They stepped in, and the maze swallowed the light.
Inside, the walls were black, slick, and close, breathing like something alive.
Calling it creepy was the least of it, but despite that, they didn’t pause and quickly moved forward.
Yet that wasn’t enough, as progress never seemed to be made.
Every turn looked the same, and every corridor opened into another corridor that looked like the last one, leaving them to walk, walk, and turn with no sign of them getting anywhere.
Still, Xenos remained at the front, confidently leading them.
He seemed to have some sort of strategy: keep left at all times.
They’d go left, left, and then right if the path ahead was ever blocked, needing them to turn around and continue their attempts at finding the right corridor, not pausing once, even when they felt maze was... lying to them.
Thankfully, they had met no monster, but still and again, they didn’t seem to make any progress.
"This is ridiculous."
Arc complained every now and then while looking around, as if the maze might cough up the correct path any second. He even started to blame Xenos in the way he usually did, but Xenos didn’t bother entertaining him this time.
He was too busy scanning the path for if ’it’ ever came along.
Good thing Aspen was there to calm his Lord down, a steady guard beside him.
Meanwhile, his childhood friend Deianira hummed in a way that was barely audible, her tail flicking as it always did.
She should have been bored, but this maze had her on edge.
Gaia clutched her sleeves, her eyes wide and careful, snapping her head at every shadow.
Ariadne, always a constant, walked all rigid, her wings folded as she kept to the middle of the group.
They hit one dead end after another.
A stretch of smooth wall with a weird seam.
An arch that promised space only to lead to a darker notch.
An alley that doubled back on itself so cleanly, Arc swore they hadn’t moved.
Still, they pushed on, counting their steps, marking walls with small scratches.
They never once met those scratches again, and that meant they’d made progress, right?
Right, or so they hoped.
They kept on going for a while longer.
The Maze gave them more of the same.
Naturally, the tension only wound tighter.
Even Deianira’s humming thinned.
"T-This might be a path."
Arc jabbed a finger toward a dark seam.
Looking at it, Xenos frowned and took two steps forward.
After a breath, he then took another step only to meet a wall.
This was no path; it was simply their minds playing tricks on them.
A trick that even his mind wasn’t immune to.
Xenos looked back at the group...
At their faces and at their hands, hovering above their weapons.
"We shouldn’t rush it... just stay close."
"This is like the thousandth wrong turn; are you sure we aren’t... completely lost?"
Xenos shook his head. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novelꞁire.net
Arc took that as an opportunity to get a lick in.
"You always look lost."
Xenos waved him away.
"I know where I’m going; it’s this maze that doesn’t."
Aspen chuckled under his breath.
"He’s got a point, my Lord; this maze isn’t normal."
"Again you encourage him?"
Xenos gestured for him to calm.
"We’ll soon find the exit... probably."
He, of course, didn’t reply to that.
Xenos didn’t want them to panic, but the truth was...
’I have no idea where I’m going.’
Right now, he was completely and utterly lost.
He had never been more lost in his life.
The left-hand rule of his should’ve worked, but...
This was no normal maze; it moved in a rhythm he could not see.
No matter how much he thought about it, he didn’t see any clue.
Usually there’d be something here to help out the ’player,’ however...
Xenos wasn’t given anything.
He couldn’t fail here; that would ruin the image he established.
But he also couldn’t stay quiet for too long; at some point, he may need to—
Everyone froze behind him.
Ariadne whispered, and he didn’t answer.
He just lifted a fist, a silent command:
They couldn’t see it.
That was obvious enough.
Because if they could... they might’ve died from shock alone.
Straight ahead stood something too strong to be here.
Or what used to be one.
It filled the corridor, its horns cracked, muscles swollen in strange ways, with every inch of its body crawling with eyes. Hundreds of them, twitching independently...
Only for them to suddenly harmonize and turn towards them.
No one breathed now; even Xenos didn’t blink.
Every instinct screamed the same thing.