In that moment, Akira’s mind couldn’t help but go to Lukas and Melody.

Sure, everyone that had been trapped here for months, or even longer, couldn’t find a way out of here no matter how hard they tried.

But something told her that with her, Lukas, and Melody together, getting out of here would be a piece of cake. After all, things always seemed to work out when they were all together.

She was sure that Lukas would eventually come up with a harebrained scheme that would somehow turn out to be pure genius and break them out of here.

But now, that task has fallen to her.

She couldn’t help but smile at that.

Back in the Sisterhood, she’d led her own squad as the captain, so solving problems like these shouldn’t be too much of a hassle.

She looked down at herself. She still had her armor on, but that meant nothing. Even Holly still had her armor on. Akira might now be one of them, but that didn’t mean they had to relax around each other.

Apart from [Temptation], and [Kairos’ Fillet] which was still fused to her forehead, she only had her three skills.

It was a good thing Lukas had left the headband with her. With that [Item], even if she failed in whatever plan she came up with, she could at least survive it.

But first, she needed a plan to work on.

She turned to Holly. "Can I ask you a few questions?"

"Ask away."

"If I step into the lake, but immediately step out and run away, will the beasts still come after me?"

Holly stared at Akira, a frown on her face. It was clear that she was trying to figure out just what this newcomer was after. Shouldn’t she be discouraged by the lack of hope?

"Err..." Holly scratched her head. "Not really. Well, yes and no."

"What do you mean?"

"This is the Underneath, yes, and the rules are not as strict as the Undercity. But there are some things that the Underneath never lets go. If you enter the pool, beasts would definitely come after you. And if you run away, they’ll give chase. But here’s where things get tricky."

"If you have a skill that allows you to evade pursuit, once you make it far away enough from the pool and they can’t catch your trail, they’ll give up chasing you. But if you’re slow enough for them to keep harassing you, that’s another story entirely."

"They’ll keep hounding you no matter where you go or how you run until only two things can happen. Either you kill all your pursuers... or they kill you."

Holly had a guilty expression on her face. When she’d first arrived at the settlement, the faction pushing for them to leave the Underneath had taken her under their wing.

They’d added her voice to theirs and pressured the others for one push at the massive gears. The casualties that day had been nothing short of catastrophic.

They’d lost a lot of powerful people, and she couldn’t help but feel she’d had a hand in it.

She couldn’t help but recall the people who had stayed behind, laying down their lives to help them retreat.

And she’d recalled what Bull had said to her in the aftermath.

"There’s no need to look so down, Holly. Even if we had to follow the popular vote, we all made the choice to go through with it. And make no mistake, this would not be the last time something like this would happen."

"I’ve been here long enough to see a new wave of people who haven’t experienced something like this to think they have a chance. They’ll stir up public opinion again and invite the people for another run."

"One thing I’ve learned is that you cannot stop it. Simply let nature take its course, and be there to help them pick up the pieces that remain after."

Holly gently shook her head, blinking away the memory before turning to Akira. Would Akira be the catalyst for this new wave of attacks? Was this woman planning to lead people to their deaths?

But Bull had told her to let it happen. So, she wouldn’t try to stop it.

"I see." Akira nodded. Then she looked up at the ceiling. While it was shrouded in darkness, she could just barely make out its damp but jagged surface.

What if...

She turned to Holly with another question. "If I crawl on the ceiling above the lake, and don’t actually touch the lake below, would the beasts still come for me?"

While Holly hadn’t experienced this herself, she knew the answer to this question from Bull’s stories.

"No. The beasts won’t come after you for traversing the ceiling. But eventually, you’ll have to touch the gears connecting the ceiling to the lake, or the water passing through when it opens up. And the beasts would descend."

Akira hummed at the answer. As long as she didn’t touch the lake, the gears connecting it, or the water, the beasts wouldn’t descend upon her. That was good.

But she had a final question.

"You say the Undercity sits above us, right?"

"Yes?"

"Why haven’t we just dug through or blown a hole through the ceiling and crawled up to the Undercity?"

"That’s one of the parts that makes escaping this place an impossibility." Holly smirked as she answered. Maybe when Akira heard this, she wouldn’t be so eager to try breaking out.

"What do you mean?" 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"Plenty of people who came before us have tried digging their way through the ceiling, some putting effort everyday for months, and they’ve all come to the same conclusion."

"While the water does generally flow downwards, the Undercity isn’t necessarily above us. Instead, we’re separated by some kind of spatial distortion."

"No matter how far they dig, and no matter the direction they dug in, we’ve never been able to dig our way out of here."

She turned to look at the main gear once more.

"That, is the only way out. And it’s an impossible route."