Sylvie handled most of the immediate threats from there, because Esmarie's body was beginning to betray how much she had already endured. Whenever a vine snapped toward them, Sylvie intercepted it first, and when petals filled a corridor she positioned herself between Esmarie and the densest part of the barrage. Esmarie refused to become dead weight, cutting anchor roses when they passed too close and warning Sylvie whenever she saw flowers beginning to open along the walls. More importantly, she kept choosing their direction every time the maze divided. Left at one intersection, straight through another, then suddenly backtracking when a corridor ahead made her stop for no obvious reason.
Sylvie: "Why are we turning around?"
Esmarie looked at the path.
Esmarie: "I don't like it."
Sylvie: "That's the reason?"
Esmarie: "Pretty much."
They turned.
A moment later, Funeral Blooms opened throughout the abandoned corridor behind them and filled it completely with razor petals.
Sylvie glanced back.
Then at Esmarie.
Esmarie: "Lucky guess."
Sylvie: "Of course."
The next person they found was Jeremiah.
He came through a hedge opening almost directly in front of them, retreating as black thorns snapped toward his legs. His clothes were already soaked with blood in several places from Reina and the fighting afterward, and the sword Erika had given him had accumulated fresh scratches along its edge. Fitzgerald stepped through the opening behind him with Black Rose in hand, the garden parting around his shoulders as though welcoming its owner. Jeremiah saw Sylvie and Esmarie but did not waste time reacting, instead ducking beneath Fitzgerald's slash and shouting toward them.
Jeremiah: "Move!"
Sylvie did.
She attacked Fitzgerald from the side.
He raised Black Rose and caught her thrust, but that instant gave Jeremiah enough room to disengage. Esmarie saw a small rose embedded near Fitzgerald's heel and immediately understood what was coming, even if she could not have explained how. She lunged forward and sliced it apart just before Thorn Crucifixion erupted from another pair of anchors nearby. Fitzgerald's eyes shifted toward her for the briefest moment, and that was enough for Sylvie to shove him backward with both hands on her sword. Jeremiah grabbed Esmarie by the shoulder and pulled her through the nearest open corridor.
Jeremiah: "This way!"
Esmarie: "No!"
Jeremiah stopped.
Esmarie pointed the opposite direction.
Esmarie: "That way."
Jeremiah looked between the two paths.
Jeremiah: "Why?"
Esmarie: "I don't know!"
Jeremiah: "Good enough."
The three ran.
Fitzgerald did not pursue for long. He vanished behind another shifting wall, apparently content to let the garden continue wearing them down instead. Jeremiah stayed with Sylvie and Esmarie after that, and it did not take him long to notice something strange about their route. Every time they reached a decision point, Esmarie hesitated only briefly before choosing, and more often than not the direction led them away from an immediate trap or toward some distant sound of fighting. She occasionally made a wrong choice and corrected herself, but even those mistakes were short-lived. There was no visible pattern Jeremiah could identify.
Jeremiah: "You're pretty good at this."
Esmarie: "At being lost?"
Jeremiah: "At being less lost than the rest of us."
Esmarie frowned.
Esmarie: "That's not exactly impressive."
Jeremiah: "Right now it is."
Elsewhere, Dallas and John were having a much less peaceful time.
A Funeral Bloom had opened directly above their corridor and turned the entire path into a stream of black petals. Dallas moved conservatively, cutting only those that threatened him, while John repeatedly stepped into the densest sections and demolished them with brutal two-handed swings. Dallas' breathing was visibly heavier than before, and the wounds from Fitzgerald's first victory had begun reopening beneath his coat. John looked little better on the surface, but his movements remained disturbingly consistent, as though pain had been removed from whatever calculations governed his body. He continued forward without complaint.
Dallas: "Slow down."
John: "Why?"
Dallas: "Because I'd prefer not to die from exhaustion before Fitzgerald gets another chance."
John: "Then don't."
Dallas stared at him.
John continued walking.
Dallas: "Compelling advice."
The maze attacked again.
Three small roses opened simultaneously along the walls, and Dallas immediately recognized Thorn Crucifixion before the vines even emerged. John cut the first two apart, but Dallas' damaged footing left him half a step late against the third. A thorn wrapped around his sword arm and jerked him sideways, followed by another around his injured leg. His coffin appeared at the far end of the corridor as a hedge lowered, the lid already opening.
John looked at Dallas.
Dallas: "I have it."
John: "No."
John crossed the distance before Dallas could argue.
One heavy slash severed both restraints at once. Another destroyed the rose anchoring the coffin's remaining vines before they could fully activate. Dallas regained his footing while John stepped between him and the open coffin. Neither man looked particularly impressed by the escape.
Dallas: "You know, for someone unconcerned about his own survival, you're surprisingly attentive to mine."
John: "You're useful."
Dallas: "Touching."
John: "Don't make it strange."
They kept moving.
Erika, meanwhile, had stopped trying to understand the maze entirely.
She simply fought through it.
A Black Briar wall erupted across her route and she ran along its rising surface rather than waiting for it to finish forming. Funeral Blooms opened beyond it, forcing her to jump from the top just as petals shredded the place where she had been standing. She landed in a narrow corridor, immediately ducked beneath a vine aimed at her throat, and cut through two anchor roses before Thorn Crucifixion could activate. Reaper's Feast felt heavier than her original weapon but far sturdier, and Erika had already begun adjusting her timing to the unfamiliar balance.
Fitzgerald appeared several paths ahead.
Erika smiled.
Erika: "There you are."
She charged.
Fitzgerald did not retreat.
Black Rose met Reaper's Feast in a shower of sparks, and for several seconds they exchanged pure swordsmanship between the towering hedges. Erika attacked high, shifted low, then abruptly turned an elegant thrust into a vicious diagonal slash that forced Fitzgerald onto his back foot. He answered with a precise cut toward her ribs, but Erika twisted around it and brought Reaper's Feast back toward his shoulder. Black Rose Shield formed between them.
Erika struck it.
The petals absorbed the hit.
Fitzgerald immediately used the shield to obscure his next movement.
Thorns erupted from both sides.
Erika jumped straight upward.
She planted one foot against the top of the shield itself and pushed over Fitzgerald's head.
He turned.
Her blade passed inches from his neck.
The nearest hedge exploded between them before she could follow.
Erika landed on the opposite side.
Erika: "Seriously?"
Fitzgerald's voice came faintly through the foliage.
Fitzgerald: "Keep wandering."
Erika looked at the three paths now surrounding her.
Erika: "Fine."
She picked one at random and started running.
Much deeper in the maze, Esmarie stopped abruptly.
Jeremiah nearly walked into her.
Jeremiah: "What?"
Esmarie raised one hand.
Somewhere far ahead came the dull impact of a heavy sword strike.
Then another.
Sylvie listened.
Sylvie: "John?"
Esmarie pointed.
Esmarie: "That way."
Jeremiah: "You sure?"
Esmarie: "Nope."
She moved anyway.
Jeremiah and Sylvie followed.
The route curved three times, descended through a garden terrace filled with low black shrubs, then split at another intersection. Esmarie stopped only for a second before turning right. They passed beneath a thorn arch, crossed a circular plaza with an empty fountain, and reached another hedge just as something shattered through the opposite side.
John stepped out.
Dallas followed behind him.
Both stopped.
Esmarie smiled.
Esmarie: "Found you."
Dallas looked around at the impossible route behind them.
Dallas: "How?"
Esmarie shrugged.
Esmarie: "Lucky guess."
Jeremiah: "Several lucky guesses."
John looked at her.
John: "Good."
Esmarie blinked.
Esmarie: "Thanks?"
Five.
Only Erika remained.
The group started moving again, this time with Esmarie near the middle while everyone else formed around her. Dallas and Jeremiah could barely maintain their previous pace, and Sylvie's breathing had become noticeably heavier as well. Esmarie herself was unquestionably the most exhausted of them all, periodically leaning against Sylvie whenever they stopped for even a second. John remained unchanged. Dallas noticed that immediately, while the distant clashes they occasionally heard from Erika suggested she was still fighting aggressively somewhere ahead.
Then they passed a coffin.
Esmarie looked at it.
Another appeared farther down the next corridor.
They had already seen several throughout the maze.
Something bothered her.
Esmarie stopped.
Sylvie: "What is it?"
Esmarie counted silently.
Not the coffins themselves.
The ones they had already passed since regrouping.
Then she looked ahead.
Esmarie: "I think Erika's is farther this way."
Dallas: "Based on?"
Esmarie hesitated.
Esmarie: "I don't know."
John: "Good enough."
Dallas looked at him.
John: "Worked so far."
Esmarie pointed toward the left path.
They went left.
The garden became more violent as they advanced.
Funeral Blooms opened above them in rapid succession, forcing John to take the front and carve through the densest attacks while Dallas and Jeremiah covered the edges. Sylvie stayed directly beside Esmarie, cutting down anchor roses whenever Thorn Crucifixion tried to form behind them. Black Briar Dominion repeatedly sealed the path, but Esmarie kept turning them away just before the worst sections fully closed. It almost seemed as though the closer they came to Erika, the harder Fitzgerald tried to keep them away.
Then they heard her.
Steel crashed ahead.
A wall shook.
Erika: "Come on!"
John looked toward Esmarie.
She pointed without hesitation.
Esmarie: "Straight."
John raised his sword.
The hedge ahead was enormous.
John cut through it.
The shaped bushes exploded outward.
On the other side, Erika stood in the middle of a wide rose courtyard surrounded by Funeral Blooms, shattered briars, and several dozen razor petals suspended around her. Her clothes were cut in multiple places and blood ran down one arm, but compared with everyone except John she still looked remarkably fresh. Fitzgerald stood across from her, Black Rose raised, while her coffin waited behind her with vines already beginning to emerge from its interior.
Erika looked over.
Her eyes widened.
Erika: "There you guys are!"
Fitzgerald turned.
That was enough.
John charged through the opening.
His sword smashed into the nearest Funeral Bloom before it could fire.
Dallas moved after him.
Jeremiah entered from the opposite side.
Sylvie cut through the first Crucifixion vine reaching for Erika.
Esmarie destroyed the anchor rose behind it.
For the first time since Garden of the Black Funeral had swallowed the battlefield, all six Hunters occupied the same space again.
Fitzgerald's expression hardened.
The maze had divided them.
It had exhausted them.
It had hunted them individually through corridors designed to turn every wrong step into a coffin.
Yet somehow, Esmarie had gathered every one of them back together.
Dallas stood beside John, visibly drained but still holding his sword.
Jeremiah raised his borrowed blade despite his battered body.
Sylvie remained close to Esmarie, equally exhausted but steady.
Erika stepped away from her coffin and joined the formation with Reaper's Feast.
Esmarie stood between them, barely keeping herself upright.
John glanced at her.
John: "Found everybody."
Esmarie let out a tired laugh.
Esmarie: "Yeah."
She looked around at the five Hunters surrounding her.
Esmarie: "I guess I did."
Black roses began opening across the courtyard.
The garden was not finished with them.
But neither were they finished with Fitzgerald.
The six Hunters barely had time to settle into formation before the Garden attacked again.
Black hedges shifted inward from every direction, narrowing the courtyard around them while Funeral Blooms opened above the walls in staggered rows. The six coffins began dragging themselves across the soil on thick root systems, each one moving toward the Hunter it had been formed for. Fitzgerald was nowhere in sight now, but his presence could be felt through every moving thorn and opening flower. Dallas raised his sword despite the tremble beginning to show in his arm, while John and Erika stepped ahead of everyone else without needing to be told.
Dallas: "Nobody breaks formation."
John: "Wasn't planning to."
Erika: "Same."
Jeremiah moved into the middle beside Dallas, keeping enough space to cover either side if someone fell behind. Sylvie stayed near Esmarie, who was breathing hard enough that she could no longer hide how exhausted she was. Her hands tightened around the weapon she had taken earlier, but her attention was less on the sword now and more on the paths surrounding them. Something had changed since she wandered the maze alone. She still couldn't explain why certain routes felt dangerous, but everyone else had stopped questioning it.
The first Funeral Bloom fired.
Esmarie: "Left!"
They moved left.
The petals tore across the space they had abandoned and shredded the hedges behind them. John immediately stepped ahead and cleaved through the briars blocking the next corridor, his heavy sword passing through several thick roots in a single swing. Erika slipped through the opening before the damaged hedge could repair itself, while Dallas and Jeremiah covered the rear as Sylvie guided Esmarie through.
Another corridor opened.
John started toward it.
Esmarie: "Stop!"
He stopped instantly.
A second later, three Funeral Blooms hidden behind the hedges opened at once and filled the entire passage with black petals. The barrage lasted only a few seconds, but nothing caught within it would have remained standing. John watched the petals tear apart stone along the path before finally glancing back at Esmarie.
John: "Keep talking."
Esmarie blinked.
Esmarie: "Okay."
There was no praise in his voice.
Coming from John, she took it as one anyway.
They turned down another path.
The Garden seemed to recognize that separating them again would be more difficult now. Instead of raising walls between individual Hunters, it began attacking the formation itself. Briars erupted underneath them in broad rows, Funeral Blooms fired from alternating sides, and Thorn Crucifixion anchors appeared along every wall they passed.
Dallas called out anything familiar.
Dallas: "Anchor right."
Jeremiah cut it.
Dallas: "Bloom above."
John destroyed it before it fully opened.
Dallas: "Ground."
Everyone jumped.
A wall of thorns erupted beneath their feet and chased them along the corridor. Erika landed on top of one of the rising briars for half a second, used it as a step, and jumped forward again. Sylvie did the same with far less height, while Jeremiah caught Esmarie around the waist and carried her across the final gap before the thorns completely consumed the path behind them.
Esmarie: "Thanks."
Jeremiah: "You're welcome."
Esmarie: "I could've made that."
Jeremiah: "You almost fell standing still ten seconds ago."
Esmarie: "Fair."
A black rose opened beside her head.
Sylvie cut it apart.
Sylvie: "Less talking."
Esmarie: "You sound like Shinatsu."
Sylvie: "I'll take that as a compliment."
The maze opened into another broad section.
Fitzgerald appeared.
Not directly ahead.
Above them.
He stood atop one of the manicured hedges, Black Rose hanging loosely in one hand while petals drifted around him. The Garden had carried him to the exact place he wanted without forcing him to expend any visible effort. His gaze passed over Dallas and John, then settled briefly on Erika before finally stopping on Esmarie.
That bothered Dallas.
Fitzgerald raised his blade.
The first attack wasn't aimed at John.
Or Erika.
A wall of briars erupted around Esmarie.
Sylvie reacted immediately, cutting the closest vine before it could wrap around her waist. Jeremiah severed another coming from behind. Dallas moved to the right and destroyed two small anchor roses that had appeared low along the hedge.
Fitzgerald had expected that.
Funeral Bloom opened over Dallas.
John attacked it before it fired.
That created an opening near Fitzgerald.
Erika took it.
She jumped onto the hedge.
Fitzgerald's eyes shifted.
Reaper's Feast came down toward his shoulder.
Black Rose blocked.
The clash sent a pale flash through the Garden.
Erika landed directly in front of him.
She attacked again.
Fitzgerald parried.
Then a third time.
He stepped backward across the narrow hedge top, forced into an awkward retreat as Erika pressed him with quick changes in rhythm. Her first two movements were clean and technical. The third came from a lower, almost feral angle that forced Fitzgerald to jump down from the hedge rather than continue blocking.
John was waiting below.
His sword came across horizontally.
Fitzgerald summoned the Black Rose Shield.
John hit it.
The shield compressed inward.
Erika dropped from above.
Her blade slipped through the weakened center.
Fitzgerald twisted away.
Reaper's Feast cut across his side.
Blood appeared.
Only a shallow line.
Still enough.
Fitzgerald's expression darkened.
The Garden erupted.
Hedges slammed inward.
John and Erika were forced apart by a wave of briars that exploded between them. Funeral Blooms opened on the surrounding walls, creating so many overlapping firing angles that even Dallas hesitated for a fraction of a second. Fitzgerald disappeared back into the maze as the pathways twisted around him.
Esmarie looked ahead.
Esmarie: "Forward."
Dallas glanced toward her.
Dallas: "You sure?"
Esmarie: "No."
John: "Works for me."
They went forward.
The path narrowed quickly, forcing John and Erika to move nearly shoulder to shoulder. Dallas and Jeremiah stayed directly behind them, with Sylvie and Esmarie at the rear. The flowers on both sides of the corridor began blooming one after another, but Esmarie called each danger just before it became lethal.
Esmarie: "Right wall."
John cut down the rose.
Esmarie: "Above us."
Erika slashed upward.
Esmarie: "Don't move."
Everyone froze.
A Thorn Crucifixion burst across the path ahead, several vines snapping through empty space before retreating.
John: "Now?"
Esmarie: "Now."
They charged through.
Dallas watched her as they moved.
Not for long.
There wasn't time.
But he noticed how naturally the others were beginning to respond.
Nobody waited for Jeremiah to repeat her call.
Nobody asked Dallas for confirmation.
Esmarie said move.
They moved.
Fitzgerald noticed too.
The next attack came entirely for her.
Six black roses bloomed at once.
Dallas: "Crucifixion!"
The vines exploded from every direction.
Sylvie cut through the first.
Jeremiah intercepted another.
Dallas severed two more.
One wrapped around Esmarie's sword arm.
Another caught her waist.
She was yanked backward.
Her coffin appeared through the hedge behind her.
The lid opened.
Esmarie stumbled as the vines pulled.
Sylvie turned.
Esmarie: "Don't!"
Sylvie stopped.
Esmarie looked around quickly.
She saw the anchors.
Not clearly.
Just enough.
Esmarie: "Two left wall! One under the arch! Another behind the coffin!"
Dallas immediately attacked the left.
Jeremiah cut through the rose beneath the arch.
Erika doubled back and destroyed the second left-side anchor with Reaper's Feast.
The final vine dragged Esmarie closer.
Her coffin opened wider.
Black thorns twisted inside.
John stepped forward.
His sword came down.
The rose behind the coffin split in half.
Every restraint vanished.
Esmarie fell.
Sylvie caught her.
Esmarie: "Thanks."
John: "Keep moving."
Esmarie: "Right."
They continued.
Fitzgerald's tactic had become obvious without anyone needing to say it.
He was attacking the exhausted Hunters because John and Erika would keep abandoning their offense to protect them.
That worked twice more.
A Funeral Bloom barrage targeted Dallas.
Erika broke off to intercept.
Thorn Crucifixion wrapped Jeremiah's injured leg.
John turned back and cut him free.
Each rescue bought Fitzgerald more distance.
Each rescue allowed the Garden to rearrange.
Then Esmarie stopped.
Esmarie: "Wait."
The others slowed.
John looked back.
Esmarie: "He's doing it on purpose."
Jeremiah: "Doing what?"
Esmarie pointed toward Erika.
Then John.
Esmarie: "Every time you two get close to him, he attacks one of us."
Dallas understood.
Esmarie: "He knows you'll come back."
Erika frowned.
Esmarie: "So stop."
Erika: "Stop saving you?"
Esmarie: "Not like that!"
Even John looked at her.
Esmarie: "Just trust us for a few seconds."
Jeremiah nodded first.
Jeremiah: "She's right."
Sylvie adjusted her grip.
Dallas breathed slowly.
Dallas: "We can manage."
Erika looked at Esmarie.
Esmarie forced a smile.
Esmarie: "Go beat him up."
Erika smiled back.
Erika: "That I can do."
John had already turned.
John: "Finally."
The next time Fitzgerald appeared, John and Erika didn't hesitate.
They attacked him together.
Fitzgerald stepped through an opening in the hedge and immediately found John's blade coming down at him. The Black Rose Shield formed, but the impact drove the layered flowers nearly into Fitzgerald's chest. Erika entered from the opposite side, thrusting through the gap John created. Fitzgerald twisted his shoulder away and answered with a slash of his own, but Erika ducked beneath it and cut across his ribs.
Fitzgerald jumped backward.
John followed.
A hedge tried rising between them.
John cut through it before it reached full height.
Erika used the falling half as a platform and launched herself over him.
Fitzgerald's eyes widened.
Black petals fired.
Erika rotated through them, Reaper's Feast cutting a narrow opening while John came straight through the center and smashed the remaining barrage apart.
Behind them, the Garden attacked the others.
Dallas saw the Funeral Bloom open.
Dallas: "Down!"
The four exhausted Hunters dropped.
Petals passed overhead.
Thorn Crucifixion attacked immediately after.
Sylvie cut one vine.
Jeremiah blocked another.
Dallas was too slow against the third.
It wrapped around his arm.
His coffin appeared.
Dallas barely reacted.
Dallas: "Anchor behind the fountain."
Esmarie saw it.
She ran.
Her legs nearly gave out.
Sylvie caught her shoulder and carried part of her weight.
Together they reached the fountain.
Esmarie stabbed the rose.
Dallas came free.
They had done it.
Without John.
Without Erika.
Esmarie looked toward the distant clash.
Esmarie: "See?"
Dallas: "Never doubted you."
Esmarie: "You definitely did."
Dallas: "Briefly."
The Garden suddenly groaned around them.
All six coffins opened.
The sound carried through every path at once.
Black thorn lines erupted outward.
One set for each Hunter.
The vines crossed the Garden in enormous arcs, threading between hedges and flowerbeds as they hunted their assigned targets.
John cut through his first restraint without slowing his attack on Fitzgerald.
Erika spun away from another.
Dallas and Jeremiah were immediately forced backward.
Sylvie protected Esmarie.
Then Esmarie saw something.
The vines weren't merely pulling.
They were traveling through fixed lanes.
The same narrow routes.
Always toward the coffins.
Another line wrapped around her wrist.
Esmarie looked down.
She stopped fighting it.
Sylvie: "Esmarie!"
Esmarie: "Wait!"
The vine pulled her forward.
Not backward.
Through an opening in the hedge.
Esmarie's eyes widened.
She understood just enough.
Esmarie: "DON'T CUT THEM!"
Dallas: "What?"
Another vine wrapped around Jeremiah.
Esmarie: "LET THEM PULL YOU!"
John heard her from ahead.
He didn't question it.
He let the next restraint catch his arm.
Erika did the same.
The six Hunters were yanked through different sections of the Garden.
Hedges flew past.
Funeral Blooms opened behind them too late.
The coffins were pulling each target along the most direct routes Fitzgerald had created for them.
Esmarie watched the paths converging.
Then she saw it.
A large central arch ahead.
Beyond it, the Garden looked different.
Cleaner.
More ornate.
A deeper section.
Esmarie: "WAIT!"
They kept being dragged.
Closer.
Closer.
The central pathways began converging.
Esmarie raised her sword.
Esmarie: "NOW!"