104 Labrynth

As if only now realizing Lucian's hand on her shoulder stopped the princess from advancing, she turned tired eyes back to him questioningly.

"What's wrong?"

She followed his gaze to the glowing exit waiting behind them, and the corridor absent her older brother and the others.

Eyes going wide, she pulled his hand off her shoulder and started checking the few turns ahead of them, looking for where they could have gone and calling out names.

Meanwhile, Lucian stood still, keeping his gaze locked on the glowing doors.

'So long as I watch it, the doors won't move.'

"Takis!" Irina called out. "David! Stella?!"

Placing his right hand over the platinum badge at his breast, He tried to sense the presence of Takis' communication item but failed to find anything.

Eyes becoming grim, he turned partly away from the door.

"Irina!" He shouted sternly. "Come back and wait. The last thing we need now is to be split up further."

The girl seemed indignant for a moment but acquiesced in the end and returned.

Turning away from the large doors, he looked at the large stone walls, each as cold as ice, bloodplate armor forming on his right hand and arm as he readied himself to try them.

Dropping the lightness technique, vast amounts of Trueblood thrummed, producing a blindingly white light that surged throughout his body in a fraction of second as his eyes glowed and raw power filled his body and soul.

Anchoring his stance on the ground, he drew strength from his legs and twisted his body as his right fist launched forward, drawing power from every synergistic movement of muscle.

To him, it was a slow and practiced movement, a methodical display of his greatest power. To Irina who stood nearby, it was as if he fixed a heated glance on the wall and then blurred as thunder rocked the walls and heaven and earth changed places.

Dust, smoke, and stone filled the air, and when everything settled, Lucian withdrew his fist from the fragmented spiderweb of stone, more falling to the ground with the movement to reveal a hole. His bloodplate gauntlet was torn apart, his fist was bloody, and sharp pain ran through his wrist and forearm.

His fingers were numb and he couldn't move them, but it was the 'broken' wall that earnt his gaze. A hole. A hole to nowhere.

Lucian took a step back as an instinctive dread took root in his mind. If he went through that hole, no, he didn't even want to think about it.

He was sure that the nothingness was not a result of his punch. It was what lay on the other side of the wall.

'But that makes no sense.'

Coughing pulled his attention away from the hole to nowhere and he turned to see Irina on the ground some ten or twenty meters away, coughing and wiping rubble from her clothes.

'Crap.'

Making hasty steps to catch up to the girl who'd got caught up in the explosion, he helped her to her feet while apologizing.

"Sorry Your Highness, But I needed to be sure."

"It-its fine. Just warn me next time."

Her expression was a mixture of confusion, fear, and amazement as she stared at the hole in the wall. Following her gaze, Lucian's expression was grim.

He couldn't see anything beyond the hole, not even darkness. He knew it was a hole, but could not understand the reality of it. He just knew that beyond that boundary, was 'nothing'.

The softly glowing doors had crept closer now, close to the hole in the wall.

"Come on, let's go. We can call for the others every now and again, but keep caution about you."

Calming his thoughts, Lucian led her onwards as his right hand finished healing. The walls of this place were hard enough to break his armor and hand with their destruction. Perhaps that would be good to know.

The princess' shocked state faded rapidly as she realized the gravity of their situation, but after walking further through the long and empty hallways, the fatigue returned to her once more.

'This isn't going to work.'

"Did your brother ever mention how long the first trial lasted for him?"

…

"Irina?"

"Huh? Oh, not really. Just that it felt like forever with all the fighting."

Her eyes had become baggy as if they'd walked for days.

"...Let's stop here. I'll keep watch so get whatever rest you can manage."

She offered no protest, and with an unbalanced descent to the floor, Irina drew out silk sheets and multiple pillows from her spatial item.

That was fine, but the moment he saw her withdraw a small bed, Lucian couldn't help but shake his head. Just how much could her artifact hold?

Lowering down to the ground with his back against the wall, Lucian left the glowing doors to his left and watched only the right. The doors never got too close, but remained there constantly, waiting for them.

'If only there were animals of some kind, I could possess one and explore the different paths with it. At least for a short time before it died.'

Irina's breathing calmed as sleep took her, and Lucian began to consider their options. He felt tired of walking, but he could go on without sleep. For now at least.

By the time Irina woke again, no more than an hour could have passed, and Lucian sighed.

"Go back to sleep, It's not been long since we stopped."

"I've slept more than enough. We need to find Takis." She threw herself off the bed with surprising energy, storing the bed and everything else back in her artifact.

"Princess, I know you are worried, but if we go now the fatigue will hit you again within a few minutes, I promise."

"I'm fine Sir Valaran." She said in a commanding voice certainly one part mimicked from Takis' when giving orders. "Follow or not, I'm going ahead."

True to her words, the girl started walking ahead, and quickly too.

Running a hand through his hair, Lucian sighed and stood.

'I give her ten minutes at most.'

And so he followed with the expectation to stop again soon, but was quickly proven wrong. The princess kept walking, never slowing. They walked and walked, for… 'Was it hours? Or have days more passed?'

His legs felt more tired, but he kept at it.

'How many turns have we taken?'

Occasionally he tried the badge, and occasionally they called out names, neither with any success. When the princess grew tired again, they stopped, and this time he counted how long she slumbered for, ensuring she wasn't pushing herself on little sleep.

Again it was not long. He counted half an hour before she bounded out of bed, and again she would not heed his warnings to take a real rest.

He had to give it to her though, she truly did hide it well. He was certain she didn't cultivate some art that reduced her need for sleep or she would have said as much.

They continued on, eating from rations stored in their spatial artifacts. The lack of day and night was getting disorienting, so after he and Irina took shifts sleeping next, he began to count a 24 hour cycle in his mind.

That had been the plan, but after counting just an hour the fatigue returned. His legs hurt and Irina was practically a zombie.

'Something's not right.'

Irina slept, and he tried counting again.

She slept for three days.

"What's wrong?" She asked sleepily, noticing his intense and confused gaze.

"Something is… no, nevermind. Let's go."

'Is the time here strange? I have a month of rations left, if I split them into daily portions… I'll compare how often I eat and sleep to my counting. That should prove… something.'

He could last a week before his legs grew tired, and even longer without sleeping, but he still felt the tug to slumber every day, no matter how well he ignored it. But… he ate a week's worth of rations between the tugs for sleep. During that time he counted an hour, and felt a month.

Lucian's breathing grew heavier every… day? Week?

'Month?'

Irina didn't seem to notice the abnormality of this place, but she was growing tired. The kind of tired that sleep couldn't help. Her gaze flickered back to those two doors that haunted them more and more frequently, or… perhaps it just felt more frequent.

Knowing that his time was so wrong was extremely disorienting. If months had passed, surely they should turn back? But if only a few days had gone by, then retreating now would be abandoning those still in here.

And there was another thing. He felt guilty to admit it, but the idea that his time could be so wrong, both mentally and biologically, astounded him. He felt curious amazement to this place, and as much as he knew he was not here for himself, he really wanted to see what lay beyond this blasted labyrinth.

"Lucian?" A soft voice broke his thoughts.

"What is it?" He replied wearily.

"Should we… Should we just turn back?"

He turned to consider her as Irina's voice sped up.

"I mean, Takis and the other must have already left if we can't find them right? Surely, they have to have."

After a moment of thought, he was ready to give up and accept whatever her decision, when something in her eyes caught his attention.

He couldn't describe the emotion, and he didn't want to go poking around spiritually just to put a word to it, but he knew what she wanted. She wanted him to choose. To take the burden off her shoulders and tell her whether they were better continuing or turning back, and to take the responsibility of that choice onto himself.

'Just a girl.' The thought flickered through his mind. It was so easy for him to forget the difference between Irina and those he knew at her age. She acted mature for her age and perhaps for that reason, he found himself expecting more of her than he had any right to.

'But that still leaves the decision. She wants to leave, I understand that much. But if she leaves here she won't get anything from it.' His gaze returned to those softly glowing doors that still waited for them.

'I don't know enough about her, but if it were me, I know I would—will—regret stepping down now. It will feel like a defeat.'

The princess still waited as he considered, not urging him for an answer. 'Then let's try and make this a victory. If I can help pull her through this, she will only be the better for it.'

"They could have." He started. "But if we return now and they are still in here, then we have left them behind."

Placing a hand on the back of her shoulder, he gently pushed her forward to stand by his side. "Come, we'll hold strong and find the end to this place, find your brother, and come out smiling. I promise."

Disappointment flashed in her eyes, but so did determination and a hint of stubbornness. He hoped those were what we wanted, he wasn't exactly a leader.

'I just won't let her dwell on it.' He decided.

"Besides, since we're left with nothing but swords and free time, we can always practice."

That got a weak smile, but a smile nonetheless.

**

The two continued on for… a time.

To Lucian, it felt like months, but to Irina, it felt like days.

Only the constant practice gave a sense of normalcy as they continued on, always distracting themselves from the irregular passage of time.

By the way air shifted under rapid movements, Lucian felt pretty certain that whatever was happening, it wasn't as simple as them moving faster or slower than what they perceived. After all, the wind shifted predictably under his blade every time.

The doors continued to haunt them, but the two made it a point to never turn back and look at it. Every time they did, temptation crept into the mind naturally.

During his time here, Lucian achieved a basic understanding of his white light and its effects, especially the difference in application.

The light was originally made in imitation of sunlight, but in that context, it could be considered a failure. The white light was filled with immense power and heat, mimicking the ferocity of the sun quite adequately if on a far lesser level.

But it lacked the warmth, the golden radiance, and the life-giving properties of the sun. It had none of the spirituality of the solar, and if it were not created from his own hyper condensed lifeforce, Lucian would say with confidence there was no 'Life' in it at all.

It was not the sun's light, but his own. And conjured externally, it was nothing but pure power and heat. A weapon. Thus, he named this light of his, conjured externally, the Light of Dusk, independent of the sun.

It was the internal application he named for its inspiration. The Heart of Dawn, a technique that consumed vast amounts of expendable lifeforce to produce momentary power greater than his standard.

Together, they offered offensive options greater than anything else in his arsenal at the moment, and yet, there was nothing to use them on.

No monsters of fog appeared as they had with Takis the last time he came here. There was just an empty labyrinth, and the glowing doors.

The frequency of eating and sleeping were as unreliable as his mental clock, but perhaps that was a blessing as the rations lasted for what felt like months, where there should only have been 30 days of food.

There did come a time that they ran empty though, and choices had to be made.

Was advancing endlessly in this empty maze, really worth it?

The gargantuan doors loomed behind them, tempting their surrender.

And he was of a mind to accept them now.