Lu Na was ready for this. She already had her left fist clenched and called up the strongest stone wall she could while simultaneously pushing out with it as well.

  The floor rose to meet Elder Hen’s horse spirit. Its hooves clashed against the stone while pushing it back.

  Lu Na held back and instead wrapped Elder Hen up in a box of stone created from her null metal bracelet. She didn’t want to kill the man by dropping him into the lava, for his son helped her many times.

  It was unneeded.

  The stone box exploded into large fragments as Fengma exploded out its cage.

  Lu Na barely had time to raise up another earth wall from the ground they stood on.

  It blocked the fragments but caused another problem: the entire platform they stood on collapsed under their weight.

  Lu Na held onto the small pillar at the center of the platform. She couldn’t twist her left hand to call up any more support, not that it would have helped, anyway. The only earth that was around her was now falling away into the lava.

  Elder Hen rode his horse spirit down onto the previous platform. He looked like he was about to jump up again, but the platform shook heavily. It swayed back and forth, forcing him to dismiss his spirit. Once he did, the platform stabilized.

  It must have been from Fengma’s weight.

  “Well, that didn’t turn out the way I hoped,” the game master said. He floated down right above the stone pillar that Lu Na held onto. His right foot stood on his tippy toes right onto the pillar itself. “I guess you get to answer it the way you want to. Except, there’s another bit I forgot to mention.”

  “Of course. Tell me what it is,” Lu Na screamed. She was slipping despite holding onto the stone pillar with both hands.

  “It’s simple. The full question that you have to answer on this last pillar is: What would you give up in order to subjugate all spirits in this world?”

  “What?” Lu Na slipped, but caught onto the very lip of the disintegrating platform. She pulled herself up until she rested uncomfortably on the remaining edge of the platform. Somehow, it held up her weight.

  “I won’t repeat the question again.” The game master floated back up into the air. “But I will tell you this much. Your mother was offered the same question. She failed.”

  Lu Na struggled up all the way until she perched on the remains of the stone platform. It connected to a small portion of the wall and shook every time Lu Na moved.

  She was safe for the moment.

  What would she give up for this power? The ability to subjugate all spirits also meant the ability to seal them away as she answered. Yet the allure of having that power would allow her to change the world for the better, as Elder Hen said. The people in charge rarely ever had the people they led in mind when deciding.

  Lu Na could be the one in charge.

  “I will give up whatever it takes to have this.”

  “Excellent. All you have to do is press the stone pillar and purge everyone here. The phoenix spirit in the nexus would die, your friends outside of the secret door would die, and specially assigned spirits will hunt down everyone in your family and household, starting with your parents and brothers.”

  The game master said that with such wistfulness that it made Lu Na pause.

  “You’re kidding right?” Lu Na asked.

  “No, I’m not. You’re willing to give up anything for the power. Press the button. Everyone that matters to you will die and you will have power.” The game master floated down until he sat next to Lu Na. “It’s a simple thing. Everyone wants power to do what they want. No one wants to be weak. You most of all. You haven’t had the power to decide what you want to do ever since you’ve been born, I bet.”

  Lu Na nodded. Even this quest to save her mother was thrust upon her from forces out of her control.

  Would it be worth it, though?

  “Best part is, with this power you can make the emperor and the rebels outside of the labyrinth stop fighting each other, causing people to kill each other, children to starve and much worse for many others. You have the power to do it. Just press the button.”

  “But it means killing everyone I love. I can’t do that.”

  “They’re all going to die anyway if you don’t press that button. Why waste their sacrifice? Press the button and you can save so many more.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Your mother didn’t want to either. She didn’t want you to die or suffer as she’s suffering now. That’s why she’s trapped in the nexus, having her soul ripped apart by the labyrinth.”

  Lu Na felt an icy chill running down her spine. She wrapped her arms around herself. Where was this cold coming from?

  It was the game master.

  This was the first time the old ghost was so close to her. It felt like those times the other ghosts tried to attack her mind.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “No, get away from me you monster,” Lu Na said. It barely came out as a whisper.

  “No one can save you now. Only you can save yourself. Press the button and you’ll be free to do what you want.” The game master had his hand on top of Lu Na’s. It was freezing.

  “No, I won’t.” Lu Na clenched her left fist and flicked it left. She pulled the remaining stone from the platform until it created a tiny platform for her to sit on. At most, she could only get half her butt cheek to sit on it. It also pulled the stone away from the stone pillar with the button on it.

  The only thing left was a small device below the blinking metal button. With one look, Lu Na knew what she was looking at.

  A bomb.

  If Lu Na had pressed the button, the device would have gone off and killed her. After a closer look, it probably would have leveled the volcano and everything within.

  “You knew it was a bomb, didn’t you?” Lu Na asked the game master.

  The game master shrugged and floated right on top of the button, sitting on it as if it was a chair.

  “My task was never to allow you to leave here alive. All those obstacles, pain, and torture you went through were interesting, though.”

  “I’m done playing your games. How do we end this?” Lu Na took out her small identifying tool. She carefully placed it near the device to see what else it could do other than explode.

  “All these centuries, I never expected to find an inventor standing before me,” the game master said. “Well no, there was one early on that thought he was so smart. He pressed the button anyway.”

  “Wait, there’s more to this than just a bomb.” Lu Na pulled her identifying tool back. It showed her it held another device within that activated something else. It couldn’t tell her what it was, though.

  Lu Na was frustrated. She wanted to throw the tool down into the lava. When she got out of there, she was going to develop a better tool to determine what these things did.

  “Okay, I’m assuming you still have to answer my questions or continue this test, right ghost?”

  The game master laughed.

  “I don’t have to do anything. I’m not even supposed to be here. You know the thing I hate the most? It wasn’t being trapped here, but those insufferable and disrespectful Xia officials that thought it better to seal away the spirits rather than respect them for the gods they are. That’s why I took over this role to stop anyone from ever succeeding. So no, you are the last person I would ever help.”

  That explained a lot. One misstep or mistake during the obstacle and she could have easily died. Yet there was something that bothered her.

  “That can’t be true. If that was, you never would have summoned Elder Hen here to help me. Without him, I would have failed.” Lu Na peered down at the Elder who was meditating peacefully below. “No, you must be following a certain set of rules or otherwise you would have killed me at the start of this obstacle.”

  The ghost floated down and stood beside Lu Na. The cold seeped back into Lu Na, freezing her from the inside. It felt like someone reaching into her chest to grab her heart.

  “You na?ve little girl. You’re right, I don’t control any of this. But you’re forgetting something. I’m already dead. This was nothing more than entertainment to me.”

  The game master smiled wide, showing the gap in his teeth, before diving right into Lu Na.

  The world turned black, and her entire body was at once burning on fire and freezing. Lu Na couldn’t move. It was like ropes being tied all around her.

  Then her hand moved up to her own throat on their own.

  “This is going to be fun. I never killed one of you as a ghost before,” the game master’s voice said inside her head.

  Lu Na couldn’t breathe. Slowly, she was choking herself to death. It was the worst thing she ever experienced. She couldn’t see her attacker. She couldn’t stop herself. It was worse than being inside the Wintersweet Ancestor’s mouth.

  “Press the button.” The game master’s hand grabbed hers, pulling her toward the button.

  Lu Na wanted to give in. She wanted to let go because her other hand was still choking her.

  A phoenix cry sounded in her head. A warmth spread through her body, pushing against the cold of the game master’s touch.

  Lu Na could feel the grip on her throat loosening. She pulled her hand back down, away from her own throat and away from the button. But that’s all she could do.

  “Young Miss Lu, you’re going to be the death of me,” Zi Xu said. His voice sounded so far away.

  The cold came back. Lu Na felt Zi Xu pushing at the game master.

  “You can’t do this! I’m in control here,” the game master shrieked.

  “I’m a welcomed ghost, unlike you. Isn’t that right, Young Miss Lu?” Zi Xu asked.

  Lu Na didn’t want either of these ghosts taking control of her body, but she had to choose. The ghost that wanted to kill her or the ghost that has helped her in the past. It wasn’t a hard choice.

  In moments, the familiar weight of Zi Xu’s ghost rested in Lu Na’s mind. She could move again.

  “I’m too tired to do any more. Beat this challenge or we all die here.”

  Zi Xu’s voice faded away as if he breathed his last.

  The moment Lu Na could move again, she collapsed onto her small little platform, choking for air. She still felt the faded pressure from her own fingers around her throat.

  Lu Na pulled out her silver phoenix hairpin. She didn’t have her spirit wand, so she needed anything that could do and this was the closest thing she had. With a wave, she gathered spirit energy at the tip of the pin, forming an edge.

  With a quick slice, she cut the bomb from the device. The pillar button would not explode anymore.

  This only left one thing. She had to push the button.

  From what Lu Na could tell, it was a complex device that could still go wrong. And then an idea hit her. She reached inside her chest pocket.

  The manual ghost Jie gave her might have an idea.

  Lu Na flipped through the book, trying to find anything that resembled the device in front of her. She flipped page after page, trying to find anything that looked remotely like it.

  A moving image appeared in front of her. It showed Sun Ren and the rest of the rebels being pressed against the door.

  “Your friends are running out of time. Push the button already, end this. I know I’m done and over this,” the game master said. He stood near the moving image, no where near Lu Na this time.

  Lu Na hovered her hand over the button. The game master was right. She had no other choice. Either end this now or watch as her best friend died to feral spirits.

  A small glow from her chest pocket stopped her.

  Lu Na reached in and pulled out Jie’s key. She had forgotten she had this. This came from her boar spirit that spoke with her. Before her rampage, she told Lu Na that she trusted her to complete the test and free them all. Was this what she meant?

  Lu Na brought the key close to the device. It glowed brighter.

  “Where did you get that?” the game master asked.

  Lu Na reached forward until the key touched the pillar’s button. The glow disappeared, replaced by a quick flash. It blinded her for a second, before the key was not glowing anymore.

  The pillar device changed. It shifted until it opened a small slot.

  Lu Na pushed the key into the slot and the pillar’s button glowed blue. Then green. Then red. Finally, it stopped on white.

  A voice came from it, speaking in that old language that Jie spoke.

  Lu Na did not know what it meant. Did that mean it was done? Did it mean it was ready?

  She looked for the game master, but he was gone. In fact, all the other ghosts below them in the audience were gone. The Wintersweet disciples were gone too.

  “Press… the button… already,” Zi Xu said.

  Lu Na hesitated only for a second before pushing the button.

  The volcano rumbled below as the lava bubbled and frothed. It shot up toward the platform, narrowly missing Lu Na and Elder Hen below her.

  “What’s going on Zi Xu?” Lu Na asked.

  No answer.