A Story of Evil

Chapter 30: The Maze X

"Okay it's time to get up guys."

Slowly but surely, every member of the team woke up. As soon as their eyes adjusted to the surroundings, they found an anomaly sitting right at the end of the wall. Being illuminated by the fire crystal, with the same expression that got them out of all difficulties, Solomon was back to his normal self.

"I'm back."

Another thunder came in the cave and, the boy was shivering again. Making everyone understand that his fear wasn't fully conquered yet. This gave them some sort of relief, thinking Sol was just as human as they were.

"Are you sure you're not scared anymore?" Ethan was the first one to get out and, Sol looked away as he responded:

"Yeah I think being an exhibitionist is a bit more scary."

"What do you " Ethan quickly hid back on his bed. He was completely naked just like everyone else was. They all saw his family jewel being the size of a caterpillar and, all of these combined made the group laugh.

"Anyway, we're glad to have you back captain." Peter mused.

"Thanks bro." Sol said, surprising Peter who got a heartwarming emotion.

"Hey what's all this cheesiness that I'm sniffing?" Alice said, butting in between the two.

"It's nothing." Sol said, snapping his fingers and turning off the flame crystal's fire.

Sol gave them the order to get dressed and they did. One by one the Void titans took their clothes out of the hanger. As soon as they were properly disposed, they sat on top of their beds. Waiting for Sol's voice to begin the planning which started this way:

"I already thought of a way out of this so I need you guys to listen."

"Wait really?"

"Yeah, it seems like our opponents this time around aren't going away anytime soon. They're as stuck as we are in this storm so here's the plan." Everyone was waiting for another crazy idea to come from Solomon's mouth. That was probably why they all thought that they heard wrong when Sol said:

"There is no plan."

"W-what?" Ethan began.

"Sol buddy, you can't be joking like that." Jake furthered.

"Yeah, what do you mean there is no plan? Are we just gonna get killed or something?" Ethan's frightened tone said.

"No. Of course I won't let that happen. It's just that, we have no plan for now. With the storm being this strong I know that I won't be of any use anywhere outside this cave. In fact, it's taking all of my mental effort just to distract myself from the thunder echoing inside this cave." Alice noticed Sol's shivering hand so she placed hers on top of it. Nodding to the boy who continued his explanation.

"But it's not like I would be able to do much even if I go out there because there are problems with our items themselves. Our fire crystals are limited in functionality. They aren't usable outside because they'd just get wet. The rune barrier isn't strong enough to last against multiple lightning wolves. We only have three land mines left and, the environment is hindering most of our senses. No matter how you look at it, this is definitely a dead-end situation." Everything Sol said made sense. It truly was hopeless yet, Sol's voice didn't sound like it.

"However, there is one thing that we could do."

"What is that?"

"Judging by the weather, there won't be any creatures able to survive through it. Those wolves are the only ones you felt, correct?"

"Well yes."

"And I've also been counting since I couldn't' get some sleep. I've been counting the seconds and lining them up into minutesthen into hours."

"Sol you mean, you've only been counting all this time?"

"Yeah, and a solid eight hours has passed ever since all of you went to sleep. Yet no sign of sunlight nor this storm getting weaker ever occurred. Which means that, the stage will probably stay this way."

"Then how exactly are se supposed to get out of tis shithole?" Jake asked.

"That's just it." Sol snapped his fingers and the flame grew stronger, making the group bewildered as they saw what was at the dead end.

"This is a door. This is the exit door meaning, we've got one thing cleared already and, the other part is just a battle of endurance."

"Battle of endurance?" Ethan didn't understand what it meant.

"Yeah. With the weather, there won't be any animals nearby so what do you think will happen to the wolves?"

"They'll starve." Alice said.

"Exactly. With our crackers for food and, the flask converting rain water into potable one, we may just outlast them or at the very least, we could fight them in a state where they are already starved half to death."

"So we can also eat the steak now?" Ethan asked.

"No. If we eat that, the wolves may catch on to the smell and corner us. There's no way for us to win against lighting wolves in such a terrain."

"Wait, how did you know that they are lightning wolves?"

"That's what miss announcement told me while you guys were sleeping. As soon as I figured that this was a doorway, she spoke about what we needed to do. Telling me that the lightning wolves needed to be eliminated in order to clear the stage."

"But the steak" Ethan was still protesting about this.

"It won't rot. I read the description, it's high quality everfrost steak. Those things will stay frozen until directly heated on so nothing will happen to its quality." Was Sol's flat reply.

"So if we follow through with your plan, will we clear this level?" Peter asked.

"Frankly I'm not sure but, it beats dying without having done anything. So what do you say?"

There was no better option. No member of the team has thought things as methodically as Sol did so, it was a unanimous agreement. With Ethan only resenting the fact that, they couldn't even eat the steak. And with all of this, they finally began the waiting game.

The group only ate one cracker per meal and filled their stomach's hunger with water. Day in and day out, that was how they survived. It was difficult of course but not as nerve wrecking as having to stay within the cave with nothing else to do.

The continuous dripping of water on distant parts of the cave was one of the hardest to deal with. With nothing to do and, with the little light they had, even these things became noticeable. To the point that they were deafening.

The group was somehow able to survive through all of this. Yet, the hardest part was yet to come because, they finally ran out of food.

Every single piece of cracker was eaten. Even by conserving it, the amount wasn't simply enough to last through the duration needed. And so Ethan asked, wanting to eat the steak at that moment.

"Sol wat are we gonna do now?"

"Nothing. The wolves would still be alive and strong. We need to at least starve them for another week."

"But we'll die at this point." He said, a sentiment that was starting to get shared by the remainder of the team.

"We won't. Just trust me and wait."

Ethan and Jake were already at their limit. And since they have been a bit against Sol ever since the maze started, the two have begun talking between themselves. Coming up with theories and speculations that didn't really have any strong grounds.

"Hey Jake, that meat shield thingthey said we are the distractions, right?"

"Yeah what of it?"

"What if they're just waiting for us to finally give in. They'd then tie us up and lure all those wolves towards us."

"No way.do you think they'd actually do that?"

These were murmured voices. Shared between the two during sleep time when they were sure that nobody else would be listening. This was only one of the many things they were entertaining in their heads and, it didn't take much effort for one of them to finally break.

Three more days passed and during another uneventful evening, with everyone sleeping, Ethan finally decided to act.

He took the everfrost steak from the bag together with one fire crystal. There was cold sweat on his forehead and his heart thumped louder and faster from nervousness. But he still continued on with his plan.

"They all think I'm stupid. They all think that I won't catch on." He was salivating as he went to the middle of the cave.

"They just want me dead. They're probably gonna lure all those wolves to me as bait and I'm not gonna let that happen." He opened the flames and set it to high temperature, with the steak right beside it, melting and burning immediately.

"I'm gonna eat and I'm gonna survive." Ethan murmured to himself, as the aroma of the steak spread outside the cave. Opening the doors of tragedy that should've been avoided.

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