The air grew heavier the deeper they went, pressing against their lungs like an unseen tide. Each corridor looked identical, yet something always felt off—the slightest wrongness in angles, shadows that moved when no one did.
Ash's light orb pulsed faintly as they walked, the blue glow reflecting against the slick stone walls. Garrick whistled softly to mask his unease, but even his usually carefree tune faltered into silence as the echoes came back distorted, like someone else was whistling with him—half a beat behind.
"Alright," he said, forcing a laugh, "whoever's doing that echo thing—stop it. You're freaking me out."
"Echoes don't lag," Selene murmured.
Caius glanced upward. "The labyrinth's spatial fabric is unstable. It's folding the sound back through delayed time pockets."
"Right," Garrick said flatly. "You know, normal people just say 'it's cursed.'"
Ash didn't respond. The Codex's voice had returned, quieter than before, like a whisper beneath his heartbeat.
"The maze feeds on emotion. Fear and curiosity are its lifeblood. Each reaction births another path."
"So what—you're saying it's alive?" Ash thought back.
"In a sense. A magical organism sustained by trapped consciousness. You feel it, don't you? The watching."
And he did. That subtle, crawling sense of eyes beyond the stone, studying their every move.
They came to a crossroad—a hall branching into four paths. Each shimmered faintly under different hues: blue, gold, crimson, and silver.
"Which one?" Selene asked.
Caius knelt, tracing a sigil on the floor. "The silver one's pulsing faintly—it's resonating with neutral mana flow. That's our safest route."
"Safest?" Garrick repeated. "You said that last time and we fell through the floor."
Selene sighed. "You're welcome to lead us into the red one if you'd rather."
"I vote silver," Ash said, gaze fixed ahead. The Codex had fallen silent again, but he felt its approval like a faint hum at the edge of his awareness.
They moved down the silver corridor. The walls closed in slightly, runes growing denser. A low vibration pulsed through the floor, matching the rhythm of their hearts.
Then—without warning—the light shifted. The blue flame dimmed. Shadows grew longer.
Garrick's voice came first. "Uh… guys?"
Selene turned—he was gone.
"Garrick?" she called, her voice echoing. "Caius?"
Ash spun. The corridor behind him had vanished. He stood alone.
The Codex's tone sharpened immediately.
"The labyrinth has chosen to divide. Classic predatory behavior."
"Where are they?" Ash hissed under his breath.
"Nowhere your voice can reach. You must survive your segment to reunite."
"Segment?"
"A trial. A reflection of what the maze thinks you are."
The corridor rippled like water. The world stretched—colors smearing, time warping.
When it settled, Ash stood in a vast, hollow chamber.
It was circular, lined with tall mirrors—each one reflecting not just his image but different versions of him.
In one, he was wounded, blood staining his academy uniform. In another, he stood crowned, eyes burning with unearthly light. In yet another, he was older—tired, broken.
The Codex spoke again, its voice lower, almost reverent.
"The Mirrors of Truth. They reveal potential and regret, weaving them into phantoms. Do not engage. Observe."
But the reflections began moving. One stepped out from the glass, solidifying into form—his face, his stance, his mana.
Only… colder.
The double smirked. "You think you can lead them, don't you?"
Ash's breath hitched.
"You play the calm one, the strategist, the 'chosen' vessel—but you're just pretending you aren't terrified."
"Ignore it," the Codex urged. "Illusions of doubt."
"Doubt?" the double said with a grin. "He's not wrong."
Ash's fists tightened. "You're not real."
The reflection tilted its head. "Neither are you. Not fully. You've been whispering to that voice in your head—tell me, Ash, how long until it stops advising you and starts controlling you?"
The Codex's tone darkened.
"End it."
Ash drew in a breath. "With pleasure."
He raised his hand, the azure circle flaring into existence. The reflection mirrored it perfectly. Mana swelled—two identical surges colliding in a roar of blue flame.
The blast sent cracks across the floor.
The reflection lunged, and Ash met it head-on. The two forces clashed, movement near-identical, a dance of mirrored fury. Every strike Ash landed, the double matched; every spell he cast, it countered.
It was like fighting his own will.
"You can't beat yourself with brute force," the Codex reminded. "You must deny its existence."
Ash gritted his teeth, chest burning. "Deny…?"
"It only has power if you recognize it. Close your circle. Refuse to see it."
Ash steadied his breath. The double grinned, charging again—
—and Ash simply closed his eyes.
The mana flared, his mind focusing inward, the Codex's sigils pulsing within.
"I am real," he whispered. "You are not."
The air shuddered.
When he opened his eyes again, the double was gone. The mirrors stood shattered.
"Good," said the Codex, calm returning. "One trial passed. The maze grows weaker for each conquered reflection."
Ash wiped the sweat from his brow, breathing heavily. "What about the others?"
"Each faces their own truth. But time here flows unevenly. We must move."
Ash nodded. The chamber began to dissolve, light folding inward until another corridor appeared.
He stepped through.
Elsewhere—
Selene stumbled through a tunnel where her own voice echoed back words she hadn't spoken. Whispers of failure, of her mother's scorn, of a destiny she couldn't control.
Caius stood before a pool of blood reflecting his serpentine heritage, his own shadow whispering that he'd never be more than a cursed noble.
Garrick—poor Garrick—was currently yelling at a wall that kept shifting into a bar counter, trying to order ale from a ghost. "Come on, even cursed labyrinths need customer service!"
Meanwhile, Darius Redthorne leaned back in his seat before the scrying pool. The labyrinth shimmered beneath his fingertips.
"Fascinating," he murmured. "So the Codex is still active. This might be easier than I thought."
Behind him, a cloaked figure stirred. "And if the labyrinth consumes him?"
Darius smirked. "Then I'll claim what's left."
The pool rippled, showing Ash walking through shifting light, his expression carved from focus and exhaustion.
Back inside the maze, Ash reached a vast door made of living stone. It pulsed faintly with a heartbeat rhythm.
"This is the labyrinth's core," said the Codex. "Its will made form. Destroy this, and you weaken its hold."
"How?"
"You are its key. Strike true."
Ash placed his palm on the surface. The stone rippled like flesh, reacting to his mana. For a moment, it resisted—then accepted.
His circle flared. The light poured outward, threads of blue weaving through the walls, unraveling the runes.
The labyrinth screamed.
The sound wasn't of stone—it was of something alive in agony.
The corridors warped, the mirrors shattered, and suddenly Selene, Caius, and Garrick were thrown into the same chamber, tumbling across the cracked floor as light flared.
"Ash!" Selene called, eyes wide.
"I'm here!" he shouted, voice barely audible over the rumble. "We need to get out—now!"
Garrick blinked. "You think?! Let's go before this place eats us for dessert!"
They ran, the Codex's voice a steady pulse in Ash's mind, guiding their path.
"Left. Upward incline. Through the breach. Now—jump."
They leapt as the floor behind them collapsed into a swirling abyss of black mana.
The gate—their entrance—flashed ahead, barely open.
They dove through it——and light swallowed them whole.
When Ash opened his eyes, he was lying on the grass outside the labyrinth. The night sky above was quiet, scattered with stars. The festival lights flickered faintly in the distance.
The maze behind them stood silent once more, its entrance sealed.
Garrick groaned beside him. "If anyone ever suggests an underground adventure again, I'm punching them."
Selene sat up, brushing dust off her hair. "Everyone okay?"
Caius nodded slowly, though his expression was unreadable. "For now. But Darius won't stop here."
Ash looked toward the sealed maze, the Codex whispering faintly within him.
"The labyrinth sleeps again… but not forever. You've awakened something older than Redthorne's schemes."
He exhaled, standing. The moonlight caught the faint mark glowing on his hand—the echo of the labyrinth's seal.
"Then we'd better be ready."
The festival bells chimed again in the distance, eerily out of tune.
And somewhere far away, Darius Redthorne smiled in the dark.