“Ah, you got it already. Should’ve gone with a hint a bit less obvious. That’s right the silhouettes are–”

“Sunless,” Sofia completed.

“That’s right. Thus is Cerberus beta,” Saria said, pointing at the larger of the four circles, “And those are its three moons.”

“Meanwhile all the Sunless are looking at the fourth moon. Cerberus Alpha, the black sun of the spiritual plane… I was so convinced the Nymphs wouldn’t get us through I didn’t even try…”

“They probably won’t be enough.”

Sofia summoned the graveyard Nymphs, to see if they would be able to traverse the gate. While it quickly became apparent that they could not, one of them waved to get Sofia’s attention and pointed at the center of the circular stone platform the group was on.

The floor?

Show me what you see.

The Nymph grabbed Sofia’s shoulder, bringing her head into the spiritual plane. While the stone platform looked like a singular circular block of stone in the physical world, in the spiritual world of white fog, it was clear that the platform was made of two pieces. There was a smaller circle in its center.

This must be it.

Before Sofia even left the spiritual plane, Saria was already acting on the Nymph’s pointed finger and trying to dislodge the centerpiece of the platform, sliding a dagger on the ground trying to feel a gap she couldn’t see.

“Let me do it,” Sofia said, dumping some bones on the floor. I just need to create some suction… And pull.

A circular piece of stone like a small stone plate popped right out of the ground. Its bottom side was painted pitch black.

“And we already know exactly where that goes,” Saria said, looking at the black underside of the stone piece, “Interesting little puzzle but I’m not sure why you’d want that as a front door. Whoever built this place must’ve been some kind of freak.”

Sofia nodded, “Fair assumption, considering there’s at the very least a dead god inside,” she walked up to the gate and put the black disk against it over the spot the figures were all looking at. “It’s in place. Hmm… Oh it’s tiny but there’s a hole mana can slip through now, right at the center.”

“That’s it, we can just teleport through,” Saria said before disappearing. Sofia held onto Pestle and teleported in tow.

“Oh woah. This is really it, isn’t it?”

“Sure looks like it,” Saria agreed, “You can even see the Asterite layer behind the broken bricks here, look.”

“And there’s the layer of whatever is blocking our mana beyond that, before another layer of Asterite, if I had to guess.”

“An underground fortress… But also a labyrinth. Did you read the books back then?” Saria asked.

Pestle jumped off of Sofia’s shoulder and walked around while the sisters were talking.

“Books? I only really found one. ‘The great hollow’ was the name I think. With half of the Annihilator’s simplified rune at the back. But there was hardly anything to read with how deteriorated the pages were.”

“Wait… Is it fine to say that name now?”

“Yes, not my first time, it’s just the real name that is an issue. And even then, it might not be anymore, I’m just being careful,” Sofia explained.

“Interesting. I’ve been avoiding saying the three others, still haven’t really seen ‘em aside from the freaky one.”

“Well… That might just be about to change… Or not. If one of them is likely to show up randomly it is Orator so… Anyway, what was that about ‘books’?”

“Right, you didn’t find the one under the barrack bed’s mattress, then?”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Did not really spend much time in this section if my memories are right…”

“You need to be more thorough in your exploration, sis. Not that it mattered at the time... It was a record of how the local lord had started seeing strange things at night, and slowly went a bit crazy. Then his dreams guided him to an underground maze leading to strange doors, and he relocated there with his elite knights and a whole supply chain of workers to try to force open the doors. It stopped at the arrival of a strange blue-skinned sculptor who claimed he could help to open them,” Saria recounted. “Written in Ancient Human, obviously.”

“Right… The murals also mentioned him… The blue sculptor…” Sofia pulled out her dagger. “I never really made the connection but… That sounds oddly familiar, doesn’t it…”

“I was thinking the same. That old perv you helped the headmaster get rid of might’ve been him. Could be a coincidence too. Did he have anything Deep-related in his house?” Saria asked.

“Not that I can remember… Then again, something like that he would have probably kept in his storage ring.”

“Guess we won’t know. Quite the timeline this place has. Clearly from the lost epoch, then taken over by humans, which didn’t end well, apparently. Then, explored again by the admins.”

“I know a bit more about that, actually, but I’m not sure how much I can tell… Technically you’re a Marked-one so it should be sage but I’m a bit afraid…”

“Heh, worst case if I disappear you can bring me back, no? Just go ahead and tell me. I’ve been feeling left out of the loop with all the Deep stuff, honestly. Can’t help you when I don’t know anything.”

After Sofia succinctly shared her meeting with Cecless to Saria, they started to explore the maze. For some reason their mana senses could not reach too far even in the open corridors, and the layout of the place was apparently different from the one in the trial, so they took the time to advance carefully.

“Wait…” Saria said in the middle of a corridor.

“Hmm?”

“It looks like telling me wasn’t without consequence.”

“Oh fuck…”

“Eh, don’t even worry about it, I just got the Looming essence too now. That’s new. Could be a good or a bad thing.”

“What if it’s bad? What if we just made the incoming cataclysm worse by giving the thing more power?”

Saria shrugged, ”Then we just gotta beat it up stronger. No way I’m letting my future ride on another dragon. ”

“Very kill. Pesle help,” Pestle approved of the plan.

“Not all problems can be solved with a good beating, but that’s a better plan than no plan…” Sofia accepted.

“Don’t sweat it, let’s just focus on the exploration, yeah? I’m itching for a fight!”

After only a few more turns, the group started noticing roots piercing through the walls.

“Roots of the fake trees. It’s really impressive that these things can just pierce through Asterite walls like that. And for the roots to reach all the way here, the tree’s got to be fucking mass-” Saria stopped in the middle of the word.

Sofia shivered, “We willingly approached that thing…”

“Maybe… We should leave through Zangdar on our way out, just in case…” Saria suggested.

“I agree. And if we happen to find a cursed item down here, we better not touch it… I don’t want this thing going wild because we stole its food.”

“And if that thing happens to be a dead god?”

“Then at least we’ll have done some nice sightseeing,” Sofia answered.

“That’d suck.”

The trio advanced through the ruins, the number of roots piercing through the ceiling and walls growing more numerous as they went, but no monsters of any kind showing up. They ended up finding the exact barracks they had mentioned before, and found themselves in a section that actually resembled the layout of the maze from the trial, even if it was not a one to one.

Having a hunch there might be something going on in the spiritual plane, Sofia periodically checked with the Nymphs, but found nothing suspicious. They kept walking, and found absolutely nothing interesting until they stumbled upon a long, larger corridor, lined with statues on both sides. With a large black stone door at the end, closed.

“Oh hey, door’s made of the same stuff as your heavy rod,” Saria immediately noticed from a distance.

“It sure looks like it is… And then we have Sunless statues.”

“Can you tell if they were made by the Exidian perv?”

“I dabble in sculpture but there’s no way I can tell that, even having seen his sculptures.”

“Don’t you have any of them in that messy ring of yours?” Saria asked.

“Why would I have that?!”

“You’re really gonna say that with all the random sculptures and moulds I saw you dump in our living room the other day?” Saria mocked.

“Well I don’t have any. Doesn’t matter who made them anyway. They’re clearly the way to open the door.”

“Another puzzle door,” Saria agreed, “At least this one is pretty obvious, they didn’t even bother to hide the mana flow that checks the position of the statues. Either we need to rotate them a certain way like a safe lock, or it’s just a matter of reordering them.”

“There’s probably a hint on the door again,” Sofia guessed.

“Seems likely.”