Rei was lying on the ranger station's chair like a sad sack of wet sand. She had no idea about what 'Red Storm' had been doing for the last several minutes. The special agent probably wouldn't care about what she was doing, either, since she had been nothing but a literal burden that had to be carried for the last couple of miles of their travel.

A "sorry" almost escaped Rei's lips again, when the door creaked behind her. But she didn't, because she caught sight of the assault rifle hoisted on that backpack.

It was mundane, and not that huge. At least compared to the sleek, futuristic ones that were on display in Planeptune's tech expos. But mundane firearms still shot bullets, and she had no doubts that 'Red Storm' would be absolutely serious, when it came to firing it at...

"I may not be able to send back messages in the next few days," The woman's voice snapped her out of her daze. "But the ones I do record are all important. Please, send them to the base camp, according to the instructions written here."

'Red Storm' held up a piece of paper, before putting it down on the nearest table. Nodding, Rei skimmed through the lines, trying her best to concentrate because this was important business, and if she focused on reading, she wouldn't say anything stupid, even though the thought had been eating her alive since—

"W-Wait!"

The woman drew her gloved hand away from the door handle. She didn't look annoyed, just...calmly curious, like Rei had a legitimate question to ask or something. Oh, if only she was actually too dumb to understand the instructions, despite their perfect clarity. Even that was going to be less embarrassing.

"I shouldn't be wasting more of your time, but you know one of the girls that e-everyone's after, right? No, sorry, of course you do..."

"That is also in the instructions," 'Red Storm' replied. "If you see them around this ranger station, press that red emergency button on the radio. Reinforcement will arrive at once."

"T-That's not it. I've helped her, Lynka, for a while, and I probably shouldn't have done that, but..." Rei bit into her lips. "Are you g-going to hurt her, if you ran into them?"

"It depends." Her tone was carefully neutral, but her furrowed brows and tense posture said otherwise.

"That's just another way of saying...very likely, isn't it?"

A silent nod. If Rei's heart could beat any faster at this moment, she was a hundred percent sure that she was going to faint on the spot.

"I'm very very very sorry for everything I'm going to say after this point! I know, it's stupid, but I still think she is not a bad person, and even though you probably aren't gonna listen to me..." Rei took a deep breath, "Maybe you can try to not hurt her too horribly? T-To spare her, if you have the chance?"

"I believe your opinion about her."

The little spark of hope ignited by the reply was quickly smothered by the follow-up sentence. "I also believe that good people can be no less dangerous when they are desperate. Tell me, are you absolutely sure that she will extend the same favor to me? Will she spare a stranger who is armed and trying to stop her? Will her companion spare me?"

These words hit her like a bucket of cold water. Had she asked this question before the attack on Lowee's Basilicom, Rei might actually have enough confidence in her for a positive answer. Yet she couldn't. She couldn't hinge someone else's life on her foolish, foolish hope. So she kept her mouth shut, seeking her last refuge in the uncertainty of silence.

"Mere humans like me aren't in a position to spare these two. Even if I have the surprise factor, and unleash my most lethal attack options on them before they could react, if I fail, I will not live long enough to regret it."

Her next sentence was not spoken at a volume intended to be heard. Yet Rei heard it anyways, before 'Red Storm' turned, opened the door, and shut it behind her.

"And I am no less desperate than them right now."

Ancient Lowee folks wouldn't keep aggressive pets in underground wells, would they? They were only obsessed with building a well-defended plumbing system, or so the textbook said...

Tossing her leftover meal substitute aside (her captors had legitimately forgotten to bring back food, until she brought it up this afternoon), she stood up from the cell floor, a newfound determination burning in her chest.

Stepping back for a running start, she leaped towards the shiny glowing rock on top of the door frame. It was not embedded very tightly into the wall, and after a few grabs, the rock just fell off on its own.

Light source: Get.

She was careful to keep her body pressed to the corridor walls, as she made her way to the central hall on this level, the glowing rock now fastened to the end of her hoodie string. Granted, Verdna's own glow would negate her sad attempt at stealth, just by drifting closer to the shadows. But luck was on her side today, and the ghost must've been occupied with...whatever they were asking her to do in the lower levels.

There were still locks on some doors, unfortunately, and her Plan A—grabbing the rock that was crucial to their ritual, hiding it somewhere, and using it as a bargain chip for their release—was over before it could even begin.

Plan B was no less risky. It involved climbing down the rather deep well she was currently staring into, with no idea of what was at the bottom. Other than water, since the pebble she threw inside did make a splashing noise. Her very sensible reservation quickly dissipated, however, when she remembered the almost motherly concern in the ghost's voice, while she was still immobilized.

Even if getting Verdna's amulet out of the well wouldn't increase the chance of a rescue by much, she had to do something to repay the woman.

The diameter of the well was narrow. She could barely straighten her arms, once she leaned back against its wall, and let go of her grip on the well's edge. The slippery texture of the bricks made every step downwards a perilous move, however, and the agony that shot through her left arm whenever she put her weight on the limb almost caused her to cry out.

Patience. Patience is the key. You've been through worse pain in the past few days. Keep a cool head, and you'll eventually reach solid ground.

Halfway down—more specifically, where she felt like she should be halfway down the well, she was praying to whatever patron being of this crumbling underground structure with a desperate fervency. That she wouldn't step right into a nest of writhing snakes at the bottom. Or something worse.

After what seemed like an eternity of rubbing her elbows raw against the stone bricks, feeling the moisture in between the cracks soaking the clothes on her back, she finally heard a squishy sound under the tip of her boots, followed by the welcoming sensation of solid ground under a thick layer of mud.

As she slowly straightened her back and crouched down, she couldn't help but shiver at the freezing chill of the sludge, going well over her ankles and seeping into her boots. Under the faint light from the glowing rock on her hoodie string, there was only black, slimy mud, with nothing shiny in sight.

She was scowling even harder when she activated her vision, and saw a glint of gold...lying inside the well wall.

She knelt down, pressing her palm against the surface of the mud, reaching her hand all the way towards the bottom. The cold water was making her skin go numb, but before long, she felt the edge of an opening. A hole, submerged entirely in the sludge. Must be the mouth of a small spring. No wonder there was still water in this well.

...Annnnd geography itself decided to make life harder than necessary for her today.

Sighing, she bent down even lower, until her face was almost touching the water. Her left arm outstretched, she raked through the mud with her fingers, fumbling for that little cross of gold in her enhanced vision—

The moment the dark blue mist flared up, engulfing the golden aura, she pulled her hand back. It was a second too late.

A hand gripped her wrist. She screamed out loud at that unnatural chill, all too vivid and familiar, and bolted up with all of her strength. It only ended up yanking the shadowy humanoid out of the mud, still clinging onto her arm. No no no, it couldn't be, why was this thing here—

In a split second, it crashed onto her, and she fell backwards. The back of her head hit the well wall with a resounding bang, sending little stars flying all over her vision. Before she could even wince at the pain, long, frigid fingers reached out and clutched her neck, squeezing harder and harder—

Writhing and thrashing, She clawed blindly at the shadowy being. Its inky body had the consistency of glue, and seemed to be sucking her fingers in. It wasn't letting go. Against her best efforts, her struggles had faded into weak twitches, drowned out by the burning desire to breathe.

Was this how she would...no, not here, alone and scared out of her mind...

She should've asked Verdna first, but if she did, she wouldn't have been down here in the first place, would she—

If only...she still...had her WEAPON!

A streak of gold flashed across her rapidly darkening vision. There was a shriek, and the pressure on her neck vanished in an instant. She was too busy gasping and coughing and curling up in a ball to figure out why, but she vaguely remembered flinging her right arm towards the thing, after the freezing sensation of the liquid on her face had brought some clarity into her mind.

Yeah. It just dissolved right on top of her, and it tasted like ink. Gosh, she hoped it wasn't poisonous.

"What the heck..." She coughed, again, as she propped herself up against the well wall, and spewed out the mouthful of ink, "...did I just do?"

"What in the world have you been doing, young lady?!"

Right after the loud yell, Verdna's glowing ghostly form zoomed down the narrow opening, and was staring straight into her eyes.

She should've gone with Verdna's offer to inform one of the two CPUs, and ask them to fish her out.

Unfortunately, her pride and lingering distrust had gotten the better of her, which was why she was currently collapsed on the central hall floor, coated from head to toe in mud and shadow...ink...substance, having exhausted the last bit of her strength climbing out of the well.

"Now that you are, hopefully, in a better state of mind, care to explain why you've been screaming down there?"

"...I've run into some really freaky thing."

"Allow me to make my inquiry more specific. Why on earth would you climb into a well, where said unspecified 'freaky thing' resides, against all sensible judgements?" Verdna leaned closer, "Is 'not climbing down a dark well in ancient dungeons' missing from your basic survival instincts?"

"Your amulet. I was trying to grab it," She said. "So you'd be able to drift to the ground level, maybe run into someone. But..."

"What is it?"

"To be perfectly honest, I just wanted to do something to repay you." She squeezed out a sheepish smile. "For looking after me in the past few days."

"Alright. I appreciate your desire to help," Verdna shook her head, after a long silence. "But you do realize that recklessly jeopardizing your own wellbeing is the exact opposite of—"

The ghost suddenly paused, with a wistful look in her eyes.

"Hello?"

"Oh. I'm just getting some strong feelings of Déjà vu from this conversation." Verdna shook her head, again. "Down to the exact words. It is of no surprise, really. Your lack of self-preservation instincts is only surpassed by a certain Sosaria Wings."

"Huh," She frowned. She must've heard that name somewhere before, but when exactly?

"Oh, I'm sure you've heard of her before." Seeing her puzzlement, Verdna added, with a prideful look on her face, "It is quite hard for a PC Continent native to go about their days, without coming into contact with the Britannia Guild."

"Uh-huh." She nodded, like she actually recognized what Verdna was talking about. No matter how big a thing Guilds had been, they were a past tense after the last Resonance event, even though some magic-centric heroic agencies were carrying the torches...

Wait. Agencies.

"Before she became its leader, we were childhood friends," Verdna said. "Whatever shenanigans she'd been up to, I'm sure she is doing much better than me right now. Not that I've made many significant accomplishments prior to my death."

Oh. Now she remembered. Quite vividly. How Elizabeth, wearing that ominous black cape that came with her full Gold Form, announced I will be naming my heroic agency O-Wings, in honor of my late friend, Sosaria Wings, with the biggest shit-eating grin anyone had ever seen on her face—

On second thought, she'd rather not remember. The happy illusion that Verdna's best childhood friend was still out there somewhere, quietly missing her, wishing for the day of their reunion, was much more preferable to this horrific posthumous mockery.

"Why are you so pale all of a sudden?"

"Oh, uh, I'm really sorry," She finally managed to stutter out a reply, after a lot of nervous sweating. "But I think your friend, she is...no longer with us? It's all very unfortunate, I don't even know how she died, I, uh, just remembered this big funeral honoring her and stuff. Again, sorry for your losses. I'm pretty sure she's a great person in life."

Her sheer ineptitude at breaking this kind of bad news to people made her want to slap herself in the face, the moment she finished her sentence.

"Is that so?" Verdna's tone was quiet and calm, in a carefully orchestrated way. "Well, I am half-expecting to hear such an answer. Even if it was a possibility I do not wish to consider during my years away."