>>5290959>>5290958>>5290956>>5290951>>5290949>>5290993>>5291020>Let them know you need to attend to some business with Ava, first. A quick stop.“We’ll return to the surface momentarily.” You wave off your party. “..I’ve some business to attend to with our escort here–our last stop. We’ll be back right away.”
“I’ll only borrow him a moment.” Ava bows her head.
“Yes, yes, fine.” Emilia dismisses you both as she leans against your sword. “I suppose we’ll meet beneath the sun proper soon enough. I-.. I look forward to it.”
“Ah.. to see a blue sky for myself.” Noelle clasps her hands together. “I’ve seen it in my dreams, but never in person..”
“...” Millicent regards you still hidden behind the doll–she mouths some words to herself, but you can’t quite make them out.
“You ought to hurry it up. You humans only live for about 70, 80 years, don’t you? You may die in the meanwhile.” The lich regards you from her perch at the base of the stairs.
“Over here, Alphonse.” You make your way around the throne’s vast striate base and after your escort, who calls out to you from the dark behind the backrest. You peer out from around the corner, where you see–.. the dhampir above a small hole in the block’s floor. A thick fiber rope extends out from the black beneath.
Ava gives the cord a good tug before she slips down onto it with grace. “Come on down.” She glances up to you. “And try not to slip. It's quite a long way down, and it’d be a shame to turn into a fine paste at the very end, wouldn’t it?”
[...]
You manage your way to the hole’s bottom after a long and precarious rappel down. Of course, you may have made it down a dash more pale in the face and with a few more gray hairs than when you started, but you’re unscathed enough. The dhampir folds her arms by the rope’s end, tapping her foot and remarking on your clumsiness as you plant your feet against the ground beneath you.
“Hmph. I thought you a military man?.. Well, no matter.” Ava remarks as she turns. She begins to walk into the dark ahead. “You made it without going splat. That’s a decent enough achievement in itself. This is the true final block of the CATACOMBS, the lowest point of both the dungeon and the world–the VOID.”
You examine the block around you as you jog after her–just like the block above, flowers carpet the ground beneath you, but unlike the hilly countryside of the MISERICORDE, the ground of the VOID is wholly level. And no swords nor graves dot the landscape; the sky and ground beneath you are in toto black, and you might’ve lost both your way and your senses if not for the glow of the INFLORESCENCE around you.
>Ask why she’s brought you down here.>Allow her to lead you forward in silence.>Mention the deal you made with her sister.>Write-In. 