"The Jade Scythe of the Architect Afterword" -Part I-
Chapter 31
Li and Juno were standing at the beginning of an enormous maze.
The walls were carved from black, glassy stone, gleaming dimly under strange patches of bioluminescent moss that grew on the surface.
As they walked further in, their footsteps faded into the quiet.
Li's jade-handled sword hung loosely at his side.
The air was damp, carrying the scent of moist dirt and decay, that mingled with the faint metallic tang of old blood.
"The moss has spread quickly. I can only imagine how much the fungus has grown." Juno said as she tapped her fan against her palm.
She studied the jagged patterns along the detached ceilings.
The branches of her previous conjurations still lingered in some corners, with brown shriveled buds.
She opened her fan halfway before snapping it shut.
The branches fell away, turning into petals that drifted to the ground.
"We're not here on clean-up duty, leave them," Li said.
Juno cleared her throat and nodded.
He gazed intently at the devolving patterns of roots that played across the walls.
He hadn't missed how the maze shifted at the corners of his vision, and how walls that appeared solid one moment were subtly different the next.
'The Obsidian Maze doesn't just test our sense of direction,' Li thought as he stepped back from the wall. 'It attempts to pry into how much we trust ourselves.'
He untied his mantle and flipped it, positioning the hood in front. After pulling it over his nose, he glanced at Juno.
"Cover your mouth and nose. The spores get more viscous the further we go."
Juno adjusted her mantle without commenting right away.
"This won't block everything," she said.
"It doesn't have to," Li replied. "A small dose won't kill us, as long as we don't—"
He abruptly stopped talking.
A faint scraping sound drifted from behind the wall like claws dragging over stone.
He tightened his grasp on the handle of his sword and strode away.
Juno moved in behind him, holding her fan slightly open.
"Careful," she warned. "It's herding us."
Li gave a deliberate nod and glanced at a corridor that stood in the distance.
"The opponents shouldn't show up until the middle of the trial," he said, as a small smirk tugged at his lips. "Though it seems the beast decided it's had enough of losing."
The sound came again, closer this time as if it were trying to claw over the wall while following them.
Then, something small and lithe moved just beyond the vague glow of the moss.
It blended seamlessly with the obsidian walls, scurrying.
Li glanced out of the corner of his eye and detected a brief glimpse of white.
It brushed against the ground before vanishing into the maze.
"Damn, I couldn't tell what kind it was," Li said through gritted teeth.
His demeanor was measured, but Juno noticed the tension; his hand hadn't left the hilt once.
"We'll know if the structure changes," she assured, keeping her voice low.
Li strode forward, and the grooves in the edge blade seemed to fade darker.
The creature had moved without a sound, but the markings it left behind were subtle, consisting of trails of disturbed moss and shallow claw marks etched into the stone.
'These could be old,' Li noted, searching as they approached the corridor.
"They're familiar," he said after a lull. "I've seen them before. That's why it's harder to distinguish."
Juno glanced at him, puzzled, but before she could ask, the thing following them revealed itself.
It emerged steadily from around the corner in front of the corridor.
At first glance, it seemed like a trick of the light, revealing a pale, elongated shape that crept in quietly.
Its fur was white as frost, sleek and unblemished.
But something was even more disconcerting about it.
Its movements appeared too calculated as if every step was an element of a strategy.
The creature stopped, its head tilting slightly as it regarded them with eyes that glinted like polished jade.
It wasn't large—barely the size of a small dog—but its presence filled the corridor.
Li's voice released a resigned sigh as he muttered, "White Rice."
The name escaped his lips, weighted with dread.
Juno raised an eyebrow. "That's what you're calling it?"
"That's his name," Li said, without offering a further explanation.
The creature resembled a fox in form and size, but its gaze betrayed something far more intelligent, and perilous.
'White Rice' dragged his claws across the damp ground as he stepped back.
His tail swayed once before he disappeared into the maze.
"He isn't leading us," Juno said, spreading her fan with caution.
"Mn, he's baiting us," Li replied, as they neared the second entrance.
Juno frowned, her gaze following the faint marks the creature had left behind. "If it's familiar, then you know how to deal with it?"
"Not entirely." Li's expression turned grim.
If White Rice wanted them dead, they wouldn't still be walking. But its purpose wasn't benign.
After they passed the corridor, the maze instantly responded to their pursuit.
Moss tore from the ground as sections began to rise beneath their feet, shifting into rough, cobblestone shapes.
Juno grabbed Li's shoulder, yanking him back just before a rock wall erupted from the ground, blocking their path.
'Coward,' Li thought, curling his lips into a sneer.
They turned down another path and were faced with three choices to continue: right, left, and straight ahead.
Li unsheathed his sword, carving an X into the moss.
"One of these will likely look identical," he said. "We should mark our way."
Juno hummed in thought. "Are we splitting up?"
"Not yet," Li replied. "If one of us gets held up, we won't be able to turn back."
Juno stepped back, eyeing each path.
She waved her hand, releasing a cascade of petals into the right entrance.
Immediately, black spores sprayed from the walls, and a cluster of mushrooms tumbled from the roots on the walls.
"You said they get harsher as we go?"
Juno followed, stepping ahead of Li, and scattering more petals down the path.
She coughed as the spores stirred from her movement.
'Damn, my throat already burns.'
The scraping sound returned, echoing through the aisles.
This time, it was accompanied by the distant rumble of stone grinding against stone.
Juno stopped, and her fan raised defensively as smaller pieces of rock fell onto her shoulders.
"Li—"
Before she could get another word out, the wall beside them shifted, sliding inward with a deafening crunch.
Li shoved her forward just as a section of the ceiling collapsed, sending shards of obsidian crashing to the ground where they had just been standing.
"Keep moving!" He shouted.
He swept his hand through the debris blocking the gap, then moved toward Juno, who had already made her way to a nearby corner.
Juno glanced back, a moment of concern passing before she saw Li trailing just behind.
The walls ahead groaned, narrowing the path into a bottleneck.
Li trailed a step behind, as Juno led with her fan, keeping its edge poised like a hunter's snare.
Should the maze reveal its hand, it would strike her path first, and he would decipher the newer pattern.
A brittle crack reverberated from behind.
The sound of dragging followed, slow at first, then gathering speed.
His gaze darted to the edges of the walls as the moss began to dull.
Figures spilled down from two walls, draped in ragged black, hunched and motionless like carrion birds.
Where a face should have been, there was only a pale mask, featureless save for two empty pits.
Their limbs were unnaturally thin and ended in talons.
Three of them rose, and remained still, fixing ahead with vacant stares.
"They want us to act first," Juno said, restraining herself from looking over her shoulder.
She turned over her fan, and blossoms bloomed along its edge, sending a subtle warning.
Li observed keeping his grip on his elixir loose.
"Wait," he muttered.
'Wait for a moment, they'll inevitably lunge.'
"They look like seeds of Harlow."
Li grunted in acknowledgment, "They are. We can't move first, because they will only mimic our actions."
"Doesn't the Harlow live in the realm of decay? How the hell did they get over here?" Juno asked, furrowing her brows.
"I don't know either. Something is going on—"
The creature in the center stretched its legs, its wings pulling back with a heavy beat. It propelled itself forward, covering the distance in a single bound.
Juno stepped ahead, scattering a trail of white petals that dissolved into the air.
The creature reacted at once, folding its wings mid-air and driving its jointed limb into the ground. Its body lowered in one smooth motion, transitioning into a rapid crawl.
Behind it, the other two followed, with synchronized movements.
The petals fell, curling at the edges as they touched the moss, leaving brown, withered patches.
Li clenched his jaw and turned his back toward Juno.
More crawled down the walls, spreading like a tightening net, closing in from all sides.
A branch shot from the moss, latching onto one of the creatures, and yanking it forward.
It smashed into the ground, caving in its skull with a sickening crunch, as blood splattered in all directions.
Juno snapped her fan shut, opening it again without missing a beat.
The branch twisted into petals, and the moss beneath it turned dark, withering instantly.
A bright red substance leaked from the creature's head, sizzling atop the moss-like acid.
The others staggered back and jerked their legs upward before stomping down hard and scraping their claws.
Juno halted her hand and watched puzzled, as more moss withered, and a red liquid of a similar shade began to pour from the creatures' masks, mixing with dark chunks of flesh.
Their wings fluttered in erratic, voiceless spasms as more of the substance poured from their faces.
"They're tied to the moss," Juno said, exhaling. "It's anchoring them here."
Li moves his arm swiftly, slicing his sword through the air in a single smooth arc.
It wasn't meant to kill, yet, rather he was asserting a test.
The blade struck the creature, carving a shallow line into its obsidian-like hide.
It barely flinched, leaping forward with its claws aimed at Li's throat.
He raised his sword in time, severing the largest talon in a single stroke.
The creature jolted, before it could strike with its other claw its body began to convulse.
The groove in its flesh deepened, tearing into its core.
It split across its body with a muffled burst, exposing its insides.
Li's strike had only been intended to make a shallow wound, but the creature's body had betrayed him, spilling foul, heavy organs across the ground as it collapsed, sending more blood splattering outward.
Li stepped back, his gaze narrowing.
The remaining creatures hesitated, moving slower as if crippled by a newfound wariness.
"Keep them on the walls," he said quietly. "They're faster there, but weaker."
To be continued…