∼ Day 198 ∼

"-It's designed to make us turn against each other."

A deep quiet ensued the statement as everyone rushed to their own conclusions.

Terror briefly clutched my heart as realization dawns on me.

"Harm directed at another is a death sentence..." I muttered, thinking back on just how close to death I had been back with the incident with Jasper.

"Then what about him?" Jasper, the rouge, asked as he pointed to me. "Why didn't he die?"

To my surprise, he seemed more troubled than afraid, contrary to my expectations. His face was deep in thought.

"I didn't actually mean to harm you, nor did I intend to kill you," I explained.

This again caused an unexpected reaction from the previously eccentric rogue. He just nodded thoughtfully like what I said was matching with what he had been expecting; like he had just gotten a piece to the puzzle.

"You knew..." I muttered. "You actually fucking knew,"

His entire annoying idiot facade had been a ruse to make us attack him as he must've gotten some kind of clue to what this test had been about. He had been using us as the guinea pigs to unwittingly stumble into the traps so he could paint a picture of what the rules of this place were.

The realization that he had almost gotten me killed by doing so lit a raging fire within the pit of my stomach and I wanted nothing more than to turn the rogue into a tapestry of mutilation. If not for the threat of the Labyrinth's executions looming over me smothering that fury like water on a candle, I might've done so right then and there.

Still, I at least knew that I had something over him.

What hadn't been a ruse or an act, and I was sure of it, was the last part where he had failed to escape my ire. I had true power over him - his shadows - if I could actually rouse my primal magic once again that is.

"Yeah - yeah, so what?" He said, dismissively waving his hand.

There was a clear glint to his eyes as he said it. Even now, he was trying to rile me.

I swore to myself that I would pay him back.

"That doesn't explain the Fae's death nor do it explain why Therod and I didn't bite the hard one when we attacked the damned stuntie," Amos said.

Bugnumli just grunted at the leonid's jap, but seemed otherwise as unconcerned as ever.

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"The door," I said suddenly.

"The door?" He echoed back.

"The choice was the start of the Trial - abjure your right as a Sanctioned Lord or brave the dangers of the Labyrinth," I explained. "The moment we made our choice and stepped into the tunnel, the Trial truly began."

The big leonid fell back into silence.

"As for the Fae, you should probably be asking Dragosa or Jasper about that," I added.

Attention suddenly turned towards the two, it became distinctly clear who knew what of the two.

Dragosa, the draconic lizard woman, just looked confused whereas Jasper didn't change from his thoughtful demeanor in the slightest. But as he felt the attention of everyone boring into him, he gave up with a theatrical sigh.

"Fine!" He exclaimed. "I may, or may not - have a skill that helps me negate mental influence, and it just so happens I was the damned pixie's first target."

"Target? She try to allure you with her charms? - abyss, she looked to be doing so quite well from how you stared at her backside all the way until her head got smashed in, ha!" Amos laughed abruptly, reminding us how Jasper had practically drooled at the sight of the woman.

But to be fair, everyone except the cold Morgana and the unsociable dwarf seemed to be doing the exact same. Hell, even Dragosa had hearts dancing in her eyes as she looked at the dangerously beautiful Fae.

"No, you daft kitten," Jasper chided. "She was trying to take over my mind, enslaving me. If not for the peculiar nature of a skill of mine, I wouldn't even have known she had tried despite her attempt failing."

"Accursed witch," Dragosa cursed, clawed fists clenched.

"Yeah, it appeared that she actually managed to take control of our local talking lizard - which coincidentally cost her no more than a meager cranial flattening!" Jasper announced, his eccentric personality returning.

"Easy now, I believe we should keep talking to a minimum from now on," I said, fixing Jasper with a stern gaze. "This... Labyrinth has to be doing something to our minds as well."

This too had been something nagging away at me. I knew I had a low tolerance for bullshit and others irritating me, but my fuse wasn't this short. And in most situations, if needed, I knew for a fact that I could show much more restraint than right now.

I briefly touched on what this meant for the System. Because, if the System was able to influence my mind, it gave proof that whatever that... thing was, it was an existence or being that transcended the terrestrial. With my will quenched by the being Ya'naeth, nothing less than the terrestrial would be able to extinguish it or so freely influence it as the System did. Therefore it had to be as such.

This of course was nothing out of the expected as to what I guessed the System could be, but with stone-hard proof right in front of me, that quickly became an unpleasant thought I now had to bear around with me.

Unaware of my internal turmoil, the rest of the group shared nods of consensus amongst each other.

I did once again help myself to the plentiful source of the blood of our slain companion as it seemed no one else needed it, and though I got sour and hesitant looks in return, I did not care.

So without any further fanfare or discussions, we departed once again, hoping to put an end to this hellish tunnel.

To our great relief, we did finally find the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel after just one more day's travel. However, instead of any relic or end to this stage of the Trials, we were met with something rather unexpected.

Opening into what appeared to be a wide expanse, we did not know whether or not we were still inside or outside now. That was because of the eerily thick grey mist that billowed about the expanse, clouding our sight.

It was deathly silent, chillingly so.

But most uncanny for me was the utter lack of life anywhere to be seen. I couldn't feel even a smidgeon of an aura and it made me feel like a fish out of water. No creatures, no plant life, no semblance of biological presence.

There was only the grey and lifeless dirt that was pockmarked and smoldered under our feet, somehow feeling like both sand and dirt at the same time.

This was desolation in its truest form.

"Just what the abyss is this place?" Jasper muttered, looking up into the air to see if could catch a glimpse of the sky.

No one managed to answer his question before a low rumble caught our collective attention.

From the grey and lifeless dirt, rose a door - one exactly like the one that appeared right at the start of the Trial.

"It's another choice," I said, voicing our thoughts.

Looks were shared, but none stepped forward.

It was clear that some were reluctant to continue, Dragosa and Jasper in particular as they hesitated briefly - their conviction to continue on and risk their lives wavering in the face of death.

If two Sanctioned Lords could be killed so effortlessly, so indifferently in the eyes of the System, then one could only imagine the dangers that we would face the further we dove into the depths of the Trials.

Even I wavered.

Another low rumble preceded our chance of an easy life disappearing back into the lifeless soil.

We had made our choices, and only stern determination could now be found on everyone's faces. Well... maybe not Morgana - she was as cold and impassive as ever. That was beside the point though as we set our sights outwards.

We dove into the belly of the beast - mist consuming us and the last sight of the tunnel from whence we had emerged disappearing into nothing more than a memory.

Oh... how I soon would come to regret my decision.