Chapter 9

Lewis and Pasiphae navigated through the Labyrinth using the glowing 'Bread Crumbs' that Pasiphae used to find her way back after 'killing' Lewis. Pasiphae got stabbed in the face after the comment, but only with half the blade, Lewis considered it a mercy since she at least told the truth.

"Were you always so cold hearted?" Pasiphae complained.

"You want to be stabbed again?" Lewis responded, slightly unsheathing the sword and looking back at Pasiphae with a menacing glare.

"Ah, no. I'll shut up now." Pasiphae looked away in fear. Lewis nodded and sheathed the sword.

"How did you even kill Dan and the rest with how weak you are?" Lewis muttered as he continued forward.

"Mental games." Pasiphae replied.

"What?" Lewis turned back and asked.

"Like with you, I made a stew from a butchered pig and chamomile, only they ate it. Within twenty or so minutes most would fall asleep and Asterion would eat them. If they didn't fall asleep, I would use their tiredness against them by telling them what I told you, that they were eating their companions. You were the first one to find the remains though, by some odd stroke of luck. You are right though, I'm only immortal and my blessing is just the Blue Monarch. My magic isn't geared towards battle or harm." Pasiphae admitted.

"Wait, gods and goddesses have blessings?" Lewis began asking questions.

"We're not omnipotent or omniscient. But, I'm not talking about the main gods, I'm referring to those like me. The ones born between a god and other beings like spirits, nymphs, humans, elves, fae, etcetera. Take Heracles for example. Born of Zeus and a mortal woman. His Blessing was the Dung Beetle, making him the literal strongest immortal ever conceived." Pasiphae explained.

"Of course! The Dung Beetle could pull one thousand one hundred and forty-one times its own weight! Making it the world's strongest animal, even though it was an insect. Of course that makes so much more sense now. The stronger he made his base strength, the more powerful he would become with the blessing active." Lewis got excited over the facts on the beetle.

"Why did you get so excited over a beetle?" Pasiphae questioned Lewis's sanity. Her head went flying as Lewis reflexively removed it from her shoulders while he was still lost in his thoughts.

"Ah, sorry, what were you saying?" Lewis looked at the headless body without changing his expression.

"Nothing important." Pasiphae replied with tears in her eyes as her body picked her head up and replaced it back on the bleeding stump that was her neck. The shirt that Lewis had given her was now bloodied and full of holes, a glimpse of naval and or a nipple every now and then could be spotted.

"I wouldn't have cared even if it was." Lewis replied as he sheathed the sword and turned back to following the trail. Pasiphae held back her cries of anger and anguish and followed Lewis with a whimper.

***

Once they reached the now destroyed area where Lewis fought and killed the Minotaur, they searched for another entrance or exit. Pasiphae, being as useless as usual, never paid attention to where Asterion would come and go from. So Lewis cut all except her right arm off and scattered the parts around the area. Watching the one armed body drag its bloody carcass around as it attempted to find the other parts was both horrifying and entertaining to Lewis.

"You are a cruel bastard!" Pasiphae shouted from where she was tied by her hair to Lewis's belt.

"It's less cruel and more like… creative punishment deserving of a serial genocide offender." Lewis mused.

"It was survival! I didn't want to be on the menu myself!" Pasiphae stated in response.

"You're immortal. You'd have been fine, and your son would have been happily fed each time you regenerated… if you regenerate." Lewis replied with an afterthought.

"I only regenerate if my body has been destroyed, and only if one of my bones isn't powderized. But that does not mean that it wouldn't hurt!" Pasiphae confirmed.

"That's broken." Lewis stated.

"What's broken?" Pasiphae inquired.

"That ability." Lewis answered.

"No it's not, it's perfectly functional. But because none of my body parts have been destroyed, all I can do is crawl around trying to put myself back together!" Pasiphae raised her voice in irritation.

"How are you still talking so loudly? You have no air to push through the vocal cords." Lewis muttered with both confusion and frustration in his tone.

"Well, fun fact! I have amazing control in my neck muscles that allow me to su-Buh!"

"I didn't ask you, shut up." Lewis smacked the talking head and went back to searching the area. Pasiphae's body still hadn't reached the closest appendage, which was the right leg, ten yards from its starting position. Lewis followed the wall until something akin to an optical illusion seemingly deactivated as the walls came apart and revealed a path for Lewis to take.

"Ah, found it!" Lewis exclaimed excitedly as he rushed out into the walkway.

"Wait! My body!" Pasiphae shouted, but it was too late. The destroyed rest area had been replaced by the black stone wall of the Labyrinth.

"Well, at least now you can finally be a head." Lewis chuckled to himself.

"Ahead of what?" Pasiphae cried while asking.

"... fuck." Lewis sighed and began walking.

***

Lewis once again found himself fighting off the animal monster crossbreeds as he navigated the Labyrinth. Pasiphae was busy pouting, nakedly, behind Lewis after she purposefully detonated her body through magical means just so she could regenerate. Lewis was amused and in a good mood, especially after her screams of pain both during the detonation and the process of regeneration itself.

"Were you a tyrant in your past life?" Pasiphae asked after nearly eight hours of silence, after the screaming of course.

"And my mood, ruined. No, I just hated people." Lewis responded with a groan.

"Would it hurt to be nice to me once?" Pasiphae snapped.

"Excruciatingly." Lewis replied with an honest look on his face.

"You're a vile piece of shit." Pasiphae spat.

"Only one of us has commited mass genocide repeatedly for thousands of years." Lewis reminded her.

"Tch!" Pasiphae sucked her teeth in annoyance.

"Maybe you've gotten too confident because I haven't removed a part of you in a while…" Lewis pointed the bloodied blade at Pasiphae's throat threateningly.

"I apologize for my outburst, master." Pasiphae bowed, pale faced and sweating. After the fight with her son, she simply gave up on ever facing him. After he proved his strength even when weakened, she gave up entirely on revenge as well. After those moments, she only saw him limitlessly getting stronger the more he battled. His wounded body even began to slowly heal itself like an Immortal's body would, a slower pace yet still compared, but similar nonetheless.

"Master? I don't want your servi-... you know what? That sounds like a great idea actually. It would be nice to practice my swordsmanship on something fleshy, it would get me used to flesh being rendered apart." Lewis spoke his thoughts out loud. Pasiphae held back her tears. Why didn't Asterion succeed in killing this monster? As the two walked and fought, Lewis finally found the center of the Labyrinth. It was a simple circle arena with no decoration. Bones, weapons and armor littered the arena as well as signs of fierce battles. Some of the corpses were fresh and it was a mixture of animal monster crossbreeds as well as humans. Lewis recognized the fresh bodies as the remaining members of the C-Team.

"So I am the only survivor here huh?" Lewis sighed.

"Uh, I'm here too… master." Pasiphae reminded Lewis.

"Don't remind me. Hah, one survivor and a burden. How come you never found this place, you know, after being here for thousands of years?" Lewis sighed in reply and asked while he looked around for the item to return him to earth, but the room was plain.

"Are we sure this is the center of the Labyrinth?" Pasiphae asked as if she had anything to do with navigating there, ignoring the question, yet answering it at the same time.

"'I' am sure, yes. See how many paths lead to this room? A labyrinth would need a center for all paths to lead to. There isn't really a definitive entrance or exit, otherwise it would be a maze instead." Lewis responded, emphasizing the 'I' before he drew his sword, something telling him that something was wrong. Sure enough, ancient symbols began to glow along the walls, symbols that Lewis had no idea on how to read.

"'Welcome challenger! To have made it this far means you're either extremely strong and brave or a lucky coward. Should you defeat the hordes of my Synthetica Monstra and the monstrous Minotaur, boss of the Labyrinth, you shall gain the Thread of Ariadne, as well as the deed of ownership to this Gate Dimension. As I, Ianus, will, so shall it be.'" Pasiphae read aloud.

"Ianus? Oh, Janus, isn't he a Roman god?" Lewis questioned.

"Yes, and it's written in latin. I learned a while ago from the earlier centuries." Pasiphae crossed her arms and stated smugly. Lewis cut her cleanly in half and watched her fall, the smug look turning to disbelief and then acceptance.

"Don't act smug around me, or I'll cut you in half." Lewis warned.

"You're supposed to warn someone before you cut them! Not the other way around!" Pasiphae complained, Lewis gave her a warning look.

"That works, I'll shut up now." Pasiphae pulled herself together. Lewis nodded and turned towards the paths in front of him as he heard clopping and running coming from all directions. Lewis began using the vine blessing and made sure they were ready to defend his blindsides. Within moments the half animal monster breeds overran the arena and Lewis went to work hacking and slashing, stabbing and impaling, and avoiding the attacks returned. Pasiphae was simply overrun by the monsters and swept along while being devoured and torn apart. Her screams for help were ignored by Lewis as he simply focused on killing the creatures. Though they were many and Lewis couldn't avoid all of their attacks, he still managed to beat them back.

"That wasn't so hard." Lewis huffed as the horde retreated after roughly thirty of them were killed.

"He said hordes, and where the hell were you when they were devouring my body?" Pasiphae came limping back, her skin in rags and several chunks and bones missing and hanging from her body. It was healing quickly, but it was still quite the sight to see.

"Busy, not caring." Lewis replied honestly. Sure enough after two minutes of rest, more running could be heard and another, larger horde rushed into the arena and Lewis went right into the fray again.

***

Hours? Days? Lewis wasn't sure how long he was fighting for. After the twelfth horde, everything was difficult to understand. It was as if space itself had distorted and all of Lewis's motor functions felt inverted. Thinking about moving his left leg, moved his right arm, his left arm was his right leg and vice versa. Looking up was right, and left was down. The only thing that kept Lewis alive and gave him time to adjust, was the vines themselves. Where there used to be light was now shadows, and where shadows were, was now the light. Nothing made sense, his senses did nothing. The longer he fought and adapted, the worse it became. There was no ground, only air, yet he did not feel like he was floating, only falling infinitely. All of this seemed to happen quickly, yet slowly, after the loss of his sense of time and balance. Lewis wasn't sure what was happening, his thoughts were dull and devoid of any structure, it wasn't until the glowing symbols reappeared that everything returned to normal with Lewis in a sea of corpses and colored crimson red from blood. He immediately began vomiting from the sudden change, his head felt as if it was about to explode and his body was on fire as all his nerves tried to reprocess everything normally.

"That was unpleasant to witness. You were moving like a broken puppet, yet you still managed to fight off all twenty hordes of the synthetic monsters with eerie precision. And those vines? They were like tendrils with a mind of their own as they threw, impaled, crushed and entangled the monsters with a single minded methodology. Your eyes were glossed over as if you were somewhere else, it wasn't until I saw your eyes that I realized that Janus had set a trap for mortal challengers that ensnared their minds in a distorted space." Pasiphae was now dressed in the abandoned garments of the dead. Simple boots, trousers, a skin tight shirt, gloves, leather armor for the chest and right shoulder, and an archers cloak from one of the dead C-Team members. Lewis took a moment to look up, but his vision was pulsating and swimming, nothing was focusing in. Lewis attempted to stand up, but instead he simply stumbled and fell.

"Oh? Perhaps this is a gift from Janus? Perhaps he wants me to kill you!" Pasiphae drew the sword she picked up and thrust the blade towards Lewis's throat, but stopped before it could even nick his skin.

"Hah, but how can I blame you for your actions when you simply fought for survival? I'm not the same as you, I understand your motives, the strive to see the sunlight again. Hah, when did I become like Minos? His unholy obsession with Asterion, listening to the screams of the victims and enjoying it? Now that I think about it, was any of this even of my will?" Pasiphae began self reflecting, as she seemed to come down with a case of major confusion. The real history behind Pasiphae and the reason for her entrance into the Labyrinth was lost to time. Who did she really enter into the Labyrinth for? Were the memories of before the Labyrinth hers, or a memory of someone else as a means of retaining comfort? These questions had no answers, for the Labyrinth records all but speaks not of what it knows. Only the effects of the Labyrinth linger on those that have fought in it, the last and only other survivor being Thesseus, none have been able to study it. None who enter and survive are ever the same, for the malignant emotions of those that had passed within the walls stain the very air with its stagnated hatred, corrupting the minds of all creatures within.