Clinch River: Minutes Count

One path was empty, remarkably so. If it had been traveled recently, there wasn't much indication of that apart from a few flecks of blood here and there on the walls, and the faint wisps of spiritual energy already being consumed by the choking energy that filled this place. The second, to the left, went nearly vertically down, until it was simply flooded under the water table. The only path that led anywhere was forward, and down that path came an elevated walkway, with glass walls that overlooked a tremendous room.

But within that room was only a black miasma, which crawled upward and seemed to latch onto the glass. It was certainly alive, not comparable to the energy that filled this subterranean fortress, but there was no indication of what lay below, other than a simple, antiquated screen on one side of the walkway:

AZ Storage Overflow; report to Dr. Lain immediately

What was it that sat below? How deep did that miasma go, and what had been in the room before it was filled by it? Perhaps none would ever know, but there was still a door further on the other side of that walkway. Perhaps there would be answers on the other side.

A path chosen, advancement made.

Lil remained near the front of the pack as they advanced down the path, until the darkness contained behind glass came into view. Her gaze met that writhing darkness, and couldn't pull away for a moment. It was a stare of faint recognition, gazing deeply at that darkness with wide eyes, a cold feeling crawling in her chest as she grew stiff...

...Until her attention was called back to the group a brief few moments after she stopped. She hadn't noticed how tightly her fists were closed, knuckles taking a slight white tinge as she quietly shuddered and caught up easily.

"Heh, that's the spirit, Gigi." Natasha would remark with a smile, maintaining her distance between the women as they made their way down the remarkably empty path. The elevated walkway they set foot on did not seem to offer another threat, though the miasma that filled the glass walls certainly kept the blue-eyed sharpshooter on her feet. If the last two abnormalities were anything to go by, they were certainly in for a surprise of some sort. As such, Natasha was more than acquiescent to Giselle's plan of action. Stay back and defend the princess.

Natasha would nod assent as she stood beside Shirohime and held her guns at the ready, sky blue eyes consistently observing and analyzing the area.

Past the bridge over the black miasma, nothing seemed to rise or attack them. There was only the next door forward, and upon opening it, there was nothing to greet Liltotto or Giselle. Not a sound, not a speck of light as far as the eye could see. A darkness that was clearly artificial, and yet which carried no spiritual markers and which made not a single indication that it would move upon them.

In that sense, it was different from the darkness below. It was not miasmatic, not fluid. It was simply as though light refused to enter whatever lay beyond that door. That, in itself, might have given time for them to pause and consider their options.

Unfortunately, the sound of splashing water had begun behind them. While that submerged path had not been accessible to the Vandenreich, that did not mean it had been an empty path. Wet footsteps echoed through this place, but whatever their source was remained unclear, invisible. Perhaps more distressingly, there was no spiritual signature from that, either.

"Hmm."

Shirohime gave pause at the sight that lay before them, it was uncertain and the sound of something advancing behind them. She tried to think and weigh up their options, did they want to wait and let whatever catch up to them. At the same time, staring into the darkness was a problem.

She thought about it and the idea of being caught in the pitch black as this invisible threat caught up to them in the darkness would provide it a great advantage and them, a disadvantage.

"We should wait and see what's following us, it would be a bother to need to face it potentially if it caught us in the darkness unlike here where we can see."

The usage of should did imply that she was letting them air their own thoughts about it though. How confident were they?

Natasha turned to Shirohime as she took note of the sound of wet footsteps approaching behind them. Uh-oh. She wondered what threat would rear it's head now? She didn't know what Giselle and Liltotto had seen up ahead or whether it was a dead end but her objective was to keep Shirohime out of harm's way. It wasn't as if she believed the woman couldn't defend herself and those orbs displayed earlier certainly seemed like they had a "more than meets the eye" nature to them. Whatever was approaching down this pathway was a complete unknown. No spiritual pressure. Nothing to give them a sense of what abnormality they might face this time. The first creature they met before they even ventured into this place didn't seem inherently focused while the other seemed less single-minded than the first. This was the first time something seemed to be coming right towards them. Natasha was onboard with the woman's plan and illustrated that action by aiming her spirit weapons forward, remaining in her position as she kept herself at the ready.

"I'm with the princess on this one. I don't know what's comin' towards us to say hello but I'd rather be prepared to face it here in what little light we have than get struck down when we least expect it in the dark. What say you, Gigi? Lil?"

Lil hardly needed any encouragement or words to execute. Invisible shit was not something she typically came across in a fight, actually a surprisingly rare ability to her, but the added layer of it being undetectable was just extra annoying. Okay, plan, keep whatever it was from getting to the rest of the group while keeping it in a position where there won't be any friendly fire.

"Nat, keep your gun ready and Shirohime behind you," Without another word, a small ball of energy emerged from one of her hands, rapidly increasing in size until it was a large, furry monster, just big enough to fence off Liltotto and the approaching creature from the rest of the group - a safety precaution especially for what she was attempting, and she wanted to be the only thing it was fixated on, "If the path's safe and the fuzzball suddenly vanishes without my say of it being safe, just run!"

With the assurance the group would at the very least be safe behind the creature-like construct, Liltotto would draw her rapier, and calmly point it at the approaching figure,

"Heeey there, bud..." She'd drop her voice to a softer tone, as if speaking to a small child or consoling a panicked animal, but she definitely was feeling a bit of a cold sweat, "I can't see ya too well, so I dunno what kind of face you might be making, if you even have one that is..."

With an easy, slow motion, she would wave the weapon around in a figure 8, "You like your buddy up there? You like energy you don't recognize, too? Guess it'd be awful boring living someplace this crappy and lacking in variety, huh, energy monster thing?"

She wasn't entirely sure why she was talking to whatever was approaching like it was a kid, but she guessed it didn't hurt to try the more peaceful and understanding option before resorting to violence in this instance, the group would've been reasonably safe and she wasn't particularly concerned for her own physical wellbeing.

The blackness of the next room was, indeed, nothing resembling a gradient. Perhaps just as notable as its lack of adherence to basic logic, however, was the fact that it was almost humid in nature. The air in that black void was thick, difficult to breathe. And the silence of it, which muffled everything from the outside and made it all seem as distant as a foreign land, to say nothing of it becoming nearly incomprehensible. Spiritual senses fared no better; the darkness was not so mundane as Giselle might have hoped, it seemed, though her efforts to traverse it were, in themselves, unimpeded.

By contrast, Liltotto wasn't meeting much in the way of a response. The sound of wet steps gradually grew louder, and eventually they came close enough that their source could be seen. Well, not seen, but it could be located, wet spots slowly moving across the floor toward her. A faint rasping filled the air, but there was no visible source.

At least, not until a single hand, pale and looking as if the skin might slide off at any moment, slipped out of the closest wet spot, as if emerging from unknown depths, and moved to grab at Liltotto's ankle.