My Beginning After the End Four Armies

Maze Pt. I

Arthur Leywin

We have passed a couple zones since leaving the centipede zone, there was a simple platform zone, it was nothing special, very easy. Everyone was still completely healthy, which was good, no one had to do any serious fighting besides me.

We were actually in a safe zone at a moment, just passing time before we moved onto the next zone, it wasn't going to be one that I knew. This was the only way that I could find a keystone, traveling randomly through each portal, I didn't really have any other choice.

We all had similets on that bind us together so we can travel zone to zone without breaking up, it's good Caera and I both stole some a while back, otherwise we would have been a smaller party coming in here.

Rosa was sitting next to Ellie near a fountain, I was with Bairon and Mica, and the others were on the other side of the fountain, near the portal. Caera has been such a big help, especially in the last zone, the platforms were filled with different types of mana beasts and puzzles.

"Arthur, you say we are looking for these things called keystones, do you even know where they are?" Bairon asked, looking at me with a curious expression, but still stern. "Or are we going to have to go through random zones over and over again?"

"Random." I told him, shaking my head. "If I could simply just go to the zone where the keystones are, it wouldn't be that hard to master fate, there's not much else we can do except hop from zone from zone."

"I see." Bairon said as he nodded his head, thinking about all the other things we were going to have to go through. "So, we just have to keep on moving, hoping to find one of these things." I shrugged. "Great, let's hope these zones don't get much harder then."

"They will." I told him as I turned to the others, getting ready to leave, we'd been here long enough. "Everyone, I think it is time that we head out, we've been here long enough." I spoke up, and as I did everyone stood and looked at me, understanding, the Lances followed me as I made my way to the portal.

"Are we going in blind?" Caera asked, joining me at my side as she pulled her sword out.

"Yeah." I told her. "We don't have much of a choice, we won't find anything we want if we just go to places, we were before." She understood, and as we stopped in front of the portal, I prepared myself as well, not knowing where we were going to end up. "Step into the portal in pairs, preferably Jasmine goes in with Bairon, Mica with Adam, Ellie with Rosa."

They all started to do as I said, regrouping themselves in pairs, preparing to step into the portal with me. "Ready?" Caera asked, her sword grip tightened a little, then we stepped in, lights flashed, and I appeared in a small, boxed room, Caera was next to me, but everyone else didn't show up.

There were black walls all around us, but an opening in the front, leading to a pathway. "Hold on." I told Caera as she stepped toward the opening in the wall, then pushed outwards, searching for everyone, and with my limited mana search, I found them still. "It looks like we are all here, but we are in some sort of a maze."

"Can we break out of here?" Caera asked as I looked up, there was a black ceiling as well, but that wasn't what worried me, it seemed even with my complete control over aether, I couldn't manipulate the aether that was protecting these black walls.

"No." I told her, turning to the pathway again. "It seems like we are stuck in here, we are going to have to go in." It appears as if the pairs are all together, if Rosa is with Ellie, they will be safe, same with Jasmine and Adam, but I don't feel anything moving within this maze.

"Alright, seems like fun." Caera said as we stepped out of the black room and into the pathway that seemed to last for a while. "Is there any way to find them? You feel them, right?" We took a couple more steps and ended up in front of a different pathway.