Though it feels impossible, you start to sense a sort of downward slope to the pier. And yet, it remains squarely above the water, no lower than it was before. You continue on your way, and the sound of crashing water becomes apparent.

The pier ahead of you seems to vanish into the water, but as you continue, you find yourself walking down grey steps. The sea around is as flat as ever, but it seems to come to an edge, where it suddenly drops off into a wide expanse.

You lean over the staircase, and get an immediate case of vertigo. Below are an uncountable number of bridges and aqueducts, connected by ornate buildings and diases. And some of the bridges seem to be turning, rotated by massive machinery. And on all sides, the sea-turned-waterfall pours down, into the abyss below.

"This place is known as the Aqueducts. Fantastic name, I know." The hermit again. He sits on a dias nearby. "Naturally, it is a cold and damp place. But I once heard it was the home of heroes."

"But all that is irrelevant. Down below, there's something you should see."

"If you desire answers, they await below. Once you see it, you will understand." You are intrigued by his words, but you can't afford to dwell on it. Not when still more challenges await you.

Ahead, there seems to be a patrolling battalion of powerful looking Shades. But past them, above a further part of the Aqueducts, a black castle seems to loom over a particularly unguarded spot. Perhaps there might be a way down from there...?

These bridges were not meant to be traveled on. Waist high in some places, knee high in the rest, water floods the whole structure.

It is immediately clear that these are, as the hermit said, merely aqueducts, intended to be waterways rather than load bearing bridges. Sickeningly often you have heard loud cracks, and spied crumbling stone from far away.

With your Soul bound to the Beacons, you are sure to revive from such a fall... but it would definitely not be pleasant.

You slog along, water creeping up your legs, chilling your body and slowing your movements. The Shades don't make it any easier, as they seem to be stronger here, and the narrow bridges don't leave you much room to move. You slather your body in Light Gels, mending your frequent wounds.

In the shelter of one of the small stone buildings, you spy a Beacon, and rest at it immediately. But its light does not shine, and within seconds you are engulfed in a foul smelling ooze, some kind of creature composed of corrupted Light Gels!

You fight your way out, gasping for breath, and manage to smite the thing. It leaves naught but an untethered Beacon where it once rested. You fasten it to the ground, and its welcome light ignites. You shake your head, wondering how much further humiliation you must endure...

A final fortified bridge lies between you and a low outcropping of rock, the one thing splitting the waterfalls surrounding you. Though it wasn't necessarily warm before, as you walk into the cave, the numbness of your body spreads, worryingly turning into warmth in some places.

A veil of mist blocks your path, but you step through it, hoping for the light of a Beacon. Instead, you step out onto a rusty metal grate, suspended by the cave walls. Below, a pit going down as far as your eye can see. You can hear rushing water from down below, but in front of you, a snarl of torn metal lies embedded in the wall.

It seems to be a double-doored gate, with the counter-relief of a humanoid figure, divided between the two halves. But straight through its torso, a huge gash in the metal dominates the structure, as if something clawed its way out from inside.

But just as you are pondering this, a shadow seems to pass over the shattered gate, making it produce a horrible clanking noise. As the wall around it cracks apart, it wrenches itself from the rock, twisting back and forth, clamping open and shut like a huge mouth. It slams the ground, causing the grate to tilt back and forth, unsteady.

Behind it, an arm of Shade-matter connects it to its cavity, like a veiny elongated neck. It vomits murky water in a massive spray, and it's all you can manage to hold up your shield against the torrent...

You step through another wall of mist into a series of mazelike tunnels, but the first thing you notice is the overwhelming smell of mildew. The second is the feeling of being watched. Watched by a foreign pair of eyes, hungry eyes, from some dark damp corner.

It is warmer in here than the rest of the Icecrest Passage, but only for the lack of ice. You walk through the spacious tunnels, expecting to be ambushed at any moment. Then, movement! A torrent of water splashes through a side tunnel, washing over you, knocking you down and pulling you towards a deep, narrow pit.

But you barely hold on, coughing for breath. And yet, besides the frequent bursts of water blasting through the tunnels, there does not seem to be anything here. And yet, you still feel those hateful eyes on your back.

You start to search for an exit, oblivious of the thing behind you, crawling on the ceiling with its scythe-like arms at the ready...

You feel as if your spirit has been ripped from your body. The foes you have fought here are unlike the Shades above: rotted gods wade through the shallows, and the angry spirits of the dead rise from the waves and attempt to pull you down.

And now you sit on a stone boat, the vessel drawn towards some unknown destination across this Sea of Souls.

The rhythmic bobbing of the boat makes you drowsy, but you cannot allow yourself to sleep. If you began to dream, you might not be able to distinguish it from reality.

The horizon is distorted by the waves, yet clear. But as you close your eyes, the boat stops, resting at another stone shore. A small island, surrounded by a cloud of wayward Souls, meets your gaze, and you disembark.

Statues comprise the structure of the island, features and carvings indistinct, inlaid gems fallen out, littering the damp stone beneath. Innumerable statues of old deities, and the crumbling pantheons that housed them, lay washed up and eroded from the Sea of Souls.

All save for the center of the island, where a pulsating blue mass lay curled up in a makeshift nest of shattered stone, with debris orbiting above in defiance of gravity. The mass unfolds with a shriek, and shifts into a humanoid silhouette. You freeze and gape, realizing what you are looking at.

It rises into the air, power pulsing through its ethereal veins and capillaries, yet with no heart to hold them together. Where its head should be, is instead a point of light. This is the birthplace of the Phantasm, where it arose from the tortured Souls of the sea. And now another is rising.

You can only pray it is not yet powerful enough to take your Soul outright...