William and Leslie walked beside each other within the labyrinth's thick inner walls, following the unusually straight line which she had carved in the ground with precision. William felt an uncomfortable aura emanating from her watchful, attentive gaze, one that said that she was hiding some type of dangerous intuition within her.
"Er… So, Leslie, why are you here?" William asked nervously.
"Me? Well, I can't tell you." Leslie replied, smiling.
"Why?"
Leslie glanced at him.
"You really wanna know?"
William nodded. He felt that the more he knew about her, the less afraid, or more so anxious, he would feel.
She laughed and got into a more comfortable, relaxed posture while walking.
"Well, I was hired by my old-time friends from a mercenary squad to search for clues revolving around a certain cult. I'm sure you've heard of this particular cult too. Their name's The Bewitched."
William felt his heart spike upon the cult's mention.
'If she was looking for clues about the cult, and she was here, then could this mean the cult's whereabouts are tied to this place…?!'
Leslie laughed again, more raucously this time.
"You're a cute kid. That uneasy expression mixes well with your baby face!"
William felt even more uneasy about that compliment. He had never been described like that before.
"Hah, don't worry kid. The Bewitched likely moved out of here a while ago. This secret labyrinth is most likely the only remaining remnant of their previous base, which I assume they used only because they were trying to unseal Mara."
"Phew," William said, while breathing a sigh of relief, "I'm 100% not ready to face a cult of lunatics that are that crazy."
Leslie chuckled. It seemed she adored his somewhat invisible cuteness, despite her rough appearance. In her eyes, he was akin to a dog breed that she hadn't seen in a long, long time.
"Ha… but I wonder if the squad's still thriving without me…"
Just then, as they turned a corner, they ran into a considerably massive-sized beast, another werewolf. But, this seemed quite disoriented and confused about its whereabouts.
"W-what the?! Humans?! Two of them??"
"Stay back, kid! I'll deal with this one!"
The Werewolf leapt back, as Leslie charged forward. She wielded a strange kind of sword technique and manipulated Mana in a unique way that allowed her to create an object she envisioned from ash.
Since she didn't have any ash on her at the moment, she tore off her right arm and used it to create her sword. To William's surprise, there was no blood flowing in her body.
The Werewolf, obviously intimidated and spooked, didn't stand a chance as she pierced her defences with simple sword attacks and used feints to keep the beast in a state of panic. She was toying with it, and eventually, the werewolf was by William's feet, bleeding heavily and grovelling.
"So, what do you think?"
William glanced at her, confused.
"Of what?"
"My sword technique, silly?"
William scratched his head. The way she used her sword was simple, yet confusing. It was like a mesmerizing dance, and William couldn't understand the moments she attacked, the moments she moved away, or the moments she parried incoming moves.
"I… couldn't understand it."
"Haha! Good! I still have my edge!" Leslie said, swinging her sword, "But, since I've shown my sword technique, you have to show me yours."
"Uh… do I have to…?" William asked, nervous.
"Of course! You didn't get here by pure luck, right?"
William shook his head. He was apprehensive to show her he only had one move he could do but did so anyway.
His Golden Ink flowed out of his body, and he tried to apply it to his sword. He refrained from using his transformation since he thought it was too flashy compared to what he could do in that form.
The result of him applying his ink to his sword created a strange effect on his blade and the Mana that eventually began to swirl around it vanished in an instant.
"What the… I thought I could do this!" William said, already feeling the embarrassment.
Even the werewolf breathed a small sigh of relief as his attempt failed.
"Hm… it doesn't work every time, especially for beginners, so don't worry. But, your ability is quite interesting," Leslie said, "Show me a bit more."
"Uh… alright…"
William performed the move that he successfully did against the other werewolf, and tried to envision a painted world like he did faintly the last time. Leslie noticed this and smirked.
However, once he unleashed the attack and purposefully made its target the bleeding werewolf on the ground, the attack potency was a lot less than what she was expecting. He wouldn't even be able to break a brick wall completely with that attack.
"Hm… interesting. Very much so. You know how to envision your power in a complete state, a "world stance", which consumes a bit of mental power, however, you don't know how to unleash that power at all. It's like you…"
She paused and then realised.
"Oh, that makes sense. You're from another world, aren't you? Then, you must be from Earth, right? You must be, considering how I heard a small rumour that the other worlds would have their respective continents separated from Earth's land and the Desolate Lands."
"But, if that's the case, I guess I can't help you at all. You'll need someone else, someone experienced enough to fix your incomplete stance."
"Ah… alright then," William said, half-expecting her to give him some good advice, "But, can't you tell me anything about what's wrong?"
"I already have. You were able to kill the werewolf, however, with a stance like that, you can do much, much more. From how I see it, you need to understand your ability from the viewpoint of a painter."
She turned a corner, and so did he, and they ended up at the centre of the labyrinth. There were werewolf bones everywhere, and some kind of tear in space and time, a Rift the size of three humans leading to a stranger realm, spewed Karmic Debt all around the area.
"Ugh… even I feel horrible in this place… how are you holding up, kid?"
She looked at William, however, William was suffering a bit less than she was.
"Huh…? Then, is this just a problem for me?"
Suddenly, a powerful burst of light flew out from the Rift, and the clone of Leslie disappeared into ash instantly.
As that happened, William closed his eyes tightly and opened them again to see Leslie, now wearing scarlet armour, writhing in pain by his feet, and a completely black eye with a purple pupil staring at him from the Rift.
"What the—"
"Honoured warrior, you gave us great trouble! However, our brethren have already made the preparations for our escape long before."
"They have sacrificed their lives for the sake of the empire's resurgence, so we will be sure to repay that debt."
"We would have stayed to fight you, however, the unexpected occurrence of the Twilight's Dawn has made us change our plans."
"We shall meet again. And by that time, our army will have risen once more!"