"Sis..."
"Sis, wake up. I brought your head."
Halankuo opened her eyes and saw a doll's head with blue hair. For a few moments, the girl did not understand anything, but then she recognized this creature as her mother's little sister.
"Are you Sitihi?" Halankuo asked.
"Yes," the doll answered. "Sis, have you forgotten me?"
"No. I just didn't really wake up."
Halankuo looked around and noticed that she was still lying on the floor in the room with stone walls covered in lianas.
"Where are Tuot and Itinit?"
Halankuo felt her strength return and tried to move her leg. Soon she was on her knees, scrolling through the screen in front of her.
"I've been sleeping for so long. This is what happens when you lose a lot of blood. Maybe I shouldn't have created such a character?"
"Could you have created anyone else?" a voice in girl's head interjected. "The character is created from the energy of the creator, and "Mausoleum of Nature" simply transforms it into form and transfers it to our world."
"So the character and the creator have something in common?"
"Yeah, sure, you could create an electric spirit, but you couldn't create a character with stone abilities."
"An electric spirit wouldn't cut me."
"But he could read your mind. Remember about Taikuron."
Halankuo imagined Kyotyoryon reading her thoughts and then shocking her. A few moments later, the girl remembered what had happened to her character.
"Where is Kyotyoryon?" Halankuo asked.
"She's in some kind of dungeon," Sitihi answered. "I came there, but there…"
The doll told her what had happened in the ruins. Halankuo immediately rose to her feet and took a few steps toward the building's exit.
"You can't, sis," Sitihi said. "The healing doll and her big brother are there."
"Exactly," Halankuo agreed. "We need to come up with a plan. There should be a human and a dinosaur around here somewhere. Have you seen them?"
"The man is gone."
"What about the dinosaur?"
Sitihi pointed her head towards the next room. Halankuo entered and saw Tuot sitting in the corner, trembling.
"There you are," Halankuo sighed. "Don't be afraid. It's not an evil doll."
"But…" Tuot tried to answer, but couldn't. "The hair…"
Suddenly, Halankuo remembered the hair on her head, and then touched it with her hand.
"It's weird."
Halankuo summoned a mirror, but she could not recognize herself in it. There was a girl with thick but neatly styled hair.
"By the way, thanks for combing my hair," Halankuo said.
"I'm talking about other hair," Tuot looked at the floor. "I'm talking about the doll's hair. It's blue. People don't have that color."
"Oh, you mean that... Are you afraid of dolls?"
Tuot told his friend about meeting the doll in the crypt. Halankuo leaned her back against the wall and slowly slid down.
"Mom, why didn't you tell me there was someone in the crypt?" Halankuo thought.
"That would have been too much," the voice in her head answered. "You might not have been able to stand it."
Halankuo tried not to think about the dolls, so she decided to continue the conversation with her feathered pet and asked about Itinit.
"He said he had very important things to do," Tuot answered.
"I have an idea what it could be," Halankuo looked at the liana on the ceiling. "He went after his character?"
"I don't know. His dog girl left him with my arctic fox girl."
"They probably just went for a walk. Animals need to be let out of the house, otherwise they..."
"…they'll eat you. That must hurt."
"Tuot knows what he's talking about," Halankuo thought. "Mom, it's good that you often told him that I shouldn't be eaten. Maybe you saved me more than once."
Sitihi's head peeked into the room. Halankuo didn't notice it, but she could tell from the dinosaur's expression that something was going on behind her.
"Sis, I have a plan," the doll said. "I know how to get your character back."
"What?" Halankuo turned around and saw the doll's motionless eyes looking straight at her.
"The first time I couldn't," Sitihi continued. "I was abandoned by two dolls from the crypt. But I found other dolls. They can replace the dolls that abandoned me."
"I hope they're not my mother's sisters," Halankuo thought and felt uneasy.
"I'll show them to you," Sitihi's head disappeared behind the wall.
The anxiety inside Halankuo began to grow. The girl retreated a few steps from the wall, and then even summoned a wrench.
"I think this is too much," a voice said in her head. "My little sister is not stupid enough to bring someone dangerous to her big sister."
"I know," Halankuo answered mentally. "But the hand itself summons the weapon."
"So this is your passive skill. You never know what it is like until you get into a dangerous situation."
"I thought only the characters in the "Mausoleum of Nature" had passive skills."
"Every creature has them. But not all of them are equally useful in combat. It could be a skill that cools water or boils it. Such abilities can be used when preparing food, but in combat it is better to have something protective."
Halankuo turned her attention to her feathered pet, which was still trembling and looking fearfully at the doorway.
"I wonder what kind of passive skill Tuot has. It probably doesn't even have a cooldown."
Soon, Halankuo had a unique opportunity to test her assumption. Heavy footsteps were heard outside the door, but the girl did not pay attention to them. Her gaze was focused on her pet and childhood friend.
Tuot looked at the doorway and waited for what would come out. The dinosaur's mouth was open so wide that it seemed it would never close. Its eyes were bulging and did not blink, which made them look like the eyes of the dolls Tuot was so afraid of...
The tip of a feathered tail appeared from the doorway. A semicircular shield appeared on Tuot's elbow, and a short curved sword appeared in his hand. The latter, however, turned out to be useless. Due to the trembling in his hand, the dinosaur was unable to hold it, and the weapon fell to the floor.
"I've seen this skill before when I showed him Kyotyoryon," Halankuo recalled. "But then I thought it was just his instinct, like hunger."
"A passive skill is one of the types of instincts," the voice in her head explained. "It's not much different from hunger or the desire to sleep."
Meanwhile, the tail continued to penetrate the room. A green energy aura surrounded Tuot, causing him to stop shaking and even move his jaws a little.
"Ustumut, you're entering from the wrong side," a voice came from behind the wall.
This voice made Halankuo turn his attention to the doorway and find the dinosaur's tail trying to enter the room.
"I thought I was the only one who had my own Tuot."
The tail stopped moving, and then went back and soon disappeared behind the wall. A long strand of red hair appeared in the doorway.
The anxiety returned to Halankuo. The girl's hand itself directed the wrench to the entrance of the room, but due to the lack of a specific object there, she was unable to capture anything.
Soon, part of a head with a glowing purple eye appeared from behind the wall. Halankuo's hand dropped along with the wrench.
"This is the skill that moves objects through the air," Halankuo guessed. "So it must be one of the relatives. I hope it's not Mom's sister, at least."
The head disappeared behind the wall, and "took" the glowing eye with it. Halankuo's hand immediately returned to its previous position...
For a moment, the girl felt that she could move freely, and tried to take a step. This step turned out to be the last. The body was paralyzed again.
"She's behind me," the voice in her head explained.
"What's the point, I can't turn around," Halankuo answered mentally.
"Don't attack my sister," a familiar voice said from behind the wall. "You didn't leave me."
Halankuo felt moving again and turned around. In front of her stood a doll with long red hair, wrapped in a white, translucent cloth instead of clothing.
"I've seen you before," Halankuo noted. "On the Northern Continent…"
"This is my big sister," the voice continued from somewhere above. "She's not your opponent."
Halankuo began to examine the ceiling and soon noticed a hole among the vegetation from which hung the head of a doll with blue hair.
"I was defending myself," the doll with red hair explained. "I didn't want to attack her. Her passive skill was triggered, and mine was triggered."
Sitihi jumped onto the floor head first, but didn't crash. At the last moment before landing, she activated a purple aura that turned her body into the correct position.
"I realized that you know each other," Sitihi said. "So you don't need to be introduced?"
"Perhaps this girl has not forgotten my name," the doll with red hair said. "She's a human. The people remember names better than dolls."
"Actually, no..." Halankuo blushed and turned away.
"Then I'll introduce myself again," the doll with red hair closed her eyes. "My name is Ikte. I am the big sister of the creator of dolls Kuttanai."
"The creator of dolls", Halankuo fell to her knees in surprise.
"Sis, don't you know about the creator of dolls?" Sitihi tilted her head to the side.
"No," Halankuo admitted. "Is he related to the crypt?"
"Yes," Ikte answered. "This is my little brother, Kuttanai. Before, I, my little sister and he lived on the Northern Continent. But what happened next, I don't remember…"
Ikte grabbed her own head with her hands and turned it around several times.
"I remembered," the red-haired doll continued. "My little sister couldn't walk, and Kuttanai was trying to help her. One day, he came home and said he heard a voice in his sleep that told him he needed to go somewhere and get some data. The next day, my brother came and said he found a memory card that had something in it…"
Ikte turned her head again with her hands, and then continued:
"He said that he found a program called "Mausoleum of Nature" and showed it. We studied it together, and then Kuttanai said that he wanted to make my little sister become a doll..."
"You couldn't save your sister?" Halankuo asked.
"Yes," Ikte answered. "When I came, I saw my younger sister, Yuehei, flying instead of crawling. Her hair color had also changed, and chains had appeared instead of clothes. Then I decided to make my sister human, even if she couldn't walk. I took away my brother's access to the "Mausoleum of Nature", and…."
Ikte turned her head again, but this time she did not continue her story. The doll fell to her knees and looked at Halankuo with motionless eyes.
"I don't remember," Ikte said after a short pause. "I'm trying to remember, but I can't…"
"I remember!" a cry came from the next room.
Ikte opened her eyes, looked at the doorway, and saw the arctic fox girl standing there in a gray-purple top with the hood down, no longer hiding her black hair.
"I remember!" the arctic fox girl repeated. "I know what happened, and I can tell you."
"What?" Ikte turned her head to the side. "Who are you?"
The arctic fox girl looked at her creator in fear, but said nothing. Tears appeared from her eyes, which then flowed down her cheeks.
"How do you know what happened?" Ikte asked. "Were you there?"
The arctic fox girl no longer heard the doll's words. She ran out of the room with a groan similar to that of dogs.
"It's a character from the Mausoleum of Nature," Halankuo noted. "It has ears from another species of animal. That's not something that happens in creatures from our world."
"Maybe you really are her creator, but you just don't remember it?" Sitihi suggested.
"I saw her only once, on the seashore," Ikte answered. "That was a few days ago. I couldn't have created her."
"You better look into this," Sitihi said. "Follow her before she goes too far. I'll continue the story for you."
"If it helps with Kuttanai..." Ikte closed her eyes. "Then I agree."
Ikte activated the purple aura, rose above the floor, and then flew out through the hole in the ceiling.
"I will continue," Sitihi said. "This Kuttanai was the first to turn a living being into a doll."
"The first doll was his little sister?" Halankuo asked.
"According to Ikte, then yes. Then Kuttanai decided to make a lot of dolls, and gave a memory card with the data of the "Mausoleum of Nature" to his relatives. Then you know what happened."
"The crypt..."
Halankuo looked at the stone floor, covered with cracks through which plants had grown here and there, and suddenly realized something eerie.
"Is he our relative?" Halankuo turned her gaze to Sitihi.
"Yes," the doll answered.
Halankuo looked at the floor again. After a few moments, she felt dizzy...
"Sis..."
"Halankuo..."
… Halankuo saw the heads of two creatures in front of her at once: a white feathered dinosaur and a doll with blue hair. They were saying something, but the girl heard only noise and bird cries…
The ability to understand speech returned only after some time.
"Sorry," Halankuo said. "I just felt sick."
"That's because you listen to scary stories," Tuot said. "The dolls don't understand what they're saying."
"And this is a dinosaur speaking," Halankuo thought. "Mom, this is really too much. Take me away from here."
***
Kyotyoryon woke up to a bright blue glow coming from the energy screen nearby.
"Did that evil doll disassembled me again? She did it because I cut my creator."
But Kyotyoryon's guess was not confirmed. The spirit of metal moved her hand and then looked down. All the body parts were in place, but metal chains were attached to the ankle bracelets, which stretched into a round hole in the stone wall.
"This is my metal, but it's not mine at the same time. Someone attached it to me. That someone is very stupid. I can control metal, even if it's not mine, because it's mine."
Kyotyoryon moved her leg. The chain began to stretch out of the hole in the wall, but then suddenly stopped.
"You have unusual abilities," a voice came from behind the wall. "You need to pay more attention."
Kyotyoryon looked at the wall and realized that she was in a room with no windows or doors. The virtual screen with incomprehensible symbols was not only the only object here, but also the only source of light.
"This voice does not sound like the voice of a scary doll," Kyotyoryon thought. "Maybe this is the voice of another scary doll, the one with chains? There are chains here, so it is her."
The spirit of metal pressed own leg to herself, but the chain did not move.
"Let me go!" Kyotyoryon shouted.
"I haven't studied you yet," the voice answered, but this time it came from somewhere below.
Short blades extended from the bracelets on Kyotyoryon's arms. The spirit of metal looked at the floor, but saw nothing there except stone slabs.
"This doll is hiding behind the wall, and the voice is coming from below. Maybe it's not the doll speaking?"
One of the slabs near the virtual screen moved. Kyotyoryon was frightened and mentally summoned a short metal spear, which appeared above her head. This was a mistake.
The chain that the spirit of metal was trying to pull out of the wall was no longer held by anything, and it was pulled back. Kyotyoryon drew attention to this, but it was too late. The chain tightened and knocked the character to the floor.
Meanwhile, the slab left the floor and rose above it. Something dark appeared from the hole that appeared…
"You are still too inexperienced," a voice sounded from below, but already noticeably louder. "It's obvious that you were created recently."
Kyotyoryon rose to all fours and then looked forward. A head emerged from the hole, with long black hair, large bulging eyes, and a purple tongue hanging out of its open mouth.
"You are missing something, that thing in the middle," Kyotyoryon touched own mask with her hand.