Shattered Remnants of a Dream

58. The Hellflower

The scent of burning flesh burst out from the tunnel as Vance, Eden, and Cliff exploded through the crowd. Their psynergy carried them forward, knocking others aside and repelling their weapons until they reached the front of the group.

Vance landed on the ground and quickly began sprinting. "Keep moving!"

Eden and Cliff caught up with him, and the three went speeding down the dark, metal-walled tunnel. After a long period of running, they reached an unmarked intersection.

"Great..." Cliff muttered. "How do we decide which way to go?"

"Who cares?!" Vance shouted, dashing forward. "Just keep going! If it's a dead end, we'll just blow through it! There's no use standing around wasting time!"

"He has a point!" Eden agreed.

"Alright, alright!" Cliff shouted, then glanced behind to the violent crowd. "Hey, wait up!"

*

In front of the labyrinth's final room, a single teenager stood laughing in triumph. I can't believe it. Am I really the first one here?!

He turned around and looked down the small passage he had come from – one of many that connected to the large space. It was still empty. Before him stood two large storm gates, clearly marked with a neon sign that read EXIT.

This is too awesome. I thought at first that blowing up the other people in my group so early on might bring me bad luck, but it's only helped me!

Matthew Terrance slipped a large red rucksack off his back and unzipped it. The bag was filled with packets of ammonium nitrate.

Just a common fertilizer... Matthew smiled to himself. Useless it's mixed with oil, that is.

Matthew scooped out the bags and set them up around the exit. After living through so much ridicule for having a 'useless' power, he could barely contain his excitement now. Matthew had always been a clumsy fighter, and when he discovered that his specialty merely allowed him to chemically alter his saliva into oil, he was devastated.

Sure, it could technically impede his enemies if used properly, but it was far from the destructive prowess that the boy had always dreamed of...that is, until he discovered the beautiful compound known as ammonium nitrate.

All I need to do is cover this in my saliva, add in a bit of psynergy as a primer, and then voila! I could probably destroy this entire foundation. Good thing I came to the registration early. If I had been stuck in one of those groups that were far away, I could have been–

Pain suddenly shot through the 19-year-old's body, and Matthew moved his head downward to look at the source. He didn't want to believe it, but a sword was poking out through the center of his chest.

It felt as if time had stopped. He could no longer say anything, and he could no longer hear anything. As red hot pain smothered his consciousness, Matthew closed his eyes.

A masked knight removed his double-pronged blade from the boy's stomach and let the lifeless body fall on top of the explosives.

"A fitting end for a cowardly murderer," the knight boomed through his thick iron helmet. It had a long, accentuated snout, a furrowed brow masking slanted eye holes, and two pointy ears around the arc of the skull.

The wolf knight's chain link armor clinked as he turned to face his ten subordinates. They all wore the same identical royal insignia on their armor: two red circles, one thick and thin, with a black, Celtic cross resting in the center. While each soldier looked capable and strong, they all paled in comparison to their hulking leader. He raised an iron gauntlet and pointed to the exit from the labyrinth, commanding his men forward.