Lily had no way of knowing how much time passed since Iroha captured her and Cocorobo. When they were seized and taken from the fountain, they had nothing but unanswered questions. They could not fathom how someone like Iroha could go rogue, or why the Indefinable Shadow Beasts weren't attacking her. Ring was also getting on the duo's nerves, as she would not stop tormenting them as they marched through the woods under restraint.

Where were they going? Iroha had a sense of where she wanted to take them, but how was that possible? She didn't live in the Execrated Forest, as far as the captives knew. The red-haired girl in the red dress hunched over and crawled on all fours, sniffing out every area before making sure they could walk there. She described this as her way of finding her path. She had a destination in mind, and Lily and Cocorobo were about to be her involuntary guests of honor.

At first, they were taken to a cell without any windows, and time moved pretty slowly while they were in there. They couldn't tell if it had been a day or several. They spent a lot of time sleeping on a dirty old cot that threatened to collapse every time they laid on it. Perhaps they slept for weeks, for all they knew. Apart from the cot, the cell was barren. Cocorobo also killed time by eating dust that gathered on the floor.

"Sorry, force of habit." she would giggle.

Lily's last memory involved Iroha coming into the cell with a few ISBs behind her, talking to someone and saying "I've searched the whole forest, and I'm pretty sure that's all of them! Looks like it's time." Lily didn't get to see much before Iroha threw a bag over her head and escorted her out of the cell. Wherever she led her, the cat did not want her prisoners seeing the path they took.

For however long the venture took, Lily did not see a thing the whole time. She did not understand what was going on, she just felt herself being pushed up against something really cold. She was confused and unable to foresee the coming events.

There was a moment of silence with a lack of clarity, but then Lily heard something. She did not see it, but she surely heard it.

"Meiko, could you scooch over a bit?"

"Rin, I literally can't."

The sound of familiar voices brought hope to Lily in such a dark time. Dark in more ways than one. On top of being unable to see, she couldn't move, either. She felt as if her body were being held down, but she still stood upright against the icy, hard surface.

Iroha pulled the sack from Lily's head and stomped away from her, finally letting the blonde see where she was.

"Lily! About time she took that bag off your head. Not sure why she kept it on for so long," Cocorobo cheerily greeted her friend from right beside her. While the blonde was happy to see her pink-haired mate was okay, she was standing a little too close for comfort.

"It's good to see you again, Coco," Lily regained her breath after having it suppressed for who knew how long. "But, do you have to stand so close? Give me some space, pal."

"I can't help it! I can't move!"

"You might wanna take a look at yourself, Lily ol' buddy!" Gumi popped in from the other side of Cocorobo. "We're in a bit of a sticky situation here!"

Upon looking down, Lily gave a tremendous groan when she saw that she and Cocorobo had been tied to a massive pillar together. "Are you kidding me?!" she growled.

Thankfully, all of her friends were still alive, as they were all in the same room as her. At the far end, Rin, Meiko, Yanhe, Merli, and Xin Hua were stuck together, and beside them, so were Gumi, Yuki, and kokone. On Lily's other side, Tei and Maika were also bound together.

"Hey, Lily. Told ya we'd meet again," Tei chuckled, only for Maika to nudge her aggressively.

The room stretched out to the size of a gymnasium, and the structure was made entirely of stone. The walls were covered in moss and parts of the floor were littered with rocks, sticks, and broken pieces of wood from crates or other similar objects. Only a few high-up windows allowed sunlight to shine in on the dark little dungeon. These had to be some kind of ancient ruins.

"Merli!" Lily called over. "Can't you get us out of this? You have magic and all."

Yanhe groaned. "We've asked her already. Turns out she can't use magic if her hands are tied."

"Why do you think I wave my hands whenever I do something magical?" Merli barked. "You think I just do it for show? Like some fairy-freaking-godmother?"

"You know, I'm beginning to think fairies are pretty useless!" Meiko called back.

"Come over here and say that to my face! I dare you!"

"What are you gonna do? Wiggle at me?"

"C-can we please not fight each other? We're all trapped here together, after all..." kokone begged. It sounded like her voice had gotten better since Lily last heard her.

"What do you want with us?!" Lily finally addressed Iroha, who stood smirking in front of her and the former vacuum cleaner.

At all corners of the room, several ISBs watched intently. They appeared to follow Iroha's command, and she ordered them to stand down for the time being. Ring was also in the room, but she didn't say much. She just leaned against the wall, occasionally slipping through it, and watched Iroha pace back and forth while the hostages bickered.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Iroha chortled and continued her pacing.

"Was it something I said? Is all this because of the time I sang off-key at our one performance together? I'm really sorry about that, I wasn't feeling myself that-"

"Shut up!" Iroha detracted three sharp claws from the mock paw on her hand. This made Lily scoot back a bit, but she couldn't move very far with her back pressed against the large pillar.

After making sure she had everything in check, Iroha ultimately decided it was time to let everyone in on what was going on. Lily and the others had too many questions that needed answering. Why were the ISBs obeying Iroha? Why was Iroha doing this to them? What was about to happen to them? Where even where they?

"Right now, you are in the great fortress that was built long ago to house the people who sought the Fountain of Diolacov. As you know, the gods cursed them to become the Indefinable Shadow Beasts. They would never have access to the fountain for the rest of eternity. That's basic history, which I assume you know already."

Iroha expected too much from her prisoners. None of them, apart from Yuki, actually did any research before going out there. If they did, they might have known the legends of the ISBs beforehand. There was no telling if they would have actually believed them, but they couldn't deny the legends after all they went through.

"The ISBs are smarter than you think," Iroha went on. "Nowadays, anyone taken by the forest's curse becomes a shadow of who they once were. Take Ring, for example. Or even your little friend there. The one you so heroically saved."

"Hey, that's me!" Cocorobo giggled, but received a glare from Lily.

"What will happen to you? Well, that's up to us to find out, isn't it?" Iroha snickered. "The ISBs were cursed in these very ruins so long ago. They always bring their victims here to turn them into creatures just like them. Only one problem... none of them can speak, and the words to curse someone need to be read out loud. That's what they need me for!"

Everyone gasped. Iroha turned to a large wall behind her, where a small engraving could be seen. The words were ancient and almost unreadable, but Iroha knew what they meant.

"Anyway, that's enough for now. Any other questions before I read this wall and curse you for the rest of eternity?"

"Ooh, me! Pick me! Ugh!" Rin tried to raise her hand, but obviously couldn't with the rope holding it down.

"What is it, yellow one?"

"Me?"

"Not you, Lily! Rin!"

"Why didn't you curse Meiko, Yanhe, Xin Hua, Merli, and me when you caught us in the first place?"

Iroha paused. Everyone stared blankly at her, awaiting her response. She nervously rubbed the back of her neck, then looked over to Ring, who simply shrugged her shoulders.

"W-well, I was out hunting the others!" Iroha defended herself. "I don't have time to come this deep into the forest when I'm supposed to be following the rest of you! I... get lost sometimes. Don't judge me."

"Lost?" Yuki asked. A revelation hit her at that very instant. It all suddenly made sense. "You don't know this forest too well, do you?"

"Shut up, kid! Of course I do! This forest is my home!"

"You're one of them, aren't you?"

"Shut up!"

"The shadow beasts took you and Ring turned you into one of them, so you could hunt people who came into the forest while she stayed in the cabin!"

"SHUT. UP."

Ring tugged at her collar and shot a nervous glance over to Iroha, as if to say "They're onto us." Iroha growled and stomped her foot, then turned back to the writing on the wall.

"No more questions! You're all going to be ISBs! ALL OF YOU! That is FINAL!"

Now that the time for being silly drew to a close, the girls realized the severity of their situation. Iroha started to read the words on the wall, and all of them were overcome with fright. If they didn't get out of there in the next minute or so, however long it took for Iroha to read, they would never get to leave the forest.

"I don't wanna be a vacuum cleaner!" kokone cried.

"Please be a slow reader, please be a slow reader..." Yanhe murmured, quietly.

The twelve campers tried to break out of the ropes that held each of them, but none had any luck. Iroha started speaking the chant in its initial language, but stopped after the first word.

"Machigaete...? Mach... Uh, Ring, can I get some help over here? I can't pronounce this word."

Even the prisoners rolled their eyes as Ring had to move over to help Iroha read the inscription out loud.

"It's my first time, okay? Give me a break!"

The struggling continued once Iroha started reading again. While many of the girls just mindlessly wiggled, Tei ferociously shook her arms behind her back. Maika noticed this weird maneuver, and questioned Tei on it.

"What are you doing?"

"I... keep my knife in a... pouch... in my sleeve... if I can just... get it..."

Like many singers in Vocaloid, Tei wore long arm warmers that were separate from her shirt. Inside one of the sleeves, Tei kept her knife handy, conveniently tucked away so it would not make contact with her hand. She had not gotten to use the knife since being taken away, and there was no better time to use it than right then.

Meanwhile, Iroha made little progress with the enchantment, since she had to have Ring help her with almost every other word.

"Okay, start from the beginning. It won't work unless it's said absolutely perfectly!" Ring instructed Iroha. Some of the prisoners were wondering why Ring wasn't the one reading, but Iroha probably beat her in a bet or something like that. At least the less competent one was the one in charge.

"I think I got it... Hold on, Maika..." Tei finally managed to retrieve her knife from its pouch. Taking it in her hand, she began to cut through the ropes. Maika clenched her teeth and watched nervously while Tei cut herself out.

"Tsuki no akari ga..."

"Wrong, wrong, wrong! You know what? Get outta the way, let me read it!"

With a heavy shove, Ring forced Iroha out of her way and hovered in front of the sacred words. "Ahem," she cleared her throat a few times before preparing to speak out loud. With ease, she started on the first sentence.

"Mach-"

"Hey, you stupid spirit girl!"

Hearing Tei shout at her from behind, Ring angrily turned around to see what the intrusive prisoner wanted.

"What is it? I'm very busy... here..."

Ring expected a lot to happen that day. She had pretty good intuition, but one thing she did not expect to happen that day at all, was for her to turn around and see her arch-nemesis Sukone Tei standing there with a large knife in hand.

"G-GET HER!" Ring shouted, commanding the ISBs to attack.

"Quick, Maika. You know what to do," Tei said to her partner in crime, who had also been freed from the ropes. Maika nodded and ran over to where Gumi, Yuki, and kokone stood. Tei moved over to Lily and Cocorobo, then proceeded to cut through their ropes with the knife.

While Maika and Tei freed their friends, the Indefinable Shadow Beasts moved ever closer to them. Once Lily and Cocorobo were out of their bonds, Tei gave them some advice.

"Back in the cave, Maika and I found out these things are actually kinda weak! Hit them with anything you got! They'll back down for at least a few seconds!"

With that, Tei lunged for the nearest beast with the knife. Maika released Gumi, Yuki, and kokone from their ropes, and the three of them went to help the large group from Meiko's campsite.

"Coco, please tell me you still have some of your roomba powers," Lily said in urgency.

"I don't know! Let me see if I can still launch myself in this body," Cocorobo strained to lift herself off the ground, but to no avail. The ISBs moved closer and closer to them, and Coco was taking too much time to see if her powers still worked.

"We are so done. We are so done for," Lily tried to back away from the impending monsters, but only backed into the pillar that previously held her. Before the shadows could make contact, however, a large beam of energy struck them and sent them tumbling out of the way. "What the-"

At the other end of the room, Merli stood with her hand outstretched, having fired the beam of light that overtook the monsters. She and her friends had all been freed, and they were ready to take their revenge.

"Let me show you how useful fairies truly are!" Merli declared, gathering more power for another blow.

Over at the stone inscription, Ring failed to notice Iroha slipping out of the dungeon. She simply grumbled and returned to facing the words on the wall.

"I don't care if you're all fighting each other! I'm gonna read this, anyway! AH!"

Ring did not have time to read the words, since Merli shot a beam of energy right towards her and forced her to duck. The beam struck the words, themselves, covering them in ash and permanently damaging some of them.

"NO! No, no, no! You imbecile!" Ring flipped around in fury and levitated herself upwards, ready to fight Merli to the death.

Meanwhile, Maika demonstrated how to fight the ISBs by kicking them from a distance. Gumi took up this strategy and made a fun little game out of it. Cocorobo once again tried to launch herself, and only managed to hover a bit off the ground into an ISB, which she took the opportunity to uppercut. As each of the beasts took damage, they gave their ear-piercing screeches that distracted many of the fighters.

Merli and Ring chased each other around the room, with Merli constantly fending the spirit off with beams of energy and bursts of fire. She almost didn't notice the ISB creeping up behind her, and right as it was about to strike, the monster received a kick and fled. Merli looked over her shoulder just long enough to see who had saved her from the flank attack: Xin Hua.

"I still got your back!" the young girl in the pink hat smiled. Merli smiled back, then returned to battling Ring.

kokone cowered in the corner while the others fought. Yuki attempted to join them, but Meiko pulled her out of the line of fire. The former camp leader then stood beside Yanhe, and the two nodded to one another.

"Ready, partner?" asked Yanhe.

"You bet."

Using their fists and feet, Meiko and Yanhe proceeded to punch and kick every beast that came near them. The villains were slowly beginning to see that without their words of power and territorial advantages, the campers were formidable threats. Iroha and Ring made the mistake of reuniting them.

"If we never split up in the first place, maybe none of this would have ever happened!" Lily thought as she watched the fighters from afar. Their desire for division and disagreements led to their downfall. Maybe they could have caught Iroha from the beginning if they had only worked together. As a team, they were strong, even without Lily as the core leader. Perhaps they didn't need a single leader at all.

While Lily thought these things over, a shadow beast made for her, and she scrambled to grab a large stick from a pile of wood to defend herself with. She poked it at the creature, causing it to shriek in its painful voice, and she took that moment to dive away from it.

As she hit the ground, Lily looked up to see Iroha scampering into the hallway leading out of the dungeon. The wild cat had stuck around just to see if her side would win, but decided to bail when things grew unpredictable. As everyone else was distracted with their own private battles, Lily took it upon herself to go after her former friend. She didn't know if she could save Iroha, but she at least wanted to face her for herself.

With her really sharp stick in hand, Lily bolted after Iroha, losing sight of her but keeping on her trail. She ran into the hallway, but a few shadow demons noticed her leaving. When they made for her, someone tossed a rock at one of their frontrunners, causing all of them to lose focus.

Lily stopped for a second to see who threw the rock, and saw kokone standing in the corner with several more stones in hand.

"C-Come over here! I-I'm not afraid of you! I won't let you hurt my friend!"

Taking the distraction, the angry ISBs turned away from Lily and made their way over to kokone. She defended herself by throwing rocks, and eventually, Rin joined in.

"Good thing we played that game of Rock Ball before. Let me show you how it's really done!" Rin proceeded to pelt the ISBs from the other side of the room, splitting them up between kokone and the younger blonde.

"Go, Lily! I can distract them! Catch Iroha!" kokone called to her friend, still tossing rocks from the pile beside her.

"Thanks, kokonut," Lily beamed, then immediately turned around and sped off after the escaping feline.

The halls were crumbling, by the looks of it. The years were not kind to them. Lily did not know how old the ruins were, but they definitely showed their age. Parts of the ceiling were broken off, which provided sunlight to guide her path. This was convenient, since the place did not have any light source apart from it. Lily continued on the path, keeping her weapon of choice in front of her, but she eventually faced a conundrum.

Three paths. Which one did Iroha go down? Lily snarled and punched the wall, hurting her fist on the stone. "Ow!" she grunted. She hated the irony. She did not know how she was supposed to decipher which way Iroha went, but she did see a room with an open door on the wall of the left side path. Curiously, she went to check it out.

"Iroha? You in here?" Lily called, not expecting a response at all.

As it turned out, she did not get a response, since the room was too small for anyone to hide in. However, something about it was seriously off. It did not look to be part of ancient ruins at all. It had a little window that sat above a wooden desk with a chair in front of it. Gallons of water and cans of cat food were all over the place, both on shelves and on the floor. Coolers, candles, grocery bags, and other things made up the contents of the room. A single tiny mattress also sat in the corner, which someone likely slept on.

"This must be where Iroha lives. Looks like she fixed the place up."

Without the cat in sight, Lily assumed the next best thing would be for her to find anything of use to her in the room. She did not need several cans of cat food, neither did she want to imagine Iroha actually eating the stuff. Once she approached the table, she found something she could actually use. A cellphone.

The cellphone was an older model, and it probably belonged to Iroha before the ISBs cursed her. She likely kept it off of her person to maneuver more freely through the woods. Not to mention, the more animalistic personality she took on would not have much use for technology.

Lily turned the phone on, and thankfully, it had some charge. Those older models were truly remarkable. She had the perfect chance to make a phone call to someone nearby, but did not know who to call. The police? Lily did not like dealing with them (especially with her slight criminal record, which is a story for another day). "They'd probably just leave us out here," Lily reasoned. "But who's more reliable than the police?"

Lily thought it over, then came to the perfect conclusion.

"Una!"

Lily recalled that before she set out on this expedition, Gumi suggested that if they ever needed any help from the outside, Una could bust them out. The Internet mansion was filled with all sorts of reliable equipment. With it, they could resolve this problem without anyone else's help.

Lily quickly dialed Una's number and put the phone to her ear, ready to ask her young companion to come and rescue her.

Several hours away, in the Internet mansion, Una lazed around on her bed, listening to music. She wore her big blue hat, which she did at all times, and laid sprawled out across the mattress with all the junk food she could find surrounding her. Gakupo was never home, and with Gumi and Lily out of the house, she had free reign over everything. Nobody could tell her what to do.

When she heard her phone ring, Una groaned. "Who could be calling me now? I told everyone not to bother me during my music time." Una figured the caller had no idea what time it was. Despite her complaints, she answered the call. "Hello?"

"Hey, Una!"

"Lily?!"

"Hey, it's been a while! How have you been? I hope you've been good. Staying out of trouble and all."

"Don't tell me you need me to pick you up from the police station again," Una sighed.

"Not this time! Though we are in a sticky situation and we need your help. You know that fun little garage where we keep all the special vehicles in case of emergencies?"

Una did not like what she was hearing.

"Uh-huh. Why do you ask?"

"Could you, maybe, get like the helicopter or something and come rescue us? We're stranded in the middle of the Execrated Forest and there are all sorts of weird creatures here that want to hurt us."

Una groaned again and lifted herself from the bed. She switched her music off and headed for the door.

"I take it you need the big helicopter?"

"Yeah! We got twelve people here, maybe thirteen if I can get Iroha to come with us."

"Iroha?"

"Long story. I'll tell you all about it when we get out of here."

Keeping the phone in hand, Una left her room and made her way downstairs to access the garage. She headed to the back of the house, and walked up to the facial recognition panel on the wall. She snapped a photo of herself and waited for the system to register it. Una felt it was unnecessary, but Gakupo's paranoia over someone stealing his expensive golf cart forced them to invest in such a device.

When the door opened, Una stepped into the garage, where many large vehicles were kept. As one of the richest households in all of Vocaloid, they had all of the state of the art equipment. They weren't quite as rich as Crypton or Yamaha, but they got by pretty well.

Una walked over to the large helicopter, which bore the Internet household logo across the side, and familiarized herself with it. It wasn't the first time she needed to fly it, so she had experience with the controls. Gakupo taught her how to fly it in the case of emergencies, and the only ones who were not permitted to touch it were Gumi and Gachapoid.

"Alright, I'll get ready to go. I'll be there in a few hours, more or less. Get everyone to a really high place so I can see you," Una instructed her friend.

"Will do! Thank you so much, Una! You're the best!"

Finishing up the phone call, Lily put the cellphone down and held her sharp stick high. She needed to get her friends, possibly find Iroha, and get everyone to a high place so Una could come and rescue them. Not the most ideal end to a great camping trip, but an exciting one, nonetheless.

Lily departed from the room, unsure of whether or not to continue pursuing Iroha or to go back to her friends. None of them had come out of the dungeon yet, so they were probably still fighting. She needed to focus on finding Iroha.

Little did she expect Iroha to find her.

The wild cat watched Lily head down the hallway, and after sneaking up from behind, she pounced.

"Gotcha!"