–+–
“Found it.”
Columbina stopped in her tracks.
Her pink eyes gave off a faint glow in the dim light.
Sandrone turned at once.
“You found that Ethereal?”
“No.” Columbina shook her head and pointed toward an abandoned platform off to the front.
“I found a safe.”
Nicole’s ears twitched.
The half-dead look on her face vanished in an instant.
“A safe?” She sprang over.
“Let me see!”
She hurried to Columbina’s side and followed the direction of her finger.
Through the gaps between train cars and the tangled Ether crystals, a black metal box stood in clear view.
“That’s my safe!” Nicole’s eyes lit up.
She almost jumped on the spot.
Billy leaned in and checked the distance.
“Doesn’t look that far. We can reach it with a small detour.”
But in the next second, Nicole’s excited face fell again.
She sank back down and hugged her knees.
“But… what’s the point if we can’t get out? Even if I die here holding a few million Dennies, I’d just be grave goods for the Ethereals. I can’t take it with me into my next life…”
Sandrone ignored her gloom and turned to Columbina.
“That mutated Ethereal isn’t nearby?”
Columbina closed her eyes.
The wing-like ornaments on her head trembled slightly.
A few seconds later, she opened her eyes again, her brows faintly drawn together.
“I didn’t find it,” she said.
“But… I sensed something familiar.”
“Something familiar?” Sandrone frowned as well.
“An Ethereal?”
“Mm…” Columbina tilted her head, as if searching for the right words, but in the end she still shook her head.
“I can’t quite say. It feels familiar, but a little different too…”
Sandrone stared at her for two seconds.
There weren’t many things in this world that could feel “familiar” to Columbina.
“Better safe than sorry,” she said.
“Try sensing it again.”
Columbina nodded and closed her eyes once more.
Behind the group, though, the mood had grown even more… strange.
“Nom.”
Anby opened her mouth with a blank face and bit down on Billy’s mechanical arm.
Then she let out a flat, emotionless growl.
“I’ve been corrupted by the Hollow and turned into a monster. Nom, nom.”
“Doesn’t that hurt your teeth?”
Anby let go and calmly wiped her mouth.
“Sorry. I wanted to make a joke to cheer Nicole up. Confirming again: I’m not good at this.”
“But… yeah, it’s true.” Billy sighed and leaned against the wall, staring up at the hopeless, mottled sky overhead.
“We’ve been in the Hollow too long. Even with our Ether aptitude, all that means is we turn into monsters slower than regular people—”
“Ugh…”
Nicole, sitting in front of them, let out a long sigh.
Her voice carried a rare mix of weariness and mockery toward herself.
“This really doesn’t sound like something I’d do… The Cunning Hares, greedy as they come… My rule was supposed to be: ignore everyone else and look after myself.”
As soon as she finished, a familiar voice suddenly came from her arms, teasing and a little surprised.
“Wait, does that mean Nicole is secretly a good person?”
Nicole froze.
One second.
Two seconds.
“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK—!!!”
A shriek shot up eight octaves.
Nicole yanked Eous out of her arms and held it up like she’d just seen a corpse sit back up.
“Nicole, could your scream maybe have a little more joy in it?” Eous waved its tiny arms, and Belle’s voice came through again, carrying a faint laugh.
“Belle?! Wise?! Is that really you?!” Nicole held the Bangboo up in front of her eyes and shook it hard.
She was so excited that she almost burst into tears.
“You’re not dead!”
“Sorry for the wait.”
Wise’s gentle voice came through.
“Actually, we’ve been back online for a while. Anby and Billy were making a scene just now, and you were probably busy feeling sad, so you didn’t notice.”
Nicole’s face stiffened.
“…So.” Nicole suddenly looked embarrassed.
“You heard all that?”
“We did,” Belle said, laughing like a fox that had stolen a fish.
“I’m pretty happy I got to see the real Nicole, actually.”
“T-that wasn’t the real me!” Nicole’s face flushed red.
She hugged Eous and shook it hard.
“Enough useless talk! Belle, Wise, what happened back there?!”
–+–
A few minutes later, Belle gave everyone a brief rundown of what had happened while the connection was down.
“So that’s what happened.” Billy suddenly understood.
“The managers’ equipment got hijacked by some mystery hacker, and that’s why they lost contact with us.”
Anby nodded.
“So they weren’t angry because Nicole haggled too hard.”
“What?” Belle’s voice rose.
“Wait, you could’ve paid more?”
“Anby!” Nicole tugged at Anby in panic.
“Don’t say extra stuff!”
“We checked the HDD for security risks. The most likely issue was that there was something strange about the data drive holding the password. The hacker probably used it to trace us.”
The comm channel went quiet for a few seconds.
“Nicooole~” Belle dragged out her name.
“In this kind of situation, shouldn’t you pay at least a little compensation?”
“What?!” Nicole’s eyes went wide.
“Ahem, I-I didn’t do it on purpose! Besides, we’ve been trapped in the Hollow this whole time too, so let’s call it even!”
“That’s enough, all of you.”
Sandrone’s voice suddenly cut in.
“We’re short on time. Since the connection is back, go get the safe. We can talk about the rest after we’re out.”
“Right, right! Business first!” Nicole looked as if she’d been pardoned and sprang up from the ground.
“My safe~ I’m coming!”
Watching Nicole’s back, Sandrone tilted her head and asked Columbina in a low voice, “Still can’t remember what that familiar feeling is?”
Columbina shook her head, her brow still faintly furrowed.
“Forget it.” Sandrone took a deep breath.
“There’s an old saying in Liyue: when soldiers come, send a general; when flood comes, cover it with earth. In a Companion Hollow like this, there won’t be anything stronger than Pulonia.”
The group moved fast toward the platform where the safe sat.
Getting the safe went smoother than expected.
Nicole cheered and threw herself at it.
She hugged the safe and rubbed her face against it again and again, her cheeks squashed out of shape against the cold metal.
“Waaah, my safe… I missed you so much…”
“Boss Nicole! Watch out!!”
Billy’s scream rang out all at once.
A black blur dropped from above and slammed toward Nicole’s position like a meteor.
“Boom—!!!”
Dust burst out.
Broken stone flew everywhere.
The shockwave knocked Nicole to the ground, and the safe slipped from her hands and rolled away.
She lifted her head, and her pupils shrank.
A huge Ethereal stood in front of her.
It was a full size larger than a normal Dullahan.
Two wing-like growths stretched out from the back of its neck, and its lower body was covered in a skirt-like armor structure.
Its long blade had grown sharper than before, and the edges of its shield were slowly shifting into cutting blades.
“Anby! Billy!”
Nicole scrambled up, grabbed the fallen safe with one hand, and pulled out her cannon with the other.
“Cover me!”
Pulonia had already charged in.
Its massive mechanical arm crashed against the mutated Dullahan’s long blade, sending out a harsh metallic roar.
Nicole backed away while protecting the safe.
Anby and Billy raised their weapons on either side of her, watching their surroundings with care.
Eous hid behind Nicole’s leg and peeked out.
“I-is that still a Dullahan?” Billy’s eyes went wide.
“The Dullahans I remember definitely don’t fly!”