Axel disappeared in front of her like a burst of bubble. She thought he entered the portal and rushed when Axel appeared behind his back. He elbows her back and after that knees her stomach.
"This is fun!"
"WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! We are all having fun! Aren't we?!"
Strawberry nearly imploded to the ground, shaking, as Axel overshadowed her powerless structure.
"I thought you were that fast and strong?"
"Not bad for a pretty young lady." Scanning her from head to foot.
He kicks her and grabs her by the head. Leaving her low. She cannot move except struggle herself under Axel's grip. She catches her breath slowly while struggling. The elbow and knee were too much for her to bear in an instant.
"Too bad for the young commander. The portal already calls me."
Meanwhile, Socrates concluded.
"Okay so hear me out. Once we open the room beside here whichever …"
He was still confused and was unable to put his idea into words.
"What is it?"
"I think we should at least try to proceed. Or should we listen to this dead man here?"
"Well, I don't like to be like that man. I wonder what kind of suffering he needs to endure."
"Okay, so here it is. We don't know what kind of corruption these scriptures are saying. If there is some kind of negative Quanta and it's destructive when it comes to contact with us, then that means after opening one room we are all gonna be contaminated.
I know that that rune mark over there…" Pointing towards the same rune mark they saw. "…has something to do with this room or the labyrinth."
"With the size of this room, I don't even wanna try to bother to destroy it using my powers. That would drain all my Quanta, and I don't want you guys either, you need to save your energy." While he tries to measure the room using his eyes.
"The first thing we are gonna do is to open and enter the next room."
Socrates led them as their elder. "You choose which room should we open first. The one that is in front of us or the one that is on our right." Then he looks at the young boys.
"So, after searching one room we need to automatically destroy it."
"Wait. How many minutes have already passed?"
"C'mon Raj. You should be wearing a watch right now. Why wear that flimsy bracelet of yours?"
"It's one of the keepsakes from my father. I never removed it from my hand after the incident with my grandmother when I found it back at home."
"It has already been an hour."
"I think they haven't gone back down yet. Or strawberry is holding them out pretty well."
The time inside the labyrinth is pretty slow compared to the outside world. One minute outside equates to an hour inside. The place is all covered with magic-natured Quanta but how it works is unknown.
"I don't think so. The time in this dimension is different from the outside. Strawberry would be escaping at this time because of the number of guards that would charge in that place."
Socrates said confidently while shaking the malfunctioning watch in his hands.
All of them decided to open the door in front of them. When they were near the door, they felt a different presence. The aura surrounding it was filled with dark Quanta that wanted to escape.
"But wait how do we open it?"
"Look for something. A button, a knob, like in the movies. Others I saw in the movies just open automatically."
All of them scan the door from the humongous wall.
"Here, look, this rock looks like it's sticking out. Maybe we can press it?"
After they pressed it the doors unlocked but it was not fully opened yet. They need to open it more widely themselves. When they do.
Raj and Thomas immediately vomited. They cannot fathom and stomach the different vibe of energy that has been emitting. They vomited non-stop for a while. They felt like it was choking them. Socrates tries to get a hold of it, even if he wants to vomit himself, he is trying to control himself from not doing it.
"Now what do we do." Thomas coughs while trying to get up.
"We need to find the chest here first." Socrates covers their mouth and nose with his hands.
Compared to the size of the first room of the entrance the room in front of it was way smaller.
"Why is this room smaller?" Asked Raj while he wiped his mouth. He noticed his chest reacted again with the surroundings.
"That's better we can search this place faster." The room was empty for an unknown reason.
They searched it for almost an hour, but they found nothing.
Raj noticed the same rune mark near the door. Same location as the first room.
"But how do we destroy this room?" Thomas wonders, while he also wipes his mouth and cheeks.
"Maybe through this one?"
Raj points out the rune mark.
They tried to break the rune inside the room, but nothing was happening.
"I don't think that's the one."
"Stand back guys. I'll try to blow this myself."
Socrates accumulates Quanta energy focused on both of his hands. When he released the energy, the room was covered in smoke, but after the smoke faded nothing happened.
"What do we need to do?" Thomas walked back and forth then he crossed back to the other room.
"Guys. I think you need to see this."
The other room which was supposed to be filled with pure Quanta energy was filled with the dark and gross emitting aura. Everything was replaced in the humungous room.
Everyone looked with shock and fear as they wandered a little more.
"We need to hurry." Socrates coughs. Probably because of the smoke mixed with the dark Quanta energy.
"Look a mark suddenly appeared on the doors button. Come here everyone look."
"I think we also need to try to destroy or press this one again and see what happens."
"But what do we do? Both these rooms right now are already filled with this gross energy."
"I can't tell."
"We need to know how to destroy one room first."
"Try pressing it." Raj pressed it now with the rune mark, but nothing happened.
"Maybe we need to close it."
He was about to lock and close the door before Socrates interrupted. He expects the room to seal and break itself the moment they lock and press the same rune mark.
"Wait. No! We need to ensure that the room gets destroyed."
"Socrates is right Raj. What if it does not then we already left one room, we can't risk closing it we don't know if it will re-open again."
The room continues to emit the negative Quanta energy. The room which was supposed to be smaller overwhelmed the natural Quanta energy that was used to be flowing around the space of the humongous entrance room.
"What are you doing Thomas?"
He was shooting the door with blasters from his hands, but it seemed invulnerable. He also tried to bite, kick, and punch it but nothing happened.
"I was just thinking maybe we can remove the doors, but it seems indestructible. But the rune mark inside easily got broken with a single shot of Socrates."
Raj crouched in the corner distressed.
"What do we do?!" He sits bearing the negative Quanta around him.
Socrates walks around feeling, touching, and examining the walls and floor hoping something will happen.
"Stop that Mr. Socrates, we're already doomed. Maybe only if we had that rune that we used to open the portal we could try something new. It's no use we can't go back."
Socrates chuckles.
"So you are suddenly respecting me now?"
"I always respect you. It's just it's easier to call you Socrates than Mr. Socrates or Sir. Socrates."
"Even Thomas agreed with me when I opened it to him one time."
"I do and I do have it guys." Thomas raised it above showing the rune the old man Marco gave them.
Socrates rushed and punched his head now steaming with smoke.
"Why didn't you say it earlier, you are wasting our time!"
"I managed to slide it inside my pocket when we were about to enter earlier. I just thought we should bring it. Although the old man didn't say anything about it."
"Let's try it first with the rune mark inside."
They pieced back the rune that they broke. They put them together and pressed them. Suddenly a light glowed blinding them for a second then disappeared. The rune mark from the room slowly starts to fade away.
"What's happening? The rune mark from the room is fading but it still has the mark here on the other one."
More trembling happened. The ceiling and the walls of the second room they entered in front of the entrance start cracking.
Shaking continues.
"Hey, hey, what is happening." As Socrates looks at the door it's closing.
"The doors! Run!"
The double door from the room is slowly closing in. It was clear from the view that it was symmetrically slowly closing. There was also another door parallel to the same door on the opposite side. But they didn't try opening, because they were still trying out and learning how to deal with the rooms.
All of them raced towards the door. The walls started to break down and ceilings were already falling from above.
"Watch out Raj." Thomas reaches out his hands while reaching out for Raj. When their hands met, he tossed him outside the door.
Socrates was fast using the falling debris as his means of steps. He grabs Thomas by the waist and carries him beside his shoulder. All of them managed to go out safely.
"I guess that's it." Socrates landed smoothly tossing Thomas down.
Raj was still rolling due to Thomas' throw.
"Ouch." Getting up.
"So now we know how to destroy it. So here me out…"
Thomas crossed in between Socrates refraining him from his sentence.
"But is it okay that we did not take the other door parallel to the same door? We are back in this place again."
"I don't think so it is the same room. With this kind of energy, it is different."
Raj said while brushing off dust from his shirt.
"Okay… okay… okay… hear me out first this was what I thought earlier. It is just right not to take the other door because we also need to destroy this place."
Everyone was showered in excitement as it had crossed their minds and understood what Socrates said.
"Right! If we continue towards the other door, we would be missing this place."
"Exactly!" Pointing out both of his fingers to Thomas.
"So, we need to take that step first."
Socrates draws on the ground using the skeletal remains of the keeper.
"We are here… if we destroy this place first and proceed with the next room, we would be missing out one room to check."
"…Since we are already done with that one this is how our plan goes as we proceed. So, let's call this room from the northwest room, where we are right now, 1A if we proceed to 3A immediately from 2A, the room which we currently destroyed…"
Everyone says together.
"We would be missing one room!"
"So, this is how we are gonna approach this labyrinth.
"Here. Let us label this ABCD and 1234. Here, 1A, to 2A, we destroy 2A first which we already did, back 1A, destroy here, then proceed to 1B, 2B, 3B, 3A, 4A, 4B, 4C, 3C, 2C, 1C, 1D, and so on till the exit."
"We have another choice, but more likely it will be the same since we already destroyed the adjacent room."
Socrates draws out the other choices.
Strawberry still manages to crawl. She grasps the foot of Peolo.
She thought of doing her signature move at the moment but with her state she doubts it.
She flung above and stood once more catching her breath. She draws her sword the second time, but Axel, Lee, Chris, and Ken already made their way in.
"Sorry Socrates, I know you've entrusted me here. But the numbers are just too overwhelming."
She clashed with Peolo and Paulo with one of her afterimages.