CHAPTER XLVII:Left, Right, Straight Ahead.

"Welcome to the land of the living Theseus." I said.

"Yeah yeah, what do you need?" Theseus asked looking at the entrance to the Labyrinth "No! Absolutely not! Not in six more centuries!" He yelled.

"C'mon Theseus, it's the only way to get where we're going." I said pointing to the entrance.

"You should've called Ariadne." Theseus said.

"Can't we just call her now?" Adam asked.

"No….Theseus and Ariadne can't be together." Seth answered.

"Why is that again?" Penny asked.

"Why don't you tell them what you did to Ariadne, Theseus." I said looking at him "Unless you want to lead us through the Labyrinth, NOW.", Theseus looked down in defeat.

"Fine…I'll lead you through." Theseus said walking through the entrance with the rest of the group close behind.

At the entrance Olivia was looking through her bag, and took out a flashlight. The cold of the snowed over city quickly faded as the entrance to the Labyrinth closed after Seth, the last person to step into the Labyrinth.

Olivia turned her flashlight on and shined it down the long corridors. Theseus kneeled down and touch the ground as he whispered something indecipherable (probably Greek), his eyes glowed gold instead of the pale grey film that covered them.

"Woah….he can still see the path without the string. Remind me to dissect you later Theseus." Penny said in amazement.

"Keep that child far away from me Mary!" Theseus shouted pointing at Penny.

"Lead us through successfully and I'll think about it King Theseus." I said mocking Theseus, who responded by rolling his bright gold eyes before he continued walking.

"So…how did the Sphinx end up here?" Olivia asked looking around at the weathered walls.

"When the Sphinx first died she came back and stumbled upon the Labyrinth where she met Daedalus. The Sphinx gave Daedalus a challenge which he made into a deal, solve 15 riddles and I won't kill you. Daedalus, being a genius, solved all of them rather quickly. The Sphinx was is despair, but Daedalus offered his deal. He told her to stay with him and challenge the greatest minds in history, and become his guard and friend. The Sphinx accepted and became the guardian of the path of wisdom in the Labyrinth, which Athena helped Daedalus make. She made the map of entry for the path of wisdom. You need to solve a set of puzzles to open the entrance, and solve riddles to get past the Sphinx into Daedalus' workshop which is where the artifacts are probably located." Penny explained.

So that's what she was doing at the wall, I thought to myself, she was solving puzzles to open up a door. The group kept walking, and the only noises were the shuffling of feet and the clink of armor.

"So…what are the other paths?" Adam asked.

"The paths of strength, they're the paths the Minotaur patrols. Breaching the paths change the Labyrinths layout so the Minotaur finds them. If you win, the Labyrinth leads you to the workshop. If you lose it won't matter cause you'll be dead." I answered, thinking back to when I killed the Minotaur a few years back.

"You talk about the Labyrinth like it's alive." Seth said.

"Because it is, after King Minos was killed Daedalus came back and turned the Labyrinth into a giant automaton. It defends itself from being mapped, attacked, and destroyed. In 2012 there was a group of demigods that tried to put signs up and map the Labyrinth, three of them died and the other two were so injured that they retired." Penny explained again, which she seemed to enjoy a little too much.

"We're almost there." Theseus said unsheathing his xiphos. The bronze bladed sword shined with the light from Olivia's flashlight, and the beautifully decorated handle shimmered in the light.

"Expecting a fight handsome?" Olivia asked.

"Mary! Keep the other child away from me as well!" Theseus yelled.

"Huh, weird…no echo." Penny said.

"Yeah, it's weird. I figured it was a feature Daedalus added.....he probably went mad hearing his own voice echo back for years." I answered thinking back to when I first met him. He did seem a little…gone, but I would be too if I was forced to be alive and had my soul stuffed into an automaton after my body gave out.

I suppose he deserved it for trying to kill Perdix, but not for this long. Athena, as nice as she is sometimes, is downright fucking cruel.

Our walk continued through the long corridors, and I looked around and saw maddened scribbles on the walls. I saw the words spider, snake, river, man, fire, and so many more carved into the walls and eventually written on the wall in faded blood.

"What the fuck!?" Seth yelled looking at the walls.

"Echoes of the ignorant." Penny said.

"That's a little mean girlie." Theseus said looking back at Penny.

"That's it's name, Theseus. People went mad trying to solve the Sphinx's riddles, but one man in particular lost his mind. A mortal known by Joseph Otto, he was absolutely obsessed with mythology and started poking around hidden areas. He found an abandoned temple and started worshipping my mother. She showed him the Labyrinth after a few years of proving himself to her, with a warning. He was already losing it because of the forbidden knowledge, but the Labyrinth broke him. He started carving answers into the walls and losing himself. Eventually he slit his wrists and started writing in blood until he died." Penny explained, still enjoying knowing more than everyone around her.

"Gods….that's demented…..your mother is viscous…" Olivia said.

Penny shrugged "She helps those who pursue knowledge….she figured Joseph had what it took." she said looking at Olivia, Olivia mumbled something under her breath and stared at the walls.

We kept walking down the corridor until we entered an open courtyard filled with treasure and burned bodies covered in slightly melted armor. At the end of the courtyard guarding a large steel door was a large creature with the breasts and head of a woman, with the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon.

The creature had long black hair, sharp lion claws, and gorgeous jade colored eyes. It was the dreaded Sphinx of Greek (and even Egyptian) mythology, and she was clumsily holding a book in her long opal colored claws.

"They always forget the part where he KILLED ME!" The Sphinx roared at the book.

I leaned down a bit to see the cover of the book she was reading, and saw she was reading the story of Oedipus. Great, I thought to myself while looking at the cover of the book, a horrific monster and a narcissist.