On the second day, the Beast of the Labyrinth of Crete.

— The Seven Days Prophecy

Benjamin and Michael stood in front of the national library.

“This is it?” Michael asked, a hint of impatience in his voice.

“Yes, this is the place—the national library,” Benjamin confirmed matter-of-factly.

“This monster better be worth it, ‘cause books suck,” Michael muttered dismissively, clearly not impressed with the mission.

They walked inside, passing the security guard by the glass door. A bold sign in all caps on the door read: “KEEP QUIET WHEN INSIDE.”

At the reception desk, the librarian, an elderly spinster wearing thick glasses, looked at them sternly. “Do you have a borrower’s card, iho?” she asked Benjamin.

“Yes, Ma’am.” Benjamin handed over his card politely.

The librarian examined it carefully before handing it back. “You may proceed. Both of you,” she said, glancing briefly at Michael.

“How did you even get a card?” Michael asked, curious.

“You mean this?” Benjamin replied, holding up the card. “I got it when we did science research for school.”

“You’re such a nerd, bro,” Michael teased, though Benjamin ignored him.

Michael slung an arm around Benjamin’s shoulder. “You got mad at us for going out in the field, but now you’re stuck with me on this mission. Ironic, huh?” he added with a sarcastic edge.

“If I had a choice, I wouldn’t be stuck with you,” Benjamin quipped dryly.

“You’re lucky to be stuck with me,” Michael shot back. “Your brains might be good, but without my brawn, you’d be useless.”

They continued deeper into the library, walking among the towering bookshelves.

“What are you doing?” Michael asked, eyeing Benjamin as he scanned the shelves.

“Since we’re here to observe, we might be waiting for a while. I might as well get some reading done.” Benjamin grabbed a large encyclopedia.

“Oh my God, you’re seriously going to read that boring thing?!” Michael’s exasperation was clear.

“Yep, I’m diving into this,” Benjamin replied, flipping through the thick book, deliberately irritating his brother.

They found a long table and sat down. Benjamin opened the encyclopedia and began reading.

“Isn’t there a comic book or something here?” Michael said loudly, earning a sharp glare from Benjamin.

“Young man, keep your voice down!” the librarian snapped from across the room.

“Boring place, total snoozefest,” Michael complained, even louder this time. Benjamin ignored him.

“Didn’t you read the sign? Observe silence!” the librarian scolded again.

Michael grinned, enjoying the attention. But as he glanced around, something strange happened—the other students in the library began to vanish, one by one.

“You know why old spinsters are so cranky? They’re just cat ladies with no excitement in their lives!” Michael yelled, expecting another scolding. But this time, there was no response.

Puzzled, Michael turned to the reception desk. The librarian was gone. “What the…?”

He scanned the room and realized there were no students left. The library was eerily empty. “What is going on?”

“Hey, bookworm, listen up,” Michael said, nudging Benjamin, who was still absorbed in his reading.

“If you’re trying to mess with me, I’m not playing along,” Benjamin replied, not even looking up.

Annoyed, Michael grabbed Benjamin’s head and forced him to look around. “See?! Do I look like I’m joking?”

Benjamin stood up abruptly, finally noticing the empty library. “How is this possible? Where is everyone—the librarian, the students?”

Michael shrugged, uneasy for once. “Weird, right?”

Benjamin’s eyes narrowed as he scanned the room again. “This isn’t right… People don’t just disappear.”

Suddenly, something clicked. “Wait… Could it be?”

“Could it be what?” Michael asked, confused.

“We’re transitioning into the dominion—the monster’s realm. Get ready, Michael!” Benjamin said seriously, his voice low with tension.

Benjamin and Michael walked down the aisle, glancing around at the empty tables and chairs. Benjamin kept his focus straight ahead, making his way toward the bookshelves, while Michael stayed close, following his older brother.

“We’re going to check around the bookshelves,” Benjamin said, making his intentions clear.

“Figures,” Michael replied, his tone casual as he agreed.

The two brothers moved through the rows of shelves.

“There really aren’t any students left—not even back here,” Benjamin remarked, noticing the eerie emptiness.

Suddenly, the fluorescent lights above began to flicker, catching the brothers’ attention. They looked up just as the flickering intensified, prompting them to scan the area more carefully.

“Look! The wall’s closing in!” Michael exclaimed, pointing to the left. Benjamin turned quickly to see it.

“And over there, too!” Michael pointed again, this time to the right. Both walls were slowly creeping toward them.

The lights continued flickering, some even sparking, casting the room in a strange, strobing light. The floor trembled beneath them, almost as if it were turning to quicksand. As the walls closed in, the bookshelves started sticking together, narrowing the paths between them and transforming the library into a twisting maze. Books tumbled off the shelves, scattering across the floor.

“Run, Michael! We have to get out of here!” Benjamin shouted.

Michael took off at full speed, with Benjamin following closely behind. They weaved through the flickering lights, the sparking electrical bursts, and the narrowing gaps between the bookshelves. The walls kept pressing in, crushing the shelves at the edges as they moved. Books lay scattered across the unstable, shaking floor. They darted left, then right, pushing forward through the chaos. Above them, the walls grew closer, obliterating the outer shelves.

From overhead, it was clear: the brothers were racing through the shrinking center of the maze.

Finally, the exit door came into view. Michael planted his foot firmly on the ground and made a long, desperate leap, clearing the distance and passing through the exit.

“Come on, Benjamin! Just a few more steps! You’re almost there!” Michael called out.

With the collapsing shelves closing in on him from both sides, Benjamin sprinted with all his strength. He launched himself toward the exit and barely made it through. The two brothers turned to look back at the library, just as the wooden shelves crumbled and the ceiling collapsed, sealing the exit shut with a deafening crash.

Benjamin and Michael found themselves on the other side, the room dimly lit with a faint cyan glow emanating from every corner. A mist covered the floor, and the walls were made of rough, uneven bricks stacked together.

“It’s reality warping,” Benjamin noted, as Michael looked around, his expression curious.

Benjamin glanced at his wristwatch, a sleek design of silver and cobalt blue. With a quick click, the small screen projected a cyan hologram. He interacted with it, and in response, nano-molecules conjured floating pads that rose from the misty floor to surround him. The pads emitted cyan lasers, materializing more nano-molecules into a full-body space armor. His suit, a combination of cobalt blue and bare titanium, enveloped him completely as he transformed into Captain McKinley.

Captain McKinley and Spartan, dressed in his signature red spandex superhero suit, left the eerie lobby and ventured into a narrow passageway. They navigated through a series of hallways—turning left, right, and straight—before reaching another large room.

“I think we’re in a labyrinth, Michael,” Captain McKinley stated. “These endless hallways give it away.”

“And if that’s true, we know which monster we’re dealing with,” he added. “The Minotaur.”

“The strong guy, huh? This is going to be fun!” Spartan grinned, clearly excited by the challenge ahead.

“We need to prepare. Knowledge is our best weapon here,” Captain McKinley said. He fiddled with his left space gauntlet and summoned several floating cyan widgets, displaying information about the Minotaur.

“This is what I’ve gathered from the internet,” Captain McKinley began. “The Minotaur is a man with the head of a bull, born from the union of Queen Pasiphae and a sacred bull. King Minos of Crete angered Poseidon by refusing to sacrifice the bull, so the sea god cursed the queen to fall in love with it.”

“King Minos then ordered Daedalus to build the labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur, keeping it hidden. Every seven or nine years, the king demanded tributes—seven young men and seven young women from Athens—who were sent into the labyrinth to be devoured by the Minotaur,” Captain continued.

“So, we’re basically the tributes now?” Michael asked bluntly.

“Yes, but luckily, this is a labyrinth, not a maze,” Captain McKinley replied.

“Labyrinths have one single path to follow, while mazes have multiple dead ends. We just need to stay on the right course,” he emphasized.

“I believe the exit to the library will return to normal once we defeat the Minotaur. But just in case, we’ll use your lasso as a contingency,” Captain added.

“You mean my Lasso of Valor?” Spartan asked, confused.

“Yes, we’ll use it to trace our path back to the exit, marking the way so we can return,” Captain McKinley explained.

“So, we have to retrace our steps from this room back to the exit?” Spartan groaned.

“Exactly,” Captain confirmed.

Spartan sighed. “You should’ve told me that earlier.”

With the plan in place, Captain McKinley summoned the holographic map from his gauntlet, monitoring their coordinates as they traversed the labyrinth. Spartan, spinning his golden Lasso of Valor, marked their single path back to the exit, though his impatience was clear as the task dragged on.

They passed through several more hallways and rooms until they finally reached a large, intricately carved gate.

“This must be the Minotaur’s chamber,” Captain McKinley said.

“Finally! It’s action time. Let’s do this!” Spartan exclaimed, ready for the battle ahead.

Captain McKinley (Benjamin) and Spartan (Michael) entered the chamber, which appeared empty at first. Suddenly, a towering seven-foot figure with the head of a bull emerged—the Minotaur. The monster roared in fury and charged at them.

Spartan was the first to engage, meeting the Minotaur in hand-to-hand combat. The two traded fierce punches and kicks, each trying to overpower the other. Meanwhile, Captain McKinley summoned his laser gun from nano-molecules and fired a series of cyan laser blasts. The Minotaur, displaying surprising agility for its size, dodged the shots.

The brothers quickly switched tactics. Captain McKinley moved in for close combat, using his gravity-powered space gauntlets to enhance his strength. He exchanged heavy blows and kicks with the beast, while Spartan took to the air, blasting the Minotaur with his scarlet heat vision. Several beams struck the monster, causing it to scream in pain as its strength began to wane.

Seeing an opening, both brothers launched their final attacks simultaneously. Spartan hurled himself at the Minotaur, clasping his fists together and twisting into a high-speed spin, like a turbo drill. He struck the monster square in the torso, leaving a large gaping hole in its abdomen. As the Minotaur staggered, Captain McKinley combined his space gauntlets into a single unit, forming a long cyan laser blade, similar to a longsword. With a swift leap, Captain McKinley decapitated the Minotaur in one clean stroke.

The beast stood still for a moment, headless and with a hole in its torso, before collapsing to its knees and then falling flat on the misty floor. Its body paled, then disintegrated into pieces, fading away in the cyan glow that filled the chamber.

“We really did it,” Captain McKinley said, relieved.

“Yeah, we won!” Spartan grinned with pride. “That monster may have been a Goliath, but we beat it to a pulp!”

“Bad news though—my left space gauntlet got damaged. It can’t project the map or the labyrinth coordinates anymore,” Captain McKinley admitted.

“Bummer, how are we supposed to get back now?!” Spartan groaned.

“Luckily, we have a backup plan—your Lasso of Valor,” Captain McKinley reminded him.

“Oh, right! I painstakingly traced our path with it. We just have to follow the lasso back to the exit,” Spartan realized, finally understanding.

“Your smarts aren’t so bad after all, Brother,” Spartan offered a half-hearted compliment.

“And your strength was definitely useful in the fight,” Captain McKinley acknowledged with a nod.

Spartan reached out for a fist bump, which Captain McKinley awkwardly reciprocated. With that, the two brothers left through the gate, which closed behind them as soon as they passed through.

In Echidna’s cave, dim and sprawling with vines, moss-covered, and damp, the air was thick with ancient decay. The Oracle of Delphi, centuries old or more, hung ensnared by dark wooden thorns and tendrils, pinned helplessly against the cavernous wall. Echidna, the serpent woman, sat upon her crude throne of stone, her gaze fixed on the chasm below. From beneath the earth, the churning bed of boiling rocks sent up plumes of steam and embers through cracks that marred the ground at the cave’s center. The rising steam formed a window for Echidna to watch the battles above—the Seven Acolytes, children still, locked in combat with the second wave of beasts.

“Pride truly precedes the fall,” Echidna rasped, her voice dripping with malice. “The magical girl, so vain of her beauty and overly proud of her powers. She obliterated the great Medusa, yet irony has a cruel sense of humor. That Love Fey is now stone herself—another Acolyte has fallen. And it’s only the Second Day.”

“It wasn’t all vice,” the Oracle murmured, her voice strained but unwavering. “Brothers Spartan and Captain McKinley—oil and water, a contrast that did not blend. One, an athlete wielding pole and ball, the other, a scholar scribing with quill and scroll. But the sword is as sharp as the quill, and together their strength felled the mighty Minotaur.”

“Hope all you want, Seer,” Echidna hissed, her lips curling into a sly smirk. “But you’re still firmly in my grasp. The guard dogs of Hades are no simple prey. The Keeper of the Star and the Acolyte who wields music have now crossed into the land where our civilization was born. We shall see how long they last.”

Around the chamber’s edge, Typhon’s tomb loomed ominously, silent and still.