For once, I hesitated. The water had come from nowhere, and it felt just a little bit stronger than the stuff that had been in the reservoirs. Appraising it showed me exactly the same description as before, though, so maybe it had just been my imagination. And I did need another mythic or better consumable…

I gently cradled the water in my palm and activated endless to consume it. I got a simple prompt to remove one of my ribbons to make room, but when I wiped away one of the non-mythic consumables, it didn’t go away. And the water didn’t turn into a ribbon. Instead, it prompted me to destroy another ribbon to make room for it.

“Strange.” I muttered as I wiped the last non-mythic consumable from endless. Leaving me only with Sotrien’s Sin and the Mind-Shear Reprieve. The prompt disappeared, and in its place, a wondrous whirl of colours sprouted from endless and wrapped itself in sensations. For the briefest of moments, I felt everything. Instead of being on the outside, as I’d felt earlier, I was the center. My mind reeled at the added weight, but the strength of so many experiences outweighed the strain a hundredfold.

And then it was gone. One notification popped up to confirm what I’d just taken, and was swiftly replaced with another. The description of a trinket that, when I looked at it, gave me an incredible headache the likes of nothing I’d ever felt. I winced and glanced away, then put all thoughts of corrupting the thing out of my mind and dared to look back. This time, I felt only comfort and a sense of excess that only came with living a life of luxury and happiness.

//Twisted Conduit(???,Entity.)

//Core Mastery Requirement: Worthy.

//Current Item Mastery: N/A.

//Cannot be unequipped. Cannot be traded by any means. Upon death, this is wiped from existence.

//All effects that would restore battery, health, or armor integrity can now overflow those values by up to an additional 100% beyond their respective maximums. Increases all POTENTIAL and EXPERIENCE gains by 50% while the bearer has an overflow in all three applicable stats.

A growth trinket. Well, a growth trinket stapled onto a trinket that effectively read ‘double your battery, health, and armor integrity’. Not the absolute strongest thing I’d ever seen, but there was a major difference between this and everything else–it was completely free.

And that didn’t even count the fact that I still got a greater than mythical grade consumable out of it. I swiped over from the thing I still had no idea what it looked like to endless, just to make sure it hadn’t reached the point of its final evolution. Only three ribbons stared back at me, none of which would be offensively useful in combat, but now I was pretty much set defensively. And I had a free slot open for the next mythical consumable I ran into.

I took a deep breath as the sensation of being slightly too full came and went. My interface told me I now had exactly one-hundred and one percent armor integrity, health that wasn’t the actual stat, and eighty-nine percent battery. That one was because I’d been keeping the hydra active for a good few minutes, and I expected I wouldn’t have to keep it on for much longer. Not since the power was on.

“Gods, Sebastian, what did ya do?” Okeria asked through my communicator. “It’s lit up like a bad night in a worse neighborhood, and there’s so many colours and sensations here that I’m startin’ ta feel nauseous.”

“We think it is very beautiful.” Mortician cut in. “This is how we feel a good majority of the time, and yes, we can see how it would be unpleasant if there were not multiple minds to experience and understand the sensations. Though you are being somewhat of a baby.”

Silence followed Mortician’s very simple insult. “A… what?” Okeria laughed, and I heard something like armor rustling. “Alright, guess I don’t have a right ta complain at the moment. Juniper, did the thing Sebastian did get as far down as ya are?”

Jun crackled to life with a hum of thought. “I’m pretty sure it’s the entire facility. This place is… really weird without the darkness covering everything up. Almost like those pictures of ancient Staura architecture, but with a lot of boring modern stuff cluttering it up.”

“Like a pizza hut near the pyramids?” I suggested.

“That didn’t translate perfectly, but I got the sentiment. And yes. That’s exactly what it feels like.” Jun confirmed. “All these reservoirs snake through every single inch of this place, and all of this not-quite-metal feels like it’s a conglomeration of way too many things. My interface wouldn’t even tell me what it was made of.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “What about the reservoirs?”

“Oh, yeah, it showed me what was in those. And it’s really powerful, but I don’t know how I’m going to get some without risking destroying this entire place.” Jun knocked something that echoed through her communicator, then grunted. “The other facility we have access to is some kind of garden, right? There’s bound to be water there.”

“If I had ta guess, I’d say yeah. Meet back at Mortician as soon as ya can.” Okeria said, then cut himself out of the conversation.

“We will wait here.” Mortician confirmed. “Oh, and Sebastian?”

“Yeah?”

“Your hydra makes a very nice companion. Although it is slightly too affectionate for a beast of its lethality.” They chuckled, which was followed by a heavy thunk and a few laughing yelps of surprise. “It seems to have decided we belong on the ground! Which is where we will stay until everyone returns. See you soon!”

“See you soon, buddy.” I chuckled. “Jun, you heading back right away?”

A heavy sigh answered me. “I might as well, yeah. Something about this place is so off, but I don’t know if it's because I’m not used to it or if there’s actually something wrong with it. I mean, all this intricate architecture and weirdly complex power grid, and it’s just for people to relax? Isn’t that a little weird?”

“At least a little.” I agreed. “Maybe the other facilities will be even more extravagant. Or it could be that this is what was relaxing for people back when Acasiana built it. You know, like how rich or important people have huge houses just because they have enough money for them?”

“Mm. That could be it.” Jun mused, then sighed. “You know, I’m technically from a rich family. Not that it really changed anything; it just meant my terrible childhood was in much nicer places than other peoples’.”

I nodded and began to walk back towards Mortician’s blip on my map. “I remember. It didn’t do much for you when you got to the all world, though.”

Jun snorted. “No, it did not. I’m coming back now, but we should check this place out when we’ve got our bearings. It looks like the inside of a really expensive jewelry store if someone took out all of the display cases and replaced them with cheap furniture.”

With the darkness no longer obscuring my vision, I got a glance at what Jun was alluding to. Not to the same degree, of course, but the only furnishings I caught a glimpse of down the strangely thin hallway were a pair of folding chairs leaning against an ornate wall. I didn’t even have to adjust myself to walk past them, and a quick look up at the ceiling showed a glassed-in conduit of iridescent water that whooshed quietly away from where I’d just been.

“It’s strange, all right.” I agreed. “Just like that one room in Acasiana’s hazard.”

“Huh. That’s right.” Jun said. “Maybe it’s just her taste in decoration. But her armor was so beautifully ornate, not like… I’m gesturing at all the cheap stuff around me for emphasis, so you know.”

I smiled and nodded. “Now I know. See you in a few minutes, Jun.”

The empty halls of the rest area echoed with my clattering metal scrapings of my footsteps. A few minutes had passed more than half an hour ago, and I wasn’t any closer to Mortician’s signal. More than a few checks had confirmed that I wasn’t under any mystery debuffs, and my map hadn’t changed at all. Jun and Okeria were already waiting with Mortician, yet somehow I was still so damn far away from everyone.

“I guess I wandered a lot further than I thought.” I said to my communicator. “But that shouldn’t have been possible, right? I was only in the darkness for a handful of minutes.”

Okeria grumbled something about aggravating functions, then sighed with a little hitch halfway through it. I could almost imagine him leaning on his elbow as he thought.

“Ya can never be too careful with places like this. Hazards have got some control over the strangeness that happens in ‘em, but when it’s out in the open like this, it gets unregulated and strange real quick.” He said.

“We have nothing to add!” Mortician piped up.

“Then don’t say nothin’.” Okeria snapped, but not cruelly. Mortician only laughed, which caused Okeria to grumble even more. “If I had ta guess, I’d say you’ve got yourself a case of long hallway. And before ya ask, no, long hallway ain’t only limited ta hallways. It’s the phenomena of walkin’ somewhere and makin’ no progress, no matter how far ya go.”

Jun cleared her throat. “His drone’s getting closer every second, so it can’t be that.”

“Well. Yeah. I know that.” Okeria said defensively. “I’m just tryin’ ta create an aura of mystery here. It’d be boring if Sebastian just got teleported because he turned his light off and let himself get taken by the sensations.”

The sensations. That had to be it. They’d done something to me–either led me down a path I’d missed or instilled some kind of speed boost that I didn’t feel. Or some third thing I hadn’t thought of. But I was getting closer, albeit pretty damn slowly, and at least it gave me an idea about how fucking huge this place actually was. One of the facilities was at least an hour long walk from end-to-end, and that was with my armor-empowered pace. Plus, this was just the rest area. I couldn’t imagine any of the other facilities being any smaller than this one was.

Something slowly encroached upon my vision. I opened my mouth to report something, but my words were stolen away by the wall of shimmering matter that had appeared in front of me. Noises that sounded terrifyingly close to voices whispered around my helmet, and a mess of sensations I could only describe as curiosity mixed with extreme territorial intentions flooded into my mind.

And through those sensations, I witnessed a scene that sent a chill down my spine. Keratily, hands clasped firmly behind her back, strolling calmly through the front gates of Rainbow Basin. And Scalovera standing there, welcoming her with open arms.