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Lawler slashed at the Other, cutting the creature in two before it could land the opposing hit. As the monster hit the ground, Lawler wiped his brow.
Like the rest of the soldiers in Syrce's army, he was exhausted.
So much had happened since his ill-fated guard duty. He had been too relieved by that Lady Syrce had not executed him on the spot to think too deeply about what had happened to the disappearing bodies.
Now, having seen more bodies than he could count dissolve into black wisps, he knew the answer to the question. The assassins had been monsters, and Lady Mae had been in on the plot. That was because she wasn't Lady Maelys at all, at least Lawler thought that was what the Realm Walker had said.
Things after that had erupted, and the fighting hadn't stopped.
At first, things had been straightforward, easy even. Lady Syrce had removed her false sister from the fray, and Lady Aurelia and Lady Bel had prevented the more fearsome spiders from reaching their front lines.
But now their Commander was missing, and the two mighty warriors were gone as well.
Lawler sighed, trying not to think about the hopelessness of their situation. They had been fighting all night, and still more came. In their exhaustion, it was getting harder and harder to tell who was friend and who was foe, but still they continued to struggle against the sea of human faces.
How many more could there be? Lawler wished he knew the answer. The enemy seemed endless, but still the soldiers fought on.
They had survived worse than this. They would have to outlive this trial as well.
Lawler raised his sword. "Keep going! For Lady Syrce!"
He was met with an impassioned cry from his comrades.
At least he still had some people on his side. Would he still be able to say that when the sun rose? Would he even still be alive?
It was only a little while longer! He refused to believe he had seen his last sunrise!
Filled with new vigor, he struck out to block a hit and save the woman who had fallen beside him.
Lawler reached down to help her to her feet. Their eyes met. He had never noticed how pretty Lux was. She had lost her helmet at some point, if she had ever had it to begin with when they were pulled into this world.
"Watch out!" Lux lifted her blade to prevent an Other from striking Lawler down. The two warriors stood back to back. Lawler's heart was filled with courage that felt like it was raining down from the heavens. He embraced it wholeheartedly, emboldened by the woman who now had his back.
There was no doubt in his mind that he would ask Lux to marry him when this was all over… …assuming they lived that long.
The two warriors readied themselves for the next assault. The barricade had long fallen, and the skirmishes seemed to run in a never-ending line.
Just now, the pair was surrounded by a myriad of unfriendlies. Their armor was ill-fitting and obviously stolen, their faces stolen from those who were long dead.
"If this is it, I'm glad it's with you," Lux surprised Lawler with her words.
But he was even more shocked by what happened next. The Others surrounding them lifted their swords in the moonlight, ready to fight to the death, but then they froze.
Lawler and Lux cut down two of the attackers before they realized what was happening.
Rather than retaliate, the Others looked to the summit of the ruins. Then, in unison, they turned and walked up the hillside.
Lawler watched them leave, dumbfounded.
"Do…do we follow them?" Lux hesitated to lower her blade.
The rest of the soldiers seemed to be similarly indecisive. No one wanted to fall into a trap.
In the end, they watched the Others leave. None of them knew what had made them move, or they would have chosen differently.
———
One good thing the battle with the Remnant had done, other than giving Aether his Aspect Legacy, was that it had disrupted the land above the mirror maze. Deep fissures ran along the ground. All the cohort needed to do was find the right one.
Flying over the land, the five warriors huddled close with Mirage's cloak to shield them.
The trick that the Other Noble had done by disappearing gave the real Noble the idea to cover the group with the cloth and blend them into the sky. They sailed over the ruins veiled from view. With the help of Syrce's power of misdirection and Noble's bracelets, the group was undetectable to those below.
That did not mean the world below stood idle. Noble was both relieved and saddened to see that the battle with the Others continued below.
More of the soldiers were alive than Noble could possibly have hoped. They were fighting valiantly, better than she ever could have expected for a mostly mundane group.
But her heart sank as she saw how many Others still existed. How could there still be so many? Noble wanted to dip down and obliterate them all, but she knew that would reveal their position.
So instead, she sent courage to any of the soldiers that she recognized. Hopefully, it would keep them alive until she could return.
'We just need to find the right spot to enter…'
Helie responded through the Memory.
'We need to go higher…'
Turning away from her soldier's plight, Syrce sighed. She clutched the mirror tightly to her chest, her heart more determined to finish the task they had begun.
The group continued on.
The top of the hill had many broken places, but not all of them would lead to the magical maze beneath.
Helie scanned the land looking for the anomaly that she had spotted before.
Noble scanned too, but for something else entirely.
Their eye landed on the same spot at the same moment.
'There!'
Coming out of a crack was a fully formed human. He hadn't been able to locate an abandoned uniform yet, and Noble would not give him the chance.
The Zenith flew from her side and cut down the man where he stood.
[You have slain an Other.]
'That's the spot,' Helie confirmed what Noble already knew. Before the creature could disappear into black mist, Mirage's cape unfurled, releasing its passengers and blocking out the moon from the opening. The humans lowered to the ground, ready to battle anything else that came out of the hole.
But the crevice, for now, was empty. Roan entered the hole first, followed by Syrce and Helie as her guard. Aether motioned for Noble to go first, but in the end, they entered the maze together.
The cape hovered over the hole as the group made it to the bottom of the chasm.
Entering the mirror maze, Noble covered the entry with Mirage's voluminous cloth. The reflective world was plunged into darkness. Now came the hard part.
They had dropped into the maze at a different place than the last time they had entered. More than that, their guide from before was not going to help them. If anything, he would actively try to thwart them.
So the question was…which way should they go?