Level 2

The creatures of level 2 were different.

Half the size of those from level 1.

No scales — smooth, dark skin, almost black, that absorbed the corridor’s dim light.

They didn’t have separate upper arms.

Instead, each shoulder ended in a set of five thin tentacles the thickness of a finger, each a meter long, that moved independently and ended in hardened tips glowing with a faint blue bioluminescence.

And they were twice the number.

Sixteen, spread across the sector without a clear central point.

No visible hierarchy.

’No big one to lead.’

’I can’t use the same tactic.’

Serah assessed the floor as the creatures approached — and noticed the pattern. Lines in the wall material extending to the floor, too regular, forming squares a meter on each side.

The first reached attack range.

Three tentacles from the right shoulder extended toward Serah’s neck — fast, with the precision of something that has attacked this way many times, seeking to wrap rather than strike.

Serah stepped back.

Her foot landed on one of the squares on the floor.

The floor gave way three centimeters and a discharge of energy shot upward.

Serah was no longer there — she had jumped forward by instinct when she felt the floor give way.

The discharge struck the pursuing creature in the underbelly.

The creature fell.

’Pressure traps.’

’I can use them.’

---

[Wolf1179: THE LEVEL 2 ONES HAVE TENTACLES. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.]

[Jack_Moore: Serah discovered the pressure traps by accident and turned them into a tactic in two seconds.]

[Dr_Snow: the tentacles seek to wrap, not strike. they go for the neck.]

[RagingMutant: (╬ Ò﹏Ó) THE OTHER STREAMS VOTED INCREASED DENSITY]

[Dragonic_Legacy: @RagingMutant sixteen instead of nine. double, with immobilizing tentacles.]

[Mist_Of_Death: Serah using the labyrinth traps against the labyrinth creatures. in thirty seconds.]

[CTU1024: SERAH WATCH OUT FOR THE TENTACLES ON THE LEFT SIDE]

[Macraw93: she can’t hear us CTU1024]

[CTU1024: I KNOW BUT IT MAKES ME FEEL BETTER]

---

Level 2 took seven minutes.

Longer than the first — the tentacles were harder to handle than the claws. When one grabbed, it coiled and tightened, and detaching a tentacle wrapped around the arm while eleven other creatures approached cost attention and time better spent elsewhere.

Three creatures had managed to wrap tentacles around Serah’s right arm before she could use the floor traps to neutralize them.

The cold of the primordial ice had dissolved them but the damage was already there — reddish marks on the skin where the pressure had tightened before the cold arrived.

The left shoulder from level 1 plus the right arm from level 2.

The silver markings were working harder than usual.

The opening to level 3 was at the end.

---

[ACTIVE VOTE — VIEWERS FROM OTHER STREAMS]

[Modification: Level 3]

[Option A: Creatures with regeneration — 61%]

[Option B: Modified gravity — 22%]

[Option C: Extreme temperature — 17%]

[Result: Option A]

---

[RagingMutant: (ಠ_ಠ) REGENERATION. 61% CHOSE REGENERATION.]

[Wolf1179: if she can’t kill them in one hit and they regenerate, the problem is energy, not power.]

[Jack_Moore: @Wolf1179 exactly. they wear her down even though she’s SSS.]

[Dr_Snow: the labyrinth isn’t trying to beat her in power. it’s trying to exhaust her. well designed.]

[Dragonic_Legacy: the markings are already working harder. this is going to get tough.]

[Mist_Of_Death: (╥_╥) we can’t vote to help her]

[macraw93: SERAH CONSERVE ENERGY]

[CTU1024: she can’t hear us—]

[macraw93: I know but... We have to try]

---

Level 3

The creatures of level 3 were quadrupedal.

The size of a large horse, their bodies covered in bone plates that overlapped like natural armor — gray on the back, white on the underbelly.

Four legs with split hooves that produced the metallic sound Serah had heard since level 1.

The head was long and flat like a reptile’s, with the lower jaw extending beyond the upper, where two curved tusks jutted outward the size of a human arm.

No eyes — instead, a translucent membrane covering the front of the head that pulsed when they moved, probably to detect heat or vibration.

Eight of them. Spread across the sector.

The first exchange seemed normal.

Serah struck with primordial ice concentrated on the back plate of the nearest one. The creature fell sideways, legs kicking at the air.

In the second exchange, while handling another, she saw the first one getting up.

Not slowly.

The bone plates the ice had fractured were reassembling — not like flesh regenerating but like pieces of armor returning to their position, fitting back together with the specific sound of bone against bone.

’Regeneration in the plates.’

’Ice fractures. The plates reassemble. The cycle doesn’t end.’

Serah calculated while the second exchange finished.

’I need a strike that surpasses the reassembly speed.’

’Or permanent immobilization.’

’Or reach the next level before my energy runs out.’

’The third is the most efficient.’

’Kai isn’t here anyway.’

She extended her hand.

The temperature of sector 3 dropped seventeen degrees in four seconds.

The primordial ice that came out wasn’t combat ice — it was structural.

The creatures’ bone plates stopped reassembling.

Not because the cold killed them — because the structural cold slipped between the plates and fixed them in position before they could snap back together.

Eight creatures immobilized.

Eight applications of structural ice.

Eleven minutes.

The silver markings were at half the intensity they’d had at the start.

---

[Wolf1179: THE BONE PLATES REASSEMBLE. IT’S NOT FLESH REGENERATION, IT’S ARMOR REGENERATION.]

[Jack_Moore: Serah used structural ice. not combat ice. the one that consumes more aura.]

[Dr_Snow: "Kai isn’t here anyway" — second time she thinks of it as a limitation. it shows.]

[RagingMutant: ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ SERAH LEVELED UP BUT AT WHAT COST]

[Dragonic_Legacy: markings at half. three levels. how many left.]

[Mist_Death: (╥_╥) the labyrinth is forcing her to spend more on each level. that was the plan.]

[macraw93: SERAH HOLD ON]

[CTU1024: (ง’̀-’́)ง (ง’̀-’́)ง]

---

The opening to level 4 was at the end.

Serah looked at it.

The primordial aura detected something before she crossed.

Not a creature — something different. No living being signature. Not the pattern of A_D_M’s modified creatures.

A presence with no classification in the primordial aura.

Serah stopped.

---

[ACTIVE VOTE — VIEWERS FROM OTHER STREAMS]

[Modification: Level 4]

[Option A: Level boss — unclassified entity — 78%]

[Option B: Creature duplication — 14%]

[Option C: No modification — 8%]

[Result: Option A]

---

[DraconicLegacy: 78% chose the boss. overwhelming.]

[Jack_Moore: unclassified entity. like the A_D_M signal.]

[Dr_Snow: Serah already detected it. she arrived before the vote.]

[RagingMutant: (╬ Ò﹏Ó) MARKINGS AT HALF AND NOW AN UNCLASSIFIED BOSS]

[Mist_of_Death: the labyrinth wore her down over three levels exactly for this.]

[macraw93: (╥_╥) (╥_╥) (╥_╥) (╥_╥)]

[Jack_Moore: SERAH DON’T GO IN]

[Wolf1179: she has to go in to reach the center.]

[CTU1024: I KNOW BUT STILL]

[Dr_Snow: 17,800,000 viewers holding their breath.]

---

Serah looked at the opening.

The primordial aura searched for Kai once more — instinctive, not decided.

The interference system cut it off at two meters.

Serah closed her eyes for a second.

’He’s fine.’

’I know it.’

’I’m going in.’

She crossed the opening.