Akko, Diana and Hellene continued to explore the dungeon, after they had rested enough in the main hall, they had already explored the upper floors of the castle, which until then had its challenges, getting hurt a lot due to the crows being very furious and going on the attack on the girls who were avoiding being attacked, but they were still grazed, also showing that they have an improvement in relation to their strength and also power, soon they were starting to explore the floor below as well.
Once they had finished resting, they went to the first door on the left, of the two they had, the door that was furthest north. As they entered it, they came across a corridor with some floating Bari and also jellyfish traps, which were easily dodged by the trio, who went straight on until they reached the end of the corridor, where they opened a door and came across a staircase leading downwards.
Descending the staircase, they come to another corridor, which already has what looks like a cliff below and also some spring traps and the presence of Hardhat beetles that are coming to attack, as well as some Hinox throwing bombs along the way to hinder the girls.
"It's good that my katana takes away the effect of these push monsters, but I can still do it" said Akko, who tried to use the projectile cut, but it didn't work very well.
"You haven't healed completelyAkko, but that's the least of it, let's tackle these things soon" said Diana.
The seven hardhat beetles went up, some hit the spring trap and were pushed close to the cliff, others came close and to the trio's surprise, both Cavendish and Hellene were also immune to the kick effect when these monsters are attacked, including one of the gauntlets' punches that ended up bouncing one of the monsters into others that were scattered and even knocked over a nearby hinox.
"Woah, this is marvellously perfect, I was really hoping I could attack like this" said the surprised McLaren.
"It seems it's not just you Akko, we're also immune to the kicks this monster used to give us when it attacked us, now we have a clearer path, let's go" said the platinum blonde haired woman.
Continuing down the corridor, another staircase just kept appearing, they went down and down, arriving, they came across some stalfos only smaller, they were different, even wearing tunics, starting to concentrate magic and fire spells towards the trio who were soon preventing them from being hit.
"Oh, who'd have thought we'd be facing wizards at some point" said Atsuko.
"Little do they know that we can do what they do too" said the blue-eyed girl, pointing her rapier and using it like a wand.
The three girls soon changed their ways, so much so that Kagari began to use her elemental staff to attack the mages, who launched fireballs and lightning attacks, but soon the three mages were defeated by the magic of the girls, who only cast fireball spells at the monsters, moving on down that corridor full of firing cannons, and so they went down another flight of stairs.
"More and more stairs, we'll soon end up going down to hell this way, what a thing" said the crimson-eyed girl.
When they reach the lower floor, they come across a corridor again, as if it were full of precipices. In it, they notice the presence of some snakes, very large ones that have been coming at the girls, who have already gone into a defence pose, five of them of considerable size that also spit venom, which almost hits them.
"Woah, look at the size of those things" said the impressed brown-haired girl.
"More focus Akko, five of these, one bite and one poison and we won't have any more to tell" said the Queen of Wedinburgh.
"Woah, there have been some interesting monsters here for us to beat up" said the redhead.
There the three of them went, fighting giant snakes that were not only deadly, but also quick to strike, but not to the point where the girls had any difficulty, but it was difficult to somehow cut through the scales that were more like armour, to get through them, This also took away some of the effectiveness of the purple-eyed girl's punches, as she began to help the girls with her gauntlets, impacting the blades, which worked when she punched the Luna Nova warrior's katana, simply causing a more powerful cut and even decapitating one of the snakes.
"Woah, thanks Hellene, your punches are capable of penetrating the scales of snakes, go and help Diana, I'll distract these creatures" said Akko as her friend nodded in agreement.
The princess soon comes to her sister's aid with her fists and the other four remaining snakes focus on the royal girls, with the exception of the only one with the katana, which soon attracts the attention of a trio who begin to chase it. The girl uses a hook to move around and distract the creatures, even making a few grazing cuts on the scales that end up just sparking.
In the meantime, Diana was faced with the challenge of confronting the only snake, which was always making precise swings and even almost hitting her with its venom, but her sister soon arrived to help.
"Come on, sis, you give it an uppercut, I'll distract the snake and then I'll throw a punch to really penetrate this monster" said Hellene and her older sister agreed.
Cavendish goes straight up and the snake comes at her, so McLaren decides to throw a few punches that end up stunning the snake and also making it focus on attacking only the short girl, who thrusts herself upwards with her gauntlets to dodge a bite and then throws a punch right where the snake was with just the tip of the punch, which penetrates further inside and begins to activate its control points, simply exploding the snake's head, which is defeated.
The remaining three simply end up tangling and even biting each other to the point where they kill themselves with their own venom, and with that Atsuko is able to distract the creature, so they quickly make their way to a chest in front of them, and when they open it, it's precisely where the master key is, which is a relief.
"Wow, we've really come a long way on this one, we've finally got the master key, all that's left to do is find the bazaar and also the room where the boss of this dungeon is, that's because we're at the beginning, how are we going to get up all this?" Said the redhead until Kagari simply uses her hook on the side.
"Hold on to me" said the crimson-eyed girl.
With the help of the hook, they went almost all the way up until they reached the first corridor upstairs. With the way open, they headed for the main hall. On their way back, they entered the door to the south on the left-hand side, where they came across a room that seemed to be completely open, it even looked like a dance hall, as a piano began to play and pieces of the floor began to fly out.
"Oh the old floors, what would we be without those things turning up" said the brown-haired one.
"Let's see how long these things take" said the platinum blonde.
And the floors were really coming at them, there was no trap to hinder the girls, but the pieces of floor were coming at a very high speed, something that the sisters couldn't quite keep up with, but the warrior from Luna Nova was managing to show a lot of her speed by hitting each piece.
(Wow, the speed at which Akko does this is impressive, she just stands in the same corner and breaks the floors in half, smashing everything as if it were nothing and I'm here suffering, even some are sticking to me, it really hurts a lot, I have to be careful not to get all detonated in this one, my mana even came to help me).
"Hey sis, I saw you were having trouble, I can handle it here, I'll make the gauntlets bigger" said the redhead, who was making a shield for her older sister out of the huge gauntlets.
Meanwhile, Luna Nova's warrior was practically in her own world, standing still and destroying every part of the floor, which ended up creating a small pile of dust from destroying so many of them, as if there wasn't a single one left.
In the end, all the floors were destroyed, and the three of them were panting heavily from the amount they had destroyed, and they saw that there was even a drawing on the floor of a unicorn, which they then followed through the door that was heading south, which led to a corridor.
"My love, you against the floors was like nothing else, it was just you and your sword" said the Queen of Wedinburgh.
"Ah, that was just a moment of trance, let's continue down the corridor, there's still a way to go" said Akko.
There was nothing much in that corridor apart from medusa traps launching fireballs, a common enough attack that the girls just walk straight past as if it were nothing until they reach the end of the corridor where there is a lever that they make a point of pulling, but nothing happens there, which they find strange, but they
soon walk back to where the central hall is, where they see that what looked like a stage has appeared, with a staircase leading up to it.
"Surely there must be something here, well let's get going, there are only two doors left, the one with the key and the one without a key, let's go to the one without a key, there must be something in it for sure" said Atsuko.
They head for the door that's left without a key. As they enter it, they come across a room where there's a huge stone in the way, which they explode, but nothing happens, they try to push it and nothing happens either, which is very strange, that stone seemed to be very heavy, more like a huge cube, which wouldn't budge.
"Damn, it's really heavy in here" said Kagari.
"I couldn't even help with the strength I've gained" said Hellene.
"Neither do I, I have power gloves and I've also gained physical strength, it should be easy to lift something like that, it must surely weigh something, well I think we have to go back to the door where we have to open it with one of the keys" said the one with the crimson eyes.
Together they followed the path to the door with the lock, using up a key, where they saw that there was a straight corridor, in which they saw some Zazaks attacking and also some hardhat beetles, but otherwise it was a quiet corridor to pass through, together they used their weapons to open the way, one of them to the north has another door with a key, the other two on the sides are normal doors and in the room itself there are just a few Bari floating around, which is pretty ignorable for the three of them.
"Oh, it looks like we've got one more door with a key, but I think we'll check the others, this is really where we had to get in, imagine if we get the key straight away and have to go all the way round to explore this castle, having to go back and forth, it's a good thing you've got the necessary equipment to help us with this Akko" said Diana.
As they enter the door on the left, they see that there is simply a room with some monsters that are attacking. As they fall into a trap, two Nuckelavee appear, which is the moment for the trio to spring into action and start attacking.
"Let's see who's going to be the creature that attacks last" said a smiling Hellene with her thumb near her mouth.
The three go for the creatures, but Atsuko simply shows that her sword is something simply monstrous as she manages to cut the first of them to pieces without it having a chance to get close, and just as she was putting the katana back in its sheath the equine monster fell in several slices scattered across the floor. The other Nuckelavee was left for the pair of sisters to deal with, with McLaren throwing powerful punches that simply disarmed the creature on the spot, followed by Cavendish's gentle thrusts that, after penetrating the monster's structure, simply exploded into pieces.
"Oh Akko, that sword is simply a monster, how can you do that with such ease, I even have to make a bit of an effort to stock up with the rapier" said the impressed girl with the platinum blonde hair.
"I'll just cut, this sword is light, then I can easily defeat the monsters and even get something, but come on, we have to pull that lever that appeared" said the one with the crimson eyes.
The lever is pushed, they leave the room, walk back to the main hall and, to their surprise, a huge chest appears, which is precisely what indicated that this was the castle's treasure. Relieved, they open it to see what's inside, and when they see the contents, the auburn-haired girl breaks into a huge smile.
"One more glove, ahhh so that was it, we were going to get one more power glove, how marvellous" said the warrior from Luna Nova.
She exchanges her old gloves for the new ones and already feels the difference, her wrists move much better in line with her strength and her hands feel much lighter when she moves like that, just by holding the katana she feels as if she's as light as the wind, which surprises the girls, while the old gloves go into Diana's hands because she's the weakest of the trio, who ends up being impressed by how much strength she gains.
"Woah, it really does give you extra strength here, now I feel like I could get deeper into things with the rapier, now I have the secret to your strength, love" said Cavendish.
"Now we have another strong one in the group, let's go and push that huge rock" said Atsuko flexing her muscles.
The girls return to the room where a door was being blocked by a cube and with the extra strength they gained they were able to push their way through to the other side with enormous ease, since the cube finally managed to come out with a good push from Akko who opened the way for them to go to the door, as they pass the other side they realise that all the effort was just to get to a room where there are fairies.
"It was just a fountain of fairies... Ahhhh all this effort was for nothing, at least we can fill the jars with fairies and regain our health" said the frustrated Kagari.
"Well, it's not so bad, the fairy jars were already getting empty, maybe the boss monster here is so powerful that you'll end up needing them" said the one with the platinum blonde hair.
They used the fairies to heal themselves and also to fill the pots, which was enough to get them back to full activity, so they went back to where they were, to the door where the key was, they only didn't go to the door on the right and also the one with a lock that needed a key.
They start walking towards the door on the right, where there's a corridor full of hardhat beetles and a precipice, as well as medusa and spring traps, which, with their whole disposition back, was easy, since two of the girls in the trio once again had long-range attacks, pushing the creatures away.
"This is going to be too easy" said the smiling girl with the crimson eyes.
It was quite easy to cross over to the other side, they managed to take down a good number of the creatures and with that the way was clear, the few that were left didn't even bother them, which was a very smooth path to follow, arriving in a room where they came across some Stalfos sorcerers firing spells at the three of them.
They are immune to slashing attacks, which the brown-haired girl had already tested and which proved to be quite ineffective against the monsters, so she had to resort to magic against the nine sorcerers.
"Well, it seems that they really are immune to swords, but I know how to play this game too, let's see what they can do" said the warrior from Luna Nova.
With her staff in hand, things started to look different, although she didn't even have time to kill more than one wizard, since Diana simply went after almost all of them with her wand and rapier, leaving only one for Akko, who was left rubbing the back of her neck. Then a chest with a key came up, another passage for them to continue their journey through the castle being released.
"Wow, that's a spanner in the works, I couldn't even kill the wizards with magic, you're simply a better wizard than me Diana" said Atsuko rubbing the back of her neck.
"Just to remind you that I'm a witch, it's in my family to learn magic, so not only am I queen, but I'm also a witch at the same time, well anyway, let's go" said Diana with a shrug.
With the key back, they headed back to where the three entrances had been, leaving only the one that could only be accessed with a key, and ended up in a room with no enemies, just a labyrinth full of huge cubes that had to be pushed in order to open the way and couldn't even be lifted because their weight was too heavy for that, and could only be pushed by Kagari's hands.
"Oh damn, I'm going to have to push these things just to reveal the way, well then come on, let's try to see where we have to go here" said the crimson-eyed girl, taking a deep breath.
She couldn't see very well underneath, but soon with the help of the hook she climbed up to the ceiling and could see the whole pattern of cubes and how she could arrange to create the necessary path, since there was a passage in front of that room, which she soon threw herself into to start doing all the pushing.
"This is going to take some work, but it doesn't hurt to try" said the brown-haired woman.
The warrior from Luna Nova pushes the stones, the other two girls climb on top of them and help guide them so that they understand where to push more correctly without taking too many risks, and they do this in a fairly calm way, managing to guide them as best they can so as not to end up blocking the path, which has been making a path for them.
"Wow, this is a real pain in the arse, I wish I was here facing monsters, but we're going to have to push stones" said McLaren.
"That's just the way it is, this is what we need to do to get to the other side" said Akko.
"At least it's a break from all the chaos that goes on around here, it's full of monsters and monsters all the time" said Cavendish.
It took a long time to push the stones to fit everything together as correctly as they could imagine, they tried as best they could to see the way ahead, but it took a long time, until finally the way was opened, when they got there on the other side they saw a room where there were some Zazaks walking from one side to the other, wizard stalfos and a door on the left that you simply had to take a key to open, as well as another on the right that you also needed and a wall in front of it.
"Well, it's time to use the keys, just imagine if we hadn't picked them up and gone through all this... It would really be a frustration, so let's go" said Atsuko, preparing to attack.
They started attacking the monsters in that room, going at it with all their might, it was even quite easy to defeat the creatures, with that the way became clear, they were able to go to the side doors, the first is a room with two stalfos sorcerers and also accompanied by a trio of Nuckelavees, which was a very complicated combination for the trio to deal with.
"Well, now we have to alternate between using magic and fighting" said the redhead.
"Let's see which one is better" said Kagari.
The first of the equine monsters was easily defeated with several slashes by the crimson-eyed girl, while the mages she used her elemental staff and started attacking them with lightning bolts, leaving the pair with the other two monsters.
The mages were very insistent and resistant to the girl's attacks, creating barriers and even trying to counterattack, distracting the other two who were more advanced in magic.
"Leave it to me, Akko, to take care of this one" said the platinum-blonde-haired woman, passing by her wife, who made a somersault to dodge Nuckelavee's axe, which was already missing her head.
It was only in this dodge that the girl took the opportunity to make a few slashes that caught the monster's equine head, which began to break into several pieces due to the power of the slashes, missing only one of the mounted monsters, which was well stunned by the power of the purple-eyed girl's punches. She simply landed one right in the monster's single eye, which ended up exploding on impact and falling to the ground, with only the human part in the middle feeling the cuts coming from behind and then falling into smaller pieces, precisely on the part of the brown-haired girl.
"Well, that's everyone now, only the wizards are left... Diana is the best witch, there's really no way against this girl" said the smiling warrior from Luna Nova.
They notice that a statue appears and there's something on it that looks like a relief on the floor, so they push it towards where the relief is, which seems to have activated a button, but they follow the path without paying much attention, heading for the door on the other side, which in the middle they've also seen practically nothing of.
"It seems that nothing has changed in this place, this button must be to activate another one so that some effect can happen" said the blue-eyed woman.
Entering the next door they come across another room with huge cube stones and this time they have to push again, but apparently there was no door for them to follow the path, there were just some very similar drawings around and on the cubes themselves with the presence of some statues and it looked like it could be something much more like a puzzle, with Akko looking down from above with the hook, hanging from the ceiling.
"Look at that, there's nothing I can understand" said the confused Atsuko.
"It's a puzzle, hey Hellene, remember when we were kids and we had those puzzles where you had to push things around to assemble a figure, I remember mum gave us one where we could form various figures with the cubes, that must be what it's for" said the Queen of Wedinburgh.
"What is it? What kind of puzzle are you talking about? I don't understand anything, how are we going to crack someone's head?" asks Kagari.
"I don't think you've ever seen it, but it's a toy we used to have and you didn't know it, the one where there's a box and you push some cubes to form a figure, this one is very similar, there are 15 cubes and there's a sixteenth up there, you have to push them all where they are in the space and you can see that the top cube has a button on it, I think we're going to have to push a statue" Diana explains.
"So you stay on top and I'll push, tell me which way I have to go, don't confuse me any more than I'm already confused by all this" said the crimson-eyed girl, throwing herself down and going to push the stones.
"You can rest assured that we'll manage together" said Cavendish, signalling with her thumb.
"It's not the most comfortable position in the world to be hanging here, Akko, even more so clinging to my sister" said Hellene.
"And where do you want me to leave them? It's the only place I can leave them with..." said the brown-haired girl.
The platinum-blonde haired woman simply uses her magic to float up and hang from a statue so that she can see where she is, Hellene lets go of the hook and sits on a statue on the other side, which returns the hook to the Luna Nova warrior's hand.
"And don't call me fat, I'm a lot lighter than you Hellene, you're pure muscle, did you know that you weigh more than me?And a lot more, the gloves help me to bear your weight now, but before that I'd be begging you to leave" said the pushed girl with the platinum blonde hair.
"This isn't the time to fight over who's the hottest sister, we have to put this thing together" said Akko.
The montage began with Atsuko pushing, following the tips of the two girls who were telling her where to go, but this still generated a lot of arguments between the sisters, which confused and irritated Kagari a little, there were many moments listening to "Don't push that one", "Push that one forward", "That's the one", "No Akko Hellene said it wrong, it's that one!", "Diana are you stupid? Can't you see that it's going to get messier?", "Fuck you both", "I'll sort it out myself", "I'm sorry, love, I didn't mean to upset you", "Fuck you, you don't seem to be helping", "I'm sorry I was rude to you, I know you want to help", "It's going", and it went on and on in a cycle of cursing, calming down, forgiveness, more melancholy moments, until in about 30 minutes she was just trying to put together that 16-piece puzzle that took a long time to move due to the force the crimson-eyed girl had to exert, to the point of exhaustion.
Everything was assembled and all she had to do was push the stone that was on top, which the two sisters helped the girl to lift and, relieved, she accepted their hands to climb up, even though she didn't need to, and the three of them pushed the stone, even though all she needed was for the brown-haired girl to push it and, with that, she fitted the piece where it needed to be, falling into the hole, making the exact drawing of what was on the walls.
"We did it! We've finally finished putting it all together! I didn't think I was going to make it, but finally... Whew" said the relieved Akko.
"Let's put up this statue and finally be free, I don't think any monster is worse than the monster that makes us think" said Hellene.
The statue is pushed to where the middle of the button is and a light switches on underneath where the drawing of the stones is, so the girls get out of there, walk backwards and then hear the sound of something shaking, when they go to the space in the middle something simply opens up in the walls, as if it were a secret passage opening up, but it was just the puzzle they had to solve so that the passage is open and at the end of the corridor you can already see the door to the boss.
Together they walked to where the door was, where they sat down and took a break, relieved that it had all been so stressful, even though they hadn't even been hurt by anything, it had been tiring, not least for the girl herself who had pushed the stones.
"Wow, I never thought this would be more tiring than fighting monsters, at least now we have a clear path to follow" said a relieved Atsuko.
"Well, let's rest for a while, then you can go to the dungeon" said Diana, who sat down on her wife's lap.
"Are you really going to rest like that?" McLaren asks, watching from the sidelines.
"Can't I kiss my wife? You and Marianne are much worse" Cavendish said with his hand on her wife's cheek.
"I won't say anything, at least put a blanket on or something, I don't know, I don't need to see two women having sex and watching... When I come round with Marianne, I don't care, I'm going to make you hold a candle, you'll see, sis, when we have to split up again" said the redhead.
"Oh Hellene, don't be like that, soon you and Mari will have your moment of rest" said Kagari.
"Is this a time for rest or am I going to end up getting nieces?" said the redhead, causing the two girls to blush and then start laughing.
They rested for a while, the one with the platinum blonde hair showering his wife with affection and love, while her nine-year-old sister was a little miffed at being left out of the loop by the couple's moment together.
After exploring the dungeon, they stayed in the corridors, facing the various dangers that lay ahead, but they had to deal with many puzzles. Akko even managed to get one of the power gloves, only improved, giving her even more strength to defeat the monsters in the castle, but the biggest monster she faced was the monster of knowledge.
See you, knowledge witches...