Mild NSFW. It's nothing major, but nothing you'd want your boss to see.
"Well." Lolo started, not necessary speaking to anyone but herself. "This has been a fun party. But.. I don't know, I guess I was hoping to make more friends or something. I never even got to see Slothie for Lymilark's sake!"
She sulked, her somber attitude absorbing her attention away from the fireworks show. "I guess it doesn't matter really, but I just like being with people. I... I honestly need to stop talking to myself. No wonder I haven't made any friends."
Her sulking was interrupted by a familiar gray skinned alchemist in a warm black robe. "Wait a second. Is that..." Lobhadeir stared at him for a few seconds before calling out to him.
"Hey Cuan! Or... Uro! I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure who you are but... but is that food in your hands?" At the sight of the drumsticks in Uro's hands, Lolo immediately remembered something very important.
She was hungry.
Guess that would make sense given how she completely forgot to eat in the midst of all the crazy events.
"Hey uh... okay two questions really. Question one, if I eat that, am I going to turn into a turkey? I know that sounds weird but given the events I just can't tell anymore. Question two. If the answer is no, can I pleeease have one of those? I haven't eaten all night."
Another firework went off.
"OH right! You're probably up here to see the firework show, right? Well, I don't know how much longer it's gonna last but, I... Never mind, let's just enjoy the show, alright?"
And with that, Lolo smiled and joined her new Fomorian friend on the balcony.
* * *
"Ed. I'm gonna ask you this once. Where is my staff?" the Minty Elf Mage demanded.
"Your what?" Ed retorted, hiding his hands precariously behind his back.
Without another word, she extended her hand. And with that, her staff emerged from behind Ed and flew back to its owner. Firmly and snug in her hand.
"Well. That answers that question. Now, before I deal out your punishment, I want to know why. Why did you host a giant party full of madness with my staff?" Her normally calming voice turned harsh and cold.
"My plans are secret. Revealing it to anyone, ESPECIALLY you, would be disastrous." Ed replied, with a tone of rebellion mixed with fear.
"Then maybe this will convince you!"
And with that, Mihari's staff glowed a radiant blue, followed by a cloud of green dust surrounding Ed. Again. And again. And again.
"You're not - pffft pbpbtbtb - getting anything - zzzzzzzzzzzip - out of me, y - fwwwwshhhhhhhhhh - you hear?"
Her cold voice had turned furious. "WILL YOU STOP TRYING TO ACT CRYPTIC FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!? It's one thing that you'd steal from me, but you made my daughter upset!"
At those words, Ed's resistance faded. "Wait. You mean she - pffffffbbbtbttb - STOP THAT! This whole thing actually made her upset?"
"Well, what on Erinn were you expecting? The child can barely hold a conversation with her family, let alone a bunch of disgruntled toy-people."
"I... I didn't even know she was here! Look, I'll explain everything. But I need a few minutes..."
tl;dr - Lolo goes into the castle after falling an absurd number of feet, and runs into the Crystal Bearer himself!
Click Read More for a bunch of boring lore about the castle and the nature of the events!
After Cuan... or... Uro, whoever was finally healed, Lolo made her way back into the crystal castle. Just in time too! It looked like the final event was just about to begin!
Only....
Hold on, it was one of these stairways, right? This one has to be the right one, right? After the craziness that went down throughout the night, she had a hard time grasping what was real anymore.
"Okay uh... this one? No no no no. This one? It has to be this one, I saw one of those people go up this way before. Or..."
After about ten minutes of stumbling around in the castle, she wandered into an ominously dark room. Well, it wasn't dark per se. Just... foggy? Whatever it was it was hard to see.
But she DID see something. Something bizarre.
Is that... yes it is!
"Hey! You're the Crystal Birdman or whatever, right!?" Lolo interrogated.
No response. The masked man merely walked back into the darkness.
"HEY!! I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Lolo shouted as she ran towards him. Yet in her pursuit, she tripped and bumped into the strange masked figure, knocking him over on his face.
Which resulted in a crashing noise.
The masked figure propped himself back up and peered behind him, to bear witness to the culprit who assaulted him.
What Lolo saw was... oddly familiar.
"E-Ed!?"
- - -
In a more visible room, Ed guided Lolo to a chair, not too far away from a chalk board.
"Heh. I guess you found out the secret of the Crystal Bearer." Ed joked, mentally debating on whether or not to keep his mask on.
"Okay. My first question is... why? Why hold a giant party in Vales if you were just going to torture people?" Lolo asked, not out of spite or anger, but still with an accusatory tone.
"Well." Ed began. "Let me take you back to the beginning."
"This entire castle is built upon a gigantic mana reserve. We're talking, something that would put Shylien to shame. Well.. maybe not, but it's still pretty big.
Anyway, this mana is actually buried deep beneath the ground, and has only recently made itself active again. As it turns out, this mana reserve is Primordial. Which is to say... it's been here since Erinn was created. Cool, huh?
Well this giant mana pool has started to seep out of the cracks in the ground, and is pouring its way into the surface world. Now that's not necessarily a problem but... to tell you the truth, if someone were to take control of this spot, let's say someone... with not so good intentions... then we could have a VERY dangerous problem.
It's been fine for now, but with the incidents happening around Iria as of late, and with more and more cults rising from the woodworks seemingly every week, I got nervous."
Ed began to draw a diagram of the mana pool on the chalk board. Lolo looked on with semi-interest, but to be honest was more interested in the bowl of candy on the table.
"Using... a staff I had obtained through confidential means, I constructed a seal on it to keep it hidden. Can you guess what that seal is?"
Lolo thought for a few seconds, but only to make sure she was absolutely correct. "This castle?"
"Correct!" Ed declared. "With this castle seal on top of the mana, it would be MUCH easier to keep an eye out for any.. suspicious people. Of course I couldn't do that on my own, you see."
"So you invited a bunch of people to a party?" Lolo asked, trying to put the pieces together.
"You're catching on fast! With this many people in the castle at once, if something went wrong, we would have an army to fend off invaders!"
Lolo interrupted Ed's explaining once again. "But wait. If that's the case, why would you have such... weird events? I don't think you would need to turn people into toys or swap people's bodies to keep a bunch of mana safe!"
"Well... about that." Ed erased the chalk board and began to draw more diagrams.
"The old mana is angry. Which means it doesn't bode well with our more modern mana. If the two types mixed for too long... Well let's just say nothing that bad has happened yet.
Thus the high-mana intense events from the party. By using the mana emitted from the reserve below, it becomes dormant a lot faster.
So long story short, this entire party was a way to draft some people into guarding a large mana pool that awakens anually!
Of course it's not to say I didn't want them to be bored either! Thus the dancing and the food and the fireworks going on right now!"
Lolo raised her hand. "Well.. do you think next time you do that you tell people what they're getting themselves into? I've heard some complaints... real bad ones. I don't think they liked this plan too much."
Ed smile had sunk into a frown. "They didn't like it? Oh geez, well... Okay, I'll inform them of what they're getting themselves into next time.
I mean I know it was against their will. That probably had a lot to do with it. But it was either that or we shoot off giant streams of fire and lightning into the sky. Which I KNOW would attract attention.
And before you say anything, the fireworks are different. Fireworks don't usually signal 'Hey look! There's tons of valuable stuff here!'"
Ed looked down at Lolo, still trying to wrap her head around what just happened. "For all it's worth, I'm sorry. But... how about between the two of us, you don't tell everyone who I am, okay?"
Lolo looked back up at Ed, who had decided to ultimately keep his broken mask on, and gave a half smile. "Sounds good to me! So uh... can you tell me how to get to the balcony from here?"
Ed chuckled, and pointed in the direction of a staircase, which Lolo promptly headed towards
- - -
After climbing what felt like an endless staircase, Lolo had made her was to the balcony, where the final event was underway! She hoped she would find her new friends up there.
Actually given how crazy the events have been so far, it may be best for them to find her.
- - -
As Lolo left the room, Ed had returned to his quarters to repair his mask. If someone else made their way in, it would be a disaster. From what Lolo had told him, if anyone found his identity he'd be chased out of Iria if he was lucky.
Not that that would be the least of his worries soon.
Before long, a cloud of smoke had materialized in the room, with a familiar voice coming out of it.
"HEY ED. I THINK YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO ME."
"Ah yes.. well sorry for not introducing myself earlier. My name is Uro, and this over here is Cuan. I’m.. sorry for the whole.. riding balloon scenario. I.. hope you’re okay.. from the… fall. No… broken.. bones?.."
Lolo directed her gaze towards her arms. "Nope. Doesn't look like it. Even if I did, I heal pretty quickly. After all, I am a hoooooooo-
I'm a huge fan of Clerics and Healing Mages! That's why I took up healing magic! Lobhadeir the 100% Milletian. That's me. Hehehe." Lolo blushed.
Luckily her awkward moment was interrupted by the lights going out. In the darkness she found something pulling at her. Something... weird. Like it was ripping her out of her own body!
As the lights turned back on, she looked down at her hands and realised...
My god! Lobhadeir was...
...still in her own body. Wait a second. That doesn't make sense.
"That was.. weird. I think something was supposed to happen to me but it didn't. What's that Crystal Butterscotch up to this-"
"WHAT HAPPENED TO MY GENITALS!!!! IT’S GONE!"
"Cuan? That's... that's her name, right? Cuan? What are you going on about? Haven't you always wait a second..." Lolo trailed off, turning to face Uro. Or, at least Uro's body.
"C-CUAN!? IS THAT YOU!?"
"Yes, it is, and—owowowowow…"
It was quite a sight to see. But it didn't matter who was in Uro's body now. Point is it was covered in injuries. Injuries she could fix.
"Hold on a second Uro. Er... Cuan... er... Mr. Scaryfomor Guy. I can heal you!" Lolo announced as she began to charge her healing magic.
"Thankfully I'm real good at healing. You'll be better in a jiffy!"
As Lolo and her so far unnamed guests slowed down their fall with wind crystals, they were propelled up by the wind blast's force, only to be brought back down again by gravity, albeit at a much slower rate.
Though Uro and Cuan landed first, Lolo was not too far behind them and, oddly enough, landed face first in the snow not too far from them.
A few seconds of muffled screaming and flailing later, she pulled her head out of the snow and turn to her new acquaintances.
"Well! That was... exciting! Hehe." Lolo laughed, trying to brush off the whole 'turned into a hot air balloon' thing. "Betcha weren't expecting THAT, huh? I mean.. I wasn't."
Who was she kidding. This was incredibly awkward. She nearly killed them three times. Fire, Heights, and Full-On Balloon Assault. It'd be a miracle if they wanted anything more to do with her.
Well maybe not. I mean, there's a 50% chance these people were turned into worse things previously. Say what you want about being a balloon, at least it was warm. There's a decent chance at least one of these people had been a toy already. Surely they'd understand, right?
"I uh... I didn't catch your names." Lolo stammered.
Yeah, this wasn't bad at all. Drifting aimlessly, carried by the cool wind of the Vales tundra while being warmed by the heat of her flint. While the people not too far below had their own conversation. It felt... peaceful being cut off from everyone else. Not required to contribute to a conversation or expected to do anything.
She had almost drifted off to sleep when
POOF
"Fwooooo...oh? Ah! I'm back to my old self again! Aw man...
Wait. That's a good thing!"
She glanced down.
"WAIT! NO! THAT'S A BAD THING! THAT'S A VERY BAD THING!" she screamed as she plummeted towards the white abyss below, right behind her "passengers".
"Okay Lobhadeir. You can fix this. You can fix this. You can keep yourself from landing on your neck and killing yourself and probably everyone else too." she thought, trying as hard as possible to stay rational while falling from dizzying heights.
"Wait. I remember Ed telling me about this! But.. what was it? What was it?"
She attempted to recall Ed's advice.
[According to ancient Elven tomes, you are allowed to claim something as your own as long as you lick it.]
[Hey Lolo! Wanna see me drink this purple potion I found in Mihari's lab?]
[Remember Lolo, if you ever find yourself magically transformed into a hot air balloon by a deranged man in a blue castle, are forced into flying a large distance away from the ground, and turn back in the air, pull out your guard cylinder and point it directly down. Use all the wind crystals you can to create a Wind Blast current. The propulsion will slow down your fall!]
That's it! That's the one!
She could keep herself self as long as she keeps using wind crystals! But... could she protect the other two people falling below her?
Unsure of that, she informed them of her plan.
"Hey, I know this is a bad time, but hello! My name is Lobhadeir Ott and I have a Mage in training. My hobbies include exploring Iria and making crystals with my big brother in Taillteann.
From what I gathered, at least one of your is an alchemist, right? Can either of you helping me shoot wind crystals at the ground?"
"I. Am not. A vehicle! I just want to make friends! Is that too much to ask for?" Lolo rebelled, completely ignored by the ice alchemist and his singing partner. In fact, they went against her wishes as they stepped inside her... or something.
She was confused. Even if she wanted to carry them away, she didn't know how! "Get. Out . Of. Me!" She fought as she tried as hard as her new body would allow to throw them out.
But naturally even with her vigorous movements, all she managed to do was get a few inches off the ground.
"Nonononono! Wait! Get back down! Get back down!" Even with her persistent rebelling, she only managed to get further and further away from the castle balcony, until she was a good 30 meters off the ground.
"UUUUUUGH. All I wanted was to socialize! I finally get some alone time, not protected by Ed or spent worrying about anyone having a nervous breakdown, and then THIS HAPPENS!!!" Lolo ranted mentally. As much as she wanted to scream, burning people this high up in the air would lead to some serious questions later on.
"Now I'm stuck as a hot air balloon in the middle of...
Where am I anyway?"
Lolo looked (or whatever it was she's been doing) beyond the horizon and across the Vales tundra. The white powder drifting from the translucent clouds above gently floating down into the diamond abyss below. It was a sight to see, to say the least.
"Well... I guess it's not so bad. I can't talk to these people but... Maybe I should just be happy up here, alone with my thoughts. Now that I think about it, I don't remember really having an 'alone time' like this...
And if the magic from the first event is of any correlation, this spell should wear off eventually."
Lolo, now at ease with her situation, slowed her forward momentum before eventually coming to a complete halt, merely floating in the air.
"Hope you guys are alright down there. I can't... really tell to be honest."
Okay, so moving around in her new form wasn't easy. At all. Her movements were far more rigid and she wasn't moving nearly as fast as she wanted. It was like running in a nightmare really.
Anywho, Lolo managed to make her way over to the Shadow Alchemist when she witnessed his present box explode as well. Far too late for her to stop herself from bumping into him.
And apparently the opera singer hugging him.
"COLD. VERY COLD. DON'T LIKE."
Apparently the alchemist's box turned him into a moving ice sculpture. Or something along those lines.
"Wait a second..." Lolo thought. "He's an alchemist! Maybe HE can undo the spell! And if not, he and I know alchemy!
....Well okay, I KNOW someone who knows alchemy. But it's still an ice breaker!
Er... no pun intended. Anyway, lemme see if I can make the situation less awkward."
Lolo had an idea. It was risky, but she was going to attempt to speak with the shadow alchemist in her new form. An attempt to socialize and have fun at one of these parties for once, instead of trying to keep someone safe from strangers.
"That... didn't work..." Lolo mentally sulked. "Or... I don't think that it did. Even if it did, spitting fire around a nice alchemist... sorry, an ice alchemist, probably isn't the wisest of ideas. But how am I supposed to converse with people? How am I gonna socialize if I can't talk?
...I'm gonna have to sit on the sidelines again, aren't I?" the now Air Vehicle pouted. "Yes. Everyone hop in my basket and ride the 'Lolo Doesn't Get to Have Fun' ride."
She needed flint and she needed it now. Her fuel supply was running drastically low, and she was scared she would eventually end up crashi-
Wait a minute. That's not right. She was a human. Well, a homunculus human, but a human nonetheless. Why was she thinking like a...
Oh right. Because the Crystal Bearer was a MADMAN.
After Lolo had escorted Crystal out of the castle to be picked up by Hasu, she had returned to the balcony to continue the party without a partner. Not the first time that happened. Only, the last time she was separated from her partner she fell down a hole and got stuck in a dungeon.
This time? She turned into a hot air balloon.
After she returned to the balcony, the third event began. Everyone on the balcony received a present box with a number on it. And it just so happened that Lolo's number was 22.
22. “You are a hot air balloon now! Feel free to carry other party goers around the castle! Or just harass people. That’d be funny.”
And as she read the tag on the box, it began to spit magic powder before finally exploding. What happened next was... a mystery to Lolo. But she assumed it must have been hilarious to watch.
"Of course. Why did it have to be 22? It's a good number! Lolo is spelled with two repeating letters, Ed and Xy are spelled with two letters, I have two twintails, goggles have two lenses, and the number 22 has 2 twice!
I guess I should have expected this really. That's what I get for trying to make sense."
Lolo sighed. Well, mentally sighed. She wasn't sure if she could talk or not, but given the only hole in her "body" was emitting fire, she didn't want to risk anything.
"Well, probably for the best I guess. I have no idea how Crystal would have reacted to this. Probably with crying. Yeah. Crying.
BUT, I'm not going to let this ruin my night! I came here to have a wonderful time and make new friends! If I have to do that as a gosh darn balloon, so be it!"
Lolo, in her borderline questionable optimism, began to scout for anyone else effected by a box. Well, the best she could anyway. She wasn't sure where her head ended and her body began, but she was too high on optimism to care.
Out of the corner of her... balloon... thing... she found a couple of guests on the balcony. One of them looked like an alchemist of some kind, and the other one was singing!
"I'll make some new friends over there!"
Lolo flung her new and strange body towards the newly discovered guests-
-with complete disregard of what can and can't be done when you're a balloon.
"Crys! Look what I found! Let’s go play on the balcony with this!"
It was a simple, glowing green hoop. Crystal had something similar back home her mother had made for her to play with, this one looked much more flexible, though.
"A-Alright…" the nervous girl stammered, squeezing her eyes shut as they made their way through the crowd as not to make herself any more anxious.
Previously...
With a reference to [x]
Accompanied by...
I'll be adding art later. Finals is suffering.
"But what if I get turned into something else? What if YOU get turned into something? Something worse than a toy?"
"Well, you’ll come find me if I do and I’ll come find you again if you do!"
Well she wasn't wrong. Crystal was probably the best friend Lobhadier had. No... definitely. By far the best friend she had. Ed didn't count. Xy didn't count.
Crystal's panicked questions were alarming to Lolo. She was always cautious around strangers. Well.. paranoid she guessed the word was. But how was she so scared after one event? Especially one so tame as this? She knew that Crystal had been turned into worse things before.
She didn't even need to bring up last Thanksgiving.
So what could have been the cause? Unless...
"Hey, Crys." Lolo started while heading towards the stairs to the lobby. "Can I ask you a question?"
The elf girl nodded her head timidly, still holding onto Lolo's arm in case she was poofed away again.
"People. What are you scared of? Are they mysterious? Scary looking? Dark?
I remember a few months back, Xy had the same problem. Just being around people made him panic and run away. Apparently they looked like... tall, dark, shadowy... blobs I guess.
I... well..." Lolo stammered. She didn't want to be forced to leave another party because her partner was anti-social. At the same time...
she could tell just by her voice that she only felt terror. It would be terribly selfish if she forced her to stay.
It was then another sheet of paper materialized in her hands, guiding them to their next destination. The second floor of the Crystal Castle for a...
"Hey Crys, what's a Soy-ree?"
And so she had to make a choice. Crystal's fears seemed far too great to keep her in the castle, surrounded by her personal demons.
At the same time...
It wouldn't do anything for her to run away. If this is something Crystal can't overcome, than they can be scared together. But if she could help her overcome her fear of people, even a little, then it would be worth it.
A good friend protects someone from their fear. A great friend helps them overcome it.
OOF!
The homunculus girl, occupied with her own thoughts and self-rationalization, managed to trip over a plastic hoop lying on the ground.
"Oh hey! Crys! Looky what I found!" Lolo exclaimed as she picked up the glowing ring.
"You have one of these at Fey Manor, right? Let's go to the balcony and play with this!
We won't even need to interact with anyone if we don't feel like it!" Lolo proposed, trying as hard as she could to convince her to stay.
"And if this turns out to be a person... maybe we'll find their partner up there!"
Crystal nearly screamed at the top of her lungs as the train shook and something bumped against the window. She heard Lobadheir panicking outside and tried to call out to her, but to no avail.
"L-Lolo, what are you doing?" she panicked as she heard the crinkling of paper, before…
Mainly in response to [x]
With references to [x] [x] [x]
Oh! For added effect, listen to this!
Lolo landed with... not as much grace as she had intended, given her poofy dress. She was expecting to float down given how big it was, but she just ended up landing on her butt.
Good thing she's almost indestructible.
Well, it definitely could have been worse. She could have landed on what the...
What is this place?
"Woooooooooooah" the Homunculus child gasped, completely awestruck by the enormous room full of toys. "Is this Santa's Workshop? Is the Crystal Budweiser or whatever one of Santa's el- er.. workers?
Oh man, this place is amazing! Crystal has got to. ... CRYSTAL!! Oh dear, I almost forgot about her! As soon as I find her, I'm taking her here. There's way more toys here than Ed or Mihari's house!"
And so she continued her quest to find this toy train the Crystal Bearer wanted, taking in the sites of the giant toy room along the way. The beautiful sounds of the Sugar Plum Fairy coming from a pretty navy blue music box, and the squeak squeak squeak of a snowman doll that had come to life and started dancing!
...also a mildly annoying stick thing making constant NOOOOOIP noises.
After about half an hour of searching, she came across a wooden train with a wind-up key in the back. It didn't look too detailed and... it actually looked kind of sad for some reason?
Regardless, Lolo picked it up gently to inspect the toy.
"Hm. This looks like the thing on the paper! Awesome! So I guess that means I win this event, right?" Lolo cheered. "So now I just gotta... hey wait a second."
Lolo's attention was directed to the windows on the train. It wasn't solid! There was an interior to it! So that's where the detail went!
So Lobhadeir did the natural thing and peered inside. Or... she tried to at least. After bumping her goggles against the window, she removed them and squinted.
"Awwwww! That's adorable! They took the effort to put a little conductor inside it! Weird though. It looks just like Crystal. How would someone know what she looks like and make a little figurine that looks like-"
And then it hit her.
"CRYSTAL!!!!!! THAT'S YOU IN THERE ISN'T IT!?!?!?" Lolo panicked.
"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!! I don't... I can't...
Okay, I think I know what to do here! This slip of paper says to put it on you and then I'll be awarded a partner, right? So I think what that means is I put this on you and you'll turn back to normal, right?"
Lolo pulled out the paper and began to wrap it around the train.
"I'm gonna be honest. I'm not sure if you're the train or the conductor or both. But I'm sure this will work, right?
Or maybe it's just a coincidence and I'm talking to a train. I guess we'll see."
"Oi... what a crazy party." Lobhadeir sighed, looking down at the piece of paper that materialized in her hands.
It started out pretty normal. Lobhadeir Ott and Crystal Fey had made their way to the Crystal Castle in Vales by taking the Mana Tunnels. Lolo knew that the elf child wasn't really... sociable if that's the word. She isn't one to try to interact with other people, even when forced. But Lolo wondering if she could get Crystal to open up to more people. Like Xy a few months back!
"Aren't you cold in that puffy dress?" the coincidentally named Crystal asked her.
"Well... maybe a little bit. But I don't think I could fix that without wrapping myself in Heat Crystals. And I don't wanna have that much weight on me."
"Thank Lymilark above you weren't transmuted during puberty, am I right?" Crystal wittingly retorted, causing Lobhadeir to, begrudgingly, chuckle.
"Well, what do you wanna do first? Go greet the guests? Check out the top floor of the castle?"
And then that happened.
Crystal just vanished in a cloud of magical dust and a slip of paper showed up in Lobhadeir's hands.
“If you’re reading this, then you’re probably wondering where half of the crowd has gone. Well, THAT is a mystery! A mystery for you to find out! But I’ll give you a hint! They’re in the basement!
So what you’re going to need to do for this event is go down to the basement, and find a certain toy! The toy you will be looking for is a…
Wind-up Toy Train
When you find the toy, place the slip of paper on it. If you can find it in time, you’ll be rewarded with a partner! You’ll know who it is once the event is complete.”
Sincerely,
The Crystal Bearer
"What.
Okay no what.
Why in all things large and malleable would you..."
Lolo tried to organize her thoughts. Right now she had two goals: Find this 'Wind-up Toy Train' and rescue Crystal from wherever she was.
"Okay. Priority number one. Find Crystal. If I know her, she's probably panicking somewhere, and I don't want her to run out of the castle crying. So...given the leads I have, I should start looking in....
....
Well, I have no leads on where Crystal is. She could be back in Uladh for all I know. Dang it... I hate to do this Crystal, but if I have no leads on where you are, I guess I'm gonna have to find this toy thingy first. Maybe I'll find this Crystal Bearer guy when I...
If he's wearing you I'm going to have Ed burn him alive."
Lolo reread the note that was given to her. So apparently she has to go to the basement of the castle to find out where the toy is located. Simple enough!
...
Except she didn't know the layout of the castle to save her life. And she was well aware of how crazy a mage's abode can be. We're talking like, doors that lead to a room if you push the door open, and to another room if you pull it.
"Wait a second! I think I know what might fix this!" the Homunculus child exclaimed as she equipped a makeshift wooden guard cylinder. Along with this she pulled out a shiny red and orange crystal.
"If I remember correctly, this should allow me to slip through any solid surface! All I have to do is aim the crystal at the floor, and I should be able to slip RIGHT through it! Like a ghost or something!
Basement here I come!"
With that, Lobhadeir loaded her cylinder, aimed it at the floor, and pulled the trigger.
Okay, so maybe it wasn't as subtle as she wanted it to be.
And maybe she could have asked for directions.
And maybe she just used a Fireball crystal to destroy the castle floor.
But that's what friends do, right? They go to absurd lengths to rescue or protect you. Or at least that's how Ed justified it.
Either way, a straight shot to the basement was now accessible, and Lolo was more than ready to go on this wild goose chase this Crystal Beardman or whatever sent her on.
She jumped into the gradually closing hole, and began her quest.
