Julian was once again see-through, flying right outside his body. As for Aliyah, she surrounded his body in ice in case an unexpected attack came.
Thanking her inwardly, Julian first tried to phase through the wall, but to no avail. Even if he was a projection, he likely had far too little Spiritual Essence to go through solid objects.
So instead, he decided to explore both ways.
Starting with the left, Julian found nothing remarkable. It was literally just a pathway that didn't seem to have an end. That was until, 4 kilometers in, he spotted some rat evil spirits.
The rats were large and clearly mutated. Furthermore, they were drinking the glowing green liquid, which only served to mutate their bodies further.
'Still... Aliyah and I could easily take on these rats.'
So he continued ahead for one more kilometer until he had reached his 5-kilometer limit.
Nothing more could be seen there, so he swiftly came back and tried the right side.
The slope downward was a little more special. Every hundred meters or so, there was another smaller pathway off to the side.
The further in he went, the more pathways appeared. He entered one, and after a few minutes of flying, he came out in the same slope as before. All in all, it was a maze.
A maze that continued for 5 kilometers downward. The only difference it had compared to the left side was that there were no evil spirits here.
With that knowledge, Julian cut off his Spiritual Essence Projection and reappeared in his body.
After Aliyah spotted that he was back, she thawed the ice.
And of course, he went ahead and gave her the rundown on everything he found.
"I see..." Aliyah rubbed her chin. "I'd say we take right."
Julian blinked. "The right?"
"Yeah." She nodded. "Honestly, the left seems far too good to be true. The right, on the other hand, seems like we might be able to find a way out if we find the right path."
"True..." Julian replied.
Puffing out her chest, she added,
"Don't forget I can mark our location with my sorcery. The maze is basically calling out to us!"
Seeing her confidence and her reasoning, Julian decided to give in.
"Fine... Let's go to the right."
A faint smile tugged at her lips as she began marching to the slope. Julian followed right after.
Instead of entering the pathways to the side right away, they first walked for a solid two hours, to the point where there were so many pathways on every side it was a bit obscene to believe.
But now that they were this far in, the two exchanged glances and entered one of the pathways. Aliyah, of course, summoned a thin pencil made of ice that she used to draw on the wall, marking their way onward.
This ensemble of entering a pathway, marking it, reaching a dead end or a loop continued for more hours. By now, Julian's stomach was growling, and Aliyah was in the same boat as well.
"Gosh... You know what's worse? I left a perfectly fine chicken on the bonfire in my neat little home. By now, that chicken probably burnt down my entire home in retaliation..."
"You sound pretty well off," Julian observed. "Have any companions?"
"Not any that haven't tried to take advantage of my kindness," Aliyah replied bluntly. "But yes, I'm well off. I have a place to hunt, a place to sleep, and even my own daily routine I follow. It's not a bad life, but it sucks knowing I could lose it any second, you know?"
He felt like he could sympathize with her. After all, his life out in the real world was just like that.
His parents had made so many enemies that his life was in danger at every turn. Only after he moved continents and changed his appearance did people stop bothering him.
Still, after every run-in with an exorcist organization, his cover got blown, and the cycle of running away repeated itself.
Julian sighed in mild irritation and continued exploring the maze.
He had no clue how much time had passed, but the two were now exhausted.
Plopping down against the wall, Aliyah summoned a sheet of ice, then two cups. She split the sheet of ice and then plopped it down into each cup before melting it.
"Thanks again." Julian smiled and drank the water before finally tossing the cup into the green liquid.
His eyes lingered on the green liquid for a moment, and Aliyah spotted that from the corner of her eye.
"I get that your half–evil spirit, half–human body's weird, but even you can't possibly think that radioactive-looking water would turn into an energy drink, right?" she teased.
"Hmm..."
Aliyah flinched.
"Were you actually thinking of drinking it?"
Julian let out a chuckle.
"Just a passing thought. I'm not that desperate."
She just stared at him speechlessly until finally rising to her feet.
"Alright... We've explored like 1,000 paths. There's no way we aren't near some kind of exit."
"I agree." Julian stood up with a groan. "Want me to use my Spiritual Essence Projection again?"
"There's no point. Every time you use it, your body becomes more frail. Even if some Spiritual Essence is stored in that ring, you need a lot of stamina to maintain it. And for stamina, you need plenty of food," Aliyah scolded.
He narrowed his eyes.
"You're one to talk. You've been using Spiritual Essence nonstop for hours."
The two's gazes clashed, but just then, they felt the ground rumbling.
Both of them turned serious. This was the first sign of activity in ages, and from how violent the tremor was, they knew this wasn't a good sign.
And as if on cue, Julian caught a whiff of miasma coming from the direction they came from. He held back a gasp as he realized just who this stench of miasma belonged to.
His expression darkened as he turned to Aliyah and gave a slow shake of his head.
"There's an Awakened evil spirit heading straight for us..."