After dealing with the assassin who had come to invade Edo in order to murder Akko and try to prevent the persecution of her byAndrew, who was obsessed with the whole thing, Louis Blackwell's plan failed, his betrayal of Appleton didn't work and in any case the girls defeated him easily, which already sparked a warning among the girls to be attentive to how to start doing the dungeon in Edo, already thinking of moving on to the next one since things would get tougher, that was the last dungeon outside the territory dominated byAppleton.
The next day began and the girls decided to gather in a room in the castle to hold a final meeting to decide once and for all who would go with Atsuko on this mission to the dungeon, since only three people are allowed to go with her there.
"Well, I promised that one of the people to go would be Amanda, since she wanted to go so badly, but who would be the other to accompany me, since they all have something in common that can help me?" Kagari said.
"Constanze hasn't been in any dungeons so far, she could be useful for something, like a riddle or tinkering with a device, apart from the fact that she's intelligent enough to work out the path ahead, she can even map out the whole dungeon with ease, she could guide us through the dungeon" said Amanda.
"Constanze then... But then... Constanze, do you want to go with me? I know you're not the most physically resilient type, but I think you'll be good for other things, apart from your weapons that you can take with you" said the crimson-eyed girl and then received a thumbs-up from the dark-haired girl.
"So we've decided who's going to the dungeon, all that's left is to find out where it is... Those of you who have lived in Edo for a long time, do you have any idea where it is?" asks the brownish girl.
"That's fine, I know a lot about that. The location of the dungeon is not a problem for us, the important thing is that we arrive fuelled and ready to go" said Marianne.
"Well, it's a shame we're missing out on that one too, it would have been interesting" said Hellene.
"In Wedinburgh they won't go, it wouldn't be interesting for the royal girls to be left out of the dungeon there, now let's get ready, then we'll leave" said the warrior from Luna Nova.
As they talk to each other and decide what they're going to do, the nine girls start feeding themselves, making preparations to go to the dungeon, and also preparing their clothes and weapons, in the case of Amanda and Constanze, who are sharpening their weapons, which is unnecessary for Akko, who already has her katana sharpened and ready, which the girl was itching to try out on any enemies nearby.
After all this, they started off in a carriage that the empress herself had made sure the girls travelled in so that they could arrive safely and comfortably at the site, at the foot of Edo's largest mountain, Mount Fuji, which is a dormant volcano.
They chatted a lot amongst themselves, talking about the mission and how well they were doing in Edo, being very relaxed in the carriage, on a journey that took a few hours until they reached the outskirts of the dungeon, right at the entrance to which was at the foot of the huge mountain, whose summit is always frozen while below it is all dark due to the rock.
"And here we come, the Edo dungeon, it's very hidden, that's when I discovered that you couldn't enter dungeons, my passage was simply blocked from getting in, so much so that the empress told me that there's a legend of a great heroine who entered this place, she was going to save Hyrule, everything came together and we became confident, you are that great heroine Akko" said Leclerc with a smile on her face pointing to the entrance of the dungeon.
It looked like an Edo temple like any other, with a structure decorated as such, but something from outside was already giving off an energy that something more was coming, that it hid some more secrets about the temple. They all got down from the carriage and the drivers also leaned against a spot to rest, waiting for the place to be completed.
"Wow, she doesn't look as intimidating as the others, that's what worries me, they're usually the worst" said Atsuko.
"Good luck over there, love, take care of yourselves too, you're not going to risk the worst kind of dangers straight away, come back from this alive, we'll be able to defeat Andrew once and for all" said Diana, giving her wife a kiss.
"I don't care if I stay alive or not, I just want to complete one more mission and see if there are any interesting new monsters, we already have an idea of most of them, I hope I don't have to deal with any Vajarois, small monsters are always the worst" said Kagari.
"Come on, Akko, I want to put the axe to those monsters straight away" said O'Neill.
The trio of girls made their way into the dungeon, opening the double door that lit up, revealing the entrance to the dungeon. Akko was armed with a katana that gave way to her master sword, while Amanda went with a labrys axe, while Constanze went with a crossbow modified to fire multiple darts quickly, something she had invented herself, which was well ahead of its time, since the darts could be varied, as well as carrying several cartridges that held 15 darts each, prepared for battle.
As they walk along the corridor lit by lamps and torches, they get close to the real entrance, where there is a hole to insert the master sword, only this time Kagari puts the katana in and even so it works with the magic enveloping everything, the sliding door opening in two until the passage is completely open.
"Well, time to explore the dungeon" said the crimson-eyed woman after taking a deep breath.
The girls soon step inside the dungeon, into a place that looks like a lift. As the three of them go up, the platform starts to descend, and they are facing the door that opens to the entrance to the underground dungeon, which is right behind the girls, in the direction of the exit, but underground. They then go to the other side and there they are already looking down a corridor where there are jellyfish traps, launching fireballs.
The three go quietly along the corridor until they reach the door on the other side and as they go through it they enter the next room, where they are surprised by familiar faces, Hardhat beetles and also some Bari and medusa traps in that room, which is already closing.
"Good time to test this thing's potential" said the smiling brown-haired girl.
A hardhat beetle comes close enough to the girl that she pulls out her katana at high speed, squeezing a trigger in its scabbard, followed by a slash at full speed that was able to simply break the creature in half without causing any kick when it hit the monster, leaving even the girl herself surprised, as she saw her friend O'Neill being pushed by the creatures when she hit them with her axe, while Constanze was taking care of the Bari with several shots at the monsters.
"Woah Akko, you really have a powerful sword" said the surprised Gerudo.
"That's just some of what she can do, let's have some fun little monsters" said the warrior from Luna Nova.
She was simply hitting projectile cuts that went multiple times and at high speed giving several to the point of simply slicing the monsters and also to put out the fire of the fireballs of the medusa traps, since the queen of Wedinburgh was the only one capable of doing this with the cuts of the Katana and maintaining a high speed, which cleared that room with enormous ease.
Opening the way to two forks, one on the right and the other on the left, the trio heads for the path on the left, where they come across a corridor, the corridor had two Hinox throwing bombs in the direction of the girls, which the short dark-haired girl fires arrows at the bombs, which explode in the air, while the pair go after the creatures.
"These one-eyed monsters are nothing, I'll take care of one and you take care of the other Akko, let's make them stop throwing bombs at us quickly" said the one with the salmon-coloured hair.
Akko has become practically ignorant with the Katana as he simply manages to make cuts with all his speed and multiples, he even jumps backwards and as he keeps the sword in its sheath the various cuts simply open up on the huge creature, while Amanda is still having some difficulty being pushed by Hinox.
"Would you like some help, Amanda?" Atsuko asks.
"I can hold my own against this one" said Amanda, who dodged a punch that the monster was about to throw and then hit the axe, throwing it at the creature's head, which fell to the ground and disappeared.
As they enter, they come across a room with vases and a door pointing northwards, which immediately puts Kagari on guard against the danger that could lie ahead in this part of the dungeon. The doors have already been closed and locked, and soon the common enemies appear, medusa traps come out of the ground throwing fireballs, but nothing is more tense than the floor starting to rise up and attack them.
"What? Is that really true? Is the ground really coming to attack? Weren't you exaggerating, Akko? How do you deal with it? I'm not even going to ask myself that much because I can imagine the answer" said O'Neill.
With a smile on her face, the crimson-eyed girl nodded in reply and then dodged the floors coming towards her like fireballs with enormous ease, which impressed the pair when they saw her skill, which was something that was beginning to become evident that it was beyond them, simply many of the floors going at high speed, she cut with the katana and still dodged, all that power given to her by Mako gave the girl an enormous improvement.
(This is impressive, I wasn't this strong before, I'm managing to protect myself from everything here as if it were nothing, it even seems like things are in slow motion, it's fun to do this, I can cut at a very high speed, I can feel the wind in my body, I can just dodge everything).
Constanze and Amanda were having the hardest time, but they kept improvising, the shorter one even using a small sword in her hands to hit the floors so she wouldn't use up her ammunition, just as O'Neill was crushing them with her axe, but some of them still hit her, as she has considerable stamina to withstand such an impact.
Soon all the floors were gone and, relieved, the girls had the passage open, only to come across a corridor, full of Hinox, which left both girls panting, but Kagari was calm and still full of energy.
"Wow, these guys, I haven't even recovered from the fatigue in the other room" said the gerudo.
"Leave it to me" said the crimson-eyed girl.
Even though they were panting, the two girls went to help out a bit by taking care of the bombs, but the task of hitting the ogres became the brown-haired girl's. She went straight to the first one and made several cuts, then went to the second one, who was going to throw a punch, but when his hand got close, it simply turned into little blocks and then the creature shattered, revealing that the corridor was infested with Taros armed with forks and reddish in colour.
"Oh we have visitors, these guys really don't give up, do they? Well, let's show them what we're here for" said the girl, smiling.
The warrior from Luna Nova already sent the projectile cut towards the group of 12 Taros and the cuts simply caused havoc, opening wounds in several of them that came close, which she did again and dodged the forks thrown towards her, while the other two girls rested, watching their friend do almost everything.
Before the monster even got close, they fell to the ground dead and disappeared, opening the way for them to follow two forks at the end of the corridor, one to the left and the other to the right. This time they go to the right and there they are surprised by a room with a bit of water around it as if it were a swimming pool, in which some Stalfos knights appear, five of them straight away, which already leaves the Queen of Wedinburgh with that look on her face.
"Oh no, those guys again, they're a pain in the arse to deal with, well come on, even more so in a dungeon like this" said Akko.
"Is there a secret to them? Are they the boring skeletons you've talked about before?" asks her friend, who sees Atsuko nodding.
With the katana she could see a difference, she could simply immobilise the armed skeletons with a single cut, which didn't require the use of the boomerang, so the girls were able to gain a foothold, as Constanze used some smaller bombs she was carrying to blow each of them up, one by one, while the pair of warriors took down the monsters with their physical strength, as they could only be demonstrated and then killed with an explosion.
"It's time to break some bones" said Kagari.
And soon the five monsters were killed, with the help of the three of them since Constanze has a bit of magic she was able to create small bombs that had some effectiveness, then a chest appears and it's precisely the first one that contains a key, the girls are relieved, the path was apparently the one on the left that they should have followed.
"Well, we got the first key, this dungeon is getting fun" said the crimson-eyed girl.
"I don't know where, it's a bit tiring, full of monsters, you say that because you never get tired" said the gerudo.
"Maybe, I think Mako really has made me stronger than I thought I would be, but come on, we'll make it to the end of this dungeon together, there's still a path to the left that we left behind" said the brownish girl.
With that, the girls go back together along the path, which is quite quiet, entering the room on the right, which has some medusa traps and also some Bari going from one side to the other, which they pass straight to go to the room where the door is indicating, when they open it with the key, they go down a spiral staircase and down one floor of the dungeon, and when they enter the room, they see that there is a slightly darker room. Amanda and Constanze are trapped and immobilised while the warrior from Luna Nova dodges being trapped too and even goes to help her friends if it weren't for a magical barrier preventing her from getting close to them, who are then released, and soon a huge spider descends, much to the girl's horror.
"By the triforce, I didn't expect something like this" said Akko, melting.
(So many monsters to appear, one of these has to come soon, I'm terrified of spiders, I can't even look at them, then a giant like this appears, how am I going to stay calm with all this? Ahhhhh)
The creature lunges at Atsuko, who simply dodges it and runs off in fear. The arachnid tries to hit her with webs, but Kagari's quick movements mean she can't be hit. Although she's full of strength, she still has a very strong arachnophobia and it's been creating more traumas with the disturbances Andrew himself made to her when he found out that the girl had such a strong phobia.
(Ahhhhh, he made me be around spiders, he filled my room, he put them on top of me without my consent, he scared me and caused trauma and terror, I remember to this day when I woke up and just saw my room full of them, now this? Why? What did I do to deserve such a thing? I just want it to end soon).
"Akko! Stop being fearful, just hit those angry cuts of yours" Amanda shouts.
"I can't, it's a giant, scary monster" shouts the crimson-eyed girl.
"By the triforce, she's having babies, we won't be able to cope, do you want us to be inundated with spiders?" O'Neill shouts.
"No!" shouts the brown-haired woman as she opens her eyes.
She stared into the spider's many eyes, which reflected her face, and with that she jumped up to avoid being bitten by its jaws and also by the creature spitting enzymes at her, jumping onto the creature's abdomen and running over its body with the katana simply shoved inside the monster, walking from side to side until she reached it from behind, and that was enough to open some considerable wounds.
As she leapt to the side, one of its paws came at her with slashing claws. She was blocked by the katana, which then managed to send several slashes as if in slow motion at the warrior from Luna Nova.
(Worse than facing a giant spider is dealing with several offspring, even more so as Andrew made me watch with my eyes wide open as he executed a traitor by torturing him by stuffing his mouth with a spider's nest about to be born, it was horrible to see)
When she destroys one of its legs, the arachnid turns round to try and attack with the others, but Akko dodges the attacks and even though she's scared, she's already thinking of a way to get on top of the creature's head. It throws out webs that end up cutting very thinly through the sticky silk, turning round and firing many of them, which Atsuko finds herself jumping and dodging some or just cutting the various webs in half, which soon tires her out and she rushes towards the monster, driving a sword into the arachnid's abdomen and trembling at the sight of its hair.
(Disgusting, it's not enough for me to be near spiders, I still have to touch the hairs of one, the hairs of a big one are even more disgusting, ahhhh, jeez, why does it have to be like this, disgusting, for the triforce, I swear that after this dungeon I hope to be well rewarded for all this).
And then she uses her magic to light it on fire, and that's enough to start burning all the silk inside the spider's abodomen, which immediately struggles and tries to hit the legs of Kagari, who is already getting full of it and goes up to slash the legs, one by one with the Katana, giving multiple cuts.
"Woah, good Akko, but go quickly, there's no need for a dramatic death, these spiders will soon end up climbing on top of us, ahhhhhhhh" said Amanda, who was dealing with the various spiders alongside Constanze.
As she cuts off some of the legs, she finds herself in a situation where she has to finish it off, seeing that the spider was already practically burnt from the inside at the abodomen, with only the cephalothorax to go, which she makes a point of using the hook in the ceiling and using this as an impulse to then come at it with the Katana with a strike that lands right on top of that part of the spider's head, reaching its brain and going through the whole thing to the point where several cuts end up being made inside the structure of the creature that has been completely torn apart from the inside, until it disappears and the smaller spiders also open the way to the next room.
"Finally, I can't stand it any longer" said the crimson-eyed girl, who was even shedding tears.
"This trauma of yours with spiders must really be something that gets in the way, but you were brave Akko, you made it far, now let's go, there's even more of a challenge in this dungeon, I just thought it was strange that we got to see the fight against the master of this dungeon, it was kind of quick" said O'Neill.
"This isn't the master of the dungeon, it's not even close, the bosses only appear later, and you can't see him up close, so I have to tell you that this is nothing compared to the bosses, I think we've just faced a very powerful monster, now let's go, let's hope the next room has something interesting" said the brownish girl, which scared the girls.
"So it gets worse? Does it get even harder?" asks the shocked Gerudo.
"Generally, yes, but it's up to us, if we're strong and skilful, maybe we'll be able to defeat the monsters" said the warrior from Luna Nova, who was smiling.
And soon they were in the next room and there was nothing, it was simply an empty space where there was a wall with something written on it. Akko soon noticed that her staff was glowing once again, precisely on the fourth sphere, and with a smile on her face she knew she was close to getting one more of the seven words, and she was already getting curious about what it might be.
"To see through, patience is important, Mayinab Dyssivyrdd" At the moment Atsuko spoke she witnessed the Claiomh Solais becoming a platform, which confused her, but as she climbed on she realised that she could walk on it and lean on it as if she had an extra support, so she took it off and was surprised to realise that it had yet another effective effect.
"So that's what these words do? Just a little platform, so much battle for that? What a lame little power" said the one with the salmon-coloured hair.
"It's more than that, but it's still useful, a platform is very good, apart from the fact that this staff does more things, my hook is still the most useful way for us to transport ourselves around, well anyway what counts is the power of the seven words, when united we'll be able to free the nine, now let's go, there's still a lot of dungeons, from the looks of it we made it all the way to the left, it was all just for the word, so you can already imagine that there's still a lot of dungeons ahead" Kagari said.
"Really? We have to explore everything? What the hell, I thought we'd just have to defeat the monsters or find the seven words, is there more?" Said a frustrated Amanda.
"Forgive me, but yes, there's still a whole dungeon to explore, the mission isn't just that, our mission is to free the nine witches, and to do that we have to defeat the boss, unfortunately, but look, if we do everything right, we'll get far, we can take a rest here, what do you think? Then we'll set off to do the rest, I imagine you're pretty tired" said the crimson-eyed girl, and the two nodded in agreement.
This way, inside the dungeon, they even sat down to recover a little, like O'Neill still with the remains of shrapnel from the floors that had been thrown at her, which were quickly removed with Constanze's help, while impressively the brownish one was completely unharmed, she hadn't suffered a scratch on her body, the monsters were nothing to her, not even the spider hit her hard.
"Amanda, aren't you afraid these wounds will be fatal and you'll bleed too much?" asks the worried warrior from Luna Nova.
"I'm a Gerudo, we're strong, but we also have regeneration, so I can heal very quickly, these more superficial injuries are something that in a few minutes I'm brand new, as long as I'm not hit with a fatal blow I can recover and also if I don't lose any limbs, otherwise I can easily heal from injuries" said the Gerudo.
"And you Constanze, you're hurt pretty badly too, you'll want some fairies, there's a pot full here, so you'll recover quickly and we can start talking about what's coming up" says Akko sympathetically, but her friends refuse.
"If you say it's going to get worse from here on in, I'll take your word for it, we'd better not waste these fairies on nonsense, I'm only slightly injured, Cons doesn't seem to want it either, we have to think about avoiding being injured, we don't have your agility, you simply went from water to wine when you got that power boost" said the salmon-coloured hair.
"I'm still at an abyss of what it will take to defeat Andrew once and for all, but I'm confident, at least one good power to maybe escape from here could be useful, apart from the fact that we'll be able to get through everything peacefully afterwards, well anyway, we'll get through this together, we'll all make it, I trust we will" said Atsuko.
"I never thought we'd go through all this, from one moment to the next my quiet life in the countryside changed to being one of those fighting for Hyrule's freedom, fighting for what it can give, well anyway, I think rest is good, but we have to go, time can't wait, who knows how worried they are about us - Amanda said, getting up from the floor.
There was a brief rest between them, which served to remove some wounds and put on bandages, after which they all walked back to the first fork in the castle, since the whole path on the right was still missing from all the exploring they had done.
Meanwhile, outside, Diana and her friends were waiting, all the while worrying about whether or not Akko was going to return from his journey through the dungeons, and soon a beep came, it was Croix calling, something she hadn't done for a long time.
"Hey girls, sorry I haven't been here, I've been a bit busy, we've been building some things here on Triskellion Island and I forgot to get in touch with you, so how are you? Have you arrived in Edo yet? Are you doing your mission yet?" Meridies asks.
"We arrived in Edo, Akko was almost arrested, we discovered that there was a spy who came here impersonating her, framed her and after she was cleared we were welcomed here, the empress of Edo is a trustworthy person, but in this we also came across an assassin, he was following Akko, it was the same spy who came before, the same one who took Akko's portrait six years ago, from what we could see he betrayed Appleton in an assassination attempt on him, so it looks like we know that Appleton is after Akko, they haven't given up completely and obviouslyAndrew won't, apart from that, we're at the door of the dungeon waiting for Akko, everything is fine so far" Cavendish said.
"Hmmmmm, at some point they were going to follow them, it took them a while, they managed to hide well, at least we're already halfway through the dungeons, so take care, don't take too long to get back to Triskellion Island, but what about Akko, how is she? Is she getting more confident yet? It's important that she trusts herself a lot more" said the lilac-haired girl.
"As for Croix... Well, she is, I've already told you that I've received an improvement with the rapier, she has too, the master sword has become a katana, an Edo sword, she's much more agile and wow, even her body has changed, she has more apparent muscles, she's really improved from here, I'm sure she'll beat Andrew if she keeps going like this" Said the one with the platinum blonde hair.
"I really hope this could be a possibility girl, well I'm glad Akko is moving forward too, she's been down lately, especially when you got a very powerful rapier, well I'm going to go now, it was nice talking to you, sorry to take so long, I promise I'll try to keep in touch more often, this week has been full of events and there's a whole concern about Appleton's troops, even though the island is hidden, there's a little fear, anyway girls, see you, take care" Croix said saying goodbye to the girls.
"Oh Akko, well it looks like Croix must be preparing a big surprise for us, I'm really looking forward to it all, I'm looking forward to seeing what's to come, but I'm just thinking about her being well now" said the blue-eyed girl.
"Relax, Akko will be at the door soon with a smile on her face, telling us to go back to the capital and get some rest" said Hellene.
With that, the girls went off to continue their wait, even grabbing a bite to eat with the carriage drivers and some soldiers, just so they wouldn't have to worry all the time since they knew their friend would make it through yet another dungeon.
And then comes the Edo dungeon, Akko, Amanda and Constanze are the group set to explore the place and also defeat the monsters, which is already proving to be a very complex and challenging dungeon, putting the girls' skills to the limit, but even so with new powers, simply Kagari showed that she was beyond what even the dungeon itself thought to challenge, while the other two suffered a little. The fourth word has been discovered and another breakthrough comes for the seven words, with Atsuko being able to create platforms with her staff, which can already be very useful in different dungeon situations.
See you, dungeon witches...