Hearing the sound of the Labyrinth gate closing, the last hope of theres vanishing, Astel felt eerily calm, all his fears vanishing wondering why he even entered in the first place, no prior training, no cultivation art, no Dao spells, only some basic knowledge of the machinations of the labyrinth.
It really was a foolish move, but what else could he do, the world outside the Labyrinth in his eyes was even worse than this godforsaken Labyrinth, the weak, helpless, the poor, suffering all while those power hoard their wealth and cultivation arts to themselves, letting everyone else burn in hell.
"I hate them.. Yet If I was in the same position, wouldn't I do the same, hehe..."
Shaking his head to clear all of his unnecessary thoughts, the only thought left was to somehow find a way to survive the night and wait for the gate to reopen in the morning.
"What to do, what to do?" Hoping they get lucky and find others? Relying on luck won't get you anywhere, wait until Uncle regains enough energy to cast his Dao spell again? Could work, but we'd be betting that we didn't encounter another one while running, if we did, we'd be screwed.
Feeling little beads of sweat forming around his face, Aster started wondering how they even mananged to outrun these creatures in the first place, Uncle could, but him? Looking at his scrawny muscles, he felt doubtful.
Whatever healed our injuries also gave us energy but it's slowly runnin— interupting his thoughts was a stab from the Creature's proboscis, lightly grazing the side of his chest.
"Ah" wincing from the pain, Aster looked at the wound, noticing it already start to heal, turning the corner, at the very edge of his vision, he could have swore he saw an A1 etched onto the wall of the labyrinth. Suddenly everything started coming together in his mind, all the bits and pieces started melding together to create a scheme..? A vision..? No a plan, one that determined their life and death in this cruel world.
"Uncle I have a plan, but you have to trust me, no matter what, okay? Aster said his voice containing an unnatural sense of excitement and confidence, for the dire situation they found themselves in.
"Anything is better than just slowly getting closer to death, even if it's fighting this thing right now, I'll put my trust in you." giving off the aura of someone with no regrets, and an unshakeable resolve.
"Alright follow me" sprinting as fast as his skinny legs could, picking up one of the fragmented weapons lying around everywhere a short sword to be precise, he turned around heading straight for the Creature, "Uncle you said you'd trust me right?"
The Mosquito Creature seeing it's prey nearing it, couldn't help but secrete a viscous liquid form it's proboscis resembling saliva, suddenly it leaped jumping a whipping a four meters in the sky, proboscis unfurled, ready to strike at any moment, a terrifying view for any person who was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end.. Yet Aster couldn't help but smirk, "Got you"
"Use your Dao spell NOW!" Gambling with his life, a single second determining his life and death, Astel couldn't help but fell a euphoric pleasure unlike anything else.
"DAO SPELL— EMBRACING LIGHT!!" Abyss shouted, putting all his concentration into performing an extremely weakened version of his spell which previously melted the eyes of the other Mosquito Creature.
"FLASH"
Abyss knew that this would only temporarily blind it and it would soon come immediately after them again
Astel knew that even if he closed his eyes, he wouldn't be able to avoid the spell, yet for their. survival he knew that it would be a small price to pay,...
"Screech!" still in midair, the Mosquito Creature felt the full force of the spell unlike Astel who had his back turned, using it's momentum, Astel thrust the short sword through one of its glowing red eyes, piercing through it, all the way into the deepest parts of its brain, finally ending the cursed creature once and for all...
looking behind him, Astel took a look at his back, where his clothes for burned off, revealing gruesome burns, still sizzling due to remaining heat.
Seeing his Uncle unharmed running over to him, Astel let out a smile of relief as he felt his consciousness slipping away from him, unknown that a mysterious change was happening throughout his body...
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"Where am I" waking up Astel expected to see the mossy walls of the maze, the warm cozyness of his house, hell even the inside of a hospital, yet where he was was what appeared to be the inside of his mind? If that even made sense, he could see all his thoughts colliding together creating what seemed to be emotions? Wills? Ideas? Aster had no clue what was going on yet it seemed oddly familiar, like he'd been here before, turning around Asterl's eyes widened, and he tried his very best to stop himself from cursing out loud, which he failed to do so, "what the fuck is that..."
In front of Astel was what looked to be a giant golden orb with an uncanny resemblance to the sun constantly releasing thoughts of courage, and fearlessness into his mind.
Is this the reason why I felt Unafraid while fighting that damned mosquito also why does it look like it has an— "blink" "blink"
"Wha—wha, why the fuck does it have an eye!?"
Feeling it's creepy warm gaze on him, Astel shivered yet he couldn't help but close his eyes and bask in the comfortable feeling it gave, like taking a warm shower, or taking a bath in a hot spring, not that he'd ever been to one before.
After what felt like an eternity Astel finally opened his eyes again, immediately noticing that his thoughts moved much faster and collided more often than before.
"What are you?" before Astel had the chance to get the answer, he felt an invisible string tugging at him, and the scenery distorting, wildly, until finnaly settling until what appeared to be the Labyrinth's moss covered walls.
"Astel, thank god you're awake," immediately after waking up, Astel felt himself get pulled into a bear hug by his Uncle, "do you know how worried I'd been!? Your heart even stopped beating for a moment, I thought you died..."
"I'm fine" Standing up and stretching himself, Aster felt like he'd became stronger, faster, more resilient than before, much to Abyss's shock, "ho—how.. I swear you were on your deathbed a few hours ago, how are you moving like nothing happened."
Rasing an eyebrow, Aster countered, "you shoot light from your hands, yet are shocked when I heal some minor burns and shallow cuts."
Although Aster said that, he was just as. Surprised as Abyss was, thinking to himself that it had to have something to do with the golden orb, "how did it heal me?" "where did it come from?" "what even is it?"
"Sigh, so many questions, so little answers, looking at the clear blue sky Astel realised that that the gate should have opened by now.
Time to finally head back home...