Urth and Eylventh both watches, as Zephyr's body reconstructs. It's almost done, so he should be able to wake up soon.
Eylventh tried to catch the young blacksmith, but there were too many obstacles and Zephyr blew himself up every 30 seconds to destroy them. Every detonation kept getting stronger. The fact that he has enough strength to abuse of such power, when he previously couldn't do it more than twice, is scary. Urth can feel Zephyr's desperation.
This madman is placing his body on the line, sacrificing himself to the bottom, of the Bottomless Pit.
Now that is ironic.
A location that became legendary, at the core of modern-day mythos, told to be an endless maze, a downward spiral, full of death for the fool and unexplained treasures for the bold, with promises of fateful findings in a world below. That ended up being an empty black space, controlled by a lady in a suit, a very tall, high-powered, octopus-like suit.
Urth observes Eylventh flying around. The bird is simply looking for any sign of friends or foe, as well as anything to eat.
Urth kept its gaze away from the crocodile during the journey, thinking it would raise some eyebrows from the doctor if it did, but with no other option except observing, he concludes that whatever of Florance's previous life was left inside of Eylventh, it's gone. Nil was killed and Eylventh's memory has been wiped. Urth is the only trace of the trio's human heritage left.
The bullfrog leaves a sorrowful, soft squeak. Terrence is alone.
Urth then hears a groan behind it. Zephyr gets back up in a slow, fatigued fashion. It holds back some of the tears and croaks towards Eylventh's direction, signifying it to move back towards the young boy's body.
"...Ah....the.....what...?" faintly gasps Zephyr, trying his hardest to even sit up.
His body has not fully healed up. With spots of his skin still in a dark grey tone and cracked up, as if he was made of an old rock. Just moving his left hand too harshly dissolves the upper portion, fingers included. He doesn't have enough gas in the tank to react to his pitiful state, let alone get up and walk.
Zephyr feels sluggish. Urth and Eylventh can see that.
"We survived the fall, huh? Well, guess that is the end of that." States the blacksmith.
He looks around slowly. The light, the flowers and grass spread on the floor, the small orbs floating about in peace. Everything here is serene.
His mind wonders until it hits thoughts of Catherine Pierce, his mother.
His father told him a fun story once.
A funny story about his mother.
His father wasn't even listening to Zephyr's plea at the time. It was around the time he died of an unknown disease too. Lathe found a spot in the debris of Gallows. He gave his son a place to sit down and have a chat. Zephyr obliged without understanding the meaning behind it. He knew his father would enjoy telling this story, because before saying a word, he started rubbing his hands and whispering to himself on how he was going to open the tale.
"Oh! Okay! I got this! Okay boy, you know, I told this to NO ONE in Yundath, EVER. That's one bombastic story your mom didn't want to spread around. So, I'm only telling you, because you're my son and, as you know, well, you deserve to hear this before my death.
*Sigh*... Here we go. So, your mother, Catherine Pierce, the woman that I wanted to marry, the women I wanted to have you with. She was not born here, as in, on the surface.
She was born in the pit.
Remember that well.
I always wanted to GET where she got that Draconite, those powers, those strange mannerisms, and that beautiful mystic language. Almost sounds like nonsense to my ears. But more so like, beautiful nonsense. I loved hearing your mother speak her native tongue to the point I learned a few of the words to incentivize her to use it more often.
I'm going to die soon. My health is no longer something I can rely on. I can't rely on myself at all to answer those questions.
You, my boy, can.
Now, this isn't some 'live vicariously through me' baloney I'm selling you. I know we kept telling you to not get near that hole with a fifty-foot pole, and I would force you to abide by that rule in any circumstances, but this... this is different.
This is beyond the Bottomless pit. Your mother is from a different world entirely! You are half of that world! You deserve to know what that world looks like, because it is a part of your heritage! You deserve that, and I'm giving you that chance boy. I'm giving you the opportunity to connect with your mother in a way I wish did!
I want you to be happy.
So go out there, kick some ass and explore, god damn it! It might be the only time you get to do it.
Oh, and in the back of the schematics for the Torch blade I left somethin' special for ya. You might like it, you might not, but depending on who reads it, It might make the journey easier, or at least that's what your mother's diary would say, haha!
Alright, enough... Oh actually! ONE last thing, I mean it this time, one last thing: no matter how far you make it, no matter how hard the journey is until the end and no matter if you find what you seek down there or not... I am proud of you son."
Lathe then got up and posed as a soldier making a salute.
"Forge forward."
Zephyr is smiling. Thinking about that stupid cartoon character of a father makes him happy.
Seeing him smiling while his body is still in shambles confuses the frog at first, but eventually sees it as a sign that the young man can do some work soon. In fact, his body starts to reconstruct faster, which is a good sign.
Zephyr gets up with a confidence he rarely shows. This places some determination in the pets.
"Alright. If we are seriously at the bottom like that lady said, then it's time to keep moving forward! Let's find what this last floor has in store for-!"
BOOM!
A big crash on the ground resonates with the entirety of the last floor hits everything like a ton of bricks. Zephyr and the pets levitate in the air for a few seconds and the ground beneath them starts to crack as well. Veins like patterns can be seen on the walls as the quaking continues.
When things calm down, the whole pit, even this last floor, remains silent. Zephyr and the pets stay close, Eylventh on the right kid's left shoulder, the one usable currently, and Urth remaining on his right side. Zephyr, by reflex, goes to pick his torch blade from his back...
except it's not there.
"Oh no, oh god no you can't be serious! Not at a time like this!" Shouts Zephyr before trying to calm his senses down. Suddenly, the flying orbs all go in hiding inside of the walls, as if passing through them. The pitch blackness returns, with only Eylventh being able to see clearly.
And what it sees...
At first, it's a distant growl, nothing much.
Then there are but a few, considerate, curated steps on the deep soil of the bottom of the bottomless. Whatever is coming, it's taking its sweet time.
Then, it's a red glow in the dark, very distant, but now Zephyr and Urth can both see a bit more of what's approaching.
then, it's the ground that shakes more and more with every steps.
The pace of the beast does not change, nor does the motion. A static flow of movement that progressively gets louder, with footsteps making such a vile sound, as if the creature is leaving bits and pieces of itself behind.
Zephyr's body is tensing, but due to his current condition, he cannot explode yet. This means he's now getting stressed out with no benefits from the anxiety.
He can hear a deep, destroyed, oversaturated meowling that transcends the barriers sound could normally achieve.
The blacksmith and the pets connect some dots, and it leads to a theory they refuse to believe.
Its red eyes are glowing crimson, as the thing is closer then they feel comfortable with. It leaves this gluey, thick substance behind. Urth and Eylventh both dictates it's as gigantic as the machine lady that greeted them here.
It's a pure mass of liquid vessel forming its best impression of a human body, a giant imitating flesh. They do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
The goliath slowly takes a halt and looks down at the puny specimen staring back at its stature.
Zephyr is livid.
Urth is speechless, or rather soundless.
Eylventh is so scared it's hiding behind its wings.
Something's different.
The machine, the lady, the whole package combined feels cold, emotionless. Its scare factor resides in how it's detached from anything you could consider organic, thus living in complete solace from anything. That machine is in its own category of monster, an anomaly that made the pit, another anomaly, it's home and cultivates it.
In contrast, this thing, this disgrace of a creature, towers above all living things.
It's ripping the life of it apart.
It lives through the fears of other creatures. Their spite, rage, terror and envy of its imposing power and aura. It lives for the domination; It seeks. It craves the end like an obsession.
It oozes this want, the wanting to burn this whole pit into nothing.
With that hunger, that thirst to see others suffer satisfied by making ants crawl in fear, pleading to be left for mercy, the monster walks by Zephyr and the two pets, as slowly and carefully as it came, to the next victim.
Probably whatever crashed behind them.
Zephyr thinks about the promise he made his father, to discover who he is and where does his mother come from.
Zephyr, in the back of his mind, knows what to do.
Zephyr, in the wholeness of his heart, knows he has no choice but to follow that beast.
Zephyr, at the bottom of his stomach, wants to throw up.
Nil is back.