[Can't Opt Out]

Arc 4 | Chapter 128: Screaming into the Abyss

The energy came fast and strong, barring down on Emilia like the weight of the ocean, or at least what she had imagined the weight of the ocean would feel like during an unfortunate, underwater fight during the war. Her skills had been strong, holding the weight of all that water at bay while she fought. Her skills had never wavered, even as the monsters came for her and her allies, striking them down one after another. Too many monsters and their allies from other units wielding {Air Pocket} without the finesse she and other members of their unit could.The water had still come for one of them, though. One moment they were there, the next, they were crushed, their body reduced to a red mark through the darkness.

This felt like Emilia had imagined that weight would feel, in the moment before their teammate imploded. This weight went on and on, however, pressing her down so hard she didn’t realize she couldn’t even scream until the weight—the energy that had caused it—was suddenly gone. Snuffed out, just as fast as it came.

⸂Fucking stars,⸃ she groaned, flipping onto her back and mourning the food she had dropped when the energy hit. ⸂I’m going to kill that bastard.⸃

✮ ✮ ✮ Three Days Earlier ✮ ✮ ✮

⸂On the plus side, at least neither of you rolled into the lake?⸃

The group was painfully silent as they walked through the corridor the labyrinth exit had led them into, no one but Emilia replying to Caro’s attempts at lessening the tension.

“I think Gale might have preferred it if we both had died,” she said, including signs out of resurrected habit and ignoring the glare Gale sent her, having obviously noticed her name sign. “Death might have been better than this.”

Gale mumbled something, although it was so quiet Emilia couldn’t make it out. A teenager being a teenager, purposefully excluding everyone from their thoughts while still making it known they had thoughts. Normally, Emilia was pretty good at figuring out why someone was upset, even when they wouldn’t admit the reason themself, and in Gale’s case…

Well, she had a few theories, but none of them seemed quite right. Something having to do with Astra, clearly, the local girl having barely glanced at the visitor since they had returned from touching the heartcore.

Astra had attained the ability to speak, while Emilia—once again—had no idea what ability the heartcore had given her! It really was unfair. Astra apparently knew every gift the heartcores had given her. A physical augmentation ability, the ability to understand locals, the ability to read and write the local tongue—given to her by the Livery labyrinth in what seemed way too much of a coincidence to actually be one—and finally, the ability to speak.

Emilia, on the other hand, knew what neither this labyrinth nor what the one in Livery had bestowed upon her. She had tried experimenting while in the Risen Guard compound, poking at the children and Honey for tales about the labyrinths, looking for hints of the sorts of powers they could bestow.

A more powerful connection to a branch of magic.heless.

Boundary’s messages had been less interesting, simply an acknowledgement that—against his better judgment—he was returning access to the Risen Guard system to her.

[Boundary:]

[Boundary:]

There was a long gap between messages, before Boundary seemed to come to a decision and warned her that his might revoke her access.

[Boundary:]

[Boundary:]

[Boundary:]

[Boundary:]

[Boundary:]

Emilia had no idea who was, but she assumed it must have been one of the Risen Guards they incapacitated on their way out.

she messaged back, brain burning as she closed the chats down, but not before making note of the time Boundary had sent his messages.

Overall, the time was useless to her without any clock on her display—although she assumed that if she focused hard enough, one would appear. It was rather rude that her own message hadn’t had a timestamp—unreasonable, even, and she honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if it were the system or platform maintainer fucking with her.

What the lapse between timestamps did tell her, however, was that Boundary had given her access while they were inside the labyrinth—the gap far longer than the time they’d been outside it so far—yet it hadn’t been until nearly ten minutes after they emerged that she had actually been given it.

It was strange.

Had they been entering a labyrinth, she would have assumed the labyrinth was messing with it, the same way it had messed with the area and their perception outside the library and Livery labyrinths. There had been nothing like that while exiting either, however, even when they’d exited near doors. The world, which had felt strange and other, even if just subtly, in the beginning moments of the labyrinth, felt normal at its end.

This exit hadn’t felt normal, but Emilia had mostly chalked it up to the tension between their group—not to mention the strange corridor with its grotesque, patchwork of materials.

Now, she wasn’t so sure.

“I think we should go back.”

⸂Go back?⸃ Gale didn’t quite yell as she swivelled back towards them. ⸂Go back where?⸃

“Back down the tunnel,” Emilia said, explaining her thoughts as quickly as Astra could translate.

⸂What does it matter if there’s… what? Another labyrinth back there? Is that what you’re thinking?⸃

That was precisely what Emilia was thinking—that there was another labyrinth down here. It could be nothing, it could just be another entrance to the labyrinth they just escaped.

Emilia didn’t think so, and when she examined the map, finding a symbol drawn over the location of the door they had exited, she spotted another mark a short distance away—a question mark of sorts. The fact that it wasn’t the same was the one marking the labyrinth… it could be nothing.

It could be something.

“Caro,” she started, turning towards the small, increasing antsy child. If they hadn’t been in a potentially dangerous tunnel, with one if not two labyrinths in the vicinity, she might have told them to run some of that energy off. That’s what she had done as a child: run and run and run until her body and brain finally gave her a break. Caro needed a break, their little body vibrating with energy they needed to expel.

Unfortunately, it was too dangerous for them to expel it through such simple means, so Emilia settled for the next best thing: giving them a mission.