The heat was unbearable, molten red lava overflowed the jagged rocks around him. The smoke clawed at a man's lungs, and he coughed, burning from the inside. His legs trembled as his foot almost slipped off the small flat surface of a levered crumbling stone.
A shadow loomed above him. A towering figure perched on a higher ledge, away from the flowing lava.
When the man saw him, he cried. "Fateless! He-help me! You won't leave me like this, would you?"
Fèi Míng's gaze slid over the man's bloodied, beaten form, then down at a mangled arm lying in the lava's glow. He stepped over it without hesitation. Shirtless, bruised, disfigured, deep gashes crisscrossing his torso.
He laughed, the echo distorting into a violent cackle.
"Why should I help? Death is nothing but an expression, and Lin, right now, I have none."
The man's eyes widened in disbelief, pain etched in every trembling line of his face. "Fateless— Fèi Míng, you BASTARD! What have I done to deserve this? I have a wife and kids at home!!!
Fei Míng tilted his head to the side. His face darkened as the slightest bit of distaste clung to his tongue. "So what. Die."
— — —
Rhys's voice cracked through the passage. His arm was locked around Kei's neck, the struggle jerking both of them sideways as Kei snarled and clawed at him like a rabid dog.
Helena hesitated to leave him with that monster. The others hovered, feet glued to the floor. It was harsh to see. Not even one of the remaining two of his 'team' offered to help.
"I SAID RUN!" Rhys barked, desperation punching through every word. "Don't worry about me—just go!"
Kei thrashed harder, spit flying from his teeth. His fingers dug into Rhys's wrist, nails cutting skin. "ARGHHHH!!!"
Rhys sucked in a breath through his teeth, he then yanked the knife out and stabbed Kei's shoulder.
Kei's scream hit the walls and bounced back. His legs buckled for half a second. "I'll kill you! I'll KILL you!! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!!! Let GO of ME!!!"
Helena forced herself to turn. "M-move!" she yelled, shoving the nearest person forward.
At last, they finally left.
Behind them, Rhys exhaled a shaky laugh. "Good… good, just keep going—" Finally, I'm being useful… I'm being—
Kei twisted. He grabbed Rhys's wrist and shoved his own shoulder down, pushing the knife deeper. Then he ripped his arm back, tearing the blade out of himself with a ragged grunt.
Rhys choked, eyes going wide. "What—w-wait—"
Kei's rage finally snapped the last thread.
He wrenched the pocketknife out of Rhys's fingers, twisting so hard it bent the boy's knuckle sideways with an audible crack, and then he plunged the blade into Rhys's ribs, stabbing him continuously as his anger seeped out. Each stab made Rhys's body jolt backward, breath leaking out in choked, broken gasps.
"You—" Kei spat, his voice splintering, "—you think—you can fucking DEFEAT ME?!"
He pulled the knife free again, chest heaving, pupils blown wide.
Rhys's knees buckled. He hit the floor, one hand clutching at his side, the other trembling uselessly in front of him.
Kei staggered back a step, panting, blood running warm down his arm. His eyes darted around, wild, searching for something bigger… anything more satisfying than a knife to finish the job.
Ah. He found it: a loose stone, half the size of his head, laying behind the pool of blood from the previous trap.
He snatched it up with both hands.
"DIE!" he hissed through his teeth.
BAM!
He smashed it on Rhys' head. And repeatedly do so until the young boy's skull cracked open.
The stone slipped, leaving a smear of red across the floor.
Rhys finally stopped moving.
Kei stood over him, chest heaving, fingers trembling around the stone. His entire arm shook, as angry tears blurred his vision.
"Fucking traitors…" he muttered, wiping his face with a bloody sleeve. " Haa. I must win. When I win, I'll kill them. An Awakened always had the right to kill when they must. I'll kill them. I must kill them… I will—"
Then he dropped the stone, checked around, and sprinted into the labyrinth, in the same direction his ex-team had taken.
___
"Hurry! Hurry! Turn left!!"
Helena dragged the rest of the team around the last bend. She dragged in her breath, not even knowing how many turns they'd taken anymore — the labyrinth twisted too much, shifted too much.
Still, they hoped to reach the end soon.
"Keep moving—just keep—" she muttered, mostly to herself. Don't die here. Don't die— you need to survive!
Fèi Míng jogged silently beside her, examining her stern expression. Even a thief cared about human life, huh. Despite them previously taking Kei's side, and almost killing her, she still wanted to save them? His eyes flickered ahead, then to the wall, then ahead again. I don't get it. I should recalculate my steps.
Then he pointed to a corner.
"Right."
Helena nodded. "Go!"
They turned sharply, their footsteps stomping on the floor, breaths hitting the narrow air in hot The walls squeezed closer the farther they ran. Winter tripped and scraped their palms. Caitlin—the last girl with them choked on a sob.
They suddenly stopped.
"…What?"
Helena's shoes skidded to a halt.
What stood before then was a wall.
A dead, smooth, unhelpful wall.
They froze there, bodies colliding into each other from behind, hands grabbing shoulders, the whole group shoving into a panic-packed knot.
"H-How?!" Caitlin grabbed her hair, fingers tightening. "How did we reach a dead end?! We didn't—we didn't turn wrong!"
"What do we do?! Helena—what do we—?!"
Helena held her breath, her eyes wide, trembling in terror. H-how… How did this happen?
A runic board flashed above them. Its blue screen illuminated their panicked faces.
Ding!
[Gluttony Detected.]
[Penalty: Time Reduction.]
No. Not this again. Helena clenched her fist. Last time, a whole day was cut off.
[Time Remaining: 15 minutes.]
Everything went silent.
Fifteen minutes.
Helena's stomach dropped so hard her knees almost buckled.
[Labyrinth depth: 71%]
Beside her, Fèi Míng exhaled once. He sniffled, rubbing his face with his arm as he stuttered:
"…S-sorry. It's totally my fault. I—I led us wrong."
Helena snapped her gaze to him. The hell is he talking like his nose was blocked by a vending machine?! This faker! He did it on purpose.
But why?
Winter's jaw clenched like he wanted to shout at him, but fear swallowed the sound whole. They needed every second, and wasting any, meant dying earlier.
Helena grabbed a shoulder— she wasn't even sure whose— and pushed them all back.
"This way. Go back. We move left."
No one argued.
They ran out of the space as fast as they could, turning left as Helena suggested.
Then the corridor widened into a clearer open space. And the exit appeared. It was a stone carved, one-way exit that directly led them out of the labyrinth.
Helena nearly cried. She staggered forward, almost tripping on a brick. It's the exit. Others silently cheered behind her… until they saw the figure standing right at the mouth of the labyrinth.
Someone was already there, standing right at the front of the stone carved exit.
Kei.
His face was twisted into a grin too wide for his face. His eyes were wild, his pupils were blown huge and red. He was splattered with blood, none of it his, judging by the way he grinned.
He spread his arms wide open, laughing to the joke of the year only he seemed to have heard.
"You—" he jabbed a finger at them, laughing harder. "You thought you could run without me?" His voice rose, cracking. "TRAITORS! You left me behind with that thing! But guess what—guess who's going to win anyway?! Me! I'm getting a skill—ME—finally—"
"Kei," Helena gasped, panting hard."Don't step out yet—there's a—"
He smirked and planted one foot outside the threshold. "Like I care about shit."
"—THERE'S A TRAP!"
A hard sharp metal slammed down from the ceiling.
BANG!
It was a huge guillotine with thick jagged edges.
It hit Kei from the top of his skull down through his hip, slicing him diagonally. His flesh peeled apart around the metal. His ribs now split open, snapping one by one in a series of sharp, wet cracks.
Helena's hand flew to cover her eyes. It was such a disgusting sight.
The blood sprayed messily across the stone, splattering Helena's arm and cheek in hot droplets.
His left half dropped first, sliding down the blade and hitting the floor with a meaty thump. The right half, too, fell off, as his organs slipped free from his stomach, slumping to the ground.
Then nothing.
Fèi Míng watched the pooling blood. His eyelids lowered slightly… like he was savoring something.
But only for a second. So that's how death worked out for him…
Fascinating. Even better than Lin's.
Then his expression flattened again.
[Current Players: 19.]
[Time Remaining: 9 minutes 15 seconds.]
Helena let down her arms as she sucked in a breath, forcing her voice to steady.
"I d-did try to warn him." She turned back to the group.
Out of eight, only four of them remained. Winter, the girl that screamed her head off, Fateless, and… her.
Still, they had to finish the game. None of them would want to volunteer going back for the boy with a sticker patch—Rhys. There wasn't much time left.
So she stepped over the guillotine, her eyes forced shut to keep out the gore. She stumbled out onto the heated stone floor, blinking against the sudden blast of light as the warm air danced against her skin.
The after-game realm was nothing but an orange horizon.
[Congratulations, Neon! You Have Won The Hunger Gauntlet!]
[Your Prices Will Be Allocated Shortly!]
[We are delighted!]
She won.
She actually won.
Her chest rose and fell, each breath thick and shaky.
Winter let out a weak sob behind her. Caitlin slid to her knees.
Helena should've been laughing, doing her victory dance, or something.
Instead, her stomach knotted. People had died. People her age. All in front of her.
She forced a small, tired smile anyway. "I… I did it," she whispered, more to convince herself than anyone else. "We made it out."
Her legs trembled anyway.
She swallowed and turned her head slightly.
"Fateless?" she called, her voice cracking. "F-Fateless, I… I can't believe I actually won." She wiped her face with the back of her arm, breath shaking. "Although, there's a lot of things you need—must tell me. Like the chicken shit you pulled—"
No one responded.
Helena blinked, waiting for his soft footsteps…
"…Fateless?"
Still nothing.
She spun around fully. Is this guy ignoring me now?!
However, he wasn't there.
The spot he should've been standing in was empty. Somehow, her eyes caught the faint silhouette of someone. She squinted, and gasped.
Fèi Míng had gone back into the labyrinth.