The steel door closed behind them with a sound like a guillotine falling.
The air inside was damp, metallic, and carried a faint hum — the kind that makes your teeth ache if you listen too long.
Kiro's visor adjusted automatically, cutting the darkness into shades of pale blue. Golden threads gleamed ahead, tangled and shifting, vanishing into twisting corridors.
Ara stood beside him, every movement taut with readiness. "The Labyrinth shifts," she murmured. "Walls move. Floors drop. It's designed to keep you inside until you either win… or break."
Ahead, the rest of Class Tau spread out, some already igniting their Talents — sparks, light, shimmering barriers.
Kiro didn't light anything.He simply moved, steps silent.
The first corridor was narrow, flanked by stone walls etched with strange symbols. The floor vibrated under their boots.
"Trap," Ara whispered.
Kiro reached out mentally, feeling the threads that tied the floor panels to some hidden mechanism. With a thought, he loosened them — not enough to trigger, but enough to sense the tension.
"Don't step on the third tile," he said.
She gave him a sharp look. "How—"
The student ahead stepped on it.
Stone jaws snapped up from the floor, swallowing him to the waist before spitting him out against the wall. He groaned, dazed but alive.
Ara raised an eyebrow. "Not Talentless, huh?"
Kiro ignored that. "Move."
The corridor ended in three branching paths. The left glowed faintly red, heat spilling from it. The right was silent, cold as a tomb. The middle smelled faintly of ozone.
The golden threads told him the middle was alive — something waiting.
"Left," he said.
Ara followed without hesitation.
The red-lit path opened into a wide chamber with molten cracks spiderwebbing the floor. In the center stood a metal construct — humanoid, tall, glowing at the seams.
Its head swiveled toward them.
"Target acquired," it droned, voice like grinding gears.
It moved fast for something that size, molten fists slamming down where Kiro had been a heartbeat before. Ara's Talent flared — shadows bent around her, swallowing her form, reappearing at the construct's side with a dagger aimed for its joint.
The blade skittered off harmlessly.
Kiro darted in, weaving through the golden threads of its movement — prediction, reaction time, strike points. He reached for the thread that controlled its power flow and twisted.
The construct froze mid-swing, systems locking.
Ara stared. "What did you just—"
"Disabled it. For now," Kiro said, already moving toward the far door.
"But—"
"Later."
Beyond the chamber, the walls began to move — stone grinding against stone, sealing passages, opening others. The floor tilted, forcing them into a downward slope that spilled into another corridor.
Screams echoed from deeper inside — some from pain, others from panic.
Ara's voice was low. "They're thinning us out."
Kiro's mind swept ahead. The threads tangled into a knot — not traps this time, but people. Multiple presences. Hostile.
They rounded the corner and found them — three upper-year students, wearing the insignia of Class Alpha.
One smirked. "Fresh meat."
Ara's dagger flashed into her hand. "They're not supposed to—"
"They're part of the test," Kiro cut her off, already stepping forward.
The Alpha students moved in unison — one with blazing fire palms, another with blades of wind, the third radiating crushing gravity.
Ara melted into shadow, striking at the wind-user. Kiro locked eyes with the gravity manipulator, letting his mind slide along the golden thread of will.
Drop your power.
The boy's aura flickered and died, confusion twisting his features.
Kiro was already past him, hand grazing the fire-user's arm just enough to pull at the thread of his coordination. The fireball missed entirely, exploding harmlessly against the wall.
Ara reappeared beside him, breathing hard. "You're not even trying to hide it anymore."
Kiro's voice was calm. "No point in hiding if we don't make it out."
They left the Alphas behind, pushing deeper. The golden threads ahead began to thin — which meant they were nearing the center of the Labyrinth. But the air here was different: heavier, charged, like the moment before a storm.
Ara's steps slowed. "We're not alone."
She was right. The biggest thread he'd seen yet waited just ahead — massive, pulsing, ancient.
And it was moving toward them.