"Of course, I won't punish you," Itinit patted Kimchan on the head. "You've done everything you had to. Besides, your little sister is somewhere nearby. She won't understand."
"But the horned girl..." Kimchan bowed her head and pressed her ears to her hair.
Itinit looked out the window and noticed a familiar barrel lid sticking out from under the snow.
"She's coming this way," Kimchan continued.
"I hope she doesn't break through the barrier," Itinit looked at the control panel.
The barrel moved, which only confirmed the dog girl's words.
"Creator, maybe we should hide it back?" Kimchan raised her head cautiously.
...Meanwhile, the barrel was moving more and more...
"Creator..."
"You won't have time."
The barrel, under the influence of some force, flew out of the snow, after which it turned over and fell down.
Kimchan hid under the seat and groaned. Itinit was left alone to watch the approach of the stone "comet" and prepare to meet it...
"I think I've found a creature that can break through Myuryuri's barrier," dog girls' creator thought.
The barrier managed to hold the barrel back for a few moments, but then it abruptly passed through. It seemed the flying machine was doomed, but at the last moment, another barrier surrounded it.
This time, Itinit himself summoned him, holding an empty energy ball. But it was no use. The barrel easily passed through the wall of blue energy...
Itinit activated his aura and jumped out of the flying machine through the open door. An energy platform appeared beneath his feet, preventing him from falling into the snow.
"Creator!"
"Master!"
Two burning dog girls flew toward Itinit to "save" him, but he dodged them out of habit. Noru and Kimchan collided head-on, lost their balance, and fell into the snow.
Itinit looked at the metal bird and was surprised to find it still standing. A huge snowflake covered it from above, even casting a shadow on the surrounding snow. A stone barrel stood on it, like on a stand.
"How can this thing be so strong?" Itinit thought for a moment.
But soon the snowflake was no match for the stone barrel. Pieces of ice flew in all directions. Itinit tried to summon a barrier, but it was on cooldown. Instead, an energy platform activated, which then formed walls.
"That's the ice animal's skill. But what is it doing here?"
Suddenly, something Itinit hadn't expected happened. A green energy harpoon emerged from the snow and grabbed the barrel, which was almost touching the roof of the Metal Bird.
"That's Tuot. Noru and Kimchan took them, but I didn't tell them anything like that."
Itinit soon realized he was thinking about something completely different from what he should have been thinking in such a situation. The stone barrel, grasped by the energy harpoon, was now buried in the "smoking" snow and was not visible.
Itinit jumped onto a large black rock, the only place he trusted, and then watched as the dog girls emerged from the snow again, and noticed something strange…
Near the opposite mountainside, a creature with white and yellow ears sat in the snow, loudly chomping. If not for the sound, Itinit would never have spotted it against the snow.
"There's the little ice animal," the creator of the dog girls smiled.
The air gradually filled with steam from two holes in the snow, but this did not stop Itinit from approaching the chomping creature on the energy platform.
"She really does look like Etinnei," Itinit recognized the small rounded ears sticking out from the holes in the hood.
Itinit soon spotted a white and yellow tail that stood out slightly against its background.
"Yum-yum-yum-yum…"
Itinit reached for its tail, but didn't have time to grab it. The creature turned sharply. Itinit saw the face of the Arctic fox girl with a piece of snow in her mouth.
"Sorry, little animal," Itinit smiled. "I just wanted to check it was you."
The arctic fox girl swallowed a piece of snow, and then looked thoughtfully at the creator of the dog girls.
"Where's Tuot?" Itinit asked. "Is he here too?"
"Ahh..." Etinnei scratched behind her arctic fox ear. "It's not tasty."
"What?"
"He was with me, but then he disappeared. So I decided to try the snow. It's delicious."
"So Tuot wasn't tasty," Itinit thought.
"Here in the north it's somehow special," Etinnei sniffed the snow. "There are lots of layers, and different snowflakes have their own flavor depending on when they fell. It's like eating ice cream cake. Yum-yum…"
"I don't know. I haven't had ice cream cake."
"You can try it. It's delicious. It's like you become an ice cream cone!"
"That's the best comparison, as you'd expect from an animal. They all love to eat so much that just thinking about it makes me want to eat something myself," Itinit thought.
"There's no ice cream cake here."
"Of course it's not here," Etinnei tried to peer into the sleeve of her fur top. "Minniges hasn't learned how to make it yet. But you can make it yourself from snow. It's delicious."
"I think it's better to do that with Tuot. Is he here too?"
"Yup, he wanted to fly north with me. I wanted to go north so much! I knew the snow was the most delicious there."
"Why?"
Etinnei stuck out her tongue, but quickly put it back in her mouth.
"That's why," the Arctic fox girl explained.
"That's not what I asked. I told Noru and Kimchan to bring the sheep girl to me. You're unnecessary."
"Why are we unnecessary? I'm testing the snow and Tuot... I don't know what Tuot is doing."
"We need to find him."
Itinit looked at the snow and noticed a small black hole, clearly visible against the white background.
"Stay here. Don't go anywhere."
Etinnei didn't want to look for her missing friend at all. Even in this situation, her only desire was to continue tasting the tasty northern snow.
Itinit approached the hole and peered into it. Of course, the creator of the dog girls saw nothing but a black background, but this meant that the mountain contained voids.
A ball with a clot of blue light inside appeared in Itinit's hand. The next moment, a purple aura appeared around the creator of the dog girls, allowing him to descend into the hole.
"Hey, look, there's that thing here," Itinit's ears immediately picked up a familiar voice in the distance.
"Don't touch it, sis, it's inedible," another voice answered, similar to the first but more pitiful.
Itinit immediately recognized the voices, but what they were saying was unclear.
"Sis, don't!"
"Don't worry, nothing will happen."
"But, sis, it's so full of holes."
After these words, Itinit became curious about what these creatures were talking about, and he walked forward along the corridor carved inside the mountain.
"I just this once… Then I'll give it to you. Maybe you'll try it and like it."
"No... It's moving..."
The voices grew closer, and soon two dog girls appeared before Itinit, one of whom was holding an octopus and trying to bite it.
Luckily, the creature's tentacles were constantly moving, preventing the predator from doing its job.
"Noru, where did you find this?" Itinit asked.
The dog girls simultaneously looked at their creator. One of them even let go of the octopus, causing it to fall to the floor and disappear into the darkness.
"Master, this creature tried to eat my sis," Noru licked her lips.
"No, creator, my sis is lying a little," Kimchan bowed her head. "It just grabbed my paw."
"And Noru decided to eat it so that it wouldn't eat Kimchan," Itinit finished.
"Yup," Noru looked into the dark space in front of her. "But then it ran away, and I can't find it."
"Sis..." Kimchan looked at her "big sister", but saw only a flash in the darkness, after which she turned to her creator with a guilty expression.
"Creator, my sis..."
"No need to moan. You know what to do."
"But creator... you allow me?"
Kimchan looked up at Itinit. Of course, this scene was accompanied by groans and sniffles.
"I would answer, but I won't have time," Itinit thought.
Kimchan burst into flames and flew into the depths of the dungeon. Itinit followed the light, which grew smaller and smaller.
"Where did this octopus come from?" Itinit looked at the floor, but saw nothing but a smooth stone surface. "It lives in the water, in the sea, but there's no sea here. Maybe it's not a real octopus, but a robot?"
While Itinit was thinking, the corridor widened and turned into a hall. A small light became the silhouette of a burning dog-girl, who stood in the middle of the room, looking at the ceiling.
"What's happened, Kimchan?" Itinit approached the character.
"Creator, it seems like there is something there, but it seems like there is nothing."
Itinit looked at the ceiling but couldn't see anything there. He then pointed the glowing ball upward, and only then did he notice part of the stone barrel with the yellow patterns.
"How did it get there?" Itinit thought and suspected something was wrong.
"Is it alive?" Kimchan asked.
"I hope not. But you should be looking for your sister, not looking at that thing. Where is she?"
Kimchan looked fearfully at her creator, then back at the ceiling.
"S... s... sis..." the dog girl's tail pressed against her hips. "The... the... there..."
"She's inside that thing?"
"Y-yup..."
"That's even stranger. There was a sheep girl hiding in that barrel. Maybe Noru chased her and accidentally flew in?"
Itinit picked up the pot he'd once used to suck up Taikuron. Now the catcher of the legless electric penguins decided to fire a beam at the stone barrel, knowing how hard it was.
Kimchan immediately heard the vibration and didn't wait for the pot to begin to glow. The dog girl vanished, leaving behind a small but clearly visible flash of fire in the darkness of the dungeon.
Meanwhile, while the pot was charging, the barrel began to move...
Itinit realized he had to interrupt the skill only when he saw the bottom of the stone barrel above him. Fortunately, a blue energy ball erupted from the pot, transforming into a protective barrier. The barrel couldn't penetrate it and landed nearby.
"So that's what the most powerful skill means," Itinit looked at the flickering barrier wall. "I used to think someone said that to sound cool."
The barrel was undamaged, although it had lost its lid and released a faint smoke.
"Sis…" Kimchan instantly appeared at the barrel, though she didn't have time to peer inside.
The source of the smoke, as usual, turned out to be the head of the little dog girl with long brown hair.
"Sis…" Kimchan rushed toward her "big sister," but accidentally hit her head on a barrel and was forced to sit on the floor.
"Master, I learned how to cook!" Noru shouted joyfully. "Would you like a roast sheep?"
Noru pulled the head of a "roasted" sheep girl from the barrel. Her face was red with a brown tint, her eyes closed, and steam was coming from her ears.
"Why did you do this?"
"It just happened. I found her, but she was hiding in this thing. So I flew there and cooked her."
"But I don't need a cooked sheep girl. I need a fresh sheep girl."
"Then wait, master. She'll cool down soon and be fine again."
"Somehow, I think Noru is telling the truth," Itinit's gaze fell on the sheep girl's red face.
"Sis..." Kimchan recovered from the blow, noticed her "big sister," and began wagging her tail.
"Sis..." Noru noticed her "little sister," released the sheep girl's head, and jumped out of the barrel.
"It's good that they don't know they're actually the same character," Itinit closed his eyes and imagined the white-yellow-haired dog girl in the window of the Mausoleum of Nature. "It's so cute."
But the reminiscing didn't last long. From the depths of the hall came a sound like a bird's cry.
Itinit immediately recognized the voice and turned away. A dinosaur, surrounded by a green aura, was running straight toward him.
"Hey, wait," Itinit stopped the dinosaur with a summoned energy wall. "What's happened?"
The impact with the barrier sent the dinosaur crashing to the floor...
... Several dozen moments passed. The dinosaur stared open-mouthed at the man in front of it.
"It's Tuot," Itinit said, finally convinced that it was his friend standing before him. "I didn't even have to look for him. As usually happens, the birdies themselves fly into the window."
It took the dinosaur several dozen more moments to recover from its shock and begin to speak. But he spoke in a bird-like manner.
"I don't understand dinosaur language," Itinit admitted.
Tuot tried to stand, but at that moment the aura that had supported him disappeared.
"Is the doll there?" Itinit removed the barrier with his hand.
"No," Tuot turned and looked into the far part of the room. "If there were dolls in there, I'd just demolish their heads off with a harpoon and then run away. But there's something else there."
"What?"
Tuot didn't answer. Itinit realized he'd have to check out what was in the dark part of the dungeon himself, so he turned to the dog girls.
"Noru, Kimchan, wait here. You're obedient dogs, right?"
The "sisters" simultaneously looked at the creator and let out a synchronized moan.
"I'll be back soon," Itinit said. "You just have to wait and not eat the sheep meat in the barrel."
"Okay, creator," Kimchan answered. "We'll eat this meat together. I'll make sure my sis doesn't eat it first."
"I want to eat the sheep, of course, but for my sis I'll starve until I burn," Noru said. "But I can't starve any longer."
"You won't have to starve for that long," Itinit turned away to smile. "I'll be back soon and bring you something tasty. But if I don't, don't come looking for me. You'll just get lost in this dungeon, and it's very scary."
"Master, I'm not afraid of anything, even dolls!" Noru jumped up and wiggled her ears. "They're not hard, and I can easily break them! And not only easily, but also with fun..."
"But your sis is afraid," Itinit looked at Kimchan, who lowered her head and tucked her tail between her legs. "Protect her. There's no one else who can protect her."
"But master, you speak as if you'll never return," Noru tucked her tail between her legs.
"I'll return someday," Itinit promised. "I'm not like my brother. I always remember my pets."
The dog girls looked at their creator as if they were seeing him for the last time. Kimchan even started crying. Noru simply moaned softly.
"Don't worry, I'll be back," Itinit approached the dog girls and stroked their heads. "You are my furriest little animals."
... Tuot stood on his feet near the wall, his mouth hanging open as usual.
"I thought you wouldn't get up again and I'd have to summon a special platform," Itinit said, amid moans and dog howls.
"No, I can walk," Tuot took a step deeper into the hall. "But it seems to me..."
"Have you forgotten how to get there?"
"Yeah..."
"That's okay. Your brain is just too small. When we get to that very place, you'll remember quickly."
…The dog girls and their panting were left in the distance. Itinit and his feathered friend stood before the entrance to the room, from which emanated a faint blue light.
"Is that it?" Itinit asked.
"Y-yup," Tuot answered in a trembling voice.
"Why are you afraid? There's nothing here yet. Did you really go in there?"
"No. It's just glowing."
"Let's go in there."
Tuot had to agree. Itinit walked through the doorway and found himself in a large room with smooth walls and several wooden chairs.
"Tuot, come in, there's nothing here."
A dinosaur's head peeked out from behind the wall. Tuot expected to see something terrifying, but instead saw only seats he obviously couldn't sit on.
"It's just a room. Did someone hide from the dolls in it?"
"Why?" Itinit sighed. "Okay, let's think seriously. Look at the seats. They're turned toward the walls, as if there's something behind them."
Itinit approached one of the walls and ran his hand along it. The next moment, the stone surface vibrated and summoned a blue virtual screen with the silhouette of a creature with animal ears…