“I am Olouricle. A living time watcher. You, sir, will be timed to escape from the maze within ten minutes from Shadamere, the living darkness. If you lose, your essence will be intertwined with his. Do you understand?”

Cirba gulped on his own saliva and nodded his head.

“Ten minutes starts now.” Olouricle said before disappearing.

Cirba immediately takes off running, veering to the right, as it’s the only passage so far, then a left. He zoomed down the isle only to stumble upon two pathways.

He shifted back and forth before ultimately choosing to go right. With a few turns, it was a dead end. Cirba quickly ran back to the two-way spot, this time going left. By the time he ran down the left path, Olouricle said, “You have five minutes.”

“How could that be possible!” Cirba murmured to himself as he was again stuck in a two-way passage.

He suddenly heard a eerie noise coming from the start of the maze. “Oh shit.” He said to himself.

He made a left turn this time. After a U-turn, he came to another dead end. Cirba grimaced, turning back to his two-way spot once again. He ran to the right. Multiple turns were made for this path. By the time he made it to another two-way path, Olouricle said, “You have two minutes.”

Lucky for Cirba, this two-way path didn’t have a complicated decision. The right side already had a clear dead end, but the eerie noises became louder.

Cirba took a left, another left, then a right. Two-way again. Cirba went with his gut and took a left. He was relieved to find out there was no dead end, finally. But still, Olouricle reminded him of the time. “You have thirty seconds.”

Cirba began sprinting throughout the maze. Every stop he encountered, only made him run faster. He zoomed from passage-to-passage until suddenly the walls came down like curtains for Olouricle to say, “Your time is up. Better run!”

The finish line of the maze was far. Cirba determinedly race down the end as darkness was afoot rather quickly than expected. When Cirba nearly made to the finish line by a millisecond, everything turned black.