The earth shuddered beneath the tremendous, heavy bronze boots of a giant. The walking colossus, armored in coruscating bronze that showed no sign of its ancient age, might have blended in with the aurous grass of the plains were he not the size of a tree. Balon moved ungracefully; his unwieldy gait a result of his muscles deteriorating from the curse and his time spent underwater leaving him with poor balance. Still, when he slowly trudged whilst clad in a suit of armor, his stride was large enough to let him move at a speed unburdened humans would struggle to maintain. 

After a short while Balon found himself ravenous, his body completely unused to any type of motion or physical work. Walking so far inland had been foolish; he felt weak, hungry, and dry. Just as he was about to return to the sea and regain his strength, one of his feet broke through the ground and fell into some ravine below. Tripping, the giant fell down face first, his hands outstretched to break his fall. Instead, they too broke through the ground and his entire body fell into some dark cavity in the ground, along with a cascade of dirt.

Balon's enormous body crashed down into the flooded tunnel, instantly sinking to the bottom of the black water. The giant was instantly reinvigorated. This water felt cool, refreshing. It also felt dangerous, and eerily similar to the water at the bottom of the trench. Balon's prison had been equally murky and dark as these waters, but there was something more here. The giant could feel that some malevolent being was here, no doubt the source of the taint in this aquifer. 

Balon's sole good eye was quick to adjust to the complete darkness, giving some limited eyesight in these waters. However, that wasn't necessary. Balon could have negotiated these treacherous tunnels with all three of his eyes blinded, for he could feel the water's flow and all the ripples within, even through his bronze armor. Deciding to swim up this tunnel to investigate the source of this taint, the giant began to crawl on his belly through the tunnel, which was rather narrow for his liking. In some places it was possible to swim, but in most he was forced to pull himself forward by gripping the floor and walls of the passage.

After a short time the tunnel was filled with a blinding light and a wave of cleansing magic. Other than forcing his eye to readjust to the dark once again, there was little effect. After all, Balon had once been a holy guardian. His black heart had always been immune to such spells. Suddenly, he felt disturbances in the water, everywhere. There were creatures in these tunnels, and that light seemed to have roused their anger. An eddy of water pushed back a tuft of hair tangled with seaweed, revealing Balon's bulbous, rotten eye- the one in the middle of his forehead, that killed anything it saw. The giant did not cover his eye back up; instead, he peered down the winding tunnel with it, and clasped his spear and shield even harder.