The disembodied voice of the spirit of the catacombs spoke throughout the domain.
"I've watched your battle and I hereby declare you two the winners." The spirit of the catacombs said.
"The first guardian is defeated. Yet... Given the circumstance, I hereby grant you ownership over the prisoner known as Cradle. You are responsible for him as his owner." The spirit said.
"What?!" Nat exclaimed. Cradle is their pet now?!
A portal opened up in front of the two girls.
"This portal leads back to the first guardian room. Congratulations for overcoming the first guardian challenge." The disembodied voice said.
No more was said. With the group not having anything else to do in this room, they entered the portal.
...
The first guardian gate opened up. The gate's frame generated a portal from which the two adventurers stepped out of. As soon as they exited the portal, the guardian door shut itself tight.
Nate glance at the other three doors in the room. The two faceless doors to their left and right should lead them to the other guardian gate rooms. The door in front of them should lead them back down to the first floor were the dust bunnies live. The door behind them is the guardian gate they just exited.
"Let's go through the door to the right." Nat suggested.
Sera agreed. Nat seems to know what she's doing. Besides, right is always best.
Upon entering the door to the right, they found themselves walking through a long stone hallway.
With nothing better to do, the duo walked through the hallway in silence. They both had a lot to think about.
Nat thought back to when she spun the wheel to randomly select the first guardian. Cradle's panel was represented by some kind of tow. That was a little strange. Does that have something to do with Cradle turning her into a doll? Come to think about it, he probably has a toy fetish. That may also be related with the stone walls in his domain looking a little shiny and smooth... Almost fake. It was almost like the stone walls wearn't made of stone. But then what was it made out of? It probably doesn't mater now.
Speaking of Cradle, there was something he said that bothered Nat. He said he was raped by snakes. Is it possible that the snakes he was raped by might have something to do with another guardian? Well, if that's the case, she hopes they don't have to face whatever turned Cradle into a snake dragon.
Sera meanwhile was thinking about Nat. There's a chance that her magic might fail. What will happen when the illusion magic fails and Nat finds out about her true form? How will she react? Right now, she thinks she's just a cloud girl with cloud fairy wings. But how long will it be before she discovers her true form?
Eventually, the duo arrived at the second gate room. The room looked exactly like the first gate room. The guardian room here also has a spinning wheel for the challengers to randomly chose their next guardian.
"I'm a little out of the loop. What are we suppose to be doing again?" Sera asked. Sera wasn't present when Nat learned of the nature of the second floor and the guardian challenge.
Nat quickly filled Sera in about what happened while she was transforming the dust bunnies into glass marbles.
"Damn. I understand that this is your first experience with transforming, but you didn't need to take it out on a baby. I'm just glad you at least you learned from your mistake." Sera said rensurenly.
Nat held her head in shame.
Sera lifted her chin. "Don't worry. We still need to fight three more guardians to progress to the next floor. I'm sure Chirp will be one of those guardians. Besides. From what you told me, the spirit didn't say anything against retaking the guardian challenge. We will keep fighting guardians until we find Chirp." Sera reassured.
'Don't give up hope sword bearer.' Excalibur encouraged.
Nat lifted her head. "You're right. There's a chance that we can still save Chirp. Since we were given ownership of Cradle, then there is a chance that we can reclaim ownership over Chirp."
With that said, Nat went to spin the wheel of guardians.
But Sera stopped her.
"Wait! We don't know what we might encounter in there. Now that we have some breathing room, it might be a good idea for me to teach you some spells before we fight the next guardian." Sera suggested.
"What are you going to teach me?" Nat asked excitedly.
"Hmm. What do you already know?" Sera inquired.
Nat explained what Nathan the human taught her.
"Hmm. Those are very basic spells. It sounds like he didn't had very much time to teach you anything very advanced." Sera said.
What kind of spells should Sera teach Nat? Or should they just move on to the next guardian?