It felt like we had been walking for an eternity. The sand of the desert wasn't easy to walk in either, it slid and gave way easily, which led to Christa and Loki having both fallen over multiple times. It would have been funny had it not been so sad.
"I know I'm gonna sound like I'm whining, but please tell me we're almost there," Yuna complained as nearly collapsed from heat exhaustion.
"How you are hotter than the rest of us is truly a mystery I'd love to solve," Sasaki joked, poking fun at the small blonde girl as he walked, somehow not even slightly bothered by the scorching heat.
"I'm sorry to tell you that we're not even close," Jun said with a small smile causing Yuna to groan in annoyance as Christa fell over again.
"How are you handling this so well Arin?" Loki asked as he wiped some sweat off his brow.
"The Knights of Aria receive specialized training to combat all climates, this is nothing for me," I explained and Christa finally decided to stand back up.
"Can we please take a break soon?" the rose-haired girl asked as she slowly limped towards us.
"We're making pretty good time, I don't see why not," Jun said as he gazed up at the sky, I looked up with him. The sun was in the middle of the sky so it must have been around noon.
"Hey Christa, I'm thirsty," Yuna complained as she hugged the taller girl.
"What do you want me to do about that?" Christa asked and Yuna jumped away from her.
"So make me some water with your magic!" she shouted, clearly not understanding why that was impossible.
"She can't," Jun explained and Yuna turned to him.
"Why not?" she asked and Christa sighed.
"I can't create water from thin air, I can only use water magic if I have a source of water nearby," she explained and Yuna turned to her.
"But you make fire out of nothing all the time!" she yelled, somehow she still didn't get it.
"I guess I'll have to explain it to you," Christa sighed as she placed a hand on her cheek.
"Explain what?" Yuna asked.
"In this world, there are eight elemental types. Fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, ice, light, and dark. Along with that, every person in the world is born under a star sign that decides their elemental affinity. I was born under the sign of the flame, as such my elemental affinity is fire magic. I can only use other elements through the usage of my spellbook, and even then I need a source of that element nearby to use a spell connected to that element." Christa explained and Yuna cried out.
"That's so confusing!" she yelled and Jun facepalmed.
"No you're just dumb," he said and she turned to him.
"And you're mean!" she shouted.
"Do you seriously not know what sign you were born under Yuna?" Loki asked and she shook her head.
"What month were you born in?" I asked and she looked at me.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Yuna inquired.
"Your star sign is decided by which of the eight months you were born in," Loki said "I was born in the month of Solaris, as such I was born under the sign of the sun,"
"Then why don't you use light magic?" Yuna asked and Loki sighed.
"Just having a natural affinity to a certain element doesn't mean you can automatically use it, you still have to hone your magical skills," Loki explained and Yuna just nodded dumbly.
"I hate to interrupt your lesson on the workings of magic but what the hell is that?" Sasaki asked and we all turned to him to see a small opening in the dessert.
"That's the Valiheim Labyrinth," Jun said and he turned to us "stay away from it,"
"Where did Yuna go?" Sasaki asked and we all turned to the labyrinth.
"She'll be fine right?" Christa asked and Jun turned to her.
"Nobody that has ever gone into that place has ever been seen again," Jun replied with a worried expression. It was pretty obvious that he cared about the blonde-haired archer so his reaction was understandable.
"Well, it was nice knowing her," Sasaki said with a blank expression on his face as he began to walk away. I grabbed him by his haori and held him in place.
"We're going after her right?" I asked, still preventing Sasaki from leaving.
"Let's go," Loki ordered, and the prince drew his sword and led us into the Valiheim Labyrinth.
The stone stairs felt like they stretched on forever, each step we took only seemed to make the walk take longer. Not only that but I was also filled with a feeling of dread and unease. It felt like I was marching to my death.
After what felt like an eternity we reached the end of the stairs and were met with a long hallway. I heard soft mumbling from Christa and suddenly a torch was lit, I relished the new light as I could finally see what was in front of me instead of wandering aimlessly with no sense of direction.
"Let's move," Loki ordered.
"Everyone stay close to each other," Jun ordered as we began to walk. Then we arrived at our first turn, to go left or to go right. Which way would Yuna have gone?
"Why would Yuna go so far in?" Christa asked and Jun turned to them and proceeded to point behind them.
"She probably didn't do it by choice," Jun explained and I turned to see that the entrance had vanished.
"What the hell!?" Sasaki shouted.
"That likely happened to her too, then she got scared and ran off hoping to find another way out," Jun explained, a worried expression still painted on his face. I was indeed worried too, I'm pretty sure we all were. Leaving Yuna by herself for an extended period was dangerous, but leaving her alone in a place that we don't understand was basically like leaving her to die.
She was a sweet girl and I did like her but she wasn't exactly smart.
"Well, we'll just have to find Yuna and get out of here," Loki said and we all turned to him and nodded. Loki really was a natural-born leader, that was obvious to anyone who met him. I admired his ability to keep everyone calm under such intense circumstances.
Loki took the torch from Christa and began to lead the way through the halls of the labyrinth. The rest of us followed closely behind him, it was dead silent, the only sound I could hear was our footsteps. It was eerily quiet, almost as if something could go wrong at any moment.
Suddenly Loki turned right and we turned right after him. But what we found shocked us to our very core.
Loki was gone?
"Loki!?" I called out with my eyes wide. Christa fell backward in shock and the other two with us didn't visibly react.
"This isn't good," Sasaki said, pointing out the obvious.
"Everyone stay calm!" Jun ordered and I nodded, reaching to help Christa up.
She was gone too.
"We're dropping like flies here," I pointed out, and Sasaki turned to Jun.
"What the hell is happening?" he asked, but Jun didn't respond. I turned around to where Jun was standing to see that he was gone too.
"Sasaki, are you still here with me?" I asked and Sasaki grunted in response.
"Which way?" he asked and I gestured for him to follow me as I led the way down the tunnel. I was on edge and could barely think straight, I had just witnessed three of my friends vanish into thin air.
"Hey Sasaki, what do you think we should do?" I asked.
I received no response.
I didn't have to turn around to know what had happened, but I chose to do it anyway. Just like I suspected Sasaki had vanished into thin air.
"What the hell is going on here, is the labyrinth separating us from each other?" I wondered. I steeled my resolve and set out to find the others.
After only a few more minutes of walking, I found myself bumping into something small.
"Ow!" the girl's voice yelped and I smiled a bit.
"Yuna, you're alright!?" I cheered, helping the small blonde up and she smiled at me.
"I've been looking everywhere for you guys," she said before looking around. "where are the others?"
"I lost them earlier on, we're gonna go find them and get outta here," I explained and she nodded, giving me a mock salute as she did so.
But still, something seemed off about her. She didn't have the same energy as usual. I tried to chalk it up to the fact that she was tired but that still didn't seem right. Yuna was always excitable and cheerful, even at the worst of times, there was no way she was just a little tired.
"Are you alright?" I asked her and she turned to me and smiled.
"Never better!" She cheered, but she still lacked her usual enthusiasm. She was clearly not in a good state of mind.
"You don't seem fine," I pointed out and she froze for a second, she recovered pretty quickly though. Unfortunately for her, I was very perceptive.
"I promise Arin, I'm ok, I'm just tired is all," she said and I turned to her.
"Are you blaming yourself?" I asked and once again she froze, "you're blaming yourself for everyone getting separated,"
And then she finally snapped.
"Well, who's fault is it!?" She shouted, "who's fault is it that we're all separated and now Jun and the others are gonna die!?"
"Yours, you made a bad call and went into the labyrinth, this is your fault," I explained and her face fell.
"Well at least you get it," she said and I smacked her on the head.
"Don't get so down about it and let me finish!" I demanded and she looked at me, confusion clear in her eyes. "if you wanna take responsibility then you gotta fix your mistake,"
"What?" she asked.
"We're gonna find the others so don't worry, and I'm sure Jun is safe," I told her and she looked relieved before confusion found its way onto her face.
"Why did you specify Jun?" she asked, growing visibly nervous.
"Because you love him," I said expressionlessly and she blushed as red as Christa's hair.
"No, I don't!" Yuna shouted in embarrassment.
"Yeah you do," a familiar voice joked and I turned to him and smiled.
"It's about time you found us, Sasaki," I said and the samurai smiled.
"Indeed, and it appears you have found Yuna," Sasaki said, relief clear in his voice.
"Yeah, have you seen any of the others?" I asked and he shook his head.
"Unfortunately no, but I will not rest until I do," Sasaki reassured us, and Yuna giggled lightly.
"Glad to know you're so motivated," she said and Sasaki smiled a bit.
The three of us gripped each other hands so we weren't separated again and began to walk through the narrow tunnels. I imagined that Christa was losing her mind in a place like this, she wasn't very good with small spaces.
"How big do you think this place is?" Yuna asked and I shrugged.
"You'd have to ask Jun, he seems to know a lot about this place," Sasaki replied.
The tunnel seemed to grow longer the further we walked and I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched. I could feel a thousand eyes on me at all times, and I'm confident in saying that the others felt it too.
Yuna was a lot stiffer than usual and had a look of concern in her eyes. Her left hand clutched onto her bow tightly and she held an arrow in her right hand, ready to draw it at any point.
Sasaki looked far more composed on the surface, that's what experience does to a man I guess. Even still his hand was placed on the hit of his katana and he was glancing over his shoulder on occasion.
All three of us were clearly expecting the worse, but we just didn't know when it would come for us. Or even what the worse was for that matter, Jun was definitely missed at the moment, his knowledge about this place was something we badly needed.
"Umm guys," Yuna said and we turned to her.
"What's up?" I asked, concerned by the girl's frightened tone. Then I saw what had made Yuna so scared.
"What in the hell is that?" Sasaki asked, equally freaked out.
Skeletons. no muscle, no flesh, and no hair. Just dozens of skeletons lying on the ground before us.
"Hello!" A voice yelled out as we made our way down the halls. I didn't recognize this voice but it sounded distressed.
"What was that?" I wondered as I readied my shield. The other two stood behind me as we waited. A soft buzzing sound began to sound throughout the tunnels, it slowly grew louder and louder until we saw the source.
hundreds of thousands of tiny insects flew through the tunnel towards us. I knew what these were, I had thought they were extinct but it appears that they had just entered the labyrinth and never made it out.
"Those are corpse eaters," I said and both Yuna and Sasaki turned to me.
"Run!" Yuna shouted, immediately understanding the danger we faced. If they caught us they would tear through our bodies until only a skeleton was left. The skeletons we had seen must have been victims.
We continued to run until we came across a giant pit, the buzzing sound still chasing us.
"A dead end," Yuna muttered, clearly scared out of her mind.
We turned around and saw the swarm coming towards us, I closed my eyes and waited for my inevitable death.
"Get back!" a voice yelled out and I opened my eyes to see a young man with silver hair jump over us and stared down the swarm.
He drew a strange circle in the ground at speeds no human being should have been able to achieve and clapped his hands together in a praying gesture.
"I call upon the spirit of fire!" he cried out "Ignis!"
Suddenly a shield of fire surrounded us and the swarm flew around it, the Corpse Eaters couldn't stand the intense heat of the fire and had quickly dispersed.
"We're okay, we're alive," Sasaki said quietly as Yuna sighed with relief. I was focused on our silver-haired savior.
"So," the man started "What brings you here"
He turned to me and instead of seeing a warm face of greeting I was greeted by a cold glare full of malice.
He stood fully facing us before he asked another question.
"Are you trying to die or something?" he asked and I placed a hand on my sword.
I had no idea who this man was. I didn't know what he wanted or why he saved us.
But I knew that he wasn't happy we were here.