“Who made these tunnels in the first place?” Dan asked. He had suspicions and ideas about the formation of the labyrinth but he would have been very happy to have been told some other truth. When both Shade and Calliope said that they didn’t know any more than Dan did, he sighed and nodded.

His own thoughts on the origin of the labyrinth were confusing and worrying. Had he seen its creation in his dreams? The thought was worrying in a way that Dan couldn’t voice to others. He knew it sounded impossible but the dream was so real, the goddess so clear to him, so interactable. He wanted answers and they were likely buried down in the labyrinth’s hallways.

Along with untold dangers.

The path they had taken, following Calliope’s nose, was leading them away from Allusia. It branched in a few places but even without Dan’s ability to track, Calliope was certain she knew that she was following the correct path. Trusting her was easy, though as their hunt took longer and longer, Dan’s patience waned and anxieties began to rear their head.

“How much farther?” He asked quietly, wincing as he did. Even Dan was getting tired of hearing himself ask that question. He was just worried about the others. For every extra minute that this took, his friends could be in danger that much longer. The other two knew this, however, and did not get frustrated at him.

“When the smell starts getting stronger, we’re close. As long as it’s not weaker, which it isn't, we’re keeping pace.” It was the same answer Dan had received the last three times he had asked. Calliope couldn’t say any more than that.

In perfect contrast to Dan’s mood, Shade was perfectly content and walking through the labyrinth as though he didn’t have a care in the world. “How are you so calm? Haven’t you lost this fight the last two times?” Dan normally wouldn’t have been so rude but he was on edge and didn’t realise what he was saying until it was too late.

“That is a fair thought. In the previous two instances, I was off guard. My siblings do not know how to face me when I am the aggressor.” He said no more but Dan could not help but notice that Shade’s right hand flexed open and closed, clenched around an unseen sword hilt. As calm as the man appeared, that was definitely a facade. Underneath his eyes was an anger that Dan had no hope of understanding.

They passed the rest of the short time in silence before Calliope stopped them all. She held a hand up as they entered another crossroad room. The labyrinth was split into two types of rooms. Hallways connected them but as far as Dan could see the rooms were either crossroads with many branching paths or what Dan would describe as “special” rooms. While the hallways and crossroads were all obviously of the labyrinth and didn’t seem to break any rules, the special rooms had rules all of their own.

Open sky in some, bottomless pits in others. Some had grass, some had water but all were bizarre to find deep underground. These were no illusions, either. Dan’s mana touched each blade of grass, each stream and even probed into the open sky. Doing that had given him a sense of vertigo unlike anything he had experienced. His mind knew that it was an impossibility but his senses confirmed the truth at the same time and it was enough to give Dan a headache.

In most of these rooms, there was simply an eerie silence. Each quiet room that they passed through made him sad in a way that he couldn’t define. In the back of his mind, Kumiho made a rare appearance to agree with him but would say no more. Dan could feel her watching through his eyes and taking in the empty labyrinth they walked through. It took Dan another few rooms to realise why it bothered him so much.

“There’s no monsters.” During his own short time in the labyrinth, Dan had run into no shortage of disastrous creatures that threatened to kill him and his friends. There was an obvious answer as to why but Dan honestly hoped that his own group had been unlucky and simply met more than they should have.

“Yes,” Shade said as he glared forward at nothing in particular, “there are.” Shade was looking ahead, probably - definitely - having noticed the lack of dangers faced as they made their way through the halls and tunnels. Calliope was also clearly on edge now that Dan was looking for it. Both of them had noticed far before Dan had. He supposed that was the benefit of experience and was just glad they were here.

Before long, after what felt like random wandering, Calliope stopped their group. They were in what must have been the ninth or tenth crossroad room. This particular room was no differently shaped than the ones before, branching into four paths not including the one they had come from. There was no great panic in Calliope’s movements but the knowledge that their quarry must be close sent a thrill through Dan that he didn’t like. Was he scared of the enemies he knew were waiting or the labyrinth which stole his only real advantage over those who would hurt him?

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Dan supposed that both answers were the same really. Not knowing was what bothered Dan. Not knowing where the siblings were, not knowing whether his friends were safe. There were so many things that Dan still didn’t know and had no concept of how to answer. He wanted to understand why he was seen as important by others. He wanted to know why the labyrinth seemed connected to him in some way.

“Look out!”

Dan had been complacent. That was the first mistake.

He thought that he had time to think, time to lament or ponder. He did not. The first attack caught Shade in the face, a sudden eruption of dark blue as a fist appeared out of nothingness. Dan himself was shoved back, Calliope quicker to react than he was. She used the momentum to fall backwards and a line of caustic acid erupted through the air between Dan and herself.

He had trusted in his allies too much, even in their reactions. That was the second mistake. Shade had rolled away from the punch to lessen the damage and slid into one of the hallways while Calliope had also fallen back into another hall opposite Shade. Their experience had allowed them to avoid the damage.

That was the second mistake.

Walls appeared, as though the hallways were trapped and ready. They shot up from the floor like reverse guillotines, slamming with a deafening crack as the walls shifted. It was not like someone summoning rock, the labyrinth itself moved. Dan had splayed out his mana as quickly as possible but once the walls rose, his connection to Shade and Calliope was severed. Thrown into a sudden kind of blindness, Dan did the only thing he could and sent his mana cannoning down each available hallway.

It quickly found two bodies. Void and Bloom, both waiting for him. Dan knew they had been the source of the attack but he had also expected to see their other brother and sister. Were they waiting for Shade and Calliope? Dan couldn’t know for sure. For now, he chose to regain his footing by retreating backwards. The two majaal gave chase, beginning to gather their abilities for their long range assault.

Now, it was their turn to start making mistakes. Dan had dealt with this pair before. There were no two people in the world that Dan was prepared to fight more than these two. If it had been Ravage and Mania that he had to fight, he was far less certain of the outcome.

However dangerous Bloom and Void had proven, they had weaknesses too. Dan was sure that he had not seen the fullness of their abilities but the reverse was also true. Luckily for Dan, they didn’t have to go far for a perfect spot. Travelling back along the trail of his own mana, Dan drew Void and Bloom into his own trap.

When he had first seen the room, Dan had been struck by how perfect it would be. As though made specifically for himself, the large space was reminiscent of a canyon. Coming out of the hallway, Dan was met with the somewhat familiar red walls which reached up high towards a far off ceiling with seemingly no breaks in them. Dan knew that wasn’t true. To Dan, it was obvious where he could climb and move between these high walls but without the advantage of his sight, there would be no way to see the higher up gaps.

As soon as he entered, he took the first right, a tight turn and then jumped. Muscles fueled by bestial force, strength augmented further by the bolstering effects of his mana armour, Dan easily cleared the twelve foot jump to a vantage point. Then he disappeared.

His hunt started.

——————————

Calliope was having to hold back her laughter. “You thought you were enough?” It was almost insulting that these siblings had been spitting in her face for weeks now, sometimes literally. Whether this was intended to be a joke or not, Calliope had no more time for games. She had thought that Shade’s siblings were leaning far too heavily on the grace of their brother.

She was currently showing Ravage exactly why hubris could be a killer.

Quickly dominated, Ravage was at this point a whimpering mess. Ravage raised her hands to lessen the incoming impact but Calliope’s foot comfortably crunched into Ravage’s block. From her kneeling position, there was no chance that Ravage could defend and she was sent flying. There was a gasping shout as the red skinned woman collided with the wall and all the air inside was expelled at once.

“This doesn’t make sense.” Calliope wasn’t expecting any clarity to come from Ravage. The woman couldn’t even breathe properly yet, the wind still thoroughly knocked out of her. “You should have known that you were weak right now.”

In a surprising use of skill, Ravage dodged the lazy incoming blow Calliope had thrown. A right hook meant to connect with ribs sailed through the air and Ravage dropped her head. The headbutt hit Calliope on the nose and forced her eyes closed. Suddenly blinded, she slashed around with her claws wildly but connected with nothing. Another attack, a kick from below, hit her hip hard and Calliope roared. She grabbed the leg quickly, blinking away the stun of the broken nose.

Heaving with her arms and sweeping with her leg, Calliope was satisfied by the solid snap as she landed. The following scream was also music to Calliope’s ears. A simple shin break but one that would remove any danger. When Ravage’s scream of pain didn’t stop quickly, Calliope kicked her in the ribs on the other side. “Oh shut up. At least you’re not dead.”

Another winding was enough to stop the yell and let Calliope think.

It didn’t add up. She had fought Shade’s siblings. They would have known that Ravage couldn’t handle her. They should have just left, knowing their combat power was lessened. Instead, they had picked a fight. Looking at the writhing, furious woman on the floor, Calliope had little hope of getting an answer from her.

Their fight had taken place nearly directly in front of the wall which had been raised. Ravage had been waiting on the inside, between Calliope and the next room. When the wall back didn’t open, a worrying thought came to her mind. She doubted that Ravage had enough self-awareness to understand her part in this plan but asking couldn’t make things worse.

“What is your plan here?” She placed her foot gently onto Ravage’s knee as she asked her question. Slowly, she leaned more and more weight onto the leg, pressing a growing discomfort into the broken bones and threatening worse. “Tell me and maybe you’ll walk again one day.”

“Tell you and she’ll kill me, won’t she? Broken leg is only that, nothing more. Do your worst.” Ravage tried to spit on Calliope. She dodged the phlegm, once again kicking the downed woman for her audacity.

“A threat is a threat.” Calliope always made good on hers when she could. The next snap was much less clean sounding. A crunch of cartilage, bone and muscle all pressed together as her heel met kneebone. She ignored the screaming this time and tried to grasp the clue she felt she had been given.

“She”? Who was “she”?