chapter 1231: chapter 1230: the labyrinthian

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    "you hear stories about a place that shower it in grandeur unparalleled by anything this world has to offer, shaping your expectations of said place to be so far above what reality can provide that there is nothing left but disappointment whenever you finally get to witness that place... that place being the labyrinthian, i suppose."

    jahi crossed her arms and looked up at the gigantic mountain path that we were standing in, before she turned back towards us and swept her gaze over the vastness of the entirely new world we were standing at the edge of, clearly not sharing similar feelings to the rest of us.

    to a certain degree she was correct; this had been a location showered in so much unrealistic expectations that there was simply no way it could ever reach that same hype, and yet understanding that the fictitious ideations were, in fact, fictitious was part of what made it so fascinating to finally see it for yourself.

    the mountains behind us were plain and unassuming for being the border of this magnificent place, and yet the veins of metal that had cracked its surface were only seen thanks to the sun''s radiance, showing how rich this area was even if - at first glance - it held no value at all.

    when you then finally crested over the hill and were greeted with the uninterrupted view of the labyrinthian at large you were able to see something that certainly wasn''t plain, but something that didn''t meet those expectations that had become set within the mind.

    they certainly weren''t normal locations though, like the vast, sprawling forest of bright mint green covering all of the land to our right, the sea of leaves covering whatever might lurk beneath in a cheery blanket that lure us in, while our left was a more pockmarked and disrupted swathe of land that was just as ''different''... yet still the same as we were used to.

    an entire day of traveling had clearly worn on our minds simply because it had been so many hours of doing nothing but watching as the world went by, and thanks to the supplies we were bringing with us we weren''t able to partake in the wonders of the transport circles that the empress had setup between the palace and the labyrinthian entrance.

    the carriage was laden with foodstuffs, potions, gear and more, and it had been pulled by some kind of horse hybrid to get here, but afterwards we had a brief stop in the city guarding the entrance to enchant the carriage and begin pulling it ourselves, so... that was fun.

    it did double as a mobile home thanks to the immaculate craftsmanship of whomever had designed it, so i was willing to put up with the idea of lugging this thing around with us wherever we went, but at the same time... i wasn''t expecting it to survive the entire trip.

    "so... where the hell do we go? lilith said to meet her here, and yet..."

    lady fenyras looked around at the different biomes before searching the area around us, like we had somehow missed a demoness lounging around atop one of the rocks, but after a few seconds she growled and shook her head.

    "i guess we just head on down a little... these ''entrances'' to the labyrinthian extend for a bit and remain untouched by the shifting terrain, so maybe she''s down there. and if she isn''t we can set up camp for the night and figure out what we want to do to begin."

    the demon wolf fixed her silver eye on each of us, getting a nod back as we left the leadership role to her for now, so jahi took the reins of the carriage and began to pull while i resumed walking behind it, acting as our rearguard and also ensuring the carriage never got too fast for the demoness to handle as we walked downhill, into the labyrinthian proper.