Alex expected the trio to start chanting ‘One of us, one of us’ repeatedly. Quickly getting out of the hotspring, Alex donned her priest’s robes.

  “I… um, need to use the restroom.” Alex stuttered. Then exited through the gate.

  Alex picked up Fufi and hugged her close, trying to not let out a hint of how shaken she was.

  “Are you still in there? I saw what happened to the tribesman.” Fufi whispered into Alex’s ear.

  “Yeah, let's go find some pce to hide for a bit.” Alex whispered back.

  The pair wandered down an unfamiliar hallway and found a closet door. After closing the door to the closet, Alex pulled out her phone. She checked the logs.

  [Priestess used cloning.]

  [Attack partially resisted: assimition / twinning.]

  [Transformation successful: race changed from Harpy to avian.]

  [Mental assimition resisted.]

  [Priestess used cloning.]

  [Attack partially resisted: assimition / twinning.]

  [Transformation successful: race changed from avian to human.]

  [Mental assimition resisted.]

  [Congratutions Mental resistance has reached level 3]

  “Well, it looks like I resisted the mental attacks but not the transformation. But the silver lining is that mental resistance leveled up.” Alex said quietly.

  “Why would they do this? I know things didn’t go well for Catalina and her followers in this world after the thing with the hero but we should still be allies.” Fufi sounded puzzled.

  Fufi and Alex looked over the stat page together.

  Name: Alex Parker

  Css: Magical Girl

  Sex: Female

  Race: Human

  Strength: 11

  Constitution: 9

  Dexterity: 17

  Intelligence: 7

  Cuteness: 16

  Skills:

  Cleaning: 2

  Cooking: 1

  Dancing: 2

  Tailoring: 3

  Toymaking: 1

  Feats: Empower Doll

  Spells: Animate Doll

  Lesser Grow Pnts

  Traits: Mental Resistance: 3

  “Looks like strength went down but constitution went up. The racial adjustments for being a harpy went away I guess.” Alex said.

  Fufi nodded. “Looks that way. But you didn’t lose any cuteness. That is what is most important.”

  “That is good and all but we have a bigger problem. I didn’t bring any dolls on me for this trip because I thought we were visiting allies. I’m a little concerned that they might want to prevent us from leaving.” Alex worried.

  “Maybe we can find some dolls you can use?” Fufi asked.

  “It would be lucky if we could find some. I haven’t seen any children. The temple couldn’t have always been like this right?” Alex asked.

  “I haven’t been here before but I assume so. Some of the familiars that are retired treated purity as an ally. I thought Luna and Catalina were friends.” Fufi sounded stumped.

  “Ugh, none of this makes any sense. I wonder what could have happened.” Alex hung her head.

  “Well, I don’t think we are going to get anywhere hiding in a closet like this.” Fufi said, looking around the cell-phone-screen-lit cleaning supplies. “Oh look, they even have a feather duster. It is not as good as the one you had before.”

  “Hmm, this might come in handy.” Alex eyed the implement.

  Without thinking about it, Alex grabbed the duster and dusted everything off then opened the door. She slid the feather duster into her sash. The magical girl and fmingo came out of the closet and headed down the windowless corridor. Most of the area consisted of empty dormitories. One or two looked like they had been lived in. It gave the impression that in the past the pce had a lot more people living here.

  One of the rooms seemed to be bigger and designed to house a family. It had a chamber pot, sitting in a small room. There was a dusty kitchen, and a pair of bedrooms. One of the bedrooms had a rge, moth-eaten bed. The other had a crib and a chest full of toys.

  “Hmm, this looks like a child’s room.” Alex said, opening the chest.

  The chest contained blocks, a chalkboard, some pieces of chalk and a male plushy in fabric armor. The thing looked like it would fall apart if moved.

  “Oh, look at that. I think it is a stuffed hero.” Fufi pointed her beak at the two foot tall stuffed man.

  “Maybe I can clean it up a bit and we could use it.” Alex dusted the plushy and it looked a bit better. She had a cleaning skill but without the magical duster it wouldn’t restore it to being brand new. Alex took the hero doll and held it up.

  “Hey what does this chain do?” Fufi pulled a ring that was hanging out of the back of the doll.

  The ring slowly started going back in, followed by some whirring noise from within the plushy. “For Justice!” a recorded voice came from within the doll.

  Alex and Fufi jumped in surprise.

  “What was that?” Alex asked.

  Fufi pulled the ring again. “I won’t let you!” The doll let out another recorded voice.

  Another pull, “I won’t forgive you!”

  Fufi pulled the chain again, “Purity will prevail over evil!”

  “Stop, stop, this thing is annoying.” Alex gred at the bird.

  “Demon queen, your days are numbered now that I am here!” Fufi pulled and snickered. The doll said something else ridiculous.

  “Okay, I’ll give you that st one is funny but we really should get going.” Alex wrapped the doll in her sash, securing it against her hip.

  The pair headed out, they walked around winding corridors and up and down a few staircases. They passed a single priest who greeted them with a simple ‘purity bless you’ and they answered in kind and continued along their way.

  The next pce of note was a big ritual chamber. Upon opening a pair of double doors they found a recessed stone area with a big runic star carved into the ground. A big tome sat on a pedestal. Alex carefully thumbed through the old book.

  The rituals were written with lots of words that Alex couldn’t understand but she could read the titles.

  Rituals:

  Large scale nd purification.

  Large scale water purification.

  Hallowed ground ritual.

  Hero summoning.

  Css transfer ritual.

  Alex paused at that one. “Wait, is this where they summoned the hero?” Alex looked at one of the pictures and saw that it matched the carving on the floor.

  Fufi poked her long neck over Alex’s shoulder and did the same. “Hmm, it looks like that might have been the st thing that this pce was used for. Why? Do you want to try your hand at hero summoning?”

  Alex looked at the ritual and shook her head. “No, I don’t understand this. Besides, isn’t summoning someone and then saying they are now the hero a bit forceful? Can they even decline?”

  Fufi shook her head. “I don’t think so. Besides, you’d need to be a high priest or priestess to perform this. It also says here that it can only be successful if Catalina has ordained it.” Fufi pointed a wing at a passage in the book.

  “What are these words?” Alex didn’t understand all of the things written down.

  “Hmm, some esoteric stuff but also really rare magic materials. That is a fancy phrase that means tears of a mermaid. That one means sap from a Dryad’s tree. That means cries from a martyr.”

  “How do you store cries from a martyr?” Alex blinked.

  “I don’t know, this is some advanced stuff and I’m no rituralist.” Fufi shrugged her wings.

  Alex looked around the unused room and decided there wasn’t really anything here that could help them get out. “Let's keep moving then.” She closed the book and dusted it off a bit. The pair left the room and closed the door.

  After going down a few hallways and descending stairs they entered what appeared to be catacombs. There were twisting caverns with slits in the walls that contained bones in repose. Urns were on pedestals. Statues stood guard, walls had paintings and carvings on them. The whole pce gave a very somber vibe.

  Wandering around a bit led them to a big amphitheater. Several stone statues with wings held stone bdes on either side of the entrance. In the middle, two person sized lumps of amber were pced on a stone sb.

  “That’s odd. I wonder what this pce is?” Alex cautiously stepped forward.

  “I think those statues are golems. But we don’t seem to be setting them off. Don’t do anything that you are not supposed to.” Fufi entered behind Alex.

  Closer inspection showed that the amber actually contained a person each. They were both ying down with their eyes closed. Both had very ornate robes and headdresses. Creepily, the male encased in amber looked much like the male priests they had passed. Also, the same was true of the female. A brass pque on the stone had the words engraved on it: “Our goddess’s legacy will live on through us.”

  “What does that even mean?” Alex puzzled over the pque.

  “Oh dear. What was that word your phone used in the log about partially resisting something?” Fufi asked.

  “Mental assimition?” Alex guessed.

  Fufi shook her beaked head. “No, the other one.”

  “Twinning?” Alex tried.

  Fufi nodded. “Yeah, I think it might be a way to cheat the system.”

  Alex was puzzled about this for a moment. “I don’t get it. Why would they want to do that? They could just pray to their goddess and get the system.”

  Fufi pointed a wing at another engraving on the wall. “See that? Asks: why has Catalina not answered any prayers for csses after the great betrayal.”

  “Great betrayal? Is that talking about the hero?” Alex tried to wrap her head around the concept.

  “Exactly, when the hero gave up on his quest to go py house with his love it must have been a big embarrassment to Catalina. I think Luna might have mentioned that she took it really hard.” Fufi said.

  “I still don’t get it. Why would the temple change from what it used to be so drastically after that event?” Alex asked.

  “People don’t live forever Alex. These people preserved in amber would have been the same generation as Martha and Bob’s grandparents. Remember what Luna said when she came down to deal with Sakura?” Fufi slowly asked.

  Alex paused, “She said that because we are both magical girls and in her domain she could intervene without much trouble. I think it was something like that.” Alex scrunched up her nose trying to recall.

  “Exactly, divine involvement is a bit of a bancing act. One deity brings a demon lord, another deity brings a hero. The problem is if it escates too much. This could happen if something really embarrassing happens.” Fufi said.

  “Like the hero giving up?” Alex started to get it.

  “Yeah, so that would mean Catalina would want to do some smiting. She could easily kill the demon queen or the hero with a snap of her fingers. That would give justification for an opposing deity to do something simir.” Fufi said sagely.

  “I get that would be why the hero or demon queen didn’t get turned to dust by a divine bolt from heaven but why would that affect the rest of purity’s followers?” Alex still didn’t quite get it.

  “I’m just specuting here but I bet the backsh on her was really bad. Perhaps she just got sick of dealing with this world and washed her hands of it? Some of the dark gods can say some really cruel things. Anyway, if she doesn’t want to have anything to do with this world then no one is going to be getting any new csses. There won’t be any new padins of purity or priests of purity or heroes of purity.” Fufi said.

  “But there still are. I mean, unless these people are all fakes. But they have to have csses through, I think. Otherwise how would they be able to keep this pce going or use magic? If their deity gave up on this world would everyone with a css from her lose it?” Alex scratched her head.

  Fufi shook her head. “No, it doesn’t work that way. The system will keep the css going even if the patron deity is gone. You can switch csses or abandon one but they can’t be taken away.”

  “Oh, so twinning. That means the person would become a copy of another person. Would that mean they would get their css as well?” Alex cringed.

  “I’ve never seen it before but considering how things went down here I guess that faced with purity’s absence they made some extreme decisions.” Fufi shuddered.

  “Ugh, that is really messed up. I want to leave this pce and never come back.” Alex also shuddered.