The Unmovable Sovereign, Ozen the Immovable.
This irredeemable lesson of hers is a trial before setting off anew...
It is "survival training" to help these children stay alive as they make their way through the world of the Abyss.
Spend ten days here with the equipment you've got. Show me you're able to survive.
Be sure not to go beyond that Pillar Tree.
I'll consider that as trying to escape.
Well then, I'm heading back now.
Huh?!
Do your best to protect this girl so that she doesn't return to being a corpse.
In addition, you can't use that thing for these ten days.
My Incinerator?
Go ahead and use it if you want to get Riko killed.
What do you mean?
Once you fire it, no matter how you push yourself, you always faint after around ten minutes.
Then it's a full two hours until you wake up.
Just try leaving a helpless child on her own in the second layer for two hours.
I wonder just how she'll be torn to shreds and eaten...
Still, when you really do have to use it,
go all out to make sure whatever it is doesn't come after you again in the future.
No matter your opponent or whatever lies in the vicinity,
when the time comes, don't hesitate or show any mercy.
Otherwise, your adventure will be over in the blink of an eye.
Daremo ga sakaraezu ni mogutteiku
Sono me o tomoshibi yori kagayakasete
Mezasu saki wa fukaku
Massugu ni mayoikomu
Kuchiaketa naraku no wana
Shinjitsu no ato o oikakeyou
Ima kotae ga mitsukaru nara zenbu nakushitemo ii
Sono koe o hanasanai youni kodama ga mada hibiiteru
Rashinban wa zutto
Yami o sashita mama
Nigeba no nai
Hou e
Sore ga noroi demo
Kodou wa honmono
Nidoto akogare wa tomaranai
First of all, we need to look for some water...
Ah, what's that?
It's glowing!
A-ah, Riko, be careful!
Wow!
How beautiful!
This is great. We found some water!
Think it's okay to drink?
It's fine!
Those are rohanas, a kind of insect that only lives in clean water.
Ah...!
Hm?
Damn...
In what way is that thing docile?
We did it!
Around here, the animals have regressed eyes, so they should be susceptible to light.
If we build a fire, I think they'll keep their distance.
"Susceptible to light," huh?
Let's go look for some insect-repelling plants...
How's it looking?
Riko is certainly plucky,
but her body can't keep up with what she wants to do...
And that boy Reg...
Riko, where are you? Although his body is extraordinarily resilient, he's constantly losing his nerves...
and is slow to make decisions.
Stop it! and is slow to make decisions.
This despite the fact he's a mechanical doll...
I see...
You're not going out there?
If they die now, it just means they didn't have what it takes to go any further.
Reg, you're strong, but your body is light...
So we'll have to devise a plan if we're going to catch that hippo thing...
In that case, maybe I could extend my arm to bind it to a tree or something...
Uh-huh, uh-huh...
Well, then let's lead it there!
How?
Ta-da!
We'll use this!
What the heck is it? It stinks...
It's dung from a female and some tree bark. I tore off a piece that's covered in pheromones.
Use this to lure it.
And when it gets close to you, Reg, we'll blind it with our glow-stones!
How's that sound?!
H-hmm...
You think it will work?
It'll be fine! Let's just try our best!
Do it now! Reg!
Be it an immature body or weak psyche,
they won't be showing real changes in those areas any time soon...
But, just as you predicted, they're making enormous progress in the things they're good at.
Well, there are two of them, after all...
So it's best that they learn to depend on one another.
"Depend on one another," huh?
Ozen!
Who attacked you?!
Just you wait! I'll annihilate those punks!
What's the matter, Ozen?
You giving up already?
This is amazing, Ozen! A whole field of Flowers of Fortitude!
It doesn't even feel like we're in the middle of the netherworld!
This is Torka from my squad.
I got married to him!
Sorry, Ozen...
Do you mind giving me a bit of time alone?
How incredibly maddening.
To think that no sooner than Torka quickly passed away...
even the baby was stillborn...
That's some nerve to leave the delivery to me...
That dumb face and you come along, and just when Lyza had finally mellowed out, she gets treated like this?
How maddening...
I didn't want to see Lyza in such a state.
I don't have much strength left.
Perhaps I'll just leave this thing behind here and carry the Bell up with Lyza...
Good grief, I've taken on another burden now...
Just relax...
I have a strong sense of duty.
This is pretty good!
With this we should be able to make it through the remaining five days!
Yeah.
Are you alright, Riko?
Yeah...
Somehow... it feels like ages since we were here...
It's actually been 10 days.
Good work out there.
Both of you are quite amazing.
Personally, I started crying right away...
Any further out than the Seeker Camp and it's almost completely dark...
and Master left and went back home by herself somewhere along the way...
Marulk, you know, even I...
Near the end when I got separated from Riko, I was feeling so hopeless...
Really?!
Absolutely.
Reg, so that happens to even you, huh?
That makes me feel a bit better.
Are you hungry? I'll bring you something to eat!
So it's already been ten days, huh?
Now that I think about it, the pain I was feeling from Ozen's thrashing is gone now.
I wonder if the "Riko Hodgepodge Stew" did the trick...
Alright!
My rehabilitation is complete!
This pattern...
Was it always like that...?
What does it mean, anyway?
At any rate...
seems I never put on any muscle...
Reg! Riko!
Master is saying that now that you're back, we should all have a meal.
Food!
So how was it?
Spending 10 days there, I mean.
It was pretty hectic, wasn't it?
That's right...
Looking back at it now, it feels like it was over in the blink of an eye.
"Don't stay in the deep layers if you don't want to kill those who're waiting for you"...
There's an old saying like that, you see.
What does it mean?
One's sense of time goes mad.
It's particularly striking in the depths of the fifth layer.
I had intended to stay down there a few weeks,
but when I returned to the surface, a few months had passed.
Such occurrences are common...
So that rumor...
is true, then!
It's no rumor. I'm telling you flat out.
Well, only those with strange tastes -
basically just us White Whistles - would try living in the deep layers.
That saying I mentioned that if you stay there for a really long time,
everyone who's waiting for you will probably die, is somewhat of an exaggeration.
Still, you probably think it has nothing to do with you since you're making a journey of no return...
But the problem is that we can't even estimate the extent
to which this "madness" manifests in the sixth and seventh layers.
I have a feeling that perhaps not as much time as we all think has actually passed for Lyza.
Ten years on the surface...
But if we assume that only a few years have passed at the bottom of the netherworld,
don't you get the feeling there's a very good chance she's alive and well?
Ozen...
Ozen!
Well, even so, you should do your best not to stay in the fifth layer for long.
And why would that be?
So that you don't bump into any of the other White Whistles...
The depths' fifth layer, the Sea of Corpses, is as deep as humans can go and return alive.
I suppose some of them are there...
The Sovereign of Guidance, Wakuna the Chosen.
The Sovereign of Mystery, Srajo the Mysterious.
The Sovereign of Dawn, Bondrewd the Novel.
Those are the other three who are down in the Abyss now.
Among them... Bondrewd in particular is an out-and-out scoundrel.
He's not kind like I am, so you better be careful...
Is that... a joke?
Reg, you okay?
Ah, that's right...
Speaking of Lyza, I also have something I'm curious about...
The slip in the sealed letter that said: "At the netherworld's bottom, I'll be waiting"...
I wonder who wrote that...
Huh?
It's written overly large in crooked penmanship,
using old nether glyphs without any of the simplified forms.
On top of that, the paper it's on isn't even paper.
It's an unknown Relic.
It looks all worn out, but it really surprised me...
That thing can't be ripped even with my strength.
What in the world is waiting down at the netherworld's bottom together with Lyza?
Well then...
both of you, follow me.
Here.
What's that?
Blaze Reap... the everlasting pickax.
That's right...
It's a specialized weapon with which Lyza the Annihilator spilled much blood.
It was stuck in the ground like a grave marker in that cluster of Eternal Fortunes I spoke of.
Huh?!
My mother's...
Riko...
The everlasting gunpowder inside it is fine, but the outer casing is in bad shape.
It can only be used a few more times at best.
Well, it's a piece of junk that occasionally misfired even back then.
We're talking about Lyza here, so I bet she's already found a new weapon.
I'll teach you how to use it.
It should be able to act as an alternative to that Incinerator of yours.
You really mean that?!
Thank you!
In addition...
What I'm about to tell you must not be shared with anyone else.
With those words, Ozen spoke of...
the numerous secrets that had been transmitted from the last dives of many generations of White Whistles,
which are passed down by word of mouth among only themselves.
Perhaps, those were the very deepest voices of Abyss that people are capable of carrying to us.
We heard about the cryptic device for traversing the fifth layer's "Sea"...
About how a white whistle's timbre acts as a key to activate a certain class of Relics.
About the mysterious ring of the seventh layer that only a few White Whistles are said to have seen.
When Ozen said she hates deceiving children, she was telling the truth...
From start to finish, this monster sitting before us held nothing back.
So you're already heading out, huh?
It'll be lonely around here.
Don't you think it's cold of Ozen not to come see you off?
No, it's alright.
Huh?
She's already given us so much, after all...
She's taught us many things...
It wouldn't be right to ask any more of her.
What's this?
Despite all appearances, you're quite humble.
Hey, cut that out.
Marulk!
Well, you take care now.
I find it hard to say this, but...
If you come back and say, "It's impossible, after all," it'd be oh so nice...
Marulk...
I've seen off all kinds of people who leave on journeys they won't return from...
But... today is the saddest I've ever felt.
Reg and that girl...
As expected, they were quick to pick up on cave-raiding techniques.
Although, I didn't want to let them go until more memories come back...
Well, nothing I can do about it.
Right, Lyza?
That baby crawled toward the Abyss the moment she was let out of the Vessel,
which is pretty darn creepy, right?
Thanks to you, she's monstrously energetic now.
My apprentice is already fed up with her.
Well, that's just splendid...
You have an apprentice?
His name's Jiruo. You've met him before, right?
Ah, that rash and shameless kid who turned down my invitation...
I prefer the Sovereign of Annihilation.
The fact that she hasn't dropped dead or been killed means you're doing a good job keeping her hidden.
If it ever came to light that she's your daughter,
she'd be kidnapped by ruffians while you're down in the Abyss.
And, if you're lucky, she'd be held hostage, but if you're unlucky...
It's alright. My apprentice is top grade.
However, be that as it may...
Riko is incredibly precious to me.
No matter the Relic or whatever else of mine I offer as payment, it's not enough.
Thanks to a whole heap of priceless things, that girl is alive right now.
If I continue to stay with her, I'm liable to take Riko's right to set off on adventures away from her,
and I myself will likely become separated from the Abyss.
Before that happens, I'm heading out...
So that my girl is free to choose whatever path...
I wonder what you're glossing over here...
Isn't it true that you simply got an urge to see the bottom?
Hey, Ozen...
If Riko once again sets out to reach the bottom and in doing so comes to stand before you,
I'd like you to tell her.
You mean about how she's a living corpse?
That's right.
About how much of a miracle it took to make it so that she's able to move at all...
About how to tackle the magnificent adventures that are waiting for her...
What a pain. Do that yourself.
Well, if we're just talking about sending her on to you...
I'll do it.
Good grief... How irredeemable...
How very irredeemable...
The Inverted Forest... It's so far above us...
Reg...
Are you ready?
Of course.
Sora ni ukanderu hikaru nami o
Tabanete niji no hashi o kakeyou
Ayaui ashiba, suberu slope
Kako to mirai no michishirube
Kimi no hidarite, boku no migite o
Tsunaide tsunagete hajimeyou
Itsumo soba ni iru yo
Kako mo ima mo mirai mo
Dakara mayowazu ni aruiteikou
Irotoridori no yume kasanete
Ashita wa doko ni mukau
Kimi to issho ni iretara, sekai wa kagayakidasu yo
Saihate no chi ni saku hana o sagasou