The two figures, Ozen and Juno, stared at each other. Juno that was on all fours, stood upright cautiously watching Ozen standing there with a bulky armor and disc-shaped hat that covered her eyes. When the two faced each other, they were nearly equal in height which surprised Ozen somewhat, since the whole time seeing Juno, she's only been on all fours.

When Ozen was about to speak Juno had already pounced onto her. But as her name suggests, she didn't budge at all and stood there motionlessly. When Juno caught sight of Ozen face, she shuddered again at that annoyingly creepy face. Her eyes were pitch black and lusterless as if piercing through her body and staring at her soul directly with that creepy smile of hers.

Juno's tail whipped through the air and towards Ozen's creepy smile but was stopped inches away from her target. Ozen's hand held the tail tightly which caused a creaking sound coming from Juno's tail as acidic blood dripped onto Ozen's armored hand. Unexpectedly, the sizzling sound and corroding effect did not happen, but simply stuck to Ozen's armor like a gluey substance. Ozen's attention was then turned to the location of a sizzling sound below her.

"Acidic blood? Quite the strong corrosive power too. Your exo-skeleton however isn't as sturdy as it looks and was told to be. You know, even a kid is sturdier than you. Is this appearance of yours just for show?" (Ozen)

Seeing Juno's evasion to her approaching grasp, Ozen pulled her tail and swung her into the wall. Juno took that chance to retreat into the darkness, easily disappearing from both Ozen's and Marulk's vision.

"Remarkable stealth capabilities. That, at least, wasn't wrong in the information about you. Then what do you intend to do? Escape?" (Ozen)

Juno didn't reply to her but silently walked on the ceiling until she was directly above Ozen. Her tail fell until it was hanging behind Ozen's head, but noting that her armor is extremely durable, she avoided the disc-shaped hat and struck towards Ozen's neck. The expected red line did not appear across her neck, but instead, a creepy face stared at her from below.

"Though your stealth is indeed very good, that brain of yours isn't. I wonder, where would you be in a room where the only shadows are on the ceiling?" (Ozen)

Falling from the ceiling behind Ozen, Juno slashed her claws and the two entered frontal combat. Sparks flew when Juno attacked and Ozen stood there only deflecting the sneaky tail strikes and claws from Juno. Enough of playing around, she kicked the struggling creature into the wall creating a spiderweb crack.

"And the last of your abilities. You have an inner jaw right?" (Ozen)

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Ozen said, lifting the beaten creature from the neck. As expected, an inner jaw shot out from Juno's mouth towards Ozen's face but was stopped short a few inches away, chomping away at the air. Finished with her overall evaluation of Juno, Ozen lifted her overhead and slammed her down into the ground.

Marulk was saddened from watching this wanted to gather the Subterranean Bandits but couldn't because they were away right now, doing something else. Marulk who wanted to plead for Juno's survival was told that Ozen had no intentions of keeping this creature here nor killing it.

Poor Juno who was beaten by this monster could only struggle under Ozen's foot that pressed onto her large head. Being stomped several times wasn't a comfortable feeling. It was even worse with a monster smiling creepily at you while doing so.

"No... another quality is your great tenacity and ferociousness. Even after being beaten half-dead, Your strength doesn't decline, though it's sub-par at best. Overall, your only advantage is your speed. Your stealth is poorly used just like your brain." (Ozen)

During Ozen's evaluation, Juno's behavior calmed somewhat to contemplate what she said. She knew she wasn't smart but it was annoying to be told by someone else nonetheless.

Sometime later, Ozen was holding Juno above a sink-hole-like pit that appeared bottomless from where they stood.

"You don't belong above so it's better if I get rid of you here." (Ozen)

Ozen threw Juno into the Great Fault, which was the 3rd Layer of the Abyss.

"If you see two kids around my age they're my friends! So please don't hurt them Juno-san!" (Marulk)

I hissed at the two in reply and fell to what seemed like my eventual death.

3rd Layer: Great Fault

When I fell several tens of meters down I landed on the back of a flying creature. We tumbled in the air struggling together as we fell further down. Our chaotic movements attracted other creatures of its kind. Killing the flying creature which I remembered was called Madokajack, I Jumped to another one repeating this cycle until I latched onto the walls of the 3rd Layer.

Landing on what appeared to be the bow of a ship that had two holes; an old one atop the deck and a fairly newer one at the front of the bow. It seemed to have been burned through by something hot and precise, like a laser.

I dropped into the hole on the deck and entered what seems to be a ruin of a past civilization. How did the ship even get there in the first place anyway? A question that'll remain unanswered. Walking down the ruins, I crawled deeper into the tunnels. Several ups and downs, twists and turns later, I came upon an upward slope.

Step. Step. Step.

Walking uphill, the effects of the 3rd Layer Curse started to mess with her head. It was great that her mentality was many times stronger than humans, making it easier to negate the effects, but not entirely. An example? The person that stood before her...

『Juno, I've been waiting for you.』 (Jun)

『Brother? You... how are you here?』 (Juno)

『Didnt I tell you that we would meet soon? So you can rest now.』 (Jun)

『Rest... no, I can't rest. We need to find an energy source to wake up the System!』 (Juno)

『...』 (Jun)

『I know you aren't here.』 (Juno)

Jun disappeared from the top of the slope when Juno walked through him. She was a little sad to be reminded of him but was even more determined to find an energy source and find her brother.