Escaping the Maze

He melted some more of the gems out and noticed the gem walls had been shaped very deliberately into large rectangular patterns. He cut off more chunks of the gems and realized it was a maze of gem walls.

"This must be where Zeeth is, trapped in this maze. ZEETH! ZEEETH!" Page ran straight down the hall, melting all the gem walls in the way, and pounded Mag heavily onto the floor to make the gems light up.

Zeeth heard what sounded like his name coming from the left. He whipped his head around, listening for another call but nothing came and he thought he had just imagined it.

"ZEETH!" a small tremor shook the walls as Page crashed into walls and broke them down. Now he was certain that someone was calling his name as the walls shook slightly. The noise was getting louder, at first, he thought it was another thing the crazy man was sending in, but the voice was familiar. He didn't know many people and instantly recognized it as Page's.

Hearing his voice was like seeing a light at the end of a dark tunnel, it made him excited to know that another person was here, even if he was caught as well, "PAAAAAGE!!"

Both Mag and Page had heard him and ran even faster towards the voice, "mag, he's near! run that way, ZEEETH! This reminds me of looking for my parents at the supermarket. Strangely similar. ZEEETH!"

"PAAGE! I'M OVER HERE!"

Page didn't know where the voice was coming from now. The closer he got, the louder the voice but it was also coming from all over the place. The walls were bouncing the sounds all over the palace, scattering it around him. They both kept running towards each other's general location, but they kept turning corners, breaking walls, and yelling. Page was running so fast he didn't even notice he entered the grey stone area, then to the black gem area until he looked around and saw many dark reflections of himself.

"Crap, there are these gems too? We gotta get out fast. Mag, run to the closest grey stone wall as silently as you can, it's right in front." Mag jumped away, trying to bounce as softly as possible. When he got to a wall he yelled out to Zeeth, "don't yell so loudly. He placed some T-gems over here. They explode when a loud noise or impact hits them, not too sensitive but there have been cases of loud yelling causing them to explode. It's always good to be careful."

"Alright. I think I can get a better understanding of where you are now that we're not yelling either."

"Yeah, me too." they made their way around the corners, and finally, Page shone a purple light at Zeeth, and Zeeth, illuminated with all the light in Gul, saw him as well.

"Wow, you look...festive."

"It's not a fashion choice, it just helps me see. Also, what's up with Mag?"

"Oh, you recognized Mag?"

"Of course, I know all my slimes."

Mag squirmed around delightfully as Zeeth placed a hand on it and Gul touched Mag as well. "Yeah, it has a great affinity to heat and gained a lot of heat magic. Even on the here actually, since we were getting closer to the volcano."

"What do you mean? What volcano, it's really cool in here."

"Yeah, that's because of your underground. Were at the feet of the volcano. I imagine we are very close to its center right now. All these gems are helping cool us down, the mana that they release cool things down to their temperature really quickly. As long as it's not touching the lava it should be fine."

"We're in the middle of the volcano? Isn't that really dangerous?"

"Yeah, it especially is with all that T-gem in the center. It might be natural, they have a tendency to grow near volcanos and high heat, but the rest seems man-made so whoever made this is kind of a moron. Come on, I created a long tunnel out of here, hop on."

"Cool, let's go."

Suddenly, from above them, a voice rang out, "I am not a moron! How dare you! The gems are there to trick you, a subject would believe the gems that they are feeling are Lumos gems and hit it to create life and kill themself! I'm not sure if it works yet because people usually faint before they reach that part. And I was getting excited having you try it out!"

"Who is that?"

"I dunno." Zeeth shrugged his shoulders and had Mag move out.

"You will never know who I am! And stop moving! There is no point, I already recovered all the holes you blew in the walls. You will both die in my amazing maze and never get out!"

"You're the moron that put T-gems here? Also, you sound like C.M."

"H-how do you know me? A-am I really that famous? Hehe, I'm not flattered, stupid."

They looked at each other like they had stepped in poop. "Whatever. I placed a breadcrumb outside, I know how to get out again."

"Cool, I can finally see the sunlight again. Let's go."

"No! Don't! If you go I will blow up the gems."

"No you wouldn't, you're in here with us."

"How would you know, what if I'm watching you from somewhere else."

"Your voice is too clear, you're nearby. Even if you weren't, the lava that would shoot out from the volcano because of the explosion would still reach you."

"Damn. you know, I didn't think of that. Thank you."

"Seriously? Did you really build this place?"

"Yes! By the way, how did you hear about me? I didn't think my name was that famous."

"Yeah, don't worry about that. I heard about you from a friend. Now, let's get out of here."

"Wait, wait, what friend? How did you know my voice? What, I have so many questions!"

"Nevermind, we're leaving"

"How do you know him?"

"Tell you later. Mag, run ahead!" Mag bounded ahead, melting as much as it could but dodging the grey walls that it couldn't. It wasn't long before they got back to the T-gem area and slowly made their way around the gems.

"Should I try to grab some? Gul can learn it with enough mana."

"I think that's a really bad idea. If it goes bad, we will most likely die. Even Mag can't handle that, it will need a lot more prepping for that. Just keep Gul close to it and hope for it to pick up something. But in a few minutes, we can be out of here!"

"Yeah, but I think I can pry some out without blowing us up."

C.M. suddenly shouted, "NO! DON'T! Don't blow us up! I can give you some, I have spares up here, don't touch those, please!"

"Oh, why thank you."

"You aren't a very good evil capturing scientist guy."

A sigh rang out from the speakers, "Yeah, I know. It all started when I was five when my mom gave my favorite teddy bear to my brother. It was then that I swore I would be evil."

Page kept steering Mag and Zeeth said, "Really? That was it?"

"Hey, C.M., I thought the walls were going to change and get harder to break as I went along. Why are these the Lumos gems again?"

"Yeah, I made it so that the four sides would look the same and hardest ones to break in the middle so that when you got to one end, you would just think that you had gotten back to the starting point, so you would turn around again and never get out."

"That is so rude. Was there even a real exit?"

"Yes, it was an exit into my lab. I needed to test your abilities and this maze was my tester."

"Hey, how will you give me your spare T-gems?"

"I don't have any. I told you that so you would pry those open. I still wanna live, y'know?"

"You lied to me? You realize I'm still in the maze, right? I can go back."

"Yeah, but you're so close to the outside, sunlight, and grass. You wouldn't go all the way back now."

"I don't care. If I can make your life terrible, I'm willing. my affinity is with water, and we have slimes with heat and rock affinity. I can survive. I'm not afraid to go back right now to kill you."

"Alright, fine. here, they're coming out of the sides, watch out. don't hit them too hard, I have a lot I wanna do in life. like finally hold someone for ransom."

"Good luck with that, C.M."

"thank you. you're getting close, so I guess this is goodbye. I hope to see you again later."

"Yeah, this was kinda fun. hope to see you later."

A few minutes later, Zeeth had gotten to know C.M. a lot more and they broke out of the wall. When they broke the last gem wall a blast of heat invaded the maze and washed over them like a wave. Mag blocked the waves of heat, but Zeeth got out of the folds and tried to take it in to increase his affinity.

The heat made him sweat, but it was not nearly as much as he thought it would. The affinity that his slimes made with heat has clearly affected him. The sweat began to stop and his body adjusted to the heat.

"We'll reach the village again in about ten minutes, we can get our things and go again."

"To where?"

"Well, I wanna go to the Forest of Infinity, but do you have any plans?"

"Not really. This forest sounds so cool what's it like?"