At the question, Pippa simply shrugged and said to follow her. So Mirae and Harry nodded at each other and then moved in the direction the two women had come from, her puppets trailing behind. The third one, which had been just out of sight behind a few trees, stepped in line at the front of their small group.

The group walked forward, and a few minutes later, they stood before an ageing stone entrance. Deep grooves in straight lines were etched into the door's surface, with angled glass sitting deep within the corner of each groove.

"It's this thing," Pippa said, thumbing at the door. "I think it's a puzzle, personally. Something that we have to work out."

"How do you mean?" Harry said, stepping forward and placing a hand on the stone. His fingers brushed within the grooves, and he frowned, shaking his head. "I don't get how it's a puzzle. There aren't any pieces to move or things to adjust. Do these even come out?" he asked, reaching for a shard of glass.

"Don't touch it," Pippa hissed, shaking her head at the boy. "If it's a puzzle and you mess something up, how are we ever going to solve it?"

"I'm not exactly sure what it is," Mrs Strongmail said, ignoring the two bickering and turning to Mirae. "But I had assumed you would know more about strange structures. Your brother seems smart enough, and I'd assume that has rubbed off on you."

Mirae's cheeks heated, and she let out a chuckle that hopefully didn't seem too shy. Glancing down at the grass, she shook her head. "I know a bit." Though she didn't know if the basement that their father had hidden in the garden really counted. "Probably not enough, but I think Pippa is right. It has to be a puzzle."

Mrs Strongmail crossed her arms and nodded. "Hmm." She then glanced at the door, staring at it for a moment.

Pippa, meanwhile, paced back and forth, then jerked to a stop, her eyes moving to the ground. She bent over and picked up a small piece of glimmering glass in the shape of a chunky, rough diamond.

"What is that?" Mirae asked, stepping over. On her flanks, the puppets stepped away, their vigilance increasing.

"I'm not really sure," Pippa said. "It looks like, well… I'm not really sure what it looks like, maybe a marble?"

"It's a really odd marble," Harry said, stepping over. "But never mind that. Do you think this door will get us out of here?"

Mirae glanced at the red-haired boy. He was right. They had been stuck in this realm or sub-realm for a few days. It wasn't part of the main trial realm. They'd stumbled upon this place completely by accident. While completing Pippa's runic investigation quest, they'd found a strange mirror resting in some bushes at the side of a dilapidated temple.

The strange thing had sucked them all in as soon as Mirae touched the thing.

Three days. Luckily, there'd been plentiful berry bushes around, and an actual running stream. At first, they'd followed the stream, hoping for it to lead to a way out. But it just disappeared into a deep fog that, if they walked into, they'd simply exit again from the same spot. It was a strange thing indeed.

Hector would probably have been losing his mind if it weren't for the fact that their connection within the soulscape had become more apparent to her as she got closer to Gravity Forging-Three.

What had once been a strange intuition, brought on by meditation next to the tree, had transformed into an odd apparition of Hector within the soulscape. It floated to the side of the crystal-like trunk.

And while they couldn't talk, the hand gestures were more than enough to convey what he was feeling, and if she had to make a solid, educated guess, he was more than worried. But not losing his mind—at least she didn't think he was.

"I think so," she said, bringing her focus back to Harry. She stepped past him and brushed a hand across the stone's surface. "If I had to hazard a guess, I think that crystal might have something to do with these grooves and glass shards."

Pippa raised the marble before her, its glass-like surface catching the sun and letting out a thin line of light from the other side, which shone onto the grass below. The freckled girl then took a step back, a contemplative thought coming to her features, a smile blooming a moment later.

She dropped to her knees, shuffled closer to the door, and aimed the light column at the bottom glass panel.

"What are you doing, dear?" her mother asked, stepping next to her and watching from over the girl's shoulder.

"Just hold on a minute," Pippa said, raising a finger.

The line of light from the crystal hit the glass, bouncing from each shard to the next in a careful sequence, but was then cut off at a single shard that was not angled correctly compared to the others.

"Harry, turn that one a little to the right, by like a couple of inches," Pippa said, pointing at the shard just out of reach for her.

Harry frowned and reached towards the piece of glass, adjusting it a little. The light then continued to bounce from shard to shard before hitting a larger, chunky diamond-like shard at the top of the door.

There was a deep rumbling that shook the ground as the doorway slid back, revealing a darkened corridor. The door then sank into the ground, exposing a set of stairs that led into the darkness below.

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"Well, that was easy," Pippa said, getting to her feet with an 'I told you so' smile as her gaze lingered on her mother.

The woman simply shook her head and turned to Mirae. "Should we go in?"

Mirae shrugged. Then, one of her puppets stepped over and moved past her. "It's best we at least let them check it out first. We don't need to get skewered by something as soon as we enter."

The older woman nodded, combing a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

A moment later, glowing softly with white light, the puppet stepped out of the darkness, completely unharmed. Mirae scanned it. There was no dust on its feet. Not that the puppets really attracted much of anything. Water would slip right off them, like it hadn't even noticed they were there.

She then turned to Mrs Strongmail. "It should be safe enough down there."

The woman nodded. Pippa, standing just to the side, gripping the crystal marble firmly, looked at it with some visible interest. She then muttered something before slipping it into her pocket and nodding at Mirae.

"I'm ready," she said.

"Alright then, shall we get going?"

"I'm more than ready to get going," Harry said, his gaze drifting around the forest.

Mirae's gaze followed. The trees, silent sentinels as always, with only their leaves whispering of nothing. There were no birds in this place, so no tweeting, and there were no insects, so there was none of the soft chirping you'd hear late into the evening. The silence was eerie in a way, though there was a peacefulness to it.

"Alright then," Mirae said, "let's go in."

She turned her gaze from the area one last time. Her puppet stepped forward, turned, and then made its way back into the darkness. The group followed behind it, and Mirae's two other puppets brought up the group's rear.

The group then trudged through the darkness, Harry blabbing on about his thoughts. One suggestion piqued her interest and also flooded a sense of dread.

The boy suggested that the room they'd find at the bottom of these steps could be something like a trap room. That upon entering, a mechanism would seal them inside, and water would flood the place, drowning them. Mirae, whilst not fully believing that would be the case, thought that it could hold some truth, though she prayed it didn't.

Moments later, they stepped into a stone room, orbs of light rimming its edge where the walls connected to the ceiling. At the far end, a stone monkey-like creature stood. It had no tail, and its green eyes seemed to watch them as they all filed in.

Mirae sent two of her puppets forward, blocking the way. "Pippa, Mrs Strongmail, get behind me," she said as Harry stepped to her right and dropped into a fighting stance.

The boy wouldn't be able to do much—he hadn't even made it to Gravity Forging One. Whatever this thing was, it was dangerous.

"Do you see that?" Pippa said, her head cocking to the side as she leaned a little to see past Mirae.

"What?" the girl asked, looking towards the stone monkey creature with some confusion.

Behind it was a door with glass embedded deeply in it, just like on the surface—another pattern to solve.

"Do we have to get past that thing and sort out the puzzle?" Harry asked.

"Probably," Pippa said.

"I hope not," Mrs Strongmail countered. "I don't think that thing is as stony as it looks."

Mirae had to agree with the woman. The way its eyes seemed to watch them hinted that when triggered, the thing would move.

Suddenly, the lights around the room began blinking. Though not all of them at exactly the same time, there was a strange rhythm to it. One on the far right, then the far left, and then the middle, and then the side, and then one behind. It continued once in a sequence, and Mirae frowned. What was that?

Behind her, Pippa gasped. "I think I got it, though I might have muddled up the last one."

And then, as if to solidify the point that it was a pattern, the lights dimmed again, following the same rhythm. This happened twice, and the second time, the stone monkey shifted, standing taller; chunks of stone fell off its shoulders, and dust fluttered away. Its mouth dropped open, and it let out a roar that shook Mirae's chest.

Her puppets were on the move in an instant, thudding across the ground towards the stone beast. Their fists rained on its chest, but the stone monkey simply swiped its arm to the side, sending the two puppets stumbling back. This creature was strong, though not enough to put her puppets down with ease, so this fight was winnable.

The two puppets bowled forward again. The monkey backhanded one, sending it stumbling, and grabbed the other. Its hand wrapped around the puppet's neck while its other hand gripped the puppet's waist, and the monkey raised it into the air. Before it could slam it onto the ground, the second puppet, having recovered, slammed its shoulder into it, sending the monkey staggering.

Pulling on her mana, Mirae raised her arm, and a tentacle of leaves exploded from the stone beneath the crazed monkey. The tentacle crawled around its leg and began wrapping around its waist, growing thicker all the while as leaves overlapped on the tentacles.

The monkey let out a scream, dropping the puppet, which thudded onto the ground, as the monkey itself reached down to its waist and grabbed onto the tentacle. It tugged hard, a heavy thud ringing out around the room as it pulled, but the tentacle didn't budge. Mana slipped from Mirae faster, and her resolve waned a little. Would she be able to keep it bound for long? Keeping it restrained used up comparatively little mana, but with each tug, mana usage spiked.

Her puppets were on it in an instant, their fists raining onto its face, even as the monkey continued to pull. With one hand, it tried to bat the puppets aside, succeeding sometimes, but the puppets grew used to its erratic movements, dodging and slamming their fists into its face, knocking a stone tooth loose.

"You can do this, Mirae!" Pippa screamed from behind, though Mirae didn't turn. She appreciated her friend's support, but keeping focused on maintaining the tentacle was draining enough.

She raised another arm, and a second leaf tentacle exploded from the dirt and slammed into the monkey's chest, staggering it. A puppet's fist then followed, cracking into the monkey's jaw. Mirae then gripped the air, and the second tentacle wrapped around the monkey's free hand that wasn't pulling the vine. Then with a pop, the tentacle tightened like a taut string, pulling the monkey's hand down.

The stone creature let out a scream, and the puppets continued brutalising it, throwing blow after blow into its stone face.

Eventually, one of the puppets' fists caught it square in the neck. With the crack of a hammer through stone, the puppet's fist stuck clean through it, shards of rock scattering through the air as most of the monkey's head sailed away and bounced off a wall.

As the head rolled to a stop, Mirae felt the resistance lighten, so she dismissed the tentacles. The creature then dropped to its knees with a thud, kicking up a dust cloud before its headless body fell forward onto the ground.

"Is it dead?" Harry asked.

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