✧ Chapter 58 ✧

“Flamin’ firetrucks! This place is huge!” shouted Chelbie out of amazement at what she was seeing inside of Diamondion’s Ice Castle.

Kade, feeling annoyed with Chelbie’s erratic behavior, shushed her without hesitation.

“Shhh! Are you out of your mind? We may be invisible within this floating forcefield, but like Eternika said, we cannot be making loud noises,” he stated to her.

“Says the guy who literally just gave me the loudest shush ever. Lead by example next time if you’re going to make a point about it.”

“Are you trying to test my patience?”

“Uhh… Why are you asking that question like you’ve been waiting to ask that question? Just sayin’ it now, but that’s ironic coming from someone who technically waited to ask that question.”

“Whatever. Let’s find the Shard Of Surreality and get out of here,” said Kade as he sat away from Chelbie.

Frustrated with the pairing he was given, Kade looked around at the next part of the castle that they were in to take his mind off of the argument.

Apparently, they had found themselves in a situated part of this kingdom called the Glacier Hall. Crystal chandeliers decorated the ceilings along with pillars that held glowing frozen minerals of all different vibrant colors. Two giant doors blocked the entrance of this hallway with two Fluffle guards standing in their way.

“Now remember, I will distract all of the guards while you enter inside undetected and retrieve the item. Once you see it, call for Eternika and it should help us both get back to Animearth and revive Styra’s robot.”

“Yeah, yeah. I get that part, but what if I have a slight urge to use it in order to fend off against any incoming attacks? I mean, it’s not like there couldn’t be guards inside the room where the power shard is hiding,” remarked Chelbie.

A part of Kade’s mind was frustrated by her attitude, but she did have a good point about the other side. Fortunately, an idea sparked from this question.

“In that case, I will bust through the doors to catch their attention. Noting that these guards seem to have only a ground-level advantage, the forcefield should stay afloat and send you inside. Let’s test this thing to see if it operates on physical motion.”

As they began to experiment with the movement of the Kra Forcefield, Eternika popped in only to see both Chelbie and Solar Ninja pushing against what suddenly seemed like a hovering unmovable object.

“You know I can feel you two doing that right?” the weapon asked; specifically confused at why they would attempt to move something that only it had control over.

Embarrassed by the fact that they thought it would work, both Chelbie and Solar Ninja backed away from the interior of the forcefield with reluctance of their previous plan.

“Hang on a second… If you can teleport us to this place, can’t you also send the shard out of this place?” inquired Chelbie skeptically.

“While I see why you would think that, removing any sort of vessel that contains or even is an Eternal Light from its designated location is not something that can be just taken as a means to an end. Whether that be the Iternua Temples or this castle, there is what is called an Ethereal Forcefield that surrounds the item contained. If it is plucked out of that spot without properly dismantling it in the correct fashion, that shard will alert a wielder of its power automatically. In this case, The Shard Of Surreality would make its presence known to Voltaze, even if it does not want to. Therefore we must be cautious,” replied Eternika.

“Damn… If we are goin’ to be tiptoein’ around it that much, how do we even get the shard to begin with?”

“From my experience of escapades in the past, our only chance of getting that shard will require someone with the power of one of the Eternal Lights already in their possession to grab it. Either that or they would need to be wearing a guardian’s armor.”

Chelbie started to catch onto what Eternika was saying, but it caused her to see multiple concerns that could arise from this idea.

“You mean me? I have to be the one to do it?”

“Essentially yes. You sound like you have a problem with that though.”

“Uhhh yeah… I want to get it, don’t get me wrong. Thing is, if I accidentally touch it the wrong way, it’s not gonna end well. You saw what happened to Styra when she discovered she was transformed back into a normal human. The only other option would be my fee—”

Staring down with hesitant eyes, Chelbie was beginning to worry about what would happen. If she used her prosthetic legs to softly kick the shard out of the forcefield, would that really work?

Mustering up this kind of courage stemmed from an unreached part of her heart. She had remembered what it was like losing something that had a strong connection to her body.

“Is it going to hurt? Cause, I’m not sure what to say if I use my legs,” she said with petrified feelings of doubt knocking against her soul.

“It will only hurt if it does not work. You must push through your fear to realize your inner strength Chelbie. Such bravery is what I saw of Cherry today when she had to confront her past. In that sense, never hold back. An attempt is always better than none for a heart that chooses to fulfill its own purpose,” answered Eternika.

Chelbie was surprised to hear Eternika tell her this of all things. She didn’t even know Cherry was afraid like that to begin with. For most of the time that she was friends with her, there was only the meek and gentle personality that stood out back in the fourth grade.

Admittedly, the challenge of losing her legs to a powerful forcefield would be a difficult sacrifice. The only hope she could hang onto was the chance that the energy powering the bionic boots would give them any sort of proper protection.

There was only one way to find out.

When the trio teleported into the room undetected to where the shard was located, the Kra Forcefield carefully inched closer so as not to attract twelve Fluffle guards who were staring directly at the center of the place.

With Chelbie laying down in a proper position where she could use her left foot to kick the shard out of place, Kade prepared himself on the other side, hoping to keep it from hitting the ground.

“Almost… There…” she whispered to herself as her leg began to extend under the intense pressure.

The weight of their mission increased as Chelbie made contact with the Ethereal Forcefield.

And that was when a sudden tingling feeling arose through her entire body.

∗ ∗ ∗

“The Heart Of Tartropolatté is right up ahead! I can almost feel it!” yelled Peppie with enthusiastic joy.

The unit had been travelling for a few minutes across the Wafer Wonderlands which were bizarrely constructed. In fact, being able to stand on top of massive floating wafer bars of different flavors that were filled with Neapolitan ice cream was already weird enough in itself. Land like this stretched far across the strawberry tea sea.

Alongside that, they could make out arching candy cane structures sprouting from in between the lands of wafer bars.

“I’d never thought I’d have to say this but, the fact that there is a simulated game based off of a world that no one in Animearth knows actually exists is kind of crazy to me,” said Styra while strolling across the sweet environment.

“I feel like the people who played it would feel cheated out of a cozy experience if they got to visit this place. It’s a bit too breezy out here, just like in that room…” mentioned Cherry who huddled up her arms to try and keep warm.

“Y’know, that makes me wonder… Have you ever seen any other worlds that are like Animearth when it comes to something like Candiere’s Cafe?”

“Possibly. The odds that in the deepest outskirts of space-time, there exists a strange sugary world isn’t really uncommon if we’re talking about universe hopping. Imagine it. Another version of The Candy Princess herself, Princess Candiere, owns an enormous cafe with more secrets than it lets on. The only other character who I can think of that rivals her, lives far off in a village called Cookietta Custardtown.”

“Cookietta Custardtown. I certainly wonder what that place is like. Maybe I’ll come back to it on my later adventures.”

As the two were in the middle of a conversation, Mister Lollipop pointed out something that he had been thinking about as he held the letter in his hand while the fedora hat sat atop on his head.

“Say, Peppie… Couldn’t you just transport all of us there with your wondrous powers? You know this place better than the flying swords do? It would’ve helped us get there faster.”

Peppie blushed out of embarrassment as she knew what she saw after attempting to do this very thing on her own.

“About that… I tried that already in the other world. All I saw was the monster that started this mess to begin with.”

Mister Lollipop began to freak out when he heard the word “monster” being used to describe who she met.

“Monster?! You mean that good-for-nothing, ragged hoodlum?!” he responded with clear visceral hatred.

“Please don’t say his name out here. And certainly don’t say dangerous violent words. That goes for everyone else here.”

This confused a majority of the team except for Mister Lollipop.

“What exactly are you referring to?” asked Eternika.

Time felt like it stopped when this question was posed.

“Many people that came to this world that said those words during the day, they didn’t survive here. The monster created a curse of sorts and he will target you if say anything like that now. Wait until 6 PM and then we can talk about that stuff. In short, just be wary of what you say and when you say it…” warned Peppie.

Hearing this intrigued Styra, Cherry, and Eternika. Why these rules applied here were indeed very mysterious. One thing was for sure, it would be important to caution Kade and Chelbie about what had been said here when they came back. Fortunately, Eternika being tied between the communications of both units knew it would have an advantage in alerting them about this early on.

“I will tell them this after the mission on the other side is completed. Progress is being made so far, but we are being as careful as possible to obtain the shard,” notified the weapon.

Styra, taking in this information, attempted to take charge of the group.

“Good. Let’s move out th—“

A sudden poof of glittery confetti and the sounds of bell chimes unexpectedly interrupted her speech. The team turned around to see what had made the strange commotion.

A young woman of fair skin (who looked to be in their 30s) wore a fanciful, Victorian-style, mahogany dress. It had white fluffy cotton lacing around their neck and the ends of their soft wooly pink gloves. Candy sprinkles added prestige to the design along with a peppermint symbol on both sides of their gown’s shoulders. A cape with matching colors also seemed to stretch down to the length of her ankles. Lastly, the finishing touches of sweet strawberry-flavored lipstick and a red heart tiara entranced the group’s perception of her.

It was Princess Candiere herself.