My Last Dive [Made in Abyss Fanfiction]

04| Fatal Beauty

The seven layers of the Abyss, according to Melva, were detailed on certain maps only available to Delvers, and the effects of their curses were written off to the side. The first was the First Layer: The Edge of the Abyss. Reaching nearly a mile deep with grass-flooded cliffs and ancient ruins, its curse inflicted light dizziness and nausea.

Then there was the Second Layer: The Forest of Temptation. Abundant, wild plant life coated this layer in greenery, hiding the literal Inverted Forest laying near the bottom. The creatures were more savage here, with those such as the voice-mimicking Corpse Weeper being among the most dangerous. It went down a mile further than the first, and its curse was more severe with heavy nausea and numbness of the limbs.

Following this was the Third Layer: The Great Fault. A sheer, vertical shaft twice as large as the Second Layer filled with creatures capable of flight, both wingless and not. Its curse induced vertigo and both visual and auditory hallucinations.

Those who managed to navigate the Great Fault would reach the Fourth Layer: The Goblet of Giants. It was a humid place three miles deep, where the curse caused full-body pain and bleeding from every orifice, and the creatures had deadly intuition.

Further down, the humidity would then become frigid in the Fifth Layer: The Sea of Corpses. It was the shallowest layer vertically but the largest horizontally due to the icy ocean filling it. The curse here caused intense full-body pain, confusion, and loss of all senses.

The Sixth Layer: Capital of the Unreturned came next. Rumors spoke of it housing a lost, golden city filled with as many Relics as there were deadly creatures. In exchange, the curse was the unavoidable loss of one's physical and mental humanity. Because of this, anybody who descended to this point would be considered lost forever.

Finally, there was the Seventh Layer: The Final Maelstrom. Nobody had descended this far yet, or if they had, no information they could've sent had reached the surface. Because of this, its ecosystem was unknown, and its curse could only result in death.

This was what I learned during my following delves with Melva, and it brought everything I was hoping for to a shuddering halt. I hoped that at one point I could descend to the bottom of the Abyss and bring back stories of my adventure. But this... the curse made any of this impossible.

"I can't believe it, this is so unfair," I protested, tearing up a handful of grass from beside me.

Melva looked up from her map at me like I was crazy, and I didn't know why. "Four layers ain't enough for ya?" she asked incredulously. "There's more than enough for ya to discover right now, and in the next few centuries even."

Even if there was, it wouldn't really feel that way to me. Places never-before seen, let alone documented, that was what I wanted. But I also wanted to be able to make it back, and if death was guaranteed, then I didn't want to risk it.