The Chain-Road ended in a mouth.
Iron links curled inward, forming jagged teeth. Beyond them gaped a stone throat, wide enough to swallow a house. The throat breathed—slow, wet, hungry. From its depths drifted a smell of old graves and fresh bread, mixed so well Lin Yan could not tell which was which.
He stepped inside. The mouth closed.
Darkness lasted three heartbeats. Then torches flared—blue flames that floated like balloons. He saw walls of black stone, slick with condensation. Each stone bore a single name, carved so deep the letters bled light. The names shifted while he watched, rewriting themselves in languages that hurt to read.
A corridor stretched ahead, splitting into three paths. No signs. No maps. Only the breathing of the labyrinth, steady as a sleeping god.
He chose the middle path. The moment he did, the other two vanished, walls sliding across like teeth snapping shut. There was no going back. Only forward, into the Deathless Labyrinth.
---
First Rule – You Die, You Wake
He walked for what felt like hours, though time felt bent here. The corridor curved gently, always downward, always dim. Then he heard the blade—a whisper of steel slicing air.
A trap sprang from the ceiling: a scythe as tall as him, curved like a moon. It swept across the corridor too fast to dodge. The last thing he saw was metal kissing neck.
Darkness.
Then light.
He gasped, jerking upright. He lay on a stone platform at the centre of a round chamber. The same black walls, the same blue torches. His neck bore no wound, but the memory of pain throbbed like a bruise. The black lotus on his chest pulsed, storing the sensation of death.
A girl sat nearby, chin in hands, watching him with curious eyes. Her hair was white as salt, her clothes simple grey. She looked no older than fourteen.
"First death?" she asked, voice soft.
He nodded.
"You get used to it."
She introduced herself as Mira. She had been trapped here three years, maybe more—time was slippery. She had died a thousand times, maybe more. She no longer counted.
"The labyrinth keeps us alive so it can keep killing us. Death is broken here. We are toys with unbreakable strings."
Lin Yan stood. The platform had six corridors leading away. Each corridor ended in darkness, but from time to time he heard screams, laughter, the clang of traps resetting.
"Is there a way out?" he asked.
Mira shrugged. "There is a centre. If you reach it, death works again. But the maze moves. Paths change. Traps learn. No one has made it."
He looked at the corridors. "Then we will make it."
She smiled, sad and hopeful at once. "I like broken dreams. They shine brighter."
---
The Loop Begins
They chose a new corridor, walked side by side. Mira moved like someone who had memorised every stone but knew the stones would rewrite themselves by morning.
First trap – floor spikes. Iron spears shot up, skewering them both. Pain flared, hot and bright. Darkness swallowed him.
He woke on the same platform. Mira was already sitting, waiting. Blood stained her grey clothes, but her skin was unmarked.
"Second death?" she asked.
"Second," he confirmed.
They walked again. Different corridor. New trap – walls that crushed. They died side by side, bones grinding to powder.
Woke. Third death.
Each time the lotus recorded the pain, the fear, the moment of dying. It did not flinch. It grew, petal by petal.
Mira taught him what she knew:
- Traps reset faster if you hesitate.
- Corridors shift if you look back.
- Screaming makes the walls hungry.
- Silence is survival.
But Lin Yan wanted more than survival. He wanted to break the law that kept death away.
---
The Heart of the Maze
On the seventh death, they found a door.
It stood alone in a dead-end corridor, built of bone-white stone. No handle, no lock. Only a keyhole shaped like a lotus bud. Lin Yan pressed the black lotus on his chest to the keyhole. It fit. The door opened.
Inside lay a vast chamber shaped like a beating heart. The floor pulsed. The walls throbbed with red light. At the centre hovered a stone heart the size of a wagon, suspended by silver threads that vanished into the ceiling. Every beat sent a wave through the labyrinth — resetting traps, reviving the dead.
Mira's face went pale. "That is the core. Break it, and death returns."
But the heart was guarded.
From the shadows stepped a figure – Lin Yan's own reflection, but dead. Skin grey, eyes hollow, throat cut. It carried a blade of bone. It spoke, voice like wind through broken glass:
"You cannot kill what is already dead. Leave this place."
---
The Fight Against Death
The dead reflection attacked — fast, relentless, without pain. It knew every move Lin Yan had ever made. It countered Void Mirror Step, parried Memory Blade, laughed at True Face Mask.
Lin Yan died again – impaled on the bone blade.
Woke on the platform.
But now he remembered the core room. He ran straight back, died twice more on traps, reached the door again.
Fourth entry.
This time he did not fight the reflection. He dropped his sword, opened his arms, and hugged the dead self.
"I accept you," he whispered. "You are my death. You are part of me."
The reflection shuddered. Grey skin cracked, revealing light. It melted into black petals, swirling into the lotus on his chest.
The stone heart beat once more – louder, desperate.
Lin Yan drew Memory Blade one last time, plunged it into the heart.
A scream – not sound, but memory of every death in the labyrinth – burst from the stone. The heart shattered, silver threads snapping like glass strings.
The floor cracked. The walls bled red light. The lotus on his chest opened – eight petals now – drinking the dying law.
A glyph burned across his chest – Third Law Severed: Death – black letters writhing, then settling like tattooed snakes.
---
Mira's Real Death
The reset stopped.
Mira gasped, hand to heart. "I feel it... ending..."
She smiled – truly smiled – for the first time in years.
"Thank you... for giving me back my finish."
She closed her eyes. Her body turned to white ash, drifting like snow.
Lin Yan caught a handful. It was warm, soft, real.
Tears – real tears – rolled down his cheeks.
The first he had shed since Chapter 1.
---
Exit – The Door Opens
The maze began to collapse – walls folding, ceilings sinking, floors cracking into black sand.
A new door appeared – simple wood, no lock.
He walked through.
Outside stood Kai, fox mask tilted, holding a tiny hour-glass.
The sand inside flowed upward – backward – defying time.
She whispered, voice soft as grave dirt:
"Next law is Time.
It remembers every second you stole from death.
And it always collects – with interest."
The last petal of the black lotus drifted from his chest, landing in her palm.
She closed her fingers.
The hour-glass shattered – sand freezing mid-air – forming a road of glass seconds leading into starless dark.
Lin Yan wiped his tears, straightened his shoulders, and walked into the frozen seconds – toward Time, who waited with open jaws and a clock for a heart.
---
End of Chapter 6