Twisted Wonderland x (Todoroki) Reader

The Lord of Malevolence

-3rd POV-

"Take a left at the end, then take a right! Then another right at the second bend!" Ace said as he led the small group with him.

Grim huffed and wheezed from the running, "(Y/n), is the darkness still followin' us?"

(Y/n) looked back once they came to a stop, "Looks like we got away."

"Did the others escape safely...?" Sebek questioned.

"I'll send them a Magicam DM to check..." The orange haired got his phone, before pausing, "Oh wait, right. I haven't been getting any signal since I went into other people's dreams. It was working fine in my dream. Man, it's such a hassle not being able to reach people by phone!"

"Ortho and Idia-senpai stayed in contact via transmission in the other dreams so far. But ever since the darkness dragged us deeper into this dream...Ortho has been completely out of contact with Idia-senpai and Styx."

"Is it because we're on a lower level of the dream? Like how phones can lose signal when you go underground?" He questioned.

He tilted his head, "I don't know the technical details. That said, this is the first time we've ever lost contact with Idia-senpai outright."

"Ortho said with his commlink down, he had no energy feed, and no one could receive equipment. So we're gonna be in trouble if we don't wake Riddle up soon."

He nodded, "Agreed. We need to get back to him quickly, while also avoiding any encounters with the swarm of darkness-beings."

"Okay, and how do we do that? With all these twists and turns, I've got no idea how to get back to where we started." The feline whined.

"That's simple enough. We have but to climb the rose hedges the maze is built from, and—" The green haired male was cut off.

"Whoa, hold on!" Ace cut in, making them turn to him, "All the rose trees here are magical plants. And right now they're in the hither-and-thither penalty layout."

(Y/n) tilted her head, "The roses are enchanted?"

He nodded, "Basically, the roses shift around on the housewarden's orders. I mean, it's not like normal roses stay in bloom all year round, do they?"

"I never really thought about it before, but I guess not." The tanuki said.

"Rule 63 states..."Those who anger the queen in court must run through a maze with card soldiers in pursuit." Though generally speaking, they don't mobilize the whole Heartslabyul student body for rule 63. Aside from that, it's used for keeping outside visitors from entering the dorm when the school's open to the public for events. And it's also used for locking down the dorm building when there's trouble."

"So if there is meant to lock down the dorm..." Sebek trailed off.

"Yup. If you try to climb the rose hedges or fly over them on a broom, they'll lash out with thorny vines. The whole point of the layout is to make people run through the maze, so obviously it's not gonna allow circumvention."

"There are briars that grow under the drawbridge to Diasomnia. I've heard those are also magical plants which eliminate intruders during emergencies."

"We've gone over similar stuff in Trein's class. He taught us that enchanted plant life used to be a major form of defense used to protect castles and cities."

"But now that my liege has been appointed housewarden and always raises magical barriers in the event of an emergency..." Sebek smirked, "...those briars shall never see the light of day!"

"Why're you braggin' about that?" Grim deadpanned.

Ace's eyes widen, hearing something, before pushing the three.