“Hey, Cardinal? How’d you know the wraith’s weak point was its eyes?”

Cherub broke the silence once the dust kicked up from the Apostate Wraith’s fall had settled back down amongst the grass and petal-less flowers.

Transient Cardinal shrugged a tad awkwardly. “Honestly? It was really just luck.”

“Speaking of which,” Lucian interjected, finally recovered from the near miss. “Please don’t do that again, at least, without some sorta forewarning? I thought I was going to get a stroke when I saw you dive like that.”

Julia nodded effusively. “What he said! I guessed what you were going to do but seeing it in action was still a big shock.”

Before the white-haired waif could respond, Boris coughed pointedly, drawing all eyes to him. “What Cardinal did was certainly… reckless, but I don’t believe now’s the best time or location to talk about it.”

After a moment, Lucian nodded sheepishly, the others mimicking his sentiment in their own ways. Off to the side, a slight grin tugged at the edge of Tsumiki’s lips; the petite brunette having kept silent throughout the proceedings.

Julia clapped her hands, once, a slight flush dyeing her cheeks a rosy red hue. “You’re most certainly right. We’ll wait until any loot appears before moving on. Any objections?”

Lucian shook his head firmly, providing a clear answer. The others repeated his wordless sentiment, the most vocal of which being Transient Cardinal even as she skirted around the fallen colossus and headed over to him.

With that, the other four—Cherub having revealed himself after dodging away from the collapsing colossus—started up their own conversations, content to wait.

Once Transient Cardinal came to a stop right next to him, Lucian reached out and squeezed her shoulder gently. “Are you okay? I’m not gonna lie, that stunt looked damn risky.”

She twitched slightly, clearly registering his question, but continued looking away with a distracted look clouding her pale blues.

It was only after a couple of seconds when she shook her head violently, snowy curtain of silky hair flailing from side to side like a living creature, before she looked his way and met his concerned gaze.

“No need to worry, Sir Knight.” The young woman soothed, small quip added in to try and alleviate his concern. “I’m fine.”

Lucian examined her face carefully, looking for any hint of deception, but failed to find a thing. “If you say so.”

Squeezing her shoulder one more time, he pulled his hand away, glad to see his bandages hadn’t left behind any bloodstains on her soft white coat.

Instead of doing nothing while waiting for the Apostate Wraith’s loot to appear, Lucian quickly swept his eyes over the carpet of grass, searching for the empty test tube he had discarded earlier.

Though he was certain no one would be coming after him for engaging in such a casual instance of littering, he wasn’t too willing to discard it, just like that. Who knows? It might prove useful at some nebulous point in the future.

After a quick search, he spotted his quarry and walked over without delay, scooping it up in his free hand after bending down slightly.

Looking over the test tube with a casual glance, he was surprised to see that trace amounts of Toxic Essence still clung to the glass’s inner surface.

Now understanding how dangerous the substance was, Lucian quickly looked around once again and picked up the test tube’s rubber stopper after spotting it between the bone white strands.

Stoppering it back up, he slung his backpack off his left shoulder and pulled it around to his front. Ignoring the compartment storing the assorted cans of preserved fruits, he had a quick, mental debate before deciding to place the mostly emptied test tube with the others he had in his possession.

Acting on his thoughts, Lucian dropped his end table and unzipped his backpack, opening the right compartment on the first try.

He exchanged the empty Toxic Essence for a brand new one, stashed it away in his hoodie’s front right pocket, then zipped his backpack back up before hoisting it back into its proper place nestled against his back.

Done with replenishing his consumable, Lucian looked around to check out what the others were up to while picking his end table back up.

Off to the side of the Apostate Wraith’s corpse, Cherub watched on with obvious, disgusted fascination as Tsumiki poked curiously at the colossus’s flayed flesh with her glass-embedded table leg.

Not really sure what to make of that, Lucian shifted his eyes away and focused on Boris and Julia; the duo having drifted away, further along the path they had been travelling down, to engage in a heated conversation of some sort, judging from the latter’s energetic gesticulations.

Even with the silence pressing down on the briar maze’s interior, all Lucian could catch was the occasional word from their conversation, far from enough to let him string together what it was all about.

Unlike the other four, it was clear Transient Cardinal was content to remain silent – even if it was clearly because she was lost in thought.

Squinting his eyes at the white-haired young woman for a moment, he stopped focusing on her once it was clear she wasn’t going to be roused anytime soon.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Unwilling to leave her alone, however, Lucian decided against walking over to Cherub and Tsumiki and chose to be content with observing whatever the latter was doing from a bit of a distance.

All the while, he kept his ears perked for the sound of any more approaching Apostate Wraith’s from deeper in the Bloodthirst Briar’s maze.

----------------------------------------

Observing Tsumiki at work was entertaining, if nothing else.

It took him a couple of seconds, but Lucian eventually understood what the petite brunette was trying to do. While initially, it had looked like she was poking around randomly, it became clear she was seeking out the corpse’s weak spots.

Much like he’d discovered, she had figured out that the Apostate Wraith’s legs were nigh indestructible without external aids.

In contrast, owing to the flayed state of the colossus’s upper body, it was far more susceptible to damage; no matter whether edged or blunt, judging from what Lucian could see of Tsumiki’s tests.

He was pretty sure she could, and would, have continued with her tests – if not for Cherub making the presence of the items known.

What must have had been a minute or so later, a pair of items appeared—almost like magic—next to the colossus’s partially pulped knee.

Cherub, the first to notice their appearance, notified the rest, causing the sixsome to congregate around them quickly.

Having been one of the closest to the pair of items, Tsumiki had already triggered her Knowledge implant before the other four could fully gather around. As such, once all were gathered, she began reciting the items’ information without fanfare.

Name: Binding Chain.

Descriptor: Solid steel links hammered into newly forged restraints.

Remarks: Somehow, it’s even more durable than it looks…

From the expressions on both the speaking girl’s and Boris’s faces, it was clear they were interested in the coiled up, approximately one-metre-long length of oiled grey links.

Thankfully, the latter chose not to vie for it for the now; willing to allow the former to finish reciting all the information first.

Name: Cursed Sacrificial Stake.

Descriptor: An implement of torture stained with lingering traces of resentment.

Remarks: It’s painful! It’s painful!! It’s painful!!!

If not for Tsumiki’s recital, Lucian wouldn’t have given the nondescript stake of metal—tapered to a lethal point at one end, rounded and blunted at the other—a second glance.

Now though? Lucian eyed the enlarged metal thorn speculatively, Numerous ideas springing to mind about the kind of things he could do with it.

Its existence also gave birth to a spark of inspiration at roughly the same time. Excusing himself with a quick word, Lucian walked away from the group and towards the head of the Apostate Wraith, ignoring the discussion that broke out.

Hearing grass crunch under foot behind him, he threw a look over his shoulder and saw Transient Cardinal following along. Besides shooting her an arched, inquisitive brow, he paid her little mind.

Coming to a stop beside one of the metal cross’s arms, Lucian raked his eyes over the entire limb quickly before squatting down and reaching out, half-bandaged index finger grazing cool, metal stake as he triggered his Knowledge implant.

His brows creased thoughtfully, concentration deepening into disappointment after a couple of seconds; knowing his conjecture hadn’t been on the mark after the mellifluous voice’s first words.

Shifting his finger away from the stake, he pressed it against the metal chain wrapped around the limb and triggered his Knowledge implant once again.

Unfortunately, much like before, he was disappointed by the result.

“Everything okay?” Transient Cardinal’s soft voice chimed in Lucian’s ears before he could dwell on his emotions for long, drawing his eyes her way.

He shrugged. “Yeah. I’m just a bit disappointed that the stakes and chains binding the Apostate Wraith aren’t the same ones as the loot drops.”

She skewed her head slightly, as if confused. “Really? The instincts I got from selecting the Present are telling me they are usable though.”

Lucian blinked, surprised by the info. “Does it tell you how to retrieve them then?”

Humming thoughtfully, the white-haired waif stayed silent for some moments while her pale blues darted over the Apostate Wraith’s corpse, as if looking for something specific.

Lucian left her to it after she continued to remain silent, seeing that it might take a while. Instead of remaining idle, he turned his body away slightly and tuned back into the discussion that had been happening behind him all this time; curious to see how it was going.

“—so we’re decided on the chain, yes? Boris takes this one, and Tsumiki will take the next, if and when another Apostate Wraith appears.” Julia’s measured voice registered in his brain, hinting at the calm nature of the prior unheard discussion.

“Sure. What about the Cursed Sacrificial Stake though?” Cherub inquired, a clear note of disgust underlying his question. “There’s no way I’m taking that… thing, and it doesn’t look like Tsumiki or the big guy want it.”

Julia hesitated while Boris grunted in acknowledgement and Tsumiki nodded in assent, neither disagreeing with the brown-clad man’s observation.

Lucian might not have most of his personal memories, but one skill he seemed to have retained from his life pre-Dormitories was an uncanny ability to decipher people’s body language.

As such, he didn’t hesitate to interject before Julia could make up her mind. “Hey, if none of you want the Cursed Sacrificial Stake, mind if I take it then?”

“Why in the world would you want such a disgusting item?” Cherub asked, confusion darkening his brown eyes. “You heard what Tsumiki said like I did. Nothing good can come from having something like that.”

Lucian shrugged pragmatically. “You’re not wrong, but I believe it’s best to make use of whatever tools are at our disposal, regardless of their origin.”

Cherub opened his mouth, clearly ready to retort, when Julia shut him up with a single, forceful clap. “Excellent. Boris, you can start doing whatever you wanna do with the Binding Chain before we get mov—”

A shrill screech interrupted the buxom blonde before she could finish, all heads jerking towards Transient Cardinal even as some of them clapped their hands over their ears; Lucian included.

While the rest were talking, it looked like the white-haired waif hadn’t been idle.

Unbeknownst to Lucian, his earlier question had sent the young woman’s thoughts racing, trying to find a way to pry out the stakes and chains – a task made all the more difficult by the Apostate Wraith’s current faceplanted position.

It had taken her some time, but she’d eventually found an avenue of attack, so to speak, and started unwinding the chain without delay.

While the rasp of steel on steel was far from quiet,, the ongoing conversation, Lucian’s preoccupation with said conversation, and the slight distance between the conversing four and Transient Cardinal meant that none had noticed her actions…

A state of things that would have persisted on – if not for the white-haired waif yanking out one of the primary stakes nailing the colossus’s arm to the cross with aforementioned loud screech.

----------------------------------------

Lucian traced a finger along the rounded ends of the three stakes—one cursed, the other two not—poking out from his hoodie’s right pocket, mentally going over their respective locations for when they became needed in a pinch.

Having set off after Transient Cardinal pried off what materials she could from the fallen Apostate Wraith—comprising a normal Steel Chain and four bloodied Sacrificial Stakes, the foremost of which she wound around her slender waist—the group continued deeper into the maze’s depths.

Unlike what Lucian had initially expected, another Apostate Wraith had yet to make an appearance so far. At the same time, none of them had found a trace of another human being – a concerning fact, since the hovering, scarlet number at the maze’s entrance indicated someone had made it in before their group.

From what Lucian could tell, they’d been walking for close to five minutes—the Apostate Wraith’s corpse having disappeared out of sight, long ago—along the same gently curving path, hemmed in on all sides by—thankfully unmoving—Bloodthirst Briars.

If nothing changed soon, he was going to lose it. A man could only really deal with the unnatural, oppressive silence for so long before he snapped, after all. And what do you know? Speak of the devil and he doth appear…

Several metres away and just within the edges of his field of view, a noticeable break in the wall of black-leaved briars appeared on the left of the passage; presumably creating a path leading deeper in to the maze.

Just as Lucian spotted said break, Julia announced its existence; something expected, considering the honey blonde's position at the front of the pack, as it were.

“Look sharp, everyone! I see another skull, and its red hue is even brighter than any of those I’ve come across so far.”

A tense air fully wrapped around the sixsome at her words, each readying themselves—whether it be mentally or physically—for whatever lay ahead.

As if reacting to the change, an echoing thud, one extremely familiar to the group, rung out from a distance behind.

Lucian turned his head bewilderedly, certain nothing had been behind him before the sound. Luckily, neither hide nor hair of the colossus could be seen… yet.

An insistent tug on his wrist got him to turn back forward, only for him to see Julia and the others speeding up; Transient Cardinal having only delayed for a moment to get his attention.

“Let’s go Knight. Now isn’t the time to dilly-dally, you know?”

Lucian bobbed his head agreeably while lengthening his stride, quickly overtaking the white-haired waif and tugging her along behind him via her grip on his wrist. “What’d I miss?”

Transitioning into a jog to keep apace, she let go once she’d caught up. “We’re not going to confront the wraith, that’s for sure. There’s no point in risking it, right? Anyway, here’s to hoping we lose the wraith deeper in the maze.”

While listening to his white-haired partner, the raven-haired man kept an eye on the others up ahead. Just as they turned into the new path proper, he broke into a run; though not before flashing a toothy grin her way.

“We can only hope.”

< End of Gauntlet One: Weight of a Cross. >