The River Styx's dark purple waters, like bruised, clotted blood, flowed ceaselessly through the Plain of Infinite Layers, splitting into countless tributaries before vanishing into innumerable deep pits that led straight to deeper levels of the Bottomless Abyss. Some reverse-flowing waterfalls surged forth from hive-like portals and converged into the River Styx. The river stretched all the way to the Howling Madness Tunnel at the edge of the cosmos and the Gray Wastes of Hades. Beyond that lay a realm even the gods had never set foot in.
It was the depths of the void beyond the Kingdom of the Heavens—desolate and dangerous. No god was bored enough to waste their curiosity on an exploration destined never to end.
And a tributary of the River Styx passed through the hollow layer of the Great Abyss where Garvin and the others were stationed.
Even as merely a tributary, it was still the most spectacular waterfall Garvin had ever seen: an endless torrent crashing down from who knew how many kilometers overhead, blasting out a magnificent impact-river plain across their layer. After flowing for dozens of kilometers and finally calming somewhat, it turned into another waterfall and slipped into a bottomless abyss, repeating the cycle again and again.
For the overwhelming majority of creatures, the River Styx was dangerous. It had originally been formless and traceless, but after passing through the Lower Plane, its concept had been manifested by the plane's properties, becoming purple river water with a degree of corrosiveness and toxicity. Calling it the filthiest river in Coriel would not be an exaggeration. Compared to this great river, even the Ganges of those neighboring Blue Star Indians was pure as a sacred river.
At most, the Ganges had the occasional rotting corpse floating by. But whether they were devils from