Hours? Days? Months? Years? They didn't know how fast time passed.
No sun on a pitch dark. Only mushrooms glowed and spread hope for them to stay alive, survive, and see another light. He must keep strong for Alice, the element, and Von Gosh.
But how long?
Time would consume their sanity, erasing them from everyone's memory.
Luckily Lanert came with Alice. What happen if he came here alone? He would be dead or, worse, become one of those homunculus. The dead came from the darkness and wandered without destiny. The fate is worse than death. It serves nothing but death.
Homunculus was said to come every five hundred years and punish every race in Arth. They came from the Rift, a crack that came from thin air, glowing white.
Some said they were a minion of Darkness.
Luckily for Lanert, the last Rift happened three hundred years ago. That means he will never experience purgatory. But perhaps his son or grandson would.
Alice and Lanert took a chance to sleep. While Lanert closed eyes, Alice guarded against an ancient moving wall. After a teen time, the wall moved, and they took a turn to sleep.
Now Alice, time for sleep.
Straightening his feet while sitting, Lanert let Alise use his thighs as a pillow. He let the girl make a cute snorting noise while he caressed her smooth white long hair.
Another wall was moved, and he started to count. The last count was one hundred-one before another wall moved. The count before that is one hundred-five. Before that, ninety-one.
He saw a blue petal lying on the floor. What was the meaning of blue petals? What was the meaning of this maze? Why is the Lord Of Darkness toying with them?
The blue petal was mentioned in the book Lanert read. It must be something.
Lanert didn't trust one hundred percent what his favorite author said—the book that told him about the adventure of the Dark Queen.
At first, Lanert regarded the book as a work of fiction. But, the book mentioned inside that novel was real. Now, he found himself in a maze. His theory was probably correct. That novel was based on a true event.
She, the other Alice, an author, an elf, must be here and survived. Lanert had a theory. Perhaps, she was the Queen of Darkness after all.
She said in her book the first test was the Labyrinth of Darkness—the test of endurance and patience.
"Test endurance and patience." Sadly, the book didn't describe or show how the test was going or how she survived.
Endurance, Lanert regarded as resilience in survival, but what about patience?
"Ninety-five?" Lanert frowned as the other wall moved, blocking his left, and another wall gave him a new path.
Another wall moved after one hundred two counts, another move after ninety-nine passed. Lanert keeps counting but can't create a pinpoint for sure, but it appears the wall would move after one hundred counts.
"Lanert?" Alice woke up with her lips wide open.
"Had a nice sleep?"
"I miss my bed. The stone was… hard. So, you want to sleep now—"
"I will sleep later. We had enough rest, time for us to continue this journey." Lanert asserted his point. "Let us go. Or we would be here forever."
"It's not too bad to be trapped here, you know," Alice commented. "We can start a family. Perhaps with thousands of our sons and daughters, one would find the way out of here."
"Started a family, huh?" Lanert saw Alice as a woman. Perhaps he would do that, but no. He must find a way and get out of here. He must find that lord of darkness, prince of darkness, lord of darkness, or whatever darkness awaits him there.
He must show his father he is capable of bearing the Gosh name.
He needs that element.
"Just saying, why so serious?" Alice giggled. "You don't need to be quiet all of a sudden and think it thoroughly, Husband."
"How could I not be thinking about it, my wife? We have not consumed our marriage yet, and you ask for a thousand sons and daughters. Would we fuck like a rabbit, then?" Lanert plays along out of boredom, but well, calling Alice a wife somehow brightens his day.
Now, she was the one who suddenly went quiet with a rosy face.
"What is wrong, Wife? Being called a wife makes you faint?"
"Shut it." She preceded Lanert. She was tasting her own medicine. "You jerk."
It was pretty comforting for Lanert, seeing the white-haired girl with red cheeks return cold as arctic ice. "Oh, wife, don't walk too fast, or the wall will claim you. Your husband can't keep it up."
"Shut it and walk faster."
Another wall moved, and another closed with another open. It stranded Alice and made her run back to Lanert, worried about being separated perhaps.
"Lanert." She hugged Lanert with affection and buried her face in his broad chest.
"Ouh, back to Husband, I see." He fondled her hair.
"Shut it down." Alice pinched Lanert's stomach while pouting, and it made him chuckle. She made a gap while they continued their journey.
"You started it, Wife."
"And I will make it stop now." Alice gazed from his shoulder at the back. "Stop, or I will chase and talk to you."
"Okay, okay, I will stop at once."
Women are weird. Lanert once more failed to understand them. Lanert remembered what his brother said, to face the dragon, you must be decisive in making decisions.
But, against the women, you must be patient. You must wait and give them time to decide before you decide what move you would make.
"Patience, wait before deciding, huh." Somehow it rings the bell inside Lanert. The test of Endurance and Patience."
She accidentally kicked a small box. The box that Lanert used wor clear water before, his pill box.
"This can't be right." Lanert examined the box closely. If this box was indeed him, that means, "We were moving in a circle all the time, Alice. Shit, this maze!"
He threw the box against the wall and then, once against the wall, moved. He was opening a new path for him while the old one was tightly closed.
Lanert walks to the blue petal and waits there with Alice. Left, there is a normal path without a blue petal. Right, there is a wall, a normal wall. Then in front of him, he found another wall. While at his back, there was another petal flower a little bit far away.
If he were right, by patience, he would find another petal that would show him a way.
"Lanert, let us go."
"No, we wait here for a bit. Counting one hundred."
"Huh?"
"On, two…." Lanert counted one hundred three, and yes, the wall moved again.
Just as he thought, there was another blue petal that showed up from the new path that was just opened.
"We shall pass the test, Alice, trust me." Lanert strode toward the new blue petal, and he repeated this.
There is the reason for the blue petal lying around the floor, unmoved. It must be the key to beat this maze.
"Lanert, why are you smiling all of a sudden?"
"Soon we bebon second test, Alice?" He grabbed Alice and waited for another petal to show on. "The Test of Strength and Mind. Prepare your Winter."