The giant black doors creaked, shifting ever so slightly outwards. Such a small shift, and slight sound, though the reaction was palpable, hundreds of men lined up towards the door readied the weapons that they carried. A captain, old wary John Brenton, a man far to old for the constant job of defending the entrance to the labyrinth stood facing the doors from a raised platform.

It seemed all had returned to silence after the creak, John looked down at his watch. The doors were supposed to open today, and they never opened to anything good. John had his men prepared, and ready, hundreds of guns were trained on the door in front of the men. Thousands of bullets would be fired is something unspeakable came out.

A louder creak sounded from the door; John saw at least three of his soldiers flinch at the sound. John sighed but could not blame them. John was stationed at a base nearby when the doors had risen, something that was rare. When nearby satellites had marked the location as overflowing with latent magical energy, John and his men had rushed to catch the doors before they opened.

At worst a monster, of giant proportions, with ghastly abilities would come out, just the thought made John shutter. A dragon had emerged a few months ago near the great city of Merlin, had the old angel himself not been there, the city would have been destroyed. Even with the old angel, thousands had still died, and even then, the doors were not as big as these, which stretched so far into the sky the tops could not be seen from the bottom.

If the worst was to happen, John and all his men, would die. At best, well that might not be the best-case scenario either. Whatever happened on this day, would change the world, that was certain, and John feared what that meant. The door creaked again this time as if pushed by a great force, the door swung open, knocking down trees that had been in the door’s way. Toppling them as if they were flowers, instead of fully grown trees.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

John clenched his fist and waited. Smoke, and white light was pouring out of the doors, with large so dense, and so bright that not one of the soldiers could see into the doors. It stayed like that for a few seconds until the doors began to close, once they did, they started to disappear, becoming more and more translucent until they were gone. In their place were three figures, two men, and a woman, all young but not children.

The woman had a dazzling white dress, and her face, was beautiful, John couldn’t help but stare. She had long red hair, which was braided down to the small of her back, and she wore a tiara of sorts upon her head. The dress itself was something that had to be elvish, it looked as if it had been made of flowers, and had gold inlaid into the fabric. There was something odd John noticed, a book floating next to the woman, gold, with silver pages, with a mark John could not quite make out on the front of the book. The woman was smiling as if she had just conquered the world, and strangely enough a tear rolled down her cheek.

The man next to the woman had dark skin, and was tall muscular, and looked imposing, but he smiled all the same. The man had a strong jaw, and was covered in muscle, he wore armor, which wasn’t that unusual considering where he had been prior. The man was taller than the other two, and he had long white hair, braided down his back. Though he was not crying, he looked just as happy as the woman if not happier.  

The last man was pale, he was skinnier than his strong looking compatriot, yet that did not mean he looked weak. The man wore not sleeves, and one could see muscle that one could only gain from making it out of the labyrinth, the man had tattoos on his hands though what they were John could not discern. The man had long black hair, with a silver streak along the side, it was tied neatly in a ponytail. Though unlike his companions he did not smile, or cry, the look he had in his eyes were hard, and dangerous.

When the man met John’s gaze, he held it, John felt as if he was going to burst into flames, John tried to stop it, but nevertheless he shuddered.