The village had begun to heal. Smoke no longer clouded the skies, and hammers rang once more in Eryan's forge. Yet peace never lingered long in this world.
One dawn, a messenger arrived—a royal scout with news of a labyrinth unearthed beyond the Black Hills. The labyrinth pulsed with strange energy, warping the land around it. The kingdom sought adventurers, mercenaries, anyone brave enough to explore its depths.
Eryan, restless since the battle with Kael, felt a pull. Not from duty, but from instinct. Labyrinths… places where forgotten knowledge sleeps. Places where steel and destiny are tested.
Selene frowned when he told her his plan. "Eryan… you've just survived one war. Must you walk into another danger so soon?"
Eryan placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "If that labyrinth holds answers—or dangers—we can't ignore it. And besides…" He smirked faintly. "A smith is nothing without new materials."
Kael, still bandaged but recovering, spoke from the doorway. "Then I'll join you. A warlord's sins aren't erased with words. Perhaps in that place… I'll find my penance."
Together, the three set out at dawn.
The labyrinth's entrance gaped like the maw of a beast, carved from black stone and veined with glowing runes. Cold air poured from within, carrying whispers that prickled the skin.
Torches sputtered as they entered. Walls pulsed faintly, as though alive. The deeper they went, the more the labyrinth pressed against their minds—memories twisted, voices echoed, shadows moved where none should.
Selene clutched her staff, whispering a prayer. "This place is wrong. I feel… something watching us."
Eryan's hand brushed the hilt of his reforged blade. His forge-fire spirit steadied him. "Then we keep moving. Watch the walls, and don't trust the shadows."
Kael grinned despite the tension. "Finally. A place that feels like home."
The first levels held lesser beasts—twisted hounds with too many eyes, skeletal soldiers animated by ancient runes. Eryan's blade cleaved through them, Selene's light seared them, Kael's strength crushed them.
But the labyrinth was not endless battle. In its depths, they found chambers of research long abandoned—broken tables, shattered glass, runes scrawled in languages half-forgotten.
And in one chamber, hidden beneath layers of dust and shadow—they found her.
At the chamber's center stood a massive tube of reinforced crystal, filled with glowing blue liquid. Within floated a young girl, her silver hair drifting like silk, her eyes closed in eternal sleep. Strange runes circled the tube, humming faintly.
Selene gasped. "She's… alive. Somehow."
Eryan stepped closer, his smith's instincts recognizing the unnatural alloy encasing the tube. "This isn't just a prison. It's… a forge of flesh. Someone was experimenting."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "On a child." His fists clenched. "Bastards."
A faded journal lay nearby. Its pages spoke of a research project centuries old—an attempt to forge the "perfect weapon" by fusing human life with elemental cores. Most subjects perished. But this girl… she endured.
Selene pressed her hands against the glass. "We can't just leave her here."
Eryan nodded. "Agreed. But breaking this seal won't be easy. It's bound with both steel and sorcery."
As he studied the runes, the labyrinth stirred. The ground trembled. From the depths, a roar shook the chamber walls.
Boss of Level 5
The ceiling split apart as a monstrous figure descended. A hulking abomination of flesh and steel, stitched together from countless bodies, its torso fused with shattered armor, its arms ending in serrated blades. Its eyes glowed with the same runes as the tube.
Selene's breath caught. "It's… guarding her."
The beast roared, the air vibrating with hatred. It charged, the ground quaking beneath its bulk.
Eryan shoved Selene back, raising his blade. "Kael! With me!"
Kael grinned savagely. "Finally."
The battle erupted.
Eryan's reforged sword clashed against the colossus's bladed arm, sparks raining as the beast's strength threatened to crush him. Kael barreled in from the side, slamming a fist into its ribs, cracking bone and steel alike. The monster roared and swung wildly, forcing them back.
Selene chanted from behind, beams of holy light searing its hide, slowing its regeneration.
Still, the beast was relentless. It smashed walls, its strikes heavy enough to crater stone.
Eryan's eyes narrowed. A guardian made from war's corpses. If I can't break its body… I'll break its bindings.
He spotted runes pulsing across its chest—the core of its power.
"Selene! Light on the runes! Kael, open me a path!"
Kael roared, grappling the monster's arm, veins bulging as he forced it back by sheer will. "Go, smith!"
Selene unleashed a concentrated beam, searing the runes. The monster screamed, staggering.
Eryan surged forward, blade blazing, his hammer-trained strikes driving through layers of flesh and steel. With a final roar, he plunged the blade into the glowing core.
The chamber erupted in light and shadow. The monster howled, collapsing in a storm of broken flesh and shattered runes.
When the dust settled, Eryan stood panting, his blade buried deep in the ruin. The guardian was dead.
But the runes around the girl's tube flared violently, reacting to the guardian's fall. Cracks spread across the crystal, the liquid draining away.
Her eyes flickered open—silver, glowing faintly.
And she looked directly at Eryan.
Part 2 – The Girl Who Shouldn't Exist
The chamber fell into silence. The colossal guardian lay broken, its remains already dissolving into smoke as if it had never been.
But the true danger had only just begun.
The tube shattered, blue liquid spilling across the stone floor, glowing faintly as it seeped into the cracks. The girl within collapsed to her knees, coughing, her silver hair clinging to her pale skin.
Her eyes—shimmering silver like polished steel—opened wide. She scanned the chamber as though awakening from a dream… or a nightmare.
Eryan took a cautious step forward. "Easy… you're safe now."
The girl's lips trembled as she spoke in a soft, fractured voice. "...Forged… weapon… number zero… where… am I?"
Selene knelt beside her, wrapping her cloak around the girl's frail body. "You're not a weapon. You're alive. That's what matters."
The girl blinked, confusion clouding her gaze. "Alive…?" She touched her chest, feeling her heartbeat as though it were a foreign thing.
Kael's jaw tightened. "Those bastards turned her into an experiment. Look at the runes still carved into her skin…"
Indeed, faint scars of glowing script traced her arms and neck, pulsing softly with residual energy.
Eryan studied them, his smith's eye discerning their purpose. "They bound her with the same forge-runes used on weapons. She wasn't born to fight—she was made to."
The girl flinched, her hands gripping her temples. "Voices… always voices… orders I cannot ignore…"
Selene held her gently. "Not anymore. You're free now."
But Eryan wasn't so sure. The bindings had cracked, but some runes still pulsed faintly. Like chains yet unbroken.
Before they could question further, the labyrinth shuddered. Walls rippled like living flesh, and a voice boomed—not spoken aloud, but resonating in their skulls.
"Subject Zero released. Containment failure. Initiating purge."
The chamber's exits sealed with shifting stone. From the shadows, swarms of smaller constructs emerged—half-machine, half-flesh, glowing with runes of control.
Kael spat. "Figures. Save one life, and the whole place tries to kill us."
Eryan raised his blade. "Then we cut our way out."
The girl staggered, clutching her head. "No… they… they're connected to me. If I will it… they obey…"
Her silver eyes flashed. The swarms halted mid-charge, twitching violently, then crumbled to dust as their runes dimmed.
Eryan, Selene, and Kael stared.
"…What are you?" Kael muttered.
The girl lowered her gaze, tears brimming. "A curse. A failure that should not live."
Eryan knelt before her, his voice firm. "No. You're proof. Proof that even in chains, life endures. And I'll forge you a path forward… if you let me."
For the first time, the girl smiled faintly. A fragile, trembling thing. "…Then give me… a name."
Selene looked at Eryan, and he at her. After a moment, he spoke softly:
"Lyra."
The girl whispered it, as though testing its shape. "Lyra… my name."
The labyrinth trembled again, cracks spreading across the ceiling. Its very structure was collapsing now that its guardian had fallen and Subject Zero was freed.
Kael barked, "Talk later! If we don't move, we're all getting buried here!"
Eryan hoisted Lyra onto his back. "Then we run."
The corridors writhed as they fled, walls closing like jaws. Beasts and constructs spawned endlessly, but Lyra's gaze alone shattered them, her presence unraveling the labyrinth's very heart.
Selene's magic shielded falling debris, Kael smashed through collapsing stone, and Eryan carried Lyra with unwavering steps.
At last, they burst through the labyrinth's entrance as the entire structure caved inward, vanishing into the earth with a thunderous roar.
The ground stilled. Dust drifted into the dawn.
They had survived.
Lyra lay on the grass, breathing hard but alive. Her silver eyes searched their faces. "Why… why save me? I am only danger."
Eryan gazed at her, then at his calloused hands. "Because no one deserves to be a tool. And because… like steel, a person's worth is not in what they were made to be, but in what they choose to become."
Selene added gently, "Stay with us, Lyra. We'll protect you until you can decide your own path."
Kael crossed his arms, grumbling, though his eyes softened. "If she loses control, I'll be the one to end it. But until then… she's with us."
Lyra's eyes shimmered. For the first time, hope flickered within them.
"…Then I choose… to walk with you."
As they returned toward the village, none spoke of what the labyrinth truly was. But Eryan knew this was no accident. Someone—or something—had designed that place, had forged Lyra, had left her to sleep until found.
And if there was one experiment, there might be more.
Eryan's grip tightened on his blade. The forge of destiny burns hotter than ever… and I must be ready.