Crown King: Return of The Labyrinth | ✓

Chapter 24: Undermining Truth

Hello there! I'm sorry if it took so long for me to update CKROTL again, but here I am now! I hope you are still there and are doing well during the quarantine. Stay safe!

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Blood.

It was the last thing you saw amidst the vision of yours coming to a blur as your breathing started to become heavier. The moment consciousness started to come into you, you instantly sat up straight while opening your eyes, looking around and seeing how different the current place was from the forest. Yes, it was indeed a forest last time, but now. . .

     You tried to move but as you did, pain seized right around your wrists, making you glance down on them. You were bound in chains, the cold clinking of the metals as you mustered the strength to break free grazing against your skin. Somewhere down the midriff, crimson stains were still visible enough, nonetheless the wounds, when you felt it, have been healed enough that you didn't remember you yourself doing it. And yet if there were stains on your clothes, then you must have been—

     Tifa, you thought, an unclear vision of a dark haired girl in front of you came into mind, making you feel unnerved of it, but you didn't know why. You just remembered that before you lost consciousness, she was there. She was also in the Labyrinth, but how is that even possible. . . when she was supposed to be in Gaia?

     You looked around, realizing that you were in a room so tight, the walls plainly worn of albicant hues as if they were to close in any sooner. Hanging at the ceiling was a bulb so bright that you had to look away. Surely enough that this would be another realm that was part of the network the Labyrinth created, that it made you think that you could make it out in no time and come across Noctis and the others for sure, so with every strength you could summon, you closed your eyes shut, hoping that the chains would disintegrate.

     Nothing happened, as it seemingly made you feel a rush of jamais vu, as if you couldn't put a finger on it.

     Before you could have the chance to curse, you heard a door swinging open, your head shooting towards the sound's origin. Since when was there a door? you wondered confusingly.

     However, that was not what made your thoughts immersed, for when the door had swung open, standing at the doorway was a man you never thought you would come across. It was that smile that pissed you off, the thought of you knowing that he survived the war five years ago, only to come back now. . . You realized how a fool you had been for falling into the lion's den again, of whom this time had certainly been longing for revenge during those five years of peace, and now that he succeeded, nothing else stressed you out but the fact that you had no escape from these chains.

     The redhead took off his hat, the same, evil grin plastered on his face sending the blood inside you boil out of rage despite of making yourself as calm as possible. A chuckle escaped his mouth when you sent him a glare. He took a few steps forward, the door behind him shutting close by itself with a thud, mixed with the deafening sound of glass shattering to pieces. You blinked; the claustrophobic room you were confined in was gone at once, now replaced by a vast, circular room, the interior of it resembling a cathedral, except that it was bleaker and more dreary, frightening even, for it was not only the two of you present in this place.

     Around the two of you were hundreds of daemons, different of kind and race, gnawing their teeth and staring insidiously right towards you as if impatiently waiting for their master's order to attack.

     "Pardon the intrusion." The moment he spoke made you realize that he was still there, and that you were under his control. "Surely, you have been to one of Insomnia's attractions, yes?" he said, his eyes gleaming within the light that came streaking from the glass panels. "I have chosen the place, given how sacred it is, yet I have the tempting feeling of wanting it stained—"