The passageways grew even more labyrinthine in nature the further he went, culminating in dead ends more often than not. Only his speed allowed him to make any sort of progress in the maze, as he was able to scout out dead ends in the blink of an eye, and return to the main path in another. Only, the paths changed sometimes, with dead ends turning into viable routes, and the previously safe paths becoming dangerous or blocked. Still, Jonathan felt that he was getting somewhere, given that the monsters were growing stronger, and the traps more deadly. He began to take damage, with traps dousing him in deluges of concentrated madness, causing his very flesh to writhe and his soul to burn. Only his latest skill was able to save him in those instances.
All sorts of beasts haunted the depths of the labyrinth, but the essence provided by his kills served as a decent enough reward. While the level gains were not as painless as during the rest of the dungeon, they were still there, and Jonathan was closing in on the next level.
As he stood before a series of mashing pillars, moving at speeds behind even his own maximum, Jonathan was forced to use Greater Smite to boost his speed to a sufficient level. The pillars slowed down to a visible rate, but they were still rather fast for his liking. By this point, judging by the level range of the dungeon, he was nearing the end of the labyrinth. Though, it probably should have ended before this point. Jonathan had no doubt that this segment of the dungeon was far harder than it was meant to be.
He raced forwards, rolling under one of the descending cylinders of obsidian. Such was the force behind them that an impact from one of the pillars would have killed, or at the very least, severely injured him. The next two came in an alternating pattern, and Jonathan waited until both were poised at the same point, one descending and the other ascending. Then he dove underneath them, his elemental energy propelling him forward.
After that, there were three more pillars, each of which were bigger than the last. The final one was almost twenty feet in width, and came down so quickly that even with Smite engaged, Jonathan was hard pressed to track it. He evaded the next two pillars easily enough, finding himself before the final obstacle. Pumping stamina into his muscles, Jonathan pushed off just as the pillar prepared to drop, and shot through the gap, skidding to a halt on the other side, just before a massive drop. A canyon was dug into the center of the hallway, within which a writhing mass of arms and teeth wriggled, blind eyes staring up at him without truly seeing. The gap was at least half a mile long, and there was no way to cross it without flight, teleportation or immense speed. Luckily for Jonathan, he possessed two of those.
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Lifting himself up on a board of purple fire, he crossed the gap over the next few seconds, trying not to look down at the foul creature that took up most of the chasm.
Crossing the gap was less of a challenge than losing focus. The monster beneath had an almost magnetic pull upon Jonathan’s psyche, which he was sure would have proved fatal had he not gained his Anchored Mind skill. As it was, the obstacle was not much trouble to bypass.
On the other side of the chasm, a small platform waited, behind which were a massive pair of double doors, crafted from verdigrised copper, and inlaid with a myriad of various designs, ranging from the commonplace to the horrific. In one scene, a mother was holding her children’s hands, walking them through a bustling town. In the next, the woman had turned feral, eyes glowing with madness. She was still holding the hands of her children, only they weren’t attached to their bodies.
Groaning in disgust, Jonathan pushed the doors open, and felt a strange flash of deja vu to a certain video game series he had liked on Earth. This was quite similar to that. He almost expected a yellowish wall of energy to appear behind him as he entered.
Instead, he found himself stepping into a circular chamber, channels carved into the floor in regular patterns, tracing out a twisted sigil. Torches lined the walls, and a spike extended up from the center of the room, with another mirroring it in reverse, hanging from the ceiling. Grooves were carved into the lower spike, while the upper one remained smooth.
Twelve human corpses lay at the edges of the room, their throats slit, blood pouring out of them. The channels on the ground carried the blood towards the center of the room, an ominous scarlet light beginning to shine within it.
