The world was awash in darkness, a deep, suffocating onyx blanket spread across the chamber, the blue torches snuffed out.

A tall metallic statue of a titanic woman stood in the center of the chamber, still and unmoving. Her hair was long, flowing like something organic, and twin orbs of darkness so deep they sucked in the surroundings.

The woman was obviously Savior, and around her paced a man... albeit smaller in height. Leonidas was thinking, mind moving through everything of importance.

There was the fact that he still didn’t know the origin of the Sanctum, the lack of information surrounding Savior and her abilities, and most importantly, the damned wave that had separated him from Willow.

Not that he cared about Willow, he absolutely didn’t, it was just... inconvenient. Yes, traveling through a death-filled Realm of Madness alone wasn’t ideal.

Leonidas shook his head and continued with his thought process, mulling over all the information he had gathered during his long stay in the Realm of Madness.

Firstly, there was Willow. Probably a high noble from some rich family, the woman was powerful...she was ruthless, and had a dirty mouth.

There was the Realm of Madness itself, comprised of the Scarlet Basin—the place Leonidas had first arrived—and the Color Spires.

He shivered as the image of the Basins passed through his mind, eyes wandering to his right arm...the one that had been eaten by Red, a byproduct of the Basins.

Each region follows its own rules, but one thing holds true for the entire Realm...peace whenever the sun is pink, and hostility whenever it’s one part red.

He had met two new people, siblings...one of whom was creepy. Barbossa and Rani, an oracle and a feisty warrior. Truthfully, Leonidas didn’t know much about them, only superficial information, but from what he had experienced, Barbossa knew everything about him...seeing as he called him ’dear friend’.

This is all well and good, but the reason I started thinking about this was to find a way back to them...and I have nothing.

He could leave the Sanctum anytime he wished; that much Savior had confirmed, the mute guardian communicating with her actions rather than words.

But doing so would serve little purpose; he was still weakened, and although he had regained his legs, he felt a weird sense of rejection from them...as if they weren’t his.

Creepy.

"Say Savior...if I were to ask you to train me...would you? Maybe teach me how to wield a sword better with a single hand, or control Insenium."

A hit to his pride, that was for sure. But Leonidas had promised himself that he would do anything for the sake of power, and this was a step in the right direction.

Savior didn’t respond right away, her chilling eyes gazing at Leonidas from above...almost like a god judging a sinful mortal.

She pointed at her sword, then at his own—Blush. A silent declaration of acceptance. He had gained his first official master in the Labyrinth...a mixture of human and pilgrim, evident by her blood.

But there was a problem, one that Savior pointed out immediately. She raised her head and pointed at the vines twisting from above, the same ones that had held the phantasmal fruit.

During the time he had slept, the vines had shrivelled up. Their forms had blackened, shrinking and collapsing into themselves, like a husk dried of water.

Leonidas had noticed it before...back when he had thought of getting his arm back. Though he had long since cauterized the wound, a layer of burnt skin, hard as rock, layered over the stump.

All he had to do was cut the stump open and repeat the process he had followed with his legs. It was inherently simple, if only immensely painful.

"Yes, that is a problem indeed, but not a big one. You just need to stop right before a harrowing, possibly fatal injury, and all will be good. My tolerance for the damned feeling must be evident by now. Don’t you think so?"

He smiled at the nebulous statue, cerulean eyes burning with a desire to grow. His mind had changed in a matter of weeks, from the first time his arrogance almost got him killed at the hands of Caw Caw, to a not-so-pleasant experience with Toothpick, to then regrowing his limbs. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

I’ve gone through all kinds of hell, haven’t I?

His smile widened at the thought, growing a few shades colder as well. Savior shook her head at his antics, possibly guessing what he was thinking.

She was about to act out a response, but the Sanctum of Sacrifice shook. It shook like a tree in the immense wind. The dead vines swayed like drunk tendrils, snuffed out torches falling to the ground with jarring sounds.

Dust fell from above, obsidian, and holding faint ash-like qualities. But that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst was Savior, who had fallen to her knees.

The woman had both her hands on her head, clutching at it tightly, as if being assaulted by a searing headache. The darkness in her eyes kept dimming, the flames of hell dying out.

It was concerning to say the least...a terrifying being such as her, brought to her knees by something unseen. Her form writhed like bubbling water, the foul stench of rotten eggs making its way to Leonidas’s nose.

He stood there, utterly confused, watching his ’so-called’ savior twitch in pain. He laughed, a laugh of disbelief, hollow and dead. Despite her situation, Savior raised her head, and their eyes met.

Leonidas could swear he saw her smile...hidden underneath the folds of her obsidian helmet. A second later, her form burst into silver flames, eating at her figure, growing higher by the second, until nothing remained of the mighty woman.

What just happened...

It was all too sudden. She had been fine a second ago. And yet...she was gone.

The kind statue was gone. Leonidas felt empty inside, his eyes dead. Because even if he hadn’t spent a lot of time with Savior, she had been just that, his savior. A pillar to hold onto under all the madness, a beacon of hope that had saved him more than once.

But Leonidas didn’t have time for regrets or remorse. The shaking intensified with each passing second, walls groaning under pressure.

He turned sharply towards the main entrance, only to find that there was no door there anymore. A black wall made of pure reflective obsidian had replaced the original entrance.

Leonidas didn’t know what to do. The quaking was getting on his nerves, and he was already mad at Savior’s sudden disappearance.

He felt like he was about to explode.

Taking deep breaths, Leonidas calmed himself while also trying to find a solution to his current predicament. His eyes scanned the whole chamber, no other doors except one that led deeper into the Sanctum.

The newly appeared obsidian wall behind him creaked loudly...and began moving. It shifted, moving forward with a grating noise. The shrill sound echoed in the chamber, resounding wildly in Leonidas’s ears.

Is there no other choice?

He was especially wary of going inwards, mostly because all signs pointed to the Sanctum wanting him to go in.

A wall moving inwards, one that would eventually push him into the door. The only support he had, vanished with a burst of flames.

His food source suddenly running out, despite there being an influx of them before. Safe to say his skepticism was warranted, yet it did nothing to help him.

It feels like fate is trying to screw me over more times than I can count.

How many unfortunate events had he gone through already?

Shaking his thoughts away for the hundredth time that day, Leonidas forced his feet to move. Each step felt heavy, as if carrying the weight of a thousand, his newly grown legs wobbling slightly under the effort.

Useless legs.

The thought rose unbidden, but Leonidas paid it no heed. He continued making his way through the dark, careful not to move too fast.

After all, tripping over something would be quite detrimental to his progress. Just a few steps left. The world quaked again, and a support beam toppled.

It fell from the sky like a black meteor, slamming right beside Leonidas with a thundering crash, turning the ground into fine dust.

Oh hell no! A few steps to the side, and that would have been me!

No longer caring for the fear of falling, Leonidas sped up. He ran around a pillar, avoiding yet another collapsing beam, jumped over a crater, and finally arrived before the doorway.

A line of blue torches—looking like they burned from the souls of the dead—lined the door, a circular gape in the smooth obsidian wall.

Leonidas paused just before entering...was it really worth it going in? What if something worse than death awaited him?

No, there’s no use in thinking about ifs and maybes.

With a tentative step, Leonidas stepped in, the chamber behind him finally collapsing into a heaping pile of onyx rubble.