The sun had just slipped behind the jagged walls when we realized the Labyrinth City really did change at night. At first, everything only seemed strange: lampposts lit on their own, windows became circular for no reason, and doors swapped sides. Small details, silent ones. But once darkness took over the streets, the city's behavior stopped being discreet.
Rai'kanna walked ahead, watching every intersection. "I don't like this silence. It feels like the city is listening."
"I'd rather it were asleep," Vespera muttered, staring at a house that had just sighed — literally sighed — as if relieved to finally be empty.
Elara kept her hand on her quiver the entire time. "The streets were different when we passed here this morning."
"And they won't be the same tomorrow," Liriel added, analyzing the walls with a perception spell. "The energy shifts as if this city were a massive organism."
Lyannis walked beside me, uneasy. "This is worse than the demi-dragon territory. At least that made sense."
"Maybe this does too," I replied. "We just don't have the manual."
Vespera laughed. "Great. Lost in a living city without a manual. Amazing."
When we turned the corner, we noticed the first abrupt change of the night. The street just continued… and continued… and continued. At first, we thought it was simply a long avenue, but after a few minutes of walking, we passed the same broken window for the third time. The same abandoned cart. The same crooked statue of a headless knight.
"This is a loop," Elara said, stopping suddenly.
Liriel confirmed with a tense tone. "The city is holding us here."
"Why?" Lyannis asked.
Rai'kanna took a slow breath before answering. "Because it's night. And at night it chooses what it wants to show."
The flame inside me vibrated softly, as if trying to warn me. I looked around, searching for any irregularity in the environment.
Then something glimmered at the end of the street.
A point of light, small, floating between the bricks.
"What is that?" Vespera narrowed her eyes.
The light approached slowly. It wasn't a torch, nor magic. It was a small insect… made of bricks. Tiny bricks, as if someone had sculpted its body stone by stone. Its wings were thin pieces of tile that chimed softly when they flapped.
A Brick Firefly.
"I've read about this," Liriel whispered. "It appears when the city wants to lead someone somewhere."
"Lead?" Lyannis repeated. "Or deceive?"
Before we could decide, the firefly flew forward, stopping near my face. Its glow intensified for just a moment, and then it sped down the street.
Rai'kanna placed herself beside me. "Don't follow it."
"But it might be showing the exit to the loop," I replied.
"Or the center of a trap."
The firefly returned, hovered near me again, and made a movement that looked like… impatience. Then it flew faster, as if suggesting urgency.
The flame vibrated. Not with danger — but with attention.
"We follow it," I decided. "But cautiously."
We followed the little insect as it flew low, dodging crates, stones, and small improvised stairways between the houses. The street kept repeating itself, but the firefly seemed to find paths that hadn't been there before.
When we turned the fifth corner, the lighting changed. The ground seemed to ripple subtly, as if breathing. Closed windows slowly opened as we passed, and shut the moment we looked back.
Lyannis grabbed my arm. "This city is too alive."
"And it's watching," Elara whispered.
Liriel interrupted. "Stop."
The firefly had stopped too, floating in front of a wide, crooked door that looked as if it had been dragged toward the center of the wall by force. Above it was a circular symbol, identical to the patterns we saw earlier that morning when the collector explained the artifacts.
"The loop ends here," Liriel said. "The city wants us to enter."
Vespera raised her hands. "And what happens if we don't want to?"
The street behind us cracked. When we looked back, the path was closing, bricks rising from the ground as if sprouting.
Rai'kanna sighed. "The city has decided for us."
We went in.
The interior was spacious, far more than could fit inside that house. The walls leaned inward, as if the entire space were a funnel. On the floor were circular marks made by something far too large to fit through the door.
"This isn't a house," Elara said. "It's a corridor."
The firefly descended to the center, landing on a scratch mark on the floor. The moment it touched the stone, the scratch glowed, revealing a symbol that hadn't been visible before.
An arrow pointing downward.
"The city wants to send us to the sublevel," Liriel said. "And there must be a reason."
The ground trembled.
Part of it slid downward, revealing a spiraling staircase that hadn't existed seconds ago.
Rai'kanna looked at me. "Are you ready?"
"After everything we've been through?" I replied. "I've never been ready, but let's go."
We descended.
The staircase felt endless. It twisted as it went down, as if folding space to fit inside a smaller area. Vespera complained the whole time, Elara remained completely silent, Lyannis gripped my cloak whenever she heard any noise, and Liriel kept trying to identify any magical pattern in the environment.
The flame inside me wouldn't settle. The deeper we went, the stronger it pulsed.
When we finally reached the bottom, we found a vast underground hall.
At its center was a circular plaza — an entire plaza hidden beneath the city. Petrified trees decorated the edges, while old metallic plates rose from the ground, covered in symbols.
But the most disturbing part was what stood in the center.
A creature made of walls — literally walls folded, compressed, and misshapen like flesh — was waiting. Windows formed its eyes, doors its mouth, and its entire body looked like crushed houses.
Elara swallowed hard. "That is… a monster?"
"It's a creature of the city," Liriel corrected. "A night sentinel."
"What does it want?" Lyannis asked.
Rai'kanna stepped forward. "It guards the exit of the loop. And probably guards something else."
The creature advanced slowly, creaking like old wood. Each movement made walls reorganize themselves. It was as if the entire neighborhood had created a guardian.
The brick firefly flew in front of us, forming a small light before the creature.
For a moment, it hesitated.
And that was the only moment we had.
"Now!" I shouted.
Rai'kanna spread her wings, releasing a wave of fire that made the creature contort, trying to avoid the heat. Elara fired arrows that lodged themselves between the gaps of the living walls, while Vespera launched currents of wind that pushed loose parts of the monster's body. Liriel activated runes that weakened its structure, and Lyannis struck with her spear, leaving visible cracks.
The flame inside me reacted to the environment, expanding as if the place were calling to it.
The creature roared — a strange roar formed by the echo of dozens of slamming doors — and opened a gap in the center of its body, trying to trap Lyannis.
I ran and pulled her away at the last second.
"Thank you…" she murmured, still shaken.
The firefly glowed again, pointing toward the top of the creature — an area where broken windows formed a strange pattern.
"That's the weak point!" Liriel shouted.
I climbed up the moving fragments of its body, dodging windows snapping shut like jaws and doors opening wide as if trying to swallow me. When I reached the top, the flame flowed into my hand and into the blade.
I struck the pattern of windows.
The creature's body collapsed like a demolished building.
The ground vibrated. The walls returned to their original places, and the entire hall glowed with a soft blue for a few seconds, like a relieved sigh from the city.
The firefly hovered before us and then burst into light, revealing an open path: the real street, the exit from the loop.
Vespera clapped her hands. "Great. First night stroll and we almost got eaten by a giant house."
Rai'kanna touched my shoulder. "Takumi… the city is reacting too much to your flame."
Elara looked toward the sky. "And that was only the first night."
Lyannis squeezed my hand silently.
The city around us rearranged itself again, as if preparing for dawn.
And we felt that it still had much to show.