Chapter 30: The Mirror Of The Abyss

  On the next day, Auri and Yuki followed the small stream until they stood directly in front of the gigantic lake they'd witnessed yesterday.

  Like a perfect mirror the lake stretched out across the crater’s heart, vast and unbroken. Mist drifted low across its surface, curling and weaving like a living thing, and every breath carried the faint scent of rain. Nothing seemed to dare disturb the transquility of the water. Not surprising, seeing how this sea was probably the heart of Nayru, the mythical Phione's, territory.

  For a long while, neither of them spoke as they stood at the shore, feet half-submerged in hte cold, shallow water.

  "It’s beautiful!" Yuki breathed from beside him. "We're probably the first Pokemon from Newleaf Village to be here in decades! That means we have all that panorama just for us! And we're finally close to the Blackwater Strem as well!

  She leaned forward, squinting at her reflection. "Look at how crystal-clear the water is! That must be Nayru's work!"

  Auri glanced at her reflection beside his own. The ripples from her paws spread outward, faint circles against the mirror-smooth surface, and then, strangely, they slowed. For a moment, it looked as if the water were pushing back, rippling toward them instead of away. Then it was gone again, so subtly that he questioned if he had been mistaken.

  They rested by the shore for a while, letting the quiet soak into them. Auri splashed water over his face and fur, the chill clearing the road’s dust from his body and his thoughts alike. Yuki joined him, laughing at the shock of the cold before sprawling on her back in the soft reeds.

  "Hey," she said after a while, "doesn’t it feel like… we shouldn’t talk too loud here?"

  Auri looked over at her. Yuki's eyes were half-closed, breath rising and falling in rhythm with the faint hum in the air.

  He nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know what you mean. But if you think about it, it's not all that different from the northern shrine in Newleaf Village, where Vian usally resides. It's probably the feeling that comes with entering the very home of a Mythical. And I wouldn't even be surpirsed if Nayru sees the entire lake as her home."

  He glanced back at the lake, watching as the mist shifted and revealed faint shapes beneath the surface, long shadows that might’ve been ridges of rock… or movement. Or maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Nayru should be just as occupied as Vian, Shae and Sia, so there should be no Mythical or other guarding presence around right now.

  When they finally stood again, the sun had risen higher, scattering the mist into drifting threads of gold. The lake’s mirror broke for a moment under the light, then reformed, perfect once more.

  Auri turned northward, where the water bled into distance. There, one could already faintly make out a darker line that shimmered up the plains on the other side. "That’s it," he said quietly. "The Blackwater Stream. The Dungeon we've been searching for."

  Yuki followed his gaze, squinting. "Looks kind of eerie from here. But at least our first actual sign that we're getting close to these ruins is in sight! Let's go Auri!"

  Auri nodded. "Yeah, let's not waste any more time. I'd like to set up camp in asecure location closer to the Dungeon entrance, and preferably before it gets dark enough for Dungeon Pokemon to ambush us."

  They started walking, their reflections moving alongside them across the lake’s still edge. During their walk, the morning light changed the colors with every step. Silver turned to gold, gold to soft blue, and then, beneath the trees that reached close to the shore, the water deepened to glassy black. The mist had lifted, but it left behind a damp stillness that clung to everything.

  For a while, they walked without speaking. Every now and then, Yuki would glance at the horizon where the water seemingly met the inner wall of the crater, and her ears twitched at the faint echo that came from far, far away, the kind of sound that could’ve either been the cry of a Dungeon Pokemon or just wind bending across the basin.

  "It’s so big!" she exclaimed softly. "Bigger than I imagined, even if I roughly knew the numbers. Still, you could probably fit the whole Deepwoods in that reflection!"

  Auri smiled faintly, though his eyes stayed on the shimmering surface. "Probably. They just felt bigger because they were so hard to traverse."

  They passed a cluster of fallen stones by the shore, half-buried in reeds. The carvings were faint but familiar, the same curving runes they’d seen back at the monoliths in the plains. Except here, they were eroded to near nothing, smoothed down by water and time. Yuki brushed her claws along one, tracing the outline of what might once have been an eye or a wave.

  "Maybe these were part of something bigger!" she said excitedly. "Like a ring of stones around the whole lake!"

  "Or maybe the lake moved," Auri said absently.

  Yuki blinked. "Water doesn't move like that."

  He looked up, completely serious. "Maybe not the water. But we're living in a crater filled with Mythicals and Lesser Legendaries. Slightly reshaping a big lake? Why should that be a challange to someone like Nayru should she want to?"

  For a moment, Yuki had no answer. Then she just laughed again, softer this time. "You say things that make me not wanna sleep tonight, you know that?"

  Auri shrugged, the faintest smirk crossing his face. "You'll sleep fine. We both know the second you hit a bed you sleep like a stone!"

  "Hey, that's not true!" Yuki cried out in outrage and Auri laughed.

  The sun had risen fully now, but its warmth barely touched the air. It felt filtered, like light seen through deep water. Dungeon Pokemon were still surprisingly scarce here, though there were still many more than they had seen on the plains before. But as of now, neither the plains, nor the hills or lake could even compare to what they'd seen in the Deepwoods.

  Every so often, the still surface of the lake would break, a gentle ripple, a soft circle expanding outward. But there was never any sign of what caused it. No fish, no driftwood, no sound. Just that quiet, deliberate motion, as though the lake itself was breathing under their gaze.

  They reached a point where the shore narrowed, pressed between steep roots and the slow rise of the crater’s slope. The ground was slick with dew, forcing them to walk carefully, balancing on patches of moss-covered stone. From here, the lake looked impossibly deep, not as shallow as before.

  When the wind blew, Auri noticed something strange. The reeds nearest the shore didn’t sway in the same rhythm as the ones farther inland. It was as though the air above the water had its own current entirely. He stopped for a moment, watching, trying to sense if it was just his imagination. Then Yuki stumbled ahead, catching herself on a slick rock, and the observation vanished.

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  "Careful," he said.

  "Yeah, yeah!" She flicked droplets from her feathers, glaring at the rock. "I swear, these stones are plotting against me!"

  "Maybe the lake’s just testing your balance."

  She threw him a look over her shoulder, but her smile softened the glare. "Don’t you start talking all mysterious like the Mythicals as well!"

  It was sometime past noon when they saw it, a faint shimmer near the far edge, where the lake narrowed into a channel. Even from a distance, the color shifted. The silver-blue light of the mirror deepened into ink, and the faint ripples along its edge moved backward, as though drawn inward by some unseen pull.

  "Wait, is that what I think it is?" Yuki instantly perked up, taking a few careful steps forward.

  "The Blackwater Stream," Auri said quietly. "It has to be."

  Yuki squinted. "It doesn’t look very inviting."

  He shot her a flat look. "It's a probably extremely dangerous Dungeon Yuki. Of course it wouldn't look inviting. Still, that's where our path goes."

  They stopped walking for a moment, letting the wind brush past them. Auri looked out over the water one last time. The Mirror of the Abyss stretched endlessly behind them, the mountains and sky reflected perfectly. Ahead, the lake’s calm turned to ink and chaos. Between the two, they stood suspended, balanced on the edge of peace and the Dungeon.

  Yuki took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "Alright!" she said. "The first of two Dungeons we actually have to get through!"

  "Right," Auri murmured. He didn’t look away from the stream. "Let’s make it count."

  They walked on, the light behind them soft and golden, the path ahead turning dark and narrow. They felt the moment they actually crossed the Dungeons threshold.

  The air thickened as though they’d stepped through an unseen curtain. The warmth of the sun dimmed in an instant. The gentle rustle of wind through grass fell away. What replaced it was the weight of the incredibly dense type energy around them.

  Auri’s fur stood on end. His tail lowered, sparks dimming under the weight pressing down on his body. The familiar pattern of the world had changed. Everything shimmered faintly, outlines blurring, like the world couldn’t quite decide which shape to hold.

  The Blackwater Stream no longer looked like water, even if one ignored its black inky coloration. It flowed black and mirror-smooth, absorbing light rather than reflecting it. Beneath its surface, faint shapes moved. The ground around it pulsed with faint blue veins, glowing in rhythm with the air’s hum. And the sky, if it could still be called that, had turned dim and cloudless, a depthless gray that never shifted, no matter how far they walked.

  Both of them could feel the water-type, dark-type and poison-type energies that were layered over the land and woven into the air.

  Yuki took a slow breath and shook herself, forcing her feathers to settle. "Okay! So… water, poison and darkness. Guess we shouldn’t trust what we see, huh?"

  "Or what we hear," Auri added.

  They started forward along what looked like a narrow stone path following the current. When Yuki glanced away, Auri caught the faint movement, the stones rippling slightly before smoothing back into a new shape.

  "Okay, that’s just cheating, Dungeons are not supposed to do that right in front of us!" Yuki muttered, ears flicking. "Did you see that?"

  "I did," Auri murmured. "Keep your focus on one thing at a time. If you try to see everything, you’ll lose track."

  "As if I wouldn't know that," she said under her breath, but went along with it.

  The deeper they went, the denser the type energy grew. The world’s colors narrowed, blues deepened until they were almost black, greens dulled to gray. Only their own bodies looked real anymore. Everything else shimmered like a reflection trying to stay still in churning water.

  Once, Auri reached out to steady himself on a tree root only for it to ripple away beneath his paw. He pulled back instantly, heart lurching. Just in time, because where his paw had been just moments ago, a spray of sizzling acid landed.

  "Traps," he muttered, shaking out his fur. "Of course there are traps in this one."

  Yuki’s eyes darted over the distorted trees, wings flexing slightly. "Yeah. Thanks to the dark-type energy illusions are even mixed in!" She took a careful step sideways, watching how the air rippled around her claws. "We really need to watch where we go. Even if it mean spending more time in the Dungeon."

  Auri gave a small nod, matching her pace. "Agreed."

  They moved forward together, keeping low and quiet. The sound of the stream guided them. Well, more or less.

  One moment, it rushed right beside them, loud and close. The next, it was distant, fading until the silence pressed in from every direction. Once, it even seemed to flow above them, a whispering torrent with no source at all. The Dungeon obviously wanted to confuse them, but they knew they just had to follow the Blackwater Stream until they reached the Dungeons end.

  The first signs of Dungeon Pokemon came soon after in the form of small ripples, perfect circles forming across the black surface of the stream. Then, the surface broke. Shapes rose up, slick and shining, Pokemon made of the same liquid-dark substance as the water itself.

  Three Dungeon Crawdaunt took up position in front of Auri and Yuki. Their shells gleamed like carved obsidian, their eyes faint and hollow. They moved soundlessly, claws dragging threads of darkness through the air. Auri and Yuki instantly fell into combat-ready positions. And not a single second to late as the nearest Crawdaunt lunged with [Night Slash].

  Auri twisted aside, the creature’s claw slicing through the space he’d stood, and warping it for a heartbeat before snapping back into place. Before he could counter, Yuki was already moving, quickly sending an [Ember] forward. It wasn't supposed to actually do damge, but do distract the Dungeon Pokemon.

  The Dungeon, however, had other plans. Unexpectedly and usddenly the flame split apart midair, refracting like light through water, three glowing copies scattering harmlessly into the mist.

  "What!? Seriously!?" Yuki exclaimed, heat in her voice. "It just ate my attack!"

  "Bent it," Auri gritted, landing and sparking another jolt. "Light doesn’t travel straight here." Though he had never seen a Dungeon do something like that before.

  His own [Thunderbolt] cracked the air and hit true. The nearest Dungeon Crawdaunt froze mid-step, shell lighting up like glass catching sunlight before it dissolved back into liquid shadow and vanished beneath the stream. Obviously the Dungeon was much less capable of blocking such a fast-traveling very effective move.

  The other two Dungeon Crawdaunt were about to attack as well as, suddenly, they stopped completely. A moment later, as one, they sank back below the surface. The Dungeon had clearly intervened and decided that it would be a waste of type energy to have these two Dungeon Pokemon attack them, only to get effortlessly anihilated in turn.

  Yuki let out a shaky breath, shaking her feathers dry. "Okay! So that’s a thing now! Shadow Crawdaunt that eat fire. Noted. We really have to stop going into Dungeons where my typing feels more like a disadvantage than anything else."

  Auri sighed at that. "If we ever get to choose the Dungeons we want to explore by ourselves, sure. I would also love to see an electric-type Dungeon one day. But we have to work with the cards we're dealt."

  They started walking again, slower this time. The pressure in the air thickened, heavy enough that even breathing felt like wading through mist. The water beside them glowed from beneath, pale runes flickering like drowned lanterns. Sometimes, faint whispers echoed above the current, sounds shaped almost like their names. Almost. In the end, all of that were more tricks of the Dungeon to get them to do its bidding. Which probably was to either quickly leave or to die.

  When the path split in three, they stopped together. The middle trail shimmered faintly, calm, inviting, like moonlight on still water. It almost looked safe.

  "The middle one has to be bait!" Yuki anounced before Auri could speak. "It looks way to clean and to easy! And no Dungeon would be intelligent enough to play reverse-logic with us to the degree where that would be the only safe way."

  "Agreed." Auri glanced toward the dimmer left path. "That one looks worse. So it's probably real."

  The light dimmed further as they went, forcing their eyes to adjust to the Dungeon’s shifting glow. Everything leaned inward here. Trees, stones, mist, even the shadows, it all bend inward. The world itself seemed to curve toward something deeper, unseen.

  The Blackwater Stream murmured beside them again, its current slow but heavy, as though it carried more than water. And deep in that flow, something stirred.

  Auri stopped, every muscle locking for a breath. The Dungeon’s hum changed pitch, syncing faintly with his heartbeat. For a moment, it felt like the air itself was breathing with him.

  "Auri?" Yuki’s voice cut through, soft but steady.

  He blinked and the trance shattered. The world realigned to how it should be.

  "I’m fine," he said quietly."But watch out for mind tricks. Apparently, the Dungeon has some psychic.type energy in his storage as well."

  Yuki flexed her wings, embers trailing faintly from her feathers. "Understood! No weird dreaming away while on this exploration! Just doing our job like proper explorers would!"

  He gave a half-smile at Yuki's antics. "Good. Then let's go on. I really hope we don't have to pass to close next to the Dungeon Core. That would become very dangerous very quickly."

  They pressed on, shoulder to shoulder. The air grew colder still, the shadows thicker. Behind them, the path was gone soon after. Only black water remained, smooth and still, reflecting nothing at all.

  Important characters in the chapter:

  Pikachu (Auri) – Level 15

  Ability: Lightning Rod

  Battle Nature: Lonely

  Stats:

  TE Pool (Health/AP): 71

  Attack: 47

  Ranged Attack: 41

  Defense: 49

  Speed: 55

  Total: 263 (Strength Level: Teenager)

  Moves:

  Close Combat Moves: [Nuzzle], [Tail Whip], [Quick Attack], [Brick Break], [Thunder Wave], [Feint]

  Ranged Combat Moves: [Thunder Shock], [Electro Ball], [Swift], [Thunder Bolt]

  Utility Moves: [Nasty Plot], [Charm], [Double Team], [Growl], [Agility], [Dig]

  Torchic (Yuki) – Level 16 (Evolution Requirements Not Met, Stat Boost Applied)

  Ability: Speed Boost

  Battle Nature: Hasty

  Stats:

  TE Pool (Health/AP): 80

  Attack: 47

  Ranged Attack: 47

  Defense: 55

  Speed: 40

  Total: 269 (Strength Level: Teenager)

  Moves:

  Close Combat Moves: [Scratch], [Quick Attack], [Feint], [Fire Spin], [Flame Charge], [Aerial Ace], [Counter], [Slash]

  Ranged Combat Moves: [Ember], [Sand Attack]

  Utility Moves: [Growl], [Detect], [Dig]