The Labyrinth [2]

As soon as I stepped through the portal, I knew that something was wrong and, in the next second, I could see exactly why I felt so.

Instead of arriving in the dungeon with my party members, I was now all alone, not one of my friends in sight.

Not allowing myself to hesitate for a second, I brought forth my sword, keeping it ready at all times in case something happened. Looking around, it didn't seem like I was in another dungeon, as I had gotten transported into a slim hallway, entirely made up of stacked stones.

Letting myself glance backward quickly, I was met by a sight that fully cemented my worries. "The portal is gone..."

There was no exit portal behind me, only a stone wall, meaning that the only way I could go now was forward. Although I had no idea what was happening, I had a nagging feeling that I knew who would do something like this, someone who seemed to always be playing games.

If it was the work of a demon, I would have already been engaged in battle, so the only option remaining was the man who was always in control, who enjoyed playing with his food.

With that in mind, I walked forward, expecting to see a familiar face, and it didn't take long until I had made my way to a door that would ultimately lead me to the final destination.

Opening the door, my eyes were met by what could only be described as an arena. At the same time, my earlier suspicions were quickly confirmed as I heard the almost feminine voice of a man I hadn't seen in a long time.

"Yo. What's up? It's been quite a while."

Sitting on a large throne made out of stone, with one leg over the other, on the other end of the arena was the masked man who had robbed the country of Mensch of its happiness for a long time, making everyone live in fear for what was to come.

To me, though, it was the same old James as always, only that he had an extreme glow-up with his hair now adorned with beautiful, long white hair and he was dressed neatly in a gray suit.

Then, to top it all off, his face was still covered with the same mask that he had worn in the square, the black sockets making sure that he caught even the smallest of my movements.

Letting my arm relax a bit, making my sword point to the ground, I repaid his pleasantries, "It has. So, how's life as a criminal? Must be hard to be hated by the whole world, isn't it, James"

****

[Sarah's Pov]

"Where is Arthur?! Fuck!"

An enraged draconic girl was currently exasperated, seeing as her lover had somehow not ended up in the same dungeon as we had. For me, I wasn't too surprised. After all, I was the one who had put that small marker on his body, making sure that James would get to meet him as he wanted.

This was what the masked man had wanted me to do, to plant a marker on both Sebastian and Arthur, a marker that would disrupt the portal travel and send them to other locations in the dungeon by themselves.

At this point, the anxiety I felt was through the roof, making my back grow colder with each second that passed by. 'It's fine! We signed a contract... He can't kill them, if he does, he dies as well!'

I had no idea why James wanted to meet these two people in specific, but I knew that if I didn't comply with his demands, I might have been the cause of a war that would certainly be the end of mankind.

It wouldn't be the war in itself that would end our world, but there was no way the demons that had started to approach again wouldn't take advantage of the situation. Just like my father always said, the only way we would reach the future was if we stood united.

'Father...'

It was hard, knowing about a lot of the things the king of Mensch had to do in order to keep the country safe, and how many lives were sacrificed for the majority to live in peace. I wasn't blind, and neither was I ignorant.

I was well aware of the disgusting actions of my father, even to the point where I had been thinking about the possibility that James was just a casualty, just an unfortunate soul that happened to get caught up in an impossible situation.

But that wouldn't explain what happened at the city square. In no way could I believe that the man was just an ordinary boy after seeing what he did, how he overpowered an entire city just through his presence alone.

Therefore, there were only two possibilities left. He was either a god or a demon, and my mind was still trying hard to convince me of the latter, as I didn't want to think about the future if we had tried to execute a god.

Throwing me out of my thoughts, Sophie couldn't take it anymore, "Let's go out! I don't care about this dive anymore! Hopefully, he is outside waiting for us!"

'He is not...'

Knowing that Arthur was currently in a meeting with a demon, it was hard not to yell the truth out loud, to tell her that it would all be fine in the end. Yet, I couldn't. I had signed a contract that made me unable to tell a soul about everything that was going on.

Without being able to relieve the heart of my exasperated friend, I followed them out of the dungeon, knowing that she would be even more worried after we had made our way outside.

As Sophie and Anna left first, I had a couple of seconds for myself, letting me breathe for a bit and ponder about how completely fucked up everything had become.

Even worse was that the more stress I felt, the more I felt a longing for the time I spent with a certain person. The one person that had made me able to let go of all my troubles for a while, who had just looked at me for who I was, and not who I would eventually have to be.

****

[Sophie's Pov]

"Shit! He's not here either!"

My heart was about to blow up, and I couldn't stop the heat from rushing to my head when thinking about what might have happened to Arthur.

Not caring about the others staring at me, I used all of my energy trying to find an answer as to what might have happened, but it was to no avail.

"Ms. Red! What's wrong?" Fortunately, Ms. Turner was quick to get to my side, trying to figure out why I was panicking. Steadying my breath, I knew I had to try and stay calm in order to explain how Arthur had just suddenly disappeared when he stepped through the portal.

However, before I could do so, the other group also came out of their side of the dungeon, and it was clear that there was a very eerie theme between our parties. "Sebastian's not here either! What do we do?!"

What we didn't know was that both of the missing classmates were currently having two different meetings with the same person.

****

[Sebastian's Pov]

"Where are the others? Did something happen during the transfer?"

Somehow, I had ended up all alone in the dungeon, with not a single member of my party with me. Turning back, it was obvious that whoever brought me here was adamant that I wouldn't be able to escape, as the exit portal was nowhere to be seen.

Grabbing ahold of my spear, it didn't take long for me to realize that the only way to go was forward, into the grasp of whoever was waiting. As my feet dragged me forward, it didn't take long until I was met by the sights of a huge, wooden door.

'Mother... If I don't make it back... Just know I love you...'

After taking a second to think one last thought, I opened the door, revealing the sights of a grand arena, fully built in stone. Around the arena stood huge statues in the form of what I assumed to be great warriors, all clad in different armor and holding different weapons.

Then, on the other side of the room, I saw who had brought me here.

"Yo, Sebastian! How have you been?"

Sitting with one leg over the other, completely casually, the man formerly known as James was waiting for me, his white hair neatly put up in a ponytail, resembling the tail of a fox.

Tightening my grip around my weapon, I felt my heart heating up with anger. Even now, that despicable being just couldn't leave me alone, couldn't let me show what I was made off.

Sadly, I knew that I couldn't just lunge at him, in case there were traps planted. Therefore, I made the decision to humor him a bit and accepted his untold proposal to talk.

"James... Or is that still your name? Whatever. What do you want?"