That meant they were still in the trap.
Sure enough, he sent his perception down the hallway one direction and detected another of those rooms that was absolutely filled with deadly launcher constructs.
And down the other direction? The same.
Lindon tapped into Blackflame again and looked beneath them. “Does anyone else have any better suggestions?”
“Yes,” Eithan said. “Use the hand. We can still follow the labyrinth when it makes sense.”
Lindon wanted to argue, but he could see the sense, and they didn’t have much time to argue. He withdrew the twisted white hand from its case and exposed it to the aura in the air. It immediately clawed to their right.
Then Lindon felt the eye of the Slumbering Wraith on him, and he thought he felt a distant smile.
Hunger madra erupted around them, and Lindon realized that Subject One was finished playing with them.
Ghouls clambered out from every inch of stone. When they were slashed with madra, they didn’t even dissipate, and Lindon’s Empty Palm blew one ghoul in half…at which point its upper half landed on him.
Its white madra burned on contact with his skin, and he shouted as he hurled it away.
In the grand scheme of things, it hadn’t taken much, but it had taken a bite out of everything. He was noticeably more tired than he had been before, both physically and spiritually.
He erupted in the Hollow Domain, but as the blue-white light filled the hall, he could tell that it wouldn’t be enough. The ghouls weakened, but they didn’t die, and more clawed at his ankles. He saw Ziel shaking several off, Eithan flipping through a crowd, and Mercy covering her limbs with armor.
Yerin was the best off of all of them, with her six blade-arms and her sword all glowing slightly with her Flowing Sword. Enforcer techniques weren’t disrupted by the Hollow Domain, so she was a blurring cage of blades that shredded any ghoul that got close.
These ghouls were tough, as though they had been invested with soulfire. Lindon thought the actual explanation was probably much simpler; Subject One meant this attack. It had his full attention behind it.
And his theory was strengthened a moment later when Dross shouted a warning and webs shot from the walls.
He blew through the strands, which were weaker thanks to his Hollow Domain, but as long as he kept the Domain up, his friends wouldn’t be able to use most of their techniques. And there were more ghouls coming every second, in an endless tide.
Lindon followed the scratching, clawing hand and dashed down the hallway, the others following. He tucked the hand back into its case.
They emerged into a trap room, but Lindon didn’t intend to wait this time. He ran through, keeping the Hollow Domain active.
The traps triggered, but the fogs of venom madra and balls of fire madra melted as they encountered the edge of his protective field of pure madra.
His pure core was leaking madra by the second, but he had plenty to spare and a supply of scales. It was better for him to spend madra than anyone else.
As such, he was confident that they would be able to blast through these traps instantly.
Then the walls blurred, and the exits vanished again.
Dross roared in all their minds as they came up against a stretch of blank stone. [Coward! Come face me instead of leaning on these cheap tricks!]
“It can’t keep doing this,” Mercy protested. “It’s going to run out of energy soon enough.”
Eithan nodded even as he evaded a lunging ghoul. “Yes, it is paying quite a cost for this. Even the labyrinth itself may not be able to keep up. But will we?”
Now that the hand was locked away, Lindon wanted to release the Hollow Domain, but he couldn’t. It was the only thing holding back the traps. The remaining ghouls were dispatched, but he was dismayed when he swept his perception through the group.
They had been weakened by that attack. Too much.
Dross, how many more attacks like that can we handle?
[Four,] Dross said confidently. [After that, you’ll have to start spending resources you can’t afford to replace.]
Yerin paced restlessly inside the blue-white dome of the Hollow Domain, clearly frustrated. “How many more rats do we have to clear out?”
Lindon wondered if that was the question that Subject One had been waiting for, because he felt a cruel amusement drift through the walls of the labyrinth.
The traps ran out of fuel soon after—these hadn’t lasted long, with the Hollow Domain disrupting their structure—but an entrance still didn’t appear.
Something else did, though.
Lindon knew immediately it wasn’t a ghoul, despite the white hand that pulled through the stone. Yerin struck at it as the hand appeared, but her sword was deflected by a punch from a thick gauntlet.
The spiritual pressure of a Herald filled the room, and Lindon’s heart dropped.
This was another black-and-white copy of an expert from ages past, but unlike the ghost they’d conjured of Mercy’s mother, this one had real power.
Lindon didn’t recognize him—he wasn’t one of the current generation of Monarchs, and may have died centuries before—but he was a short, broad-shouldered man with thick metal gauntlets on either hand. Another eye hovered over his head, and he met them with an arrogant grin, clashing one gauntlet against another.
Ziel’s eyes went wide, and he levered his hammer in position. “Steel Dragon’s Mountain!”
Lindon didn’t know if that was a technique, a place, an organization, or even a Path. But the echo dashed forward with a punch, and Lindon could feel overwhelming force madra. Yerin matched his punch with her sword, and the entire room shook with their clash.
Space rippled, and it was a measure of the strength this past expert carried that he only took one step back from Yerin.
He grinned at her, and she held her sword up in acknowledgement.
Then Mercy and Eithan struck, without regard for any honorable duel. Arrows landed with the force of the Dark Tide Incantation, and Eithan struck out with the complete version of the Hollow Spear.
The Herald wove through the arrows, his speed a blur, and met Eithan’s Hollow Spear with a massive Forged fist superimposing his own: a Forger echo technique.
Rather than the battle, Lindon and Dross were focused on analyzing the underlying technique.
[This application of hunger madra is far outside your meager understanding,] Dross declared.
You think I could learn this?
That would be beyond useful, and could perhaps have synergy with Dross. If Dross could comprehend and remember the strength behind other sacred artists, and Lindon could mimic them with hunger madra…
Dross cackled at Lindon’s expense. [You don’t think you’re a real hunger artist, do you? Master Northstrider can copy the wills of those he devours into his techniques, but your use of hunger is simple and crude. Even if you had the skill, you are not on a true hunger Path, and all you can do is manipulate your arm’s binding.]
The Consume technique in his arm was indeed the most basic and straightforward use of hunger madra; it was like a fire binding designed solely to burn things. There was nothing subtle or complex about it, but it had limitless applications.
Reluctantly, Lindon abandoned his dream of an army of ghostly sacred artists under his command. Can we disable the technique?
[If you’re willing to pay the cost, Void Sage.] Lindon could hear the sneer in Dross’ voice.