The Trial of the Mazed City opens with George separated from Nana and Kayn the moment they enter the City of Mazes. Trapped beneath a collapsed corridor, he is forced to survive alone—fending off shrieking hordes of giant bats while evading a "Savage Pack" of Harvesters who stalk the maze and hunt challengers for sport.
His fate shifts when he is rescued by Arthur Pendragon, the young Prince of Elysium, who reveals the city's true nature: the maze is a living siphon, a sentient construct designed to judge intruders by the purity of their intent. As an immense ethereal clock tower manifests in the sky and begins its merciless countdown, George and Arthur race through shifting corridors and lethal traps.
Their progress is halted by a Weaver of the Depths, a monstrous spider lurking in the abyssal passages. Though they survive the encounter, Arthur is left gravely wounded, and the cost of the maze becomes painfully clear. George later reunites with Nana and Kayn within a hidden chamber.
Together, the group slays a colossal serpent guarding the path forward, only to be ambushed moments later by rival candidates. Exhausted and outnumbered, Nana, Kayn, and Arthur are captured. With his final reserves of strength, Arthur unleashes a desperate blast that hurls George into a subterranean stream, sacrificing his freedom to give George a chance to live.
George survives the freezing depths and restores his strength using Heartnotisha seeds. Guided by the lingering pull of his companions' magical signatures, he tracks them to a rival encampment. Moving unseen, he wields invisible blades of compressed wind to dismantle their captors and free his friends. Reunited, the four launch a devastating counterattack that completely shatters their enemies. With only hours remaining on the clock, they fight through relentless waves of golems, pushing their magic and endurance to the brink before reaching the violet Monolith—the maze's exit.
The volume concludes in the factory's grand chamber, where the survivors receive their final evaluations. George, Nana, Kayn, and Arthur pass the preliminaries and earn a brief respite in the Relaxation Center. There, they are briefed on their next ordeal: the three-zoned Forest of Golems. Determined never to be separated again, they mark themselves with a shared symbol and fuse their tele-stones, vowing to find one another no matter where the next trial casts them.