The garden behind the base is one of the most beautiful sight I've ever set my eyes on the Abyss. A huge clearing carpeted with green grass and blooming with flowers of eternal fortunes, one might mistake this to be somewhere in the surface instead of hell.
"Wow, this is amazing!" Marulk exclaimed in slight excitement. "I've never been in a place like this before..."
I smiled in response and looked around the garden. Then I noticed a figure wearing black body armor and a black mask with purple glowing vertical silt in the middle. The figure crouched down in front of a crater in the middle of the garden.
Marulk and I walked towards the figure. "Uhh, hello?" I asked.
The figure stood up and we can finally see the white whistle around his neck. We gulped a little and quickly bowed down.
"No need to bow, you've done well for making it here," the man spoke in a charismatic and slightly mechanical voice. "You both look a bit young to delve down here, did you have any trouble getting to this layer?"
I shook my head. "Not much in particular Lord Bondrewd, Lord Ozen thought us well," I replied. "Oh, almost forgot, my name is Haios and this is Marulk. He's a boy by the way."
"Welcome to the Fourth Layer's Base, we're making quite a progress in repurposing this place for Black Whistles such you are," then he walked towards us and crouched down in front of me. "How peculiar..."
The White Whistle gently held my arms and lifted it up. "You have the Thousand Men Pin on you?" he asked in surprise. "You're a quite gifted and amazing little girl aren't you?" Bondrewd starts clapping his hand in amazement. "Wonderful!"
I rubbed the back of my back in slight embarrassment. "It's nothing really, the process almost drove me crazy back then. So it's not like I had it easy."
"Of course not, not even I dared to use the Thousand Men Pins..." then he looked at Marulk and observed him closely. "You've certainly grown since the last time I saw you years ago Marulk. You're certainly shaping up into a capable young man and a powerful delver."
Marulk blushed a little and looked down. "Thank you for your kind words, Lord Bondrewd."
The Lord of the Dawn took a step back and raised both of his hand beside him. "A little girl with the strength of five thousand men and a boy experienced in the art of delving and..." he glanced at Marulk's goggles. "Sensing the force field."
I somehow felt like we're a bunch of merchandise being observed by a very wealthy merchant. "I need both of your help for the sake of this new base."
[LINE BREAK]
"I cannot believe you said yes..." Marulk said through the earpiece as I come face to face with Orby Mc. Piercy once again. "If you die here, then forget it, you are no match for this creature."
I nodded a little and twirled the amazing device Lord Bondrewd gave to me. "The dude gave me a freaking LIGHTSABER, do you know how awesome it is to wield one of these things!?" I exclaimed in excitement.
"Yes, just remember, you are not here to kill it. You are here to drive it away so that delvers can navigate safely to the base."
"You hear that Orby? You gotta get yourself another playground or I will slice you up with this Lightsaber." I was tempted to activate the Sparagmos there, but Lord Bondrewd told me that I can only activate it for a short time and there's a cool down period.
"Jump left!" I jumped to my left, narrowly missing Orby's poisonous spikes. Then I activated my Sparagmos and sliced off some spikes that were about to skewer me from all direction. "Fall back!"
I jumped back and created as much distance between me and Orby. "All right, it should now know the power of the Sparagmos. Now, charge towards it and wait for my signal to jump."
I charged towards Orby and it stood there waiting for me to jump. "Now duck!" I rolled down while Orby jumped up to the air. Then it dives back down when I aimed my lightsaber straight at its orb.
With a loud sizzling sound, I struck Orby's orb with my lightsaber while the monster struck my body with a dozen or so spikes. I can feel at least two of them hitting my heart and my neck area. "Ah... Well, mission failed. Hang on there, I don't want to forget this."
I lay down there powerless as both the fatal wounds and the poison starts killing me from the inside. A soft hand held my hand while the other drove a knife through my forehead, killing me instantly.
When I woke up, I found myself standing in front of Orby once again. "All right Haios, we've tried our best, retreat."
I sighed in defeat and folded my arms in front of my chest. The beast is still staring at me with its orb feeler. It let out some sort of a wail before taking a few steps back away from me. "Uhh, Marulk, you're seeing this?"
"Oh... Uhh… Proceed with caution..."
I nodded and took a step forward towards the creature. It kept its distance as far away from me until it reaches the end of the goblet. "Wait, did you do this?"
"I thought it might work."
I smirked a little and activated my Sparagmos. The beast snarled at me before jumping away to the Goblet behind it. "You freaking did it all right, you made it taste death," I pursued the beast and Orby quickly run away as far as it can from the base area.
"All right, mission accomplished."
"What's stopping it from going back though?" I asked while turning around and making my way back to the base.
"It's learning that the surrounding area near the base is your territory. It's not going to cross your territory ever again, at least I think so."
I smiled and let out a victory cheer. "Oh yeah, Orby's got owned!" I exclaimed while pointing at the general direction of the beast's territory. "Awesome aren't I?"
"Yes you are Haios." Marulk replied.
"You're awesome too, you know, for making it remember the reset."
"Thank you, it was just a speculation in my part."
I jumped off the last Goblet and landed right beside Marulk on a ledge near the base entrance. "Come on, let's report this back to Bondrewd," I said before we went back to the Fourth Layer Basecamp.