Leo spent the night with Elna, holding tight to every hour as if time might leak through his fingers if he blinked too long. By dawn, the two of them stepped out into the cold air together. He was ready. Or as ready as anyone could be for a journey that aimed straight into the jaws of a god's madness.
The people of Hope lined the main street to see him off. They knew he would be gone for three months, but none of them knew where he was going, and Leo intended to keep it that way. The Maze was a secret too heavy for ordinary hearts.
He offered warm smiles, brief handshakes, and quiet nods as the crowd parted to let him through. Their gratitude followed him like a soft echo.
Once past the gates, he headed toward the distant city where the Tree of Life had taken root. He'd told everyone to let him go alone, but the three of them followed him anyway, stubborn as shadows that refused to fall behind: Arthur, Briva, and Elna.
Using the teleport chains they'd set up during past expeditions, they crossed the scarred lands in only a few hours. As they neared the divine city, the air thickened with the Creator's mana. It shimmered faintly, twisting the light, reminding them of the rule they couldn't break.
Only Leo could go any farther.
It was time for them to say goodbye.
Briva stepped forward first. She didn't speak right away, just wrapped her arms around him in a fierce, grounding hug that lasted longer than expected. When she finally let go, she smiled up at him, eyes glimmering.
"We'll be waiting."
Elna came next.
Their embrace lingered, long and quiet, two heartbeats pressed together. When they finally pulled back, her hands still cupped his face, and their lips met in a slow, memorizing kiss. A moment he knew he would carry with him for twelve years.
When she released him, her voice trembled only slightly. "Be careful."
Last was Arthur. He walked up without a word, placed a firm hand on Leo's shoulder, and squeezed.
"Don't worry about things out here," he said. "I'll make sure everyone stays safe."
Leo smiled. "I'm sure you will."
He turned to leave, then paused as a thought resurfaced.
"Oh, and help these two with their domains," he added, pointing at Elna and Briva.
Arthur nodded. "I will."
Leo stood there for a few more quiet seconds, taking them in as the wind stirred the grass around their feet. Their faces. Their trust. The thin thread of hope tying them all together.
He smiled, soft and confident.
"See you in three months."
Then he turned toward the city engulfed in divine light and walked straight into it, step by step, until the world behind him faded from sight.
…
Around the silent city hung a curtain of compressed light, mana woven tight like threads of glass. When Leo stepped through it, the world behind him peeled away in an instant. One moment he could still feel the gaze of Arthur and the others. The next, it was gone. Sight, sound, even the faint echo of their mana vanished as though someone had wiped them clean from existence.
The ruined city was nowhere to be seen.
In its place stood a forest.
Trees rose like pillars carved from raw divinity, their trunks etched with faint runes of light. The leaves pulsed with gentle breaths of energy. Every step he took sent a shiver through the roots beneath him, as if the land itself recognized him.
Ilandra's voice touched his mind. A whisper carried on an ancient breeze.
"You know your domain won't work in there, right? Once you enter the Maze, you'll be alone."
"I know," Leo answered, steady as he moved deeper into the glowing forest.
Minutes passed. The air grew dense, vibrating with leftover power. Soon he reached the place where the void had once torn open reality. To his right stood the massive tree, its branches towering far above, humming with divine purity.
This was why he chose this location.
If you were foolish enough to summon a corrupted god, this was the safest place in the entire shadowlands to do it.
"Are you ready?" he asked silently.
"Do it," Ilandra replied.
Mana surged out of him like a flood. An entire sea of it, dense and overwhelming, spilled into the air. Symbols formed around him, spiraling in complex geometric patterns. They were spells he already knew, but now they appeared complete, polished, whole. Ever since gaining all that knowledge, the old fragments he once used felt like a child's scribbles. Now they were masterpieces.
When the spell finished writing itself, Leo dropped to his knees and closed his eyes.
His voice echoed through the air, steady, resonant.
"The Mad One, keeper of shadows,
Deceiver of truth, who gazed into the void and found himself reflected.
From silence, You laughed.
From light, You tore the veil.
In shadow, You wove deceit;
In deceit, You found purpose.
The Mad One, who whispers in echoes,
Whose grin bleeds through the dark."
His eyes opened.
"Hear my prayers and answer me. I'm your enemy and you will answer."
The response came immediately.
The air in front of him cracked like shattering crystal. A wave of malice spilled out, thick as tar. Two enormous eyes blinked open from the darkness beyond, staring at him with ancient, delighted hunger.
The corruption reached outward. But it didn't get far.
Roots of emerald light surged up from the ground. Vines of pure nature wrapped around the invading darkness, binding it in place. The combined power of the spell and the Goddess of Nature held the corruption tight, preventing it from devouring everything around them.
"It's so good of you to summon me on your own."
The voice seeped out of the fracture like oil, thick and mocking. Inside the cracked air, shadows began to slither toward a single point, coiling and folding over one another. The darkness gathered, compacted, and then rose. Slowly it shaped itself into the silhouette of a man in a black suit, as if the void had tailored him from pure absence.
His appearance was almost ordinary, too ordinary. A neat suit, polished shoes, a slim frame. But his smile was a wound in the world, curving wrong, stretching too far. The air around him bent, as if trying not to touch him.
"But I'm curious," the Mad God said. "You should know that even with all your spells, you can't stop me. I could kill you in less than a second. Why shouldn't I?"
Leo met that void-born smile with a calm one of his own.
"You love playing games," he said. "And I know you always pull people into your Maze by tricking them. Which means they have to be willing. So…" Leo lifted his chin. "I'm offering to enter your Maze willingly."
For a brief heartbeat, the Mad God froze.
His eyes widened in a delighted disbelief. Then a grin crawled across his face like a spider stretching its legs.
"It looks like you're underestimating me."
"Not at all," Leo said, voice steady. Then his tone sharpened like a drawn blade. "It's your rule. So you have to accept it."
A ripple of laughter burst out of the Mad God. It was too loud for a human throat, too jagged for sanity. The sound alone made the spells around them tremble, like thin glass about to crack.
"As you wish," he finally said. "When I pass through these shadows created by Lilith, your friends will join you."
He turned, walking toward the gap he had emerged from. The shadows parted for him like terrified servants.
"When you offer something," he continued, "you must ask something in return. Like you said, it is the rule. Now ask."
Leo didn't hesitate.
"I ask you not to use this gap to enter the shadowland. And to close it completely."
The Mad God rolled a shoulder, as if the request were a mild inconvenience. "As you wish."
Without ceremony, he stepped into the waiting shadows. They clung to him like ink.
"Come," he said.
Leo waited one single second. One breath. Then followed.
The Mad God didn't look at him when he passed through the threshold. His gaze drifted backward instead, toward Ilandra's distant figure, her divine presence glowing faintly through the root-woven bindings. He smiled at her, a quiet, poisonous smile, right before the gap sealed shut with a soft crack.
Then all light vanished.
He and Leo walked through a corridor made entirely of darkness, walls without surface, floor without texture, an emptiness pretending to be space. The air smelled of dustless shelves, old thoughts, forgotten nightmares. The corridor stretched impossibly long but took no time to cross.
At the end of it stood a single wooden door. Ordinary. Humble. Terrifying because it existed at all within this void.
The Mad God stopped before it.
"While you're in there, you have three questions you may ask me," he said. "Questions that do not involve leaving." His grin widened into something sharp. "Your goal is a door. Find it, and you get out."
Leo nodded. "Understood."
He had no intention of speaking with madness more than necessary.
"Try to entertain me," the Mad God said, voice bubbling with glee. The door clicked open. Beyond it was nothing, pure, endless black.
Leo stared at that darkness for a few seconds.
Then he stepped into it.
And the world dissolved around him.
…
Leo stood in perfect darkness at first. It wasn't the soft kind of dark he knew from nightfall, but a compact, heavy black that felt almost physical, like a curtain pulled too close. Then, slowly, the gloom loosened its grip. Not because light appeared, but because the Maze allowed just enough visibility for him to make out shapes. A faint, night-like dimness settled over everything, the kind where you could see the ground but not trust what waited farther ahead.
Two massive walls came into view on either side of him. They weren't stone, but living barriers woven from a darker version of myrtus communis, their leaves thick and tightly packed. The scent of crushed herbs hovered faintly in the air. The walls rose straight up into the darkness, so high that even with the weak glow he couldn't see where they ended. There was no sky, only more shadow.
The path was huge, wide enough for a large ship to sail through without scraping the sides. Smooth ground. No debris. No footprints. Just an enormous, silent corridor stretching into nothingness.
This really was the Maze of Madness. And it was every bit as unsettling as its name.
He pulled out his pocket watch. The soft click of the lid felt loud in the stillness. Time mattered here. Three months outside meant nearly twelve years for him inside. He'd have to keep track.
As he glanced down at the watch, the ground trembled beneath his feet.
A faint shake. Then another and then a heavy one.
Footsteps.
Leo's head lifted sharply. Something was moving at the far end of the corridor, still hidden in the murk. Its steps were too steady, too slow and weighty to belong to anything small.
'Already?' he wasn't even five minutes in here.
He took out Thorn form his magic bag, tightening his grip on his sword. He had no access to his domain here so he put his sword in his bag before coming inside here.
The footsteps grew louder, echoing like distant boulders tumbling.
Then the creature entered the dim light.
It was enormous, easily twenty meters tall. Four thick arms hung at its sides. Its skin was black and glossy, as if carved from stone polished to a shine. Its face twisted into something almost human, but wrong in every possible way, with a wide jaw and rows of sharp, uneven teeth.
The moment it saw him, it bellowed, the sound vibrating through the corridor.
Then it charged.
For its size, it moved with terrifying speed. The ground shook beneath each step.
Two blood phantoms formed beside Leo, rising like red silhouettes. They rushed forward with him. The monster swung two arms down and crushed both phantoms instantly.
But the instant they shattered, their traps triggered.
A Mana Surge Snare flared outward, followed by a Gravity Trap. The air rippled, then collapsed downward with force.
Caught off guard, the monster fell to one knee, then the other, its weight pinned by the sudden pressure.
Leo didn't hesitate. He was already in front of it, his sword wrapped in swirling blood energy. With One clean slash, the creature split in half, collapsing in two heavy pieces that slid apart on the ground.
"A B rank at best," he muttered.
The silence lasted only a breath.
Then more footsteps, three sets, echoed from the darkness ahead. Massive shapes moved just beyond the faint light.
Leo didn't wait for them to fully appear. He turned and sprinted deeper into the Maze, boots pounding against the wide corridor as the shadows behind him thundered with pursuit.