Chase.

Loki stopped asking questions and looked at his hands.

'Something's wrong here…'

'Years? Has it truly been years since I've come here?'

'No- Yes. That makes perfect logical- I mean no! I'm pretty sure a lot of people would've tried contacting me- But what if there are restrictions on spirit world travel here? What if Rowley or Sunny can't reach me in-'

'If Sunny wouldn't have been able to find me, I'm pretty sure he would've asked Mr. Basilisk to help out. And I doubt that any charm or trinket would've accounted for the enormous amount of spirituality the snake has.'

Loki frowned.

'So it hasn't been years?'

'But then why does it feel so long has passed?'

'A mental interference test?'

Loki looked around with his spirit vision, trying to identify the source of his troubles. But no matter where or even how he looked at things the uninteresting walls of the endless corridor that he was inside of remained bland and clean.

There were no scratches or ridges that would allow him to conclude that there were any runes drawn on its surface and even proliferating the walls with his spirituality didn't bring up any runes to study.

'Can I just use the concealment rune to stop whatever is interfering with me mentally?'

Loki focused on the rune and gave himself a few seconds to study if there were any differences between before and after he used it but there were none.

'Has it really been yea-?'

'No I can't get disheartened so easily.'

'But if it isn't working from a direct mental interference, how is it working though?'

With no other alternative left to himself, Loki frowned for a while before choosing to continue travelling through the endless corridor.

Apart from the incessant *buzz* that permeated through every inch of the corridor, the only other sounds were Loki's slow and steady foot steps.

Each step he took made him feel like he had grown more tired, hungrier and sleepy. It felt like with each step that he was taking life was moving faster and faster out of his grasp.

Eventually, the silhouette of a small table showed up at the end of the corridor.

'Finally…'

Loki quickened his pace and arrived at the table. It was a gracefully aged wooden table that had several intricate carvings of a variety of magical stories on its surface.

'Hmm…'

But the one that stood out in a dominant manner against the backdrop of more miniature carvings was the centre most piece.

The picture was of a humanoid bull ripping people apart and consuming them without distinction. It didn't matter what weapons the people it ate held, be it a sword, a shield or evena wand, or a staff, they were all torn apart from the centre and eaten raw and alive.

'A minotaur that chases and eats people alive?'

Loki frowned, he understood the stories, but he didn't understand what was going on with all this.

'Is this like a boss fight or something?'

'Then where are my health packs and ammo stations?'

Loki looked around the table but he found nothing. So he just shook his head and clicked his tongue, before continuing to walk away after making sure he studied all the carvings on the table.

There weren't any blaring images that stood out other than the minotaur eating people alive but that was only until Loki noticed a different carving tucked away in the corner.

This single carving showed a person holding up an emblem that was shaped in a unique way.

The symbol was shaped like an inverted equilateral triangle that had several gears inside it.

The nice part about the carving was that the minotaur appeared to be outright ignoring the person who was holding up the emblem.

'Isn't that just the symbol of the True God of the Paragon Pathway?'

Loki frowned.

'So that's a hint about how one should escape the mino-?'

But Loki wasn't given time to think about anything else.

He suddenly heard a thin *rustle* from behind the walls, causing him to turn around and look at them carefully.

'Huh?'

'What was that?'

Loki looked at the walls and then had the sudden urge to duck.

He paid attention to his instincts and ducked, only to find the wall bending like fabric as a hand forced its way to push it around like a plastic wrap.

Just like how the butler had arrived earlier, Loki suddenly saw the wall melting around a figure that he immediately recognised from the two large horns protruding from the surface of the wall.

'Minotaur!!!'

Loki did not stay behind to fight with the Minotaur. He was in a disadvantaged position if he used his current place as a fighting arena since it was too cramped and he could be attacked from anywhere since the Minotaur could seemingly travel through walls.

So Loki decided-

'I need to run!'

Taking quick steps through the corridor Loki was suddenly reminded of the other problem that he was facing.

With each step that he took, it felt like his mind was being slowly eroded from its sense of time. Eachs tep felt like it pushed him a year further in his life. Each step made him feel like the Minotaur that was chasing him and hot on his heels had stopped chasing him a year earlier.

But each time he stopped to look back, Loki found the Minotaur right behind him.

Making sure not to pay attention to his sense of time and trusting his instincts that forced him to run, Loki started rushing through the corridor.

But only after a few minutes when Loki found himself much deeper in the corridor did he spot something at its end.

'A dead end?'

'Did I miss a turn somewhere?'

Loki wanted to turn back and look, but he could also feel the hot breath of the minotaur touching him through the walls. It felt like the minotaur was breathing fire and Loki didn't want to be anywhere near it.

Loki's eyes squinted as he struggled to make out what appeared to be the end of the corridor before he finally saw it-

'Left?'

'So it's not a dead end?'

Someone had scratched the word on the wall, leaving Loki to try and figure out if the personw as well meaning and wanted to team up or if it was a trap.

With the Minotaur behind him and the writing ahead of him, Loki didn't have time to divine anything and so he started to think rapidly.

'There was only one other person that left the dormitory.'

'And that person most likely came across the table I had before me.'

'Is he really trying to help me?'

'But he probably took everything that was on the table and was meant to help the other participants of this competition to sabotage them.'

'...right it is.'

Loki estimated the position of the Minotaur behind him from the faint shadows that were cast in front of him before flicking his wand under his feet.

A section of the ground was suddenly transfigured into a small raised barrier that sprouted in between the Minotaurs legs and caused it to crash.

Loki used the few moments that had been given to him to stick to the right side of the corridor before a stray thought struck him.

'What if he thought about using reverse psychology?'

________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N : Extra chapter for crossing two hundred power stones last week! Let's gooo!!!!

Join my Patreon (p@treon.com/hooin_kyoma_au) to read 20 chapters ahead for just $3.