Chapter 289 Labyrinth Of Enigma

The Dread...? He thought.

It was difficult to piece together exactly what was being told to him through the note, but it immediately sent a chill down his spine.

Standing in that room, all he could do now was stare at the doors ahead of him: pitch-black steel, holding no discernable features and almost blending into the wall as if it shouldn't even be considered an entrance in the first place.

It was a place nobody should enter; he could sense that. What laid beyond those doors was an evil so dense, an entity so drenched in malevolence, that the air itself was thin by way of the acknowledgement of its existence.

...Can I do this? He questioned.

Doubt flooded his mind, but after a few moments, he squeezed his fist to reel himself back in, dissipating those intrusive thoughts of anxiety.

It doesn't matter if I can or can't. I don't have any choice but to try, he thought.

There were too many factors still left ambiguous, such as what the "seven tries" meant, and the true nature of the entity lurking in the labyrinth beyond the pitch-black doors.

Still, he knew waiting around wasn't going to get him anywhere, beginning to look around the room at the arsenal of medieval weaponry in search of anything that could be of use to him.

I'd just like my magic back, or at least my Dragonheart system...but I guess that's asking too much, he thought.

Greatswords and claymores weren't going to help him with his current level of physical ability, and a standard bow wasn't all too effective in his hands. Although, a crossbow leaning against the wall did strike him as potentially a fine tool to use.

...Let's give it a shot. Limiting myself solely to close-quarters combat is a quick route to failure, he decided.

Picking up the crossbow made of black metal on the floor, he slid the strap over his shoulder, letting it hang over his back before also picking up the quiver of bolts for it.

"Alright, what else?" He mumbled.

With a sword at his hip and a crossbow on his back, he now set his sights on something that he could defend himself with: a shield. There were quite a few options, ranging from monstrous, gate-like shields akin to what Everett might wield, but that simply wasn't a choice for him.

What caught his eye was a relatively small, but light shield of wood, plated with a layer of steel. It had a handle on the back that allowed him to slip his left arm through, keeping it attached to his left forearm without the need to hold it.

"This'll work," he said, moving his arm to verify that its weight was fine.

It was a gnawing anxiety; one he could not pray to find his way out of any faster.

I just need to find the key then get out of here, he thought, there's nothing else to it, right? In-and-out. Simple.

He reasoned with himself, knowing that whatever possibly lived in the grimy labyrinth was something better left dormant and away from him. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling of dread creeping up on his body.

As he reached the end of the chain-littered corridor, he found himself in a new room.

"Huh...?"

What he found in the room resembled that of a museum, as if a snapshot of a city had been built in that one, enclosed room; there were brick buildings and stone-paved streets.

The chamber was as large as a standard house, with no ceiling but darkness still, yet there was a faint amount of life from an orange fire burning on the stone walkway.

It was perplexing; though a quick look around found three more corridors to venture down.

As he peeked into one of the windows of the superficial buildings that seemed incomplete and halfway cutoff by the restrictive size of the room, he found a disturbing sight: skeletons sat at tables, sitting in such a way they seemed to be chatting.

They were inanimate, yet there was a disturbing feeling that emitted from the sight.

"What the..." He mumbled.

Sure of it that none of the dust-laden skeletons within the cut-off buildings were moving, he still couldn't shake the unnerving feeling produced by their existence.

The interior of the shattered building looked different from the standard of architecture in Arcadius; beyond that, the furniture, decoration, and items inside seemed quite different as well.

Odd, he thought.

Though part of him was hesitant to, he decided to open the door as the small chime of a bell atop the threshold met his ears, as if it was a normal customer entering an establishment. The reason he decided to check out the partial building was simple: he wasn't going to cut corners in finding the key.

It's already like trying to find a needle in a haystack...If I skip over anything, I'll be here for an eternity, he thought.

Stepping into the abandoned establishment, he felt an odd atmosphere around him as he slowly moved past the skeletons that were sitting at the tables with their bony jaws agape as if in the middle of unheard conversations.

...I wasn't sure of it before, but I am now–this building doesn't fit at all with the era Arcadius is in, he thought, really, what is this?

It might be difficult to tell at first, but through the structure of the quarter-built building and the existence of an old school register and kitchen utensils laid out by the counter that were definitely not of a medieval time, he found the existence of the random building to be mysterious.

Something like this is just randomly sitting in this dark labyrinth...Is it some sort of junkyard? A museum? Ruins? I don't know, he thought.