Cel's fingers locked around the crystal ridge. The creature shifted beneath him - muscle rolling, bone creaking - and his body lurched sideways. He flattened himself against warm hide, cheek pressed between formations while his stomach climbed toward his throat.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOOKK3WRkFJ
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Ahead, something pierced the sky.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4HcCHW2qm5
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Cel's breath caught.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEKr5HXj1pB
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The spire rose like a blade thrust through the heavens. Violet light radiated from its core with such intensity his eyes immediately watered. The formation seemed to pulse with the maze's heartbeat, each throb sending ripples through the air that made his teeth ache even at this distance.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡluB4jSMpEd
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ21OnAgcFqs
The creature's course shifted. Its massive head swung left.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFeddo0OOwB
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Away from the spire.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnUXW1Q2exV
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Cel's exhale shuddered out. His hand almost moved - absurdly - to pat the creature's flank in gratitude. The impulse died as quickly as it came, leaving him hollow. This thing wasn't a companion. Wasn't even a mount he'd chosen. It was just another piece of the maze that happened to be carrying him instead of killing him.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfyeRLGxzLL
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSMTNIDH4yp
The creature navigated the crystal maze with unsettling precision, its body bending and twisting as it squeezed between formations. Each turn gave Cel new angles, new glimpses of its form. He'd been searching for wings - the sketch had shown wings, fairy-like and delicate. But he saw none. Just the serpentine body stretching endlessly ahead and behind, thick as a cottage wall, covered in dark hide between the crystal growths.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkYS5DBkWuO
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUFuCMLuJVF
This wasn't the creature from the parchment. Or if it was, the illustration had been wrong.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYuiklqjHDd
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2fUHO9m6al
Around him, the maze opened into wider passages. Cel forced his head up despite the weight of exhaustion, scanning crystalline walls for anything useful. Water. Shelter. Some fragment of knowledge about where the moon had gone or how to find it.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVOQuRDeOVT
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His arms burned. Fingers had gone numb sometime in the last hour, blood from torn palms making his grip slick against smooth crystal.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVkn1ynIVWq
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgucFoT3MdX
Movement caught his eye between formations - a glint that wasn't violet light on crystal.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBfjMGiZfuC
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuH2NIVl4Lv
Dark wood. Weathered gray. Standing wrong against the endless sea of razor edges.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4MVooINM1d
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0DdKkZrZkP
He blinked hard, certain thirst had finally broken his mind. But the shape remained solid, growing clearer with each of the creature's plodding steps.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRF3Xb7pxco
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTlAYLa4ZLm
A structure. Man-made.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsXYyjKzCVs
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His pulse hammered against his damaged eardrums. Something built by hands, not grown from the maze's twisted logic.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjSvRUYqYyN
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ10IxkW6Zq8
The structure resolved as they approached. Not one building - dozens.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX0rqqK6biA
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl478FwUACy
A village. Or what the maze had left of one.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8Y3E96dePb
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9xHWydHSOH
The first home they passed stood fractured, its walls ruptured outward by violet growths twisting through wood and stone. The roof sagged beneath crystalline weight, beams splintered and rotting. Empty windows gaped like hollow eye sockets, their frames lined with glass shards that glittered among crystals.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtyCzFFs5VF
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwkQoB3UDop
More buildings pressed close on either side. A marketplace sprawled ahead, overturned stalls half-buried where crystal formations had erupted through cobblestones. A well stood in what might have been the square, its stonework cracked in spiderweb patterns, violet veins climbing its sides like frozen lightning.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoVrN2pBR0m
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbukqaey53C
The creature pressed deeper into the ruins.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAhzBSV99PH
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaUbwkQeM91
Cel's gaze tracked across the devastation - homes collapsing under relentless growth, shops with their goods turned to dust, public buildings reduced to frameworks. The ground was chaos beneath the creature's feet, cobblestones and crystal shards mixed in uneven terrain that made each step a grinding crunch he felt through hide and bone.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtGhuJM7Ath
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTRb6oSDali
No movement. No sound beyond the creature's breathing and the haunting melody of the maze.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM466XNTXBb
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgBgzdU8s08
The formations changed as they moved through the village center. Less random. More deliberate. Shadows within the violet depths suggested curves that shouldn't exist in crystal - rounded edges, angular joints. Then Cel saw what the shapes truly were. 21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9b4U3pwQNP
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqJCG5Ac6o4
Faces.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0wkxArcniR
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Cel's breath shortened.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4I710pnqhs
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMEORIcpW6H
A crystal formation rose beside a collapsed doorway. A woman's face stared out from within the violet structure, features preserved in perfect detail. Her mouth was open. Eyes wide. The expression carved into crystal was terror so pure it made Cel's stomach clench.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMe7TBu1tX8
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His fingers tightened on the ridge until his knuckles cracked.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtNtxSM1jJl
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcIzMYcFJfe
More faces appeared as they moved further. A man reaching toward what might have been his home, his arm stretched forward, forever frozen mid-stride. A child pressed against a wall, small body curled tight. An elderly figure collapsed near the well, one hand extended as if grasping for water they'd never reach.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxzA0mNzNFj
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiptE91VYAu
Some wore agony. Some wore shock. All wore the moment of their death like a mask they could never remove.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXdPvkTnD8e
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLtmNWZ7La0
Cel's throat worked in a dry swallow. His mind reached for logic, for the certainty this was merely a trial, divine illusion meant to test him. A fake village populated by fake people, given faces only to measure his reaction.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXYLhvqOHjz
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSKsGDncYFS
His mind reached for logic, for the certainty that this was merely a trial - divine illusion meant to test him.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuKSSVZwq0Z
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEJOPhmBnD1
But when he forced himself to look again - truly look - doubt crept in. The woman's expression captured the precise moment comprehension became despair. The child's fingers were bent from clawing at stone. The elderly figure's robes had blown in wind that no longer existed, fabric caught mid-flutter and turned to crystal.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxrWNpWMT3J
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq8enlQIvCX
The details were too perfect. Too specific.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmY992HNLdr
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8P56ri1sQR
Either the Moon Goddess had crafted an illusion so flawless it captured individual moments of death, or the village had been real. Had held voices. Laughter. The smell of cooking food and the sound of children playing in streets now choked with violet growth. People who'd built lives here, loved here, died here when the maze decided to expand its territory.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6ptehzk9H3
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl8msPeiEqs
Now only crystalline perfection remained - terrible and complete, preserving their final moments in violet stillness.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwHDFU1KcKq
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡebu2LDHKaP
The creature moved forward, massive feet crushing shards of former homes, indifferent to the graveyard stretching in every direction.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLkUZZvKaVl
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSBZjelQQtf
Cel forced his gaze away from a frozen family - mother, father, three children pressed together near a doorway, their expressions identical masks of fear. 21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSP1JQ94vJt
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPVlj2pebHs
'They stayed together. At the end, they stayed together…'21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXw0OsXKVOs
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡavAltDmePM
His chest tightened. His own family had scattered like roaches when his father raised his fists. His mother had turned away. Darian had chosen politics over blood. But these strangers - these dead strangers - had faced oblivion holding each other.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbcfcKCPRB3
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVJfjKY58H9
'You were better than them. Better than all of them.'21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt9X0W11335
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwLegJaDpyn
The thought burned worse than any cut.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTOXeXIuEPf
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC57vyaPnaF
The creature's next step jolted him, nearly tearing his grip loose. Pain flared through his arms.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCjsnUN91S0
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgsNnOvJg6N
He dragged his mind back toward survival. Even if this was all real, it changed nothing. He was still trapped on this beast's back. Still dying of thirst. Still searching for a moon that had abandoned the sky completely. 21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg8bdcuFPOk
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ58YHscfHEu
It shouldn't matter at all. 21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI8K8d6soNW
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFqzhtWd05l
But it did. And he hated that it did.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2yxHE4H4kB
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI5YbFXEBJn
‘You don't know them. They're already dead. You have your own death to avoid’21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg7fTJ379tR
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ51MJxpFCcE
The logic was sound. Survival didn't have room for grief over strangers. He'd spent a year learning to cut away everything soft, everything that made him weak.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFBrbwQ7BI1
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQQE8h5HQD9
So why did his fingers still shake? Why did the child's bent fingers keep flashing behind his eyes?21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2ZzaowCftC
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5TD9zyzet1
The creature moved deeper into crystallized ruins, past more frozen faces, more shattered dreams. Cel held on and watched in silence.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbxc2y0nxnT
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIurSq5KMEu
Eventually, the crystallized dead disappeared behind them. The creature carried him past the village's edge, where crystal had consumed the final remnants of roads that once led somewhere. Led to other villages, perhaps. Other people who'd built lives before the maze decided otherwise.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkbSRA0Rb0N
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPIhZIUtdBf
The sky shifted overhead.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeKP6IkNe2l
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpB64cj7dMJ
Violet blurred into heat shimmer. Morning's cool gray bled toward gold. Light caught on crystal edges, throwing sparks across his vision.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtASK1fKkir
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ64kkVySYZ5
Cel's throat clicked on another dry swallow. His skin prickled - not from existing burns, but from new heat building in the atmosphere like pressure before a storm.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKWP3GfNFwR
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeoZIrHDybP
The creature's pace never changed. Its breathing remained steady and unconcerned. Ancient power moved through muscle and bone beneath Cel's body, indifferent to the assault gathering overhead.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa8QJ2Ksfcc
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ62etdMgL0c
The four suns climbed higher.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡq9oitKe7eo
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKcXT2dBtfT
Light intensified until Cel had to squeeze his eyes shut or risk permanent blindness. Even through closed eyelids, the world glowed red. Reflections multiplied through crystal formations, each surface catching and amplifying until the maze became a furnace of concentrated radiance.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡty09telpnp
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPqw6iS2fCz
His lips cracked further. When his tongue scraped across them, fresh blood wet his mouth.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxePUsLf4MN
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5PMuryIQfD
Breath came in shallow sips. Each inhalation scraped his throat raw, the air sharp with heat that dried his airways before oxygen could reach his lungs.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYrx7wnEF1z
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ81MEmFVzD4
Sweat stopped forming. His body had nothing left to give.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTFKMsewIeY
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi6IuT3H839
His head throbbed in time with the haunting sound of the maze. The ringing that never left since the first crossing intensified, building from background noise to dominant sensation that drowned everything else.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsXuVSt7FYL
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIOHTpB2RsT
The world tilted.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ23k3pTRvMq
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhpdDgc3PBe
Cel's fingers slipped half an inch before he caught himself. His grip was failing - palms slick with sweat and blood, muscles trembling from hour after hour of sustained tension. 21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqaRFKa1aOc
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgLGWyo9iAc
His breathing stuttered. Stopped. Restarted with conscious effort. Time fractured. Seconds stretched into minutes into hours into infinity. The suns kept climbing. The heat kept building. The hum kept drilling deeper into his skull until thought became impossible.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCqW3xMPN2B
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdcLAsXfwfo
The world went black.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ25zVOb2kl6
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His right hand moved without conscious command. Dragged across a crystal edge beside his ribs.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd7jTSo3ADM
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmcuZb55uoN
The surface bit deep. Blood welled up along the cut - bright and immediate. Pain flared through his arm, sharp enough to cut through the suffocating blanket of exhaustion.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡixrcYoI69c
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUNYuMti5bZ
His eyes snapped open. The world swam back into focus - blurry but present.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjFnvg2qj7J
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeIF01SpLqo
But the pain was already fading again, heat swallowing it whole. He needed more.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFQSGYDXPkQ
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHynGzA7Loc
Cel dragged his palm across another edge - deliberately this time, watching the crystal bite into flesh. Fresh blood dripped onto the dark hide beneath him.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiKi9yzeRxn
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIjW1mtrgJC
Again. His forearm this time. The crystal opened shallow channels that wept blood.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4ysXeVHO3E
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡozR4aocImg
Each cut bought seconds of clarity. Moments where his mind surfaced from the gray fog threatening to drown him completely.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMZ4VnWKXVy
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtS8CthleF1
But the heat swallowed pain as quickly as it appeared. The cuts faded into background sensation, meaningless against the greater agony of suns that wanted to burn him from existence.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7s8fJ1UWNT
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX9sfR4KZK9
His vision darkened at the edges. His grip loosened another fraction.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbJ3Y8JfVBP
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCiD0BbVXDY
‘No. Stay conscious. You have to—’21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEme7nrmZXv
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiq8aw728Vv
He pulled his hand back… and slammed it down onto a crystal spike jutting from the creature's spine. 21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkkVrPjOg60
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3sVtHeyJ7O
The crystal punched through his palm.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4LLllBlXUY
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6uqnspm7xu
White light detonated behind his eyes. His mouth opened - throat tearing around a scream his damaged ears couldn't hear. The spike emerged from the back of his hand, its tip dark with blood that ran hot down his wrist, down his arm, dripping onto the creature's hide in steady rhythm.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnoNpq5YsbI
21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp7L0vASKMh
The world collapsed to a single point of agony.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWgHHnDGHXv
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Then vanished completely.21Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcUtLRFbkdi
1234 copyright protection17ＰＥＮＡＮＡMNGLOvCCWf 尼

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