Movement was difficult. It was like making machinery that was thousands of years old begin to move once more. However, unlike the miracle that was getting machinery to last that long, this was expected, and precautions were taken just in case any movement was in fact detected.

  It was only his lips that opened slightly as the light chuckle of amusement escaped his lips, but the entire room lit up in a discordant mess of colors. Magic circles and sigils engraved into the very stone began to shine in various colors, slowly increasing in intensity. The entire network that was intricately crafted spread and reached toward the center of the room, powering up an even greater and more powerful magic circle.

  The light was so bright that all the darkness was dispelled and revealed an empty room in which only one thing was present.

  A single humanoid man with tattered clothes. The clothes were destroyed to the point where there was not even a single hint of what they once were. It could have been something as modern as a business suit, or maybe something ancient like a roman toga. Something beyond the simple passage of time had devastated what the prisoner wore, yet there was a certain level of elegance in their presence.

  He could feel the magic and holy sigils in the room reach toward him and suppress every inch of him. It wasn’t only a physical restriction; he could feel their power burrow deep into his very being. The power that restricted him distorted memories, and knowledge. Everything was working against him, making sure that he remained in place, trapped forever.

  However, there was a flaw that could be easily exploited if the prisoner really wanted to, and deep in his subconscious, addled as it was, he knew.

  The labyrinth itself was a machine, something designed to only operate under certain conditions. It was designed to only do certain actions under certain conditions and only under those conditions. Sure, various measures were taken just in case there ever was a need for extra considerations, but those were long dead and finished. Each and every failsafe now roamed the halls of the labyrinth, doing the only thing they knew how, keeping things in and others out.

  So, without any one to tell it otherwise, the power that constrained the prisoner reached deeper and deeper inside, until it stirred something within him.

  The prisoner’s mind was addled by time and magic, he didn’t even know what he himself possessed. So, when the power that restrained him reached and touched something that he didn’t recognize, not consciously anyway, he jolted in mild surprise.

  The power responded by increasing in intensity, restraining what it considered to be the most dangerous aspect of the prisoner. This, however, was the biggest mistake it could have ever made.

  This ancient power had been dormant for eons and now it was stirred awake. If someone had been watching, they could have made adjustments, prepared for something so obvious, but there wasn’t. The ancient power rampaged within the prisoner, destroying the restrictive power that tried to restrain it. A knowing smile began to invade the prisoner’s face.

  ----------

  The labyrinth began to shake violently, it followed the movements made by the prisoner’s internal power.

  At first it was a slow rhythmic vibration, but it steadily began to increase in intensity until it burst into a full-on rampage. The rampage was so great and intense that the edges of the labyrinth began to crumble under the violent movement.

  Throughout the entire labyrinth, the tower challengers began to rush toward the light. Some had remained for the exact same reason they had on previous floors, for the chance to participate in the secret floor quest. But as the shaking began to intensify, it became clear that the risk was too great, evacuating immediately.

  Some fought off the fear and immediately regretted it when their portal door collapsed, leaving them without a way out. They immediately began to run in search of another way out. Others remained stalwart at the loss of their gate, but they all crumbled when an overwhelming sense of dread began to travel through the tunnels in waves, drowning them in it.

  Near the only remaining portal gate, stood a black lizardmen, his and his companions’ excellent mana manipulation kept the gate complete and even made the trembling lessen, if only a bit.

  His eyes narrowed as the overwhelming wave of dread reached him. Flaring his nostrils, he recognized something.

  “I know this scent,” he muttered, an instinctual dislike flaring within him. “But what is it?”

  What Kralva recognized was the scent of Eric, but he had no way of knowing that, not truly. Eric was supposed to be dead and even if he assumed he wasn’t, he had only really interacted with him for a couple of minutes, not enough to create a lasting memory. He was conscious of him, but mostly as a concept, something to research further once he finished the tower, other than his odd ability, nothing remained, not even his face.

  Dismissing the familiarity he felt from the scent, his expression turned haughty and full of ridicule.

  “This is why there are levels of class. Only the small minded would venture toward the depths,” Kralva said, turning toward the gate. “May your death be final, or not…”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Kralva began to walk toward the portal, the scent hitting him once more and as his mind reached to make the connection, he crossed the threshold and the flimsy connection vanished, leaving him oblivious toward the answer.

  Behind him, a retinue of followers, all wearing black robes followed after him. They had kept away at his insistence on the first floor, but this labyrinth was far too dangerous to leave him alone and they ignored his commands.

  They quickly found him using imperial techniques and dispatched all obstacles that he came across, regardless of their nature.

  Everything other than angel skeletons themselves crumbled under their might, as did any and all tower challengers that they came across. They had been greatly injured, to the point that one of them was nearing death, even after receiving elixirs from Kralva, but that was their fate.

  They had remained on orders from Kralva, he wanted to see if someone was capable of reaching the center of the labyrinth and maybe even clearing the secret quest that lay within. However, his curiosity was crushed by the sense of dread that emanated from deep within. He couldn’t risk it, so he departed.

  ----------

  Eric’s attention was drawn toward the center of the room he had just entered. The room became shockingly bright as all sorts of magic circles lit up in response to something that he was not aware of.

  In the middle of the room was a single humanoid figure, standing there. Their body was a bit hunched, their arms hanging freely. The clothes they wore were unrecognizable, evidence of a fight was clear as Eric was able to make out wounds that coincided with certain tears in the clothes. But not all of it appeared to be torn, some seemed to have just given up and released whatever it was that connected it to the rest of the clothes. How much time has to pass for that to happen? Eric thought to himself.

  His thoughts ceased when the shaking began. Immediately, he shot his head toward Harkus only to find him lying on the ground unconscious. A faint scent of something burning wafted to his nose and he quickly identified the cause.

  The magic circuit that ran through the entire room was heating up and one of those circuits was under Harkus and it was burning his fur.

  Taking unsteady steps, Eric made his way toward the unconscious minotaur. He barely reached him when the shaking suddenly became far more violent and aggressive. Eric reached for Harkus’s horns and held on firmly, stabilizing himself until the shaking began to slow down, if it ever did.

  After what felt like almost an hour, the shaking finally ceased in its entirety. Eric had moved Harkus to a wall where no magic circuits ran through. The circuits were still as bright as they had been since shortly after he entered, but there was something off about them. Narrowing his eyes and focusing on the engraved magical network, Eric found what was off about them.

  “The engravings… they’re chipping,” he muttered, holding himself back from touching the flowing magical and holy power that flowed through them. “The intensity hasn’t diminished. So, was it not meant to run at full capacity for long? Is it time? Are they spent? Maybe it was never tested for this level of operation,” he added considering the possibilities. “All this to contain—”

  When Eric turned toward the center, to get a better look at the figure that had been standing there, he was stunned to find that the figure was no longer there. His body instinctively knew that whatever or whoever was at the center of the room was dangerous and all his senses heightened to their absolute limit.

  Without moving, his eyes began darting around the room in a frantic manner, trying to catch even a glimpse of something out of the ordinary. When he began to turn, he immediately saw something that was off, beside where he had put Harkus down.

  He turned with an incredible level of tension all over his body, his joints seeming to creak as he did so, and the figure slowly came into view. The clothes were just like he had observed when the magical circuits lit up the room, but now he could clearly see the figure’s face, skin and eyes.

  The figure appeared male. Its hair seemed to have fallen off, but patches of new dark black hair were already growing as he observed, taking over the empty spots. Its skin was an ashen gray, with simple lines running down its cheeks and seemingly reaching the backside of its hands. And its eyes were a strong, brilliant yellow. They weren’t gold, they weren’t the color of sunshine, they were a very clear and powerful yellow that lacked any light.

  “You know—no—know,” the figure began, struggling to speak. “You… Are… thefirsttocomeheresince… since when? Who! Are you?” Its voice kept shifting in tone, speed and manner of speech. Then for only a moment, words and sounds that felt like they tore at the soul were heard, only to quickly return to normal. “What! Is! You are? Now? Here…?” It jerked its head in confusion, unsure of what it had just said.

  Even though its words were rough and made little sense, Eric could feel a certain compulsion to answer its questions, disjointed as they were. But he was able to resist whatever it was that was trying to make him submit and answer. It was just intense enough that he could actually notice the fact that he was actively fighting it.

  There was also something else that Eric managed to grasp. It was the way the figure’s mouth moved. Eric understood the words that were exiting the figure’s mouth, but he attributed it to the System and its magic. But the way its mouth moved showed hints it being actual English and maybe even Spanish.

  "You are... now... wait—where—why are you? No. Who... who is… you? Here? When?" The figure seemed to slowly begin to steady itself, slightly less erratic than before. "What... is... the reason... you are here? No, wait... since when are... you here? Why... why are you here? Do you know?"

  Eric could finally make out the questions, more or less. And he was right, the movement of its mouth did follow both English and Spanish. He really only noticed it because of how alert he was to everything the figure did.

  Fighting through the instinctual fear that was rushing through his entire body, he was about to clarify the questions and offer an answer, but the figure beat him to it.

  It blinked slowly, stood straight, its dark yellow eyes becoming clear and gaining some light. "Who are you? And... what are you doing here?" Its voice was refined, elegant, yet rough. It evoked the image of a noble that fought alongside rough mercenaries and got along with them as equals but was still a noble at the end of the day.

  Eric suddenly felt the urge to answer, far more intense than before, but again he felt how something within him, his very being, fought it off. Despite this internal conflict, Eric knew that his only way to survive was to comply with the being before him. If not because his body screamed that he was in danger, then because of the quest that appeared before him.

  You have encountered the secret objective of the Trial of the Mind.

  New Quest!

  Quest: Local resident.

  Objective: Deal with the labyrinth’s prisoner.

  Rewards: +20 Reward points.