The ruins were laid out in clean lines. The ground was hard packed earth with a light covering of sand. Buildings rose on either side of a long straight avenue, simple blocks of black obsidian, all squares and rectangles without ornament. Most stood about twenty feet tall. Thin green vines crawled across the stone in loose tangles. Harry did not see any doorways at first glance. If there were entrances, they were buried under growth or cut so clean into the stone they vanished at a distance.
He turned back toward the gate. Stone stairs climbed up the wall on both sides, narrow and steep, disappearing over the top. Nothing moved up there. No sound carried down from above.
Skeletons lay scattered through the ruins. Some had fallen on the stairs, bones slumped where they had dropped. Others lay in the street or leaned against walls, collapsed into pale heaps. Bits of armor still clung to a few of them. It looked like padded cloth, now cracked and dry. Beside many of the bodies rested gray wooden clubs, the shafts split and weathered, obsidian blades set along their length like jagged teeth.
Harry let his gaze drift forward again.
The wide street stretched north, straight and deliberate, going through the city toward the pyramid at the far end. The black stone steps rose in clean tiers, massive and unmoving, catching the light along their edges. The glow at the summit pulsed faintly, steady and patient.
“Well,” Stan said quietly, spear in hand. “That’s invitin’ enough.”
Harry nodded. “Yes it is.”
Stan spat into the street. “It’s a lie though ain’t it?”
Harry’s lips twisted. “Absolutely.”
He checked his meters.
V: 84 | TM: 24%
He frowned. “I need to be careful using my abilities. My vitae is only going down.”
Stan glanced over. “We could stop for a bit, let you recover.”
Harry shook his head. “Leveling helped, but I still only get one point for resting six hours.”
System, will that ever get better?
:: System: You will cap at level five with one point per four hours of rest.
Harry stared ahead at the ruins. Wonderful.
Jo’s mouth curved. “You could bite Stan. That’s why Zinkle threw him in here, right?”
Harry laughed once and shook his head.
Stan pulled a face, hand to his chest. “That’s not funny.”
“True,” Jo said. “You probably taste terrible.”
“I’ll keep it in mind,” Harry said. He lifted his chin and gestured toward the nearest skeleton. “For now, let’s get started. I guess these are what’s left of the city defenders.”
Cedric studied the nearest skeleton. “Will they stand as we approach?”
Harry concentrated on his Blood Sense. There were no threads. No pull. Nothing answering him. “I don’t think so. They’re just old bones.”
Stan took a step toward the body.
“Careful,” Cedric said. “It could be trapped.”
Stan froze mid-step. He muttered under his breath, fingers twitching through a quick casting. He paused, tilting his head back and forth. After a minute, he repeated the process for another spell. “Nothin’. Looks clear.”
He moved in close and crouched beside the skeleton. The layered cloth armor had been lacquered once, but it crumbled under his fingers, dried by years in the sun. He shifted his attention to the weapon and nudged it with the butt of his spear. The shaft was split wood, dried gray and brittle. Obsidian blades ran along its length, though a few had broken free and lay scattered in the sand.
“Crude weapons,” Stan said.
Cedric nodded. “Crude but effective.”
Jo glanced around, eyes never stopping. “Do you sense anything around us, Harry?”
Harry pushed his Blood Sense out into the ruins. “Just bugs.”
Cedric turned toward the avenue and lifted a hand. “Jomila, if you would please.”
Jo squared her shoulders, drew her bow, and stepped out into the center of the wide street. The rest of them fell in behind her, spears ready, shields strapped tight, boots crunching softly as they headed toward the pyramid.
They had only gone a few steps. Jo had just moved between the first two buildings on either side of the street when the ground shifted under their feet, sending everyone stumbling. Stone grated against stone. A deep grinding sound rolled through the street.
The building on their right began to move.
It slid sideways across the avenue, black obsidian shrieking as it crossed the street. Jo spun and dove back as the structure passed behind her and slammed into the building on the far side. The impact hit with a heavy stone on stone crack.
The ground kept rumbling, the vibration building until it felt like an earthquake under their boots. Dust shook loose from the walls. Vines quivered and shed dry leaves. As abruptly as it started, the motion stopped.
Harry was already moving. He grabbed Jo’s arm and hauled her upright. “Everyone alright?”
They exchanged looks and nodded.
Jo raised both eyebrows, “There was no warning. I didn’t sense anything.”
Cedric shrugged. “Most of our abilities are still just level one.”
Stan brushed sand and grit from his sleeves and looked over at Jo with a crooked grin. “Don’t know how, but I’d wager Toby did that.”
Jo snorted and nodded. “No doubt.” Her brow furrowed. “I hope he’s doing alright.”
Cedric stepped back and pointed with his spear. “There are new lanes to either side.”
Harry looked left and right. The street they had been on no longer ran straight.
Cedric turned slowly, taking it in. “Which way do we go?”
Harry tipped his head back and studied the wall closest to them. He stepped forward and laid a hand against the smooth obsidian. “I’ll go up and take a look.”
Harry put his spear away and used the wardrobe to strip off his boots and stockings. He focused. His hands and feet stretched and curled, lengthening into pale, bony claws.
He started up the wall. Even with the claws, the obsidian fought him. The stone was smooth and unbroken, offering no cracks or seams. He grabbed for the vines clinging to the surface, but they tore free in his hands, roots shallow and useless. He worked his way up slowly, digging in where he could, forcing purchase a fraction at a time. At the top, he pulled himself over and stood.
The city was changed.
The streets no longer ran straight. They looped and folded back on themselves, paths splitting and rejoining, clusters of buildings sitting as islands of stone with open streets wrapping around them. The Pyramid still stood at the far northern end, unchanged, a fixed point in the chaos.
Harry leaned over the edge and called down. “It’s a maze now.”
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Cedric’s voice came back up. “Can you see a path?”
Harry opened his Map skill. The view snapped into place as he scanned the ruins. Streets resolved. Buildings were outlined. A general route emerged, uncertain but usable.
Absorbed in studying the city, he almost missed a change in his Blood Sense.
Something was coming from the west, moving fast.
In a straight line aimed right at him.
System, what the hell is that?
:: System: Insufficient data.
Please don’t be a sandworm.
It reached the edge of the ruins and kept coming, straight toward his position. Harry watched the buildings. Nothing moved. No ripples. No shifting stone. The city stayed frozen in its new shape.
He glanced up.
A massive serpent cut across the sky, covered in green and blue feathers. Bright scales flashed along its sides as wide feathered wings drove it forward with frightening speed. Even at this distance, its eyes were locked on him. It was already angling down.
“Oh damn.”
He ran for the edge and jumped. He hit the street hard, rolled, came up to his feet, and slammed himself against the nearest wall. “Get out of the street!”
The others reacted at once, diving for cover, pressing themselves flat against stone and shadow.
Jo hissed, “Harry, what is it?”
The answer swept overhead.
The serpent passed above them in a blur of color and wings, its body stretching on and on overhead, easily a hundred feet from head to tail. It made no sound, but the air exploded around them, a hard rush of wind that slammed into the walls and streets as it tore past.
It vanished from sight.
Cedric eased a step away from the wall and tilted his head back, scanning the sky. “Where did it go?”
Harry kept his focus outward, watching his Blood Sense. “It’s circling the city.”
Cedric’s grip tightened on his spear. “I think we’re safe from it down here.”
“All the same, best hug the walls,” Stan said.
Cedric agreed with a short nod. “Good idea.”
Harry pushed off the stone and stepped out a little. “Anthropos apteros for days. Walked whistling round and round the maze.”
Stan stared at him. “What?”
“Another old poem from my world by a man named W. H. Auden,” Harry said. “Anthropos apteros means wingless man. It’s about a man stuck in a labyrinth, wishing he were a bird.”
Stan squinted at him. “You have Volari in your world?”
“Who?” Harry said.
“The Volari,” Cedric said. “A race of birdmen. From far to the south. You see them sometimes in Lotharia.”
Harry exhaled. “Of course you have birdmen.”
Jo stayed pressed to the wall. She glanced up, then back at Harry. "How does the rest of the poem go?"
Harry shrugged. “I don’t remember all of it, but I always liked the last four lines.”
“Anthropos apteros, perplexed
To know which turning to take next,
Looked up and wished he were a bird
To whom such doubts must seem absurd.”
Stan scratched his chin, glanced up the street, then back at Harry. “Aye. That fits.”
Jo finally stepped away from the wall and looked down at the bow in her hands. “I don’t think we can fight that thing.”
“No,” Cedric said. “We stay off the buildings and navigate the maze.”
“I got most of the layout before I jumped,” Harry said. “Not perfect, but it should keep us from getting lost.”
They moved carefully, keeping close to the walls. Harry kept his focus split too many ways, watching the stone ahead, tracking his Blood Sense, checking the Map as it shifted and updated.
The serpent circled high overhead, occasionally passing into view.
The maze closed in around them.
Streets bent and rejoined. Alleys cut through at odd angles, breaking the city into uneven pieces. More bones lay scattered along the way. Broken shields. Splintered weapons.
Ahead of them, in the middle of the street, a skeleton lay sprawled on its back. Its armor was more intact than the others. A gold circlet rested atop its skull, worked and heavy, catching the sunlight.
Jo walked past. Stan stopped beside it and reached down.
Jo spun back and saw his reaching hand. “Don’t...”
Stan’s hand closed around the crown.
The moment his fingers brushed the circlet, something clicked.
A sharp mechanical sound snapped through the street.
“Down,” Harry shouted.
Small, thin coverings along the wall to their right shattered as darts shot out in a tight spread, dark shafts blurring through the air.
Jo dropped flat. Cedric brought his shield up, angling it toward the wall as darts sparked and snapped against the metal.
Harry saw one dart headed straight for Stan. Time stretched. Stan was not going to duck in time.
He moved without thinking.
Harry threw himself forward, slamming into Stan and twisting at the same time. The dart hit him in the back, below one shoulder, punching through armor and biting deep.
Pain flared.
They hit the ground hard and rolled. Harry came up on his knees and reached back but couldn’t grab the dart.
“Boss,” Stan said, panic breaking through his voice as he scrambled to his feet. “Harry.”
Harry clenched his teeth and took a breath. The pain was hot and sharp. “Pull it out.”
Stan didn’t argue. He dropped the crown, grabbed the shaft, and yanked. Harry sucked in a breath as the head tore free, pain flashing white before settling into a deep burn.
Cedric stepped forward, voice hard. “No one touch anything.”
Stan swallowed. “I’m sorry. I thought…”
“I know,” Harry said. He forced himself upright. “Lesson learned.”
He checked his meters.
H: 95 | V: 82 | TM: 25%
Dammit, that went deep.
:: System: Activate self-heal?
No. Vitae is too low already.
Harry looked in his inventory. He still had eight of the poison sacs he could use for healing.
Use one now? He shook his head. No. Better save them.
They moved on, leaving the crown behind, glinting in the sand.
At the next turn, Stan called ahead for Jo to stop. He pointed with his spear toward the center of the street. “There’s something there.”
There was a slight depression in the ground. A long rectangle.
“Pit,” Jo said at once. “Go around.”
They lined up and edged along the wall, keeping tight to the stone. Jo led.
They’d gone only a few steps when she jerked and threw herself back.
The ground gave way under her foot.
Jo twisted and jumped, rolling clear as the stone collapsed inward, revealing a drop into a rubble-filled space below, at least fifteen feet deep.
Cedric reached out and helped Jo to her feet. “Are you alright?”
She nodded, brushing dust from her knees. “Fine. I hate this place.”
Stan turned to the area they had been avoiding. “That was a bloody decoy.”
Harry studied the gap. “At least we’re learning how it works.”
They pressed on.
Dart traps became easier to spot once they knew what to look for. Thin seams in the walls, faint patterns in the stone. They skirted suspicious remains and avoided anything that looked too deliberate.
Once, a building facade groaned and collapsed outward without warning. They sprinted clear as stone and dust crashed down behind them.
The serpent swept low over them again, passing close enough to hammer them with a blast of air that sent grit and loose vines flying. They flattened themselves against the walls until it was gone.
Twice more, pits opened where solid ground should have been, one hidden behind another obvious trap.
Slowly, painfully, they made progress.
The maze bent and twisted. The top of the pyramid began to rise above the rooftops. With each new stretch of street more of its stepped sides came into view.
They rounded one last corner and the streets opened.
The pyramid loomed over them, massive and close now, its base rising directly from the stone. The glow at the summit pulsed brighter, steady and insistent.
Overhead, the serpent banked once and turned away, wings catching the light as it flew west and vanished beyond the ruins.
Stan let out a breath. “Good riddance.”
Harry studied the pyramid, eyes tracing the steep climb, the many levels stacked one above another. He checked his meters again. The wound in his back throbbed, a dull reminder.
Cedric stood beside him. “Sir Harold, I think I understand this level.”
Harry glanced at him. “Tell me.”
“Since the river,” Cedric said, “we have not seen anything living.” He glanced up at the sky. “Nothing we could fight. That you can drain to renew your power.”
Stan nodded. “He’s right. It plans to grind ya down.”
Harry grimaced. “Wonderful. I hate this dungeon so much.”
Jo tipped her head back, eyes on the steps. “Do we check what’s up there?”
Harry looked to Cedric. “Dungeons give a way to survive?”
“Not always,” Cedric said, “but often.”
System, would it still do that even if it is actively trying to stop us?
:: System: Affirmative. It is its nature. A dungeon must always have a solution.
Harry exhaled slowly. “So whatever is up there is either something we need or something that will try to kill us.”
Stan shrugged. “Why not both?”
Jo smacked his shoulder. “I love this guy.”
Harry studied the rising steps. “What does everyone think? Up or around?”
Cedric, Stan, and Jo exchanged looks. Cedric shrugged. “You’ve led us this far, Sir Harold.”
"All right. Up we go." Harry gestured for Jo to take point.
Jo moved forward and set her boot on the first step.
***
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