103 The First Trial

At the very core of the colossal maelstrom, suspended within a large funnel-like hole in the sea, was a sphere of shifting grey fog. To Lucian's eyes, it seemed that this 'core' of the maelstrom was the thing pulling in the energy that shifted beneath his feet.

The sphere appeared made of fog, and yet it was as crisp and sharp as the moon in the sky. Perfectly defined borders, on a construct of moving fog. It was a strange sight, but he had little freedom to admire it.

A twisting pressure tore at his insides as he approached the whirlpool, and his mind and senses shook with the strain of bearing through it. It was a pressure on his soul, body, and cultivation.

Having felt pushed to his brink in resisting this force, taking shaky steps forward alongside Takis, he felt concerned for the others with them. If he and Takis struggled this much, how must they feel?

But as he turned back to look, they all had the same pained face as he but advanced nonetheless.

While his thoughts became distracted, his hold on that pressure slipped and the soul-wrenching feeling came back again.

With a groan, he placed a hand on his head and took another step forward.

"Just a bit more," Takis growled through gritted teeth.

Progress was slow and the closer he got to that gargantuan whirlpool and the strange grey sphere in the center, the more he felt as if it were trying to break down and absorb everything about him.

With a shake of his head, he locked his jaw and continued on with fierce eyes.

And yet, it was just three steps later, that all the tension in his body disappeared in an instant. The splitting headache, the feeling of being torn and twisted, all gone.

Again, the calm of this place took over, and the sun above bathed him in a rejuvenating light.

Irina let out a loud and long sigh unbefitting her position, and David tried his best to look unaffected. Meanwhile, Takis placed his hands on the bottom of his back and stretched out.

"Is that it? We're at the entrance?" Lucian asked while rolling his shoulders.

"That's it."

The prince fixed a steady and cautious gaze on the strange grey ball of fog as if considering the thing for a moment before continuing.

"From here, just a few more steps will take us in."

Lucian looked out at the maelstrom that still seemed so distant, its size truly incredible, and wondered what would change between now and a few steps later.

After a small break to ensure his mind and body were in perfect order, he swept a gaze past his group, and then the other groups he could see in the distance surrounding this half of the whirlpool.

Finally, his gaze turned to Takis and he nodded.

"All right. Let's go"

The prince took a step forward, his gaze fixed on the sphere ahead, and his body faded slightly.

Swift on his heels, the rest of them stepped forward, every one fixing their gaze on the sphere with the intention to 'enter', as per the orders Takis had given on their way here.

With his first step, Lucian felt lighter. He practiced lightness at all times of day, but he never truly 'felt' light. He could always tell how dense and weighty his body was even when it acted otherwise.

His second step brought a slight fog to the mind as if drifting to sleep. The third step brought a dimming of the senses.

And with a fourth step, he and the rest of the group vanished from atop the waters of the maelstrom. Their bodies nowhere to be seen.

When he opened his eyes, Lucian found himself in a grand, boundless hall. The walls were so incredibly far away he felt he'd have to sprint for seconds at his greatest speed to reach them. That or employ the internal light to reach it in an instant. The roof too was incredibly far away, so high in the sky, he could have mistaken its white marble for clouds.

Adorning the walls of this impossible huge room were thick metal doors, dozens of them dotting every wall. At this distance, he had trouble gauging how large they were, but they had to be impressive to see the engravings upon them from so far. Some, he noticed, were already open, while most remained closed. Those already open all had an ethereal look about them, half-transparent as if about to disappear any instant.

Turning and taking count of their party, he confirmed that all of them were here. Takis, Irina, David, Captain Stone, Sir Hunt, and Stella Moore, as well as 6 elite guards.

Takis opened his mouth to speak but stopped as he saw another group materialize within the large room, a distance away from them. By their outfits, they were the Floating Rivers group, consisting of 4 elders and one disciple.

Lucian nodded to them as the other group returned their gazes, and Irina waved at her friend, Selene. When the other group gave bows, Takis nodded to them and turned back to their own group.

"Okay. I've only been through this place once before and the trials change every time. To be safe, we will enter the same gate and stick close, but last time we got separated immediately. If that happens, survive first, track down the others second, and worry about completing the challenge last.

"Are we all on the same page?"

The whole group nodded at the prince's words, having already heard them on the ship. There wasn't a lot that Takis could tell of this place. Apparently when he'd come here last time he'd succeeded the first trial, a constant onslaught of battle against creatures of fog, and then been kicked out with some artifact.

It wasn't a lot to go on, but they knew from the records of others that the trials changed constantly and the same trial rarely appeared twice.

"It's an inheritance ground, not some dead man's warded home. If you think continuing will mean your death, there is always an exit. Die here, and you will be assimilated by this place. That's the worst-case scenario.

"Come, we'll take a gate on this wall."

Following the prince towards the distant wall, they all started to run at fast paces, closing in on the distant metal doors that became larger and larger by the second. When they finally stopped running, the huge double steel doors stood like the gate to a giant's castle.

Lucian had to crane his neck to look at it's highest point and admire all the intricate engravings on the metal surface.

"A turtle and a twisting river. I wonder if that holds significance." He mumbled.

"I don't know. Last time I had an ant engraved on the door, but the only thing ant-like were the number of enemies."

"Let's find out then," Irina said with a beaming smile.

Taking a step forward, Lucian took it upon himself to open the door, lest there be any immediate threat.

It was… difficult. He couldn't comprehend how heavy steel doors of this sheer size and thickness should be, but he felt that the weight had nothing to do with the size of the doors.

It was too perfect, taking exactly his greatest effort to open.

'Like that pressure outside. It was almost exactly as much as I could bear, but the 2nd stage Irina could handle it with equal struggle.'

Realization dawned on him as the weight of the doors subsided and he gave a final shove, throwing the two doors open.

"A hallway?" David mumbled.

It was as he said, a long, long hallway, with walls even more impossibly high than those of the hall they stood in.

"No use waiting I suppose," Lucian said as he took steps forward. A few drops of blood, denser than ever rose to just under the surface of his skin, ready to expand into armor at the nearest sign of danger.

Three steps in, he was met with a cold wind, but no threats.

Turning, he gestured for the others to follow, and they all did.

It was earily silent within the labrynth, aside from their own noises. The air was cold and the light was dim.

David touched a palm to the stone wall of the hallway, and then placed his ear against it.

"It's cold to the touch. Icy even."

Lucian tried it, and indeed, the rough stone, dark greenish-blue in color was as cold as ice. He placed an ear on it as David had but heard nothing beyond.

At the sound of Takis' footsteps, Lucian advanced forward with the man, walking cautiously for quite a while before reaching the end of the hallway. The path split left and right, and down each of those directions were more turns.

Exchanging glances with the others, Lucian spoke first to dispel any hasty intentions.

"It's best we don't split up. Not until we know what the trial is."

After seeing heads nodding all around, he tried extending his senses down the two splitting paths and swiftly discovered his inability to do so. His lifesense worked perfectly everywhere he could see from his position in 360 degrees, but the moment he tried to peer around any corner with it, the sense went dark.

Looking at the grim and distracted faces around him, he probed "Any luck?"

Takis shook his head and Irina spoke.

"I can't feel anything. Nothing past what I can already see."

The guards all gave shakes of the head.

"We just need to pick a path. Lucian, take point left." Takis said.

Nodding, he turned to follow the left path. Many more corridors split off from this one, all equally unadorned and incredibly long.

"This is…"

"A labyrinth." Takis finished his words.

Lucian turned back to consider whether they should explore the other path, but as he did, his eyes went wide. In his senses everything was fine, but behind the group of people, was a set of large metal doors, opened wide and softly glowing.

The exit. But not where the exit should be.

"What happened to the path we walked?" He asked as the others all turned back to see the door.

Soft gasps accompanied hands resting on hilts, but nobody spoke for a good second.

"Keep going," Takis said. "It seems our choices are permanent."

The two exchanged a grim gaze before Lucian led the way down one of the branching paths. A while after turning that corner, he looked back and found the door still there, always behind them. If he watched it while walking away it did not move, but the moment his eyes left the door it would reappear closer behind them, cutting off the path's not taken.

Another dead end, and another four branching paths.

"Left," Takis said after a minute of deliberation.

Again they walked, and again a dead end. "Lef– no. There's no point in remembering the direction we went if returning is impossible. Go right."

He went right and they soon found themselves deliberating again. Again. Again.

By the tenth or so time they took a turn the group no longer stopped to consider their choices. Every path was the same and they couldn't glean any useful information. As they walked, Takis would pick a direction at random before they even reached the turning points, and they simply continued on.

There was no sky above them, and he could see no roof. Just those stone walls rising so high they appeared to meet eventually. There were no light sources either, the entire labyrinth seemed to have some sort of omnipresent dim light. This made telling the time difficult. They had to have walked for hours by now, but he did not know if they'd made any progress. The hallways were so similar, oftentimes identical.

Or perhaps they'd simply walked in circles.

After a while, Takis stopped bothering to choose directions and simply followed Lucian in whatever direction the fancy took him.

It was only once he started to feel tired that he realized something was wrong.

'Tired? How could I be tired already? I could walk for a week without feeling…' the hairs on his arms stood on end. 'Where is Takis?'

Spinning around, Lucian needed to confirm the absence he felt in his lifesense with his own eyes.

A large metal doorway with two open doors stood waiting, glowing softly and warmly within the cold labyrinth. Takis was gone, and so were the guards.

Eyes widening, lucidity returned to his tired mind as he grabbed Irina's shoulder with a vice-like grip to stop her continued advance. The girl was so tired she didn't seem to notice.

Only the two remained.