The labyrinth was broken. Rotting. Dan could feel a pliability to the rock here that made him nauseous, like pushing a finger into a mostly decayed fruit skin. When he pierced it, the bile truly did rise to his throat. The mana here felt diseased. The room stank of metal, blood and death. It was difficult to concentrate but he closed his mind off to the space around him and focused only on the direction he wanted to go.
“Find the relic.” He spoke the words over and over in his head. Each time he felt like he was about to pierce the veil, there was a swatting of his awareness. One or both of the wielders in the labyrinth were trying to keep him away. Perhaps it wasn’t even that focused, Dan may have been no more than a fly to the tail of a great ox but he would not let them keep him out.
Calliope broke his concentration once to ask if moving through the tunnel already there would not be best. Dan told her about the feeling he was getting from it. That direction was watched by something evil. Better to attack from behind, if there was any chance of it at all. Also, and Dan didn’t need to say this before Calliope accepted his answer, there was every chance his path would be shorter even if they travelled that way first.
After another minute or so of concentration, Dan felt the familiar sensation of a probing snake of mana. He smiled, surprising himself. He was happy to feel it return, glad that whatever the source was had not been destroyed. As it connected to himself, Dan felt his own connection to the labyrinth change. The wall which had felt like the rotten side of a peach seemed to disappear. All the effort Dan was putting into shaping the labyrinth disappeared and it became malleable to his mana.
The strand of mana had previously seemed unable to interact, a hopeful trail upon which to be found. Now, Dan was sure that it had “seen” him and done something to the labyrinth in response. Was the labyrinth itself calling out for help? Dan wasn’t sure but he grasped onto the connection with this strange mana as tightly as he could. The walls opened and a tunnel was well and truly formed. When Dan opened his eyes, he saw Fa Lian sputtering with confusion or anger. Where he was involved, it was usually one of those two emotions.
Dan stood, ready to be the first person into the tunnel when he stumbled. There was no strength in his legs, nor was the spinning room which he had ignored slowing down. Following the different yells of advice that sit, Dan fell back to the floor. He had never felt so exhausted. He also didn’t have the time or luxury of waiting for his body to catch up.
“What is the matter now?” There was enough anger in the words for Dan to feel self conscious but he turned to Fa Lian all the same. Her impatience was completely understandable in the face of finally finding her brother. She could return home once she had, if that was still her goal, and now it was Dan slowing that down. He felt guilty.
“I’m fine,” he lied, pushing himself to his feet, “it’s just the drain of using the new technique.” That final part was true but Dan hadn’t expected to feel so emptied. The flowing waters of his mana were now a barren desert and it hurt. He began to feel like he was choking, though less life-threatening he hoped.
“Where does that lead?” Instead of questioning how Dan had pulled the labyrinth apart, she asked where. Dan was thankful for that. He wished he could answer Fa Lian’s question in full sincerity but he could only guess. The first time he had opened a path, it had taken him straight to Calliope when he had wanted to find allies. Then, it had taken the path of least resistance to the last known location of Fa Lian. Both of those times, the destination had been whatever was easiest.
“It should exit close to Hyun Soon and Yurie.” There were any number of directions he could try to take them. To the soul relic, to Yo Shen, to Shade. Dan chose his friends. He couldn’t say for sure where they would arrive but of his allies, those two were the ones unaccounted for. Shade would have to look after himself until the others were safe.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
“I thought you learned to stop doing everything yourself?” Xiaomei had been quiet, keeping her eye on Po Daiyu. She flinched when the woman moved. Po Daiyu, to her credit, was sitting as still as possible and causing no trouble. The scars of the Po siblings attack may have been dealt with but the damage to her psyche could not be so easily fixed. “I also thought that you might not have learned that lesson properly. How much mana do you have left? How long would you need?”
Dan was surprised by the question. It cut straight to the core of the issue. Dan was dry. He had been grasping for the mana within without success and a paranoia was creeping into his mind that he had broken something. “I… don’t know.” Dan managed to choke out his answer, even as his throat closed at the idea.
“Well, just take some of mine, then?”
Dan’s eyes snapped to Xiaomei like she had just offered him the nectar of life. It was a simple solution that Dan could never have come to himself. She held out her hand expectantly and Dan reached out his own. He did not even have to will himself to draw mana from the outstretched hand. Before they touched, Dan could feel the mana within Xiaomei ready to be taken.
Blue. Like his soul had been dropped in the ocean he had read about in a book. A world of blue. This was Xiaomei’s mana. Dan had never felt it so pure, before it had only diluted his own reservoir. The clarity with which Dan could feel Xiaomei was startling. He looked at her as the energy continued to fill the vacuum of space within himself. Xiaomei was wincing and Dan wanted to let go. He even tried to but Xiaomei entwined her fingers with his.
“Take as much as you can. As much as I can give.” Even as she told him to, Dan was unsure and ready to pull himself away. For himself, the rush of power felt invigorating, the quenching gulps of water after dehydrating. For Xiaomei, he assumed it was an equivalently uncomfortable feeling. Within a few more seconds, Xiaomei’s fingers no longer had the strength to keep Dan’s hand held. He let her hand go gently, swapping his seated position for her standing one and vice versa. Panting, Xiaomei asked “how do you feel now?”
“As strong as I ever am.” Dan answered truthfully. Once Xiaomei’s mana had entered his channels, his own cycling started again. He was sure that if he tried to use a technique right now, it would react strangely to the properties of the mana within himself, but in terms of actual amount, Dan was approaching recovery quickly. “Another ten minutes and I’ll be at peak.”
“You don’t have ten minutes.” Po Daiyu was brave, offering her opinion to this specific room of people, but none of them lashed out. Fa Lian looked the closest, her dragon scales turning into a bow, her hand twitching to the bowstring which formed. When she saw the she was safe to speak, Po Daiyu continued. “You need to move as quickly as possible, you’ve already wasted too much time. I don’t know the specifics but Oblax wanted you, Ah Dan. He was sure that you would be able to help remove the soul relic from Yo Shen.”
This was news to Dan. As he understood it, from their conversation upstairs, Yo Shen had not been forthcoming with the weapon. Either he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, pass the relic on even while it destroyed his body. If Oblax had some reason to think that Dan would have been able to help with that, his help with healing Dan made sense. If Oblax had decided that he didn’t need Dan any longer, it might be a signal that they needed to hurry even more than they were.
“Take my power, too.” The room was quiet at the best of times but right now, even the breathing had stopped. Po Daiyu seemed to revel in the moment she had created, a smile appearing on her face for the first time since she had awoken from her earlier wounds. “What? Will that not work?”
“Why would you help?” Fa Lian asked angrily. “At each and every chance you have had, you’ve gotten in our way. Yet now? Now is the moment we’re supposed to trust you.”
“Peace for a moment, Fa Lian.” Dan did not look at her as he spoke, looking only at Po Daiyu. If she made a dangerous move, she could kill him in an instant. His guard could not be lowered. However, the idea would deal with a few problems at once. He spoke to the woman directly now. “We can’t trust you. You know that. Which is why you’re offering this, instead of offering to come?”
“Exactly right.” Po Daiyu answered like a teacher telling a student they had done well on a trick question. “Looking at Twinbuns over there, the process is enough to leave me weak. Do it. Go stop the monsters in the labyrinth.” There was a dullness to Po Daiyu’s voice that gave him confidence in her words, strangely enough. She sounded as tired as Dan had felt only a short while ago.
He ignored Fa Lian as she made some argument to the contrary. “Will you let me bind you before I start?” Dan looked at Xiaomei, still catching her breath on the floor of the holding cell. If Po Daiyu had no mana, even a tired Xiaomei would be enough to watch her. The smaller girl was definitely not going to be fighting, she had given that chance to Dan.
Po Daiyu smiled and nodded. Dan use mana threads to tie Po Daiyu’s hands behind her back and more on her legs, stopping them from moving. When he was done, she looked like a true prisoner and Dan was confident that she could not escape the bindings on her own.
Then he swallowed, moved his mana to start the process, and began draining the energy from Po Daiyu.