Wait what? What was going on? Why did his Tier 3 Tribulation get triggered? None of this was making sense. He was in the middle of improving his Homing Ice Needles even further, and now this all of a sudden. Was this Lapis's threat? Did she forcibly call upon the Tribulation to fulfil her sadistic desire for more knowledge even at the expense of his own well-being?

"Lapis!" Niwla shouted. "Did you do this? Is this your idea of a sick joke? Cancel the Tribulation now, or I won't be working with you ever again!"

"It's not me, bird boy." Her voice sounded frantic, desperate even. "Normally, when a monster hits their Essence threshold, they're able to suppress the Tribulation if they want more time to prepare. It tends to be that after a week, they may feel pressured to do it, but with enough willpower and know how they could suppress it for even longer. But it hasn't even been a single day for you. I don't know why it suddenly triggered."

In the background, there was the sharp crack of broken glass and drones frantically beep-booping as they zipped around.

"I've never seen this happen before. This wasn't my idea, not even remotely close. I was just going to throw pie at your face if you kept making me wait."

"Are you serious, right now, Lapis? This isn't you?"

"Yes! Now go put on the Ice Resistance Snowcoat before it's too late!"

Niwla did immediately as he was told. Lapis sounded too panicked for it to even remotely come across as an elaborate prank. He rushed over to the orange and white fur coat, which was still slightly too big for him, its soft little frills trailing against the ground. His wings grasped all three pill bottles, stuffing them within the coat pocket.

The Healing and Mana pills were for emergencies. As for the Ice Resistance Pill… he'd only take it if he was desperate enough.

Systems Screens popped up all over the room. They bashed through the walls, grinding them down into frozen dust. In a blink, Niwla was back in the main white room. Even the Stone Training Dummy wasn't spared. Frozen with a single touch of the screen's edge, only to shatter into a thousand tiny ice fragments.

Surprisingly, the toilet stall was left untouched.

The System Screens spread out evenly around the white room. Snow poured forth from them, filling up the area, reminding him of the mini snowstorm set up within his Core.

Niwla clicked his beak.

Alwin.

They needed to wake him up.

But before that,... who knew how much snow was going to pour out of those System Screen or how high it was going to pile up. Looking around the room, he realised that there was only one solution in sight. The toilet stall.

Niwla ran up to it, flapping his wings to push him faster as snow pelted his face. At the door, he paused. Going inside would be a death trap if the snow piled up too high, especially since the walls extended up to the ceiling. There was only one place to perch from, the doorknob.

Niwla leaped into the air, flapping his wings, his talons gripping the cold metal.

Cor! This wasn't going to work if he was stuck to a door the whole Tribulation.

Good thing his fur coat was a bit too big. Adjusting the bottom, he made sure it was over the doorknob before he firmly planted his talons on it. With his wings braced against the door, only then could he safely wake the Yin-Yang Slime up.

Closing his eyes, Niwla honed in on his Core.

Winal was back in front of the huge super freezer. He was inspecting the handy new pipe extension installed that channeled the Withdrawal gas, ensuring that everything was up to code and working properly. Mental Hands floated along the rail, tapping the grooves, making sure that everything was structurally sound.

Niwla rushed in, flapping his wings as he sprinted toward WInal.

"Winal!" he squawked. "Emergency. Get the factory ready. We're having a Tribulation!"

Winal didn't even allow himself the opportunity to panic. He simply saluted with one of his legs. The Mental Hands that were part of the inspection returned to his side as the ant skittered off to ensure that everything in the factory was ready for spell production.

Niwla continued running until he reached Alwin.

"Alwin!" he squawked.

The slime simply kept snoring, cozied up under his thick woolly Mental blanket as the flames of the Mental Fireplace crackled with softness.

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"Alwin!" he squawked even louder.

He snored even louder.

"Oh, for Cor's sake! If you don't wake up right now, Alwin. I will slap you."

Not a peep.

"Oh, for Cor's sake!" Niwla said. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

He brought his feathery wing across Alwin's black cheek, squishing it as he slapped his face.

"Ouch!" Alwin cried out. "What was that for? I was awake, but you still slapped me. Liar!"

"No, you weren't, you were snoring."

"Yeah, but after that threat, I stopped snoring, which means that I was awake."

"That's… you know what, sure, I'm in the wrong again."

"Of course, you are."

"Yes, that's what I said. No time for arguments, Alwin. We've got a Tier 3 Tribulation incoming. We need everyone to be ready!"

"A what! Niwla, what did you do?"

"Nothing! Which appears to have been the problem."

Alwin sighed and shook his head. "Can't a slime just take a break after a hard week's work. Now, I have to bail you out. The things I do for the young and inexperienced ones."

Niwla rolled his eyes so hard he was sure that they almost rolled out of his sockets.

"Can we just go now?"

"Yes, little one," Alwin said, petting Niwla on the beak with his Mental Hands.

"Let's just go."

Niwla ran off and entered their shared mindscape, with Alwin rolling in right after. Not long later, Winal skittered in on all six of his legs, his fiery brow dripping with so much sweat that not even the flame could burn it away.

"Is everything ready?" Niwla asked.

Winal nodded.

"Why didn't you ask me?" Alwin whined.

Niwla ignored him.

"Rude," Alwin huffed.

The three of them looked outside into the real world. It was a sea of white once more, somehow even whiter than the pure white room that they were accustomed to. Even through the Ice Resistance Coat, Niwla shivered.

How!

He was naturally resistant to the cold.

The System Screens continued to flood the room with snow, yet the level never rose past eight inches.

So where was all of the snow going?

"Hey, what's that?" Alwin said.

"What's what?" Niwla asked, looking at the System Screens.

"That," Alwin said, hijacking the main body's control to lift up a wing and point at one of the System Screens.

It wasn't blowing out snow like the rest of the screens. An oddity for sure, but what was Alwin even referring to?

Then, he saw it. Bits of orange, black, and brown would occasionally pop out from the screen, falling into the snow. It sank within the white softness, never to be seen again.

Cor!

There was something else flowing within the snow.

What was it? Some sort of Tribulation Beast, like White Tiger or that Fire Ant that Fire summoned.

And where in glacier was Ice?

A sudden chill ran up his spine, and Niwla turned.

Sitting on a throne made completely out of ice was the Tribulation Being, himself, Ice. A pair of sunglasses over his ice cube head. He brought a frosty finger to the side, tilting it down low enough for them to catch a glimpse of the eye carved into its head. Ice shook his head, lips pursed together, before disappearing in the wind.

What was that about?

Not even a friendly little hello or a warning about what's to come? Did they not care about him being an anomaly anymore? Or they did.

Winal hadn't managed to solve the Devolution miscommunication issue with the Tribulation Beings during the last Tribulation.

Inside their mindscape, Niwla turned around to face his other selves.

Able to sense what he was thinking, based on the way his beak curved and his bird eyes narrowed into slits, the ant shook its head.

Next to him, the slime vigorously nodded. His jelly-like folds jiggled, making an uncomfortable squishing sound with each nod.

Great. Alwin had done Alwin things when he let Winal take control of the Tribulation.

"Sorry, Niwla."

"Like I said, WInal. It's not your fault."

"I wanted to tell you, but…"

"I know. It can be scary to own up to your mistakes. I just hope that next time you're comfortable enough to tell me."

"I'll try," he signed with his legs. "Can I help in any way?"

"There's nothing I can think of right now. But if you can think of anything, then sure, go ahead."

"What about me? I have an idea," Alwin said.

Without even saying a word, Winal walked up to Alwin, scooped the slime up in his flaming and electrifying legs, and used his other two legs to wrap his mouth shut.

"Thanks for the help," Niwla said.

Winal nodded, smiling since he lacked the legs to even sign.

Turning back to the real world, Niwla continued to observe the System Screens for any additional anomalies. There was nothing but snow, snow, and more snow, with the occasional black, orange, and brown bits popping out from that one singular System Screen.

Seriously. What was it doing?

What was Ice doing to them?

It wasn't going to be another one of those survive the elements challenge. Was it?

Niwla looked down at the floor, searching for any signs of movement. The snow below the door shifted, sinking. Then more and more and more pockets of snow were created, spreading like ripples. Something was coming.

He clenched his talons, ready to react at the flap of a wing.

They appeared. A whole swarm of them.

Three perfect spheres of snow in increasing sizes. Thin sticks of wood attached to the middle piece acted as arms, while three black dots ran down its chest. Even more black dots formed wide, hollow eyes and a crooked smile. The finishing piece, a carrot for a nose.

Snowmen.

The Tribulation was attacking them with snowmen.

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