The Forge of Broken Souls

The footsteps above them ceased. 

Wu Hei held his breath, his fingers tightening around the hilt of the dagger he'd scavenged from the worm's gullet. The air in the bunker was thick with the scent of rust and something fouler—something organic, like spoiled meat left to rot in damp corners. The walls, slick with condensation, seemed to pulse faintly, as if the structure itself was alive. 

Róng Róng trembled beside him, his stubby fingers digging into Wu Hei's sleeve. "We shouldn't be here," the dwarf whispered, his voice cracking. "This place—it's *wrong*." 

Wu Hei didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on the top of the staircase, where the darkness yawned like an open mouth. 

Then—movement. 

A shadow peeled itself from the gloom, resolving into a towering figure. At first glance, it resembled a man—broad-shouldered, clad in tattered armor—but as it stepped into the dim glow of Wu Hei's fire shard, the truth became horrifyingly clear. 

Its skin was half-melted, fused with the metal of its plating. One arm ended in a crude, hammer-like appendage, the flesh and bone still mid-transformation. Its face was the worst—a grotesque mask of half-formed features, one eye human, the other a swirling void of black ichor. 

Wu Hei's stomach lurched. *Recycled.* 

The creature—*thing*—tilted its head, as if listening. Then it spoke, its voice a wet, guttural rasp. 

"**Another… for the forge…**" 

Yuna's claws unsheathed with a soft *shink*. Kael's fingers twitched, mud already hardening around his knuckles. Wu Hei exhaled slowly, forcing his pulse to steady. 

"Run," he said. 

The creature lunged. 

--- 

The bunker's upper level was a nightmare given form. 

Corridors branched like veins, each one lined with grotesque exhibits—contestants, half-assimilated into the walls, their bodies frozen mid-scream. Some were still recognizable—a woman with wings half-melted into stone, a warrior whose legs had dissolved into root-like tendrils. Others were barely human anymore, their forms twisted into something monstrous, their mouths stretched in silent agony. 

Wu Hei's chest tightened. *Kami's forge.* This wasn't just a labyrinth. It was a factory. A place where the defeated were broken down and remade into the arena's horrors. 

Róng Róng retched behind him. "We're going to end up like them," he whimpered. 

"Not if we move," Kael snapped, shoving the dwarf forward. 

The creature—the *forge guardian*—was gaining on them, its hammer-arm smashing craters into the concrete as it gave chase. Wu Hei skidded around a corner, nearly colliding with Yuna, who had stopped dead in her tracks. 

Before them, the corridor ended in a massive chamber. The ceiling arched high above, crisscrossed with rusted pipes that dripped a thick, black fluid. And in the center— 

A machine. 

No, not a machine. A *heart*. 

A pulsating, organic mass of flesh and metal, throbbing like a living thing. Tendrils snaked from its base, burrowing into the walls, feeding on the half-digested contestants trapped within. 

Wu Hei's breath caught. *This is how she does it.* Kami didn't just erase the losers. She *reused* them. 

The forge guardian's footsteps boomed behind them. 

--- 

They hid in a side chamber, pressing against the cold metal walls as the guardian lumbered past, its breath rattling like chains in its chest. 

Once the sounds faded, Wu Hei turned to the others. "We can't fight that thing head-on." 

"Then what?" Yuna hissed. "We can't go back—the swamp's already swallowed by darkness!" 

Kael's jaw clenched. "We find another way out. This place has to have an exit." 

Wu Hei glanced at the walls, at the faces frozen in torment. "And if there isn't one?" 

"Then we make one," Kael said, his voice hard. 

A tense silence settled over them. Róng Róng curled into a ball, his hands shaking. "I-I can't do this," he stammered. "I'm not like you—I'm not a fighter. I just wanted to *survive*." 

Wu Hei crouched beside him. "Then survive. But not like *them*." He jerked his chin at the walls. 

Kael exhaled sharply. "We need to talk about Kami." 

Wu Hei frowned. "What about her?" 

"You keep acting like this is just some *game*," Kael said, his voice low. "Like if we win, we can just… end it. But it's not that simple." 

Yuna's ears flattened. "Our world *depends* on this. If we don't win, the Sky Archipelago falls." 

Wu Hei stared at them. "So you're okay with this?" He gestured to the chamber beyond. "With *her* turning people into monsters?" 

Kael's eyes burned. "I didn't say that. But what's the alternative? Let our homes die?" 

Wu Hei opened his mouth—then froze. 

A flicker of movement in the shadows. 

A girl stood at the far end of the chamber, her form bathed in an ethereal glow. She was slight, her silver hair cascading like moonlight, her eyes wide with something between fear and recognition. 

Their gazes locked. 

For a heartbeat, time stilled. 

Then— 

A deafening *crash* as the forge guardian smashed through the wall beside her. The girl's lips parted— 

And she vanished, swallowed by the darkness. 

Wu Hei's pulse roared in his ears. *Who was—* 

"Move!" Kael yanked him aside as the guardian's hammer slammed down where he'd been standing. 

No time to think. No time to question. 

Only survive. 

--- 

They ran. 

Through twisting halls, past chambers where the walls *breathed*, past the remnants of those who had fallen before. The guardian pursued, relentless, its voice echoing through the bunker like a death knell. 

**"You cannot escape the forge…"** 

Wu Hei's lungs burned. His shards pulsed at his chest, their energy waning. 

Then—light. 

A sliver of daylight, cutting through a cracked doorway at the end of the hall. 

"*There!*" Yuna sprinted ahead, her claws scrabbling against the metal. 

They burst through the door— 

And tumbled onto a rocky outcrop, the bunker looming behind them like a tomb. The sky stretched above, vast and unbroken, the air clean and sharp with the scent of pine. 

The forge guardian did not follow. 

Róng Róng collapsed, gasping. "We made it…" 

Wu Hei didn't answer. His eyes were fixed on the horizon, where the first hints of dawn painted the sky in pale gold.

"Look behind you"

As Whu Hei reacted to Kael, he realised the Labyrinth behind them had fully vanished, as if not even here to begin with.

As he saw this, he reached for his pants and pulled the map out, and is shocked to see the group moved entirely to another place

"It's as if we were transported while in there. As if we were in another dimension"

"Maybe.. But we have other things to think about for now."

The group then started to move again, heading for the new land to explore

But Whu Hei stayed behind, his mind focussed on one thought, louder than the rest: 

*Who was she?*