Robyn was sinking deeper than what she could have believed possible.
She hadn't passed any ledges in ages. This area, wherever she was, was just empty space, the water so dense and thick she could feel it pressing in through her suit. The light from her Ocean Spirit light pet was barely showing anything beyond in comparison to when she'd been closer to the surface. Her air level was running down faster than it had previously too. From the rate the percentage was ticking down on a readout on her arm, she guessed she had enough air remaining for four minutes.
She felt as vulnerable as though she was driving a car through a snowy storm. Barely able to see anything ahead of her, but the instant something did show itself in view, there'd be nothing she could do.
Then she heard a roar.
She'd heard it before. It was unmistakable – the roar of an Eidolon Wyrm.
Seconds later she could see it, as brightly as though being this deep in the Abyss wasn't causing any vision problems at all. Almost as though its glow was beckoning to her.
But she knew better. She wasn't here to start a fight. She was here to find the secret.
Though in reality... a part of her felt soothed by its appearance. It was a beautiful creature. It was made up of layers of glowing blue crystals along a long black body. Its head had two horn-like structures that protruded backwards to each side with a yellow crystal embedded in each.
She turned her head to the other side just in time to realise a second wyrm was swimming alongside her.
This one seemed to be heading straight downward.
What was it that the Eidolist had told her? They knew about the secret weapon that was hidden at the bottom of the Abyss from communing with these wyrms. Through their partial transformation into this species.
She looked to its head as she sunk past it, seeing familiar golden eyes embedded around an open mouth. Eyes she had once feared from her nightmares, but which she now found comfort in.
"Wayfinder."
The voice jolted her, almost causing her to flail her arms in the water – something that for all she knew could have angered the very creatures she was trying to not anger.
"Tell me what do you seek?"
Was the voice talking to her? She had no idea how she was going to talk back. Then she reminded herself that the Eidolist back at the Dungeon had been able to look into her mind. If one of the Eidolon Wyrms was... somehow talking with her... surely they could do the same?
I seek the secret at the bottom of the Abyss, she earnestly thought.
The Eidolon Wyrm next to her made no motion in response besides a slight rotation of its head.
"What do you seek?"
I just told you... Did you hear me?
"I heard you, Wayfinder. I do not believe your answer to encompass your complete desires. So tell me... what do you seek?"
She wasn't sure. And what did Wayfinder mean? Why was the wyrm calling her that?
"Those that commune with our kind are named for their fates," was the response.
"My fate?" Robyn said out loud into her helmet.
The voice didn't elaborate. "What do you seek, Wayfinder?"
She racked her brains. I seek... the weapon at the bottom of the Abyss.
The wyrm took a few seconds longer than normal to respond, making Robyn feel on edge, fearing it would attack her for asking such a direct question, but the response was simply: "And beyond that?"
Beyond... whatever is at the bottom of the Abyss? Robyn wondered.
There was only one thing that could come to her mind.
William.
But she felt... disappointed by him. He had taken the coward's way out. He had betrayed their relationship by choosing Yharim. By choosing what was little more than a vague promise.
"No!" she shouted. "I don't seek him! If only he'd... urgh!"
"You judge him based on a single mistake."
"Yeah, but if there was ever a mistake he shouldn't have made –"
"Such is the nature of living beings. I will ask once more. What, Wayfinder, do you seek?"
Robyn had no clue.
Suppose she, Sid and Renee were able to get back to Firstworld and defeat Yharim. Then what? How could she go back to living normally after all that had gone down? After all the citizens that had died, after Meg's unmasking, after William's betrayal?
Maybe that's why William's so set on getting back to the real world, she thought. Because there's just nothing else. Because the world is a cage.
"You have a narrow mind, Wayfinder," the Eidolon Wyrm said in her head. "If you can only think in the mindset of your enemies, then you are no better than them."
At that, the Eidolon Wyrm next to her veered off. The last thing she saw before it seemingly disappeared into the darkness was the aqua crystal on its pointed tail.
Then she hit solid ground.
***
"It's been like three minutes!" Sid exclaimed. He held out one of his summoning staves. "I'm going down."
"We don't have another suit that would allow you to survive that far down there," Renee said. "Either she'll be back, or she won't and we'll just have to go on our merry way."
"She's not just a throwaway allied combatant," Sid said. "She's been there since the beginning, ever since I woke up in Firstworld. She might've been closer to William, but that doesn't mean I haven't seen how resilient she can be. She never gives up, she always finds a way even when she's screaming her armour off."
"If she really is screaming her armour off at the moment, every creature in the Abyss would be feasting on her corpse right now," Renee said.
Sid gave a dry chuckle. "Please. I'm way tastier than her. I assume."
That was when a large form appeared behind him.
Cloaked in a purple robe, swirling spines sticking up from its back, nothing but a wisp of obsidian-purple swirled beneath its hem, and the only things visible in the face of its hood were six magenta eyes.
"Signus," Renee spat.
"Wha–?" Sid murmured, before noticing the shadow falling over him and turning around.
"Renee," Signus said. "You've grown bold."
"And you've grown... old!" Sid pointed a finger at Signus.
"Old?" Signus repeated. "If you want to see old, you should experience a wave of my Time Bolt."
Sid took a step back. "I'm good, tha–"
He was interrupted by the worm that burst out from the water.
Plated with iridescent purple-and-blue armour, lightning-shaped spikes serving as horns on the side of its head and protruding from its tail, the Storm Weaver gored into Sid and brought him up into the sky. Sid pulled himself free and summoned forth a shoal of squid. His mind flashed back to the Aquatic Scourge the first time they'd visited the Sulphurous Sea. This creature was undoubtedly far stronger.
Down at sea level, Renee kept eye contact with Signus, all six of them, as she pulled her Valediction from her inventory.
"You don't want to do this," Signus said. "Even if you defeat me, that'll just make him decide you are worth his time."
"You'll come to regret the fact that you're worth mine," Renee said as she turned invisible.
***
A steep ridge of voidstone, sloping at a forty-five degree angle.
Robyn looked around. Searching for something, anything that stood out. A signal of the secret that lay down here.
The only way she could think was further down. She stepped down the slope, her heavy boots treading on blocks of voidstone. The water pressure was so high that every movement was a labour. She would have to be careful not to fall over.
Then she saw it.
In front of her was some sort of shrine.
Made of smooth voidstone.
Inside which sat a shadowy chest.
She leapt forward, her Seraph Tracers sparking as she swam towards it.
She landed beneath the shrine's roof, almost stumbling in front of the chest. She took hold with a grunt, and heaved it open.
There were two items inside.
The first was a recall potion.
The second, she had never seen before.
It looked like some sort of steel-blue stone with a crater-like indent in the centre. A red symbol was superimposed directly over the indent, vaguely resembling a targeting reticle, but with two extra diagonal lines pointing down to the left and right. It was a symbol that had no meaning whatsoever to Robyn.
The item had nothing in its description. All Robyn had to go on was its name.
Terminus.
Imagine if the item had been named 'Vote', instead. I guess it wouldn't have been as mysterious...