Princess Elle breathed heavily as she carried half the weight of her guardian and friend up the final flight of stairs.
At some point, the labyrinth had become dark and narrow. The Labyrinth of Daedalus has a knack for doing this; switching from one configuration to another without anyone noticing. Of course, this may be the work of a very elaborate confounding technique because a switch from light to darkness should be very noticeable to normal eyes and minds. The walls were now made of rough, cold stone like they were in the dungeon of an old castle. Even that was preferable to Princess Elle and her Golden Wings Knights now compared to the never ending and constantly changing horrors of the labyrinth.
Their footsteps echoed through the stairway as they tread heavily on the stone floor. All of them were tired, injured, hungry and afraid. Penthesila, head of the Golden Wings Knights was badly hurt and was being supported by Princess Elle. The other two girls walked a few feet in front and behind them, their swords drawn and ready to meet any enemies that may come from either direction.
"I'm sorry for being a burden to you" Penthesila said in a weak tone. "You should just leave me. I'm slowing you down".
"And get to where?" Princess Elle said in a sharp tone that voiced out her feelings clearly 'I will not have that self-sacrificing nonsense'. "We won't be doing any better leaving you behind. And even if we could do better, I will never leave you"
At those words, Princess Elle sobbed. Tears rushed down her cheeks before she knew it, clearing away some of the blood and grime that had accumulated on her usually smooth, fair skin. The blood of her guardians and friends who had sacrificed their lives to allow her to get this far. And for what? She was going to die here. In this dark, endless maze, killed by either the Shadow Wraiths that were hunting them or by one of the monsters or traps that lay in the labyrinth.
Anna, Laila, Diana, Camelia. These were the names of the women who had sacrificed their lives for her. No... not for her; for Avalon. For the whole world. They had sacrificed themselves so that she could continue the journey. Their journey. Their mission.
Her emotions flooded out as she realised the hollowness of her words. 'I will never leave you behind'. She has already left four of her friends behind to be slaughtered by the Shadow Wraiths.
It's not that she wasn't used to making sacrifices, to seeing people she loved and cared for, who have fought by her side and risked their lives for her get killed. She wasn't a spoiled little princess who lived in her daddy's palace and couldn't do anything by herself. This is the price of fighting against the Demons.
Still, every time she loses someone, every time a friend, a comrade sacrifices themselves for 'the bigger cause', she feels that somehow she is also responsible for their deaths. She is their princess, their leader. She should be protecting them. She was the one who started the White Wings in Rhodopia to oppose her own country. After that it was also she who had led the Golden Wings to oppose the Demons and the Satanists who served them that had taken over her nation and made her father the king into their puppet.
Her chest tightened as she thought of her father, her mother and her siblings who are still in Lyonesse. Leaving her family behind at the mercy of the Demons; this was her sacrifice. Hers and her family's, the royal family of Lyonesse's sacrifice. Everyone had to make sacrifices to fight against the Demons. Still that did not make it any easier for her.
She reached the top of the stairs and placed Penthesila down gently. Her breathing had become more ragged.
"Please Princess… you won't make it if you have to carry me" Penthesila said.
"No… I said I won't leave you" Princess Elle said. She wiped her tears as she changed the bandages on Penthesila's arm.
Princess Elle's heart dropped when she saw the wound. It had gotten worse. Much worse. The wound that Penthesila had taken to protect her. Her fault; because she was too weak to protect herself.
The wound wasn't deep, but a wound from the blade of a Shadow Assassin contains a poison that slowly takes over the body and soul of an Avalonian, turning them into a fiend of Tartarus. Into a slave of the Demons. The black veins of the poison had already spread to Penthesila's whole right arm and even as Princess Elle watched, it began to encroach on her chest.
"Don't waste your energy on me" Penthesila said as Princess Elle prepared to heal her.
It was at this time that the labyrinth chose to change configurations. One moment they were at the top of a staircase in a narrow passageway with stone walls around them and a low ceiling above them. And then the next moment the wall of rock had changed into a wall of vines. The ceiling was gone and the air was fresh like they were out in the open as opposed to the stuffed air in the enclosed corridor. Every few meters there was a lamp post on either side of the path. They were at a crossroad between four paths. The first one went straight on as far as they can see. The second one branched off into three more paths after two lamp posts. The third sloped down for a bit and then turned right. The forth went for some ways before ending in a wall but was too far for them to see whether it branched off or not.
"Nerium Conius" Penthesila said. "The Endless Dream. The vines, don't touch them. They are poisonous" she strained to give them this warning.
"Something's coming" one of the Golden Wings, Margaret said in a hasty tone.
"Please hold them off for a while. I'm going to heal Penthesila" Princess Elle said. The second Golden Wings, Marry came to Margaret's side by the second path. "We've got you're back princess. Do what you have to do" Marry tried to sound reassuring; she was the 'calm, older sister' figure in their group as opposed to Penthesila who was the 'Violent, overprotective sister' figure, Margaret who was the 'happy-go-lucky, boisterous, younger sister' and Princess Elle who was the 'timid, soft and kind baby sister'.
Penthesila tried to argue but to no avail.
Princess Elle placed her hands on Penthesila's wounded arm and activated her special ability Curare. A soft white light emanated from her hands and the black veins of the demonic poison in Penthesila's arm receded.
"That's enough princess, you will hurt yourself" Penthesila said, but Princess Elle continued to use her ability although she began to strain with it.
Curare is a special ability that is equivalent to a mid-level healing Aura Technique. However, other than healing simple to moderately severe wounds, it also heals fatigue, replenishes some amount of Aura, neutralises poisons and repels magic.
As it is an ability and not an Aura Technique, it requires only the most minimal expenditure of Aura and almost no learning or practice to use. Using this ability which is inborn to Princess Elle, she could feel the injuries and pain that Penthesila was feeling. She could also feel the magic infused poison that was spreading through her body.
Princess Elle focused on the poison. With Curare in use, she saw the poison as a purple coloured mist inside Penthesila's veins. Circling around the mist was a greenish-yellow flame. She had seen that flame many times when treating people who had been attacked by Satanists and Demons. It was the appearance of magic.
Penthesila's Aura was slowing down the poison's spread and subduing its effect but it was failing as she weakened.
Princess Elle focused on neutralising the magic in the poison first. In its basic form, Curare affects all the domains of healing that it covers. Wound and fatigue healing, Aura replenishing, poison and magic neutralising. It affects each domain in small amounts. During the Demon invasion of Lyonesse, she learned that if she focused on only a single aspect of her ability she could improve its effect, making it useful for healing very strong poisons and magical injuries as in this case.
Still, it took a lot out of her to just push back the main body of magic in Penthesila's arm that was threatening to invade into her neck and body. Slowly she pushed it down from the shoulder, to the elbow, until it was only focused around the wound on her forearm. She tried to expulse it out through the wound but hit a hard wall. So she placed some of her Aura which was altered by Curare around the area to contain the magic.
Even with this first step she was already sweating profusely due to exertion.
Next she spread her power throughout Penthesila's body, looking for the biggest concentrations of magic. She then neutralised those big spots of magic with Curare. It took her three attempts to completely neutralise all the spots. There was still a lot of magic spread out throughout her body like little flames here and there but she couldn't catch them all. It was like fighting a fire. She had put out the main bodies of fire but there were still smaller fires around which she couldn't pinpoint and reach.
In reality only about ten seconds had passed but to Princess Elle it felt like she had been running for days.
She chanced a brief look at Marry and Margaret. They were battling what looked like a giant praying mantis made of steel that had a flaming metal tail with a spiked ball at the tip.
They seemed to be doing alright because there was already one metal praying mantis on the ground and as Princess Elle looked, Marry froze the legs of the one still standing and Margaret decapitated it. Two more metal praying mantis' came down from the wall but were quickly dealt with by her friends.
She turned back quickly to Penthesila and repeated what she had done. The leader of the Golden Wings Knights who was beginning to look better tried to protest but Elle wouldn't have that.
It took her another two minutes - which to her felt like months - of intense concentration before she was done with weakening the magic inside Penthesila. It then took her twice the time and the effort to neutralise the poison.
This wasn't the first time that Princess Elle had used Curare on Penthesila after she was wounded two, or was it three days ago? She couldn't remember. Time was non-existent in the labyrinth and none of their clocks worked. It seemed like so long ago. Although it seemed like she had contained the magic and neutralised the poison, after some time, they would reappear as strong as ever and spread even further. All her Curare could do was slow its progress.
After completing her task, Princess Elle almost collapsed from exhaustion.
"Are you feeling better now? Sorry but we didn't manage to leave any of the fun for you" Margaret said jokingly to Penthesila. She and Marry had done away with all the metal praying mantises that the labyrinth sent them. There was more than a dozen of the things in various states of destruction on the pile that they had built.
"Are you alright?" Marry asked when Penthesila didn't say anything and a weird look formed on her face.
Princess Elle also saw the colour draining so fast from Penthesila's face that she thought her healing had failed.
"What's wrong Penthesila?"
Penthesila cut her off with a hurried and silent "Shh". The hand she raised to indicate for them to be quiet was visibly trembling.
Princess Elle, Margaret and Marry knew then that something was terribly wrong.
"Shadow Assassin" Penthesila mouthed as she led them slowly to the third path. The Shadow Assassin had appeared from the first path about fifty meters away and had – out of some massive luck – chosen to go the other way.
They were almost out of sight from the first path when a second Shadow Assassin appeared. There must be other paths that opened up along the first path because the second Shadow Assassin had appeared closer to them and this one chose to turn their way.
And it saw them.
Princess Elle and the Golden Wings felt as if every fibre in their bodies had suddenly been frozen. It wasn't just the fear borne out of their horrible experience with the Shadow Assassins or the knowledge of what they could do. They were also affected by the Shadow Assassins magic. A mental type magic called 'Terror' which causes its victims to experience intense fear to the point that they are unable to move as in the case of Princess Elle and the Golden Wings Knights. They were some of the strongest people in Avalon on a level almost comparable to Heroes. Weaker people may lose consciousness or suffocate to death.
Penthesila was the first one to escape the magic. She pulled her friends which had the effect of nullifying the Shadow Assassins magic and allowing them to escape the petrifying clutches of Terror .
They turned the corner and ran as fast as their tired legs could carry them.
Princess Elle could feel the two Shadow Assassins behind them like a cold wave of darkness. If it caught them, they would be consumed by it.
So although her legs were killing her and she was so tired from everything that she had been through and from using her ability to treat Penthesila, she pushed herself to run. They all forced themselves to move, to run, to try escape from the Shadow Assassins.
Penthesila was the only one who managed to keep her fear from overcoming her and use Aura Techniques even as they ran with all their might.
It was because of Penthesila's Aura Techniques slowing down the Shadow Assassins that they managed to keep themselves from getting caught and killed immediately.
"There! The labyrinth is changing" Margaret exclaimed.
About a hundred meters in front of them, the vines were changing into what looked like black marble.
Princess Elle could see the vines changing just a few meters in front but the world was spinning and she could hardly feel her legs. The cold wave behind her was getting closer.
"We've got you princess" Penthesila's voice said right next to her ears as two pairs of arms caught her on each side.
"Now Marry" Penthesila shouted.
Princess Elle saw Marry turn around and raised her arms just as one of the Shadow Assassins flew at them.
The last few meters of vines suddenly grew horizontally to form a wall between them and the Shadow Assassins.
A horrible screech like a thousand tortured souls shouting filled the labyrinth. The Shadow Assassin caught in the Nerium Conius turned into black smoke that dispersed as its essence was eaten away by the deadly poison that affects even undead wraiths.
The black marble then washed over them and they were plunged into darkness.
Where the Shadow Assassin had been, there was now a wall of rock. A natural wall of rough, solid rock.