Traverse the maze.

Your party's tank continues to lead the way, albeit strangely. She keeps her shield wrapped around to censor her unclothed ass, and while the front is free to see, nobody is there to see it, though if an enemy were to appear, it would certainly be a sight to behold. Because of this, Niki doesn't walk with quite as much confidence as before. She's not as vulnerable to embarrassment as some others you know, but it's not easy for anybody to cope with being stripped half naked in the middle of a dungeon.

"Imagine," Eva whispers as she walks. "Forced naked, but you're the head of the party. The one whose entire job is pulling the attention of every enemy. You need everyone to look at you, but when they do, they see everything--"

"Absolutely not helping, Eva," Niki barks back.

Another corner, and then a third and fourth--there's no telling for how long this labyrinth traversal will continue, nor what awaits you deeper in. You think more on what you saw, both before and after entering this maze. If this is what remains of where stel'ae once lived, they were a magically advanced people for those known to be destroyers of magic. You know little of them. It's likely complicated. But you figure if an entire intelligence species were to require the consumption of magic, they would need to find the means to do so properly in order to survive.

The architecture here is all together sleek and clean--solid still even after all these years, with magic that still functions, from arcane flames to light the way to steel automatons to guard the path.

"I wonder what this labyrinth's purpose is," Amara says.

"They can have those?" Niki asks. "I thought people built these for adventurers to explore."

"Why would they do that?" Eva puts a hand to her head and sighs. "People call every old structure filled with monsters dungeons, but they were all places with intended purposes at some point. If they stel'ae built this place... I suppose it's either here for entertainment, for punishment, or to protect something."

"My guess would be the latter," Nyllia chimes in.

"So we're talking loot then, eh? Hmm. Actually, would that be weird, Eva? If this place belongs to your ancestors or whatever."

Eva bumps into your back as she spaces out in silent thought. You get the feeling that she isn't conflicted at all about Niki's question, but instead the implications of everything else.

"... my ancestors..." she mutters.

"Are you okay?" Amara asks.

"I feel strange," she says with arms wrapped around herself. "Cold and afraid, but also comforted. Like this is a safe space. The more we explore, the more I think our guess was correct. Incredible. What if we're the first in decades to stand within the halls built by stel'ae? My mother... Did she come here once? A human doesn't know of every human city, but what if she stood where we are now?"

"Hopefully not, because this is another dead end," Niki says from the front. She casts her eyes back. "Gotta turn around. Keep hugging the left wall, right? Hopefully we aren't walking in circles. It all looks the same."

Nyllia shakes her head. "I have been leaving small marks as we go to make certain that does not happen. Still, the creators of this labyrinth were intelligent. Something tells me that it should not be taking as long as it is, so perhaps this will prove to be more difficult than first thought."

"You have any experience in ancient mazes, Masumi?" you ask.

She shrugs. "I appreciate you thinking of me, Kyle, but I'm afraid not. But if you become overly stressed, I can offer you a soft embrace. I've been told my hugs are to die for."

"That doesn't help!" Eva yells back. Then she pauses. Her ears perk up. "I hear something--"

Right on cue, a large shadow emerges from around the corner behind the party, as if waiting for the dead end to be reached. It was surely stalking you like a herd of prey. The body is a sphere, and it reminds you of a spider. Four legs, not eight, extend out from the sides of the round midsection to somehow magically suction to the walls, allowing it to move near silently through the maze.

The center opens--a compartment between four tiny, blue-glowing eyes. It isn't a laser cannon this time. Instead, a fifth arm ejects with the intention of grabbing one of the nearest targets. It isn't Masumi though. Her, Eva, and Amara are quite close, and in the second it has to make a decision, it decides on the elf.