The expedition had now made it to right above the entrance of the second Deep, the corpse of the monster laying on the ocean floor near it, sand and particles surrounding it that it had dusted up when it, some of its extremities still moving around pushing the dust and particles around. Welsh stopped the group again right outside the entrance.
“This is it, Factorian Deep stands right before us, steel yourselves as it will get more dangerous from this point on. Be cautious not only of the Abyss in front of you but the Abyssal greed and apathy of many of your comrades and colleagues, the Abyss travels with us, we must overcome it to overcome the Abyss in front of us.” The loud words of Welsh reached everyone in the expedition bringing the mood up after the loss against the monster earlier. As they reached Jasper's ears he despaired slightly learning some of the cruel nature of his comrades already. Aton didn’t help piling on his despair.
“It's already begun long before this point, look around there’s a lot less people already. Of course, some died naturally but too many people are missing for it to only be that. Internal battle had begun the second this expedition started.” Of course, for any normal person to accurately judge about how many people died without actually being able to see all the deaths in that large span of time, plus with that large of a group would basically be impossible for the average person. But Aton's years of experience allowed him to easily tell, the amount of people dead or missing even with the monster attack far exceeded how many should really be missing. People were dying or disappearing at an unprecedented rate, leading to only one conclusion internal conflicts.
This outcome didn’t shock Aton, not in the slightest it would’ve been much more shocking if there had been no internal conflict. All Bathysphere's major factions were here, and they were not friendly, many subfactions within the Abyss faction also disliked each other creating even more potential conflict. Members of this expedition had to worry about the political battle as much as the Abyss one, and Aton knew this from the start, of course, he was not alone in this, many people knew of the political schemes of this expedition.
After a very brief break, the expedition began moving again, they were to move past the ruins, and two towers that area was where Abyss members would search for treasures in their territories, but of course, that’s not their goal this time they did in fact move beyond the towers in the hole into Factorian Deep.
Jasper followed behind Aton and Joshens and the hired mercenaries along with their personal Duke carrying their supplies, so he was the last to cross over and see Factorian Deep 24,000↧. As he swam through the hole he could feel the pressure once again rise, his heart rate increasing trying to cope with the new pressure, unbeknownst to Jasper the artifact inside the pouch on his waist started to light up to alleviate the Ash pressure, but Jaspers own body acclimated to the pressure long before it could fully activate going back to normal.
His speed of recovery nearly matched Aton’s who barely had been fazed by the change of pressure. One of the reasons Aton could excel so much in Abyss turned out to be how well he could adjust to the pressures associated with the Abyss, only noticeably beaten by Welsh who seemed totally unfazed by the Abyss completely, as if he wasn’t in the Abyss at all. Aton wasn't unaware of Jaspers's recovery speed, at first he attributed it to the artifact, but this was too fast even with an artifact, he nearly matched Aton's speed, like a trained body only relearning something it already knew.
However Jasper in truth had no idea how he could recover so quickly he noticed many of the others, even experienced users taking a lot more time than he had moments ago, in fact, while he entered Factorian Deep after Joshens he got to take it in long before Joshens could as he had to primarily focus on acclimating his body.
The Deep resembled a large bottomless cavern, well this Deep only reached so far out of the entire pit. The walls looked like greyish flesh moving and twisting back and forth, with string entrail-like pieces sticking out being moving by the water's movement dotted all along the walls, also large spikes protruding from the wall could be seen here and there, resembling the horn of a unicorn, only grey and more fleshy. Greyish spheres could be seen floating from the Abyss below floating upward rapidly, large clumps of Ash. Holes could be barely made out inside the walls leading into small caves, many man-made for safety against the horrors.
Jasper had been debriefed on this Deep, the whole place worked together like a team of workers to construct horrors beyond this world. The walls were currently carefully producing all kinds of terrible things. From monstrosities to the spikes protruding from the walls that will shoot out of the walls if they detect movement, to the fleshing brain-like sensors that detect the movement. Maybe fortunate, but it looked like everyone had recovered now, he didn’t have any longer to ponder it. Welsh began to move down much slower than last time they had too much more careful.
Suddenly one of the entrail-like strings protruding from the wall shot out and grabbed Jasper by the leg, of course, he had been told about that too, but he should’ve been safe, in front of the expedition surrounded by the strongest of the strong. Yet he was not, the string coiled around his leg like a snake squeezing with a strength that seemed impossible for something so thin. He pulled out his small dagger and went to cut it off, but it pulled right as he went for the thrust without warning he got pulled with tremendous speed toward the fleshy wall, nobody could survive once they got pulled in, it could consume even the largest leviathan, someone as small as Jasper would be dissolved before he even had time to think.
Jasper desperately yelled for help and looked towards the safety he had just been pulled from, now looking like eternal bliss, but that only brought more despair. Like the poor souls before him, nobody even batted an eye, only another lost meatshield, of course, he had been angry as this happened to the previous expedition members, but now he was living it. A deep sadness formed for those individuals, but he couldn’t dwell on it long. A hungry wall of flesh wanted to eat and the menu was him.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Though it's weird, he could’ve sworn he would’ve died by now the speed had been so fast how come he isn’t nutrients yet? Wait a minute, I am not going fast at all, in fact, I am not moving at all. He looked back at the expedition he could see Aton yelling at him but only now could hear his words.
Looking down he could see the entrail had been in fact cut, with the remains still coiled around his leg wiggling around almost as if it still lived. He quickly bolted back towards the expedition team, returning to Aton's side.
“Thank you a lot I don’t know how I could ever repay you.” He said genuinely.
“Don’t thank me,” Aton pointed toward one of his hired mercenaries, “thank him he’s the one who saved you.” Aton told him, Jasper looked toward the mercenary and composed himself.
“Thank you, I will never forget this.”
“I was only doing what I am being paid to do.” He replied without much thought of it.
“Haha, of course, still thanks.” The near-death experience gave Jasper a wake-up call, he knew of the dangers no doubt, but it felt so distant, so impossible like he couldn’t be touched. Aton patted him on the shoulder.
“Glad you survived,” he signaled toward the wall of flesh, “It watches and waits for the opportunity to snatch the unsuspecting, next time you might not be so lucky.” Aton warned him, Jasper could see another entrail-like strong spring forward, he jumped back from the previous trauma only a few seconds ago, but it didn’t come close to him. Instead, it grabbed some unlucky sob near the middle of the pack and pulled her towards the wall of flesh. Jasper didn’t want to watch but he couldn’t help himself from seeing the fate he almost had to endure.
The woman reached the wall as she struggled to try to break free, other entrails grabbed her restraining her completely, she stood no chance of getting out now. The strings slowly pulled her into the wall. It started to melt her flesh down into liquid a substance it could absorb, like the acid in someone's stomach breaking down the meat of a steak they recently ate. Her screams rang in Jaspers' ear, the pain obviously unbearable for the woman, she had been pulled in upright back first, so it melted her back side leaving her alive, as it very slowly pulled her further and further in.
The screams only stopped when she passed out from the pain, or maybe died, impossible to tell. And even as that had transpired the expedition only kept moving onward like an unfeeling log rolling down a hill with bits and pieces getting chipped off by the numerous sharp rocks uncaring for the parts of itself it's losing. Jasper upped his concentration watching the walls closely to not be grabbed again, or impaled by the spikes, if got hit by one of those nobody could save him. Even a Duke wouldn’t survive the impact of one of those large spikes.
Jasper had increased his focus when it came to the wall, but the real threat began to fade from his head. The people right next to him. Who could blame him? He nearly died on that wall, but of course, potential enemies wouldn’t care if he could be blamed or not. They only would care if they could kill him or not.
Krey and Orson and their team were on their own far enough to be able to whisper to each other without being heard, but close enough to quickly get back to Welsh and the elites up front. Krey had a large smile on her face, while Orson had a stoic look. Krey slapped Orson on the back.
“These idiots, amirite or amirite, Ha trick question of course I am right. We don’t even need to do anything they are crumbling by themselves.” Orson looked unamused. “Don’t look at me like that.” Orson didn’t budge his look, or no he looked at her somehow even more unamused. “Grumpy are you? It's not like I want to be here either.” She said with some frustration laminating on how comfortable she could be right now in Bathysphere. “Anyway, I’ve been thinking about this whole thing. I know our boss pressured Welsh, but he let us on way too easy he didn’t even ask for anything in return.”
“I don’t like it much either it feels like we are getting played. Let's continue to watch before we make any hasty move. We still have plenty of time before he makes contact.” He said slightly unnerved as he said “that.”
“Well I’m not too worried about it, the only threat is Welsh.”
“We will have to be careful of Welsh, even the two of us might not be able to beat him in his prime make sure to conserve your and your squad's strength.” He said with caution and respect for Welsh.
“Hhm this is stupid, I hate that your probably right, how the hell did that bastard get so damn strong.” She said with aggravation of her own weakness, even though most people would cower in fear of her overwhelming strength.
“You’ve read his report like the rest of us, you know his unique attributes, especially down here don’t compare yourself to him. It's unhealthy and unproductive might as well compare yourself to Septem himself.” He meant every word he said, even the most powerful feared Welsh, so much so some believed only gods could defeat him fairly and his power only excelled further in the Abyss.
“Whatever… I’ll punch Septem in the face if I ever saw him.” She said quietly in fear Septem would hear her. “Anyway, are we sure that he’s the right guy?” Krey asked Orson genuinely concerned at the idea of killing the wrong person.
“We are about as sure as we can be, if he turns out not to be then it won’t matter anyway we’ll all die.” He said with a resolved face.
“I guess not, do you think those Law bastards or Restoration losers know?” Krey asked already expecting the answer Orson would give her.
“They should have no idea.” Krey was right she had expected this answer from Orson but thought it might be too shallow of thinking, with all the factions in play information could’ve gotten out to such big factions. The more people who knew the worse it would get for them, too many fanatics around who would probably pick the side opposing them. Though she said she wasn’t worried about it, she couldn’t help but worry, the fate of Bathysphere, no maybe even the whole sea depending on what happened in this isolated corner of the sea.