The labyrinth was an interesting place to say the least.
It had 8 major entrances at the very start and there were many who were hesitant in choosing which of the 8 doors to enter from.
Some left it to luck and jumped in randomly, while others looked for some profound clue in the surroundings which would point towards the correct door.
To Max, the imagination of these people was fascinating.
He overheard a group debating as to if entrance number 5 was the correct door to enter from since it was the only door that had a medium sized rock placed outside of it.
The group member offered an elaborate story on why it was a sign that entrance 5 was the right choice, as Max felt like cracking out loud listening to his childish explanation filled with superstitions.
" Which entrance to take? " Lucius asked, as he too wanted to wait and contemplate before making a choice but Max confidently said " 2 " and walked through the door without offering Lucius any explanation.
As Max and his companions stepped into the labyrinth, his senses came alive in a way they never had before. It was as if the thick, icy walls pulsed with life or more accurately, with blood.
The veins of ancient, frozen blood in the walls beckoned to him, an intimate road map only he could read.
While Lucius Aurelius and his men hesitated at each junction, debating which path to take, Max moved with unfaltering certainty. He followed the subtle flow of blood through the walls, turning left here, right there, as if led by an invisible hand.
The labyrinth was undoubtedly treacherous. At every turn the walls of the labyrinth were embedded with precious stones, treasures and other items that could be free to redeem or a trap based on pure luck.
When Sebastian tried to pluck a very beautiful looking red Ruby, it turned to Ruby dust in his hands and aggressively attacked his eyes, however, when Anna pulled out a dagger she was able to loot it without facing any backlash.
" Epic grade, trash " Anna said as she inspected the object and tossed it to one of Lucius's underlings.
" This isn't fair, it's so freaking cold, I'm not even allowed to use my full powers, the Ruby I touched turned to dust...
Why always me?
Why do I have 0 luck?
Is this the curse of being too good in bed?
Is it because I'm too handsome that God debuffed me everywhere else? " Sebastian rambled on as he cursed the heavens for his luck to be so rotten.
Thankfully, Max passed an order to his group to not pluck any treasures as their goal was never to pick these small trash items.
Although this decision was unpopular with Lucius and his men who looked like they were unhappy at losing potential merit points, Lucius decided to stick behind Max and stay silent as it looked like Max knew the precise way to traverse the labyrinth.
They'd barely made a dozen turns when they came across a dead-end, a thick ice wall that made Lucius and his men groan with exasperation.
" It's a dead end, that's a horrible waste of last 30 minutes " Lucius commented as Max looked at him with his eyebrows raised.
"If you don't trust my judgement, my prince, you're free to leave."
Without waiting for a response, Max stepped forward. The illusionary wall seemed to dissolve as he passed through, and he continued walking, not even pausing to look back.
Lucius hesitated but eventually followed, the solid wall giving way for him as well as his eyes narrowed, clearly unnerved yet fascinated by Max's unexplained ability.
" How did you know? " he asked, wanting to understand the secret behind Max's powers but only got a silent smile as response.
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Elsewhere in the labyrinth, the Mistborn Clan were faring less well. Attracted by a radiant gem encased in ice, two of their members eagerly reached for it. The moment their hands touched the jewel, hidden blades sprung from the walls, cutting them down before they even had a chance to scream. The remaining members recoiled in horror, their eyes filled with both greed and apprehension.
The Saint Maximus clan were using their superior hearing ability to use echo-location to traverse the maze as although much slower, they too were on the same track as Max but a few dozen turns behind.
Felix Aurelius and his group trailed the Saint Maximus closely behind as they seemed to be using some special artefact that was made to navigate through mazes, however, Max had a minimum of 15 minutes lead on both of them.
As Max and the group took a few more turns after the illusionary wall, they reached a large central chamber that had a very realistic and intimidating sculpture of an ice dragon within the room, hanging from the ceiling.
Once they entered the room, the door that they came from closed automatically and several ice sculptures that were placed all around the room sprung to life including the ice dragon that hung from the ceiling.
*SCREECH*
The ice dragon roared in an icy voice that made one's eardrums go shrill.
The aura emanating from the ice dragon was extremely powerful as everyone in the room felt their senses tingle with danger.
Apart from the main dragon, several hundred ice warriors were also closing in on the group, with the strength of each individual ice warrior being at least tier5.
" FORMATION " yelled Lucius as his four Aurelius soldiers quickly fell into formation around him, while DarkSorrow and the others did the same around Max.
In theory, everyone was bracing for a difficult fight as Anna already let a few arrows loose piercing the heads of a few ice sculptures, however, before the others had the opportunity to engage in proper combat, all the ice sculptures in the room burst into thousands of small ice shards as all eyes turned towards Max who stood at the centre of the room with a confident smile on his face.
" How…? " Lucius asked, shock evident on his face as Max winked at him and said " I've long mastered water manipulation my prince, such challenges are nothing to me".
Saying so, Max pointed at a small door at the ceiling of the room that was previously concealed by the massive ice dragon, as he then asked Sebastian to do the honours.
With the power of flight ' Allegedly ' sealed, Max let Sebastian use the Vayu-Astra to make everyone float and reach the door in the ceiling as the group continued their exploration.
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/// A/N - Mass release chapter 4/7 ///