Once, the labyrinth was a wonder.
It had no beginning, no end—an endless sprawl of marble halls, blooming gardens, and rivers of light. People spoke of it as a gift from the gods, a place where treasures gleamed like stars and the flowers never wilted. Children dreamed of entering to prove their bravery, warriors sought glory, and kings sought riches.
But wonder is never without teeth.
The deeper explorers ventured, the more the labyrinth changed. Its beauty twisted into hunger, and its guardians—beasts of impossible size and shape—spilled forth. They crossed into the human world like floodwaters through a broken dam.
Humanity fought back. They named it The Labyrinth War. Armies marched, rifles cracked, cities burned, and the monsters pressed ever forward. At first, people believed they could win. They could not. For every beast slain, another emerged from the endless halls. For every flower plucked, ten more bloomed over the corpses.
Years bled into decades. Nations crumbled. Families were scattered. Until, at last, the war ended—not with victory, but with silence.
The monsters remained. The labyrinth remained. But humanity… was gone.
All but a few children. Survivors too small to understand the glory their parents died chasing, too fragile to carry the weight of the war that devoured them all.
Now, the labyrinth is the world. Its flowers are their forests. Its rivers are their seas. Its monsters are their only enemy, its beauty their only home.
And in this hollow paradise of scars and wonders, a boy and a girl will meet.