by Thomas Green
Ignoring whatever Katherine was saying, Amaranta reached under her robes, and pulled out the matrix. She pressed a side, and a number shone on it.
Good. I stretched out my power, grabbed the bubble protecting us, and moved it through the Void in the right direction.
The Void around us changed, darker than before.
“What just happened?” Katherine asked, being the fastest to speak.
“I teleported us the equivalent of a million light years’ worth of distance in the direction of the vault. Zhang, make the direction more precise.”
Speechless, he started adjusting the ray of light. I was hoping to figure out how he read the coordinates and orientated through the emptiness, but I couldn’t pick anything up. Void mages were said to be exceedingly rare due to requiring an extremely specific brain anomaly that allowed intuitive orientation in N-dimensional space.
I apparently lacked that anomaly.
“Should I record this location?” Amaranta asked.
“No. The next location to record will be the place in front of the vault.”
After a moment, Zhang and Joseph adjusted the ray of light. And then I teleported us further. In this manner, one hop after another, we headed toward the vault. And after about an hour, we reached our destination.
I did the seventeenth jump, a maelstrom of ice, fire, lightning, and dirt, swirled in the Void in front of us. Lucielle’s vault.
Immediately, I started analyzing the pattern in which the energies moved.
“Tell me we’re not going into that,” Katherine whispered, floating near me.
“We are.” I spread my arms, formed thousands of beams of light, and sent them into the maelstrom. None reached the center, devoured by the swirling energies. “Joseph, there has to be a path through that. How do we find it?”
“I need a pen and a paper,” he said.
I flicked my wrist and both items appeared in front of him, together with a chair and a table.
He sat down and started writing. Zhang joined him, also taking his shot at writing something down.
Amaranta floated to my other side, and whispered, “Do you think this is an elaborate defensive mechanism or something she stitched together in five minutes?”
“The latter,” I whispered back. When Lucielle worked on something, it was neat, elegant, befitting the mighty queen that she saw when looking into a mirror. This messy conflux of elemental energies was most likely made with a single wave of her hand as something she originally forgot about. But that didn’t mean getting through would be easy.
“We need some tests,” Joseph said. “From the swirling, I see four possible approaches and can’t tell which one would work.”
“Tell me the most likely one.”
“We fly in, move with the main whirl you see on the inner circle of the maelstrom, and spiral down on an eight degree descent.”
How was I supposed to tell what an eight degree descent was? “I’ll give it a shot.” I strengthened my shields and flew toward the maelstrom. After giving it a good guess, I lowered myself to the edge and started circling with the fiery pattern. The moment I got out of sight, I spread out my aether beyond the maelstrom.
Invisible to normal eyes, my aether wrapped the maelstrom like a huge bubble. I hardened the aether into an aether-consuming barrier, so it would absorb any aether passing through.
Once done, I refocused my mind on the maelstrom. Sure, there was the tempting option to fly straight through the center, avoiding all the elements, but that path was sure to have a trap on it. I spread around my aether, hoping I would detect something.
And sure enough, my aether touched an invisible barrier right in the center. I did my best to guess the eight-degree descent and spiraled into the maelstrom. After I made it one third through, the ice flows in front of me suddenly spun at a quicker pace. The moment I noticed, the fire stream I was following also changed speed, swiftly replaced with a cascade of lightning coming to devour me.
I teleported back to the bubble where I left the others. “The pattern changes periodically.”
Joseph crumpled the two sheets of paper he had covered in writing and threw them aside. “I can’t see that from here.”
We all glanced at each other. The obvious option was for all of us to go in a bubble and alter the navigation en-route. But that carried an even more obvious risk of me being too slow to teleport us out if we messed up. Alternatively, I could try to destroy the maelstrom, but that would both exhaust me and risk damaging the vault.
As Katherine paled, Amaranta sighed. “Give me moment,” she said, and then she turned into lightning. Amaranta bolted into the maelstrom’s edge, joining the lightning current. I lost track of her at that point.
Joseph pierced me with a glare. “This would be a lot easier if I knew she could do that.”
I shrugged. I should have kept track of who knew what since I was lying to everyone involved, but that would be too much hassle.
A moment later, lightning bolted back to us from the maelstrom. “The door’s inside the maelstrom, sideways from the core. I can shield us from the lightning, but it will cost me a lot of power.”
I smiled. “Just mark the door’s location onto the teleportation matrix and I will take us all there.”
“Right, that.” Amaranta bolted back into the maelstrom. She returned less than a minute later, holding the matrix in front of herself, now two sides shining. I flew to her and touched the newly-glowing side of the twelve-sided matrix.
Intuitively, I understood the coordinates. “Gather around me,” I said.
Everyone flew to me.
I tightened the bubble around us, focused for a split second, and we all teleported into the maelstrom. Fiery Armageddon wreathed us, trying to tear apart the defensive bubble. But the door, a gate made of pure darkness, floated in front of us. Letters made of lights shone across the gate’s wings, reading, ‘Gate of the Void’.
I touched the gate and negative aether energy lashed at me, trying to fill my veins, to snuffle my own aether. I devoured it all. At the same second, a pulse of aether flew from the maelstrom and into the barrier I made around it earlier. The barrier absorbed the energy. A moment later, the gate opened, revealing pitch black.
I flew us in. The darkness swirled and we stood on a marble disc. Around us was nothing other than a marble door towering in the darkness.
Letters of light started shining on the door. ‘Welcome to Luci’s Wonderful Labyrinth,
like many others, you have passed the first gate. And like all of them, you will die here.
Total number of intruders who passed the Gate of the Void: 2746
Intruders currently alive in the labyrinth: 6
Last intrusion: 2012-07-02
May your death be painful,
Lucielle Natheast fra Ragnarok
P.S. Don’t feed the minotaur. He’s fat.’
Katherine and Amaranta gulped while Zhang and Joseph glowered at me.
Zhang was the first to speak, nearly shouting, “You forgot to mention the vault belonged to Lucielle.”
“And it’s apparently not true that the place has been untouched for millennia.” Joseph pointed at the text. “That’s last year’s date.”
The vault had a lot more traffic than I had expected. “I lie a lot,” I admitted, glancing over the others. “Did anyone of you bring a pet? Because it says there are six living intruders and we’re five.”
“Don’t pivot the topic,” Zhang said, fuming.
I shrugged, smiling. “You would have never come if I told you it was Lucielle’s.”
“Excuse me,” Joseph said, “but who’s this Lucielle? Because that name, Natheast is an anagram for the Satan, fra is Nordic language version of from, and Ragnarok is the Nordic myth of the war of gods that comes associated with the end of the world, but using it in a name like this implies it’s a city.”
“I told you Ragnarok was a city.”
“But I couldn’t find anything about that,�
�� Joseph contested. “So, I thought you were just trying to hook me by making up something interesting.”
I smiled. Sure, I didn’t know the backstory either, I just knew it once existed. “In spite of how it might seem, I don’t lie all the time.”
“Just most of the time,” Amaranta pointed out. “And long story short—” she turned toward Joseph. “—Lucielle is what we Christians refer to as the Devil. She’s the highest ruler of the supernatural world, the oldest living being in the world, the magically strongest one, the wealthiest one, and the one with the largest nuclear arsenal. As a person, she’s extremely greedy, petty, and vengeful.”
Joseph paled, lost for words.
Zhang’s anger evaporated, replaced with worry, his face sweating, eyes wide. He had no way back, only able to carry on forward and pray I didn’t lie about the rest of the stuff I told him. And since his role was effectively over, he was completely disposable at this point, which he now also apparently realized.
Good. I walked to the door and put my hand on them. I injected my aether into the already present one and analyzed the patterns. Okay, this part wasn’t stitched in five minutes. A complex weave of spells filled the gate and continued further where I couldn’t see.
The first function I found was the people detection, which already latched onto each of us, looking—under my magical sight—like gray moths flying above each of our heads.
These moths periodically sent impulses into the defensive mechanic, keeping a log of who was inside the labyrinth and where.
I focused on the moth above me and remembered its aether pattern. And then I followed the impulses it sent, tracing them through the defensive system, all the way to where they were stored. I blended my aether with the one from this moth, and infected the moth too, so all impulses would carry my aether from now on.
Afterward, I did the same for Katherine’s moth.
Now, back to the door. They had no defensive mechanics. I pushed against the door, but they didn’t move. They were heavy.
And the text written in light changed, reading, Gate of Strength.
I put each of my palms on one wing, braced my feet, and pushed. Sure, pushing one wing alone would be easier, but I was sure the door contained a trap designed to stop me from doing exactly that.
My base strength wasn’t enough, so I pushed my strengthening to the limit. Sweat covered my back, and my muscles screamed with strain. The door gave in slightly.
I stepped forward and followed through. Inch by inch, I pushed the door open.
Panting, I stepped through when the gap was large enough. A t-shaped intersection welcomed me. The hallways were made of marble, ceiling twenty feet high, everything barren.
I walked to the intersection’s center and the others followed.
A text made of light suddenly blazed on the wall in front of us, saying, ‘You thought the door was the gate, didn’t you? You thought wrong.’
Crashing of stone against stone, complemented with swishing of blades, filled the air. I looked at the hallways. The right-hand-side one led to a large room filled with stone cubes of various sizes, which were violently moving around, crashing into each other only to continue in their chaotic pattern. Eight stone cubes floated in place, each shining with different light. When a non-shining cube smashed into a shining one, its light’s color changed, and so did the pattern of the flying cubes.
The left hallway wasn’t any better, filled with bladed weapons and tools, mostly swords without hilts, but also various farming and crafting tools, flying through the air. Here, there was nothing shiny, just a crap-load of sharp things flying through the air at high speed.
“Left, or right?” I asked, not looking at anyone in particular.
A moment of silence passed through the air.
“Neither… I think,” Joseph said. “This is supposed to be the gate of strength and the stone blocks room looks like a puzzle while the one with swords looks like an agility test.”
Correct. “Then I guess we need to break through the wall ahead.” I raised my hand, gathering my aether into my palm. The moment the energy left my body, it dispersed, torn apart by static aether that filled the air. “Without using spells,” I added.
Amaranta smiled and pulled her robes over her head. Underneath, she wore tight leather pants and a matching cropped top. “I’ll get us some pickaxes.”
I took off my leather coat and started unstrapping the sword. Physically, Amaranta and I were so much stronger than others that they had no way to help us.
She walked to the edge of the blade room. After waiting for a moment, Amaranta stepped in, grabbed a flying pickaxe by the handle, and withdrew just in time to avoid a swarm of swords. “Catch.” She tossed me the pickaxe and turned back to also get herself one.
I removed my sheath, dropping it on the jacket, and rolled up my sleeves. The pickaxe was heavy, handle painted to look like wood but actually made of metal. I walked to the letters shining on the wall, strengthened both myself and the pickaxe, and struck the stone with my full strength. I burrowed the pickaxe into the wall, but not too deeply. This was going to be a lot of work.
Amaranta joined me soon. The others, after verifying neither of them could use any spell, sat down around the room. They realized there was nothing they could do.
Strike after strike, I dug into the wall.
The digging took hours. Since we had no food or drinks, my throat was sore even without speaking. Sweat drenched my shirt and pants, my hair looking like I just got out of the shower.
Amaranta had to fetch four more pickaxes and now, she was behind me, widening the path I was creating. She kept up with me for about the first thirty feet, but then ran out of strength and moved to the assisting role. She also looked like she crawled out of a lake and each breath sounded more labored than the last one.
My pickaxe hit the stone, and the edge reached beyond. “We’re at the end.”
Amaranta tried to reply, but only incoherent noise left her mouth.
I took that as approval and kept digging. If I wasn’t so damn tired, I would enjoy how the sweat-drenched clothes stuck to Amaranta’s figure, but I was busy hitting rock with a pickaxe.
Bit by bit, I broke through the end wall, and kicked through the last bit of rock. “We’re through,” I shouted, voice raspy, and stepped into the room beyond.
Amaranta followed, but her knees gave out, collapsing at the tunnel’s end. I caught her by the shoulder. Katherine caught up in a moment, grabbing Amaranta under her shoulders to help her stand.
“I’m… fine,” Amaranta squeezed out of herself.
“Sure.” Katherine smiled faintly. “But you still need a moment of rest.” She moved Amaranta into the room I just entered, followed by Zhang and Joseph, who were engaged in a discussion about some arcane encoding problem. Zhang carried my coat, hat, and sword.
The next room was similar to the previous one – two exits on sides, one with flying blades, the other with smashing rocks, but here, a shape of a gate was etched into the stone wall.
A text of light shone on its wings, ‘Why work smart when you can work hard, right? You must be thirsty though, so here, have some water.’ An arrow lit underneath the text, pointing at a corner where now was a pond of water.
Oh, I was thirsty. But I raised my hand to stop the others. “Does anyone have a spell that can detect poison?”
“I do.” Katherine gently placed Amaranta down by the wall. She flicked her wrist, producing a spark of green flame to verify she could use magic in this room, and then walked to the pond. ‘Venenum deprehendere,’ she whispered a drop of light fell from her hand into the pond.
The water turned black with thin, white worms slithering inside.
Katherine shook her head. “It’s full of neurotoxins and parasites. We can’t drink from that.”
“Can you cleanse it?” I asked.
She shook her head. “The neurotoxin, yes, but the parasites are hand-made by Lucielle. Nothing can cleanse those.”
My throat clenched at the realization that there likely wasn’t any unpoisoned water in the labyrinth. From the design perspective, that was smart and exactly the type of thing Lucielle would do.
I stepped to the gate and pushed against a wing. A piece shot out at me. Instinctively, I bent my body, so the bullet-fast stone only grazed me, tearing my shirt and the skin on my side. The stone smashed into the opposite wall with a thunderous boom, by luck alone not killing any of my companions.
The text of light changed into:
‘Gate of Strength, Endurance, and Speed
Intruders who passed this gate: 2561’
Great. “Everyone, move to the sides.” I turned and headed to Zhang. “I need my coat for this.”
With a nod, he handed me my leather coat. I flung it over my shoulders and closed the buttons in the front. I fuelled my strength into my body and the coat, adjusting the pattern into one focused on defense and speed.
I was not going to dodge all the stones perfectly, so I needed the ones that touched me not to cause too much damage. After focusing my mind, I walked back to the gate, verified everyone cleared the way, and I touched the gate again.
Another rock shot out, this time at my head. I weaved my body to dodge. Normally, Amaranta would have been perfect for this. But she was too exhausted by the digging, which was the whole design behind this gate.
Yet I wasn’t going to be slowed down by a bit of digging. Sure, my entire body ached and exhaustion gnawed at my consciousness, but I ignored that and touched the gate again.
Two stones shot out. I contorted my body, making one miss, and the other graze my coat, bouncing off without hurting me. Touch by touch, I made the gate shoot itself out at me.
The rocks grazed me over a dozen times, but I suffered no direct hit. My consciousness slipping, I let the entire gate shoot itself out at me, leaving behind an empty portal leading into a short hallway.
“Come,” I said and stepped into the hallway.
Staring, the others followed. Katherine had to support Amaranta since she couldn’t yet walk by herself.
I entered a vast dome. The floor was missing, replaced with an endless abyss, and two dozen platforms floated in the air. Each platform had one to five statues of men and women in full armor with medieval weapons.