And so, once again, we are all alone.

{Chopin - Nocturne No. 20 in C# Minor, Op Posth}

Is there not a certain beauty in a rainy evening? A calmness, in the way some forgotten God pours forth their wrath upon you, only for it to mildly inconvenience your night.

At least, this is how Vyn felt about the rain, as it fell in a hazy torrent from the ashen clouds above. The sound was deafening and silent, background noise, as he walked briskly between cobbled streets.

A cloak draped over him, light brown, made darker by the tears cascading from the sky. It fluttered as he skipped between cover, under the wooden boards of an underpass, between the stone corridors of interweaving alleyways. As he approaches the town square, he ignores a familiar sight, one he had passed almost every day...

Leviathans. O’ terrible Leviathans, no longer will you watch over us. No longer will you hound us for your amusement. No longer will you stain this world with the spilt blood of humanity. No longer will we abide by your tyrannical rule, you are our Gods no longer. May your slumber last eternally.

The chiselled stone monolith read about as well as it could, carved tablets tend to fade given a hundred years or so, verdant moss covered a great majority of the writing and what remained untouched by time made little sense by itself. It was a sad, neglected monument, though it had served it's purpose. There wasn't a single person in the whole world who didn't know the story of the Leviathans. The Kingdom had been basking in the glory of the great imprisonment for decades, with no sign of stopping any time soon, Vyn wondered how bad things must have been back then... given how bleak things were now.

Water ran down the side of the stone, pooling in the cracked, weathered words, the centre piece of the village was in ruin, it said a lot about the state of things here. A quiet town, on the far outskirts of the city, forgettable and melancholy. It hardly fit the age it was in.

As the sun retreated behind a nearby mountain, it cast a foreign light over the town, like a great, orange eye watching intently as the residents went about their evening. The nights were simply getting darker and longer now that winter had set in. The outskirts of the city never had received much love from the inner circles, but the state of affairs here were... below average.

The fantastical fairy tales of where the higher ups lived in luxury seemed like more of a myth than the Leviathans did, if there weren't striking evidence of both, one would assume the legends of terror and destruction wrought by those monsters to be made up, just so the Royalty and Nobles could lead lives of splendor in peace. As the sky bestowed such insipid rays of light down onto the once glorious architecture, Vyn had trouble imagining anyone living a wonderful life at all, the plants that grew in between the cracks of a statue that hadn't been polished in years perhaps? They were certainly being watered well by this awful weather.

Though, none of these thoughts were of much concern to him anymore.

Vyn wasn't physically impressive, he was short, feminine, hazel blonde hair swept around his face, framing his lime green eyes. He was unintimidating, and for good reason, he settled his problems by avoiding them, and by not having any problems to begin with. This however, was a problem Vyn could never escape, no matter how hard he ran.

There was an air of desperate determination about the way he walked toward the church, practically kicking the door to the house of worship open, as his hands were preoccupied with keeping his hood up in the wind and rain. The statue of Amphitere looked down on him as he entered, it was surprising to see any statues of the Leviathans still standing, clearly the Order of Crows was too lazy to come out all the way to this quaint little mountain village.

“Hm? May I help you?”

The vicar was stood at the far end of the church, putting out the candles for the night, they flickered as the evening breeze drifted in through the door.

“I need to see the death records.” Vyn said bluntly, letting his hood fall away. There were tears in his eyes.

“Death records? Whatever for? I’m afraid there's no time tonight, if you have a good reason for it I’m sure I could sort them out for tomorrow, are you researching your family-"

“Please... I just need to see them”

The vicar sighs, sensing the urgency in the boy's voice.

“Very well, give me a moment.”

The next few minutes were agonising, Vyn paced the aisles, the sunlight billowing through the glass windows was gradually depleting, it was all but gone by the time the vicar returned, a leather-bound book in their hands. The records of death and burial for all residents of the town since the New Age began.

“Would you mind telling me what this is about?” They ask hesitantly.

Vyn didn't answer, taking the book from the hands of the vicar and flipping through it hurriedly, until he reached the current year.

The entry was as crystal clear, as it had been written just yesterday.

'Adrian Luci. Born 14th March, New Age 87. Died 5th September, New Age 121. Passed away within the Void Labyrinth, no body was able to be recovered. No will left behind, earthly possessions to be left to his only son. Vyn Luci.'

That was it, no time of death, no cause. Not even a reason why he left for that damned place. Vyn gave the book back to the priest, his hands trembling.

There was no use holding back the tears anymore, he had all the evidence he needed, his father was dead. He had left the previous morning, without so much as a goodbye. Vyn simply sank to his knees on the cold stone floor, and wept.

“...I am truly sorry. You are welcome to stay here as long as you need.”

“No... I-I um... I’m okay.”

Vyn was not okay.

The Void Labyrinth was an annual event, held for three days at the foot of the tallest mountain this side of the kingdom. It was a horrible place, an elaborate dungeon built into the mountain itself. It is said that the Leviathan Ryujin sleeps under the labyrinth, the black dragon, forever imprisoned in it's depths. That infernal place was for criminals to be sent to their deaths, for lowlifes and debtors with no other option, for adventurers with no sense of self-preservation. Someone would always emerge from the labyrinth each year, returning wealthy and famous... but there were never more than a few participants that made it out alive...

W-why? Why would he just... leave... without any word? Just to go and die off alone somewhere? What was so important? That he would abandon me...?

Vyn didn't have the resolve to think about it any harder, his tears were drowning out any rational thought anyway.

There must be something down there, Vyn thought. Something worth throwing your life away for? Vyn's head was spinning, his body felt weighed down by grief and confusion. In all of the chaos of his churning emotions, one idea clung to his thoughts and refused to let go.

The Labyrinth would still be open for one more day.