My Servant System

"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. Continue reading on empire

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.

It was a rolling sea of hills this time instead of leaves, and the dips into the earth were further deepened by the pits that delved deep beneath the world, while the hills sometimes clawed far higher than you would expect.

The orange soil was sometimes charred as flames licked at the rough grains from those pits, while the blood red rock of the top of those hills leaked sparkling blue water that evaporated before it could pool down at the base of their hills.

Then the erratic placement of mountains in front of us, each a different suite of colors and each covered in far too much or no vegetation at all, providing a diversity never seen before in the outside world.

Different biomes kissed at random inside of the Labyrinthian, and it was that randomness that was just shocking to the mind after hearing about the 'living' part of this continent; how could this be 'alive' if it was just so random?

Or was that the proof that it was 'alive' since there was no way the natural order of the world would allow for this hodgepodge assortment of very conflicting collections of mana?

Either way, we were finally here after a whole day of traveling, and not even a second after Jahi said that Lady Fenyras snorted and said "How can someone sound so confident and smart yet also sound so damn stupid at the same time? Just shut up.", the Demon Wolf making me wonder right away if this was going to be more of a trial to survive whatever monsters waited for us down there, or if we were more likely to kill one another.

"All I'm saying is the Labyrinthian doesn't seem to match the hype that everyone's been giving it..."

Thankfully Jahi was accustomed to dealing with someone arrogant thanks to the constant presence of the Jackalkin beside us as well as her own Mom, so she wasn't that offended or off put by the comment, but I knew that the difference between them and the Demon Wolf before us was vastly different...

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.