains, and for a moment her eyes and wounds flashed momentarily with magic madness, but then it was gone in a blink of an eye. She shakes her head and turns back to the core, "Anyway, we should probably prod this core thing. See if there's any-" She glances over her shoulder again. "... -thing you can grab with your arm." She hurriedly makes her way towards the human war machine, "Who knows, your arm might have enough power for you to get any records."

He cautiously nods, "Alright, I'll try it, although- er, you should probably sit down for a bit." The angry look she gave him immediately told him her answer.

She strolls towards the core, "I'm not mad, I'm just feeling something… something familiar… like when I went mad earlier." She stops dead in her steps, cautiously tightening her grip on the alien rifle still, "It's not the one that sent me mad, that one was different. But this one? I had felt it call out to me during it." She glances at Finn, "Be quick, find Martins position, I'll be keeping my eyes open."

He nods and rushes to the core, promptly ripping a metal plate off its hull and searching through its innard, Ice queen right behind him. Huntress meanwhile stands on guard. Something wasn't right. She hears Finn mutter as he searches the core for a port, causing her to shuffle around a little, 'Hurry Finn… something is here…'

The man was still rummaging through the human war machine's innards until finally, he found something. A large protective black box, with multiple input/output sockets. Of course, there were things already plugged in, so he had to rip them all free, before grunting as he tugs the heavy box out. It was large, what makes sense considering the size of the duty it had to do of containing information about the whole citadel. The hero cautiously plugs his robot arm in, and nothing happens. He grimaces, 'Nope, my arm isn't enough, we need the emergency power.'

Immediately he pulls his sword free and stabs into the ground, and cautiously lifts up the car-sized floor plate with his immense strength. He didn't need much, just enough to squeeze his hand underneath it and grab one of the live wires carrying the emergency power. If it had enough to keep the exploded, half-destroyed lion alive, then it should have enough to power the storage system. With a grunt, he rips the wire up from the floor and into his blade that was currently holding the metal platform up, slashing it in half as electricity arced out, covering his form.

Ice Queen naturally backed away a bit for safety as he brought it towards the power socket of the memory device, letting the power arc its way inside. It wasn't safe nor stable, but as of right now it seemed to have worked as the hero suddenly stares at the list that his metal limb was now projecting, before slowly searching through it. The wood nymph keeps flicking her eyes about, and eventually even drops her alien gun, putting it in Finn's bag before then grabbing his bow off his back. It was a tad awkward around him having to search the prisoner list, but she eventually has it in her hands, feeling much more comfortable with it right now.

She squints, activating huntress vision while readying an arrow.

She sees magic before her.

"Finn! Hurry! There's definitely something here! There's a lot of magic, pure magic before me!" The other two panic, Finn hurriedly searching through the list for a prison the size of a planet while Ice Queen sprays ice before them, creating a defensive wall.

They hear a faint female whisper, "Mistress? Are you there? Are you here?" Finn squints, cursing that there was no search function as he scans through the 'M's in the list. Ice Queen and Huntress squat together, spell and arrow ready for whoever was about to show themselves.

Ice Queen squints, 'That wasn't Hekate's voice. This is someone else…' She glances at Huntress and whispers, "It called for a mistress, any ideas who that is?"

She shakes her head, "I have no idea who the 'mistress' is, but-." Suddenly something seemed different, they felt something had just changed.

"Mistress! I heard her again! I heard her voice!"

The group shuffle their gaze about, trying to figure what had just happened to them, where Finn points upwards, "Erh, girls…"

They snapped at him, then followed his skyward digit. There was once again, nothing. Ice Queen harshly whispers, "What is it!?"

"The wires, the pistons... they aren't moving." The duo flick their attention to the beating heart of the citadel, the mechanical parts needed to make it run. Indeed nothing was moving. The hero turns his head back down, staring at the human war machine before him, and reaches inside, grabbing a bunch of wires and pulling them out. Experimentally, he lets go of them, and a split second after they left his hand they froze, staying completely still in the air, causing him to glance worryingly at the other two, "Time has frozen."

Then they hear footsteps. Immediately they are all on guard, weapons ready as Finn yanks his metal hand free from the storage device. It was currently behind the ice wall Ice Queen had made, and was walking around to the left of it to go around. The women aim at the edge with spells and arrows ready to fly, while Finn holds his blade defensively for whatever or whoever comes around the corner.

The footsteps get closer. They see a leg made of water. They all tense, waiting for the rest of her to show. She reveals herself fully and an icicle and arrow shoots forth.

Only to stop a split second later mid-air, frozen in time. The unknown woman comes around the ice wall. A naked water nymph stares at them all, although her eyes lock onto Huntress and immediately widen, a massive grin forming on her face as her arms open wide, "Mistress of the forest! There you are!" She steps forward, only for Huntress to growl and whip her skinning knife free, and lunge at the woman made of water who hurriedly jumps backwards to evade.

Finn snaps out to Huntress, grabbing her and holding her back, "Wait for a second! I don't think she's here to attack us!"

The magic drained woman flicks her eyes to the hero, "Yes, but I don't like how she knows me or calls me 'mistress'."

Her explanation gets a shake of his head from Finn, 'No unnecessary violence.'

She huffs in annoyance, 'Damn you, you're the only one who can do this!' She stops going on the offensive but does not remove her weapon, instead, pointing it at the woman again, "Alright, you just heard me. Answers." She demands, earning a slight grimace from the water nymph.

She puts up her hands, "Easy. Yeash, you're definitely a feisty one... I know of you because it's my job to be with you, and I call you mistress because you are my boss… though I can tell you already want to change that."

Huntress growls, "Yeah I do, just call me Huntress Wizard, nothing else. And what do you mean I'm your 'boss', and that it is your job to be with me?"

The blue woman sighs, although her eyes were flicking between Huntress and Finn with the very description of annoyance and spite, "Lower the knife, I'm not here to fight. Heck, I'm actually here to explain!" The wood nymph hesitates, but a supportive stare and a hand on her shoulder from Finn eventually persuades the iron-willed woman.

She backs off, lowering her blade as she still scowls at the unknown person before her, "Who are you?"

The water nymph puts a hand to her nude chest, "I am Egeria! Or more accurately, your new servant and assitant midwife." She gives a courtesy with her nonexistent dress, "Pleasure to finally meet you, 'Huntress Wizard'."

The group blink, too stunned to reply as the water person casually stares at them, though gives Finn a scowl constantly. Huntress was the first to return to her senses, "Wait, what do you mean? I don't want a 'servant', I have no idea where you came from or why you want to be my slave." She replies harshly, her grip tightening on her skinning knife in case the obviously mad woman tried anything.

Egeria shrugs nonchalantly, unbothered by Huntress's words at all, "My sole purpose is to serve you… and well, for the moment to train you as well, but that's later! But to answer your previous question, I arrived from the godly realms with the little help of Saturn! He froze time for me, and, using some of our spectral strength, I tore my way to be here, answering your summons."

Finn baulks slightly, "Wait… you're a god?"

She shrugs, "Kind of. I'm not a full one with responsibilities, but I do assist gods and goddesses, like Huntress Wizard!"

The trio glance at one another, Ice Queen immediately asking, "I think you've gotten a little confused… Huntress isn't a goddess, and she doesn't need any training either."

Huntress Wizard growls, "And I don't want a servant! I never even thought of summoning one!"

Egeria raises an eyebrow, "But you did, because we gods wanted you to." She steps up to the wood nymph, and actually pushes Finn away from Huntress, "Just a few hours ago, you summoned me!"

The wood nymph remains silent, then flicks her gaze back to Egeria, "... I called your name. Back when I went mad with magic madness, I called your name." She scowls full of rage, and steps back towards Finn, getting by his side again, "Why did I call your name!? Even if you wanted me to, I did not know of you, I've never seen a spell that could summon you, and I did not cast a spell! I simply said your name."

Egeria nods eagerly and pushes Finn away from Huntress again, much to everyone's annoyance that she seemingly ignored, "And that was simply enough to summon me to your side! I answer your summons as fast as I can! The only reason why it took me so long to arrive was because I had to tear through realms to get to you."

"A. Stop pushing Finn away. B. I don't want you. Go away."

She shakes her head, "Yeah you can't get rid of me that easily. Look, you felt the pull from Hekate, that was her marking you up for me, because as much as we butt heads, she understands duty. She had just decided to make you insane while she was at it. The nerve of that woman..."

Finn quickly hops back into the conversation, "Wait, you know-know Hekate? Like, who she is?"

The water nymph nods, "Yep, and you should have put it together yourself now, she is one of the few of us who still live in the mortal realm." They remain silent, causing Egeria to sigh, "Jeez, I really thought you guys would have put it together by now. Hekate: The ancient human goddess of magic! She's the master of magic and can manipulate it at will! It was why she was able to disable your magic when you fought her! It's why your magic attacks did nothing to her, it is why she was able to send you mad with magic, it is why she has a crazy split personality! She is the personification of magic!"

Ice Queen blinks, "Oh… well, seeing how you like to talk, how do we defeat her?"

Egeria laughs, "With physical attacks! By being a warrior! It is why you are in this whole situation to begin with!"

Huntress huffs, "Alright, I think we're getting confused. What. Is. Going. On? Why are you a servant to me? Why is Hekate only being able to be defeated by a warrior why we are here? And why are you nude? Because we are clearly out of the loop about… everything, really."

The water nymph sighs, "Alright fine my lady, I'll explain everything as basic as I can, just try to follow along." She begins as everyone sits down in a circle, with Finn between Huntress and Ice Queen, much to Egeria's annoyance. She swiftly flips him and her around, putting him on the opposite side of the wood nymph, much to the group's anger.

However, they don't do anything as she finally begins her explanation, "Over a thousand years ago- well, even beyond that, all the way back to the beginning of time, a whole bunch of immortal beings were created. When the big bang happened, a whole lot were killed, but many survived. And, some of those survivors travelled across the universe, where they would eventually make a discovery: Earth. It was teeming with life."

Finn squints, "When did they arrive?"

She shrugs, "A few thousand years ago, where they had promptly met prewar humanity, and eventually, became their gods by showing off our immortal powers. Humanity and us gods had decided to work closely together in an attempt to create a loyal, perfect society, although… each had their own image of perfection."

Huntress scowls, "Can you speed this up? I need to know why I'm involved."

The water nymph bows her head, "Of course. In the end, us gods were split up into different roles. We all had our own duties, and some would switch turns during the years whenever one got bored of their role. That however led to problems with humanity, arguing about which had the real god, and… well when fields become nothing but dead bodies, you tend to learn from your mistake. We changed our ruling methods, and now, a singular god represents one or multiple fields. These duties can't be shirked. They are sworn to always represent what they are the embodiment of. This however led to its own problems, ones that lead to you two getting involved." She explains, pointing at both Finn and Huntress.

Finn's eyes shoot wide in shock, "Both of us!? I thought this was just about Huntress and why you're her servant!?"

She nods, "And it is. I'm here for her to be her servant and assistant midwife, but I'm also here to give advice to you. I'm not your servant or anything, I'm just passing a message."

She continues on, "You see, this is how the gods worked and the reason why we actually stuck with the humans: we thrived off popularity. With every person who even knew our name, our power grew! It is why there were so many religious crusades in humanity's time. But as you can imagine, that power we got addicted to became a problem when the nuclear war was raged." She sighs, and adjusts herself a little, "You see, I was actually sworn as a servant and assistant midwife to a certain goddess: Goddess Diana."

That got everyone's attention immediately as Huntress quickly lifts a hand up to halt her, "I can see where this is going. I'm not her."

Egeria laughs, "No, no you're not!"

Ice Queen cocks her head to the side, "So why are you trying to swear yourself to Huntress?"

The woman puts up a hand to halt the conversation, "If you let me continue, I can explain. You see, her duties were of the wilderness and the hunt, to the moon, and to the protection of fertility, and as the new rules stated, she was the lone representative of this. There was no one who could challenge her on these, and there was no one else more suitable for these roles, and as such… there was no replacement for her." She sighs, taking a second, "That was the problem I said we had encountered, because we all hit a slight hiccup during humanity's largest war ever."

She shakes her head, "At the time, there was another god who, of course, suffered the same problem of having no replacement: Justitia. She was the goddess of justice and had one singular duty: The completely unbiased judgement of justice. Her word was the law, literally, and she struck down the evil, the criminal, and the lost with the punishment they deserve. She was one of the most respected goddesses of all time, she was fair, she was a guide to all."

"Her strength was dependent on crime, on being an instrument of justice. The more crime there was, the stronger she became so she may defeat them. But… when the mushroom war as you lot called it rolled around… everything just collapsed."

Finn grimaces, "Right… but if you're gods, shouldn't you not be able to die?"

Egeria shakes her head, "No, we can die, it just takes more than usual, and we can resurrect if our body is intact and with the help of the other gods. Like the young god Jesus. Humans killed him in a show against us, yet because they didn't destroy the body and just put him in a tomb, he was able to be resurrected by us." She glances at their faces, and can instantly tell by their blank looks that they had no idea what she was talking about as she sighs.

Ice Queen clears her throat, "Erm, I know this is a bit sudden, but you mentioned the reason why you're here was because of these two," She jerks her thumbs at Finn and Huntress, "But I'm going to ask now… any large things about me I should know about?"

Egeria shakes her head, "No. You're actually a wild element that came out of nowhere. All of AAA is." The royal's mouth opens- "Let me continue and I can explain!" She closes her mouth. "Alright, no more questions until afterwards, ok?"

The group nods as the water nymph sighs, and begins her tale again, "When the mushroom war had rolled about, Diana was on earth. She was trying to protect a forest from the mass deforestation humanity was doing, hiding among humankind in a disguise to try and persuade them to stop."

She chuckles, "Those woodcutters definitely shit themselves when she shot an arrow at them." She sighs in the pleasant memories of watching her mistress, "However, this was both a grievous mistake and a grievous crime. Remember that Jesus guy that I told you about?" They nodded, "Well, after his demise, we had created a new law: we could no longer interfere with the mortal realm unless we're summoned to it. What Diana had just broken."

She sighs, "Thus, Justitia went after her. They had met at a sacred grove she had in preparation for her arrival. Diana had begged, calling on their past friendly worker relationship to wave the crime, pleading it was part of her responsibility and that it was for a good cause. Yet the blind covering Lusticitia was more than symbolic, she was indeed impartial when it came to justice. Her past relationships were not to sway her opinion and ordered Diana back to the godly realms for her punishment. Then the nukes started to rain."

"We were all horrified, we hadn't discovered what happened to cause the war until long after the damage was done, but that doesn't matter. What mattered was billions of lives were just snuffed out. Or more importantly, billions of innocent lives were just murdered by the one who ordered and pressed the button. Justitia was overloaded with power, her duty to seek justice for the crime destroying her body.

The water nymph shakes her head in shame, "The power surge killed her right before Diana, snuffing her life out in the sacred grove my old mistress had made. Dianna was injured badly as well, the force of a nearby nuclear barrage having burnt her something bad, and a forest fire was rapidly approaching her position. Too weak to do anything, she resorted to just holding her dead friend's body as they and their bodies were consumed by the approaching firestorm."

She then flicks her fingers at the OOO duo, "And this is where you two come in. As I had said, we had another failure: we had no backup gods to replace them-"

Finn frowns, "I don't think I like where this is going."

Huntress shakes her head, "Neither do I. Look, we're not-"

Egeria puts up a hand, "I said let me finish. We can discuss your no-choice future in a bit, just let me end this." They scowl at her as she clears her throat, "As I was saying, this is where you two come in. We've thought long and hard about our decision… well, the other gods in charge did anyways. They have decided that you two were the best possible candidates based on recommendations and our observations."

Finn raises an eyebrow, "Recommendations?"

She nods, "Yep. My new mistress Huntress Wizard was recommended to us by a certain old spirit."

Huntress squints, "... The spirit of the forest?"

She gives the wood nymph finger guns, "Bingo. Spirits and apparitions of power like him work closely with us gods, just like dragons and other such powerful creatures did. In fact, he was born from the sole surviving trees of the very forest that Diana and Justitia died in, due to a fragment of Diana's essence being absorbed by a nearby tree."

"We took his recommendation very seriously, and upon observing your dedication to the hunt and to the forest, we believe you passed the test. And before you ask, yes there were other tests to make sure you were god material, but we would be here too long to explain."

Huntress scowls, still despising the situation as she gestures her head to Finn, "And him?"

Egeria actually flicks her wrist dismissively, "I don't know too much about him actually. If I remember it correctly, it's mainly because he's a cosmic agent or a child of a catalyst comet, followed by his devotion to justice and being a righteous hero, then him being human, and finally a recommendation from multiple sources. There was Prismo who mentioned how heroic you were, the purple catalyst comet who read your mind and soul completely then ascended, and finally, Hunson Abadeer."

Finn blinks, "Wait, Hunson put in my name to become a god?"

She nods, "Yeah, we had a list of possible options throughout time and he gave us his approval for you, saying you were a good kid or something." She shrugs, "I don't know the details too much, I was more focused on the new goddess of hunting and forests."

Huntress sighs, "About that. Can we say no to that? I don't think we're interested."

She shakes her head, "Nope, as I already said, there's no escaping this. You two will become gods."

Finn throws up his arms in anger, "What the hay!? Why can't we turn this down!? We didn't ask for this!"

Egeria giggles, "Because the gods have decided that you are to become one of them. You can try to say no to them, but good luck denying and angering a god! Last time I checked with Hekate and GOLB, you guys couldn't do anything to them."

Finn huffs as Huntress shakes her head in disappointment, causing the water nymph to frown, "Look, it's not all too bad. I mean, you do gain some pretty nice perks, and nothing about you will change because you already fit the requirements!"

Finn shakes his head, "And I don't like one of them! Immortality!? That's a curse neither of us wants!"

Egeria, however, cocks her head with a grin, "Oh, so nice that you'll leave Ice Queen on her own again." That causes everyone to freeze up, causing the woman to continue, "She's immortal. You telling me you want to shrivel up and die before her? Leaving her all alone for all of existence?"

The royal in question growls, "Don't use me against them! If they're gods, then they can't visit me in the mortal realm, remember? No matter which outcome they pick, the ending with me is the same…"

Egeria shakes her head however, "No, you can visit and stuff. Just look at Hunson or Prismo or Cosmic Owl, they are near godly beings or are a god, yet they see mortals all the time. It's just that you have to meet them." She explains, pointing a finger at Ice Queen then the duo on either side of her.

Finn groans, "Why now!? I was just about to rescue my dad!"

She once again shakes her head, "No, it isn't an immediate process, and as I said, you can try to ask them to stop. Just be prepared for like, zero chance and the wrath of the gods upon you."

Finn scowls, "Then we will at least try. You said you lot had a list of possible alternatives, maybe one of them can be picked instead?"

She giggles, "Maybe~" But then she quickly returns back to normal, "But you can see what's going on right now though, yes? Due to the death of Diana and Justitia, we need new gods to replace them, and you two are being nominated as prime choices!"

Finn nods unsurely, "Yeah, we understand why, just not why us? You said you've done tests and we had recommendations, but what were the tests? And you also said AAA was something you weren't expecting."

She sighs, "Well, the first one is, as you already know, you and your personalities fitting the role. The second of course would be if you can work with the other gods and if the gods can work with you." She smirks, "We saw you had worked well with Prismo, Hunson, and Glob, proving you are capable of doing so. Your actions and personality have also impressed quite a few of us as well, Hekate especially."

Before Finn could ask anything, Egeria had already turned to Huntress to explain to her as well, "You had the same test of course, you matched the personalities, had recommendations, yadda yadda." She says rolling her hand, "We also watched you through our relics back at the wizard city, where you first went mad with magic, and we must say, you have a lot of potential. But here's the kicker! It is because you two know each other that proved a major bump."

The wood nymph raises an eyebrow, "How?"

"Well you see, to become a god and go to the godly realms, you're naturally going to have to leave the mortal realm behind. Your duties, responsibilities, friends and family, all will have to be left behind. Naturally, of course, that's a massive put off, and the hardest part for us to persuade the chosen ones on."

She smirks, "But because you two know one another, it is much easier for you two! You won't be leaving-" She makes a noise of disgust, "'Loved ones' behind because you'll be going together. You two won't be alone because you'll be learning together while also already knowing one another. Trust me when I say that's a better solution than the other choices have."

She claps her hands together with a joyful smile, "And not only that, you two are so like the old Diana and Justitia that it will be a very smooth process for you to be accepted in! I mean think about the similarities! Huntress Wizard, you act exactly like her! You share the same personality, same attitudes, same traditions, heck…" She creates a picture frame with her finger and thumb, "You even have the same facial traits!"

She then turns to the hero, "And you! Justitia had the blindfold on to remain unbiased, and you have an eye problem yourself! Your colour blindness could be a leftover trait like an echo, a sign of your destiny. You wield a sword, just like her, you seek justice, just like her, and are friends with a Diana who is a goddess, just like her!"

The duo grimaces slightly in awkwardness, Finn tugging at his shirt's collar, "I think… I think that is just a bunch of coincidence."

She raises an eyebrow, "Maybe, but it is just as likely to be a coincidence that every one of your reincarnations lost a limb at some point in their lives?"

Huntress glances at Finn, "Reincarnation?"

He shrugs, "Turns out I'm an agent of change from the blue catalyst comet."

"Ooh, that's what she meant by you being a 'child of a catalyst comet', I had wondered about that when it was mentioned earlier." She shrugs, "Seems about normal for your life."

Surprisingly she didn't seem too bothered, what causes Egeria to continue, "And to answer your other question, AAA was something that came out of nowhere, and yes, it also affected why you were chosen."

Ice Queen sighs, "Alright, go on another ramble then, we'll listen."

Her words earn an annoyed glare from the water nymph, "Sorry if there's a lot to explain." She mocks, "But anyways, GOLB is a… rogue element, as to be expected. He or she or whatever it is now is, of course, the god of chaos, and as such, we can't predict anything it is going to do. Say, tearing you from your own dimension and plopping you into a new one."

Finn nods, "And how did that affect your choosing process?"

"Well, it sped up our process due to it 'charging you' in an opportunistic way. It will make the process of making you a god so much easier due to you guys now having already touched the godly realms. We were going to wait until later before making our moves on you, but with the capture of your father and GOLB's sudden interference, it was too good of an opportunity to pass!"

Finn suddenly sweats in worry, "What do you mean charged? I know stuff that was destroyed by GOLB can't be brought back by Prismo."

"Similar but different. Since your form hasn't been destroyed or injured, it just means you've just been imbued with chaotic energy. It would explain why you have both been in constant fights this entire time and, eugh, you have a threeway relationship. Both for offering and accepting such a notion. You're currently charged with chaotic energy."

"That explains why no one has come to save us. So… is there a way to get rid of it then?" He inquires, noticing a slight hurt look from Ice Queen as he gives her hand a comforting squeeze.

Egeria shakes her head, "No. You cannot remove it in any way, so I hope you're ready for an eventful life. Unless… maybe a god could do it-"

She is cut off by a disappointed sigh from the duo as she smirks, Finn finally asking, "Is there a way for us to return home?"

Egeria actually remains silent for a second, "... I'm not sure. If you become a god and somehow remove it, then you can't enter the mortal realms, yet if you don't then you won't have the powers to remove the chaotic energy and Prismo can't grab you." She stares at him in the eyes, "If you two want to go home, you can't become gods," She flicks her gaze to stare at her new mistress, "And you can't use Prismo either."

A silence descends upon the room as the group mule over the fact. In the end, Finn sighs, "At least we have Ice Queen here. That's a major reason to stay."

The royal beams at him with a blush, but Huntress quickly asks another question, "Alright, what's going to happen now? We don't want to become gods and we have Martin to save."

The water nymph flicks her hand uncaringly, eyes closed with a grin, "Well, after we unfreeze time, I am to stick to your side and persuade you, then train you both into becoming gods. Also, you don't need to worry about Martin, he's fine."

The group blink.

Then all scream, "WHAT!?"

She laughs, "Yeah, I hate to be the one to tell you, but he's up there with Hekate, has been all this time. He is a criminal, and he shall be punished, but he will pay off a lot of his debt by helping us, or more accurately, how he has helped us already. You see, we wanted a way to lure you in to us gods so we may have this very conversation, due to GOLB messing with our way to detect you. Yet, we also couldn't just go to the mortal realm and search for you, for the laws I have already stated. So, we lured you to the citadel."

Finn blinks, "You mean to tell me, my father was in no danger at all, and was simply doing a job this whole time? That he didn't actually want to redeem himself, he just toyed with my emotions so he could get a job done?"

She rubs the back of her neck, "Well… no. You see, Hekate does actually want to get some revenge, so he was in actual danger like imprisonment or harsh torture, but he wasn't in the danger zone of being erased by the universe."

She actually puts a hand on his shoulder, "And, from what I can tell, redemption is his priority. He does want to be a better father figure but knows it is too late. He does care for you, and the emotions and story he had been sharing with you have been true this entire time. We didn't ask him to do anything to help us, this was no setup, but he can see all timelines right now. He had to know this was going to happen and didn't do anything to stop it."

She sighs, "I think he did see this as the best path for you to get the happiest life." She shakes her head, "He wasn't afraid to take this path, because he knew Hekate won't do anything too bad to him, because," She jabs his chest, "She's afraid she'll end up on your bad side."

He remains silent for a second, "... What?"

"You see… she wants a warrior on her side, as many warriors as she can. And, as a sword-wielding instrument of justice, you fit those criteria. Her weakness is physical attacks, and thus she wants those who do physical attacks on her side."

Ice Queen blinks, "Oh, so that's why we couldn't hurt her with our attacks back at the Candy Kingdom yet she had stayed clear of Finn! Huntress and I were using magic attacks so we couldn't do anything, yet Finn could have."

Egeria nods, "Indeed. That's probably why she had the Citadel Guardians grab Martin, so Finn would focus on saving him and not on attacking her." She holds up a finger, "It is also why he's the one unharmed out of the two of you. Hekate cares about securing her physical protection, so she doesn't care about some mortal or the soon-to-be goddess of nature. I mean, she's magic, something chaotic and unnatural. Why would she like something more scientific and natural as nature? So, she gave secret firm orders for Finn to remain unharmed, while uncaring about your fates. That was the point of those lion-human-catcher machines. She wanted to bring you to her so she may simply remove whatever section Huntress Wizard and Ice Queen were in and blast them into space."

He growls, "Did she really think I would help her after killing them!?"

She shrugs, "A love and obedience spell plus Stockholm Syndrome can quickly change one's perspective on another." At his annoyed sigh, she claps her hand, "But… I think that's everything! You lot may now do whatever you want before we go to see the gods!"

Huntress glares, "Can you just tell them we're not interested?"

The water nymph laughs, "No! I like my head where it is thanks!"

Huntress sighs, causing Finn to grunt as he lifts himself up, "Well, now that we know where Martin is, we better save him." He extends a hand to Huntress and Ice Queen as they smile and accept, the hero lifting them both up with ease.

Then Egeria breaks Huntress's and Finn's grip, separating the duo and getting between them again. The wood nymph glares, her vision filled with spite, "Why do you keep doing that!?"

Egeria stares at her.

Then sighs, mumbling to herself, "This is going to be fun…" She speaks louder, "Because it is your duty to replace Hekate and all her roles, including... chastity. You are to remain a virgin goddess, and to protect all other women during childbirth. So I'm protecting you from being… defiled."

Huntress stares. Then for the first time in a long lets her emotional restraint go as she screams in rage, "WHAT!? I will not do it! Finn is my mate! Heck, I'm not even a virgin anymore! We've already had sex!"

Egeria shrugs, "Nothing that a little bit of magic can't fix. We can make you… pure again, so to speak."

Huntress steps up to her and snaps her hand out to the water nymphs neck, grabbing it as she snarls out, "Not. Interested."

She lets go as the water nymph stumbles back, then casually brushes herself off, "Of course mistress, now, should we set off?"

Ice Queen frowns, "I don't think we want you with us."

"But why not?" Egeria steps up to the royal's knight, then swiftly pushes him towards Ice Queen, the couple falling into one another's arms, "If he can't be with Huntress, then he can be with you."

Finn snaps to the annoying water nymph, squeezing Ice Queen close to him, "But I will be with Huntress! We don't care about this stupid god junk!"

The wood nymph nods in agreement, causing Egeria to shrug, "Meh. The fact remains, I will follow you, it is my duty now to serve Huntress as she becomes a goddess, and to help guide you, Finn, to becoming a god."

Huntress growls, "And why shouldn't we just get rid of you?"

She smirks, "Simple. You like Finn. I have no intentions to hurt you, and I've never actually hurt anyone. You'll be killing an innocent person, something Finn is very against." The group grit their teeth at her exploiting the hero's philosophy.

Ice Queen sighs, "Alright, but we need kind of a summary. I mean, that was a lot of information at once. You kinda just… dumped it on us."

She rolls her eyes, "I didn't want to waste your time, but fine, I'll give you a TLDR of it all."

She clears her throat, "Two gods died during the mushroom war, they were the gods of justice and the hunt. You two are being nominated as the replacements. Hekate wants Finn to be her ally but doesn't care about you other two. I am Egeria, I am to be Huntress's new helper and assistant midwife, while also helping Finn since he doesn't have a god servant who could teach him. I do not like Finn and Huntress Wizard being together since my goddess is meant to be a virgin maiden of chastity as well."

Ice Queen whistles, "Wow, that was a lot quicker."

The water nymph points a finger at her, "Yes but it doesn't explain the why to anything."

Huntress just huffs, "Whatever. Look, you can follow, but you better not get between me or Finn. And you BETTER NOT tell anyone else about our relationship. I'm not comfortable with others thinking we are dating, not yet."

She shrugs, "Fine mistress Huntress. And don't worry about accommodations, I'll find my own way of surviving. Got a water source near your grove?"

Huntress just stares, "... I don't have a grove, but I AND Finn do have a water source near OUR home."

Egeria remains silent for a second, "... This is going to be a long training session. But fine, it'll do."

Finn raises his hand with a blush coming to his face, "Final question… why are you naked?"

She shrugs, "Never cared for it, not too important for someone like me, especially as clothing is a civilization thing, not nature's. Now, we probably want to get going, the time freeze is about to end and because you deactivated the human machine's cooling, it is actually about to explode."

Finn blinks, "Wait. What?"

She doesn't clarify and claps her hands twice. With that, Saturn lets time continue as she hurriedly runs from the core. The other trio snaps to stare at the dead machine and watch as its hull begins to glow from some heat inside.

They all scramble away as well, dashing as far as they can as it suddenly explodes in flames. Finn glances at its burning, corpse, then up at where Hekate awaits with his father, 'Why can things never be simple?'

Chapter finished

Whew, that was a long one, but we finally have more plot development! Egeria has shaken everything up and has revealed what has been going on behind the scenes. Gods are moving, and as much as Finn or Huntress wants no part of and will resist, the immortals have their eyes on them.

So we now have a water nymph to bother the group. I wonder how she'll react to Ice Queen being not only a water nymph herself but also the former leader of a group of them…

The core and human hunter is down, and they know the exact position of Martin: with Hekate. I wonder how easily she will hand over someone who had betrayed her, gods are known for wanting revenge after all. Once a solution is found, be it death or peace, the group still has to find a way back to OOO.

Speaking of which… how did no one guess that Hekate was the goddess of magic? I had left so many clues: split personality, powerful magic, glowing eyes of magic madness, her NAME! Literally one google of 'Hekate' would bring up her being the goddess of magic. How did NO ONE get it?

Review response:

The Book of Eli, on FF, chapter 56:

Yep, a show of our little wood nymph as she experiences her own version of magic madness. Nothing like a personal grove to mess something up. Yeah, Ice Queen still won't spill the beans on what pegging is, she can only imagine Finn's reaction when he suddenly finds out. Yes, we hardly ever see the scenes where the innocent get injured for good intentions, so it was definitely fun to write a chapter about it.

FinalKingdomHearts, on FF, chapter 56:

I am in the middle of creating the next plot development

Eternal Violets, on FF, chapter 46:

XD Yep, things are happening