Mai walked through the world of endless white, the ground absorbing his weight with each step before returning to him. His sense of time had slipped away long ago; he'd stopped keeping track sometime after the first week, if that word even meant anything here. The unsettling thought that it had been far longer than his mind was willing to admit had crept in, but he kept going.

  He found it odd; despite how long he'd been walking, his body never ached. There was no burn in his legs, or tightness in his chest that asked him to slow or stop. The motion felt strangely weightless, as if it required no effort at all. It felt unnatural, but then again, nothing about this place was natural.

  The unease he'd felt when he first noticed the speck only deepened as he drew closer. Somewhere along the way, the resonant hum he'd grown quite fond of disappeared, leaving Mai in a chilling silence, without even his own footsteps to keep him company.

  As he looked ahead, the once-distant stain of black began to take shape. The darkness grew thicker, its silhouette stretching and settling into a form that no longer felt abstract. In fact, it was a form Mai was quite familiar with.

  A wolf.

  It was enormous, sitting upright with its long body held in quiet composure, like a trained hound awaiting a command. Broad shoulders supported its posture as thick black fur fell down over its frame in uneven layers.

  Mai slowed his pace as the wolf grew larger in his vision, stopping well before reaching it.

  The wolf didn't react. Its head remained forward, gaze fixed on some unseen point in the horizon. For a moment, Mai thought it might be a statue, then the fur along its shoulders shifted, as if stirred by a breeze he could not feel.

  Mai remained still, not because he was afraid, that feeling had dulled along his way. This was different—instinctual, even.

  He'd known this was coming.

  "So," Mai said. The word came out quietly, but he didn't bother raising his voice. What stood before him didn't feel like something that needed sound to hear.

  The wolf remained still, its presence almost oppressive to his own. It kept looking forward, its gaze never moving, and yet Mai felt certain that he was accounted for.

  "I was wondering when you'd show up," he continued before letting out a soft chuckle. "Or when I'd finally reach you… I guess it was hard to tell which would happen first." He waited for a response, but none came. He just nodded in the silence.

  He let a few seconds pass, then minutes. He drew another slow breath before speaking again. "I don't really need an explanation. I've had enough time to wrap my head around it… I just thought there’d be more to it. Some kind of formality, maybe."

  The words hung between them, unanswered once again.

  Mai shifted his weight awkwardly, unsure of what to do next. Slowly, he stepped closer to the looming creature. Mai raised his hand as he approached, hesitating for a beat as he reached out to the wolf.

  Just before he could close the distance, the wolf moved.

  It rose from its seated position, its broad frame settling onto all four legs. Without moving its head or even sparing Mai a glance, it stepped forward, continuing on toward the same unseen point it had been staring.

  Mai's hand hovered in the air before dropping back to his side. He watched the wolf walk on.

  After a moment, he followed. He kept an easy pace as they walked, unsure of their destination and left with nowhere else to go. But as the wolf moved ahead, the space between them gradually increased.

  Mai frowned and quickened his stride, but the distance continued to grow. With a growing sense of urgency, he began to jog.

  "W-Wait—" The word died instantly in the silence.

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  A knot formed in his chest as he broke into a run, his breath steady despite the pace. The world offered no landmark but the wolf ahead, its dark form slowly waning against the white. No matter how hard Mai pushed, the distance refused to close.

  As he frantically ran, the air, once absent and still, began to stir. At first, it was nothing more than a faint brush against his skin, then a subtle resistance met his stride.

  Mai leaned forward, forcing himself on, but the air continued to thicken around him. The soft breeze grew into something violent, ripping his feet out from under him. The wind caught him before he could fall, lifting him and pushing him backward.

  Ahead, the wolf's dark shape thinned, dissipating into the horizon.

  Mai twisted, arms flying up on instinct as the hurricane screamed around him. The pressure built up fast until it felt like it might tear him apart. He shut his eyes tight, his muscles tensing as he waited for some sort of impact, but it never came.

  As quickly as it had begun, the wind was gone, leaving Mai suspended mid-fall. Instead of hitting the ground, his back met a faint, familiar pressure. The surface differed from the smooth white void, having a distinctly rough texture.

  A sound broke through the silence. It was distant but unmistakable, a single drip of water. It echoed in his head, a welcome sound after so long in silence.

  Mai cautiously opened his eyes. The endless white expanse was gone. In its place, his vision filled with blurred color, dark greens and muted grays bled together without clear edges. Directly in front of him loomed a large column of dark brown.

  Mai struggled to place the scene in front of him, but before he could, a harsh crack rang out. The sound reverberated through his skull as he was suddenly jerked backward.

  He blinked once, then again, and the haze of the world began to unravel. Gradually, the world began to sharpen. The dark grays took shape first, forming the stone walls of the labyrinth chamber. The greens crept in next, spreading across the stone as thick moss and gnarled, twisting trees. Last of all, the dark brown blur in front of him solidified, leaving the monstrous wooden creature bearing overhead, smiling.

  Something tore loose deep inside him.

  The sound that ripped from Mai's throat wasn't a shout or a cry for help. It was a sound born beneath all thought, beneath all his restraint, where everything he had ever endured finally demanded to be heard. It surged out of him and reverberated through the entire chamber. As if answering back in kind, cracks raced across the surface of the stone pillar, spreading outward before finally it gave way.

  The chamber shook under the strain; the walls groaning as fractures split across the stone in jagged lines. From those breaks, color poured out in violent streaks, painting the chamber in flickering blues, purples, and burning gold.

  The wooden arm keeping him pinned shattered, splintering as the bark warped before exploding outward, scattering through the air. With it, the section impaling Mai broke apart, disintegrating into jagged shards. The creature reeled back, its towering frame stumbling back in surprise.

  In a sudden rush, the wind surged back, coiling around Mai's body and keeping him suspended briefly before setting him gently on the ground. The wind lingered, circling him in restless currents, tugging at his clothes and hair.

  His legs held without effort or weakness. The wound in his chest felt distant and unreal, as though it belonged to someone else entirely. Instead, warmth coursed through him… it was intoxicating.

  It settled deep in his chest and spread outward, carrying a sense of weightlessness. His breathing evened without conscious thought. This feeling was familiar…

  A memory stirred: cold concrete beneath him, the dim corner of a warehouse storeroom, bruises he knew should have burned but never did. The same calm wrapped around him then, dulling everything around him.

  The air peeled away from him in thin streams, pulling inward toward a single point hovering just ahead. It was empty, with only a subtle distortion where the air itself seemed to bend.

  The wind tightened into a spiral. Loose leaves scraped and tumbled along the stone. Thin trails of dirt and dust kicked off the tumbling leaves as they lifted from the ground. From the cracks in the walls, beads of water tore free. They hung suspended for a moment before being swept inward, scattering into mist.

  What remained of the fire they had quenched earlier glowed faintly. As the air caught it, dying sparks lifted from the charcoal and drifted upward, pulled into the spinning current. Their light stretched into thin orange streaks before disappearing at the center.

  A faint ringing moved through the air. As it grew, the spinning current tightened. As it condensed, something began to take shape at its center. Dust and embers fused together, their shapes lost as a new form took their place. The surrounding air warped. Slowly, a disk came together, piece by piece, assembled by the converging elements.

  Suspended in front of him was a coin of black, obsidian-like glass. The surface looked smooth but imperfect. Veins of gold weaved through its cracks, gently pulsing with life. It didn't look fractured, but rather molded into the imperfections of the glass. At the center was a hollow circle. Within that space, a small circular crest sat suspended, turning slowly despite the rushing air around it.

  The ringing faded as the coin finished forming. It hovered there, motionless… waiting.

  Then, a voice surfaced in the back of Mai's mind. It was soft, but stripped of any clear pitch, impossible to place as male or female. The sound was smooth, carrying no emotion but a simple command.

  "Claim me."