The corridor twisted unnaturally, angles bending in ways that didn't make sense—like geometry trying to rewrite itself.
"We're close to something…"Ellen murmured, running her fingers along the glyph-etched wall.
Mia peered ahead, her tone unusually cautious. "This doesn't look like any standard floor. Either the boss room is near, or we stumbled into a sub-dimension."
Noct's eyes darted across the symbols. Some of them flickered with faint Ather resonance.
At the end of the corridor, the walls widened into a stone vault. In the center, half-buried under moss and time, was a collapsed skeleton clad in fragmented armor—its chestplate engraved with the Venator sigil.
"A fallen one…" Ellen said under her breath.
Picking up a venator log.
Ellen inserted the Venator log into the old console embedded in the wall. It hummed to life with a dim, flickering glow. Noct and Mia stood close, eyes fixed on the display as ancient data began to decode itself.
Lines of corrupted code scrolled across the screen—then stabilized.
The footage began.
It wasn't a briefing. Not a map. Not intel about the labyrinth.
It was death.
The screen lit up with first-person footage—panicked gasps, scrambling footsteps, blood splattered across the lens. The Venators' armor glinted under dim torchlight as they fought something just beyond the frame. Screams tore through the audio. One by one, the team was torn apart—fast, brutal, efficient.
The camera dropped sideways, catching a last glimpse of a shadow with too many limbs... and then static.
Mia stepped back, face pale.
"That's all?" she asked.
Ellen clenched her fists. "No routes. No maps. No last words. Just… that."
Noct stared silently at the black screen, the image of the final Venator burned into his mind. It wasn't just a warning.
It was a reminder.
This place didn't care who you were. It didn't care if you screamed, if you begged, or if you fought like hell.
It consumed.
Mia kicked the console. "Waste of time."
"No," Noct muttered. "It showed us what this labyrinth is. It's not about where to go—it's what we're up against."
Ellen nodded slowly, eyes narrowed. "And now we know. We survive smarter than they did… or we don't survive at all."
As out of nowhere.
Six figures emerged from the darkness—monstrous silhouettes dragging twisted blades made from bone and steel.
[Entity Detected: Writheborn Shades]
Type: Aberrant Revenants. Unknown Veil signature.]
They didn't move like monsters—they moved like soldiers. Intelligent, coordinated.
"Form up!" Ellen barked. "We hold, we don't scatter!"
The first Shade lunged at Mia.She ducked under the blade and countered with a double strike, but the creature shifted—its body writhing like liquid iron.
Noct flanked right and summoned a Formula Array.
F = m × a
V = Δx / Δt
Δ = Reflect(θ)
The array ignited midair—𝛑-Flux: Acceleration Cage.
A burst of force slammed into two Shades, sending them tumbling into a wall, but the cost hit Noct instantly—his temples throbbed, vision pulsing.
Ellen had already decapitated one Shade, but another struck her ribs with a hammer-like fist, sending her skidding.
Mia wasn't faring better—her strikes landed but didn't slow the enemy down.
"We need control!" Ellen shouted, bleeding but standing.
Noct looked at the fractured log still glowing faintly… then had an idea.
He whispered, "Run a recursive overlay. Use his coordinates."
[Calculating Echo Field… Synchronizing with Old Venator Map Coordinates… Done.]
A faint white circle appeared at their feet—an old path.
"This way!" Noct yelled.
They dashed across the hallway, monsters screeching in fury behind them. As they passed into the overlayed path, the air shimmered—and the Shades froze, unable to follow.
The pressure dropped.
The three of them collapsed, gasping.
Mia clutched her arm. "Next time we run into cursed ghosts, maybe don't fight them."
Ellen wiped the blood from her mouth. "You did good, Noct. That call saved us."
He didn't answer. His mind was still racing.
If this labyrinth was housing a seal, what exactly was locked below?
And why did it feel like… something was waiting for him?