After breakfast, they left the oasis, and everyone agreed to follow the pendant. They expected it to lead them down the mountain, but instead it led them to a crevice large enough for the landraider to pass through, leading them back into the underempire.

"Are we seriously going back in there?" Baldric said as they stopped outside. "I mean, I trust it, but can’t we just go down the mountain?"

"I sent some drones to survey the entire area yesterday." Ada said, "The surrounding areas are far too steep, and beyond that, it is a rocky wasteland all the way down. I have weighed all possible solutions, and I think we should continue to follow the necklace."

"We got one vote to go down. Who else is voting that we should go back down into the scary darkness?" Baldric asked, and everyone, even Elizabeth, raised their hands.

"Really, even you, Sunny?"

"I trust it. And nothing will hurt us because we will all be together." Elizabeth said with a smile, and Baldric caved in.

As they made their way back down, they realized the pendant was truly guiding them. It led them to water sources and large edible trees of giant mushrooms. It guided them away from the Ithraxi and other creatures; and it even guided them with crystal formation-illuminated routes. They barely realized that two days had passed since they had gone back to the underempire. Meanwhile, Luna, Baldric, and Ada were tracking their movements with their maps, Ada’s tracking logs, and the magnamap.

"Damn." Baldric slammed the pencil he was using. "The magnamap screwed us over! We spent the first ten days going around in circles! Elizabeth, your necklace is the real deal. If it tells us to jump off a cliff, I say we keep following it to the end."

"Why?" Elizabeth and Annie joined them at the table.

"We counted the days and the routes we had taken, and then, using the oasis and the mountain top we stayed on as markers, we had a good view of where we were. We are here." Luna pointed to the map and said, "We should have reached the walled sea if we hadn’t gotten lost."

"Basically, if we follow your necklace." Baldric added, "We can leave the underempire."

=0o0=

They had been travelling for fifteen days now when Luna, Ada, and Baldric noticed they had been passing through a lot of downward slopes. The pendant was not guiding them out anymore, but rather guiding them down deeper.

"Sunny, are you sure this is where the necklace is telling us to go?" Baldric said, as they haven’t passed through any of the crystal formations for a whole day now.

"I’m sure. It just says, "Keep going down." Elizabeth answered.

The deeper they went, the more alien the underempire became. They passed by ruins covered with high sand dunes. The pendant was still leading them to water sources, but it was very scarce. They even saw creatures skittering in the dark that they had no knowledge of.

"Ada." Luna asked, "Is any of this familiar to you? Or your archives?"

"No. No records of these ruins exist in my data, but I am documenting them all down."

"That’s not good when a GEA has no memory of something." Luna told Baldric softly.

=0o0=

Another day passed as they kept going down. Luna tried the necklace as well, and even to her, the faint whisper told her to keep going down.

"Listen. I don’t doubt any of you or the necklace, but I think being down here is an extremely bad idea. Just being here is making my hair stand up." Baldric looked out into the darkness.

{I’m scared.} Annie gestured at them as she drove the landraider. {It feels like something is watching us.}

"Listen. I’m getting a bad feeling as well, but we don’t even know where to go if we double back." Luna said to all of them. "It guided us to safety before; why wouldn’t it do it now?"

"As I said, I trust you and Elizabeth. But being down here just feels wrong."

“Also, I don’t want to alarm anyone, but our magicore fuel is at half capacity." Ada said. "So let’s hope the thingy gets us out soon."

=0o0=

Another two days passed. They had been down here for eighteen days. This whole trip through the underempire has gone on for far too long. They could have reached the walled sea by now if they had stayed on the surface, but instead they were lost in the darkness. It also started to get colder, cold enough that Luna’s breath was visible even inside the heated landraider.

"Shouldn’t it be hotter the more we go down?" Baldric spoke as Annie, Elizabeth, and Willow huddled under a blanket, wearing multiple layers to stay warm.

"My thoughts exactly." Luna said, shivering. The pendant guided them to an underground vent that had a small hot spring surrounding it, and there were even some bug creatures that Baldric hunted. As they warmed themselves in the hot spring and stocked up on water, they roasted the bugs, and he found they tasted like chicken.

"You sure we can eat this?" Luna said as Baldric munched on its legs.

"I dunno. But I’m still alive. And the pendant guided us here, so it must be safe." Baldric took another bite.

Luna looked at the landraider. Their food and water were not a problem, but their magicores were a different issue. The bizarrely cold atmosphere down there caused them to eat through them rather quickly.

=0o0=

Another day passed as they went through a new set of ruins. They could not even be called ruins, as the buildings look rather new. The pillars, obelisks, and other large structures they passed were colossal in height and made out of highly polished black marble. There was something unnerving about them, and Luna felt what Annie had been saying for days; it felt like they were being watched.

"Ada, Annie, what is the status of our magicores?" Luna asked them.

{We can make it last for another week, but then we need to switch to combustible fuel.} Annie gestured.

"I don’t approve of the use of the combustible engine." Ada added. "The noise might attract... something down here."

"What about our weapon status, Ada?"

"My spider drones did an inventory and found that the ammo for the cannon, mortars, and the arbalest is running low. The small ammo count remains optimal."

"Yeah, rifles and pistols will work with whatever is down here." Baldric added.

"Ada, keep your sensory drones on high alert." Luna looked outside. "If anything happens, your highest priority should be to keep Annie and Elizabeth safe. Got it?"

"You don't have to keep reminding me of that. If anything, I will throw you both away to save the children."

=0o0=

After half a day of travel, the pendant guided them to an eerily small, still lake. Luna and Baldric were astounded as there were no rivers anywhere and no source of water to point out where it came from.

"I’m not drinking that." Luna said as both of them surveyed the black glass-like lake. They decided to stop for a while as Ada and Annie performed maintenance on the Landraider.

"Something is weird." Elizabeth said to them when they got back.

"What is it?" Luna asked her, and she offered her the necklace.

"The pendant stopped whispering."

"What?!" Baldric blurted out as he approached both of them. "This is a joke, right sunny?" Luna tried it as well, and the child was right. There was nothing but silence. Willow suddenly leapt off the landraider and ran off into the darkness before Annie could stop it.

"Oi you lot." Ada called out to them. "The rat got away."

Elizabeth was stopped by Luna before she could run after it.

"Willow! Come ba-" Luna and Baldric covered the child's mouth with their hands.

"Don’t yell. We don’t know what’s down here." Baldric looked around.

"Willow might get lost down here! We have to save him!"

"Ada. Can you track Willow on your sensors?" Luna asked.

"Yeah, and boy is the little rat moving fast."

She got Ada’s backpack from the storage.

"Me and Ada will get him back. Elizabeth stay here with Baldric and Annie. We won’t be long." Baldric grabbed her arm.

"Are you sure you want to go through the dark? We don’t know what’s hiding down here."

"Willow saved us before. Only fair I do the same."

Luna then set off with an electric torch in hand and headed into the dark. As she went farther away, they encountered more of the ruins. They were covered with hieroglyphics that seemed freshly carved. It had images of creatures she had never seen before, even in books.

"Ada, do you know what the symbols mean?" Luna asked as she shined her torch towards the symbols. A drone shaped like a fly came out of her backpack and approached the ruins. A blue light came from its eyes, and it shone all over the symbols. Then it went back inside Luna’s bag.

"Out of all the symbols I have read, only one exists in my archives." Ada said to her. "The symbol of the Khelari."

"The Khelari built all of this?" Luna said as they continued on ahead. "Considering their age, that seems-"

"I found the rat." Ada cut her off. Luna shined her torch ahead and found the white fuzzy cub in the distance. He was across from a steep cliff on top of a lone pillar, snacking on a bug. The distance was close enough to jump, but as Luna looked down, the height was incredibly high. Luna whistled and called to Willow, but he huffed and continued to eat.

"I say we leave it." Ada said to her. Luna weighed her options. She had her grapple hook in her holster, so she decided-

"I’m going to jump." Luna said out loud.

"Are you insane? Do you not see the steep drop into the void?!" Ada scolded her.

"I jump in, grab him, and jump out. Easy." Luna stretched and got ready to jump.

"Easy death you mean! For once in your life, can you think something through?!"

"Duly noted, Ada." As Luna reared for the jump, Ada released some drone flies from the bag. Luna gave herself a running start, leapt and landed on top of the pillar. She grabbed Willow, but the pillar started to collapse. She grabbed her grapple hook and aimed for the other side. It connected, but the rock where the hook connected broke off and they fell.

=0o0=

Luna woke up as Willow licked her face. They landed on soft sand that was almost like a pillow. She checked, and it seemed she didn’t have any injuries. Willow repeatedly licked her face.

“Suddenly, now you like me, huh?" Luna picked up Willow and her torch. They were surrounded by sand, and it seemed like they had landed on top of a sand dune. The sand was unnaturally soft. It felt like she was holding snow that was somehow dry. Luna looked up and shined her torch, but could not see where they fell from. Luna realised that it was too quiet as Ada was not giving her any smart remarks.

"Ada?" Luna checked her backpack and the blue light on it was gone, and as if right on cue, the light on her electronic torch died as well, plunging her into darkness. "Great. Just great."

The ground below began to softly glow. Spheres of light emerged from the ground and stopped around Luna and Willow. She looked closely as the balls of light danced around them and began to rub themselves on both of them. Luna could feel that they were not hostile creatures as they continued to circle them. Willow tried to eat one, but it just went right through him and came out. A ball of light landed on Luna’s shoulder, and she tried to touch it.

It felt like a very warm, thin jelly. It cutely jiggled when Luna poked it, sending ripples across its round body. The other balls of light began to go back into the ground, except for the one on her shoulder.

"Uhmmm, Hello." Luna said to the ball. It didn’t leave her and continued to sit on her shoulder. It rolled around and rubbed at her neck, then floated ahead of them. The ball acted as a source of light as it followed Luna, which she had to say was convenient as she carried Willow in her arms.

They continued, and Luna found that they had fallen into a ravine. The ball of light shone towards an extremely narrow flight of steps heading back up, but it was blocked by a fallen obelisk. Willow started to snarl at the Obelisk, and as Luna got closer, even the ball of light seemed to be trying to push her away from it.

The massive structure was made of the same black marble as the ruins they encountered, but this seemed to have a hue of dark purple, like an amethyst. The closer she got, the ball of light kept hitting her lightly, as if asking her to keep away, and Willow wiggled and squirmed in her arms. Luna checked the massive obelisk and its surroundings.

The only way back up was through the narrow flight of steps, and the obelisk blocked everything else. She tried to find another way up, but there was nothing. The only way back was to climb the felled structure to reach the flight of steps. As she got close, the ball of light kept hitting her in the face, and Willow kept snarling.

"Look." She said to both of them. "The only way out is through the obelisk, which means we have to climb it. If you two can find a better way, especially you shiny," Luna pointed to the ball, "then please point me to it because we need to get back up."

The ball stood still, and Luna felt it did not have any other paths for them to take. Luna breathed out and approached the obelisk. The sides of the structure barely had dust on them. Despite it being knocked down, it seemed it was still in pristine condition, with the hieroglyphics on it looking brand new. Hesitantly, Luna reached out and touched it.

The moment she did, it felt like it was sucking her in. Willow leapt off and tried to yank her away while the ball of light kept circling and circling above them as if panicking about what to do.

Something was coming out of the obelisk and pulling Luna’s entire arm into it. Her hands and her entire arm felt like it were burning from the inside and she started to scream. She felt something crawling up her arm and it felt like hot wax creeping up. The closer she got to the obelisk, Luna felt like fainting, she wasn’t screaming anymore when everything faded to black.