"Well? Are you gonna answer me?" our savior asked and I quickly spoke up.
"We entered by mistake, we're not here because we want to be," I explained and he sighed.
"No shit, nobody would want to be in a place like this," he said and Yuna tilted her head in confusion.
"Then why did you bother asking?" she asked and the man turned away.
"Just shut up and follow me, I'll take you to my base," he said and I frowned.
"Not yet, we still have to find our friends," I argued, and the man sighed in annoyance.
"They're dead," he said with absolute certainty and I was growing increasingly annoyed by the man's attitude.
"Did you see their bodies?" Sasaki inquired and the man shook his head "then we don't know if they're dead or not,"
The man turned back towards us, his golden eyes piercing Sasaki's.
"Trust me, they're dead," he stated before walking off. I sighed in annoyance and ran after him with the others on my tail.
The man stepped into the light and I finally got a good look at him. He had silver hair and golden eyes, a rare combination for sure. He wore a white cloak with a hood that went down to his knees and was unbuttoned, black pants, and black boots.
"So what's your name," Yuna asked, attempting to make conversation with the mysterious man.
"Nero," he said without turning to us.
"Well nice to meet you, Nero, I'm Yuna and this is Sasaki and Arin," Yuna replied with a smile on her face.
"I don't care," Nero replied making the smaller girl pout before Nero took a sharp right down a small corridor.
We all followed him into a small room where Nero kneeled on the ground and placed his hand on a floor tile.
"What are you doing?" Yuna asked and Sasaki just nodded.
"A hidden entrance, smart," He complimented and Nero sighed.
"At least one of you is smart enough to understand," He said as he jumped down a hole and motioned for us to follow after him. "Close the door when you enter"
We all jumped in one by one and slowly pulled the door closed.
When I entered the room I was greeted by the blinding sun. I was perplexed, weren't we underground. I was about to ask Nero that very question but Yuna beat me to it.
"What the hell," She wondered out loud and turned to Nero "weren't we just underground?"
"The labyrinth is warped by reality, it doesn't follow our laws of space. The labyrinth operates how it wants," Nero explained and turned to us "I trust that you can climb down from here,"
He wanted us to leave?
"Hold on we can't leave yet," I said, and Nero froze.
"You will leave," he ordered.
"Not without our friends," I countered, and the silver-haired man sighed.
"Hold on, why are you still here," Sasaki asked, confusion evident in his face, body language, and tone.
"Yeah, that's a good point, you made it pretty clear when we met that you don't like this place if you knew where the exit was then why did you stay here?" Yuna asked. Nero didn't answer us, he just gazed out the window that led outside.
"Because my mission is not complete," Nero said sadly, for the first time since we'd met him showing an emotion other than annoyance and contempt.
Even a cursory glance at his features would have revealed the longing look in his eyes.
"What mission?" I asked and he turned back towards the door.
"Have you heard of the Minotaur?" Nero asked and my eyes widened.
"Are you telling us that the Minotaur is real?" I asked, my eyes probably as wide as dinner plates.
"Yes, and it lives here in this labyrinth," Nero said and my eyes widened even further.
"And until you kill it you can't leave," Sasaki said, picking apart what Nero was trying to explain. Nero simply nodded in response.
"Well, then we have an easy conclusion to both of our problems," Yuna said happily and we all turned to her.
"What is she referring to?" Nero asked and I turned to him.
"Knowing Yuna it could be literally anything," Sasaki joked.
"Not the time Sasaki, Yuna explain what you mean," I said and she nodded.
"We can help Nero slay the Minotaur and he can help us find the others, it's a win-win," Yuna explained happily. Nero clearly didn't like this idea as he slammed his fists on the table and glared at Yuna.
"Absolutely not!" he shouted, "you're leaving this place now,"
"Not without our friends," Yuna argued.
"Your friends are dead!" Nero yelled
"I don't see a body anywhere," Yuna countered, smirking at the silver-haired man.
"Nobody can survive in this place without prior knowledge!" Nero explained and Yuna smiled.
"Jun has knowledge of this place," She said, and Nero's eyes widened. He knew he had no counter for that statement.
"You don't gain anything from trying to handle all of your problems on your own," Sasaki said and Nero turned to him with a glare.
"What the hell did you say!?" Nero shouted and glared at Sasaki, Sasaki just stood his ground. He didn't react to the movements at all.
"I used to think the same way that you do now, I believed that I'm the only one that should try to take care of my problems. But that's wrong, if you try to handle everything on your own you will die. Of that, I can assure you, so please Nero. You can let us help you," Sasaki said, and Nero's glare softened. I couldn't even fathom how long he'd been alone in this place.
"We're not leaving without any of our friends, and that means you too Nero," Yuna said and the silver-haired man fell to his knees. I kneeled next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder as a reassuring gesture.
Nero quickly recovered and stood up, locking eyes with us and he nodded.
"Get ready everyone, we head out in five minutes," Nero ordered and we all nodded.
No matter what we will save our friends.
All that I could do is have faith in that.
____________________
"Are you all ready to go?" Nero asked as he began to lift the hatch and we all nodded. He pushed the hatch open and we climbed out one by one, Sasaki shut the hatch behind us and we slowly stepped into the halls of the labyrinth once again.
"Let's move," Sasaki said and we began to slowly move through the labyrinth, all of us keeping a grip on each other as to not be separated by the labyrinth.
"Who are we looking for?" Nero asked and Yuna was quick to answer him.
"Three of our friends. Christa, Jun, and Loki," she explained.
"Loki?" Nero asked "the King of Aria?"
"No Loki is the Prince of Aria," Sasaki corrected and Nero nodded.
"I could have sworn he was the king," Nero muttered to no one in particular "can you describe what they look like,"
"Jun has black hair and a hood, Christa has bright red hair so she's impossible to miss, and Loki has blonde hair and blue eyes," Yuna explained, and Nero nodded, showing he understood.
"Hey so how are we gonna find our way back to the shelter?" Yuna asked.
"For some reason, the location of that room always remains the same, the path there doesn't shift around like the rest of the Labyrinth," Nero explained and Yuna nodded before her eyes widened and she froze.
"Yuna what's wrong?" I asked and she placed a finger to her lips, silently telling all of us to be quiet.
"Follow me, I can hear Christa," Yuna ordered and our eyes widened.
"How can you hear her?" Nero asked and she didn't answer and began leading us down the labyrinth.
"She has good hearing," Sasaki pointed out as we ran, as turned a corner to see Christa tangled up in a massive spider web, struggling to get free as a humongous spider approached her.
"Help!" she yelled out and Yuna drew an arrow and fire it at the massive spider, killing it in a single shot.
"Hey Christa, are you alright?" Yuna called out and Christa raised an eyebrow.
"Do I look alright?" she asked sarcastically and Sasaki scoffed.
"Since when is the damsel in distress allowed to give her rescuers attitude?" Sasaki joked and Christa glared at him.
"Sasaki I swear to the spirits if you don't get me down right now I'm going to light you on fire," she threatened and Sasaki just smiled.
"We'll get you down in a second, we just need a way to get up there without getting tangled up ourselves," I said and Nero shook his head, drawing a magic circle on the ground.
"I call upon the Spirit of Wind," he clapped his hands together and opened his eyes "Kaze!"
Suddenly a sharp gust of wind cut through the web and Christa began to fall only to be caught by the very same gust of win. She was gently set down on the ground in front of us with her eyes wide.
"Mission accomplished!" Yuna cheered and Christa continued to stare at Nero.
"Can I help you?" he asked and she got up slowly.
"Was that spirit magic?" Christa asked and Nero nodded slowly.
"Yes it is," he replied, "is that weird?"
"No it's just, I didn't know people still practiced spirit magic," Christa replied with a puzzled expression.
"Yes, indeed, people outside of my homeland have long since abandoned its practice but it's still practiced heavily where I'm from," Nero explained
"What's spirit magic?" Yuna asked
"Spirit magic is different from the magic that practice, instead of relying on spell books and elements you call upon the eight spirits directly through summoning circles," Christa explained and we all nodded at her explanation. "I didn't mention it earlier because the practice of it has all but died out,"
"As I said, it's still practiced in my homeland," Nero said and Christa nodded. The two introduced themselves to each other before we went on our way and we began to search for the other two missing people.
"Hey Christa, have you seen Jun or Loki?" Sasaki asked and the girl shook her head.
"No, I haven't," Christa admitted with a downtrodden expression. Yuna patted the girl on the back and smiled at her, silently encouraging her as I stepped forward to Nero.
"For someone who acts like such an emotionless hard-ass you're awfully easy to talk to. Did you really want us to leave that badly earlier?" I asked him and he sighed.
"I didn't want anyone to die," Nero explained and I laughed a little.
"You know what, you're that that bad of a guy," I offered and he smiled.
"Yeah, I guess you're pretty fine too," Nero joked and I laughed a little at his joke. Suddenly, we noticed that the passageway was getting wider and we saw a large open room ahead.
The sounds of fighting and shouting grew increasingly louder as we picked up the pace towards the room.
Suddenly there was a deafening roar and we all immediately knew what it was. We ran into the room and saw Loki and Jun collapsed on the ground as the Minotaur stood before them.
it was just as horrifying as I imagined. A massive muscular body and a bulls head. Steam seemed to blow out of its nose as It breathed.
"Loki! Jun!" I shouted and they shakily turned to me. They were clearly tired and injured, a passing glance at Loki would have revealed that his left arm was clearly broken, and Jun was caked in blood. Though I wasn't sure if it was the Minotaur's or his own.
"We need to draw that beasts attention away from them," Sasaki pointed out, and suddenly a massive fireball slammed into the beast.
It roared loudly and turned to the source of the fireball. Christa stood ready to fight, her spellbook already open as she glared at the Minotaur with a hateful gaze.
I looked at Loki on the ground and immediately understood why she was so pissed. I valued Loki like a brother, and as his knight, it was my duty to protect him. But even if she didn't realize it herself she felt a lot more strongly about the prince than I did.
Truly, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
"Explodieren!" Christa called out and the Minotaur was enveloped in a massive explosion. She continued to blast the creature and it slowly walked towards her. The monster was mostly unscathed by her attacks but it was getting pushed back by them.
"Christa is buying us time, we need a plan," I said, and Nero smirked.
"I already have one," he said and I looked at him surprised. "I've been preparing to fight this thing for two years, you think I wouldn't have had a plan by now,"
"What do you need from us?" Sasaki asked and Nero narrowed his eyes.
"Just buy me some time," he said and I nodded. I drew my sword and ran at the best. It slammed down its axe on me but I blocked it with my shield and landed a slash on its hip.
The beast retaliated by picked me up by the arm and throwing me away before it suddenly exploded again. Christa had to be running on fumes by this point but she was still going.
Yuna began firing arrows at the beast but they barely affected it as the monster ran towards her. Suddenly it was stopped when a dagger was driven into the back of its neck by Jun, who appeared to be fine. Jun then drove his prosthetic into the beast's hide before getting thrown off.
"We need to keep attacking!" Jun yelled "don't stop for even a second,"
"Right!" Sasaki replied as he got into a fighting stance and began to furiously slash at the beast. Sasaki did good work, stabbing and slashing the monster multiple times before getting knocked away.
Suddenly the series of explosions stopped and Christa fell to her knees, completely drained of energy. The beast took note of this and rushed at her only for her to be knocked out of the way by a still conscious Loki. The two landed in a heap, completely exhausted.
I ran in again as Jun jumped on its back and slammed my shield into its face, as I did that Jun drove his prosthetic into the monster's right eye. The creature thrashed around, now blinded in its right eye.
Jun was thrown off and I caught him only for another arrow to hit it in its left eye. The monster swung its ax around pathetically as it was unable to see.
"I'm ready!" Nero cried out and we all over out of the way and gave him room to work.
Nero stood in the middle of a massive magic circle with his hands clasped together as a massive Phoenix rose from behind him.
"I call upon the spirit of fire," he started before glaring at the Minotaur. "Ignis!"
The Phoenix screeched and flew towards the Minotaur and exploded in a ball of flame and fury. After the room dimmed and the flames stopped burning the Minotaur was unable to be seen.
Only a pile of ash remained.
We had won, we had slain the Minotaur.
____________________
After our victory, we returned to Nero's base where we patched up Jun and Christa immediately got to work healing Loki's arm.
"You know usually when we celebrate it involves a lot more alcohol," Jun joked and Loki winced in pain as Christa bandaged up his arm.
"Are you even old enough to drink?" Nero asked, confusion evident in his voice and Jun just began whistling innocently.
I walked over to Nero and sat down on a crate.
"So Nero, what's next for you? You can stick with us if you want," I offered and Nero smiled and shook his head.
"Sorry but I need to get back home, my people have to be worried about me, it's been two years you know," Nero said and Sasaki turned to him.
"You should head down to the port city then, there's a crew there that should be able to help you get back there," he said and Nero smiled.
"Hey, Nero?" Loki asked and Nero turned to him.
"What do you need?" Nero asked and Loki smiled.
"I just wanted to ask where you were from," he replied and Nero smiled back.
"I hail from the nation of Theseus," Nero said and my eyes widened, we all stopped what we were doing and looked at the man.
"Where is that?" Yuna asked and Christa nodded with her.
"I can't say I've heard of it either," She agreed, and Nero frowned.
"It's one of the five great kingdoms, you guys must have heard of it," Nero said, confusion clear in his voice.
"Nero, who is the current King of Aria?" Loki asked and Nero turned to him and raised an eyebrow.
"King Loki II" He replied and Loki stared at Nero in amazement, but that amazement turned to sadness very quickly.
"What year is it?" Loki finally asked and I frowned. The answer should be obvious, it was the year six hundred thirty.
"Well, I was in there for two years so, four hundred thirty right?" Nero replied. And my jaw dropped.
"It appears this place doesn't only affect space, but also time," Loki said and Nero frowned.
"What do you mean?" he asked and Loki frowned at him. Before uttering the words that would haunt all of us for the coming months
"Theseus was destroyed one hundred fifty years ago,"