Descending the many stairs of the staircase that led to the far-off basement that couldn't be seen through the shadowy veil that only allowed light to break through by a measly amount, Inkaro and Louailanye took their time inspecting the shadowy veil around them: well, Inkaro was, Louailanye was more focused on keeping the guy from doing anything to provoke the thing, something-over-the-top like catching the attention of the stigmais whose powers were being used was the most perilous in her mind. But even with that in mind, the demon girl couldn't help imagining the sight of all the stigmai energies going out of control, if the influence of her strife stigma got mixed in. If for nothing else, it might get some for of startled reaction out of Inkaro, but she wouldn't kid herself by that much.

  With a light ball that projected a beam of light like a lightbulb to act as their countermeasure against the dark's oppression, G.Galore controlled the orchester grimoire, gladly taking the burden of something so simple as lighting away from her creator.

  [Dazzling Candlelight][Type: Light][Rank: S]

  -A lantern-shaped, golden crystal book with ridges in its covers that resemble the bars of a bird cage. At the top of it is, with one of its corners attached to it, a square-shaped ring which serves as its spine. And, the grimoire gives off a faint glow.

  "Was leaving those two behind the best course of action?" Louailanye murmured, talking in a hushed and discreet voice, so as to not draw the attention of whatever she'd disturbed and narrowly avoided on her first venture into the basement.

  "Wouldn't doing such a thing be no different to pouring an ocean into a lake?" Inkaro asked, confidently wiggling his raised finger as he spun a red SSS:AW ring around it.

  "How would- you know what? Never mind, I don't care enough to fry my brain for a third time tonight," Louailanye grumbled defeatedly while smacking her fluffy tails against one another. She followed up her near head-on crash of having another screaming fit by deeply inhaling, in a cute way, to catch herself. The kitrunai demon firmly crossed her arms across her chest before saying the first thing to come to mind, as to avoid letting her prior thoughts that pertained to Paruneha a chance to fester any further. "I take it that ring is that sky syntax thing you mentioned?"

  "Indeed, it is; I based the way the spells are formatted on grimoire syntax, and instead of using my mana, it uses the mana in the atmosphere," Inkaro stated matter-of-factly. "Although the only downside of this magic style is that it gives people headaches because the whole spell, that might be worth multiple pages in a grimoire, is put into a person's brain whenever they don't use a medium."

  Chiming in to finish Inkaro's sentence that he thought he had finished, G.Galore added: "However, having a medium defeats the purpose of Sky Style Syntax: Air Writing, so only dummies use it like that."

  Louailanye rolled her eyes. "Got anything to say that isn't about bad mouthing others? Because that last one felt very targeted at someone."

  "But such a trifling issue is no match for my creator, and architect has a high enough mental resistance to achieve a similar feat," G.Galore boasted prolifically, repeatedly stating how incredible her two favourite people are, much to the detriment of Louailanye's kitsune ears as they flopped to the sides and flattened out. Such efforts were in vain; no matter what position Louailanye put her ears in, it was like G.Galore's words were being projected directly into her head, so her headache was prolonged far longer than reasonably reasonable.

  Announcing her frustration in a low, guttural groan that made G.Galore shut up, so she could focus on documenting the demon girl's mannerisms, Louailanye side-eyed Inkaro with a mighty, mean glare of passion: "Okay, different question, why does that Paruneha... girl? Boy? Whatever they identify as, do you know why they're urking my head with how familiar they are?"

  "You want a straight answer, or enough clues for you to figure it out on your own?" G.Galore asked cheekily, posing her question as less of a genuine attempt to help but a clear effort to get under the demon girl's nerves to pull more brat-leaning research materials out of her. The truth behind the sentient grimoire's 'assistance' wasn't lost on the demon girl; if anything, she felt something akin to respect for the grimoire's boldness: nothing else.

  "Urg... is it that obvious that just giving the answer to me would be that bad?" Louailanye timidly murmured under her breath, already dreading her impending outburst, only made much worse by the annoying fact she'd be the source of her own dismay this time around, by way of her own obliviousness. "On with the hints then."

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  "Awaux88," G.Galore stated bluntly, devoid of any other tone that wasn't her bratty-sythesized base tone.

  There was a silence, one short in real time with how it passed, but dragged out into an eternity inside Louailanye's mind as she ramped up her mental processing speed, turning one second into an agonising hour for herself.

  After a few puzzled blinks and curls of her tails, the demon girl shot her eyes open, full of understanding as it hit her, and she slapped the sides of her head that generated a slapping sound to deafen the most sharp-eared monster.

  "AHHH! Why didn't I put two-and-two together; it's happened again!" Louailanye exclaimed bewilderedly as she swung her head back, yet her wailing didn't pry even a wink out of sleep away from Paruneha, who remained soundly asleep back in the landing with Morilore, who did notice the demon girl's muffled scream. "Ah. And that's why I could hear their real name, because they're puppetting my body."

  "Again?" Inkaro asked as his right foot reached the bottom of the staircase. The demon girl shot her fluffy ears straight up into mighty peaks, empowered by embarrassed anger that she also wore on her face with her puffed-up cheeks.

  "Don't you 'again' me, Inkaro. First, it was me, not realising you were a competent mage when you readily marched to an abandoned manor as a kid. And now, the puppeteer of my body is not only inhabiting a slightly aged-up and emo-fied version of my body, but is also the offshoot of the stigmai of...." Her words trailed off, perfectly coming to a stop the moment she too reached the basement alongside Inkaro, and it only took one glance of her surroundings to fully put together what she found concerning about it: "Why is the room different?"

  Inkaro looked around, seeing the fairly standard, almost simple-looking basement with cube-shaped, light brown, terracotta bricks making up its walls. He wasn't sure if his observations caught what the demon girl was concerned about: juggling over things being moved around, or if the room was objectively different.

  "If you're implying the layout has changed, that could imply the stigmai of games is involved," Inkaro mentioned, sounding somewhat confident in his suggestion as he noticed some clear signs of that stigmai's influence: floating cubes, which were stained by a dark purple glow, and the square pattern of the walls.

  "Because this resembles roguelike games?" Louailanye quipped as she ran a finger through one of her tails and added in a through swirling motions to keep herself straight. Moving around the open space in tentative motions, she peered down the only doorway in the room, much to her bewilderment at the room's decrease in traversal options.

  "If Nuenala were here, she'd jump in to correct you, and say this is closer to a roguelite, or something like that," Inkaro said contently, leaving the flush-faced demon girl grumbling for the guy to stop hurting her brain with all the reveals; whether it was crazy things he's achieved or famous people he knows, Louailanye wished he'd just stop: Nuenala, the famous gaming professional, being somewhat of a breath of fresh air, in this instance. Inkaro wasn't sure how to respond, but G.Galore did, in the form of recording more reference material.

  Elsewhere in a place known for the creation of confectionery goods but had been turned into a glorified walk-in freezer, Yuuvia was at her wits' end, panted heavily and sweating profusely. Her posture was atrocious and resembled a crooked S that only stood thanks to the staff in her grasp. With her Crescent of the Waxing Moon staff in hand, the elunoatite girl bashed the base of her staff against the frosted-over floor, forcing it to crack around the base.

  "Why? ...why? Why is there? So. Many. SLIMES!" Yuuvia bellowed in pure vexation as she glared daggers at all the slimes she'd turned into jumbo-sized popsicles, which Anazenpha readily munched on. Unperturbed by her friend's annoyance for the targets of her feasting, Anazenpha happily devoured her fill of the frozen slimes.

  "Is something wrong?" Anazenpha mumbled as she chomped down on the chunk of frozen cake slime in her hand. Hearing the first octave of Ana's voice hit her ears, Yuuvia shot up to a prim and practised posture, looking like a little soldier, before hurrying over to Ana, and almost slipping on the ice she had made on multiple occasions, until she reached Anazenpha.

  "No! ...no, nothing is wrong, just talking to myself," Yuuvia retorted, making sure to clear up any chance Ana might take her outburst as a dig or mean-spirited jab at her, which Yuuvia feared would lead to her untimely demise, from having a heart-shattering heart attack at upsetting Anazenpha. Upsetting a snake was the one line Yuuvia would never personally cross for as long as she was who she was.

  "Oh, okie then." Anazenpha happily resumed munching away, sporting a content smile on her face, which made Yuuvia faintly smirk as she envisioned Ana as a little snake with the same expression. Had Anazenpha been paying attention to anything other than eating, she might've heard the cutely peculiar noises Yuuvia managed to make as she continued watching the snake demon girl. Slowly but surely, even Yuuvia found herself drawn to trying the frozen slime at least one time, only for her tongue to get stuck to the frozen surface. She was certain the next slime she saw was getting vaporised.