Chihiro grunted as she held the handle of her magic hammer tight. Their trek through these catacombs and crypts was long, tiring, exhausting, and all other synonyms of the word, but it would soon come to an end! Just above them and dangled above them in a cage of silver lasers, was none other than a key made of literal bone with no head; the Skeleton Key, the key they needed to reach the citadel where the Eternal Undead Source lied, was so close she could taste it! Once they knocked down those spell punks that trapped the key, and all the little nuisances they summoned, Chihiro's team would be golden! Chihiro clenched her brows as her body turned warm with exhaustion, but she wasn't going to give in just yet!

A massive rhu-barb loomed over Chihiro with its pulsing red flesh, its gnashing teeth, and the sharp blades it called arms, but its massive stature didn't intimidate her in the slightest! In fact, this was just the boost she needed! Chihiro leaped off the ground right as the rhu-barb slashed its massive blades at her, and while it reeled in confusion, Chihiro slammed her hammer on its head and flipped right in the key's direction! As she soared towards the key, Chihiro whisked away her hammer with a shake of her arm and reached both hands towards the cage—right as something hard and bony tossed her aside! Before she even knew it, Chihiro flew into a wall behind and fell back onto the cold, dusty ground!

"Geez, anybody get the number of that truck?" Chihiro grunted as she pushed herself off the floor with both hands. Her whole body shuddered with a bit of numbness from such a nasty fall, but the shock of something crunching into her arm woke it up soon enough!

Chihiro screamed and rolled on her back as she lifted up her arm, where a skull attached to an arrow bit down into her sleeve. Chihiro grunted as she yanked the arrow off and tossed it aside, sat up and shook her head. Geez, where was the archer that threw that? She was sure she saw one of those obnoxious skeletal archers just aside of her a moment ago. Chihiro turned her gaze aside, but whatever flung that arrow at her apparently vanished into the recesses of the catacombs! Stupid archers. Chihiro huffed as she lingered over the side of the catacombs for a moment, but a large shadow falling over her pulled her attention up front soon enough!

Chihiro looked up and grimaced as another rhu-barb glowered down on her; its jaws were full of pearly whites sharper than her mom's kitchen knives, and were ready to tear into anything it considered perfect for its next dinner! Chihiro grimaced, crawled back as saliva dripped down its mouth and pooled at its feet (ew), and forced a laugh as the low growls of the rhu-barb grew louder.

"Er, nice rhubarb thingie?" Chihiro chuckled as the rhu-barb trudged closer and closer, all while Chihrio herself crawled further and further back. "Y'know, humans really aren't the most delicious thing on the market, I promise you I'm more bone than anything, I—"

While Chihiro tried to reason with the rhu-barb, something slammed it into the walls with such impact that it left a sizable dent in the side of the catacombs! The rhu-barb groaned as it stirred up from the wall, and a silver glow enveloped it as it shrunk down to the size of a plush doll! The rhu-barb squeaked as it looked down at its smaller body, but it was so obsessed with its sudden shrinking that it didn't even notice a shadow creep over it! The sound of crackling electricity alerted the rhu-barb soon enough, and as it looked up, it squealed and dashed off!

"How about you pick on someone your own size for once?" the shadow hissed in a raspy voice.

Chihiro just giggled as she turned to the shadow's owner—a purple and pink dragon with silver spikes on the sides of her head that complemented her silver spiked choker, tail fin and bracelets—and patted them on the back as she grinned.

"Thanks for the save, Cynder!" Chihiro chuckled as she looked right into Cynder's icy blue eyes. Though a bit of a chill fell over Chihiro, it didn't particularly worry her; Cynder's glance was known to do that kind of thing.

Cynder just scoffed as she turned around and flicked her purple and pink wings. "Be careful, there, Chihiro. We can't risk you getting your amulet shattered, not in a place like this."

Chihiro frowned as she looked down at her chest, where a silver amulet that glowed a faint blue rested against her chest. It didn't seem like much, but its glow showed that its spell worked its magic! After all, even with the fancy elemental powers that came with being a portal master providing her extra insurance against the underworld's energy, she still wasn't perfectly immune to undead energy. The shiny little amulet Hex lent her gave her full protection from the undead's influence!

Chihiro gasped, lifted up the pendant and scanned it over. Luckily, it hadn't gotten cracked in her crash, and it shone just as bright as ever! Chihiro grinned and lifted her head up as she got ready to tell Cynder everything was a-okay, but unfortunately, things were not; a zombie crept up behind Cynder and got ready to bite!

"Cynder, behind you!" Chihiro cried as she leaped to her feet!

Cynder whipped around, snarled as the zombie lurched closer, and leaned down as black sparks of lightning popped around her mouth. "VOLTS AND LIGHTNING!" Cynder cried as she yanked open her mouth and shot out a massive black lightning bolt towards the zombies that swarmed her down.

As the lightning set the zombies alight and flailing as they haplessly tried to put the fires out, a trio of gigantic skulls crashed into the zombies and splattered them against the walls! While the zombies' remains trickled down, Cynder grinned and looked up at Hex, who only narrowed her eyes as she propped up an arm that glowed with eldritch magic! Despite the seeming victory, Hex seemed tense almost, as if she wasn't entirely sure if those zombies were done for. She was right to seemingly think so, for the walls glowed and the zombies popped out good as new from them!

Cynder and Hex snarled as they got ready to attack, but before they could, a finger's snap resonated through the catacombs! Everyone froze as the zombies set alight with cyan fire, save for the zombies themselves who screamed as the flames bored into their rotten flesh! While the zombies melted away, Cynder just scoffed and turned to Chihiro with maybe a slightly-less harsh glint than what she usually held.

"For a loudmouth, you're not so bad," Cynder remarked as a slight smile crept across her muzzle.

"And you're not so bad yourself, for a killjoy," Chihiro chuckled as she flipped her hair.

Chihiro walked up to Cynder right as the zombies remains melted away, but those zombies were hardly the only problem they faced. All around them, those obnoxious rhu-barbs and even more zombies popped into existence as the spell punks above cackled with glee! There was no doubt that they drew this out, and Chihiro got sick of it.

"Ready to finish this?" Chihiro asked as she clenched a glowing hand into a fist.

Cynder narrowed her eyes and flapped her wings, which sent small clouds of dust flying across the floor. "Gladly!"

The two of them stepped forward while all eyes fixed on them; the tension was high as Chihiro lifted her glowing fist and splayed out her fingers while Cynder's jaw slowly creaked open. The rhu-barbs and zombies alike groaned as they craned their heads, as if they weren't sure what Chihiro and Cynder were going to do. Well, Chihiro would show them soon enough!

Out from her hand shot a massive magic blast, which only grew larger and more powerful as Cynder charged it up with a string of massive lightning bolts! A couple of the rhu-barbs screeched and went to slash away at the magic blast, but it just exploded and ruptured the entire room before they could!

Bright, blue and black-tinged light shook the entire room with such brightness that one could barely make out its contents. Among the bright light, Chihiro just barely made out the zombies and rhu-barbs evaporating back into magic among the light storm and the spell punks flying down to the ground! As the light faded, however, they weren't the only things that fell!

While the spell punks squealed and writhed on the ground with closed eyes, the Skeleton Key's cage withered away and left the key to drop onto the ground!

"And scene!" Chihiro proclaimed as she lifted the key up for Cynder and Hex to see!

Chihiro giggled as she grabbed their hands (or paw, in Cynder's case), and teleported them back to the beginning of those catacombs in a flash of bright cyan light. A part of her was finally glad to have that darn key at last; after all, now that she had this thing, they could finally go and get the Eternal Undead Source! But, the longer she lingered on it and that thought, the less happy she felt looking at it.

Chihiro winced as she gripped the key tight, and turned her head back to Cynder and Hex. "Come on, we can't stay here!" Chihiro exclaimed as she stormed up the stairs that would lead them back to Ancient's Peak. "The longer we wait, the longer it'll take us to knock Kaos down a peg!"

"Don't you mean get the Eternal Undead Source?" Cynder asked as she flew up behind Chihiro!

Chihiro froze as another chill ran down her spine, hopped up another stair and giggled as she spun around to meet Cynder's gaze. "Yeah, and that too!"

Chihiro forced another strained giggle, but Cynder didn't entirely seem to buy it as she narrowed her brows down in a way that pierced through Chihiro's soul.

"You know, Chihiro, you've been really focused with beating Kaos lately," Cynder remarked as she hopped up a stair and flapped her wing. Her tone wasn't necessarily colder or sardonic than before, but something about it still pierced through Chihiro's heart. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you'd have gotten obsessed with the thought."

"Er, well, I mean…" Chihiro forced her grin to stick as she turned away from Cynder's gaze and climbed a few steps more.

True, she had been working harder than ever to prepare for her next confrontation with Kaos, to the point it was all she could even think about. Heck, she even had dreams about running his face into the ground! But, when she heard someone else remark on it, Chihiro didn't feel particularly proud of her work. After all, with it came the reminder of her royal failure at Kaos's hands, which she hoped nobody else knew about. She didn't want to make them worry or let them down, after all, especially when she was doing all this in the first place to protect them. The observation coming from Cynder, the queen of cold honesty and bitter remarks, probably didn't help either.

"Well, I mean," Chihiro said as she dashed away from Cynder's view, "isn't it natural? After all, all this stuff happened because of him and all."

"That's not it, Chihiro." Cynder hopped up another step, turned back to Chihiro and swished her tail, all while those icy blue eyes peered daggers into Chihiro's soul. Cynder turned around and flicked her wings again before she strode back up the stairs. "You've got a one-track mind, you know. When you get obsessed with something, it's like you lose sight of everything else around you!"

"Cynder does have a point," Hex added as she floated up the stairs. "Just don't get so absorbed in what you want to do that you lose sight of everything else."

Chihiro frowned and rubbed her hand against her chin as Hex floated past her. Now what on Earth did that mean? Getting caught up in her own wants and losing sight of everything else; she wasn't doing that, right? Besides, she was doing all this for their sake, anyhow! After all, if she wasn't strong enough to face Kaos, who would protect them when the chips were down?

Chihiro sighed and shook it off as she teleported away. Eh, they were always all doom and gloom anyways! She shouldn't worry so much about them anyhow! So, she jumped up, teleported away to the beginning of the stairs, and grinned as Cynder and Hex climbed after her.

With her hands planted tight on the doors, Chihiro pressed forward and slammed them open in one big, swift push! The gates to the underworld that nobody apparently knew existed until now slowly, slowly creaked open, and tossed out clouds of intermingled dust and sand wherever they went as they pressed open and poured light down the halls! The bright, golden light of the afternoon sun was a more than welcome sight after a morning-long trek through old, dusty, dark crypts, and one that Chihiro embraced after such a long trek.

"WE'RE BACK~KKKK!" Chihiro proclaimed as she strutted out the doors and held the Skeleton Key to the skies.

Chihiro giggled as she beamed up at the sun, stashed the key in her pocket and skipped up the stairs before anybody else could catch up. She may have been excited to have the key, but she knew some others who would be excited to see it—T-Bone and Hugo! Her feet pounded against the stairs two steps at a time, and as she hit the top, she grabbed the railing and spun around.

"Hugo! T-Bone!" Chihiro called as she waved towards Hugo and T-Bone. "Guess who got that Skeleton Key?"

Across from them, Hugo was white as a sheet as T-Bone leaned over and messed with the pages of the book he reading, and though Chihiro couldn't make out what they were saying, Chihiro could tell Hugo was scared out of his wits. Poor Hugo; he'd always deny it, but his fear of the undead was obvious to everyone around. Well, everyone but the undead skeleton that lingered around here, unfortunately. Hugo flicked one of his incredibly tiny ears as he lifted his head, perked up and beamed as he saw Chihiro!

"Chihiro!" Hugo shouted as he put his book away and raced up to Chihiro. "How was the trip to the Cadaverous Crypt?"

"It's a very long story that will have to be saved for another time!" Chihiro smirked and spun the key around her finger. "More importantly, now that we have this key, we can—" Chihiro's eyes widened as the key flew straight off her finger "—WHOOPS!"

"Owch!" cried a familiarly raspy voice from way back. "Chihiro, watch where you're flinging that thing!"

Chihiro winced, strained out a laugh, and hopped aside as Cynder flew up to her with the Skeleton Key in paw. Oh god, her gaze looked colder than usual, she was definitely not happy.

"After all that time we spent messing with those halls to get this thing," Cynder said as she thrust the key back in Chihiro's hand, "I am not looking for it again."

Chihiro winced and held her head. "Understood, Cynder."

As she ruffled her black hair and sent stray catacomb dust flying everywhere, Chihiro looked aside and perked up as T-Bone sauntered over with a twinkle in his eyes! "We got your key, T-Bone!" Chihiro chirped as she held the key out to T-Bone. "We just hafta shove this in the door's lock and it'll set the path for that citadel place, right?"

"You bet'cha!" T-Bone chirped as he hummed, rubbed his chin, and yanked the key out of Chihiro's hand as the glint in his eye turned a bit mischievous. "Y'know, this thing has quite a couple other uses besides opening doors!" T-Bone yanked his head off with one hand and screwed said head onto the key. "It can also be a good place to keep your head cool!"

Chihiro screamed as she stumbled back and nearly tumbled down the stairs, but in the momentary shock, who could blame her? She was hardly accustomed to seeing people yank off their own heads, even if they were skeletons who wouldn't really be hurt by it! She wasn't the only shocked one either, as beside her, Hugo turned paler than before (which was definitely saying something) and looked like he was on the cusp of tossing his cookies!

"W-WHY?" Chihiro screamed as she pointed to T-Bone's head.

"HOW?" Hugo cried before he held his hands over his mouth and groaned.

T-Bone, however, only shrugged with that same, nonchalant grin on his face. "Well, it is a Skeleton Key!" T-Bone replied before he used the Skeleton Key as a mock drumstick. "Ba-dum-tssh!"

However, Hugo only groaned and collapsed onto the grass, and Chihiro herself whimpered and forced herself to look away before her head started spinning!

T-Bone only sighed and placed his head back in its proper spot atop his shoulders. "Geez, tough crowd."

Chihiro turned back around and breathed a sigh of relief as T-Bone's head returned to its proper spot.

Beside her, Hex floated up the stairs, and as she caught sight of Hugo, she held out her hand and sent a flare of magic to shine in his face.

"Hugo, now is no time for a nap," Hex said as Hugo stirred. "We have important matters to discuss."

Hugo groaned as he sat up and rubbed his head while the color flushed back into his face, but he shook off his nausea as he popped up and examined the Skeleton Key.

"So this is the Skeleton Key that will open the way to the Creepy Citadel?" Hugo asked as he brushed a furry finger against the key.

"Should be! Unless that map I found in one of Morty's old scroll chambers was wrong," T-Bone explained with another shrug, "but it's probably fine!"

"This is no simple matter, Mister Skeleton!" Hugo wagged a finger at T-Bone. "We need to get to the Creepy Citadel so we can retrieve the Eternal Undead Source! If we don't get there before Kaos does—"

"It's T-Bone, buddy." T-Bone pushed Hugo out of the way and rolled his eyes, oblivious to the shriek of fear Hugo made in response. "Don’t worry so much! Who are you to doubt good old Mortulannis?"

Before Hugo could say another word, some sort of warbling echoed between him and T-Bone as an eerie chill fell over the area, all paired with a silhouette just faintly visible in the afternoon light. T-Bone and Hugo both shuddered a bit, but Chihiro only grinned—after all, she recognized who that silhouette belonged to!

"Did somebody say something about the Creepy Citadel?" asked a raspy, ghoulish-sounding voice as a skeletal imp dressed in black robes with a chain for legs popped into existence!

"Ghost Roaster!" Hugo exclaimed as he jumped back. "How long have you BEEN there?"

"Since the skeleton over there did some party tricks with the key." Ghost Roaster pointed a bony finger at T-Bone and rolled his eyes. "I needed a break from cleaning up the kitchen after one of Dark's concoctions exploded… Again."

"I TOLD YOU, GHOST!" shouted a raspy voice akin to Spyro's over the horizon. "IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"

"ACCIDENT OR NOT, IT STILL SEALED THE FRIDGE OFF!" Ghost Roaster snarled and shook his head as he turned back to the others. "If only being Spyro's clone or something meant he got some common sense from him."

"Eh?" T-Bone uttered as he tilted his head. "What does that have to do with going to the Creepy Citadel?"

As he heard this, though, Ghost Roaster's eyes grew so wide they practically popped out of his head! "You're going to the Creepy Citadel? Just you three?" Ghost Roaster exclaimed as he fixed those wide eyes on Chihiro, Hex and Cynder.

"Well, yeah? I mean, we kind of were short-staffed. It's why Master Eon let me go down to the underworld," Chihiro replied with a shrug. "What's so wrong with that? We do need to get the Eternal Undead Source ba—"

"You don't know what you're getting into! That place used to be home to a prestigious undead family! It probably has guards up the wazoo!" Ghost Roaster rumbled up to Chihiro and pointed a finger right on her forehead. "You're gonna need some extra backup if you're going there!"

Chihiro, however, just grinned and laid an arm around Ghost Roaster's shoulders. If she needed backup, looks like she knew just where to look! "The more the merrier, then!"

Chihiro swung around and walked towards the steps down to the beach, though, weirdly, Ghost Roaster wasn't as quick to follow. Rather, he just sat there and frowned as he watched Chihiro run back down the beach's stairs.

"Wait a second, I wasn't volunteering—"

"Now come on! All the chit-chat aside and all, we should be getting to the Creepy Citadel now, right?"

Ghost Roaster groaned and massaged his temples, but nonetheless reluctantly followed Chihiro down the steps. Though he dragged his, well, lack of feet behind him, Chihiro could absolutely tell he was just as pumped to kick Kaos to kingdom come and get the Eternal Undead Source like she was! At least, she thought so.

"You're forgetting one thing, Chihiro," Hex interrupted as she floated in front of Chihiro and froze both her and Ghost Roaster in their tracks.

"Wait, what am I forgetting?" Chihiro asked as she turned around and held up the Skeleton Key. "We've got the key right here!"

Hex just pointed to the amulet that hung around Chihiro's neck and floated over to her side. "The amulet's immunity spell needs to be renewed now. Let me see it."

Hex gently lifted the amulet from Chihiro's neck, and sure enough, its glow grew more faint and hard to see than before. Seems as though it needed a charge-up! Hex whispered an incantation in some kind of Elvish language that nobody else but her could understand, but at the very least it did something, given that the amulet glowed and sparkled like a night star as she spoke! Hex looked over the amulet with one last, inquisitive look, but finally she nodded and floated away from Chihiro.

"Now, with that taken care of—" Chihiro beamed as she stepped away from Hex and bolted down the stairs, "—let's go!"

But, Chihiro's energy wasn't matched by the rest. Rather than the cheerful cries and youthful speed she had, they sort of just, mumbled among each other and nodded as they wordlessly followed her down the stairs with some kind of tense, anticipating aura.

"Not the most energetic crowd, are they?" Chihiro watched them pass her by with a shrug and a smile. "Welp, that's what I love about them!"

Cynder, Hex and Ghost Roaster trailed down the stairs, and stopped in their places as a whooshing sound echoed around the beach. Right as they turned around to try and locate the noise, T-Bone leaped off of the island's cliffs and touched down feet-first on the door's sandy yard!

T-Bone bowed as Chihiro applauded his landing, whipped around and frowned as he jammed the key into the gate's lock. "Now, if I jiggle this a little here, twist it a bit to the right," T-Bone said as he fiddled with the key, "Turn it around and—" T-Bone pressed his skeletal hands against the doors and swung them open with one push "—voila, the route to the Creepy Citadel awaits!"

Chihiro frowned and summoned a magic sphere to light the path around as everyone else poured in behind her. The path ahead didn't seem all that different than the route she took prior; its stone tunnels were lit just vaguely by dull blue light and decorated with cobwebs, scattered bones, maybe a full skeleton here and there. Despite the hardly-scary looks, something in her heart felt uneasy still. It wasn't necessarily the decoration setting her nerves alight, but more like, a gut feeling, almost, like something was going to go really badly.

Whatever it was, she had to cast it aside! The Eternal Undead Source waited for her somewhere down the line, and she had to keep it away from Kaos's grubby clutches! Even if she was scared, well, T-Bone already closed the doors, so there was no turning back now. Chihiro held her magic sphere out and trailed it down the bony stairs that laid before her. She wasn't sure what tricks would be laid for her, but this time, she was going to get that Eternal Source before Kaos did, even if it was the death of her!