From the contract to the different rooms within the company, all along, the Labyrinth had set them onto a false path designed to stall time and assimilate them into corporate oblivion. Only by refusing the contract entirely could they break the illusions and discover the real way out.

  But before they could fully dwell on the revelation, the Manager broke out of his disorientation, charging forward in a bursting rage.

  “How dare you—!” the horse-headed figure bellowed, hooves clopping furiously across the tile.

  The space warped at the corners, the illusions fraying under the real [MAIN QUEST], but the Manager showed no intention of letting them go easily.

  From Edris’s angle, it looked nearly impossible to dodge. The Manager loomed in close, arm raised. Edris stepped back and pressed two fingers to the side of his neck.

  With a deep inhale, he could feel the glow spread beneath his collar tattoo and over his back. By activating the Surge, his entire body would awaken with electrified speed, giving him the temporary ability to move at an inhuman speed.

  At the same time, he prepared to activate [BLAZING TORRENT] with his other hand. If the situation called for it, he wouldn’t mind burning the horseman another time.

  However, he wasn’t given a chance to do either.

  A wave of agony tore through Edris the instant he tried to activate the Surge, locking his muscles in place. He managed only a strangled breath before collapsing to one knee. The card he was about to unleash clattered uselessly onto the tile, dissipating into thin air.

  “Master!”

  Celio’s warning shout reached his ears from somewhere behind him, but Edris couldn’t move. He knew what this was—the side effects of skill overuse.

  “Not now of all times…” He cursed under his breath, the pain pressing him onto one knee.

  He laid on one knee, pinned there by waves of agony, his teeth clenched. The Manager’s shape loomed in his blurred vision. Having fully recovered from the initial shock, the horseman was galloping toward Edris in furious strides, already swinging a massive arm down in a blow that would surely finish him.

  It was at that moment.

  Edris felt someone shove him hard from the side. He went sprawling into a stack of paper boxes, ears ringing from the crash, while Yesteria planted herself where he had been.

  The Manager narrowly missed his target, hooves skidding on the polished floor. He turned to the young woman, flaring his nostrils.

  “Move!” Yesteria yelled.

  A heartbeat later, Celio sprinted over, glaring at the horseman. He inhaled sharply, and Yesteria sensed an abrupt shift in the air. It felt as though the very atmosphere compressed around them.

  The golden-haired boy locked eyes with the onrushing Manager, breath slowing in a measured rhythm. A faint glow formed at the center of his chest and spread outward, brightening his entire figure.

  At that moment, Celio’s inner mana core flared to life.

  Outside the illusions, the fake policies on “mana restrictions” no longer held. His eyes blazed gold, and his hair lifted slightly, stirred by currents of energy.

  A resonant hum pulsed across the room. Yesteria’s heart lurched – she couldn’t fully describe what she was seeing, only that it felt primal, as if Celio had tapped into an elemental bond with some unseen beast.

  A presence materialized around him, translucent and towering: half-shimmering and half-formed, reminiscent of a tiger-like creature stretching a broad silhouette behind his shoulders. Its wings seemed to fill the entire office and beyond, and the aura it exuded amplified every second.

  It was a predatory, raw power that pressed down on Yesteria’s senses. She choked on her next breath, struck by a biological fear, like a prey animal confronted by the apex of predators.

  The horseman faltered mid-charge, eyes widening in alarm. Celio exhaled sharply, and the spectral beast roared—no sound emerged from its mouth, yet the tremor vibrated through the floor. He directed the wave of golden mana toward the horseman, releasing it in a single sweeping motion of his arm.

  The Manager reared back, letting out an enraged cry, only to be hammered down by the raw force of Celio’s attack. The blow drove him sliding backward across the tile, his hooves scrabbling, until he crashed into a cluster of toppled chairs. He struggled to rise, but the dominating aura still weighed on him, pinning him in place.

  For an instant, Celio’s gaze remained fixed on his foe, the ephemeral deity flickering behind him. Then, with the crisis neutralized, the blazing aura around him flickered and dimmed.

  The boy staggered from exertion, but managed to keep his footing.

  Yesteria stooped quickly, sliding a supportive arm around Edris, who gasped as the remnants of pain flared along his limbs. He felt someone else’s grip on his other side—Celio, already stepping in once more.

  With an inhale, he hoisted the dark-haired man easily onto his back. Edris tried to move around, but his body refused to cooperate.

  “Let’s go!” Celio hollered, glancing at the [PROFILE] countdown that ticked away overhead. Barely a minute was left for their escape.

  Yesteria, blinking in surprise, simply nodded. The three traversed to the far side of the office, unsure of where exactly an exit could be.

  “No—” Edris's entire body was trembling as he spoke.

  “No worries, Master. You’re not burdening me at all.” Celio exclaimed. “I got this!”

  “—not this way,” Edris finished his sentence. He gave the beast tamer a tired nudge. “Go the other side.”

  “My apologies!” Celio said, flustered.

  Yesteria blinked as she watched their interaction from the side. If she hadn’t just experienced narrowly avoiding death firsthand, she would have thought they were on a stroll.

  The aftershock of Celio’s transformation was still making her knees tremble. Whatever he had just done, it was nothing a typical teen boy could manage. And from the look of Edris, he wasn’t surprised.

  At the dark-haired man’s words, Celio swerved from their original trajectory, making a beeline for a massive window.

  “Hold on. You’re not—!” Yesteria tried to call, but the boy barely paused, hurtling headlong into the glass.

  The pane shattered, sending shards scattering into the night air. Edris hung onto him, grimacing, as Celio landed on his feet in a crouch, apparently unscathed.

  “He cannot be for real…”

  Yesteria sucked in a breath. Across the room, the Manager groaned, but the formidable aura still clung to him like a heavy chain. With time ticking away, she did not intend to stay a second longer.

  She had no time to second-guess. She crawled up the edge of the window and kicked as hard as she could possibly muster with her two legs.

  As she hurled herself through the broken window, she half-expected to hit the pavement and shatter her bones on impact. Adrenaline rushed through her veins, her heart hammering so fiercely she could hardly breathe. But an instant later, the wind against her cheeks felt strangely weightless.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “What…”

  Yesteria looked around as the world abruptly fractured into jagged shards – like splinters of glass drifting away into a yawning darkness.

  Counter to her expectations, no pain came. Her feet met no ground at all. Instead, her entire field of vision dissolved into a void. Celio and Edris appeared beside her, their forms outlined by faint flickers of luminescence.

  In front of them, a giant [LOADING] screen hovered, its neon letters pulsing in a slow, hypnotic rhythm.

  Yesteria stared, relief and confusion flooding her system at once. She managed to catch the golden-haired boy’s eyes. Celio steadied Edris with an arm across his back, having just set him down. Edris was winded from the backlash of the Surge, but visibly recovering.

  “This is… weird,” Celio said, his voice echoing in the emptiness. “Usually, when a Labyrinth ends, it transfers us straight back to the [ANCHOR HOUSE].”

  Edris drew a careful breath, shoulders still tense from the pain that had wracked his body moments ago.

  “We completed the [MAIN QUEST],” he said quietly, scanning the black expanse, “so we’re safe. At least for now.”

  Yesteria hovered in midair—or perhaps stood on nothing at all. She tried to ground herself in the fleeting reassurance in Edris’s words. Her muscles were still tight from the leap through the window, but the swirling illusions around them had vanished along with the office, the Manager, and that final countdown. A calming hush pervaded the darkness, broken only by the hum of the [LOADING] prompt.

  “Just wait,” Edris murmured, turning his head to gauge the half-formed shapes flickering at the edges of their vision. “Give the Labyrinth a moment to finish… whatever it’s doing.”

  His words were like comforting weights, settling into the group at once. Yesteria nodded, letting out an unsteady breath.

  Silence fell upon the emptiness they were in, and she was finally given a chance to breathe. Yesteria turned her head, eyes skimming over Edris’s lean profile. The swirl of half-light painted sharp angles on his face.

  Perhaps it was due to having just survived a life-and-death situation together, but Yesteria found the man a lot more approachable than before.

  “Hey,” she began, voice hushed. “Did you know all along? About the contract being a trap?”

  Edris kept his gaze on the distance, as though watching for something beyond them.

  “It was only speculation.”.

  She narrowed her eyes. “So you saved me—for a guess? What if I had turned against you again?”

  Edris didn’t immediately respond. He pulled in a calm breath, as though he had no interest in revealing his entire chain of logic. Instead, he fixed her with a brief, measured look.

  “Morris asked me,” he said simply, “and I don’t abandon a bargain.”

  She blinked. “Morris…?”

  A pause. Then Edris faced her fully. There was no warmth in his gaze, just a mild acceptance that he owed her something of an explanation.

  “Your grandfather. It was all his doing.”.

  Yesteria stared blankly.

  Ignoring her reaction, Edris peered outwards. His gaze flickered for a second, as though searching for the right words.

  “I was asked to keep you alive,” he explained matter-of-factly. “You probably didn’t recognize him after all these years, but he recognized you instantly the moment he arrived in the Labyrinth.

  He ran a hand through his hair, still feeling the dryness from the illusions that had just ended.

  “He made a deal with me—one that allowed you to stay standing here now.”

  He didn’t mention how precisely Morris had died, or that his motivations weren’t purely altruistic. Still, Yesteria deserved to know who had safeguarded her behind the scenes.

  He expected her to be startled by the revelation. Instead, she looked downright startled—as though he’d been talking as a spirit.

  “That can’t be right,” she said, her gaze suddenly intense in a different way. “Say—are you some sort of elementalist?”

  He frowned. “No. Why?”

  “Because my grandfather died four years ago,” she said.

  This time, it was Edris’s turn to stare.

  Wordlessly, Yesteria reached under her collar and pulled out a tiny pendant. Beneath the overhead glare, Edris saw it was a glass vial containing grayish content.

  “Labyrinths? He was never in any of those. I was there for his final breath,” she said, voice tight as she swayed the vial in her hand. “These are his ashes. So how did you talk to him?”

  Celio hovered nearby, not sure how to react. Edris felt his skin crawl with goosebumps as he stared at the vial of ashes, then into Yesteria’s eyes.

  If Morris had truly died years ago, then who exactly did he talk to?

  Before Edris could press further, an even brighter light surged, swallowing them all. His vision blurred, and for a second, he felt weightless, as though an invisible hand flung him into oblivion.

  The shifting air felt thick with static charge, then gave way to an entirely different scene.

  Before Edris knew it, he was standing amidst the [GARDEN], fenced in a circle of gentle light. Vibrant leaves fluttered under an unseen sky, tiny blossoms skirting a smooth stone pathway.

  Oh—this was a thing.

  He blinked. He had nearly forgotten about the wells. Unlike the past, the current post-Labyrinth scene appeared to have skipped the formalities as a whole, instead enveloping each player in their separate rounded veils the moment they arrived.

  Celio and Yesteria vanished in the same surge of brightness, each contained in their own region of the [GARDEN].

  A sudden ping assaulted Edris’s [PROFILE], forcing him to glance down at the floating screen:

  A new card?

  This wasn’t an option last time.

  Edris focused his vision, summoning a new message board.

  It was then he was confronted with another problem: every single one of his current four was filled.

  He paused and reread the new card’s description. Edris folded his arms. For a moment, it appeared that he was really contemplating the exchange.

  In some ways, it was an appealing offer. If he’d had [UTOPIA] earlier, perhaps he could have avoided the entire fiasco with the horseman. Yet, he couldn’t ignore that this was nonetheless a blatant attempt from the Labyrinth to encourage their players to choose the second well, which asked for a drop of their blood in return to both keep and upgrade their past cards for future Labyrinths.

  By gifting players with a card right after completing a Labyrinth, the system practically stated that they’d no way of putting it to use without selecting the second well.

  Why are they so obsessed with collecting blood?

  Edris couldn’t help but wonder, scanning the surreal calm of the [GARDEN]. The Labyrinths always angled to take more from players. Unfortunately, they were using the psychological strategy on the wrong person.

  The more the Labyrinth attempted to guide him, the more Edris felt the need to go against them.

  He dismissed the prompt and selected the first well again, refusing to keep the new card. Glancing around, he spotted Celio emerging from the light with relief etched on his face, and Yesteria quickly following. Both had apparently done making their choice as well.

  Shards of color then converged, whisking them from the greenery, the [GARDEN] dissolving into thin air. His last sense of the place was a gentle breeze and the hush of leaves falling away.

  When the glow receded, the three found themselves back in the familiar circular platform of the [ANCHOR HOUSE] first floor, faced with the large, comfortable chamber that greeted finishing players.

  “What the…” Yesteria gaped as she took in the circle of luxuries.

  “We’re back!” Celio exclaimed, relief plain in his voice as he skimmed his surroundings. “Master, look! We’re–”

  All signs of joy evaporated from his face as he whirled around to confirm Edris’s presence.

  “Master?”

  But Edris didn’t respond. His knees buckled, and under Celio’s wide eyes, he crumpled face-first onto the floorboards.

  “Master?!”

  ***

  “That will definitely leave a bruise.”

  In a paint-splattered room, Edris glanced up at the screen and saw his own unconscious body sprawled on the ground, faint lines of tension still etched across his brow.

  He let out a long breath.

  “At least give me a warning next time before dragging me in here,” he said aloud, though no one visible stood before him.

  Yet as he spoke, a long couch materialized on the edge of the colorful walls—a comfortable piece of furniture that looked out of place in this saturated realm. A slender figure sat upon it, one leg crossed over the other, leaning back as though entirely relaxed.

  The woman tilted her head, a strand of hair falling over her smiling face. “Missed me?”

  Edris fought the urge to sigh. He felt heavier than ever—exhausted from the Labyrinth, from his near meltdown, and now from this sudden summons.

  “Long time no see, Lady Mia.”