While [the kiss] were relaxing in Harmonia’s living room, Luna got a message from Nammu stating that one hour was left before she would perform a drastic action within Nabu’s mind to force him out of his comatose state. The Marked had one hour left to solve the puzzles required to obtain the Vessel of the Mind.
Matilda turns to Luna. She moves her mouth, but no sound is made.
"Uhhh..." Luna says while listening to Fenrir babble on about musicals. "Fine, whatever Fenrir."
Luna looks to Chris, looking at his eyes.
Their eyes are deep blue. Matilda wrinkles her eyebrows, and tries to speak again. And once again, no sound was made.
"...oh dear."
Quickly thinking, Luna grabs a piece of paper and writes on it: "Matilda? What's going on?" She gives it to Mat with a pen.
Matilda takes it, writes "Nlvuq?!", and shows it to Luna.
"Uhhhh hang on."
Luna opens her laptop and sees Nammu sent her a message. Also looks for the cipher for this message.
Luna begins shaking a little bit. Time's beginning to run out. Pressure mounts.
Matilda looks worried. They writes "Zkd etf'v B...", and shows it to Luna again.
She takes a deep breath focusing her zen. And then her fingers fly across the keyboard. Unfortunately, her focus stumbles, unable to find the correct cipher. Luna breathes deeply, focusing a bit more, writing on the paper: "Where is Chris?"
Matilda writes back, "Ku rlsv lj tfq wuiv. Fx fxvus, fx fxvkbfc."
A Twitter notification appeared on Luna’s laptop.
“...”
Matilda writes, "I-i-itwwuf?"
"What's going on?" asks Harmonia
"...I may not understand what cipher matilda is writing... but I think I need to disappear.” Luna says, visibly upset. "...Nammu says someone has fallen. One of the Marked seems to have died."
With that, Luna clenches a fist and a purple fiery aura forms around her, visible to everyone except her. Another tweet appears. “Byleth.”
Harmonia gasps and holds her mouth. "Chris..."
"I dont like rice crispies" says Lock randomly.
"How could- he's right here!" She points at Matilda.
"That's Matilda." Luna says
Cole steps in as his combat boots thud against the floor his eyes are glowing pink, his breathing is calm somehow. Luna's breathing is anything but calm. She's shaking in anger, rage even.
"But Chris is in their body??" Harmonia exclaims
"I would be clenching my teeth, but I would do it hard enough to crack my cyanide tooth" Cole says.
"Probably best not to do that then Cole." Luna says.
"Ya think?" Cole lets some of his anger show in his voice as he looks at Luna and tilts his head.
Harmonia is shaking and collapses. "W-we need to find Chris..."
Matilda writes "Fx. Ku bs fxv kupu tfdnxpu. Ku lj tfq wuiv vku exfvpxws. B, Ntvbwqt Nbqfbckv, ktau vx svuj bf.", and shows it to Harmonia.
"I know a great trick for dealing with grief, especially for cyborgs or anyone magical" Lock says.
Luna matches eyes with Cole. He’s able to see her eyes glow purple.
"Is... is this the Language of the Gods or is this nonsense??" Harmonia says shocked, confused about what Matilda is trying to say.
And what is that Lock?" Luna asks. "Because right now I feel like murdering a certain Maiden."
"Just remember that you have the capability to forget that someone has ever existed, and you have no clue how many loved ones you have just wiped from your memory. You’ve probably already been through this countless times!" she smiles.
"My friend just died." Luna replied angrily.
"and so could have your other friends!" Lock says
"You are not helping." Luna says, though it’s strangely calming Luna down? Her aura begins to fade as she feels her focus return somewhat.
Cole walks over to Matilda and looks at the writing, reading it as his eyes make camera shutter noises
Matilda writes, "Fx? Bv's jupiuevwd lfqupsvtfqthwu, fx?"
"C-cole do you know where he is-" Harmonia asks, on the verge of tears.
Cole stares daggers at Lock and then turns back to Matilda, "You’re writing in a cipher, yes?"
"WE NEED TO FIND HIM-" Harmonia says, shaking and crying now
Matilda writes, "Klk? B'n fxv zpbvbfc bf t ebjkup..."
"We need to go." Luna says
"Matilda dear I cannot understand you" Cole says
"None of us can." Luna says
Matilda blinks several time, her mouth agape. She writes down, "Zktv?
"Matilda, you are speaking in tongues. I'm not sure if this is a tongue of the Gods." Luna says confused
Matilda writes, "Tn B fxv zpbvbfc bf Ufcwbsk?”
"Matilda, I want you to nod your head yes or no to the following questions, do you understand?" Cole asks
Matilda nods once.
"Is the cipher in a different language?" Cole asks
Matilda thinks for a moment, then shakes her head.
"Is it a cipher that the Gods know?" Luna asks
Matilda looks back at her writing. She shakes her head again.
“Is it a custom cipher?” Cole asks
Matilda shakes her head again. She writes "Nbckv ktau huuf Ntvvkuz's."
"I cannot identify the cipher, is there anyway you can give us a hint?" Cole requests
At this point, Luna checked Twitter while running Matilda’s words through all of the tongues and languages she knows. Maiden decided to gloat about Chris’s death.
— The Flower Maiden ✿ (@Peyton_Soul13) May 14, 2022
“Maiden has a massive target painted on her back.” Luna says with an air of disgust. “She’s a fucking fool.”
“Oh I know” Cole says with black wisps forming off of his left arm.
Matilda thinks for a moment. She draws a fox and a dog... really badly. Cole, having experience with bad drawings, starts trying to put the pieces together. Matilda draws Sonic running, and an arrow from Sonic to fox. Again, really badly. “Sonic running to a fox and a dog.” Cole says.
“How the hell did you decipher that chicken scratch?” Luna asks, amazed.
“Experience.”
“I won’t question it.” Luna turns to Matilda, realizing she just dissed her art. “My apologies, Matilda.”
Matilda draws another arrow to the dog, and writes "Wtgd". She wrinkles her eyebrows, scratches it out, and writes "1212625"
“Is it an old cipher?” Cole asks.
Matilda shakes her head again. She writes, "Sbnjwu slhsvbvlvbxf, B huwbuau."
“I don’t think we have a chance here. Nammu doesn't know what tongue is used for the archives, Nabu is basically hyperfucked, and Maiden is laughing at us.” Luna despairs.
Matilda thinks some more, and puts slashes through the numbers so it reads "12/1/26/25" instead.
“Lazy.. the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Yes?” Luna says, connecting the dots.
Matilda nods repeatedly.
“Matilda, is 'the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' the key to this cipher?”
Matilda nods then draws two 8s next to each other, and crosses the right one out.
Luna takes a breath. “I believe Matilda has been cursed, correct?”
Matilda shrugs, then nods, then shrugs again. She tries to speak but no sound comes out.
“Seems so. It's the same issue I had yesterday, you try speaking and nothing comes out.” Luna explains
“I wonder if I can locate where Maiden is.” Cole wonders
“What elsen do we have to lose? Oh speaking of, I’ve spoken to Archaicjinn. We have an idea how to quell Maiden’s rampage.” Luna says
Matilda writes down "Vku wtsv wxetvbxf bs sxnuzkupu etwwuq Atsv Nutqxz, tjjtpufvwd.”
“Murder??” Cole says, his eyes glowing brighter.
“No.”
“Aww.” Cole’s eyes dim a bit as he sighs.
"About a year ago, we were given a love spell. One that turns anyone into an ally. We have a single use remaining. The plan is we use it on Maiden and hopefully that returns her to normal." Luna explains.
"So, you’re gonna send the immortal cyborg to do that right?” Cole asks.
“No.”
At this point, Knight entered the room unaware of anything that happened. Luna and Cole explained everything about Chris’s death and about Nammu’s plan to forcefully wake up Nabu.
"So you’re not gonna send the person who cannot be killed to cast a spell on someone who is known for murdering people, got it.” Cole complains.
"It's not that I don't want to send you, but it's rather, I'd rather myself and Jinn take care of it as leaders of the teams for Dueling Season.” Luna explains. "Besides, we have experience with this."
"Mhm mhm understandable mhm mhm let the people that are massive targets do it mhm mhm understandable."
Cole's boots thud loudly as he somewhat calmly walks to the kitchen.
Luna cannot help but mutter “cunt” as he leaves.
At the front door, a small man with a purple afro anxiously drops off two cheeseburger happy meals and two chicken nugget happy meals by the front door. He knocks, then flies off. Luna goes to open the door, worried something else would go wrong. “AYO WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.” She simply brings in the meals and takes them to the kitchen, confused as all hell.
Matilda comes into the kitchen with two happy meals. She puts it down on the table and refills her orange juice.
Luna puts the other two on the table then quickly leaves. Cole's, who is in the kitchen, holds a glass of water which begins boiling while still staring forward Matilda puts the glass of orange juice down on the table, and walks towards Cole. Cole glances over at matilda and sighs.
Matilda stands before him, her hands shaking slightly.
Cole's voice is slightly gravely. "Are you scared?"
Matilda stays quiet, as she opens her arms, seemingly wanting to hug Cole.
Cole sets the boiling glass of water down and hugs Matilda.
Matilda is shaking, but she hugs Cole all the same. A few tears start to drop.
Cole hugs matilda slightly tighter and warms up slightly as his jacket feels like a puffy winter coat
Matilda tries to say something, but no sound comes out. She shakes harder.
"I wish I knew what you were saying." Cole mutters as a few tears escape his eyes.
Matilda hugs Cole tighter.
Cole hugs Matilda with the same tightness, then releases from the hug.
"I’m sorry to do this but I need to go to the Meadow and see what happened to chris, okay?"
Matilda, teary-eyed, nods.
Cole sighs and disappears leaving a teddy bear behind
Matilda grabs the teddy bear, and starts sobbing uncontrollably.
--
Luna returns from the kitchen and as if... allowing a dam to burst, tears flow heavily from Luna's eyes. She's not quiet about it either.
{- We will make them pay Lunes -}Krystal says.
Drew pops into the living room, muttering about "fucking degenerates" or something. He looks up and sees Luna. "You good? Need a crisp high five?"
Luna has broken down completely. She isn't aware of Drew's presence.
Drew hastily scribbles something down on a paper and sets it by Luna. He then heads down the hallway.
She checks the note, wiping her tears off with her sleeve. 'This coupon entitles the bearer to a crisp high five." Luna cannot help but chuckle a little bit.
“I have an idea.” says Knight
"Knight, what are you thinking?" Luna asks
“You know how I was able to freeze Cole’s body in time when Dave, then Andrew, took control?”
"I do yes."
“Well…..I did ask Peyton if we could talk sometime soon.”
"..." A sly smile spreads across Luna's face. "I see."
“You said there was something you could use on her right?” Knight asks
"Unfortunately, I'm not sure if the Gods will permit such an action in their World."
“Dang. Time for plan B I guess.”
"Different Worlds have different rules, as you know." Luna explains "It's the same way how I have access to four types of magic here, but in their World, I only have one, Astrape’s Wrath, and it requires a chant."
“True.” Knight says “Could just do it here, keep her stuck and unmoving as penance.”
"Hm."
“She doesn’t know that I can do that right?”
"I'm not sure what Maiden knows."
“Hmm…I might bring it up in the chat.”
"Good idea."
--
In the group chat, Cole made a massive discovery.
--
Luna yawns, feeling like her mana was just about fully depleted. Even so, the chance to get damning evidence on Maiden’s involvement was too good for Luna to pass up.
"Knight, do you want to come with us to the Vast Meadow? Maybe we can find some evidence of Maiden's involvement." Luna asks.
“Sure, probably won’t be of much use though. Like you said, Different worlds, different rules.” Knight says.
"Okay."
Luna concentrates on Knight and the Vast Meadow. A light purple aura from her rage can be seen around her, almost like a flame. She shuts her eyes and they both disappear.
--
In the Vast Meadow, Luna, Knight, and Cole all appeared. They tried to find their way to the lone cypress, but oddly enough they could not find it or any sign of Chris’s remains. In any case, Luna feels like she needs to try and lead, teleporting the three of them back home. Upon arrival in Harmonia’s living room, Luna faints.
Cole sighs "I could have done it myself"
{-. ..i know cole, but Lunes wants to prove something. -} Krystal explains telepathically. {- she's trying to be more of a leader. -}
"They can't be a leader if they overexert themselves trying to prove it" says Cole
“Yeah!” Exclaims Knight.
{- That's what I keep telling her. She's going to die at this rate. -}
"Can't you like disable Luna's teleportation or make it only take her when they do this shit?"
{- I can, but she's got access to everything I do. I'm not like Max unfortunately. Technically, the only thing I have that she doesn't is the menu for her magic and the associated mana costs for each use. I'll try to get her to stop being so reckless though. My apologies you two. -}
"It’s fine, now if you excuse me, I’m going to sob" Cole walks to the kitchen.
Afterwards, Krystal manages to use some of her own power to transport Luna into her bedroom to sleep the night off. Nammu says Nabu would likely be better after the weekend is over, though potentially with brain damage. It’ll be up to fate whether his great mind prevails.