Sadly, the cohort did not get a lot of time to rest. Despite the fact that it wasn’t even noon yet, they had a lot of ground to cover before sunset.
The plan they had made at the start of the day was to leave the Dark City from the south by climbing the wall near the grandiose Main Gates and then travel through the Labyrinth to the next safe height, which was about ten kilometers away.
However, due to the fact that they had ended up in the catacombs instead and had to escape through the chamber belonging to the Lord of the Dead, the party was now to the east of the ruins, near the beautiful statue of the faceless woman. Not only did they have to circle around the city now, but there was also less time to reach safety before the flood of darkness devoured the Forgotten Shore once again.
Standing up in a chorus of disappointed groans, the cohort assumed the marching formation and set out south. Walking through the mud of the colossal crater was not easy, but for the time being, they had no other choice… unless they wanted to scale the monumental stone wall and return to the Dark City, of course.
Luckily, with both Sunny’s shadow and Kai scouting the way ahead, they didn’t have to worry about being ambushed by monsters. So, for the time being, the only thing the party had to struggle with was moving their feet through the wet dirt.
The monotonous silence was broken only by laborious breathing and slurping of mud.
…A while later, the impregnable and seemingly endless grey wall that loomed some distance away and above them slowly twisted, drifting away from the edge of the crater.
They were finally leaving the cursed ruins behind.
Turning around, Sunny looked back and studied the sight of the city that had been his whole world for these past four… almost five months.
Far away, the floor of the gargantuan crater sharply rose, forming a tall slope. On it stood the unassailable wall of polished grey stone, firm and unyielding despite the thousands of years that had passed since the demise of its creators.
From where he stood, Sunny could see the flood of crimson coral swelling at its base, sharp blades powerlessly scraping against the cold stone in hopeless attempts to find purchase. It looked as though the city was being besieged by the land itself.
‘If it knew what awaits inside, the Labyrinth would be trying to escape as far as possible from that damned place instead.’
With a sigh, Sunny looked up and noticed a lone human figure standing on the wall, watching them disappear into the distance. That figure was crooked and dark, emanating a cold feeling of foreboding.
A few moments later, it turned away and disappeared from view.
Harus had chosen to return to the Bright Castle.
Trying not to shiver, Sunny lingered for a few seconds, and then hurried to catch up with the group.
They were safe from him, at least…
‘For now.’
***
Because the crater was too big, the bend of its edge was almost imperceptible. Only by looking far into the distance could one say that it was actually curved. Because of this, the cohort could have continued traveling through the crater for a long time without having to move farther away from the goal of today’s journey, which lay to the southwest of their current position.
However, they had to leave the crater and return to the Labyrinth sooner or later — not only to escape the black water, but also because there was nothing to hide behind on this vast muddy plain. If any flying Nightmare Creature decided to attack them from above, the cohort would have no defense against it.
The Labyrinth, while hiding its own fair share of terrifying threats, at least offered some measure of protection.
That’s why, at some point, Nephis led the party to the sharp slope of the crater, and the six of them climbed out of it. With the help of Kai and the trusty golden rope, the task wasn’t hard at all.
For some time after that, they walked on the ridge separating the crater from the Labyrinth proper, but then, finally, had to turn west and enter the maze of crimson coral.
Sunny couldn’t help but sigh once the familiar coral walls surrounded him once again. He didn’t miss the first months of his infernal voyage into the Dream Realm at all.
Well… maybe a little. But not because of the damn Labyrinth itself, that’s for sure.
The crimson forest was simultaneously the same and vastly different from the region of it that he had traveled through before.
The coral maze itself was pretty much identical to how it had been east of the gargantuan crater. However, the creatures populating it in these parts were vastly different.
There were no members of the carapace legion around, at least not anywhere Sunny could see. Instead, the dominant tribe of Nightmare Creatures in this region seemed to consist of nasty, spider-like critters that had a habit of decorating the walls and passages of the Labyrinth with endless amounts of grey, incredibly sticky cobwebs.
What’s worse, their web seemed to be made not out of spider silk, but out of thin metal wires that were as tough as iron and could cut the victim into little pieces if it thrashed too much after getting caught.
Needless to say, getting yourself stuck in these webs was tantamount to a death sentence.
The deeper into the Labyrinth they went, the more of these cobwebs surrounded them. It came to the point where they had to use Cassie’s flying rapier to clear the path ahead every few minutes, slowing down the speed of the cohort to a crawl.
During one of these stops, Sunny rubbed his face and thought:
‘I just hope that nothing attacks us while we wait.’
Turning to him, the shadow glared for a few moments and then tiredly shook its head. It then placed one palm across its face a looked down, as if defeated.
‘…What? What did I say?’
A moment later, several massive spider-like creatures jumped out of the cracks in the coral and attacked them.
