The thick darkness enveloped everything around them. The light from the torches and the Sacred Shield could only reach two meters before being swallowed by the darkness. The group quickly moved closer to the Warden, forming a circle and standing ready for battle.
No enemies appeared. The sound of footsteps came from the direction they came from, and the puppet butler with blue glowing eyes quickly appeared.
"Following you was definitely the right thing to do. My master always said that no matter how strong a puppet's execution ability is, it's not as easy to use as a human," Talo said expressionlessly. "You've found the entrance."
Unas was completely bewildered. "Where's the entrance?"
"Keep moving forward."
The group exchanged glances, none of them moving. They had clearly seen that this puppet had a habit of using cannon fodder to scout ahead.
Talo, however, didn't think so much. He walked quickly past the crowd with mechanical steps and went straight ahead.
Did they really create an exit by just smashing things up?
Unas couldn't believe his luck. "I'll go check it out. You guys hold the rope tight and don't move. I'll pull it three times; that'll be a safe signal."
He took out a long rope, handed one end to a few people, and took the other end himself, running quickly towards the puppet whose figure was almost gone.
Sure enough, the terrain ahead changed; the stairs that were going up turned down, making Unas almost think he had just imagined it.
The sound of the puppet going downstairs echoed in the stairwell. Unas hurriedly chased after it, but after running back and forth for about twenty steps, a blue light gate like ripples of water appeared at the end of the corridor in front of him. The puppet butler was chanting incantations in front of the light gate.
Unas ran forward while listening carefully, and found that the sounds were all difficult and meaningless syllables, likely secret commands or spells. Did they need a password to get out of the maze?
As the puppet finished reciting the last word, its entire body suddenly emitted blue light, and it immediately started rushing towards the portal without looking back.
Seeing that half of the puppet's body had already merged into the portal, Unas acted decisively. He pounced like a hungry tiger, grabbed the puppet's right heel that was outside the portal, and then forcefully pulled the puppet out.
Talo fell to the ground, his mechanical knees rapidly rotating 180 degrees so that he was facing upwards. Then, like a fish pulled ashore, he suddenly jerked his upper body upright, his steel-forged fists instantly shattering the Sacred Shield and transforming into claws to choke the attacker's neck.
It was too fast. The puppet could ignore the limits of limb and joint movement. Unas had no time to dodge. He felt an iron chain tightening around his neck, about to break his neck bone in the next moment.
He tossed aside the puppet's heels, unleashed his Firekiss, and slashed upwards with all his might. With a sickening crunch of steel, the crystal sword embedded itself deeply into the puppet's arms, but did not sever them.
Fortunately, the attack also pierced through the puppet's arm armor and severed several internal wires, and he immediately felt the pressure on his neck decrease significantly.
Sparks flew from the wounds on the puppet's arms. The injuries weren't serious for it, but they had already affected the control of several fingers.
The light emanating from the puppet's eyes instantly turned from blue to red, and two white, scorching rays shot out from them, striking the opponent's face directly.
Unas screamed as his visor melted through, instantly burning two gashes into his face. But he didn't back down. He immediately sheathed his sword and thrust it straight into the golem's mouth, then frantically channeled fire energy into it.
The puppet was hit by a surge of energy of a different nature entering its throat and immediately began to tremble, just like its kind, the trembling spreading rapidly from its chest throughout its body.
The iron hands on its neck naturally lost their power, Unas took the opportunity to break free, slashing out with his Silver Hammer and smashing the puppet's limbs and joints. Then he took an iron helmet from his bag and put it on the puppet's face to prevent it from launching attacks from its mouth or eyes again.
The wounds on his face were itchy, and the warmth within him returned, focusing on healing the wounds on his face. The magical puppet slowly "digested" the fire energy within him and gradually stopped trembling. A muffled voice came from inside the helmet. "Leader of the intruders, why did you attack me?"
Is there a password to this door of light?
"No."
"What were you reciting just now?"
"Secret order."
"Still saying no?" Unas was both amused and exasperated. Was this robot an idiot? "The password is the code, and the code is the password."
"This explanation is not in my dictionary."
"That's because your vocabulary is too limited." Unas recalled a phrase his high school Chinese teacher often used, followed by, "Don't expect to get a high score on an essay like that."
"Only you know the exit code. If you run away, how will the rest of us get out? Now you know why I caught you, right?" Unas explained as he pulled on the rope lying on the ground, signaling the others who remained to come down.
"This door isn't the exit from the maze, but rather the final barrier between the second floor and the first floor. We're no longer in the maze."
"Really? I'm still completely confused about what's going on. Can you really solve the maze by just smashing things up?"
"That little corridor is the exit. Based on my analysis and speculation, Gunsel Arcanus combined Mirror Image and Maze Spell to create this new Mirror Image Labyrinth Technique. The labyrinth and its mirror image are connected by him. The exit of the labyrinth is the entrance to the mirror image, and the entrance to the labyrinth is the exit to the mirror image. If those trapped in it cannot see through it, they will be forever looping between the labyrinth and its mirror image. That corridor is the node of the mirror image. You discovered it and happened to damage it, so the mirror image collapsed, and the exit naturally appeared. Walking through the little corridor is equivalent to walking out of the labyrinth."
Unas suddenly realized why the staircase had changed; it turned out that the previous staircase was a mirror image, and the mirror image disappeared after the node was damaged, thus revealing the real staircase.
"Wasn't the staircase we just came down in a maze?"
"That's the staircase leading from the second floor to the first floor; it actually exists in the Mage Tower, just like this corridor we're in."
Unas was overjoyed to find that the Maze Spell had actually been broken with such a simple and brute-force method. However, the female Elf deserved the most credit; if she hadn't noticed that the stone in the small corridor was different from what they expected, the group wouldn't have spent so much time struggling there.
At this moment, the group that had received the safety signal from above also came down into the corridor. Unas gave a brief explanation, praised Qingshui at length, and then said to the puppet butler, "Teach us the secret command."
"Exchange," the puppet actually began to bargain, the limit of its limited intelligence, "I am unable to rescue my master in my current state. You must agree to help me rescue my master before you will receive the pass."