As he and Agito made their way into the Relic spacecraft, Sho marveled again at how the exterior had just opened up for them. As if they were expected, and welcome. The floor under his feet was soft and squishy, and Sho couldn’t help wondering for a moment just what it was made of. Looking over at Agito, Sho almost asked him if he was thinking the same thing.

Then Sho decided to shelve those thoughts for later, some time when the fate of all the people he cared about wasn’t depending on his and Agito’s speed. Getting the Relic under their control probably wasn’t going to be easy, and there was still the chance that Chronos would begin to suspect something. Sho shuddered, not wanting to think about what would happen to them all if Chronos found out they were here.

And now, the lives of Prof. Odagiri and all of his scientists were in danger as well. Prof. Odagiri hadn’t said what Chronos had done to Prof. Yamamura when he had freed Mr. Murakami, but Sho suspected it was something that was better left unknown. Given Chronos’ methods in the past, what they had done to Prof. Odagiri’s mentor was probably something that the other scientist didn’t want to think about.

It took a few seconds for Sho to notice that Agito had stopped walking, and he was just about to ask what was going on when he noticed that Agito was talking.

"It seems like we’ve reached the end of those hypodermal layers you warned us about, Prof. Odagiri," Agito said, and Sho realized that he was speaking into his comm-link.

"Good work," Prof. Odagiri’s voice crackled over the comm. "Was there any difficulty for you getting inside?"

"None," Agito said calmly, as Sho nodded. "It seems that your hypothesis about the Guyvers allowing us to access the interior of the Relic was correct."

"Good. There should be another barrier in front of you. Do you see it?" Prof. Odagiri asked.

Sho could indeed see the barrier that Prof. Odagiri was talking about, but it was Agito who answered his question. Agito turned to Sho, nodding as the other Guyver caught up to him.

"Yes, we have just come to it."

"All right," Prof. Odagiri said, sighing with what Sho hoped was relief. "That’s where we lost contact with the other teams in the past. So be careful you two."

"Don’t worry, Prof. Odagiri, we will be," Sho said, as Agito turned back to the wall in front of them.

Agito glanced backward once more, over his shoulder at the opening that he and Sho had both come through about fifteen minutes ago.

"Sho, look behind you!"

Sho whipped his head around; ready to use the Pressure Cannon or the Mega-Smasher on any Zoanoid that had managed to make it this far. But what Sho saw wasn’t a Zoanoid, a Zoalord, or any of Chronos’ other monstrous minions. What Sho saw was the wall of the Relic sealing itself closed. Sho’s first, instinctive, reaction to this was relief; at least there were no Zoanoids and all of the others were still safe.

Then, the full importance of what he had seen was driven home. "We’re- we’re trapped in here?"

"It appears that he are," Agito said, sounding composed again after his earlier surprise.

Sho started to hear a hissing/splattering noise then, as if someone had turned on the tap at a sink. But Sho was fairly sure that there weren’t any sinks inside the Relic, and so he wondered what could be making that sound.

"Agito, can you hear that?" Sho asked, as he looked around to try and see where the sound was coming from.

"Yes, I can."

That was when the trickling of liquid became a deluge, spraying out of openings high up in the walls that Sho hadn’t even seen before. The liquid, whatever it was, soon came up to the two Guyvers’ knees and showed no sign of stopping.

"So, now it’s an inundation tactic," Agito sounded remarkably calm as he said this.

Sho, seeing that the liquid didn’t seem to be doing any damage to either his Guyver or Agito’s, held his hand under a falling stream of the stuff. The liquid seemed more like water than anything else, even though Sho couldn’t make out the color of it in the dim light of the Relic’s interior. Prof. Odagiri’s voice came back over the comm then, and Sho was grateful that whatever kind or liquid was being pored over them at least hadn’t shorted out their equipment.

"Get out of there right now, both of you!" he shouted. "I don’t want to risk the two of you getting killed in there. We’ll find another way."

"No, Prof. Odagiri," Agito said. "This seems different than what you described before. This liquid doesn’t seem like a solvent or a poison."

Sho, hearing a sloshing sound that came from behind Agito, turned to look over his fellow Guyver’s shoulder. There was another opening forming, seemingly out of nowhere just like the last two had done. It was strange to think about how this whole ship seemed to be alive, and stranger still that Sho that he didn’t really consider it all that strange anymore. It was probably all the things that he had dealt with up to this point; Chronos and their endless army of Zoanoids, Mr. Murakami, and the Guyver of course.

"Well, I guess we know where the Relic wants us to go next," Agito said.

"Yeah," Sho muttered, staring into the opening.

Both Guyvers stepped up to the newly formed opening in the wall. The space behind it was cavernous, and even with the extra senses of their Guyvers, Sho and Agito had trouble seeing the end of it. There were huge growths, the size of the American Redwoods that Sho had read about in some of his textbooks, sticking up out of the ground and the walls and continuing up until they reached the ceiling.

Sho wondered what they were there for, up until he saw Agito stepping carefully down off of the ledge in front of them. Sho did the same after a second or two of hesitation. The liquid helped to slow their fall, and the Guyvers landed a great deal more gently than they would have if they’d been falling through open air. Agito and Sho started walking again, Agito in the lead of course.

They had barely taken ten steps, though, before Sho heard the by-now-familiar sloshing sound that heralded the opening of another passageway inside the Relic.

"Agito, above us," Sho called, pointing upward. "Look."

"And behind us, Sho," Agito commented, turning to look back the way they had come. "I suppose that the Relic never had an actual opening in the first place. Any living creature that possesses the Bio-Booster Armor can create an entrance into the spacecraft if the host entity’s will is strong enough. But for any foreign entities that manage somehow to force their way inside, the walls of the ship will secrete powerful, corrosive solvents to prevent such an invasion. That must be how it works. Prof. Odagiri, can you give us our currant location please?"

"I’d be glad to," Prof. Odagiri said. "You have just passed the last of the hypodermal layers. What you’re standing in right now is one of the smaller chambers, shaped roughly like the cell of an orange. We think it was used as a storage space or a living area."

Sho looked around in astonishment; if this was one of the smaller chambers, then Sho could only just imagine the sheer size of the other rooms.

"Continue moving toward the center of the Relic," Prof. Odagiri instructed calmly. "You will, in all likelihood, be able to find the navigation control room there."

"Yes Professor, we’ll do it just as you instructed," Agito said.

They swam, which was odd for Sho to think about but easy for him to do, up to the top of the chamber and through the next opening.