— Quite thrilling, isn’t it?

Despite Edris’s musing, however, Ace didn’t respond. His gaze fixed somewhere beyond Edris’s shadowy form. Used to the man’s selective silence, Edris shrugged, then attempted to shift the topic.

"So, what's the plan next?"

But again, no response. It was then Edris felt something was off. He turned around, his back now facing the crimson moon and floated closer, only to realise that Ace’s eyelids were beginning to droop.

— Ace?

Edris drew back his head in incredulity. Ace would never let himself fall asleep so unguarded. It was a strange sight to witness, especially so for someone as constantly alert as Ace. Was he this tired?

— …No, that’s not it.

Edris immediately dismissed the thought. Something was definitely wrong.

“Hey, Ace!” he called, louder now, hoping to rouse him.

Nothing.

His sense of alarm deepening, Edris floated closer. First, he tried clapping directly in front of Ace’s face, then shouting right by his ear. The man didn’t stir.

Edris floated back and took a breath—if nothing else worked, he’d have to get creative.

With one hand on the Distributor, Edris steeled himself and swung his shadowy hand down onto the back of the man’s head. To his surprise, he felt an odd, faint resistance under his blob-like palm as his hand made contact. The next moment, Ace jerked upright, his head snapping up, eyes open wide in surprise.

Ace blinked, one hand reaching up to rub the throbbing spot on his skull. He turned his gaze on Edris, who was now hovering leisurely a meter away, a dark, amorphous blob with a distinctly pleased aura.

Ace narrowed his eyes. “Did…you hit me?”

— Hm?

Edris shrugged, his blob-like form tilting nonchalantly. “

— You were falling asleep and wouldn’t wake up, no matter what I tried! I had to take precautions.

For a moment, Ace was silent, processing the odd sensation of having fallen asleep without any self-awareness, an experience so rare it felt alien. “I fell asleep?”

Edris bobbed up and down, nodding.

— Strange, right? It’s like the Labyrinth wants to lull us into unconsciousness, or something.

He paused.

— Check your [AFFINITY].

Ace’s gaze sharpened, already pulling up his [PROFILE] as he said so.

“Eighty-six,” he said. “Two-point decrease.”

Edris tapped his chin, thinking.

— So that’s what it is. Remember the second day when we could no longer see each other's particular physical features despite wearing the same ones ourselves?

“You’re saying that’s because of the drop of [AFFINITY] caused by sleep?”

Edris’s shadowy head entered a nod.

— Unlike the last Labyrinth, we didn’t have to keep to a specific persona, but the Labyrinth wouldn’t let us go like that. The mirrors, the Shadows, and now sleep. These are all subtly distorting our perceptions of this place.

“My [AFFINITY] dropped, yet I received no notice of it happening.” Ace listened with a stoic expression, yet his eyes had darkened. “They were trying to assimilate the players without them knowing.”

Edris gulped. Ace had a point; if they hadn’t caught this, who knows what could have happened. They’d been taking the Labyrinth’s influence for granted, accepting the curfew restrictions without challenging them. But it should have been apparent earlier: remaining in the passive position wouldn’t get them anywhere.

Edris’s blob tilted to the side, a mischievous spark glinting in his unseen eyes.

— Since we’re students, and apparently ‘spies,’ of the [SECRET ORGANISATION], we’ve been on the defensive for so long. Don’t you think it’s time we rebelled against this place? Just a little?

Ace shot him a sceptical glance.

— Think about it.

Edris’s voice was smooth, enticing.

— The Labyrinth’s eroding our senses when we’re asleep. But if we can catch each other before we slip under, that could change everything. We can’t be the only ones affected, right? And it’s not like the others couldn’t use a wake-up call.

Ace’s expression shifted subtly, a glimmer of understanding sparking in his features.

— So?

Edris pressed, his tone edging on playful.

— What do you say? Up for some wake-up calls?

***

The next moment, Edris and Ace dropped silently onto Owein’s balcony.

The former rubbed his nonexistent hands in anticipation while the latter gave him a judging look in silence.

“We’ll start with the ones closest to us,” Ace said, his tone pragmatic. “If it works, we’ll expand out.”

Ace loomed over the full-size window and peered inside, to be greeted by a dark stain pooling across the floor.

Edris’s formless shape wavered slightly, his voice filtering softly to Ace alone.

— That's... Owein?

Brows slightly furrowed, Ace knocked on the glass, then a second time.

His actions were greeted with silence, and just as the white-haired man was about to smash through the window, the figure in the room twitched subtly.

After a moment, Owein’s head lifted weakly. He sat slumped against the bed frame, face ashen and eyes shadowed with fatigue. Blood streaked the floor beside him, and the sight stirred a chill through both Edris and Ace on the other side.

Owein squinted towards the flashing red on his doorframe, then shifted his gaze to the outside. The next second, his neck retracted after making out the scene on the balcony.

It took a second for him to recognise the man, despite his striking white-haired that gleamed with a faint crimson under the moonlight. Owein breathed as he felt his mind slowly clearing up, regaining alertness to the situation at hand.

Despite it still being curfew hours, Ace was standing outside his room, flanked by a Shadow looming over his shoulders.

“..?”

Owein rubbed his temples, which throbbed as streaks of blood rolled down his arms.

His gaze flickered with confusion as he staggered to the window, momentarily considering if Ace had somehow been possessed by a Shadow in their short separation.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Then, slowly, he watched as the white-haired man traced his fingers across the glass.

Shadow = Edris.

“Edris?" Owein stared at them, disbelief colouring his tired expression. “Edris became a Shadow?”

Behind the glass, the Shadow wobbled into a wave-like motion, like a cotton flower in the breeze.

Ace motioned for him to open the window, and Owein hesitated before unlatching it and letting them in. His gaze lingered warily on the blob of darkness taking from behind.

“What happened to your arm?” Ace asked, noticing the poorly bandaged gash staining Owein’s sleeve.

“I had to stay awake.” Owein’s voice, though weakened, was resolute.

Ace gave a small nod. “I see.”

Edris hovered in silence, observing his friend’s determination despite his condition. He couldn’t speak directly to him, but Ace quickly took up the conversation, updating Owein on the current situation.

As he outlined the urgency of maintaining their [STUDENT] identity to graduate, Owein’s face turned grim.

“This is a problem.”

The main challenge, at this point, was that they could no longer be certain if the person standing next to them was still a student—or a Shadow. And from what he’d been told, it was highly likely that over-interacting with the latter was an indirect compliance with the Labyrinth’s traps and may lead to a faster decrease in [AFFINITY].

Owein exhaled through his nose, a crease forming between his brows.

“There’s no difference on the outside,” he murmured. “They mimic behaviors, even voices…”

If they hadn’t tried overthinking it or hadn’t sent the invitation to Edris, nobody would have figured it out based on interactions alone. He checked his [AFFINITY], which had reached a high seventy.

If they had simply continued to sleep through the entire curfew, they would have assimilated by the time the Labyrinth ended, without ever catching that something was wrong.

Ace glanced over at Edris, then Owein. “We tried the others, but they were already asleep. We banged on Yukioe’s door, but he wouldn’t wake up no matter what.”

Owein nodded, a flicker of resolve stirring behind his exhaustion. “And Roos?”

At his words, something flickered across Ace’s expression as he gave a sideglance to the Shadow to his right, who bore no particular reaction.. “...We haven’t gotten to her yet.”

Owein sighed, managing a faint, weary smile. “Good luck. I can’t leave due to curfew, but…”

His gaze shifted between the man and Shadow, noting the peculiar anomaly of both—the white-haired man who defied Labyrinth rules with an almost frightening ease, and Edris, who had somehow maintained his consciousness despite becoming a Shadow. In all his years navigating Labyrinths, he hadn’t seen anything quite like this.

“I’ll leave it to you two,” he finished, a touch of trust and a trace of something hopeful in his tone.

Ace met his eyes, a silent promise passing between them. Then, with a slight nod, he turned back toward the balcony, Edris’s Shadow trailing beside him.

They had work to do, and the clock was ticking down.

***

The next stop was Roos’s room. Since it was right beside Owein’s, the natural way to go was through the balcony.

Ace leapt across Roos’s balcony in a sweeping motion, landing soundlessly. He peered through the glass, half-expecting the woman to be asleep just like the others.

Instead, his presence was met by Roos herself, staring back with a raised brow. Her expression was oddly lively, considering the dark circles under her eyes.

“Why are you sneaking around my balcony like a thief?” She mouthed, blinking dramatically.

Ace paused, clearly unamused.

Roos shot him a broad, toothy grin before finally opening the doors.

"Coming in or not?" she asked, her voice low but playful.

Ace stepped inside with his usual calm demeanour, but Edris, still in his Shadow form, hovered hesitantly by the doorway. Roos tilted her head in surprise.

“Edris, aren’t you coming in?”

At her words, both men turned to her. Ace's voice was calm but questioning. “You… recognise him?”

Roos nodded, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “That’s Edris, isn’t it?”

Ace and Edris exchanged a quiet glance. Gradually, the latter floated inside without a word, though he gave a slight bob as if acknowledging her.

Ace broke the silence. “How did you manage to stay awake?”

Roos plopped onto her bed, shrugging as she swung her legs.

“I got a little groggy, but hey, pulling all-nighters is second nature to me.”

“Quite impressive.”

She flashed another grin. “I know, right?”

“Edris said that.”

— Hey!

Edris swirled indignantly behind her, though his blob-like form only wobbled in protest. Ace ignored his reaction.

Roos laughed. “I just thought of it as another night where I had to cram for a culinary exam. No big deal.”

Ace raised an eyebrow. “You’re a chef?”

Roos crossed her arms.

“Why? Do I not look like one?” She grumbled, adding, “I’d finally gotten an invite to this exclusive culinary fest before being pulled in here. Definitely missed it by now.”

“...”

Ace creased his brows. The woman was unexpectedly…chatty. She also possessed unexpectedly adamant willpower, seeing how she’d managed to keep awake through brute mental endurance.

He wasn’t fond of talkative people, but he nodded accordingly, already planning the next move.

“Since you’re awake, our job is done here,” he said, glancing back at Edris. “Next?”

The latter sighed, a faint swirl to his shadowy form.

— Let’s check on Yukioe again and call it a night. Curfew’s almost over anyway.

Although their plan was to wake people up forcibly, it ultimately wasn’t a situation for charity, so they had no choice but to be selective of their targets.

The rest, they’d leave to fate.

“Going already?” Roos cocked her head sideways, eyeing the two that were heading back out into the balcony.

Ace paused, peering over his shoulder.

“Be aware of those around you. You don’t know if it’s people you’re interacting with.”

Roos paused slightly, noting the seriousness of his face. She gave a curt nod.

“Thanks, I will.”

“Edris said that, too.”

— …You now.

With a reluctant drift, the grumbling Shadow followed Ace out onto the balcony again and, under Roos’s gaze, disappeared into the moonlight.

Their last stop was Yukioe’s room. Ace had tried to wake the man earlier, but the attempt ended without success. With the curfew ending soon, they figured one more attempt was worth it.

— He slept like a pig even back in Odeen.

Edris sighed with a subtle shake of the head.

— This is going to be difficult.

However, when they reached his room on the other end of the hallway, they found it empty. The door was slightly ajar, and the light over it glowing green. Ace glanced at the clock. It’d only been less than two minutes since the curfew had been lifted.

“He’s gone,” he commented, peering into the empty room. Edris did the same, confusion spread across his amorphous features.

— We didn’t even see him on our way here. What’s he in such a rush for?

“Maybe he went to look for you.”

— Oh, you flatter me.

Edris let out a half-hearted laugh, only to halt the next moment.

— Though, this is quite a hassle situation. If he had slept through curfew…

Without further ado, Ace sent out an invitation through his [PROFILE], only for a message to pop up immediately after.

THE INVITATION HAS BEEN SUCCESSFULLY SENT!

Awaiting the [PLAYER] to accept your invitation.

NOTE: [PLAYER PROFILE] can only be shared with other [PLAYERS]!

The message had been sent across, meaning that Yukioe was at least still a player like the others. Ace glanced at the Shadows slowly dispersing to their respective positions at the sign of day.

“I will check on him,” Ace said.

As students gradually filled the hallway and made their way downstairs to the dorm entrance, Edris found the familiar control returning to bind his movements.

He knew that his time was almost up and that, like the other Shadows, he had to return to his position.

— Looks like I need to go soon.

Edris sighed, looking toward the horizon as the night began to fade.

— We’ll stick to the plan. Regroup before the final hour. After all, if anything is going to happen, it’ll be when all the mana restrictions are lifted. We won’t be the only ones waiting for this moment.

“Nest.” Ace turned to the rising sun, gaze directed into the distance. “The [SECRET ORGANIZATION] still have not done anything, either.”

Indeed, too many lines have yet to surface. With the given situations at hand, both of them were expecting chaos of [GRADUATION].

Ace pulled up his [PROFILE] onto the display interface:

MAIN QUEST:

Complete your final journey as students of MW Academy!

TIME LIMIT: 00:10:01:11

NOTE: To optimise [PLAYER] experience, in the final hour, all Labyrinth restrictions, including mana usage, will be lifted!

They were in the final stride.

Ace returned to his room, finding Owein waiting just by the entrance. The latter looked taken back that he wasn’t coming out of his own room.

The next moment, Owein caught a glance at Edris’s shadowy form retreating down the hall.

Owein watched the dark silhouette for a moment, then turned back to Ace, slightly dazed. “That’s…Edris, right? Where’s he going?”

“Work,” Ace said dimly.

Owein blinked. “Shadows have to do shifts now too?”

Ace’s expression was unreadable, a hint of wry amusement flickering in his eyes.

“Apparently so,” he replied, watching as Edris disappeared around the corner.

Less than ten hours left until the end of Labyrinth 53.