Darkness, the absence of light, the sensation of being blind and void of any and all external information, can be a truly, frightening thing. While my eyes and ears were certainly still functioning, at least according to my hazed vision and the presence of the typical E4 buzzing noise my ears were constantly hearing, I was currently having difficulties processing the seemingly endless abyss I was facing ahead.
Focus, Ko... Try and imagine the world through mana. The tiny, individual strings connecting each and every one of our existences together, the tethers and chains that bind us to the tangible plane, and how the subtle motions of each and every action we take, move us through space and time itself. Still visually blind, I felt the hairs along my arms begin to stand up, picking up on the faint changes my body was desperately trying to acknowledge in the search for some kind of stability in this endless dark expanse.
*Dop*
The sound of a single, minuscule drop of water striking the surface of stagnate water filled my mind, as the accompanying ripple flowed through my body moments later. The sensation was faint, but, in the absence of any and all information, I knew what I had to do. I needed to turn my body.
Now.
Twisting my torso, while raising what I could only remember was my left arm, I braced myself for some kind of impact, tensing what I believed to be my muscles, while shifting what I thought were my feet to steady myself against an incoming mountain of an impact.
*Clash!*
Resistance struck my arm like an army of boulders, as another ripple coursed throughout my body from the rugged attack. My ears popped at the sensation, the sound rolling around my cannels, triggering an uncomfortable memory of steel locking with razor-sharp claws.
*Swoosh*
The pressure released, retreating back into the safety of the abyss, leaving me alone again within the void. Mana continued to sway in space, the particles eventually forming images within the expansive, endless dark. Movement, changes along horizon of the void, rushed through my body. The presence, it was going to—
“Gah!!!”
Suddenly, I tumbled forward after taking an aggressive impact to my back. And, while I had personally hoped my honed battle prowess and balance would save me in such a situation, it appeared my faith in my own skills had failed me, as my face collided with the hard gravel below in disappointment instead. “Geez that stings.” I mumbled through a face full of dirt, as I slowly let out a heavy sigh while rolling onto my back to stare up at the fuzzy image of the labyrinth’s ceiling.
“Impressive, but not good enough.” Echoed a confident feminine voice, as the last bits of my perception finally returned to my conscious, correcting themselves into the images of a black and red wolf towering overtop of me, along with an accompanying pair of orange triangular fluffy ears.
“Easy enough for you to say, Crimson.” I groaned back after gathering enough mana particles to cast a heal spell over my throbbing face. “You’re the one who had Inari’s support magic this time around.”
“Hehe!” giggled Inari, as she offered a paw towards me, along with a toothy grin to help me back onto my feet. “So, what did you think, Ko? Were you able to sense your environment this time under my curse and hex magic? I made sure to tone down the intensity this time, just a little bit!” The vulpine said with a swoosh of her white tipped tail, while her green eyes sparkled with curiosity, eagerly waiting in anticipation for my hopefully positive response.
Picking some loose specs of gravel out of my mouth, I unfortunately gave my reply with a few simple negative shakes of my head. In a sense, I had been hoping that training amongst ourselves where we each focused on our signature skills, would help us should we encounter an enemy that could copy our capabilities. Mind control, along with other forms of skill imitation, were some of the last common tropes I could think of regarding boss monsters in fantasy stories, so I wanted to make sure we could each handle a creature that might try and utilize our own spells against us. Unfortunately, we were all having difficulties when it came to handling Inari’s exceptional usage of curses and charms...
That said, a week quickly flew by while we were staying in the progenitor wolf village to complete our training and supply preparation for conquering the labyrinth. And, after what felt like an uncountable number of duels and strategy formation practice, we had finally found an integration that allowed Crimson’s shadow and lightning-based abilities to compliment our current party composition. Her role, essentially worked out to be an assassin or weakness exploiter, where she would eliminate high-valued targets, such as casters in an enemy’s back line, or taking advantages of vulnerabilities created by Raya, Inari, or myself. Overall, we were pleased with the progress we had made, and now, it was finally time to tackle our greatest challenge yet; conquering the labyrinth.
As such, after wrapping up a few more... Unsuccessful attempts by myself at learning how to effectively counter Inari’s curse of blindness, we all gathered up and triple checked our supplies, before heading towards the staircase to finally continue our journey deeper.
Aware of our departure today, and, currently escorting us along with a few other wolves, was Cyan Whitefang, the new leader of the progenitor wolves after Crimson ceded the role to him after the false death of her name. While things had been rocky at best during this transition period for him, it appeared Cyan had finally come to accept the new responsibility. While we were walking, I often caught his gaze bouncing between Crimson and I, with his ears remaining pinned back for most of the walk, where he remained ominously silent.
Then, as we were ready to descend down the stairs to the 68<sup>th</sup> floor, Cyan finally barked a low rumble to our group. “There’s really nothing I can do to change your mind then, is there Crimson? Your parents... I... I hope you find them.” After hearing Cyan’s parting words, Crimson turned around, offering the blue wolf a bow, before responding in an equally low rumble. “You are correct Cyan, I have already resolved myself for the upcoming trials ahead... And... Thank you. My father and mother... I will find what happened to them.”
Offering an awkward smile to the pair saying their goodbyes, I noticed Cyan turn his gaze towards me, with his muzzle quivering as he forced out a reluctant apology in a wavering tone. “And to you, Kotato... While I know my words won’t mean much, I would like to apologize to you for my actions... I... I’ve... You’re...
...
Please, take care of Crimson for me... She... Deserves someone like you by her side...”
Painfully aware of the emotions Cyan was probably feeling from my own personal experiences back on Earth, I simply nodded to the blue wolf staring past me, while offering a direct response to his words. “I will Cyan, and, thank you.” Then, glancing around at my party members, motioned for all of us to enter the spiraling staircase, as the few remaining wolves in attendance offered us some parting howls of encouragement. Our goal was to clear the labyrinth now, and based on the information we had from Crimson, roughly knew how the levels would play out, at least until the 72<sup>nd</sup> floor. Anything beyond that level was foreign territory to the wolves, as they themselves had difficulties clearing out the undead monstrosities present on that level.
Eventually, after reaching the bottom of the stairs, we were able to make visual contact with the ogres residing on the floor. Inari was able to confirm approximately 59 unique identifiers, with what was potentially an evolved variant in the middle of the chambers. The air was thick and hazy, with noticeable pockets of smog spread throughout, indicating dense concentrations of mana particles. Unsheathing my blade, Inari buffed all of us with the bountiful mana nearby, as we entered into our default attack formation.
Charging into the room, Raya quickly drew the attention of the melee combatants, while Crimson and I began flanking the large group from the sides, targeting and eliminating the mages and priests present amongst the smelly monstrosities. After some careful hit-and-run tactics, most of the hoard had thinned enough to clearly identify the unique variant near the middle of the group shouting orders, the ogre emperor.
As far as intimidating looks were concerned, I personally rated the creature a 3 out of 10, mostly due to the fact they were simply a regular looking ogre with thick yellow skin, and a golden crown resting crudely atop their head. The emperor posed us no problems at all, and was dispatched with a single cast of Inari’s kitsunebi spell, showing either our incredible skill growth, or, lack of a suitable challenge from the repeating set of creatures. Thus, with the floor clear, we then simply walked towards the next set of stairs, while cataloging and recording the monsters we defeated.
Entering the stairs while carefully walking down the dusty steps, I couldn’t help myself but remember the floor number we were about to explore, and, with my immature attitude, couldn’t help but quietly snicker “Heh, 69...” With the words rolling off my tongue to accent the importance of such a peculiar and interesting number, earning myself a quick snort from the commander ahead of me.
Surprised by Raya’s reaction, she briefly brought her gauntlets to cover her mouth in a vain attempt to muffle the snickering noises she was trying to hold back. Amused, I simply raised my eyebrows towards the stalwart commander, with my next set of words carrying my piqued interest over her reaction. “Oh? And here I was thinking you were the shining example of a perfect, proper knight, Raya?” I said in a tone simply aimed at poking fun towards the seemingly shared humor. Glancing back at me, Raya rolled her eyes before responding in a cheerful tone and slight smile. “Heh, just because I’m a woman, doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate some of the crude humor from my time in the military, Ko. If anything, 69 is rather tame compared to some of the drunken nights spent with my comrades and their stories.”
“Hah! That’s amazing!” I laughed back to Raya while wiping a small tear forming in the corner of my eyes. “What? Is it really that amusing I would get your reference?” She responded back with another roll of her eyes. “No no, it’s just... Different worlds!”
My comments caused the commander to flinch, halting her march, causing all of us to abruptly stop awkwardly partway down the spiraling staircase. Then, resting her hand along the wall, Raya broke into laughter, looking back at me with a wrinkled nose and smile. “Ha! So even across different worlds, it would seem us humans share the same dirty humor Ko!”
“It would appear so Raya.” I cheerfully laughed back, joining the commander in a light chuckle while clutching my stomach in gleeful agony. But seriously... To think such a simple, immature comment would provide such insights into the shared human experience. I guess humans really were the same, no matter where we’re from. Looking back, while still fighting to regain my composure, I could see both Inari’s and Crimson’s ears were twitching at our laughter, where they simply shared confused glances over the apparent bonding moment Raya and I appeared to be having.
“Hahaha... Ahhh... Well then, Ko.” Raya said, finally managing to get her emotions under control, before offering me a quick smile and wink. “It appears we will have to compare notes amongst ourselves once we clear this labyrinth then. Geez... I wonder what else us humans have in common?”
Simply smiling back, Raya and I exchanged fist bumps, a fun gesture from my world, before looking to continue down the stairs. However, we were both interrupted by a timid squeak from the fox behind us. “I... I don’t get it, Ko. What’s so funny about the number 69?” Inari said, her voice laced with confusion and a hint of intrigue, before eventually prodding deeper. “Could you please explain it to me? It feels like this knowledge would compliment my research about different worlds rather well!”
“Agreed, Ko.” Added Crimson, as both the canines’ tails began wagging in unison. “I too, also wish to learn more about what this “69” entails. It appears to be a rather enjoyable form of kinship amongst friends! If I’m picking up on the social cues you and the commander are exhibiting.”
Both Raya and I shared similarly childish glances at one another while looking at Inari and Crimson, causing us to laugh again at the confused duo. “I’m sorry Inari.” I said trying to hold back another round of joyful tears forming in the corner of my eyes. “But the reference loses value once you begin explaining it to someone. Besides... It’s not exactly—”
In response to my comments, Inari’s snout wrinkled, while her whiskers twitched to form a rather cute pout at my refusal to explain the joke. “Geez Ko!” The disgruntled fox said while crossing her paws across her chest. “It’s just to help expand my research about the similarities between our worlds! If it’s something shared amongst humans, then I’m failing to see why you wouldn’t want to explain it to me.”
“Research, eh?” Hummed Coileene’s voice in a seductive tone, as she materialized from my shield to appear beside the fox in question, resting her hands along Inari’s shoulders. My pulse quickened, and my heart sank within my chest as I simply stared at the goddess maniacally grinning back at me with a devious smile. “If it’s for research, then perhaps you should ask Ko to demonstrate with you what this “69” is. After all, it’s an activity best done in pairs amongssssst, “friends” haha!” The serpent goddess snickered while flicking her tongue towards me with her breathy, and unnecessary response.
“Ohh! That sounds like a perfect idea!” Inari beamed, her voice filled with excitement over Coileene’s suggestion, while her tail sharply swooshed from side to side. “Ko! Would you please show me what this “69” is then?! If... If it’s something friends do together, then it would be perfect for us!” Inari happily replied, with her emerald eyes sparkling to learn more about this apparent forbidden truth I was withholding from her.
“That’s...” I flinched, desperately trying to remind myself that Inari had no idea what she had just suggested we do together. My head began spinning, as I was struggling to find any possible way out of this unfortunate situation. “Ha! Good luck, Ko!” came Raya’s voice in a cheerful tone, breaking me out of my trance as she lightly punched my shoulder with her metal gauntlet. Jumping slightly, I could only form what I imagined was a face filled with betrayal towards the commander who I thought had my back. “Ra-Raya!” I seemingly uttered, feeling stranded and abandoned by the rollercoaster of emotions I had seemingly brought upon myself. “This— This conversation’s over!” I blurted out, chasing after the commander now running down the stairs away from me.
“Laaameee!” Echoed Raya’s voice from further down the corridor with a teasing attitude. “Grrr! It’s not funny!” I angrily called out as Raya’s laughter continued to bounce throughout the stairwell. Internally annoyed at myself, I eventually made it to the floor’s landing, where I was hoping we could finally refocus our efforts on the dangers of the labyrinth.
Staring into the room, I could see multiple golems constructed from bones or skeletal remains rolling and roaming around. They appeared unaggressive, which matched the reports Crimson had shared with us about her own personal experiences while hunting on this floor. Not too far behind, I heard Inari and Crimson also catch up to us, to which they both seemed disappointed about my failure to explain the stupid 69 reference... And, just when I thought we could finally turn our attention towards the golems...
“Oh look, head!” Happily exclaimed the goddess, as she materialized and picked up what appeared to be a discarded bone golem skull, while rotating it around with her fingers to admire it’s smooth exterior in full. I furrowed my brow towards Coileene, fully aware of her—
“HA!!! Nice one, Coileene!” Exploded Raya in a fit of laughter and snorts, unable to contain her amusement, as both the knight and demi-human glanced at one another before bumping their fists together.
...
Squinting my eyes at the laughing duo, I simply scoffed at their actions before quickening my pace to get through the floor. I ignored the pleas from my companions behind me, wanting some time alone by this point, and hoping they would eventually drop the conversation once we reached the next set of stairs.
...
...
Thankfully, everyone appeared to have calmed down once we reached the next set of runic lettering. As anticipated, based on the stories told about the progenitor wolves from Crimson, there was pulsing blue runic text next to the archway which read: “Danger – Upcoming Level Is A Designated Boss Floor – A Powerful Foe Awaits – Warning! Proceed With Caution.”
As we approached, Crimson’s eyes widened after glancing over the lettering “I... I can read these words.” She quietly exhaled, as her eyes continued to examine the mysterious characters dancing across the wall in full. “You’re welcome, little wolf.” Replied Coileene from within my shield. “It is only fair I grant you the same level of boon as the others.”
“So, my father, he really managed to defeat such a powerful creature... How many of these levels have you encountered, Ko?” replied the curious black and red wolf, gesturing towards our party. “Including this one? Three.” I responded, before entering the stairs to continue. After reaching the bottom, we were greeted with a layout similar to the 65<sup>th</sup> floor, being a large open room with a stone alter resting within the middle. However, flying near the ceiling of the arena, appeared to be smaller versions of the desmovyern we had seen earlier.
After a quick scan with appraisal, they were apparently named “lesser chromatic desmovyerns”. Each being was coloured in beautiful rainbow feathers, with their plumes playfully catching the nearby pulsing light illuminating the alter like a spotlight from each passing glide. From a combat perspective, they were only level 20, and wouldn’t pose a threat to any of us. Furthermore, the creatures were not hostile, choosing to instead observe us from above, while continuing to fly laps around and land on various stone perches above near the ceiling. Continuing along, we eventually noticed the pair of destroyed pink disks near the centre, a cruel reminder that one more potential route to the surface was closed off to us. However, it did confirm to us that each boss level essentially functioned as a checkpoint.
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But, not wanting to dwell too long on painful memories and alternative realities, we quickly made our way to the next level, with our silence faintly accompanied by the occasional “caw” from a desmovyern above.
From there, our progress deeper largely went without issue. Coileene’s conscious began tugging at me once we entered the 71<sup>st</sup> floor, hissing within my mind that we were almost at her fragment, and the goblins across the domain were thankfully at this point not a threat to our party either. Despite all of them being level 71, the only new addition was the inclusion of a “goblin emperor”, which was essentially the same as the goblin kings from before, just slightly... Bulkier? They clearly looked like it had enjoyed bountiful offerings of food while their subjects withered away, and they also had a fancier royal crown to boot! Though I was slightly saddened when I couldn’t take the crown with me as part of the monster drop...
For the next floor, Crimson was keen to inform us this was the furthest level she had personally ventured, where she had attempted, but failed to clear the room by herself. Similar to the last floor multiple with undead, this room also contained greater liches, and, after working together to utilize my purification-disk combo, we cleared it without issue. The lack of a challenge was starting to bother me by this point, making me wonder why the difficulty curve appeared to have suddenly dropped off a cliff. While I did enjoy seeing Crimson’s shocked expression as to how easily we cleared the level, it still left a lot to be desired from a challenge perspective. Regardless, we continued on through the room, accompanied only by our idle chatter and piles of purified undead ash wallowing in misery.
For the upcoming insect level, we simply made sure to identify all of the creepy crawlies, and apply ample amounts of Inari’s kitsunebi spell when needed. There were several more of those lightning mantises again, and the new stronger variant appeared to be something like a Hercules beetle from Earth. It was thankfully rather slow with its movements, but did interestingly enough have what appeared to be cannons along its back. While we never gave it the opportunity to fire such a round, instead interrupting the spell while it was forming to detonate the creature from within. This... Unique method of elimination was once again our crafty fox’s idea, but we all agreed to never use it again after the beetle exploded, covering us in a juicy viscera of gooey insect fluids.
Profusely gagging while casting a quick cleanse spell to clean ourselves after such a warm and disgusting, slimy experience, I was glad my sanity was saved from the uncomfortable thoughts of the sticky residue clinging to my skin after such an ordeal. Regardless, we once again made it through this floor without issue, as we mentally prepared ourselves for a potential puzzle room.
Entering the 74<sup>th</sup> floor, we all breathed a sigh of relief when we discovered the entrance across the hall wasn’t blocked by a giant stone wall with slots for elemental orbs. Instead, sloshing around near the middle of the room, and, being the only visible creature with a mana signature inside, was a being known as an omnislime according to appraisal. The gelatinous blob wore a simple crown, cape, and sceptre, along with what looked like a translucent mustache, honestly making me think the name “king slime” would have been more appropriate than omnislime... But it’s not like I was the one in charge of naming these creatures on Terra.
Once we entered the room, the slime was quick to form a multitude of spells from each element and lob them our direction. Raya and Inari focused on deflecting and intercepting the blasts, while Crimson and I contended with the slime up close. The core we needed to target was painfully obvious in the middle of the blob, but none of our spells could penetrate the jelly-like texture deep enough to shatter it. Eventually, we were able to exhaust the slime after an extended siege, with Raya delivering the final blow from an aptly placed earthen pillar spike.
Slightly exhausted ourselves, we made sure to catch our breath while walking towards the next archway. However, my hands began trembling after I read the text scrawled across the upcoming doorway.
“Labyrinthus Finis.” Inari quietly whispered to the group, as she squinted her eyes at the text to scrutinize it further, before jotting it down in her notebook. “Coileene’s magic didn’t fully translate the text... I thought she said we could read all of the words now?”
“Yes and no.” I replied while scratching the back of my head before continuing to the confused vulpine. “Actually, Coileene, care to enlighten us about this? I recognize the text to probably be Latin, which is a language from—”
“Earth? Ha! What an impudent fool you are Ko, thinking only Earth could ever conceive such a language.” Bellowed the demi-human serpent as she appeared beside the nearby archway, resting against the opening stones while examining her nails. “Latin, as you would call it, is actually something more of a universal constant. Many worlds across countless galaxies have all developed the same structure and composition that you would refer to as “Latin”, making it somewhat of a constant amongst sentient, developing life.”
“So... Is it something akin to the language of the gods? Some fundamental truth of the universe?” I replied to the uninterested goddess still nonchalantly ignoring us. “Pfft, as if! It is simply a language all intelligent beings should know, hence my refusal to translate it. I can’t help you with every little, insignificant thing.” Coileene added with a deep sigh, before conjuring a nail file to sharpen some of her excessive digits.
“Regardless, while I’m not an expert in Latin, some of the words can be intuitive, at least from my experience. The language is mostly used in my world as a legacy naming convention for fields in science, mathematics, and medicine, but if I had to guess, I would assume Labyrinthus means labyrinth, and Finis means—”
“The end.” Mumbled Inari, completing my sentence as she wrote the translated words in her journal, before circling them several times. “If that’s the case, then based on Coileene’s insistence her fragment is close, the Solara labyrinth is a total of 75 floors deep.” She finally finished with a playful flick of her tail.
“So it would seem.” Added Raya, as both her and Crimson shared glances at the runic words, prompting me to ask a question of my own towards the curious wolf. “Crimson, how many shakings of the earth have the progenitor wolves experienced?” I said to them, cognizant of the fact each earthquake-like event seemed to coincided with the activation of the checkpoint alters. Briefly looking up at me, the majestic wolf somberly replied in a shallow bark, with her muzzle void of expression. “There have been 3 such events in our history, Ko. The first 2 were from long ago, with the 3<sup>rd</sup> shaking happening only recently... Which would match when you claimed to have become trapped in the labyrinth.” She replied with a continued heavy breath. “Do... You mean to imply... That...?”
Looking at Crimson, I could see her gaze drift towards the ground, with some of the lustre leaving her red mane as her thoughts continued my extrapolation. “We don’t know for certain yet. If this really is the end of the labyrinth, it could have a different outcome after beating... Whatever it is that lies ahead in battle.” I said with as much confidence as I could muster, while lightly patting her shoulder in a show of comfort.
“I understand.” Crimson replied with another heavy breath before continuing. “But, you don’t need to be kind to me about your implications. If my father had defeated this upcoming monster, then we surely would have felt another shaking of the earth. Which means in the absence of such an event...”
...
All of us simply stood there, an uncomfortable silence separating us, simply staring at the mourning wolf. Looking at Crimson, her ears were pinned back, and her tail lame, equally matching the body language Inari was currently exhibiting. I sometimes hated the fact I would say things without thinking them through, and now felt like one of those moments I should have just retained a more positive outlook, instead of trying to extrapolate a harsh reality with facts. Then, after wiping a small tear from the corner of her eye, Crimson glanced up at me, offering a faint smile through her shimmering pupils before continuing.
“I’m fine Ko. And, regardless of what we find ahead, our goal is still to clear the labyrinth.” The wolf howled in a deep tone before formally entering the spiraling staircase. “My resolve will not be shaken so easily, this, you should know as much.” Joining her, we all entered the darkened expanse as well, following in line closely behind Crimson as she led the way deeper. While we were descending the longer than usual set of steps, we did take the opportunity to strategize and confirm our upcoming boss assault plan, where we all agreed “Boss Siege Battle Plan #3” would be most appropriate. Even though our backline was technically rather small, cautiously observing and adapting to changes would be critical for our survival.
...
After descending for what felt like an eternity, we finally made it to the bottom of the stairs, where the room before us was clearly fitting for a final boss arena. The large open expanse screamed that something powerful was waiting within, and there was even a small lit bonfire just outside the official entrance to the room, drawing us closer with its alluring warmth. “Heh, so the labyrinth’s creator does have a sense humor.” I lightly sighed while observing the gingerly cackling flames.
“A... Bon... Fire?” cautiously added Raya, as she joined beside me to observe the warming flames as well. “What’s something like this doing here? Is there someone else down here as well?”
“Honestly, while that would normally be the logical conclusion, I actually think it’s something more like trying to prompt a specific action from any potential heroes within the labyrinth itself.” Then, noticing a slight tug on my arm, I looked behind me to see an enthusiastic fox, with their eyes bursting at the seams to continue my otherworldly theory. Thus, giving Inari a simple nod, she happily puffed up while flipping through her journal pages until she landed on our discussions about “video games".
“Ah hem, so, a current working theory Ko and I have regarding Terra and the hero summoning magic, is that everything appears to be designed like a typical “video game” to assist the heroes for assimilation reasons. Earth has a bountiful collection of these battle simulation devices, and, in an effort to help the “players”, individuals called “game developers” would often place obvious landmarks or identifiers to warn them of any upcoming dangers or challenges. Objects such as bonfires became popular from a notoriously difficult action-based game, and, things such as “save points”, while critical for game play reasons, ended up earning a shared association of “save your game, and prepare for a difficult battle whenever you see one!”. Thus, whenever such an iconic object is spotted, those familiar with such devices would learn to exercise caution and double check all of their supplies before venturing forth!”
Wrapping up their well-rambled explanation with a playful tail wag, I shot Inari a smile before continuing her brief overview. “Thank you, Inari. That, pretty much covers where I was going to go with this tangent. I would also argue, that most summoned individuals are used to playing video games, and it would appear whoever designed this labyrinth wanted to potentially take advantage of this common knowledge from back home.”
“So, exercise caution, and prepare for a difficult encounter, something we had already been anticipating.” Finished Crimson, while Raya cracked her knuckles in anticipation for our upcoming battle. Thus, after checking our supplies and applying an initial round of buffs, we all cautiously entered the larger than usual open concept room.
Compared to the previous floors, there were more bountiful pockets of mana, creating dense, thick hazes wafting throughout the room. There were concentrations for each available element in almost equal ratios, which went against all of our current observations to date. Essentially, I viewed this as another obvious indicator to prep heroes for an upcoming boss fight, as if the labyrinth text and checkpoint weren’t enough...
As we advanced, a large row of marble columns became visible, creating an orderly roadway towards a massive stone door on the other end of the room. The floor and columns were a blinding white, free of any and all imperfections, and the ceiling above us had even opened up into an impressive expansive view, seemingly trailing off to infinity. Then, once we arrived at the impressive masonry pillars, a blue light materialized in the centre of the marble arena, before expanding into a grid-like pattern. Next, the complex grid pattern pulsed and echoed, almost as if it was breathing with the room to cover every visible surface. The lines passed through me without issue, followed by what I could only imagine was a siren horn blaring itself to indicate it had just detected intruders. Remembering back to the 15<sup>th</sup> floor, I already had a vague idea what was going to happen next.
Nodding towards my friends, we all unsheathed our weapons, while Inari reapplied our status buffs.
But nothing happened.
For several minutes, we all just kind of... Stood still while on edge, glancing around the room. My eyes were darting and snapping to any object I could find, desperately trying to seek out any kind of anomaly to explain the absence of such a response. Inari, Raya and myself, had all been expecting a monotone-like voice to enter our minds, but as we all continued scanning the room, nothing appeared to be happening.
My palms were sweating, as I carefully took a slow step forward, closer to one of the intricate marble columns. A small bead of perspiration dripped down my forehead, as I then carefully holstered my sword to enter a more relaxed stance. Glancing back, my companions did the same, as we all slowly began to approach and examine the columns in greater detail. No weird or abnormal events appeared to be happening, and Raya ended up being the first amongst us to break the unsettling silence.
“So... Wasn’t something... You know... Supposed to happen after that light scanned us?” She said in a wavering tone while walking closer to the impressive stone door near the back of the room. “I’m not sure... Honestly, I was kind of expecting something like when we entered the first boss floor, but perhaps the final floor is different?” I added in a wavering voice while swallowing some of the built-up saliva in my mouth.
Trying to relax, I then followed Raya towards the stone slabs, where I noticed across the doors, was a simple depiction of a several chains covering the right eye of a serpent. Having a fairly good idea by this point what the image was probably referring to, I simply called out to Coileene my rhetorical question for her response. “So, think that’s where your fragment is?”
*BOOM*
As soon as the words left my lips, a powerful pulse and pressure wave coursed throughout my body, dropping me to my knees, causing me to clutch my head in agony from the splitting headache I received. My skull felt like it was being squeezed tighter and tighter in a metal clamp, threatening to explode into a misty paste as my mind continued to scream in anguish from an unrelenting wave of pressure assaulting it.
“Ko!” I managed to hear Inari call out to me as I began rolling and writhing on the hard floor. Then, after what felt like an eternity, the pain gradually began to subside, instead replaced by a warm, comforting pulse. Looking around, I could see Raya, Inari, and Crimson were all standing around me, concerned for my well being. However, while I was struggling to regain my balance, a femilar monotone voice filled my mind, and, based on the facial expressions of my friends, was filling theirs too.
[Boss Floor... Engaged – All Identified Individuals Have Successfully Entered The Final Floor – Calculating Difficulty Parameters – Processing...
Additional Information For Challengers – All Exits For The Final Floor Have Been Sealed Until One Of 2 Conditions Are Met:
1) The Elimination Of The Final Boss Occurs
2) All Identified Individuals Are Eliminated In Combat
Notice – Party Member Size And Composition Aligns W?????????i?????????t???????????h???????? ????????–???? ???????E???????r?????????r????????o????????r????? ??????–?????? ?????I??????r?????r????????e???????g??????u????????l?????a????r????????? ???????I?????????n???d????????i???????v?????i???????d????????u????????a??????l?????????? ??????D??????e???????????-?????????D????e??????????-??????????D?????????e?????????t??????e???????c?????t?????????e???????d???????? ????A????????p?????????p?????l???????y???????i??????????n????????g????? ??????P???????r??????o??????b?????????l?????e????????m???????? ???????????R???????e????????s?????????-?????R?????????e????s???????-?????????R???????e??????s???????o???l????????u????????t???i???????????o?????????n??????? ????????–??????? ?????C????????a?????l???????c???????u???????l?????a?????t?????????i?????????n???????g???????
???????????????E???????r????????r????o??????r??????? ?????????–???? ??????????E????r??????r????????o??????r??????????? ???????–?????????? ??????E?????r?????r????o?????r?????????? ????????P??????????r????????o???????????-??????????P???r?????o????????b?????l?????????e???????m?????????? ????F??????a????i???????l?????e??????d????????? ????????T??????o????? ???????R?????e?????s???o???l??????????v?????????e??????? ???????S???????u?????c??????c???????e??????????s?????????s??????f???????u????????l???????l????????y????? ????–??? ????????C???a??????l??????-???????C????????u??????????-?????????C????u??????????l???a???????t???????i????????n????g???? ????????–???????? ???????E???????r?????????r????????o????r?????????? ???????–???? ?????????E???????r???????r??????o???????????r????????
*BOOM!*
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