The two turned and ran, their footsteps echoing through the pitch-black maze like funeral drums, reverberating through every corner as if summoning the scythe of death itself. But where could they run?
In front of them... a dead end.
Behind, a nightmare with a hundred heads, skeletal soldiers flooding in like a tidal wave, while the giant centipede screeched and thrashed its spiked body, smashing through stone walls like a flood breaking a dam.
The entire labyrinth now felt like a living creature shrinking in on itself, layer upon layer folding and warping, tearing apart and vanishing in an instant.
There was no way out.
But to stand still was to die. And sometimes, between life and oblivion, all that remained was a single desperate step to defy it all.
"Go, Ren!" Copper hissed, his voice like a blade of ice slicing through the fog of despair. "Lure it deeper inside! There are branching paths behind! We can… confuse it!"
"The structure there's complex. Something that massive will be limited in movement!"
Without waiting for a response, Copper spun around and charged back toward the old corridor, his cloak sweeping through the thick, smoky air.
Ren clenched his teeth. No time to think.
He dashed after Copper, every footstep pounding into his chest, into blood vessels screaming from exhaustion.
Escape. There was no other choice.
The maze trembled. Stone walls screeched like the wails of a thousand souls imprisoned for centuries. Every corner became unfamiliar, though they'd passed it only moments ago.
The ink-black corridors devoured the glow of their only luminous stone, leaving the world filled with only ragged breaths, wild heartbeats, and the relentless roar of pursuit from behind.
Left. Right. Left again. Then down a steep slope.
Ren didn't know if Copper was following memory or a mad instinct, but he had no choice but to trust him.
Two small figures darted through the winding halls like blood vessels in the body of a living beast.
The clatter of bones and the metallic roar of the centipede echoed behind them like hell itself laughing in their ears.
Ren gasped for air, sweat soaking into his collar, each footfall on the stone floor sending his heart slamming against his ribs.
Behind them, the bone-crafted monstrosity shrieked, its body slithering through narrow passages like a sentient flood.
"Left! This way!" Copper shouted, and both of them turned sharply into a narrow corridor, its walls grazing their shoulders.
The bone soldiers weren't far behind. They surged in like a broken dam, but as they entered, they began crashing into each other, getting stuck in tight corners and tangled in chaos.
The plan was working.
Ren looked back. "It's slowing down! They can't turn quickly in these passages!"
Copper nodded, still running, pulling out a few smoke bombs and tossing them behind to stall the pursuit.
They kept going like that... leading the monsters through tight corners, broken stairways, and steep hallways that felt like sliding into the earth's core.
"We just need to lure it in deeper… then find a way back!"
But… just as hope began to flicker, an earth-shaking explosion boomed from behind.
Ren whipped around.A section of the wall they'd just passed had shattered, massive chunks of stone flung into the air like paper scraps.
The centipede had rammed straight through the wall.
It didn't need a path.
It made its own.
Copper froze for half a second. "No way… it's breaking the labyrinth."
Like a blade tearing through paper, the monster was no longer limited by the narrow corridors.
It let out a piercing scream that sent even the skeletal soldiers into momentary disarray… then they followed again, as if they had become limbs of a single shared mind.
"Every turn… means nothing now…" Ren whispered, his face pale as ash.
They took off again, no strategy, no plan left. Only flight.
They ran through shattered rooms, collapsing walls behind them, magical lights snuffing out one by one like life draining from a body.
Nothing was left to slow the monsters.
Nothing could lead them astray.
They weren't fooled by the maze.
They tore it apart.
And Ren knew, the plan to draw them deeper… had failed.
The fatigue built up over every second finally crashed down like a tsunami, crushing what little will remained.
Ren's legs felt like they were filled with molten lead, each step a scream from burning muscles.
His lungs burned. Every breath sliced down his throat, his chest heaving out of rhythm.
With every rumble from behind, Ren's heart skipped a beat.
Not just from fear, but because each fallen wall meant… the monsters in the maze might be finding their way here.
But Ren had no energy left to think further.
This wasn't the time for deduction or planning.
All he knew was that he had to run. Run from the nightmare clawing at his back.
He glanced sideways.
Copper was still running right beside him.
His face was pale, drained of all color, sweat streaming down his cheeks and temples in thick streaks.
He panted without sound, as if each breath had become an act of torture.
Those eyes, usually calm and calculating, were now narrowed, glimmering with exhaustion, yet still... retained a flicker of composure.
Even if it was the last flicker.
Ren realized it, they had gone beyond their limits.
Both of their bodies were fracturing from within. But no one spoke. No one complained. Because if they stopped, even for a second...
The monsters behind would never let them rise again.
The darkness ahead thickened into a curtain of tar, ready to swallow them whole in the blink of an eye.
Ren stumbled over a jagged stone jutting from the cracked floor. The sudden jolt sent him lurching forward, his whole body on the verge of collapse.
But no, he gritted his teeth and forced himself upright, his legs trembling as if one more step would send him crashing down. His breath came in broken gasps, each inhale a searing cut across his lungs.
The rumble from behind roared like a storm shaking the earth, not just footsteps...
It was the sound of collapsing structure, of a world unraveling, layer by layer, beneath the grinding wheel of something that didn't belong to order.
Copper glanced back, just a moment. His face was drenched in sweat, hair plastered to his forehead.
"They don't have to catch us..." His voice was hoarse. "They just need to wait... until we burn out."
Ren said nothing. He only tightened his grip on the sword hilt, unconsciously, as if clinging to the last thread of reality in this nightmare.
And then..
A corner appeared.
They turned sharply...but it wasn't an exit.
A sharp, screeching roar tore through the air, like metal being dragged across stone. The air itself was ripped apart.
BOOM!
The wall ahead exploded. A massive, hollow skull with eye sockets glowing like the fires of hell burst through, ramming straight into the corridor.
Debris scattered. Bone pillars thick as tree trunks sliced through the air.
From the darkness, it emerged, the bone centipede. Its endless body twisted like a living shadow with a spine, every joint creaking like the breaking cries of trampled souls.
Behind it, hundreds of skeleton soldiers surged forth like a white tide.
They had caught up.
"We're out of road, Ren. Time to turn back."
Copper's voice was dry as cracked stone. He looked toward the last remaining path in the maze, the only one left unblocked, now sealed by the colossal body of the bone centipede.
His gaze sank, bitter.
Without hesitation, he darted toward a partially broken wall.
Soundless. His steps were so light they seemed to barely touch the ground.
In that fleeting moment, his body melted into shadow, slipping through the shrieking skeletons without leaving a trace.
Ren had no time to think. He just gripped his sword, clenched his jaw, and dashed with all his might. There was no other choice.
One step. Two steps. Then like the wind, he hurled himself through the cracked corridor, plunging into a sea of clawing skeletal limbs.
Those pale fingers, brittle like dead branches, weaved into a web of death.
But Ren, would not be touched.
He moved like a dancer on the stage of the apocalypse, each step dodging the tide of bones, as if waltzing with death itself.
His toes skimmed over cracked tiles, knees twisting to evade a swinging bone, his body rotating to slip through the narrow space between two converging skeletons.
A powerful leap.
A somersault, breaking free from a hand that nearly caught the edge of his cloak... What would've happened if they had grabbed him, he didn't want to imagine. But surely, nothing good.
And then..
He broke through.
Ren shot out of the encirclement just as the tide of bone soldiers surged in like a crashing waterfall, swallowing the corridor behind him whole.
One second slower, and he would've been crushed between those screeching bones like the doors of hell slamming shut.
They didn't stop. They couldn't even breathe...
But they kept running.
Because behind them, death was still chasing.
"Ren..."
Copper's voice was ragged, each word clawing up from a parched throat. "If you can still trust me... I have a plan. If it works… we might survive."
Ren glanced at him, just briefly. His eyes held no anger, no suspicion, only a heavy silence, as though his soul was being torn between survival instinct and an unrelenting ghost of the past.
He didn't answer. But his brows furrowed slightly.
Even that slight furrow… was enough to count as acceptance.
Ren knew: he had no other choice.
Trusting a cunning, resourceful Beta tester, someone with more experience in this world—was still a better bet than relying on reckless instincts in this death trap.
And yet, a silent sting of rejection throbbed within him.
He would trust him... but never forget he wasn't trustworthy.
Every word, every step Copper took, even at death's edge, held something hidden. Ren knew. He always knew. And he wasn't naïve enough to forget that just because they were running together.
But... if this was the final gamble, then at the very least…
He would wager a piece of his trust.
And keep the rest wrapped tight around the hilt of his sword.