There were neither guards nor gates at the wall. In fact, there was nothing except for a small gap that served as an entrance of sorts, practically beckoning them to enter.
A veteran commander would’ve taken one look and gotten suspicious, but Raoul was young and riding high off his previous victory.
“Charge! We’ve got five thousand men! Smash through them head-on, no matter what tricks they try!” Raoul commanded, ordering the entire army through the passage.
But they ran into a problem almost immediately. At the end of the passage, they found a set of walls that blocked their path forward. There were small gaps that led into narrow passages, so they had no choice but to keep going.
“Tch! A wall or two won’t stop me!” Raoul said, urging the army forward.
They took the first right and hit a dead end. They tried another path and came to yet another dead end. Then, they went back to the first turn, took a left, and then another left, and finally arrived at a long corridor with new paths in both directions.
“What the hell is going on?!” Raoul shouted. He was starting to lose his composure. He’d anticipated a few barricades meant to slow them down, but this was something else entirely.
And finally, they hit another dead end, and it clicked.
“It’s a maze...” Raoul muttered.
And it wasn’t just any ordinary maze—it was a massive labyrinth. No one could’ve built something like this overnight, so surely it must’ve been an illusion.
Raoul ordered his mages to check, but they found no trace of trickery. They also told him that the spell would’ve needed an impossible amount of power to deceive five thousand people simultaneously.
Don’t tell me the bastard did this with his Gift? If he can pull all this off, it’s going to change warfare altogether... No, there’s no way. His Gift is Village-Making. And a labyrinth isn’t a village!
It was the truth, but Raoul shook his head, refusing to accept it. He remembered hearing about a legendary Earth mage who had summoned an entire fortress overnight.
Yeah, he must have a high-level mage working for him! Still, it would’ve taken a ton of mana. According to the story, that Earth mage couldn’t cast another spell for days afterward...
That meant this might be his best chance to strike.
It would’ve been tough to fight a mage that powerful head-on, but now all he had to do was make it through the maze.
“Marching all five thousand at once is too slow! Split into teams and find the correct path out!” Raoul barked.
They’d waste time if they stuck together, but breaking up into smaller squads could help them find the exit quicker. Then, they could regroup, and Raoul would lead the army to victory. It was a solid plan, but it’d soon end in disaster.
A seasoned vassal of House Arvale led a five-hundred-man squad down one of the paths. He’d been part of dozens of military campaigns, but this one had completely stumped him. They were supposed to be attacking a city in the wasteland, but they hadn’t even seen their target yet.
“Seriously, what is this? A maze made from stone walls? Who are we even fighting here?” he groaned.
After hitting a dead end, he started leading his squad back the way they’d come—and that’s when the earth began to shake.
Rrrruuummmbbblleeeee...
“What now?! Was that an earthquake?!”
“S-Sir! The wall!”
When the leader looked where the soldier was pointing, he went pale. One of the massive stone walls forming the maze was moving.
If it continued, it’d seal off their only route back!
“Run! Run for your lives!” he shouted, but it was too late.
After a moment, the wall slid shut, cutting off their escape route completely.
“We’re trapped...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Everything is going according to the plan,” I said with a smile, looking out at the maze from the watchtower.
Raoul’s army had done exactly what I expected: They’d split into units to try solving the maze quicker, and each time a squad took a wrong turn, I locked them in by shifting the walls. They’d started with five thousand troops, but now only about a thousand could move freely.
Even if they had stayed together, they would’ve gotten lost so many times that they’d be exhausted before reaching the village anyway. They’d had no good option, really.
“I’m almost starting to feel bad for them,” Seren said with a sympathetic look on her face.
“A maze that you change in real time... That’s cheating...” Sirius muttered in disbelief.
“It’s solvable, though. In fact, the more people I trap, the more paths I eliminate. Over time, it’ll get easier and easier for them to figure out the way out,” I said.
“Seriously, why do you insist on being so fair about this?” Seren said.
“I thought about using underground tunnels to give the maze multiple floors,” I confessed.
“That’s not a maze, though. It’s a dungeon.”
“Yeah, I figured I didn’t have enough time to pull it off.”
“So you would’ve if you’d had more time?”