EV is quickly enveloped in the light-less tube. He slows his fall and illuminates his surroundings. The voice had been incessantly warning him not to come down here but he forced his mind closed to it, his curiosity getting the better of him. He extends his hand into the sheet of water, carving away an opening as if someone were turning the knobs on an Etch A Sketch. He sees the crawling lightning in the distance and pushes his way through the curtain. Is that electricity, he wonders. He holds his dagger out ahead of him as if carrying a lantern while gliding further out in the dark—an urge to continue being stronger than the urge to turn back.

He can’t see anything outside of his light sphere, aside from looking back towards the entrance. The opening there looked like ice sickles of light dangling over a vast nothing. He sails closer to a perimeter, the crawling electrical arcs showing up and reflecting from his widening eyes. It’s as if the chasm is something like a Faraday cage and an electromagnetic field continues to writhe around it. He extends his fingertips, reaching towards the surface, the electrical arcs reach back and he quickly withdraws his hand as they jump to his fingers.

Envy, says the voice, like a staticky radio signal that is just out of range. He shakes his head and the signal fades out again. He looks at his hand and smiles at the tingling sensation, not knowing what he was expecting.

He extends his hand again where the arcs eagerly approach to meet his touch. He smiles as he fully places his hand against the wall and the arcs, like puppies, continuously jump up, trying to climb onto the back of his fingers so that he can give them more attention. He dissolves his dagger to free his other hand and a blinding light pulses from a huge span of the wall. He has to look away and it takes several moments for his vision to return enough to see within his small sphere of light. He blinks and focuses on his hand as the arcs are back to leaping up on him again. What the heck was that? —Did it respond to me dissolving my weapon? —Some kind of reflex or something?

He squints and slowly increases the light intensity of his bracers. The electrical arcs seem to bloom, flooding the area around his hand as more light expands across the wall. What’s going on here? He looks out across the wall and tries to imagine what could cause such a thing. He slowly rubs the wall and looks back over as the lighting chases after his hand. He turns and puts his other hand against it. He starts to descend again and the lighting streaks up away from him. He lets his speed increase and he laughs out loud as he descends, seeming something like a cat that had jumped onto a curtain while trying to get to a laser pointer. The curtain is tearing and the cat is sliding down as the fabric tears under its weight.

EV is lost in the moment but jumps back as a wave of shadow rushes back up the wall. He pulls his hand into his chest as he looks up at the now light-less wall.

Envy must get out of here, bellows the voice as it floods back into his thoughts.

EV recoils—something zipping past him. More zips and whistles pass nearby and he turns that direction, not finding anything.

Envy, go!

He finally gets moving again. His eyes grow wider as his gaze tries to penetrate the darkness outside of his light. His path becomes sporadic as he darts away from various sounds. It starts to rain and then a more concentrated jet of water sprays him from above. He spins away from it as he tries to make it back to the water curtain.

Envy, move left!

EV quickly looks left and pain lances through his right shoulder. He spins away from the attack and another stream of water forces him downwards. He rights himself and continues towards the former curtain. More debris falls through his sphere that he actually sees and he recoils from them each time. He flails as he reaches the curtain as if desperately trying to reach for a life preserver that is floating nearby. He spins into the cylinder, shedding the water before ascending again. The curtain of water then falls from around him. He looks down as it disappears below him and then looks back up, seeing more light shining through various new openings.

“What’s happening,” he calls out.

Envy didn’t want to listen to this one before, the voice replies. Why should this one tell you anything now?

“I’m sorry! But I had to see this—”

Envy must get out of here before you are buried alive.

EV passes back through the opening and continues climbing higher in the sky while holding his shoulder. He turns to look back down, seeing the river almost completely drained. The boat is sitting on the river bed and he quickly glances around as he thinks about Gluttony and Sloth. He finds them waving from a nearby street. A loud rumbling causes him to look back down as Lust passes through the opening. The ground crumbles and EV’s breath catches as it begins to fall. It seems like an eternity as he watches the rubble collapse. The river bed drops away and three figures emerge from the center opening as if a magician had dropped a curtain to reveal a magic trick.

Relief floods through EV and he starts to feel the pain in his shoulder again. The ground continues to collapse around the area and he looks over to see Gluttony and Sloth having to move back further as more of the perimeter crumbles. A great portion of the street also collapses leaving an exposed opening of the channel running under it. The surrounding area continues to change, as rents open along other nearby streets. Some of the buildings fall into the crater while others only crack open, depositing various portions of themselves. When everything finally becomes still, EV surveys the area aghast. Is this because of us?