Content Warning

-strong language

-violent descriptions(including ones of intense heat)

-vomit

-disturbing imagery 

-light ableism

Previously on Glassflower: Ursa and the Scarf Squad:

After escaping from their ice-y tombs, Ursa and Tempestas crossed paths. However, their battle was cut short, as the Crystular Corrupted Beasts set their Red Eyes on Tempestas.

Like the impulsive fool she is, was, and will be, Ursa leapt to protect Tempestas escape. Rather than hunt them directly, the Corrupted Beasts entrapped them upon their path.

Now the Hibernetic Duo find themselves before a pit of *burning* PLASMA! Let I, the fabulous Fabula Loquitur tell you the tale of:

Chapter X

Hibernation Interrupted

The plasma glowed and flowed. Like staring at the surface of the sun, they saw energy burst out, filling the air and burning into the cracks in the ceiling, making the space grow just a bit larger.

They were stunned. Ursa was lost in thought, unsure of what to do or say. Good news though, Tempestas knew exactly what to say.

“FUCK YOU!” it exclaimed, turning to her.

“Hm?” Ursa responded, glancing its way.

“You trapped us! How are we supposed to cross one of the FOUR GREAT YELLOWS!?” It exclaimed, dragging its hammer to gesture behind and before them.

Ursa ignored it and placed her claws on her Xiphoid Process. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

[She saw what the lake looked like in the Reflect Realm. It was a condensed space of ships engulfed in intense flames. Other colours were leaking out, fusing with the flames and becoming plasma.

There was no real space to move around either. They had no choice but to find a way through in the Colour Realm].

She sat down, “Guess we'll just have to wait for it to dissipate,”

“It's not that simple you twat! This amount of Yellow could take weeks!” It argued, looming over her.

(There was a light tapping in the distance).

“The ships will break down eventually-,” She commented, looking it in the eyes with her narrowed ones. “And with them, the plasma,”

“That just means it won’t be fed any longer. It’ll still have to die down, you RUNT!” it insisted, trying to lift its hammer.

The tapping was growing closer.

Ursa stood up and turned around nervously, “Something's near”

“Don’t change the-,”

And closer!

“This Gate doesn’t have any cores yet, right?” It asked.

“We're not dead yet,”

AND CLOSER!

The tunnel was closing, no, the Blue Mould were filling it up. They rushed through it like waves, constantly colliding and crashing into each before becoming one.

Ursa looked around. There were many other tunnels, but the challenge was on how to reach? Room for movement was quite meager, with only *thin* ledges around the lake. Escape would require patience and planning. 

Yet their foes gave *no such offering*!

Tempestas grabbed her by the scarf, “IF I GO DOWN IT SHALL BE WITH-!”

Holding onto her, it was pulled out, into the *blazing* heat. In a blink, it hung from her white scarf, the plasma heating its ice-y feet.

Ursa held on loosely, her claws carefully sunk into the cracks of the walls so as not to break them. Though it certainly was a struggle.

“Ursa, I’m melting!” it pleaded. “You can’t end me this way!”

“I know, I know. Shit-,” Ursa exclaimed, as her left claw slipped from the cracking walls. 

She anxiously *rushed* to get better footing. She pulled herself up to the right  with one claw and latched onto the wall with both claws. It broke.

They fell.

[“Tempestas Glacies,” a voice called out.

Tempestas awoke from its cold bed in the freezer. Before it was a metallic humanoid with blue eyes and wearing a navy blue suit with a white symbol of a Vulture perched on the letters ‘RNM’ on the back.

“What am I needed for, boss?” it asked, pulling off its blanket of snow.

“We’ve taken your records into account and have found use for you,” it answered, looking over some papers.

“REALLY?! Thank you, I've wait so-,” Tempestas exclaimed, excitedly getting up and going over to the closet, ready to pull out a suit.

“You don’t need one of those,”

“Oh, one of those grim and gritty jobs?”

“Something like that,”].

Ursa let out a BURST OF WIND. She barely held them over the plasma. Tempestas’s body was starting to melt, and she was sweating profusely.

She could feel the yellow from her claws quickly starting to strain.

Her eyes widened. She extended her sweat stained cloths to two ends of the lake, sticking to them.

She pulled them both onto it, just a few metres above the flames, “We should be good. We just need to reach….crap,”

All but one of the tunnels were closed.

“It's a trap…hm?” she sighed.

Tempestas was staring off into space.

[Tempesas sat in an enclosed room, with multiple tubes attached to it. The tubes drained its yellow into the silver walls.

“Is this…all?” it asked its superior.

“Yes, yes it is,” the boss responded. “Just sit there and act as a battery for 8-13 hours a day,”

“B-but I’m a warrior,” it exclaimed.

“That’s what the design document says, yes,” the boss responded, scrolling on a tablet. “But your growth has had significant stagnation ergo there never was any,”

“But-but give me another chance-,”

“Nope, too much effort. After the formation of Project Ringing Bells, we need to focus our investments on projects of worth, and your…less,”

“THEN SEND ME OUT THERE AND LET ME DIE IN-!”

“Too costly, too little reward,” the boss responded, shaking its head. “Even our buyers are more interested in Project Ringing Bells. Anyone willing to buy a lesser product can’t afford it,”

“Then I quit-!” Tempestas exclaimed, standing up.

“Okay,” the boss responded, smashing its fist into Tempestas’s face].

“TEMPESTAS!” Ursa exclaimed, giving it a slap. 

“W-what-?!” it exclaimed, looking around.

“Keep it together, we have a trap to get to!” she exclaimed, pulling it up onto the cloth proper.

She gracefully stood up on it like it were a tightrope, “Can you balance on the cloth like this-?”

It looked at her completely dumbfounded, “What in Omnes’s name do you think your doing?”

“Stop messing around-,” she responded, ignoring the question.

Tempestas hurled its hammer at her, using an inverted arch to gain momentum. 

She easily dodged, “-and follow my lead,”

“Why are you helping me!?

“I don’t need a reason,” she shrugged.

“Bullshit, you do! Tell me why!?”

Ursa paused for a second, her finger on her chin, “No idea,”

“YES YOU DO! I’M TRYING TO KILL YOU! I’VE TRIED TO KILL YOU! AND I CAN BARELY SURVIVE HERE! SO WHY?! TELL ME WHY I’M NOT DEAD AND YOU HAVEN’T ESCAPED!?”

Ursa took a deep breath. The cloth was weakening, she had to answer this correctly.

“Don’t remind me,” she groaned, scratching her left ear. 

“If you don’t want to help then why?!” it exclaimed, shaking off bits of ice.

“You remind me a lot of Star Rainer Sagittarius you know,” she commented, smiling with her eyes closed.

“The one that killed himself?”

“Kill yourself,” Ursa exclaimed, her cold, dead eyes opened.

“Don’t give me hollow ass answers then!” it insisted.

(The cloth was starting to sink).

“Why do you want to know so bad?”

“None of your fucking business!” It exclaimed, defensively.

“I understand,” Ursa nodded.

“wh- you don't know me!”

She reached out her claw “And I won’t have a chance if we both die here,”

“And what if i just want to go back to the Corrupted Realm?!”

It started to tearrrrr.

“Do you?” She urged, stretching the claw.

The cloth SNAPPED!

They both fell.

She grabbed onto Tempestas and LATCHED onto the ceiling. She swung, but there was VERY little room.

She completely wrapped them both in her red cloth, grazing across the surface of the lake. It felt like they had laid on a stove, the intense, burning heat searing into their flesh.

Sinking her canine teeth below her lower lips, she extended another strand of cloth and swung AGAIN and AGAIN! They went high, they were almost there!

A burst of plasma came out of the lake before them.

They went right through it. They felt trapped in an oven, begging to escape, but their captors refused.

The cloth evaporated before their eyes. If it weren’t for Tempestas liquifying body, Ursa would be in flames.

They fell down. It was going to be close, they were either going to make it to the other tunnel or fall to their deaths.

[Tempestas stood in the eternal darkness, the floor blanketed in black fog. Before it were 11 lights, each of the different colours, and there was a twelfth, lightless one, sitting with them. They were outlined proper by the other lights, but were little more than a silhouette of an umbrella and a Victorian woman.

“You stand before Under Umbrella,” the twelfth announced, her voice like an echo with the abyss.

“Venians Nocte, I wish to join you!” Tempestas exclaimed, proudly raising its hammer.

“Tempestas Glacies…what is your gender?”

“What?” it questioned.

“Are you a ‘she’, a ‘he’, a ‘they’, somewhere in between, or something we don’t comprehend?” she asked. “You could even identify as an ‘it’,”

“W-what does this-?”

“Do you carry an identity or do you remain a tool?” Venians Nocte asked, creating a tablet of black to carve into.

“Is this a test?” it asked, looking around at the lights for answers.

“And you thought yourself worthy to speak to our lady?!” a yellow light announced, his voice like staring directly at the sun on a warm, summer’s day.

“Well…I-,”

“How do you expect to advance if you haven’t even learnt the basics?” A Red light criticised, her voice like a Feline Maestro commented.

“What basics-,”

“Can we move onto the next one, these yellows are so boring. I can’t even read them for shit. At least bring someone of worth,” A purple light mocked, their voice like an AI Generated Hyena.

“You wanna fight Innominatam-?!” Tempestas exclaimed, pointing its hammer.

“Tempestas Glacies,” Venians Nocte interrupted.

“Yes,”

“You, like many, shall have the chance to escape, but we cannot work with you before you are truly free,”

The Eleven raised up black symbols on their bodies. Black Umbrellas with rain pouring from inside.

Their symbols lit up, causing Corrupted Beasts to rise up from the darkness, standing at the ready.

“The Will of the Signa Mortis can only be given those whom we can trust the most. You are not worthy of this Will,” she announced.

She raised her crystular arm up. The entire room shook.

Tempestas looked around anxiously, “Wait, please! I can prove myself, just give me a chance-!”

The ground swallowed it up].

The ground beneath them was cold. They had landed in the tunnel well enough. 

Ursa’s cloth had been completely evaporated, revealing her grey, stone-like skin and jagged claws with blackened nails. Her whole body was like that, twisted and contorted. It looked like her bones were trying to break out of her body at every joint. 

Her spine was no exception. It glowed red, spreading tiny veins into her torso. It was like an alien infecting her body. {Light inspiration from the Alien franchise}

She vomited black, “You…are the *worst* Tempestas! Why am I helping you…?! I don’t want to help you?! I just want to run away…and let you *die* so that I can be free!!!” She screamed above.

She lowered her head, “But freedom doesn’t exist…, because I…can run as far away as I fucking want, but no matter where I am, I am trapped in my *fucking* skin…! The skin that says I can’t let you die when every sense of logic says I shouldn’t. In the end…I’m just a runt…,”

Tempestas eyes widened. It stared at her, lamenting her faults, watching her carefully.

“Has anyone told you your beautiful?” it asked.

Ursa raised her head in surprise, “I don’t keep track,”

“Really?”

“Most of my customers for one,” she chuckled into her claw.

“You show your customers this form?! Wouldn’t you just use your ugly human form,” Tempestas commented, eyebrow of fog raised.

Ursa laughed, “Now that’s familiar….Furem actually said the same thing,”

“Well that’s only natural, what Disaster Beast would find a human appealing?” it shrugged.

“Belle,” Setsune smiled a million smiles.

“Bellator Terra? Wasn’t she ment-,”

Setsune glared at it.

“-Meant to be with your forever?”

Setsune got up, brushing off her hair, “Thank you for trying,”

“don't remind me…,” it groaned, struggling to get up.

Tempestas looked like a shriveled old man. Its limbs had melted thin, almost ready to break. And with only one arm, it could barely stand.

Setsune reached out her claw. Tempestas hobbled past her.

“Just let me die and save yourself the trouble,”

It almost fell. She supported it with her arm and back.

“Why…?”

She smiled again. It looked sighed, unable to understand her.

---

At the centre of the forming Corrupted Gate was a series of bridges in a massive open space. The bridges were slowly spreading, trying to fill the space, form the gate.

The Red Eyes watched the pair. They were almost to the area, but there was something else in the way.

Another Red Eyes, with three red cracks, watched it back. Its cluster was on the move towards the same area.

The Red Eyes of Two scratched the ground loudly, signaling its Cluster. The Cluster rose up and moved out.

Not too far away, Taipan rolled her 120 sided die.

To Be Continued………