MAZE - The Endless Quest

One hour after the battle was over, people were already preparing for a possible second wave of attacks. It wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility, but it was something that everyone hoped wouldn’t happen. According to Kaela’s intel, the humans were now focusing on defending their own city, and no large groups had been seen moving around. Even then, the Scoutmaster told people to remove the bodies from the traps, and reset the ones that could be reset. Not so much because she was afraid of another attack, but because if people had nothing to do in a tense situation like this, they were more likely to cause problems or to try something stupid like running away.

The last thing anyone wanted to happen was to survive the human attack, only to have people running out in the room and being killed by random monsters.

Helena stayed with her cousin for a while, but once Brian and the other kids calmed down, she went looking for Hera. After the fight with the Soldiers of Strength, the mage did stop to check on her friend, but seeing as she was in the hands of a good healer, decided to go after her family.

During that time, Helena realized that her priorities were wrong. Sure, she wanted Alan, Brian, and Celeste to be safe, but they were part of the group that everyone was trying to protect. While Hera only had her team to support her. Even if she did have someone to look out for her, it wasn’t the same. Being here with her family would do nothing to help her friend, and staying with her cousin would do very little to calm them down.

As the mage looked around, it took a while to figure out where the Ophidianite was. She had left the area behind the barricades and was now in one of the converted medical tents for people who needed some rest or time to recover from their injuries. A couple of Healers had cast an increased regeneration spell in the area to help.

Hera herself was drinking a potion while sitting on a bed, when Helena arrived. If it wasn’t for the red logo that said ‘Healing Potion V8’, people would think she was taking a sip of a can of soda.

“Hey, sweetie,” the mage said with a sad smile.

The Empress finished her drink, “Ugh, why cranberry? They could make it taste like orange, lemonade, grapes, heck even strawberry if they wanted to keep the red,” she turned to Helena after crunching the can and tossing it on the bin to the side of her bed, “How is Brian, and everyone else?”

“They are ok. A bit scared because of all the noise. But that’s all. We told the kids they shouldn’t go outside just yet because of all the bodies,” Helena sat on the bed.

“Good call, that can traumatize some of the little ones,” Hera nodded. She was more or less numb to seeing monster bodies on the ground. But the corpses of the people who were killed were still not a pleasant sight. Hera pulled a plate with an assortment of fruits that was on a small table by her side and pulled up her tablet to double check the report Kaela was going to give to the rest of the alliance about the Soldiers of Strength.

Helena just nodded and continued to stare at her friend. It’s been over two years since they met. It sounded like very little time, but there was an entire lifetime in those days. Two if one were to consider a certain someone’s change of species. When they first met, Hera was crying on the ground in the middle of the rain. Her hopes and dreams crushed by the world. Helena reached out to her, not because she saw something special on the woman. It was just an act of kindness. If the mage had found anyone else in a similar situation, she would’ve done the same.

With Hera winning the raffle, which was a stupid name for the kind of game that was being played since it involved a vending machine and not an actual draw, Helena figured that blond woman would be just another person who she knew in the MAZE. Nothing more.

Yet, they got closer. Not just because of the mess that was Hera’s first level up, but also because she ended up getting a mana sickness due to the bad oranges New Dawn sold. It was a natural friendship, but then, Helena herself had to go help with the wall break. Which was a mess, she spent days stuck in a room filled with extremely powerful creatures that even to this day she had no hopes of fighting against, and ended up being afflicted by one of the worst kinds of parasites ever seen in the MAZE. One that ate away her mana, which was almost a death sentence for a mage.

Once she returned, Helena was ready to give up almost everything. But this woman saved her. Just like Helena did when she found the Empress crying outside in the rain, Hera reached out and did everything she could to keep her dreams alive. It was hard, and very much a painkiller to numb all the suffering she was going through for not being able to use magic. Having a willing assistant was the one thing that kept her sane during that time.

Then it was Helena’s turn to be worried. With Hera vanishing inside a battlefield dungeon, the mage spiraled. She spent months trying to find the Empress, months of sleepless nights and favors being asked in hopes of finding her assistant once again. No, by then, Helena already considered her one of her best friends.

Once Hera returned, it was hard not to be surprised. Not only was she stronger, but also had found an entire civilization of dwarves that was stuck under a mountain. In addition, she even helped Blue get a legacy. As if that wasn’t enough, the Empress also figured out a way to cure Helena of the parasites that still held their grasp on her.

What followed was pretty simple. Hera helped people find the remains of an ancient civilization. Found yet another legacy, one that went to Shane, in that case. Befriended a giant snake, saw that snake die and got a version of her spirit as a companion. Traveled far away to discover her own legacy. Helped the dwarves of Boothudurn find their place in the MAZE, and started helping them to look for a new home, just in case something bad were to happen. Not to mention the fact she was there when the centaurs attacked Dzviery.

Of course, after all that, she didn’t stop. Along with Helena this time, they all explored a bit of the MAZE, got stuck and Hera discovered a path to cure Alex from a curse that existed for thousands of years. That weird discovery worked, they saved their friend by going to a memory of the past, who they believed to be real, and finally returned to civilization. Only for the Empress to discover her ex was kidnapped, and join the operation to save her. As a result, she became a target for the guild who was using a prison to experiment on people and had to give up her humanity, becoming an Ophidianite to survive.

Even then, she didn’t stop. She helped the dwarves of Boothudurn yet again, joined the Alliance as the Ophidianite Empress, and started helping with the war effort. First by protecting some people, fighting on rampages but then pivoting to going after the laboratories and trying to discover where the Strength Spirits came from. Hera became one of the few people who fought a prototype of the Soldier of Strength and lived. And still came back here, facing the final version of those fighters. All because Helena decided to come try to help her cousin.

Now, after being beaten up, having part of her court broken and the other injured to the point of having to stay away to recover, which Hera herself also had to do since she wasn’t in any condition to fight or move around too much at the moment, she still didn’t stop.

The Ophidianite noticed the long stare from her friend and looked up from the tablet, “What? I know my face is a bit weird now, but it’s not like I can do much about it. Apparently, I’m changing skins, and I don’t know what that means for me.”

“No, it’s not that, sweetie. I just… How do you do this?”

Hera glanced down and started speaking with a smirk, “Well, I’m doing something called reading. It’s when you look at letters grouped in various ways to understand what is being told.”

Unfortunately, Helena was too preoccupied to have fun with the joke, “I’m serious. How do you do this? You jumped into that fight with no hesitation. There was no fear, you just went. And that’s not something new. Once you got the level up, you didn’t stop, you just moved, changed your attributes and joined the guild the very next day. You saved Blue from dying in the Kobold Battlefield. You saved the dwarves from Boothudurn. You gave up everything to find Silah, and here. You jumped into that fight without any fear. How do you do that?”

“Without any fear? What are you talking about? I was terrified the whole time,” Hera chuckled, “All those things. Saving Blue, joining the guild, helping the dwarves. Silah…. I was scared shitless the entire time.”

“But you still moved, you fought against the Soldiers of Strength without hesitating. I… don’t know if I could do that. Actually, I do. I watched you go help Livy, but it took too long for me to react and try to help you.”

“Were you not doing anything? I mean, were you frozen?” Hera asked.

“No, I was still fighting and defending the people around me. A part of me wanted to force an opening and go help you, but I was scared, Hera. I kept thinking about it later, if I really wanted to, I could’ve pushed through and helped you, but I didn’t. A part of me said you could manage, but that was just an excuse. I abandoned you even after you came here to help me.”

“Lena, c’mon. Why are you distorting things?”

“What do you mean, distorting things?”

“You were fighting for you life, and you trusted me enough to face the Soldiers of Strength by myself. Well, not just myself, my court was there, but you get the point. You didn’t abandon me, you trusted me. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t have complained about the help, but things worked out. We won.”

Helena shook her head, “Still, I don’t know how you do this, Hera. How you keep going like that. Always jumping into danger without hesitation and with confidence that things are going to work out.”

Hera adjusted herself to sit properly on the bed, “Lena, look. I’m not doing that. Not in the way you think, at least. I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants ever since I leveled up for the first time. The only two things that I chose to do myself and wasn’t tossed into were finding my legacy and helping the dwarves find a new home. Everything else was just a reaction. And about my lack of hesitation, it’s not that. From the moment I stepped into the MAZE, my fight-or-flight response was locked at fight. I guess the years of just going through the motions with my life made me snap and now I don’t know what else to do,” she chuckled, “But seriously. This is not planned, and I’m not trying to be a hero. I’m just doing what I can and making sure I don’t make a decision that I would regret later. That’s all.”

“That doesn’t make what you’ve done any less amazing,” Helena smiled.

“I’m the fucking Ophidianite Empress. Of course I’m amazing! And so is my court,” Hera announced proudly.

Helena paused for a moment before bursting out in laughter, “Where is that shy girl that I found in the pouring rain?”

Hera smiled and pulled a piece of her skin from her neck that was bothering her a lot, cutting it with her claws when it started to hurt, “Considering how much skin I’m leaving behind I don’t think there is anything left of her. But seriously, I’m still the same girl. There is just less bringing me down now.”

“I know, I can still see her, under the snake at least. And thank you,”

“You don’t need to thank me, Lena.”

“No, Hera. I really do. You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me, so thank you.”

Hera didn’t reply, she just nodded. Helena stayed there for a while longer, talking with her friend about the adventures they had. For a moment, they enjoyed the peace and quiet after a battle, even if the day was far from being over.