The labyrinth was a place of nightmares—its walls towering and hewn from ancient, jagged stone, slick with moss and age. A choking scent of blood and rot clung to the stale air, heavy and oppressive. The faint metallic tang of flesh hung so thick, it coated the tongue like ash.
Patches of blood painted the walls in grotesque splatters, some still fresh enough to drip down slowly, crawling like tears down a corpse's cheek.
Everything was still. Still and silent.
Like a predator's den, waiting for movement. Waiting to strike.
In that suffocating quiet, dozens of dog-sized rats crept through the maze-like structure. Their fur was matted, their eyes sunken and red. They were no ordinary vermin—mutated, starved, vicious creatures, their hunger evident in the way they sniffed the air.
A cluster of five huddled near a broken corner where the light didn't reach, ears twitching, claws scraping faintly against stone.
The wall beside them exploded into a rain of shattered brick and pulverized debris.
A burst of dust and fragments clouded the corner, and from within it emerged a figure, a blur of motion and violence—Cassius.
His violet hair swayed slightly from the impact, and his matching eyes gleamed like sharpened glass. There was no mercy in his gaze. No rage either.
Just cold, calculated execution.
Before the rats could react, his figure shimmered.
In an instant, Cassius disappeared from view, only to reappear directly in front of them, his leg already raised. It came down with the weight of a guillotine.
The skull of the nearest rat burst like a melon under a sledgehammer. Crimson sprayed outward in a fan of gore—but Cassius was already gone, another blur of motion.
He reappeared behind the next rat, grabbed its tail mid-spin, and with a grunt, snapped it like a whip into the stone wall. The impact was meaty, final.
The third one lunged at him, teeth bared, but Cassius caught it by the throat mid-air and slammed it into the ground.
The third time, the stone cracked and the rat's form stopped twitching.
The remaining two tried to flee, but it was already too late.
Cassius's voice rang out—quiet but seething with electricity.
Arcs of violet lightning burst from his skin, crackling like chained beasts finally unshackled. The strands of energy slithered through the air, rabid and chaotic, before lunging at the fleeing rats.
They struck in perfect unison.
The rats convulsed violently, then collapsed into steaming piles of charred flesh—nothing but burnt husks.
And then, like a congratulatory whisper, the system responded.
« Proceeding to Floor 5 »
Cassius's body vanished in a flash of light.
When his vision returned, he stood within another segment of the labyrinth. The layout was the same—endless walls, endless turns—but the scent here was different. Less metallic. More... chemical.
A faint sloshing sound echoed from all directions.
The system displayed the new threat.
Before him, dozens of gelatinous creatures began to emerge from the crevices and cracks of the maze. Each was about the size of a bucket, translucent and pulsing with faint internal light. They wobbled slightly, strange cores floating within them like drifting hearts.
They quivered at his presence, but made no sound—only sloshed and undulated forward with eerie synchronization.
Cassius didn't speak.
His face remained blank, utterly devoid of emotion. It was the expression of a machine built for efficiency and destruction.
Lightning surged again, but this time it wrapped tightly around his right arm. The air around his clenched fist trembled with static, loud cracks splitting the silence like gunfire. The energy twisted and sparked violently, hissing like a beast preparing to pounce.
He drove his electrified fist into the nearest slime.
The result was immediate and brutal.
The slime exploded into pieces, its gel-like body ruptured by the force and cooked from within. The shockwave rolled into the next few, knocking them back like bowling pins.
Another stepped forward.
Cassius pivoted, launched a spinning kick that dispersed another slime into gelatinous mist. He ducked, turned, struck again. Each hit was clean, devastating, precise.
The slimes weren't fast. They weren't smart.
But they were endless.
They kept coming, dozens more slithering forward from the darkness beyond the maze, trying to overwhelm him with sheer numbers.
Cassius narrowed his eyes, his body already in motion.
The slimes didn't stop.
They kept crawling out from holes in the ground, oozing from cracks in the walls, and bubbling up from small pools of green liquid scattered around the floor.
Their translucent bodies shimmered with hues of green and blue, some laced with tiny bones, others pulsing with unstable cores.
Cassius exhaled, his breath sharp and shallow.
His muscles ached. His right arm—still coated in lightning—trembled from overuse. But he didn't let it drop.
The timer floated above him in red font, each second ticking like the beat of a war drum.
Mia's life was on the line.
And he was still too damn far from understanding mana.
Another slime lunged at him, stretching its gooey body like a whip. Cassius ducked under it and responded with a rising uppercut, shattering it into fragments.
He spun around and kicked another midair, sending it slamming into the stone wall where it jiggled violently before collapsing into mush.
It wasn't the strength of the enemies that was the problem—it was the number.
A war he wasn't winning.
His movements were starting to slow, breaths becoming heavier.
Not in fear, but as if retreating on command.
Cassius narrowed his eyes.
The ground beneath his feet began to tremble.
The walls cracked, and a thick, black ooze began seeping from the corners. It moved with unnatural intent, pooling together in the center of the room.
« Mini-Boss Encounter »
« Corrupted Slime King »
It stood nearly ten feet tall, its body bloated and trembling, a fusion of hundreds of smaller slimes. Within its core, a red crystal pulsed slowly like a heart. Bones floated inside, half-digested. The air around it reeked of acid and decay.
Cassius's body tensed.
But his mind... still sharp.
"I need to end this quick," he muttered.
The slime king gurgled, then launched a stream of acid toward him. Cassius jumped, flipping mid-air, but a small splash grazed his side.
His skin burned instantly. The pain exploded, making him wince—but he bit down, forced his body to move through it. He rolled across the ground, dodging another blast, then stood with both fists clenched.
Again, lightning surged—but this time, instead of coating just his arm, it flowed wildly over his body. Sparks danced violently across his chest, legs, and neck.
His veins lit up in jagged lines.
But his mind flashed—not with battle instinct... but with memory.
Her voice trembling as she said, "I'm scared..."
Memories of the time when she was the most broken.
His vision doubled for a moment, then snapped back.
He growled and rushed forward, his body becoming a trail of crackling light.
The Slime King opened its maw to devour him whole—but Cassius jumped inside, diving straight toward the glowing red core.
Instinctive. Untrained.
But born in the heat of desperation.
His entire body became a spear of lightning, condensed and volatile. Fangs materialized on his fists—violent.
The red core met his fist—and shattered like glass under divine judgment.
A thunderous explosion tore through the labyrinth floor. Slime splattered in every direction, melting stone and walls. For a second, there was only blinding light.
« Proceeding to Floor 6 »
« Warning: Mental Strain Detected »
« Caution: Psyche Unstable »
Cassius coughed out blackened blood, his vision swimming.
But the moment he blinked—
Gone was the stone labyrinth. Gone were the monsters.
He was standing in a room made of mirrors.
Dozens of reflections surrounded him from every direction. But none were moving in sync with him.
They stared at him—grinning.
Each one wore his face... but twisted. In some, his hair was white as bone. In others, his eyes glowed crimson. His mirror selves whispered in unison, voices warped.
"Do you really think you can save her?"
"You killed for her. Used her to justify every crime. How noble."
"You're just like us."
One of the mirrors cracked. Another shattered completely.
"You're nothing without violence. You desire blood. You are sadistic. You're just pretending—"
He slammed his fist into one of them—
But the others just laughed louder.