It is said that only white whistles can activate the Altar of Absolute Boundary and descend to the sixth layer of the Abyss.
Year 1913 of the Orth calendar, Forward Operating Base Idofront.
'So, the time has finally come, this is my last dive.'
Ozen was looking at the bright altar with a tinge of nostalgia and touched her white whistle.
'I've made you both wait for so long, but at long last I'm ready.'
She was clad in her Armor, the same one that owed her the title of Immovable along with her Whistle.
Unlike her precedent dwellings in the Abyss middle layers, she was packed full of artifacts and carrying a huge backpack.
She had nothing to lose by diving now, the 2000 years junction had already begun.
Maruruk had died from the Birthday sickness like so many people up there at Orth, the subterranean bandits disbanded, and the base was now abandoned.
Two Umbral Hands that were escorting her in the Idofront were now waiting as still as statues at her back.
She had not seen Bondrewd since her arrival and found it most curious, he, who was going on its way to seek her personally each time she visited the fifth layer of the abyss. Courtesy of a fellow white whistle as he was always saying, but she was no fool, she knew he just wanted to keep her in check.
"Where is Bondrewd?"
Her monotone voice was as devoid of emotion as usual, she did not even bother to face the Umbral Hands while asking.
"The Lord of Dawn is currently delving into the 6th layer with a few Umbral Hands, whever he already reached the 7th layer or deeper now his exact location remains unknown."
A slight smile formed on the lips of Ozen.
"Spare me your roleplay for the guild representative, you and I both know of your true nature."
The Umbral hand said nothing for a fair bit of time before resuming.
"The Lord of Dawn is currently waiting for you at the edge of the Final Maelstrom."
"He requests your cooperation to bring resources to the 6th level by use of the Altar."
"Right, he can't dive safely even with all the equipment he brought from his previous trips so he's sending a shipment with me. What an annoyance, that is so like him."
"We will join you and carry the supplies, the junction will reach its paroxysm in a few days, but according to calculations the 6th layer should be unaffected."
"A new wave for the sea of corpses huh? Very well, let's go."
Ozen moved forward in deliberately slow steps, taking in the view, and staying aware of her surroundings while waiting for the loaded Umbral Hands to catch up to her.
'Have you succeeded Lyza? Have you reached the bottom and unraveled the secret of the Abyss? Are those two with you now?'
Finally, she touched the Membrane of the Altar Capsule. Her hand went through it, followed by her arm and the rest of her body after she assessed it to be harmless. It is common knowledge among the White Whistles that this membrane is not dangerous, but even as a White Whistle she remained cautious. The Abyss is, after all, an unforgiving place and each moment can turn into a life-or-death situation.
Once inside and the Umbral Hands arrived, she took her Whistle in hand.
'It's unfortunate I didn't listen to you about the thousand men pins, however I could not let your sacrifice be vain, I had to. Whatever happens down here at least the journey continues.'
With that thought she blew into the bull head shaped whistle and as tremors began, the sphere started to sink into the waters at the center of the whirlpool.
"Any news about the other Sovereigns?"
"The whereabouts of the Sovereign of Annihilation, of Guidance and of Mystery are unknown."
"Material clues suggest that the progeny of the Sovereign of Annihilation has reached and started to go down the 7th level."
"Oh? So they made it to the sixth? I assume you had a hand at making her Life Reverberating Stone, right?"
"Correct, she along with her interference unit and a blessed child took her last dive a few months ago."
Outside the transparent sphere, a few huge fish like creatures and what looked like a sea serpent were engaged in combat, trying to take bites of each other.
"Will those be affected by the junction?"
The umbral hand surveying the same direction as her answered:
"The data collected in the depths of the sea of corpses support this theory, however the great majority of Fauna seems to be more resilient to this event than human beings."
The atmosphere inside and outside the sphere were like day and night, Ozen and the Umbral hands were bathed in a soft light and incense was burning, giving the air a peculiar but otherwise relaxing smell. Outside the creatures of the Abyss were gone from view as the sphere was forcing its way through the first layer of corpses, still rotting away, and giving the water around them the murky color of death and decay.
Soon only white bones and bubbles were visible outside.
"How long until we reach the bottom?" Ozen asked after what felt like an hour, polishing a strange trapezoidal artifact she had taken out from her cloak a few minutes ago.
"Several minutes to reach the 6th layer, and a few perceived days to join the rest of the expedition at the edge of the final maelstrom."
These passed in relative silence, like the rest of the dive, save from the occasional ticking or polishing of an instrument or artifact. It may have seemed like there was some coldness between them, but white whistles were renowned to be very quiet, speaking only when necessary in the confines of the Abyss.
Suddenly light started to filter from below and the sphere began to gain some speed, it broke through the air/water surface with great velocity and landed with a ground shaking Thud on the floor of the 6th layer.
No one was phased by any of it, the umbral hands just grabbed their load and marched at a measured pace through the membrane, followed closely by Ozen.
The capital of the unreturned was defying common sense and navigating through the gnarled and chaotic ruins was really unintuitive. Crystal towers were growing upside down and at opposite angles, twisted doors and window frames opening on the void. Gardens on the cusp of acid geysers, menacing to fall at any moment should the thin crystal link to the distorted ceiling were to break.
The Trio was neither swift, nor slow in its progression, it would be a fatal mistake, as natural traps and predator's attention would be the death of anyone foolish enough to disregard the laws of nature.
Soaring through the air, giant bird like creatures were patrolling between the great crystal arcs and ruins, spinning their tails to gain speed and trying to catch any unfortunate prey they found, smaller creatures were always following them, like school of fishes were grouping behind large sea animals in the ocean surrounding the abyss.
Ozen's party had to stick to the shadows and stay out of range under the roofs of destroyed buildings more than a few times, carefully avoiding Super predators like the turbinid dragons and taking watches whenever they made short rests.
They were disturbed and had to fight twice against swarms of triangle heads, pack hunting creatures that followed them once they reached the middle section of the layer.
They were no match for the sheer physical might of Ozen and the experience of Umbral Hands and were dispatched quite easily.
When they finally reached the lower section of the layer, under the receding light of the forcefield they entered an enormous structure seemingly made of gold, beams of lights were slipping through the cracks and holes in the high ceiling of a vast hall and where they struck a gold radiance illuminated a good part of the surroundings.
It was truly a sight, one could look at these ancient ruins and want to admire them as much as they can, but the Immovable couldn't stop here, it was all just a simple light trick and as majestuous it might have been in the past, now it was just stones and danger, gawking would only make them vulnerable.
At the end of the Palace the exit was shrouded in light, Ozen stepped under the gate and stopped here for a moment, from her high vantage point she could see it in the distance, the Final Maelstrom. The view was breathtaking, the city was gleaming and the Sakawatari were singing in a silver wind carrying particles and eternal fortunes petals, creating an atmosphere Ozen had always wanted to witness.
She had a big smile on her face, aside from the awe this panorama offered her, Lyza was the only one capable of making her smile like that.
This is one of the reasons she became a delver so many years ago, alas her contemplation was short lived and she focused on the edge of the 7th layer, she could not see Bondrewd camp from here but she knew it must be on the very border of it.
She was looking for a safe path to travel when the first shake hit. The entirety of the Abyss was shaking, and creatures hidden in the cracks and rifts of the city fled their shelter amidst the chaos of buildings crashing into each over.
The umbral hands were quick to react: "the junction has reached a critical point, we must rally with the sovereign of dawn now!"
The shaking was extremely violent and the narrow cliff side Ozen had recognized as the only safe path was stormed by the group, the one running at the head stepped on a broken crystal outcropping and fell to his death as rubble and rocks were falling overhead.
They could not retreat as they would be cursed, and a pan of ceiling supporting an entire forest was about to fall on them, she knew she could not tank it or destroy it when it would come crashing down on her. She looked down, the first umbral hand was dead, crushed by rocks hundreds of meters below, but to her far right a pond was visible, the water was still running down the cliffside, she would need to do a very precise jump to land in the deep waters.
Taking a few steps back she jumped with considerable momentum, soaring through the air and leaving the other umbral hand to his own devices. She realized with her current speed and angle that she wouldn't make it and in a do or die move used an artifact to send a blast against the wall, hoping the recoil would be enough.
She made it and activated another artifact to absorb a part of her kinetic energy just before impact and braced herself.
Even with the help of the artifact she might as well be a missile, her bomb dive from such a high place took her deep into the black waters of the pond, the crashing waters of the waterfall a sweet melody compared to the rocks raining around her.
'Perfect time to use air pockets' thought Ozen, looking up at the surface of the water.
She pulled the handles on the sides of her travel bag and started to swim, three bladders appeared on the sides and top slowly expanding and bringing her faster and closer to the surface.
An all consuming flash of light took her by surprise just before she breached the surface. Breathing deeply, her lost hat and her drenched hair were not hiding her horrible scalp deformation anymore.
'This is bad'
She realized nothing looked like what she knew about her current location.
'Hallucinations, my emergency forcefield counter measures were not sufficient…'
a clear depressurisation sound could be heard for a second and a canister spewing bubbles began to drown.
she swam to the waterfall and placed herself right next to the roaring waters, here at the cliff flank she knew falling rocks would be less susceptible to hit her.
She was in the blind, but nonetheless she readied herself, no creature had attacked yet but it wouldn't be long before they recovered from the earthquake and started preying on her.
She observed her surroundings, even if she knew they were fake.
'This place looks like the first layer'
Indeed it was, vibrant grass and trees, under the blue sky, with a moderate wind blowing huge white clouds and a radiant sun shedding his light onto the scenery.
'i have to snap out of it'
The waters were azure blue and not that deep compared to her life saving pond.
'what a hassle, at least i didn't turned into a pile of flesh...or so i hope'
She examined herself by touch and retrieved a small relic from a pocket in the left side of her bag.
looking like a transparent egg filled with a sponge substance and a white tendrils ball at the center of it, it was fairly unimpressive.
"tsch, too early for my taste"
Holding it aloft with her right hand she carefully brought her Bull-shaped whistle to her lips with the other one. She blew lightly in it, the sound making the egg shaped object crack and crusch inward as white tendrils began to sprout from it.
The white whistle slowly extended her hand and a dome shaped structure began to form, the tendrils building a protective shell around Ozen and embedding themselves in the stone behind her. After releasing her hold on it she confirmed it was solid enough as a protection.
'Now i just need to wait until the symptoms disappear'
And wait she did, she could see through the shell small openings, like a fine mesh net or spider nest. Dusk eventually came and the hallucination still had not dissipated, nor had she been attacked or a new earthquake happened.
She drank a few gulps of water from her reserve and ate a type 4 ration bar. She had it way worse in the past, but waiting in the same spot in the abyss was just asking to be found.
'This is really strange, it should have dissipated long ago now!'
This was deeply unsettling, she was drenched but not cold, she could still stall for time.
'Bondrewd will not wait for me now, i doubt the remaining umbra hand could make it alone."
She stayed awake for the entire night, listening to water flowing and watching fireflies fill the trees and glitter along with the stars.
'i don't know this sky…'
The constellations and stars were completely different from what she knew. When dawn finally broke down and blinded her she decided it was time for her to leave.
She reactivated the relic by touching it, and the tendrils withered, letting her stretch from her long wait and straightening her spine with a sickening crunch.
'Alright, let's do this'