"I believe I've found something, Nicholas," I say, once we've reached the backside of the giant spire in the center of this lush sea of verdant green.

I can see it in his eyes and teeth for the tiniest fraction of a second. He absolutely loathes when I address him on a first name basis. When I disregard his rank and his military decorum. When I deny him the courtesy of his title and demand to treat him with familiarity as an equal, rather than a subordinate addressing a superior officer. But, I will give him credit where it is due. Despite his obvious— to me— displays of displeasure underneath the surface, he has remained cordial, if not respectful, of Chloe and me to this point. At least cordial enough that I feel no strong compulsion to leave him behind.

Though, I do wonder how distasteful it was for him to put up with the first-name basis address during our first mission into the wilds together. Maybe back then, he was certain of his superiority, with more training, resources, and experience— System and pre-System alike. Such informality failed to faze the normally unflappable major back then. But now that Chloe and I both eclipse him in terms of raw physical power— the only thing that matters in dungeons like this one— his insecurity might be manifesting as he tries to find a way to better assert his ego. That and to not feel totally inferior to a couple of eighteen year old girls, at least one of whom was reincarnated in from a different universe specifically to fight against the System itself.

"What is it?" Chloe asks.

"It's faint, but I can sense a slightly higher density of Ether coming out of the wall here. And not just a normal fluctuation. It's… it's too much more to be just a random variation."

"Excellent work, Ms. Mortensen." Nicholas walks up to the wall and stares at it with furrowed brows for several seconds.

He says a few utterances underneath his breath, though I don't pay too much attention to the nonsense syllables. Instead, my hand, as though by a will of its own, has slipped into Chloe's, the gentle comfort of one another's touch helping us both calm down from our companion's unwelcome provocations.

After about thirty seconds— I have no idea if he really needed that long, or if it's just to stretch out the length of this excursion— he pulls something out of his [Inventory] and affixes it to a spot on the wall that looks exactly the same as every other spot on the wall. He steps back, motioning for us to follow suit. We oblige, just in time for an immodestly sized explosion to absolutely shred the wall, revealing a small passage just within.

"Another design we've been working on. We call them [Ether Charges]. Consider them a somewhat more shelf-stable version of your [Ether Bullets], designed to be utilized by any trained ordnance technician in place of C-4 or similar conventional explosives."

"But that's…" I'm not sure how such a thing is possible. I couldn't let others handle any [Ether Bullets] I had created for any substantial period of time. Worst case, their own [Ether] would destabilize them, causing them to prematurely explode.

"Yes, there are still some flaws to be overcome, regarding safety, especially when large quantities are handled by low-leveled technical experts. But our engineers and Ethertech scientists are working on iterative improvements."

I'm reminded again of just how frightening the government's military research apparatus really is. And yet, even with all of that resourcefulness, the capital fell in a single night. I– Yeah, looked at in that context, I can understand Nicholas' frustration about his own powerlessness, and exactly why he's so desperate to get stronger as quickly as possible. I– I should try to avoid antagonizing him too much more.

I won't stop addressing him on a first-name basis though. He's not our superior.

"I see," I say. "Now then, shall we head up or down?"

"The logical end of this gauntlet is at the top of the tower. Naturally, I want to start with the basement, to discover any information or equipment that may serve to our future benefit."

Without further discussion, we head down the stairwell and into the dark depths. Chloe takes the front, my [Angel's Grace] and her [Saintess's Cloister] fully active upon her. She's also lighting the way with a tiny mote of light— a repurposed, nondamaging form of her [Scouring Light] spell.

I take the rear, now similarly reinforced by [Saintess's Cloister], though, at Nicholas' continued insistence, not buttressed by Chloe's [Saintess's Blessing] as well. I still feel so weak… almost like I'm waltzing around in the nude without the strengthening spell I've become so accustomed to. Even my mind feels a little fuzzier, the thoughts slower, my ability to synthesize information a bit more muted compared with when I'm under the influence of Chloe's magic.

I haven't felt any signs of addiction, thankfully. It does feel better when I'm under Chloe's spell, but that's just because Chloe. Always Chloe.

"Ms. Mortensen," Nicholas says. "There are three paths ahead. Do you sense anything we should be concerned about from any of the options?"

I step to the front, looking around the intersection of these four narrow passageways. Mundane traps line each of them. Poisoned arrows, spears out of the ground… I even notice a small gap in the floor among the rightmost path that leads to what I have to assume is some sort of spike pit. I don't see any mechanism by which the ceiling or a portion thereof might drop, either to trap us or maybe suffocate us with toxic fumes. And I don't sense a sharply higher concentration of Ether that would be characteristic of a monster lying in ambush. Or a treasure chest.

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"Simple traps in all directions. Nothing that indicates a particular direction is to be preferred."

"Then we shall employ the right-hand rule, unless Ms. Jacobs has a better idea."

She sprouts her wings and shakes her head. "Mr. Richardson, watch your step. The two of us are going to fly, as it's likely there will be hidden triggers on the floor"

"Of course. Be mindful of any traps that might trigger off Ether use as well; just because the traps may be mundane doesn't mean the triggering devices will be equally easy to detect."

This time I take the lead, with Chloe a few paces behind me and Nicholas at our rearguard. Despite our wings, the two of us are moving slowly through the passageway, Chloe staring in awe at the intricate designs etched into the wall, and me continuing to look for further traps or secret passageways that might lead to the treasure that Nicholas is so certain is buried down into this odious morass of sewage and stale air.

A drip of water hitting the stone floor beneath me nearly causes me to jump out of my suit of armor. Without Chloe's light and my [Archangel's Gaze], it'd be completely dark in here. As it is, I'm worried that there's something that can escape the detection abilities that Nicholas and I each have. They've both been too effective so far, and I'm under no illusion that a high-enough-leveled creature with enough ranks in some sort of [Etheric Stealth] Skill couldn't get around them.

"There," Nicholas whispers. "Just to the left of where Ms. Jacobs is standing."

"Is there something out of place?" Chloe asks.

"Look at the patterns on the wall to this point. It's been circles, diamonds, crosses, and triangles dotted all along the surface ever since we started. But it's been a consistent pattern. Circle, then diamond, then cross, then triangle, then repeat. Suspiciously consistent, and it follows whether you move left to right or top to bottom. And yet, right here, there's a case of circle, then cross, then diamond, then triangle. Part of me wants to dismiss this as just an oddity, but I do not want to attribute it to a mistake when the System is involved."

"I agree," I say. "Even if there were an error in this design during its original construction, I'm sure any [Artisan] or [Earthcrafter] worth their weight in iron slag could have fixed it."

I lean in, concentrating my vision purely on the spot, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing. Nothing at all seems abnormal. No flow of Ether, no signs of a hidden mechanism buried within, no switches… When I press my finger against the pair of misarranged shapes, it feels no different than any other part of the wall. So strange…

"Ah!" I nearly gasp. It's faint, worn down, almost invisible, but there's definitely something written here in the glyph language. With some of the strokes too worn to properly read, I can't make out everything, but it seems to be something like this, which I relay to Chloe and Nicholas.

Life is but a winding path, branching out in all directions. Some things, however, are immutable, unchanging, fixed in reality beyond all attempts to resist. In birth, one leaves darkness, and in death, to darkness one returns. When light is eclipsed by darkness once more, the way to the hidden sanctum shall be revealed.

"Interesting," Nicholas says. "So it doesn't really matter which way we go in the end. All the paths, no matter how much we meander."

"Assuming I've translated it right."

"Well, yes, but this is the current best information we have. We shall maintain our present trajectory, looking out for any additional traps while adhering to the right-hand rule. Should we end up in a loop at some point and end up back either here or at the entrance, we shall retrace our steps back to this spot and choose a different path, repeating iteratively until we have reached the dead end hinted at by this inscription."

"I can't think of a better option," Chloe says. "Might as well."

And so we do. It's really not too bad, apart from the stench. Nicholas has an uncanny ability to avoid anything that might set off the traps in here, and there haven't been any monsters to speak of. A few bugs, a spider and a rat as well. All mundane, no System modifications that I can tell. Just an endless corridor that keeps branching out, more paths in seemingly every direction, none of them leading to the end that should be present.

Worse, Nicholas's conjecture about there being a dead end we need to find doesn't seem to be true, either. All of the paths, save the one we used to break into this labyrinth, shift and contort and twist inward toward other intersections. Which shouldn't be possible, if not for the fact that there are just enough subtle inclines and raised platforms— with a small helping of spatial modifications courtesy of the System— that they all fit just so.

After an hour of wandering through these overly-long mazelike hallways, I'm beginning to think the whole thing is just one big, neverending cycle… Wait, yes, that's it! It's a cycle! Of course it's a cycle. A cycle of life, one that repeats endlessly as new generations are born, live, and then pass on, leaving behind their progeny to repeat the process ad infinitum. Which means there's never going to be a dead end, no matter how many paths we take. The only way we'd ever leave is…

"We need to turn around," I say. "Back to the entrance."

"But–"

"This is a trap. The entire thing is a trap. It's designed specifically to leave us here wandering endlessly. Great for you, perhaps, if you're looking to delay things for your own purposes."

"Is that so? Then why all that stuff about darkness eclipsing light? Are you suggesting the entire thing is one giant ruse to get people to waste their time down here?"

"I– I don't know. It's possible, and we need to be aware that we don't have endless time to dally around, searching every nook and cranny."

"How pernicious." Nicholas shakes his head. "A trap designed to deliberately ensnare people like me who take a completionist's mindset to these dungeons, only to make us waste so much time that a certain unpleasant creature shows up to dispose of us. Well, at least we didn't waste too much time. Let's be on our way."

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