Chapter Two

## Palinoia

The second round of Lord Aislin's tournament began shortly after all willing participants raised their hands to signal their continued eagerness to claim the price waiting inside the hedge maze Palinoia. Similar to round one, all contestants were teleported, this time to an isolate island in an unknown location. To his surprise, Iglas found himself within the middle of the participants, despite only being a witness to the event, and had to find out to his displeasure that Genovieve had grabbed his hand prior to being teleported, lifting it up high enough for him to count as a willing contestant.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group began to regain consciousness in the nearby vicinity of the pair, some reacting to the new location better than others. While Azariah mourned her lost chicken wing, Elias felt it necessary to warn the others of the tricky magic of the maze, which would have them face their worst fears, as well as to offer them an escape by building a raft. However, two members of the group were determined to claim the prize as their own: Avandias and Masa silently swore to themselves to do whatever it would take to obtain the Phylactery.

[...]

## Clouded Eyes

Surviving the stroll through the hedges with only a couple of scratches on their skin, the group was now separated once again and scattered across the inside of the maze. Awaking somewhere even deeper inside the dark and inconvenient layers of fog, Iglas cursed his involvement with Gen, pondering if the tournament rules would allow him to get rid of her, only to have Gen approach him from behind and mock him about his carelessness of thinking out loudly. The two fell back into their usual habit of bickering, but Gen also received genuine praise for her skill of handling two weapons, as well as her noticeable smartness, while Gen felt herself admiring Iglas' looks after he had finally dropped his hood for the first time. After introducing her name to her companion, Gen began to lead the way through the maze, only to end up at a fork in their path where she suggested the two would play "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe" to determine their path, which first was ridiculed by Iglas, but eventually actually used to determine their path in form of picking what direction had been Iglas' starting instinct.

[...]

Feyrith on the other hand had allowed the maze to drag him inside its branches without much resistance, fascinated by the way the plants appeared to show intelligence and theorizing if melee attacks could hurt it if magic were to disrupt its nature. Upon being able to move freely again, the half elf crawled up to the hedge, expressing his wish to obtain a root as a pet. Although he had overheard the screams that had lured Avandias, he wasn't keen on falling victim to the cause and headed for the opposite direction. At the same time, Masa arrived almost unharmed at a nearby location, lucky to have her mask and sword to protect herself from the roots' attack. As the screams had reached her ears as well, she raised her katana while proceeding through the maze and happened to run into the wandering Feyrith, partly glad and partly annoyed to see a familiar face. Feyrith felt relieved to have a fighter at his side, seeing as he had primarily been skilled in healing, hoping Masa was not going to run towards the disturbing screams. Seeing as they mutually agreed on the screams being an unfavorable goal location, Feyrith inquired if they should travel together, despite Masa's distrust and general dislike for his cheery attitude.

While screams and the sounds of fights filled the cursed location, Elias faced the pulling situation with mild annoyance but little care as he sat down and ate some of his leftover dumplings. His meal would soon be disturbed by an approaching silhouette, that referred to him as "Elijah" and reminded him that he had a bargain to fulfill. As he was familiar with the person, Elias reassured them not to worry about him and that he would uphold his part of the promise he had given them, although he would have appreciated a warning about the maze's powers.

Azariah had begun wandering the tall pathways on the search for the others, disappointed that they hadn't been able to fulfill their promises of sticking together. Something soon began to feel off, however, as her mind seemed to grow more and more numb with the minutes passing.

[...]

## Harbinger

Further into the maze's center, the hedge walls shifted in appearance, replaced by odd rock formations and long dried out roots entangled within them. As some were resembling the den of an animal, it became evident that the group was heading directly towards the monstrous creatures they had encountered earlier. Another eye-catcher became odd, black rocks, painted with green and golden runes, many engravings washed away by what must have been years of tearing down. Elias couldn't help but to notice the bodies that had fallen in the paths they passed, unable to ignore the fact that these four bodies had been contestants who had turned against each other, only one being dismembered beyond recognition. Bits and pieces of ruin debris laid scattered across the paths, until eventually Iglas' eyes fell onto a larger artifact before them. In front of the artifact sat Eponine, whom he suspected to be a possible illusion first, leading him to call out for her. Startled, Eponine immediately hit her head on the artifact and flopped down, holding her head in pain and asked why he would do something so cruel as to scare her while unprepared. Although this was enough for Iglas to confirm her to be the real deal, Gen remained suspicious, asking Feyrith if he felt this to be too convenient and wondered out loud if all of this was part of a bigger picture, beyond just being part of a contest for a Phylactery. This statement heavily offended Elias, who corrected Gen that Phylacteries weren't just something that laid around in the slums for anyone to grab and that she should respect their existence if she wasn't a royal. Once done speaking, he sat down next to Eponine, curious to learn what she had been working on.

After recovering from her brief pain, Eponine explained that she had been trying to take apart the artifact behind them, one she claimed to be hundreds of years old and possibly having been forgotten by its original owner despite stashing it inside the maze for possible safe keeping. It had nothing to do with the contest or Philactery, however. Avandias found himself anything but fond of the idea of her tampering with ancient artifacts and warned her to be cautious, wanting to move on now that they had found the girl. He took notice of her magic knowledge though and made a mental note to ask her about it later. Upon realizing that not all of her companions had gone through the ordeal without suffering to some extent, Eponine approached Iglas, immediately noticing his magic to have grown unstable. With Eponine blaming this on artificial acceleration, Feyrith wondered if his healing could have achieved this change, as the maze had been attracted to Iglas' magic and it would be convenient for the enemy if their abilities stacked. This theory made Gen wonder if the creatures had always been bloodthirsty or if they were drawn to magic by instinct, wondering if the artifact near them was some sort of lost treasure from an older time. She concluded that the explanation received meant that it wasn't just Iglas' fatigue causing his curse to go rampant, then jokingly asked if she had pissed off Iglas so badly that she had become the cause for his anger. As Gen had stated earlier that royals would put their hands on anything with value, the mage commented that they would some day lay their hands on her too if she wasn't careful, referring to her beauty in relation to human trafficking, an indirect compliment that went over Gen's head, but was picked up on by Elias. Eponine had to deny the claim, however, as only consumables or injections into his bloodstream could have achieved this level of acceleration, then inquired if they had ran into any illusions, as "a friend" had told warned her about them appearing inside the maze.

Finally, Masa interrupted once again to suggest they move forward instead of wasting time, to which Eponine responded by telling her that, if she wanted to find the Phylactery, she would have to go straight into the monster's nest, which was located behind a thick layer of fog near them. Elias concluded that an accelerated curse would become a perfect bait for the creatures, dreading the idea of walking right into their nest under these circumstances. Thinking back, Gen attempted to build a timeline for the illusions they had encountered to pinpoint a possible culprit. She recalled fake Avandias trying to kill the General, as well as fake Elias putting something onto his wounds, which she took partial blame for. The bandit decided that she wanted to learn more and asked Eponine to elaborate on her knowledge, while the group began to move towards the nest. Eponine quickly placed a kiss onto the artifact though before departing, whispering that she would come back for it.

Eponine feared that she would be unable to cure Iglas and that he himself wouldn't be able to pause his curse unless he would get rest, as the mage was at the brink of collapsing already. To answer Gen's question regarding whether the illusion, creatures, and magic involvement were connected, Eponine explained Palinoia to be an actual existing location, unlike the places they had been teleported to during the tournament, meaning they were no longer on arena grounds. Her hypothesis included a theory that the maze served to drive contestants mad and thus slaying the competition. She believed magic to be detectable by the creatures due to its nature of causing an aura to almost glow to those who are able to perceive it inside of someone, thus making magic users a bigger target. However, there was no doubt the creatures collected bodies not for consumption, but for direct kills. Excited to learn more, Feyrith asked if his borrowed magic would look different from cursed magic, as it belonged to his god and not himself, to which Iglas responded that curses were much worse than "renting" magic, with almost a bit too much irritation in his voice. While the half elf believed the non mages to possibly be able to sneak past the nest, Avandias suggested the opposite, wanting the mages to enter first. However, he had to voice concerns regarding their lack of caution, not excluding the possibility that Eponine was another illusion that aimed to lure them into the nest to get killed. Iglas scoffed that he would die anyway if he entered with him, due to the freezing cold surrounding him and Feyrith, as his medic, had to agree that he was in no condition to enter alone. Since Avandias took note of what Eponine had said about not being inside the arena anymore, he expressed his worry about receiving the prize and Eponine confirmed his worst fears: That the tournament had likely been a bait to kill everyone interested in the Phylactery. She did, however, not exclude the possibility that the prize exists regardless.

Gen was absolutely amused by the irony of entering a tournament hosted by a royal just to be screwed over, as they were the least likely to get caught for it. She did not know for certain if Lorian had been aware but had a sneaking suspicion that his previous comments related to this outcome. Since the competition was being wiped out anyway, Gen shrugged Avandias' concerns off and claimed that anyone could be an illusion at this point and that there would be no point in wasting time on the thought, since the creatures would kill them anyway. Feyrith couldn't help but to joke that the contest was probably used to **make** a Phylactery, considering he did not even want one to begin with, but Avandias commented that idea to sound excessive, as thousands of contestants had participated. Suddenly, Elias perked at the mention of possible divination, scattered a couple of bones that he enchanted with a mantra, then stormed off without giving an explanation. Disheartened, Avandias followed after the monk, no longer caring how things went down. Iglas joined in on the distasteful jokes by saying he was the real illusion planning to kill them, then followed into the nest with the others.

The fog was becoming even thicker than before, accompanied by repetitive clicking sounds while the group couldn't help but to feel watched. Upon being asked where she was headed anyway, Eponine stated that she was still trying to find the Phylactery, even if the odds of finding it were 50/50. She did warn the group that it may get ugly, however, before stopping near a giant pile of debris and other junk, nothing that hinted of the existence of the Phylactery. Just as the girl wondered if she had been wrong with her assumption and turned her back, the terrifying creatures emerged from the pile once again, one in particular standing out as it scaled the large pile, ordering its brethren to "harvest", then leaped to attack the nearest target - the unprepared Eponine. Just in time, Gen slipped in between her and the creature, pushing her out of the way, but failed to anticipate the weight of the enemy, forcing her to fall on her back with the ravaging monster on top of her, only her sword between them to block its hungry bites. Fortunately for the bandit, the creature began cutting itself on her blade, which collected the red power source passively. Alarmed by the events, Masa did not hesitate long and readied her katana to storm to the other side of the group, fending off the approaching enemies from the other side. Iglas immediately noticed Gen's struggle as well and assisted her by creating an ice field underneath her, causing the monster to lose balancing grip with each step it took while trying to bite down on Gen. This action lured the other crawlers towards the mage, but would fortunately not overwhelm him, as he finally allowed his rampant storm to grow to its full capacity, freezing each enemy that inched into his closer proximity solid. Both Masa and Elias hadn't failed to notice that the first choice hadn't been the ice mage this time, but Eponine, both noting this detail internally.

Avandias had come a bit more prepared, as he had rushed into the enemy territory as soon as he had spotted the creatures, where he collected blood from the fallen bodies around him. Eventually finding himself stuck between a wall and a pack of creatures, the blood mage had only seconds to spare, which he used to draw a sigil on the ground, yet failed to notice his lack of blasted flint before it was too late. After being thrown to the ground, he retrieved the pouch of powder he had borrowed earlier and managed to slam the contained cantrip onto the drawn sigil in the last minute. Now ablaze, the cantrip burst the creatures and boiled their blood from the inside, killing them, though two of them managed to escape and three had survived, then eyeing Avandias.

While the battle was raging, Elias tried to find a safe spot somewhere in the crowd and managed to find one briefly, where he pulled out his last talismans in case he would have to use them. His mind on the Phylactery, he scanned the area for the prize, yet was flung across the room when another crawler came straight for him. Meanwhile, with the help of Iglas' ice, Gen managed to jump back onto her feet and returned the favor by shooting one of the enemies that was leaping towards the mage then another that had popped up behind him, while teasing that he she couldn't let him take all the credit. Although she was worried for his condition, Gen focused on the two creatures that had escaped Avandias, but not before noticing Elias getting knocked through the air. As soon as she had shot the one closest to the monk, she holstered her gun and focused on her blades to kill the creatures, which was now dripping with blood. Although she joked about babysitting Elias, she had opened an escape route for him.

Not knowing how to fend for herself and now on the ground, Eponine brainstormed her possible options to assist and finally grabbed Feyrith, whom she knew not to be a fighter as well, running back to the artifact with him. Seeing the two leave, Elias fled his hard spot and followed, watching the two rummage through the artifact's parts. After he had asked if they had found the Phylactery, Eponine enlightened the monk that she had retrieved something way better while lifting an object onto her shoulder, when she accidentally triggered the held weapon and struck down a monster with a laser-like beam.

Avandias felt himself relieved to know the more fragile members of their party to be out of the danger zone, yet struggled in slashing down the enemies that continued to swarm in, due to only having a small knife in his possession. Finally standing back to back with Gen, the man wondered how long they could keep fighting like this and what the reason for the creatures nesting at this place was if they were drawn to magic. While Gen stated to be determined to go on until she'd collapse, her stamina was reaching its limits. To their shared surprise, they both perked at a loud, exploding noise sounding from the maze path the others had run off to.

At the foot of the artifact, Eponine inquired if Feyrith knew how to aim, wanting to give the weapon into his hands, not aware of his race's stereotypical bow skills. Excited and pleased that for once a person hadn't immediately discovered him to be a half elf, Feyrith took over the weapon as the three hurried back towards the group, where a direct hit tore apart a large number of creatures that had surrounded Avandias and Gen. While the two were having mixed feelings of being relieved to have reinforcements and wondering what the hell they had found back in the alleyway, Iglas immediately recognized the new weapon and asked where the remains of it were. Eponine stated that the other parts had been left at the large artifact and Iglas instantly forbid her to go back to retrieve it, which the girl reacted to with stubbornness. Despite finding their quarrel amusing, Gen fired a few more shots at leaping opponents while begging the two to focus on the fight again.

[...]