A Trap?

Loki slammed hard into the wall to change his direction quickly, but his angle was rather strange, instead of his shoulder bashing into the wall it was his feet.

Loki had decreased his weight by levitating his clothes to achieve the effect of wall walking.

Loki glanced at the Minotaur that was still rushing towards him with a sneer before he jumped. Loki jumped from one wall to the other while maintaining his low gravity state through the levitation charm as he sped through the corridor by dragging himself with the help of a sticky rope.

His sense of time still remained distorted, but Loki had a new aim in mind apart from escaping the Minotaur.

'I should find whoever was here before me.'

'They likely know or have a way to defend themselves against the Minotaur in some way since they had the time to scratch a fake sign onto the wall.'

Loki's eyes narrowed as he quickly dragged himself up the corridor, looking back every once in a while occasionally as he kept track of the Minotaur that was now swimming through the wall to keep up with Loki's speed.

He was able to gain momentum around corners since he was flying while the Minotaur had to stop, but it was quick to gain ground by swimming too.

After a while of Loki rushing, the Minotaur was slowly catching up to him even at his ridiculous pace.

'Should I cast that symbol?'

'I mean I know it's the symbol of the Paragon Pathway so it isn't something terrible for me to do, except maybe angering the true god of the pathway a little or annoying 'Him'.'

'But…'

'No. There is possibly an easier way to do this.' Loki shook his head.

'I should search for my 'teammate' before trying something so 'unplanned' and 'dangerous'.'

Loki kept running, creating occasional blocks by quickly transfiguring the wall to see if any other elements would keep the Minotaur trapped behind it but they didn't work.

The Minotaur could swim through virtually anything that Loki had tried, and it did it efficiently too.

But after a few minutes or years of running around, Loki quickly started to feel breathless.

Not because he was losing stamina, but because of his distorted sense of time. He felt terribly alone for having spent such a long time without doing anything. Even though he knew that he was being made to feel this way, he worried about Elane. Worrying if she was alright or if something had happened to her in the time he was gone.

The thoughts weren't intentional, they just popped up and hovered at the edge of his sanity, calling out to him like the sweet whispers of a siren.

Loki's face had gone from being excited about the mission to a much more neutral expression and lastly settled on a frown.

His mental tiredness was growing and Loki was constantly thinking about giving up and letting the Minotaur capture him since he was sure that the Flamel couple were nice enough that they wouldn't let something terrible happen to him.

But the only thing that kept him going was the fact that it was all a test.

Suddenly, however, Loki heard a strange sound.

*sob* *sob* *sniffle* *sniffle* *sob* *sob*

'Someone's crying?'

Instead of an even deeper frown or worry about what the sound was Loki's face beamed into a smile.

'It's either a trap or my 'teammate'. Whichever it is, it's an opportunity to lose the damn Minotaur behind me!'

'I'm getting very tired of the constant *grunts* and *whistles* the damn thing keeps making.'

Loki's speed picked up and he suddenly found himself turning around a corner for the sobbing sounds and sniffles to have vanished.

'A trap?' Loki thought quickly.

'Or the person has become aware of me and the Minotaur!?'

'If so-'

"Helloo~!!!!! Ken~ you hee~r me!!!!!!" The voice shouted, its echoes resounding throughout the structure.

'A girl?' Loki became wary, wondering if it was a trap, but the next words calmed him down if only a little.

"I have 'ze invisibility device! It keeps me away from all the creatures in 'zhe maze!"

Loki was tempted to stop there and think about what the girl was saying, but the Minotaur was catching up.

'...all the creatures? There are more in this place? How come I haven't met a single one yet then?'

The voice sounded out once more and Loki realised why he was only being chased by the Minotaur.

"Ze animals are all around me! From zhe next corridor make a sharp right!! I will meet you ahead! Do not come into the left corridor!! Zhere are many, many, creatures here!"

Loki's shining face turned into a frown once more as he wondered what he would do.

'Could she have faked her crying and sobbing?'

'I mean she could've heard me first and then pretended to be sobbing and crying before trying to spring this trap on me for some reason…'

Loki looked ahead at the approaching turn that was coming up and then looked at the Minotaur behind him.

Loki quickly flicked his wand and landed on the floor of the corridor as he started using his legs to run once again.

His first few steps were hesitant since he was worried that he hadn't used his legs in a long time and that they'd atrophied, but to his surprise and happiness, they worked just fine.

Now on his legs once again, Loki flicked his wand while chanting a simple spell-

Parva Glacius Ferro

A sharp ice blade formed out of Loki's wand and he quickly took a few short but quick breaths to steady himself as he tossed the knife he was using to the other end of the corridor.

To another person, this act would've seemed meaningless, but to Loki in his sharp vision, he was able to catch the reflections on the ice knife as it shot out of his hand and embedded itself into the wall.

This allowed Loki to see around the corner without wasting time travelling to it.

And what Loki saw made him *sigh* a little in relief since there actually was a horde of monsters there, trying to dig through a wall that had been skillfully set up and transfigured.

'She could've used some sort of illusion magic or some Beyonder ability to set them up…but I don't have the time to test that hypothesis.'

'Let's trust her this once…'

Loki quickly ducked as a hand arrived at him through the wall, trying to grab his throat, before he rushed once again, moving towards the right corridor that the girl had told him to use.

The trick with the ice knife had wasted Loki's time a little but he quickly used all the energy in his body to keep running through the corridor that the girl had asked him to use.

And after turning around another corner, Loki finally laid his eyes on his 'teammate'.

'Damn….'

Loki almost stumbled because he was about to fumble his steps since for a moment he almost lost himself.

'Hell is that girl from the demoness pathway!?'

Loki wanted to stop since that would mean he was walking towards an assassin, but seeing the real tear stains on her cheeks and the device she was holding Loki chose to trust her.

Still, he quickly primed his wand and hid a new ice knife inside his robes.

'Any precaution is better than being stabbed in the back.'

"Over here!!!" The girl shouted in obvious joy.

Loki was a little unsure about the girl's joy since the Minotaur behind him hadn't stopped for anything else, but since he'd decided to trust her, he kept running.

However, as soon as Loki reached her, he saw her pull out her wand with an angry smile.

'A trap?'

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