Chapter 29: Prophecy (Izumi Spell)
i walked in the Maze. guided only by the faint glow of a light I conjured. Darkness pressed from all sides like a suffocating blanket, cold and infinite. The maze around me was maddening—twisting corridors and
Countless routes that branched like the veins of a dead god. I didn't wander aimlessly. I chose a path and kept walking straight, hoping that stubborn resolve would guide me through where logic failed.
Hours slipped by unnoticed, marked only by the growing ache in my legs and the flickering pulse of my Mana. Then, without warning, calamity struck.
It didn't announce its presence. It simply was—an enormous monster, no, something far beyond monstrous. Its sheer size defied reason. It towered above the maze, its limbs wider than the corridors themselves. Its eyes glowed an eerie ocean-blue, vast and deep, as if they held the soul of the sea.
One of its fingers alone was larger than my entire body.
My breath caught in my throat.
I didn't move.
I didn't breathe.
I became stone.
The creature didn't look at me, but I knew—one flinch, one twitch, and I'd be nothing more than blood and memory. I tried to stay still, but my knee betrayed me, nudging ever so slightly against the stone floor. A sharp sting followed. I had skinned it.
Blood began to drip, warm and vibrant. I didn't dare cry out. If I moved again—if I even whimpered—I would die.