"Well, that looks pleasant." Jade said dryly, looking out at the landscape laid out before them.

The four party members were standing at the top of a small ridge in the northern section of the 'Lush Valley' quadrant. It was midafternoon, the bright sun shining down on them through a gap in the jungle canopy. That same gap gave them a view of what lay before them: A section of especially ancient trees that grew so close and tall that the entire area was shrouded in shadow despite the brilliant daytime sunlight. Thick, thorny bushes filled gaps between the trees, which had oddly jagged and sinister looking branches. No matter where she looked, there was no clear path through which they could easily enter the dense region of the jungle.

That was a problem, because the 'boss' icon on Jade's map was squarely centered on the foreboding section of the valley.

"I never knew trees could look so evil" Luis said, impressed. "Whatever lives there has really nailed the 'monster lair' look."

"If it matches its home, then I don't want to meet it." Naomi shivered. "Is it too late to go home?"

"That place is our ticket home." Jade noted grimly. "One of them. Come on."

She led the group down the gently sloping ridge towards the ominous darkness of the shadowed jungle. The others followed close behind, although Naomi lagged a little as they approached.

"What do you think is in there?" Siora asked, looking up at the tall trees in curiosity.

"Whatever it is, today's its last day." Jade declared, carefully picking her way through a tangle of thorny bushes.

"Damn amiga." Luis said with a grin. "That was a good line. Been practicing?"

"Oh shut up." she muttered, embarassed.

The four of them had started their day back in the library sanctuary, where they had been lodging for the past few days. This sanctuary had come equipped with a small dormitory and actual beds, not to mention toilets, which were welcome changes from the sparse amenities of the first one she'd come across. After stocking up on the available supplies they had set out on their journey across the valley, hiking around the sparkling lagoon and travelling towards where her system map indicated the boss monster resided.

What mattered now was slaying the boss, levelling up, and getting whatever key or item it dropped that would allow them to ascend to floor two of this world. Forty days. That was Damos's estimate for how long they had before the magical Labyrinth Cores awakened to mine materials from Earth. How much time had passed since then? Three days? Damos had been intermittently present during their stay in the library sanctuary, and in one of his visits he had explained that not only did the Labyrinth 'day' not match up one to one with an Earth day, but even individual zones of the Labyrinth often had different day/night cycles themselves. It would be difficult to keep track of how much time was passing without help. Jade had long since turned off her smartphone to conserve its battery, and none of them had a watch.

"Juniper is going to join us, right?" Naomi asked, following the group as Luis led the way towards the foreboding stretch of gloom cloaked jungle.

"She'll be here when she's needed." Siora reassured her. "Dryads can sense the happenings of their domain. She knows where we are."

"Know a lot about Dryads?" Luis asked.

"Only what Seldrin tells me." she said, lightly hopping over a pool of stagnant water. "My brother. He's our expert on different kinds of monsters and magical creatures. He spends a lot of time researching and cataloging them."

"That sounds useful." Jade said, thoughtfully. "Knowing something about a monster before we fight it would make our training a lot safer."

"What?" Luis asked with a laugh. "You don't like trial and error? Where's your sense of adventure?"

"I think it got killed by the spider that bit me in the gut yesterday." Jade grimaced, rubbing her stomach. Her leather armor, which she'd only just acquired the other day, was already starting to look a little worse for wear. "Would've been nice to know that the red ones can jump like that."

"Good point." He conceded. "Maybe he can help us out when we get you home, yeah?" He said to Siora.

"Of course!"

A minute later, the four of them crossed the threshold into the shadowy depths of the denser jungle. The sweltering heat faded, replaced by a subtle chill that was more eerie than soothing. The darkened foliage was silent and still, with not even a faint breeze to stir the motionless boughs. Even the trees themselves looked different, with less flowing curves and more jagged lines. Jade felt as if they'd stepped into the forbidden forest of a fairy tale, and half expected a cunning hag or witch to emerge from the gloom and greet them.

"I'm with Naomi…" Siora said, the elf's normally chipper voice sounding oddly small in the still air. "I don't like this place."

"It looks like Mirkwood." Jade murmured.

"What's that?" Naomi and Siora asked simultaneously.

"From Lord of the Rings." Luis explained. "It was that forest with all the…"

His voice trailed off, and it took Jade a moment to realize why. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, her gaze found traces of hanging threads suspended between tree trunks. Webbing. It was thin in most places, easily avoided, but grew thicker towards the dark center of this strange place. A chill ran down Jade's spine, both at the foreboding sight and the prophetic quality of her words.

"Why?" Naomi groaned. "Why does it have to be spiders?"

Jade didn’t have an answer for her. As much as she liked them, she was not keen on fighting more of the giant variety. They were certainly the most dangerous of the monsters that inhabited this quadrant, even if none of them had given their party much trouble since the first pair they'd encountered.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"What's that?" Luis asked, pointing to an especially thick patch of the sticky silk. Two large bundles hung suspended just off the ground, attached to a large web that stretched between three closely grouped trees.

The group approached carefully, alert for any signs of danger. Jade put one hand on the hilt of her dagger, scanning their surroundings as she struggled to keep her anxiety in check. The bundles of webbing were still and inert, hanging motionless. No monsters crept out of the shadows or descended silently from the treetops. Jade swallowed, then stepped forward to investigate. A pit of dread formed in her stomach, part of her knowing what she would find even as she raised her dagger to slice open the web sac.

She was right.

"Mierda…" Luis breathed, taking a step back. Naomi covered her mouth, while Siora closed her eyes and turned away.

A woman lay cocooned in the webbing, her shriveled skin drained of all color. She was obviously dead, reduced to a withered husk of a corpse that was dotted with bite marks. It was clear from the remains of her clothing and general features that this woman had come from Earth. Jade guessed she had probably been of Asian descent, but with the state of her body even that much was hard to tell for sure.

Jade felt sick. Judging from how pale her companions' faces were, she wasn't the only one. She gritted her teeth, forcing down the wave of nausea that threatened to overwhelm her. The goblins she had killed were one thing, they had been attacking her and, for the most part, she hadn't lingered near any of their corpses. This was different. The dead woman couldn't have been much older than Jade, and seeing her body hammered home how truly dangerous the Labyrinth was in a way that none of the battles she'd fought in so far had quite managed to impart.

Someone retched behind her, accompanied by a dull splattering sound. Jade didn't turn to see who it was, fearing that the sight would make her follow suit. Instead, she forced herself to keep cutting with dagger until the dead woman was free of the cocoon. She lowered her to the ground, the corpse unnervingly cold to the touch. This could have been her. It had taken a desperate gamble for her to escape the venomhound that had chased her through the factory when she'd first arrived in this world. Had this woman even known what was happening to her? Or did she die drowning in a mixture of confusion and terror? Anger, fear, and revulsion twisted together in Jade's stomach, forming a heavy pit.

Mechanically, Jade rose to her feet. She turned to the other cocoon, cutting away at the binding threads. Or rather, she tried to. The dagger trembled in her grip, unable to find purchase.

"Jade…" Luis's voice was quiet and solemn. "Here."

He offered his hand and Jade passed him the dagger. In that brief contact her magical senses prickled, catching a whiff of the turbulent emotions roiling beneath Luis’s stoic expression. Recognizing the emotion was easy, for it mirrored her own. Luis’s anger was hot and fierce, carrying a taste of burning, enticing spice. Again, the strong emotions carried an appeal that her body reacted to. She felt compulsion to breath it in, to draw closer to Luis and…

No. No, that wasn’t right. Anger shouldn’t feel that good, not even when it was justified.

Yet something deep within her stirred in response to the emotional stimulation, awakening a distant hunger for more.

Jade took a steadying breath and drew the second dagger from her belt, forcibly ignoring the distressingly attractive aura of latent fury hidden beneath Luis’s controlled demeanor. The temptation was difficult to resist, and that just made her own anger all the fiercer. Biting her lower lip hard enough to taste blood, Jade helped him to cut open the other web sac. It too contained a corpse, an Asian man that looked to be about the same age as the woman. Together, they laid him beside the woman's body. Then Jade stepped away, distancing herself from the alluring pull of Luis’s mental energy.

"This place is terrible." Jade breathed, once she was able to focus again.

Her three companions looked at her. Siora opened her mouth as if to speak, then closed it and cast her gaze to the ground.

"It took us from our homes. It threw us into a land of conflict and death. And now it's trying to tear our world apart." She continued, tightening her grip on the hilt of her dagger until her knuckles turned white. Anger continued to boil up from her core, urged on by that distant corner of her mind that shifted every time she transformed into her demonic body. Carried away by the heat of the moment, Jade stopped caring about where the feeling came from. It did feel right, and she could use it. "I'm going to stop it. I don't care what I have to do."

"I'll have your back." Luis said grimly, staring down at the pair of corpses.

Naomi nodded, wiping her mouth with a hand. "It's not right." She agreed quietly.

"It's a cancer." Jade spat. "You heard Damos. The Labyrinth grows until it touches a world, then it strips it for parts. When it’s done, it just does it all over again."

And it took my humanity. She thought. Jade wasn't especially bitter about her transformation, not after the way it had healed an injury that she had feared would haunt her forever, but she was still struggling to feel at home in her new body. Even when she wore her old form as she did now, it felt subtly different. Like a mask.

Maybe that’s what it is, now…

"It's my home." Siora said softly. Jade turned to face the elf, stopping her rant. "The Labyrinth is the only world I've ever known." she continued, kneeling beside the corpses and closing their eyes with a hand. "But I don't want what happened to the world my ancestors came from to be the fate of your 'Earth'. If I can help you, I will."

Jade nodded in thanks.

"I'm sorry, Siora." She said, taking a deep breath. "This isn't your fault. I'm not angry at you. But what the Labyrinth is doing isn't right. Someone needs to end this cycle. And if no one else can, then I will."

"Geez, Jade." Naomi said, staring at her wide eyed. "You don't think small, do you."

"Go big or go home." Jade said quietly, a grim smile on her face.

"Personally, I'd choose home. But I admire your ambition."

"Whatever the plan is, we came here for a reason." Luis pointed out. "And now I really want to give a beatdown to whatever this boss is."

A part of Jade recognized that going into battle while amped up on emotions was a bad idea, so she took a moment to try and calm herself. It wasn't easy, her mind and body resisting the change.

"It has to be some sort of spider monster." Jade said, somewhat more in control. She relaxed her grip on the dagger, sheathing both it and the one Luis had borrowed.

"Obviously." Naomi said. "The question is, how do we beat it? If it's called a 'boss', then it has to be more dangerous than the ones we've been fighting.

"Siora, do you know anything about bosses?" Jade asked, belatedly realizing that this was a conversation that they should have had before hiking all the way to the edge of the quadrant to confront one.

"Not really, sorry." The elf shook her head. She was eyeing Jade closely, as if evaluating her. That didn't bother Jade, she had simply spoken her mind. "Just that defeating them is how you advance to new levels of the Labyrinth. And… That they're dangerous, of course."

"We already have good plans to take down those jungle spiders." Luis said. Indeed, over the past few days their party had slain several of the creatures. "We'll just take it slow. With Juniper's help, it won't be a problem."

"I hope you're right…" Naomi said nervously. "I still think we should try and get a good look at it before we fight it."

"We will if we can." Jade agreed. "First, we have to find it."

"I think I know where it will be." Siora said. She pointed upwards, tilting her head back to gaze at the dark jungle foliage high above them. "That doesn't look normal…"

They all followed her gesture, peering up at the dimly illuminated treetops. High above, at least 60 feet in the air, was an especially dense section of jungle canopy filled with broad, crisscrossing, and interwoven branches. Upon closer inspection, Jade could make out thick strands of webbing stretched between small gaps in the boughs. The result was a sort of loose platform held high above the jungle floor, large enough to accommodate multiple of the monstrous spiders they'd become accustomed to battling.

"Great." Jade sighed, thinking back to the precarious battles on the factory's high catwalks. "Just what we needed: More heights."