Rhythmic chanting welcomed the pair of Explorers into the church. The interlinked circle parted way to let them through.
The congregation's eyes were closed, but Enza and Athalia both felt like they could feel their gazes.
They moved toward the ladder that would take them further down into the second stratum.
When Athalia glanced behind her at the confessional booth, she considered something.
…To clear the top of the second stratum and enter the third, any group of Explorers must be an even number. You need to split everyone into pairs in order to clear the confessional.
In that case, how did Azarias make it to the third stratum?
She had this thought in her mind as she and Enza climbed down the ladder without issue, making it to the red-carpeted hall. Luckily, the congregation didn't give them any trouble, although it was always a possibility.
They quickly made it back to the room where a sandstone sphinx sat elegantly.
A hall of glass and mirrors. Crystalline picture frames filled with impossible shapes and an excessive chandelier that blasted light in all directions. The edges of the room extended into infinity; there were no discernible walls, floor, or ceiling. It was a little like Hymylä, but without the color. Countless shards of mirrors were strewn around.
On the way up the Mountain, the Explorers had to answer a riddle. On the way back, it was the sphinx's turn to answer.
Athalia had already thought of a riddle to ask.
"You are a prisoner. If you tell a lie, we will hang you, and if you tell the truth, we will shoot you. You must speak. How can you save yourself? Answer right, or you'll be off, off, off to Hymylä!"
The sphinx peered over at Athalia with creepy eyes. It bared its fangs in a gruesome smile.
"You will kill me."
Athalia smiled. "You got it right."
The Explorers left. Enza tried not to look at the statues with sanded-off faces.
They were back in that dark tunnel; the inconvenient place where Enza had operated on Athalia's eyes.
Although Athalia's vision had improved since the operation, it unfortunately still didn't let her see in the dark.
As they emerged into the light after fumbling their way through, the two were both grateful that nothing happened to them inside the dark tunnel. Just like with the congregation, there was always a chance, but these two were generally lower-risk elements. If every single obstacle on the Mountain was an ultra-high-risk death trap, nobody would Explore.
They emerged on the cliff ledge overlooking the snow globe. There was a giant finger-knitted bridge stretching from their current location to an opposite ledge made of broken glass, where there was a cutout in the snow globe. Fields of snow lay far below after a dizzying drop.
Enza pressed her ear to the ground for a moment. "The snow globe won't be shaken up soon."
A few minutes later, they stood on the edge of the snow globe ledge and gazed out over the smooth surface of the artificial lake. They had safely crossed the bridge with only one near-fall, and were starting to think they were getting a little lucky.
The blue plastic rowboat was tethered right below them. They jumped down, and Athalia was about to start rowing when she had an idea. "Enza, can you row? You can blindfold yourself if you want, but I won't need one this time."
"Why wouldn't you want to be blindfolded? I won't be able to heal your eyes a second time… What are you going to do if the pages target you again?"
"Being targeted is exactly what I want. Trust me, I wouldn't be saying this unless I was pretty sure it was going to work."
Enza paused for another few moments before nodding tersely, blindfolding herself and propelling the rowboat across the lake's surface.
Meanwhile, Athalia had set down the magnet Instrument and was holding the fishing rod with both hands. She was staring down at the picturesque village at the bottom of the snow globe.
Just as the rowboat made it halfway across, there was a rumbling noise from the houses below. Doors slammed open, and countless books started to fly out.
The books crushed themselves into a whirlwind of paper mulch, forming a giant hand that shot out pages toward the rowboat. Just like when they were climbing up the Mountain, the pages were only going after Athalia.
Somewhat to Athalia's surprise, she didn't even have to think. She whipped the fishing rod toward the water, catching countless pages on the hook with a single swoop. It felt completely natural for her, like she had done it a thousand times.
When it saw the fishing rod, the giant hand of paper mulch retreated in fear and split up into individual books, taking cover in the houses again.
Although Enza was blindfolded, she had heard the rush of the pages through the water as they flew up, and then heard it suddenly stop.
"What did you do?"
"Went fishing. Hey, this is kinda easy…"
Athalia spun the reel for a few seconds, then dropped a collection of soggy pages onto the floor of the rowboat.
Then she threw them back into the ocean.
What good are words if you can't read them?
After they crossed, Enza removed her blindfold and washed off her eyes. Athalia used the Measuring Anchor to take them from high up on the snow globe to the field of snow below.
It had only been hours since they reached the snow globe on their way up, but to both Enza and Athalia, it felt like an eternity ago. Their memories of earlier in the day were jogged.
The way they got to the snow globe on their way up was quite unusual.
While making their way through the Forest of Ash on the first stratum, the acid rain had started as normal. Athalia and Enza hid under the platinum umbrella, but strangely, it was being eroded by the acid. Normally, it resisted the acid rain completely and was a reliable solution to that danger.
The Forest of Ash contains many buried Instruments. At that time, the pair had uncovered a strange magic wand with the word "SKIP" on the side, as well as a deck of cards.
They had used the magic wand's ability to escape their predicament. Since it had taken them up to the snow globe, it evidently allowed entire sections of the Mountain to be skipped.
The first stratum is made up entirely of the Forest of Ash, which changes as you go progressively deeper.
The second stratum has the Emotion Emporium, the snow globe, the finger-knitted bridge, the dark hallway, the Hymylän Sphinx room, the red carpet, and the cathedral.
As for the third stratum, it only has one obstacle: the village and its games.
The 'skip' had allowed Enza and Athalia to avoid a large section of the Forest of Ash, as well as the Emotion Emporium.
However, just because they had skipped them didn't mean those obstacles had disappeared.
Furthermore, they had no way to skip them on the way down. That magic wand hadn't come with them, as it only had one use left at the time they used it.
Their next objective was the Emotion Emporium.
In the Emotion Emporium, adrenaline was valuable. Because of this, the routes to reach it involved an adrenaline rush, whether one was climbing or descending.
It's normal for a person to release about 0.2 micrograms of adrenaline into their bloodstream each minute. However, in a single high-intensity event, this number can spike severalfold.
Enza and Athalia walked away from the snow globe, toward the edge of the field. It sharply dropped off to a near-vertical cliff of jagged rocks.
The toe of Enza's deer skull boot, which was crawling with spiders, hung over the cliff's edge.
She looked over at Athalia, then back at her feet.
I'd reference 'one small step', but we've both done this before…
She tipped over the edge and went into freefall. The mad rushing of air was the only thing she could hear, and it was nearly forcing her eyes shut.
But it wasn't so bad.
It was almost relaxing.
It was like she could let everything go, just for a moment.
Even in that moment, she was sad thinking about when it would end.
She wondered how she would get there again.
She decided she would try when she got home.
Her thoughts were like molasses; thinking about the future had a rich and sweet taste of anticipation.
Her short-term memory was that moment, and that moment alone. The blood that her vision had been filled with all day wasn't there right now.
And then that sweetness was softly shattered as she was caught in a giant net. Half a second later, Athalia fell into the net next to her.
There was an arched entrance carved into the mountain face. The inside was hollowed out to make a giant amphitheater made of weathered stones. All the seats were empty.
The two Explorers walked in and climbed onto the stage. Both of their hearts were still pounding with adrenaline from the fall.
In the center of the stage was a large platinum fountain.
Sizzling acid was running through the fountain constantly, filling the air with pops and crackles.
Enza reached deep into her suit and pulled out a large binder.
As she flipped through the binder, each page was filled with coins. Each coin had a different person's name written on it.
Enza found the right page, then took out a coin with her name on it. She threw it into the acid fountain, where it instantly started bubbling.
Then, she held out the coin binder to Athalia, who took out a coin with her own name. That coin was also thrown into the fountain.
Enza spoke to the fountain. "Firstly, I offer one microgram of adrenaline."
She felt that incredible rush from the fall drain from her body. It felt like she had just woken up from a nap, forget jumping off a cliff.
Enza continued, saying, "I offer twenty days of lifespan and one percent of my determination."
The bubbling acid in the fountain sputtered in excitement, then spit Enza's coin out into the air. She caught it in her hand. The color had changed slightly.
Athalia had finished thinking and started intently at the fountain as she made her transaction.
"I offer one microgram of adrenaline, seventy-five days of my lifespan, and one percent of the happiness in my future."
The fountain spat out her coin.
Athalia felt terrible as all the adrenaline drained away. She sat down on the floor and lamented her loss of lifespan. However, she knew it was for a good cause.
She looked over at Enza, who had taken out a notebook and was holding it next to the coin binder. The notebook was filled with names. Each name had a few notes written under it.
Each name in that notebook, and each coin in that binder, corresponded to a citizen of Alavieska.
Enza began a tedious process of throwing coins into the fountain, then reading off the notes.
The notes would contain an offer of a portion of an emotion, or some other non-tangible thing, like the feeling of being refreshed right after waking up, or the joy that comes from relaxing after a nice long stroll.
Many also offered lifespan. Within its three currencies, the fountain had some flexibility with what it accepted.
After all the coins were retrieved, the acid at the bottom of the fountain formed words with its bubbles.
"Payments accepted. 4 months have been added to the Memory Hourglass."
However, that was just the payment for the lifespan and the other non-tangible things.
The Explorers themselves, having taken the risk to get here, were the only ones with the privilege of paying with adrenaline. Naturally, the fountain would offer them a special reward.
More words appeared in the liquid acid.
"Athalia, feel the back of your head. Enza, the flytrap has been restored."
Enza was relieved by this reward. Having the flytrap be usable again would increase their chances of surviving the descent through the first stratum.
Meanwhile, Athalia was feeling the back of her head with her hand.
On their way across the snow globe lake the first time, Enza had used a DIY hairspray flamethrower to attack the pages and save Athalia from harm. However, it had burnt a huge patch off her hair.
Now, that hair had grown back. Athalia was more than happy with this reward.