As I listened to Iggy, I caught a low, grunting sound. I focused on it, trying to pinpoint its source.
“Iggy, say something.”
“Huh? What do you want me to say, Pipsqueak?”
I heard him clearly through the one-to-one communication we had active—crisp, normal English. But outside of that link? It was just a garbled mess of grunts spilling from his mouth.
“Do I sound different to you? I mean, outside of the comm link, not in here.”
Iggy’s eyes widened. “Yeah, it’s like listening to a little bird chirping away, but not in a cute way. More like nails on a chalkboard. Is that what you actually sound like? People from Bovidi... it's sending shivers down my spine. Like listening to a fork scrape across a smooth plate.”
I cringed. “Great. Looks like communication isn’t as sophisticated in this old version. Strange, though. Some of Harmony’s systems are clearly still working down here—like our one-to-one chat.”
“Yeah, well, let’s keep it active,” Iggy said. “If that goes down, we head back immediately. Not being able to communicate could be catastrophic. I don’t want you saying ‘shoot’ and I hear ‘run.’”
I nodded. “Agreed.”
We continued deeper into the labyrinth; the silence stretching between us, broken only by the occasional pulse of light through the black lines running along the walls. It gave the place an eerie, otherworldly glow. I kept my Create Spark spell burning, casting a faint light about five meters around us, but it did little to push back the growing unease that settled in the pit of my stomach.
The mini-map on my UI flickered in and out of existence. It looked like a snake of twisting passages winding through the interior of Bovidi, most of it uncharted, as if this part of the world hadn’t been touched by the system in eons. One thing was clear, though—this place went deep.
“This is messed up, Pipsqueak,” Iggy muttered, his voice echoing slightly in the narrow corridor. “We’re walking through a system that shouldn’t even exist. And no offense, but I don’t exactly trust your brilliant decision-making.”
“When have I ever steered us wrong?” I asked, forcing a grin.
Iggy didn’t miss a beat. “Oh, I don’t know. How about when you aligned us with Hapzon? One of us took a bullet to the head over that. Or the mess with Old Wrig? The shuttle outside was brand new this morning, and now it’s scrap metal. And don’t even get me started on spending nearly an entire planet’s resources on some—"
“Okay, okay, I get it,” I interrupted, rubbing the back of my neck. “But none of that was technically my fault. Besides, it all worked out in the end, didn’t it?”
Iggy shook his head, but stopped his protests. I knew him well enough to recognize that, deep down, he was just as curious as I was about what was going on here.
“That passage up ahead,” I pointed to the chamber marked on the map just a short distance ahead, “it’s close, and we need to get our bearings. Maybe there’s something there we can use. If this is an old version of Harmony, who knows what kind of useful stuff is lying around?”
Iggy sighed heavily, clearly not thrilled. “Fine. But if anything jumps out at us, I’m blaming you.”
We continued onward, deeper into the labyrinth. The walls pulsed faintly with a strange light, the only illumination aside from the flicker of the flame in my hand. I couldn’t shake the growing unease. My UI was still malfunctioning, stats consolidated into unreadable numbers, and Dave... Dave was still completely silent.
We reached the chamber a few minutes later. The door was massive, arched and crafted from the same golden metal as the walls—smooth, too smooth, like it had been untouched for centuries. I pushed it open cautiously, the heavy door groaning on ancient hinges.
Inside, the room was larger than I expected. At the far end stood a long bench, made from the same strange material as the walls, jutting up from the floor. Carved grooves ran across its surface, filled with faintly glowing blue lines. It resembled some kind of control station, but that wasn’t what grabbed my attention.
Resting on the bench, gleaming faintly in the dim light, was a sword. Words hovered above the weapon, displayed in a soft blue light. Well, at least I assumed they were words—written in some alien language I couldn’t understand, with symbols I’d never seen before.
The sword itself was ancient yet flawless, the blade shimmering as if it was forged from a combination of metal and energy. Runes etched along its edge glowed faintly, and I could feel a raw, almost overwhelming power radiating from it even at a distance.
“Can you read any of that?” I asked, glancing over at Iggy.
He shook his head, eyes constantly scanning the room, clearly on edge. “Nah. Doesn’t look like anything I’ve come across. What about you?”
I activated Discern, hoping it might shed some light on the weapon.
Item: ??? Sword (Error) Damage: ??? Special Effect: Bleed Damage—Inflicts 100,000 to 150,000 per second. Requirement: ??? Error: System Incompatibility. Power Level: ??? Durability: Error.
“Holy crap,” I muttered under my breath. “This thing is off the charts.”
Iggy looked over at me, then back at the sword. “What’s it say?”
“It’s... crazy strong,” I replied, staring at the error-ridden data in my UI. “But the system’s freaking out. Full of errors. It’s showing a bleed effect that deals up to 150,000 per second.”
Iggy’s eyes widened for a moment, then a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Error or not, that’s a serious weapon. Could take down some high-level creatures with just a few swings.” He stepped closer. “You gonna grab it, or just gawk at it, Pipsqueak?”
I hesitated for a second. Weapons like this just don’t fall into your lap, but what I could do with it. “Alright, here goes nothing,” I said, reaching out cautiously.
The moment my hand neared the hilt, the sword flickered—glitching in and out of existence like a broken hologram. My fingers barely brushed the metal before the entire room warped, the walls seeming to bend and stretch around me.
System Error: Item Retrieval Failed.
I jerked my hand back, my heart pounding. “What the hell?”
Iggy, ever the reckless one, stepped forward with a grunt. “Let me try.” He reached for the hilt, and just as his fingers made contact, the sword flickered again, glitching violently before settling back into place.
“Yep,” Iggy muttered, pulling his hand back. “Definitely broken. What a waste.”
Suddenly, the ground beneath us rumbled. The console vibrated with the force, and dust cascaded from the ceiling. A low, mechanical hum filled the air, growing louder by the second.
I spun around just in time to see the chamber doors slam shut with a loud, echoing clang.
“Uh... that’s not good,” I said, feeling my stomach drop.
Before either of us could react, two beams of blue light shot down from the ceiling, striking the ground with a sizzle. The light flickered for a moment, then began to take shape—growing, forming two massive robotic figures right before our eyes.
I froze, watching as the glowing outlines solidified into hulking machines. Each one was identical, standing on a single large wheel that rolled them forward and back in smooth, controlled motions. Their bodies were squat, square-like, made from the same strange material as the labyrinth walls. Long, arms extended from their sides, each hand flickering with blades of blue light that hummed ominously. The blades had the same eerie symbols that the sword on the bench had..
Their heads were blocky and featureless, except for two thin slits where eyes should’ve been—those, too, glowing with the same unsettling blue. They were like ancient sentinels, their design primitive yet deadly, and their movements unnervingly precise. Whatever they were, they looked built for one purpose—destruction.
I quickly activated Discern, but all I got back was garbled nonsense. Just fragments of data, corrupted beyond recognition.
“Damn it,” I muttered, clenching my fists. “They’re not even showing up in the system.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Iggy’s pulse blaster was already drawn, his face tense. “Well, whatever they are, they don’t look too friendly.”
The two robots zoomed back and forth across the chamber with an unsettling speed, their wheels leaving faint tracks on the ground. They moved like they were scanning the area, but every few seconds, they’d stop—whirring in place before darting to a new position.
“Dave, any ideas?” I asked out of habit, though I knew the AI was silent—still lost somewhere in this mess of old code.
Nothing.
The two machines stopped their erratic movements, their glowing slits locking onto us as if they’d finally made up their minds. Without a sound, their arm blades flickered to life, humming with raw energy.
“Uh... Pipsqueak?” Iggy said, backing up toward me. “I think we’ve overstayed our welcome.”
The moment the two robots materialized, the temperature in the room seemed to drop. They moved with unsettling coordination, their wheels humming softly as they glided across the room. They were like mirror images of each other—blue wrist blades flickering with energy, their featureless heads turning in perfect sync.
“Stay sharp, Iggy!” I shouted, raising my railgun.
“Sharp? Pipsqueak, I’m sharper than a pulse blade at breakfast!”
Before I could respond, the robots zoomed to opposite ends of the room, turning to face each other. Their arms lifted, and both pointed their glowing blades directly at one another. Blue beams of light shot out from their wrists, connecting in a blinding arc of energy that crackled and burned the air in between them.
“What the hell—?” Iggy barely managed to dodge as the beam intensified, scorching a line in the floor as it passed.
“Don’t get caught in that!” I yelled, rolling out of the way as the beams swept across the room. They cut through metal, leaving smoking trails in their wake. One glance at my UI told me the damage those beams could deal—serious enough to take us out if we were hit directly.
The robots began to shift, moving their connected beams across the room, forcing Iggy and me to stay on the move. Every time we tried to fire at them, they darted with unnatural speed, their movements erratic.
I aimed my railgun at the one closest to me and fired, but the shot passed right through it like it wasn’t even there. “Dammit, they’re glitching!” I shouted.
Iggy fired his pulse blaster, landing a shot that hit one of the robots dead center, but it barely slowed it down. Another shot from Iggy passed right through the second one. The glitching was unpredictable.
“Pipsqueak, this is insane!” Iggy dodged a beam that nearly cleaved him in two. “We can’t hit them half the time, and they’re out here turning the room into a laser show!”
I watched the robots, their beams getting closer and closer to pinning us down. “They’re phasing in and out,” I muttered, trying to figure out a strategy. “But they’ve got a pattern. Every time they finish their beam sweep, they solidify for a second.”
“Great, so what—wait for a second and hope we don’t get sliced in half?” Iggy was panting, his usual sarcasm tinged with frustration.
One of the robots wheeled toward me, faster this time, its blade raised. I dodged, barely missing the blue energy, and fired at its chest. The shot connected, sending sparks flying, but the robot kept coming.
Iggy was forced back, narrowly avoiding a sweep from the energy beams, and fired another pulse shot. This time, it glitched, his shot passing straight through the second robot. He swore loudly. “Pipsqueak, you better have a plan because I’m running out of room here!”
Then it hit me.
“Iggy!” I shouted, dodging another beam. “When they solidify—both of us need to hit them at the same time! The glitch might be offset if we target them simultaneously!”
Iggy glanced over at me, still ducking beams. “That’s... so dumb, it just might work!”
We nodded, and I prepped my railgun while Iggy got his pulse blaster ready. The robots continued their relentless circling, beams slicing the air as they drew closer. I watched their movements carefully, trying to time it just right.
“Now!” I shouted, as both robots solidified for the briefest of moments.
I fired at the robot closest to me, aiming for its chest. The shot hit dead on, and at the same moment, Iggy unleashed a barrage of pulse blasts at the second robot.
Both robots glitched, but this time, instead of phasing out, they staggered, sparks flying as the simultaneous hits overloaded their systems.
“Got ‘em!” Iggy grinned, but it was short-lived.
The robots quickly recovered, their movements becoming even more erratic. One of them raised its arm, the energy blade humming with renewed power. It darted toward me again, blade aimed right for my chest. I braced myself, knowing I couldn’t dodge in time—but as the blade came down, it passed through me, a glitch saving my life.
“What the hell?” I muttered, staggering back. Iggy fired at the other robot, but his shot went wide, blowing another hole in the wall. The robots were glitching worse now, but their attacks were becoming more lethal.
We needed something more.
That’s when the pedestal in the center of the room, knocked over earlier in the fight, finally tipped the ancient sword onto the floor with a loud clang.
My eyes darted to it. “Iggy, cover me!” I yelled, running toward the fallen sword.
I grabbed the sword, feeling the unexpected weight of the ancient weapon in my hand. The runes along its blade flickered, as though something within the metal was trying to wake up, and for a brief second, I felt a surge of power pulsing from the hilt up into my arm. I swung at the nearest robot with all the strength I could muster.
The blade connected, but the moment it hit, my UI lit up with a flashing message:
Target Immune to Bleed.
"Of course it is," I muttered through clenched teeth, trying to maintain control of the sword. I felt it slip, the sheer weight catching me off guard. My grip faltered, and the blade almost pulled itself free from my hand.
The robot barely reacted, its glowing blue eyes still locked onto me. I could almost hear it mocking my attempt.
Iggy, on the other side of the room, snorted. "What’s the matter, Pipsqueak? Sword too heavy for you? Let me guess, you were hoping to slice it in two, weren’t ya?"
“Shut up,” I snapped. The sword was useless, and worse than that, it was slowing me down. I dropped it to the ground with a dull thud, the runes flickering faintly as it settled back into place. The thing might’ve had all the promise in the world, but against these robots, it was just dead weight.
The two robots were still advancing, their glowing blades sweeping arcs through the air, coming closer and closer. I fired off a couple of railgun shots at the nearest one. Two connected, sparking on impact, but the third passed straight through as the robot glitched, phasing in and out of existence.
I ducked just as one of the energy beams from the robots sliced through the air where my head had been a second before. This wasn’t going well. Every time we landed a hit, half of them seemed to miss entirely. We needed something more than just dumb luck.
Then, something caught my eye—one of the robots’ energy beams hit the wall, but instead of cutting clean through like it had everywhere else, the beam fizzled out as soon as it reached one of the holes we’d accidentally blown into the wall.
Wait a second.
“Iggy!” I called out, dodging another swing from the robot. “The beams. I think the robot's damage is isolated to inside this room. The structure’s walls—some parts, or rather missing parts of it aren’t being affected by their weapons.”
Iggy, mid-roll, barely avoiding a blade, glanced at the wall. “Huh, Pipsqueak, got my hands full here. If you are going to do something, do it now?”
“Get into one of those holes! Large enough, your whole body is behind the wall!” I sprinted toward one of the larger gaps in the wall, diving into the small alcove just as another beam swept past me. Sure enough, the moment I was inside, the energy beams fizzled out as they reached the edge of the hole. The robots were restricted to this room. Maybe it was a way so this place wouldn’t get damaged. Well, they didn’t expect me and Iggy to go blasting holes in everything.
“Not bad, Pipsqueak!” Iggy shouted, scrambling toward his own section of wall. He squeezed into a hole in the opposite side of the room, dodging another swipe from the second robot. “Now what? We hide until they run out of juice?”
“No.” I grinned, pulling out my railgun. “Now we gun them down. Focus fire on the left one. Together.”
I took aim from the safety of my alcove, waiting for the robot to glitch back into solid form. It wheeled across the room, its blue eyes flickering as it zoomed toward Iggy’s position. I fired a shot as soon as it solidified, hitting it square in the chest. Sparks flew, and the robot staggered.
Iggy followed up with his pulse blaster, landing two shots to the robot’s head. The thing whirred loudly, its movements jerking as though it couldn’t process the damage.
“Keep going!” I yelled, firing again. The robot glitched again, but we had already committed. I kept my sights on it, firing the moment it flickered back into existence. Shot after shot, we poured everything we had into it.
The second robot was still trying to get to us, its beams sweeping the room, but they kept getting cut off by the walls’ protective material. It couldn’t reach us as long as we stayed inside the holes.
Finally, with one last pulse blast from Iggy, the first robot sparked violently, its chest caving in as the circuitry inside exploded in a shower of light. The thing collapsed onto the floor, a smoking heap of metal.
“One down!” I called out, adrenaline pumping. “Let’s finish the second!”
Iggy didn’t need to be told twice. We both shifted our fire to the remaining robot, using the same tactic. We waited for it to glitch back into existence, then unloaded every shot we had. The robot swerved erratically, its glowing blue wrist blades flailing as it tried to close the distance. But it couldn’t get past the holes in the walls, and we had the advantage now.
I landed a solid hit on its head, and Iggy followed up with a pulse blast to its center. The thing whirred loudly, like it was struggling to keep its systems running. It staggered, glitching more violently, and with one final railgun shot to the chest, the second robot crashed to the ground, sparking and twitching as it died.
The room fell silent again, save for the faint crackling of the robots’ damaged circuitry.
I leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. "Well… that was… something."
Iggy emerged from his alcove, wiping sweat from his brow. "Something? Pipsqueak, that was a damn mess."
I glanced down at the sword I’d dropped earlier. The ancient weapon lay there, glitching. "Yeah, well… next time, remind me not to pick up a sword against a metal robot."
Iggy chuckled, shaking his head. "Your face, Pipsqueak. When you tried to slice it in two? You could barely hold it! I could see you straining like you were trying to lift a mountain."
I rolled my eyes. “I thought it would help. I didn’t expect it to—”
Iggy stopped laughing abruptly as the door to the chamber began to grind open. We both froze. A dull, echoing creak filled the room as the massive golden door slid open inch by inch. Dust cascaded from the ceiling, and the strange blue light of the labyrinth flooded the chamber.
At that moment, a notification popped up in my UI, flickering and glitching like everything else in this place.
Guardians of old, vanquished.
XP Received: Error
Reward: Quest - The Heart of the Labyrinth
???
I glanced at Iggy, his expression mirroring my own confusion. “You get that notification too.” I asked.
Iggy nodded his head. “What have you done now, Pipsqueak?”