6/10/20 Floor 1: Vanaheim. Location: Fenrir Beach

The girls were relaxing on the beach south of Fenexia after fighting the Kraken that guarded the Celestial Key of Water.

“ This may not be the beach day I had in mind but its better than nothing,” Lemon said.

“ You said it after fighting that Kraken it may be best to rest up for a day or two,” Turquoise said.

“ But what about getting home what if someone tries anything before we reach the exit?” Haruka asked.

“ Don,t worry my dad has our entire security team guarding my room so no one will get to us,” Turquoise said.

As soon as the girls were done sunbathing they put their clothes back on and went back to Fenexia.

“ Have you ever thought of added clothing stores that sold actual clothes like swimsuits?” Lemon asked.

“ Thier is a clothing store in Fenexia we could have gone their first but you insisted we kept going. I will work on adding more in the next update but first, when we get back I am taking a break from this project,” Turquoise replied.

“ Sounds like a good idea,” Haruka said.

“ And on the subject of getting home, we have two options we can either go to the Kitsune Temple in the Jagged Fjords or the Sand Temple in the Dessert of Demise.” Turquoise said.

The girls weighed their options and decided to go to the Sand Temple since they are already dressed for the weather there and could save their kroner. The girls returned to Fenexia to rest up at the inn to restore their HP.

The next day the Girls set off for the Dessert of Demise ready to go for the next Celestial Key. As soon as they crossed the border into the dessert a sand storm suddenly blew.

“ This is bad,” Lemon said.

“ Tell me about it if we lose all our HP in this storm before reaching the temple we will have to walk back here all over again,” Turquoise pointed out.

“ Haven't you ever thought of putting some kind of short cut or warp points in this game?” Lemon asked.

“ Like I keep telling you this is just the development phase and besides I need to learn a lot more before I can properly release this game to the public,” Turquoise replied.

“ What more is there to learn you pretty much have the technical skills no ordinary teenager would have,” Lemon pointed out.

“ True but that's not what I meant I still need to learn about stuff like marketing and other business stuff if I want to make this Silver Corps new focus,” Turquoise said as they made it out of the sand storm.

The girls arrived at an area sheltered from the sandstorm by a bunch of tall rocks and inside that area was some ruins with a scorpion emblem.

“ I assume this is the Sand Temple?” Haruka asked.

“ Yep before we enter are you girls familiar with debuffs?” Turquoise asked.

“ You mean those status conditions like sleep, burn, and Paralyze?” Lemon asked.

“ Exactly, we will be dealing with one of those but unfortunately I forgot to supply the shop with the proper potions to deal with them,” Turquoise replied.

“ Are you saying we are going in there with no way of healing ourselves?” Lemon asked.

“ I didn't say that Lemon check your skill tree there should be some healing arts unlocked by now,” Turquoise replied.

Lemon checked her skills and found a spell that heals debuffs. Lemon added it to her attack menu and then readied her staff. As soon as the girls enter they were suddenly ambushed by a swarm of desert wasps.

“ Uh, Turquoise why did you put wasps in the desert?” Lemon asked.

“ I thought it went well with the whole poison theme which reminds me, watch out for the stingers they will poison you if they hit you,” Turquoise said.

“ No duh miss entomologist,” Lemon said as she shot one of them down with a fireball.

As they kept cutting and blasting the wasps down more and more kept coming.

“ Is there no end to these bugs?” Lemon shouted.

“ We need to destroy the hive to stop the queen from reproducing them,” Turquoise shouted.

“ What does it look like?” Haruka asked.

“ Look for an amber colored object that looks out of place wasps always build their nests in the most inconvenient places,” Turquoise replied.

Lemon looked around and noticed the wasps were coming from the hall ahead of them then deduced that the hive was on the wall at the end of the hall.

“ I think I found the hive it must be on the wall at the end of the hallway but I need a clear shot so while you two keep the wasps off my back I will torch the hive,” Lemon said.

Turquoise and Haruka kept slashing the wasps giving Lemon a clear view of the hive. Lemon prepared her fire spell and then shot a barrage of fireballs into the hallway. Most of the fireballs missed while the last one slightly grazed the hive. Lemon was sure her spell failed until the hive began to burn from the fireball that grazed it. As the hive vanished the flow of wasps stopped. With the last of the Wasps defeated the girls proceeded to the door at the end of the hall. As soon as they entered the next room which was a central area with four stone statue of four different kinds of snakes.

“ Snakes why did it have to be snakes?” Haruka asked shakingly.

The girls investigated the room and noticed the hollow chambers with dim torches inside the statue. Lemon came across a stone tablet with writing on it.

“ Hey girls check this out it might be a clue,” Lemon said as Turquoise and Haruka came quickly.

Lemon noticed the writing looked like some kind of hieroglyphics until she touched the tablet and a screen popped up with a translation of what was written.

“ Seeks out the four serpent deities and relight the flames of hope only then shall the path to the great evil be revealed,” Lemon read.

“ Well, Turquoise you made this game any idea what that means?” Lemon asked.

“ Simple we need to find the four mini-bosses and defeats them to relight the torches inside the statues and the way to the main boss will open up,” Turquoise replied.

“ So where do we start looking, love?” Haruka asked.

“Let's start with that one,” Turquoise said pointing to a door with a storm symbol above it.

The girls entered the next room which turned out to be a room with a puzzle. Turquoise threw a stone and as soon as it landed on one of the tiles the walls slammed together and then returned to their original position.

“ Well Turquoise whats the answer to this one?” Lemon asked.

“ Now Lemon we can,t keep asking for the answer puzzles like these are part of the fun of games like this,” Haruka said.

“ Exactly it's more fun and enjoyable to solve these things yourself instead of asking for the answer,” Turquoise said.

Lemon took a look at the tiles ahead and noticed there were images of snakes, frogs, spiders, scorpions, and armadillos carved into them. Lemon started thinking hard and then it dawned on her.

“ I think I got it all these creatures what's the one thing most of them have in common?” Lemon asked.

“ They all look scary and nasty?” Haruka replied.

“ No, they are all poisonous creatures except for armadillos,” Lemon said feeling like she just did something cool.

“ See Lemon it's not so bad using your brain every once in a while,” Haruka said.

The girls jumped from one armadillo tile to another and made it to the other side safely. As soon as they entered the next room the door suddenly locked and a green Boomslang wearing a headdress with an emerald on it slithered into the room and unleashed a mighty hiss. As soon as the health bar appeared the first fight began. The Boomslang unleashed a mighty whirlwind that sent the girls into the wall damaging them a little.

“ Can we even get close enough to hit the damn thing?” Lemon asked.

“ We can if we work together Lemon remember that spell that won us the first key?” Turquoise asked.

“ Yes, but for it to work the snake needs to be close to the blast radius,” Lemon said.

“ Leave that to me and Turquoise you just focus on preparing that spell,” Haruka said before she and Turquoise charged in and slashed the snake by the sides.

As soon as the pentagram appeared Turquoise and Haruka retreated and Lemon unleashed her fire pillar which burned through most of the Boomslang’s HP. Haruka charged in and delivered the final blow which caused the snake to devertualize and the headdress to fall which shattered the emerald revealing a green flame which disappeared. Another door appeared and as soon as they went through it they were back inside the central room just in time to see the green flame appear and light the torch inside the Boomslang statue causing its eyes to glow green.

“ One down three to go,” Lemon said.

Meanwhile back in the real world, Lemon and Haruka’s parents arrived after hearing about the situation. They were shocked to see all three girls unconscious on Turquoise’s bed.

“ Bullet why are the girls hooked up to some strange device?” Minako asked.

“ That would be Turquoise’s nerve gear she invited Lemon and Haruka to see the world she made and due to some intruders messing with her program they can,t get out,” Bullet explained.

“ I knew I could not trust your daughter now look what she did,” Michael said as he was about to try and remove the nerve gear by force only for Bullet and Toshiro to hold him back.

“ Are you crazy if you try to remove it by force our little girls will end up getting their brains fried,” Toshiro shouted.

“ Wow, I did not know you knew about tech like this?” Bullet said.

“ We Japanese can make stuff like this in our sleep I’m actually amazed your daughter actually made what we thought was just fictional,” Toshiro said.

“ Our Turquoise always had a way with computers since she was little one time she dismantled her grandfather’s Telegraph to see how it worked and reassembled it good as new,” Ruby said as she entered the room.

“ How long have our daughter's been in there for?” Minako asked.

“ About eighteen hours now,” Bullet said.

“ Is there another way for them to get out of there?” Toshiro asked.

“ Turquoise said she put a temporary Emergency exit on the fourth floor of her game and they are working towards getting there,” Bullet replied.

“ Well, how far are they from the exit?” Michael asked.

“ So far they are on the third temple on the first floor and they are making progress,” Bullet replied while pointing to the screen showing the girls in action fighting a king cobra with a ruby embedded in its forehead.

As everyone was talking Sunset and the others came in with Applejack carrying three familiar boys tied up over her shoulder. As soon as they entered she slammed them onto the floor.

“ I believe you were looking for these three varmints,” Applejack said.

“ You managed to capture Ace and his crew how did you do it?” Bullet asked.

“ We saw these three skulking around Twilight’s house so we captured them and then recognized Ace so we figured you would want them,” Rainbow said.

“ How right you are we need the tech guy to undo the damage he caused to Turquoise’s game,” Bullet said while holding Cipher by the collar.

“ What makes you think I will help you old man?” Cipher asked.

“ Because I know the guy that runs that military school you escaped from and unless you undo what you did I will have him order all three of you to be executed as soon as you are deported,” Bullet said threateningly.

“ Your bluffing we may be immigrants now but we are still kids so there is no way they will kill us,” Cipher said only for Bullet to debunk him.

“ Don,t be so sure pal Siberia has a different set of laws one of which is to kill anyone regardless of age, race, sex, or nationality for treason and last I checked escaping a military outpost falls under that category,” Bullet said.

“ Even if I wanted to and I don,t I can't restore the code for the LogOut button only your sissy daughter has that code,” Cipher said only for Toshiro to pull out one of Haruka’s cherished swords and unsheath it.

“ You better hope our daughters make it out of there alive or my grandfather's Sandai Kitetsu will be unleashing its blood lust on you three,” Toshiro said threateningly.

“ You brought that with you?” Ruby asked.

“ Figured my little samurai could use some strength to get out of there,” Toshiro said.

Everyone focused on the monitors and noticed the girls made it back to the central room and were fighting the fourth snake deity which was a black mamba with an amethyst in its chest.

Back in the game, the girls were all confused by the after images the snake created. Lemon suddenly had an idea.

“ Shield your eyes, ladies, because I am about to light things up,” Lemon said as she sent a ball of light flying upwards while Turquoise and Haruka covered their eyes. As soon as the light filled the room Lemon kept her eyes on the snakes and noticed the one by the center cast a shadow.

“ Ok girls attack the one in the center that's the real one,” Lemon shouted before Turquoise and Haruka delivered the final blow.

As soon as the final snake vanished the final torch was lit and the center of the altar opened revealing a staircase leading deeper beneath the temple.

“ How did you know that trick would work?” Haruka asked Lemon.

“ Everyone knows solid objects cast a shadow when they are in front of the light when I realized this was an illusion I know the real one must have been hiding somewhere,” Lemon explained.

“ So you used an illumination spell to flush him out very clever,” Haruka said.

The girls went down the passageway and noticed the chest containing the boss key was in a room with bars on it. After Lemon leaned against one of the sides the room began to spin. Haruka suddenly figured it out. After spinning the room enough the girls got the boss key and proceeded to the boss chamber. As soon as they entered, they noticed the room was full of sand and in the middle of it was what looked like a giant stinger. The stinger started to twitch and a giant scorpion monster came out of the sand ready to fight. As soon as the fight started The girls charged in only to get stung. They each noticed a purple icon with a skull and crossbones appear by their HP meters and felt like they were losing health gradually.

“ Lemon do you still have that spell I told you about?” Turquoise asked.

“ Yes and it's ready to go,” Lemon replied before casting it and healing everyone.

After they were healed they focused on dodging the stinger while attacking. As soon as they reached the halfway mark the Scorpion unleashed a roar that caused the room to fill with more sand. The girls kept fighting and Haruka delivered the final blow. As soon as the Scorpion vanished the sand in the room began to drain and the ceiling opened up before the platform began to rise leading the girls back outside with the Celestial key of Earth.

Author's Notes:

thank you viper for the idea with the scorpion.