The sight was disgustingly beautiful.
His situation was bountifully dreadful.
He was literally on the summit of the Maw of Hell…
While that may seem like a grand name for something on the first level of a labyrinth — a place with much more dangerous and damning zones on other floors — it was still aptly named. After all, this place was the newbie killer, and the first of Divers had been the naivest and weakest of them all.
While Peace didn't have any proof other than some of the game lore, which now he wished he had paid a little more attention to, this place got its name because first-generation Divers who ventured here would never return. Earning this place the title of death zone…
Of course, a stronger Diver didn't have to worry about it, but Peace was anything but strong. He was weak and woefully underprepared for this situation.
Peace didn't expect a smooth, easy experience, but being dropped in the most dangerous quadrant at probably the most dangerous place in said quadrant… that wasn't something he'd been fully prepared for.
And now, seeing it in person and not through the pixelated game screen, it was clear the effect it's had over the years wasn't the only reason for this name — the visuals made it quite worthy.
The Maw of Hell wasn't entirely figurative per se…
The place Peace had found himself was atop a gigantic mountain of stained egg-white skulls, femora, fibulae, tibiae, and humeri tightly packed together in an all-encompassing mound of death.
He was currently on the edge of the mountain's incline and overlooking the rest of the Skeletal Plains… which was quite the ironic name considering the mountain he stood on.
Of course, the name still fit, as the mass of bones he stood upon seemed to stretch down for three kilometers of a modest slope, then eventually flattened out and faded into the horizon…
The air was surprisingly clear, and Peace could see unnervingly far, probably due to the fact that his place was a night biome, which was enhancing his every aspect, albeit a minor enhancement.
Far… far off to his right, he could see the crushed bone powder that coalesced and formed the Bone Desert, a vast true plain with knolls of white powder. Frequent storms kicked up the fine dust and made it hard to see into the vast expanse, but the billowing edge of that mass, which looked almost like smoke, was enough to ward off any thoughts of entering.
Drifting his gaze straight ahead, he could see the spires of massive ribs that poked out of the grounds like a multitude of obelisks. While they seemed relatively small from this distance, he surmised they were each about 30 meters tall.
As if it weren't terrifying enough, the ends of these rib bones were frayed and shaved into spikes, giving quite the uninviting look to the place.
How they formed and what beast they came from wasn't entirely known, but Peace was thankful that whatever it came from was long gone.
The entire ground below, except the desert, which was bone dust, was full of tiny pelletal bones. Peace was obviously too far to spot the more nuanced differences, but he could tell they were tightly packed together phalanxes and phalanges, as well as other wrist, hand, ankle, and foot bones.
Then, a little off to the side, he saw the River of Blood, which rushed off into the horizon, its red current flowing into nothingness.
He couldn't really see beyond the river, but he knew that wasn't the end of Skeletal Plains.
Then, Peace drew his gaze up and stared upon the disgusting, yet beautiful, red sky and the bloody moon that seemed to claim dominion over it.
Thankfully, there weren't any clouds nearby, so that he wouldn't be subjected to the field effect just yet, but he could imagine the haze of red mist that formed together and dropped pellets of corrosive blood from the sky.
Though, the red sky did give off a red hue that slightly reflected on the bones, making them look bloodied.
There was also one last structure Peace knew was around… the boss room.
Each floor of the labyrinth was separated into quadrants… These quadrants were typically unique, and each had sub-areas in them.
And, each quadrant had a boss, which was housed in a Domain…
Killing that boss was the only way to advance to a higher level. Thankfully, the Domain acted as a sort of confinement, so it couldn't escape and wreak havoc on the weak Divers. But still…
Peace, at the top of the mountain, slowly turned around and faced the only reason anyone may brave this harrowing place of absolute agony.
Peace felt incredibly small as he looked up at the gigantic skeletal palace called the Bone Temple behind him.
'Holy hell…'
A vast amount of bones had been somehow condensed and formed into a brick and laid into a massive staircase that stretched toward an empty void that served as the entrance to the fiend's Domain.
Then, on either side of the staircase, were two walls of meshed-together bone that stretched out, their platforms meeting only at the top of the stairs. The walls were lined with large sternums lying sideways and gigantic coccyges planted, forming a sort of crenellation.
Soon, a terrifying cold washed over the area as bones began to rattle and clink together.
At the top of the stairs, Peace could see the first skeletal hand burst out of the ground and grab at the surrounding mass and pull itself up. Soon, rifts began to form on the floor all around the temple.
Peace turned and looked down the mountain and saw much the same sight happening everywhere else.
Boney beasts were clawing their way up from the underworld…
The labyrinth was awakening.