In a different part of the Labyrinth, tranquil waters of a large lake shined brilliantly under an artificial light source from above. While it was noticeable that this place was enclosed, it almost looked as if it were outdoors. Clouds seemed to move above overhead, while a gentle breeze flitted through the grass and trees.
Next to the tranquil lake was a luxurious pagoda. At the base of the pagoda was a pier and patio that overlooked the lake, clad with fine furniture. There were many reclined seats, lined with the softest of materials, and a table between the seats filled with heavenly fruits and other marvelous treats.
On many of the luxurious seats rested beautiful women, the beauty of each enough to topple nations. They were dressed in thin and mesmerizing dresses, showing off the curves of their elegant bodies.
In the very front of the large patio, the most luxurious seat was surrounded by many of these beautiful women. On the seat laid a man, who appeared to be around seventy years old. He had silver hair, which was disheveled in every direction, and was dressed in a luxurious robe.
The women were feeding him all sorts of heavenly fruits and other marvels, as the man laid there with a relaxed, satisfied, and slightly lecherous look on his face.
"Ahh, this truly is the life," the man exclaimed with a large, satisfied smile on his face as he bit into one of the fruits. "My turn only comes once every ten years, and I don't intend to waste it on testing some snot-nosed brats who invade my realm. I still don't know why my others waste their time doing such a thing."
"You know exactly why we do such a thing," the same man suddenly said, although it was as if it were spoken by a different voice.
"Ah, screw finding a successor," the man replied to himself, his voice similar to when he first spoke. "I'm content with just living here until we fade away eventually."
"Couldn't you have made the trials a bit easier though? How is anyone supposed to find their way through the fog trial?" another voice, different from the first two, spoke up.
"Why should I care about that? There's a small exit roughly one yard across to the next area. If they're lucky enough, they'll stumble upon it," the man replied to himself again.
"The fog trial is dozens of miles across…no one will find that exit," the second voice spoke up in a disgruntled tone.
"Hmm, not my problem," the first voice replied while shrugging his shoulders. "This is my year to control this realm. I only agreed to make the trails passable. Their difficulty is for me to decide upon. Now leave me alone."
A disgruntled snort escaped the man's mouth, but silence only followed as the other voices seemed to fade away. A satisfied smile once again returned to the man's face.
"Ah, peace at last again," the man exclaimed as he bit into the fruit in his hands once again while admiring the tranquil waters shimmering in the distance.
…
John and the rest of the group felt a spatial power wrap around them upon passing the trial, and did not resist against it as they allowed it to take them. The familiar sense of passing through space washed over John, and he quickly arrived at his new destination.
Dense fog appeared in his vision as he found himself in a completely new area that he had not seen before. His divine sense quickly spread out, but John found that the fog around him completely restricted his divine sense.
At the same time, his vision was restricted as well, making it so that he was unable to discern anything around him.
"Adam? Chase? Iris?" John called out as he looked around for his friends, but received no call back.
He called out a few more times, but each call was met with silence. John frowned as he flew up into the air, but after going up no more than one hundred yards, he collided against a hard surface.
"Clearly I'm still underground," John mused as he tested the ceiling above him, but found it made of sturdier material than he could damage.
His head swiveled around once more, but the thick fog still obscured his vision in every direction, making it so that he could see no more than a few feet in front of himself. Having all his senses restricted like this was a stifling sensation, and one he was not used to.
His power flared outwards in an attempt to push the fog back, but it resisted anything he did, almost as if it existed in the same yet different dimension.
John landed back down on the ground below, and thought about his next steps.
"It seems as though we were all split up. I wonder if the others were transported to this same area, or somewhere else?" John mused. "Oh well, I can't wait for them. I should explore this area and see if there is anything of value."
After deciding on what to do, John picked a random direction and began to walk. The dense fog obscured any sense of direction, and John found himself wandering aimlessly as he tried to figure out what this place was.
Fallen trees, dead with rot occasionally popped up, while barren land and foggy swamps popped up occasionally. It was clearly some sort of dead forest, although John had no idea how large it was, or what potentially lurked within.
"Thankfully I haven't run into any beasts or dangers so far, but I'm just wandering aimlessly. Surely there must be some way through this trial," John mused out loud as he continued to walk forward.
Just then, he felt a tremble in his soul, and Kirii suddenly appeared before him.
"Kirii? What is it?" John asked. Kirri enjoyed resting in John's soul space, as he considered it his safest, warmest place to rest. However, he would come out when he wanted to do something, although John didn't know what help Kirii could provide in this dense fog.
Although they still couldn't communicate, Kirii was able to convey his feelings to John.
"Hmm? You feel something calling out to you in this direction?" John asked as he felt Kirii's thoughts.
A happy yip of confirmation left Kirii's mouth, and John mused over it for a second before he nodded his head at Kirii.
"I have no ideas as to how to get through this place, so lead the way!"
Kirii suddenly sped off in a certain direction, and John quickly chased behind him. He kept his guard raised just in case something attacked him.
'Thankfully I can tell which direction Kirii is in due to our soul connection, or I would have instantly lost him in this fog.'
John followed behind Kirii, who would occasionally stop to feel something, before continuing on in a certain direction. This continued for over an hour as Kirii seemed to get more and more excited as he ventured forward.
'Whatever it is, it definitely has his attention. I wonder what it is though?'
Despite using all his senses, John felt absolutely nothing, and so didn't know what it was that Kirii was sensing.
'The only thing I can think of is something lighting based. Being a heavenly lightning creature, Kirii is far more attuned to lightning than I am. Hopefully it's something good.'
After speeding forward for many miles in the dense fog, Kirii suddenly came to a stop. John landed at the area Kirii stopped at, and a confused look appeared on his face as he inspected the nearby area and found nothing.
"There's nothing here Kirii. Why did you lead us here?" John asked in a confused tone.
Another excited yip escaped Kirii's mouth as he began to dig downwards into the earth.
"There's something under here?" John asked, and another excited yip from Kirii confirmed it.
Kirii's digging speed was incredible, and before long Kirii had already dug a vertical hole over one hundred yards deep. The earth was incredibly durable and even John found it quite hard to dig into, but Kirii seemed to have no problem at all. John followed behind and began to help as well, although not with digging as he was much slower than Kirii was at digging, and only got in the way.
He followed closely behind Kirii and stored the loosened dirt and rock in his spatial realm to clear the hole from loosened debris. The two of them slowly but surely descended deep into the ground.
"We're already over five hundred yards deep and we still haven't reached whatever Kirii is after? Just how deep is this thing he's afte-" John's thoughts cut off as a bright blue light suddenly pierced through from below.
Bang!
The final piece of earth gave way with a mighty swipe from Kiriis paw as John felt his body dip downward, as there was seemingly nothing beneath them. Both he and Kirii quickly stabilized their bodies to float in the air as John took in his surroundings, which appeared to be a massive hollowed out sphere beneath the earth, roughly one mile in diameter.
His eyes opened wide in shock and surprise as he spotted a glowing blue orb in the very center of the hollow sphere, floating in the air.. An orb of pure lightning.