Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (57 page)

Lycus stood, unmoving, for a
long moment. She felt a spike of fear when Lycus reached behind his
back and drew a blade. The fear faded into sadness when Lycus handed
her Zaid's blood stained aeon edge. “This is yours now. You can
even keep it after the Labyrinth. Do with it as you will,” he said
before stepping aside and removing his mask.

Terra looked at Lycus. “Why
are you here?”

“I am here to keep monsters
like me out of the Aeon Legion. I am here to stop heroes and heroines
from walking my path. I am the guardian of the gates. I let only the
worthy pass.”

Terra began crossing the iron
bridge to the gate ahead.

“Terra.”

Terra stopped and turned.

Lycus faced her. “The next
trial is the Trial of Fear. It's the only trial Kairos failed.”

The Trial of Fear has a
ninety percent failure rate, but I expect Tiro Terra Mason to pass
with ease. For most, they see all of their trauma and failure relived
in perfect detail. A few, though, don't have enough trauma for this
Trial to be effective. This is an instance where Terra's stable home
life and peaceful youth will work in her favor. In many ways, this is
her greatest strength. She has no talent, but she is not broken
either. Plain, solid things make for good foundations. However, I
wonder what the Trial of Truth will show her? Terra has gained much,
but has yet to face what she lost upon entering the Academy.

-From the personal logs of
Praetor Lycus Cerberus

T
his
salient
appeared anticlimactic compared to the others. Terra stood on
the metal walkway that rimmed the edge of the salient and noted the
diameter was smaller than most of the others in the Labyrinth.
Traversing this salient would take an hour at most, if she didn't
hurry. However, the flat dark hex patterned floor looked odd. A
pillar of blue light shot upward in the exact center of the salient
while the metal underside of Saturn City shown overhead. She had
arrived at the Labyrinth's heart.

Terra looked around to see a
lone Sybil who stood by the entryway into the flat salient. She
approached the entryway as the Sybil stared off at the pillar of
light, at least Terra guessed that's what Sybil was staring at it.
Those strange headpieces made it hard to tell. “Excuse me?” Terra
said, trying to get the Sybil's attention.

The Sybil started and looked
around frantically for a moment before focusing on Terra. Terra
recognized the Sybil as one of the three Lycus had talked to before
entering the Labyrinth, the one named Nona. “Oh,” Nona said in a
disappointed tone while her expression soured. “It is the null.”
Nona said before gesturing to the salient. “This is the Trial of
Fear. Are you ready?”

Terra sighed. “I’m not
getting any more courageous.”

“Very well, null,” Nona
said. She outstretched her shieldwatch arm and a line on the floor
began glowing blue directly under her hand. The line followed the
border between the hexes on the floor, leading to the distant pillar
of light. “Follow the line to the pillar.”

Terra looked down at the
salient floor. “Isn't this salient going to change like the
others?”

Nona scowled upon hearing
Terra's question. “This salient is special. Some salients connect
time and space. This one connects thoughts and memories. It takes
those thoughts and memories to make fear. In some ways, this salient
has its own will.”

Terra frowned and gripped her
aeon edge.

Nona sighed in frustration.
“Fear is beyond the reach of any force of arms. What this salient
shows can only hurt you if you let it. Now go.”

Terra took her hand off her
aeon edge and walked forward. Whatever the Trial of Fear had in store
for her was probably better than talking to a Sybil. She walked down
the ramp and took one cautious step onto the salient floor. The floor
rippled outward, like a still pond disturbed by a thrown rock. After
a moment, the floor solidified and Terra proceeded.

As the outer ring of the
salient faded behind her, Terra began to feel uneasy. She followed
the glowing line on the ground as it twisted between hexes. Terra
halted when she spotted movement.

The hex floor to her left
bulged as though something were trapped under it. The bulge then
twisted until it transformed into an insect like creature that
crawled towards her. The dog sized monster reminded Terra of the
creatures she had faced before Sero. Its skin shared the same hex
pattern as the floor. When it drew close to Terra, she kicked it and
it scurried off.

Creepy,
Terra
thought
, but I've
already faced those.
As she walked forward, several more of the monsters formed, but she
booted aside the few that drew close.

As
the monsters melted back into the floor, several
new forms bubbled. The first one sprang at her. Terra evaded as the
shape flew past her and fell to the ground. She turned to see a young
girl there. “Val?”

Val lay there a moment before
she opened her mouth in a silent cry. She looked the same as she had
been on that day at school long ago.

Terra turned to see Henry
approach and try to shove her without success. Her brow lowered
before she ignored the small child and walked forward. However,
another bully moved in her way.

Vand walked in front of Terra.
He smirked while twirling his shock baton in his hand.

Another form rose nearby.
Terra looked to see Hanns emerge, holding his coveted history book.

Terra sighed. “Is this all
you can throw at me? A bunch of bullies and monsters I've already
faced?”

As if responding to her
criticism, the forms melted back into the surface. Terra looked
ahead. She was about halfway to the pillar. She proceeded forward
again, though she noticed the light between the hexes grew dimmer.

Moments later, the surface
began to shift again around her like a liquid being boiled. Small
objects formed; books, games, minerals. She recognized the objects of
her childhood. Then Terra came upon her parents.

Her mother wept while her
father packed her old things away with a solemn expression. Often he
would stop to inspect one of Terra's old possessions before smiling.
Then that smile would turn to sadness before he put Terra's old
things away.

Terra paused, briefly, before
making her way around them. “Not pulling your punches anymore?”

Then she found a dead body
blocking her path. Terra stepped over the mangled bloody corpse
before finding another in her way. Soon, Terra had to navigate a
field of corpses while a breeze began to pick up around her. Blood
covered the ground, but it didn't stick to her for which Terra felt
thankful. Although she found the corpses revolting, Terra wondered
why the Trial of Fear would try to scare her with that. Then she saw
the figure ahead.

Before Terra was a hill of
corpses, most of which wore the same uniforms of those who had chased
her during the Survival Test. The blood soaked twisted mound of
bodies emanated darkness while a harsh wind picked up around her. The
red wind whipped blood around it like a cyclone. There at the peak of
death, with a bloody wind flowing around her, stood Alya Silverwind
with a red stained aeon edge.

Terra couldn't look away even
though she knew this Alya was a fake. A name flashed in her mind.
“Bloodstorm,” Terra whispered. Then a sickening thought occurred
to her. What if this salient drew from more than just her memory? Was
this Alya's memory? She shut her eyes and looked away. When Terra
opened her eyes, the scene had vanished.

Terra looked to see the pillar
of light a short distance ahead. She didn't have far to go. As she
walked forward, the floor rose again in front of her. As the ground
distorted, the area around Terra darkened until she lost sight of
whatever the Trail of Fear was readying for her. Terra walked
forward, cautious. Then she saw Zaid.

He lay there, eyes open to the
dark sky. Blood ran from his open mouth to the floor. His chest was
still torn as though the Manticore had ripped it open moments ago.
Terra gasped, fighting back a wave of nausea. After a moment, Terra
tried to step around him when Zaid turned his head towards Terra.

She froze as Zaid reached for
her, but he was too weak to go far. He lay there on the ground, his
face in anguish as he reached out to Terra. His lips moved, but spoke
no words.

Terra gingerly stepped around
him. Zaid's eyes widened when his reach fell short and Terra turned
her back on him. She shook her head and fought back tears. “I won't
stop for a memory.”

Terra did not cry. Instead she
felt her sadness boil into rage. The Trial of Fear had nothing it
could scare her with. Instead it hurt her.

More distortions formed in the
floor, but Terra kicked aside any that got too close. She didn't
bother to even look at the echoes the Trial of Fear threw at her.

A hill sized mound rose before
her, blocking her path. The mound drained away like running oil to
reveal a copy of Sero.

Terra stopped and glared. The
duplicate of Sero was an exact physical match, though its movements
were sluggish. “I've faced you too,” she said as she marched
forward. It recoiled as she drew close.

When Terra was almost close
enough to touch it, its large shield shaped head split open to reveal
Lycus's face.

Terra froze, but calmed
herself. She faced the strange hybrid, wondering why the Trial of
Fear had chosen to show her that. After a moment, the monster melted
into the floor with the others. She continued on.

When she neared the pillar of
light, its glow lessened the darkness around her. Someone stood in
the distance. As Terra drew closer, she saw it was a Sybil. The one
named Decima.

Terra regarded the fake Sybil
who stood, staring at the pillar of light. “How is a Sybil suppose
to scare me?”

Decima started. “Stupid
null!” She yelled before composing herself. “I can never see them
well.”

Terra paused, realizing that
this was a real person. “So am I done with the Trial of Fear?”

Decima stiffened while
smoothing her ornate robes. “Yes. The Trial of Fear is done.”

Terra pointed at the pillar of
light. “What is that?”

“That is what you will enter
for the next trial. At the end of fear lies truth.”

“Trial of Truth? I still
don't know what that light is.”

Decima looked upward. “That
beam of light is from the Temporal Singularity. This place is
directly under the center of the city. Inside that light the past,
present, and future all merge into one time. The truth you see could
mean many things. You may even see more than one truth. However, for
a null like yourself, I doubt you will see much. A null is not well
connected with the Grand Design.”

“It has to be better than
the last stupid trial,” Terra grumbled before walking towards the
light.

As she drew closer to the
beam, the area around her distorted with the horizon, stretching out
as though pulled by an unseen force. She touched the light and it
expanded outward. The brightness forced Terra to close her eyes. When
the light lessened, Terra opened her eyes to a familiar sight. She
stood alone in an open field and ahead of her lay a quarry. Her
quarry.

The quarry was sunny though no
sun shown overhead. It was a small island of brightness in a sea of
dark metal hexes and shadows. Terra walked through the grassy field,
touching the tips of the tall weeds as she walked to the quarry. When
she drew near, she heard the soft ting of a rock hammer. She looked
out over the edge of the rock quarry to find herself.

Below Terra stood a double who
worked diligently on the rock walls of the quarry below. The double
looked up at Terra before stopping her work.

Terra jumped down on the ledge
below and faced the double. She appeared identical to Terra with the
same messy hair and light brown eyes.

The double narrowed her gaze
on a Terra. “Who are you?”

“I guess I'm you,” Terra
said.

The double shook her head. “No
longer.”

“Why do you say that?”

The double pointed to the dark
water at the bottom of the quarry. Terra looked down at the still
pool to see her reflection alongside the double's.

It was an odd thing. She
hadn't noticed during the long months of the training, but now that
she could compare, the results gave her pause. The double was Terra
before she had come to the Academy. A nonathletic girl who spent her
days digging up rocks and reading books in her sunny quarry. In
contrast, the real Terra's now lean body was both toned and muscular.
A body honed for combat. Even her stance was different. The double
stood with a slight hunch, unlike Terra who stood with a military
posture, rigid and straight backed. The old Terra wore a stained
shirt and jeans while the new wore a precise Legion uniform. Her
smooth brown hair hung tied back in a neat ponytail, in contrast to
her double's messy bob.