When I entered the path alone, my heart was burning with anger, regret, and grief. I had failed to protect my friends—failed again and again.
How can I even take revenge for my parents, I thought, when I can't even protect myself?
The path was silent.
Too silent.
A sinister aura clung to the air, pressing against my skin like invisible hands. Every step felt watched, judged. The ground beneath my feet trembled without warning.
Then it broke.
Rotting hands burst from the earth. The soil split open as undead soldiers clawed their way out—helmets cracked, bones exposed, eyes glowing with a lifeless hunger. Their mouths opened, but no sound came. They rushed me all at once.
I barely reacted in time.
I dodged the first strike, the blade slicing past my neck, and countered with my sword. Steel met decayed flesh. The impact shuddered up my arms as I cut one down—only for two more to rise in its place.
I fought.
Again and again.
My body screamed. My lungs burned. Every mistake felt final—because it was. No revival. No second chance. Each blow I blocked, each step I misjudged, could be my end.
Yet I kept moving.
Bodies fell. The ground grew slick with blackened blood. The soldiers kept coming, relentless, endless, as if the path itself was testing how long I could endure without breaking.
Breathing heavily, Rin wiped the blood from his blade and let out a quiet, broken laugh.
"So that's all you can offer?" he muttered. Rin revealed a sinister smile as blood flow through his mouth "I will not die here!!!, they took everything from me and now it's my turn"
After destroying every soldier to bone so they can't walk Rin started to move forward.
A figure appeared before Rin, Rin asked, "who the hell are you."
It was girl about Rin's age. The girl smiled "I am the maze".
Rin spoke, "what do you want."
The girl smiled and spoke, "you", Rin looked at the girl and responded "ha"
Rin let out a short, humorless laugh.
"Ha... don't joke with me."
The girl didn't blink.
Her smile stayed soft, almost kind—but the air around her warped, like reality itself was holding its breath. The ground behind Rin sealed shut, the broken bones of the undead sinking back into the earth as if they had never existed.
"I am not joking," she said calmly. "You are standing inside me."
Rin's grip tightened around his sword. His instincts screamed run, yet his feet refused to move.
"The maze doesn't speak," Rin growled. "It kills."
The girl tilted her head. "It tests."
With a single step, she closed the distance between them—no sound, no wind. One moment she was far, the next she stood inches away. Rin raised his sword instantly, the blade pressed to her neck.
She didn't flinch.
"Do you know why you feel pain here?" she asked.
Rin clenched his teeth. "Because you're trying to break me."
"No," she replied softly. "Because I allow you to feel it."
Her eyes changed.
Not glowing. Not burning.
Empty—like endless corridors folding into each other.
"This maze grants revival to those who can still afford to fail," she continued. "Lives are mercy. Mercy is for the weak... or the unfinished."
Rin's breath hitched.
"So you didn't give me one," he said slowly. "Because you think I'm weak?"
The girl smiled wider.
"Because you are complete."
The pressure slammed down.
Rin dropped to one knee as gravity multiplied, crushing him into the ground. His bones screamed. Blood spilled from his mouth again, splashing onto the stone.
"You have no soul," the girl said plainly. "At least, not one that belongs to this world."
Rin's eyes widened.
"That's impossible," he hissed. "Power comes from the soul. Everyone knows that."
"Yes," she agreed. "And yet you fight."
She knelt in front of him, her fingers hovering just above his chest. Rin felt something pull—not flesh, not mana, but something deeper. Something that shouldn't exist.
"You were born empty," she whispered. "But something else answered the void."
The path trembled violently. Far away, screams echoed—then silence.
Rin forced himself to stand, shaking, but unbroken. He met her gaze head-on.
"If I'm empty," he said, voice low and fierce, "then what is it that keeps me standing?"
The girl's smile finally faded.
"That," she said, standing up, "is why I want you."
The maze began to shift. Walls rose. Paths twisted. Symbols burned themselves into the stone beneath Rin's feet.
"You will walk until you understand what you are," she continued. "No revival. No guidance. Only truth."
She turned away, dissolving into fragments of light.
"One more thing, Rin," her voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere.
"The strongest monsters in this maze..."
The air grew cold.
"...are not undead."
Rin steadied his breathing, wiped the blood from his mouth, and stepped forward into the changing path.
"Good," he muttered.
"Neither am I."