The deeper you go, the more the show stops pretending it's a adventure story and becomes a study of suffering. Every frame is painterly enough to hang in a gallery, but that beauty exists only to make what happens to these children impossible to look away from. The score doesn't score moments, it erases the distance between you and their pain.

Riko, Reg, and Nanachi push deeper into the Abyss, entering the Sixth Layer, known as the Capital of the Unreturned. Having come through the ordeal of Idofront, Riko now carries a White Whistle, which lets her make this descent. Somewhere in this uncharted layer lie the ruins of the promised Golden City. As the trio adjusts to the harsh surroundings, they face dangerous creatures and perilous terrain, and eventually reach a village populated by odd beings called hollows. Uneasy but undeterred, they press on to learn the settlement's secrets and what became of the explorers who came before them. There is no turning back, and the only way forward is down.