Chapter 222: Chapter 199 : Pair’s Maze (Part 1)

Friday…

The late afternoon sky was cloudless and a light cool breeze swept through the Academy grounds and through Violet and Ralf’s flowing hair. The pair sat atop a hillside, snacking and drinking while passing the time with Psi games. Their turn to undergo the Pair’s Maze was soon at hand, only an hour away.

Ralf glanced over at his assigned partner. Her face was tense and troubled. Not from focusing on the game before her - no, her playing skills spoke of her mind being occupied by something else.

“Nervous, princess?”

Violet nodded.

“About the Event?”

She shook her head.

“About later tonight, then?”

“...Yeah,” the Lightning Princess voiced her concern outright.

This time it was Ralf that shook his head. “There’s no need to worry. Everything’s going to work out fine.”

Violet’s face remained tense. “It might not. I’m not like the others. I’m nowhere near as likeable or charming as them. It has worked out swimmingly for everyone else…I...I don’t want to fail.”

“You won’t,” Ralf said firmly. “I've mentioned this before: Ray and I are nearly one-to-one. We share the same tongue, so to speak. If I like someone, Ray will like them as well. And I like you a ton, so Ray will definitely also, I guarantee it,” he assured with a shoulder nudge.

“That…doesn’t help me,” Violet said softly, though her face couldn’t help but curl up into a sweet smile.

“Not at all. Confidence helps in everything. With confidence and a smile, one can even bend fate.”

“Still not helping,” Violet nudged back.

“Okay okay, so it’s a surefire tactic or strategy you’re after.”

“Yeah, and something subtle.”

“I figured as much. You’re not playing hardball but softball, so of course, you’d be after something underhanded.”

“Right,” the princess nodded unabashedly.

“Very well, I’ll provide you one.”

Violet's eyes sparkled at the words. "Please and thank you, Ralf," she said and then awaited his response while rocking back and forth. She expected to wait a long time but Ralf's lips parted seconds later.

"Your worries are unfounded. You said you’re not as likeable as the others but that’s not true at all. The last few days with you have been a blast. Still, even if you were as unlikeable as you claim, you’d still succeed.”

“Huh?”

“It’s true," Ralf nodded at the baffled princess. "Compared to the others, you’ll have an infinitely easier time breaking through his ice walls…for you have an ultimate card hidden in your sleeves.”

Violet raised her brow in questioning.

Ralf showed a smile before shutting his eyes. "Here’s a fact for you. While I’m ignorant of what I was in my past life, Ray was certainly a moth. He loves heat…and heaters. He can’t resist them, at all. He’d spend hours in front of it, helplessly.”

“Really?” Violet’s eyes beamed as she caught on.

“Really. It doesn’t even matter the weather. He’s the type of person to sit in front of a heater on the surface of the sun, so, you’ve lucked out. You don’t even have to say anything, just summon those orbs of yours and you win. He’ll melt into slime in no time and just like those in the Psi games, he’ll be easy to handle from there. You’ll be able to play with him like putty dough. Forget being rejected, you’ll have a hard time getting rid of him.”

The princess was overjoyed hearing this. She didn’t doubt him at all. In fact, when remembering how Ralf always melted into a blissful daze every time she used her orbs, she knew that the tactic would work.

“Thanks, Ralf, I’ll make sure to use my power…irresponsibly.”

Ralf smirked. “As expected of my partner.”

***

The underground venue that played home to Pair’s Maze was located to the far south of the Academy’s centre. It was a several-hundred-metre large cubic white tiled space. In this massive space, Pair's Maze many rooms and challenges were constructed.

Now, Team Blessed Bloodlines passed through the large double doors into Pair's Maze's first room.

Entering, Ralf's eyes moved around in assessment. The room was large and shaped like a 'Ψ'.

Most of the structure, and most of Pair's Maze, was composed of highly compressed white sand coated in Psi. White dominated the colour scheme, from the large tiled floors to the high wooden ceiling, lined with artificial lights that kept the space well-lit. Dozens of psionics could be sensed standing above the ceiling, with two Second Sights honed in on Ralf and Violet's forms.

After a quick sweep, Ralf focused on the room's main attraction. Straight ahead, some ten metres away, there was a large metallic double-door gate that appeared mechanical in nature. Two inconspicuous green wires could be seen sprouting from the gate’s left and right sides, leading in their respective directions. These wires ran across the wall and into tiny holes, which lead to the adjacent passages.

Given the curvature of these passages, the Transmigrator couldn't see their ends. Usually, this wouldn't be an issue; Ralf's Echo Scan could accurately map out a space using sound alone, after all. However, on this occasion, this ability was sealed. The openings to the passages, the walls and even the tiny gaps the wires went through were covered by a curtain of soundproof Psi barriers. Noting all these things, Ralf had a good idea of what this first room’s challenge was meant to involve.

Fully in, the doors behind the pair closed and telepathic links reached out to their minds. Once accepted, Cole’s voice greeted them.

[Welcome, our final participants to Pair’s Maze. Ralf and Violet, I’ve been looking forward to your visit...especially after yesterday's shenanigans. You may have toyed with me yesterday but today...aha, the shoe is on the other foot,] he said with a chuckle, remembering yesterday's loss.

[Oh, that sounds like a challenge,] Ralf said, cracking a smile.

[Of course. Pair's Maze is fun and games but you don't mistake it as just that. A good chunk of pairs failed to complete all the rooms before the time limit was reached. Well, I don't expect you two to fail. Rather, I expect big things. With all the boasting you two did over the last few days, anything other than first place will be mighty embarrassing. For your sake and mine, make sure you come in first place. Otherwise, the second-hand embarrassment will kill me.]

Violet and Ralf traded smiles at the words.

[No need to worry about that, we're a shoo-in for first place,] Ralf said, garnering a giggle from Violet. [What's the time to beat anyway?]

[Ahaha, that I can’t tell you. The final results will be announced at the end. I will say that it is pretty quick though.]

[Hmm…then, can you at least name the pair in question?]

[No can do. Find out later.]

Ralf shrugged. [Very well. Anyways, what are we doing here?]

[Yes, I was about to get into that. Here's the rundown. This year’s Pair’s Maze is quite long and challenging. There are 20 rooms with their own challenge/puzzle to complete. As you should know by now, Pair’s Maze is a norin event. It tests a pair's mental abilities, cooperation, and physical ability…in that order of importance. Frankly, having an enhanced body isn’t much of an advantage here. As I touched on, Pair's Maze is a limited-time event. You have exactly an hour to complete the Event, with each room cleared increasing your total credits earned. An hour seems like a long time but it is not, as many students have come to learn. To give you an idea, a third of the pairs have failed to complete Pair’s Maze...so don’t underestimate the Event.]

Violet and Ralf were unfazed by the words, looking around with played-up confused faces as though trying to find the people Cole’s words were meant for...because it certainly wasn't them.

Cole's lips tugged up at their display of confidence/arrogance.

[Before every challenge, you’ll be given an explanation of what’s expected of you. This explanation time won’t be counted toward your final time, so don't worry. Okay, that's about it. I'll start the first room's challenge briefing. First, enter one of the adjacent passages, either one is fine, they’re identical.]

The pair followed the instruction, choosing the right passage. Passing through the sound filter, they took a few steps around the bend and captured the end of the 10-metre-long passage. There, a podium composed of compressed sand stood. On top of said podium lay a mechanical device bearing a large red button. Noteworthy, the device was connected to the green wire that had tunnelled through the wall.

As Ralf and Violet were taking in these details, the Event Coordinator's voice sounded in their minds.

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[The task for this challenge is simple. All you have to do is push the two red buttons in the adjacent passages at more or less the same time. If the buttons are hit within a brief window of time, the mechanical gate in the main room will open and you can proceed to the next room. It is simple but also tricky, as you might have guessed.]

Cole let the pair speculate for a few seconds before continuing.

[The most obvious and biggest huddle is the inability to communicate and synch up your actions via sound. Another is that only one person is allowed to be in these adjacent passages at a time. If one of you is in, the other will be barred from entering. Lastly and most importantly, the buttons cannot be spammed. After each push, the button enters a cooldown period between one to two minutes. The exact times are random. Also, there are no visual indicators to show when the buttons are active again. Those are the rules, now go back to the main room.]

Violet and Ralf made the short trip back.

[You two ready to go? Good. The timer starts in 3…2…1, go!]

Cole’s spirited voice was made out of place by the pair’s inaction. Taking a second more to complete his secret communication, Ralf turned to Violet and began.

“This is pretty easy. All we have to do is sync up a known sound sequence. To keep it simple, let’s go with numbers. Follow along, 1 2 3…”

Violet did as instructed. “...4 5 6…”

“Perfect. That pace will do. I'll take the right passage and you take the left one," Ralf said, moving to stand before the soundproof barrier, Violet following suit. "When we reach the podium, let your palm hover over the button from an inch away."

"Sure," Violet said. "What's the count?"

"Hmm, given the distance and to be comfortable, let’s press the red button on the fifteenth second. Don’t count out loud though, count in your head. Ready?"

The lighting Mimic nodded with a smile.

“Excellent. Then when I say zero, we start. Three two one…zero.”

Following the words, both pushed through the blue curtain into their respective passages. They moved with purpose, maintaining a brisk walking speed.

Cole observed the pair's efficiency with admiration.

Ralf and Violet reached their respective buttons at the ten-second mark and waited. Then, instead of the counting method they spoke of, Ralf gave the signal to go with his mental signal. Firing it around the fifteen-second mark to avoid raising flags, both Ralf and Violet pushed their respective buttons. Success was immediately felt as the soundproof Psi barriers shattered, allowing them to hear the sound of the mechanical gate creaking open.

Ralf and Violet rounded the corner, traded smiles, and then passed through the gate at a winning pace. They entered a squarish tunnel. Up ahead, a wall of vanta but not for long. Once close, the Psi was made to collapse, allowing the two to step into the second room.

'Oh, didn't expect these to be here.'

Ralf’s eyes flickered as he caught the familiar existence, Rubik’s Cubes. The large cube-shaped room had no less than two hundred of them in it, stacked into two neat piles on either side of the entrance, all far from solved.

Up ahead, in the centre of the room, there was a large square table, bearing a canvas of sorts. The canvas was placed at a thirty-degree angle, allowing Violet and Ralf to see the image from the entranceway. It was pixel art, and very limited pixel art, at that. With only thirty blocks and six colours to work with, the house was no work of art. Still, it served its purpose well.

Taking in everything, Ralf had no doubts about what the second room's challenge was.

[Rubik’s Cubes, what wonderful toys,] Cole started. [When I first saw them, I knew I had to incorporate them into a challenge somehow, and so I did. It’s a bit unfair, given that your faction creates them, but I’ll overlook it. This challenge was made well before I knew you were attending, so I decided to keep it. The challenge is simple. You have to recreate the image on the table with Rubik’s Cubes. Of course, not everyone can solve a Rubik’s Cube - rather, most can't. That's why, you don’t have to solve it entirely, just the face that is needed for the image. That has been deemed reasonably difficult. So, you’ll have to solve thirty such faces and arrange them so that the image is recreated. Once it is, you can advance to the next room. Everything understood?]

[Yeah,] Violet said.

[Sure is.]

[Good. The timer resumes in 3 2 1…now.]

The pair moved at once.

“You stay by the table and place them, I’ll solve them,” Ralf said, Violet, nodding and doing as instructed.

While the challenge only required one face to be complete, Ralf found solving the Rubik’s Cube outright much faster. Making himself comfortable near a pile, he transformed into a machine, solving Rubik's Cube after Rubik's Cube in quick succession. To ordinary eyes, his fingers would appear to blur out of existence.

Finishing up within seconds, he tossed the completed Rubik's Cubes into the palm of the waiting princess' hand, who then placed the cube down like a skilled bricklayer. Ralf and Violet went silent as they focused on their respective tasks. With their seamless teamwork, the time sponge that the second room was supposed to be, was cleared in less than three minutes.

High-fiving in celebration, the pair moved to the next room.

The third challenge also involved recreating something, this time a 3D object. And instead of Rubik's Cubes, the pair had to make use of lasers and mirrors.

Mirrors adorned the walls of the ten-metre-long, five-metre-wide tunnel. All these mirrors were adjustable and linked to individual dials that the pair could control on two panels. The pair was assigned their own panels, one controlling the mirrors on the left wall and the other, on the right wall. Besides this, the panels also gave them a red laser pointer by which to manipulate that pointed toward the tunnel.

At the end of the tunnel, an outline of a pyramid made out of eight thin glass tubes hung at eye level, strung up by wires connected to the ceiling.

[The task is simple, as always. Using your respective panels, you two have to thread the needle so to speak. Manipulate the lasers and the mirrors in such a way that the pyramid is recreated.]

The challenge seemed easy but it wasn’t. While there were a lot of mirrors, dozens, there were only a few acceptable pathways. Also, the dials and corresponding mirrors were random. The pair had to tinker a bit before figuring these out, though far less than other pairs.

Ralf's prodigious brain showed its value. He memorised which dial manipulated which mirror and their range of motion, after seeing them once. He did the same for the two lasers and then quickly mapped out the pathway the lasers needed to take to form the pyramid. From there, the pair made quick work of the challenge and a minute later, they were stepping into the fourth room.

The fourth challenge was one of the larger time sponges. It also involved lasers and a straight squarish tunnel, this one twenty metres long and six metres wide. It reminded Ralf of Snake Belly. Dozens of red lasers crisscrossed the tunnel to form an inescapable net of sorts. Concluding this, Ralf's eyes moved to the button-filled panel. At the same time, Cole’s explanation sounded in his head.

[Set off any of those lasers and you’re out. Five seconds will be added to your counter and you’ll have to start again. So how do you get through? The answer lies in the panel before you. Those sixty red buttons on it; each one of them corresponds to an individual laser. Press it and the laser will temporarily switch off. It’s calibrated to last a second flat, so not much time to work with. Importantly, after the button is pressed, it will be inactive for ten seconds, so no spamming. Also, the panel has been wired so that only three buttons can be active at once, so keep that in mind.]

At this point in the explanation, one might not think the challenge was that bad. It would take some trial and error but by memorising which button corresponded to which laser and mapping out the button sequence, the task could be completed in no time. The twenty-metre-long tunnel could be quickly covered after all, especially for those with superhuman bodies.

But there was more to this challenge. To up the difficulty, Cole had added a 'walk on water' property. Instead of the solid white tiles, the pair had been used to, the tunnel's floor was composed of a pool of non-newtonian fluid, dyed blue for effect.

[The liquid making up the floor is somewhat special. If a force is applied quickly enough, it becomes no different than a solid. Still, it’s not as reliable as a solid, so watch your step. And if you don't move, you'll sink, and if you sink, you must start over. Okay, those are the conditions. The timer resumes in 3 2 1…now.]

“I’m on the buttons, you be the runner,” Ralf said.

“Sure.”

“Just give me a few seconds to memorise this.” Ralf did just that. Zigzagging downwards from the top left, he memorised which lasers corresponded to which button, then mapped out the perfect sequence of pushes.

“Okay, done,” he declared before turning to Violet. “For these things, consistency is better than pure speed. Instead of a full-out sprint, a half-hearted one would be better. Try to maintain your form as best as you can. Should your stride falter, I'll do my best to react in time. All you need to do is keep running forward."

Violet nodded with a smile.

The Transmigrator returned a smile of his own and then turned to the tunnel behind them. "Okay, before giving it a try, Violet, use the tunnel to set a running pace. I'll memorise it."

"On it."

Violet moved without reservation and did a few back and forths in the tunnel connecting the Pair's Maze's rooms, following Ralf’s instructions to the letter.

“Perfect. Okay, let’s do this. Get a running start and go for it. Just keep running and trust me. And make sure you take a hard first step.”

Violet nodded firmly, not an iota of doubt clouding her face. To her, Ralf could do little wrong. She had full faith in his abilities. At Ralf's countdown, she set off.

Her posture waved but never her trust in her partner. The strands of light vanished at her determined but clumsy advance until she reached the far end of the tunnel. The lasers collectively shut off and Ralf joined her. The two did their high-five celebration before moving on to the next room.

 

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