Episode:
11: The War Games, Part 2

As Adam tries to avoid getting lost in the maze, or being killed by the magical creatures lurking within, he begins to draft a plot to prove to Ignius that not all Butterflies are stupid, vain, megalomaniacal tyrants. Warning: excessive amounts of poetry involved.

Adam was not always the first to admit he had no idea what he was doing. Especially not in the presence of people he wanted to impress or intimidate. However, his friends knew him better than that. They could see right through him sometimes. Despite the composed, confident look on his face, he knew he was in some serious trouble right now. Star probably knew that already.

Of course, once he had been whisked away into the maze, his confident composure evaporated. He let out a breath he didn't realise he was holding. His grip on the sword he'd been given wavered for a moment, but he tightened his fingers around the handle. He decided to holster it into his scabbard.

Adam looked around him. Unsurprisingly, he found himself in a dead end of the maze. His back was against a hedge, in a corridor a few metres wide. Looking up, he could only see the inky purple sky above, populated with minute specks of stars. The ground below him was covered in iris-shaded grass, as he expected, although the hedges were dark green.

Wildfyre and his Ambassadors must've grown this maze from magic itself, probably because they thought the contrast in colours looked nice. Adam didn't really care.

Sighing, he began walking down the passage towards the end of the corridor.

If he had any luck, Ignius had gotten himself lost already. Unless Wildfyre put in some secret tunnel for him to use, in which case, Adam was already at a disadvantage. Nevertheless, he had to believe in Pacem's ability to keep this fair. Carter seemed to think so. He knew how important it was that he not only survived this task, but that he won it as well. Unless the third trial had some kind of handicap for the leading competitor, it would be particularly difficult to beat Ignius in the last trial if he lost this one.

The Mewman turned the corner and instantly came to a halt.

He looked around, confused. It was a dead end; it was simply a large hedge as equal as any other. Several puddles were scattered across the corridor, staining the grass dark purple. The hedges were damp, too. Droplets of water dripped and cascaded off the edges of the leaves, patting the grass. He could feel the water rising from the grass once his weight shifted onto the marshier terrain, generating squeaky noises.

Something wasn't right here. He can't have just been deposited in a dead end. Wildfyre wasn't the one managing the teleports; it was Pacem. Not only that, but why was everything so drenched? The rain from last night was cleared away by the maze, evidenced by the fact that there was no rain anywhere else. Maybe this was some kind of test.

'It's certainly a test,' whispered a voice. Adam glanced around worriedly, trying to find the source of it. 'Calm, child.'

He didn't recognise that voice. And he couldn't see where it was coming from. What he could see, though, was something moving in the corner of his peripherals. Adam's eyes snapped down at the moving object.

It was a kind of sea-green reptile. He tried to get a closer look, but it slipped out of his view before he got the chance. It appeared at his side a second later, staring inquisitively at him. It was a lizard of some sort, but larger – around the size of a common house cat. It shivered, before being enveloped in a blue aura and increasing in size. As it did so, it began to take a more humanoid form between Mewman and lizard.

Standing in front of him was some kind of lizard man.

Right, he recalled. Magical creatures in the maze. Wildfyre said that already.

If he remembered anything about old Mewnian fauna, this was a Lacetus [27]. Laceti were a race of aquatic amphibian humanoids of magical origin, with an affinity for hydromancy and cryokinesis. All things considered, they tended to be native to freshwater bodies, primarily lakes and rivers. Given the proximity of the Mace Kingdom to Lake Majoris [28], Adam could surmise they convinced the populace to volunteer a member of their species.

Truthfully, the Mewman considered himself lucky that he even knew what species of magical creature this individual was. His knowledge of Mewni fauna was limited at best, in part due to the Butterfly Empire's extermination of most of the natural wildlife over the course of ten thousand years. His mom had always been the one to speak of how things used to be – which included the ancient species that once walked the grounds of Mewni.

Not all of them, though. It didn't account for discrepancies between multiverses. Discrepancies caused by minor and random alterations; discrepancies due to an alternative timeline of events, meaning certain moments that gave rise to the evolution of certain species never occurred; or simply knowledge that his mother never got around to telling him before she died. Most likely, it was all of the above.

In summary, Adam didn't expect to be knowledgeable of any other magical creatures he may encounter in this maze.

'Greetings, child,' the Lacetus said. He didn't know much of the Lacetus aging process, but he guessed that this Lacetus was more on the elderly side. 'I am Argynos.'

'Adam,' he replied, slightly wary.

'Your name matters not,' Argynos rebuffed. 'In order for you to unlock this way, answer this riddle to keep me at bay.'

'Alright then,' he supposed, shrugging his shoulders. 'What's the riddle?'

'Listen carefully,' instructed the lizard man. 'I am patient, and I am waiting; I am soft as sand, and tough as rock. I lay dormant; I'm calculating. I can weed my way through every loch.'

Adam remained silent, listening to the riddle.

'I've seen stronger men faster than you; you all shall give the devil his due. Light enough to caress the sky; so, tell me now: what am I?'

Adam hummed aloud. 'I get…three chances, right?' Argynos nodded. Adam rubbed his chin in contemplation.

'Soft as sand…tough as rock? Patient and waiting; dormant and calculating…' A word popped into his head. 'Time? Is the answer time?'

'Very clever,' commended Argynos. 'But no.'

'Damn,' he cursed. Two chances left.

Although he knew that time wasn't the answer, this did little to clue him in on the right answer. The correct answer could be more or less abstract. What could be considered patient, waiting, dormant and calculating? He wasn't one for poems, but he had listened to the inferences Moon had made with the clue from earlier. He noticed a geological theme – "sand", "rock" and "loch" seemed to imply that. The words "dormant", "patient" and "waiting" seemed to suggest something eternal. Something on this planet that was eternal. Time was one such thing, but that had proved false.

What else could it be?

The universe and its respective laws seemed eternal, but that seemed more linked to time than anything else. Higher beings like Glossaryck or hypothetical gods could also be considered eternal. However, deities didn't pertain eternally to the planet itself; they were untethered from the universe. So that probably ruled them out, too.

'I grow weary,' Argynos complained, raising an exasperated eyebrow. Adam stumbled over an apology, before he retreated to his thoughts.

Maybe it was something less abstract.

Perhaps it was something that merely seemed eternal, to mortal beings, but wasn't actually timeless. The only problem with that generalisation was that it was too broad. Practically anything could apply. Certain species; other Mewmans; the bottomless greed of the average person; the stupidity of said people; the earth itself; love, hatred and all manner of emotions; any of the four elements.

Any of the four elements. Any of the four elements! Adam wanted to slap himself for his stupidity. The answer was staring him in the face. Pacem specifically chose a Lacetus to be the magical creature to bare this specific riddle. He would not have done that without reason.

So, obviously, which of the four elements suited a Lacetus? Well, that was an obvious one.

'Water?' he finally said, trying to mask the tint of fear in his voice. Sure, he still had another chance if he was wrong, but if he was wrong, he was completely out of options.

'Correct,' Argynos answered impassively. Adam let out a sigh of relief. So, the nature of the magical creature themselves was a clue. 'This passage is unlocked. The seal is broken.'

Argynos stepped aside.

There was a low rumble, before the wall that marked this dead end slid aside to reveal a new corridor. Argynos said no other words, before he transformed back into an overgrown lizard and scarpered away to parts unknown. Adam was slightly dissatisfied that he wasn't inclined to exchange any niceties before instantly disappearing. Then again, it's not like the lizard was under any obligation to do so.

Anyway. Adam knew he was on a time crunch here. He scanned the corridor. There were three passages ahead – two on the left and one on the right. Nothing particularly drew him to the one on the right – which was furthest along – but his gut compelled him to take that route.

He trudged his way through the maze with absolutely no clue where he was going. The path led him through a looped hallway with only one way out at the end. Adam met another crossroad – a perpendicular corridor with the option to go left or right. He chose to go left, under the instinctive compulsion to go in the direction that seemed directly towards the end.

However, it seemed this maze capitalised on that feeling, because he was almost instantly met with a dead end.

Damn, he cursed internally.

He spun back around and walked to the very end of the hallway. There, he found another corridor of hedges, providing him three possible routes: turn right leading to a corner tapering off right; turn left, and go through the right halfway along; or go to the very end and then left.

Adam chose to turn left and then left again.

At first, he thought it was a dead end, but it looked more like a hallway cut off in the middle. Not only that, but there was residue left behind. They were blackened with ash, charred and crisp with destruction. The grass was no better, looking as though someone had dumped coal on it. Some flecks of grass were lit with a bright yellow flame, flickering in response to his movements. Most curiously, the only part that had been left untouched was a strange wooden branch sticking out from the side of the hedge. It didn't look large enough to support his weight, but its purpose seemed unknown to him.

As Adam approached this half-cut hallway, the thought occurred to him rather quickly. This must be another riddle-door. It was only going to be a matter of time before the magical creature guarding this door would appear to provide the riddle.

His thoughts rang true when he heard squawking piercing through the air from above. Curious, Adam looked up to find the source of the noise.

A bright red bird flapped its wings and glided down towards him. It seemed to glow an orange light, but it was difficult to determine the precise source of it. It had burning yellow eyes, and a short but sharp black beak that looked like it could rip through bones. A feathery crest of bright yellow feathers adorned its head, with a hint of cerulean blue at the edges. It resembled that of an eagle, but far larger in size. Even the murdercrows of his world were incomparable to this fiery beast.

It was a phoenix. No doubt about it. Anybody who studied magic knew what a phoenix was; they were legendary magical creatures. Hell, half of fire magic had been developed from watching phoenixes. Adam had no idea how Pacem managed to get a hold of one.

The eagle perched atop the unblemished wooden branch he'd noticed earlier. It stared straight into his eyes and squawked incoherently.

Adam frowned. He was about to open his mouth when the bird cut him off with another series of squawks.

'Scra! Scra! Scra!' said the phoenix. Although he couldn't understand what the bird was trying to communicate, he noticed the bird seemed to be becoming less incoherent with each noise. 'Scra! Scr…! S…! Ahem, ahem.' The phoenix used a wing to cough into. 'Ah. Ack, ack. Sorry about that. Had to clear my throat.'

Adam's jaw nearly dropped. 'Hold on, since when could birds talk?!'

'They can't,' the phoenix retorted defiantly. It had a female voice. 'I'm not a normal "bird", thank you. I'm a –'

'A phoenix,' he interrupted. 'Yeah, I know. I didn't think phoenixes could talk, either.'

The bird raised a feather like an eyelid. 'You can believe that I can resurrect from my own ashes upon death, but an animal talking – that's where you draw the line?'

Adam awkwardly shrugged. 'I guess. So…what do I call you?'

'Your murderer, if you're not careful.'

Adam stepped back. He placed his hand on his scabbard warningly. The bird immediately burst into laughter.

'Hahaha!' mocked the bird. 'You tiny little mortals are so easy to scare. It's Surta.' Adam let out a sigh of relief. 'I'm not kidding though. You run out of chances to get this riddle correct, and I have to kill you. Or at least try to. Sorry. Rules are rules.'

Adam folded his arms. 'You don't sound sorry.'

'Look, it's nothing personal,' Surta assured. 'I agreed to help Pacem, and these were his terms. Besides, you agreed to fight in the War Games. You knew what you were getting into.'

'I didn't have a choice!' Adam protested. 'It was either this or starting an actual war.'

'From where I'm standing, that's still war on both accounts.'

'Hey, look, this is a lot better than the alternative.'

'Is it?'

'Yes!' cried Adam petulantly.

'It sounds an awful lot like you're still putting yourself in unnecessary danger.'

'It isn't unnecessary. I wouldn't be doing this if there were a better option. You don't think it would have occurred to me by now if there was?'

'A bowl is most useful when it is empty,' said the phoenix. 'I know the name might dissuade you, but there is a peaceful solution to the War Games. Just one you cannot see yet.'

'I've already been trying, actually.'

'And how well has that gone?' Surta pointed out. 'There are better answers.'

'What do you know? You're a bird!' he snapped. He let out another frustrated sigh. 'Look, can you just…give me the riddle?'

'Very well,' Surta replied, almost solemnly. 'Listen carefully.'

Adam rolled his eyes at the instruction. As if he wasn't planning to do that anyway.

'My father is a bird of a flame,

'I fly to the clouds of heaven to claim.

'The tears of mourning in eyes that meet me,

'They fail to collect the falling debris.

'Even though there is no cause for grief,

'Of the sweet air you breathe, I am a thief.

'I am the ghost of ruin, false compare,

'At once on my birth, I die unaware.

'My rebirth is nigh; tell me: what am I?'

Part of Adam was hoping this riddle would be easier than the last one. It certainly wasn't. He had a feeling that this one related to a phoenix too, evident by the mentions of flames and rebirth in the poem, but he doubted the answer was literally fire. Not only was that way too obvious, but it also didn't even make sense. How did fire "fly to the clouds of heaven", or have a father who was a "bird of a flame"? It had to be something related to fire, but not fire itself.

'Uh, I don't suppose it's some kind of fire-related creature, is it?'

'I don't know, is it?' she antagonised. Adam groaned. Surta's golden eyes narrowed. 'I am simply the messenger of the riddle. I cannot provide you any help, even if I wanted to.'

'Brilliant,' he muttered. 'Three chances, right?'

'That is correct,' she answered.

'Uh…' he stumbled, trying to think of something. Something fire-related, which stole breath and "died" immediately upon birth. Nothing immediately came to mind, but he was starting to think it was some kind of fiery creature, since Pacem enlisted a legendary fiery creature to relay the riddle.

It DEFINITELY can't be a phoenix. Even if that DOES match some of the things in the poem, there's no way Pacem would make it THAT easy. He hummed aloud in response to the thought.

Other fire-related creatures…well, hellhounds, salamanders and flame elementals come under that. I don't get how any of those relate to the poem. I guess elementals can fly, but they don't die instantly. Some hellhounds kinda do…if you count being sent back to the Underworld as "dying". As for salamanders, there are legends that claim that the first salamanders were born as magical mutations from phoenixes, but that could be circumstantial. Some salamanders can fly, I think, but I've never seen them. I guess they ARE breath-taking, so in that sense, they ARE a thief of your breath. How do salamanders "die unaware", though?

There are dragons and chimeras too. They BREATHE fire, and some of them possess natural fire magic. Dragons certainly fly, and chimeras don't. There were accounts of infant chimeras being slaughtered moments after birth, but that's just the Negative Multiverse. I dunno if it's the same over here, but it's probably not. "At once on my birth, I die unaware" didn't seem to have any relation to dragons. "My father is a bird of flame" could be purely metaphorical, but I don't really see the link.

He wasn't even sure how to approach the rest of the poem. The mentions of "tears of mourning", "falling debris" and being a "thief" of the air all seemed to be referring to how destructive the element of fire was. He doubted the line "rebirth is nigh" even meant anything, because it was simply too vague.

None of the things he could think of completely matched the poem. Only in parts. Maybe that just meant that one of them did match the poem, but in ways that were too metaphorical for him to understand. Perhaps if he picked the one that fell in line with the riddle the most, then he would see the light of day. So, which one?

'Um…salamander?' Adam finally guessed. 'Is it a salamander?'

'No,' Surta stated candidly, shivering her neck. 'Not even close.'

'Well, what is it then, a dragon?' he blurted out.

'Not that either,' Surta replied, sighing in disappointment. 'One last guess, and you're completely missing the point.'

'What?' he gawped. '"One last guess"? When did I –? No, wait a minute, I didn't mean that last one! Ugh, can I take it back?'

'Hahahaha!' chuckled the bird. 'I don't think so. That's not how it works. You should be more careful.'

'Yeah, thanks,' he spat, disillusioned.

Now he was just being stupid. He'd thrown away his chances at even getting this right. One wrong move and he'd be incinerated, unless he figured out a way to avoid a creature that could fly. Unfortunately, berating himself for his mistakes wasn't magically going to provide him the answer.

Whether it was her intention or not, Surta had actually helped him. She said he was "not even close" and "completely missing the point". To Adam, this could only suggest one thing: his train of thought was all wrong. The answer, in fact, bore no relation to a fiery creature. It was something else related to fire. The doubt in Adam's mind made him want to reconsider that the answer had any relation to fire at all. However, his rational side prevailed. The mentions of fire in the poem, and the use of a phoenix to tell it, would entirely contradict the idea that fire had nothing to do with it.

In all likelihood, he was thinking too hard. He was trying to be smart, to think of something more obscure. It was evident from Surta's behaviour that he was missing the obvious in pursuit of the more subtle. Dangerous mistake, but at least it ruled out something too metaphorical, which was a good thing for someone poetically impaired like him.

The only issue was that he only thought it could be a magical creature because he was already out of answers. It must be something more obvious. Something he'd almost unconsciously overlooked.

"They fail to collect the falling debris" …what is that referring to?

The debris of fire was the fuel, right? After being lit, it usually was left to burn largely unattended, which correlated to "they fail to collect". Maybe the poem was literally describing fire – a literal denotation of an aspect of fire, marred with figurative language. The answer was likely not "fuel" though, since that was the father of fire, not the son of it. Same went for air or heat.

Wait a minute! It comes from a fire, it rises from fire, it makes it hard to breathe, it is what is left behind by fire, and it disappears quickly after it appears! There's only one thing it CAN be!

'Smoke!' he yelled. 'The answer is smoke!'

Surta cawed at him loudly. Adam was prepared to break into a sprint, or otherwise defend himself, but the bird spoke first.

'That is the correct answer!' said the phoenix, as the riddle-door began to slide open behind her. Adam let out a sigh of relief. 'You certainly got it faster than that other guy.'

Adam looked up in surprise.

'The "other" guy?' he parroted. 'Wait, you've seen Prince Ignius?'

'Uh, yeah,' Surta replied matter-of-factly, flapping her wings and rising into the air. 'Where do you think I was flying from? Did you think that I just decided to take a break? Ha. Mewmans. Typical boneheads.'

Adam groaned and rolled his eyes.

'Look, you said there were better answers, right?' he recalled, receiving a nod from the flapping bird. 'What did you mean?'

'Well, what have you been trying?'

'I've been trying to show Ignius that not all Butterflies are evil,' Adam replied. 'I saved his life in the first trial.'

She eyed him like a hawk. 'And?'

'And he immediately tried to kill me.'

'Yeah, exactly,' Surta deadpanned. 'I respect what you're trying to do, but you need to do more.'

'What do you think?'

'My advice? Don't just show him you're not evil,' she directed. 'You have to show him you're smart too. Prove that you can be a formidable opponent and a good person at the same time. Then he might respect you some more.'

Adam thought about it for a moment. He definitely didn't seem like the smartest guy to Ignius right now. Not when he allowed himself to lose for – what seemed in the prince's mind – no good reason at all. He wasn't a moral idealist by any stretch of the imagination, but he probably looked like one from Ignius's point of view.

'You're right,' he agreed. 'But how would I show him I'm smart?'

'First, by not asking me how you would show someone you're smart,' joked Surta, steadily rising up into the air again. 'You're gonna have to figure that out on your own, kid.'

With that, the bird began to flap her wings more excessively, until she was quickly rising into the air. Adam stared up at her.

'Where are you going?!'

'My job is complete; it's time to go home!' she yelled back. 'See you around, kid. Good luck with the whole de-radicalisation thing.'

Before Adam could say anything else, the phoenix flew off into the purple sky. Once she got a certain distance away, she was enveloped in bright yellow flames which consumed her until she disappeared. Adam wondered how phoenixes were able to use fire to teleport, and if he could replicate it. Probably not. Nevertheless, he archived that away as a mental note for later.

Adam continued on to the end of the hallway. There were no other passages except for the one directly at the end.

Once he reached it, the Mewman was greeted by a corridor perpendicular to his. Three possible paths were presented to him: a corner to his right, leading forwards, a corner at the far left, leading backwards, and one path intersecting the corridor in the middle.

Unsure whether it was unconscious or not, Adam chose the corner to his right. What he found was a dead-end of some sort, but far stranger. The leaves on the hedges were a carmine shade of red, while the grass was steeped in deep, dark crimson pigment. Most of the light was overwhelmed, leaving this region of the maze dark and drawn with shadows.

A cold breeze wafted over him. The Mewman shivered. Was this another riddle-door?

As if to answer him, the leaves to his right rustled abruptly. His head instantly snapped to the part of the hedges he had heard move. He frowned. He could have sworn he saw something move in there.

Two beady red eyes appeared from inside the hedges, pointed straight at him. Low-pitched growling noises seeped through the darkness into his unprepared ears.

Adam's hand instantly went to his sword. He tried to keep his breathing calm, but the trembling in his legs simply refused to go away.

As the intensity of the red eyes maximised, so did the growling. Slowly, the creature stepped out from the darkness. It was an abnormally large hound with jet-black fur, easily three and half feet tall at the shoulder. Frothy, white foam dribbled from its sharp, jagged teeth, forming a puddle of spit on the grass down below.

The hound approached even closer. Pacing backwards, Adam steadily drew his sword. The scraping sound of metal against his scabbard permeated the air, cutting through the noise of the black wolf rumbling. The onyx mongrel barked louder, as Adam tentatively held his blade before him.

Right before the dark wolf began to pounce, a pale, bony hand planted itself against the creature's spine. Instantly, the dog relaxed, and assumed a more playful position. It looked up at its master, gently swaying its tail and panting excitedly.

The master in question was a tall, gaunt man dressed in midnight blue black robes. His face was of pale complexion, the skin taut around his cheekbones. His deathly white skin looked as rough as leather, thin and wrinkled around the eyes. Strands of grey hair seeped out from his head, albeit patchy and uneven. Adam was unsure they could even be considered hair in the first place, because they seemed to resemble rough, frayed rope more than anything else.

'Civility, Erebus,' the man advised. His voice was silky and drawling, almost fluid. It wormed its way into his ears, leaving a shiver in its wake.

Adam's eyes widened. His grip on his sword wavered. 'Uh…what…are you?' he stammered.

'I am an Enenra,' the man replied slowly. 'You may addressss me as Mavros, mortal.'

An Enenra! A creature of smoke and death, reminiscent of the grim reaper in some cultures. On Mewni, they always seemed to look entirely different, making them hard to identify. Usually, their use of smoke teleportation was a giveaway, but Adam had been too distracted by the giant fucking dog to notice whether or not Mavros had used it.

The black dog in question, Erebus, was largely unrelated. Enenras weren't especially known for having companions; Mavros seemed the exception.

From what Adam could determine, it was a Grimhound, a vengeful spirit often taking the form of a large dog. They tended to be considered an omen of death in most circles, wild and menacing. How Mavros managed to tame one was beyond him, for the creature's teeth were rumoured to be capable of tearing out the hearts of the otherwise intangible supernatural spirits. Obviously, this would include Mavros himself.

'You wonder…how it is that a Grimhound isss at my side,' Mavros observed, catching him off-guard. The Enenra gently petted the dog. 'Grimhounds may be dangerous…but in the end, they are, in fact, still dogs.'

Erebus let out an affectionate bark.

Adam opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. His eyes flickered between the two spectral entities, and briefly wondered how he'd managed to get himself into this situation. However, he relented, and focussed on breathing more slowly and calmly. Steadily, the trembling in his legs faded away. He now stood more confidently before the two of them.

'Would you like…to hear…the riddle?' offered Mavros. His voice was punctuated with strange pauses and shivering sibilance.

'Yes,' Adam answered breathlessly.

'I am sssmall as an ant and big as a whale,' the Enenra began, his smooth voice gliding over each word. 'I can sssoar through the air like a bird with a tail.

'I can be ssseen by day and not by night; I can be ssseen with a big flasssh of light.

'I follow whoever controls me by the sssun, but I fade away when dark fell like a ton.

'As my enemy breaks, I fly high, so answer me this: what am I?'

Erebus barked at him once, with fervent passion, as if to warn him not to take too long to answer.

This riddle seemed to have a motif of darkness and light, of night and day. It seemed fitting for an Enenra and a Grimhound, but the question remained: what was the answer? The line "I follow whoever controls me by the sun" seemed to suggest that it had some kind of relationship with the sun, further implied by how it could be "seen by day and not by night".

Adam frowned. Something about it made him think the answer was staring him in the face.

"Small as an ant and big as a whale" and "soar through the air like a bird with a tail" seemed to relate to how large and all-encompassing it was. The fact that those similes could be used to describe it made him think it was not a physical object, and more of a concept. The only thing that puzzled him was the line "as my enemy breaks, I fly high". It was probably some kind of metaphor, but who was the "enemy" in this case? Something that "breaks"?

There was one answer Adam had considered almost straight away. Except it seemed far too obvious.

A shadow. A shadow filled pretty much all the categories, although the final line "as my enemy breaks'' still puzzled him. In his previous experiences, if the answer didn't match every single line exactly, then it wasn't correct. Plus, it was just too easy. An Enenra was a creature of smoke and shadows, and Grimhounds were synonymous with darkness.

He hadn't asked how many chances he had. He knew that the closer he was to the centre, the fewer guesses he would get. He certainly didn't want to get this riddle wrong. Mavros gave him the creeps and being killed by a Grimhound was not his preferred way to go.

Adam glanced down at his back pocket. The flare gun he'd been given was sticking out of it. If what Wildfyre said was accurate, then these things shot bright light, which Enenras were susceptible to. So at least he had some form of escape if he failed. Once Mavros was dealt with, though, he still had the Erebus to deal with, and he wasn't keen to get his throat ripped out by a massive wolf. He most likely couldn't outrun him, so the only option was his sword.

'You can ssstall all you wisssh, but in the end, you mussst provide me with an answer,' Mavros said. Adam was suddenly very aware that the Enenra had been staring at him the whole time he was thinking.

The only answer he had come up with was one he'd already dismissed for being too obvious. It had to be something else, but he couldn't think of anything else. He had to have at least two guesses, right? There was no way he had moved far enough that three had dropped to one.

Was it a good idea to use up one chance with the only idea he had?

He had to try.

'Uh…a shadow?' he said. 'Is it a shadow?'

Mavros stared at him for a moment. His dark eyes narrowed but he didn't say anything. Adam tentatively reached for his flare gun.

'That…isss the correct anssswer,' the Enenra replied bitterly. Adam almost had a double take when he heard that.

Somehow, the answer had indeed been that obvious. Then it made far more sense. The "enemy" of shadows was light, more specifically, daytime. It wasn't a metaphor, more just a turn of phrase. When the poem stated that the "enemy breaks", that was referring to when day breaks. Shadows are commonplace at that time because of the lower levels of sunlight.

'Thanks, I guess,' he said disconcertedly, his eyes flickering to Erebus nervously.

'Our time isss up, Erebusss,' announced Mavros, unconcerned. 'The king promisssed us the view of blood and death, but inssstead I am sssurrounded by children. It isss beneath us.'

The Mewman folded his arms. 'Well, I'm so sorry my age insults you.'

'Do not disrespect me,' the Enenra snapped. Adam flinched but said nothing. Mavros smirked. 'Mewmans…always sssso pliable.'

Erebus barked once, before looked up at his master. Mavros nodded at him, and the two dissipated into a cloud of inky black smoke. The plumes of smoke funnelled through the hedges and disappeared into the darkness. As soon as they did, the carmine leaves on the hedges began to rot away and drift to the ground. Eventually, the pathway it initially blocked was revealed, leaving a large heap of red leaves on the ground.

Adam immediately sighed in relief. He certainly hoped he wouldn't be encountering those two again anytime soon.

Nevertheless, he continued on down the passageway he had uncovered. The leaves had quickly reverted back to dark green, whilst the grass returned to their iris colour. If not the very recent encounter with Mavros, Adam might've thought things had returned to normal. He was smart enough to know that the next riddle was just waiting around the corner, ready to pounce.

Some part of him was right about that estimation. However, it was not a riddle that met his eyes the moment he turned the next corner.

Instead, it was a dead-end.

The Mewman blinked. He waited for a moment, hoping that a magical creature would materialise to inform him that this was, in fact, a riddle-door. Unfortunately, this dead-end did not stick out like riddle-doors did; it was remarkably apt at blending into its environment.

Adam clenched his fists.

'Shit!' he spat, futilely punching the hedge next to him. The leaves hastily rustled in response.

He let out a fervent sigh. Adam trudged back down to the end of the corridor, ignoring the fast beating in his chest.

He should have realised pretty quickly that this was going to be a trap. That riddle that Mavros gave was way too easy – so easy, in fact, that he kept second-guessing himself. That would also explain the Enenra's apparent smugness. He knew he was walking directly into a brick wall and struggled to hide how much he relished it.

Yet again, he'd fallen for an obvious trap. What good was he, if he couldn't play the game properly? No doubt, Ignius was doing swimmingly.

'What the hell does "In a fountain crystal clear, a golden treasure does appear" mean?!'

Adam immediately stopped as he turned around the corner. His head snapped in the direction of the voice.

'Can't you speak in plain English?!'

Adam recognised Ignius's voice pretty easily. Mostly because of the angry shouting. The constant derisive comments about the poetic nonsense of the riddle were a pretty good indicator, too. They formed an easy trail for Adam to follow, somewhat out of curiosity.

Apparently, he underestimated just how far away Ignius was. His loud voice carried very far through the maze, and he ended up chasing the source for several minutes.

By the time he found the ranting prince, Ignius was just about ready to punch the messenger of the riddle. Adam watched cautiously from a distance. Ignius was standing at the end of the hallway, his back to him. He managed to catch a clear view of the creature providing him the riddle.

It was a large rabbit kind of creature, easily the size of an average Mewman. It had thick grey-white fur and dark twilight blue eyes that contained an endless expanse of shifting darkness. Its nostrils were pulsing constantly, like a large bullfrog. Two long, thick ears protruded from its head, twitching incessantly, as though checking for danger.

Adam didn't recognise it. He'd never seen anything like it, no matter how much he probed his memory. He supposed it was something specific to Positive Mewni, perhaps because it didn't exist anymore on Negative Mewni, or because it never had. Either way, Ignius had a slight advantage over him due to his ignorance.

Nevertheless, Ignius was clearly having trouble with the riddle. Adam watched him rant for a few moments, before hiding back around the corner. He began to ruminate on what that phoenix, Surta, had said to him. According to her, he needed to prove he was smart as well as kind. It made sense: Ignius thought being kind was inherently a weakness, and the anomalies within the Butterfly Kingdom's supposed long history of brutality and tyranny would not last long. He had to prove that you didn't have to be ruthless to be a formidable opponent.

If Adam helped him get past that riddle-door, the prince would more than likely kick up a fuss. Logically, it was a statistical, strategic disadvantage to help him. It would definitely infuriate him to no end. He'd want to know why he was helping him; he'd demand what the ulterior motive was.

What if there was an ulterior motive?

Ignius was an angry, seething pot of flames most of the time. Clearly, his parents had never enrolled him in anger management classes. If he went to any classes, that is. From what he'd seen, school on Positive Mewni was not for the royalty, aside from private tutoring. Whatever the case may be, that meant that the prince had trouble keeping his mouth shut. The perfect chance to get information out of him.

That servant guy – Carter, he remembered – had said that Wildfyre would not have had the opportunity to add secret tunnels to the cave for Ignius to take advantage of. Adam wasn't convinced. Wildfyre knew that the second trial could put Adam ahead, and the ambassador would more than likely want to secure Ignius's victory. In his opinion, anyway, it was highly likely that Wildfyre had managed to put some secret passages in the maze.

And Ignius knew where they were. He just needed to goad him into telling him where they were.

Adam had an idea, although he was hesitant to execute it. He wouldn't describe himself as a risk-taker, but he also knew from experience that being too careful made you too slow. He had already devised a strategy; he just needed the will to go through with it.

Use your gut, Adam.

The Mewman crept slowly towards Ignius, who was still yelling obscenities and the strange creature.

'This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard,' the prince grumbled. Adam rolled his eyes at his dissatisfaction. He doubted the guy would ever be pleased so long as actual effort had to be put into something. Nevertheless, the warlock couldn't really complain, since it meant he could easily sneak up on him. 'Give me something, you big dumb jackalope! Seriously? Can't you give me a clue? How can you do riddles without a clue?!'

'I think the riddle is the clue,' Adam spoke up. Ignius immediately spun around and drew his sword at him. He instantly raised his hands in surrender. 'Slow down, Inigo Montoya. I'm only here to help.'

'Yeah? And why would you do that?' The fuming prince replied, before lunging forward with his sword. 'Are you that stupid?!'

Adam quickly unsheathed his blade, blocked the strike and kicked Ignius's wrist. Ignius's hand released, sending his sword clattering to the ground a few feet away. The Mewman held the end of his sword close to his opponent's throat, prompting Ignius to raise his hands reluctantly in some vague form of surrender.

'You look like you needed some help,' Adam shrugged off. 'Is that against the rules?'

'Well, no, but –'

'Then you won't mind an extra pair of hands,' he cut off, an almost devious smile adorning his face. Ignius sighed extra-loud and dropped his arms.

'Fine,' the prince groaned. 'You're never going to win anyway.'

'Yeah, yeah, heard it before,' he dismissed, turning to look at the riddle-creature, who Ignius had mentioned was a jackalope. The moment his eyes left Ignius, the prince attempted to disarm him. Adam jolted his blade forward warningly and Ignius stayed back. He glanced back at the creature. 'Sorry about that. Who are you?'

Surprisingly enough, the jackalope had remained silent this whole time and watched the exchange take place. Adam supposed they weren't allowed to intervene with altercations between competitors. It was somewhat impressive the jackalope had managed to stay still for so long. Not that Adam understood anything about the decorum of jackalopes – they weren't endemic to his multiverse.

'Yer a strange 'un,' the jackalope replied, his big black eyes widening considerably. His voice was layered in a thick Russian accent. His nostrils twitched characteristically. 'Name's Jack.'

Adam's eyes widened.

'Really?' he asked tentatively.

'No!' said the jackalope humorously, laughing heartily. 'It's Mucro.'

'Adam,' Adam responded.

'I know.'

He coughed awkwardly.

'Can you tell me the riddle, Mucro?'

Mucro nodded agreeably, his nose twitching impulsively.

'Ahem,' Mucro readied. 'In marble valls as vite as milk, lined with skin as soft as silk.

'In a fountain cryztal clear, a golden treazure does appear.

'Zere are no doors to zis stronghuld, yet thieves break in and steal ze guld.

'I'm where ze essence of creation lies, so answer me zis question: what am I?'

An interesting one, to be sure. Not that Adam could really say this justified Ignius's rambunctious behaviour, but the riddle wasn't exactly easy. He wasn't entirely certain what the connection was between jackalopes and the possible answer to this riddle. He didn't even know anything about jackalopes, other than the obvious denotation that they were a cross between jackrabbits and antelopes. Perhaps it related to one of the two, rather than both.

'How many chances do you have left?' Adam asked Ignius, who was attempting to inch closer to his discarded sword on the ground. The prince's eyes shot up. 'Look, if you want to keep playing games, then I'll kill you. Right here, right now. So do yourself a favour and stop trying to blindside me.'

Ignius blinked, before frowning. He opened his mouth, but no words seemed to come out. He nodded feebly. Adam supposed he should be glad that worked. He steadily lowered his blade and slid it back into his scabbard.

'He's only got ze one left,' Mucro answered for him. Adam nodded at him appreciatively.

'But…considering I'm not technically answering for him,' he said, 'then I get my own set of guesses, right?'

Mucro shrugged.

'Yes, I zuppose that makes zense.'

'Fantastic. Then I've got three guesses,' Adam concluded. He let out a pensive sigh.

The riddle seemed to give off the impression of something lavish, or premium. Nothing seemed to occur to him immediately. Something of beauty, going by the use of the words, "marble", "silk", "crystal" and "gold". It had "marble white walls", so it had to be something pearly white – that much was obvious. There was something "golden" inside, but it was surrounded by a "fountain" that was clear.

Realistically, there were very few things that met all those criteria. However, with riddles, Adam had found they could fit the verses in often vague and figurative ways. Conversely, if he bogged himself down too much with the metaphors, then he'd miss the parts that may have been more literal. Such is the struggle of solving riddles, especially for someone who lacked the keen eye for cleverer connotations. If Janna were here, she probably would have solved this riddle by now.

'Uh…' he thought aloud. He was struggling to think of something white, which contained something yellow. And somehow related to an antelope or a rabbit. 'I don't suppose it's a dove, is it?'

'No.'

Adam shrugged. 'It was a stab in the dark.'

One thing did intrigue him from that riddle: the last line. "Where the essence of creation lies" seemed to be referring to something quite specific. Something staring him in the face.

'You're wasting time,' hollered Ignius.

'How?' Adam scoffed. 'There's no time limit. Besides, you couldn't figure it out.'

That seemed to shut him up. Adam hummed contentedly as he turned his attention back to the riddle.

Something about it seemed obvious. Obvious enough that Ignius, in his arrogance, did not consider it. He looked up at Mucro, and a thought occurred to him. In most cultures in the multiverse, rabbits represented Easter, and the dawn of new life, while antelopes in some cultures represented regeneration, piety and spiritual authority.

Unless it's…?

'Is it an egg?'

'Correct!' Mucro answered, briefly glancing at Ignius to smirk arrogantly at him. Adam turned to the prince and made a comical shock face that elicited a scowl from him. Mucro stepped aside and the riddle-door deteriorated until the passage through was unlocked.

'Well, that was easy,' Adam mused aloud, unable to prevent his smugness from bubbling to the surface.

'This is where I leave you,' the jackalope informed him. 'This has been an…interesting experience.'

'Likewise,' Adam replied, smiling. Abruptly, Mucro disappeared in a flash of blue light. The Mewman guessed that one of the Ambassadors had teleported him away. Adam hummed and stepped forward.

Before immediately getting slammed into the nearest hedge by a particularly apoplectic prince.

'What are you doing?!' demanded Ignius, sticking his face uncomfortably close to his.

'Uh, I was just walking through the passage –'

'Don't be facetious! You know exactly what I'm talking about!' he yelled angrily. 'I see right through you.'

'I don't know what you're talking about, man,' said Adam blithely. 'You look like you needed some help.'

Ignius laughed heartily.

'You think I need your help?' he scoffed. 'You're just accelerating your own demise! You never had a chance of winning before you even stepped into this maze!'

Adam hummed suspiciously. 'And why's that?'

'Because…everyone in this castle is against you!' taunted the prince arrogantly. 'This maze was designed for you to lose and me to win!'

'By Chief Ambassador Wildfyre?'

'You bet!' he cried. 'He even put in special passageways for me – faster routes to the exit. And you'll never find them!'

'It seems that you haven't found them either,' Adam pointed out, trying to hide his smirk.

'At least I know what they look like,' Ignius said. 'Good luck finding the purple leaves! You're too dumb to realise how to escape this maze!'

Adam let out his smirk in full force. He chuckled slightly and raised his eyebrows tauntingly at his rival.

'What's so funny?' he said. When Adam failed to provide an answer, the prince shook him angrily. 'Tell me! What the hell is so funny?!'

Adam swiftly twisted Ignius's wrist into a painful arm-lock, reversing the situation back upon the conceited prince. The prince let out a whine of pain but was helpless to do anything. Adam leaned forward and spoke quietly, confidently, into his ear.

'Thanks for the tip, kid.'

With that, he threw his enemy on the floor and walked away.

'You…You knew!' stammered Ignius in disbelief. 'You knew I'd –'

'Blurt out everything I wanted to know?' Adam finished, granting him a modicum of attention. 'Yeah, I did. I'm not an idiot; I knew helping you would be a dumb idea. Especially after last time. So dumb, in fact, that you wouldn't understand why. So, you'd get so riled up you'd tell me anything just to get one over on me.' He tutted. 'You really need to work on your anger management skills, you know.'

The tension in the air was almost palpable; it manifested in the form of the taste of blood that lingered on Adam's tongue. He could sense the burning hatred that the prince was now feeling, and the Mewman could almost say he was intimidated. A profound sense of urgency washed over him for a moment, but Adam could not yet say he was afraid. His own words echoed in his head like a broken record, but he did not regret saying them. He was satisfied for the time being.

Prince Ignius, however, was far from satisfied. As a matter of fact, his next move occurred in slow motion. The prince said no words; instead, he merely screamed angrily and charged directly at him. Adam considered drawing his sword, but he already knew he didn't have to.

He sidestepped the attack and tripped him up. Once the prince was on the ground, the Mewman considered simply killing him then and there, but he knew that King Pacem still needed his heir. And he wanted Ignius to learn, not die. Drawing his sword, he knew he had to make a decision. He opted to stab him lightly in a non-essential area.

Ignius cried out in pain and held on to his impaled side.

'You'll survive that, but I wouldn't suggest getting up,' Adam advised. He sighed. 'We're not evil, you know. Not all of us. I didn't spare your life because I think you're pathetic. I spared it because you can be better than this. Your dad needs you to be better than this. Don't waste the second chance that I'm giving you.'

With that, Adam walked away.

[27] A portmanteau of "lacerta" and "cetus", the Latin words for "lizard" and "sea-monster", respectively.
[28] A large freshwater lake between the Mace and Butterfly Kingdoms.

It's been a little while since the last chapter. How bout that, huh? I had a moment of laziness and didn't feel like writing or posting chapters for a while, but I'm still here.

As for this chapter, it serves more than just worldbuilding for the magical creatures introduced. Off the top of my head, I can recall at least two of the characters in this chapter that will serve important roles later. Especially Argynos, so remember him! He will be important in Volume III.

Regardless, I'm a massive fan of worldbuilding and I thought it would be a good idea to introduce yet more magical creatures native to Mewni.

This is one of the episodes where Adam can't rely on brute strength or magic all the time to win. He has to use his wits. That's the point of the Second Trial. The First Trial proved metal and conviction, the Second Trial is meant to prove wits and quick-thinking, and the Third Trial - well, you'll have to wait to see that one. The Second Trial will be resolved in the first half of the next chapter and the rest of the chapter will be the rest of the episode. I don't think I should draw this out for too long.

All the poems/riddles you saw in this chapter were written by myself. I'm no master poet or anything, but I couldn't afford to keep them too cryptic anyway since I wanted the average 17-year-old to be able to figure it out. It's easier to write very cryptic poems than it is to understand them, simply because I have the benefit of already knowing what the answer is. Adam disliking and being generally bad at poetry is a known character trait from a previous episode in Volume I, but that doesn't mean he can't think critically. I would just expect Janna to figure out the answer to the riddle faster than he could. There is also the issue regarding the fact that Adam doesn't even know every magical creature native to his Mewni - and even for the ones he does know, there is no guarantee they are also native to Positive Mewni.

And there are many magical creatures on Negative Mewni that aren't native to Positive Mewni, so he has to weed those out as well.

I think the weakest part of the War Games is simply the scoring system. I don't think I did it very well, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I suppose I can hand-wave that the War Games is meant for dozens of competitors, not just two, and the way Ignius challenged Adam like that was unorthodox. Technically, you are allowed to challenge a single individual to the War Games, but it's usually directed at mass numbers of people. That's why the scoring system seems so ineffective when all either character has to do for the other to win is die. That's my explanation, feel free to criticise it.

The Grimhound is obviously inspired by the Grim from British folklore, and Enenras are taken straight from Japanese folklore. I don't think I need to explain the inspiration behind Surta, the Phoenix, though the name comes from the Nordic deity Surtr of Muspelheim. And Argynos is just an invention of my own, but it's basically just "humanoid reptile".

I brought the ending forward, actually. I originally was going to include yet another riddle-creature for Adam to solve. The remnants of that come with the Jackalope, Mucro, but solving that riddle wasn't the important part of that scene. Adam has to confront Ignius at least once in every trial, and this is the turning point for his character. After being beaten and outsmarted by Adam, he can no longer argue that all Butterflies are hapless oafs and tyrants. Not to mention he admitted to having gotten help cheating, but we'll see the consequences of that in the next chapter. Ignius did not ask to cheat, Wildfyre chose to do that himself, he just opted to not rat him out when Wildfyre took advantage of his then-seething hatred for Butterflies.

Plus, Adam showed a bit more of his own true colours. He didn't want to kill Ignius, but if Ignius kept trying to kill him, he would have. He's killed people before. (That, and I wanted to show he's not useless with the blade. Remember, he's reasonably skilled with a sword!)

This aspect of his personality is one of the main points of contention with Star, which becomes SUPER relevant down the line. I'm talking at least fifteen chapters from now.

I'm running out of characters, so I'll see you all in the next chapter, 'Skeleton Key'!