Welcome to Gaia! ::

[Omigosh, I'm so sorry! My computer got a virus and it took forever to fix! Sorry.]

"Fufufu, looks like you've lost your ride~"

Spirits always liked to point out the obvious. It was annoying. She huffed and brushed the dirt off herself, looking down the passageway. The lion was already far gone. "Useless, wasn't he~?" "Shut up." Scar tested each of her arms, swaying them up and down to test for pain. Okay, they were fine. Then she tested her legs, kicking them each. Good. She nodded a few times. Okay, everything was there and working. She was satisfied, so she kept on walking.

"What on earth...?"

Scar's ears perked at the eerie whisper. Her head darted and she squinted to see in the darkness. That was a bird! "A heron laguz~? She doesn't look perfectly...sane, fufufu." Scar took a few steps towards her. A hand stayed on her staff, which was an aid to her spellcasting. Oh great, she saw them. The heron ran up to her, throwing her arms open. She wanted a hug. That wasn't going to happen.

Scar shrugged. "Elise? Call me Scar." She brushed past the heron, wondering when the next trap would occur. Then she turned around briefly. "Are you coming or not?"

There it was. The heart of the labyrinth. The goal where the contestants must reach. If one looked inside, it would look like an underground arena.

Hundred rows of seat were encircling the battlefield that was twice as big as the actual arena where participates entered to pay their gold. Despite the oculus in the dome that let the light shined through, there were hundreds of torches lit up around the area. At the very top row, there was a balcony of what appeared to be the top box. There was a chuckle inside.

Sitting in the balcony with his feet resting on the rail was the menacing assassin. He was juggling three apples in his hands before grabbed two in one hand and took a bite of the apple in his other hand. The masked man lifted his head and looked down at the battlefield. Below the rows of seats and before the battlefield was the entrance. That was the only entrance the contestants had to enter.

So far, there were no sign of the contestants. But no matter, they would come. Oh, yes. Indeed, they would. About how many would come? The masked man did not know. However, if they did reach to the center of the labyrinth, then these contestants must be good. Either that or they just made it through sheer luck.

The smiling assassin chuckled. He wondered how were his moles doing. One, he had no idea what "Eric" was doing. Probably, having his mount eat another monster or being lost in the labyrinth. However, if that Wyvern Lord did manage to find one of the contestants, at least he would be doing his job of what he was told to. The Cheshire assassin still wondered why his baroness had hired him. Oh, yes. Indeed, he wondered.

As for the other mole, well he didn't need to worry. The masked man knew where the second mole was and he had no problem with this one. Oh, yes. Indeed, he didn't. He knew that this mole was in debt with the Mordache and it was his job to keep in tab with this mole. This mole would have to pay the amount of debt or else the masked man would have to pull the curtains. The masked man knew that the mole would do whatever orders were given in order to pay the debt. And yet, it would be sad for the Cheshire assassin to kill this mole if unable to pay the debt. Oh, yes. Indeed, it would be tragic. For the masked man had found this mole amusing.

However, no matter. The contestants would come. And when the contestants came, they would get their prize. But how long would these contestants survived?






[[Those that are not in battle or in traps, please come to the heart of the labyrinth. Oh, yes. Please do come. For the end of this month is about to come and we must pull the curtain to the close. Oh, yes. Indeed, we must.]]

"Hey! Stay still!" Scowling when he realized that his blow was far from fatal, Acteon let out a pitiful whine as he flew by, his lance hitting nothing but air as Shastah swung away from him. The wyvern flew fast, and for a moment, the Pegasus rider was afraid that his lance would catch the beast's scales- had it done so, the edge would have dulled considerably just from the momentum and the durability of the reptile's hide.

It was far better to throw blades at them from afar, or simply to go after their riders- their skins caught spearheads, which meant that many a Pegasus knight had their lances wrenched from their hands as the scaly bastards flew past. That meant wrenched arms, dislocated shoulders, and broken wrists galore, all thanks to a damn mount. It was why they were taught from their first days in the sky- go for the rider. Never the mount.

The rider would only catch on the lance for a moment, while the beasts could drag a Pegasus Knight straight off of his mount and into a rendezvous with the earth, hundreds of feet below.

"I'd sooner swallow your wyvern before your beast ate my beloved Pegasus! Now, die!" Feeling his friend's muscles trembling beneath his thighs from the agony as blood seeped steadily from his fresh wound, Acteon patted Bellerophon on the neck a few times, reassuring him even as the wyvern began its steep descent. With a swift, urgent kick, he drove his mount into a whinnying charge, Bellerophon's shrill voice a war cry in and of itself as he fought for altitude to meet Siegell's charge again. Watching that glaive with grave seriousness, Acteon waited until the moment when it twitched...

With a confident yell, Acteon drove Bellerophon into a turn again, his hand grasping the Javelin in preparation for a return strike...

Crk. Ptak!

...only to feel a shuddering blow, and the sound of a sudden crunch. A warm moistness spattered onto his face, and he suddenly felt himself begin to fall...

Bellerophon had stopped moving. The agony of the glaive gutting roughly through his wing made his other wing all but stop moving, the shock making his pupils dilate and forcing his body into a freefall. The one wing that was still open made them turn as they fell, and it was all Acteon could do to yell wordlessly at his mount as he tried to coach him to a safe landing. But that was just the thing- there was no safe landing.

There was no way to keep his friend from harm.

With no hooves to land on and one of his wings gone, Acteon was forced to do the unthinkable, blinking back tears of rage and despair as he leaped from his friend's saddle. His eyes misted and burning from the tears, he misjudged the distance, screaming himself when the stone floor seemed to suddenly reach up at him. Landing incorrectly on his right foot, he shrieked horribly from the agony as he felt the bones within snap and shatter from the sudden impact- he'd fallen from far enough to sustain serious damage, and he found that he couldn't even open his eyes beyond the blinding pain. His eyelids would not dare loosen from their clenched state, the tears wouldn't stop flowing, and...

Damn it all, he could still hear his friend's ragged breathing, the horrible noise of his beloved Bellerophon crying piteously in a way that only damned animals could. A wheezing, pathetic moan, deep from the belly of the beast- that was the true sound of a hopeless beast. And now his friend made that noise now- not only for himself, but for the rider he knew was damned along with him. Just once, the pegasus reached forward a bloody stump of a hoof, his one intact wing broken and useless beneath his own weight. His hollow wing bones had shattered pathetically beneath him when he landed, twisting and folding in on itself when his body had rolled...

It was nothing more than a limp, bloody mess. A mangled pile of bloody feathers, with pieces of bone punched through the muscle in some places and sticking clear out of the skin in others, leaving the veins in it to spill their life-giving liquid onto the corpse of the wyvern he had landed on. Bellerophon seemed to look up once, his neck barely moving his stunned head... but his eyes quickly rolled back into his head, his body shaking uncontrollably from the agony as he let his head fall back to the ground.

The moan rose again from his throat, but he did not move from that spot.

Acteon grasped blindly on the ground, his breathing ragged and hoarse as he felt for his weapon- for a few moments, he couldn't tell one direction from another until he finally forced his eyes open. Reaching, grasping desperately for the Javelin, he managed to take hold of it... but his shaking hands and his strained spirit made his strength meaningless. He had no sense of calm, no warrior's spirit- just a raw desperation, born of sorrow, fury, and pain.

His lips moved, and his voice was strained and hoarse, shaking when he stared up into the eyes of the man who had all but killed them, already.

"Why? ...Why, you b*****d? It's not fair!"

♫Praise my Name always, like now!♫

♫My name is victory!♫

It didn’t take long for berserker’s expectations to be fulfilled, as Bliss came shooting out the fresh tear in the wall, where prior to Yula there had been none. If the maze had been a living thing, it could probably attest to how much it didn’t like Yula running amok and causing all sorts of trouble with every step. Luckily though, it wasn’t in any way alive, and thus one reckless axe-wielder didn’t have to worry about the maze enacting revenge on her any time soon; that is, if you don’t consider the traps that had been nestled in various nooks and crannies waiting to be triggered by an unsuspecting contestant.

A roll and a trip later, Yula was back on her feet, though a bit shakily. Dragging her hammer carelessly behind her, the vertically challenged berserker waddled over to her companion and peered curiously at Bliss’ now broken, shiny thing on a stick. “It’s broken,” Yula repeated like a broken record. Her head rocked from side to side as her boot made contact with one of the broken shards causing it to hop a short distance and collide with another. What purpose this object had served, it served no longer; oh well, at least it had never concerned Yula!

Yula’s brown eyes squinted, before going wind again as her cheeks puffed up in the same pouting gesture Bliss was making. ”We’re almost there; we’re almost there, the center, the center!” There really wasn’t another moment to waste; at least Yula didn’t plan to waste anymore, especially not for a servant! She gave the girl another minute before spinning on her heel and skipping few feet away farther into the tunnel that she assumed lead to the center. The tunnel quickly opened up, creating a large room that Yula was certain was the pair’s destination.

♥Don't you wish you were me?♥

Siegell was around here. She knew it. She felt his lingering presence in the air.

The presence of fear, chaos, and destruction.

Goddamn it, Siegell, where the hell are you? Show yourself!

She needed to see him. She had to see him. Ever since almost a year now, and all the things that had happened between then and now, and...and she just had to see him. She had to find out what was on his mind, why he had left her. And she had to show him that she'd changed.

Unfortunately, that was not the only reason she was stationed within the central part of this maze. Upon coming to this new continent, among the path she'd taken to forge a place in this new world, she'd made some unsavory allies, and some far more unsavory enemies. She owed debts.

It was time to pay up.

"Wait here," they'd said. "Kill whomever enters." "What if I don't want to?" "Then you can make up that debt with your own life." It was hardly an offer she could refuse. Not before seeing Siegell, at least. And here, the first victims were entering - two girls, one with a build similar to her own. She didn't want to kill them. But she really didn't have a choice, did she? A great axe fell to the ground with a heavy thud as Adele loosened it from its holster. She grasped the handle of Baskilios, watching the two newcomers.

Hah... very, very good. She knew she'd been right to follow those two. It would be too easy just to get past the traps to the center, wouldn't it? So of course there would be something there, too, waiting for them. Heee~ They thought she wouldn't be ready. They thought she wouldn't know. But she was CAREFUL. The Goddess said she was special, so she had to stay safe. How silly of them~ They thought she'd just wander in. But these two would be her distraction! And then she'd take out that girl and just run in! Easy as pie.

Oh, no. Still too easy. That would make her let her guard down. Right? So she'd just be running in and then, arrow through the head. No. Bad. Ah, this was actually going to take some work. So, maybe it would be in her best interest to keep one of these two alive after all. Maybe even both. Meat shields were always good. The spirits were chattering incessantly but they didn't say anything useful this time. Noisy little things. Celera swatted at one irritably, but of course it did nothing. Annoying.

But she stayed in the shadows, off to the side of the hall, just outside the entrance to the cavern. She wasn't going in yet. She didn't plan to get hurt doing this.

Siegell hummed softly to himself as he put on Acteon's belt, adjusting the scabbard and, after cleaning off the iron sword, sheathing it. "Better fit than I thought it'd be," he murmured to himself, adjusting the belt a little. He wouldn't have thought a lady's belt would fit his hips well, but he wasn't complaining. Acteon didn't seem to have much worth taking, but Siegell sighed and pried the corpse's armor off anyway, looking for any concealed weapon or anything that might be worth taking. Well, the shield wasn't bad, he'd already loaded that up, and it was a nice belt.

Once the armor was away, Siegell reached down to pat the deceased knight down, to see if there was anything in the inseams of the clo--

"Holy s**t!" Siegell jumped back like he'd been bitten, then swore loudly and held his hand away from himself. "Oh godsdamn, that... She's he and... augh..." He glanced back at Acteon, and his hand went to his newly acquired sword. His arm flashed, and he shuddered. "Sicko," he muttered, shaking himself to clear his head as he returned to his mount.

Shastah was muzzle-deep in Bellerophon's side, feasting bloodily, but when Siegell climbed up his right haunch and into the saddle, he shook his head and stepped back. "Alright, Shas, let's go see what else we can find," he murmured, glancing down the wide passage through which Acteon had intended to pass.

The great white wyvern licked his jaws to clean them of blood and entrails as he crawled through the tunnel, head low and forward, jaws ready to snap and kill. A silent command from Siegell halted the wyvern in his tracks, and he shifted a little as his rider climbed down, holding Acteon's heavy shield. With his own shield on his arm, the wyvern rider glanced up at Shastah. "Follow after me, I'll go trip all the traps ahead of you," he said, and then he turned, holding up Acteon's large circular shield in front of his chest. Fortunately, the passage here sloped downward, and the floor was smooth.

Siegell started running forward. He'd spotted the pressure panels, and there were no seams in the ceiling, meaning anything coming at him would come from the walls. His best bet was to protect his side and move fast.

With his running start, he dropped Acteon's shield suddenly, face-down, and jumped onto it, holding his arms out and crouching for balance as he whipped down the hallway on a sparking disc. He could hear the whiff and thunk of arrows inches behind him, but he was moving fast enough that the traps didn't hit him.

As he whipped down that hallway, one thought and one thought only crossed through his mind:

How the ******** do I stay standing!? He'd started out straight and fast, but now every time he shifted his weight he'd go sliding to the side and overcompensate, weaving back and forth through the hallway and beginning to swing his arms wildly to keep from falling. He was actually up on one foot for a bit, because that was the only way he could seem to keep himself in the center, until he managed to put his other foot down directly in front of the first and carefully jumped, setting his feet in a better, more balanced position.

Much better, much easier, now, for all his inexperienced wavering, it stayed mostly in the center.

Until the hall turned sharply and spikes extended from the wall in front of him. He cursed, debating whether he could jump off, but there were still arrow traps before him-- a few thunked into his shield and he crouched to pick up speed.

The second he was clear of the traps, he could hear Shastah lumbering after, and he tried to drop and roll, but it was too late! He only had time to turn, raise his shield...

s**t... one of the spikes tore a gash in his shoulder, sticking through his shield where it struck... he'd braced himself well, but his arm was in pain, and he slipped a bit and fell unceremoniously on his butt.

A moment later, swearing under his breath, he could hear Shastah stepping up behind him. "Gah, Shas, Elixir..." The wyvern lord reached up for a handhold and pulled himself to his feet, then stumbled around to the saddlebag and poured out a large measure of Elixir on his shoulder.

After a long moment to rest, with the soothing feel of a closed wound on his arm, Siegell slowly went to pick up Acteon's shield, leaving his own on the spiked wall. He reached up to take his glaive and stepped around the corner, his mount following, and into another large, round room.

WIth a very familiar figure in the center.

Adele did not budge as the other girl yelled at her from across the room. From her choice of implements, she guessed that the other girl must have been a similar class to her own. Why axe-users were frequently loud and brash, she'd never know.

But she remained motionless, staring the two down. She wouldn't attack unless one rushed her; she was not doing this by her own will, so she could allow them that much at least.

...The man who had just entered the room, she couldn't speak so kindly for. "Siegell!" she snarled loudly. Quickly hoisting Baskilios up upon her shoulder, she set off at a brisk pace across the room towards the entrance of it. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the accompanying girl summon a sphere of magic. Self-defense? Please...please don't throw that if you know what's good for you.

The girl threw it at Adele. In an instant, Baskilios had been shifted into an attack stance, and the weight of the great axe carried Adele in a wide circle as the blade sliced through the globe of darkness and the residual magic washed over the berserker, leaving her unfazed. The axe continued along its path, dipping low on one side so it could raise above her shoulder as Adele spun. It dipped low once again, and Baskilios met the druid's shoulder. Adele closed her eyes as the blow connected.

Two wet, sickening thuds could be heard an instant later.

She halted, letting the axe dig into the ground to cease her assault. She knelt for a moment, catching her breath, and slowly opened her eyes once again, careful to avoid letting her eyes fall upon the new corpse. Then she stood, flashing a glance at the other berserker. There may have been a hint of remorse visible in her expression, but it was instantly replaced by determination and rage as her head snapped back to a neutral position and her pace continued once again towards the room's entrance. And so, there she paused, a moderate distance between her and her once-partner.

"Hi there, Siegell. Been a while!"