Every villager kept their eyes locked on the four newcomers, but most of that attention fell on Leo, the stranger who had defeated their two strongest warriors without effort.
Leo studied the settlement. Dozens of tents and several small houses filled the open area, their surfaces smooth and pale, almost glossy under the dim maze light. Every structure was built from the same strange white material.
Orane stepped closer to him and whispered, "What are these made of?"
"Bones," Leo said.
"Bones?" Her voice cracked, her eyes widening.
The elder stepped forward. "Monster bones. It's the only material tough enough to last here."
Orane stared at the nearest house, her expression tightening. "But... doesn't that terrify you?"
The tall warrior girl snorted. "Fear doesn't matter. We survive with what we have."
The elder's gaze drifted across the families gathered behind him, children clinging to their parents, tense adults gripping makeshift weapons. "We patrol these corridors, rescue anyone we can reach, and try to keep this place safe. One day, we'll find a way out. Together." His voice slowed, and his expression tightened as if a painful memory surfaced.
Leo watched him. "What happened?"
The scholar answered first. "Two weeks ago, our strongest fighter, our teacher, left for patrol. He hasn't returned."
James frowned. "Why didn't you go after him?"
The scholar shook his head. "Do you know what this place is called? This is a Preserve Point. The maze never shifts here."
Leo stiffened. He hadn't known such locations existed.
"And Preserve Points all share something," the scholar continued. He pointed toward a narrow, dark passage branching off the village. "A path leading deeper. The monsters down there are far stronger. No one here is capable of facing them."
Leo's lips curled slightly. A fixed safe zone and a route to a tougher area... This Mad God really built this place like a game.
He turned to the elder. "Then I'll go find your teacher."
Gasps rippled through the villagers.
"You might be stronger than us," the big warrior girl said, "but that's impossible. Our teacher is at least S-rank."
Leo smiled, baring his teeth. His eyes glowed faintly, mana swirling behind them from his dual vision spells, giving him a predatory, almost inhuman look.
"Don't worry. I'll be fine. And if your teacher is truly that strong, we're going to need him." Leo's voice held a steady confidence.
The woman he had fought earlier let out a slow breath. "Then I'm going with you."
"As will I," the scholar added, gripping the tome at his side.
The warrior girl stepped forward. "Then I---"
The scholar lifted a hand and blocked her path. "We need someone here who can defend the village. We two are enough." He gave her a reassuring smile.
Frustration flashed across her face, but she swallowed it and nodded.
"Then let's go," Leo said.
"Right now?" the warrior girl asked, startled.
Leo's grin sharpened. "This place keeps getting more interesting. I'm not tired, and I would rather not waste any time."
Confusion flickered across the group, but no one pressed him.
Leo waited near the entrance of the deep passage for nearly half an hour, speaking quietly with the elder. He asked about the local paths, strange monster patterns, and how often the maze shifted beyond the Preserve Point. By the time the two volunteers returned with their gear, he already knew most of what the village had learned over the years.
Before leaving, the pair stood with the families, exchanging tight embraces and last words. Their expressions said they didn't expect to return.
Leo waited until they finished, then stepped toward the elder and the warriors guarding the village. "I'll leave my friends with you."
His expression shifted in an instant. Mana surged out of him like a shockwave, cracking the dirt beneath his boots. His eyes sharpened, glowing with a killing intent that wrapped around every soul present.
"But if I discover you lied to me... or if any harm comes to them..." His voice dropped into something cold and dangerous. "I will burn this entire maze down to find you."
Every villager stiffened. Sweat slid down necks. Even the seasoned fighters flinched.
Orane, James and Loidon were looking at him with surprise. They did nothing to be called his friends or someone he get angry about. They didn't even had time to thank him and now he was leaving to save someone else.
The elder bowed his head. "You have my word. They will be safe."
The pressure vanished as fast as it came. Leo exhaled, nodding politely as if nothing had happened. The warning had been necessary.
His two new companions exchanged a brief, uneasy glance but said nothing. Then they fell in step behind him as he stepped toward the dark, twisting passage leading deeper into the maze.
...
"So, what should I call the two of you? I'm Leo Mantine. Counting the time in here, I'm twenty-one." Leo spoke casually as they walked.
The girl glanced at him as though she'd misheard. "Vanessa Fink. With the maze's time... I'm fifty-four."
Her grip tightened on her swords, not from fear, but from confusion.
"Dave Burris," the scholar added, adjusting the heavy tome strapped at his side. "Sixty-one. With time in here, of course." He studied Leo more closely. "You are really young. How long have you been in the maze?"
"About two years."
"Two years?" Dave repeated. "I've been here for eighteen years. Vanessa, twenty."
Leo nodded toward them. "Then you've only been missing about five months in the real world."
Both of them stopped instantly. Vanessa's boots scraped against the bone-white ground. Their expressions shifted from confusion to shock.
"What?" Vanessa stepped closer. "Five months? How?"
Leo turned fully toward them. "Time runs differently here. One full day inside the maze equals about twenty-nine minutes outside."
Dave's brows pulled together. "And how exactly do you know that?"
"I researched before coming in," Leo said, tone completely calm.
Vanessa stared at him. "Before coming in? You're saying that as if..."
"As if I walked in on purpose," Leo finished for her. "Because I did."
Dave raised a hand, stopping Vanessa from speaking. His eyes sharpened. "If you came willingly... then you must know how to get out?"
Leo's smile was small but certain. "I have several methods. But here's all I can say now..." He turned and started walking again, his eyes scanning the creeping walls of woven plants. "In ten years, if you manage to stay alive, you can leave with me."
They didn't follow immediately. The meaning of "ten years" in a place like this, where survival came one corridor at a time, hit both of them hard.
Vanessa eventually asked, quieter than before, "Who are you, Mr. Leo?"
Leo looked back. "Me? I'm the vessel of a god."
Dave swallowed. "A vessel... of which god?"
"You shouldn't speak the name of a god while standing in another god's domain," Leo said, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
Vanessa and Dave exchanged a look. They both had questions, too many to count, but they kept them to themselves. Leo moved with the confidence of someone who knew far more than he was saying, and despite the danger, a small spark of hope lit in both of them. They followed, silent, thinking.
Their thoughts were cut short when shapes emerged from the twisting walls ahead.
A monster stepped into the corridor, four-armed, black-skinned humanoids like the ones Leo had fought before. But this one was smaller, half the height, with six arms instead of four. It's movements were quicker, sharper, and an oppressive aura clung to it like smoke.
Vanessa's stance tightened. Light crawled across her blades, building into a pale glow.
"Let's go."
She was about to charge when Leo lifted a hand, stopping her cold.
"Wait. There's something else behind them."
His eyes narrowed. A moment later, four more of the six-armed creatures slipped out of the shadows. And behind those…
Something moved. A slimmer figure stepped into view, her body twitching in small, unnatural motions. Leo recognized her instantly. The Harbinger of Madness, same form, same warped presence, but this one had no sword. Six arms like the creatures around her, and on five of her hands, white flames spiraled and twisted like living smoke.
Leo's voice dropped. "I'll take the one in the back. The five others are yours."
He didn't wait for a reply. His foot hit the ground, and he blurred forward like a shadow breaking loose from the wall.
...
Vanessa opened her mouth to explain her plan, but Leo was already charging ahead. She clicked her tongue in frustration.
"Let's move."
Dave gave a short nod, and the tome in his hand snapped open on its own. The veins along his wrist darkened as mana surged through his hand, his spellblood trait letting him cast faster than most mages alive.
Vanessa sprinted forward. Behind her, pages fluttered in Dave's book until it stopped on a spell. He pushed mana into the ink, and five bolts of ice shot out in a straight line. Before they even crossed half the distance, the book was already flipping to the next incantation.
The second spell washed over Vanessa, an enchantment threading through her muscles and armor, sharpening her strength and speed.
She didn't rush blindly. She let the bolts hit first.
The five monsters raised their fists, prepared to swat the projectiles aside, but the moment each bolt touched their skin, it burst into a puff of dense freezing mist. Ice crawled up their limbs and locked them in place, making them perfect targets.
Vanessa's glowing blade sliced through the first two before they could move, severing them cleanly. The remaining three shattered the frost shackles with a crackling surge of strength and slipped out of her next swing.
"These ones really are stronger," she muttered. Their usual combo never failed against lower-tier monsters.
But Dave wasn't done.
The pages halted, and two spells activated together. A ribbon of crackling mana wrapped around Vanessa's sword, layering lightning onto the celestial glow. At the same moment, a column of lightning dropped from above, striking all three monsters in a blinding flash.
The creatures seized as paralysis locked their limbs. Vanessa blurred forward, her sword now blazing with light and storm. Three clean cuts, three bodies falling in pieces.
She exhaled once. "Let's go help Leo."
Even from here they could feel the shockwaves, each clash sending a hot gust of pressure rolling down the corridor.
"Vanessa, look out!" Dave shouted.
Her instincts screamed. She raised her swords just in time before a massive fist smashed into her guard. The hit sent her skidding back more than a dozen meters, boots tearing lines into the bone-white floor, until she steadied herself beside Dave.
"What was that?" she snapped, breath tight.
Dave pointed forward.
"The five remains… they merged into one."
The creature standing before them had shrunk into a human-sized shape, but the power rolling off it was far heavier than before. Six arms coiled at its sides, muscles twitching, eyes burning with a feral madness.
It crouched, ready to lunge and then something slammed into its back.
The monster detonated in a burst of black flesh and smoke.
Whatever hit it tore straight through the body, streaked past Vanessa and Dave like a silver blur, and vanished into the maze's darkness. Vanessa caught only a brief flash of a figure sliding backward through the air, Leo, suspended by recoil alone.
"That was…" Vanessa breathed.
"Yes," Dave said quietly.
Their attention snapped forward as the true threat emerged. The Harbinger, the one Leo had been fighting, stepped out of the smoke. It moved slowly, confidently, its six arms drifting like hunting serpents.
"That's why I said not to underestimate this place," Vanessa muttered, raising her glowing sword.
A voice came from behind them.
"Wait."
Leo's voice, deep, ethereal, tinged with anger, echoed through the corridor.
His footsteps approached, steady and heavy. When he stepped into the faint light, both of them froze.
Leo's hair was pure white now. His eyes burned red. Mana clung to him like heat haze, rippling and distorting the air.
"She is mine," he said.
Vanessa tightened her grip. "But—"
"I've had enough," as Leo said, the air around him trembling.