The Solar Core pendant around Selene's neck gave off a soft, warm light. It was a strange thing, a piece of pure sunlight worn by a girl who danced with shadows and blood. Arlan looked at it, then at Selene. Her arm was still healing, the flesh knitting slowly where the null-blade had passed through.
"We need to move," Arlan said. His voice was rough. He was tired down to his bones. His mana was almost gone, and his body ached from the fight with Silas.
Selene nodded, touching the pendant. "This feels... alive. It's warm. And it wants to go somewhere." She closed her eyes for a second. "It's pulling me. Towards the center."
"The announcement said we need a key to enter the central chamber," Arlan said. "This must be ours."
They left the archive, the golden door sealing behind them. The cavern with the chained, corrupted sun was just as terrifying as before. But they didn't need to cross it again. A new opening had appeared in the wall of their ledge—a tunnel that sloped downward, lit by faint crystals in the walls.
The Map Shard in Arlan's pocket pulsed, its grey light now pointing down this new path. Progenitor's Crucible - 22 Cycles Remain.
They walked in silence for a long time. The tunnel was smooth and cold. Arlan used the time to check his own power.
Arlan Thorne
Age: 17
Order: 4th (Void Scion)
Rank: 3
Mana: 850/8200 (recovering slowly)
Shadow Energy: 120/500 (critically low)
He needed rest. Real rest. But the Labyrinth wouldn't give it to them.
"You used something new back there," Selene said quietly, breaking the silence. "Against Silas. It wasn't your sword. Your hand... it looked like it was made of darkness."
Arlan flexed his left hand. "The power I got from the pit. From the fragment in my core. It's not just for the sword. I can... push it out. Make a space where other magic doesn't work right."
"It hurt him more than your sword did," Selene noted.
"The sword is powerful, but it has limits," Arlan admitted. He'd been thinking about this. Aethelbrand could cut through almost anything physical. But against someone like Silas, whose power was about canceling magic, a direct cut wasn't enough. He needed to fight magic with... anti-magic. With negation.
"The sword is changing too," he added. "When I used it to sever the chain's anchor, and then the stasis on the sun-core... it felt heavier afterward. Like it was tired. I think using it for big conceptual things wears it out. It needs time to... recover."
That was the truth he'd felt. Aethelbrand wasn't all-powerful. It was a tool, and like any tool, it could be overused. For now, it seemed to be resting, the grey blade looking duller than usual.
Selene looked at him thoughtfully. "So you have your negation, and you have a sword that cuts really well. And I have my blood magic and this stolen sun. We're a strange pair."
"Better strange than dead," Arlan said.
After what felt like hours, the tunnel opened into a massive cavern. But this wasn't natural. It looked like a city square that had been buried. There were broken pillars, cracked flagstones, and the remains of buildings carved from the blue Labyrinth-stone. In the center stood a tall, narrow structure like an obelisk, made of a black material that drank the light.
Around the square, other tunnels opened up. And as they watched, other groups began to emerge.
From a tunnel to the north came Valerius Goldwood. He wasn't glowing as brightly as before. His golden aura was dim, and he moved carefully, like he was in pain. With him were four other heirs, all looking battered. They spotted Arlan and Selene immediately. Hatred flashed across Valerius's face, but he didn't move toward them. He was wary.
From the east came a group led by a girl with hair like white frost. Anya Frostweaver, according to Arlan's Umbral Sight. She was 4th Order, Rank 6. Her aura was cold and sharp. Her group looked relatively unharmed.
From the south came a surprise—Enya, the wind duelist who had helped them. She was with two other heirs Arlan didn't recognize. She saw them and gave a tiny, relieved nod. She was alive.
In total, maybe thirty heirs had made it this far. They all looked tired, wounded, and hungry. And they were all staring at the black obelisk in the center.
As they watched, symbols began to glow on the obelisk's surface. Then a voice, the same genderless Labyrinth voice, echoed in the cavern.
The Gathering Point. You have found keys. Present them to claim your passage to the Heartforge.
One by one, heirs stepped forward.
Valerius went first. He placed his hand on the obelisk. A golden key-materialized in his grip—a shaft of solidified light. The obelisk glowed, and a section of its surface became transparent, showing a corridor beyond. Valerius and his group stepped through, vanishing.
Anya Frostweaver went next. Her key was a shard of ice that never melted. Then others—a boy with a key made of singing metal, a girl with a key that was a living seed.
Enya approached. She placed a feather that glowed with green wind-energy against the stone. A key formed. She glanced back at Arlan once more, then led her group through.
Soon, only Arlan and Selene remained among those still outside.
"Your turn," a voice said from behind them.
They turned. Coming from a tunnel they hadn't noticed was a group of three. The leader was a young man with sharp features and eyes that held no warmth. He wore dark clothes, and his aura was... hungry. It pulled at the light around him.
Status Check - Kaelen of the Shadowed Veil
Age: 19
Order: 4th
Rank: 8
Class: Night Predator
Aura: Light-Eater - weakens light-based magic nearby, enhances own stealth.
His two companions were both 4th Order, Rank 5—a boy who looked like he could blend into stone, and a girl with fingers that ended in sharp, dark claws.
"We've been watching you," Kaelen said. His voice was smooth, like oil. "The Thorne boy and the half-blood. You have a key. That sun-pendant around your neck pulses with power. We want it."
Selene's hand went to her pendant. "Come and take it then."
Kaelen smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. "I don't fight fair. And we're not alone."
From other tunnels, more figures emerged. Not heirs. These were older. They wore mismatched armor and carried weapons that looked well-used. Mercenaries. Or bandits who had somehow gotten into the Labyrinth. There were six of them, all between 3rd and 4th Order.
"You hired scavengers?" Arlan said, his voice flat.
"The Labyrinth has many entrances, not all of them guarded," Kaelen said. "Some people specialize in... cleaning up after privileged heirs. Taking what's left. Today, we're taking what you have before you even lose it."
Arlan and Selene were surrounded. Twelve against two. And they were both exhausted.
Situational Quest: 'Surrounded in the Square'
Objective: Survive. Reach the obelisk.
Secondary: Protect the Solar Key.
Reward: [Shadow-Step Upgrade], [Blood-Catalyst Crystal].
Failure: Death. Key stolen.
Arlan's mind worked fast. They couldn't win a straight fight. Not like this. He needed to use the environment. He needed darkness.
The cavern was lit by those faint crystals. But shadows pooled between the broken pillars, in doorways of ruined buildings.
"Stay close to me," he whispered to Selene.
"Plan?" she whispered back.
"We make it dark."
Kaelen gestured. "Take them."
The mercenaries charged first. They were cautious but confident. Two came at Arlan with swords crackling with fire. One went for Selene with a spiked mace.
Arlan didn't draw Aethelbrand. Instead, he reached for the shadows around him. He pulled.
Umbral Shroud - Expanded.
Darkness didn't just cover him. It exploded outward from him in a wave. Not an attack, but a blanket. The shadows in the cavern deepened, stretched, merged. The crystal-lights dimmed, their glow fighting against the sudden dark.
The charging mercenaries stumbled, blinded for a second.
In that second, Arlan moved. He wasn't fast like a wind-user. But in the darkness he'd made, he was hard to see. He slipped past the first swordsman, his hand shooting out. Not to punch. To touch.
Chilling Touch - Focused.
His fingers brushed the man's sword arm. Instantly, the flesh there went cold—numb. The man yelled, dropping his sword as his fingers lost all feeling.
Selene used the darkness too. She didn't cast big spells. She was low on mana. Instead, she moved like a ghost. The mace-wielder swung at where she'd been, but she was already behind him. Her dagger—not magic, just sharp—slashed across the back of his knee. He went down with a cry.
But Kaelen wasn't idle. "Light-Eater," he murmured.
The darkness around him deepened further, but in a different way. It became absolute, a void that even Arlan's shroud couldn't penetrate. Kaelen vanished into it.
A moment later, he appeared right beside Selene, his hand shooting for her pendant.
Selene reacted on instinct. She didn't try to dodge. She bit her own lip hard, drawing blood, and spat it at him.
Witch-Cant: Blood-Bind.
The blood hit Kaelen's outstretched hand. Instead of dripping off, it spread like glue, hardening instantly into a red-black shell around his fingers. He snarled, pulling back, but his hand was stuck, fingers fused together.
Arlan was fighting the other mercenaries. Two more were on him. He ducked under a sword swing, came up inside the man's guard, and drove his palm into the man's chest.
Void-Touch.
Not a blast. Just a push of his negation energy. Where his palm touched, the man's own fire-affinity mana stuttered. His aura flickered and died. He gasped, falling back, suddenly powerless.
But there were too many. A knife caught Arlan in the side. He grunted, feeling the hot slice of pain. Another blow glanced off his shoulder.
Selene was fighting Kaelen's two companions. The stone-blending boy tried to grab her from behind, but she whirled, her pendant flaring. A pulse of warm, pure light burst from it. The boy, whose power was all about hiding in shadows and stone, screamed as the light burned him. He fell back, his skin red and blistered.
But the girl with claws was fast. She raked Selene across the back, drawing bloody lines. Selene cried out, stumbling.
Arlan saw it. Something cold and hard settled in his chest. He stopped trying to be clever. He stopped trying to save energy.
He reached deep into the well of darkness inside him. The power from the pit. The fragment's energy. He pulled it all up, and he didn't shape it. He just let it out.
Negation Zone - Unleashed.
A circle of silence and nullification exploded from him, ten meters across. In that circle, active spells died. Auras guttered. The very air grew still and cold.
The mercenaries in the zone froze, their magic failing. Kaelen, trying to peel the blood-bind off his hand, felt his Light-Eater aura collapse.
In that moment of absolute magical silence, Arlan moved. He didn't use fancy skills. He was just a very angry, very tired boy with a sword he finally drew.
Aethelbrand flashed twice. A mercenary's sword arm was cut cleanly at the elbow. Another's leg was opened to the bone. They fell, screaming in the sudden quiet.
Arlan turned to Kaelen leaving the others to bleed to their death. The Night Predator heir looked at him, at the cold grey sword, at the circle of null-magic, and for the first time, fear showed in his eyes.
"You don't have to do this," Kaelen said, his voice tight. "We can walk away."
"You attacked my partner," Arlan said, his voice like stone. "You tried to take what's hers. You don't get to walk away."
He took a step forward.
Kaelen broke. He turned and ran, his two companions scrambling after him, leaving their hired mercenaries behind.
The remaining mercenaries, seeing their employer flee and their friends bleeding on the ground, lost their nerve. They backed away, then turned and ran into the tunnels.
The square was quiet again. The darkness faded. The Negation Zone collapsed, and Arlan almost collapsed with it. That had taken everything.
Selene limped over to him, her back bleeding. "You're hurt," she said, looking at the knife wound in his side.
"So are you."
They leaned against each other, too tired to stand alone.
The obelisk glowed, waiting.
"Come on," Arlan said. "Before anyone else shows up."
They stumbled to the obelisk. Selene touched the pendant to the black stone. It flared, and a key of solidified sunlight formed in her hand. A doorway of light opened in the obelisk.
Together, they stepped through.
The last thing Arlan saw was the square with the wounded mercenaries, and the blood on the stones. Then light swallowed them.
Quest Complete. Rewards distributed.
As they vanished, Arlan felt new knowledge flow into him—how to make his Shadow-Slip smoother, faster. And Selene felt a crystal form in her pocket, something that would make her blood-magic stronger.
But all they felt right then was exhaustion, pain, and the cold comfort that they were still alive, and still together.