Chapter 891: The Maze

Nemo, invisible to everyone, watched and listened to the band from a height.

He admired their well-coordinated teamwork.

For a moment, he was overwhelmed by the memories of his previous conquest of the Forest of Doppelgangers.

Looking at them, he really wanted to be there and overcome all difficulties with them.

As the group moved forward, he noticed a change in Lina's behavior.

And soon he witnessed Lina's reckless actions and how Eulalia was able to successfully stop her.

Nemo was very grateful for Eulalia's actions and was touched by them.

At the same time, the whole situation had opened his eyes to a hidden side of Lina that he hadn't noticed before.

Watching her, Nemo wondered who she was to him.

Who is she to him?

His partner?

His friend?

His girlfriend?

Or just Izzy's mother?

From Lina's own story, he learned that before he lost his memories, got injured and ended up in Limbo, he had a relationship with her avatar.

And that baby Izzy, who had always been by his side from the first days of his awakening in Limbo in the form of a voice, was the soul of his unborn daughter from her avatar.

The news of the death of someone he once loved and with whom he had a relationship, despite the lack of memories, touched something deep inside him.

He couldn't say exactly what was bothering him at that moment, but his hand was tightly clutching the pendant he always carried with him.

Later, Lina revealed that this pendant was given to him by her avatar, and that a piece of her soul was kept inside it.

It was thanks to this pendant and this piece of her soul that Lina was able to find him. If it wasn't for that pendant, she wouldn't even know if he had survived back then, including her avatar's daughter.

Lost in his thoughts, Nemo tried to figure out who Lina herself was to him, while carefully following their every move.

It was very difficult for him to sort out his new feelings. He had never experienced anything like this before, until he met Lina, and now he did not understand what it all meant.

But he wanted to know. It was important for him to understand what kind of emotions it was that made his heart beat faster whenever he was around her, and every time he saw her smile.

Under his watchful attention, the group fought their way through the boundary of the middle layer of the Forbidden Zone, ending up in more dangerous lands.

They continued on their way, and soon a huge natural stone wall with many narrow passages appeared in front of them.

"The Maze" — Eulalia said, glancing at her companions, and added: "We have reached the middle layer."

"Let's take a short break," Alois suggested, and agreeing with him, the group decided to take a short break before starting to conquer the stone maze.

"Maybe we should try to go around it from above?" suggested Aliya, having studied the walls of the maze.

"It won't work," said Eulalia, who had extensive knowledge of this Forbidden Zone.

"The rules of the Forbidden Zone prohibit not only flights, but also circumvention," she added. "There is only one way — to go forward."

All the band members noticed the many narrow passageways, wondering which one to choose.

"Have you collected the cores of the defeated golem leaders?" asked Eulalia, and everyone nodded affirmatively.

"Okay, how many such cores do we have?" she asked.

One by one, they all began to take out smooth, brown, glowing spherical cores of the same size.

"I think that's enough for us," Eulalia said confidently, counting the number of cores.

"Listen carefully," she said, and began to tell them in detail how to overcome the maze.

"Are you saying that these cores will help us find the right path?" Aliya was surprised, looking at the core in her hand.

"Yes, that's right," Eulalia confirmed. "It was found out after a lot of trial and error by other adventurers."

"We should thank them for that," she added, and the others silently nodded in agreement.

"Unlike the usual conditions, this time the conditions for conquering the maze are somewhat complicated," Eulalia continued. "The master said that when the Temple is in a Forbidden Zone, in addition to increasing gravity, which makes it difficult to move, and sand dust, which makes it difficult to see, there is a time limit for overcoming a certain section of the maze."

"Simply put, we need to constantly move forward without stopping. If we fail to meet the allotted time, we will be teleported back to the beginning of the maze, and even worse, the spent cores will not be returned to us," Eulalia explained with all seriousness.

"In that case, we will need to go back to the outer layer and extract them again, which will take extra time," Eulalia said, and of course Lina didn't like that very much. She didn't want to waste extra time on this, which meant they had to go through everything on the first try.

"Considering the amount we already have, and according to the master, we only have enough for one mistake, no more."

"No," — Lina shook her head, drawing everyone's attention.

"We have to complete the Maze on the first try," she announced, looking everyone in the eye.

"I hope for all of you and I ask you to do your best."

"Of course," Liam nodded with a smile. "None of us want to start over and waste time."

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

After a short rest and careful preparation, everyone was ready to conquer the Maze.

Eulalia, as the leader, was the first to throw a ball in front of a lot of confusing passages. After falling onto the stone floor, the ball rolled forward and, having reached the passages, changed direction to choose one of them.

"Go after it!" exclaimed Eulalia, rushing forward, followed by the others.

As soon as they entered, they immediately felt their bodies becoming heavy and the air thickening. Following the core, they soon came across a branching passage. The ball continued to move, and Eulalia did not lag behind it.

However, on the next branch of the passage, the core stopped.

"Throw the next one!" exclaimed Eulalia, and following her example, Liam threw the second ball. It rolled, chose one of the passages and rushed forward.

"Go!" commanded Eulalia, and following the core, the group moved forward without stopping, overcoming the increasing force of gravity. Along the way, they dodged traps and suddenly appearing stone monsters.

Knowing that they didn't have much time, the group tried to avoid fighting, dodging attacks and only parrying them. After almost half a day of continuous running, they had traversed half of the maze and entered a spacious square where they could rest before continuing on their way.

By the end of the second day, they had overcome the maze on their first attempt and found themselves at the edge of the central layer, where a majestic mountain opened before their eyes, the top of which stretched far beyond the clouds.