"There it is," Zoey whistled as she took in the sight of their final destination. "Been a long time coming."

"Yeah, it has," Rory sighed. "Not quite what I was expecting."

"Same," Zoey agreed as they floated above the fake planet, staring down like two heavenly invaders. Beneath them was an ocean planet, nearly six hundred miles across. It almost reminded Rory of photos of Earth from space, except instead of water, it had an ocean of ghostly orange plasma, the same substance that formed the floating rivers between floating mountains of the volcanic region, and the same substance that Zoey had been able to control for the last few worlds with the scepter they had gained from the rubbish world.

Scepter of Terawa

Grade: Aberrent

A scepter that grants the ability to manipulate terawa without any associated skills freely. Loses effectiveness during combat.

In most cases, an aberrant grade item would have been an incredibly remarkable find, but Rory found himself unimpressed; their conversation that followed was brief but informative.

"So, is this what it was like in the past for you? You'd been given gear that was labeled a certain grade without actually being that great?"

"Basically."

From a purely academic standpoint, the scepter was great, and something that Rory found himself studying in his free time, but its overall usage was… disappointing.

But it gets the job done.

It was also how they obtained the 'official' name for whatever the weird ghost-lava-plasma was that they'd become so accustomed to. As far as manipulation went, it was still evading Rory's ability to make in any form, indicating it was a more advanced conceptual element along the lines of World Ichor or even the Heavenly element.

Probably part of why the scepter has the grade that it does.

"Should we head down yet?" Zoey asked, turning to look at Rory.

"Let's hang out for a bit longer. Given this is the end of the line, I'd rather not rush in and be attacked by the floor guardian straight up. Let's see if we can't figure anything out from up here first."

Zoey shrugged as the scepter vanished into her inventory, something which Rory had managed to fashion utilizing the Pocket-Sized Pocket Void that Zoey had found within the cursed labyrinth planetoid. In truth, it had been surprisingly easy to prepare. First, Rory had needed a suitable brace, which ended up being a bangle made of promethium. From there, all Rory needed to do was add some inscriptions to the bangle, isolate a point within the pocket-void to spatially expand, and then fill it in with a small, contained space of real space, not much smaller than a walk-in closet. Working with much smaller spaces than his own inventory, there hadn't even been any risks of spatial distortions collapsing into miniature black holes.

Once I figure out how to mass-produce void-aspected items, the inventory market is mine to corner. Wall Street, eat your hearts out.

Thoughts of cornering a non-existent market in a non-existent economy, upon a now non-existent world, put aside, Rory instead focused on the planet below. He was still far from being able to capture the scope of the entire planet within his senses, even a small planet, but scanning over ten or fifteen-mile patches at a time was little effort. Zoey was actually better than he was in that regard, as if she had a 'softer touch'; she was able to instinctively sense more details than he was, probably due to her focus being exploration. In contrast, Rory was more of a hybrid who primarily focused on creating things; he could make better sense of things that had strong potential, but had less ability to parse general concepts than she did.

Between the two of them, it only took a little over five days to finish, with Zoey folding her arms and waiting for Rory to finish his 'half' only a half a day later.

"There are some large structures under those waves," Rory reported, already aware that Zoey had noticed as much.

"Did you get a feel for the land masses?"

"Yeah. Barren, made of something resembling obsidian or basalt. Pretty sure there are deposits of valuables within the crust."

"You noticed what we didn't find?"

"Living stuff," Rory said with a wave. "And unless it's like the labyrinth planet, where everything is hidden within partially magical pocket spaces, that doesn't add up, not when every prior planet had some life."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Based on how rich the pneuma is down there, and even more so, how thick the potential is within that pneuma?" Rory crossed his arms, tapping his foot in space. "King of the Hill, the game I mean. Monsters like places with lots of latent pneuma, because they're usually also places that allow them to passively grow for monster-related reasons that Eia always sucked at explaining. I think the only place I've felt a stronger presence than here is nearing the top of the volcano itself. So, King of the Hill. It's likely a monster decided it wanted the entire area to itself. In the end, only one was left standing."

"So, the question is, where?" Zoey questioned, frowning. "It should be high-tier-seven, that's not easy to hide."

"It is if your nature has assimilated to match your environment," Rory countered. "I'm certain of it, the floor guardian is hiding somewhere."

"You think that's what those structures under the terawa oceans are related to?"

"Probably. So, split up, or stick together?"

Zoey gave it only a moment's consideration before she shook her head.

"Stick together. If this monster ends up being anything like we think it might be-"

"We won't want to get caught alone, in case these structures are a red herring."

"Exactly," Zoey said, pointing at Rory as he finished her sentence.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?"

Inclining her head, Zoey waved her hand as the scepter appeared, and a moment later, a river of the terawa tendrilled its way outside the 'atmosphere' of the planetoid, only a few feet from them.

"After you," Rory waved to Zoey, who rolled her eyes before stepping into the riverway, letting it carry her down to the planet. Copying her, Rory was soon whisked downward. Shortly after breaching the upper 'atmosphere' of the planet, an interface popped open, catching Rory's attention.

Primary objective of the Deep Chambers cleared:

[X]- Reach the Hidden Depths

Secondary objectives remaining:

[0]- Survive and find the exit

Remaining bonus objectives:

[0]- Locate the Oblivion chains

[0]- Slay the Queen of the Hidden Depths

"Yo, are you seeing this?" Rory called out to Zoey, who was only a short distance away.

"Yeah, looks like we've done the main objective of this place, so we can always bail out."

"Do you want to?" Rory asked.

"Nah, not really."

"Good, because I'm curious about these bonus objectives. Slay the Queen seems straightforward, but I've got no idea what an 'oblivion' chain is."

"Maybe something to weaken the boss? Isn't that like a common running trope, a method to weaken the boss?"

"Or maybe it empowers it?" Rory said, verbalizing his own inquiries out loud.

"Well, I guess first we start with finding this boss in the first place, then if it seems too strong, we can work out the oblivion chain stuff."

"And if it gets worse?"

"Run like hell to the exit," Zoey said with a snort.

"Sounds like a plan."

Having laid out the general plan, they made their way down to the planetoid, the Terawa stream spitting them out onto a shore next to an ocean of ghostly, orange plasma.

"The first of the undersea structures should be around a hundred miles offshore," Zoey said as they both stood around gathering their bearings. "It shouldn't take us too long to get there if I use the scepter to make a rip current, except…"

"Except if there is a rip current carrying us there, there isn't anything shielding us from the depths."

Terawa typically wasn't all that dangerous, but that was in small amounts, the volume you'd expect from a lazy river.

An entire ocean? That was different.

"I can probably handle that," Rory said. "Barrier gem, Room Gem, and a Spin gem in conjunction should be enough."

"And the gems will last long enough?"

"Individually, no, but that's why I'm using them together; it will make the entire system more efficient."

Zoey shrugged, having nothing else to add, instead waiting on him with her arms crossed.

Right, and where… oh, there.

Locating three gems of the specific genotypes within his inventory, Rory held them up between his fingers.

"Your turn."

With a casual wave of her hand, the terawa waves shifted, a rip current suddenly taking hold.

Walking forward so that they were ankle deep, Rory injected a spark of pneuma into each of the three gems as around them a nearly invisible dome of interconnected plates appeared, beginning to turn and shift like a Rubik's cube in movement.

Protected, the two of them dove into the orange sea as they were pulled below, zipping along at a frightening speed.

"It's like a submarine," Zoey said with a lazy grin.

"Yeah, well, I'd rather not spend too long below these waves. If this Queen of the Hidden Depths finds us like this, we're in a rough spot."

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you, I'm making the current move as fast as I can, but there is a limit to the control of this scepter."

If they wanted to move faster, the answer was simply to control the current themselves; however, neither of them had any skill for manipulating the advanced element. Rory, having not reverse-engineered, couldn't directly manipulate it through free-form magic either, not efficiently at least.

Unable to shorten the trip, they waited in relatively terse silence, fearing a predator might suddenly appear in the orange depths.

It was only once half an hour had passed and Rory could tell they were nearly there that Zoey turned to Rory with a grin on her face.

"What?" Rory sighed, already certain whatever she'd thought up was about to be stupid.

"Is this real life?"

"No," Rory groaned, but there was no stopping the woman.

"Or is this just a…. fanta sea."

"Uck," Rory groaned as if he were in pain, Zoey punching him in the shoulder.

"C'mon, that was good. I mean, just take a look around."

"Look, we all know my humor isn't well respected," Rory sighed, shaking his head. "And even I could tell you how stupid that was."

"Just angry you didn't come up with it first," Zoey muttered before pointing forward. "By the way, looks like we're here."

The current came to a gentle bobble as they slowly drifted along the seafloor, the two of them staring up at the structure before them.

"Look straight ahead."

Doing so, Rory saw what she was pointing at, a large archway cut into the base of the structure, the terawa refusing to enter.

"I think that's our clue."

"You don't say," Zoey rolled her eyes. Waving the scepter, a much gentler current brought them forward until they were passing through the archway, as the orange, faux-fluid was left behind, as if the entry were protected by a force field.

"Good news is, there isn't much to explore," Rory said as they walked forward a hundred feet through a hall that abruptly opened into a much larger area. "The bad news is-"

"Puzzle." Zoey sighed.

"Puzzle." Rory agreed.

Inside the large room, the walls were dominated by hundreds of mirrors, as multi-colored lights bounced around at random, a seizure-inducing vista. Within the very center, atop an altar, was what looked like a key. Next to it was a second altar, with what appeared to be a link from a chain.

"Rory?" Zoey looked at Rory, concerned, who had stumbled, dropping to one knee, his nose bleeding.

"Oh fuck," Rory groaned. "The name wasn't just for show. It's a real concept."

"What? You're not making sense."

"Oblivion chain," Rory said, pointing at the chain link. "I tried to peer at it with a full ocular release. That is some crazy shit going on there. It felt like I was witnessing the convergence of everything and nothing, an element of primal paradoxical destruction."

"That sounds intense."

"And I don't think it's the first time I felt it." Rory realized. "Remember when we fought years ago?"

"Like the second time?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I do. Why?"

"Remember how I almost blew both of our asses up?"

"Distinctly," Zoey muttered.

"That paradox bomb or whatever you want to call it. At the time, I couldn't understand just what forces were really at play, but I think I've just got a clue. Oblivion."

"Nasty. Or, awesome. Honestly, I'm not sure which." Zoey said with a shrug.

"It's neither, for now. Just more proof that I really got ahead of myself."

"Yeah, well, neither here nor there for now, is it?"

"You're right." Rory shakily stood back up, wiping the blood away and making sure not to attempt to look at the piece of chain with his full ocular release again. "That said, this room looks more complicated than it really is."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you probably can't tell when looking with purely human vision, but each mirror is associated with a color." Rory paused, watching for several seconds before nodding his head. "Yeah, they are definitely associated with a color. Anytime a light that isn't that color bounces off a mirror, the mirror absorbs a tiny fraction of the light's energy."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning we're technically on a time limit, spend too long here, and the lights will dwindle out from reflecting off the incorrect mirrors."

"You don't sound all that worried."

"I'm not. With my full ocular release, it was glaringly obvious. I just need to orient the mirrors so that only the corresponding light reaches the correct mirrors."

"How?"

"Angle in, angle out," Rory said with a shrug. "It's simple science. Technically, refraction fucks with that, but that doesn't seem to be happening here, either through well-polished mirrors or magic shenanigans."

"Alright, well, if it's that easy…?"

"Yeah, I've got it," Rory said, meaning it.

While the theory was easy, it still took Rory nearly two hours to make his way around the room and perfectly angle each mirror so that only a single wavelength of light reflected off a mirror network. Based on his estimates of the slow depletion of light, he still had another three hours to work with before he was in any sort of danger.

Turning the final mirror, a loud clink passed through the room within a few seconds as each light beam perfectly bounced only between associated mirrors. As it did, Rory could sense that the two altars suddenly felt approachable, the feeling of infinite space gone.

"Huh, it really was that easy." Zoey got up from where she had been lying on the ground, enjoying the light show.

"That it was," Rory agreed. "Now, it's about time we made like Indy and looted this shit."

Staring at him with confusion on her face, Rory could only sigh as he looked away from his partner.

"A reference. It was a reference."

"Oh, wait, actually I know this one!" Zoey snapped her fingers together. "That one Pirate movie franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean!"

Head falling in defeat, Rory palmed his forehead.

I hate it here.

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