Chapter 46 - 4th Layer, the Goblet of Giants

Chapter 46 – 4th Layer, the Goblet of Giants

The morning was fresh, and the duo set off, with Marulk waving them off in the background.

"So, the next place is called the Great Fault. It consists of a 4 kilometre cliff, but countless methods have been implemented by many in order to attempt the descent. The most troublesome things are the predators that float in the air and attack all living beings. Furthermore, ascending here not only would result in previously mentioned effects, but also visual hallucinations." Misaka was literally reading off a textbook in her head.

After half a day of leisurely walking, casually killing creatures, and taking in the sights, the arrived before a massive hole stretching deep down.

"This is quite impressive."

"So, which way we taking? They said that there should be holes that lead deep down and act like a shortcut of sorts."

Misaka contemplated about this. She first looked at the little hole to the side, sitting silently and peacefully, then looked at the countless flying creatures swarming a massive hole of darkness.

"Of course we're taking the obvious route."

"*sigh. I thought you would say that. Then, I will meet you at the bottom." Medea conjured some magic and increased the amount of weight acting on her using some sort of sorcery, then she stepped off the cliff.

Normally, it would be a couple minutes of falling whilst evading all the other creatures, but for Medea, she just sank like a rock in water, but a really heavy rock.

She fell so fast that the birds didn't even see her.

"She just skipped out on the fun parts." Misaka said to herself.

She jumped high into the air, and her position was straight above the centre of the diameter of the hole.

Then, her body began to light up, and colours converged where she was. Her eyes glowed with electricity, and many zaps of lightning could be seen all over her body.

Her hair then stood up.

6 branches of lightning extended from her back. Each one was glittering and sparking all around, but it didn't even seem to hurt Misaka.

These 'branches' extended outwards, until each grabbed hold of the walls around the hole.

Yes, though it was a massive diameter, it was still reached.

The centre, Misaka, glistened and all the creatures still remaining got zapped by the lightning, until only ashes remained.

This phenomenon occurred all the way down the 3 kilometres. Not a single bird was spared.

She was actually lucky that no delvers were present in the hole, otherwise if they were caught in the explosion then death was inevitable.

However, this pretty much ruined the natural ecosystem. People would question what happened here for generations to come, but this was none of Misaka's concern.

Normally, she wouldn't do this to innocent animals, but keeping the fact that these birds have killed countless people, she didn't even hesitate to kill them.

Nodding to herself in approval, the lightning died down and she flew down the pit.

"Did you have fun completely ruining the natural ecosystem?"

"Yeah. It looked hella cool!" She was obviously in high spirits.

"Still a child..."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing."

Medea gave a silent prayer for all those who will be affected by her actions and kept walking down.

After another half an hour of walking, they saw giant towering mushrooms growing out of the land.

"4th layer, the Goblet of Giants. It is a strange, humid jungle of strong vines weaving to form giant concave discs that capture water from the air, which is what gave the 4th layer it's name. The high concentrations of warm water in this region causes high humidity and sometimes fog. Additionally, the light from the forcefield refracts from the water, giving the scenery a blue hue. Ascending here causes intense pain throughout the body and bleeding from every orifice."

"A very impressive sight to see. I can also feel the force's strength increase exponentially."

Misaka jumped 20 meters into the air and landed back down, "nope, still doesn't affect me. Guess this method does work then."

"Good for you, now let's go."

They soon found themselves unsatisfied at the amount of walking through water they had to do.

"Can't you just fly us?"

"No. Teenagers these days, tut tut. You can't just rely on others to do things you can do yourself. To train your body you must first train your mind. This much is simply nothing." For some reason Medea became a full-on adult and parent.

"You sound like my mother."

"Do I? Then you're mother must be a very great person."

"..." She didn't know how to comeback from that, so she just shut up.

Not for long though, as tens of spikes suddenly stabbed out of her body. Blood then leaked out, but it soon dispersed into nothingness.

Well, if one zoomed in, they could see the blood becoming electrons and flowing back into Misaka's body.

The person in question turned around and met a strange looking bear-like creature, with a head full of holes, and tens of spikes extending outwards into Misaka.

"Tut tut. Teenagers these days... not even aware of their surroundings. Have you heard of the rule look left then right, then behind then in front, then below then above, then take one step and repeat?"

"What you waffling about? You knew this orb-piercer was here?"

Completely contrasting her appearance, her voice was calm and even a bit sarcastic. Blood flowed out of her mouth relentlessly but no sign of pain or discomfort showed.

"Heh."

(I'm gonna enjoy watching this...)

Stepping aside, it was now only Misaka and the orb piercer.

The creature pulled back the spikes seeing it had penetrated through it's target, but what it didn't expect was for the prey to start regenerating.

It watched helplessly as the blood that was meant to be diffusing in the water, started to disperse and converge back in her body, and her wounds began to close up.

The poison that it secreted also dropped out of her body, like there was nothing supporting it in the first place.

Sensing something, the creature suddenly dashed left, and where it used to be now had a smoking gaping hole. The gap was then filled by the water, and the vapour that was evaporated dispersed in the air.

"You dodged that? Nice!" Not giving up, she dashed forwards once again.

Even though a barrage of spikes pierced through her body, she didn't falter and carried on running towards it.

The blood and organs that she left behind disappeared and her body then reconstructed itself.

The orb piercer literally had no more tricks. It could only dodge Misaka's attacks. It's spikes were apparently not a concern to it's prey, and even its poison didn't work.

An orb piercer's most impressive trait is the ability to sense the force of the Abyss. This results in them being able to predict and sense every movement of other living beings. This also makes victory against one in battle almost impossible, and because of their other abilities, it is said that there no longer exists a creature within the 4th later that can be called their equal.

After a few hit and misses, Misaka stopped and started to laugh.

"HAHA! I have figured you out. You can see the future can't you? Every time I dashed and went to attack, you moved in a perfect way to completely avoid it."

The creature didn't answer and just stayed there.

"However, don't get your hopes up. You see, I was only going easy on you. The attacks are for single targets and I wasn't even trying to go fast."

A familiar glow once again glistened on her, "since I have figured you out, it is time for you to die now." Before it could even respond, it had a vision of the future of... death.

There was no escaping it. It was the first time it had even met such a ridiculous prediction, since all it saw was death.

So, it waited helplessly as Misaka pointed her hand up, and the area where the orb piercer was at imploded on itself.

A ball of white light spiralled and came to a stop ten seconds later, leaving not even ashes.

The nearby water had all been evaporated, but off to the side Medea grabbed a hose from inside a portal and manually started to fill out the basin.

"Every single time, you go overboard, and I have to fix your mess. Could you just be not so flashy?"

"Sorry, but I have beaten you to it again?"

"To what? And again?"

"I figured out their abilities before you did."

"I knew it the moment I saw it."

"What? Then why did you back off..."

"It was because I wanted to watch you figure it out. I timed you actually. 41 point 38 seconds. Not bad. Oh, and if you thought I backed off because I was scared, then you are gravely mistaken."

"Uh." Her words seemed to merge together into an arrow, and it stabbed straight through Misaka's heart, and this time she fell onto the floor completely defeated.

Smug at her victory, Medea conjured ten more portals and ten more hoses started working alongside her.

In no time, the water was replaced.

But what Medea didn't mention was that a certain someone actually watched all of it.

In the distance, she felt a similar gaze to a telescope's, and extended her senses towards it. Misaka was concentrating on the orb piercer so she didn't notice.

She saw what looked to be like a young boy, if not for the mechanical parts dotted across his boy. It was also his eyes contracting that she felt was like a telescope.

Extending her senses even further, she mapped out the entirety of the surface of the 4th layer and found a gap where the force didn't really work on. Inside was a little hideout, and it was obviously the boy's, since he went rushing there after witnessing the battle.

(How weird. This place just gets stranger and stranger. There is... a robot... a girl... a mutant? And... what?) Even after years of anger control, she still couldn't help but feel a bit of disgust and anger at what she saw.

(That... thing... has a human's soul, but it's seems she is eternally suffering. It also feels like the force from the Abyss plays a major part in it... perhaps I should meet who did this after and teach them a lesson...)

Promising herself to do just that, she was going to kill the suffering creature herself secretly, but... she remembered some words...

(All that is lost will eventually be returned. Promise you will not interfere with the natural cycle...)

(I'll wait for now... but that poor thing is suffering... *sigh. Did she mean the natural cycle as the Abyss?)

"What you thinking about?"

"How stupid you are."

"What?"

"Nothing. Anyway, let's move on."

...

Because of Misaka's competitive behaviour, it took longer than expected to exit the misty zone, but it eventually did happen.

Soon, they found themselves in a beautiful garden. The mist didn't affect the view at all, and paired with the faint outlines of the mushrooms in the background, it looked ethereal.

But it was ruined by the presence of two things.

One, millions and millions of bugs living under the flowers, which Misaka would soon identify as Eternal Fortunes, and two, a weird robot-looking human in the middle carrying a huge box and a pickaxe behind it.

"Oh? I thought it was the robot who caused the commotion with the orb piercer, but could it have been you instead?" It questioned.

"And who are you?"

"I am an Umbra Hand."

"Umbra Hand? Aren't they the sovereign of Dawn Bondrewd's people? Why are they on the 4th layer?"

"You are correct in that, and I am here on this layer to exterminate these Amaranthine-Deceptors."

"The bugs?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"I'm sorry, you're not a human are you?"

A moment of hesitation was all she needed to confirm the answer, but the Umbra-Hand replied truthfully, "though I am surprised you managed to guess it correctly, I have the permission to tell you that I am indeed not a human. I am merely a vessel should the sovereign of Dawn's current vessel be destroyed."

"A clone? Hmm, Misaka, you know what to do then?"

"...What?"

"Are you stupid? It's to kill that clone of course!"

"But why?"

"You'll be surprised at how they are created. It is best if you put them out of their misery."

"But-"

"No buts. Have you not realised yet that you will one day have to kill people. You have to start out somewhere, and this is the perfect start."

Actually, both Medea and Misaka knew that she wasn't really hesitating to kill, despite what it seems. It was more like, Misaka was entering her rebel-stage of life.

She knew that she had to one day kill people, and tried to mentally be prepared for it. It always helped if the target had done unforgivable crimes before, but she still had a bottom line of innocence. She will not kill any innocent no matter what the situation asks of her. But other than that, killing was somewhat acceptable for her now.

"Fine." She pouted, and with one finger pointed at the figure, one singular lightning bolt with a voltage of one hundred million fried the thing to pieces.

The machine on it's back then opened up to reveal a flamethrower.

"So that's how they decided to kill the bugs. Makes sense."

They walked up to the remains of the machine and destroyed any traces of it. Misaka went to grab onto the pickaxe and leaned it against her shoulders.

Meanwhile, Medea eyed the giant unnatural hill that revealed itself after the death of the Umbra-Hands.

(This is their nest?)

And it was at this moment that the duo sensed people approaching...