Everything was awful.

Dan decided that it must have always been that way and he just hadn’t noticed. He must have avoided at least six strange creatures of the labyrinth since trying to return to his allies. He couldn’t be certain but he was beginning to become paranoid that the labyrinth itself was trying to keep him away from his friends.

The strand of desperate mana which had seemed, to Dan, to be looking for help had vanished. The energy had moved sluggishly as Dan traced it back to the source. Then, all of a sudden, the snaking tendril shot away like an arrow, far too fast for Dan to keep up. Within seconds, his guiding trail went cold. From that moment, it felt as though the walls loomed more, that the halls seemed tighter and that every turn took him closer to danger.

He could feel the intent of something pressing against him.

Dan was inspecting this will as he came against it. He wasn’t imagining something, he was sensing a powerful force, perhaps two, both using the labyrinth in a way that Dan hadn’t thought possible. It was no accident that he now found himself miles from where he wanted to be, someone or ones were making sure that nothing interrupted them.

His training under Park Man-Shik had forged him into a work animal before anything else. It was the base upon which Dan built his skills. Each day of muscle tearing training followed by mental exercises when the body could no longer keep up, had allowed Dan to ignore fatigue and to keep his mind calm and focused. However as the monotonous halls continued to stretch before him, he began to worry.

A dark, black pit in Dan’s stomach told him that he was the only one currently being kept away. An evil feeling crept over his shoulders each time he met a fork in the road. Intrusive thoughts which said “without you, they’ll die,” and “if only you weren’t so useless.”

None of those thoughts were helpful but he couldn’t ignore them either as anxiety increased his speed. His feet fell quicker and quicker as he burned mana and energy to move as quickly as he could. Bestial force rippled through his muscles and he tore through the labyrinth, no longer worrying about what he might run into. Woe upon anything that tried to stop him now.

There was a chance that Dan might never be able to figure out the maze in which he found himself. He couldn’t allow that. As he ran, Dan projected his mana in front of him, looking for any way out. He knew that he wasn’t close to his old position but if he could find his way into Allusia, he could find a trail back to the situation. He could save his friends.

If intent could shape the labyrinth, Dan wonder, could he assert himself in the same way? Was it possible? He could feel Allusia overhead, the trailing pathways he had taken had shoved him far below the city. He just needed to go up instead of down. What if it were possible to make the next hallway he saw head in the right direction?

Before he could attempt to assert his will upon the labyrinth, his lack of caution became an issue. The dodge was well timed but the creature attacking him was large. The fact that he hadn’t seen it was a warning sign to Dan that he was becoming far too tunnel visioned, though that was hard to avoid in a world of tunnels.

A mass of tentacles, a dense fleshy body and a single beak made up the entirety of the creature. It had no eyes that Dan could see, so it must have been using some other sense to hunt. It lashed out a tentacle, far faster than it had any right to be. With calm and casual movements, Dan stepped forward while avoiding the whipping limb. The beak opened and a strangely high pitched mewl came from the maw as it snapped forward.

Another easy dodge. Dan had evolved leaps and bounds in the short time since he entered the labyrinth. He crackled energy into his fingers as he weaved Fa Lian’s withering touch into his fist. Dan began to deflect the blows as they came in. The creature was powerful, essentially every part of it was pure muscle. Dan used both bestial force and mana armour to dampen the impact. As he blocked the attacks, the withering touch took effect.

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Without a face, the creature’s body language was not simple to read but it began to seem frightened. After three barrages by its two most dextrous appendages, Dan’s damage began to take hold. The sinew and skin of the tentacles began to die, crumbling like wet sand. Within moments, the beast’s main offensive weapons were destroyed.

It began to snap its large beak forward again but that, too, was batted aside and left to decay. The creature’s unsettling mewls became howls of agony. Not wanting to cause more pain than needed, Dan used more mana to press two hands of withering touch directly into the creature’s main body. Within seconds, the noises and movements stopped.

Dan found himself wondering at the power he now held. The power that sat within Fa Lian her whole life, something he had only taken grasp of recently. It hurt Dan to use, both physically and emotionally. It was a dark power. Yet again, Dan was struck by the weight of his friend’s experiences. Fa Lian struggled to the top, became strong and all the while she had to combat this corrosive force that had no place in casual sparring. In the same way, Dan was sure that Fa Lian felt she had no place in casual company.

The daughter of a leader. Sister to a charismatic and powerful warrior. Dan had never really had a concept of what any of that would mean but after a few conversations with Shade and a few run-ins with the Guan “elite”, he had come to some conclusions. Expectations are a heavy burden. He felt them within himself, both the soul stone of Guan Shi Ai and the hazy touch of Kumiho in the back of his mind. Dan decided that if he could ease her burdens, even a little, then he would do whatever he could.

The room had gone silent a few minutes ago but Dan had stopped to catch his breath. The space was nondescript by all accounts. There was a small alcove, almost too small for Dan to fit inside - not that he was going to try to. The creature had been laying in wait there, a dark colour in a shadowed space, waiting for something unsuspecting to pass by. Were it not for Dan’s reflexes and heightened perception, he would have been just another meal for the hungry monster.

Once, a battle like this would have forced Dan to rest and recuperate. After facing the labyrinth, the majaal siblings and even Ryong Aang, though that was a dream, Dan was stronger than he ever thought he could be. Stronger than he had ever dared to hope to be. Strong enough not to let a silly little thing like the world-spanning labyrinth keep him from his goals. It was time for him to put that new strength to the test.

He moved on from the tentacle monster’s remains, a chalky and dusty mass left in his wake. To leave that room, Dan chose one of the four exits and simply walked. As he walked, he thought about Allusia. He had come to really love the city. Each corner had a different culture, each street a different speciality. He thought about the labyrinth. In the quiet, calm rooms it held a beauty that Dan suspected didn’t exist in the world above. There were whole caverns of impossible colours, skies underground with multiple suns, lightning and wind. Even the dangerous beasts within were unique and special in their own right.

He combined his thoughts of the two. Allusia was a little like one of those rooms, though it was huge on a scale that Dan didn’t not think existed within the labyrinth itself. If the labyrinth could shape itself, or possibly be shaped by others, then there was a chance that a path straight to Allusia could be found. Dan seated himself in the hallway as he concentrated.

Mana went soaring from Dan, filling the tunnel he was in. As always, he felt his connection get fuzzy as the mana that touched the labyrinthite lost its energy. It frustrated him immensely each and every time it had occurred. Each time the sapping occurred, it caused a slight headache, right in the bridge of Dan’s nose, like he had crossed his eyes for too long. If he was correct about the malleable nature of the labyrinth, then he needed to push past that.

Dan focused on a random spot on the wall. It was unremarkable, which was entirely the point. There was nothing about this section of wall that made it any different to the miles and miles of other labyrinth walls Dan had sprinted through, even in the last hour. Dan gathered a bundle of mana and shaped it. Instead of a cloud, he formed a drill. Dan needed to pull his perception away from the mana due to the shape he had given it, the swirling motion had threatened nausea.

He winced and tried to relax himself as he felt the needle between his eyes. He persisted, however. Each moment that he pressed his mana into the spot on the wall, he drained more and more from his reserves. Still, he pressed the energy into the rock harder, spinning it faster. The pain in his eyes evolved, taking over his temples, jaw, ears and scalp.

“Keep going.” Kumiho’s voice did not startle Dan. As he pressed his will against the labyrinth, he had felt her presence take heed of him. She had no form in the world of the wakeful but in his mind he felt her wrap her arms around his shoulders. “You’re doing so well.”

Her encouragement blew away fatigue, it blew away the pain and it focused Dan on what was in front of himself. Every ounce of energy that Dan could spare, he squeezed into his attempt. He had held back unintentionally, not sure that his plan had any chance of working. Now he unleashed everything he had. He could recover later.

Like pressing on the taut skin of a drum, Dan’s mana jammed itself into the wall as fiercely as he could manage. There was a slight pop. “I’d say that’s enough.” Kumiho said, giggling, before she faded back into Dan’s mind. He was certain he could feel her smirking. He did not stop pouring mana into the rock but he did allow himself to crack open an eye to see if it was having an effect. Anything at all would have given him some hope.

“Ah Dan?” Calliope asked, looking around the now open wall. “Where did you come from?”