Deep Sea Lily

**Deep Sea Lily** is the fiftieth installment in *silylily - The Story*.

Following the format of Camp Lily and Lily's Mansion, Deep Sea Lily introduced a significantly darker storyline while incorporating comics and video clips along with the regular posts. While the story was more demanding to create than the two before it, it suffered from many rewrites, delays, and low viewership. It still garnered praise for its engaging plot and its moments of humor.

## Summary

### A Dangerous Mission

Merli wakes Lily up in a metal chamber where they are surrounded by sixteen others. Cocorobo and kokone excitedly greet Lily while miki makes sure Yuki is okay. Lily then reunites with Acme Iku, who she is surprised to see survived the plant monster attack. Macne Coco Black finds the antics of Oliver and Mayu annoying, the former always talking to his bird James and the latter being obsessed with death. Yukari, flower, Meiko, Tako Luka, and Uni are also confused as to why they are there, but Lily is glad to see Gumi and Ryuto have joined her, having been taken from their tour.

Prima then appears in front of the group and introduces herself. She explains that they have all been brought to an undersea vessel in the abyssal plain. She also explains that they have been gathered to find the ancient artifact, VY1, created by the goddess LUMi. They are to find it before Merli's sister, the "good fairy" Lapis, who is residing in an undersea castle with her minions Suzune Ring, Namine Ritsu, and Violet. Prima grants the eighteen (plus James) team members the ability to function underwater before giving Lily VY2, a sword also forged by LUMi. Prima leaves Lily in charge before disappearing and sending the group into the depths. She also mentions that they may meet a presence named Solaria, but does not elaborate on who it is.

Meanwhile, in Lapis' kingdom, Lapis senses Merli's presence and sends Ring out to hunt her. Upon hearing that Lily is likely with Merli, Ritsu shows reluctance to move forward with the plan. Back with the others, Merli flies ahead to evaluate the area. The others then hear a sound that Iku goes to investigate. She is then eaten by a giant anglerfish that attacks the group. In the chaos, the seventeen are split into five separate groups. Cocorobo grabs Lily and flies off with her, kokone and Iroha following them. Mayu, Yukari, Meiko, and flower run off together while Gumi tries to find Lily. miki grabs Gumi and pulls her away as they escape with Tako Luka and Uni. Coco Black also gets away with Oliver and Ryuto, who she is greatly annoyed by. Yuki is left on her own without a team.

### Split into Teams

In the first group, Iroha and Lily consistently argue. Despite this, kokone swears to Lily that she will never leave her side. Elsewhere, Uni's group is chased by a giant fish, Oliver and Ryuto annoy Coco Black, and Yukari confides distrust in Mayu to the rest of her group. flower returns the distrust to Yukari, despising her former friend for abandoning the punk life and becoming a police officer. They argue until Meiko separates them. Meanwhile, holding Kiyoteru's glasses, Yuki swears to avenge his death by killing Lapis.

After a day of traveling, the groups decide to take a rest. James is able to provide fish for Oliver's group while miki and Gumi bond in their own. miki expresses regret for losing sight of Yuki and describes her need to take care of Yuki after Kiyoteru's death. Gumi relates to this by acknowledging how protective she can be over Lily. She also regrets ever leaving Lily to go on tour. Eventually, miki takes watch as Uni, Tako Luka, and Gumi go to sleep. She later hears the voice of Yuki calling out to her. Elsewhere, Coco Black, Oliver, and Ryuto reach a dangerous stretch of sand that Oliver warns will suck anyone into it. Fed up with her groupmates, Coco Black storms off and is consumed by the sand. Back in her own group, miki follows the voice of Yuki screaming for help until she is ambushed by Ring, who has been mimicking Yuki's voice. Both groups are left with one less member.

While traveling, Yukari, Meiko, Mayu, and flower are chased by Ritsu in a mini submarine. Mayu trips Yukari, causing her to be captured. The diversion allows the other three to escape, but Meiko and flower reprimand Mayu for such an action. Meanwhile, Lily's group is attacked by hungry fish. She fights using VY2 while Iroha tries to show her up by clawing the fish like a cat. They argue, which disheartens kokone, who is used to seeing Lily get ahead of herself. Not too far off, Yuki comes across a sunken ship. She investigates it, but is attacked by Ring. Ring chases Yuki to the deck, but a beam of light is fired at the demon. Ring is obliterated as Solaria appears, telling Yuki that one favor has been granted and two remain.

### Finding VY1

Uni, Tako Luka, and Gumi are attacked by a vampire squid. Tako Luka tries to reason with it, but more hungry fish show up. Tako Luka fights them and allows Gumi and Uni to escape. The two take cover, but Uni is grabbed and pulled away by the fish. Gumi is left as the only remaining member in her group. Meanwhile, Lily's group comes across an ancient ruin. There, Lily finds VY1, but she is attacked by Lapis. Merli shows up to fight her sister, letting Lily snatch the hairpin. However, Violet shows up to ambush Lily. Using her vacuum abilities, Cocorobo flies over Lily and grabs VY1, sailing off with it. Lapis and Violet leave the fight to pursue her. When they catch Cocorobo, they find that she no longer has VY1. Violet takes her to the underwater castle while Lapis searches for it. It turns out that James flew off with VY1. He brings it to Oliver and Ryuto, but the three of them are eaten by a passing fish. VY1 is then sent adrift once again.

Just as Lily, Merli, kokone, and Iroha set out from the ruins, they are attacked by the same swarm of fish that attacked Gumi. Yuki sees them fighting from afar, but she is caught by Lapis and Violet before she can reunite with them. Gumi also comes across the lost VY1. Elsewhere, while Meiko and flower are resting, Mayu meets up with Ritsu and offers to betray her group. She later leads the two to the sunken ship. There, Ritsu is able to capture Meiko. flower grabs a steel pipe and battles Mayu with it, who fights back using an ax. They battle to the deck of the ship, but Mayu jumps overboard and disappears. flower is left alone with Mayu still on the prowl.

### Coming Together

Merli, kokone, Iroha, and Lily settle down and tell each other stories to lighten the mood. Lily recounts an unflattering story about her and kokone, embarrassing kokone and causing her to walk away from the group. She is then grabbed from behind by Violet just before Lapis attacks the others. Merli fights her sister and Lily attempts to join in, but Iroha grabs Lily's hand and runs off with her, believing the fight to be futile. After Violet joins the battle, Merli is defeated and captured by the good fairies. Meanwhile, Ritsu and Mayu catch up to Gumi, demanding she hand over VY1. Solaria appears to grant a "second favor" and teleports VY1 away. She allows Gumi to be captured for her own safety, then she brings VY1 to flower.

Solaria introduces herself as the goddess of the sun and explains how she believes flower will make the right decision with VY1. The bright light from her aura attracts Iroha and Lily to her location, but she leaves just before they reunite with flower. The three remaining heroes then set off to find Lapis. flower realizes she can shrink VY1 down to hairpin size, making it easy to hide. As the three set off, Lily annoys flower with jokes and continues to bicker with Iroha. Eventually, Lapis and Violet attack them from behind. Unable to fight back, the heroes are forced to flee. Iroha stays back to distract the attackers while flower and Lily run away. As they are left as the last two remaining, they set off to find Lapis once more, hoping to get the drop on her the second time around.

As flower and Lily walk through an undersea valley, Mayu stalks them from afar. She eventually ambushes them with her ax, knocking Lily over and battling flower's steel pipe. flower and Mayu battle to a chasm with many ravenous fish at the bottom. Lily takes aim and throws VY1, hitting Mayu with the hilt and knocking her into the chasm to be eaten. flower and Lily recover from the battle, but Ritsu, Lapis, and Violet show up to surround them. flower pushes Lily away and is captured before she can take VY1 out. Lily takes off running and eventually finds a cave with a glowing light inside.

### Meeting LUMi

Lily discovers the cave to be the dwelling of LUMi, meeting the water goddess face to face after going inside. LUMi, who is unable to interfere directly with fairies of good and evil, assists Lily by blessing her. She explains that the blessing will take effect when Lily can overcome disparity in a time of need. She then warns Lily that VY1 was made as an act of divine interference, meaning it can only work after accepting a sacrifice. Only a dedicated soul with a true desire to use the artifact may be accepted. The conversation is cut short when Lapis and Violet invade the cave, forcing Lily to hide while the fairies confront LUMi. Lapis chastises the goddess for failing to assist her in finding VY1, accusing her of letting evil triumph. LUMi rejects Lapis' idea of "goodness" and accuses her of being just as bad as the evil fairies. Declaring herself as the one who decides right from wrong, Lapis kills LUMi with a spell.

Lapis and Violet leave, allowing the mortified Lily to come out of hiding. She is then joined by Prima, who claims the creation of fairies was a flawed procedure. She tells Lily that the gods created good and bad fairies to dictate right and wrong, but gave the fairies too much power. Prima then decides to tell Lily who she is. She refers to herself as an "advisor" to the gods, sent to watch a special person on Earth. When Lapis targeted Lily due to her connection with Merli, Prima was tasked with watching over Lily. With her limited power, she guided Lily forward in the best way she could. She says there is nothing more she can do apart from walk Lily to Lapis' castle to save her friends. After motivating the vocaloid, the two of them set off together.

### Dark kokone

As Lily and Prima head for Lapis' castle, Lily cannot stop thinking about the sacrifice. Meanwhile, the reluctant Ritsu looks out at the ocean from the castle balcony. She reflects on her actions and shows regret for ever turning against Lily. She sings the song ERROR to herself while Lily sings it at the same time while walking with Prima. When Ritsu heads back inside, she mentions to Lapis that Lily is not among the thirteen prisoners. Lapis is suspicious that Ritsu failed to capture Lily due to a personal bias toward her, but she does not dwell on it for long. Not wanting to fight Lily while she possesses VY2, Lapis comes up with a plan to catch her off-guard.

Lapis heads to the dungeon where kokone is strapped down. Using magic, she convinces a resistant kokone to betray Lily. Ritsu listens in from outside the door and is unsettled by Lapis' aggressive methods. kokone fights Lapis' attempts to warp her mind, but Lapis finally gets through to her by insisting Lily does not like her. She fills kokone's mind with negative memories, claiming Lily only dragged her everywhere because she was easy to push around. She insists that Lily hates kokone and does not care about her feelings. After reliving some of her worst memories with her, kokone's eyes turn red and she agrees to kill Lily.

Shortly afterwards, Prima and Lily arrive at the castle. Prima grants Lily a safe entry before the two go their separate ways. Lily walks through the seemingly empty kingdom until spotting someone who looks like kokone. She follows her to a dark room, but kokone seems to be ignoring her. Only when it is too late does Lily realize something is off about her friend.

### The Kingdom Falls

kokone attacks Lily, but the latter refuses to fight back. Lily tries to get through to her companion, but kokone continually wails on her. Elsewhere, Ritsu is visited by Prima, who tells her the time has come. At the same time, Lily is beaten to the ground by kokone and unable to get back up. kokone retrieves a trident and prepares to finish her off. She insists that Lily never liked her and only enjoyed pushing her around. Lily denies this, calling kokone her best and most loyal friend. Only after Lily tells kokone she loves her, kokone starts to remember the good times they shared. After thinking it over and remembering what Lily means to her, kokone drops the trident and embraces Lily, turning back to normal.

Reunited, Lily and kokone set out to find the others, but they are stopped by Ritsu, who claims they are going the wrong way. She deliberately drops a key to the correct passageway, then leaves to distract Lapis and Violet after Lily thanks her. Ritsu locks Violet in a magic-sealing iron maiden before going to keep Lapis occupied with a lengthy conversation. This allows Lily and kokone to find everyone else, eventually reuniting the entire group sans Oliver and Ryuto. Shortly afterwards, Violet escapes from the iron maiden and tells Lapis what Ritsu did. Lapis brands Ritsu a traitor and prepares to kill her. Accepting her fate, Ritsu disses Lapis as a poor excuse for a "good" fairy and wishes Lily luck before being killed.

With everyone free, Lily and the others destroy Lapis' castle from the inside. Soon, Oliver and Ryuto arrive on the fish that formerly ate them, calling it "Augustus." When the castle begins to collapse, the others head outside to board the fish and swim away. However, Lily discovers VY2 has been stolen just before miki notices that Yuki is missing. Lily realizes that Yuki went back inside with VY2 to seek revenge on Lapis. Frantically, Lily runs in after her.

### Facing Lapis

With VY2, Yuki sneaks through the crumbling castle to find Lapis. Lily searches for her, but is eventually confronted by Lapis from atop a balcony. Lapis tells Lily that Ritsu is dead before the two argue over morality. Before Lapis can shoot a deathly spell at Lily, Yuki stabs her from behind with VY2. Lapis is killed by the magic sword before falling over the balcony and crashing into the floor. Having taken the life of a fairy, VY2 disintegrates before Lily grabs Yuki and escapes with her. Along with their teammates, they flee on Augustus as the castle falls behind them.

Lily explains what happened, causing Merli to sulk over her sister's death. flower, who still has VY1, notes that they no longer have to use it. The group then returns to the undersea chamber they started in, but they find Prima waiting there with dire news. She explains that Violet now seeks revenge and has taken control of the fish. With fairy magic being limited and VY2's disintegration, Lapis states that the only way to defeat Violet is for someone to make the sacrifice needed to open VY1's magic-sealing sanctum. After she describes the qualifications for the sacrifice, Gumi is certain that she is the one meant to make it. Having abandoned Lily to go on her tour, and feeling strongly toward Lily in the first place, Gumi believes she is meant to make the sacrifice to save Lily from Violet. Before further discussion can be had, the vengeful Violet shows up and sends an army of fish to attack the group.

### The Sacrifice

The group makes its way to a cave, fighting fish along the way. Inside, Gumi volunteers herself to make the sacrifice. She believes she was taken from her tour to help save Lily, but when she attempts to sacrifice herself, VY1 does not accept her. Merli then steps forward and declares herself as the sacrifice, the only one powerful enough to make VY1 work. She tells Lily that she and Prima agreed to this before the start of the adventure, with Merli determined to save Lily from the good fairies by any means necessary. After a tearful goodbye and reflection on the legacy she will leave behind despite being "evil," Merli puts VY1 in her hair and dies. This is enough to open the rift to the magic-sealing sanctum.

Prima explains that the sanctum must be closed once Violet is inside. This is done by sticking VY1 into the sand. The group then discusses a course of action for reaching Violet, but when Lily cannot think of anything, Iroha sasses her. Lily then recalls the blessing given to her by LUMi. She remembers that it can only be activated when she overcomes disparity in a time of need. She tells this to the others before running off with Iroha to face Violet.

### The Final Battle

Those who formerly argued work together to fight through an army of fish, allowing Lily and Iroha to reach Violet. They attack her, but she is easily able to fend them off before blasting them into a crater. Soon after, Lily's blessing takes hold as she and Iroha morph together to form "Rio." With their newfound powers, they are able to properly battle Violet and expend her energy. When the blessing wears off, Violet tackles Lily, then the two wrestle over to the open rift. Lily calls to kokone, who is near VY1, and demands that she use it to close the rift with her inside. kokone refuses, but Lily convinces her to, mentioning it as the price she must pay for getting everyone into such a mess.

Breaking down, kokone declares her love for Lily before stabbing VY1 into the ground. This closes the rift, sealing Lily and Violet inside. Having defeated Violet, but lost Lily, everyone begins to cry until Solaria shows up. Solaria mentions that she still owes them one favor, so she brings Lily back by revealing to have teleported her away just before the rift shut. Solaria bids farewell and disappears while the others have a tearful reunion. Prima then arrives to send everyone back to their vessel and return to the surface.

Everyone boards the vessel, which then rises to the surface of the ocean. They all exit and silently watch the sunset. Soon, they all begin to cry as they look out on the horizon.

## Characters

* Lily from anim.o.v.e
* Merli *(Death)*
* Cocorobo
* kokone
* SF-A2 miki
* Kaai Yuki
* Acme Iku *(Death)*
* Nekomura Iroha
* Macne Coco Black *(Debut)*
* Oliver *(Debut)*
* James *(Debut)*
* MAYU *(Death)*
* Yuzuki Yukari
* flower
* Meiko
* Tako Luka
* Uni
* Ryuto
* Gumi
* Prima
* LUMi *(Death)*
* Aoki Lapis
* Namine Ritsu *(Death)*
* Violet
* Suzune Ring *(Death)*
* Solaria *(Debut)*
* Augustus *(Debut)*

## Conceptualization

### Creation

Deep Sea Lily initially came as a result of the chaotic creation of the comic before it. Following the dark turn at the end of Merli Teaches Lily to be Evil, silylilyanimove's admin struggled to continue the story while also incorporating humor into it. Their initial idea was to create a Halloween special where the ghost of Hiyama Kiyoteru would haunt Lily, Merli, Nekomura Iroha, and Kaai Yuki. This would spiral into a story arc where the four in question, along with Mayu and Sukone Tei, would go on a quest to find LUMi and VY1. The Halloween special went through many rewrites, some comic pages even being made, but silylilyanimove's admin had a hard time creating humor during such a serious plot. Given the poor reception of Merli Teaches Lily to be Evil, which had a mostly humorless plot, the admin did not want to push the series into further decline.

Eventually, the initial Halloween special was scrapped and replaced with A Vocaloid Halloween, which took place during season one and introduced Prima, who would become a key player in the series direction. At the same time, the series fell into a long hiatus that lasted nearly eight months. The admin pursued other interests and paid little attention to silylilyanimove or its ongoing story. Eventually, after being motivated by a friend to return to it, they began planning the series' continuation. Having developed a particular interest in the Bionicle franchise, the admin considered creating an ARG inspired by its Mahri Nui storyline. To lead into this, they wrote Lily Gets Sick, but once again had trouble writing humor into it.

Later, due to recent changes in Twitter's algorithm that affected silylilyanimove, the admin wrote a comic in place of Lily Gets Sick to criticize this. In the same comic, they were able to move the story from its current plot into what would become Deep Sea Lily. The admin developed a "cast wishlist" and wrote a story around it. The original plot was especially dark and featured several character deaths, as well as heavier themes than the usual comics. It was intended to be a "soft reboot" of silylily - The Story, keeping the same continuity but ending the conflict with Aoki Lapis as the antagonist.

### Delays

Deep Sea Lily was set to begin in June of 2023. As with Camp Lily and Lily's Mansion, the cast would be decided by Twitter users who made suggestions on a "recruitment post." The plot would be adjusted to account for whoever Twitter selected, though Lily, Merli, Cocorobo, Iroha, and kokone were guaranteed spots. During the same week the recruitment post was meant to go up, the OceanGate implosion occurred. Feeling it would be distasteful to host an undersea adventure so soon afterwards, silylilyanimove chose to delay the event.

On June 29th, the recruitment post went up, but silylilyanimove's admin still intended to delay Deep Sea Lily until the OceanGate incident blew over. They chose to use the time in between to write the story, as well as create clips and images for its first cycle. However, the recruitment process did not go as planned. The majority of suggestions were unqualified to partake in it, either due to issues with the character or because of where they stood in the current lore. Many of them were also unexpected and drastically differed from the ones on silylilyanimove's wishlist. Due to this, Deep Sea Lily faced a picky cast selection.

Not wanting to change the original story too much, the admin added Yuki as a guaranteed character, but did not add the other projected cast members to avoid making the cast too large. This led to a lot of rewriting and changes to story arcs. It took longer to write than expected and the admin was unsure of several plot decisions, but eventually, a teaser was released on September 7th. It only received nine likes, making the admin reluctant to begin. It was further delayed with more changes being added, but the first cycle was finally posted on October 7th.

### Reception

The title post received over eleven thousand views. The opening video clip to start the story, however, only received just under 700. Despite its minimal audience, Deep Sea Lily received praise for its story and engaging premise. Humorous scenes were taken out of context and reposted on Tumblr, receiving praise of their own. As the series went on, viewership and engagement started to decline, eventually reaching noticeably low levels. As silylilyanimove garnered new followers from other posts, the series was halted to avoid overwhelming newcomers to the account. When it continued, its interest was low, but silylilyanimove managed to finish it. While unpopular, it was still enjoyed by those who followed along.

## Gallery

### Opening Clips

* https://twitter.com/i/status/1710710118839463956
* https://twitter.com/i/status/1710710273382682901

### Images

Meanwhile, in her undersea kingdom, Lapis speaks with her minions.Back with the heroes, Merli flies ahead to survey the area. The others talk and make note of the surroundings.Uni: Wait. I think I heard something.
Everyone pauses, listening for what Uni could’ve heard.
Lily: kokone, stay close to me.
miki: Yuki, stay close to me.
Coco Black: Everyone, get away from me.
In the distance, the sound of something big can be heard moving through the water.Iku: No worries, I got this!
Meiko: Iku, wait!
Iku hurries over to see what could be making the sound.Everyone else stands back, watching and waiting to see what will happen.Iku: Hahaha, nothing to worry about! See? It’s just this little fish! I told you, it’s…Uh? Why are you all staring at me like that?The gargantuan anglerfish lunges forward and devours Iku in a single chomp.It then dashes for the rest of the group as they all scream and run in different directions.In the scuffle, the team is forced to split up as they all run away from the insurmountable opponent.As they flee the fight, the heroes are split into five separate groups. They must now endure the ocean with the people they are stuck with. But not all of them were able to find groups of their own…Cycle 1 is over. 17 remain.Now alone, the groups are forced to put up with whoever they wound up with. It’s harder for some than others.Alone, without a team of her own, Yuki travels through the endless ocean while reflecting on her true goal. She is more determined than anyone else to take Lapis down.While traversing the ocean, the individual groups bond in their own unique ways, but misfortune befalls two of them.As Yukari’s group moves along, they come to a halt when they hear a sudden sound.They look around while from afar, Ritsu watches from a specialized submarine.The group notices Ritsu and makes a run for it while they are chased.While running, a cackling Mayu decides to trip Yukari, causing a diversion and allowing the rest of the group to get away.After taking cover, flower and Meiko yell at Mayu for her action, but she shows no remorse.In Lily’s group, the leader slashes a group of aggressive fish with VY2. Iroha tries to outdo her by using her claws (nails). They argue over who can outdo the other.Traversing through the ocean alone, Yuki stumbles across the wreckage of a sunken ship.Out of curiosity, she decides to explore it.She looks around, but it soon becomes apparent she is not alone.As Yuki searches for something useful, someone sneaks up behind her. She pauses when she senses a presence, but doesn’t see anyone in the room. Just as she starts to continue on her way, she hears a loud creak behind her. This prompts her to turn back around in the empty room.The spirit known as Suzune Ring appears, startling Yuki before chasing her throughout the ship.Ring chases Yuki to the deck, but a bright shining light appears in front of them.Yuki ducks as a beam of energy is fired toward her. It strikes Ring and causes the spirit to disintegrate.Yuki looks up to see someone floating in the water above her.The second cycle is complete. 14 remain.While traveling, Uni’s group encounters a giant vampire squid.They try to flee while Tako Luka attempts to reason with it, but reinforcements show up and surround them.Tako Luka tries to fend them off, giving time for Uni and Gumi to escape.Once they reach safety, they stop to catch their breath, but Uni is abruptly pulled into the darkness. Gumi is forced to flee, having become the last of her group.After tireless traveling, Lily’s group stumbles across what appear to be ancient ruins. Expecting to find something, they head inside.
### The Struggle for VY1

* https://twitter.com/silylilyanimove/status/1712888712860704955

### Images (Continued)

By the time Lapis and Violet catch up to Cocorobo, they find that she no longer has VY1.Meanwhile, James flies over to Oliver with VY1, having obtained it from Cocorobo.However, the two of them and Ryuto are quickly eaten by a passing fish, causing VY1 to fall adrift again.As Lily's group leaves the ruins, they are attacked by a swarm of fish. Yuki sees them from afar, but is unable to get their attention.Once she turns around, she sees Lapis and Violet ready to attack.Meanwhile, the lone Gumi stumbles across the fallen VY1.While Meiko and flower are resting, Mayu sneaks away and encounters Ritsu. The two hold a discussion and Mayu agrees to betray the group.Later, Mayu guides the group to the sunken ship.She creates a distraction that allows Ritsu to ambush Meiko from behind.Mayu attacks flower, who grabs a pipe from the ship to defend herself with. Mayu uses her personal ax to fight back.Ritsu flees with Meiko while flower and Mayu battle across the ship.The fight goes on until Mayu leaps over the side and disappears, leaving flower alone for the time being.The third cycle is complete. 7 remain.Under the light of a jellyfish, Lily’s group settles down and they each tell funny stories.When one of Lily’s stories gets a little too personal for kokone, she gets up to go for a walk.Kokone is abruptly snatched away by Violet before Lapis launches an attack on the group.Merli fights Lapis and Lily attempts to join in, but Iroha grabs Lily’s hand and runs off with her, fearing they cannot win.When Violet joins the fight, Merli is quickly overwhelmed and taken down. She is forced to surrender, leaving Lily and Iroha on their own.Meanwhile, Mayu and Ritsu corner Gumi, demanding she hand over VY1.However, an unexpected visitor shows up.VY1 appears in the hands of flower. Solaria then appears to flower and explains what has happened.Her glowing aura attracts Iroha and Lily to her location, but she quickly leaves and allows the three to reunite.With VY1 in hand, Iroha, flower, and Lily set off to find Lapis’ castle so they can trap her inside it. flower realizes she can shrink VY1 down to hairpin size, making it easy to hide.Just as the heroes grow close to the castle, Lapis and Violet show up to attack.Iroha strikes with her claws, creating a diversion and shouting for the others to flee. flower and Lily run away as Iroha is overwhelmed, but the distraction is a success.Now alone as the last two heroes remaining, flower and Lily make conversation as they walk.From afar, Mayu watches them with her ax at the ready.Mayu leaps in and attacks, causing both Lily and flower to fight back.Lily is knocked away from the fight, but flower and Mayu continue to battle until they reach a chasm with many ravenous fish at the bottom.Only able to watch from afar, Lily takes aim and throws VY2 over to Mayu.The hilt hits her and throws off her balance, causing her to fall into the chasm.She cackles loudly before she is devoured.It turns out that Mayu was only the beginning. After flower helps Lily up, Lapis, Ritsu, and Violet emerge from all sides and surround the two.flower shoves Lily away, surrendering herself but allowing Lily to escape. She is seized before she can use VY1, but she does not mention having it.Lily does not stop running until she finds a cave to take shelter in.For some reason, there is a bright glowing light coming from inside.The fourth cycle is complete. 1 remains.
### Meeting LUMi

* https://twitter.com/silylilyanimove/status/1714977769711387027
* https://twitter.com/silylilyanimove/status/1714977899869036958

### Images (Continued)

Act 1 CompleteLily and Prima venture toward Lapis' castle. As they go, the words of LUMi weigh heavy on Lily's mind.Ritsu heads out to the balcony to reflect on everything.She regrets that Lily and her are on opposing sides, but knows she can't go against the side of "good."Lost, she starts to sing. Elsewhere, as Lily and Prima head to the castle, Lily sings the same song to calm her nerves.
### The Indoctrination of kokone

* https://twitter.com/silylilyanimove/status/1716989500985864463

### Images (Continued)

Lily and Prima finally arrive at the castle. They say their farewells before Prima sends Lily inside.Lily is able to enter, ready to take Lapis on once and for all, but it doesn't take her long to spot familiar presence.Lily follows who she believes to be kokone into a dark chamber, but soon realizes something is very wrong.The sixth cycle is complete.kokone springs at Lily and attacks her.Confusedly, Lily tries to get through to her, but refuses to fight back as her dear friend pummels her.Meanwhile, Ritsu receives a guest.Still refusing to fight back, Lily is unable to stop kokone from ruthlessly bringing her down. When Lily is on the ground and struggling to get back up, kokone grabs a nearby trident to finish the job.
### kokone Remembers

* https://twitter.com/silylilyanimove/status/1731062650199556258

### Images (Continued)

Reunited, Lily and kokone set off to find the others, but they are suddenly stopped by Ritsu. Then something happens.Ritsu provides a distraction for Lapis. This allows Lily and kokone to find and save everyone else.After a long period of distracting, the group is reunited, but nobody knows where Oliver or Ryuto are.Eventually, Violet breaks out of the dungeon and runs to confront Lapis, who is still being distracted.When she tells Lapis what happened, they realize Ritsu is a traitor.Ritsu makes peace with her fate as Lapis does what she believes is the right thing to do.Soon, a large rumble shakes the castle. It turns out to be Oliver and Ryuto piloting the very fish that formerly ate them.It batters into the kingdom while the heroes destroy it from the inside with their own special abilities.Soon, it begins to collapse.The heroes board the giant fish to make a getaway, but Lily notices someone has swiped VY2 from her.miki then cries out when she notices Yuki is also missing.They realize Yuki has taken VY2 and ran back inside to hunt Lapis, so Lily hurries in after her.The seventh cycle is complete.Having stolen VY2, Yuki skulks through the crumbling kingdom. She is determined to find Lapis and have her ultimate revenge.Lily runs in to find her, but isn't sure where to look.When Lily reaches the main room, she hears the voice of Lapis from a balcony.
### The Death of Lapis

* https://twitter.com/silylilyanimove/status/1732535396888707158

### Images (Continued)

Having taken the life of a fairy, VY2 disintegrates in Yuki's hands.Feeling a mixed range of emotions after what she witnessed, Lily runs over to pull Yuki out of the castle.It continues to fall as they hurry to the exit.Lily and Yuki escape just before the castle collapses entirely. They are able to board the fish and swim away with the others.When things finally settle for the first time, Lily explains what happened.The conversation ends when a furious and vengeful Violet appears in the distance. Countless angry fish appear as an army under her command. Lily's group is forced to fight back.Cycle 8 is complete.When everyone fights their way to a safe zone, they decide to open VY1 once and for all. Someone steps forward to make the ultimate sacrifice.
### Merli's Sacrifice

* https://twitter.com/silylilyanimove/status/1739497330913468592

### Images (Continued)

With the rift to the sanctum open, the group needs to decide how they are going to get Violet into it. Coming together, now more determined than ever to succeed, they formulate a plan. Prima explains that the rift must be physically closed to seal Violet in.Lily recalls that she needs to "overcome disparity" for her blessing to work. Realizing what this means, she asks Iroha to come with her. When the plan is put into action, Lily and Iroha run ahead while the others fight through the fish, giving them a clear path to reach Violet.Cycle 9 is complete. To be concluded.Lily and Iroha make their final sprint while the others fight the fish. Those who argued throughout the adventure work together to fight the fish.At last, Lily and Iroha reach Violet.They then launch their attack on her, doing their best.Violet turns out to be far too powerful.She fends Lily and Iroha off before blasting them with a spell that sends them flying into the sand. When they don't reemerge, everyone stops fighting to look on in horror.But soon enough, Lily and Iroha emerge from the crater, having merged together to become "Rio.""Rio" is able to bring Violet down, causing her to expend her energy on them.The spell wears off, returning Lily and Iroha to normal.With Violet weakened, Lily goes to throw her into the rift, but she pulls out her last bit of strength and fights back.Grappling with Violet, Lily wrestles her over to the rift. She knows if she goes any farther, she'll get sucked in along with her.Knowing it still needs to be done, Lily shouts for kokone to close the rift once she enters it.Tearfully, kokone slams VY1 into the ground and closes the rift, sealing Lily and Violet inside for eternity.The enemy is defeated, but at the cost of everyone's dear friend.Suddenly, an unexpected guest brings one final surprise.With nothing more to do, Prima arrives one last time to congratulate everyone on a successful mission. They all return to their metal vessel, which brings them back to the surface.
### Returning to the Surface

* https://twitter.com/silylilyanimove/status/1740060163602846018

## Trivia

* The entire main cast was initially revealed in a preview.
	+ Lily, kokone, Merli, Iroha, and LUMi were revealed to be early members of the cast in a promotional image for the special.
* The title is a reference to the popular n-buna song *Tale of the Deep-sea Lily*.