The four boys screamed and fled as soon as they saw it. They walked away as best they could to process the situation.

"What the hell was that thing!?" Deuce asked in horror.

"Fgnnnaaaaa! Crowley didn't tell us about this! Let's get out of here!" Grim exclaimed.

"It's awful!" exclaimed Ace. "But did that thing mention something about stones!?"

Just at that moment, the monster appeared around the corner, approaching them again. "Do not... give stones!"

"Then there are still magic crystals left!" Deuce exclaimed with hope.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no! No!" Grim cried. "I'm a genius, but I can't defeat that thing!"

"But without the crystal, we will be expelled!" Deuce reminded as he took out his magical pen. "I'm going to face that thing!"

"Are you nuts?!" Ace asked incredulously.

"You can't do it by yourself! It's too dangerous!" Yuu said with concern.

"I won't allow myself to be expelled from school!" answered Deuce with determination.

Yuu still did not know the dynamics of magic in that world, but he noticed that Deuce attacked with magic from different elements, while the giant monster focused on attacking with its beak, reinforced with fire magic and something that seemed to be darkness. But they weren't very effective against the monster.

"Go away! Go away!! Go away!!!" The monster screamed louder and louder.

That it launched an attack that almost reached Deuce, the impact of the blow made him lose his balance and hit the ground. Yuu helped him to get up as soon as possible.

"Stand back if you can't control yourself, Mr. Serious!" Ace snapped. "I'm going to be the one to stop him!"

He launched an attack of wind magic like the ones that morning, but it did not affect the monster less, who made an attack similar to the previous one that was about to hit the young boy. The impact made him stumble.

Seeing that the only two boys with magic had been knocked out, Grim got desperate. "Fgnaa!! Stay away!" He said after throwing a great blow of fire.

The monster growled in response but didn't flinch much.

"It doesn't work!" Grim wailed with little hope.

With the firelight that had lingered on the rock walls of the mine, Yuu could make out something glistening at the end of the tunnel behind the huge creature. "Look there!" He pointed. "I see something shiny over there!"

"That light... Is that a magic crystal!?" Deuce asked in amazement.

The monster seemed to realize the intention of the intruders and screamed: "WON'T GIVE THEM!!"

Grim leaped into Yuu's arms, who instinctively grabbed him on the spot.

"Let's get out of here!" The little monster insisted. "At this rate, we'll be finished!"

Yuu agreed with him. "Guys, let's get out of here!" He exclaimed for Ace and Deuce to hear. "Come on, quick!"

They all left under the watchful eye of the huge faceless creature.

It was not difficult to find the exit and they fled to the area of the cottage. "Have we gotten far enough away?" Grim asked after calming his breathing.

Ace complained about the lingering pain from the fight. "What the hell was that? Nobody told us anything about that thing!" He said in frustration.

"It didn't appear to be a ghost like the ones from before," Deuce said calmer than the three of them.

Yuu tried to say something, but was interrupted by Ace: "Let's give up and go home, I'd rather be expelled than face that thing," he said as if the situation had ceased to matter to him.

"What?! Are you crazy?! I'd rather die before being expelled!" Deuce refused angrily. "We have a chance to get a crystal and you want to leave!?"

"Ha! You talk a lot to be someone worse at magic than me!" boasted Ace. "Go alone if you want. I'm done."

Deuce's pupils contracted in anger, he clenched his right hand into a fist and slammed it against his left palm. "Oh, that's right?!" He exclaimed threateningly in a deep voice, startling Yuu and Grim. "Then stay here like a coward!"

On the other hand, Ace, far from flinching, smirked: "Huh? Coward? Who exactly are you talking about now?"

"Eh... Deuce, has your personality suddenly changed?" Grim commented worriedly, interrupting the fight.

The boy realized what he had just done and his face relaxed immediately. "Oh!" He cleared his throat. "Sorry... I've lost my composure a bit."

"What do we do?" Yuu finally asked. "Can't magic help us at all?"

"As the headmaster said earlier, magic isn't all-powerful," Deuce explained. "If you can't imagine it, then it won't materialize. Powerful or large-scale magic requires a lot of training."

"That's why we have schools of magic," Ace added. "You have to practice a lot for the magic to appear just by thinking about it. That's why you lose control if you lose your cool."

"I see... That's why Grim can only use fire magic." Commented Yuu. "And now that you mention it, you've been launching haphazard attacks."

"Stuff you're good at can go off instinct," Ace replied.

"I'm going back in there anyway," said Deuce. "I'll try to think of something to defeat that thing and I'll come back with a crystal."

"Really?" Ace asked mockingly. "You? The idiot who destroyed the chandelier? You couldn't hit that monster once before, and now you say 'you'll try to think of something'?" Then he became serious. "You're just going to end up the same."

"What did you say!? You little...!"

"Here they go again..." Grim muttered incredulously. Without saying anything, Yuu put him on the ground. "Hey, Yuu. What's wrong?"

Yuu didn't reply. He was fed up with everything, of things going wrong, Ace's stupidity, and, above all, not being able to do anything and always staying in the background.

"Stop fighting right now!! Both of you!!"

Ace and Deuce finally stopped their fight with shock.

"Woah! Why are you screamin' like that all of a sudden?" Grim asked worriedly. It was the first time he had seen him that angry.

Yuu calmed the tone of his voice, but he remained firm and glared at both boys sternly: "Neither of you could do anything in there! And staying here to fight like this will get us nowhere!"

Grim winced at the harshness of his words, which spoke nothing but the truth.

Deuce sighed. "But... What exactly should we do?" He asked, having no more ideas.

Yuu looked at his three companions. "We have to come up with a plan together and create a strategy to confront that monster," he said decisively.

"Work together?" Ace asked incredulously. "Ha! How cold you are! You're able to say something that weird with a straight face. Even I wouldn't dare to do it!"

"We finally agree on something," Deuce said, crossing his arms. "I refuse to work with this idiot." He replied as he pointed at Ace with the eyes.

"Are you serious?" Yuu asked in disbelief. "Would you rather be expelled than working together as a team?"

"Actually, it would be really pathetic of us to be expelled the first day of class..." Grim commented looking away.

That made both of them change their minds almost immediately.

"Well..." Ace muttered.

Deuce couldn't say anything else.

Yuu wasn't willing to risk being thrown out of the only place he could stay in a world he didn't know of at all either. But he didn't seem like the time to say it out loud. "I have an idea," he finally said, "but I'm going to need everyone's collaboration."

Grim looked much more excited to hear the plan than the two boys.

"Agh! Ok, ok, ok!" Ace gave in. "We just have to do it, right?" Then he smiled and looked at him expectantly. "All right, what's your plan?"

The three of them leaned closer to listen to Yuu. After a while of explaining the idea to him in mind, they returned to the entrance of the mine.

"Hey, Yuu... do you really think your plan will work?" Grim asked uneasily. "I'm scar-... No, I'm just nervous."

"There's nothing to worry about," Yuu answered. "I'm sure it will work. And if not, we'll just have to accept our fate."

He felt Ace's hand on his shoulder. "Ha, ha! You look tense. Just go with the flow," He told him friendly. "Come on, let's get this over with!"

Yuu breathed more calmly and smiled after seeing Ace run to take his place next to Deuce. "Maybe he's not as stupid as we thought," he murmured. "Maybe I was wrong to judge him too."

"That's what you say now, but surely he's much more of an idiot than he looks!"

"Grim, don't be mean. Come on, let's get this started."

They approached the tunnel entrance.

"Hey, monster! O-over here!" Grim yelled, hiding the tremor from his voice.

The faceless monster peered into the darkness of the tunnel and growled furiously after seeing that the intruders had returned. "GO AWAY!!!" It yelled.

"Ah! Here it comes!" Grim exclaimed.

"This way, monster!" Yuu yelled. "Come and get us!"

That was the first part of the plan: attract the beast's attention and get it out of the mine.

The monster was startled by the insistent calls and began to approach the exit. "Thieves..." It growled. "I will not give... Mine... Mine!"

He struck the tip of his beak against the ground furiously.

"That attack will knock us out if it lands!" Grim reacted.

"Keep running!" Yuu reminded him. "We must get it away from the mine as far as possible!"

They stopped and waited for the perfect distance.

"I think this is far enough!" Grim exclaimed with determination as he climbed onto Yuu's shoulders.

"Now!" Yuu shouted.

The second part of the plan consisted of a surprise attack.

Ace came out of his hideout. "How about this? Extra Large Tempest!"

With his magical pen, he released a great force of wind toward the monster.

"And the incredible Great Grim's Fire Special!" exclaimed the little monster as he jumped from Yuu's shoulders with all his strength to release a great puff of fire like the one from that morning.

Yuu wondered if the names for the attacks were necessary.

Grim and Ace combined their attacks to engulf the monster in a huge and unexpected tornado of fire.

"Check it out!" Ace exclaimed. "I have been able to transform Grim's small flames into a hell!"

"They are not small! Ah, everything you say gets on my nerves!"

"Deuce, it's your turn! This is the perfect chance!" Yuu called him. "Come on, you can do it!"

Deuce stood next to Yuu and pointed his pen at the monster trapped in the fire.

"Calm down," Deuce told himself. "Take aim... And think of the heaviest thing you can think of... Come here, cauldron!"

A huge cauldron appeared and fell on top of the monster's head, puzzling it at the moment.

"That hit it!" Grim exclaimed triumphantly. "Well done, guys!" Yuu was going to be proud of Grim until he saw him give another wicked smile. "Look, Yuu! The monster is flat like a pancake, just like Ace earlier!"

"You didn't have to remind me that!" Ace exclaimed. "Today isn't my day!"

"You already said that before!" Yuu reminded him.

The third part was to enter the tunnel and get the magic crystal.

"Let's find the crystal while it can't move!" Deuce urged.

The monster was horrified to realize that the intruders were running towards the entrance and tried to move. "STOOOOOOOOOOP!"

Having walked the corridors of the mine before, it was not difficult to find a shortcut to the gems and they found them quickly.

"Look! This crystal is perfect!" Deuce said as he pointed to a large one that didn't seem difficult to pull out. They picked it up and Yuu took it upon himself to carry it.

The four of them returned to the entrance and saw the monster move violently to free itself. "HANDSS OOOOOOOFFF!!!"

"Damn it! It's almost free!" Deuce exclaimed.

"Hey, Deuce! Throw more things at him," Grim instructed.

Pointing his pen at the monster, Deuce tried to think quickly of something heavy and began to summon more cauldrons. The monster found it impossible to avoid all of them as they fell on it.

"Can't you throw something more than cauldrons?!" Ace asked desperately.

"You shut up! I'm at my limit over here!"

"We have the magic crystal! Let's get out of here!" Grim urged.

"Miiiiiiiineeeeee!" The creature growled as it saw them run.

The fury made it free itself from all the cauldrons piled up on it and followed them.

"Really?!" Ace asked. "And now it's coming for us!"

The monster seemed determined, but also tired: it staggered for a moment and its screams were limited to simple grunts.

"At this rate, it will catch up with us!" Deuce exclaimed, brandishing his magic feather.

"But it's weaker now!" Yuu pointed out. "Maybe we can face it and defeat it this time!"

Ace wanted to end the mess once and for all and took his magical pen out again.

"Agh, I've had enough! Let's get rid of this thing!" He looked at Deuce. "Don't disappoint me, Mr. Serious!"

"Same here, Ace!"

"I'm going to show my true power!" Grim exclaimed.

"Give it above all to the head! To the glass! It seems to be the weak point!" Yuu pointed out. "The crack is bigger and is leaking even more than before."

"Understood!" The three of them exclaimed.

"And watch out for the pickaxe! Careful with the attacks!"

"And you don't let go of the crystal! It will want to go after you!" Deuce reminded him.

Yuu kept at a distance to make sure the monster didn't get too fixated on him but made sure he wasn't far from the rest.

This time the monster attacked with the magical elements of plant and darkness, but with his slowness, it was much easier to evade them. Yuu's intuition had been true since he became weaker and weaker as he lost ink, but he also became increasingly violent.

At the end of the battle, Ace stumbled while trying to avoid an attack that had struck right next to him. The creature tried to seize the moment to lift its pickaxe above its head to strike it down.

But he felt a stone hit his shoulder and turned to find out the cause.

Yuu was there, looking at it defiantly. He knew he wasn't going to hurt it by throwing a single stone at it, but it served to give Ace time to get up.

The monster noticed the large crystal he was holding in his hands and remembered the reason for the battle.

"Crystaaaaal!!! MIIIIINNNEEE!"

It didn't get too close to Yuu because Ace delivered the final attack on him and completely smashed the crystal on his head, releasing all the black liquid left.

The monster vanished into thin air.

Ace, Deuce, and Grim gasped with effort.

Yuu got to his knees on the ground from the tension that he had just experienced. "Man! That was scary...!" He exclaimed at the thought of the monster approaching him.

"We... did it?" Ace asked.

They looked around, the monster didn't look like it was coming back. Yuu got up, relieved.

"We have won!" Grim exclaimed. "We did it!"

"Great!" Deuce cried triumphantly.

"Yaaay!" Yuu exclaimed.

"High five!" Grim suggested. "For our victory!"

The four of them clashed hands and paw together happily in one fell swoop.

Yuu laughed and looked at his three companions. "I see you're getting along now," he commented. "Looks like union makes strength!"

After hearing it, the three of them took a couple of steps back.

"Eh? O-of course not!" Deuce insisted sheepishly and frowned. "It's not like that at all!"

"E-exactly, so stop saying weird things," continued Ace.

Yuu continued to smile and shook his head with an arched brow.

"We only won thanks to my genius!" Grim insisted, but when Ace and Deuce heard him they ended up smiling the same way as Yuu. "It wasn't because we've worked together or anything like that!"

"I guess there are no use making excuses," Ace commented. "I hate to admit it, but we did win thanks to your plan."

"Yes, we were able to obtain the magic crystal thanks to your level-headed instructions," Deuce continued. "That way we will avoid being expelled. I'm so relieved..."

"And I won't risk getting kicked out," Yuu added.

"Do you mean from your job at school?" Ace asked him, this time seriously, without any sign of mockery.

Yuu sighed. "Not only that, what I feared the most was that I would be thrown out of the dorm Mr. Crowley gave me, it's the only place I can stay."

"What do you mean?" Deuce asked.

"Oh, right. You don't know," Grim pointed out.

"Know what?" They asked.

"Do you remember what the Dark Mirror said yesterday at the entrance ceremony before Grim's chaos? That I don't have any magic?"

They both nodded.

"The reason I can't use magic is that I come from a different world where magic doesn't exist."

"Eh?" They asked again at the same time.

"Yes, basically I'm not from around here."

"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Wait for a second! So you're saying that you're from another planet or something like that?" Deuce asked, confused.

"Mr. Crowley said that as a possibility, but I'm not an alien, or at least that's what I think. But in my world, there are no magic or magical creatures outside of legends or fictional stories. Some people claim to have special powers, but most of them shouldn't be taken very seriously."

"You have neither magic nor monsters? It's hard for me to imagine a world like that," Ace commented.

"Now that I remember, you seemed worried when the headmaster took you to the ceremony," Deuce commented, "as if you didn't know what was going on."

"Yeah, I was quite confused at the time. I came to think that I was dreaming, but that wasn't the case

"So... why were you brought by the Dark Mirror then?" Ace asked.

"I don't know, probably by mistake. The thing is, the Mirror is incapable of transferring people to other worlds, so I'm trapped here in... Twisted Wonderland, is this called? Mr. Crowley said he was going to find some way to get me back."

Deuce gave the situation some thought: "So, is your family still in your original world? Do they know you're here?"

"To the first, apparently yes. To the second, they most likely don't."

"And your things?" Ace asked. "We had our luggage in our dorm room, you didn't?"

"I'm not saying this to pity myself, but it is the truth when I say that I arrived empty-handed: no money, no phone, nothing. I don't even remember putting on that ceremonial robes yesterday. I found in Ramshackle dorm what I am wearing now. Mr. Crowley offered me shelter and help in exchange for working at Night Raven College. He also held me responsible for Grim when I asked him to let him stay with me."

Ace remembered that morning and paled. "So when I made fun of you this morning..." Yuu looked at him. "Man, I had no idea about that. I... I'm sorry, I didn't want to..."

"Now you know," Yuu interrupted him and smiled. "And don't worry, I should also apologize to you, I was wrong to think you were an idiot who liked to make people feel miserable."

"I wouldn't claim victory so quickly," Grim commented. "Who knows what he will do or say next!"

"You little...!"

Yuu laughed. "Come on, don't fight. We worked together to get the crystal, remember? All ended well and nobody is hurt, that's what matters."

"Should you say that? How are your arms?" Deuce asked. "You haven't hurt yourself more, have you?"

Yuu rolled up the sleeves of his shirt and revealed the bandages again. "It stopped hurting hours ago, so it's okay, it was just an accident," he emphasized after seeing Ace's worried expression again.

"Ok, ok!" Ace said. "We are all relieved. But come on, I'm already exhausted, let's go home!"

"I'm starving after using all that magic," Grim complained, then he sniffed something in the air. "Eh? What's this?"

Everyone saw a kind of black rock in the place where the monster disappeared.

"I think that's what's left of that monster," Deuce said. "It's maybe a magic crystal? But I've never seen one black as coal.

Grim walked over to the stone and sniffed it. "This thing smells pretty good!" He exclaimed enthusiastically.

"You're joking!" Ace exclaimed, disgusted to think that a bad-looking rock could be edible.

But Grim grabbed the stone in his front paws and sat up. "This must be some candy the monster must be hiding! Oh, I can't resist! Thanks for the food!"

And he ate the rock in one bite.

Yuu was the first to be alarmed. "Whoa!" He crouched down to his level and put the crystal down to pat him desperately on the back. "Spit it out, spit it out!" He exclaimed in an attempt to urge him, but Grim ended up swallowing it anyway and he stood up defeated. "He actually ate it..."

Grim's eyes widened as if he had sensed something and he swallowed saliva. The three young humans became even more concerned.

"Hey! Are you okay!?" Deuce asked.

"That's what you get for eating weird things off the ground..." Ace commented.

To his surprise, Grim seemed fine, even excited: "De... De... Delicious!!!"

"What!?" The three boys asked incredulously.

"Not only it's thick, but it's also rich in flavor with an aromatic sweetness that blooms in my mouth..." He said quickly with enthusiasm. "It's like having a field full of flowers in my mouth!"

Yuu was perplexed by the gourmet description of the taste of a rock that looked like coal.

"Blegh!!" Ace exclaimed just imagining having to eat something like that. "Monsters do really have a different taste than ours."

"I guess," Deuce commented. "However, most people would never put something strange in their mouth without thinking like that..."

"Are you really okay, Grim?" Yuu asked.

Grim laughed cheerfully in response. "It's so delicious, to die for! Don't worry, my stomach isn't weak like yours."

"Don't regret anything to me if you get sick later," Ace snapped.

"More importantly," Deuce said, picking up the crystal from the floor. "Let's take this crystal to the headmaster!"

"Of course, there's still time!" Yuu exclaimed as he scooped Grim back into his arms. "But... how will we go back to school from here? It was the Mirror that brought us..."

"If I remember correctly, we have to go back to where we arrived and think about going back," Deuce answered.

"Oh, that's so easy!" Yuu commented with relief.

They walked back to the place where they appeared when they got there.

"Hey, Yuu?" Ace called him. "Before I forget, I wanted to thank you."

"Eh? About what?"

"For saving me before with the monster. Of course, what you did was very reckless, you don't have any magic to defend yourself and it could have hurt you. But that helped me a lot and I was able to kick the final attack to defeat him, so... thank you very much."

"Well... I wasn't going to stand there and let it hurt you. But I'm glad you're okay."

The four looked at each other before being shifted back to Night Raven College.

Just a moment before disappearing from there, Yuu seemed to hear some faint, cheering voice celebrating their victory, but ended up thinking it was just his imagination...

[Published on 23/6/2021]