Part 76: Chapter 11-1: The Hell Within Heaven

Part 11-1: The Hell Within Heaven


Honnete’s Hour of Need

Right! Speak up, materials! I’ll make all your wishes come true!



Hehe. You’re totally accustomed to hearing the voices now, aren’t you Sue!

I can’t believe both my daughters have awoken to this power. They say it really is very rare, so seeing you both use it so easily is a bit conflicting for me!

Hehe. It isn’t like we’ve changed! …!!



What’s wrong? Did you hear Mom again?

This is bad! Mom is being attacked!

What?! By monsters?!

I don’t know, but we need to hurry! Dad, can you go right away?



Hey, Lydie! We need to go right away as well!

I know, but we’d better prepare well first. I have a nasty feeling about this.

Alright? Well, if you say so…

On second thought, all our bombs and medicines are restocked. We should be fine… and we need to deal with this immediate threat!

Then let’s go! If you heard Mom being attacked…

Mmm. I get the feeling it happened at the atelier in the heart of the Heavenly Flower Garden… so we need to hurry!



Just above that stairwell… we’ll find whatever threatened Mom!

…Ah!!


The Other Basement

Ahhh! It’s Mom and Dad! And Dad looks like he got banged up pretty bad…

Dad! Mom!

Haah… haah… Lydie! Suelle!

Watch out, girls! This one is tough!

I know! Come on, Sue!



There’s only one punishment strong enough for threatening Mom like this…




Are you alright, Honnete? Stay with us!

I’m fine, thanks. *cough, cough* I was in my atelier and that thing suddenly attacked me.



I don’t know… It might be related to that monster? Mom… you said it suddenly attacked you. Any idea why?

No. It just suddenly came up from the basement. *cough, cough*

The basement? The basement! We’ll go and take a look!

Dad, you keep Mom safe! Please!

Of course. We’re both counting on you, girls.

Now, to the basement… I never imagined we’d have a reason to check down there in this painting…



What is this…?

A painting? But it’s just all black paint…

Black Paint? That reminds me of something…

If you travel to other Paintings, you must beware of the Black Paint.

Yes! Neige! Neige told us to beware the Black Paint!

Maybe she knows about that monster, then? Lydie! We have to go and see her!



Maybe… We’ve got a lead, at least. There’s someone we need to go and talk to.

Haah… haah… I’m sorry… all of this fuss for me…

No need for that, Mom! We’re doing this for you! Just hold on a little longer.

Alright, thank you. Be careful, girls.

Alright, straight to the castle gallery!

Right! Anyway, Lydie… I remember the Frozen Palace being pretty hard to navigate. You know how we can reach Neige’s atelier quickly?



Ah! There’s a door up here that wasn’t here last time…

Hey! Heheh, it’s like Neige wants us to come back for her without too much hassle!



That having been said, looks like we’ll have to poke around a bit before we find her room…


Remplir

Ah! There she is!

Neeeeeeige!



I’m sorry, but you guessed right. Neige… will you please tell us about the Black Paint?

Something has happened, hasn’t it? Tell me the details.

Alright. Neige… have we told you about our mom? She died some time ago, but her Soul Fragment lives on in a Mysterious Painting our dad painted.

And just earlier, we found our mom being attacked by a monster outside her atelier… and after we took that thing out, she told us it came from her atelier’s basement. When we entered, we found a painting that was all black paint…

I see… Black Paint, in a painting inside a painting… Rare, but not impossible. …Tell me. Have you seen black monsters in the painting worlds?

Yes, we have! A number of times!

That makes this easier, then. Those monsters are the Black Paint. They are called Remplir. Remplir take the form of monsters, but they are really distortions of the painting worlds.



Consuming it?…

Yes. Once that happens, it can never be restored. That world will remain black forever. As Remplir increase inside the world, the painting depicting it also starts to turn black. Those stains look like paint, so they are called Black Paint. Do you understand now?

I think so. If Remplir are the cause, though, what will happen to our mom?

Good question. If the process continues, she will surely be eradicated from existence.

No! Neige, is there nothing we can do? We can’t lose our mom again!

I’m sorry… I don’t know how to defeat Remplir. You saw a completely black painting in the basement there, correct? So it’s pretty far along. That means there isn’t much time left…

Thank you, Neige. You’ve explained very clearly about Remplir. But we aren’t going to give up. We’ll find a way to stop the Remplir.

That’s right! Promise with Mom Number 1! “Don’t give up before you even try”! Neige, we’ll come and see you again soon! Sue, back to the atelier!

…“Don’t give up before you even try”… Those two are strong.



We’re home! Now, to commence research…!


The Fruits of their Labor

Any luck, Lydie?

Remplir, Remplir… It’s no good, there’s nothing in any of the books in the atelier!

Then we just have to try elsewhere. A place with loads of books. What do you think?

The Castle Entrance Hall, the Church of Vegne and our teacher’s atelier?

Yes. No time to be complaining about reading! Let’s search them all, Lydie!

Hmm… let’s start with the church! Maybe they’ll have books on how to purge something as unholy as Remplir…



Girls. Are you looking for something?

Ah, Grace. Can we ask you something?

Certainly. You seem worried, so I’ll do my best to answer.

Do you have any books about Remplir… or Black Paint? This church has tons of books, and we thought you’d have something about it.

I’m sorry… I’ve never heard of such a book.

I see… Thank you anyway, Sister Grace.

Hmmmm…

Let’s try the Castle Entrance Hall next!



Remplir! Black Paints! There’s nothing here, either…

I know. But we can’t give up. Let’s try one of the other places, Sue!



Hmmmm…

The last place I have in mind is Teach’s atelier.

It’s as good a bet as any! From all those books Ilmeria uses to give us homework, there’s gotta be something with the answers we need!

Ah, girls! …Girls?



Hey girls, what’s up? Showing up at my atelier and rifling through my books?

Sorry about this, Ilmeria. There’s a book we’re looking for. Something with Black Paint, or Remplir…

I see. Black Paint or Remplir are your key words? I’m sorry, I don’t think I can help.

No need to apologize. Sorry for the trouble!

Hmmmm…

…So we didn’t find any books that could help us. But we’re just getting started! Back to the atelier! Let’s go through everything again!

Alright. There must be something, even the smallest lead, that can help us. …Hold on, Mom! We’ll save you!



Maybe. I wonder if we could help them out?

Good idea. They always do so much for us. Let’s go and see what Mireille has to say!

I’ve said this before, but… we’re very lucky that our atelier is just down the street from our teacher’s…



Thanks. Time to get started. I should probably go and borrow some books, too.





Gah! Nothing in this batch of books, either…





How are things on your end, Sue?

Nothing… still nothing! Still no leads…

You too, huh… well, we’ve no choice but to keep on looking!





Sigh…



Uwah, I still can’t find a thing! My vision is all blurry… but I’m not giving up now!

Hold on… I think we should take a break. We’ve hardly slept… We can’t afford to collapse!

Good point. Just a little, then. Just a short break…





…Ah! What time is it?

…We’ve slept too long! We have to find out about the Remplir!

Good morning. It seems you’ve had a good night’s sleep.



To bring you this, actually.



“Research on the Biology of the Remplir”…! This is what we’ve been looking for!

Hehe, you can be surprised later. For now, go ahead and read that part.

“Among the Remplir there always exists a massive single entity that acts as their core. If the core is destroyed, the spread of Remplir within that painting should stop. The problem is the strength of the core. Many warriors and alchemists have fallen to it. A way to safely defeat the cores is required in order to secure a future for the painting worlds.”

This means, if we defeat the Remplir core, we can stop their spread and save Mom?

Yes! That’s right! Everyone, thank you! You found this book for us!



Everyone…? What do you mean?

Mireille made a proclamation… to search for books about “Remplir”.

We had quite the response! Everyone wanted to see if they could help you.

They really threw themselves into the task. You do so much for them, after all.

This is also thanks to all your daily hard work, Lydie and Sue!

Wah…! That is incredible…!

Everyone, thank you…! Thank you…!

Come on, you don’t have time to cry. You know what you need to do now, right? So start with that. You can cry and thank us and do whatever else you need to later.



Off you go, then! Good luck, girls!

We’re going to do our best too! See you later!

…I can’t believe everyone did so much to help us! We have to pay them back for this!

Yes! In order to do that, we need to go and defeat the Remplir core! The core must be located inside that black painting. That’s the only location I can think of.

Me too. Even if we’re wrong, we’ll search every corner of the Heavenly Flower Garden!

You said it. Let’s go, Lydie! And of course, I think Mom and Dad will want to know all about what we’ve learned…


Saving Honnete

Oh…? Do tell, my dears!

The citizens of Merveille found us a book about the biology of the Remplir… the Black Paint monsters that infest the paintings.

Our hunch is that in the black painting in this atelier’s basement, we’ll find the Remplir Core that’s consuming this painting.

Remplir… To think that there were such things inside the paintings…

But it will be alright! I bet the reason you’re not feeling well is because of the Remplir, too, Mom!

That’s right! If we defeat the core, you’ll get better, Mom!

Hold on, though… Isn’t the core incredibly strong? Rather than putting you in danger, it might be better if I just… *cough, cough*

We’ll be fine. We’ve gotten a lot stronger while you were away!

We’ve defeated lots of monsters and become much better alchemists, too.

No matter what awaits us, we can handle it. Leave this to us, Mom!

Alright… I believe in you.

Right! Both of you, take these with you!



Liberte Ring and Sauveur Ring received!

Yes. I made those rings using alchemy. I know they’ll keep you safe. You take care of the core. Do your best, Lydie, Sue!

Thank you, Dad! Hmm…

I know what you’re thinking, Lydie… it’d be best to go home first and upgrade our equipment for this showdown, right?

Yes. There’s also some other things we can synthesize in preparation for this battle. Though we can’t afford to dawdle too long…