Chapter twenty: Echoes and tunnels
It was decided that Skotur took point, followed by Brigul and finally Jack. He felt a little embarrassed at going last, but the Valkyries insisted; apparently they were harder to kill than humans. Whether that was because of their armor, skill, strength or something else, Jack didn't know for sure. Probably all of it.
As they descended, it became increasingly harder to see, and the luminescent markings in the walls did little to deter the darkness. Thankfully the two Valkyries soon revealed the lanterns at their belts, giving a yellowish light. Jack felt warmth radiate from them. Ambrosium, he guessed.
They reached the bottom of the stairs. From what Jack could see in the lanterns' light, he concluded they were in a sizable cube-shaped stone room. Various hallways split off from it, each one going in a different direction.
"We're supposed to explore this whole place?" Jack whispered.
The Valkyries didn't respond. They didn't need to. How else were they going to find what they were looking for?
"What do we know about this Labyrinth?" Jack asked.
"Very little," Brigul said. "Except that it's enormous, and heavily guarded by our predecessors' devices."
"You mean the Slider."
"If it's still operational, yes."
"We should go," Skotur whispered. "Stay close."
She looked around and chose a hallway—one of three—to enter. Jack and Brigul followed silently, their paces careful. Jack looked around, clutching his weapon anxiously. The lamps' light illuminated the place just barely enough for him to see a high ceiling and wide walls. More markings decorated those walls, giving off very faint glows. Not enough to illuminate the room for them.
The silence was deafening. All Jack heard were the soft clicks of his and the Valkyries' armor.
The corridor took a turn. A room, dark and uninviting, waited beyond. A pillar stood in the middle.
Something moved in the shadows.
Jack started. "What was that?"
The Valkyries followed his gaze. They raised their weapons and edged forward. Keeping his eyes fixed on where he saw movement, Jack followed, waiting for their lanterns' light to reveal what he'd seen.
There was nothing.
He still wasn't comfortable with it. He glanced to the Valkyries, as if hoping they'd provide answers, but they remained focused on the situation at hand. Maybe that's what he should be—
A rocky crunch sounded to his right. With a start, they all turned to look.
Something launched itself towards Skotur. It crashed against her raised shield. Skotur stood her ground.
In that one moment, Jack got a good look at their attacker—a small stone cube with a faintly glowing mark on it.
Then, in one swift motion, Brigul swung at it, holding her greatsword by the blade and striking with the hilt. A technique typically used with a longsword when fighting against armored opponents.
The crossguard hit the cube right on top and smashed it to bits. Its faint green glow faded.
Silence.
"What…" Jack breathed. "…was that?"
"One of the many security measures our predecessors placed here," Brigul said. "Obviously…"
"We suspected the Slider isn't the only threat in this Labyrinth," Skotur quietly said. "Just the strongest one."
Jack said nothing. He knew that much; he had read the manuscripts, back at the Sanctuary. There had been annoyingly little information on the Labyrinth as a whole—especially when it came to the threats that lurked here.
They continued on. Echoes and wind currents sounded through the endless halls, making Jack flinch. The Valkyries weren't as on edge as he, though their body language looked uneasy for sure. The continuous roaming of dark, empty corridors reminded Jack of the Trial of Determination, which he'd passed in Áhýdan's prison. Maybe those experiences were what prevented him from freaking out completely.
They continued. They encountered another pillar with another security cube, but this one wasn't hard to dispatch. It went straight for Jack, but he dodged to the side and got in a lucky hit with the hammer on his axehead. The cube's glow went dark.
That only served to remind him how dark this place was. He should've brought a lamp too.
Ultimately they ended up in a more sizeable room. It was largely empty, but in the middle of the room stood something that caught Jack's eye.
Huh, he thought nervously. That's some unsettling decoration they have here.
The two Valkyries looked just as apprehensive as they laid eyes upon the ominous cube that stood on the platform, as if presented as a statue. Something about it gave off a weird, unsettling vibe.
They stopped for a moment to examine it. They hadn't seen anything like it in the Labyrinth so far.
"I guess somebody forgot to carve an actual statue out of this thing…" Jack quietly said.
"There," Skotur said, pointing to something to the side. "What is that?"
Jack followed her gesture. There was a steep elevation, and a large double door with large luminescent symbols on it silently stared back from above.
"That looks important," Jack said.
The Valkyries flew up onto the elevation. Using Gravitite's properties, Jack followed.
Skotur placed her hand on the large gate before them. Nothing. Brigul found the seam and tried to open it by brute force.
Nothing.
Jack sighed. This wasn't going to help them advance…
"We need some way to open that door," Skotur said. "Maybe there's some contraption somewhere that'll unlock it."
The two Valkyries dropped off the elevation. Jack threw one final glance to the door, then reluctantly followed. They didn't have a choice but to explore further and hope they'd find the key.
They started down one of the other two corridors that connected to the room. As they walked, Jack threw one last glance in the direction of the statue. Turning his back to it felt…wrong, somehow. Risky.
They stalked further through the halls. More tunnels, more echoes, and occasionally more security cubes. They weren't much of a challenge.
Jack slowly began to wonder how hard this was really going to be. He'd imagined the worst, but he was almost relieved every time they encountered one of those cubes. It was a moment that broke the uncomfortable silence, and the fights—brief as they were—let him shut out the ominous noises.
It was in another room where the tide changed.
Hearing a noise to his right, Jack turned his gaze to where another tunnel branched off. The Valkyries hadn't heard it and kept walking.
Jack hesitantly stepped forward, his pace slow—and a click sounded from where he planted his foot. He looked down to see a pressure plate.
He panicked.
Then he heard a crunching noise from above. Moments later, a wall crashed down next to him, separating him from the Valkyries.
In an instant, the clicks from their armor was gone. So was the light they carried.
I'm sorry for the slow uploads. Truth be told, I'm kind of losing motivation for this story.