Sorry for the late update, life got super busy. Also, congrats Luna Felix has now hit the 10k reads mark 🎉🎉

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*unedited*

ALPHA KING ORIEF'S POV

Magic Circles have got to be the most shitty mode of transportation I have used. Ever. The spinning feeling as the magic took over made my head and stomach extremely queasy. As soon as the feeling stopped I knew the destination had arrived. 

The magic teleported me 5 feet above the ground, surrounded by 50-55 ft tall grey walls. I didn't have time to react before gravity started acting, it wasn't something new for me. So I could land with relative stability. The sound of another body hitting the ground a little distance from me let me know Felix had landed too. 

I stood up and turned to run towards Felix who was already standing and dusting snow off pants. 

"Are you alright?" I inquired as I scanned her for any potential wounds. 

Felix shook her head and replied, "No, You?" 

"I am fine," I said, taking a look at the area around us. We were thankfully dropped in an area that had plenty of snow to cushion our fall. 

The walls of Labyrinth were towering so high that I couldn't even spot anything in the sky. There was a long passage with a dead end on the left but hopefully, the right was looking promising.  

"You Mister," came Felix's warning from my right, "You touch me with anything but respect in public and there will be consequences.

"Did I hurt you by chance? I am so-"

She shook her head, "No No No. But it gives out the wrong message, or what if it triggered something and I hit you? Above all, I don't like that kind of public display."

"I understand that. So not in public but other-"

Felix hit my arm jokingly, "REI!"

I half kneel and bow jestingly, "I apologize my Queen. I have seen the errors of my ways and I wou-" A force knocked me down. 

Felix had tackled me to the ground and before my mind could comprehend anything an arrow flew past the exact place my head was minutes ago. I lay there on the snow in silence, reeling from that moment. 

"Rei, I think something triggered the arrow to release," Felix whispered next to me. 

I scanned the wall at the dead-end and could make out a small notch that was closing itself, I whispered back what I saw, "I don't feel any living presence for miles."

"Does it aim for living people?" Felix asked, her eyes tracing every wall around us for further traps. 

"No, I don't think so. Or at least I hope not. It might be certain words. Let's test it, stand with your back to me." I instructed and she must have arrived at the same conclusion because she stood up slowly and steadily and faced the direction where the arrow came from. I silently switched her to face the other direction and took her place. 

"Repeat your last sentence but word by word. So we can isolate the words necessary." Felix said, sticking her back to mine.

"I," no movement, just silence, "apologize"  no movement, just silence, "my" still nothing. It was when I said "Queen" that I saw a hole appear right at my eye level on the wall and shoot an arrow towards us. 

"Duck down Felix," I warned but this time, not one but two arrows were coming for us, one from above and one at our knee level. At that moment I jumped right and Felix jumped left to get out of its way. 

As the two arrows collided into the wall opposite to them which ended their journey, neither Felix nor I moved. I took in multiple breaths to reevaluate the information I had so far. 

"I think our titles are a trigger word and so are our names," Felix said, still sticking flat against the grey walls for protection.

"But you called me Rei a few minutes ago." I countered. 

"But Rei isn't your name, I am Felix however-" Another arrow aimed right at Felix was released, this time as she was expecting it, she easily ducked it and caught it before it collided with the wall behind her. 

"You gotta call me something else Rei?" She suggested.

I didn't know the first task the maze made me do would be to give my mate a nickname, "How about Fefe?" I offered. It was a rip-off of her brother's nickname style for her. 

Felix did a double take, taking a pause from her search for any other traps hidden, "Fefe? It is.....cute. Fine, Fefe is it." 

I did agree it was cute, "Then..... Fefe, let's go. Let's finish this shit show."

Felix, I mean Fefe laughed at being called her chosen name but we started walking towards the opposite direction. Fefe took out a paper and pen out of her pocket and started drawing the labyrinth. 

"You plan to trace our path?" I asked, offering her my back so she could draw her lines.

"I mean it might be useless but I will try it. I know there might be false walls and all but I am okay with failing then regretting." She answered folding paper carefully and tucking the pen back in her hair, "Also what height did the magic circle drop you at?"

"I think it was about 5ft or something, why?"

"The lines of a magic circle represent a lot of information. I might not have much knowledge of them but I recognise some, I mostly learnt the ones that can be deathly in nature but I also picked up some basics. One such was about height, magic circles are meant to drop you at the most stable place and for that they take into calculation the highest point of the given area. However, the magic circle the DeLarge's Lackey drew did have a randomizing line, which makes sense that even they didn't know where the circle would drop us. So the stability element was compromised. Which means that there is somewhere in this labyrinth that is 5ft above the ground." She explained as she continued drawing each turn we took. 

I kept a look out for other traps because clearly Felix was busy, "That's a great idea, in case we need to spend the night, which I am trying to prevent but we don't know, that place might serve as a good spot for some resting."

"Agreed, but what do you think the ending is of this?" Felix questioned, taking a water bottle out of her pocket, what?

"Wait a minute my- I mean Fefe - where is this stuff coming from?" 

Felix stared at my face as if committing my confused expression to her memory and then she explained, "Ohh this jacket was a gift by the coven leader, he was pretty upset that he cursed me so he gave me this jacket. It's fire resistant and one of the pockets has unlimited space. It's sad that it can only be used twice. And I won't be able to use it again." 

This woman, does she have a tendency to collect strange items that I didn't know of? Anyways, "Where did you use it before this?"

"I used it when I wanted for the alleged queen tests all those months ago." She didn't give me even a minute to spiral into my self-hate, "And yes I believe there is a physical exit and not a figurative one. This is one of the mazes that the Dwarves made and even though they are known for their unique ideas and skills that rival gods, they were traditionalist when it comes to principles. This leads me to believe that there is an actual physical exit and I know we can finish the three challenges in a day anyways. So listen to me I an ace at this you just nee-"

I stopped Felix by her arm before she could make the next left turn, I could sense that there might be a magical object nearby, it had a violent aura, a different energy. I am not sure what traps might be protecting this object. 

Felix must have realised it too because she put her paper back in, "This might be it, right?"

"Yes, let us be careful," I warned. 

We both turned the corner slowly and steadily. And we were right, tucked between three walls on a raised platform was the artefact we were looking for. It was a golden headband that had a small little design that resembled a barbed wire. I took small steps towards it so as to not trigger anything. 

"What do you think?" I asked Felix. She hadn't said a single word since she saw the golden headband so I implored my her. 

"Ummm, I mean, I am not sure if he ever existed or if this a true object or a magical imitation. But doesn't it remind you of the Heavenly Headband of Sun Wu Kong?" 

At her mentioning of the name I too recalled the story of the Legendary Monkey King. The golden headband was beautiful but its history was a symbol of restraint to reign in an unruly powerful immortal. The irony. 

"Rei, Rei how are we gonna do this one, I mean we could be wrong in guessing what this is but but but still, like this is-"

I cut off Felix, "Fe...fe, Fefe, we don't need to do anything. There are other artifacts that we feel confident in challenging, We just needed to know what is where. Don't worry just mark it on your little map and move on."

She blinked her eyes as if letting that settle in, "Yes, yes that's true, I just, it is not in my nature to be arbitrary in my choices. I, by default, follow the order. But you are right, we can pick and choose challenges that we are confident in origin and purpose."

"Good, we can keep going now, right?" I asked to which Felix nodded. 

We roamed around for another 30 minutes, and from the rays of the sun getting colder, I could guess that the afternoon was all but over. This is bad news for us because we wanted to complete at least two challenges before sunlight left us. 

However, the moon goddess might have heard my prayers because just like the first time I felt another wave of energy, this time energy was extremely sorrowful. I and Felix both shared a look and instantly became much more aware of our surroundings. 

It took two more turns right till we reached the object in question. And this one was thankfully that I knew of. But to fill Felix in I told her, "It is the Crown of Tears."

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The chapters now would contain a lot of information, would you guys prefer to split them in the middle or make them one big chapter?