Leonidas had seen many things in his own life and in Art's. Maniacal warriors fighting for all eternity, snowflakes falling endlessly without restraint, massive onyx deserts, donned under a merciless sun.
Everything wrong with the world held a single thing in common. They were all some sort of cursed mark the Labyrinth had brought upon the world.
As such, when Leonidas had touched the Labyrinth entrance, he had expected the inside to be some sort of twisted hell.
A curious thing to know about the Labyrinth was that it wasn't really a Labyrinth, at least not in the traditional sense. There were no stone walls lined with torches, nor were there any overgrown plants.
The Labyrinth, in essence, was an amalgamation of 27 different realms stitched together in an unpredictable sequence. Each region was different from the other; some were smaller than a city, while some were larger than most Circles.
Leonidas had some information about the different regions, as much as the Labyrinth allowed people to know, at least. Just like the trials, most information about the realms was restricted. Pilgrims had little to no freedom in matters that concerned the Labyrinth.
What in the name of insanity...
He wasn't wrong about that; the world indeed was mad. Literally.
The ground beneath his feet wasn't solid at all. It was a weird red liquid, looking dense and viscous. But it was solid at the same time. He was, after all, standing on it.
Black rain fell from above, but vanished from existence before it touched Leonidas's body. Massive rock-like pillars—their surface a mixture of every color Leonidas had seen—were everywhere, twisting and turning at angles that defied the conventional laws of physics.
They spread like a massive stony ribcage that had been stabbed by two similar ribcages. Geographical objects were spread across their surface, but Leonidas couldn't make out what they were. His eyes stung from the massive pinwheel that hung in the sky.
But on the bright side, he knew where he was.
The Realm of Madness, Color Spires.
It was just that...Color Spires were one of the most dangerous regions of the Labyrinth. While all 27 regions harbored threats and horror beyond comprehension, the Realm of Madness was a little special in that regard. Here, they were born from the imagination of those trapped within its boundless expanse.
Which meant that Leonidas would soon have to face his worst nightmares, alongside those of millions of others who had come here in the past 37 years.
Let's hope I have good luck.
Thinking so, Leonidas raised the unique silver sword Siridius had given him at his waist, walking forward cautiously, the semi-solid surface rippling beneath his feet with each step.
It was surprisingly light for a weapon its size.
His current goal was to find a place of shelter before he encountered some sort of abomination that wanted nothing more than to snuff out his soul.
He was standing in a sort of plain, with the stone ribcages stretching far and wide on all sides. Nothing out of the ordinary was in his immediate vicinity, which just made him more wary.
Never would Leonidas believe that the Labyrinth was a safe place. The sound of a flute being played whispered softly across the field, and with it came a soft gust of wind.
The tune was melodic, pleasant to the ear, and the wind that it brought with it ruffled Leonidas's blonde hair lightly, shoving it into his eyes.
With a cold shiver, a realization ran through his body as it settled deeply within his mind.
Even the wind here isn't normal.
With the wind had come the sound of the flute, not the whistling or whooshing sound that was normally associated with the wind.
The Labyrinth truly was a world within a world...27 to be exact.
Leonidas stared at the colorful collection of twisting and turning pillars ahead. It would take him an estimated 15 minutes to reach the base of the nearest ridge.
15 whole minutes of walking exposed through a field, susceptible to attacks from any direction. Leonidas didn't even trust the sky that shielded him from the majority of the rays the pinwheel emitted. Nor did he trust the insidious black rain that blocked his vision and vanished before he could touch it.
But most of all, Leonidas didn't trust the ground...or rather water he was standing on. The crimson liquid looked far too similar to blood. It felt like it would try to eat him at any moment.
I might really be too paranoid.
All of a sudden, the sound of a bell chiming exploded from the sky, loud enough to burst Leonidas's eardrums.
Leonidas clasped his hands around his ears, hands clutched them tightly as if to hide them from hearing anything further.
He bit his tongue to stop a scream from escaping; who knew what kind of beings would hear him?
Leonidas forced his eyes to move towards the sky, towards the pinwheel sun that the sound had emerged from. The rain didn't help.
Previously, the pinwheel had been three-fourths pink, but now there was no red left. Was it a coincidence?
Damn, I need to move.
To Leonidas, the bell sounded less like a horrifying weapon meant to destroy his ears and more like a timer that had run out.
Ears were often described as one of the most vital organs. It was simply because the ears contained a fluid that helped balance the body...now imagine if said ears exploded internally, and some of the fluid leaked.
I wanna puke.
The result would be Leonidas's current state, delirious, with him barely being able to see ahead. Pounding headaches and feelings of vertigo. He felt his body tilt, even though he was running straight. This, in turn, made him adjust his body, which led to him stumbling every other step.
After all, how could you straighten something that was already straight?
Leonidas really, really wanted to curse, but he wouldn't do it. A little problem with his ears that might be permanent, and the creeping sensation of death wasn't enough to make him act unsightly.
A whole minute had passed since the chime had sounded, and Leonidas's prediction had come true with uncanny accuracy. The floor of scarlet he was standing on began to change shape. Torrents of liquid flowed outwards with graceful movements, gathering together.
Slowly but surely, something akin to legs started forming from the red liquid, a similar scene happening all around him, hundreds of bodies being formed.
Nope, no way in hell am I gonna wait for that thing to be finished.
Leonidas pushed away the fog clouding his mind and ran. He could only hope that he made it to the spires in one piece.