A Story of Evil

Chapter 23: The Maze III

[You have entered the Neutral Area.]

This was the voice that greeted Sol and the others as soon as they stepped through the door. The area was a wide corridor which had tables sticking to the wall and in the middle of it was the door that led to the next level of the maze. On top of it was a timer which gave the group an idea on how long they could stay there.

"Wait so that means there's no danger here, right?" Jake asked.

"Gee that's right captain obvious." Alice murmured.

"Hey it's not nice to say stuff like that." Ethan rebuked.

"Oh this is a surprise. So you can understand almost inaudible words but you couldn't follow Sol even when he was shouting."

"Back it up you two. I don't have enough energy for this." Sol simply said.

Aside from Alice, the other three were nothing but excess baggage to Solomon. But it wasn't like he could just leave them behind. As much as possible he wanted to finish the maze with all of them alive because, there was no guarantee that they'd revive if they were killed there.

"They should at least die in the Culling. That way they would be more useful for me." Sol thought as the voice of the maze spoke again.

[At the end of each round you will be given the same rest period within the Neutral Area. Items are generated at the end of each round and they will appear on top of the tables.]

Just as the voice said this, there were items being generated. These were pixel like in appearance and were slowly turning into the items that they were.

[Each of you can only pick one item. As soon as you touch something, it will automatically be registered as taken. Every item can be used by all members of the team.]

"Food!" Ethan immediately saw the raw pack of steak at the end of the table. He was just about to go there when Sol held his shoulder.

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"No." Solomon commanded.

"What?" Ethan didn't like getting hungry. Especially after Pandora made them have a taste of how it was to have regular decent meals.

"We can probably find food on the next areas. It's too early to take something as non-essential as that." He explained.

"How can food be non-essential?" Ethan said like it was the most obvious thing.

"Will food help you get through a cliff?"

"Uhm"

"How about killing a monster?"

"Well"

"Is it gonna last longer than one use at least?"

"no"

"Yeah that's what I thought too." Sol said, finally loosening his hold on the defeated Ethan.

"Don't take anything and let me think on what we should bring." Everyone else agreed, knowing that Sol would gather only the true essentials.

There were various items on the table. From food to clothing to weaponry to other items for utility. Thankfully the [Analysis] was functioning in that moment, allowing Sol to see the details on the things they could take. He then pointed on the items one by one and the four went to grab them.

[Immunity Bag x1]

[Information: The bag itself is immune from burning, corrosion, wetness, and everything else. It is lightweight and ensures that all items placed inside are safe from any harm.]

[Flame Crystals x7]

[Information: The items can be controlled remotely from a range of up to 300 miles. The item will create a small flame and could last for a whole hour. The flame could go stronger in exchange for a shorter activation period.]

[Land Mines x5]

[Information: Explosives that are usually set below the ground as traps. The damage produced by mines are 2x stronger than grenades.]

[Smoke Screen x2]

[Information: The item can become a thick vision obstruction in closed spaces. The item's effects are less effective on open areas.]

[Rope x2]

[Information: It's a rope. But wait there's more! It's two.]

"The food." Ethan was mourning the loss of the steak which disappeared along with the other items.

The five didn't consume the whole rest period. They didn't know how long the maze would last and so, they needed to move as fast as they could. With Peter holding on to the [Infinity Bag] containing all their items, they proceeded to the second level of the Maze.

[Welcome to Level 2]

The voice said, without any information being given. The five looked around and saw fresh green trees all around them. It was another forest looking stage but, unlike a normal forest, there was a pathway made for them.

A yellow bricked road with a signage of "This Way" was left for them. And since walking through the thick trees seemed to be more dangerous, Sol decided that they should simply follow the road. It was quiet and peaceful, so much so that they took notice of their own footsteps and every other sound which the forest made.

"This place doesn't look dangerous at all." Alice said walking side by side with Sol.

"We can't merely trust appearances now can we?"

The three trailed behind them. Ethan looked at Sol with furrowed eyebrows, thinking how food was still a logical choice compared to rope and land mines. In fact, he thought that the land mines were utterly useless; ranting all of this to the two he was walking with.

"How are we supposed to use those things? This doesn't look like a warzone and what if the enemies are flying?"

"Yeah you have a point Ethan. I really think that Sol just wanted to look smart and took a bunch of items that we think would be useless so he could come out and say something like 'you need to be on my level to understand these things.'"

They didn't want to admit it. The fact that Solomon was really leagues above them when it came to using his brain and staying level headed. This was largely because they were both older than him. Ethan was 16 while Jake was 19. Of course they wanted to take the lead and, just by allowing two twelve-year-olds guide the group, their pride was getting heavily wounded. However, Peter was nothing like these two.

"How about we just trust them for now? We owe our lives to them for saving us on the first round, right?"

"Whose side are you on Peter?" Jake began.

"Yeah, aren't you the one who's supposed to lead us?" Ethan said, thinking about the fact that Peter was the oldest among them. Twenty years old, just one more year and he could've been safe from the Culling.

"I have no intention of taking a role I can't fill. In fact, if you think you can lead better than Sol, then why don't you just say it to him straight up? You're both older than him aren't you?" This made the two shut up. Embarrassed about how they talked so big a couple of seconds ago but can't act when push came to shove.

"Just trust them and, if it makes you feel any better, I'll take command if they fail even once. Agreed?" Ethan and Jake gave thumbs up and, soon enough, things finally began to get livelier again.

At the end of the road, there was a gigantic creature. Alice was the one to take notice of this, having better vision than the rest. Sol then commanded her to go up a tree so that she could use [Analysis] and gather the data on their opponent while Sol went and talked with the three.

"Our opponent seems to be a golem this time around. It didn't attack us and it isn't moving from its area so I believe that there's a trigger to making it move." Ethan disregarded everything else Sol was saying and focused on the most ridiculous part about it.

"A GOLEM!?!" Peter and Jake immediately closed his mouth, with Sol massaging the middle point of his brows from Ethan's recent action. But then again, he couldn't be blamed.

Golems are superb monsters. Depending on their design, they could either be for offense or defense and, most of their stats will focus on hyper boosting their specialty. Thus, an offensive type golem could break through a dragon's scales, destroy good barriers and many more. But this will also leave its defenses vulnerable, getting easily damaged by mere spell attacks.

But this was the problem. Spells needed to be used in order to damage it at the very least because, physical attacks have almost zero effect on golems.

All of them knew of this because, a couple of years ago, a Culling had two golems activating at once. One was defensive and one was offensive. By the power of these creatures alone, they were able to wipe out a bunch of Titans, all of which backed away after their encounter. Those who were unfortunate enough to find themselves in the same location fell into the trap; getting their team reduced by the overwhelming power of the golems.

That same creature was the thing waiting for the five powerless Voids. It didn't matter what Alice could see through [Analysis] because Ethan and Jake couldn't care less. In both their heads, only one thought remained:

"We're screwed."