Suddenly, the King of the Labyrinth erupted from the ground. Its saws were spinning, fast. It was going right for Genesis and Noel. Genesis could barely see because of all the sand it spewed.
But there was a phenomenon he could see.
Lautaro. Lautaro had his katana raised at the worm. He could see it in his eyes, bravery. Two portals appeared beside him. One black and the other yellow, they represented his heterochromia. Simultaneously, two beams of pure magic shot out.
Black and yellow pierced through the King of the Labyrinth's body in a display of chaos. The Origami Beast wailed in agony. As the blades spun in pain, the cohort ran. While running Genesis took this time to think.
'Both Noel and I were on the walls of the Labyrinth and we didn't make too much noise as to alert it. If it wasn't our fault then it was something else, something else must have changed. It's just a matter of what.'
Genesis scanned around. If it were the Origami Beasts that alerted the King then it would have attacked them earlier. He looked up and he looked down. Down into the Scarlet Sa-
"The sand isn't scarlet! The maroon sand. The thing that caused the darkening of the sand is what is causing it to attack us!"
Genesis shared his revelation with the rest of the cohort.
"So do we run from it?!"
Hana screamed out over the loud noises that the King made.
Noel and Genesis looked at each other. In normal circumstances, Genesis would have said yes. But times were dire and he was on Borrowed Time. Those same driving words pierced through his mind.
"...no matter what."
"No we have to run to it!"
They all looked at Genesis as if he were crazy.
Crazier than they already thought he was.
"What do you mean run to it?!"
Lautaro screamed. At this point, the King of the Labyrinth had recovered from its wounds. It chased them down from below the Canyon's walls.
"You already said that the darker the sand gets the worse it is for us!"
"I know but if we have to cross over the Scarlet Sand now or never. If we go back and try again we'll be more exhausted. We have to do this while we're at our peak!"
They felt the ground beneath them shake. Jae and Lautaro had managed to make a jump to another wall of the Canyon's Labyrinth. But Genesis, Noel, Hana and Sephina weren't as lucky.
The King of the Labyrinth erupted from under them sending them flying in the air. Genesis held on tight to his sword. He couldn't lose it now. But the world didn't care if he wanted his sword or not. Shrapnel flung into his body, the rocks' searing hot temperature made him wail out and let go.
He dropped his trusty sword. While the rocks were in the air Genesis realised that they were like platforms. He leapt from one chunk of rock to another, in a measly attempt to stay alive. He saw Noel doing the same but she wasn't as strong as him. As the effect of gravity was extremely real, the rocks began to fall. And Noel couldn't hang on. So she fell.
Genesis jumped from his rock to her. He stretched his hand out and held onto Noel. Now Genesis and Noel were falling. In his rear view, Genesis could see Hana who was the highest out of all of them, she was doing something but Genesis wasn't sure what and right now he didn't care.
Sephina took off her coat and threw it to Genesis. Genesis grabbed on and there was an alert from his Fold.
[Sephina Bisen has given you [Glimpses of a Frozen Saga] would you like to accept ownership? [Glimpses of a Froz-
"No! I don't want to accept."
Genesis was fed up with his Fold at this point. First by giving him Borrowed Time. Then sending him on these ridiculous quests and now this. If he made it out of this he was getting a new soul.
But as they fell Sephina quickly joined them. There was only Hana left. Suddenly, a golden lasso was sent down. Sephina grabbed onto the lasso sent down from heaven. Genesis looked up to the blinding sun from where the lasso came from. There was Hana. She had mechanical spiders on his shoulders and the lasso came from her hand but those were questions for another day.
Hana also had a glider. The wind picked up and they soared. Genesis hung on tight to both Noel and Sephina's coat. When he looked at the woman he loved Genesis saw her mouth out.
"Thank you."
Genesis smiled as he soared through the air. He could see the excited Lautaro from afar running and cheering. The King of the Labyrinth tried to kill him and Jae many times but Lautaro had his magic portals armed.
Genesis looked down at Noel who had climbed up his arm and hung onto him. For a moment it felt as if Noel was going to kiss him but instead she mouthed.
"Thank you."
As they soared through the air they made it close enough to something in the distance. It had black sand surrounding it. Genesis squinted enough to see a strange sight.
There was a blade it was alluring. Genesis felt as if he wanted to devote his entire life to it. It had effects on his mind that made him want to let go. Genesis could notice he wasn't the only one. But the most awkward thing about the blade was that it was embedded in amber.
Then there was an alert from his Fold.
[Now entering the Domain of the Broadsword Frozen in Time.]
There was a slight smirk on Genesis's face. Each Origami Beast above the 7th stage gave an alert. For an 8th-stage Origami Beast, the word domain was used.
Genesis could hear Lautaro blast magic at the King of the Labyrinth. But then the King suddenly stopped. It burrowed underground and went toward the Broadsword Frozen in Time. It was protecting it.
Hana felt as though they were safe from the King for now so she landed where Lautaro and Jae were. Together, they discussed.
"Why is that thing protecting it? An Origami Beast like that could definitely put up a fight even against an 8th-stage."
Jae questioned as he was right to do so. The King of the Labyrinth was at least a 6th-stage Origami Beast. The King was among a high tier in the 6th stage it could pose a serious threat to a low-tier 7th or 8th stage.
"Some kind of mind control. The King of the Labyrinth probably thinks it's protecting its child right now."
Genesis gave reasoning that was not too ambitious.
"Excuse me, but is that thing creating those Origami Beasts?"
Hana said with haste.
The cohort looked over and she was right. The blade was creating Origami Beasts. Genesis was stunned there was now an army surrounding the Origami Beast. It included long stick-like creatures that flew and had sharp mandibles. Frozen wolves. And smaller worms that looked just like the King of the Labyrinth.
"So what do we do now?"
Sephina had finally spoken up.
Genesis and Noel looked at each other again. They had learnt some more things in the advanced classes. The ability for an Origami Beast to summon other Origami Beasts is weakened after killing the one it is most dependent on.
"We have to kill the King of the Labyrinth."
Genesis explained.
There was silence in the air.
"Has the heat made you lose your mind? You were insane before but I think you're too far gone now."
Jae said what everybody was thinking.
"We are the only ones here. We are trapped here. When this camp was made the Canyon's Labyrinth began to form, you all know that. It formed around this camp. The masters weren't planning on letting us make it out of here alive. We were doomed from the start. So we must face our doom. We kill the King of the Labyrinth we kill the Broadsword's strongest soldier. If we do that the rest of the Origami Beasts are easy enough to deal with. This thing is dependent on the King of the Labyrinth we kill it. We kill the 8th-stage Origami Beast."
Genesis gave a motivational speech to convince them to ride into their certain doom. Jae sighed.
"Who knew Free Zone boy had a silver tongue? I don't believe I'm saying this but let's go. Let's kill that thing."
***
There was a song playing in Genesis's head. It was a song that was sung to him by his mother. When he was still very young. He remembered all of it. It was a song that came from before the Folds.
A song that Genesis's grandmother sang to his own mother. He looked over to the Broadsword Frozen in Time. He looked to his right to see Lautaro, Sephina and Jae. At his right Noel and Hana.
Everyone scaled down the canyon except for Hana. They landed in black sand. All the Origami Beasts the Broadsword summoned came rushing at them.
Simultaneously, they all split in different directions. Bring an equal amount of Origami Beasts to each one of them. Sephina's path then diverged into Noel's.
Sephina drew her bow back, each pull of the string like a grand defiance. Every Origami Beast she slaughtered, she slaughtered with a smile. Each arrow had a chilling aura, an anomaly in an arid desert.
She struck with precision and danger. In just a few minutes the Origami Beasts began to cower in fear. So much so that they ran away from her.
Lautaro and Jae were also terrifying. Lautaro's katana split at its cracks. Jae held them in his gauntlets as he flew at the flying Beasts. Lautaro's magic let him sense the worms in the sand. He aimed his portals downwards and let chaos reign.
The black and yellow chased down the worms with efficiency. The beams of magic simply passed through the worms and eliminated them. The Broadsword tried to summon more but they killed them too quickly. They were winning now. They could do this.
Hana atop the Canyon's Labyrinth had her spiders at her side. She called them Aurum and Sanguinis. They crawled down her shoulder from which they emerged. Sanguinis the one on her left bit down on her palm, making blood drip.
Soon after, Sanguinis took her blood to Aurum. Then Aurum made the blood gold. Sanguinis gave her a needle made of her blood and Aurum gave her the golden thread.
With precision and accuracy, she weaved. She twisted her fingers. Made the needle go through the gold. In the end, she created something magnificent. She had a flaming arrow. A golden flaming arrow. The arrow stretched across her wingspan. Then she let go.
The gold shone through the air. The arrow was shot straight at the Broadsword Frozen in Time. It was beautiful, the entire battle stopped just to watch the display of utter power. Flames erupted from the golden arrow like a painter whose canvas was the world.
The arrow flew but it was stopped by the King of the Labyrinth. It shot up from the black sand and took the arrow for the Broadsword Frozen in Time. It wailed out in pain, and it bled. First, it came out black after being in the air for a while it became, maroon and then when it touched the sand, it tainted it scarlet.
Time stopped for Genesis, it was almost like the King of the Labyrinth locked eyes with him. It burrowed down. Hana raced to form another arrow. Lautaro raced even faster to shoot his magic at the King of the Labyrinth but it was too late. The King erupted from the ground and swallowed black sand and with it Genesis.
The first was the walls. His non-dominant hand was mangled almost instantly. His head was scratched but still extremely damaged.
There was something in the King of the Labyrinth. It reflected light awesomely, that was the only reason Genesis was able to see it. There was a kaleidoscopic sword in the King of the Labyrinth. Just looking at it made Genesis's mind buckle.
He reached out for it. Blood sprayed everywhere in the King of the Labyrinth. Once he touched the blade he got a notification.
[You have claimed the Purposeless Wanderer's Sword.]
'I never learnt about the Purposeless Wanderer in school.'
It was a stupid thought but one Genesis thought nonetheless.
Then came another notification. No not a notification a greeting. He could hear a voice not in his mind like all the voices usually were. But a voice that came from the soul. A voice that wasn't his yet wasn't the Fold's automated alert system.
Someone. No. Something else was in his soul now and it spoke. It greeted him. The voice seemed like it had practiced his greeting for a while now.
[Hello, Genesis.]