Lily and Iroha wrestled to the ground, each of them trying to one-up the other. Iroha pinned Lily to the floor and lifted her catlike glove, extracting three claws from within it.
"You will never escape from me! You and your friends are mine!" Iroha swiped her claw at Lily, but Lily shoved her off just in time to avoid getting scratched. The blonde lifted her sharp stick and jabbed it at Iroha, forcing her to scamper back. Her aerobic capabilities were impressive, but not great to fight against.
Lily stabbed her stick outward when she saw an opening, but Iroha swiped her claws at the exact same time. In the blink of an eye, the sharp end of the stick slipped clean off, rendering Lily's weapon useless. Lily stared blankly at the hunched-over wild cat, who now had both claws visible. She chuckled nervously, then took off running. Iroha chased after her.
Relying on her survival instincts to keep her running faster than Iroha, Lily sprinted across the hallway until she finally saw an opening in the wall. Thankfully, the ruins were so old the building was beginning to fall apart. She prepared her knees and lifted herself off the ground, leaping through the open wall and landing outside in the wilderness. Iroha stayed on her trail, leaping out of the wall behind her. Lily did not have time to catch her breath, since she immediately had to start running again.
Lily really wished she had a roomba to ride on as she ran full-speed through the forest. She almost lost a sense of her surroundings, only wanting to survive and nothing more. She almost failed to comprehend the hedges nearby, which marked the path to the Fountain of Diolacov. She supposed it made sense for the builders of the now-ruins to house themselves close to the fountain.
Changing direction to run along the hedges, the blonde escapee tried her best not to look back at the red-haired feral girl behind her. Lily knew Iroha was under a curse, and she had an idea to bring her friend back to reality, but she didn't know if she would survive long enough to bring it into fruition.
"I'll... get... you...!" Iroha threatened, gaining on Lily as she moved closer to the fountain. The two of them ran through the hedges and reached the fields of flowers, but neither of them took the time to appreciate the beautiful scenery. Lily only wanted to reach the fountain, and she needed to do it before Iroha caught up to her.
When Lily finally reached the front of the Fountain of Diolacov, Iroha grabbed her from behind and wrestled her to the ground once again.
"Ah! Let me go! Get off of me!" Lily tried to shake the attacker, but Iroha scratched and swung her paws at Lily. Lily howled in pain when Iroha succeeded in scratching her across the face. Three large claw marks spread across Lily's face, and if she saw herself in a mirror, she likely would have screamed. Not harking on her pain or appearance for long, Lily pushed upwards and tried to get a grip on Iroha.
The two fought in hand to hand combat and slowly backed up closer to the fountain. When she had the prime opportunity, Lily backed away and charged. Iroha prepared to defend herself, but Lily tackled her and brought her into the fountain with her.
A loud splash erupted as the two girls sunk beneath the water. As it did with Cocorobo, the fountain became encapsulated in a white light. Neither of the fighters saw the light, as they were beneath the water, but they both felt its effects.
Under the surface of the fountain, Lily released Iroha, and the two of them drifted up to the surface. They emerged from beneath the waters and gasped for air, and the light faded around them. They now stood in front of one another, and stared each other in the eye for a good minute. They almost forgot where they were, as if whatever just happened caused them to momentarily blink out of reality.
"AH! Water! I hate water!" Iroha came to realize where she was and promptly leaped out of the fountain. Lily followed behind her, watching Iroha desperately try to shake herself dry.
Then, Lily touched her face. It did not hurt. The scratch from Iroha's claw had vanished completely! The legends said the fountain could heal almost anything, and it appeared to be true. However, what did that mean for Iroha?
"Ah, ah..." Iroha stopped shaking herself out when she saw Lily move beside her. A silence befell the two, and they both half-expected the other to attack. They did not move a muscle, waiting to see who would make the first move. After awkwardly staring at each other for a bit longer, Iroha made the first move and lunged at Lily. However, she did not attack her. She threw her arms around her and wrapped her in a hug.
"AHHHHH! I am SO SORRY!" Iroha cried into Lily's chest, hugging her tight. "I don't know what came over me, I couldn't control myself! I'm so so so very sorry!"
In any normal circumstance, an apology for everything Iroha had done would not appease Lily. Regardless, Lily knew her friend could not control her actions. She put her arms around Iroha and patted her on the back, assuring her it was alright.
"It's okay. It wasn't your fault."
Iroha sniveled as she and Lily parted from the hug, but Lily continued to remind her everything was alright.
"I... just came into the forest the other day..." Iroha explained herself. "I always liked to act like a cat, and I thought it would be fun to play among nature for a little while... I never expected any of this to happen."
"It's okay, Iroha. I'm just glad to have you back."
When Iroha managed to stop crying, Lily patted her on the back, and they knew what needed to be done.
"We can talk about all this later. Right now, we need to go get our friends and get out of this forest!"
"Right," Iroha nodded.
Without wasting any more time, Iroha and Lily hurried back toward the ruins. They planned to enter inside, but they were stopped before they could.
"Lily! And Iroha, too! Get away from her, you fiend!" Cocorobo came charging at the two former adversaries, using a bit of her momentum to launch herself slightly off the ground. Before she could reach them, Lily grabbed her by the arm and stopped her.
"Hey, wait! She's okay! I put her in the fountain and she returned to normal, just like you!"
Behind Cocorobo, all of Lily's fellow campmates ran up to join them. Gumi, kokone, Tei, Maika, Yuki, Meiko, Yanhe, Merli, Xin Hua, and Rin gathered together. They all listened to Lily's explanation as to how she returned Iroha to normal. Some of them were skeptical, but most of them were happy to have Iroha back on their side. She seemed okay, so any skepticism died fast.
"Might I add, this Cocorobo friend of yours sure is interesting," Tei stepped in front of the group. "She told us everything on the way out of there."
"What about the Indefinable Shadow Beasts? Are they all gone?" asked Lily.
"They retreated. Realized there weren't enough of them in there to fend us off. We took the chance to get out of there and find you."
Lily and Iroha took a few minutes to have a brief reunion with all of their friends. They were all exhausted and worn out, and all of them just wanted to get out of there.
"Okay, listen up," Lily announced to the team. "I used Iroha's phone to call Una. You all know Una, right? Good. She's bringing a helicopter, and she needs us to get to a very high place so she can see us from the skies! I'm not sure how long she's gonna take to get here, but we should probably get going as soon as possible."
"I know where we can find some pretty tall trees!" Iroha jumped in. "They're not too far from here, and the branches should be stable enough to hold us all."
"Trees?" asked Gumi. "How are we gonna climb them?"
"We'll figure something out, I'm sure."
That wasn't promising, but it was still better than nothing. Fearing their enemies would return soon, or even the possibility they were nearby, everyone agreed to head for the trees. Trusting Iroha's word, the campers followed the cat girl as she swiftly crawled through the forest and guided them to the special place she had mentioned.
Not far from where the campers made their escape, the watchful eyes of Ring and an army of Indefinable Shadow Beasts gazed upon them. Ring clenched her fists in anger and lifted herself off the ground.
"Iroha is with them. We can't let them leave."
High above the forest, the sound of propellers whipping back and forth filled the air, scaring off any birds that came near. A ginormous helicopter, flown by the young Otomachi Una, passed over the town of Synthania to reach the Execrated Forest. Inside, Una surveyed both the control panel and the wilderness beneath her, keeping a sharp eye out for her lost friends in need of saving.
Far below the helicopter, the massive crew of campers continued on their trek, shielded from the sky by the massive trees above them. Iroha kept at the front of the pack, and sniffed out the area as she walked.
"Wait. I hear something," Iroha stopped where she stood and circled around to the others behind her.
"Yeah, come to think of it, so do I," Lily affirmed.
Far out into the woods, a ways away from the ancient ruins and the Fountain of Diolacov, a loud rumbling sound echoed throughout the Execrated Forest and shook the very ground it stood on.
"E-Earthquake?!" asked kokone in fright.
"Not quite. Look!"
Maika pointed behind the group, where a swarm of close to a hundred Indefinable Shadow Beasts raged through the forest after them. Leading them was the notorious Ring, who had her sights set on the escaping adventurers.
"RUUUUUUUUUUUUN!" Lily gave her last command as leader, and nobody had the gall to question it.
Lily, Gumi, kokone, Cocorobo, Iroha, Maika, Tei, Yuki, Meiko, Rin, Yanhe, Xin Hua, and Merli ran faster than they ever had before. They did not even care to stay close to one another, they put all their energy into sprinting as far from Ring and the monsters as possible.
Running on all fours, Iroha scurried to the front of the pack, but didn't take any time to sniff around. Everyone tried to follow her, assuming she knew where was going. Thankfully, with how fast they were going, the trailing shadow demons and Ring couldn't keep up too much. In spite of this, they remained locked on their targets.
Less than a minute later, Iroha reached exactly where she intended to. She ran up to the nearest tree and began bouncing up and down.
"Come on, come on! We're here! Up these trees, come on!"
Extracting the claws from her fake paws, Iroha clung to the tree and swiftly began to climb. The ISBs were at a reasonable distance, but in the time it would take for most of the campers to even try to climb, they would have certainly caught up.
"We can't all climb, Iroha! How are we supposed to get up there?!"
Iroha could not hear Lily, as she was already nearing the top of the extraordinarily tall tree. Lily could not stop looking over her shoulder, nervously sweating at the thought of being caught by the shadow beasts.
"What are we going to do?!" asked a hysterical kokone.
While everyone scrambled to figure out how they would get up the tree, some even trying to climb it, Cocorobo kept a straight face. Without panicking or thinking a single negative thought, she clutched onto Lily from behind.
"Coco? What are you doing?"
"You know what I'm doing."
"What?! No, you can't! You couldn't do it before!"
"Right now isn't before, Lily."
Lily did not entirely trust Cocorobo to be able to launch her to the top of the tree, especially in her human form. Already, Merli was attempting to levitate the others to the top, but there were too many for her to help. Not to mention, the trees were too high for her magical capabilities. She had accidentally dropped Rin, Gumi, and Xin Hua to the ground multiple times.
Ultimately, Lily drew a deep breath and closed her eyes. She needed to trust Coco. Even if Cocorobo couldn't launch her, what harm was there in trying?
"Okay. Let's do this."
Giving herself a mighty push, Cocorobo prepared to take off from the ground. The monsters in the distance were coming into sight, so time was of the essence. She decided that, without proper preparation, she would just do it and see if it worked.
On that note, Cocorobo launched herself into the air with Lily in her arms. The others looked up in awe as they saw the pinkhead carry their leader to the top of the tree at an alarmingly fast speed. The wind hit Lily hard, but she kept her eyes shut and didn't even think about looking down or falling. She could only think about getting home and leaving the horrible forest behind.
At last, Lily felt something beneath her. She did not open her eyes just yet, but she knew she was alive. When she got a better feel for the surface she stood on, she cracked her eyes open, then opened them fully. She was at the top of the tree beside Iroha.
"Fancy meeting you here," Iroha giggled.
Lily could not believe her eyes. Despite being in human form, Cocorobo still retained her power from before. She could still launch herself, and bring everyone along with her!
"Cocorobo, you-"
"Thank me later. I got some other friends to help out."
With a great leap, Cocorobo jumped to the tree trunk and slid down as if it were a firepole. Lily watched as she reached the ground and quickly became swarmed with campers wanting to hitch a ride with her. They each tried to grab onto each other, as if to create a large chain that would be brought up at once. Lily's focus was taken away from them when Iroha took her by the hand and guided her up the tree.
"Come on, this way! We have to be high up, remember?"
Of course Lily remembered. She was the one who gave everyone that instruction in the first place. Regardless, she followed along with Iroha and the two of them emerged from the top of the trees.
Now, this was a sight for sore eyes. The sun beaming down on the girls who stood uncovered by leaves, the beautiful sky which seemed so close, and a view of the forest beneath them. They literally felt on top of the world. All their troubles were far below, and they would soon be free from such an accursed place.
"Look, over there!"
Lily took notice of the Internet emblem on a large vehicle in the sky. The vehicle happened to be the exact helicopter she had asked Una to bring over. Seeing this filled her with great hope and excitement.
"HEY, OVER HERE! UNA, WE'RE HERE!" Lily cried out in hopes that Una would hear her. From her position, she could not see through the windshield very well, so she couldn't tell if Una actually saw her.
One by one, the other campers hurried to join them above the trees. Gumi, Yanhe, kokone, Maika, Yuki, Rin, Xin Hua, Merli, Meiko, Tei, and at last, Cocorobo. Xin Hua nearly slipped out of the tree, but Merli managed to catch her with her magic. All of them took a moment to bask in the warm embrace of the evening sky until Lily pointed them in the direction of the helicopter.
"Everyone, there she is! Over there!"
Humming to herself, Una nonchalantly drifted the chopper through the skies, not noticing her friends at first. She had no way of knowing what dangers lurked in the forest, so she saw no harm in taking her sweet time. As more and more of the campers came to the treetops, though, they finally caught her attention.
"Huh? Oh, there they are. I thought they'd find like a really big hill or something."
Down below, the ISBs and Ring finally started to catch up with the escaping singers. As they moved closer and closer, so did Una in the helicopter. The question was, who would reach the campers first?
"Una! Can't you fly any faster?!" Gumi shouted, but Una did not hear her over the sound of the propellers.
Just as Ring reached the bottom of the very tree the crew stood at the top of, Una flew by in just the right distance for the thirteen to jump to.
"Merli, can you-" Meiko began.
"You know it."
With a wave of her hand, Merli began levitating her friends to the large open door of the helicopter, one by one. The ones that were close enough to climb in on their own did so, but most of them just waited to be hovered inside.
Ring inched up the tree with the shadow beasts flooding the ground beneath her. It seemed like the bottom of the forest had been consumed by a sea of blackness, with numerous red dots inside. Falling out of the tree would surely mean death, and not just from the fall. Little by little, everyone needed to get into the helicopter.
The last person Merli helped into the chopper was Iroha, as everyone else gathered inside and either fell to the floor or took a seat at one of the cushioned benches. Una flew the helicopter close enough for Merli to climb in and bring Iroha in at the same time, but at that moment, Ring erupted from the top of the tree, scattering leaves all around and reaching for her escaped prisoners.
"STOP, DON'T GO!"
From inside, Iroha looked Ring in the eye, but everyone else fell back and tried to stay as far from the open door as possible. At the sight of Iroha, Ring stopped where she floated, and simply looked at her. "I'm sorry, Ring." were the words that came out of Iroha's mouth.
For a second, Ring considered trying to stop the helicopter. Instead, after a slight change of heart, she backed down. She hovered downwards, letting the helicopter drift away as Una turned it around. Iroha disappeared inside, and Ring lowered her head to face the sea of shadows beneath her.
"Goodbye, Iroha."
The helicopter left Ring and the Execrated Forest behind, leaving the memories and horrors with it. Never again would the singers attempt the forces of nature. Especially unprepared.
Inside, the thirteen each took a load off. They had been through far too much in just that day alone, and that was nothing compared to the adventure as a whole.
"Guess I'll be more careful on Twitter from now on," Meiko said with a chuckle, but almost spitefully.
Lily didn't acknowledge the comment. She sat at the end of her particular bench, gazing out at the reddened sky as they flew past the puffy clouds of white and grey. She never expected the camping trip to turn out like this, and she had many regrets, but on a positive note; she had an incredible story to tell when she got back. As did everybody else.
"Hey, Lily!" Cocorobo scooted herself over to Lily, sitting beside her with glee.
"Oh. Hey, Coco. What's up?"
"So, what's your place like? I can't wait to see it! You'll bring me there, won't you?"
"Hey, what's this I hear?" asked Gumi, who sat at the other end of the bench with kokone and Tei.
"Oh, right. I promised Cocorobo I'd help her get back on her feet when we got back home," Lily explained.
"Maybe I can stay with you!" Cocorobo eagerly suggested. "I am indebted to you, after all. You saved my life!"
"Ah, Coco, I told you-"
"No, I insist! Pleeeeease, can I stay with you? Pleeeeease?"
Lily looked over to Gumi, who returned a look that said "It's your call." Lily giggled and looked back to Cocorobo.
"Alright. You're always welcome in my home."
"YAY! Thank you so so so so very much!"
Lily didn't oppose staying with Cocorobo for a while longer. The two of them had greatly bonded over their short time spent together. She was a woman of her word, and did not intend to overlook her promise to help Coco out. To see the great fountain, to help someone in need, and to spend time with the friends she loved so dearly made the entire trip worth it.
With their memories in the past, and much to look forward to in the days to come, the thirteen singers relaxed and made themselves comfortable. The helicopter flew off into the sunset, marking the end of not only an adventurous day, but an adventurous and unforgettable camping trip.