Episode 28 :
The Sigiriya rock fortress loomed above them, its sheer stone walls glowing orange beneath the setting sun. But what lay inside was no tourist wonder. Alok knew the truth now: beneath the ancient fortress stretched a labyrinth no human had ever mapped.
He and Rihan moved cautiously, lantern light flickering across carvings of beasts with hollow eyes. Every corner seemed to breathe.
Suddenly click.
The ground shifted. Spikes erupted from the wall. Alok shoved Rihan back, the tip grazing his arm. Blood dripped, sizzling as though the stone itself tried to drink it.
"This place isn't just a maze," Alok whispered. "It's alive."
They pressed deeper. Traps came in endless waves falling blades, shifting floors, walls that tried to crush them. Each step forward was survival itself.
But the strangest part wasn't the traps. It was the writing.
Scrawled across the stone walls were words in a language neither of them recognized. Some glowed faintly, pulsing with a sick rhythm.
Alok brushed his hand against one. The stone burned hot, searing his palm.
The letters rearranged themselves before his eyes.
sedfxsoo enko.....
The words echoed in his mind, twisting, almost chanting. He staggered, clutching his head. Images flashed chains, fire, his father's shadow disappearing into darkness.
"What does it mean?!" Rihan shouted, shaking him.
Alok's pendant, cracked and dim, pulsed once in answer.
They reached a great chamber at the heart of the labyrinth. A circle of runes burned across the floor. The air was thick, suffocating.
From the shadows, a low growl rumbled.
The creature stepped forward massive, horned, with a face that was not its own but a shifting mask of many souls screaming.
"Extera…" Alok breathed.
The monster hissed, and the runes across the chamber flared.
And behind it, carved into the wall, more words appeared longer this time, almost like instructions or a curse.
The first line glowed brightest:
sedfxsoo enko… the gate is not yet closed.
Alok felt his father's presence here. Not a memory. Not a dream. A truth buried in stone.
And the labyrinth wasn't just a test.
It was a warning.