The way forward from the orchard was unexpectedly gentle.
After the tension of corruption trials, after the Veiled City's shifting illusions and the orchard's poison dreams, this stretch of the Abyss felt… quiet. Not safe — Raen doubted such a thing existed here — but almost reverent. As though the realm itself was catching its breath.
They walked across broad slabs of stone veined with faint, pearlescent lines. Every so often, a vein pulsed under Raen's boots, sending tiny shivers across the ground. It felt alive, but not malicious. Curious, maybe. Or waiting.
Ember Vow stayed close. Her steps were slow, careful, the tip of her boot sometimes tracing idly through fine dust that lay in shallow whorls. Her eyes, usually so sharp and restless, had softened to a thoughtful haze.
"It's beautiful," she murmured once, breaking a long silence.
Raen glanced at her sidelong. "Is it?"
She didn't smile. Didn't tease. "In its way. This calm. It's what I imagine death might be, if it wasn't always clawing to drag us down."
He said nothing. Only reached out and let his fingers brush hers. She took the hint instantly, tangling their hands together. Hollowfang paced ahead, tail flicking in short, content sweeps. Even Despair Maw, usually twitching with the need to hunt or protect, drifted more languidly, leaving slow trails in the dust.
For a while, it was enough just to walk.
Eventually, the path narrowed into a shallow canyon, stone walls rising in rough spires on either side. As they moved between them, faint lines of script etched themselves along the rock. Raen slowed, squinting at the shapes. They weren't glyphs he recognized. They felt… older. Hungrier.
The System stirred at last.
[System Notice: Passive Layer of the Deep Abyss Detected]
[Type: Consuming Archive]
[Effect: Echoes of Those Who Failed Will Whisper. Listen at Your Peril.]
Ember Vow read it over his shoulder. Her mouth twisted. "This place has too many libraries written in scars."
"Then we won't read too deeply."
But already the walls began to mutter.
It started as faint sighs. Then words slipped through — not sentences, not conversations, just fragments that felt torn from throats mid-confession.
"…should have bound the Leviathan sooner…"
"…betrayed by my own heart…"
"…the Abyss offered me crowns of flame, I offered it my children…"
Raen kept his eyes forward. Memoryweaver coiled in his chest, testing each voice as it brushed against him. Some tried to burrow deeper, threading temptation in the shape of empathy — don't you want to know what mistakes others made, so you can avoid them? — but he pushed them aside.
Next to him, Ember Vow shivered. Her hand squeezed his so tightly it almost hurt. He didn't flinch. The pain was grounding. Better that than slipping.
The whispers grew bolder.
"…Raen…"
He tensed. Hollowfang's head whipped around, teeth bared. Despair Maw let out a long, low growl that vibrated through the stone.
"…Raen Tiberis… you wear so many borrowed skins… when will you learn to shed them all? When will you learn the Abyss loves you naked of memory, naked of fear…"
A soft breath from Ember Vow — half a whimper, half a growl. Her other hand pressed to her temple.
Raen turned toward the wall. Pale glyphs crawled there like insects, spelling his name over and over in different scripts. He let Memoryweaver flare — not to fight, but to show. He gave the wall not old memories, not past failures, but the tiny, fragile moments he'd carved since stepping into this damnable realm.
Ember Vow laughing under her breath when Hollowfang tripped over Despair Maw's tail. The quiet, near-human affection in Hollowfang's eyes as it leaned into Raen's palm. The ghost of a smile on Despair Maw's jagged mouth after a hard hunt. Ember Vow's lips parting in surprise the first time he touched her cheek not in command, but in simple want.
The glyphs cracked. Small fissures crawled outward, light leaking in thin, defiant threads.
The whispers retreated. Not defeated — they were the Abyss, and the Abyss was eternal. But they understood they would gain nothing here, not today.
Raen released Ember Vow's hand only to slide his arm around her shoulders, drawing her in close. She slumped against him, breathing hard, her heartbeat a rapid tattoo against his side.
"Still with me?" he asked, voice rough.
Her answering sound was somewhere between a scoff and a sob. "Always. Even if it scares me to admit how badly I need to be."
He kissed her hair — a brief press of lips that smelled of dust and something bittersweet. Then he drew back and they kept walking.
The canyon finally widened. They emerged onto a broad shelf that overlooked a yawning expanse.
It was a pit — vast beyond measure, its walls crawling with shifting architecture. Columns rose and collapsed, arches formed from writhing roots, bridges hung in midair only to dissolve into motes of dark light. Somewhere far below, something pulsed. Not light exactly — more like the idea of light, failing to be born, flickering out before it could gain form.
Hollowfang padded to the edge, sniffing the drop. Its ears flattened. Despair Maw coiled tighter, its massive body half-wrapped around Raen and Ember Vow, breath rumbling like distant thunder.
"This is it," Ember Vow whispered.
"The center?" he asked.
"No." Her head turned slowly, eyes half-glazed. "Just… the last threshold. After this, we step into places where even the Abyss's own rules tangle and snap. Where your System will falter."
Raen studied her face, the small tension at the corner of her mouth. "You're afraid."
"I am." Her eyes flicked to his, bright and unsparing. "Because I don't know if I'll hold together there. Because the Abyss made me before it ever thought to test you. And it might call me home, Raen. Might whisper things I can't fight."
He didn't flinch. Only lifted a hand to cradle her jaw. "Then I'll fight them for you."
"It might mean fighting me."
"Then I'll remind you who you are. Who we've made you, beyond what this place tried to mold."
A thin breath, almost laughter. "Arrogant man."
"Hopeful man."
She surged forward then, catching his mouth with hers. It wasn't gentle, wasn't sweet. It was desperate, a clash of teeth and short gasps, her hands clutching his shoulders like she'd drown without the grip.
When they parted, her forehead rested against his. "Then let's walk in together."
He nodded. Hollowfang bumped his leg with a grunt that sounded impatient. Despair Maw's head dipped, nudging them forward.
Together they stepped to the very edge. The ground gave way in slow ripples, forming a sloping path that led down into that churning pit of unformed structures and half-born lights.
The Abyss seemed to draw a long, slow breath.
Raen squeezed Ember Vow's hand.
"Come on," he murmured.
And together they descended, into the waiting maw.