One Last Time

"Providia... that was her name... but, something here isn't right. Look, she looks different here... her eyes are painted orange, and her hair is painted white. That wasn't what Providia looks like... it's weird, that girl looks familiar, but I can't remember her," Boo muttered, looking at the bottom right of the wall painted with the 'Achamo' name.

"What the hell? The paint here is still wet, look at my finger," I said, wiping it on the painted stone where the 'Achamo' name stood.

"It's wet? And that's not even water... that's paint. Somebody was painting this recently?" I asked, following the Labyrinth forward by a slight amount.

Out of the very edge of the wall, I saw a pantleg slowly move into a line of sight I couldn't see.

"Guys... somebody is really close to us. We should move forward," I said, waving my hand for them to follow me.

"Really? What did you see?" Chi-Chi asked, getting obnoxiously close to me.

"Uh... a pant leg. It wove in the wind as he crossed further into the maze. If we can catch him, maybe he'll know how to get out of this damn Tower," I said.

Orion tossed me my axe, as he could anticipate what I was about to suggest.

"And if not, then we'll kill him," I said,

We all moved in a tight group away from the painted wall... and suddenly, the wide walls to the Labyrinth narrowed down, almost into passageways we couldn't fit into if we were all standing shoulder to shoulder.

The turns were tighter as well. Every turn took a sporadic change in direction... but when I closed my eyes to concentrate on footsteps around me, I could hear something shifting in those narrow turns.

"We're close... let's hurry!" I shouted out.

My eagerness to find the person I was hunting could've been seen as off-putting, or maybe even out of character... but I was praying to any God available that who I was about to see was Genesis.

The edge of my axe is yearning for blood from that man's neck. I would stop at nothing if it was Genesis standing in front of me.

"Am I crazy, or all the walls closing in?" Alex asked, following right behind me.

"The walls could crush all of my ribs, if this is who I think it is, I'm not backing down from this encounter or any challenge he throws at me," I clarified for him.

"Okay Charlie, don't be an idiot now. I want to kill him just as much as you do, but we're stronger with level heads," Boo said.

"I know you're trying to be the mature leader, but hearing that from you devalues the meaning. I know you want Hikari too. Why aren't you zooming ahead with your ability to see who it is? You can move that fast, and you haven't even used it yet," I yelled out to Boo.

"You dumbass, I know I can move that fast, but do you think I'd use up all of my energy now if there is something dangerous ahead? I can just wipe whoever it is off the face of the Earth if they're really that dangerous, but I'm not going to waste a potential use of my speed on an assumption. Are you normally this stupid?" Boo asked me.

"This stupid? Aren't you pretty cocky? I'm probably smarter than you if we're being honest," I said to her while running.

"Are you two just going to fight the whole time? I mean seriously," Chi-Chi groaned about our complaints.

"No, by all means Charlie, if you want to admit you're smarter than me when a stupid old man fooled you into thinking you killed all of your friends, then sure, go ahead and say that. I'll ignore you and live in the real world, and you can continue with your illusions," Boo said after that, running further ahead than me.

"Be that way then, I'll sit behind while you do the heavy lifting. Maybe you'll take the first hit," I said underneath my breath, following behind her.

Boo was annoyingly cocky most of the time, but it wasn't unwarranted. She was the leader, and I knew that, but when she didn't have the same ambitions at me, we would never see eye to eye. She wanted to do her own thing, and I wanted to do mine.

I want to kill Genesis, and she wants to stay alive.

I guess that's the fundamental difference.

Boo turned one last corner and stopped right in front of me. I bumped into her and almost knocked her down, guiding my eyes past her shoulder to see a man standing on a hill.

The hill curved upwards, touching the top of the Labyrinth walls. It was a small figure standing at the very top, but with one easy glance at his clothing and his face... I could tell who it was.

Genesis.

I tried to push past Boo to catch him, but she grabbed onto my shirt before I could move.

"GENESIS!" I screamed out.

I could hear the footsteps of my friends speed up and come to a halt at the very bottom of the hill he was standing on top of.

"I didn't expect you guys to catch up so fast... you didn't escape out of the wall that you broke?" He asked, completely brushing me off.

"We were about to, but then decided against it... don't move... don't do anything, otherwise, I'll kill you with my speed..." Boo mumbled. She couldn't keep her hand off of her sword on her hip.

"The Achamo girl isn't exactly threatening to me... don't make me log you out again," Genesis said with a slight smile.

"Trust me, if I see that bitch one more time I'll scalp her. However, I'll stay here and patiently wait as long as you answer a question for me," Boo asked him.

A moment of silence went by, and Boo finally opened her mouth again.

"Your presence. I've felt it for an abnormal amount of time... how long have you been watching us? Longer than we expect? As soon as we entered The Tower? How long?" She asked. I scoffed, knowing Genesis wouldn't give her a straight up answer. She should just let me kill him.

"How long? Probably since The First Trial," He bluntly said.