The screen appeared in the air with two identical symbols and the heads of twin dolls.
"I'm not stronger than you," Nyonyokyo said. "But you're not stronger than me either."
Toloruchan responded with a message on the screen in front of her.
"Yes, I know," Nyonyokyo read. "Even if we're equal in strength, we're stronger than most dolls. By the way, where did our sis you caught go?"
Toloruchan kicked the snow-covered ground.
"Are you summoning a flower? It won't freeze?"
A blue energy flower the size of a human burst from under the snow a few steps away from Toloruchan, after which it opened…
Inside the flower was a doll wearing a black beanie, with two "tails" of yellow hair protruding from the side slits. A black apron covered her belly, part of her breast, and part of her hips, which, together with the beanie, made up the strange costume.
"I know you," Nyonyokyo addressed the new doll. "You were with us in the crypt, and then you were stolen by that... that..."
"Great lord," the yellow-haired doll continued. "I am Aragas, Keeper of the Great Lord's Refuge and Recipient of his Spanks."
"Sounds like Crypt Keeper,'" Nyonyokyo said. "You must be a strong doll. But my sis is stronger because she was able to capture you."
"I came here on my own," Aragas grabbed her ponytails. "Your sis is my sis too. I can't fight her."
Nyonyokyo looked at Toloruchan. A new message appeared on the screen.
"Sis Toloruchan confirms this," Nyonyokyo said. "But why are you coming with us?"
"I know where the hidden server is."
"I know too."
"I know what you need to do to become human."
Nyonyokyo looked at Toloruchan again and read the new message.
"Why didn't you become human if you knew how?"
"If I had become human, my back shield would have fallen off," Aragas explained. "And the great lord wouldn't have been able to spank me."
"It's clear. I think I can trust you. Sis, do you think so too?"
Toloruchan answered with a new message, consisting of one simple symbol.
"Then we can go," Nyonyokyo said. "Soon we'll be like we used to be. But you won't be yellow one. You don't need this."
All three dolls activated their purple auras and flew down the slope, toward the sea where the ice floes floated. But this time, the three-horned dinosaur's skull wasn't hanging over the cliff.
"Sis Toloruchan, do you see the server?" Nyonyokyo landed on an ice floe washed up on the shore.
Toloruchan also sank down, but not onto the ice, but into the snow a few steps away from her sister.
"If you don't answer, it means you can't see," Nyonyokyo turned her head back. "Maybe it's under the snow? It's hidden."
"No, it should be hanging over there," Aragas pointed to a black rock jutting out of the water not far from the shore.
"Maybe it's hibernating?" Nyonyokyo turned her head back to its original position. "Some animals hibernate in winter. Maybe the server does the same?"
The screen with text appeared in front of Toloruchan. Nyonyokyo felt the vibration and turned her head towards her sister.
"You think the yellow one deceived us? But what does it mean, to deceive?"
The text was replaced by a new, shorter one.
"She said something that wasn't true? But how can you say something that isn't true?"
Several identical symbols appeared on the screen, but in different colors.
"She wasn't telling the truth..." Nyonyokyo raised her hand to her head. "I'd completely forgotten that word. I've been disassembled a lot lately."
Nyonyokyo turned her head toward Aragas, but found only snow, ice, and unfrozen water instead.
"She disappeared. Yellow told a lie and then vanished to avoid being found out. She's some kind of wrong sis. Let's remove her from the list of sisters?"
While the dolls were deciding what to do, Aragas was already standing on the opposite mountainside. Her feet sank knee-deep into the snow, but that didn't matter. The most important thing for the doll was not to be disassembled, so Aragas swiveled her head like an owl, trying to spot her opponent in time.
But the enemy didn't appear. The mountainside looked empty, and only something green could be seen somewhere in the distance.
"Great lord, I did everything as the instructions said," Aragas said. "There are no dolls here."
The snow shifted a few steps away from the doll.
"The dolls are behind the mountain, and the new ones haven't arrived here yet," Aragas continued.
A head, wearing a white and blue helmet with a transparent visor, emerged from the snow.
"Great lord, you forgot to change your hair," Aragas looked at the brown hair that was peeking out from under the helmet.
"My hair doesn't change," Sogotoh answered. "I'm not a doll, so this disguise will suffice."
"That's fine for ordinary dolls. But those two dolls aren't ordinary. They're the dolls. Do you understand?"
Sogotoh climbed out of the snow and looked up at the mountaintop.
"I will protect you, great lord," Aragas ran her hand down her apron from her chest to her belly. "I am hard. They are not."
"I'll disassemble them," Sogotoh said. "I just need to remember some skills, but I will. I guess."
"You won't even spank me?"
"No, no need for that today. I need to disassemble these dolls so they can't be assembled, and then make sure I don't run into the bear girl."
Aragas shook her head first one way, then the other.
"There are no bears here either, neither yours nor the usual ones. I have nothing to do, great lord."
"Go to Yueret. If you meet any bear girl, try to stall for time as much as possible."
"My apron can withstand several powerful attacks. Then I'll have to fight without it."
"You have defensive skills. Protect Yueret while he sleeps."
"I don't want to."
"What? But you're a doll. Dolls can't want anything."
"I meant to say that I must protect the Great Lord, not someone else. Only the great lord can spank me with a special skill."
"Looks like I've made another mistake," Sogotoh thought. "If I will disassemble like a doll, then I deserve it."
Sogotoh approached the doll, grabbed her hand, and then turned her toward the valley.
"Great lord, do you want to spank me?" Aragas asked.
"Yeah," Sogotoh raised his palm, surrounded by an energetic aura, to the doll's buttocks.
The vibration set the doll's body in motion. Aragas raced down the slope as if skiing.
"One doll down," Sogotoh sighed. "Now there are two dolls."
***
A large ice floe carrying a blue-and-white bear girl moored to a snowy shore that gradually sloped down to a gentle mountain slope. The summit remained shrouded in fog.
"Come out, little bear, we've arrived," Hotuka yawned.
The hooded figure with small round ears appeared from behind a white and blue jacket that covered a significant portion of the ice floe.
"It was so long that I managed to sleep," Hotuka yawned again.
"White-blue bears don't sleep in winter."
"I know. But when my crib is carrying me and I have nothing better to do, I have to sleep."
Hotuka tried to get up and walk ashore, but due to her half-asleep state, she fell headfirst and became stuck in the ice hole. Yueret had to jump to a nearby ice floe to avoid being accidentally hit by the animal girl's feet, which were floundering in the air.
"Uh, I missed a bit," Hotuka pulled the bear's head out of the ice hole. "That happens when you sleep for a long time. But I'm a bearry. It's normal for me. By the way, I heard that brown bears sleep almost all year round. Is that true?"
"Is she talking about Unana?" Yueret thought and immediately answered positively.
"They're lucky," Hotuka took a few steps forward and sank slightly into the snow. "They probably don't have any non-living creatures. They wouldn't have left the bears alone if I hadn't frozen them."
"They live here?"
"No. But they're close. There's something here that can remove the barrier."
"What thing?"
"It's blue and has horns here and here."
Hotuka gestured with her hands to her ears and nose. Yueret imagined horns growing from those spots, but for some reason he couldn't picture the bear's fur as blue.
"We need to find that thing," the bear girl crouched down, touched the snow with her hand, and then jumped back a step.
The bear's paw imprint, left in the snow, activated with a bright white-blue glow, but soon faded.
"Come out, Snow Bearry," Hotuka said. "I brought you something delicious. You've never had anything like it."
"I hope she's not talking about me," Yueret thought.
The imprint activated again, but this time it didn't fade. A large, round, blue- white bear head with small ears emerged from the snow next to it.
"Snow Bear, you're stuck again," Hotuka jumped and landed next to the bear's head. "But you're lucky. I'm right here, so I'll help."
Hotuka grabbed the bear's head, but instead of pulling the whole bear out of the snow, she only pulled out its head.
"Heh-heh, Snow Bearry, your head's missing," Hotuka said, spinning the bear's head around in her hands like a snow globe. "I forgot I have a skill that could help you."
Hotuka made another paw print, but this time of both paws. Two miniature bears emerged from the snow, each holding a shovel.
"Snowplow Bearries," Hotuka smiled. "I haven't seen you in a while. How's your mom? Is she catching seals?"
The miniature bears looked at the summoner with tired expressions, as if they'd been forced to shovel a whole mountain of snow.
"You must to dig up this Snow Bearry," Hotuka said.
"We have small shovels," one of the mini-bears answered in a high, tired voice.
"But there are two of you," Hotuka said.
"Your paw is bigger than our two shovels," another mini-bear said.
"You don't want to dig the snow?" Hotuka looked sadly at the bear's body, still buried in the snow.
"No!" the mini-bears answered simultaneously.
"I feel like I'm watching a stupid children's cartoon," Yueret thought and observed the whole thing, unable to believe such a scene was even possible in a game.
"If you dig up this bear, I'll give you his paw," Hotuka said. "Oh, no... I'll give you a white fangfish lollipop."
"Really…" The mini-bears looked at the bear girl in surprise and dropped their shovels.
"Yup... If you lick it, the fangs left by the fish will bite your tongue."
"Mom said that fish could bite my head off," one of the mini-bears said.
"You can eat it once," the second mini-bear said. "Mom won't know."
"Now it's clear how they were forced to dig snow," Yueret smiled mentally.
The mini-bears picked up their shovels and, despite their size, somehow dug a large hole in just a few moments, in which sat the body of a blue and white bear, complete with all its paws.
"Snowplow Bearries, you did it again," Hotuka covered her mouth with her hand. "Just don't tell mom I summoned you. Tell her you found the candy on the seal."
"What should we say if we come home headless?" one of the mini-bears scratched his ear with his paw.
"Tell them the seal knocked your heads off with its tail," Hotuka said.
"I won't say anything," the second mini-bear looked at the first. "I will be without a head, and in my head there will be a mouth."
After this phrase, Yueret turned away to laugh, and when the laughter "ended," neither the mini-bears nor the hole in the snow was there anymore. In their place sat a single blue-white bear, with Hotuka twisting his head.
"That's it, now you're a full-fledged Snow Bearry. Can you find the head with three horns and a beak?"
"Does it have a beak too? Yueret's thought and he was no longer having fun. "Is it a dinosaur? But all horned dinosaurs are long extinct. Dad probably never saw one, although after everything that happened, I'm not so sure."
The summoned bear stood up on all fours, sniffed the snow, and then disappeared into the fog.
"Let's follow it!" Hotuka waved her "paw" at Yueret.
The further Snow Bearry walked along the shore, the more visibility decreased. Soon it bumped into a rock, beyond which there was only the sea.
"We've come to the wrong place," Yueret looked around, but saw only snow disappearing into the fog.
"No, Snow Bearry can't go the wrong way," Hotuka answered. "He has a clever nosy."
"Clever nosy… Is that even possible?"
"Heh-heh… You'll see for yourself now."
Snow Bearry leaned away from the cliff and dove into the water. Hotuka activated a white-blue icy aura and ran after her summoned creature.
Yueret followed the bear girl across the ice bridge. The shore was completely hidden in the fog. All that remained was water with floating ice floes… and an iceberg that had appeared out of nowhere.
"Snow Bearry, you did it," Hotuka patted the summoned creature on the top of its head. "I couldn't have done it without you. Ask for whatever you want."
Snow Bearry looked at his summoner, opened his mouth, and stuck out his long, black-purple tongue.
"Do you want some octopus jelly?" Hotuka scratched her bear ear. "I have one. I think."
The bear girl summoned an inventory resembling a fridge. Numerous compartments with fresh and frozen meat from various animals formed a kind of "zoo."
"Where is it?" Hotuka sighed. "It's always like this... Whenever I look for something, it's never there. Ah, here it is."
The bear girl found a compartment with a blue octopus curled up inside a clear jar, and then slapped it with her "paw."
Something blue and shapeless appeared in the air and almost immediately landed in the summoned bear's mouth.
"Now you can go and rest," Hotuka sighed. "From here, we'll take care of ourselves."
The Snow Bearry jumped into the water and "drowned." In reality, that was the summoned creature's disappearance.
"Now we need to defrost this thing," Hotuka said.
Yueret looked at the iceberg and noticed some bones in the ice, too large even for a large animal.
"Is this what you were looking for?"
"Yup," Hotuka answered. "If this thing weren't frozen, I would remove the barrier. I know how to do it, but I can't unfreeze it. I don't have the element for this."
"Me neither," Yueret opened the skills screen. "All my skills are icy."
"That's weird. I can freeze, but I can't defrost."
"For that, you need the element of fire."
"But I don't have anyone with the element of fire. All my bearries only have the element of water."
"Maybe it's possible to break the ice?"
"No, this isn't ordinary ice. I can see it. It's too big and surrounds my entire head. Someone froze it."
"Is this a barrier?"
"Yup, someone doesn't want me to remove the barrier. But if it's not removed, the non-living creatures will come to life."
"So what should I do? Find a fire-elemental creature and ask it to destroy the ice?"
"Yup, I need to summon a fire bear. If the ice ones can't do it, a fire bear will do."
"Where can I get a fire bear?" Yueret looked at the sea, which was hidden in the fog.
"You already have a fire bear."
"Why do you think so?"
"There are always two bear cubs. If there's one, there's a second. If one is ice, the second will be fire."
"Unana," Yueret thought. "But where will I get her in this world?"
"Why can't you summon your fire bear? You should have one too."
"She won't help me," Hotuka bowed her head. "The brown bear supports undead creatures."
"Why? You broke up over food?"
"No. She just felt sorry for the non-living creatures. She wanted them to become living."
"There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with that."
"Yeah… But that's impossible. The non-living can't become living. They're not supposed to walk, so I took them apart and froze them. And my little sis wants to do the opposite, to unfreeze them."
"Did she set up the barrier?"
"No. The barrier is airborne, and she's of a different element. It was done by non-living creatures. Some of them have not yet been disassembled. They want to free other non-living creatures."
"It seems like it's like in all games: without the main character, no one can solve anything."
"So that leaves only your bear cub," Hotuka continued. "Her name is Unachan?"
"How do you know?" Yueret took a step back.
"I know all the bearries."
Hotuka put her palms to her cheeks and closed her eyes, as if imagining two little bear cubs.