A Splitting Decision

[xGoggles]

The leader frowns and the warriors were only momentarily startled by the reverse in time. The leader raising his sword, pointing in the direction of the girl and talks to the elder, "Do you think this is one of her summons?" The elder gives the guardian an examining look and shakes his head, "I think not... Take it they are a being of this dreamverse... Perhaps we shou--" He gets cut off by the leader who begins to raise his voice to the girl, "How dare you question our methods outsider! This is our last chance to put judgment on that demon that destroyed the remains of our clan. Don't stand in our way or feel the wrath of the Amatsuna-clan!" And so the army charges again very determent to continue their assault with or without the guardian's permission.
--
Quickly taking a small bag filling it with some spare clothes. He couldn't go upstairs to grab some food, unfortunately. After he grabs hold of an old bamboo hat that could cover his ears, so he only had to think about hiding his tail. He looks back towards the door, hesitating..sad and scared he had to leave this all behind, the people he cared so much about and the place he called his home. But eventually, he activates the talisman that should take him to the hideout.

--
"That is very kind of you Lyra, it will be a delight to return to my garden back in Sekai. It has been quite a long time, perhaps a millennium or two, hard to tell.~", Miori smiles as if that was nothing, or maybe out of naivety, she honestly has little idea of what happened to her world while she was gone. "How nice to ask.~ Well in my studies on preservation magic, I discovered a way one could weave part of their essence into forms of knowledge. But unlike those who place their soul into an object, no, this was more refined and more specified to the knowledge itself than the container. So further developing the technique, I created a method to allow myself to leave a signature in certain pieces information. So I took the liberty to 'sign' my spells, engraving the knowledge of them with my essence. Hm, may I ask how exactly you managed to acquire these spells?"
Miori didn't seem to answer the question how she lost her body, or maybe she just didn't get to that part yet

[Whatevr89532]

Ann sighs, rolls her eyes, and waves her hand slightly. A magic barrier appears all around the charging warriors; it is somehow obvious to anyone looking at it that only a polite introduction of oneself is capable of breaking it. Another barrier just beyond that is the same kind of thing, but instead requires one to announce the reason one wishes to reach the other side of it. "Should be glad they let me have my phone today..." she mutters to herself.

--

It works! If anything, the boy's parents were thorough in making sure measures like this would work. The hideout even has a few preserved foods and...weapons here and there, though if he takes some of this it will be more obvious to them where he went, which might make it easier to track him.

--

"I have a habit of occasionally finding 'sealed evils' and depowering them to try and turn them good, or at least less hazardous," says Lyra. "One such being I ran upon was called Oyoki, from probably the same world as you. The depowering process includes pulling the knowledge of spells, techniques, and so on out of the person's head and onto some special 'easy-learn' scrolls, and you more or less popped out of a few of those. If you are both from the same world, and wish to return to that one, there may be some difficulties to iron out because of her. Even without those, it's been quite a while there."

[xGoggles]

The warriors at first tried to brute force their way out of the barriers with their weapons.The elder takes a deep sigh at the impatient reactions of his clan-members and tells them this is not the opponent they wish to fight. He speaks loudly as to set an example, "Greetings, I am Shinyu from the Amatsuna-clan. The reason for our presence is to release our clan's most valuable treasure from the soul of that monster beyond the barrier. We may not rest until we retrieve what we have sworn to protect."
--
The fox-boy recognizes the place, his parents used to take him here back when he was still a young. Or at least that is how it felt; the hideout had that familiar feeling to it as it has been years ago. Considering his parents will figure out soon enough he used the talisman to escape, it won't be long before they use their own and find him if he stayed.
As quickly as he could, he fills his bag with bits of food and grabs a dagger for protection. Lastly, he takes a cloak and ties it around his neck, so the cape could cover most of his back and hide his tail.
With a hurry, he runs out and away from the hideout. Where to he didn't know, but he'll make sure it was as far away as possible from 'home'...

--

Miori smiles and nods, "Oh, what a wonderful habit to have. So noble, a powerful sage dedicating herself to purify evil." Her tea still left untouched and meanwhile cooling off. Her ear gives a slight twitch upon hearing that certain name, and she gives Lyra a surprised look. "Oyoki?? Oh, does Kyō still go by that human nickname of hers? Hm, I see.. things are becoming more clear now. I suppose you are also the one responsible to put the Dark Root in an environment slower than its pulse without the need of time-magic?"

[Whatevr89532]

The barrier dissipates, and Ann floats over toward the elder. "Ohh thank gods, someone with a brain. Look, it's like, against our own rules to mess with the soul of a dreamer and stuff, but the whole method of that girl's punishment was worked out with someone who can probably do that stuff back in the waking world. She might have already gotten it out of her anyway, based on what I heard. Do you only exist while she's asleep, or like, did you come here from somewhere else?"

--

His escape seems to be a success. Even looking over his shoulders for a while as he flees, and resting in a state of paranoia, there never seems to be another sign of his parents. The dream shifts time forward a while, pulling through a blur of growing up the rest of the way on the road, relying frequently on the kindness of strangers. There are a lot of good people in the world, and as long as he keeps his ears and tail hidden (an increasingly easy task with his own magic), the boy is able to blend in pretty well. Over time he does learn what it was they feared so much: The one fox-girl who was responsible for cursing all of her own kind, forcing them to be killed rather than become her slaves or, later, help her to revive. Already the information is sparse, and people tight-lipped about it for fear that someone may wish to bring her back, but he's able to gather enough to understand what the curse is, and what it would do to him if it ever touched him. The magic he knows is enough to check whether the curse has hit him when he learns of it, and thankfully it isn't. He can live his life peacefully as long as that's so.

--

"Assuming I'm interpreting your terms right, that seems likely," says Lyra. "Interdimensional travel and dimensional creation open up a lot of far less costly ways to store even the most dangerous things. Is that actually yours, or just something you're familiar with?"

[xGoggles]

The elder frowns, "Unfortunately I would doubt that. Our treasure, the Pillar of Radiance, doesn't allow itself to be simply taken away. The relic merges itself with the recipient's soul, and can only be given by honest consent, not clouded by illusions or manipulation. The other method is by.. breaking and shattering the soul to obtain it by force.... And given the nature of this.. monster.. they'll likely won't be giving it up freely, so that leaves us only with the option to destroy her soul to free our treasure...." The specter gives a slight cough, even though he technically doesn't have lungs anymore, "We come from a distant world we call Sekai, our physical bodies there are no more, but our techniques and connections with the spirit realm allowed our souls access the dreamverse. Here where the borders between worlds are slimmer, allowed us to travel our world to this one." He takes a deep breath and shakes his head in the misery of things, then he slowly unsheathes his sword in a non-threatening manner, "Our apologies, but our vow will not allow us to miss this chance. We don't want to fight you, but if you try to stop us, you will be leaving us no other choice."
--
Still, it bothers him, why was his kind cursed? And if it was so powerful, how come it didn't get to him yet?... Was he immune or just lucky? Regardless, if no one tried or cared to stop this curse, then maybe it was up to him to do so. Maybe there are still others like him left to be saved that way. He will have to gather more knowledge on this curse, but where could he look when almost everyone was too scared to even talk about it?

--

"Yes, the Dark Root is one of my creations, an unfortunate result out of my studies to create a core... I'm terribly sorry for any trouble it might have caused. Even when constantly empowering the containment seals on it, just it's presence alone was still a threat I didn't wish to unleash on any world. Holding it in its inoffensive state, was very taxing on me, and was the main reason I wasn't able to form a physical body for such a long time", Miori says, but the disheartened look on her face eventually changes back to a smile, "It might not be happy, being in a room with such a slow pace, but at least for now it won't be able to do any more harm."
Later on, her eye peers back to her teacup, examining it as if there was more to see than just the obvious. One of her tails gives a faith glow, as the cup levitates closer to her.

[Whatevr89532]

"Gaawds, what a dumb treasure." The Anubis-girl doesn't seem that impressed. "Why can't people just keep magic junk in their hands like normal junk? Look, I already told you this isn't a reality where attacking her will do you any good anyway. You kill her or shatter her soul or whatever in the dream world, she'll just wake up and be fine. And, like, you'll annoy one of my bosses enough for them to compress you all into a black hole or something, I dunno. Maybe you should talk to the old witch who convinced my bosses to even do that in the first place," she says, pointing vaguely to the shell around Oyoki's dream. "She's tryin' to 'reform' her or whatever, so I'm sure she'll be happy to have something else to torment her into doing."

--

It's not extremely easy, but from some reports and rumors the boy can piece together the location around which the curse's creator died. But the curse's spread is surely stronger closer to there; it increases his risk of running into it quite a bit. Some self-taught wards might be able to hold it off temporarily, but what information there is on the curse suggests that it tends to subvert all kinds of wards eventually, so it would be a limited-time protection.

--

When it was placed and poured, the teacup was an ordinary teacup full of ordinary tea. Lyra hasn't done anything to it since then, so it's still the same way unless Miori did something to change it. The cat-witch nods again. "Its properties are interesting. I'm halfway tempted to make a copy and absorb it so I can do the negative-magic thing. Always nice to get a new counter to spellcasters." She sips her own tea a bit. "Mnnh..actually, is it person-level or animal-level intelligence? I haven't seen any signs of the former but I do prefer not to consume people."

[xGoggles]

One of the warriors shouted in rage, "How dare you! You--", but got cut off by a dismissive gesture of the leader who now also joined the conversation. "Don't insult the Pillar of Radiance, it was a relic of great importance and influence, and was the key crucial to our clan's way of living. Many have tried to take it, only a few succeeded, but our clan always found a way to retrieve that what was entrusted to us! And even now we will honor that tradition regardless of your claims."
The elder shakes his head and holds up his hand, "Don't be too hasty Jinsokuna, perhaps this witch the guardian is speaking of, is able to help in methods that are unknown to us." The leader spits out frustrated, "And you believe her?! For all we know she just tries to distract us long enough so this monster wakes up and we waste our only chance of finding her again!"
--
He thinks about this deeply and weighs his options. Would his self-taught wards be enough inside of corrupted land? Not only that, if there were other dangers around maintaining his protection might become even more difficult. And it was not like he could just only rely on his kitsune agility and luck to get him out of trouble. If he were to deepen his search into the 'belly of the beast', he will need help.. to have the best type of defense against the curse and like-minded individuals to aid his quest. And he might even know just the place, The Frost Lands of Sanctuary, if there was one place known to be resilient against harm and corruption, and have people specialized in protective seals and wards, it had to be there. And if the rumors were true, there might also be fox people there. If he was able to remain out of the curse reach, surely the specialists there would be too, right?
He gathers his goods and prepares for the journey far ahead.

--

What sparked her interest was not that it changed, but the fact that it didn't. Normally the aura of her body, in general, would bring an icy cold, that would exponentially increase the closer you got to her. This would usually make drinking tea practically impossible for her. She wasn't worried that the cold would harm the witch, unless she were to touch her unannounced. The reason itself for asking for the tea to be made, wasn't even with the purpose of drinking it; more for observing the four elements of it and their relationship with each-other and the witch's magic. The element of fire already telling her a lot about Lyra, on how she controls and limits things with the potential to be harmful; but what it didn't tell her was why it wasn't afraid of Miori's aura as heat has been for as long as she could remember. In other words, the tea while being ordinary wasn't cooling off at the rate it was expected to be, meaning something about how her aura interacted with its surroundings was different now...
She refocused back on what Lyra was talking about, "Hm, I adore your ambition, but must warn that doing so would be quite a dangerous task. Back then, keeping it in a contained stage already took a lot out of me, and if I wasn't as careful as I was, then there wouldn't have been a world there left to speak of..." Miori ponders and tries to pick her words well, "To be honest, even having been in contact with it for as long as I had lost my body in Sekai, I have not been able to able to communicate with the Dark Root. I think it might resent me for trying to keep it sealed, unlike Kyō that took a particular joy in releasing it... So forgive me but I'm not an expert on which level of intelligence it might have."
She let out a soft sigh, "Perhaps I should enlighten you more on my studies on what a 'core' is, or in better words, an 'extensional-soul-Infinity-core'; and why absorbing such is deemed to be impossible. Not saying I can teach you how to make your own; you look quite capable to do so."
After a brief pause, she returns her attention back to the tea, levitating it to her lips and gives it a sip. Both happy she finally was able to drink tea again, and also genuine surprised and interested she was able to do so, she lets out a pleased, "Ahh~ How wonderful. But also very fascinating. Hmmm. Dear Lyra, before we go any further about cores.. could you perhaps explain to me the nature of magic this world? Or perhaps the magic of one it comes in contact with often (Muffinville)? My aura is behaving in a different fashion than I'm used to, likely having a different relation to the general magic around."

[Whatevr89532]

Anne rolls her eyes again. "If I'm stalling, it's helping you dorks more than me. You bug my boss while he's trying to work, he'll just kick you out and lock the door behind you. Look, dream guardians can like, shape reality at will in this realm." She waves a hand and two big circular clocks appear floating in midair on either side of her. "So if I wanted to run your clock out I could just make time for us go slower, and her dream would already be over with by now." The one on the right speeds up, then slows back down while the left one speeds itself up, as a demonstration of the shifting timescales of dreams. "Anyway, this is already like waaay past the amount of effort I like to put into my job. You wanna try and bug my boss now, go right ahead. Least I can say I tried to warn you." She waves backwards at the metal bubble, and also dismisses the time-shifted clocks. "If you really want your magic thingy back though, lemme see if I can get a hold of the next time that witch goes to sleep first," she says, returning full attention to her phone.

--

The journey takes a while, but much of it isn't too different from the wandering he's been doing in his life so far. At this point Oyokis real knowledge of the world she's from will inform what the young man finds when he finally reaches the Frost Lands. Are they truly safe from the curse at this point in time, or have the foxes there already been exterminated?

--

"I once ate twelve impossible things before breakfast," Lyra remarks, making a reference to Alice in Wonderland but also not entirely joking. "Anyway, unless I need something specific I usually maintain an anything-goes magic ruleset in my own home. I visit and get visitors from a lot of 'kitchen sink' universes...which is, places with lots of magic types that should probably be incompatible with each other. Actually, hold on..." Lyra's eyes dart around briefly as if watching words on an invisible screen scroll by, not that Miori would recognize it as such. "Okay, phew. I prepped a bunch of wards and restrictors and so on in case something violent woke up when you first popped out, but I didn't actually activate any of them, so whatever your aura's doing isn't from that. But, yeah, a lot of universes have specific rules for how magic is supposed to work. Kitchen sink universes and the way I usually configure my pocket dimension just sort of allow all the 'can do' rules and throw out the 'can't do' ones, to some extent. Like, sometimes a person from a world with a certain magic system either can't or has to put forth a lot of effort to use magic that shouldn't be compatible with their original magic system. But unmagical people thrown into an anything-goes world usually get to pick and choose whatever magic they want to work for them."

[xGoggles]

The leader began to lose his patience and starts to shout, "Next time?! There is no 'next time', this is our only chance! The prophecy foretold that tonight our clan will finally find our treasure and lay our burden to rest. We will not be stopped by you or your superiors! We won't back down! And then, right when the leader raised his weapon to announce another charge.., behind them in the distance a loud and powerful tremble could be felt, breaking through the dreamsvere's reality as if shattering several dimensional walls apart to reach this location. The giant gate, open as wide as a circumference of a coliseum and through it a terrible overwhelming aura could be felt. In the distance, two figures could be seen entering at walking pace. 'Walking' wouldn'"t be the right word to use, as they come closer it occurs both are floating, one sitting the air, willing it like it was her own personal servant, surrounded by orbs of water containing mystical objects; and the other actually appears to be a glowing reflection inside a floating mirror. The duo seems to be talking but given the distance, it is still inaudible for anyone to with normal hearing capabilities.
--
And finally after traveling long and far and making it through the mountain pass towards the entrance of the Frost Lands. The only known entrance for travelers not wishing to challenge the dangerous climb of the natural walls of mountains that surrounded the valley known as the Frost Lands, was a tall tower, full with incantations, seals against evil and guarded by monks. But luck did not find the fox-man, as the town nearby and the monastery build at the foot of the tower were withered down and abandoned.
This wasn't a good sign for what might have happened inside the valley, but he couldn't back off now, he already came this far. Without a guide to lead him through the tower, he could only hope that if there was any lingering magic was still present there, it wouldn't try to repel or trap him, as it would to those with evil in their hearts or intend to cause destruction.

--

Miori smiles and nods understandingly at Lyra's explanation, "Very fascinating, more possibilities and fewer limits. Certainly more chaotic aligned than the order of magic I'm more used to." She glances at the undisturbed rabbit munching at the illusionary vegetation of the garden, then she turns back to the cat-witch. "Dear Lyra, would you mind if I were to try attempt a little experiment with that little rabbit of yours?", she asks as one of her tails glows again and the bunny starts to levitate towards her in a non-to-forceful gentle manner. "Given the change in the behavior of my aura, I am unsure if this will be harmful or not... But if it were to come close to the effects of my magic in my world, I'm certain I'm able to revere any damage done if that were the case.", she clarifies as she lifts her hand in the direction of the rabbit that is slowly approaching her.

[Whatevr89532]

The anubis-girl sighs at the leader's response, mentally preparing to explain slowly as if to a child that 'next time' in this context doesn't actually mean him having to wait until a next time, before looking up from her phone, her ears visibly perking up, at the intrusion of the new entities. "Hmmn...yeah, okay." She bips a few things on her phone, which it turns out she has not been playing around or texting on all this time. Rather, it's a physical representation of a dream-guardian's elevated control over the nearby realm, and for the moment she's quickly placed some extra protections around the nearby shelled-in dream (though that isn't visibly obvious), and then shifted the screen to display all available diagnostic information related to the gate that just blew open and the people coming through it. It should at least be able to identify where the gate came from, if not also the contents of whatever spell or device created it, and give a rough power-level read of the two coming forward.

--

There don't really seem to be any signs of life, even animal life, around here. It has the uncomfortable silence of a place not just abandoned, but perhaps freshly destroyed.
((Wild guesses, correct if wrong))

--

The rabbit makes whatever kind of sounds a confused but not quite frightened rabbit makes. "Go ahead. I don't particularly worry about animals," says Lyra. "But if you accidentally make a person, you take on the responsibilities of their parent, 'kay? Otherwise I'll feel like I have to do that."

[xGoggles]

Then when most specter warriors were observing the newcomers, a few whispers went around, most of them asking their neighbor if they had any idea what kind of being had magic that powerful. Just as the leader started to ask the elder, "Are these reinforcements of the dream guards? What can you sense about them?" The elder starts to frown, "This is troubling.. very troubling... Could it be..--" He didn't finish his sentence as put most of his focus to analyze the new arrivals just like Ann's diagnostics, but both had a certain difficulty with it. Defining where the gate came from was already a hard task, the opening was going through several dimensions at once, leaking out chaotic discord of realities and magic not compatible with each other, this disturbance influenced many types of sensing, giving off unstable and surreal information, even for dreamverse standards. If anything about it was certain, was that whoever or whatever caused this just used brute force without a care to do it suddenly or proper; basically as if obliterating a side of a building instead of using a door.

Even with the cloud of dissonance behind them, as they got closer, sensing their power would become much easier, their power was.. 'Ring of Egont~' Wait, what? Uncertain how, but for anyone that was observing them, almost all eyes and all senses were heavily attracted to the ring inside a floating water bubble. Even technology was drawn to this magical artifact that forces itself to be the center of attention 'anywhere' it could be observed. Only the most powerful or strong-willed could take their eyes minds off it.

When coming into hearing-distance the conversation between the woman and the mirror continued, not that many, if any were able to pick up on it thanks to the attention-grabbing artifact. Though, the person in the mirror did seem to have an unusual profanity filter on her. "Ha! If that q͡°·͡°p didn't want me to (っ◍人◍ς) cut him to a septillion pieces, maybe he shouldn't have put a giant \(◎益◎)/ red S on his chest!", the person in the mirror said. The other woman rolls her eyes, "More like nine hundred ninety-nine sextillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quintillion, nine hundred ninety-nine quadrillion, nine hundred ninety-nine trillion, nine hundred ninety-nine billion, nine hundred ninety-nine million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred fifty-eight ( 999 999 999 999 999 999 999 958 )... You got sloppy in the last quarter of the second there..." The woman in the mirror snaps back, "Hey don't give me that ᕳʘロʘᕲ crap, that ᘳ꘠Ѡ꘠ᘰ white sun was constantly ლ(⩾ϖ⩽ლ) shining in my (╭☞⨱!⨱)╭☞ eyes!" The floating woman gives a bored sigh, "Of course it does..when you are fighting on top of a star..." The two didn't really seem that interested into what was going on in front of them, they didn't even bother to look at the army of specters or the dream guard and just continued on forward, closer towards the shelled dream.
--

The fox-man took a deep breath, the eerie feeling around this place didn't feel all that welcoming, and if the surroundings were any sign on what might have happened inside the valley, he might not find he was looking for if he got past these mountain walls... But he couldn't give up, he already came this far. All he had to do was find a way to get on top of this tower, but was he brave enough to risk entering it?
Resolute in his mission and determent to get on top he set foot into the tower, but unfortunately found himself to be pushed away by a force inside, repelling him back outside the entrance; and so the same, every time he tried. Even with magic, trying to dash or blink in inside the tower, resulted in him back outside. He wasn't getting in.. but there had to be another way...

He was about to give up but then suddenly a thought popped up in his mind..alien yet strangely familiar too. Maybe a spark of Oyoki's mind ignited some creative inspiration to help him with this obstacle? Regardless, he suddenly got an idea, one clever enough that it might actually work. He took the escape talisman, to his understanding, it was bound to let him return to a predetermined location, but what if.. he could influence the magic and change the place it was supposed to take him? But these type of talismans could only take him to places he has already been, or at least close enough... He placed the talisman against the tower, trying to set the tower as its new location, but also focused hard trying to tweak it all so slightly to make the new location the top of the tower. He took another deep breath, readying himself for what he was about to do, if this went wrong it could be fatal to him. But he was desperate and out of options.
He activates the talisman and teleports inside the tower... and as before the magic pushed him back towards the entrance.. the top entrance! He did it! He was there! Finally, he reached the Frost Lands! He cheered and ran towards the valley, but his cheers and happiness soon vanished as what he found was.. a giant lake.. surrounded by walls of glaciers that were ever so slowly melting.. the valley was fully flooded as to whatever kept this region so cold was long gone. The fox-man fell to his knees in devastation.


--

She gives a gentle smile, taking it as a little wisecrack, because even though she had no idea what the effect would be on the bunny, making a person was very complex and so unlikely; it wouldn't make any sense at all. The most expected outcome would be that the rabbit would be frozen solid by a single touch, but that strangely enough didn't happen to the tea, so she was very curious what would happen if touching a living creature.

And then finally the rabbit's belly touches the lady's finger, giving an effect neither were expecting... In a bright Cerulean glow began to shine around the rabbit, as it began to transform. In a silhouette of light, Its shape grew in size, becoming more human-like. But before any details were revealed illusionary flower petals rose from the floor, surrounding her, and covering her currently naked body as her fur receded and her human features took on a feminine shape. Behind the curtain of petals, a body of everlasting beauty was created, together with fitting clothes and a mindset to create and preserve beauty. As the imaginary flowers faded away it revealed a beautiful bunny-girl, looking around confused at what happened.
The magical energies that took place in the transformation, contained qualities like those of color magic in Muffinvile, only its essence was slightly different from that of the already know colors; perhaps it was a new color? "I'm.. a human now? Oh, is this my voice? This all feels so strange.", she says with a calm and charming voice, and even her posture was well managed and graceful.
"Oh my...", Miori covers her mouth, astonished what she just had created.




(( I'd like to apologize for the long wait and the large amount of text... There was so much to tell and yet every time I thought about, it I just found more and more to add to it... Sorry if this ruined the mood for some people... ))

[Whatevr89532]

"Psh. Attention hog." Anne rolls her eyes in annoyance on noticing the ring, and proceeds to completely ignore it afterward. Being a needy jerk like that just isn't the way to get her attention. Her body moves to a standing-in-midair position as she dismisses the phone away with a brief motion, glaring at the new super-intruders. "Hokay, I am sick and tired of all these 'easy' jobs turning into disasters!" While she's busy ranting, this section of the dreamworld is cut off from the rest, sliced into a single sliver, a universe all its own, unattached to any dream but Oyoki's. "There's no Raleigh to #$@% off this time, so I'll just do what I should've done in the first place. Mundanity." Her voice on this last word echoes throughout the dream-space. On her order, the nature of the newly splintered universe changes to that of a completely magicless, mundane, normal world. Magic doesn't exist; superpowers are fake; connections to other worlds are ridiculous. This effect taps reality at its deepest level, requiring power on the order of magnitude which the two new intruders probably have to resist, and even then maintaining that resistance starts out extremely costly and grows exponentially with every second. Your average world-juggling deity would have a few minutes to go back to wherever they came from before getting turned into a boring, normal human forever. Anna herself, and the dream, are excepted from the reality shift of course, but there doesn't seem to be any magic or reality-bending at all responsible for their immunity, making it difficult for any who rely on magic to imitate.

--

It was bad enough that the people who might have helped him were gone, but worse still to realize shortly after...that without them, this place was no safer than any other. If anything, this might be a greater risk than usual, if whoever destroyed this place left something behind.

--

"Sixty-three percent or so odds..." Lyra watches the transformation and its result with interest. "Hi there, miss. This is Miori, I'm Lyra. I'm sure we'll find a name for you soon.

"Now...I want to confirm some suspicions, and then I'll probably be able to explain. This is a non-interacting scan spell," she explains first to Miori, and then casts on the room they're in: "Chromascope." The spell in question is specifically intended to detect color energies: Their location, what color they are, and the intensities. It's made to be forward-compatible with new colors, by way of 'displaying' to the caster whatever the corresponding 'normal' color would be.

((It's fine, I've had that happen to me. No worries ))

[xGoggles]

And as the shift in reality to change it to mundanity came into place, the first to get affected by it where the spectral warriors of course; losing their ability to float and returning back more and more to having a body of the living. It wasn't something any of them would really complain about but it did make their goal, to retrieve their treasure a lot more difficult when not having any magical abilities anymore.

The woman with the bubbles didn't look all that impressed if not mildly annoyed. Though even she gradually eased her control on the air and slowly landed on her feet, getting influenced by the mundanity. She gave a glance to the mirror which was also started to show signs of losing its magical properties, visually appearing like it was losing a connection like a communication device would, the woman barely still visible mirror yelled out, "The ฅ^⨱‸⨱^ฅ is ﴾\ ﾟᴗ ﾟ﴿'ing happening there?! What ლ(ꗞωꗞლ), is messing up the ᘳὁᨓὀᘰ'ing signal--..." The mirror lost its magic, as it was barely under any protection anyway.
Rolling her eyes, the other woman that still remained snapped her fingers and almost all water bubbles that were still floating around her, and the mirror, traveled back through the gate they came from.
The gate itself was slowly shrinking too but the woman didn't seem very hurried to leave, instead, she took one of the bubbles she left, one with a miniature light orb inside and gave the bubble a gentle tap then lets it float away from her and says, "How irritating... First, some fool had the audacity to call my name without proper offering, then hides behind this amateurish dream-guard and some scum trying to impress me? Even in dream-world, that idea was simply pathetic, and I really have little patience for people wasting my time. But look, dawn has come, perhaps it is time for this dream to end..." The protective bubble that surrounded the light orb begins to diminish, slowly losing its containing properties as well, growing massively in size and heat, as to whatever magic keeping it small as isolated was also vanishing. It only took a few seconds to reveal what was contained into the little bubble was a full-sized star, and even a mundane reality wouldn't change its destructive influence if the container fully disappeared for being magical.
As for the woman, she didn't seem all that worried about opening a 'can of star' there, and even as her body became more mundane, it didn't turn human.. it became more transparent, watery, like the person standing there wasn't even a person but more an optical illusion of animated water.
--

And just as the ice in the Frost Lands was melting away, so was his hope of finding a way to stop the curse. His journey to there was for nothing and he also had nothing to call home to return to.
Eventually, he found a way back down and wandered the road aimlessly as the broken man he was.

--

Miori still very fascinated by what happened to the bunny, stand up from her seat and gives the new girl a closer look, "How peculiar, yet magnificently beautiful. You truly are a work of art young lady."
The bunny-girl could only return with a smile to that compliment. "Thank you very much, how kind of you to say that. You too are very pretty..", she says to the fox lady then turns to Lyra and continues, "so are you, thank you for welcoming me."

Both just watch as curiously as Lyra cast the spell to analyze the room.
And so the spell revealed that, Miori, her aura, the bunny girl and most of the room beside Lyra were full with this special color energy that could be defined as Cerulean. This light blue color was overflowing with the essence of 'beauty' or at least to what the source of the color believed to be beautiful. Things that contained this color would become very resistant to anything that would try to disturb this beauty, making them semi indestructible and very persistent. This also came with the mental effect of not only maintaining their own beauty but to spread this and make their surroundings even more beautiful, together with an absolute disgust for destruction. This nature would make it incompatible with Orange color energy and likely result in the same effect as having Violet and Yellow together.
Regardless from the source, for some reason, this 'beauty' created would almost always be feminine, graceful and kind.

[Whatevr89532]

Seeing the star begin to appear, Anne...smirks. "I don't think you know what 'amateur' means." Her voice is...not coming from her, but from something below her, on the..ground. Her image too shimmers and wavers, but for a different reason. A hologram projector sits on the ground, with some speakers attached. It projects not just the appearance of the anubis-girl herself, but the dream bubble behind her as well; the real Anne has pulled a fast one and moved herself, along with everyone's target, elsewhere. Of course; dream bubbles and anubis-girls with superpowers are just as impossible as magic mirrors and small orbs that contain entire stars. The speaker finishes, "...Stupid." As the sun continues to form and burn (or boil) those remaining inside the miniature universe, the projector too succumbs to the heat, melting into slag and its images flickering out. It seems like she really doesn't mind leaving those poor spectral warriors to die to all this, or depending on how they were brought here, return from whence they came upon these "versions" being destroyed. Nonetheless, Lyra will be getting an earful about all of this pretty soon.

((I intended this "bait and switch hologram" business to be Anne's play from the point of deciding to impose mundanity.))

--

Time in the dream moves forward still further; after a while, his worst fear comes true. A regular check reveals that the curse the man feared all these years, the same one his parents thought to kill him for, has finally found him. It's only a matter of time, unless he does something about it...but there is only one thing anyone knows to do about one of his kind hit by this curse.

--

"Mmhm..your aura's somehow turned into a kind of psuedomagic energy from a universe I've had occasional interaction with. It's called color energy and usually has some kind of transforming effect on those touched by it," says Lyra. "It looks to me like a new 'flavor' of it, too, more or less based on you. Pretty interesting to see appear..."

[xGoggles]

Considering Anne was still able to observe somehow since she was able to hear the previous statement, the woman looks towards the 'camera' or whatever form of the observation tool the dream-guard uses; while ignoring hologram which she wasn't the slightest fooled by. With an unimpressed look, she says, "Child, you are clearly missing the point..."
The woman watches with slight amusement as the star grew bigger and the warriors left behind got obliterated by it. And right before the watery body evaporated away she says with a slight smile, "The blind rarely understand the value of the mirror, how pathetic~"
The body disappeared with a grin, satisfied her little visited got compensated for apparently, and the only thing left was a little watery orb with a mysterious silver sphere in it, not yet consumed by the heat of the star or the mundanity as most of the energy to resist was poured into that little thing instead of her body. But eventually, it pulled into itself and vanishes as well, without revealing what its purpose might have been.

If not a slightly bit ironic, the star was a product of the essence of the Pillar of Radiance, and with a cruel joke of fate the treasure of the clan did reunite back with them.
--

He started to feel the darkness of the curse trying to seize control, rewriting who he was to turn him into something he wouldn't allow himself to be. Being out of options he wandered into a nearby human village, not bothering to hide his fox-like features anymore.

--

"Color energy, you say? How fascinating. The magic I can see interweaved in her sure has some elements I recognize, but I have never seen magic work in this particular manner", the fox-lady says while continuing to inspect the bunny-girl up close, with her eye examining the magical properties on a deeper level.
Afterward, she returns to her seat, still quite deep in thought, then turns to Lyra and asks, "You say, this was a 'new flavor'? So can I take that not all color energy behaves this way?"

The bunny girl was quite unsure what she was supposed to do now, not that she minded that the two ladies took a great interest in her, but she felt like she could be doing much more, like helping out with the garden or maybe braiding Lyra's hair. She didn't know why, but she had the urge to make things more pretty. But it would be rude to act on her own without one permission, "Ummm, excuse me..."