Wünder walked along those luxurious trees, those dear greeneries of nature and got lost in admiration of those beautiful arches overhead, as he made his way towards the vines burgeoning with berries.

The crystals shone so brightly above him that they could barely be distinguished from the sun. Wünder wondered if this place had things like midday and night. The grass rustled and bustled, and while Wünder was absorbed in contemplation, a giant shadow appeared behind him.

***

Brown pulled at the ropes Alexias had handed to him, making sure they did not break or slide apart. He was slightly suspicious, now that he had angered the werewolf by and large.

To the rope was tied a hook, which Brown used to clutch on the table in the room, and gave that too a pull, before removing it, and swung the rope in circles, experimentally throwing it ahead of him, successfully managing to make it cling to the upper window ledge.

Alexias raised an eyebrow at him. Brown only smiled back and shrugged, before clicking his belts together. “These wooden latches will hold, right?”

“You threw the hook towards me on purpose, didn’t you?”

“I don’t see why I would do that,” Brown said in a serious tone. “So I take it they will hold.”

“Assuredly. You want to check some other things?”

“No. As assuredly as you said, the gloves are coarse, the knee patches seem helpful, and I don’t seem to be required to make more preparations than that.”

“Those words are well-met.”

“Are you trying to be solemn?”

“Perhaps I am. That’s convoluted in its own way.”

“For sure, it is,” Brown said, patting Alexias’s shoulder.

“As fearless as ever,” murmured Alexias.

“That’s what a brother’s got to be,” returned Brown.

“You should tell me about it some day.”

“So, you’ve got no sibling.”

“No, I no longer don’t.”

Brown looked at Alexias in the eyes. “Must have been hard for you, man.” He started putting a backpack on his back.

“But I do have the semblance of a familiar person in this maze. We are on eternally unfriendly terms though.”

This gave Brown pause. “And where might that extremely familiar sibling be?”

Alexias looked at Brown hard in the eyes. “Well, he roams the labyrinth as he pleases.”

“I hope he’s a vegetarian.”

Alexias kept his silence.

Brown looked at him with incredulous eyes, and dropped his backpack, taking up the knife Wünder had discarded, putting it in his pocket, and took his spade and the buckler. He gave Alexias a dark look, before opening the door with force and dashing out.

***

Elysia stumbled backwards as the armored people looked at her.

“You two!” drawled one of the armored men, “what are you doing here?”

Elysia shied away from their gaze, but Duff answered. “We are looking for our way out of here. We come from the Delossus village.”

“I see. What’s your… no, that aside, have you noticed anything weird in this cave?”

“You mean things like a giant, or little girls being led here or people’s mind seeming to be under someone’s control?”

The men were quiet for a while. One of them removed his helmet. “These are great evils you speak of, my boy,” his face looked worn, his nose aquiline, and his eyes sincere. “What’s your name?”

“Duff Stanford, my good sir,” Duff said hastily, warily; he gave an ironic smile.

“Duff. Duff Stanford. I shall remember your name. Could you navigate us through this place?”

“And what of this young lady,” Duff motioned to Elysia, “can it be seen likeable to you to see her to her village. She has been horribly afflicted by all the scenes she’s seen. She’s more tired than her ‘pareil’ would wish for.”

“You speak too honorably for your age, little boy. You ought to learn some humility for your rank and your bruises.”

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Duff looked at him, surprised. “Uh, well, I hope I haven’t offended you, my kind sir.” He laughed awkwardly. “I apologize for this lowly self of mine for having the gall to ask a favor of your kind sir.”

The man listened intently to Duff’s speech, and then burst out laughing. “Why you little brat! You sure know how to jest. You amuse me!” He extended a hand. “Now, stop being insincere, and shake my hand. My name is John Ambrosius. Good to have met you.”

Duff shook his hand, and smiled good-naturedly.

“Well, do you think you could lead us to the bad guy?”

“I will. I just want to make sure you don’t drag Elysia into this.”

John peered into Duff’s eyes. “I see steel and frankness… But I do believe it common.” He turned to Elysia. “Young lady, what do you want to do?”

Elysia looked at John, and saw no pity there. It reinforced her, invigorated her heart. “I’ll stay with you.”

“Alright,” said John in a high tone, “I see no use of you, so you’ll stay at the back of the troops.” He turned to face his fellow soldiers, or, as Duff imagined, knights and pages. “Lyams!” A young man detached himself from the others. “See to it that the lady remains at ease till she is home safely.”

“Understood, sir!”

Elysia went to his side. “That should be good.”

“If I may ask, who are you people?” Duff worded.

“Pertinent question. We are the Knights of Asina - the transborder knights, as your people might have come to know us.”

“No idea, sir.”

“The way you said it sounds almost desultory to my ears. But I’ll let it pass, since you are free to use the nuances of language,” said John, smiling thinly.

“You are rather generous, sir Knight.”

“No need to be so polite. We Knights of Asina consider ourselves equal to our citizens.”

“Then, let me lead you, dear knights.” Duff turned, and started walking, before noticing Oregon’s statues in front of him, and walked back, before cavorting hastily and went behind the knights. “Well then, the evils you speak of have appeared in front of you, dear knights. I don’t plan to be a burden on you.”

“That’s a thought to be thankful about. However, we just got attacked by some weird reptilian creatures, so, though it’s a sad result for us, you are allowed to use the sword one of our comrades used to own. You should be able to defend yourself when in need.”

“I see I can be more than a burden.”

“Don’t aim so high as to lose your life, Duff!” chastised one of the knights close to him.

John put his helmet back on, and brandished up his steel, blackened mace up - a towering entity which gathered increasing mass about it in a rectangular manner till its apex. And at its apex was a pyramid, and the pyramid sat on a cube, which had pyramids on its other four sides. He walked slowly towards the statues, as they remained in front of him, seemingly in a state of confusion. “Steady, steady, assault!”

John aimed his mace towards the head of the first statue. The latter started retracting its steps, but the mace had already connected with its face, causing it to explode. John spun in the counter-direction of which he had swung his mace, and connected it with the statue’s head again, blowing away the remaining chunk of the golem’s head.

The two statues on each side of the first statue threw themselves towards John, and were met by the swords of two knights. The latter’s bodies reclined and drifted backward until they came side-by-side with John.

The headless statue flailed its arms wildly, and froze, its whole body cracking as a new head sprung, little by little, from its neck. John gave it a broadsided charge, and jumped, pressing his body hard at the torso of the hulking statue. It was toppled backward, falling on its back like any solid, heavy object would - with a thud. John pushed himself off the statue’s body just inches before it touched the ground, and stood, and bore his mace upon the joint of the right arm of the statue; it cracked, and he gave it a blow, and it cracked again, and he slugged harder and harder at it until the thick joint came apart.

The other knights came, thrusting themselves before John, and raised their bucklers; they shielded him. John lifted himself and slugged at the legs of the statues which were badgering his protectors. He slugged at these legs in a frenzy - in such a frenzy that the statues started retreating.

There were seven statues in all - seven, or so it had been the case; five slimmer, swifter golems joined the scuffle, alongside some miners. John looked at the charging miners with disappointment in his face. They were carrying pickaxes, and seemed positively aggressive. “There’s no need to hold back, comrades! Human or golem - if we can’t or shouldn’t kill them, we can just maim or knock them down. Don’t hesitate!”

As proof, John slipped past the golems and swung his mace to block off the pickaxe of one of the forerunners, and used his other hand to grab the handle of and wrench the pickaxe from the miner; John dropped the pickaxe, and gutted the miner hard. The latter bent over and fell down. John retrieved the pickaxe in the face of the upcoming statues, and passed it behind.

As if as per a usual accord, the weapon was passed behind till it reached the back of the group. The next assailant was a slim statue, which was carrying a lance made of a silvery material. John attacked from the right, to the top, and was parried, and tried from the left, to the bottom, and was parried again as the statue rotated its lance. John bent his body backward and turned a bit to the right, and took a sideways lunge at the statue with his mace; by his sides, the knights had superseded him, rubble of stone lying in their wake.

The statue took the opening before his drawing back and his lunge to deliver a piercing attack towards his chest - it was thwarted by the mace, even as the point of the lance inscribed a scratch on John’s armor, and met the empty air after a clang.

John raised his mace with both hands and brought it down upon the statue. The statue tried piercing him again, when John’s blow reached him first and crashed rigidly against its torso. The slim statue’s upper body swerved backwards in recoil, but it stood firm. “Tough Bastard,” John whispered. He looked at the statue’s body carefully, noticing golden patterns on it.

Around him, casualties resulted from clashes with the miners equipped with their pointy pickaxes, and the other four slim golems were holding their ground against his soldiers. The bawdy mining folks, however, were eventually neutralized, and the knights found themselves pouring their energy in trying to fend off the lances of the golems.

That was when Duff found something peculiar; some of the knights stood back, placing the tip of their swords on the ground, placing both hands on their pommels, and started up an incantation. The air started getting sucked towards their swords; the blades of their swords started crackling, turning into a fiery red. Steam came off these in huge drafts and rolled off into the cave.

The gleam the swords gave off was dazzling, and all at once, the swords plunged into the cave’s ground, and they chanted: “Aurum, Argentum - Exorior!”

The ground cracked, and the temperature in the cave dramatically dropped. The slim statues held back against as much as four knights, their arms a flurry, their lances, a blurry. And as they fought, guttural, raucous sounds came out of the human-like outlets on their faces.

The knights finished their incantations and dragged their swords from the ground. These shone with a bluish glow from the fuller which ran across the length of the blades, and the air vibrated and throbbed such as to be audible to the ear when they swung these swords to test them out. And immense heat emanated from the weapons.

“Magnus igne ardens!” they all said crisply.

Their blades went ablaze; their eyes reflected the flames. They moved their legs, and they hastened, and some of them trailed the tips of their swords along the ground as they charged forth. The statues looked at them with dull golden eyes, and behind them glowed the red, menacing eyes of reptilian figures.