[Isaac's side]
Isaac was lying on the ground, looking confused. 'Ugh... What just happened? What was that force? It hit my body so hard that I flew off the ground backwards.' Isaac stood up and looked around. "Did everyone get separated? Or is it just me? I better regroup with the rest." Isaac started walking away when suddenly, he was hit by a massive headache. "Argh! My head! It feels like splitting!" Isaac dropped down to one knee and closed his eyes. 'Why...?'
Step.
'Huh? My headache disappeared?' Isaac slowly opened his eyes and saw a foot in front of him. He looked up and saw Dan raising his sword above him. "Dan...?" Dan swung his sword at Isaac, but Isaac managed to dodge. "Dan? What are you doing? Are you okay?"
Dan picked up his sword and had a creepy smile on his face. "Oh, I'm fine now. Perfectly fine."
Isaac felt something weird about Dan and backed a few steps. "You... Who are you?"
Dan smiled. "It's me, Dan. Did you forget?"
Isaac glared. "Stop lying. Tell me, who the hell are you?"
Dan chuckled. "Hmm... I guess I'm caught. It's time to reveal my true self." Dan lifted his index finger. Suddenly, Dan's fingernail extended, and he cut himself in half. A mysterious thin man wearing a black suit appeared. He had thick black curly hair and snake-like eyes, and he emitted a sense of danger as he smiles cunningly.
"I guess I should reintroduce myself. My name is Devo de Alma. You may call me Alma." Alma smiled. "I am the strongest Devo in my rank. Please to meet you." Alma continued.
"Devo? What is that?"
"There are 5 main layers in Scorpion. The bottom layer is called the Devo, they are in charge of miscellaneous tasks; the second layer is called COOP, it's quite complicated but I know that it is the central zone where tasks are generated; the third layer is called the Master. There are 8 Masters in Scorpion and each Master has their own unique fighting style, they are ruthless and kill without hesitation; the second in command is the left and right Vons, they are the boss in the case the Grand Master is absent; and the top of the layer is none other than the Grand Master, who controls the entire Scorpion and The Valley."
"Is that so... And I presume that each one of us was paired up with a Devo before the start of the maze game, isn't it? Your given task was to eliminate all of us."
"Bingo! You got that right, little boy."
"So why don't you surrender your soul like an obedient boy? Don't worry. It won't hurt."
"How about you worry about yourself instead?" Isaac smirked. "Huh?" Alma looked behind and saw a huge cicada staring at him. The cicada screamed and attacked Alma.
Slash!
The cicada slashed Alma's chest. "Ugh! Where did this huge monster come from?" Alma struggled to fight off the cicada. While Alma was preoccupied with the cicada, Isaac quickly got up and ran away from there.
Step. Step. Step.
"Huff... Huff... Looks like I'm safe for now. That cicada had perfect timing. But who would have thought Dan was a Devo, and all this time, I thought he was just an innocent golden retriever." Isaac looked around and thought. 'This place is getting creepier by the seconds, I better find the rest before Alma gets to any of them.' Isaac rushed forward.
[Llyne's side]
I was carrying a bunch of weapons and my clothes were filled with monsters' blood. "Oui... This place is plain sick. How come there's nothing but monsters crawling around? I mean, it's good that I'm able to collect all these weapons, but still! No sign of Isaac and the others? Really? This is bullshit!" I screamed loudly. 'I wonder if anyone heard that...'
Bloop.
A few skeleton warriors came out of the mirrors. I looked at the skeleton warriors in disappointment. "I was talking about my friends, not you all. So stop coming out!"
The skeleton warriors raised their swords and rushed toward me. I took one of the weapons I got from slaying a goblin and threw it at them. They caught the lit bomb and were confused by it. They surrounded it and stared at it. I laid on the ground for protection. 5 seconds later, the bomb exploded, and the skeleton warriors' bones scattered everywhere. I stood up and continued forward. "Easy peasy."
Just as I took a few steps forward, a tiny green slime came out of the mirror. It stood there and stared at the wall. Then, it cutely turned and started jumping around aimlessly.
Boing. Boing. Boing.
'A slime? Looks harmless...' I stared at it as it wandered around. 'Aww~ So Kyuute! Let's say 'Hi' to it.' I moved closer to the slime and gently poked it from behind. "Hey, little fella."
"?!" The tiny slime got startled and jumped. "Blu!" It made a weird sound and fell face flat on the ground.
"Wow! You okay?" I placed the tiny green slime on my palm. I stroked it gently with my pinky.
The slime wiggled as it struggled to get back up. It let out a cute sigh and looked down at my palm. "???" It jumped on my palm a few times. I giggled. "That feels weird." It stopped jumping and froze on the spot.
"Hmm? What's wrong, little slime?" I poked the top of its head.
"!!!" The tiny slime slowly turned toward me with tears in its eyes. "Blu?" It looked up and cried. "Bluuuu!!!!" The tiny slime quickly jumped off my palm and splatted on the ground.
"Ah! Tiny slime! You didn't die, did you?" I stare at the splatted slime.
The slime suddenly jumped and screamed. "Blu!" The tiny green slime returned to its original shape.
"Thank goodness, I thought you died." I picked up the tiny slime. The tiny slime struggled to break free, but I didn't let go. "Hey, little slime, don't be afraid, I'm not going to hurt you." The tiny slime stared at me. I continued. "You see, I got a favour to ask. I got separated from my friends and I was wondering if you could help me." The tiny pondered for a while then agreed. "Really? Thanks!" I placed the slime on my head. "Hopefully, we don't encounter any monsters." The tiny slime puffed out its chest. "Leave it to you? Wow! That's great, Thanks again."
[Rona's side]
Rona and Ronald had been circling around the maze for 20 minutes and returned to the same fork they started. Ronald dropped to the ground and screamed in anger. Meanwhile, Rona was happily munching on the monster's meat. "No matter which fork we took, we keep coming back to the same place? If only I can punch my way through, then things will be a lot easier." Ronald started kicking and punching the walls, but no damage was done to the walls. Rona looked up at Ronald and patted his head with her sticky hand. Ronald stopped and looked at Rona. "You're right. Violence won't solve anything. I need to cool down." As Ronald was doing some meditation, Rona heard a crying sound.
"Rona hear something. A girl crying?" Rona turned toward the direction of the crying sound. "Rona, don't see a thing." Rona squinted her eyes to see clearly, but there was only darkness ahead. Rona looked at Ronald, who was trying to calm himself down and decided to move forward on her own. "Rona is a big girl. Rona will go help that crying girl on her own... But what if Ronald gets worried that I'm gone? Hmm... Oh well, I'll just go help the girl and come back super quick. He won't notice a thing." Rona hopped into the darkness, not knowing the crying girl was a ploy by an insidious monster.
Ronald breathed in and slowly opened his eyes. "Ah... That was the most peaceful 10 minutes I had ever felt in my entire life. What about you, Rona?" Ronald waited for Rona's reply, but he didn't hear any. "Rona?" He looked to his side and couldn't find Rona anywhere. "HACK! RONA!" His heartbeat shot up, and he fainted on the ground. A few seconds later, Ronald opened his eyes. "This isn't the time to faint! I need to find Rona before she gets eaten by some monster." Ronald quickly stood up and frantically looked around for any sign of Rona. "Where would she have gone to?" Ronald took a step forward and felt some sticky stuck onto the sole of his shoe. "Huh? What is that?" Ronald looked at the ground and found sticky stuff tracing deeper into the maze. He smelled the sticky stuff. "This weird smell. Rona was eating it just now, wasn't she? Wait... Don't tell me..." Ronald looked straight and felt something odd. "This fork wasn't here just now. Did the place shift again?" Ronald gulped nervously. "Did Rona seriously go through here?" Ronald stared into the newly created fork. "I promised I'll protect her so even if she went to an abyss, hell or heaven, I'll follow her and keep her safe." Ronald exhaled and slowly walked into the unknown path.