Denizens of the dirt thrive in the dark. Thrive in the damp.

-Excerpt from a recovered journal of Varus the Explorer, of the First Decent

Time felt slowed as Enix finally began to move, and a roar in his ears finally subsided. A numbness surrounded him as the sensations he had experienced subsided, and he could walk again. His mouth was dry, and his limbs sore. The memory of what happened had resurfaced like that swarm.

Maybe Ghiri would eventually let him out? That could be the test to see how long he would willingly stay down here alone.

Enix shook that thought from his head. It took him no time to call for his friends and give up. No, the point of the test was something else. What had Ghiri said? There had to be a way out. Enix breathed deeply, for once feeling air return to him. He had to be clever enough to succeed.

He crawled around at first, keeping any part of his body he could touch a wall. He tried to backtrack, trying to recall the layout he had taken. When he arrived where he had first fallen by his best estimates, he began walking backward from his starting point. Focusing on keeping one hand on the wall, he traced going right four times, then stopped. That couldn’t be. He would be back where he was initially, but how was that possible?

Enix thought back to his past experiences in the wilds. Often times, he had

Then a thought occurred, and Enix kept his ears open, studying the strange closed-ness he felt around him.

One of his senses had to be lying to him. It didn’t make sense that he felt expansive passageways yet heard a small room.

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Enix breathed in, deciding to try something. He positioned himself to move along the wall and lowered his hand. He couldn’t stop his twitching hand, nearly grabbing the wall again. But he stopped himself, stepped away, and walked forward with only the stone beneath his feet.

Enix exhaled. I need to trust my own senses. One lies and one tells the truth. Which do I trust?

He took step after careful step, hands outward to catch himself if he bumped into anything or fell. Five steps, six, then his foot caught on something, and he fell forward, catching himself with his hands on an elevated stone. He moved his hands further and found another slightly elevated stone slab.

The hardest one to follow along. The hardest to commit.

He followed it. Stairs, steps that led upward. Then he heard it. The trickling of water, the sound of air.

As Enix finally felt wet grass on his hands, he clambered out of the cellar Ghiri had thrown him into

The trial of Determination has been completed!

Your level has increased by one!

Enix rolled over onto the ground, enjoying the feeling of grass beneath him. He felt something cold butt against his collar and heard Ingot yipping excitedly.

“Hey, bud.” Enix breathed, sitting up and scratching Ingot behind its armored head. He felt his vision begin to return as a bright red glow pierced it. He blinked a few times, seeing he was outside again. It must have been sunset, for the sky was a deep shade of orange.

“Ghiri, if you ever do that again, I-” Enix stopped short; as he looked around, he saw no sign of Ghiri. In fact, the entirety of the Foundry was gone.

Enix was standing in a field of weapons, scattered and stabbed into the ground. There was no statue, no building, save for a floating island high in the sky. Then Enix noticed the thing that towered above the island—a shape in the setting sky, growing darker and darker, larger and larger. Its sheer mass caused the ground to quake, and winds began to pick up.

The last thing Enix saw were four eyes, staring right at him as the massive beast bore down on the world.