Jace frowned under his helmet. "Then I suppose we will not find him here will we?" He asked aloud.

    "No you will not. He was here a number of months ago. But he has not returned here since. I have gotten a number of his new failures. He was incredibly proud of some of these. But they were unfortunately not what the people who hired him wanted. So they were sent to me as discarded goods. Do not worry about your comrades. Those that entered through the hangar are going to be facing similar trials and tests."

    Daedalus, as he called himself, had just said some very useful but worrying information. Hoodwink intentionally left a trail for them to follow here. This also meant that he intentionally left this follower of his behind as a way to both gather information and to get rid of his failed machines. He also already knew about his other team as well.

    "Now then as a reward for speaking to me I will allow you to go to the next room." There was a metallic noise and then a moment later the door they did not enter from opened up. It led down a hall. "Now come friends, to your next trial. I will continue to speak to you while your friends attempt to overcome their first trial."

    Jace looked at the others and they shrugged in response. So he nodded, "okay then." He spoke over their communication channel. Then he started following them down the hallway that led downwards. There was not much else they could do for the moment. Since they were being watched it would be more dangerous to not follow Daedalus''s request.

    Either way they were going to head in this direction anyways. He was still constantly checking the digital blueprint and was surprised by what he found. The hallways and blindspots were changing. It seemed calling this Daedalus'' Labyrinth was not just some coping in mythical storytelling. The hallways and rooms were changing.

    "Well that''s not good. Charlie, try to reach out to the other team. The map I made for them is no longer relevant. This facility is changing shape." Jace told them as they walked, confirming that Daedalus was not able to access their communications. He was able to stop transmissions but he was not able to get into their encrypted communications.

    "Changing shape, how is that possible?" Ulin asked with genuine curiosity.

    "Well I can only make assumptions but this place probably has many exchangeable parts and sections. Then there is the method of hiding from nanobots, it was probably made with nanohumans in mind. I shudder to think how he discovered such a method. I lack any concrete information to give you an actual answer. So instead I can only collect information as time passes, but in order for that to work we have to play along." Jace answered as they came upon the next room.

    As they entered they had their weapons at the ready. Unlike the last one this one lit up as they entered. It was another white room with the only color being added to it being the blue liquid substance that was dripping off of Jace''s boot. The room was not a square like he had seen on the original schematic, instead it was a round room. There were three doors near each other opposite where they entered. There was a shuddering in the room for a moment, before a hole opened up in the center of the floor.

    All three of them immediately focused on that hole but after a moment Jace stopped and instead started looking around until he stopped at a spot that looked normal on the roof. But he could tell that was the spot where the camera was hidden.

    "Jace." Ulin called his name, dragging his attention away from the camera. He looked at what they were looking at. It was a stone statue of an ancient medieval knight with his sword stabbed into the ground. But the statue was missing its head and the armor was more feminine in nature. "There is a plaque with an inscription."

    Jace stepped forward and looked at the inscription. He then read it aloud into their communication channel. "There stands three paths before you. But only one of them is a true path. The true path is the one which only someone like me can take. The path on your right leads to glory and honor. The path in the center leads to more war and bloodshed. The path on the left leads to death and duty." Jace stood up and looked at the statue.

    "I mean I do not know much about ancient myths and stories but this is a knight. So it has to be the glory and honor that it seeks. So we should go with the right path." Charlie pointed out.

    "I do not know, something doesn''t seem right. Jace, can you tell which door we can take with your ability?" Ulin asked as she looked at the three doors behind the statue.

    "No, at the moment none of the doors lead anywhere. I am guessing that will change after we make our decision." Jace answered honestly as he decided to take a second look at this knight. He walked up and then climbed up on the pedestal to look at the space where the head should have been. Instead there was a flat surface where the head should have been. But instead of it being broken off it looked chiseled, so the statue was made without a head.

    "What about war and bloodshed? This is what soldiers would seek out. And a knight is just another type of soldier. Or they could even just be seeking out death and duty. There is no actual way to tell what the answer is." Ulin turned to Charlie and pointed out. Now that she knew they actually had to figure this out she would put some thought into it.

    Jace on the other hand climbed down and then began walking around the statue. Stopping when he spotted something that was lying on the ground behind the knight. From the front it was hidden by the knight so it could be easily missed. He crouched and looked closer. It was a chiseled helmet with an actual human skull stuck inside. Not a chiseled skull, an actual bone skull.

    He now had an idea of what was going on. But there had to be more hints hidden on the statue and pedestal. So he walked back around and looked closer at the pedestal.

    "Yes, that may be true. But her path has to be related to her appearance or at least to what we can see. So it has to be something we can figure out with knowledge about ancient myths of Earth and anything else that might be considered general knowledge amongst all the human descended nations." Charlie told Ulin before pointing at the mislabeled knight. "So doesn''t this look like a knight?"

    "I mean…" Ulin sounded annoyed, "it does. But something doesn''t feel right."

    The speaker in the room crackled to life as Daedalus spoke through it. "Well hopefully you have had enough time to figure out the answer. Because your allies just finished their first trial and are on the way to their second. You have about ten minutes before I have to focus on them again." He told them.

    Jace could tell it was a lie. Daedalus had been watching them the whole time. He just wanted to put pressure on them. He was attempting to create a competitive environment for whatever experiment or study he was doing for his boss, Lord Hoodwink.

    So he ignored the attempt at throwing them off and instead focused on the plaque in front of him. He had already checked the pedestal and found that it was etched to be similar to the blades of grass on the sides of it. Looking at the plaque closer he found it was made out of iron. But in the corner of the plaque hidden from view was the indentation of a horse. It would have been hidden if he had not taken a closer look at the plaque.

    Separated, the headless knight, the bodiless head, and the horse might not have meant anything. But putting them all together Jace realized they were all references to several myths and legends. They were not overtly well known but he had to focus on what the original concept meant.

    Jace turned around as Ulin and Charlie were beginning to argue a bit more. "Ignore Daedalus'' words. He is just trying to rush us. I am guessing part of the experiment or study he is conducting on us needs us to be under a mental pressure. So take a breath and look closer at the statue and plaque. You both focused on answering the riddle instead of looking for hints and hidden pieces of information."

    Ulin and Charlie exchanged a look before they both stepped forward and stared at the statue and then moved around it. Jace on the other hand turned to the camera that Daedalus was watching them through, ready to give his answer. sea??h thё N?vel(F)ire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.