i walked in the Maze. guided only by the faint glow of a light I conjured. Darkness pressed from all sides like a suffocating blanket, cold and infinite. The maze around me was maddening—twisting corridors and
Countless routes that branched like the veins of a dead god. I didn't wander aimlessly. I chose a path and kept walking straight, hoping that stubborn resolve would guide me through where logic failed.
Hours slipped by unnoticed, marked only by the growing ache in my legs and the flickering pulse of my Mana. Then, without warning, calamity struck.
It didn't announce its presence. It simply was—an enormous monster, no, something far beyond monstrous. Its sheer size defied reason. It towered above the maze, its limbs wider than the corridors themselves. Its eyes glowed an eerie ocean-blue, vast and deep, as if they held the soul of the sea.
One of its fingers alone was larger than my entire body.
My breath caught in my throat.
I didn't move.
I didn't breathe.
I became stone.
The creature didn't look at me, but I knew—one flinch, one twitch, and I'd be nothing more than blood and memory. I tried to stay still, but my knee betrayed me, nudging ever so slightly against the stone floor. A sharp sting followed. I had skinned it.
Blood began to drip, warm and vibrant. I didn't dare cry out. If I moved again—if I even whimpered—I would die.
I stood there, unmoving, for what felt like an eternity. In reality, perhaps thirty minutes passed. Time was meaningless in that place.
Eventually, the behemoth left, its steps shaking the maze as it vanished into the deeper dark. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. I immediately cast a weak healing spell, closing the wound on my knee, but I didn't dare use my full Exorcist form. It consumed too much mana—mana I couldn't afford to waste against beings like that.
Even if I activated it, I wouldn't stand a chance.
I resumed walking, every step now more cautious, my heartbeat pounding like a war drum in my chest.
The walls around me were massive—ancient structures etched with symbols I couldn't read. As I brushed my hand against one of them, I froze.
Something wet.
A tongue.
A monstrous tongue slithered from the stone, coiling tightly around my wrist like a serpent. I recoiled instinctively, but the pressure only increased, as if I had triggered it. It wasn't just gripping—it was pulling, sucking me in like a black hole.
But I didn't panic.
I held my breath and eased my hand, relaxing every muscle. As I suspected, the resistance began to wane. This was no ordinary beast. If I had to guess, it was somewhere between Five to Seven Stars in strength—dangerous beyond compare.
But every monster here had a weakness. A blind spot. Something.
As I remained calm, the tongue loosened. I didn't jerk away. I waited—counting every heartbeat—until it fully released me. Only then did I gently pull my hand back.
Relief washed over me.
Then I felt it—hot breath on the back of my neck.
A cold shiver ran down my spine as a sharp tongue licked my skin.
Another monster. No—monsters. Not one, but two.
I could feel their jagged teeth brushing my neck, pressing ever so slightly into my flesh. The slightest movement, and they would tear through me like paper.
My heart was screaming, but I kept my body still. It was a miracle I didn't faint. My face betrayed nothing. I knew—show weakness, and I die.
When I tried to move just an inch, the tongue from earlier lashed out once again. My hand—my actual hand—got sliced, blood gushing down my arm. But I didn't cry out. I bit my lip until I tasted iron and stood frozen like a statue, trembling only on the inside.
Every second felt like a lifetime. I couldn't think. I couldn't blink.
Despair gnawed at my sanity.
Pain confirmed this wasn't an illusion. It was all too real.
Finally, after what felt like hours compressed into minutes, they vanished—leaving me alone, broken, bleeding.
I collapsed to my knees, suppressing the scream that burned in my throat. My hand throbbed with pain, the wound deep. I activated my Exorcist form briefly, using a low-tier healing spell. It barely worked, but it slowed the bleeding.
Still, the mana cost of activating Exorcist form stacked with my injuries was immense. My reserves were draining quickly, and I hadn't even fought yet.
I stood again and walked.
One foot in front of the other. Regaining my composure, my breath, my sanity.
The bleeding slowed after a few hours. That alone gave me hope.
Hope that I might survive this hell.
But the maze wasn't done mocking me.
After six more grueling hours, I realized I had returned to the same spot where I had first collapsed.
Back to where the blood dried on the stone.
Despair tried to rise again, but I crushed it.
I couldn't afford to wallow. My understanding of the layout had improved. I adjusted my course. Every corridor, every turn—I memorized them.
Time passed.
A day.
Maybe two.
And then I saw it.
An eye.
It rested atop a velvet pillow enshrined in a shallow altar. A single, pure-red eye that shimmered with sorrowful tears.
The moment I laid eyes on it, I felt something strange.
Temptation.
An overwhelming urge to take it—to place it into my own eye—welled up within me.
I fought it. I really did.
But the longer I stared, the stronger it grew. No ordinary person could resist this pull.
My body moved on its own. My hand reached out and took it.
I pressed it into my own eye as if possessed.
Pain shot through my skull like lightning. I screamed silently, trembling. My vision blurred in that eye. The world slowed.
And then I saw a note beneath the pillow.
> Satan Eye
The eye of a fallen demon. Grants the ability to perceive the world at half its normal speed.
Side effect: Mana cost increases fourfold during usage.
I sat there, panting, eye burning, mind racing.
I was relieved. It wasn't cursed. Not exactly.
But it came at a price.
A steep one.
Still… the power to see everything in slow motion?
In a place like this?
It might just be the edge I needed to survive.
I stood again, wiping the blood from my cheek, and pressed forward into the unknown maze