They made it to the sound of rushing water, the finely polished pillars, and the vaulted ceilings so smooth that they reflected the liquid and the faces below...to the very impossible walkway that was the entrance to floor 4.

Gaians thought that the terrain of dungeons was ever-moving, that it had some secret and undetectable way of using magic to morph its dimensions. They assumed that while adventurers might only feel themselves descending fifty feet, their chambers acted like discreet elevators, carrying them down hundreds more when they weren’t looking.

The observations were right, but the conclusion wasn’t. Nyx knew now that the dungeons simply had one foot in the underworld. It was as if each dungeon were a shelter in the midst of the hells—or, rather, a diving bell in the seas of their bizarre, ever-churning tides.

All that aside, the view from this walkway was superb, the ambient lighting was calming, and the breeze from the falls was refreshing.

The falls weren’t made of water. They were, predictably, more slime. The whole hundred-meter-wide stream was cobalt with the consistency of jelly. Below this thin stone walkway, the divers could look down and see the slimewater breaking against a more greenish pool. They could also get vertigo, so they didn’t look for long.

There was nothing dirty, out-of-place, or monstrous here. There was just a straight line and a bit of comfort, more things which seemed to have been planted here by an alien mind.

At the end of this walkway was yet another chamber, or maybe a slope or flight of stairs. That would lead them further below, where they might find exactly what they saw: empty, rocky, poolside space. More likely they would bump into a slime “village,” another part of the dungeon which had been reported on in depth, where it was so easy to get lost...

Nyx was walking in the back of the adventuring group, just a step behind and beside Linzy. In the middle were Lark and Ethel—those who most needed protection—and leading the charge were Ragnorre and...

And Nyx was no longer keeping up with them.

Suddenly they felt dazed. They looked ahead and saw the rest of the divers walking further along the walkway. They thought their legs were moving forward, and yet their body was frozen in place.

They looked down.

Their legs had gone through the walkway. The floor was up to their knees.

Yet they couldn’t feel any of it. In fact, their legs felt numb, pins-and-needles numb, as if their body were confused about how to feel. This was like...a video game. Like glitching through a surface.

They cried out and slammed their hands on the walkway, hoping to hoist themself up—but their voice didn’t carry and their hands felt nothing. They passed straight through.

Nyx blinked.

Okay. Now they had a working hypothesis. If the laws of physics didn’t work, that was a sure sign that the underworld’s would. Instead of moving their body up, they moved their legs as if walking forward—and began to move with intention.

I want to walk with my party, they thought, over and over, the thought gaining strength.

And they started to walk. But they were failing somehow, going down through the walkway and now toward the waterfall. The lights around them dimmed.

What about a more heartfelt thought? That could work: I want to walk with my friend!

That didn’t work either. Their path only curved more sharply into the falls.

I want to stay with my lover, said a thought that interrupted Nyx’s own.

That was when the lights dimmed completely. For a long moment, Nyx was enfolded in long, exoskeleton arms made of brittle shadow.

***

This chamber looked exactly the same as before. Nyx could see that even from this new angle. It was as beautiful as the inside of a jewel box, even if a little cracked here and there, and even if it seemed to be lopsided at an ever-discomforting five-degree angle.

It was the same place where Ethel had nearly died and Nyx’s old life had gone for good, and no doubt the site of many other crimes that would never be solved.

Either that, or this dungeon had twelve hundred nodes that looked like this and Nyx was just getting sentimental.

Standing before them with a kindly smile was...Spencer! Urrich’s familiar old disguise whose original human self had been Nyx and Ethel’s friend for, like, two months back in the day!

At least that suspense is over, Nyx assured themself.