Alice appeared in a bright flash, with Elara, Gabrielle and the Ignoramuses still present in the old mill

  "You guys are still here in this mill?" she asked, not yet noticing Gabrielle.

  There was a moment where everyone froze, surprised by Alice's sudden appearance. Then Gabrielle scoffed, her eyes narrowing as she took in the girl's appearance.

  "Well, look who decided to rejoin the land of the living," Gabrielle sneered.

  Unaware of this new alliance forged with Gabrielle, Alice was on guard in a flash, frantically looking around and wondering why she's not attacking them or vice versa.

  Elara stepped forward, arms raised slightly to calm the rising tension. “Alice, stand down. She’s… not our enemy anymore.”

  Alice blinked, eyes darting between Elara and Gabrielle like she’d just missed a chapter of a book written in fire. “Wait, what? Since when?”

  “Since she gave us the intel we needed to take down an organization tied to our pasts,” Elara said, voice low but firm. “And since she helped me get back from that cursed realm without becoming soul soup.”

  Gabrielle crossed her arms, gaze cool and unflinching. “Believe it or don’t. I don’t care. But if you’re going to scream ‘traitor’ every time someone changes sides, you’ll run out of breath before breakfast.”

  Alice opened her mouth, then closed it.

  She looked at Elara, who gave her one slow nod.

  Then she sighed, shoulders dropping as the fight drained out of her.

  “...Fine."

  Liana added: "Nya! BUT, if you stab any of us in the back, I’m leaving holes in ya like a sponge with my artillery!!” she chirped, already summoning a floating turret just to emphasize the point.

  Gabrielle smirked, dry, unimpressed, but there was something almost amused in her eyes now.

  “I’ll pack extra knives just for you,” she deadpanned.

  "So where are we going?" Alice asked no one in particular.

  "The world of Euphoria," Gabrielle answered.

  The room fell silent. It took a few moments for it to sink in.

  Zalgo was the first to speak up, her voice barely above a whisper:

  "Wait, Euphoria, like… the crazy realm where wildness happens nonstop?”

  "The very same," Gabrielle confirmed.

  "The place where magic is so unstable it turns everything it touches into an acid trip?" Iritscen added dryly.

  Gabrielle nodded again, still unbothered.

  Antiquus grunted, wings twitching uncomfortably. "Lovely.”

  "The thing is," Gabrielle said, crossing her arms, "that's exactly why it’s the perfect hiding place. No one in their right mind would go there looking for something important."

  Hikaru sipped their tea, somehow still hot after everything, then murmured:

  "Or… the perfect trap."

  A beat passed. Then Zofie snorted.

  "Or both.”

  Elara turned to the others, determination burning in her eyes.

  "Regardless of what Euphoria is like," she began, "we need to move fast. The longer we wait, the more time our enemies have to prepare for us."

  "I agree," Gabrielle said with a nod. "But going there won't be easy. It's not just dangerous because of the unstable magic, it's dangerous because Euphoria changes you."

  She looked at each of them in turn, Alice’s wide eyes, Liana’s cannons slowly retracting into stardust pixels around her wrists, Antiquus flexing his talons like he was ready to punch reality itself.

  "People go in… and come out different,” Gabrielle continued. “Not just scarred or broken, rewritten. Memories twisted. Souls bent into new shapes."

  Adeyemi finally spoke up then, her voice ancient and deep:

  “I’ve seen records… from before my time slept beneath stone and shadow.” She placed a hand on her chest where void energy pulsed gently beneath skin like a second heartbeat. “Euphoria isn’t just chaos…”

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  She paused.

  “It’s alive.”

  The room tensed, everyone's focus now laser-trained on Adeyemi.

  Iritscen looked particularly interested in the Void mage's words.

  Alice spoke up first, voice steady but a touch wary:

  "Alive...in what way? Is it sentient?”

  Adeyemi closed her eyes, then opened them slowly, revealing void-black irises pulsing with distant violet stars.

  "Not... fully," she said, her voice echoing slightly, as if spoken from deep underground. "But it learns. It watches. It remembers faces... desires..."

  She looked directly at Elara.

  "It hungers for purpose.”

  Silence stretched taut as a bowstring in the moments after Adeyemi's words.

  Gabrielle broke it first, the corner of her mouth turning up in a wry smirk.

  "Well…" She glanced around at the now slightly-unnerved faces. "That's… reassuring."

  "What exactly is up with Euphoria though?" Rachel chimed in, "Is it just madness for the sake of madness?”

  "Close," Gabrielle said with a grim smile.

  "Euphoria reflects what it's given. If you're full of chaos and violence, that's all it'll show you when you get there."

  "And if you're full of something else?" Antiquus rumbled, wings rattling faintly.

  Gabrielle shrugged.

  "If you go in wanting peace, that's what you'll find. It's why some who go in come out with… new perspectives."

  "And others never come back," Elara added, tone grim.

  Iritscen adjusted his goggles again, leaning forward with an almost academic interest.

  "It's a world where desire can re-shape reality," he mused. "Fascinating. Like a dream realm on a grand scale.”

  Gabrielle smirked at the scientist. "Except the rules don't apply, and neither do the laws of time and space."

  "Not to mention physics," Iritscen muttered, scribbling in his notebook.

  Hikaru sipped their tea again, completely unperturbed. "And you're sure this is the best place to hide?" they asked Gabrielle.

  Gabrielle's smirk turned almost wolfish. "It's the last place anyone would look.”

  The others shared a look, weighing the pros and cons of going to such a bizarre realm. Even Liana had stopped playing with her floating turrets and made them disappear, her face serious while she thought it over.

  Finally, it was Elara who broke the silence.

  "We don't have many other options."

  She raised her chin and met the group’s gazes fiercely.

  "We go to Euphoria, and we get those records back."

  "Well, I'm going for a different reason," Alice said.

  "And what would that be?" Elara asked.

  "You see, that fallen angel that made a ruckus here? He resurrected the Seven Deadly Sins, and they must be sealed again before they unleash their havoc on the Worlds.”

  That took the wind out of the conversation for a second time.

  Gabrielle was the first to recover; her face twisting into a scowl as she glared at Alice.

  "You're telling me there are actual representations of the Seven Deadly Sins running loose right now?”

  "Yep," Alice said, popping the 'p' with mock cheer. "Sloth, Envy, Gluttony, Pride, Wrath, Lust, and Greed. All ready to cause trouble."

  Antiquus' wings snapped open at that, the feathers puffing out in alarm as he hissed a curse under his breath. Iritscen looked like he'd just been slapped, and Elara's hands had clenched into fists. Zofie and Liana had gone silent, no wisecracks for once. Except...

  "And the Seven Heavenly Virtues?" Hikaru asked.

  It was Elara who answered:

  "They were created to combat the Deadly Sins. Their job was to help balance the world between the chaos and corruption of the Sins."

  Zofie let out a low whistle."So we've got angels and demons. Great."

  "The Virtues are good," Elara confirmed. "They stand for faith, hope, kindness, temperance, justice, humility, and diligence."

  Zalgo looked surprised by the question, her expression turning thoughtful.

  "You're telling me seven angels will suddenly appear to protect us? Just like that?"

  Elara shook her head, dark gem-like eyes glinting with a mix of reverence and grim reality.

  “Not like that at all.”

  She paused, then said:

  “The Virtues don’t appear on command. They awaken, one by one, in mortals who embody their essence when the Sins grow strong enough to threaten balance. Which means… somewhere out there, seven people just felt something shift inside them.”

  "So…" Iritscen said, frowning. "Seven random people suddenly got powers?"

  Elara nodded. "People who represent the Virtues, yes.”

  Iritscen ran a hand over his face, muttering something about “cosmic scales tipped by human choices” under his breath.

  Gabrielle, on the other hand, had suddenly gone still, her eyes locked on Elara.

  "You said seven."

  Elara felt her gaze like a physical weight, but met it unflinchingly. "Yes. Seven Virtues to match the Seven Sins.”

  "And...what happens when all the Virtues awaken again?" Iritscen asked faintly.

  Elara said simply, "They'll go after the Sins. And if they defeat them...the balance will be restored."

  The others digested this slowly. Alice stood silently, eyes distant.

  It was Zofie who finally said what they were all wondering: "What if the Sins win?”

  Elara's voice dropped low, so low it scraped like stone on stone.

  "Then the worlds fracture. Not just in war or ruin… but in soul."

  She looked at each of them, one by one.

  "Hatred becomes law. Greed becomes instinct. Compassion? Forgotten, like a dream upon waking." Her fingers curled into fists at her sides. "People won't just do evil, they’ll believe it’s right.”

  Gabrielle exhaled sharply through her nose, arms crossed tight over her chest.

  “Great,” she muttered dryly. “So if we don’t stop this mess… everyone turns into a version of me on my worst day. Sheesh, let's just go and get this BS done with.”

  "Wait," Charlotte spoke up, adjusting the silver tiara on her head. “We are going too.”

  Elara blinked. “You? All of you?”

  Charlotte gave a prim nod, emerald eyes serious beneath her golden curls. “Venera sent us for a reason. IOTA doesn’t just sit back when the timeline’s at risk.”

  Jax lifted his Anonymous mask slightly, revealing sharp amber eyes beneath. “Besides,” he added with quiet intensity, “if Euphoria eats people who aren’t ready… then we’re exactly the kind who can survive it.”

  Iritscen smirked now, finally closing his notebook with a snap.

  “Chaos is just science waiting to be understood.”

  Antiquus spread his wings wide with a loud whoosh, shaking dust from old rafters above.

  “Then let’s stop talking and start flying,” he growled. “Before this world gets any dumber.”

  The others exchanged a final, long look, then gave a collective nod.

  Elara felt some of the tension ease as everyone started gathering their things. Iritscen was still muttering to himself, but his notebook was tucked away and he was buckling an ammo belt over his jacket.

  "Well," Zalgo said, cracking her knuckles, "this is gonna be interesting.”