MAZE - The Endless Quest

“… And then we arrived here. It was a total of… 57 rooms, if I counted right. All in all, it wasn’t that bad. We managed to see a lot of amazing places. If the situation was different, it would have been a fun trip,” Hera finished telling her tale. She talked about every single room they passed by and the issues they had to carry Marco on a gurney.

“Having Nimbus work as a rescue chopper was a good idea. Especially since you could send him ahead with Neria as he carried Marco up and down complicated terrain,” Alex smiled.

“I agree. Sophia was the one who suggested that once I explained a bit about my legacy,” Hera smiled at the human explorer who helped so much during the journey.

“I wonder what would happen with Nimbus if I buffed him with Aquila. Ruby was able to carry three people. Considering the size difference, maybe he will be the size of an actual chopper,” Bonnie smiled.

“What is Aquila?” Fernando asked.

“A constellation. I need to use them for my legacy,” Bonnie replied before taking a sip of her drink.

That comment made Paige almost choke on her iced coffee. She coughed for a moment, “Wait. Wait. You also have a legacy?”

“Yeah,” Bonnie turned to Hera, “You didn’t tell them?”

“I didn’t tell anyone. I only mentioned Alex’s because it was relevant to the situation. It’s your secret, I’m not the one going to share it,” Hera was always careful when it came to talking about her legacy. She only shared that with people that she trusted. Now, she felt more comfortable mentioning to others. After all, she was strong enough to be considered a high level explorer. And with a couple of skill used at the right moment, she could even double the attributes of her court members. If someone were to try to steal it, she felt confident to at least being able to run away, no matter their level. However, that was the case for her. She wasn’t going to decide for Bonnie, Alex, Shane or Blue. If they wanted to share their powers, it was up to them.

“Oh… Well. The cat is out of the bag. And I trust Leo,” Bonnie glanced up," Well, we haven’t talked in a while, so maybe. But I trust you, Hera. If you told them about yours and felt everything was ok. I’m fine too."

“I think the situations are a bit different but, ok. We’ll talk later,” Hera sighed. That was one answer she did not expect.

“Still, I’m surprised you didn’t end up facing any human patrols,” Alex changed the subject.

“Oh, but we did,” Neria replied.

“Yeah,” Paige sighed.

“A couple of rooms after we found Marco, we encountered one that was after us, specifically. We killed them. Days later, we found another, but that one just assumed we had captured some humans. Once they saw Leo, Fernando, Paige, and Sophia fighting on our side, they ran away,” Hera explained.

“Those we let run away,” Sophia added.

“Actually,” Neria scratched her cheek, “The Shadow Talons went after them. We were too close to human territory back there, and close to the lab, too. If we let them go, they would tell others about us, and then the people who were searching for us would be on our tail.”

Sophia leaned back, some of the color rushing out of her face, “But… they didn’t look like soldiers.”

Hera replied with a solemn nod, “We know. But in that situation, we couldn’t take the chance. If the New Dawn, the Guild or whoever was responsible for this sent their forces after us. We wouldn’t be able to run.”

“To be fair, the Shadow Talons were going to deal with them one way or another. They never asked for permission or our opinion. Not that it would have made any difference. We never intended to lie to you, but we felt it was better to tell you later,” Neria added.

“Soph, I know it’s hard, but that was the right call,” Fernando grabbed the explorer’s hand.

Paige nodded, “I did think it was weird how we spent so long without any other group showing up to chase us. Did you kill that other one too? The one in the valley?”

Hera thought for a moment, “Oh. No, that one we didn’t.”

“Why?” Sophie asked, “What was the difference between those groups? Both were just made out of random people who were nice.”

Hera looked at the human explorer, “The difference wasn’t about them, but about us. The first group saw everyone. The Harmony Guardians, the Shadow Talons, and your group, plus Marco. The second group only saw you all, me, Syrinx, Flint, and Roan. And I had a spectral spider armor around me that make it impossible to tell my species from a glance.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Sophie frowned.

Hera took a sip of her coffee, “After leaving the lab, we did scrub the footage, and we killed a group that tried to stop us. But we have no way of knowing if they had a way to see what happened there. Maybe there is a spell, or a skill, or something. Hell, they could even have other cameras somewhere else that managed to see us. Not to mention they had a lot of time to send a message about who was invading the place. But, since our faces are not showing up in the news. I’m assuming that they weren’t able to get that. Either way, they should be aware of the makeup of our group. How many humans, elves, tritons, harpies, dwarves, and about the weird snake lady. So that group we didn’t let go could’ve warned the guild about our presence. While the second group only saw a handful of humans, along with a harpy, a dwarf, a beastmen and someone using a skill to walk on walls. And we were already almost a week away from the lab. The chance of them telling people about us, and those people connecting us to the break in was minimal. Not to mention, going after them could bring more attention to our location. That’s why Syrinx let them go.”

Sophie tried to argue, but she didn’t know what to say. It was frustrating, but she understood where Hera was coming from. Still, the Empress couldn’t help but be astonished by her callousness. Since when did she start talking about killing people so nonchalantly?

“On a side note. Why didn’t we passed by any cities even after reaching Alliance territory?” Fernando asked, trying to change the subject.

“We were worried about spies,” Neria replied.

“What? Do you think any member of the Alliance will want to join the Guild?” Fernando looked at the triton with a surprised expression.

“Not really. But we do imagine that some humans might have infiltrated some cities. Or hacked our security systems. Or they can watch us from afar. Or even have a way to access our communication network. Since by the time we arrived at Alliance territory Leo had told us about Marco and how he was important for the Soldier of Strength program, the Shadow Talons reached out to see where we could take him, and the rest of us continued moving while trying to stay hidden,” Neria explained mid bite.

“Right… yeah, that does make sense,” Fernando nodded.

Everyone stopped talking and focused on eating for a few minutes. With the exception of Hera, who continued despite not saying anything out loud, was having a conversation with her court, most of who were behind her seat. During this trip, she wasn’t able to continue her martial arts training and instead focused on something that was more of a mental exercise. They were mostly ideas about spells and since she could work on spells while on the move, she did just that. Focusing on the Elemental Strength and Elemental Armor variation of spells, the Ophidianite worked on changing them into more powerful versions. The current result was that she could use 4 new variations of weapon buffs and 3 magic armor spells.

For the weapons, her options were: Serrated Ice, which would cover a blade in jagged pieces of ice that exploded in contact. Grasping Flame, that would ignite the weapon and make the fire work like a vine, trying to trap her enemy. A simple Numbing Poison that stopped those affected by it from feeling pain from the wounds. At first, that sounded like a bad idea, but that was only until you realized how moving regularly with an open wound could make things so much worse. Lastly, was Splitting Lightning, which made her attacks chain to a nearby target, hitting the second enemy for a portion of the damage dealt by the initial strike.

The defensive options were a bit more simple. The Frozen Rock armor increased her defenses, both against physical and elemental attacks. Using the Burning Wind armor gave her a low grade flight ability and made it much harder for projectiles to hit her. And the new addition, Stained Shadow armor made her more stealthy while also slowing down those who tried to attack her. There was a fourth type of armor she was working on, something that mixed the Arcana mana from Robin to the Radiance from Sun. Her hope was to make something good against magical effects, and that could also protect her from any debuffs.

In addition, the Noble Houses increased in size. The Alabaster Dukedom was now made out of Shadow, the Duke, with Pyro and Sun being the house members. Filling up the 3 slots of the house. The Cerulean Marquessate also increased by 1, being able to house 3 blades, and Glacia was the one who jibed. Not so much because of the skill, but because of her color. Hera felt that the ice falchion would fit well in that house. The Verdant Marquessate only had 2 slots, but considering that the Empress was able to add 3 seats among all the Noble Houses, she was more than happy with the results.

“Alex, can you take a look at my uncle?” Leo broke the silence. He was finally ready to let the Purifying Light do her job.

The assassin nodded and walked towards the bed. She took a long look at Marco before turning to Leo, “I’m sorry. But can you step back? This is… a lot and anything that is close is giving interference.”

Leo stepped back and watched as Alex analyzed things. After almost 10 minutes, the Purifying Light leaned back.

“Can you do something?” the hunter asked, his voice wavering.

“I’m going to be honest. I’m not sure. He is a complete mess. There are so many spells intertwined that I don’t even know where to start. But I do have a skill that can let me see the starting line, at least. But before doing anything, I should call Elistrae,” Alex turned to Neria, “You could heal him from inside, right? Using water?”

“Heal is a strong word. I managed to stop him from dying,” the triton replied.

“That’s exactly what we need. So if you can, I would like your help too. Another thing, Leo. This is going to take a long time. My skill has a 10 day cooldown for a 10 minute use. Normally I can still do things after it since the skill shows me the path, but considering,” Alex just glanced at Marco, completely covered in tattoos and various spells, “All of this, I don’t know if I will be able to remember the right path I should take to get rid of all of this. So I might only have that 10 minutes window until a large part of this mess is over.”

Leo nodded, “I’ve waited years. I don’t mind waiting for more time. Especially if this is going to make him better.”

“Bonnie, can on call Elistrae? I want to talk a bit with Ley to see what he thinks of this mess,” Alex called the herald of her legacy. But before saying anything, she turned back to Leo, “Do you know if he had any tattoos? My skills will remove them too. Is that ok?”

That question made the hunter burst out laughing, “What? If we are getting rid of all that crap killing him, why would that matter?”

Alex shrugged, crossing her arms, “I don’t know. Things have sentimental value.”

“Sorry, sorry. You are right. Thanks for looking out, but don’t worry. Feel free to get rid of whatever tattoos he has. I think he also had some work done in his teeth. Not sure if that is going to affect anything.”

“I’ll keep an eye on that, but for now. I’ll way till Elistrae is here. This is not going to be easy,” Alex replied, focusing back on Marco.

Hera felt a bit useless, despite all her sensitivity to mana she had no way of helping with all that. Still, she understood that everyone had their strengths, and her job was over when she brought Marco here. Leaning back, she just watched her friend work and thought about what she was going to do next.