Author's Note:
I've been a bit sick these past few days, so progress on writing has been slower than expected.
Rather than rushing and putting out something half-baked, I prefer to take my time to maintain the quality you all deserve.
Thank you for your patience and continued support — it really means a lot.
If you could give me your current opinion of the story via reviews it would help me enormously!
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I think my legs have stopped trembling for at least two minutes. That's progress, considering the mental state I'm in after those rather underwhelming revelations about my species.
It's the kind of progress you make after running away from a creature capable of atomizing a regiment of elves without slowing its stride, and flattening a country effortlessly, apparently.
Around me, the group consults privately and decides to move forward in silence to avoid drawing the Queen's attention. Even Selina, the crazy killer who usually seems loud, keeps her mouth shut in a heavy silence. A silence that says: "we're still alive, but for how long?"
Gried takes the lead while his gaze scans the labyrinth walls with the same intensity as a paranoid detective. That's when I notice something.
He stopped. Just for an instant.
"…Something's wrong."
That's not a good sign. When a guy who tanked an Arch Taratect and defeated it with his group tells you that, it's never a good sign.
"What now?" I ask, on edge.
He slowly turns around, his sword still drawn and a kind of fear in his eyes.
"She should've chased us. A Queen doesn't change targets once locked in."
I frown. Shit, he's right. Given the size of the creature, she could easily kill us after wiping out the present elves, but she's not following us, and we don't hear the earthquakes getting closer.
"The problem isn't really that, but the fact that she's moving."
What is he talking about? Seeing my face, clearly showing I didn't get it, Selina sighs before speaking.
"Taratect Queens are massive, as you saw. Even if they're at the top of the food chain, they rarely move and usually send their children to handle prey."
"She's right. Even during the attack on Ohts, she barely participated in reality. But when she did move, it was the end."
I can imagine her power is immeasurable, judging by this group's fear — and they did defeat an Arch Taratect — when facing the superior version.
As we move down the labyrinth corridor, a staggering silhouette suddenly emerges from a branching path on our left, and we all freeze instantly while those at the front tighten their grip on their weapons.
It's an elf.
He stumbles, covered in blood and soot, armor broken in several places, skin burnt in patches. He collapses to his knees before even reaching the center of the tunnel, gasping, eyes wild.
Gried steps forward, ready to finish him off, but the elf raises a trembling hand.
"Wait… please… I'm not… here to fight…"
He collapses face-first to the ground. But he's still breathing, weakly.
Gried exchanges a look with Selina. She nods. He kneels beside the elf, grabs him by the collar, and turns him over roughly.
"Why are you still alive?"
But there's no answer, just a groan.
"You shouldn't even be here, because she leaves no one behind, especially not elves. Do you really think with her power, she'd miss you?"
He softly slaps the wounded elf's cheek to bring him back. The elf opens one eye.
"I… I fled… took a hit from her mandibles… but she… she changed direction…"
Gried tenses.
"Repeat."
The elf coughs, spits a stream of blood.
"She didn't finish me off and went south… I think we were just in her way."
A brutal silence falls.
Gried turns pale hearing those words, because to him, there's no logic to a Queen sparing an elf.
"Gried, you think she might've discovered…" says Orman in a tone that leaves no room for doubt.
I feel the tension rising, like a knot tightening around our throats.
"She's going to the city?" Arla whispers, her voice trembling.
The city? She would leave the labyrinth to go after a surface city? That would cause massive casualties if she gets out.
Gried keeps staring, jaw clenched.
"You're lying. How would the Queen have discovered the city?"
The elf smiles, though it's more a grimace of pain than anything else, and he finally lets his head drop to the side, completely exhausted and maybe dying.
But he's said enough to shake Gried.
The latter slowly stands up, eyes dark.
"We're going back."
What? He wants to go back in the direction of a legendary creature? For what? To fight her? He'll lose in under a second!
"Wait, what's this city story anyway? What did he mean?"
Gried gives me a hard look.
"After the fall of the kingdom of Ohts, some of the survivors took refuge in the depths, because Ohts is near one of the labyrinth's entrances."
He's either wrong or lying. Might as well ask the system.
"Senpai, can you confirm what he's saying?"
[ Interpretation error: what does senpai mean? ]
"Think of it as proof of your superiority."
[ Ohts is a small country allied with the Renxandt Empire, which controls the entrance to the Great Elroe Labyrinth. ]
Renxandt, huh… I can easily retrieve extra information, I should test this more often.
But Gried starts inhaling like he has to force himself to continue.
"We built a shelter. A sort of… mini-city. Out of sight of the powerful, far from the conflicts."
"And you live there?"
He nods.
"Until now, we thought we were safe. Even the Taratects ignored us."
Then he turns on his heel and spits:
"But if a Queen is on the move… and she changed targets…"
A deadly silence.
"Then it's our turn."
Gried's words still echo in the air like a guillotine.
No one speaks, myself included, because for once, I shut up my loud inner voice. Because there's that moment… that damn instant of silence, right before chaos erupts.
And I start following them, not to help, but because they still have my baby, and even if I don't know him, I've grown attached.
We go through many small passages without dangerous creatures, and the few we encounter are eliminated by Selina before we even see them — and given their abilities, that's normal, they were pretty weak.
But that's when I feel it… actually, we all do.
An earthquake, first light, then more pronounced. Not like the others. Not a diffuse movement in the ground.
No. This time, she seems to be crushing the earth at a rapid pace, shaking the entire area around her.
"Shit…" Mike mutters, eyebrows furrowed.
Gried says nothing but quickens his pace, and everyone follows him without stopping. They look ready to risk their lives for a city.
We follow the tunnel, short of breath, and when we finally emerge into a wider gallery, the smell hits us.
There's the smell of smoke, of burnt flesh, and that stench of dried blood that sticks to your nostrils.
In the distance, as I look up, I see a light. But not a welcoming light.
No, it's fire. The city standing before me is in flames, and buildings collapse one after another.
And at the foot of that blaze, between the labyrinth's pillars… silhouettes. Tiny. Too many to count. People running. Screaming. And others not moving at all.
I think we just found the city.
Or rather what's left of it.
"No…" Arla murmurs, throat tight, as she starts running toward the city without thinking.
"Arla, wait! We need a plan!"
But Arla doesn't seem to listen and rushes toward the city, bow in hand, arrow ready to shoot.
"Galina! Where are you, sweetheart?!"
She runs full speed, near a half-destroyed house, close to a small wall.
And I stay frozen, unable to look away from the scene. Because in the middle of the screams, the explosions, and the spurts of blood… I don't know what to do.
I notice the group starts moving to go assist Arla, but when I finally look up to go retrieve my child, entrusted to Vayne…
I see Arla hugging a little girl and crying. But this girl… she's lost half her body, her head half-devoured, and the worst part is, she looked like she was smiling before she died. Which drove Arla insane.
But before I can even grasp what's happening, a shadow looms over Arla from above, and an Arch Taratect tears her head off while she was hugging the little girl.
"ARLA!"
In Gried's voice, I hear tremendous pain, like he just lost someone dear, before Selina slaps him to keep him from being overwhelmed by emotion.
And she points to a shadow engulfing the entire city. It's gigantic.
A creature advancing with slow steps. Calm. Like it has all the time in the world.
The Queen.
She's here.
And she's devouring everything… while enjoying it.