A moment later, Gwynne wiped her nose with her sleeves and then addressed Rueben, "Let's go."
Rueben nodded his head and grabbed Gwynne, to which she jumped and hit him on the head.
"Let go! I can run on my own, dummy!"
But Rueben ignored her.
Gwynne stared at him while blushing, not because of what you just thought but because she was embarrassed. After all, she is a grown woman, and to be carried like this and by someone as hateful as Rueben, she couldn't stand it.
She wanted to punch his gut as revenge, but Rueben held her tighter, as if he was afraid of her falling.
She went silent before snuggling on his neck and, "Dummy." Muttered silently.
Rueben, on the other hand, wanted to complain that she was too heavy, though he was the one who wanted to do this, so he stayed silent.
The two soon started to move.
***
Behind a large curtain, something pulsates. Then the curtain moved apart and revealed a twistedly destroyed person walking towards a crystal like ball.
It stared at the ball for a moment, then turned to the boxes filled with Axerilites. It grabbed a couple and put them into its mouth, and chewed.
The Axerilites soon grew as force was acted upon it, but it was soon devoured by the person.
An inky being fell down from the ceiling and landed beside the person, who turned their head towards it. The person stared at the being for a moment, then grabbed its head and absorbed it into its body.
The person then turned to the ceiling before grabbing another batch of Axerilites and chewing on it. Behind it revealed thousands of mouths like organs that chewed on Axerilites as thousand more paw like limbs hit the Axerilites to make it grow larger.
It looked like an automatic factory that produced an infinite amount of food every day.
Though, for who they produced food for was a mystery.
***
The layout of the entire labyrinth spans a couple kilometres wide, about 3 to 100 kilometres filled with rooms and hallways. Particularly of note is that in one secrion of the labyrinth is a large hole with tiny holes around it that plunge deep into a large lake of blood.
How much of the blood inside this lake is still unknown as of this case, but we have watched a being grow into a large predator like being. It swam in the lake and ate everything that fell down from the holes and continued to grow stronger.
We have also learned that this being can "Erase" the "Imprints" that Mother had sealed the moment we died in our home. The Imprint itself made us effectively immortal and somehow coming back to life devoid of any injuries.
Within it is also a small island that had 7 major landmarks. The Graveyard, Entrance, Blood Beach and such are one of these locations. It is unknown how this locations came to be.
But the studies conducted by my older brother, Frotus, shows that "time" here is extremely inconsistent, some may pass a few days in just a minute while others pass a few minutes in days. How this came to be is presumably because of Mother.
He hypothesized that Mother's powers are running rampant on the labyrinth, warping everything. From this power, also formed what i would like to call, Motherlings. An extension of Mother's "Visage".
If Mother were to absorb these Motherlings, she would be fuller. I have already captured 22 Motherlings thanks to Annatella's help and her Illusion Concept by making them think that food was running away from them before getting eaten by Mother.
It seems these Motherlings does not like Mother one bit but they cannot also seem to sense Mother's presence even up close and only have to rely on their 5 senses.
Though, i really do have to kill that Hunter, being able to escape from the being's mouth, is he so skilled?
Rueben opened his eyes as the wisps were circling his head, when they saw that Rueben had opened his eyes, they immediately went back to Gwynne's side, rubbed themselves on her hand before flying away.
Gwynne turned to him as she swatted the wisps away.
"Are you done?"
To which Rueben nodded his head.
"I got some information from that girl's memories."
Then he bent down and scribbled on the ground, using the dust to form something with his finger.
Gwynne stared at his hand as it was forming into one of the beings, the Motherlings. Then she turned to him with a confused face.
"This is called a Motherling." He said blankly, then drew something, a stick man of some kind.
"Motherlings came from this thing."
"This thing?" She asked.
"Yes. But the girl saw her as a "Mother"."
"Mother.."
Rueben went to think as he saw Gwynne stand.
The memories he got this time were miniscule compared to the others, he wouldn't have gotten those memories without the wisps help either.
Though he had an inkling as to what those wisps are, i.e, were.
'Stupid dolls.' He thought to himself as he continued.
Hershey's memories were fractured, except for the things he knew from the other memories as well as the information Gwynne gathered from her 2 years stay here.
The memories also gave him small amounts of information, such as the labyrinth being 3 to 100 kilometres wide as well as a being called "Mother" that Hershey and Annatella called.
How a large labyrinth of such size was underneath the sewers of Arkvem was a mystery. A mystery that he wasn't equipped to solve as his deduction skills are as good as a child.
"I don't get it."
"So what kind of thing is it?" Gwynne asked, cutting off Rueben's thoughts as he turned to her.
"Something.. Something that resembles a human but not quite human...?"
"That resembles a human, not a human?"
Rueben gave it a thought for a while before nodding his head. After all, from Hershey's memories, the being itself was fuzzy, and its image was unclear, making him unable to even understand it.
But what he does remember is that it looked like a human. At least its shape looked like a human. Or a humanoid.
"Hmm..." Gwynne closed her eyes and had already crossed her arms.
She stayed still like that while letting out a humming noise from her lips as Rueben waited for her, expecting her to deduce any information that he gave her.
It fell silent for a moment. Even the three wisps stayed still as they floated in the air, waiting for Gwynne to open her eyes and tell them her thoughts, but her reaction was far from it.
"I got nothing." She thought to herself outloud, earning her a shake from one of the wisps and a nod of understandment from Rueben.
'That's natural. With that little information, it's impossible to get anything out of it. I should have expected that.' He reprimanded himself silently.
"Though i do have some questions that needs answers." She said outloud while looking at Rueben.
Rueben gave her a glance, giving her the go sign with his eyes.
"Don't you think it's too much of a coincidence that we came across a hole large enough for us to fit, much less that hole with Axerilites near it?" She stared at Rueben dead in the eyes.
Rueben stared at her in silence as she continued.
"Its even a miracle we were able to run away from the "Motherlings" unscathed too, as well as these wisps. They came at such a good time that its terrifying."
She crossed her arms and sat down, looking up at Rueben with cold eyes.
"As if we're being guided, guided by "Something". Otherwise, its far too illogical for everything to just be a lucky run."
Rueben looked at her as the wisps flinched, they stayed still.
Gwynne looked at the wisps with narrowed eyes as the wisps soon understood what she said. One of the wisps flew around her while the other turned to the other wisp and "whispered" to each other before the two wisps nodded their light body together.
They went to Gwynne's front, floated for a moment as they waited for the other wisp to come to their side. That wisp then "heard" what the other wisp was "whispering" and soon nodded its body.
She coughed softly.
Gwynne looked at them. Though they were adorable to look at, she felt that they were dangerous too. This whole area here might've been a trap and lured the two of them here before tiring them out and eat them.
After all, who in their sane minds would trust something, especially unhumanlike in a world filled with dangerous inhumans. It was natural for Gwynne to suspect the wisp like things for helping them.
She didn't know if they were just helping them or if they had ulterior motives. It also wouldn't hurt to be cautious in meeting inhuman beings because you don't really understand them well enough to know their individual plans.
Same goes to people too, they were taught to be wary of everything as a Hunter, after all.
Rueben stared at Gwynne before turning to the wisps and locked his eyes. If they were to move a single inch of their light like body, he would kill them immediately, especially if they tried to do something.
Silence filled the room as Gwynne awaited their response.
The wisps floated for a moment, before shaking their body. Then the wisps went near Rueben and started rotating around him in circle as Gwynne watched.
Rueben stared at Gwynne as blood sipped out from her nose, he swiftly went to her side as her knees gave out.
"..." Gwynne touched her nose, then to the blood, before turning towards Rueben, who held her up gently with a shocked expression on his face.
"..." She then stared at the ceiling before wiping off the blood with her sleeves and hugged Rueben.
"...Let's go." She said softly as Rueben carried her, his eyes shaking as blood continued to fall.
The wisps stared at the two of them in shock before carefully rotating around Gwynne in concern.
"..." Rueben looked at Gwynne in the eyes, her eyes still held a flame, an ember that burned fiercely.
Then he gritted his teeth and went away, intending to question the wisps later.
The wisps stared at the two of them leaving, turned their body to look at each other before following after them in silence.