Maze The Endless Quest - 107 Infiltrating the palace

This was the point that king Gwendelan used to infiltrate the palace. Under one of the bags, there was a loose stone that lead to an underground tunnel. This was part of the emperor’s escape route, and none of the soldiers knew about it.

According to the intel, there would be a human guard in the corridor outside the door, but he would go for a shift change in two minutes. That gave Hera a one minute window to leave the pantry. Following that, she would head towards the balcony to climb to the next floor from the outside.

Hera pressed her ear against the door, listening to the guard’s footsteps. After a few moments, she heard the noise echoing through the corridor. It was the sound of heavy metal greaves rattling against each other. Hera held her breath as the noise got closer and passed through the door. Vanishing on the other side of the hallway.

When the footfalls were far enough away, Hera left the room, making sure to close the door behind her, and sneaked to the other side of the corridor. She went towards a window beside the balcony.

Hera focused on the surrounding sounds. Getting close to a door, she heard something being dragged inside the room. Using what she had learned in the cave room, Hera crouched down and spread her weight to minimize the noise she was making. According to the map in the report, the door would lead to a storage room for the undead. After passing through it, Hera walked onto the balcony. The view was breathtaking. A massive city in beautiful red and gold tones covered the entire landscape. Even in the dark of night, the lanterns gave the town a mystic look.

Hera shook her head. This wasn’t the time to be sightseeing. She walked to the edge of the balcony and grabbed on to the ledge of the building. Climbing the outer wall, she headed towards the window two floors up. The emperor was in the central room on the top floor of the palace. So far, Hera was mirroring what king Gwendelan did. This was the easy part. After the second window, the number of patrols would increase drastically, both human and undead.

Grabbing the edge of the window, Hera pulled herself up to see the next floor. Right away, she could see a pair of undead walking side by side away from the window. She waited for the patrol to be far enough away and entered through the window, already heading to the side near a long drapery on the corner of the floor.

The main issue with this route was that it made her go around the palace a couple of times. The servant only stairs were placed on opposite edges of the building. The emperor had a private spiral staircase that was enchanted with magic. It would work like an escalator and drop him off on any floor he wished.

Hera had to stay behind the undead duo. Never moving too quickly and staying hidden most of the time. Because of their slow speed, it took her twenty minutes just to reach the first set of stairs.

‘Only two more to go,’ she thought to herself as she reached the next floor.

This time, she had to be more careful. There were two sets of patrols on each corridor, one undead and one human. According to the intel, the undead would keep moving around. But the humans would stop on windows to inspect the outside. That was her chance. She would wait for the humans to be distracted and rush to one of the doors on the floor.

She waited by the stair for the first set of humans to pass, and the moment they stopped by the window, Hera rushed towards the closest door. She was trying not to make too much noise, but the door was stuck. Hera looked back at the two humans looking through the windows. She had already taken too long to open this door, and they would soon start moving again. If they did, nothing was stopping them from turning towards her. If that wasn’t bad enough, there was also an undead patrol about to reach the corner of the floor.

Hera’s heart was beating fast. Maybe the door that was in front of her was actually locked and not just stuck. Not wanting to be caught, she rushed towards the next door. This one opened easily, and Hera closed it right behind her.

Her relief was short lived. A moment after closing the door, Hera heard snoring coming from the room. She turned around and gave a few moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. Only when she was finally able to see the rows of bed that Hera realized where she was. One floor below the emperor’s chamber was the elite guard barracks, where the emperor’s strongest warriors lived.

Hera held her breath while she thought of her next step. If she remembered correctly, the barracks had two doors, both of them would lead directly to the servant staircase. If she managed to go through this room without waking anyone up, she could reach the last floor, bypassing some of the patrols.

She crouched down and started to walk on all fours. The elite guard had very sharp senses. If even one of them woke up, Hera would be in deep trouble.

Hera made sure to pay attention to her surroundings, not to hit anything by accident. At one point, there was a creak in one of the beds, and all the guards shifted. Hera held her breath, worried about making any more noise. She waited for a while, happy that none of her friends were around to see her crawling on all fours. When she felt that her movements wouldn’t mess with the guards sleep, she moved towards the door on the other side of the room. Even with all the stopping and waiting, she managed to reach the door in just fifteen minutes.

Looking through the keyhole, Hera waited for the human patrol to pass by. Listening to their footsteps, the explorer waited for them to stop before opening the door. Not only were the guards distracted, looking through a window, but the stairs to the next floor were right in front of her.

Being careful not to make any noise, she left the barracks and headed towards the emperor’s floor. However, as soon as she arrived on said floor, her heart sank. There was an entire battalion of undead on the floor. They were all looking towards the stairs in the same position. The image made Hera remember the stone warriors that were found in China a long time ago.

Hera already was expecting the monsters to attack her, but they were utterly still. She poked her head out of the stairs, ready to run away if they attacked her, but nothing happened. The undead seemed to be in stasis. Looking around, Hera searched for her next step. There was a door on the back of the great hall, the only door in the entire floor. That was clearly the entrance to the emperor’s chamber, but the undead were so close to each other that Hera couldn’t pass through without touching them. She had watched enough movies to know that touching an unmoving creature would be a bad idea.

She could try to climb the walls and move above the creatures, but she would have many problems traversing the hall, and going under the undead’s legs felt like suicide. Her remaining option was to circle the hall through the outside, doing something similar to what king Gwendelan had done.

Hera walked towards the closest window, away from the undead horde, and started to make her way towards where she believed the emperor was. Little by little, she grabbed the ledges and jumped around until she finally reached the emperor’s balcony.

‘Holy shit, I’m never doing that again,’ she thought, looking at her hands. They were red and sore, the path was very irregular, and the constant fear of falling made her even tenser. Her only comfort was the belief that if she ended up plummeting down, she wouldn’t get hurt. After all, this was just a test.

Hera entered the emperor’s room, heading straight to the king-size bed. The leader of the undead army was sleeping soundly. Yet it was an odd view. The emperor wore a nightcap, socks with a point that made Hera remember a jester’s shoes. The entire bed was covered in silk. It was amazing how someone could stay still on top of it. Wanting to be sure of who was in bed, Hera activated her [Observe].

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Xu Jiayi – Emperor of the Undead

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘Ok, it’s really him,’ Hera thought.

She grabbed her handaxe and kept staring at the emperor. Could she do it? This was a simulation, so the man in front of her wasn’t real. Still, it was so real. It was one thing if it was a monster or someone trying to kill her. But killing someone who was just sleeping seemed wrong. Yet, Hera had done that before. She killed the frogs while they slept. Feeling guilty right now was hypocritical of her.

She raised her weapon, ready to strike, but couldn’t do it. Lowering her handaxe, she took a step away from the bed when she noticed something odd. In the middle of the bedroom, there was a figure clad in black, holding an ornate dagger decorated with two waves crashing at each other on the crossguard. Aside from the person in front of her, the rest of the world was completely frozen in place.

“I understand. I had the same issue with that decision during my training. Was it right killing someone who never harmed me directly?”

The assassin walked towards the bed, “Even now, as I killed someone who is truly a monster, I don’t regret my decisions. You see, many years ago, I was tasked to kill the previous emperor. He was a benevolent and wise ruler, and I refused my mission. I believed that the world was a better place with him in it. An assassin should always complete a contract. Alas, I violated that rule. If I had killed my mark, his family would have perished during a coup, and this man would never become emperor. The blood of all the people he killed is in my hands. Killing him won’t change that.”

The assassin removed his mask, revealing the face of king Gwendelan, “Yet, as much as I regret my decisions. I still believe it was what I should have done, not for the good of the world, but myself. If I had killed his father, I would be betraying what I considered to be just and fair. We can never know the ramification of our actions, and it is up to us to decide what to do.”

Gwendelan walked towards Hera, stopping at her side, “This was my burden to bear, not yours. You have finished your test, and you have proven that your skills are enough to learn the role given by the system. If you believe that this man should live, or that by killing him, you will go against yourself, you are free to go.”

A door appeared behind Hera, away from the emperor.

The explorer stared at the deep green eyes of the king. They were deep, tired, and full of sadness, “If I leave now, and what will happen to you?” Hera asked.

“Nothing. I am but a simulation of what once was.”

“And him?” Hera pointed at the sleeping emperor.

“Also, nothing. Everything here is part of a construct, something that was real once, but no more. Aside from you.”

“What if it wasn’t? What if this was all real, and no one killed the emperor on this day? What would have happened?”

Gwendelan shook his head, “I am unable to tell you that. This is how the event unfolded. I can say that I believe I did the right thing, even if it cost me an eternity of suffering. To me, keeping him alive would only lead to the suffering of even more people. This was my one chance of stopping that once and for all. Yet, you must understand, this was not an act of rage. This was a calculated decision. An assassin must do its best to keep our emotions separated from their work.”

Hera let the words spoken by the king sink in. What would she do in his place? If her family, if her friends were the ones being turned into undead. Could she let a man live knowing the pain he caused? Could she kill someone without anger?

She looked at the door. Her test was over, she could go now, but something was holding her back. Something that Gwendelan had said.

Walking towards the emperor, Hera pretended to be in a video game. A very real and lifelike videogame. She took a deep breath and raised Iris, her handaxe. With a single strike emperor’s head was detached from its body.

Gwendelan was staring at her with a puzzled expression, “Why did you choose to kill him?”

Hera walked towards the door behind him, “Something you said, an assassin must always finish their contracts. And he is a simulation. If I’m not able to even finish this job, I wouldn’t be able to finish the next one, with a real target.”

Gwendelan smiled at Hera, “Thank you for sharing my burden. I hope that you never find yourself in a situation like this. With this, you also have completed the room. Please, head towards the next reception and receive your rewards.”

Hera nodded and walked through the door, arriving in a reception with white walls. Her hands were shaking.

“So, kid. How did it go?” Peaches asked.

Hera felt the tears rushing down her face, “Tell me he wasn’t real. Please tell me he wasn’t real,” she said as she fell on her knees.