"It’s not easy to keep people under control in circumstances like this," one of the guards said quietly. His grip on the spear was tight, knuckles pale. Behind him stood a small family—his wife and two children—pressed close together as if proximity alone could keep them safe.

Tyler glanced at them and nodded in understanding. "Even if we somehow solve the food and water problem, that won’t be enough to keep people calm," he replied. "Fear spreads faster than hunger."

As if on cue, a small voice broke through the tension.

"Mommy... I want to go to the toilet," a young child whispered, tugging at his mother’s sleeve.

The woman froze, her face draining of color as she looked around at the walls, then back at her child. She had no answer.

Kaeya inhaled slowly, then raised her voice, careful not to let urgency turn into panic. "We need a way out of the city," she said. "For now, keep everyone in the open square. Do not let anyone stand close to the walls. Break up arguments before they start, and keep families together."

She turned to the adventurers and guards. "We’ll form a team of five and investigate the source of this. If there’s a hidden demon controlling this place, that’s where our efforts should be focused."

No one argued.

Tyler, Kaeya, a town guard, and two adventurers stepped forward. The rest stayed behind, following Kaeya’s earlier orders to maintain order.

"Let’s start at the edge of the city," Kaeya said as she led the way. "I want to see what this darkness really is."

As they walked, Tyler fell into step beside her. Lowering his voice, he said, "You have a natural presence when you give orders. People listen to you without hesitation."

Kaeya’s lips curved into a brief smile. "I used to be the leader of my party," she replied lightly.

Tyler glanced at her sideways. Something in her tone felt practiced, almost rehearsed, but he chose not to press the matter and simply nodded.

They soon reached the western gate. Like the buildings, the stone here had been warped. Two grotesque mouths were carved into the gate itself, their lips twitching faintly as if sensing movement.

Kaeya raised a hand, signaling the others to prepare. "Open it slowly," she instructed the guard. "The rest of you, weapons ready."

The guard swallowed and pushed the gate. The moment it moved, one of the mouths stretched open, its stone lips grinding against each other as it lunged forward.

Kaeya reacted instantly. She drove her sword into the mouth, twisting the blade. The stone face let out a distorted wail, its features cracking as if the gate itself were screaming.

Beyond the gate lay nothing but darkness.

The guard extended a trembling hand into it. "It feels solid," he said, confused. "Like I’m touching a wall."

Tyler and the others tested it as well. The darkness resisted them, smooth and unyielding.

Kaeya frowned, her mind clearly racing.

Tyler’s attention drifted back to the wounded mouth. He noticed something strange. When someone had been devoured earlier, every mouth in the town had echoed the act, chewing and swallowing in unison.

But now, as this mouth writhed in pain, only it reacted. The others twitched briefly, then fell still, unaffected.

Tyler’s eyes narrowed.

There was a connection between them.

"Alright," Kaeya said, her voice cutting cleanly through Tyler’s thoughts and pulling him back into the moment. She glanced at the dark barrier beyond the gate and added, "Try attacking it."

The two adventurers exchanged uneasy looks but still stepped forward. One raised his staff, murmuring an incantation as pale light gathered at its tip. The other drew a short blade, its edge glowing faintly with enchantment. They struck almost simultaneously.

The spell flew forward and vanished the instant it touched the darkness, swallowed as if it had never existed. The blade followed, slicing into empty space with a sharp whistle, only to disappear past the threshold. There was no impact, no resistance, not even a sound to suggest contact.

The darkness remained unchanged.

Tyler exhaled slowly. "Then how about destroying the town itself?" he said, half to test the idea aloud.

The guard stiffened at once. "Destroy the town?" he repeated, disbelief clear in his voice. "That would mean leveling everything. Homes, shops, the square— everything our people built."

Kaeya did not hesitate. "A town can be rebuilt," she replied calmly. "Dead people cannot."

Her words landed heavily, but no one argued. The weight of what they had already witnessed made the choice painfully clear.

"Then let’s go back and tell the others," Tyler said. "If the walls and buildings are part of the demon’s structure, we tear them down. Piece by piece, if we have to."

He turned to leave.

And stopped.

The path behind them was gone.

Where the street had been only moments ago, there was now a solid stone wall, identical to the ones that hemmed them in on every other side. The path they had entered through had vanished as well, replaced by another stretch of featureless stone veined with faint, pulsing red light.

For a heartbeat, no one moved.

Then they ran.

They tried the side streets first, only to find more walls where alleys should have been. Every turn ended the same way: stone, mouths etched into it, and darkness pressing in from beyond.

"We’re trapped," one of the adventurers muttered, his voice barely steady.

The guard’s breathing quickened. "The demon can control the walls," he said. "It’s closing the city around us."

Kaeya shook her head, though her grip tightened on her sword. "Not completely," she said. "If it could fully control them, it wouldn’t bother with games. It would have crushed everyone already by moving the walls inward."

That explanation, thin as it was, gave the others something to hold on to. The adventurer nodded slowly, forcing himself to breathe.

Then the air vibrated.

A voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere at once, slithering along the stone and into their ears.

"You are very perceptive," it said, almost approvingly. "Smarter than most."

The mouths carved into the walls began to curl upward, forming smiles far too wide to be natural.

"But it doesn’t change the outcome," the voice continued, amusement dripping from every word. "You will die here. And when you do, the people you left behind will panic. They will turn on each other again. Fear will do the rest for me."

Laughter followed, reverberating through the enclosed space, bouncing endlessly between the walls.

"Zahazahazaha... no wait... I have a better idea. I will just inform them that you already died. Zahahaha"

The sound crawled under their skin, lingering long after it faded.

Kaeya raised her sword, eyes hard. Tyler slowly took out some rings out from his copper pot tied in his waist.

┉┈ ◈ ◉ ◈ ┈┉

Meanwhile, the people gathered in the town square waited in uneasy silence.

No one spoke loudly. No one dared to move too far from the open space Kaeya had ordered them to stay in. Children were pulled close, elders seated on the ground, adventurers standing with weapons half-raised, eyes constantly flicking toward the streets that led away from the square.

Then the walls laughed.

The mouths carved into the stone stretched wide, their blood-lit teeth grinding together as a chorus of mocking voices echoed through the town.

"Those five idiots are dead."

The words slammed into the crowd like a hammer.

People gasped. Someone screamed. A few took instinctive steps backward, bumping into others. Panic began to ripple outward, thin cracks forming in the fragile calm.

Before it could spread, a guard stepped forward and shouted, his voice raw but firm.

"It hasn’t even been an hour since they left!" he barked. "It’s lying to us! Don’t listen!"

The crowd hesitated. Some people clutched at his words like a lifeline.

The mouths clicked their tongues in annoyance.

"Tch... smart people everywhere."

The laughter died down. The walls fell silent once more, as if nothing had happened.

Even so, no one relaxed.

Every pair of eyes remained fixed on the streets, waiting for any sign that the five had returned— or that the demon’s words were true.

---

Inside the shifting maze of stone, Tyler exhaled slowly.

"People won’t panic right away," he said, more to himself than to the others. "But the longer we stay trapped, the harder it will be to keep them calm."

Kaeya nodded, her jaw set. "We need to understand how far this thing extends."

Tyler glanced down the corridor, then made a quick decision. "I’ll stay here. Two of you go left, two go right. Measure how far the path stretches. Come back in five minutes, no matter what."

There was a brief pause, but no one argued.

Kaeya and the guard headed left, weapons ready. The two adventurers went right, glancing over their shoulders once before disappearing into the dim red glow.

Left alone, Tyler turned his attention to the mouths in the walls.

He removed several rings and extended them carefully, directly to one of the mouths.

Nothing happened.

The mouth did not snap at them. It did not react at all.

"That’s interesting," Tyler muttered.

He knelt and opened one of the rings.

Reddish liquid poured out, splashing onto the stone. The smell was faintly metallic, sharp enough to sting the nose.

The mouth above it stirred.

Slowly, it leaned downward and began to drink.

A wet, gulping sound echoed through the corridor.

Almost instantly, the other mouths across the walls reacted. Their lips moved in unison, mimicking the act, as if sharing the sensation. The entire structure seemed to pulse, stone throats working as though swallowing something unseen.

Far away, Kaeya and the other stopped mid-step, staring at the walls as the sound rippled through the maze.

"What is the mouth doing?" the guard whispered.

"Drinking?" Kaeya muttered.

Back at the center, Tyler’s eyes narrowed.

He reached into his ring again and withdrew a sword. Calmly, deliberately, he slid it beneath the drinking mouth and pressed the blade upward.

The effect was immediate. The connection to this mouth was cut.

Across the maze, every other mouth fell silent, their movements snapping to a halt as if a string had been cut. The walls seemed to stiffen, losing their unnatural rhythm.

Only the mouth drinking the liquid continued to move, oblivious to the others.

Tyler lips curved into a smile.

Before his eyes, translucent text appeared.

Exp +10

Exp +10