Trying to Save my Favorite Character from His Tragic Fate

Everywhere Laurel turns are just walls of bushes. Nerves are starting to grip her heart, and she can feel her own trembling and the pressure on her chest. Laurel is losing control over her breath.

'Calm down, Laurel.' 

Laurel continues to repeat that same sentence again and again. She cannot lose focus or start panicking. She will die faster that way. However, she knows she cannot hold a candle against those creatures if more than one comes at her simultaneously. 

She slashes the bushes one time, and she looks at the opening to see more weaved up branches. 

'How thick is the wall?'

She thrusts at the wall and senses that the sword could go further. However, this does not make sense. The moving walls do not look thicker than the length of a standard sword. 

'Is this an illusion? No… Federline clearly saw me getting trapped into the maze while still being far away.'

She gives up trying to determine what this maze is. Maybe she will ask Kyrie once she safely returns. A scream echoes near where Laurel is, and she tries to take her sword out. However, the sword becomes stuck inside the bushes as if the hedge is holding onto it. She tries to pull out with all her strength, but the sword does not budge. 

The scream continues to come from the same place, and each scream after another becomes increasingly painful to hear. Laurel focuses on her mana, and then the air starts to gather around her. She bursts a whirl of wind, circling her arm towards the sword that she is holding, grinding the branches to free her sword. 

Then, she runs towards the place where she hears the cries. Using the screams as her way to navigate herself, Laurel continues to turn in the direction where she hears the cries from. However, although she is going roughly in the right direction inside a maze, she keeps turning and turning, wasting time that could be critical to that person.

When she is about to arrive, the screams stop. Laurel closes her eyes while pinching her brows, feeling the pain of losing a comrade. She is too late. 

'Damn it!' Laurel tightens her grip to the hilt, 'I am late again…'

Her eyes start to water even though she is trying to hold the tears. She sees the back of a person, but she knows it is not her companion. She looks down slowly to see the skinless body. Her upper abdomen squeezes, feeling the urge to vomit. The head of that creature in human skin starts to convulse, and it pukes out the rest of its previous skin to the floor. 

'I am going to avenge you…'

Laurel propels toward the monster and slams her sword as hard as she could knowing that the creature is preoccupied. The sword lands the hit, slashing the skin to show the black dense fluid inside. Laurel jumps back when that fluid shoots out and forms into the headless body of a giant monkey. 

They engage in fighting, and Laurel successfully lands her hits. She goes in once again with a thrust, directly disconnecting the monkey's body with the human figure. However, in the air, when she is in the middle of diving her sword, she senses a burst of mana steaming out of that creature's body. Laurel pales, and the monkey's arm shoots toward her at a quicker pace. The punch hits her violently. She flies and clashes onto the hedge, vomiting everything stored in her stomach. 

Laurel looks up at the creature, slowly moving toward her. 

'No way… That creature took Hall's body strengthening magic ability…'

Sensing movement on one of the paths connecting to where she is, Laurel watches the belly of a giant snake slithering in. Her eyes widen to see another of her companions becoming victim to those creatures. Tears flow out from her eyes at the sight of another fallen companion. She might join them soon if she does not figure out how to fight against these creatures that absorb their victims' magic ability.

The image of Imogen flashes on her mind. 

"I-Imogen…" Her voice cracks.

Memories of Imogen holding her after taking down those two giant wolves in the Forest of Krashview rush to her mind. Laurel's memories of Imogen start to flood her thoughts - Imogen's sudden burst of laughs at Kyrie, her weird expression after Laurel practices her pickup lines, her little frowns and pouts after letting Laurel win arguments, her smirks to tease her, the ponytail that sways as she walks, her back when walking in front, her reassuring voice when Laurel is sad…

'Where are you?'

'Why are you not returning our messages?'

'At least let us know you are doing well…'

Imogen's last words before entering into the gate echo in her mind, '...sing it for me when I return.'

"You are dead when you come back!" Laurel stands up again and takes a deep breath. Her shaking is slowly dissipating. 

"If I come out of this maze alive…"

---

When the hedges finish forming into a maze, Federline steps back after seeing Laurel getting swallowed inside those moving walls. He quickly turns in Lemuel's direction. On the way, Kyrie joins him after defeating all those creatures.

"I am sorry, headmaster… I forgot to mention this to you…"

Federline pales at his blunder. 

"Don't think too much and focus on getting everyone out," Kyrie remarks while breathing out nervously as well.

If he fails to save Laurel, not only is he losing a precious friend, but Imogen won't forgive him. 

[Let's not think about it this way… She will be okay…]

"Is that how you knew that Lemuel is a guide?"

"Yes… He was the one who showed me out of the maze…"

[I guess I was too far away to see the maze during the first night.]

Lemuel lets his head hang down while thinking how the paladin and Federline will ask him to use his powers to save all those people. However, he knows the limits of his current ability. He won't be able to hold much longer before getting trapped inside the maze without a way out.

If only his sister is here, then those deaths will not be sacrificed in vain. She is the only one who would use the maze to develop her powers. He has gone there a handful of times, but he has gone there only once without her. He knows that one round is his limit.

He senses Kyrie standing near him, and he looks at the shoes, stopping at the spot in front of him.

"Lemuel…"

Lemuel starts shaking, "I… I… I…"

'I can't.'

"I have faith in you… Help us! I have people precious to me inside, and the only one who can help me is you."

Lemuel lifts his shoulders back. Without sensing a sliver of doubt, Lemuel meets Kyrie's calm, resolute eyes. The expectations tighten Lemuel's heart like his heart has been captured by those words.

'Faith in me… Sister Fiona…'

Hearing those words from a second person, Lemuel's heart shakes.

"I can't… I can't hold my ability for more than one round at the maze… Finding people will require more time… Going inside will only get us killed!" Lemuel shouts his heart out. 

Lemuel tears up, "I… I am just a defect! I will get you killed! I… I! I am just a guide who has lost his way!"

Lemuel stops talking when he tastes another caramel in his mouth, and he stares at Federline, perplexed. 

"We will protect you," Federline smiles, taking Lemuel by the wrist toward the maze.

Lemuel dries his tears on his sleeves, "You guys don't understand… I am not someone you can trust… I will get you killed!"

Kyrie pats on Lemuel's shoulder, "Trusting you is up to us… If you feel like you don't know which path, just pick one."

"What if it is a wrong one?" Lemuel puts the caramel in his cheek.

"Lemuel, there are no wrong paths. There are only wrong steps, and it is up to you to change direction if you are wrong. No one does everything perfectly."

'There are no wrong paths…' Lemuel thinks about those words that contradict what he believes. 

Inside Lemuel's sea of thoughts, as if a deeply submerged box has surfaced, opening up the memories from his sister, Fiona. Fiona's words start to make sense. The ramblings that sometimes she will unload from time to time start to piece together.

Lemuel takes a deep breath and chants. Gold inscriptions start to appear on Lemuel's skin, and his fingers tint in gold. He frowns all of a sudden, and the inscriptions fade. A sharp pain throbs inside. Federline grabs onto Lemuel's arm when Lemuel almost falls from the feeling of having his powers cut randomly in the process.

"What is wrong, Lemuel?" asks Kyrie.

"I… I followed what my sister once told me how she does it… Why is it not working?"

"Lemuel… Trust your own judgment. Your sister is different. She is someone separate from you. She cannot walk on your path for you," Kyrie pats Lemuel's head, "So start walking your own way, Lemuel."

"My own way…" Lemuel looks at the entrance of the maze.

Lemuel lets go of what he thinks it's 'right' and 'wrong' and tries his own way. While chanting, Lemuel sharply inhales while feeling his body fill up with energy. The energy fluidly flows without the many inconsistencies he felt before like his body has found a balance. The rim of his eyes turns to gold, and he watches the path below his feet covered in gold powder. 

Before, he couldn't see anything. He only follows a 'feeling' of the 'right' path. The pressure inside him lifts. He has freed himself since his shackles of standards do not weigh him down.