Don't Hug Me I'm The Chosen One: Bound With Fate (Book 2)

labyrinth

"Manny, are you alright? Please speak to me if you are."

Man, I hope whatever happened to him wasn't so brutal.

I keep hearing this female voice and I couldn't tell if it was said by mouth or by mind. My head feels better than when I've finished the first task. At first, everything looks so blurry. There's some kind of figure next to me which is a combination of pink and yellow. As my vision starts to get clearer, I saw that figure was a yellow-skinned girl that has pink hair and orange round nose. She's a dilawin like me.

"Uhh I guess I'm ok?"

"Oh thank goodness," said the girl as she hugs me.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Oh I'm glad you asked!" she replied. "My name is Michelle Alice but you can just call me Missy if you want."

I stood up and looked around. I'm back in the chamber from earlier except now I'm lying on a small bed. I dunno where they got this bed but it's probably just for emergencies since apparently, sleeping doesn't exist in this world too. Benny is right behind Michelle. He seems to be listing down stuff on some piece of paper. I looked at myself and noticed that nothing have changed except for the fact that one strap of my overalls got unbuttoned but I just ignored it because I consider it normal.

"So uhh what's the second task?"

"That's a good question," said Benny.

For the second task, I have to find a glowing white stone through a maze filled with obstacles. I don't know what's so special about that stone but I'm desperate to see what happens if I rank up so I decided to go for the quest anyway. Bennie takes me to a thick forest, which I reckon is where the maze is. How did a whole ass forest managed to grow on clouds?

In this task, I don't have competitors. I have to do it all on my own. Good thing, I got allowed to use my powers. The maze looks really dangerous, after all. But I then feared that I might use up all the mana I have in the middle of the maze and get stuck. Maybe if I would be more optimistic, I'd finish this task.

Ok you can do this I reminded myself as I step into the entrance.

Some of the enclosed places I've encountered before in my life got few vines crawling on their walls but in this one, the vines are the walls itself and they're moving! They seem as if they wanted to strangle or seize me. But the good thing is the path ahead me is wide enough for me to dodge mobile branches.

Monster vines aren't the only problem. Insects, which are so huge and mutated that even the scientists would fucking freak out if they saw them in human world, occasionally come out of everywhere, whether it be from the walls of the maze or from the ground which surprisingly resemble dirt from down the land despite being on the top of the clouds. What makes it scarier is that I've only completely known 1% of all the creatures in Dehamis and these insects might either be poisonous, venomous, or whatever scary shit.

I got so scared I couldn't help myself but use my powers. In front of me is a huge purple caterpillar which has long pinchers. It screeches at me before scurrying towards me. I grabbed its pinchers and pushed, trying to not get bitten. The caterpillar was so strong that if I didn't have super strength, I would've died straight away. Above me, a vine branch comes out. I swung the caterpillar towards it and I dropped myself on the ground. All of a sudden, a pair of long hairy spider legs seized my neck from below.

"ACK-! L-L...LET GO!!" I cried between coughs.

My neck started to ache. I brought up all my strength to stand up and fight it. A gigantic spider was on my back, trying to pull me down deep the clouds. This one seems to be the most normal creature I've encountered in Dehamis so far. The only abnormal feature is that it's almost the size of the biggest spider found in human world and instead of 8, it has 10 legs! If I was arachnophobic then I would've passed out.

Not having better ideas in my head, I spun around fast, trying to get this huge thing off my back. The time I managed to make the spider fly out and away from me, I got lightheaded due to how fast I spun. But that doesn't matter. I need to obtain this stone and the next rank so I continued on my path. More obstacles were on my way and I couldn't help but use my powers more frequently than I intended.

As I managed to get to a dead end to rest for a while, I saw a little pale green fairy that has 3 eyes and 4 wings. I was supposed to ignore that thing but its eyes were huge, round, and sparkly. Its skin glow faintly. The fairy flies nearer to me, like as if wanting to sit on my round orange nose.

"Hey young man, you look really lonely," said the fairy.

At first, its voice sounds raspy but the more it spoke, the more its voice became cute and pleasant to hear. I couldn't help myself but admire the fairy.

"You look so cute!" I replied happily. "I want you to accompany me in this task I have to finish."

"Oh you have a quest to accomplish! Well not to worry, I can help a sweet little boy like you, just follow me. I know the path leading out of this huge maze," it offered.

The little fairy became even more cute and fascinating in my eyes. Before I knew it, I followed the creature through the maze. When we were halfway, I hear a panicking female voice trying to scream in my head. At first, I thought I was just hearing things. But the words this voice is saying became more clearer and that's when I realized, there's someone outside the maze, trying to reach to me through telepathy.

DO NOT FOLLOW THAT THING! she warned. THAT'S NOT A CUTE LITTLE FAIRY! THAT'S A SINDIKUNT! THEY LURE THEIR PREY TO DEATH THROUGH HYPNOSIS AND LATER FEED ON THEIR PREY'S FLESH!

I looked beside me and saw pink, yellow, and white through the small gaps of the maze wall. Michelle is the one trying to warn me. I then looked back at where the sindikunt is leading me to and noticed that there's a really thick dark mist at the path ahead. I saw several huge monsters waiting inside the mist. The vines there were filled with thorns unlike the other vines I encountered in the maze. Gore and rotting bones were visible on the ground. I also heard distant screams and eerie sounds beyond the mist.

"Don't be scared...just come with me," offered the sindikunt.

"No...no...!" I stuttered and ran away.

The little creature, out of anger, turns into a really ugly and hideous fairy and chases me. I got so scared that I ended up tripping over a vine. My head bumps into a rock. Instead of my skull cracking open like I expected, huge surge of energy flowed through me and I felt so energetic like as if I wanted to do revenge. Some electric wave thingy crawled through my arms and I formed blue flame spheres on above each of my hands.

The blue flame spheres served as my personal flamethrower and navigator. I managed to easily get past through several obstacles. But that only last for a few moments. My flame spheres died out when I was a few turns away from the exit of the maze. I could already see the glowing white stone ahead. I just have one more obstacle to face.