The group walked through the door and each of them ended up in a different location. Fortunately, they were now in their mission gear including their weapons and spells.
"Congratulation on passing the trial of the soul. Welcome to the third trial. To complete this trial you must reach the exit. Warning this is your real body and any casting of spell will lead to immediate termination."
They heeded the warning of the now familiar voice. Even if the voice was lying it would be prudent to be careful.
Each member of the party walked out of the room and the door behind them disappeared and they had found themselves surrounded by stone on all sides. Each member of the party walk around and soon discovered they were in an underground labyrinth.
Upon realising it was a labyrinth Chris had attempted to send out his surveillance drones and have his AI Argus map out the maze and help.
"Sir, There is a problem. The information from the drones is a mismatch. Drone's covering the same area are reporting different routes. The highest probability reason is that the labyrinth isn't fixed" Argus had analysed all the data feeds from the drones to come to this conclusion.
Chris was shocked at hearing a voice in his head instead of the normal data feed but then remembered that unit2317 had upgraded his AI system. It was a long shot anyway, he guessed there had to be another way out.
Lisa had a similar but instead of trying to map out the labyrinth paths, she was using her AI Sia to help track all the geographical changes. She had hoped that by tracking the changes she could map the overall structure of the labyrinth. This would enable her to discover which routes took them closer to the surface. She was not having any luck with this method as there didn't appear to be any pattern to the geological features of the labyrinth.
Jania tried the traditional method for solving a labyrinth by placing her hand on a wall and trying to trace a single wall to the exit. She believed she was making progress but that was until she realised she was tracing a large loop and had ended up back at the start. Jania then decided if that didn't work then the brute force method of randomly selecting a path would have to work.
All three of them had found evidence of the gruesome fate of the previous trial competitors. Some of the corpses had been chewed upon. The lack of animals suggests that other competitors had tried to eat the corpses. While others looked like they had died from starvation or dehydration. Even energy lifeforms required some form of energy to survive.
The labyrinth had played with their sense of time even the clocks in their suit seem to struggle to keep track of time. The hours and then a day had passed after 2 days they had each separately stumbled upon a room that was different from the others. The room was mirrored on all sides and once they entered they couldn't leave.
"It can't be a coincidence that we all ended up here. I wonder what has happened to the twins" said Lisa. She was glad they had all come back together but still wasn't sure what was going on.
The story was different for Null and Infy, they had also entered the Labyrinth and found that the voice of the universe would change depending on which direction they went. They choose to follow the direction that had the most harmony. Following their ability to hear the voice of the universe the labyrinth had not posed a problem for them.
It had turned out the Labyrinth was a test that only those that could channel the fields would pass. In other words, it was a trap for all non-true magi.
"Congratulation on finishing the trial of Pythia. Please wait here until all competitors have finished the trial" said the voice of the trial.
This announcement worried the boys, that had hoped by finishing the challenge the others wouldn't have to.
"Can't the other be returned to the ship?" Infy believed the others would not be able to finish this trial and wanted to save them.
In reply, a door opened and a winged creature walk through on all fours and spoke.
"There can be no interference once the trial has started, they will either succeed or they will die like all the others before them. I am sorry Null and Infinity but I am only the keeper of the trials." The boys' now had a face to put to with the voice they had been hearing but they weren't pleased with what it had said.
"So what and who are you?" asked Null
"My name is Pamphilos and I am the Keeper of the trials. I belong to the dragon race. Welcome to Delphi the last lands of the dragons"
"The last lands?" Infy was interested in this place, it seem to be running completely on true magic and he was hoping by learning about it they might gain the missing piece of information on exactly how true magic works.
"That is a discussion for later, now we wait" and wait they did.
Lisa, Chris and Jania all sat in the room of mirrors. They suspected that it was the last room and that the mirrors were a hint.
"It seems too obvious but I believe the mirror is telling us we must reflect upon ourselves." Stated Chris, while it seem obvious it just seemed a little on the nose, they had to be missing some vital element.
To Lisa, there was something familiar about these trials and it had triggered a memory from when she first met the twins and something that Infy had once told her.
" Infy once told me that 'A sentient lifeform needs three things, a body, a mind and a soul' the first two trials covered the mind and soul. That means this is a test of the body, I think we have to understand our bodies."
"Agree, but what do we have to understand? what wisdom can we gain?" asked Chris. The others didn't have an answer for him.
Without knowing what they were looking for the three of them sat in the room and looked at their reflections hoping for a revelation. Jania focused on the one aspect of her body she wanted to control. She wanted to know how to trigger entering her berserker state. She sat there trying to remember all the times she had entered the state in the hopes of gaining some insight and understanding. It took her another 5 hours before she gave up and asked Chris to fight her.
"There must be a physical trigger for when I am in battle. So attack me" To make it fair Jania had dialled her implant to a minimum and had blindfolded herself. She believed she need to be under stress to activate the skill.
With all the handicaps she had given herself, Chris was able to constantly make contact with his stun baton but she was still able to get a few hits in. The more hits she got the happier she became and it didn't take long for Jania to enter her berserker state.
"Oh, I understand now" Jania had finally understood the conditions she need to activate the ability. She had to be in combat and she had to be enjoying herself. It was the thrill of battle that activate her ability. Once activated she could sense and exit.
"The exit this way" she headed towards the exit but it only allowed her to pass.
"Yes!, Jania you made it. Have you seen the other?" asked Null. He was excited as he had been waiting days for someone to arrive.
"Yes, they are in the mirror room but I don't know if they will be able to escape" Jania now knew the trial wanted them to understand their abilities but Chris and Lisa didn't have any.
Lisa and Chris had come to the same realisation.
"what do we know of abilities?" asked Chris
"The best I can tell is that they are the result of channelling a field. Jania channels the motion field." His mum replied.
"So all we need to channel one of those fields and we too should be able to exit. So there are ten fields I guess we have to find the one that is right for us"
The ten fields were:
· Space
· Time
· Mass
· Electromagnetic
· Quantum
· Potential Energy
· Gravity
· Soul
· Life
· Motion
They both sat down and attempted to channel each field one at a time but they weren't having any luck.
"We are approaching this the wrong way, Both the boys' and Jania use their abilities instinctively, I think we have to try not thinking about it," said Lisa.
The two of them tried to clear their minds and tried to meditate and see which field came to them instinctively.
Lisa found herself thinking about atoms, and how they could be combined to form matter but then she started to think of the smaller building blocks and then wave functions. The deeper she went the more she understood until sudden she had passed through the floor. She had unknowingly channelled the quantum field.
This had left Chris by himself in the mirror room, with all the time in the world on his hands. his thoughts went to the meaning of time. What is time? He concentrated on it, he had always wished he had more time to think things through, he didn't like making rushed decisions. If he had more time then all his decisions would be better. While he was thinking this he had noticed the outside world had slowed down.
A door then open for him and on the other side he could see the others, so he rushed to meet them.
He had been channelling the time field to accelerate his thoughts.