『Ugh...』

I laid unmoving within the water as my consciousness was fading.

『No... I can't sleep here... I need to keep searching for an energy source...』

Shaking my head, I tried to stand up but stumbled back into the water, creating another loud splash. My body was injured all over, one of my arms was severely injured, and the other was gone... I breathed heavily sitting on my knees. My blood at eaten through the fauna creating a vortex that swirled into the hole. By the time my breathing was somewhat stabilized, the water had been drained from the goblet.

I forced myself to keep going, standing upright and leaping onto another goblet. I never knew how heavy I was before until now. The weight of my upper body felt like I was holding several tons, causing my knees to buckle and I staggered a few steps within the hot water, before stabilizing. My breathing became heavier and my senses started to blur until an entity entered within my range.

『Fuck...』

I cursed. I cursed my bad luck and I cursed this creature that wanted to take advantage of me right now. There was a burst of vitality within my body and my fatigue disappeared momentarily. Crouching onto all fours... My mistake, on all threes, I waved my tail around threateningly while hissing at it. The creature was an Orb Piercer that resembled a porcupine with a head that looks like a mask with multiple holes.

Although they are herbivorous, they are ferociously temperamental and defensive over their territory. Seeing my aggressive behavior and danger from my tail, it felt its life threatened even though I was half-dead already. The spines that covered its body were sharpened and venomous needles that can pierce through metal as if it was paper, similar in strength to my tail.

Swish

I tried to dodge several needles that flew at me but failed. 2 of them hit me in the abdomen and in my injured arm. The blood that came out from the wounds had a mix of purple which was the poison within the needles. The poison however was being neutralized thanks to the acidic properties of my blood.

The Orb-piercer cautiously approached my body but was a little surprised to see it fall through the goblet along with the water being drained. When it looked through the whole, it saw my body falling to the ground. Seeing as the 'threat' left its territory, it no longer pursued me and wandered away.

The smaller goblet I was lying in surprisingly didn't melt from my blood, but I could feel a small tingling from it instead. It seemed that the smaller Goblets produce acid rather than hot water before maturing until the giants around.

Juno who was unable to move her body at all right now, fell into a hibernation state to slowly recover. During her hibernation, an unknown amount of time passed when a group of mysterious delvers chanced upon her. Taking an interest in this never-before-seen creature, the group split into two groups. One was to carry on with their current tasks and the other captured the strange creature, returning to the lowest depths of the 4th Layer.

(WARNING! Incoming Movie spoilers for the Made in Abyss Movie 3: Fubaki Tamashii no Reimei)

The mysterious delvers who captured and returned were revealed to be 'The Praying Hands' or 'Umbra Hands' that are directly under Bondrewd the Lord of Dawn. Juno was taken into the circular city that used to be a ritual site. Once taken inside, she was then lead into a room with a metal chair wired with multiple machines on it. Strapping her onto the chair and rigging the many machines to her, they commenced with their experiments/probing.

"Want to see inside."

"Want to see inside."

"Want to see inside."

"Want to see."

『Where am I...』 (Juno)

"Not good. Acidic blood too strong."

"The Light..."

"Let's use the Light."

『?!』 The sudden pain jolted through my body from behind. A loud screech escaped my mouth but was muffled by the metal contraption that covered it.

"Removed."

"Removed."

Juno who was restrained upon a metal chair had the blade on her tail cut off.

"Sufficient volume of fluid has been collected from the mouth."

"What's the composition?"

"Unknown."

"Unknown."

"Want to see the extendable proboscis-like inner mouth."

"Want to see."

"Would also like a dorsal spine."

When the Umbra Hand member removed the muzzle-like metal cage, her inner jaw shot through his skull, killing him instantly. His body fell to the side but the other Umbra Hands were relatively calm. Violently shaking her body, she freed her tail from the restraints that were loosened from her struggling. She didn't have the time to deal with the Umbra Hands right now, so after freeing herself from the chair, she fled the room running down the hallways.

"Not good. The specimen has escaped."

"Escaped."

Slowing down, I stopped at the foot of the underground stairs. Worried about the curse, I stared at the dark stairs that lead upwards. Turning my head back from where I came from, I heard footsteps approaching at a steady pace. I had already experimented with the curse on the 2nd and 3rd layers. There was a type of wave in the air, and that was the curse that was within the Abyss.

『There's no time to waste.』

Using my telepathic ability and pushing my senses to the limit, I took steady steps up the stairs, avoiding the curse that entered within my senses, or the places where it was less in intensity, I took a step at the top of the stairs.

Shaking my head and recovering myself, I looked down the staircase before climbing on the walls and waiting on the ceiling. before long, the Umbra Hands stepped into hallways looking down both sides not sure where I could've gone. They split up into a group of 3. This made my job easier as I stalked them on the ceilings, taking them down one by one. When the other Umbra Founds discovered the dead bodies, they remarked on Juno's ability to stealthily kill them with ease.

『An energy source?!』

Juno, who had made it outside stared into the distance and was shocked to see a large sphere of energy expand until it contracted and disappeared. A few hundred-meter radii annihilated the buildings and revealed two small figures falling.

『Are they the ones Marulk mentioned?』

Remembering the earlier destruction, she was excited to realize that you would need a large supply of energy to use such a destructive weapon. When I was heading in the direction of the explosion I caught sight of two figures falling into the hole caused by the explosion. Still far away from them, I could hear the sounds of a battle occurring. Several minutes passed and I was nearing the end of their battle...

"I've long dreamed of the day we'd kill each other in battle, and yet..." (Nanachi)

【Ah, I am glad things did not turn out that way—truly.】 (Bondrewd)

【Nanachi, come now, raise your head.】 Bondrewd who was lying on the ground with only the upper half of his body, raised his arm towards Nanachis face, gently holding her cheek with his claws.

【May your journey overflow with Curses and Blessings.】 (Bondrewd)

Nanachi pulled his hand away and replied with a smile "Shut up already." (Nanachi)

【My... You truly are adorable.】 (Bondrewd)

His body slowly fell back to the ground and the light in his mask dimmed until it was gone. In the shadows behind the debris, I watched the 3 children carefully, especially the one who was fighting with the dead body over there. When the three of them settles down, I carefully approached them until the long-lost system prompt alerted in my mind.

[Nearby Energy Source detected. Commencing energy extraction.]

When enough energy was extracted from the robot who was called Reg, Juno slowly retreated back into the shadows of the ruined city to rest a little while checking the System Features.

Name: Juno

Race: Reaper Xenomorph

Height: 7ft

Length: 15-18ft

Stats

STR: 0/300 (350) +300

END: 0/200 (250) +200

DEX: 0/300 (400) +300

VIT: 0/100 (200) +100

WIS: 0/50 (65) +50

Traits

Retractable claws: 100% (No unique DNA required)

Evo Points: 1,678 -> 728

She glanced to the children now descending into the lower layer and maxed out her stats. She had already learned from Marulk that it requires a White Whistle in order to go further down, and it was basically impossible for her to obtain one of her own. Thus, she said to the System to open a Rift to travel to a new world.