The two of us ended up talking for a long time after I had agreed to help. We reminiscenced a lot about the past, briefly touched upon the present, and looked worriedly towards the future. Enough time had passed for the alcohol to be flushed out of our systems and for our stomachs to growl in complaint. Although Oryza had some snacks stashed away in the drawers, a man could not simply sustain himself with half a pack of Ritz crackers and a protein bar shared between two people.

"Let's leave it off here for today. I'll send you some paperwork to do later. Just personal information so I can get you put on this case officially. Let's see… today's Thursday, so how about you come in on Saturday, that should be enough time for both our sides to prepare."

"You run a tight ship, but thanks, I appreciate it." I nodded at him. There was a lot I had on my plate now, but to be honest, most of it was just getting myself back into the right state of mind. "That's right, since I'm going to be working with the guild again, there's just one thing I wanted to ask you about."

"What's up?" Oryza looked up from his phone which he had pulled out during the interim.

"Remember the rift event that took Verretheia? Have you guys found any more information on just what that was? Even among all the rift events I've seen, that one was out of this world."

"N'gothla," he said.

"N'gothlas? What is this Lovecraftian sounding name?" I repeated with my brows furrowed. But it fit the bill with those faceless horrors. I was not going to be the one hipster to point at something that looked like a duck and quacked like a duck, and refuse to call it a duck.

"No, not N'gothlas, don't just suddenly make multiples of them, the world wouldn't be able to handle it."

"My bad. But what about the things that came out of the rift during the outbreak?"

"Those were N'gothla's spawns, but that's also not quite right. If you imagine N'gothla to be one single living body, then those spawns would be more akin to its white blood cells. In other words, they come out as an immune response to invasion, and in the specific case we're concerned with, that would be if a rift opens inside its body."

"What the actual fuck?" That was shocking information he had just laid out. Considering the size and scale of a human body versus a single white blood cell, it was indeed a shocking revelation. When I looked back at Oryza, he was showing me a nodding expression like he understood just exactly how I felt. "If that's the case, then the main body must be hundreds of kilometers across, meaning there could be millions, if not billions of those fucking things. Shit, considering what a single one of them could do, wouldn't it be apocalyptical if even a fraction of them were to be let loose? You'd have to consider nuking the rift at that point, and within the hour too else they be spread far too thin."

"It's considered to be one of the great calamities of Arca Archa."

"So it's worshiped as a god then," I spoke with a dry mouth.

"Just because it's dangerous doesn't mean it's worshiped as a god." Oryza retorted. "But in this case, you would be right. It's well known among the folklore of the Arunians and they worship and refer to it colloquially as Great N'gothla, or as the words translate, the Void of the Great Sea Abyss. It just rolls off the tongue doesn't it. There are also many sayings and phrases in their language associated with it as well. In fact, their term for 'death' actually means 'returning to Great N'gothla,' as the Arunians believe they initially came forth from the void to experience the toils of life, and once their lives are over, their spirits must return back to it to present their moments of greatest hardship as an offering, and as proof that they lived."

"But that doesn't make it any less dangerous though. In the first place, how do the Arunians feel about fighting back against it? Will they just lay down their arms if they are faced with N'gothla's spawns?"

"That, you don't have to worry about at least. Apparently they've been dealing with the spawns for as long as their society has existed. Every once in a while, spawns come out from the void and end up attacking nearby Arunian settlements like a natural disaster. So because of this, they see it as a form of tribulation, something about the void coming to claim them prematurely. And when they repel that threat, they get to extend their time in the world."

"So it's like the grim reaper of some beliefs."

"Well, nobody is born wanting to die," Oryza shrugged at me with what he thought was quite an obvious conclusion. "We've also learned quite a bit about N'gothla from the Lungwang that we're working with."

"Have you? What did they say?"

"Yeah, unlike the Arunians who originally came from the ocean depths, the Lungwang and their Lin servants are the children of the Celestials, who themselves live up atop the clouds, supposedly anyways. According to them, N'gothla is a fallen star that crashed onto Arca Archa tens of thousands of years ago."

"Holy shit, so it's an actual cosmic horror," I gasped, but that only brought more questions my way. "Does this mean H.P. Lovecraft wasn't actually just tripping out of his mind when he wrote his books?"

"I sure fucking hope not. When it first appeared, it was only about one li across– that's about 500 meters. And when they explored it, the inside was a three dimensional labyrinth with all the floors and walls being made of a substance similar in appearance to flesh, but was tough and resilient like rock. What's more, they found that while being inside the labyrinth itself, their strength would be slowly sapped from their bodies and the aether in their bodies would be drained as well."

"Wait, let me guess," I interjected before Oryza could continue. He looked at me with an expression that spelled out his thoughts completely.

"It'd better be a good guess."

"Did they decide to use it as a prison? And that would end up screwing them over later."

"That's a pretty good guess." He nodded, satisfied at my answer. "In the society of the Celestials, there's apparently an ancient covenant that prevents them from killing each other. But there have been those who have committed crimes far too heinous to be left unpunished by anything but the death penalty. What they ended up doing was sentencing those criminals to life's imprisonment. Well, they didn't expect the labyrinth to grow over time. At first they remained fairly optimistic at there being more room to put prisoners, but when it expanded to three times its initial size, that was when the first spawns began to, well, spawn. By that point it became too dangerous to be used as a prison anymore."

"Hold on a second, Oryza. You said the Celestials lived atop the clouds right? So where did N'gothla land in the first place? I really can't imagine this whole thing happening on top of a cloud, but if it landed in the water, how did they manage to even find it?"

"They never actually mentioned where N'gothla landed, but based on the fact that they had to wage a war to seal it in the Great Sea Abyss— well, I still don't know, actually. Do I look like a historian to you? I'm just telling you what we know, and what we do know is that its growth staggered after being thrown down the abyss, but that growth has not stopped. After such a long time, its roots have grown deep and traces of it can be found across the entire seabed. One day it will most likely grow to engulf the entirety of Arca Archa, but that's not a problem we will have to worry about within our lifetime. We won't be around to see it happen."

"I see… so Verretheia was stuck in such a place, all alone."

With a team that had been assembled last minute, she had braved the rift to rescue the civilians taken inside by N'gothla's spawns. Although many of those people made it back out, she never returned. It must have been so lonely for her. She must have been so scared. Just what she must have gone through in order to survive there, I could not even begin to imagine, but perhaps that trauma was the reason why she had changed. If so, I could not blame her. Had I been there in her place, I would have surely perished long ago.

After all, I– Edmond– was only just human. I was not strong like an Arcanian. If I was cut, I bled just as easily as any other person— as any other human. Because I was human— because I was no more than a human.

—A human.

—A frail, weak, powerless human.

No matter how hard I tried to tune it out, it was a ring that would always return eventually to haunt me.

…

…

Oryza walked me out to the entrance.

"Here, before I forget, catch." After getting my attention, Oryza threw something that was small and also glossy enough to catch the reflection of the ambient lights.

"So you already had one made for me." It was an ID card with my name and photo on it. That must have been what the photo he took back when we met was meant for.

"What, did you think I'm just going to keep going around opening all the doors for you? Keep your chin up, Edmond. Things will get better. We know that verretheia is alive, and that should be all you should be focusing on right now."

"Thanks again, for everything." I gave Oryza a grateful bow. "I appreciate it. I mean it, really. You've been looking out for me since the beginning, and you're still looking out for me even two decades later."

"What did I just say? Oryza sighed, but he soon shook his head slowly as if to dispel any of my worries. "I promised to Verretheia that I would look after you after all. She was afraid that you might end up regressing back or do something that would hurt yourself in case something ever happened to her."

"Verretheia…" I whispered to myself. This was the first time I had heard this coming from Oryza. Knowing this now, a small laugh came to me quietly. "Of course… Verretheia, my beloved Verretheia, you were looking out after me even when I thought you were no longer there."

But now… now it was my turn to return that favor. Whatever the situation it was that had brought her to where she was now, it was my duty to bring her back. I was resolved to do so. I was resolved to sacrifice the world for her before, and I failed. But there would be no second time. I would never fail her again. Even if I had to change the world to do so, I would bring her back to me. I vowed as such.

"—I will not fail you again, Verretheia."

…

…