The labyrinth moved in a downwards slope, deeper and deeper into Elos. My new form made it rather easy to follow Tishina’s trail and detect monsters. It did, however, come with the downside of being entirely blind and deaf. Nor

mal Dolosus Lupus can circumvent this by following their pack through twisting caves, but since I was alone, I bumped into many walls before I found a decent system of using my illusions to scout the cave’s geometry for me.

Hours passed in my descent, perhaps days, before I came across something interesting.

Hundreds — perhaps thousands — of creatures with an abundance of dream mana. They smelled almost human, but not quite. Normally I wouldn’t even notice the difference, but further into the cave were scents that smelled distinctly like humans.

Without sight, I can’t exactly understand their situation, so I transformed into a fly to get a better read on the situation, then flew closer.

I was greeted with a sight that I’d heard of many times from father’s adventures: a goblin village. Spiked barricades were erected on every entrance / exit to the encampment. tents of cloth housed the common goblins, and a castle of labyrinth stone was carved out from one side, housing hobgoblins and stables of rock-worms — petra vermis — with metal they couldn’t dig through to entrap them.

On the other side of the encampment were a pile of corpses, as well as an assembly line of goblins extracting mana crystals from them, then salting and curing the meat to distribute throughout the village.

And in the center of this area was a cage, filled with ten humans wearing mana-eating shackles. Six of them were wearing miner’s garbs, most of them with broken legs and arms. The other four were stripped bare. Geistig’s miner-rescuing party, if I had to guess. But they’re missing a few people.

I approached the cage, keeping an eye out for any goblins who would detect something strange with my approach. Thankfully, none of them could detect anything, or simply weren’t paying attention, and I was able to slip on by.

When inside the cage, I changed to bird form, and one of the miners shouted out “What the fu—!” before another miner covered their mouth.

“Shush!” they whispered. “It’s a blue mage. They can get word out to apply for another rescue team, but not if you blow their cover.”

I phased out a pen and paper, and used my bird-talons to write a barely readable message. ‘What are you doing here? Why are you all so far in?’

One of the naked men sighed. “Apparently, they all fell down a hole when trying to get away—”

The miner interrupted, “We didn’t fall in, it just suddenly fucking opened around us!”

“Yeah, labyrinths will do that when overstimulated.” The naked man laughed, his laugh then turning to a frown. “Can’t believe we were dumb enough to come into this hell-hole. If they send in another rescue team, they’ll just face even worse monsters than we did.”

Another of the rescue party joined in. “I doubt they’d find anything more dangerous than Dominus Fortitudinis. How the hell did we even encounter that living calamity?”

“At least we survived it. Can’t say the same for the rest of us.” The third interjected. “Not that it makes any difference. I’ve never heard of a goblin encampment letting humans leave with their lives, and there’s no way any other rescue team will arrive in time, even if this little birdie tells them where we are...” They all hung their heads after that last comment. None disagreed, and from what I’ve heard of goblins, I don’t either.

So the only way they can survive is if I free them. Could I perhaps break it open the cage, or try to dig an escape tunnel under it?

I inspected the cage material, and quickly came to the conclusion it was impossible. The walls were made of layers of labyrinth stone — a darker color than what one could find around here, suggesting it’s from a deeper part of the labyrinth, and much, much stronger. To make matters worse, there were threads of what looked like slime, likely from the Dominus Fortitudinis that’s supposedly nearby. I couldn’t break into it if I tried, and if the pattern continues of high mana-density objects being harder to phase, I couldn’t phase the whole thing into my subspace, either. To make matters worse, the cage is filled with enchantment runes. I haven’t a clue what their purpose is, but what I do know about enchantments is that they often react explosively to tampering.

I wrote down another message 'if I break your shackles, and find the key to the cage, will you all be able to escape?'

The fourth adventurer looked to his teammates and the miners, then shook his head. "Perhaps I could escape with my abilities, and maybe the other three could get out with a distraction, but… I don’t see how we could sneak the miners out. There are too many injured to sneak by, and too many enemies to fight our way out. I'm pretty sure half of them are powerless, too."

Three of the miners turned their heads, ashamed of their weakness. One of them turned back to me, accepting their fate. "We're going to die here, and there’s nothing you can do about that. We’re burdens, we know. But at least you can try to save the rest of them, right?”

I looked them over, weighing my options. They’re right. If I try to save everyone, I’ll only fail. But maybe I can let their deaths not be in vain. I can save at least some of them, right?

I have to give up on them. I’ve seen too many die trying to save those who cannot save themselves. I just have to save who I can, and let the rest die…

I sighed. I’ve been given a chance to escape from my own cage, but I can’t save others from theirs, eh? What even is the point of powers if I can’t change anything?

I’m so tired of seeing people die just to save a few more than would have died without them. How many more will need to be sacrificed?

No more. I will save them all. As many lives as it takes. As many lives as I take. Whatever I am forced to become.

I wrote one more note. ‘Stay here. Close your eyes, hold your breath, and remain silent. Do nothing. I will save you.’

I left the cage, and transformed into one of my oldest, and newest monsters I had available to me: the Ferre Iram.

The voice grew deafeningly loud as I transformed into it, screaming into my head to carve a bloody path into the goblin’s stronghold. Normally I would resist the voice, but I had no other choice but to let it take control. For now, like it or not, I am stronger this way.

Let the voice try to control me. Let the past try to control me. These ancients, and this “Sozdatel” person, have all these grand plans for my future, whatever they are. Let them, they will forge me stronger. But I will grow beyond them.

And one day, they will bow to me.