Vol.3 Ch.56 - Jigsaw

“Puzzles, puzzles, puzzles…!” Sullivan tugged at his short hair, “It’s allpuzzles! Everywhere I look is puzzles!”Normally I would scoff at such behavior, but he was actually just saying whateveryone in the party was thinking (safe from Marina). If you’re wonderingwhy we were all frustrated, then I’ll have to start from the beginning.After silently making our way to the next floor, we noticed somethingpeculiar. Instead of the wide open spaces we were all too accustomed to atthis point, we saw a somewhat smaller one. It wasn’t cramped by any means,just smaller than the others. In the center of the room stood a lone jigsawpuzzle piece which we collected purely because the Book told us to do so.The next room was identical to the previous one, but the puzzle piece locatedin it was different to the one we had previously collected, and there wasanother one next to it. We quickly understood that after finding all of thepieces, we’d solve it and only then move on to the next floor. So, wecollected one puzzle piece after another, going from one identical room to thenext.After a while, though, we started to doubt the finality of this floor’s nature.Of course, an endless labyrinth of identical rooms seems impossible, but thenagain we’ve seen some pretty weird stuff, so we didn’t let our doubts get thebetter of us. Even still, no matter how many rooms we visited, none of thejigsaws would connect to each other. They we’re all missing a linking piece,which only made our doubts rise with every new room.And now that you’re well acquainted with all that’s happened up to now, thisleads us to our current conversation.***“Should we just return back?” I suggested, still doubting the Book ofProphecies.“Hell no!” Everyone unanimously shouted, saying stuff like You want to goback after we’ve made it this far?“I think Big Bro’s right on this one.” Marina backed me up, “None of thesepieces fit, I think it’s a red herring.”“Just the fact that you’re agreeing with him is proof enough that we shouldn’tlisten to his crazy plans.” Said Miss Lionheart, “Don’t you remember yourmental state is in shambles?”“First off: rude. Second: you’re not using your head at all.” Marina hissed atMiss Lionheart, “From what I’ve gathered, this Book is something you justblindly decided to listen to, but what if it’s a trap in and of itself?”No one bothered to hear her out, instead opting to give her the cold shoulderand simply press on. Everyone except me, of course, who stopped them fromadvancing any further and forced them to hear her out.“Think about it, even the Golden Apple I found turned out to be a trap. I losta lot of brain cells just from consuming it, but I guess the effects are startingto die down after my body’s fully processed it.” She said, “Who’s to say thatany and all artifacts found here aren’t traps? What if the Book’s been leadingus further away from the exit all this time?”Now that you mention it, you’ve got an amazing point there! Nice going,Marina, you get a hundred gold stars!“Bah!” Old Man Linus dismissed the thought, “Mystical artifacts aren’tsentient, kid! Each one exists to grant you something, and there has neveronce been a reported Trap Artifact.”What the Old Man said almost immediately debunked her entire case, sadly.This was irrefutable evidence, as well, since every adventurer guidebook,exam question and practical situation pointed to this hypothesis being true. Isay hypothesis because just because we’ve never seen it doesn’t mean itdoesn’t exist somewhere.“Let’s just turn back and look for another way, please? Must we bicker atevery step of the way?” I asked, grabbing myself by my temples.“Aww come on,” Miss Lionheart nudged me, “Just five more rooms and thenwe’ll go back.”“Fine, but ONLY five more rooms.”-26 rooms laterFuck. FuckfuckfuckfuckFUCK!“Come on guys, the linking piece is in the next room over. I can feel it!” SaidMiss Lionheart, hopelessly trying to save face as she pushes us from oneroom to the next.“Fuck this!” I finally scream out as I call forth a vote, “All in favor of turningback?”After raising my hand, the people that followed my example were Marina, aswell as Old Man Linus, surprisingly. The people who didn’t wanna turn backyet we’re just Sullivan, who was obviously just trying to appeal to MissLionheart.“Old Man? Why are you on their side all of a sudden?” Sullivan inquired onhis sudden team change.“Simply put, my legs hurt.” He said plainly before continuing, “You kids areyoung, time flows by slower for you, but as for me I don’t really feel all toothrilled about wasting the precious time I have left betting on the slim chancethat we’ll find this linking piece.”“Oh come on, you old fart! You’re saying you wanna defy the Book’sprophecy purely because of your weak legs?” Miss Lionheart hissed back athim.“The way I see it, if the Book was truly alluding to us finding the exit thisway, then it’d account for my ‘weak legs’. To me, that only proves that weshould turn back and reassess the situation.”The Old Man’s words were as irrefutable as ever. He was a scary foe to goup against when tongues clashed. His ability to weave the story however hewants is both useful and scary. If I ever got pinned up against him, I’dprobably get persuaded into joining his side or something (at least that’s howit feels to me).Even still, I’m glad he finally decided on siding with the logical squad, nomatter his motives. Since the majority of the party agreed to turn back, theothers had no other choice but to do so as well-“Fine! You go back! Come on, Sully, let’s show them that the next room is thefinal one!” Miss Lionheart started dragging Sullivan by the arm.“Where are you going? You’re not seriously thinking of splitting up, areyou?” I asked as if to egg them on.“Shut it! Every damn time we act like a real party, you keep messing thingsup with your own crazy ideas!” She glared back at me, “Don’t follow us!”And just like that, they went into the next room, leaving us befuddled at whatexactly we should do now. Thing is, if we turn back, then if either sideencounters a threat, they’ll be in trouble. On the other hand, splitting up mightactually help us find the exit faster. It’s a high risk, high reward, spontaneoustype plan.“… Let’s turn back for now.” Marina tugged on my sleeve.“Yeah, maybe some space would do everyone good.” The Old Manreasoned, “Our goal is to survive and get out of here alive, being on goodterms with each other isn’t necessary for that to happen.”But… I guess they’re right. Maybe I was completely missing the point thisentire time. I had treated them as friends instead of colleagues, and hadhigh hopes for them to treat me the same way. Thinking back, I really wasbeing overly chummy with them. I probably crossed some boundaries withhow I acted around them…As such, we headed back to the start.-Infinite Jigsaw Puzzle--Lune’s sideWalking back to the start of the floor, we had expected to find the staircaseleading up to the previous one, but there was no such thing in sight. Thisstarted to weigh heavily on us.“D-Did… Did anyone count back how many rooms we’ve traversed?” TheOld Man said with a shaken, weak voice.“I did. We’re currently on 54… Out of 52.” I said with a disappointed tone.“Could we have made a wrong turn somewhere?” Marina asked.“Impossible, the floor is linear in nature. From the moment we entered thislabyrinth, there hasn’t been a single fork in the road. This settles it, the roomsmove, infinitely keeping us from both leaving through the exit or entrance.” Isaid.It’s hard to believe, but this seems to be the only explanation. That, or Imiscounted, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t. I was the best cashier in all ofArthur’s. No one could best me in speedy arithmetics, I’d ring you up fasterthan you could say “Check please!”We have no idea how long we’ve been in Shaid’s Lair, but our rations areslowly but surely disappearing. We need to hurry up, otherwise we’ll starvebefore even making it to the end.“Has anyone… tried breaking out of the room through forcible means?”Marina suggested.We both looked at her with a face that showed intrigue. Certainly, weconsidered this place to be a treasure trove, so it seems we, who looked atthis place with greedy eyes, subconsciously blocked out even the mere ideaof blowing a hole in the wall to check for hidden passages. Since Marina’s‘Greed-o-meter’ was factory reset when she partook in the Golden Apple, itseems she had no qualms about doing so.As such, Linus took out a stick of dynamite from his backpack and I lit it withSpark. The rooms echoed from the shock of the explosion, and what emergedbehind the hollow wall was, in fact, a… pitch black room?…………….…………………..…………………………………………………………..“What was that sound?!?” Miss Lionheart suddenly entered the room.We were shocked by her appearance. Her clothes were bloody, and her hairwas a mess. We had no idea what had transpired on their side, so all wecould do was offer her help.“Never mind us, what happened to you?” Marina cried out, “Where’s Lil’Bro?”She refrained from answering, instead she quietly started sobbing as shegradually broke down. We had immediately expected the worst, so westarted interrogating her on the matter.“H-He’s… I don’t know.” She said, “We got separated after the fifth room in,something growled from behind us. I immediately dashed back here, but Idon’t know where he went. Oh God, please let him be safe…”Looks like he didn’t die, thank goodness. But even still, his safety couldstill be in jeopardy. We need to hurry back, we’ll leave this hole here fornow.-Infinite Jigsaw Puzzle--Sullivan’s & Genevra’s sideSullivan and Genevra had just parted ways from the other three, and werenow headed for the next room. This now familiar feeling of entering the nighidentical room had a sense of safety to it, but also a sense of dread. Sullivanwas starting to feel like he made a mistake in moving forward instead ofgoing back with the rest of the group.He had asked Genevra to check the Book once more to make sure they weredoing the right thing, but what she did next surprised him. She completelyignored him, almost as if she hadn’t heard him, despite his rather loud voice.So he repeated his request.“Um, Genevra? Could you check the Book once more?” He asked her.“… Just. Just wait a bit, okay?”This answer struck him as odd, as well as suspicious. After all they’d beenthrough, doubting her seemed like the worst idea imaginable, but onecouldn’t help but be wary. They pressed on in silence for a while longer,which was interrupted by their growling stomachs soon after.“Hahah, looks like we’ve been here for a while. I’d sure like to eat that mealyou made back at the lodging. What was it called again?”“… It’s just a simple stew. Nothing special about it.” She replied coldly.“I don’t think so.” He answered back immediately, “It’s special because it’smade by you.”His attempts at cheering her up fell on deaf ears as she started getting moreand more impatient.“Is everything okay?” He asked her after noticing how antsy she’d gotten.“It’s… I have to… use the restroom… Yeah…” She murmured that last bit.“Oh, no worries! Can’t be helped, you can just go a couple rooms back, I’llwatch our stuff for you!” He raised his chest up high as if to reassure her.“Thanks…” She said plainly as she entrusted her luggage to him.But even though he promised her this, Sullivan couldn’t help but cast doubtsin his mind about Genevra’s aversion to showing him the Book’s prophecy.So, he double-checked the premises before opening the Book himself. Whathe found was… different than what she had described.First of all, the Book made no mentions of them having to grab all the puzzlepieces in order to progress to the next floor. In fact, for Sullivan, the Bookstopped writing at the very end, suggesting his story is coming to a close.This further worried him, so he tried to check how it is that he meets hisdoom.“The protagonist meets a rather pitiable end as his lover, in a state of direhunger, turns to cannibalism as her only option.”The passage he had read from this Book was so sickening, so hard tobelieve, but he had no reason to doubt it. If this Book is correct, then rightnow, Genevra is getting ready to kill and eat Sullivan in order to curb herhunger.“I… I gotta go find the others quick-”*thwoop, clang…*The sound of a steel bar hitting the back of his head reverberated throughoutthe empty halls, and he soon fell on his face.***Sullivan awoke with a terrible headache. A delicious smell wafted from theroom as he desperately tried to recall all the events that had transpired justnow. The first to greet him was a smiling Genevra.“Oh, you’re awake, dear.” She said, full of life, “I made you that meal youwanted. Eat up!”He was glad she was safe, at least. Something had struck the back of hishead, but looks like she took care of it. He went to reach out for a plate, butquickly realized his hand wasn’t moving. No, it’s not that it wasn’t moving,it’s that it wasn’t there to begin with.A…“AAAAAAAAAAAAaaarghh!!!” He screamed out in horror.He tried to get up and run, but even that proved to be quite difficult. Indeed,he was missing his right leg as well, for it was bandaged at the breakingpoint, and from the corner of his eyes he found the remnants of his extremitieschopped up with a bloodied knife. The stew that had suddenly appearedseemingly out of thin air now started to finally make sense as well…He had immediately realized the situation he was put in. He was knocked outby Genevra, who had cut up his arm and leg to use for food. Even still, hisfirst instinct was to laugh, as he genuinely thought he was just experiencing anightmare.“Hah… Haa… G-Genevra, t-this is…” He tried to speak through the pain.“Oh don’t worry, dear. I only used enough to keep us fed. We’ll just have toget you some prosthetics, but you’ll be fine.” She said with an empty smile.She’s gone insane! He thought, But does that mean she… still wants me tolive? C-Could I… really live with prosthetics? Shit, it hurts it hurts ithurts…!!He desperately tried to stop her from taking a spoonful of the stew, but all hecould do in his current state was fall to the floor and throw up the little foodthat was still in his stomach.“Oh, dear! This won’t do, you need to eat as well to replenish your strength.”She said as she started forcibly feeding him the stew she had made of him.He did all he could to keep his mouth shut, to which she gave him a dejectedresponse.“What’s the matter, dear? Won’t you try my stew?” She said as she tried tofeed it to him, “This has always been on my mind… Y’know how animalmeat tastes better the more muscular the animal is? Well, I had alwayswondered if humans were the same… and wouldn’t you know? They are!”She started laughing maniacally.“Mph! Mmm!” He tried to scream through the tears as his mouth got openedwide by his very lover.Immediately after, he felt a strong cramp in his heart. It couldn’t have beenanything other than a heart attack from the shock of eating one’s self.“Sully? Sully!” The crazed woman stopped her jolly laughing upon realizinghis time was up, “Sully… I had really hoped you’d live through this, but whata shame… Guess you couldn’t even handle this much… Not manly at all…”Upon finishing up her meal, she didn’t even have the decency to bury him,instead grabbing their luggage and hauling ass to the rest of the party.There the surviving members recouped and hastily started looking for thedeceased Sullivan Streits. But alas, his whereabouts where never found,and the party had to leave him behind after another hour of investigating.In the second deepest floor of Shaid’s Lair, sitting propped up against thewalls of the Infinite Jigsaw Labyrinth, stood the body of a hopeful youngman who had wanted nothing more than to be loved.He now rests for all eternity, for he has gotten his wish fulfilled. The Lairgiveth, and the Lair taketh away…