Floor Forty-Six looked simple at first.
Too simple.
The staircase opened into a narrow forest corridor.
Towering trees rose on either side of them, their trunks packed so tightly together that they formed solid walls. Thick vines wound between the branches, sealing the few gaps that remained.
Ahead, the path turned sharply to the left.
Bunny rested World Breaker against her shoulder.
"This looks like a maze."
Nyxian looked down the corridor.
"Excellent observation."
Bunny's ears tilted toward her.
"I have a hammer."
"Yes."
"Keep talking."
Nyxian smiled.
"I suddenly find myself completely satisfied with your observation."
Pixelle giggled from Jax's shoulder.
Jax looked around.
There were no monsters.
No obvious traps.
No immediate threats.
Just trees.
Which somehow made him more suspicious.
"Let's see what it does."
They started forward.
Warden walked near the front with Fang moving alongside him. Several Shadow Knights followed behind the Vixens.
The first few turns were uneventful.
Left.
Right.
Another right.
The corridor split into three paths.
Jax chose the center.
A few minutes later, they reached a dead end.
Bunny sighed.
"Should've gone left."
"You wanted to go left?" Zee asked.
"No."
"Then why—"
"Because now I know it was the right answer."
Nyxian nodded.
"Solid logic."
Jax turned around.
Then stopped.
The path behind them was gone.
A wall of trees stood where the corridor had been moments earlier.
Llandra slowly lowered Starpiercer.
"That wasn't there."
"Nope."
A deep creaking rolled through the forest.
Everyone turned.
The wall to their right moved.
Not the branches.
The trees.
Entire trunks slid through the ground as massive roots shifted beneath them.
One corridor disappeared.
Another opened.
Then another section of the labyrinth moved behind them.
Pixelle's wings fluttered nervously.
"Oh."
Jax glanced at her.
"Good oh or bad oh?"
"Probably bad."
"Of course."
The forest shifted again.
Branches intertwined.
Vines stretched between trees.
The newly opened corridor sealed itself.
Llandra watched the movement.
"This isn't simply a maze."
Jax nodded.
"No."
Another wall slid across a distant corridor.
"It's a living one."
The ground suddenly trembled.
"Move!"
A wall of trees surged between Bunny and Zee.
Everyone jumped back.
The trees slammed together.
They were still together.
Barely.
Jax's expression changed.
The maze wasn't simply rearranging itself.
It was trying to divide them.
And they'd just dealt with a floor capable of creating copies of everyone in the party.
"Yeah. We're not doing that again."
Nyxian looked at him.
"Doing what?"
Jax looked at Warden.
"Last floor."
Warden immediately understood.
The reflections.
Copies of Jax.
Copies of the Vixens.
This floor was already trying to separate them. If something inside the labyrinth could impersonate them too, finding one another again could become considerably more complicated.
Jax raised one hand.
"Come Forth."
Darkness spread across the ground.
Several packs of Iron Jaw Wolves emerged from the shadows.
More Shadow Knights followed.
Archers.
Mages.
Jax looked at Warden.
"I want patrols throughout the maze. Find the exit. Kill anything hostile."
Warden nodded.
"And if anything in here looks like one of us, I don't want the Shadows guessing whether it's real."
Warden's gaze shifted toward the Iron Jaw Wolves.
Jax smiled.
"Exactly."
The General gestured.
One of the wolves approached Jax.
It sniffed his armor.
Then his hand.
Warden directed it toward Llandra.
The wolf sniffed her.
Then Bunny.
Zee.
Nyxian.
Finally, it raised its head toward Pixelle.
Pixelle looked down from Jax's shoulder.
The Iron Jaw Wolf's nose was almost as large as she was.
She leaned backward.
"Does it need to be that close?"
The wolf sniffed.
Pixelle's pink hair blew backward.
Nyxian laughed.
"Yes."
Another sniff.
Pixelle grabbed Jax's ear.
"I think it knows what I smell like!"
The wolf sat.
Jax scratched beneath its chin.
"Good boy."
Warden divided the wolves among several Shadow patrols.
Knights.
Archers.
Mages.
Each patrol received at least one wolf.
Then they disappeared into different corridors.
Their mission was simple.
Search the labyrinth.
Find the exit.
Destroy anything hostile.
And if anything looked like Jax or one of the Vixens but didn't smell like them...
Kill it.
It didn't take long to learn that Jax's suspicion had been justified.
Combat echoed somewhere ahead.
Steel struck wood.
A wolf growled.
Something screamed.
Then silence.
Another battle erupted to their left.
Magic flashed between the trees.
A moment later, Jax felt two Shadows disappear.
Then another.
The sounds moved farther away as the labyrinth shifted.
Pixelle looked around.
"What are they fighting?"
Jax didn't know.
Not until one of Warden's patrols found them again.
A Shadow Knight emerged around the corner.
An Iron Jaw Wolf followed.
Then another figure.
Jax.
Pixelle looked from the real Jax beneath her...
to the Jax walking toward them.
"Oh."
The duplicate smiled.
"Found you."
The Iron Jaw Wolf immediately attacked him.
Its jaws closed around Fake Jax's arm.
The creature screamed.
Its face twisted.
Skin became bark.
Clothing became leaves.
The imitation collapsed into a small humanoid creature with translucent wings and a wooden body.
The Shadow Knight drove its sword through the creature's chest.
It shattered into fragments.
Pixelle stared.
"Mirror Sprite."
Jax looked at the remains.
"So they can copy us too."
"Apparently."
Nyxian looked disappointed.
"I hope mine was prettier."
Jax ignored her.
The wolf trotted toward him.
"Good boy."
Jax scratched its head.
"Very good boy."
The Shadow patrol disappeared into the maze again.
After that, they heard several more encounters.
Once, Bunny's voice screamed somewhere in the distance.
"JAX!"
Everyone stopped.
Jax turned toward the sound.
Then an Iron Jaw Wolf snarled.
There was a crash.
The screaming stopped.
Bunny looked at him.
"That wasn't me."
"I know."
"How?"
"You're standing beside me."
Bunny considered that.
"Good point."
Another distant battle ended.
The wolves were working.
The labyrinth could fool their eyes.
It couldn't fool their noses.
Unfortunately, the Mirror Sprites weren't the only threat.
Root Stalkers hid within the walls themselves.
A-Rank predators whose bark-covered bodies blended almost perfectly with the surrounding trees.
The wolves found those too.
For nearly twenty minutes, the Shadow patrols spread through the labyrinth while Jax and the Vixens continued searching for the exit.
They were making progress.
Probably.
It was difficult to tell.
Then the labyrinth changed tactics.
The ground shook violently.
"Together!" Jax shouted.
Trees erupted between them.
Jax grabbed Zee and pulled her toward him.
Llandra jumped through the narrowing gap.
Warden followed.
A Shadow Knight wasn't fast enough.
The trees slammed together.
The Shadow disappeared.
"Bunny!"
Jax heard her voice from the other side.
"We're okay!"
"Nyxian?"
"Still gorgeous!"
Jax closed his eyes.
"Pixelle?"
A tiny voice answered.
"I'm here!"
Jax relaxed slightly.
Bunny.
Nyxian.
Pixelle.
Together.
On his side were Llandra, Zee, Warden and several Shadows.
Not ideal.
But nobody was alone.
"We'll find another way around!" Jax shouted.
"Got it!"
The labyrinth shifted again.
The wall thickened.
Their voices disappeared.
Jax looked at Warden.
"Find them."
Warden immediately signaled the remaining wolves.
They disappeared down separate corridors.
Jax headed the opposite direction.
Across the labyrinth, Bunny stared at the wall separating them from Jax.
World Breaker settled into her hands.
"I could probably get through that."
Nyxian looked at the enormous hammer.
"I believe in you."
Bunny pulled it backward.
"Wait."
Bunny stopped.
Pixelle flew closer to the wall.
She stared at the vines.
Then the branches.
Then the trees.
Something felt different now.
Maybe because she wasn't sitting comfortably on Jax's shoulder.
Maybe because she was actually paying attention.
Pixelle moved closer.
The entire labyrinth was alive.
Not merely alive in the sense that trees were alive.
She could feel it.
The roots.
The vines.
The branches.
The flow of mana through the plants surrounding them.
Everything was connected.
Pixelle slowly raised her wand.
Nyxian watched her.
"What are you doing?"
"I don't know."
"Excellent. Jax is rubbing off on you."
Pixelle ignored her.
She reached outward with her magic.
The vines trembled.
Pixelle's eyes widened.
She tried again.
One vine slowly pulled away from the wall.
Then another.
Bunny lowered World Breaker.
"Pixelle?"
"I can feel them."
"The trees?"
Pixelle nodded.
"All of it."
She closed her eyes.
Her magic spread outward.
The wall trembled.
Roots shifted.
Branches creaked.
Then the trees began to move.
Not because the labyrinth wanted them to.
Because Pixelle did.
The wall slowly opened.
Pixelle's eyes flew open.
"I did it!"
Something lunged through the gap.
Bunny moved.
World Breaker struck the Root Stalker hard enough to launch it backward through two smaller trees.
Another peeled itself from the wall.
Nyxian's hand moved.
Lilith's Kiss cracked through the corridor and wrapped around its throat.
She pulled.
The creature stumbled forward.
Bunny's hammer finished it.
Three more Root Stalkers emerged.
Then five.
Pixelle's concentration broke.
The trees immediately began closing.
"No!"
Bunny stepped in front of her.
"Do your thing."
Nyxian moved to Pixelle's other side.
"We'll do ours."
Pixelle looked at them.
Then nodded.
She raised her wand again.
The Root Stalkers attacked.
Bunny met them head-on.
World Breaker smashed through the first.
Nyxian's whip caught another around the ankle and ripped it from the wall before it could disappear into the bark.
Pixelle concentrated.
The wall opened again.
She pushed harder.
Another wall beyond it trembled.
Then moved.
And another.
Pixelle could feel the labyrinth fighting her.
Every root wanted to move in a different direction.
Every vine pulled against her command.
She gritted her teeth.
"No."
Nyxian glanced backward.
"No?"
Pixelle's tiny face scrunched with effort.
"You don't get to tell me where I can go."
Nyxian smiled.
"There she is."
Pixelle pushed.
The trees obeyed.
A corridor opened.
Straight ahead.
"Go!"
Bunny and Nyxian moved with her.
The labyrinth tried to close.
Pixelle forced it back open.
Root Stalkers emerged.
Bunny and Nyxian killed them.
The three advanced.
For once, they weren't following the labyrinth.
The labyrinth was following Pixelle.
On the other side of the maze, Jax was having considerably less success.
Another corridor closed.
Jax stopped.
He stared at the new wall.
Warden stopped beside him.
Llandra nearly walked into Jax's back.
"What?"
Jax didn't answer.
He looked at the wall.
Then behind them.
Another wall moved.
Jax looked back at the first one.
Thick trunks.
Roots.
Vines.
Branches.
Trees.
His eyes narrowed.
"This is stupid."
Zee raised an eyebrow.
"The labyrinth?"
"Us."
Llandra looked at him.
"I don't understand."
Jax reached over his shoulder.
His hand closed around Peacemaker.
"These are trees."
Llandra glanced at the wall.
"Yes."
"I have Peacemaker."
Zee smiled.
She understood.
Jax pulled the massive double-bladed Godslayer weapon free.
"Why are we doing the maze?"
Llandra looked at Peacemaker.
Then at the trees.
Then back at Jax.
"…Oh."
Jax rested the weapon against his shoulder, remembering his first day in this world.
"I can run through trees."
Warden looked at the wall.
Then at Jax.
The General stepped aside.
"Exactly."
Jax started forward.
The labyrinth moved.
It didn't matter.
Peacemaker swung.
The first tree separated cleanly.
Then the second.
Then the third.
Jax ran.
Peacemaker moved in enormous sweeping arcs.
Trees fell.
Roots split.
Vines snapped.
The labyrinth tried to close the path ahead of him.
Jax simply cut through the new wall.
Llandra, Zee, Warden and the remaining Shadows followed through the destruction.
Another wall shifted into place.
Peacemaker passed through it.
Another.
Gone.
Zee stepped over a severed root.
"Do you know where you're going?"
"Forward."
"That wasn't what I asked."
"Still the answer."
Llandra ducked beneath a falling branch.
"How do you know Bunny and the others are in this direction?"
"I don't."
Llandra stopped.
Jax kept going.
Zee laughed.
Llandra hurried after them.
"Jax!"
"We'll either find them or the exit."
"And if we find the exit?"
"Then Warden can send the wolves back through the giant hallway I'm making."
Llandra looked behind them.
The path was impossible to miss.
"That is...technically true."
Jax smiled.
"See?"
The labyrinth shifted again.
Peacemaker swung.
More trees fell.
Warden walked behind Jax, watching the devastation.
The General seemed perfectly content with the new strategy.
Then he stopped.
One of the Iron Jaw Wolves appeared through a side corridor.
It barked.
Warden turned.
The wolf ran.
"This way?"
Warden nodded.
Jax changed direction.
Peacemaker carved through another wall.
Then another.
The wolf disappeared through an opening.
Jax followed.
One final wall stood in front of them.
Jax raised Peacemaker.
The wall moved.
Jax paused.
He hadn't touched it.
The vines withdrew.
Branches lifted.
Trees bent smoothly away from one another.
A corridor opened.
Jax slowly lowered Peacemaker.
At the far end stood Bunny.
Nyxian.
And Pixelle.
The tiny fairy floated between them with her wand raised.
Her face was scrunched in concentration.
The forest surrounding her trembled.
Then another wall opened.
And another.
A perfectly straight path appeared between the two groups.
Jax stared.
Zee looked at Pixelle.
Then at the devastation behind Jax.
"Oh."
Llandra smiled.
"Apparently there was another solution."
Jax looked over his shoulder.
Behind him stretched a path of destruction.
Severed trees.
Split roots.
Broken vines.
Chunks of bark scattered everywhere.
He looked toward Pixelle.
Behind her, the forest was completely intact.
The trees simply stood aside.
Jax slowly returned Peacemaker to his back.
"Show-off."
Pixelle's eyes opened.
"Jax!"
Her concentration broke.
The trees began moving again.
"Move!" Bunny shouted.
Both groups ran.
Pixelle immediately resumed control.
The corridor reopened.
Jax, Llandra, Zee and Warden sprinted toward them.
The Shadows followed.
Bunny and Nyxian protected Pixelle as Root Stalkers emerged from the surrounding trees.
The Iron Jaw Wolves converged from other corridors.
Shadow patrols began returning.
The exit appeared ahead.
Pixelle pushed one final time.
The labyrinth opened.
Everyone crossed through.
The moment Pixelle reached the solid bark before the staircase, her wings gave one exhausted flutter.
She dropped.
Jax caught her in both hands.
Pixelle lay against his palm, panting.
"You okay?"
She raised one tiny finger.
"I…"
Another breath.
"…saved…"
Jax smiled.
"…everyone."
Jax looked down at her.
Pixelle managed to sit up.
"I saved everyone."
"You did great."
"I saved everyone."
Jax glanced toward Bunny.
"She definitely saved us," Bunny said.
Nyxian nodded solemnly.
"We would probably still be wandering around in there."
Bunny looked at her.
"We could've gotten out."
"I know."
"I have a hammer."
"I know."
"A really big hammer."
Nyxian smiled.
"I am intimately familiar with the size of your hammer."
Bunny stared at her.
Nyxian shrugged.
"You made it too easy."
Pixelle pointed toward them.
"The Vixens."
Jax laughed.
"You definitely saved that half of the Vixens."
"Three of us."
"Three?"
Pixelle pointed to herself.
"I'm a Vixen."
Nyxian immediately nodded.
"She has you there."
"I wasn't arguing."
Pixelle looked pleased.
Llandra approached.
"For accuracy, Pixelle's abilities did provide both groups with a direct route to one another and the exit."
Pixelle's face lit up.
"See?"
Jax looked over his shoulder.
A massive path of destruction cut straight through the labyrinth.
Then he looked toward the pristine forest behind Pixelle.
"Well, your path was cleaner."
Pixelle followed his gaze.
For several seconds, she studied the devastation.
Trees had been cut cleanly in half.
Roots were scattered across the ground.
Entire sections of the labyrinth had simply ceased to exist.
She looked back at Jax.
"You panicked."
Jax's mouth fell open.
Zee laughed.
"I did not panic."
Pixelle patted his thumb.
"It's okay."
"What's okay?"
"You were scared."
"I wasn't scared."
"The labyrinth separated you from me."
"I had Peacemaker."
"And you started destroying everything trying to find us."
Jax looked back at the path he had carved through the forest.
Then at Pixelle.
"I shouldn't, but I do worry about you girls."
Pixelle nodded sympathetically.
"That's the sweetest thing."
"But I believed in you guys."
"Of course."
Pixelle proudly placed her hands on her hips.
"Because they had me to protect them."
Jax looked at Bunny.
She was trying not to laugh.
He looked at Llandra.
She suddenly found the staircase extremely interesting.
Zee wasn't even pretending.
Nyxian had tears in her eyes.
Jax looked back at the tiny fairy sitting proudly in his palm.
He sighed.
"Fine."
Pixelle blinked.
"Fine?"
"You saved everyone."
Her entire face lit up.
"I did!"
"That's what I said."
"No, it isn't."
"Pretty sure it was."
Pixelle narrowed her eyes at him.
Then smiled.
"Good. Because I'm absolutely telling everyone."
Jax immediately regretted his generosity.
"Oh, no."
Pixelle stood in his palm.
"The Living Labyrinth separated the Vixens."
"Pixelle…"
"Jax was trapped."
"Okay, I didn't say that."
"Bunny and Nyxian were surrounded."
"We killed everything that attacked us," Bunny said.
Pixelle pointed at her.
"Don't ruin this."
Bunny nodded.
"Sorry."
Nyxian put a hand on Bunny's shoulder.
"Let her work."
Pixelle continued.
"Everyone thought all hope was lost."
Jax sighed.
"This story is getting worse already."
"Until Queen Pixelle Starbloom seized control of the World Tree itself—"
"You moved some trees."
"—and created a path to freedom, saving Jax and all of the Vixens."
Jax looked at her for a moment.
Then smiled.
"You know what? I like your version better."
Pixelle flew from his palm and landed on his shoulder.
She leaned against his ear.
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story."
Jax slowly turned his head toward her.
Nyxian burst out laughing.
Bunny followed.
Even Llandra finally gave up trying to maintain her composure.
Jax looked back toward the labyrinth.
His path of destruction was still clearly visible.
Evidence.
Actual physical evidence.
It didn't matter.
He'd already surrendered the argument.
By the time they returned to the Fairy Kingdom, Pixelle would have saved everyone.
By the tenth telling, she would probably have saved the World Tree too.
Jax started toward the stairs.
Behind him, Pixelle was already telling Bunny how frightened Jax had looked.
"I was not frightened!"
Pixelle smiled.
That detail would probably make the final version too.