Calypso’s Labyrinth

Kronos sat in his small cement cell, staring at the floor. He didn’t know how long he has been in this cell but it felt like it had been days. Shortly after they had arrived to the Sinter Royal Island, they had been herded to a large cavern and forced inside. Afterward, they had been locked away in prison cells somehow every smaller then the cells in the arena. Kronos could stand in the middle and touch both walls by spreading his arms. Other than meals, the prisoners were not allowed to leave. Are we going to remain in this prison for the rest of our lives? 

Then the door opened, and a guard walked into Kronos's cell. Instead of carrying a food tray, he hauled Kronos to his feet. 

“ Move it! Lord Commander Calypso wants to talk to all of you!” Kronos was pushed out of his cell and forced to start walking through a narrow stone hallway lit by torches. Kronos noticed several stone doors that seemed to blend into the wall like his cell door as he walked. Those probably hold other prisoners. He walked until he came to a large room where all the other prisoners were bunched together looking up. 

The room was bare except for a balcony where Calypso stood, arms folded. Her warriors lined the walls, weapons at the ready in case any of the prisoners attempted anything. Below the balcony was a set of double doors. Clearing her throat, Calypso spoke. 

“ There you are. Listen up, time for you all to learn why I brought you all here. Behind these doors is my own personal labyrinth. Each of you will enter it and try to find the exit. Those that manage to make it through will be rewarded.”

“ What if we refuse?!” Came the challenge of one of the prisoners. Calypso smirked and activated her Ryuijin. In the blink of an eye, she was no longer on the balcony but standing in front of the one who had spoken; her lance plunged into his stomach. Everyone recoiled in fear as Calypso ripped her weapon out of his stomach and let the body drop to the stone floor. Kronos gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. While everyone speculated how she could have moved so fast, Kronos knew. Along with enhanced visual prowess as well as create illusions, one of the abilities of the Ryuijin was to manipulate one’s perception. 

By activating her Ryuijin, she made those that looked into her eyes believe she had moved much faster than she had. 

“ I’m sure you all see what you can expect what will happen to you should you decide not to enter. So, anyone wish to decline?” she asked, lick up a little of the blood off her lance. Of course, she had no volunteers. “ Thays what I thought. Now pay attention so I can explain to you what you can expect in my labyrinth. 

First of all, the labyrinth is designed to test you in every way possible. In there, you’ll be face to face with your worst fears, creatures you’ve been taught to fear as children. And of course, it is pretty easy to get lost. I can’t begin to tell you how many have wandered this very labyrinth until dying because they couldn’t find the exit. Of course, if you see one of your fellow prisoners, you two may end up fighting. You could team up, sure, but honestly, can you trust the others around you? After all, I’ll only be offering the reward to the first few who successfully navigate the labyrinth. After that, I’ll just let the labyrinth have you. Now, you best begin.”

Seeing no other option, the prisoners slowly walked towards the doors. Kronos hated having to play Calypso’s game, but it was his only reasonable option. Even if I were to make a run for it, I’d never make it to the exit before someone cut me down. I have no choice but to go along with this for now. Kronos followed the herd of prisoners through the doors to see a corridor with two possible options to turn either left or right at the end. When he looked around, he noticed he was all by himself.

“ What in blazes?!” Kronos asked, looking around wildly. “ Where did everyone go? They were here a second ago!” Kronos furrowed his brow as he started to think. Calypso did warn us this labyrinth would be challenging. Perhaps the entryway is enchanted. Maybe once we step through those doors, we each get sent to a different entry. Either that or I’ve taken leave of my senses. Not having any other option, Kronos walked forward.

He walked several feet down the limestone corridor, guided only by the light of candles on the wall. Damn, the stench here. I expect I’ll stumble upon at least one dead body. He noticed the splatters of dried blood and other discolored stains Kronos didn’t care to know the identity of. Other than the sound of his footsteps echoing throughout the corridor, there was no sound. He soon came to a wooden down. He grabbed the brass handle, twisted it, and opened the door.

 He was greeted with the sight of a man with ragged black hair and a wild beard. His left eye was closed shut with a scar over it; his right was blue, pulsing with rage. His tan face was covered in jagged scars as well. For clothing, he wore a set of black leather armor. Kronos stared at him, head cocked to the left slightly. Do I know this one? I feel like I should.

The armor had a coif with a squared, t-shaped opening leaving the eyes and mouth exposed; a squared nose guard protected the nose. Attached to the top was a leather piece used to attach long, colored hairs which flowed towards the back. The shoulders were fairly rounded, broad, and relatively small in size. They were decorated with two smaller blades on each side, curved towards the backside. The upper arms were protected by squared, fully covering rerebraces which sat quite well under the shoulder plates. Vambraces wrapped the lower arms with a row of long, curved spikes on the outer sides.

The breastplate was made from one large piece of leather with edges of fur but crafted to mimic the appearance of muscles. It covered almost everything from the neck down, narrowing near the groin and left part of the sides exposed. The upper legs were covered by shorts made from exotic animal hide. The lower legs were protected by leather boots which had an intricately crafted sigil embroidered on each outer side. Thick cloth pants were worn beneath this all.

“ Hey, were you one of the prisoners?” Asked Kronos walking towards him. The man said nothing,his good eye lit with rage and madness. “ Hey, you alright? My name’s Kronos; who are you?” Kronos asked. He sniffed the air to get this man’s scent, but to his surprise, all he got was the smell of freshly dug dirt. The man snarled as Kronos approached closer and crouched on all fours. 

“ It’s you! It’s you! I’ll kill you! I swear it!”

“ Huh, what are you saying?” Kronos asked, taking a step back. I don’t recall seeing him amongst the rest of us taken here. And his scent wasn’t among us either. So why does he look so familiar?

“ You!” The man yelled, licking his lip with his large, purple tongue. Upon closer inspection of his good eyes, it looked like a snake’s eye. 

“ A Naga? But, what are you here?! Your kind are devout worshippers of the Ishtar; even if you committed some kind of crime, surely they wouldn’t have condemned you to this,” Kronos exclaimed. Usually condemned Naga prisoners were executed in private and their bodies returned to their families, a privilege only the Naga enjoyed. 

“ Dragon!” The man yelled, flying at Kronos, landing a punch in his jaw. Kronos’s eyes flew open as he skidded backward. 

“ What are you doing? To fight would be pointless!” He shouted. 

“ Die!” The man yelled in response, lunging at Kronos again. Kronos narrowly dodged another strike from the man with clenched teeth. Damn! It looks like I don’t have a choice! Running from this would only drag it out. Using Mana, he conjured white lightning to cover his fist and punched the man in the face. The man snarled as he skidded back. He flew at Kronos again with a roar, who backflipped over a man, sticking up two fingers, conjuring a whip of white lightning. He slashed at the man, wrapping the whip around his body, and threw him into the wall. 

As soon as Kronos landed, he titled on his heel, spinning the whip around, throwing the man across the room. With a flick of the wrist, Kronos’s whip vanished. The man slowly got to his feet and roared again. 

“ Damn you, dragon! I will kill you! I will! I will! I will!” 

Kronos furrowed his brow when he heard those words. I’ve heard those words before, but where? Could it be I fought this one before?

“ Witness the power of the Azrez Naga Tribe!” He yelled, his eyes beginning to change. The white of his eye turned golden, the blue replacing to black. “ Now, face the wrath of the Tribal Trait of the Naga, the Nintaijin!” White lightning engulfed the man, causing Kronos to back up in shock. Now I see! It’s him! But, how?!

Kronos’s mind thought back several years back to when he was ten winters old. He recalled the smell of rain on a particular evening, staring down this same man. He recalled seeing his horrific chest wound. The wind howled, lightning flashed followed by the sound of thunder as the man glared at him, his breathing haggard.

“ Kill you… I’ll kill you!” The man had shouted. “ I swear on my daughter’s grave!” A punch to the jaw caused Kronos to snap out of his recollections. He stepped back and dodged back and forth as the other man continued to attack him. I don’t understand. How is he alive? He had encountered this man when the Sintar Dragon Tribe was at war with the Azrez Naga Tribe over a territorial dispute softly after Kronos graduated from the Schola. He had hunted Kronos down after an ambush where Kronos had apparently killed his daughter. 

How is he mimicking my lightning attacks?! Kronos thought as he dodged lightning bolt after lightning bolt before he recalled something else. Of course, the Naga’s Tribal Trait, the Nintaijin, can mimic the abilities of others, as long as they are not Tribal Traits themselves. The Naga rushed at Kronos, aiming a punch at him. Thinking fast, Kronos dodged out of the way; he created an orb of white lightning and slammed it onto the man’s back. The force of which sent him crashing into the wall. 

“ Huh. I don’t know what’s happening here, but I see your fighting style is still the same. Just charge straight ahead without thinking. Just like back then.” Kronos said, jumping back several feet, closed his eyes, and opened them again, channeling Mana to activate the Ryuijin in both his eyes. The man slowly turned around and hissed when he saw the eyes of Kronos. He ran at Kronos, but due to his ability to manipulate both his and his opponent’s perception of time, it looked to Kronos as if he were running in quicksand.

Kronos called forth his lightning armor, rushing towards the Naga in the blink of an eye, sending him crashing into the wall again. The man struggled to his feet and glared at Kronos. As soon as their eyes meet, Kronos activated another one of his eyes abilities. Using his power to create an illusion, Kronos created an illusion of the man’s daughter after Kronos cut her down that night. The man’s face and hostile demeanor ceased as he stared at what he thought was his daughter, reaching for her. And then, Kronos used his eye to replay what had happened to her on that fateful night. 

Kronos watched as the man began to panic, grasping at the air yelling. Kronos crossed his arms with a glare at the Naga. He knew what he had done was low, but he had a personal distaste for Naga. Besides, he was a Sintar warrior; he had zero qualms about using this type of warfare against an enemy. He smirked and closed his right eye. He wasn’t done testing his Ryuijin yet; he still had a couple of abilities to test out. Each Ryuijin had a unique ability, depending on the user; Kronos’s left eye could control attractive and repulsive forces, whereas his right eye gave him Telepathy.

Extending his left arm, he pulled the man towards him. Using mana, he created a mass of white lightning in his right palm then fired it at the Naga.

“ Farewell,” Kronos said, using his right eye’s ability to send the man crashing into the wall one final time. Kronos watched the man dip his head as his breathing grew shallow. Then he was gone as if he wasn’t there in the first place. 

“ What in Zorvun’s name?!” Kronos shouted, looking around wildly. The signs of the short battle remained, but the body was gone. No blood, no indication he had ever been there. Kronos leaned forward, hand resting on the wall, breathing hard, deactivating his Ryuijin. Damn. I’m still not too good with this. He was already starting to feel the drain of using his Tribal Trait. It was similar to the morning after a night of too much drinking.

He sat down against the wall, leaning his head back. Perhaps that Naga was just an illusion. I suppose that makes sense. But it seemed so real. He took a minute to make sure no other phantom would emerge. I better get going; the sooner I’m out of this damn maze, the better. Kronos got to his feet and opened the door closest to him to show a new hallway. Kronos shut the door behind him and started to walk down the hallway. After a few feet, the hallway soon began to warp, and in a few seconds, Kronos found himself standing in a dense forest covered in fresh white snow.

“Not again,” Kronos groaned. The sounds of battle filled the air, thick fog blocking the vision of Kronos. He started to walk forward, relying more on smell then sight to guide him. The stench of blood and the sounds of battle were everywhere. Kronos stopped as the fog suddenly cleared up to reveal a gory scene of the ground soaked in fresh blood and bodies everywhere. Kronos’s eyes widened when he saw his ten winters old self, surrounded by hostile Naga.

Hold on; this is the day… Kronos thought. He watched as his former self, with eyes brimmed full of tears of fear, tried to fight back against the Naga. But he was just a child against fully trained soldiers. He was soon put on the ground, his hands bound behind his back and taken prisoner. Kronos sighed and closed his eyes. This was the day his squad left him to die after the battle was lost. 

When he opened his eyes, he was no longer in the blood-soaked clearing. He found himself in a torture chamber, his ten-year-old self chained to a wall, his chest and head covered in blood. His former self began to cry softly, crying that quickly turned into wailing. Kronos sighed as he looked on, unable to do anything. When he had been taken prisoner, his heritage has made him a prime target for daily torture. Of all the several hundred prisoners, he was tortured for fun, and it was due to his heritage the other prisoners never bothered to see if he was alright after the torture sessions concluded. 

Kronos just stood there, listening to the sobs fill the dimly lit torture chamber. To this day, he had no idea how he survived the months he had spent in captivity. This was the cause of his hatred for Naga and due to the trauma inflicted on him, he had lost all taste for training and battle. After hearing a door open, he turned around to see a twelve winters old Calypso, breathing hard, her Ryuijin active, covered in blood.

She rushed forward, passing right through Kronos as if he wasn’t even there, and cut his younger self free. Kronos turned his head back to look at them, only to feel a spear enter his back. With a cry of pain, he fell on his knees, stomach lurching. Unable to stop himself, he began to vomit violently as he heard a voice. The voice of the former Naga leader that had confronted both him and Calypso on that fateful day.

“ Well, well well. It seems any lizard can be attracted if you use the proper bait.” Just then, Kronos was back in the hallway, on his hands and knees, a puddle of

vomit in front of him. He breathed in and out fast, his face covered in sweat. 

“ Damn it!” He swore, slowly getting to his feet, feeling weak and dizzy. He stumbled forward several feet, his mind whirling. Just then, he heard the sound of wind coming from a wall. Wind. Wind means freedom. Wind means escape. Escape. Must escape. Kronos followed the sound of the wind to a random wall and fell to his knees. Without thinking, he began to claw and scrape at the wall with his fingernails. If I can just claw my way out. If I can just escape. 

The sounds of nails scraping against stone filled the chamber Kronos had wandered in. He clawed at the stone wall, scars embedding themselves against the stone. Escape. Must escape. His fingernails broke off, blood running down his hands. Still, he persisted. Escape. Must escape.

Just then, Kronos’s Ryuijin activated, snapping Kronos out of his dazed state.

“ What in blazes?” Kronos asked, looking down at his broken and bloody nails. “ What happened?!” He then looked around the chamber with many corridors. “ And how did I get here?” Just then, a piercing wail of fear and anguish split the air. What was that? Perhaps I should leave it alone. Going to investigate could be inviting more trouble for me. But perhaps I can find an ally in this accursed labyrinth. Getting to his feet, Kronos ran towards the sounds of screaming.

He ran as fast as he could down a hallway, rounding a corner into a room where a man was standing on his knees, back towards Kronos, clutching his head with his hands, yelling. Kronos stopped and cautiously stepped into the room.

“ Hey. Hey you,” he said. The man stopped yelling and got to his feet, turning around. Kronos gasped and stepped back; the man was so heavily wounded; all Kronos could make out of his face were his dull gray eyes. Blood covered his black leather shirt. 

“It was all a lie! Don’t you see?! It was all a lie!” the man sobbed, looking at Kronos. “ Begone phantom! My torment has already broken me! We’re all going to die! All of us! All of us will die!” The man drew a dagger, and before Kronos could say anything, the man plunged the blade into his own stomach. Kronos stared in shock as the man fell, twitching a few times before becoming still. 

His body isn’t gone, and there’s so much blood! This is no illusion! Kronos’s thoughts were interrupted by the sudden approach of Mana that felt cold. Colder than any other Mana he has felt before. Kronos could feel the sinister intent and the blood lust. He heard approaching footsteps from the corridor opposite of Kronos. He narrowed his eyes and got into a battle stance.

Something’s coming!