Loud, eerie noises reverberated through a lightless expanse, while a sweet, lingering scent drifted in the depths, mingling with faint surges of water.
Amidst it all, a dark figure slowly descended into the depths. It had a rectangular object tightly wrapped around its hand, etched with strange, intricate patterns glowing faintly in the dark.
The descender continued descending, constantly turning its head and scanning the pitch-black expanse, backing away from places where the surroundings grew hotter or the eerie noises grew louder.
After a while, it raised the rectangular object wrapped around its hand to chest level, then rubbed it with the other hand. A dim glow slowly emerged from the object, illuminating a small portion of the lightless expanse around it.
As the wanderer kept descending, the light began to flicker, its glow growing weaker and dimmer. Soon, the descent came to a halt as the wanderer became unsteady and began gasping for air.
'Damn it… already? I'm not even in the Eclipsed Reach yet.'
The descender stopped its descent and began scanning the surroundings thoroughly.
Far below, it noticed several faint lights glimmering in the darkness, their glow constantly changing hues.
It started moving towards the faint source of light, the glowing hues growing noticeably brighter with each passing moment. It quickened its pace, hastily drawing near the illumination.
After finally reaching it, the figure dropped down onto a solid surface. The area where the figure landed slowly began glowing, emitting a faint white light.
'So sticky…', it shook its head, then looked around warily.
Countless tendrils, each roughly the size of the figure were writhed and coiled around one another across the surface, faintly glowing like the massive hue a little distance away.
Their light was so dim that it would have been impossible to notice without coming close.
It scanned the area for a moment, then stopped rubbing the rectangular object. The faint glow it had been emitting slowly faded away.
The wanderer sat down on the sticky surface, staying still for a moment, still huffing loudly.
Strange noises echoed around it, but it ignored them, focusing solely on resting.
The descender rested for a while, then rose and began moving towards the source of the massive hue, glowing in shades of red and orange. Beside it, the area was filled with thick tendrils, each emitting a variety of colors — blue, green, purple, and red.
After reaching close to the massive hue, it stared at its source for a long moment, as if frozen.
The source of the light resembled the structure of the countless tendrils on the solid surface, but it was far more enormous, many times larger than the figure.
Each of its numerous tendril tips emitted hues so vast that the glow at their ends was roughly the size of the descender itself.
The figure stared at it for a moment longer before snapping back to its senses. With deliberate caution, it swam towards one of the glowing hues and carefully drew a black, sharp object from the translucent bag strapped to its back.
It thrust the sharp object into the glowing hue. A slimy and sticky liquid began spilling out immediately. It withdrew the object and examined it, the object had turned white.
'No, not this again!'
The wanderer's breathing quickened as it hastily cleaned the object and moved to another glowing hue.
Again, it thrust the object in and a sticky substance oozed out.
This time, after pulling the object, its color had returned to black.
The descender let out a long sigh and closed its eyes for a brief moment. Then, it precisely cut a portion from the hue, carried it down to the surface, and hurriedly began consuming it.
Munch!
After consuming the hue, the descender awkwardly lay on the sticky surface and started staring upwards... or rather, in any direction, since darkness was all it could see anyways.
Then it lifted the black object and studied the details of its patterns, now visible under the glow of the hues.
The object was chipped and worn from repeated use. Looking at its battered condition brought a small, sorrowful smile to the figure's face.
'These Reverics sure come in handy… no wonder they cost such a hefty price.'
It stood up and glanced at the sharp Reveric one last time before placing it back in the bag.
'Doesn't seem like it has much usage left… should I start heading back?'
The figure stared upwards for a moment, then began swimming away from the brightly glowing hues.
It continued moving until a loud, shrieking noise pierced its ears from somewhere nearby.
The wanderer froze, then slowly turned towards the noise.
There, it saw another light, brighter than all the others and unlike the rest, it wasn't stationary.
It was moving… straight towards the figure.
It stared at the moving light, frozen for a moment. Then it hurriedly started rushing towards the massive glowing hues and hid behind one, keeping a close watch on the approaching light source.
The moving light source slowly descended to the solid surface, now resembling a colossal, glowing marine creature.
It began rapidly circling the area with menacing movements. After a moment, its immense body slammed down, unleashing a deafening and echoing roar that shook the surface and reverberated deep into the surrounding darkness.
The creature stayed still as the descender kept staring at its enormous body. When it remained unmoving for a long while, the wanderer finally stepped outside and began moving away.
The creature lay lifeless on the ground, yet its body seemed endless; no matter how far the figure went, there was no end in sight.
Additionally, its horrifying presence and appearance made it difficult to move, but the descender forced itself to ignore the creature and pressed onward.
'Just how huge is that Seakin? Is everything here actually just as big?'
While moving away from the Seakin, it began to hear faint noises of crunching and munching, but the figure tried to ignore them too and kept moving forward.
After some time, It finally put some distance between itself and the Seakin, then instinctively turned for one last look.
The sight the wanderer saw made its heart skip a beat.
Now, six or seven massive black marks scarred the Seakin's body. The sounds of biting grew noticeably louder as the marks slowly expanded. From each wound, a faint glow began to seep out, drifting away from the Seakin and vanishing into the darkness.
The figure stood frozen at its place, unable to move. It kept staring at the horrific sight.
Then, a loud roar echoed from somewhere above, snapping it out of its trance. It turned and started hastily moving away from the source of the sound.
•••
The descender continued descending, but far more cautiously than before, avoiding even faint noises and everything that seemed dangerous.
It kept going until a sudden surge of pressure hit its body. Instinctively, it clutched its chest and curled into a tight, ball-like posture.
'Shit...'
The wanderer remained in that position for a moment before resuming its descent. As it moved downward, a loud noise echoed from somewhere far away.
The figure hastily brought its hand to its chest and began rubbing the rectangular Reveric aggressively, but no light emerged.
The glow seemed to have been swallowed by the surrounding darkness.
'Damnit!'
The descender looked ahead, its eyes widening as the noise swelled, far louder and more menacing than before.
It quickly began moving sideways in a hurried and awkward manner, trying to put as much distance as possible between itself and whatever unseen threat lurked in the darkness.
The figure continued moving that way for some time, then finally halted, trying to catch its breath. The water pressed heavily around it, constantly pushing it downwards and making each inhale a struggle.
After some time, the wanderer finally caught its breath and calmed down. It then raised the rectangular Reveric and glared it with annoyance.
'Useless junk.'
The figure stared at the Reveric for a moment, then drew a deep breath and began rubbing it once more.
Nothing happened.
...
No glow appeared, not even a flicker.
Any light that might have emerged was instantly swallowed by the surrounding darkness. It rubbed the Reveric again, harder this time, but the oppressive surroundings seemed to absorb every trace of illumination.
'The Reveric isn't emitting light anymore… is it being absorbed by this place?...Guess I finally made it to the Eclipsed Reach, huh...'
...
The descender kept glancing around while the surrounding pressure pressed it downwards. Then it reached into its translucent bag and drew out a circular Reveric etched with strange patterns.
It rubbed the Reveric before pressing it tightly between both hands. The Reveric began to glow, but only faintly, barely enough to illuminate half of the figure's body.
After a moment, it drifted in one direction before slowly returning to its original position.
'Well, it's coming in handy, and even providing some light. Gotta thank Mrs. Solayn when I get back.' A faint smile crossed the figure's face.
The wanderer began moving in the direction the circular Reveric had drifted. It kept going for quite some time before noticing something strange.
The water around it was growing hotter at an alarming rate and it was getting increasingly harder to breathe.
The figure stopped and started glancing around warily while huffing for air.
After a closer inspection, it noticed something unsettling.
The place was completely silent... so silent that even the noises of faint surging of water, that are usually ever-present, were gone.
Everything was so still it felt heavy and suffocating.
The descender was just beginning to understand what was happening when a wave of hot air — hotter than anything it had ever felt, brushed past it, carrying a distorted and muffled sound along.
Startled, the wanderer examined its body while its heartbeat spiked. Holding its breath, it stared into the darkness from where the hot air had come.
...
Absolute silence.
It felt as though nothing around the figure had changed at all.
The figure kept staring into the void, slowly beginning to grasp its situation.
'What's happening... This feels like what Mrs. Solayn told me about... Wait... am I inside something's—'
The thought never finished.
The wanderer's eyes widened as realization struck.
It started turning around frantically, scanning the darkness and trying desperately to deny what it had just realized.
But before it could do so, something hot and coarse dripped onto its body, clinging to its skin like thick liquid.
"Aaahh!"
The figure let out a pained cry and shook itself frantically.
The moment it did, the silence shattered and sudden noises erupted all around, growing louder as the temperature spiked sharply.
The descender's eyes widened and it darted backward, swimming as fast as it could in the direction it had come from.
But before it could get far, a deafening roar filled the waters.
Something massive moved nearby, and the resulting current slammed into the figure, hurling it deep into the dark.
•••
A small light drifted in the dark expanse, slowly descending as its glow began to flicker. Something moved towards it and caught it in its grasp.
'So hard to breathe... Just how far down in the Eclipsed Reach am I?'
The figure was huffing heavily as it glanced around the darkness while lightly clenching the circular Reveric.
'At least the air feels cool. Guess I got away...'
The descender was only now regaining its composure when a faint sound reached its ears, slowly growing louder as it moved closer.
It stared in the direction of the noise with lifeless eyes, now tightly clenching the circular Reveric.
'No... Please... Not again...'
The wanderer began swimming away from the sound, trying to move as fast as its limp, injured body would allow, but the noise kept following.
No matter how far it went, the noise never stopped. It didn't seem to catch up, but stayed just close enough to let the figure know something was right behind it.
'I should be nothing more than a small floating plant to the Seakins here... Then why is it following me? And even if it is, why hasn't it caught up yet? Like seriously...?'
The figure took a deep breath, as deep as its body would allow, then started waiting for the source of the noise to arrive.
At first, nothing happened.
The sound kept growing, but not loud enough to hurt its ears. In fact, it didn't even feel as dreadful as the noises the descender had heard before.
Then, all of a sudden, the wanderer felt pressure on its arm.
It froze, terrified, but... there was no pain?
Its hand was being pulled around by something, but nothing really hurt.
The figure opened its eyes and took a closer look at the Seakin biting it, but to its surprise, the Seakin didn't look as it expected.
'Something this small in the Eclipsed Reach...? How...? And why... does it look like that?'
The Seakin biting its hand had faintly glowing red eyes and two thin tendrils extending from each side of its face.
Its upper body shimmered with a soft azure hue, transitioning to pale white along the lower body. The face was sharp and completely white.
Its body widened slightly past the head before slipping out of the Circular Reveric's illumination, disappearing into the dark.
The tail couldn't be seen at all as it was swallowed by the surrounding blackness.
Though it was biting the figure, it looked surprisingly cute.
The wanderer kept staring at the small Seakin as it continued trying to tear a chunk of flesh from its hand.
The descender reached into its translucent bag which was now tattered and in a very bad condition, but the figure paid no mind to it.
The figure pulled out a piece of a black, solid substance.
The Seakin's gaze got fixed on the black substance, though it was still biting the figure's hand.
The wanderer stared at the substance for a moment, then sighed.
"I was saving this in case I got trapped somewhere and couldn't leave, kind of like a last delicious meal… But you can have it."
The figure slowly brought the substance toward the Seakin's mouth.
The Seakin's red eyes turned to the figure, then to the black substance.
Slowly it let go of the descender's hand and began hurriedly eating the black substance.
The wanderer kept staring at the Seakin as it ate the substance from its hand, its red eyes constantly flicking toward the figure while munching, as if warning the figure not to move.
The wanderer let out a quiet chuckle, still staring at the Seakin.
'Hmmm… even though it's this small and weak, it does belong to the Eclipsed Reach. I shouldn't take it lightly, it could grow stronger...'
The figure's expression grew serious as it watched the Seakin nearly finished with the black substance.
'Even if it doesn't get that strong, belonging to the Fourth Zone itself should guarantee it becoming stronger than the Seakins of the Fading Currents.'
The Seakin had finished the black substance and was now staring at the figure without moving.
'It's worth a shot, right?...It has to be.'
The descender lightly grabbed the Seakin with both hands and began ascending, something that was very difficult, but it ignored the strain, its focus completely on the creature in its hands.
The Seakin's red eyes widened and it let out a series of sharp, high-pitched squeals.
Its tiny body tensed as it started biting the figure's hands again.
The wanderer paused and looked the Seakin straight in the eyes, then spoke in a serious tone.
"You better keep quiet unless you want something to eat both of us."
The Seakin immediately stopped biting and screaming.
Slowly, it ceased struggling and glanced nervously around the dark expanse.
Then it returned its gaze to the descender, and with a faint flicker of understanding in its eyes, it nodded and wrapped itself around the descender's hand.
The wanderer stared at the Seakin, astounded.
'It actually understood what I said.., even without a Link?'
The figure let out a wide smile and slowly continued ascending the lightless expanse.