Zarek trudged forward, beads of sweat falling down his dark skin. There wasn't a light of determination in his eyes. Determination, motivation, those things were fleeting. He had lived long enough to know that.
Why could you trust a clock? Why could you trust the sun? Why could you trust gravity?
Consistency. A relentless sort of consistency that wouldn't change regardless of the circumstances.
He had long since stopped doing things like measuring progress or counting kills.
All he cared about was whether it got done or not.
He turned a corner, the map of the mirror maze becoming clearer to him.
Until now, he had run into several dead ends, only to be forced to double back. An entire day and a half had passed, and with his current body, he was aching for sleep, water, and food.
However, soon, at least one of those was going to be dealt with.
The sound of swaying water filled his ears. It wasn't the first time he had heard it, but the last time he was this close, he ran into a dead end and could only see a piece of it through an invisible wall he was unable to get through or climb over.
It had been the perfect taunt.
Now, he had finally doubled his way back again using a different path, and this time, he succeeded.
Although he had a pack with him that contained supplies, he had never thought to use them. In this Apocalypse, even emergency supplies weren't meant to be used lightly. If he couldn't survive off the land, he might as well hand his head on a platter to his enemies.
'Fucking idiots.'
Zarek made it to the water, only to find that a group of people had set up camp here… if it could even be called that.
They noticed Zarek's appearance almost immediately. Although the Godsfall Tear had remained in a perpetual state of night no matter how much time passed, they could at least tell that Zarek was a human and not one of those blood creatures.
Zarek could vaguely hear them trying to say something to him, but he tuned it out, finding the situation ridiculous.
Rather than trying to find the end of this maze, they set up camp here like they could stay forever.
He could have forgiven them if their intention was to rest and then move on. But judging by the bones stuck in their dead fire, and the fact all of them were awake and seemingly chatting, he knew that this wasn't that.
If they were here to be resting before moving on, they'd have a lookout while the rest would be in a dead heap.
Shaking his head, Zarek shook his head and moved to the water. Squatting down while balancing his still sleeping girlfriend on his back, his heavy breathing couldn't stop his insatiable desire to deal with his thirst.
Was he worried that the water was contaminated?
No.
Though, the reason he wasn't was because the water almost certainly was. It was infected with a diluted version of the bloody tears that fell on Priya earlier, and it was precisely what he needed.
His natural resistance was lower than Priya's. Having the Godsfall Essence in this form would make it easier for him to increase his tolerance as well as helping his Endurance cross the next threshold.
"… Hey! I'm talking to you!"
In just a few moments, Zarek had re-established his calm, his heartbeat returning to a manageable rate. So, he finally had time to tune in.
He turned back, his amber eyes glowing in the night.
The young man stumbled back subconsciously. This time, Zarek couldn't blame him. It had been a long time since he killed, and now that he was getting back into the habit again, his old, repressed aura was starting to bare its fangs.
"I advise that if you lot want to leave, you'll try to find your way out of this maze as quickly as possible. Otherwise, you'll just be overrun in due time."
In this last almost two days, Zarek had realized several other things.
The good news was that mirror images could only duplicate themselves up to three times. Meaning, if the starting beast formed a mirror image, that mirror image could form one of their own, so on and so forth, that trickle down could occur three times.
But that was where all the good news ended.
He had only just noticed that mirror images could duplicate as well. That meant that this entire time, while he was making his way through the maze, he was dealing with the weakest and second weakest mirror images.
Deeper within the maze, the original beasts were almost certainly lying in wait, and they would be several times more powerful.
But it wasn't just that.
The longer this went on, the more mirror images there would be scurrying around, and soon enough, there wouldn't be any room to do much other than die.
Zarek had already noticed the uptick in their strength.
"Wait, wait." The only woman of the three called out before Zarek could even stand to his full height. She didn't look like a student. She was either one of the workers or a teacher—potentially an off-duty one considering she wasn't wearing the school's uniform. "We have a plan going right now. This region has many holdings like this, we're staying here as a checkpoint while everyone works together to find the way out of the maze."
"Is that so?" Zarek asked blandly. His perfunctory response caused her to frown, especially when he didn't pause his attempt to walk away.
"Wait! Are you not a student of our academy? We all have a duty to try and make it through this together."
Zarek ignored her completely. These people were still too naive, far too naive.
If someone found an exit, why would they come back for you?
If he took a step back and believed in humanity for a moment, what good would just stepping outside do? To go right back to the jaws of the Turned?
They were still stalling, still trying to maintain order, propriety, when in reality they needed to be doing the only smart thing…
Scrambling for power.