CHAPTER 256: CHAPTER 255 - THE MAZE.

Darkness pulsed.

Each of them blinked—once, twice—and then the world had changed.

Selena opened her eyes in a stone corridor stretching endlessly in both directions, walls slick with moisture, pulsing ever so slightly like veins.

The ceiling above was lost in fog, and the only light came from flickering, hanging orbs of dead-blue flame. The ground under her feet squelched—damp, breathing. The maze was alive.

"...Hello?" She called calmly, her voice echoing too far, bouncing oddly.

No answer.

She touched her shadow. Nothing came back.

Then, she smiled—tight and eerie. "I see. We’re playing that game."

Elsewhere, Clara stood alone. Her hand hovered near her mouth as she called out, "Raven? Selena? Anyone?"

Only the low hum of magic answered her, vibrating subtly in the walls.

"This is bad," she muttered, placing her palm on a nearby stone.

Her power rippled out, but the vibrations curved, slithered, and dodged like they feared touching the walls for too long.

They were in something sentient.

Jessy, meanwhile, growled, slamming her fist against one of the maze walls. "I hate solo missions."

Her magnetic plates hovered into orbit around her, crackling softly. "Alright then. Fine. Come at me, freak show."

Graye spun around in her corridor, purple flames licking her shoulder plates.

"Guys?! No! I do not like being alone in creepy places—hello?!" She stomped the ground. "I demand at least one person to admire me!"

Rufus blinked awake and checked his suit. "Suit, diagnostics."

[Suit operating at 100%. But we are not alone.]

The suit replied.

Yes, it replied like Alex’s Blargh and Raven’s Omni did.

It had evolved enough that it could speak to Rufus.

"...You know, I kinda figured that," he muttered. "Thanks for the horror game update."

Lia, however, was the quietest. She stood silently in a garden-like branch of the maze—twisting vines coiled over stone, glowing faintly with green life.

"...Where are you, Myria?" She whispered, placing her hand on a bloom that quivered like it heard her.

As for Jake?

He had already sunk halfway into the wall, becoming shadow.

Silent. Watching.

Waiting.

But Alex wasn’t as calm.

"Oh, this is so bad," he muttered, spinning around in a maze corridor that resembled a melting candle labyrinth. "Nibbles? Are you still—"

SQUEAK!

"Good! Good. We’re not dead yet. That’s already better than usual."

Nibbles stood tall on his shoulder, wearing a pinecone helmet.

"Plan?" Alex asked.

Nibbles pointed dramatically forward.

"...Blindly onward. Nice."

Then—

Screeches.

Not loud.

Not guttural.

Worse.

Wet.

Ripping. Slurping. Clicking.

Monsters emerged. Crawling on limbs that were too long. Skin stretched too thin. Faces... wrong. As if sculpted by hands that had never seen a human.

Graye swung her arm in a blaze of purple fire. "Ew, ew, EW—back off, Slendys!"

She incinerated one.

Selena summoned a devourer serpent from her own shadow that tore through the first creature she saw, black ichor spraying over her boots.

"Too easy," she muttered, frowning.

After all, it was strange how easy it was.

Clara hummed a chord. A shimmering soundwave exploded outward, erasing three monsters like they were made of smoke.

Even Jessy’s floating metal shards reduced a crawler into minced nightmare meat in seconds.

"Wait... that’s it?" Rufus blinked. "That’s all?"

But they kept coming.

Faster. Louder. Stronger.

The deeper they moved, the colder the maze grew.

The air also got heavier.

Then—

"Hello, my gross little friend," Alex said, standing before a creature with swollen, weeping eyes and a body like stitched meat and nightmares. "I just wanna poke you—"

The moment his hand touched its chest, it moved.

Before Alex could even sense any danger, it grabbed his wrist.

Then, there was pain.

Mind-blanking.

Body-shattering.

Agony.

A scream ripped from Alex’s mouth, raw and primal, echoing through the maze like a soul being dragged through broken glass.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH—!!"

He couldn’t even move because of the pain. It had a stunning effect, as his body trembled in place, yet he remained still.

Selena snapped to attention, turning in the direction of the echo, her frown deepening.

"Alex! What’s happening?!" Clara yelled, trying to fly upward, only to be stopped by an invisible barrier. "Fuck!"

"What’s going on?!" Lia called, her heart thudding.

The scream continued—

Until it abruptly stopped.

Too abruptly.

"Alex?" Graye whispered. "Why did he stop—"

BOOM.

A distant explosion.

Then—

"DON’T LET THEM GRAB YOU!" Alex’s voice bellowed, broken but alive. "IT HURTS SO BAD I PEED MYSELF!!"

Everyone paused.

"...He peed?" Jessy asked.

Selena narrowed her eyes. "Which means... the pain was real."

"His voice cracked like a squeaky door," Clara murmured.

Graye’s purple fire surged. "I wasn’t going to let these gooey and disgusting things touch me anyway!"

Lia placed a hand over her chest, the vines around her tightening. "Stay calm... stay smart... Don’t get caught..."

Jake reemerged from the shadow, gripping his scythe tighter.

Rufus rearmed his core.

As for Nibbles?

He stood beside Alex, arms crossed, eyes burning like twin coals.

"Thanks, buddy," Alex panted, wiping his forehead. "I owe you a whole tree."

It was thanks to Nibbles, who had yanked his away from the creature using telekinesis, that he was still alive.

Then, as soon as he was moved away from the creature, he covered himself in Blargh and punched the beast with his lava-coated punch.

The beast now lay twitching with a gaping hole in its body, and then it went still.

But then, one of the dumbest of them, Graye, noticed something.

"Where’s Raven?" She muttered, her brows furrowed. "Why haven’t we heard anything from him yet?"

Then she yelled. "RAVEN!!"

Her voice echoed through the maze, echoing as it crashed into the walls, but no response came.

Everyone else had also paused by now, realization hitting them.

Jessy glanced around, her jaw tight. "Nothing. Not even static."

Clara floated higher again, only to slam into that invisible ceiling, muttering to herself. "He’s not here. He’s not even on the same layer as us."

"Could he be ahead?" Lia asked, her vines gently curling as if listening for some unseen rhythm. "Maybe he already passed this part?"

They couldn’t hear each other, but they were all thinking the same thing.

Raven wasn’t the type to stay silent.

Not in danger.

Not when his people were involved.

So, it was clear that he wasn’t here, and as the thought settled, a strange unease settled in their chests.

...............................

Elsewhere, in an ancient, yawning cave with walls like polished onyx, Raven sat alone. The air was warm here, oddly calm. Too calm.

He stood slowly, his eyes narrowing.

"A cave," he muttered. "Of course, it’s a cave."

Nothing about this matched the plot he remembered.

In the script he recalled, the protagonist was supposed to be thrown into a trial maze, not... this.

However, since the protagonist was weak, he had to run away, which he had succeeded in doing.

Raven didn’t have such plans, so he tried to reach out to his teammates.

"Clara?" he called, his voice echoing into the void. "Graye? Selena? ... Alex?"

Silence.

He frowned. No replies. No presence. Not even a trace of familiar mana. He closed his eyes, stretching his senses. There was nothing.

"Well. That’s new."

He walked a slow, cautious circle of the cave’s perimeter. No monsters. No puzzles. No glowing orbs to trigger. No secret doors.

Then, a voice.

"You’re taking this surprisingly well."

It was feminine and melodic—but with an edge like cracked glass.

Raven didn’t flinch. He merely stopped walking and looked upward. "And you’re late for the exposition."

A soft chuckle followed, reverberating around him.

"You’re the first one here. Did you know that?"

"I figured," Raven said, seating himself cross-legged on the ground with practiced ease. "So... what now? Story time?"

"A trial."

The voice answered plainly.

Raven raised a brow. "A trial? Who is it for?"

"Your companions. All of them. I’m testing their resolve. Their fears. Their instincts."

He tilted his head. "And me?"

"You’re already beyond the first trial. It wouldn’t challenge you. This..."

The walls shimmered faintly, the cave breathing in and out.

"...is the second phase. And the final one."

Raven smiled faintly. "So I just sit here and wait for them to clear their level?"

"If they pass."

He stared at the ceiling for a long moment. "And if they do... you’ll give us the little girl you talked about?"

Raven didn’t even ask if she had Myria, because he knew she had.

A beat. Then the voice responded, "I give my word."

"Good." Raven’s grin deepened. "Then you better start prepping her. Because they’ll make it here in no time."

There was a pause. Then a giggle.

"You’re confident."

"Always."

At that, the cave shimmered again—and several translucent panels flickered into life before him, suspended mid-air like magical screens. Each one showed a different corridor of the maze.

Selena.

Graye.

Jessy.

Clara.

Jake.

Lia.

Rufus.

Alex—with Nibbles clinging to his head, eyes wide.

They were fighting, but they were calm.

For now, they were holding up.

No, they were having it easy right now, and that worried him for some reason.

As he watched silently, there was the faintest flicker of concern in his eyes.

"They seem fine, don’t they?" The voice asked sweetly.

He nodded once. "Yeah."

"You should keep watching."

Then she laughed again.

Low.

Dark.

Amused.

Raven leaned forward, eyes narrowing at the screen showing Graye’s path. The flames were dimmer. The walls were... twitching.

"...Huh," he murmured. "That’s new."

He didn’t know what was happening, and the voice had also stopped speaking or giving explanations.

It seemed like she was enjoying his reactions.