The hallway to the left ended at a door.

The three stopped in front of it.

Lira withdrew her tracking threads.

"The signal is coming from in there."

"I know," Serah said.

"Can you sense what’s on the other side?"

"No." The silver markings pulsed faintly. "Something is blocking the primordial aura in that direction. Like static."

Kai looked at the surface of the door.

The texture was the same as the walls — the material that wasn’t Aethon stone, that responded to Qi, that someone had processed from somewhere else.

He extended his hand.

Qi pulsed at the point of contact.

The door opened.

---

The first thing they saw was the size.

There was no way to process it gradually — it was too much for the brain to absorb in parts.

The space that opened on the other side of the door was a chamber the size of a small city, with a ceiling so high that the torches illuminating the upper walls were points of light from below.

’Six hundred meters long, perhaps. Width comparable.’

And in the center, filling practically all the available space from the floor to the first fifty meters of height: a labyrinth.

Walls of black stone of the same material as the fortress, of varying heights between three and twelve meters, organized in a pattern that from below seemed chaotic and that from no viewpoint available on the ground showed its complete structure.

There was no sound.

Then there was sound — the kind produced by many things moving in enclosed spaces.

Deep, continuous, distributed in all directions from inside the labyrinth.

Lira looked at the labyrinth.

Serah looked at the labyrinth.

Kai said: "That’s big."

---

[Jack_Moore: SIX HUNDRED METERS OF LABYRINTH]

[RagingMutant: ∑(°口°) "THAT’S BIG" — KAI]

[Dr_Snow: the sound coming from inside. there are things in there. many.]

[Wolf1179: Kai assessed the labyrinth and his first reaction was appreciative]

[DraconicLegacy: @Wolf1179 consistent with his personality. he’s been like this since his first stream.]

---

The A_D_M panel was at the center of the chamber, right before the entrance to the labyrinth.

It wasn’t large — the size of a book, floating at eye level. It had a single line of active text.

[EVENT: LABYRINTH OF GRIMVAST]

[Rules: each participant will be transported to a random sector of the labyrinth. Objective: reach the center. The center contains the exit]

[Condition: the interference system will block communication between participants during the event]

[Time limit: until the last participant reaches the center or is eliminated]

[The labyrinth creatures are real. Elimination is permanent.]

Kai read the panel.

Serah read it over his shoulder.

Lira read it and then looked at the labyrinth.

"Labyrinth creatures," she repeated.

"Yes."

"What rank?"

As if answering the question, something inside the labyrinth emitted a sound that had no simple classification in the Aethon ranking system because the Aethon ranking system hadn’t been designed to classify what produced that sound.

Lira processed the sound.

"Its blood," she said, "probably tastes horrible."

Kai looked at Serah.

Serah was looking at him.

"You’ll be fine," Kai said.

"I know." The markings pulsed. "You’ll be fine too."

"I know."

"You know?"

"Yes."

"Because if you’re not fine—"

The panel flickered.

[Initiating transport in 5 seconds]

---

[Jack_Moore: "its blood probably tastes horrible" — Lira’s priority in a life-or-death situation]

[RagingMutant: (╬ Ò﹏Ó) THE PANEL FLICKERED IN THE MIDDLE OF KAI AND SERAH]

[Dr_Snow: "you’ll be fine too / you know? / yes / because if you’re not fine—" — SERAH DIDN’T FINISH THE SENTENCE]

[Wolf1179: four seconds of conversation before transport. Kai and Serah used every one.]

[DraconicLegacy: @Wolf1179 and Lira was thinking about the blood. perfect dynamic.]

---

[3]

[2]

[1]

The chamber vanished.

---

POV — Kai:

The floor was the same black material.

The corridor where he appeared was four meters wide and had the kind of silence belonging to enclosed spaces.

Kai looked in the two available directions.

Left: corridor that turned at twenty meters.

Right: straight corridor ending in a fork.

Then he looked at the ceiling — five meters. Enough to move vertically if he needed to.

’Serah and Lira are somewhere in the labyrinth.’

’The interference system blocks communication.’

’I can’t know where they are.’

’Serah will be fine.’

’Serah has spent 2,300 years surviving without me.’

’I know.’

He breathed.

’Though she won’t be focused.’

He knew it because he wasn’t fully focused either — there was a fraction of his attention still calculating where Serah might have ended up in the labyrinth, what sector, what kind of creatures.

’She’ll be fine.’

’Focus on your own thing.’

Qi flowed — active, stable, at the level he’d reached in the training session.

Kai let it distribute.

The fortress responded to Qi.

The labyrinth too.

The walls around him vibrated faintly as the Qi expanded.

’Interesting.’

From the left corridor came the sound of something moving toward him at an accelerated pace.

Big.

Fast.

With the kind of weight that made the floor vibrate.

Kai set his stance.

And smiled.

’Good. Let’s see what’s here.’

---

POV — Lira:

The sector where she appeared had its own light.

Not torches — the wall material emitted a faint blue luminescence that was enough to see clearly and that to human eyes would have seemed atmospheric and to vampire eyes seemed artificial and slightly irritating.

Lira looked at the walls.

Then the ceiling.

Then the corridor in front of her.

’Separated.’

’Of course.’

’A_D_M designed this to isolate the insects they brought to this world.’

She extended the tracking threads.

The interference system cut them off at three meters.

’Well-prepared.’

Lira retracted them.

She looked at the corridor.

From the depths came a smell.

Vampires have senses designed for a specific function — finding blood, classifying blood, evaluating blood.

She frowned.

’Horrible.’

’Absolutely horrible.’

’What does something eat for its blood to smell like this?’

The creature appeared in the corridor — four meters tall, a structure that didn’t correspond to any Aethon classification Lira knew, with eyes that emitted their own light, the same irritating blue as the walls.

Lira assessed it.

Rank: high. Not SS but close enough to be an inconvenience.

Speed: estimated high from the visible musculature.

Blood: discarded as an option. It smelled like something Lira preferred not to name.

’This,’ she thought, with the resignation of someone who is going to have a very long day, ’is a nuisance.’

She activated blood magic.

’If I can’t track, I attack directly.’

’At least the fight will be simple.’

The creature charged.

Lira dodged with an SS lateral step and launched a current at its flank.

’Simple.’

’Though annoying.’

---

POV — Serah:

Serah’s silver markings were at maximum from the moment of transport.

Not because of the creatures — because of the absence.

The primordial aura that normally monitored territory in a radius of kilometers had instinctively searched for Kai at the moment of separation and had found the interference system in its place.

Serah looked at the corridor where she’d appeared.

’Kai is somewhere in this labyrinth.’

’I can’t feel him.’

’I can’t...’

The markings pulsed irregularly.

’Focus.’

She tried the primordial aura again — active search, maximum extension.

The interference system cut it off at two meters.

’No.’

Serah looked at the ceiling.

The walls.

The floor.

’This doesn’t make sense.’

’Kai said he’d be fine.’

’Kai always says he’ll be fine and always ends up in some situation that makes the viewer count shoot up to millions.’

The markings oscillated between rapid pulsing and forced stillness.

’He’s fine.’

’I know he’s fine.’

’It’s just...’

From the right corridor came a sound.

Multiple.

Coordinated.

The kind of creatures that hunt in packs.

Serah turned.

Four creatures in formation — not the same as Lira’s sector, these were shorter, faster, with the specific structure of something designed for speed in enclosed spaces.

Estimated rank: high.

Number: four now, and the sound from the corridor suggested four was the visible number, not the total number.

Serah looked at them.

’Kai will be fine,’ she repeated internally, with the firmness of someone convincing themselves of something they know is true but instinct hasn’t fully accepted.

’And when we get out of here I’m going to tell him exactly what I think about this labyrinth.’

’But first...’

The claws appeared.

’First this.’

---

[Jack_Moore: THREE POVS. ALL THREE SEPARATED. ALL THREE THINKING ABOUT THE SAME THING FROM DIFFERENT ANGLES.]

[RagingMutant: ᕦ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ᕤ Kai thinking about Serah / Lira thinking about the horrible blood / Serah thinking about Kai]

[Dr_Snow: "when we get out of here I’m going to tell him exactly what I think about this labyrinth" — Serah accumulating things to say to Kai]

[Wolf1179: Lira discarded the creatures’ blood as an option. that says everything about the creatures’ rank.]

[DraconicLegacy: if something’s blood makes Lira frown, that something is problematic]

---

The three corridors filled at the same time.

Not two or three creatures.

Groups.

From Kai’s left corridor came eight.

From Lira’s corridor emerged six more of the first creature plus twelve of a different type — smaller, in a swarm, with coordinated movement.

From Serah’s corridor the four visible became nine when those at the back of the hall heard that the first four had found something.

All with the same intention.

No ambiguity.

No assessment.

Direct.

---

[Jack_Moore: EIGHT FOR KAI. EIGHTEEN FOR LIRA. NINE FOR SERAH.]

[RagingMutant: ∑(°口°) AT THE SAME TIME]

[Dr_Snow: A_D_M calibrated the numbers. not random.]

[Wolf1179: Kai has eight. Serah has nine. Lira has eighteen. the labyrinth knows who it’s dealing with.]

[Dragonic_Legacy: or it knows each one’s rank and sent proportional. that’s worse.]

[System — notification]

[Current viewers: 16,100,000]

[The system notes that all three have groups of creatures approaching]

[The system notes that Kai is smiling]

[The system notes that Lira is annoyed by the smell]

[The system notes that Serah is thinking about Kai]