Mausoleum of Nature

Halankuo got off the train and found herself at a busy station, with many people on the benches and platform.

“I haven't seen so many people in a long time,” the girl thought. “Has the city's population really been restored yet?”

Halankuo suddenly became happy. Even though she knew almost no one in the city, she was still glad that he was returning to normal life.

Yenekit really was alive. There were no crowds of people on the streets, but the rare passers-by made Halankuo think that they were looking at her. Modesty prevented the girl from making new acquaintances, so all her friends were from childhood.

“You know, Mom, Yenekit is alive again,” the girl thought. “I hope I can restore you and Dad soon, just like these people were restored.”

“Don't hope,” a voice inside Halankuo said. “Right now you need to think about how to get rid of Taikuron.”

“I will write to Itinit that I have arrived in Yenekit. He must come to me, so he must know where I am. But first, I must find my house.”

Halankuo walked around several blocks, but did not find her house.

“All the houses in the city are so similar,” the girl admitted. “I forgot where I live.”

“Look at the interface,” her mother's voice suggested.

“I don't remember where this tab is. I'll write to Itinit. Maybe he'll answer.”

Halankuo went to the park and sat on a bench. There were almost no people there, so the girl wasn't afraid that someone would look at her. The river that flowed through this place reminded Halankuo of her character.

“This is where Kyotyoryon ran away from me for the first time,” Halankuo recalled.

“She wanted to block the water so it wouldn’t flow, and she ran out of town. I and Tuot caught her then. Because of my stupidity, I sent Kyotyoryon to the “Mausoleum of Nature”. If it weren’t for that, she would be walking with me now and saying funny things.”

Halankuo opened the “Mausoleum of Nature”. The red point was still near the bay.

“What is she doing there?” Halankuo thought. “Maybe she was captured and is being taken apart?”

“You can check,” a voice in the girl's head was heard.

“I can't just go there. What will I tell her? Apologize and explain that I'm guilty? I can't do that. And Kyotyoryon won't understand. She's too different from people.”

Halankuo's thoughts were interrupted by an incoming message notification. The girl opened the virtual screen and saw a message from Itinit.

“He's already here?” Halankuo read the message and was very surprised. “That's too fast. What did he use: teleportation, a flying machine, although, it's probably almost the same thing.”

Halankuo left the park and walked down the city street. Suddenly she remembered that she had forgotten where to go.

“He wrote that he was waiting for me at his café,” Halankuo thought. “But where is it? I’ve almost forgotten Yenekit these days. Too much has happened.”

“Just walk around the city and you will find it,” the voice suggested. “Yenekit isn't that big, just a few blocks.”

“I can just walk down any street, and sooner or later I'll come to where I need to go.”

Halankuo walked along several streets and on one of them she noticed the entrance to a cafe, which for some reason she immediately recognized.

The door was locked, but there was no sign on it. Despite this, Halankuo was sure that she had come to the right place.

The girl ran her finger from top to bottom, summoned the door lock, but couldn't do anything else. She didn't remember the password.

Halankuo was about to write to Itinit, when suddenly the door opened, but there was no one behind it.

The girl went inside and stopped near one of the tables. The door closed. There was no one in the "cave" hall.

“I didn’t recognize you right away,” a voice was heard from the back of the hall. “This is the first time I've seen you fully dressed.”

A man came out from behind a column, and Halankuo recognized him as Itinit.

“Someone helped you, you obviously didn’t dress like that yourself,” Itinit said.

“Uh...” Halankuo turned away. She felt awkward.

“The main thing is that it’s really you. I had to check it. It's very serious.”

Itinit and Halankuo sat down at the table. Itinit swiped his finger down through the air and summoned a virtual screen with cells, most of which were empty, but some were filled with images of food.

“The menu isn’t big right now,” Itinit admitted. “But there doesn’t seem to be anything here that’s inedible for you. What will you have? No need to pay.”

“Juice from tree needles,” Halankuo said. “I don’t have time to eat right now.”

“Me too,” Itinit pressed the icon of a glass with green liquid twice, after which two portions appeared on the table. “Show me. I want to see it.”

Halankuo opened the "Mausoleum of Nature" and entered the tab, which contained an image of Taikuron in a blue-green character frame.

“It looks like it,” Itinit noted. “How did you catch it?”

“Uh...” Halankuo blushed. “I was just lucky.”

“How was it really? Unlike Tuot, I know that luck doesn't exist.”

“What can I tell him and what can't I tell him?” Halankuo thought. “Itinit is my close friend, but I don't really trust even him.”

“The one who helped you get dressed helped you,” Itinit suggested. “Do you have a friend?”

“I found my mother's data,” Halankuo explained. “Kyotyoryon found the memory card. I touched it, and it disappeared. Later, it turned out that the data had been transferred to my brain.”

Now you're like the character from "Nature's Mausoleum," where you can hear voices and talk to them?

“Uh... Mom sometimes talks to me. But most of the time, I can't hear anything.”

“That's good. She understands that you can't be disturbed without reason. Now we need to extract the data from your brain and transfer it to another body. Your mom's body is gone, so we'll have to find another one.”

“Will it look like mom?”

“We can find a doll that's related to her and replace the data in her brain with your mom's data.”

Halankuo remembered the doll in Yueret's house that looked like her mother. For a moment, she even thought that it was her mother. Then she was frightened by the glass eyes and colored hair of the doll. The girl was afraid that her mother had become like that.

“This is too creepy,” Halankuo turned away. “Mom shouldn’t become like them.”

“Then you can create a doll from scratch,” Itinit suggested. “She will look just like your mother.”

“Then I agree.”

“But I can't do that. You'll have to go back to an island with me. There lives a creature that fully controls the functionality of the “Mausoleum of Nature”. This plan is risky though. Taikuron shouldn't be near you. If he gets out of your inventory, he'll be able to attack you again. It won't forgive what you did to it.”

“My mother did it. More precisely, I did it together with her. Taikuron attacked me because he read my thoughts and realized who was in my brain. It said that she divided it.”

“She split it? So there's another part of Taikuron somewhere. But I haven't heard of it.”

“This creature seemed to be whole, although it had no legs. It was a strange creature.”

“Yes. But we will soon be able to find out. I'll transfer it to my inventory now.”

Itinit opened his inventory and then pointed his finger at the image of Taikuron. The character model left the screen along with his finger and was transferred to Itinit's inventory.

“I didn’t think this would happen,” Itinit looked at the image of a penguin with antennas. “I couldn’t catch it for so many years. It's strange to see it in such a state now.”

“Won’t it get out of there?” Halankuo asked.

“No. This is the inventory of the "Mausoleum of Nature ", not my own. It won't escape from there.”

“For some reason I don’t believe you.”

‘Taikuron lived in the same inventory, only on your account, and did not escape. I was afraid that you would release him by accident, so I found a flying machine and flew here. I was in a real hurry.”

“Show it.”

Halankuo had never seen flying machines in real life. They reminded her of artificial birds that moved using pure blue energy.

“I left him outside the city,” Itinit admitted. “Such large objects do not fit in my inventory.”

“Let’s go there,” Halankuo looked at her friend. “And we’ll fly to the island.”

“So you agree to fly to the island?”

“Of course, I want to fly on an artificial bird! I've liked birds since childhood.”

“That's why your character looks so strange. By the way, where is she?”

Halankuo told her friend about what happened to Kyotyoryon.

“Did you try to look for her?” Itinit asked. “You can track the character’s location in the “Mausoleum of Nature.”

“I know,” Halankuo looked down. “I saw the location of Kyotyoryon. But I can't go there. I don't know what to tell her. I feel like it's my fault for sending her to the “Mausoleum of Nature” back then.”

“It's my fault too. After all, I was the one who advised you to send her there to fix it.”

“No,” Halankuo looked at the door. “It's not your fault. This was not the first time I sent Kyotyoryon to the “Mausoleum of Nature”. She said there was nothing there, and that she didn't want to be there.”

“I'll think of something. But first, I need to finish one thing.”

***

Ikte, in a purple aura, jumped from the ship and landed on the sandy shore where Ustumut was already standing.

“Did you find out?” the dinosaur asked.

“That’s not certain,” the doll answered. “We need to check. The part that connects the antenna to the brain is a very rare thing. I hope we're close.”

“Are we going to float on this ship? It doesn't look like one that can float.”

“No. It can't float. It's just a doll's house. I'll have to find a ship that floats. I can fly, of course, but I don't have enough energy to fly across the Intercontinental Sea.”

“How did it get there?”

“I'm trying to find out. But right now it's more important to find that thing before Kuttanai does. What did you find?’

“I… I”

One of the fern trees that grew on the edge of the forest began to move, and then fell to the sand. From the forest flew a creature without legs, with a metal body and blade-like hands. Above all this hung a helmet with a beak.

“Here,” Ustumut pointed his hand at the spirit of metal. “This is what I found.”

“How will this help us?” Ikte asked.

“This is the spirit of metal,” Ustumut explained. “It can find anything that contains metal.”

“That thing is very small,” Ikte said. “Can she find it?”

“Activate your eyes,” Ustumut suggested.

Ikte's pupils began to emit a purple glow. Kyotyoryon immediately flew towards her, but was stopped by a glance, after which she was thrown back to a fallen fern.

Kyotyoryon transformed into an almost human form, and then looked at Ikte.

“My metal is in your eyes,” the spirit of metal said. “Give them to me.”

Ikte's pupils stopped glowing. But Kyotyoryon didn't understand it. Several metal needles appeared around the character, which soon flew towards the doll.

Ustumut had to activate his aura and also summon a shield and sword. One of the needles was deflected by the tail, another by the sword, and the rest hit the shield.

“See how she feels metal?” Ustumut asked.

“I didn't think such creatures existed,” Ikte noted. “Is she from the “Mausoleum of Nature”?”

Kyotyoryon heard the doll's last words and remembered a dark place where there was nothing. There it was impossible to sit, lie, move, see, or hear. There, the character was floating in zero gravity and wanted only one thing: to get out of there.

“She wants to take me back to where there is nothing,” Kyotyoryon's limbs trembled. “She came for me.”

The spirit of metal ran into the forest. Ikte activated her pupils, but the target was too far away and soon disappeared behind the trees.

Ikte activated the purple aura, flew up, and then headed into the forest. Near the fallen fern, Ustumut blocked her path in a purple aura.

“Don’t waste your energy,” the dinosaur said. “Otherwise you won't find that thing.”

Ikte threw Ustumut aside, but she couldn't move any further. The energy harpoon grabbed her by the waist and held her in place. The doll looked where the harpoon started. The trail led into the forest.

Ustumut, in a green aura, was hiding behind a thick fern trunk that grew at the edge of the forest. The vegetation hid the dinosaur well, so the doll could not see it, and therefore could not attack.

“Ustumut, you have defeated me once again,” Ikte admitted. “Go look for this creature yourself if you won't let me.”

At this time, Kyotyoryon reached the rail, which ran along an almost overgrown clearing.

“I need to call the train,” the spirit of metal thought. “I’ll ride it somewhere far away, where I won’t be hunted.”

Kyotyoryon touched the rail with her hand and sent an impulse along it.

“The train has not gone far,” the spirit of metal noted. “It’s already heard me.”

Kyotyoryon took her hand off the rail and looked around. The forest had become dense. Thickets of ordinary ferns alternated with the trunks of tall trees with double leaves. The sound of sea waves could be heard in the distance.

After a few dozen moments, Kyotyoryon ran her hand along the rail and felt a vibration.

“The train is already moving,” the spirit of metal noted.

Kyotyoryon sat down on the ground. The thickets of ferns almost hid her. Only the tips of the metal horns peeked out from behind the vegetation.

“Now it's clear what plants are for,” the spirit of metal guessed. “They're for hiding. I've hidden, and no one will find me. I'll wait for the train, and then I'll leave here.”

“Are you hiding from someone?” a familiar voice was heard.

Kyotyoryon immediately realized who it was and looked out from behind the fern leaves. This creature turned out to be a doll with a weapon-head and a shovel, which was sitting on a thick branch.

“The doll with glowing eyes wants to take me,” Kyotyoryon complained.

“Why?” Sitihi asked.

“I don't know. But I accidentally heard her talking about the “Mausoleum of Nature”. That doll is evil.”

“What do you mean "evil"?”

“She wants to put me in there.”

“I understand. I'm not evil. I just unscrewed your head to find out who you are.”

“You’re evil, but not like evil like a doll with glowing eyes.”

“But I didn’t put you anywhere. On the contrary, I twisted your head off.”

Suddenly, Kyotyoryon's body rose slightly above the ground and slowly flew to the side. Sitihi jumped to the ground, stopped it with a shovel, and then turned her head towards where the metal spirit's body was heading.

Between the trees, a doll in a purple aura "hung" in the air, with glowing purple pupils.

“Why are you interfering with me?” Ikte said. “This creature will go with me.”

“Is this your character?” Sitihi asked.

“No,” Ikte answered. “But not your character either. You have no right to keep him here.”

“You are evil!” Kyotyoryon shouted. “Let me down!”

Only now did the spirit of metal realize what force was holding her in the air.

“She is against it,” Sitihi said. “I won’t let you take her. I have told you too much. Go away.”

Ikte turned her gaze from Kyotyoryon to the doll's shovel, and pushed it aside. The spirit of metal fell to the ground.

“She can only control one object with her gaze,” Sitihi noted. “This ability seems very strong, but it is weak in this.”

Ikte turned her gaze to Kyotyoryon and tried to pull her towards herself, but Sitihi again put out the shovel and held the body of the metal spirit.

Ikte realized that she could not simply take the character, so she changed tactics: she closed her eyes and rose a little higher. The wind immediately strengthened and began to bend the tops of the trees.

The forest was engulfed in a storm. Winds blew from all four directions at the same time, but did not touch each other. In the center of the skill, only slight movements of air were felt.

“Wait here,” Sitihi addressed Kyotyoryon. “Don't go anywhere.”

Kyotyoryon looked at the doll with the shovel in fear. The spirit of metal thought that if this creature could not cope, she would be taken away and sent to a place where there was eternal darkness and no way out.

Sitihi stuck a shovel into the ground and then fell into it. Soon, she instantly jumped out from under the ground behind Ikte, and then swung the shovel to strike at the neck.