~LaurentThe voice faded.Not cut off.Not silenced.It simply… withdrew.Like something stepping just out of sight.The air settled, thick and damp, pressing in around us. The Maze didn’t move anymore. Not visibly. The walls stayed where they were, the runes dim and quiet.Too quiet.Kendrix exhaled through his teeth. “I don’t like that.”Calista glanced at him. “You don’t like anything.”“No,” he said. “I especially don’t like when places like this stop reacting. It makes me feel like something big is coming.”I kept walking.The floor sloped downward, shallow but steady, forcing our steps into a slow descent. Every sound carried—boots against stone, breath, the faint scrape of Kendrix’s uneven stride.I slowed without meaning to.Something felt… delayed.“Why are you stopping?” Calista asked quietly.“I didn’t,” I replied.But I had.We stood there, the three of us, surrounded by stone that looked the same in every direction. No doors. No markings I recognized. Just faint, old runes

~LaurentI opened my eyes to darkness.The darkness was thick, almost liquid, pressing against my skin. My chest heaved, lungs gulping air I didn’t know was there. The ground beneath me felt uneven, soft in some places, hard in others, like it couldn’t decide what it wanted to be.I sighed. I guess I was foolish for thinking those reflections wanted to help me.I pushed myself up, wincing as my muscles screamed. Nothing broken, nothing missing, but every movement carried the memory of the fall.The walls… if they could be called that… rose from shadow. Stone, polished black, absorbing what little light I had. I took a cautious step forward. Then another. The space stretched on endlessly, corridors curling in directions that made no sense.Nothing moved.Nothing breathed.Nothing waited—except me.I tried calling out. My voice was swallowed by the darkness. Even my system hummed faintly in my chest, a quiet heartbeat I could barely feel. No guidance. No notifications. Just silence.I m

~LaurentI woke to light.Not warm light.Not natural.It bled through the air in thin fractures, like something underneath reality was leaking through cracks it hadn’t sealed properly.Stone pressed against my back. Solid. Real. I exhaled, feeling the ache settle into my bones all at once. My body was still healing—slowly now, like it was tired of pretending nothing had happened.I pushed myself upright.This wasn’t the Maze corridor.The space was wide. Circular. An arena of sorts, though broken and unfinished, like it had been abandoned halfway through its own construction. Stone pillars ringed the edges, some collapsed, others cracked clean through the middle. The floor was scarred with deep gouges, old impact marks layered over newer ones.As if fights had happened here before.As if this place remembered them.I swallowed.Then I heard breathing.Sharp. Uneven.Too close.“Calista.”The name left my mouth before I realized I’d spoken.She was a few meters away, kneeling on one kn

~OmniscientLaurent paced. The Maze stretched around him, endless corridors twisting in impossible angles, but he barely noticed the walls. His mind buzzed, a hive of calculations and fears. The symbols burned into the stone—the ultimatums—had left their mark. Only three could leave. One must remain. Power could not be carried together.He had thought he understood the Maze, thought he could bend it, outsmart it. But now it felt alive, aware, patient. It didn’t punish recklessly. It tested, prodded, waited for weakness.Laurent stopped at a junction and pressed his palm against the polished floor. The stone hummed faintly beneath his fingers. He closed his eyes. Feel the flow. Listen to the rhythm. The Maze was breathing, moving, thinking.He counted in his head. Three exits. Three paths. Only three could pass. Only three.His jaw tightened. The others—Calista, Kendrix, Denzel—had to get out. He couldn’t let the Maze trap them. Not now. Not after everything.He turned sharply, pacing

~LaurentI knew before Kendrix spoke.It was in the way he wouldn’t meet my eyes.In the way his jaw stayed clenched, like if he loosened it even a little, something ugly would spill out.Calista stood a few steps away, arms folded, confusion written all over her face. She didn’t understand the silence yet. She hadn’t lived in this world long enough to recognize the shape of bad news before it spoke.Denzel said nothing. He watched Kendrix instead.I exhaled slowly. “You’re the only one who saw what happened,” I said. Not a question.Kendrix nodded once.“Start from the beginning.”He swallowed. Then finally looked at me.“When you disappeared… everything collapsed fast.” His voice was rough, scraped raw by memory. “Vyrath’s forces flooded the lower districts. Monster patrols, trackers, bloodhounds—whatever you want to call them. They weren’t searching randomly. They knew our patterns.”My hands curled into fists at my sides.“You and Ivellé went into hiding,” I said.“Yeah.” A bitter