The Invincible Young Master

[A/N: I've exams coming in few day, so excuse me if I delayed too long.]

...

"Ahem," the elder coughed, his eyes narrowing slightly in concentration. "The answer is Love."

The answer left his lips with certainty, as though the riddle had no other solution but this. It fit.

The skeletal face above paused, its glowing eyes narrowing in curiosity.

"Love, you say?" It sounded almost… delighted. "Is that your final answer?"

The elder didn't hesitate. "Yes."

The skeletal face chuckled, a low, rasping sound like bones scraping against one another.

"That's a great answer," it mused, the sarcasm heavy in its tone.

A collective sigh of relief swept through the soldiers. They straightened, hearts easing for a brief moment, as the looming pressure of stone and green light seemed to loosen.

"But it's not the right answer!" the skeletal face laughed cruelly, its voice echoing off the walls.

The chamber erupted with a terrifying green glow. Like a wave, the green energy surged down from the skeletal face's hollow eyes, flooding the chamber and engulfing everyone in its path.

Soldiers froze, staring in horror as the stone began to creep upwards from their hips, inching toward their chest. Panic set in.

The green light crawled over their legs and stopped just beneath their hearts. No one could move. Not even a breath escaped them.

The chamber was filled with the sounds of strained breathing and the sickening creak of stone slowly encasing their bodies.

Even Ling Yan, who had once believed in the wisdom of the elder, began to feel a heavy weight in her chest. Doubt seeped into her thoughts.

She turned to Lina, who was half-turned to stone, but her face remained calm and steady, like a rock amidst the storm.

"Lady Lina," Ling Yan's voice was quiet but urgent. "Will we safely pass this trial?"

Lina's gaze met hers. And she simply nodded, offering a quiet, unspoken reassurance.

A faint, strained sigh left Ling Yan's lips. She held on to that simple nod as her only comfort, but deep inside, uncertainty gnawed at her. They were running out of time.

The skeletal face loomed above them again, voice growing darker, its smile wide and sharp.

"Last riddle," it said, the words echoing across the chamber. "Fail this, and your fate is sealed."

The silence was deafening as the skeletal figure continued circling them. Its voice rang out again, more ominous than before.

"You may enter, but never leave. The deeper you go, the less you perceive. Some come willingly, others are cast. Only memories remain of those who pass. What am I?"

The riddle seemed almost too simple. The answer was clear, wasn't it? Yet, they had learned by now that no riddle could be trusted. No answer was ever as simple as it seemed.

The elder stood tall, despite the creeping stone climbing up his chest, his breath steady. He had heard the riddle before, in many forms. And so, he spoke with the confidence of one who knew this challenge intimately.

"You're a labyrinth," he answered.

The skeletal face circled, coming closer with each pass.

"This must be your final answer," it said, its tone dark. "Are you sure? With this answer, you either seal everyone's fate or be free."

"Let it be," the elder replied, his voice steady despite the situation. He gave no further hesitation, no hint of doubt.

The skeletal face rose high into the air, its hollow laugh echoing.

"Wrong!" it said. "It's grave!"

The green light flared once more, and with it, the final wave of stone swept through the room. The stone climbed faster this time, overtaking them from their shoulders down to their necks.

Ling Yan watched helplessly as the green light neared her own throat. She turned desperately to the elder, and then to Lina. But there was no movement from either of them.

They had already given all they could, and now they stood locked in place.

"Princess," the masked man called desperately. "I'll take you out of this place, now!"

He moved his arms, his power flaring like wildfire. But Ling Yan stood rooted, her gaze still fixed on Lina and the elder.

The skeletal face, oblivious to their attempts to escape, continued to circle the chamber, its eyes glowing with malicious glee.

"You played the game, you took the dare, But fate is cruel and seldom fair. Your time is up, your chances done, The shadows rise, the game is won."

With those final words, the skeletal face let out a triumphant, bone-chilling laugh as the last of the green light consumed them.

The chamber fell into absolute silence. Not a breath, not a movement, just the heavy, still presence of hundreds of petrified forms frozen mid-expression.

Lina stood motionless, her calm eyes cast downward as if forever deep in thought. The elder, arms folded with quiet dignity, encased in stone. The four guardians from the academy, mid-step and serene. The white-armored commander, lips parted in disbelief.

Even Ling Yan, her eyes wide with defiance, and the masked man at her side, frozen with one hand half-raised as though preparing to escape, all had become statues, their once-living faces now permanent echoes of their final moments.

It was as if time itself had been halted.

"Ahh," the skeletal face moaned with perverse satisfaction, its voice echoing in the stillness. "Another fine collection…"

It hovered lazily above, circling once before drifting toward the massive stone obsidian on the far side of the chamber.

"I wonder how far that other group reached… or where they died." A strange, wistful note laced its voice. "A shame I couldn't add them all to my collection."

Just then, a voice sounded from behind. "You seem pretty upset for someone who is only bones."

The chamber should have been silent.

The skeletal face jerked around, green flares bursting from its hollow sockets as it scanned the chamber below.

Its gaze landed on a figure that shouldn't have been able to move.

A man stood amidst the field of statues.

Golden-haired, clad in gleaming white armor, his posture relaxed, as though untouched by the horror around him.

He had seen this man moment ago. The creeping stone should have had seized his body up to the chest. But somehow his form was completely free. The petrification had disappeared itself without a trace.

This should not have been possible.

With a furious screech, it unleashed a torrent of green light, the magic surging toward Reynold like a flood, engulfing him from head to toe in the same petrifying light.

But Reynold didn't flinch. He didn't raise a hand or take a step back. He merely stood there, watching.

The green light passed over him harmlessly. Not a speck of stone returned to his body.

"Puny human… I'm intrigued," the skeletal face muttered, narrowing its gaze. "Why isn't my power working on you?"

Reynold looked up and said. "I can answer that… once you answer mine."

"Ask away," said the skeletal face, curiosity piqued.

"Have you seen a girl," Reynold said, "someone with golden hair like mine, pass through here sometime ago? If so… where is she now?"

The skeletal face pulsed as if in thought. "A golden-haired girl, you say... yes. I did allow someone like her to pass. But I cannot say where she is now."

"And I do not know what lies beyond the next door. It is not my domain."

Reynold gave a small nod. That was enough.

"Now," the skeletal face added eagerly, "answer mine."

But Reynold raised two fingers calmly.

A swirl of sickly green mist gathered at their tips, the same hue as the skeletal face's magic. This was his answer.

"This must be your ancient magic," he said, turning the condensed fog over thoughtfully. "Interesting construct… crude at the core."

"Return," with a flick of his finger, he sent the condensed ball towards the skeletal face.

It floated upward like a harmless mote of dust until it struck the skeletal face.

"I see… for you to analyze my magic this quickly, you must have reached the"

CRACK.

The words stopped short. The green flares in its eyes died.

In the next breathless instant, a thin line of stone crept up from its chin, racing across its skull like a spider web.

It didn't scream, didn't struggle. The skeletal face froze midair, its expression locked in wide-eyed realization.

Then it turned to stone. Hovering above the silent chamber, the collector had become a part of its own collection.

Reynold turned his gaze back to the chamber.

Around him, the petrified forms of soldiers stood still as death, the silence as heavy as stone. He exhaled softly, then raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

Snap.

The crisp sound cracked through the chamber like thunder through still air.

A shimmer passed through the space, soft at first, like a ripple across water, then bloomed outward in all directions.

The stone faded from bodies like sand blown from ancient ruins, crumbling and vanishing without a trace.

The soldiers gasped.

One by one, limbs moved. Eyes blinked. Faces twisted from frozen horror to confusion and disbelief.

"I… I can move!"

"The stone… It's gone?"

"My body-!"

Around Reynold, the once-silent army came alive again, voices rising like birds returning to dawn.

Some staggered, some fell to their knees, others clutched at their chests or looked around wildly, unsure if they still dreamt.

Ling Yan blinked several times, her fingers curling as sensation returned. She touched her throat, where only moments ago the petrification had nearly sealed her fate.

The masked man beside Ling Yan drew a sharp breath and immediately stepped in front of her protectively, eyes sweeping the chamber.

Then all at once, a shared realization struck them.

Every gaze turned upward.

There, floating above them in the center of the chamber, was the skeletal face, no longer moving, no longer laughing, no longer speaking in riddles.

It had become a statue.