Chapter 2: Attacked!

The court is in chaos after the knight's arrival. Nobles yell at the knight for failing to keep an eye on the prince, my classmates look confused, and the king gets every detail he can out of the knight. From what I can overhear, the prince disappeared early this morning, leaving a note behind telling everyone not to go looking for him. The king then turns to us before addressing Fina.

"Captain Fina. The prince has most likely gone into the castle's labyrinth again,"

The king orders, and I look to Fina. She never mentioned there is a labyrinth in the castle before. Wait, even Elise looks like she knows about it. Am I the only person that doesn't know about the labyrinth?

"Count Luke," It takes me a minute to realise the king was talking to me. "The labyrinth is a national secret. Do not talk about it to anyone outside of this room."

"Yes… my king…." I wasn't sure how to reply, but the king doesn't seem to mind my response.

"Captain Fina. Take your squad and retrieve the prince," The king commands. "Leave as soon as you are ready."

"Yes, my king," Fina replies before she leaves with Elise and me trailing behind her.

<0>

Jack's POV

A count… why is someone like him getting all this special treatment? A pair of beautiful girls fighting over him, a medal and being made a count! A loser like him shouldn't be given such things. I am the rich one here! I am the handsome one! I am the one who should have those things!!!

I always hated Luke. He got everything I ever wanted without even trying. Teachers respected him while they constantly punished me! All I wanted to do most of the time was keep in contact with my friends, and they put me into detention. My parents didn't even do anything when I complained about it! Then there is Elise. Elise is beautiful, intelligent, and good at sports; her family is wealthy.

She should be with me, not him. Our parents agree that we should be together too. They gave us their blessing to get married, but Luke got in the way. Elise doesn't even pay attention to me and is always looking over my shoulder and watching him while I talk to her. The only times she does talk to me is when she is defending Luke. What a joke. A loser like him doesn't deserve her protection. Elise should just forget about him and stick with me.

When we came to this world, we had the perfect chance to be happy together. We could have dominated the demon lords' forces and maybe ruled over this world ourselves. But Luke had to ruin that too. He had to slow us down, and Elise refused to do the smart thing and leave him behind. She should have been happy to hear I disposed of him. She should have thanked me instead off… goddammit I can't even think of that nightmare without breaking out into a cold sweat and trembling.

Why did he have to come back? Why couldn't he have just died? Elise would have been mine. We would have been happy together. We would have been perfect. But he had to ruin it all by showing his face again! I wouldn't be surprised if Luke was just pretending to be weak all that time. He couldn't get Elise to fall for him, so he acted weak to earn her pity. Yeah, that must be it. There is no way a loser like him would have become so strong so quickly.

I swear I will kill him. I will make Elise realise she is meant to be with me, not him.

"Maybe we. Make a deal? Don't look, don't react. No one can hear me but you. Don't speak; I can read your thoughts."

"Wh… who are you?"

"Who am I, you ask. I am no one. Just a loyal servant to my master. But my master. He is worried. This hero… Luke. He is a problem. Take care of him for us. We will greatly reward you."

"How? I don't know by how much, but he is clearly stronger than me,"

"That easy. You just need. Let me in. Accept me. Then you will have the power. You will have everything. Everything you desire. Just let me in,"

<0>

Luke's POV

Twenty minutes later, we are at the entrance to the labyrinth. Fully equipped and with bags filled with potions, food and water. The king spared us nothing. Whatever Fina asked for, she got. Several guards watch us approach the entrance opening the skull-covered doors for us when we are near. I'm surprised to find a place like this in the castle. It looks better suited to a demons castle than a human one.

Countless white skulls decorate the large double doors swinging open and massive columns of black fire flank the door on both sides. Why is this place even here in the first place? There must be twenty soldiers at least standing guard, and they even have a cannon. On the other side of the door is a large spiral staircase descending into a void of pure darkness. Why would the prince even come to a place like this in the first place? There is a giant crystal that glows a faint blue just before the staircase, surrounded by people in blue robes.

"This place isn't as bad as it looks," Elise tells me. "We used it for training. The monsters on the first floor are weak." I nod my head. I still don't like it here, but at least we won't be fighting anything too strong. "From what we were told, the first-floor monster doesn't go past level ten, the second-floor monsters level twenty and so on."

That makes this labyrinth sound like a game. I ask Elise more about the labyrinth but learn very little. All she can tell me is that only fifteen floors have been explored, and no one knows how many more floors there are afterwards. I was expecting there to be only ten floors, with the upper limit being level one hundred. Does that mean there is no limit to how high you can raise your level in this world?

"We will be using the teleportation crystal to jump to the second floor," Fina says, leading us over the giant crystal. "The prince is probably on the second or third floors, so we will start our search on the second and move down."

"Please Stand close to the crystal," One of the robbed people says as they all start to chant. "We will begin the ritual to send..."

"Ahhh!!!"

"We need bac…."

"Don't let it through!"

"Ahhh!!!"

"No! Nooo!!!"

We turn to the door as a series of screams reach us. The ground shakes as we hear something crash, and people cry out in pain and terror. A few seconds later, the screams stop, and the door explodes into shards of wood and broken pieces of skulls.

"A demon!"

Fina and I quickly draw our swords. How did a demon get into the castle? But I feel like I have seen this demon somewhere before.

"Jack? Is that you?"

Now that I look at the demon, it does look like him. Same hair, same eyes, same height. The only difference is the scaly skin, the pair of black horns and the fire that appears beneath his feet. Is that really him?

"We have come to kill you," Demon Jack glares at me, but his voice is strange. It sounds like multiple people are speaking at once. "We have come to calm what is ours."

Jack cries out as wings shoot out of his back, sending blood and flesh flying everywhere. His eyes glow red as he glares at me, and he breathes a small breath of flames. Jacks cried, raising a blood-red sword emitting a dark mist as flames erupted around him.

"He has a demonic weapon, too," Fina says, staring at the weapon. " Don't let it touch you, or you will be cursed."

"Jack, what did you do?" Elise asks, stepping forward. "Why are you like this?"

"We became one. We became one to take what is ours, to take you," Jack's multiple voices reply. "Join us. You belong with us, not that loser, Elise. Don't worry about him. "We will make sure he doesn't become between us again."

Before we can react, Jack charges forward. He's fast. Too fast! I can barely block his sword in time, but then I am thrown back against the crystal. How is he so strong? Not even that demon was this strong. I try to get up, but I collapse back down as pain erupts from my ribs and blood drips from my mouth.

"Luke!"

"Luke!"

Both Elise and Fina are by my side, but I can barely see them. Everything is fuzzy, and just trying to talk is too painful.

"Elise, step aside. We will end him,"

"Touch him, and you are dead,"

"I won't let you lay a finger on him,"

Everything comes and goes. I think I am blacking out or having trouble remembering the fight. One minute Fina and Elise are pushing the demon back, and then they are being cornered. Fina, at some point, got behind Jack, but a tail grew, knocking her away. Before long, both Elise and Fina are lying next to me, unable to get up.

"Elise," Jack says as he stands over us. "You will be ours. When I kill him, you will be with us."

"The teleportation…."

I don't hear the rest as a loud bang nearly deafens me, and a bright light forces my eyes to shut. At first, I thought it was Jack's sword cutting me in two. But I don't feel any pain. I don't feel any pain? Not even from when Jack attacked me.

When I open my eyes, I find I am not dead or where I was. Instead, the first thing I see when I open my eyes is a cave wall, and I hear a fire crackling. Sitting up, I feel none of the pain I felt before. Wait, where are my clothes? Oh, there they are. They are hanging to dry over a small fire. When did I go swimming? I can understand the blood stains but not the dampness. While I can't walk around naked, so despite them being wet, I put my clothes back on.

No, all I need to do is figure out where I am? I wonder if F… wait. Where are Elise and Fina? Someone must have stripped me, treated my wounds and started that fire so I can't be alone done here. I can hear something moving just behind the rocks and see the glow of a second fire. That must be them. They must have been keeping watch near the exit letting me rest.

"Hey, are you guy's alri…."

"What do you think you are doing?!!!"

For the second time today, I am knocked over. This time by the slap of a beautiful young lady who was sitting naked by a second fire drying her own clothes.