thread_scoutingthelabyrinth

it was the morning of the adventure, and night had woken up to this message:
bistro: pop by the scarlet line for me?
bistro: there’s something special for you.
which was strange, because she believed the equipment trade was all that was needed for the journey ahead. at least, that was what their arrangement was. night sat up in her bed, blue light cast upon the room from an open window, a chill in the air noting that it was too early to be doing anything. yet, she considered the item, fully awake despite her body’s protests.
night: i’ll be there
bistro: perfect. b
so there she was, at the entrance of the appraiser’s store whilst the rest of the town of beginnings was starting to wake up. the street lights were still on, and night passed the iconic barricade to step into the workshop. true to expectations, bistro was already present at the lounge table, alongside iris and one of the other shop’s co-owners.

“hey.” the broker waved to her weapon, and then patted the cushion next to her. “come here and take this seat, night.”
“do i have to sit down?” it wasn’t as though she was expecting to have stayed for long. night believed she was here to grab something and go. “i figure i’d be heading off to the labyrinth soon.”
“you will,” bistro reassured her, watching night round the side of the couch. “this is in relation to that.”
so night took her place as asked of, noticing iris and the stranger exchanging a look, with the former having her interface open. they muttered something between themselves, before the co-owner began.
“i’m jean. it wasn’t incredibly important that we’d made acquaintances before, but i figured for this deal it’d be respectful to know.”
bistro turned to her companion, who donned a look of confusion, her arms crossed. “and you already know iris, night.”
“i do. sorry, i wasn’t aware that we were in the middle of a deal right now?”

“this happened rather spontaneously, so you do have to forgive my timing.”
night eyed her broker warily, before turning back to jean, exhaling. “alright. what’s the trade about now?”
at night’s cue, iris tapped on a menu option, which summoned a deck of cards on the table between the attendees. while most of its contents remained in a rectangular box, there were a few pieces underneath it that demonstrated the respective cards’ backing, gilded in gold upon matte abyssal blue. with a hand, iris picked up the box and offered it to night, as jean spoke.
“take a look at the wares.”
so night did, sliding the box open and rummaging through the cards.
“this is a consumable item. it’s one of our ex-guild’s trade secrets. or, rather, it used to be so, because someone the other day came by and dropped this off to us for sale. now, rather than capitalizing on these items, we figured it’d be best to trade them under the table.”

each card had a specific print on them, illustrated in a wonderfully minimalistic design. they were modeled after the major arcana, with their respective title and number denoted at the bottom and top of the card, respectively.
jean continued. “the drop rate for this item is low, and it comes only from a specific set of monsters we’d been designated as best for farming. i suppose that person must have found another origin for these items to drop from, or our old members have been losing ground over their territories. either way, it’s none of our business for now.”
as night continued examining the physical appearances of the cards, bistro prompted a menu open on her behalf, pulling up the item’s description window. only then did night realize why she was called forward for this trade.
“this item may be used to generate dungeons of a moderate size if used at the moment of entrance.”

“instructions: when within a generated dungeon, a new card must be drawn after clearing each room, and the deck to be reshuffled upon entering a new floor. the dungeon ends and the item is consumed when the world arcana is drawn…”
“a moderate size…? wait, it says here that it applies only to dungeons, though.”
jean pushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “that’s technically an incorrect reading of the item’s description. it doesn’t apply only to dungeons, it simply states that it generates them. it could work for labyrinths too, since you’re headed into one soon.”
“could?” anything less than certainty sounded remarkably worrisome to night.
“it will,” iris piped up suddenly, eager and confident. the brief glance she had with jean showed the latter’s surprise. “i’d seen it happen before on one of the runs i’d accompanied. they didn’t manage to complete it though.”
“what happened then?”

“you can escape it with a teleport crystal. we still got to keep the loot.”
jean simply continued staring back at iris, starting to tilt her head. “someone else in our guild used it out of regulation…?”
while the two got into a growing debate, bistro simply turned to night, slightly sheepish. “well, if anyone asks, i wasn’t present to witness a couple’s feud.”
“they’re a couple?”
night’s question went ignored. “i figured it would be best to let you make the call,” bistro clarified, with her intentions, gesturing towards the box of cards. “you’re the swordsman here, and you’re headed into the labyrinth. if it was much larger than you were used to, perhaps you could reach the bottom of it sooner with these cards.”
“what’s the rationale here?”
“it says on the tin that it generates a dungeon of moderate size.”
night did pick up on that earlier. the problem was in gauging how a large dungeon would even ought to look like, or if it was possible to tell the difference between one of a small size in comparison to moderate.

“well? what’s it going to be?”
night looked up towards bistro, still uncertain about the trade. usually, if bistro figured that an item like this was something that would help her out, then the deal would’ve gone through without needing night’s intervention with it. so the discrepancy in procedure worried her a little. the player examined the cards once more, wondering greatly about the implications of saying yes, before turning to their dealers as their bickering started to simmer. iris was the first to meet her gaze before jean.
“so? have you made up your mind yet?”
night had… if only to understand what was to come next.
“yeah,” she responded. “i’ll take it. how much is it…?”
now it was bistro’s turn to clam up a little–
“the player who left this here with us asked for no less than 300k col.”
– and night’s opportunity to balk at the price.

“300k…”
“... is that the standard fare for items like these?”
jean nodded stoically, her expression almost annoyed. “we used to offer them at about 200k per piece, but this trade is clearly outside of regulated scope. known players, often collectors, would come seek the guild out for other offers, and the costs in comparison could be seen as good will to them to encourage further trade, i suppose.”
“... still, 300k is a little…”
bistro was quiet for a moment, as all eyes fell on her. then, the broker finally nodded. “okay, sure. that’s the price of doing business, sometimes. i’m assuming that this deal doesn’t affect our prior agreement with the scarlet line…”
“it doesn’t, no.” jean turned to the office table further down the room, her body relaxing a little. “for what it’s worth, we intend to uphold that contract so long procedures remain as is. if it hadn’t been for the sponsored shards or scales, then perhaps we might need to reconsider…”

‘so that’s what bistro’s doing with those items’, was a thought that barely registered with night, just as the broker accepted their agreement.
“no, there won’t be any changes to procedures after all.” bistro gestured to night for a moment, puzzling the latter. “if you’re ever so worried about that, here’s your opportunity to ask one of the sole collectors as part of that deal.”
“-- ah…”
for a moment, night believed to have noticed jean deflating a little. “... no, no it’s okay.”
“really, jean? i thought you knew this the whole time.”
“no,” jean returned, flustering and calming down with a sigh. “no, i really didn’t.”
“that’s how it is then.” iris looked to night with a nod, picking up the remaining cards from under the box and offering them to her. “here. that should be all of the components of the consumable.”
“and that’s all we’re looking to hear from you about,” bistro continued, giving the player a grin. “you’re dismissed. hand in a review of that deck of cards to me when you get the chance.”

so it was business as usual, as night caught a glimpse of a trade window being opened on bistro’s interface. the player gave the attendees a nod, rising from her seat.
“then i’ll be off first.”
“safe travels!” “stay safe!” “good luck out there.”
she paced up the steps to the main street, slow. there was effort in keeping the cards, and keeping an eye on the dealers as they continued to converse about some other arrangement. when night decided she wouldn’t gain much from eavesdropping, her pace quickened, and only upon the entrance of the scarlet line did she pull up her messenger to text her lifeline about their objectives.
day: everything alright?
night: yeah
night: just got done
night: meet u n nyanko on the 27th?
day: got it!

they would try a different entrance, this time. the closest one was identified somewhere close to the main settlement, towards braso, though it was hidden so well amidst the snow that it was usually overlooked. night preferred it to the others, however, on the basis that she’d spotted and noted it down on her own before bistro could get to informing her about it.
at its opening, night summoned the deck of cards, and contemplated its use as her secondary shuffled up behind her. then, popping open the box, she closed her eyes and drew their fate.

the card itself seemed harmless enough. yet, two steps into the labyrinth, and she had already spotted her first threats. usually, there would be a long corridor before the branch out into rooms.
not this one. the walls, though rocky, was lined with frost, its material seemingly reflective. it almost reminded her of the cave she’d been to earlier, though night steeled herself to forget that incident. she hadn’t expected the interiors to be so different from the previous breaches down under – so the snow underfoot had caught her off-guard. the player drew her sword, ready to fight, and the echoes of its summon reverberated off the enclave. the guardians were quick to turn their heads towards the intruders.
four of them, it seemed, which meant that carrying a significant npc here would just as likely hinder her progress… fair enough. night’s gaze set upon day’s summoned spear, as nyanko fled from his caretaker’s hold.

two metal sentinels, each made up of cylindrical forms, seemingly made out of modern carbide. strange then, how they had gone unnoticed, blending into their reflective, seemingly innocuous environment through the sheen and light, filtered through and from their smooth surfaces. without faces, they acted as though they had such – a nub for a head out of tungsten bodies, their material bent with it, never seeming to lose break completeness in their form. one darted faster than the other towards the party, the ends of their arms a flat surface, guiding them forward through frictionless, automatic movements, behaviours almost like a silverback.
day took first charge, just as nyanko rounded the room with a set of hops and leaps. night followed after them, watching the familiar – she hadn’t meant to take her kitten out on another expedition, hadn’t been trying to with the memory of his potential demise still fresh off the top of her head.

for her sound of mind, however, it didn’t seem as though their opponents were gunning after the feline. while another rounded the first clashing against the brightness of an entity’s spear, the two in back were seeming to coalesce into a different amalgamation – not in form, but in structure, in size. night hadn’t the time to look, though she winced at the thought of having more opportunities for enemies to get beefier, as such, by taking a companion with her; adjudicator in hand, night willed the blade to cut edge-first against the side of her intercept’s barrel, hoping it was enough to slow its momentum of battering into her.
it didn’t work much, with the side of her slash’s force almost hitting the merged entity by the corner of two following cuts. night had the mind to force the system to her favour – she wasn’t here for luck or destiny, she just needed a way forward.

her teeth made contact with a pocket item, just as a second attack from her focus chased her and she darted, rounding their corner of the room, circling around the guardian. with it in hand, her blade thrummed with an energy of eagerness, almost, though the light of it was lost once the sentinel’s torque caught up with the chase, and sent her shuttled towards the coalesced figures, now built tall almost like a totem. her back hit their figures, and a split second decision from the player to pull herself away from the threat and unleash her own paid off. no sooner had she fled, the metal pole had extended a part of itself, almost block-like in an attempt to expel her from its personal space.
not that night had wanted to stay. she expended the energy of her sword, once it came alive once again, daring not to waste the moment of opportunity.

not enough to bring it down, but enough to weaken it, just in time for one howl and a crash, overlapped sequentially, to resound from the distance of a meter. guarding the room’s walls was a tiny black dot, but tracing back the origins of the sparkles’ scatter was a bravehearted gemini, repelling the last bit of health from her original’s antagonist. a distraction – but a welcome one, because her blade leaned into the rush of being used over and over, in tandem with the different arts its user had become familiar with; there were some actions re-recognized as part of legacy and night abused each stance, each evasive maneuver between frames as the amalgamation realized its challenger’s intent. so she circled it, similar to the other that was starting to crack – two swipes at close range became deadly with an outward stretch snaking from the floor, became a side jump and hold, in mid air, as night cut into the seam that she believed held the two sentinels in place.

the demon blade wasn’t going to let up, so neither would night, even as the structure gave signals of its impending collapse. a heavy swing under her, the way she knew the use of sword arts upon falling would keep her afloat, and the forward strike was a feint the way she knew cardinal would usher her forward, so as to connect her final chain of strikes in succession with the split. targets were much easier to hit when they were still, and less a chore, so perhaps the player took that away from their merge, too – at least the opponents were a much easier defeat than the others.
three thrusts forward, then a slant directed downwards – the last chance of her opponent to strike her was avoided with her catching her breath, and holding onto the stretch of metal attempting to sunder her midair. in similar momentum, she lunged forth from that hang in a dive, in time to catch her goldilocks thundering the end of her spear against the head of their target.

night made sure that opening, the thrust that repelled their opponent backwards, wasn’t to waste. in her drop, she angled herself towards the front of the sentinel, stopping short of being bullseye accurate with a flick of her wrist, body pulled along with a swing. from that rain of stardust, her drop to the ground was only celebrated with a few shimmers more, just as the rest of the guardian fizzled away, leaving the ice room, once pristine, now full of wear and tear.
and the player would’ve felt sorry, trying to pick herself up from the dust, too, if it hadn’t been for nyanko’s return towards their side, just as day offered night a hand. she was too distracted to realize her apologies to the environment, giving her unit a grin, but only lasting long enough for when nyanko was busy pulling her away with the bite at the fabric of her pants.

what was the hurry? night, turning away, was about to reach out to nyanko to caress and calm him – but day was faster and stronger. the system scooped the kitten up by her hands and started to drag its player away just as hastily. so pressed against the walls of the room, they were, the thickness of her top’s fabric barely aiding her in fending off the cold of the ice surface. night had sputtered, objected, even when her other’s hand was on her mouth (and nyanko’s paw atop of that, too), but she’d only hushed when the temperature of the air had fallen even further, further than the frost she was forced against.
the silhouette coming out of the hallway leading into the next room from one of its sides was large, slightly taller than the sentinels they had just fended off earlier. it was, at first, a large, looming shadow. what seemed to be its head stuck out to inspect the room’s interior. glowing red orbs dotted its image where its eyes should be, and it wasn’t until the quadruped stepped within, filling their space from end-to-end, that the light was able to capture its appearance in full.

a massive dog – its coat crafted out of jade, coupled with the lace of gold etchings in the cracks under its surface, complemented with a ring of marble, an accent as its mane. its gaze turned night’s way had initially sent shocks into her form, and she held her breath despite not needing to breathe, knowing fully that the laws of activity in aincrad were much different than back in reality. she knew, studying the room, that if they had to fight such a beast, they would not be able to afford the space to do so, and neither was she so certain what allowed such a creature to venture the halls of the dungeon itself.
was this under the terms and conditions of the card deck? if night started to shift about, all she could do was pull up her interface, trying her best not to prod about too much – the gaze of the canine lingered on the spot they were at for a little too long, and the player had to force herself to breathe, daring not to move.

then, as quickly as it decided to scan the room, sniffing about the ceiling and the walls, it shifted, squishing its body into the crevice of the room beside it, not whence it came but to the next location after it. night could finally breathe, tallying up her inventory, changing her tactics for the dungeon venture in lieu of the foe they had just narrowly escaped from.
nyanko rounded his owner before climbing up night’s pants. day simply let go of her hold on her original’s mouth, sighing in tandem with the woman. the echoed rings seemed ominous, as the player shuffled with her items – all the while, day peered over her shoulder with the cock of her head. “what are you looking for?”
“the cards,” night answered, focused on her menus. “they didn’t mention that before. or at least, not from what i’d read.”
“it must be part of the labyrinth challenge,” day figured. and night hated to stop on her search for information, closing her eyes tight and relaxing her muscles, her hand off the interface in her decision to trust the system.

so they paced over to the entrance of the room no longer with a guardian, peering down the hall in which it started to leave through. it did not happen to look back at them as it inspected its new surroundings, to which night hastily queried aloud, hushed, “what’s the range on that thing…?”
“do you really want to find out…?”
the player shook her head. if not having the answer meant that she got to live another day, then perhaps it was worth being clueless in that moment. day’s eyes darted to a position a distance away from them, as night began to tread off in the opposite direction of the creature, and nyanko shifted carefully on her shoulder. the knead was enough to bring the system’s attention back to what mattered most in the labyrinth, and the trio set off into another encounter, for better… or for worse.

‘for worse’ was the more likely option. because within the next room were a couple of sentinels, though night hadn’t noticed their presence when she walked in. with the walls covered in leaves and vines, contrasting the floor made of some man-made material (night believed it was metal or concrete, though her footsteps on its surface never made her so certain), it reminded the player of home, the green-washed, brutalist architecture made real once again. any other person might have noticed the trees in the room’s center, ordered in a grid, too artificial to believe they weren’t a threat. yet night strolled in so calmly that even her companions, knowing otherwise, might have been fooled to sway into security as well.
then all of a sudden, the woodwork sprung to life with the spirits of nature. big accident for night; because she had seen so many of them during her time out exploring the twenty-sixth with hirru.

what was she doing, letting her guard down? she cursed under her breath as she drew her sword. though she hadn’t been certain about the numbers, night did imagine that these sentinels were a lot stronger than the spirits on the surface she had encountered in the forest dungeon. it made sense for the challenge in the labyrinth, after all, but that meant that she should’ve been more aware.
the sword in her hand, she remembered with a shifted grip on its handle, wasn’t even her oathkeeper.
that was alright in the long run. eying the weapons of her enemy, the player figured she simply needed to pass judgment as necessary in the present moment. at the corner of her vision, she caught day strolling up beside her, weapon brandished, to draw away the ire of two opponents who hadn’t been made for her presence. night’s own foes seemed to carry branches, short as wands, but likely acted as clubs given the spirits’ sizes.

the player was first to make a move, as they had always been meant to; a direct charge towards the backline, and her sword grazed the front target, barely making a scratch against its shallow form. her body’s memory began flooding back into her, trying to recall the best method to combat these opponents – the lack of feedback upon their form often meant poor clarity on her accuracy, with the rumble of her blade in her hands the reminder of how much work cardinal was attempting to put forward to bridge the gap between her strike and her marks. the whirl was over before she’d registered the hit on the second, and she darted, shifting away to make sure her enemies couldn’t get a clear reprieve to get a precise attack in.
meanwhile, night hadn’t been paying attention nor taking notes to the way day had routed her opponents to the side of the room, away from the corridor opening.

skirting the edge of the room meant being able to get a glimpse of what awaited the party in the next area, and night spotted something akin to an opening, a stairwell to another layer of the labyrinth. a thought she couldn’t hold – because if she did, and set the fight to the back of her mind, she would’ve been struck by one of the clubs coming down upon her. the player dodged it, rolling, half-stumbling her way out of the mess, creating enough distance by luck to find an opening to charge the secondary spirit as a counter-attack, rending its form with the dark energies of her blade.
black steel ate into what seemed like shimmering, thin air, and night used her hold as leverage as she rounded the wood sentinel, doing her best to use it, for however temporarily, as a makeshift shield against its companion’s target pathing.

the longer her weapon stayed wedged, the more it shuddered, as night pulled herself close to her arm. from afar, she hadn’t often heard much, but now, she would swear it sounded like boiling and frothing, despite having no liquids nor heat to show for it. the toss of limbs from the sentinel she’d kept on lock beget her to dodge, and so she did, finally dislodging her blade with one hard tug and a following cut to boot, a farewell gift from destruction to creation, just as night tumbled away and darted towards the foe on back.
stopping before she plummeted face-first into the spirit, she swung her blade upwards and over in an arc, adjudicator’s tip bouncing on the floor behind her. something hissed in the impact, though the player couldn’t stay long to figure out what. the sideways jab from the sentinel was supposed to be a punishment if she’d lingered for a moment – so she dove out of it, instead.

night could only feel her doppel shifting away from the spot she’d reclaimed, her eyes set on the enemies ahead of her, while the warrior in white had leapt towards their two deteriorating foes. she could feel the intent, however, of wanting to end their skirmish as quickly as possible, so not sparing her companion’s skirmish a glance, night set her weapon’s pommel to the floor in a harsh jab, its hilt punching into concrete, leaving a mild crater on the floor.
a modified tempest made the enemies in her peripheral vision shrivel and shatter in a snap. then, she heard day land amongst the howls of the system, and finally had the gall to turn back. from over her shoulder, as the fragments dispersed, spiraling into the sky, her secondary simply stared back at her, blank, spear still manifested in hand.
in the silence, the player tried to read day’s lips slightly agape instead, only to register audibly, “you stole my kills…!”

so what was the best course of action…? night’s eyes shifted about the room, in a general direction away from her gemini, holding up the palms of her hands just as her sword retreated into her inventory. feign ignorance, the player usually opted, before remembering how to craft retorts that bite; only this time, her thought process was interrupted by the stairwell she’d tried her best to remember. as usual, of course she might’ve forgotten, by accident.
she pushed blame onto that instead, diverting attention when it should’ve been on her. a finger pointed towards the descending darkness. “i bet there are more down there, if you’re so hunting-thirsty for more.”
and there wasn’t a sentence left unsaid in the history of the universe, but even that made day balk, as the entity paced over, nyanko bouncing back out of nowhere across the floor to return to the double’s shoulder. she turned her head towards the next floor, just as night did, before they exchanged a look.

“is this intended…?”
day simply glanced towards the corridor whence they came from, along with nyanko turning his head. and night didn’t need to follow along for long, especially when she spotted the glint of jade of the beast still searching for them, from afar. the player simply swallowed her question, head dipped as she faced the stairwell once again, and then started down the stairs just as day decided to stir trouble.
“so i’m assuming you’ll take the next batch of double the monsters.”
“day.”
“what?”
the silence between them was filled with the muted steps on dusty concrete. night only turned around once she was at the bottom, feet firm on the floor of the next level. her gaze went upwards, towards the construct.
“kill them faster next time.”
and the entity couldn’t help but smile, expression graced with every ounce of disbelief, the same way that nyanko squeaked out his objection in a similar manner.

“the nerve of her!” day gestured widely, two arms extended out her sides to let her cloak sway as her boots matched where night had been standing at the bottom of the stairs. nyanko paced across her shoulders as she did so, and jumped off her upper arm towards elsewhere, allowing his comrade to fold her arms as part of her show. she strode over to night, emphasizing the clacking of her gait, just as the player was starting to peer down a singular corridor, and only stopped to give her companion the time.
they were close, as day leaned in, pressing her index upon the tip of night’s sternum. the latter couldn’t bear for her humor to show, and so she let day convince her with a self-satisfied scolding. “you figure there’s twice the number of monsters, and call it a hassle because it’s inconvenient, but of course it’s upon you to take the glory for defeating all of them in the same. selfish. manner!”

“what’re you showing me up for, night? wanting a rematch on monster clearance speeds already?”
the player huffed instead, pulling the pointer at her neck away. night was trying to suppress being cheeky – she’d almost decided to stick her tongue out. rather, she instead reached out behind day, getting close for a second, right after she’d spotted nyanko’s green eyes glinting in the dark.
“...it’s not that–”
as day leaned in, turning her head, night grabbed hold of the hood of her other’s cloak –
“– i just figured it was more efficient this way.”
– and tugged it harsh over her doppel’s head, inciting a squeak of surprise from the construct. the player then let herself grin, as day went through multiple processes just to figure out how best to curse, grabbing the entity’s wrist and stringing her along, gesturing towards their familiar.
“c’mon, we’re going to keep nyanko waiting. you know he’s the most efficient of us all.”

“ah, geez…!”
night let go of day’s wrist at some point, after the construct had managed to unhood herself, two hands needed for them to tidy up their hairstyle. and the player, dedicated, was trying her best not to let nyanko go astray, keeping him in her sights just as he beckoned them round a corner at a crossroads, his skittering steps stopping once night had caught up to where he’d been.
in the corner of a small room was a treasure chest, so the player got to working on that quickly.
there was a brief moment, then, that the crossroads were clear, except with the presence of an unintended remnant of aincrad. and she stopped tracing out her unit’s paths, turning instead down the corridor opposite the room her party was in. her eyes narrowed, squinting into the distance, until the sound of the chest’s top struck one of the metal walls, and nyanko peeped as he stood on night’s shoulder, to the player’s complaints as they examined its contents.

nothing but loot. and night recovered quickly from the surprise at the reward, looking over to the room’s entrance to make sure day was still in her vision. she was.
except the way day was standing still, almost surprised with her head over her shoulder made night wary – not only about the fear of the entity (when did she ever get so scared?) but also about the way she lifted a finger towards her lips.
nyanko, claws into night’s cloak, finally decided to pounce off the player, allowing her to rise after retrieving the spoils of their find. two signals: the kitten’s glance back towards her and day’s point towards the room next to them told night that whatever it was her cardinal guides had wanted her to do, she was supposed to do it – with haste and with silence.
so she played along, trying to shove her suspicions and her curiosity under her facade. quick steps ensured that nyanko was the first to dive past a different corner, and night followed, only moving ahead at the bend once day’s hands were upon her shoulder, guiding the group to continue.

it was in the next room that there was just a hint more to look at, from the growing crystals emerging out of heated walls, to the way that the thin streams of water formed layers of circles under foot had they ventured in proper. but night paid more attention towards their past, the threat they had just escaped from. and she could have sworn day whispered a, “not to worry,” to her, just as they ventured into the room.
the player didn’t need to keep an eye nor her ears out for its presence. the guardian they’d seen earlier was sniffing about, and she could feel its weight impacting the ground with every step; tremors as its presence through the rumble of the dungeon floor.
night shifted into the safety of the room’s confines, and hoped that for a moment longer, she would feel safe. by her feet, nyanko was quickly taking a sip of water.

day leaned against the central object in the room: a rounded podium, almost like an item stand, holding up a small white chest, gilded with gold and a combination lock. with two fingers, she knocked upon its surface, giving her original a toying look.
“i bet you can’t figure this puzzle out,” she purred. which night took great offense to, because it was true at first glance, and furthermore was she more concerned about the threat that had been tailing them ever since the end of their first fight in the dungeon. hell, it was difficult for night to even say if it was the same one without looking closely at them, and to do so was a sentence to a prolonged, arduous boss fight.
so night folded her arms, instead. fake pouted. gave nyanko a glance of annoyance in hopes that he would be able to help her, instead. but the kitten simply started to cleanse himself from the multiple different times he’d had to sneak down a corridor just to inspect the road ahead.

no, it seemed as though cardinal believed that night could figure this puzzle out herself. and the player rolled her eyes, upon acknowledgement of day’s intention to busy her, so she approached the podium the very moment that her doppel pulled away from it. and that made night pause, too, instead.
“what? …where are you going.”
“oh, nothing!” day lied, and night tried her best not to wince at her failed intentions. “i just simply figured it would be best to give you as much space as you needed to figure out how to solve this puzzle, that’s all.”
“oh,” night returned, through gritted teeth as she realized how much further her secondary had planned out their movements around her, “yay.”
day shifted past the two towards the way they came from, and nyanko’s head quickly turned towards the entrance to the next room. night couldn’t help but keep her sights on her fleeing shadow instead.
“you can busy yourself with the box,” day repeated, as she backed herself out of the room, front facing towards night. “and i’ll just be right back, okay?”

the whole plan seemed to be ludicrous, but it took the span of night turning to an unamused nyanko, the player attempting to protest her secondary’s vanishment, for the gemini to actually vanish from the spot where night knew she once stood. her argument died down, then, knowing that her familiar wasn’t so much a conversationalist of good banter, and with a sigh, she turned back to the chest, starting to thumb the combination lock on its front. and there were three numbers, each etched with a certain jewel above their corresponding digit…
… but night wasn’t exactly the sharpest person, and it took her several nudges over a minute or two to realize that perhaps the room itself might have had a clue to her answer.
nyanko sat on one of the blue crystals in the room once she had decided upon her answer. and there were no blue jewels to indicate quantity on the box, so night figured she must be on the right track as she watched her familiar’s demeanor shift from general boredom and nonchalance to some amount of alertness.

another few minutes and the chest was unlocked – though nyanko was the goods’ first inspector, rather than night, with the way he bound up his owner’s clothes and stuck his head into the box himself.
“hey! don’t do that, what if it closes on you…?”
the kitten’s tail waved back and forth, as night held the lid open for him with one hand. his visage reappeared with a small kibble in his maw, and the familiar hopped downwards, allowing night to scoop up the last remaining item: a suspicious looking piece of cake.
she wasn’t even sure she was going to identify it. night was certain that consumables obtained from the system directly were meant to be sold off.
so she tucked it in her pocket and signaled to nyanko that it was time for them to move on. and they did, quietly, with the memory of day’s promise to meet them again at the back of their minds.

what was the last card drawn, again? night realized she hadn’t exactly been manually fishing out cards herself, but when she checked the box of her consumable, stuffed away in her pockets, half of the deck was already missing. the last draw she’d gotten was a hanged man, and that did nothing to put her nerves at rest. amidst an empty-looking dungeon layout, how else was she supposed to feel safe and comforted, especially without her traveling companion’s presence?
it was at this moment that nyanko mewed, brushing up against her legs as she stopped for a brief moment. they were in a corridor, halfway through traveling between rooms, and they’d managed to skip an empty cavern earlier, while night noticed they were coming up to another crossroads ahead. she scooped the kitten up with two hands, trying to reinforce the notion that he, too, was just as a formidable and reliable companion, even if he couldn’t speak as much.

they had made it far without day, and they could continue onwards without her presence, if it ever came to that.
so night tucked him into a cloak pocket, and he stuck his head out, just like old days. even the finger-rub upon his head was supposed to be an indication that she remembered, and so too did nyanko purr in return, only stopping and batting outwards on her clothing if only to gesture for her to move on. and night took the signal, keeping an eye out down the other corridors, just as they found the biggest hall of all.
it was built completely from marble tiles, with streaks of black mixing with gold flecks upon its surface. down the center was a red carpet, towards a large offering stage, where there sat another gilded chest. and night was convinced completely that this was a suspicious room, but was just as focused on the banners on the walls, of red with gold trims, and the pillars that appeared black, to remember more about her safety than the lore of the floor.

so she kneeled before the chest, and nyanko squirmed to be let out. night let him down gently, watching him reach out towards the chest’s lid and chuckling, before reaching for the cover lid herself. it was tough, and heavy, but it opened with two hands on its surface and a forceful push. it was big enough for the kitten to need to take two steps back before jumping in.
a good thing that he did, too. because the moment night peered in, realizing there was nothing inside it, so too did she realize that the air around them had started to grow warm. and her instincts came alive once again, but not before her self-doubt did, questioning why she’d let her guard down about a treasure chest with her familiar in some place unknown and dangerous. her first thought was to worry about the kitten in the chest, so she kicked it forward in her rise, making sure it slid off the stage towards the far end of the room, where it was devoid of an open exit.

then, and only then, did she turn around with her sword brandished in hand.
the ground ahead of her was growing with shadow, and so too did her vision start to be filled with the form of a giant, jade dog. up close, she could feel how despite the hunter looking rather inanimate, it heaved and huffed like a realistic beast. its form towering over her own was intimidating, despite her past experiences with creatures of similar sizes, and the player felt herself taking a few steps back as it struggled to even look downwards, gaze unable to meet her own due to an oversized snout.
so, to her surprise, she could spot an unusual color amidst the ugly patch of green, because she hadn’t stopped thinking about when they would appear again — at the very entrance of the room stood one entity, her face obscured in darkness, with blue eyes almost saucer-like glowing in the void.

the whip of a flash of light illuminated her face again, just in time for the imperial guardian to dive towards night, and the player to leap out of the way, in a similar vein to the entity’s own launch from their position without a wind-up. cheating, night could imagine herself saying, but in her fluster from evasion (it didn’t matter anyway, she got nicked before she realized) all she could find herself barking back is, “what are you doing?!”
and day barely had time to shoot her a grin, in landing her attack. “getting one back from you, obviously.”
her spear landed into the side of the dog, right where its ribs were meant to be, lodged in between day’s boots too, the entity using her momentum to apply a full impact against the palace hound itself. the force was enough to stagger the creature, giving the construct enough time to pull her weapon out and hop back onto the ground.

“i figured you’d protest if i went off hunting on my own,” day returned, eyes upon the guardian, just as night darted in to try and capture the opportunity of her opening. the brief thought of the entity, cheating, crossed her mind. night grew sour just a little, as the hound turned to snap back at the gemini, in time for her strike to connect against stone, and the damage from her own attack to apply just the same, though not of a scale to her secondary’s wondrous show. “but you must understand; we’d be fighting two of them in the same room right now if i hadn’t done so.”
night grunted, trying to reach out to grab hold of the dog as it rounded the room, chasing after an impossible target. without fur, her fingers only traced smooth polished rock, and only found success upon grabbing onto the curves of the beast’s hind legs. “them’s the breaks, isn’t it?”

she growled as she held on, sticking a rumbling adjudicator into the guardian in the hopes that she could draw its attention. she couldn’t. “that’s just what we get,” night yelled back, the wind from her ride’s violent leaps starting to pick up in volume, as its speed in the chase increased. “a player and their entity companion – hah! even showing up here alone is a difficult story for anyone in aincrad to believe. those are the rules we set for ourselves in stepping in here, a pair, alone!”
all the player had to do was hang on and bide her time. the guardian was fast, but it would never catch up – but day would be showy, sliding underneath the hound in some manner, and in that moment night threw herself off the beast towards her companion, reaching out for the hood of her secondary’s cloak again to tug. day yelped against, trying to prevent her original’s attack to do so.

“well, you seem to be doing quite well for yourself, aren’t you?”
and as day struggled to regain her vision, night was prepared to intercept the oncoming beast, watching it bounce from wall to wall, front feet planted on the space above the room’s entrance, before hind feet switched to it. then the guardian extended itself, pouncing upon the mess of two labyrinth adventurers – only one of which had their steel out for an attack in his launch.
night opened with a cleave, enough to shred out another inch of the boss’ massive health bar, and surely she would’ve lead that strike into a tumble and an uppercut ‘or something’, too, if day hadn’t pulled her downwards and away in an unfair advantage of strength, with her secondary jumping out of the way of the dog after her.
dazed, the player only recognized that the doppel was atop her with a dreadful smile.

“‘cause i’ve decided. you’re not getting this one from me, this time.”
day retreated before night could push the entity off of herself, and the player pulled her sword back up from the ground, too, as she surveyed the field once again. the box nyanko was peeking out of was now shoved into a corner of the room, just as the dog brushed through the room’s center with a hurried war path. the player’s challenger was already starting to wind up another attack against the hound that now stood no chance, and night dove back into the fray, uncertain if she should feel comfortable or threatened that her gemini was bent on fighting the same fight she was.
the imperial guardian snapped ferociously at the shadow, head protruding out in a variety of directions, snarling feral, just to get a bite out of its target. it caught nothing but air in its jaw, and a slash where it shouldn’t be possible with a spear not made like a naginata.

so night made the playing field even just the same, piercing the corner of its jaw with adjudicator, enough to spike its health bar into an unfortunate looking orange, and invite its strategy from ankle-biter to getting the zoomies with enough energy to physically bounce around the room – a feat for a dog as big as its size. night kept an eye out, trying to track its form, and despite her well-meaning intentions to ensure she didn’t just get out of the boss fight scott free, it was her mirror image that was the bait of the canine, and the one it dove towards just as night inched closer to her position.
wasn’t that a grand plan? it left the player enough room to exit the area of impact – if she had been a little more prepared, a little more ready to remember that despite being alone, there were technically two targets on the field, and that she should’ve been treating the fight more like a co-operative battle rather than a fight.

so she was dropped upon by the guardian from the ceiling, the bite a single target strike that was not meant for her, but the weight of a statue pushed her onto the ground, making sure that she wasn’t able to retaliate, nor prevent the next attack from her other from landing. not that she could have done much anyway, night realized, as she observed the construct round the player’s position and jump up into the air, angling her spear downwards, tip pointed towards the dog. with a rush and a spark of energy similar to that of an art, day finished off the threat with a final dive as her blow, enveloping night’s vision in complete white, before the room’s auspicious ambient colors started to fade back into view.
the sound of their crash alone was enough to send night into a dizzy spell. in her thoughts, she noted, rather reluctantly, that day always seemed to get her way in the end.

day eventually picked up her player with an extended palm towards her, and a tight, forceful pull of the downed fighter upwards. and night got an earful, a sensual whisper; “see? i told you i would do it,” enough to make the player recoil. then, and only then, did night find enough in herself to stick her tongue out with an unintentional grin. day but laughed, and the two slowly made their way across the room, if only to pick up nyanko from the chest, which was very well, and very certainly empty.
the familiar would know. he was the most efficient member of the trio, after all.
night scooped up the kitten as he clung onto her shoulder, enough to make the gemini coo and brush upon his fuzzy furry forehead. and he beeped, gently, hoping it would mark the end of their expedition as they shuffled towards the back of the room.
because, though it had been difficult to see, they were almost certain they had found the door to the guardian of the labyrinth.