I found myself back at the old temple—the Ruins of Babylon. It felt like ages since I'd last been here, back when we attempted the Maze of Archon. God, that was a lifetime ago.
I wouldn't have even come this time if Viktor hadn't threatened to destroy the whole school. I told TJ about it, and he was livid.
"Bro! What does he want with you?"
At that point, I figured it was time to finally fill TJ in on the entire story. No more dodging the truth.
"Alright, here's how it went."
It was a few years ago—TJ had been away for a while, training for the world boxing championship. I was walking home from school when I saw a guy I didn't recognize. He was my age, with messy blonde hair hanging in front of his face, wearing a plain white shirt and jeans. On his wrist, a black, and green wristband.
"Hey, who are you?" I asked, wary.
The kid glanced around, looking a little too nervous for comfort.
"My name's Viktor Hale."
"Viktor, huh? Never heard of you."
He was panting, hands on his knees like he'd been running for miles.
"Listen," he said, catching his breath. "I need help. Can I trust you?"
I weighed his words for a moment. Honestly? Probably not. But I was curious nonetheless.
"Sure. What's going on?"
He hesitated, eyes darting around as though trying to decide how much to tell me.
"Magic is real," he said, voice low. "And I can prove it. But I can't do this alone. You in?"
Magic? It sounded insane. But the guy was serious. He didn't seem like he was a serial killer or some guy trying to recruit me into a cult. So, against my better judgment, I said, "Alright, where are we going?"
"The Ruins of Babylon," Viktor replied. "I need your help to find the Maze of Archon."
…
After a few hours of a plane ride, we arrived in Iraq. This is where the ruins are rumored to be located. Viktor led me through where the ruins lay, in search of a "Maze of Archon." He said he learned of this maze through some organization he used to be a part of.
The harsh sun beat down on my bare skin. I wore only my green t-shirt and a pair of tan shorts. Viktor had brought a sun hat to cover himself up from the sun, but otherwise remained unchanged.
He led me through various old temples and houses, telling me about things he's learned about them and the area. It was a surprising amount of fun. Viktor told me more about what exactly we were looking for. The Maze of Archon had little to no information on it, but he did know a few things. It was home to a supposed magic artifact called "The Glass of Time". The Glass of Time could rewind time up to a day. If what he was saying was true, that could be super useful for my plans. He also told me about this weird organization where he learned this all from, and how he wanted to apply to be a guard for them. I feel like he omitted certain details on purpose, though.
After a couple of hours of searching, we stumbled upon another temple. Viktor told me this one was different. I couldn't tell what was telling him that, though. Was it because he was noticing something I couldn't or something else?
"Alright, Jeffrey. There's something very dangerous in here. Follow my every step carefully."
And so I did that. He cautiously crept forward, landing on his toes then the sole of his foot in order to make no noise. After a while, we reached a new part of the floor. It turned into a pattern of squares, similar to a chess board. Each one was white with a black outline. They all had three different symbols. Smiling suns, crying stars, and neutral faced moons. I already figured out what they meant, but I wondered…
"Hey, Viktor. What do you think of this?"
Viktor paused for a moment and thought for a bit. After a couple of seconds, he seemed to have come to a conclusion.
"Well, there are some anomalies. Just based on what I know, suns are usually depicted as smiling. Which is what's portrayed here. Although, there's something else. Stars aren't often portrayed as anything, definitely not crying. In fact, it's typically the moon that's crying. So those two don't make sense."
I decided that for the time being I would play dumb, can't be giving away too much information.
"Oh wow, that makes a lot of sense."
"Oh come, Jeffrey, you could've easily figured that out. Anyway, look at the suns. See how they all connect, almost as if it was a path? I think that's where we need to go." Viktor started pointing and tracing out the path. I saw this too, and it only made sense given I already figured out the sun thing.
"I see. So, let's get going."
And off we went. Slowly trekking our way through the sun squares. However, once we reached what seemed to be the end, something interesting happened. The floor beneath us started to rumble, and shake. Viktor and I tripped over each other, hitting several tiles that weren't the suns. Although nothing happened when we stepped on the other tiles, the group itself began to open up and we both fell into the chasm of darkness that awaited us.
When I came to, I saw Viktor standing next to me. We were in what looked to be some kind of prison cell. There were large, thick iron bars on our door. The walls were made of some kind of limestone, based on its looks. Our room was very dimly lit.
"What the fuck happened, Viktor?"
"I'm not sure. After we landed, I'm assuming we both blacked out. When I woke up, I was here."
Just then, I could hear a voice echoing through the cell.
"Ah, finally! Both of you are awake. Welcome, young children, to the Maze of Archon! I am Aion. Now, you two are a very finicky case. I've never had two people fall down here together. Most people are smarter than that. Alas, I cannot change the future. So, I will have to make an exception for you two."
When the guy called Aion stopped talking, a giant SNAP reverberated across the walls, and we suddenly appeared in a new room.
This new room was different. It looked outside, however, the "sky" was really just a giant purple expanse. There were stones and rocks piled up everywhere, and large cliffs acted as walls around us. There was a table in the distance and to the left of it, a giant circle was fenced off.
In front of us stood the man called Aion. He was extremely tall, so much so Viktor and I had to genuinely look up to meet his gaze. His face was extremely well defined, with a bushy beard and long flowing hair. A simple toga covered his body, but showed off his exquisite muscles.
"Welcome, young ones."
Viktor stepped forward.
"What do you want? Why are we here?"
Aion chuckled.
"Well, usually you know by the time you get here, but I'll fill you in. Basically, I'm Aion, the guard of the maze. You two are going to play a game with me because I'm bored. Winner will get the Glass of Time, which can rewind time up to 24 hours. Loser, will die. You two came here for what I can only presume to be the glass. Any more questions?"
This was a lot to take in and my brain struggled to process all of this. Magic was real? And I was just supposed to go on, acting like it's always been? I've lived my whole life believing it was a myth, something I'd only see in fairy tales. Now I'm about to bet my life on a magic hourglass that can rewind time? What else was real that I didn't know about? Are demons real? Dragons? How much else does Viktor know that he's not telling me? How much do I not know? Is anything I've ever learned even real? If I can't trust this, then what can I trust? What if I've spent my whole life studying things that could be totally irrelevant now?
My breathing must've increased and Viktor noticed, since he put his arm around me protectively.
"Calm down, Jeffrey. I know what you're thinking. It's a lot to take in but I promise it's not that big of a deal."
"Viktor… are we going to die here?" My voice was shaky, and I tried to keep my eyes from swelling up with tears. Viktor seemed taken aback by this response.
"Well… No. We will survive this." He gave me a big smile then turned back to Aion. "Aion, no more questions.
Aion smirked, then spread his arms for the grand reveal.
"Alright, young ones, are you ready to die?"
Viktor and I blinked then slowly turned to each other.
"Viktor… are you sure you know what we're doing?" I wondered aloud.
"I'm confident, Jeffrey. I know we've only just met, but have some faith in me. I've predicted everything correctly so far."
Viktor's words reassured me, and I allowed myself to calm down. Aion giggled before continuing.
"You two are so cute. You will be playing the Paradox Game with me."
Viktor and I stood there for a second, letting the weight of that settle on our shoulders.
"Paradox Game?"
Aion crossed his arms again impatiently.
"Have neither of you heard of this before?"
"No." We replied in unison.
"Alright, allow me to explain. So, since you both are attempting to obtain the Glass of Time, the game we'll play will involve that."
Aion reached into his toga and pulled out a small hourglass and waved it in our faces.
"Here. You two will be teleported into an alternate reality. In this reality, you must use the clues I have left for you in order to find the right path. Every wrong decision will lead to me rewinding time. Now, you might be thinking that this will be easy since you have infinite tries. While I am giving you infinite tries, you'll find that wasting tries won't be smart, since each time you die I will add more challenges for you to face. Also, when you die you lose certain memories. Sometimes you can choose which you keep, sometimes you can't. Also, remember this. Your choices can't loop perfectly. There are things that will only happen once, and it's up to you to seize these opportunities."
I looked over to Viktor for some reassurance, sine this proposed game was fucking horrifying. But what I saw on his face, was a look I'd not seen him wear before.
Viktor was trembling, his whole body shaking. His mouth was wide open. Safe to say, this was outside of Viktor's prediction.
"Jeffrey…" He said, meekly. "Can you hold me real quick?"
I didn't question it, we embraced each other as if we'd been lifelong friends. At this point, it felt like he had. Besides, I also needed this comfort.
Viktor broke away, then coughed to clear the tension.
"Thanks, we'll get through this. I already have a few ideas for tactics once we get inside the alternate reality."
"Yeah, me too. We'll win this game for sure."
"Are you two done being boring now?" Aion asked, clearly annoyed.
"Yeah, we're ready now." I responded.
"Great!" Aion exclaimed, then quickly snapped.
Viktor and I now were in what appeared to be an abandoned village. There were cottages and wood houses all around us. However, not a soul was around. The wood on the houses was decayed and covered almost completely in moss. Viktor also looked like he came to the same conclusion as I had.
We would have to restore life to this village.