Time lost all meaning.
The texture of the coarse beard that had grown along my jaw was the only metric for the passing days. A week? Perhaps.
I scoured the place a thousand times. There was nothing here to kill. Nothing but the snow, the stone walls... and a shivering child.
I struck the stone floor with my fist. The ring flashed, and the golden dagger settled into my hand.
I raised it slowly until it touched my neck.
Perhaps the seal will cast me out of this hell and wake me up outside the maze. A desperate gamble, but it is the only remaining exit.
I pressed down slightly. A warm drop of blood carved its way across my freezing neck.
My hand trembled.
My fingers uncurled, and the blade fell. It struck the ice with a faint ring.
I stared at the shimmering metal coldly, then curled into a ball, burying my face between my knees.
I am a coward.
I know it. Every single atom of my body understands this truth with absolute clarity. That persona... the strong young man, the cold manipulator... they are all rented suits. I do not own a single thread of them.
What price am I paying right now?
Is it the price for strangling Aurelia? Or the blood of the maid, Myra, whom I crushed beneath my heel? Or is it... the price of my very existence?
I pulled a metal food ration can from the ring.
I gulped down the viscous fluid inside with animalistic greed.
When it was empty, I stared into the hollow metal.
I jolted suddenly. I slammed the can against the stone floor with all my might.
The sound of shattering metal echoed through the cave. I picked it up and smashed it again.
I held it... threw it.
A ragged scream tore at my throat with every strike.
I held it... threw it... crushed it.
I stopped. My chest heaved violently. My sharp wheezing filled the silent void.
I slid down again to lean against the cold wall and wondered.
What is the form of my existence? A human?
Humans die to perish. I am immortal, experiencing death endlessly without ever departing.
Then who am I? An animal? A wolf?
No. A dog.
A domesticated, obedient dog—and not even a rabid one.
I raised my trembling hand and brushed it through my disheveled hair. I patted my own head with tender affection. "You're a good dog..."
A good dog isn't a coward. I am no coward.
I picked up the blade once more.
I wonder, why does death terrify me to this extent? My father died before and returned; Aurum has died hundreds of times. None of them tremble like this.
Why does the dog shudder at death? Is it because of the pain?
I don't think so. The pain of existence is far heavier than a blade slicing through flesh.
The answer manifested vividly in my mind as a naked truth.
I do not fear death. I fear myself.
I fear the moment of my internal reckoning. I fear my own words, the extinguishing of my consciousness while realizing that I lived as an echo of others and died without achieving a single thing that belonged to me.
I expelled the air from my lungs. I tightened my grip on the hilt.
I drove the blade into my neck in one single thrust.
Gasp.
Hot blood exploded out, washing over my rigid fingers. The air escaped my windpipe with a terrifying hiss as I choked on my own blood.
I closed my eyes, and the darkness swallowed me.
I am still afraid.
My eyes snapped open.
I wished to see the sky of the Mountains of Silence, despite my prior awareness of the paradise I would open my eyes to.
Instead, I saw cold, gray stone.
The ceiling of the cave.
Silence.
The sound of my own ragged breaths echoed.
The stench of rusted copper from my old blood filled the space. The viscosity of a new birth coated my bare, scar-free body.
A piercing cold struck my bones.
I sat up slowly in the gloom. The ice stung my naked skin.
I am not a dog.
Dogs possess dignity.
I am a cockroach.
[Excerpt from: The Grand Treatise - Physics of the Torsional Void]
Author: Leonardo Aurum, Ninth of his Name
Award: Best Research Paper of the Year (The Royal Academy)
"We must admit with bitterness: there are holes in the fabric of our reality that cannot be mended by conventional alchemy."
1. The Spatial Maze Hypothesis
Spatial Mazes are classified as the rarest and most dangerous types of energetic anomalies. These are mazes that do not possess a "geography," but rather a looping "internal logic." It is not a vast space in which you get lost, but a localized region that locks in on itself in a spatio-temporal loop, trapping the individual inside ground zero forever.
2. The "Non-Entity" Theory
I propose an intriguing theory here: this maze has no exit because there is no Abominatio inside it.
The Technical Reason: In ordinary mazes, distorted energy concentrates into a single "core" to create a monster. In a Spatial Maze, however, the energy does not concentrate; instead, it distributes evenly across every particle of the entire region to create the state of "repetition."
The Conclusion: The region itself is the Abominatio. The stone, the snow, and the very air you breathe... are all parts of the monster. Since there is no highly concentrated energy source, there is no "head" to sever in order to escape. This explains why no explorer has ever returned to tell us of this type; they simply never got out.