"Laplace, was it? What do you want? If you want a fight, we'll fight." Elayne said, pointing her shovel at him.
"O-Oh! Wait a bit there! I am not the fighting type like that poor old guy of Ernest!" Laplace laughed, floating in midair, and suddenly sitting over the ceiling. "Milady has allowed me full control over this dungeon, whatsoever! And she said that her lord cannot wait for all of you to die… So here I am, poor little me, given the task of making you suffer as much as possible!
But that ain't that fun, right? Not without fair games, and I love games!"
"He talks like a child…" Rita sighed. "Is this really a Death General?"
"Come on now, don't say that… Or do you want to turn into a wooden doll too?" Giggled Laplace.
"Can you really turn everyone into one?" Asked Mark. "That's a ridiculous power!"
"Well, essentially… I- Ah, why should I even explain it." Laughed Laplace. "Anyways! Let's play a game fair and square…"
Suddenly, three large doors appeared in front of the four, each one with a 1, 2, and 3 numbers. They were overflowing with an aura of pink and black colored mana.
"These are your options. Choose a door. One of them will bring you closer to the girls! The other two will bring you into a monster infested room! And you can't leave until you kill all the monsters." Giggled Laplace. "Now, choose!"
Elayne and her friends glanced at the doors and then at one another, speaking through Telepathy to communicate their thoughts. Laplace seemed incapable of reading their thoughts thankfully.
"This is odd, if he has such an absolute power, why is he bothering with us ?" Mark asked.
"There's no way he can do that so easily though. He probably has rules he needs to follow, he's something like… a Spirit of sorts, a Dungeon Spirit." Said the Great Spirit. "He works based on rules, and we need to beat him with his own rules, even if they're wicked."
"Are you serious?!" Rita cried. "He's nuts! And he creeps the shit out of me! Can't we beat him to death instead? My gun's ready!"
"And risk getting turned into a doll?" Elayne asked. "It pains me more than all of you, but I think we must play along for now. An opportunity will arise within the chaos, and we'll strike him down when he least expects it."
"Alright…" Mark nodded. "I'll trust Elayne."
"I can already read through his components, what he said is not a lie, he's indeed a manifestation of dreams." Said the Great Spirit. "What a strange power…"
"Ahem! Are you guys okay? You've been just standing there… Hmm, maybe I should turn one of you into a puppet again?" Laughed Laplace.
"Fine." Elayne said. "Let's play a game, Laplace, if you're so bored… However, if we win such trial, you'll turn Falco back to normal and bring us to my daughter."
"Hmmm, fufu, alright~" Laplace laughed with an almost demonic giggle. "I like that attitude, Yggdrasil… I don't have any idea why lord Thanatos hates you so much, but this'll be fun. Fine, let's play along! There'll be only three trials, the first one is the door one! Come on! Do it!
Elayne nodded, walking in front of the three doors with her group. They started to think which one would bring them closer.
"Maybe the one with least amount of Mana?" Mark suggested through telepathy. "It would be the one where there wouldn't be as many monsters because they generate mana naturally, right?"
"You're right…" Elayne nodded. "Shall we then?"
Elayne and her group stepped into the second door, and then, slowly opened it.
All four of them were sucked into the other side of the door, arriving at a small room, no larger than the size of Elayne's room back in her home. There were no doors, or any other corridors leading anywhere…
"What is this?" Elayne asked, looking around. "We failed?!"
"Hahahaha! Did you thought the door with least amount of Mana would bring you closer?! Dumbasses! It was all a trick!" Laughed Laplace. "Now let's see if you can survive the wave of monsters! If you can, you'll get to move on the next trial, hehe…"
"Did you purposedly changed the door's contents?" Rita asked, Laplace's voice echoed from within the walls.
"It is my dungeon so I make the rules, you choose to play by MY rules, no?" Laplace laughed. "Now, come on! Time to die~"
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Several magic circles appeared around the four of them, as dozens of monsters were summoned from within them, almost like an endless swarm.
They resembled toys, from wooden horses to moving dolls, teddy bears, and even colorful balls with eyes…
"Let's play~ Let's play~"
And they all giggled with girly, childish voices while slowly moving towards them.
"Eeep! This is so creepy!" Cried Rita, stepping back as the monsters approached them.
Their sizes were around the same size of a cat, but they were already almost a hundred. And their Mana Auras were nothing to scoff at either.
"Each one is at least E+ Rank! Some are D Rank! They're camouflaging in between the weaker ones!" The Great Spirit said.
"Be careful! Summon your barriers quickly!" Elayne said. "Don't let their cute and small appearances trick you!"
"Gyehehehe! Let's play!!!" A Teddy Bear with a missing eye and a fur of black color leaped forward, leading an army of dozens of toys that jumped over Lily, their jaws revealed sharp fangs, biting through Lily's legs!
However, Lily didn't scream, her legs were as hard as stone, and the toys sharp teeth ended being destroyed the moment they tried to bite them.
Lily hit the toys biting her with her huge pickaxe, crushing them at the same time as the impact generated dozens of spears made of crystal, piercing the bodies of a dozen toys at once!
"Grrgg! You bastard!" The black teddy bear leaped towards Lily, shattering her crystal spears, and then kicking her in the stomach.
"Ungh?!" Lily cried, feeling that the small toy was most likely a D Rank! "T-There's a D Rank there!"