MAZE - The Endless Quest

Hera and Helena, and the titled blades, were walking by a beach, their bare feet shuffling through the sands. In just two days, they should reach the home of the Strength Spirits. It should be four days, but in the past few months, the Alliance had found a room that served as a small shortcut to connect this path. It was a bit higher level for Helena. Monster here could Reach 48, one level beyond the mage.

“What is the next room called again?” Helena asked.

“Dunes of Isolation, I believe,” Vulcan said.

“That doesn’t sound ominous at all,” Crimson rolled her eyes."

“The name makes it sound worse than it actually is. According to reports, it’s one of those beach dunes, with a few lakes here and there, and a bit of sparse vegetation. The big problem is the monsters that hide in the sands, but we can just fly over everything with Nimbus,” Hera explained.

“Then why does it have that name?” Livy frowned.

“Maybe the monzterz only attack if you are alone?” Lurize suggested. He was more comfortable about talking out loud near Helena. He still felt very self conscious because of his inability to say the letter S in his titled form. Even when they were in Hera’s private room, he would opt to speak in their minds instead to avoid buzzing. However, Helena, being Helena, slowly chipped away at his poor self confidence related to that. He was still far off from being able to talk with a large group of people without measuring his words, but it was progress.

“Could be, and it’s a good thing we won’t have to figure that out. I’ll get us to the next room in less than an hour,” Nimbus walked ahead proudly.

“Please don’t. I love you, but we are supposed to take three hours to cross that room. For you to make it in one, we will need to awaken you, and I don’t have the stomach for that speed today,” Hera grumbled while rubbing her stomach.

“That really did a number on you, didn’t it?” Viper asked.

“Yeah… I think that fruit salad wasn’t a good call. Too much citrus. My stomach is burning like crazy,” the Ophidianite grabbed her water bottle and took a sip, hoping to help with the burn.

“Is it that bad?” Helena asked, her face full of worry.

“It’s just uncomfortable, and I feel like burping all the time,” Hera tried, but nothing came.

“I wonder why that happened. You had oranges before and you were ok,” Vulcan frowned.

“Maybe it’s because they warned us that was really acidic? Those were not regular oranges, but some odd variation,” Daskka suggested.

“Daskka is right. It might have been about how acid they were. I remember reading that snakes can’t handle citrus very well,” Hera sighed.

“We are here,” Crimson was walking a few meters ahead of the group, pointing to the left. She was under an arc, one of several that were spread over this beach, connecting the ground with the cliff above. Beneath it was a small passage that someone had carved that out and now was a path leading to the doorway. One with the symbol of a dune covering a couple of palm trees on the white frame above.

“You know, finding this kind of doorway is wild. It was literally inside a hidden cave in the middle of nowhere,” Viper gasped.

Hera nodded with a smile, “Yeah, I wonder how they discovered it. Was it a tip from a quest, or something, or just a random stroke of luck?”

“You miss this kind of thing, don’t you?” Helena turned to Hera.

“I do, I really do. I mean, those times I got stuck somewhere in the MAZE sucked, but there was a part of me that was so happy. Being able to walk around like that just exploring and trying to find something exciting was so much fun.”

Helena nodded, “I get that. Not about the same thing, but I do.”

“Yeah, At times…. Never mind,” Hera shook her head, but her eyes met back with Helena. They didn’t need to say the next part to understand. And there was a reason they didn’t say anything. After all, speaking the words out loud was the same as asking the MAZE to do something.

After a beat, they started laughing, “When did we get so superstitious?” Helena asked.

“Probably after the fifth time we said something we didn’t want to happen, and it did. That’s why we don’t raise flags,” Hera joked.

“Ok, ok. Let’s keep going. The idea is to reach the room after this one before sundown, right?” Helena walked closer to the doorway.

“Yeah. After we leave this one, we can stay in my private room for the night. But we might need to hunt for some food first. I’m not sure if I’m in the mood for eating rations again,” Hera sighed and gestured her court to come back. She had yet to try to cross to a different room while they were out, but according to Daskka, that would be the same as having the blades break. And the Empress never felt like that was worth testing.

Hera and Helena touched the doorway, and a notification appeared in front of them.

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Would you like to be transported to:

Dunes of Isolation - 14th Layer

[Yes] [No]

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After pressing yes, Hera felt the familiar feeling of being slowly dipped into warm water. She could never get over how comfortable was. Part of her desire to explore was just to feel this over and over again. Maybe she could check if there was a blanket or something that could mirror this effect.

As the feeling vanished, the new room came into view. White sand dunes rolled all the way to the horizon, while a river of pure blue water cut through them. Several palm trees and small bushes were spread around, signaling small spots with lakes. Some were shallow and barely able to fit a single person, while others were massive, large enough to fit a boat. The type of boat one would see at a lake, not the massive liners that braved oceans, but still.

The temperature here was perfect. Warm enough to make you want to go for a swim, but not to where walking around was too much of a hassle, and the small breeze would rub their skin, refreshing the Empress every time that it seemed like the heat was starting to win the fight.

“Wow, this is like one of my dream vacations,” Helena gasped.

Hera nodded, “I agree,” she glanced back to the doorway that was attached to a tall pillar in the middle of this room. Looking around, there were a couple of other similar structures in the distance. Natural structures, they were just mountains, but still there was something about them. With a sigh, she called Nimbus, “As much as I want to look around. We have to go.”

The Sentinel quickly took his griffon form and let the duo climb onto his back.

“At least we can add this room to the list of places to visit once this is all over, Sweetie,” Helena smiled.

“That’s true,” the Ophidianite nodded as they took flight.

From above, the room was just as beautiful as from the ground. It looked like the ideal place to vacation, calm and relaxing. If it wasn’t for the occasional monster that burst out of the sands. From this angle, they looked like some sort of sphinx, but instead of the face of a person or a lion, it was that of a rhino, with one long horn coming from their nose.

Those creatures were big. Bigger than Livy, and they fought against some kind of bug, an odd mixture of an antlion and a scorpion with no tail. The sphinx-like creatures would usually win, mainly because of their size, as they towered over the other creature. But sometimes, a large group would catch them and they would succumb because of their numbers.

Another thing Hera started to notice was some sort of pattern in the pillars. They almost formed a spiral in the way they were arranged, but it was hard to tell. Nimbus wasn’t flying that far up, he wasn’t even going past the mountains themselves. The Empress opened her [Treasure Map] and started looking over what she could see. Trying to find out what those structures were doing. She didn’t ask Helena about it because of the wind. It was too loud and they wouldn’t be able to have a conversation unless they were yelling at the top of their lungs.

A few hours later, they were getting close to the doorway when the Ophidianite suddenly felt Helena poking her back. Glancing back, she understood why. There was a massive sandstorm roiling in. It swallowed everything in the room, covering the entire place in white sand.

‘Nimbus, we have to move!’ Hera told the Sentinel while summoning Vulcan. Before triggering the awakening, she turned back to Helena and yelled, “Hold on to me! Use the shadow grabbers. This is going to get weird.”

Helena nodded and did as Hera asked. Nimbus jerked up for a moment before changing to his weapon form to allow the awakening. For a brief moment, the two people on his back were on free fall, but that only lasted until Forge hit the bladed tonfas. Appearing once more under Hera and Helena, Nimbus was now in a larger, more robust griffon form, with a trail of clouds coming out of the tips of his wings.

Without the need to say another word, Helena added more shadow grabbers, these binding Hera and herself to the Sentinel. After being secure, the Ophidianite yelled one single word.

“Go!”

Nimbus flew. Much faster than he ever had before. Not just because of the situation, but because he was finally getting used to this form. After hearing some complaints from the titled blades about the awakening, Hera understood the biggest issue with it. The one who was awakened wouldn’t be comfortable in their new body. Which made them unable to move around as freely as they should be able to. To circumvent that, Hera had started awakening one of them once a day to give them time to get accustomed to their new form. When possible, she would also add a Royal Quest, which was mandatory for Nimbus, but not for everyone else.

This was the first time the awakened Sentinel felt in control when flying in this form. The wind wasn’t just keeping him in the air, but it was actively helping him move faster. Hera and Helena were screaming on his back, but even their voices were being left behind, in the cloud trail coming out of the tip of his wings.

What should’ve taken 30 minutes was completed in less than 5. He crossed the room in record time, dodging the pillars and curving around to reach their destination. The incoming sandstorm loosing ground against the Sentinel, who landed in front of the pillar where the doorway was located like a meteor. Sand being pushed out, forming a crater around him.

“Next time, let me die,” Helena groaned and stepped off Nimbus. She held on to her stomach but wasn’t able to keep it together and threw up to the side.

“Same,” Hera, who wasn’t having a great stomach day, hurled on the opposite corner.

Nimbus turned back to his titled form, the awakening still active, making him taller and more muscular as clouds circled his torso, “Sorry. It sounded like you wanted that.”

Hera nodded, “I did. But never again,” she looked inside the pillar and saw the doorway. But before she dismissed the Sentinel, she noticed something else. The doorway wasn’t glowing. Every single doorway would give off a soft white glow, no matter the location or circumstance. Unless… “No, no, no, no,”

The Empress rushed forward and touched the doorway.

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Doorway inactive due to the Isolating Sandstorm.

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“FUCK!” she yelled. Even if she had just figured out why the room was named like this. It was one crappy way to do so.