Finally, all four mazes had been conquered. It was no small task, and she was glad to still be here at all. The last maze was death in all shapes and forms, a nasty gauntlet of wave after wave of the world's fiercest and most bloodthirsty creatures. Mentally exhausted, she was hoping that this one would be less taxing, but she doubted it. Reuniting with Cymbel, they went to face the final maze the two goddesses had to offer. But little did she know, Shiloh would soon learn to regret her dogged pursuit of taking on all the challenges. They placed all the orbs in at once, and they were transported one last time.

The light faded and she found that they were separated again. This was starting to get repetitive, and bothersome. It was bad enough that she had to take on the last three on her own, but it was just as hard for him too. Looking around she blinked in confusion. The hedges were still present, but for some reason the passages were…wider. Actually they were very spacious, and covered with a thick carpet of well-manicured grass. "Cymbel? Are you here?" A quick scan of aura sight answered her question and she felt it was too peaceful. This was the worst of the worst, so why was it so quiet? She was sure there was something fiendishly horrible waiting around the corner…the problem was she didn't know what. Inspecting the place, she shaded her eyes as she saw a lone flag in the distance. Nearby she found some oddly shaped clubs that appeared to be a cross between a pole and a flat-headed hammer, some white spheres with a pockmarked surface, and unusual pegs.

There was a small book with them, titled 'The Beginner's Guide to Golf'. "So this is the last challenge? I was expecting something more…deadly. Not that I'm complaining though. I'm just glad to have a break from things trying to rip me to shreds." Browsing the pages, the gist of this was to use the weird hammer-sticks to hit the pockmarked balls to a hole–marked by the flag. Simple enough. Maybe if she completed this task she'd find out where Cymbel had gone. Readying herself, she took a position similar to what she saw in the diagrams in the book and put down a ball. Taking a mighty swing, she sent it flying with a loud WHACK!

The ball sailed through the air like an arrow loosed from a bow, falling onto the grass carpet. It landed only half a foot away from the flag, which was a fairly nice for a first hit. Walking up to it, she looked at the distance left to the flag and noticed an innocuous hole in the ground. "So I'm supposed to aim for that huh. Alright, this should be quick." Hitting with the hammer-head club, it rolled gently towards the hole…only to end up a few inches behind it. Frowning, she readjusted her grip and tried to tap it with a little less force. It rolled a little less quickly, but stopped just short by a centimeter. She stared at the ball with a hard glare. Taking in a deep breath, she went up to it, and barely touched the ball with the club and it went in. After she did so, the hedges opened up another area, this one with patches of sand in the grass. A burst of colored powder flew up in the air with the first round done, and she gave the area one last look of suspicion before moving on.

When the bright light faded, he found himself in a strange structure of semi-transparent stone and long passages. Confused he began searching for Shiloh immediately, but found himself lost in this strange new maze. Dejected, he sat down and hung his head…only to realize there was something below. Looking closer, he saw rolling pastures and hedges arranged in a maze-like pattern. How odd, it was as if there was a maze right below this one. There was something moving, but from a top-down perspective it was difficult to determine who it was. Watching the person's movements, he gradually began to recognize some details. Dark brown hair, a plain off-white tunic. Could it be…? "Cymbel? Are you here?" He jumped when he heard the voice. It was her! Lowering himself as close to the ground of the see-through maze's floor he shouted back. "I'm up here! Shiloh, I'm above you!" Vainly attempting to get her to notice, he sighed when she failed to look up. But at least he knew they were together…more or less.

From his higher vantage point, he watched her pick up some metal sticks and something too small to make out. She walked up to a spot on the green pasture, and got into position. Then, she gave a powerful swing! Her pause afterwards was likely due to her watching where the thing she hit went, and she started walking forward. He began to follow too, facing a slightly different challenge of almost running face-first into the semi-transparent walls. They both were lined up at the end of where they could walk. He was before a large solid door of dark stone, while below she was at a flag planted into the grass. She tried to move whatever she had hit to the hole before the flag, which took a few tries. As soon as it went in, the stone door began to rumble, retracting into oblivion. The way to the next part of the maze was open, and he was right behind Shiloh's steps keeping his head down to see where she was heading off to.

"It would appear that our mazes are connected somehow. If she completes one portion, then we both can advance. It would be easier if we could communicate with each other." He said to himself. "Hopefully things don't become too difficult…" This time he was faced with a panel of four buttons in a row. They were all the same color and shape, and he had no idea what purpose they had. If he did something here, would that affect her below him? He waited for her to make a move before trying out the buttons. His guesses could be wrong, after all.

Now she was at the second stage of whatever this weird challenge was. There was that pile of metal clubs and odd pock-marked balls again at the beginning, just like the previous area. Shading her eyes she looked out to the horizon, scanning for any sign of that flag. This time the grassy meadow stretched out further, leading to a red scrap of cloth flapping in the breeze. An uphill incline began where she stood and continued all the way to the hole with a gradual gradient. A little more difficult than the first, but not impossible. "Ok, this looks pretty straightforward. I wonder how long this is going to keep up." Shiloh got into position, and swung as hard as she could in hopes of sending the ball all the way to the top of the hill. She looked on in satisfaction as it soared high into the air, but then started frowning as it began to arc downward in descent. It stopped short a few meters away from her intended target and fell onto the trimmed grass. Then it started rolling backwards. 

"No, no no no no no no no–" She began muttering as she broke into a sprint to try to intercept it before it completely rolled down the slope. "Stop! STOP! I said stop!" She yelled, arresting its movement in stasis. Letting out a short exhale she managed to hold it from moving. Unfortunately now it was halfway between her starting point and the flag up there. Glaring as she walked up to it, she positioned herself so the head of the club would be right behind the ball as soon as she released it from suspension. When it wore off, it began rolling again, but this time it wasn't going anywhere other than up. With a forceful tap she punted it high into the air, having it land on the flat grassy summit like she initially intended. Now all she had to do…was carefully roll it into the hole. The key word being 'carefully'.

It was now only three inches from the flag. Taking in a deep breath she tried to shake off any jitters in her arms. She'd worked so hard to get here. The last thing she wanted was to do this thing all over again. With the club behind the ball, she lightly tapped the ball forward. Watching in anticipation she was clenching her hands as it rolled forward. Closer, closer, closer–and it rolled just past it by two inches! With a grunt of displeasure, she went to its new location to try again. Again, another small tap but lighter than the first. It rolled, rolled, rolled….and stopped right in front of the rim of the hole. Shiloh stared at the white-crater covered ball in silence. "Really? Really!? You're going to stop right there?" Going up to the flag, she nudged the ball and it fell in.

The hedges behind the end of the area parted, but instead of a path there was a stone door. There were four circles on it in a diamond pattern, in the colors of red, black, white, and purple starting from the bottom and moving clockwise. There wasn't anything else around it like a keyhole or mechanism to open said door. What was she supposed to do here? Wasn't getting the ball to the flag enough to let her pass? Come to think of it, she didn't see any colored powder fly into the air after the ball rolled in. There must be something else that needed to be done in that case.

So far it had been uneventful on his side of the maze while he watched her progress. From what he could hear, she was struggling with trying to send a ball to a colored flag. If he were sitting on a chair, he would be on the edge of it as he saw her make her first hit. It traveled quite a ways, but from the slowing descent he could see it wasn't quite there. She likely intended to hit it to the other side in one go; ambitious but well worth it if it succeeded. It seemed the force didn't carry it as far as she wanted, and it fell a few meters short of her goal. Then, to his dismay he saw it continue to move…back towards the beginning! Shiloh was clearly not happy with this, dashing ahead with the metal stick in hand. "Hurry, it's rolling faster! Oh…she can't hear me." It was easy for forget that though he could see and hear everything she was doing, it didn't work the other way around.

A sense of relief washed over him when she finally stopped it, and a sigh escaped him. It was hard to watch her be so upset. He understood how frustrated she would be to have to start from the very beginning. With a much more successful second shot she had it on level ground. She spent a few minutes around the flag, trying to adjust her force to send the ball into the hole. The telltale 'clunk' told him she had succeeded, and he was waiting for the path on his end to open up. But…nothing happened. "A door? What am I supposed to with this?" Shiloh's voice caught his attention again, and he knelt to the ground to take a closer look. On her side there was a door, with four colored circles on it. He didn't remember seeing anything with those colors anywhere, but if they both were stuck then what could he do?

The panel! It had nearly slipped his mind. He had refrained from touching it as he observed his friend's progress, so much that it had been overlooked. There were four buttons, but all the same color. This was probably the last step then, seeing nothing else around that would bear any connection. Hesitantly, he pressed them all in order. Each one lit up with a color before dimming again: white, purple, red, black. "The colors were in a rhombus pattern, if I recall. White and red going vertical from top to bottom, and black to purple horizontally. I don't see any other hints, so I'd best try them in the order they appear."

The first combination he entered was white, purple, red, black. Nothing happened. Then he tried white, black, red, purple. Again, silence. "How about red, black, white, purple? No…then red, purple, white, black?" He decided to try things crosswise. Red, white, black purple. Nothing. Red, white, purple, black. No response. White, red, purple, black? Running out of options, he attempted another variation. White, red, black, purple. A rumbling began to shake the maze, and he grasped at the pedestal with the four buttons as he tried to hold onto something stable. "Was that it? Did I find the correct answer?" The way before him opened, and his worry turned into a smile. "The way is open! I'm sure that means the same will happen for her too." The puzzle wasn't particularly difficult, but he had a feeling that they wouldn't remain so simple as time went by. They both progressed to the third area.

While she had been contemplating on breaking the door down, it suddenly shook and split down the middle. It parted, and it revealed the path to the third level of this game. Unsure of what she had done to make it open, she chose not to think more on it and advanced. Another of these long rolling meadows of meticulously trimmed grass. This time the slope was downward, and there were a few pits of sand on the sides. They weren't too wide, about ten to twenty feet or so in diameter. This looked much easier than the previous one. Hitting a ball downhill meant she could land it at the flag with a single swing. A loud whack marked the beginning of the ball's airborne trek as it sailed high and far from her elevated position. As it flew, she noticed that she had hit it a bit too hard. Just as it sailed past the flag and towards the hedge wall boundary–it vanished! Shiloh blinked. She was waiting to hear the soft plink of it reaching the ground, but it never came. Did that ball just disappear into oblivion? If she overshot it by too much, then she'd run out of balls to use before she'd finish the challenge. Reaching down to pick up another from the pile provided along with the metal clubs, she stopped herself when she saw the one at the top of the neatly arranged pyramid of balls back in its place.

"…What the–? I know I just took one from the top a second ago. How did… You know what. I'm not going to think about it. If that pile is just going to regenerate ones that get used, then that's fine." At this point she really shouldn't be surprised anymore. Apparently her first shot was bad, so she readied for her second. Hitting with a lot less strength, it flew off and rolled down the slope. This was much easier, and more logical. If it gained enough momentum, that should carry it to the hole without a hitch. It rolled, hopped and bounced as it went along following the curvature of the land. It was halfway down when it started to fall to the right and made a beeline for a sand pit. The momentum it had gained made it land smack-dab in the middle with a dissatisfying landing. This would make it a bit more difficult to get the ball back on track, but that was fine. As she walked down the slope, suddenly the sand pit started to move and the ball sank into it. Like the quicksand around Vada, it swallowed it whole.

"I knew it. Of course it had to be quicksand. Why wouldn't it be?" She muttered, climbing back up again. Taking a third ball from the pile, she repeated her actions. This time it fell into a pit directly, having decided it wanted to fly towards it like a moth to a candle. These little misshapen rocks were getting on her nerves, with their erratic–and at times–random behavior. On her seventh try she managed to land it so it was just inches away from a sand pit, and walked to with bated breath. It had better not try anything funny, or she'd be planting it when it stood. Smacking it with a level hit, she sent it to the bottom while avoiding the rest of the traps. Hitting the slight upward slope of the ground a meter from the hedge boundary, it rolled to a stop a foot from the flag. Finally it was behaving like she wanted.

Many tries to coax the ball to the hole later, it rolled in…only to stay above ground. Then some unseen force ejected it into the air, to plop back onto the grass beside the flag. Swallowing the ire building up in her throat, she went to inspect the hole. It looked completely normal. She would have to find a way to make it accept her attempts. Trying to direct the ball to the hole again, she watched closely. Just as it was over the rim, something appeared below to block the ball from falling in. Then it spat the ball back out. "You little…Stop trying to block me, you cheat! I made it in–twice! What do you want from me?!" After many repeated attempts punctuated with sounds of anger and growing discontent, finally the hole conceded her victory. It fell with a clink, and the hedges parted. It was about time it had stopped fooling around and accepted reality.

He had been working on a puzzle while Shiloh was trying to tackle whatever new hurdles the maze produced for her. Presented with a wall bearing an inscribed riddle and a dial, Cymbel was deciphering it. "A country boy and farmer's girl met at the fair and had a go. Round and round they turned to and fro, a step to the left then a twirl. Bowing twice, a do-si-do–keeping right with goodly time. A quartet of bards standing tall left their seats to join the row; adding reason to their rhyme they gave the crowd an encore."  It had something to do with the dial, the numbers especially key. Testing the dial, he noted it turned freely counterclockwise and clockwise. Returning it to its original position, he broke the riddle down. "I has something to do with turning this dial, but there must be a correct code to solve it. Let's see…'a step to the left then a twirl' and 'bowing twice, a do-si-do'. I must turn this dial left once first, I suppose?" Doing so, he moved on to find what his next action should be. "Now, 'keeping right with goodly time'. They bowed twice, so a right turn two times. There, settled." 

The next line was less straightforward. "No obvious hints now. A quartet of bards left their seats…then after that I should repeat the directions at the beginning?" He was afraid of making any hasty moves. What if he had to start from the beginning if he made an error? Whatever actions he took would reflect onto her too, so he couldn't afford to guess at random. "If four people joined the dance, then I must turn this four more times. I'm not sure if this is correct, but I'll hazard a guess and move it to the right four turns." Doing so, he heard a click and something whistling at high speed. An arrow whizzed by him, barely grazing his shoulder! "AHHH!!" Screaming he saw the bolt sticking out of the wall, behind him. Calming himself, he believed it was safe to assume his guess had been wrong–if that shot was any indication. He couldn't find where the arrow had come from, and was much more anxious about his own safety now.

"Four to the left then… Once more, from the beginning." He said, voice shaking. A turn left, two to the right, four to the left. He was safe so far, so now he was at the part with the 'encore'. Was it a complete repetition of the first two actions, or a repeat of everything up to this point? It could also mean another four left turns too. He had at least two more chances to be shot at, and felt his palms sweat. Casting a spell of protection, he took in a deep breath. "Please let me get this right." The fey prayed as he turned the dial left four more times. More arrows rained down, causing him to shriek while curling up into a defensive position. The spell worked thankfully, and they clattered to the ground harmlessly. He had one more chance. He really didn't like this, and wanted it to end as soon as possible. It was a fifty-fifty chance of success, slightly better than a third like before. Crossing his fingers, he repeated the turns, then moved the dial left one and right twice. There was a click again, and he was already ducking down when the walls started to shake. 

Half-expecting an avalanche as punishment, he was relieved to see the wall with the riddle disappear and the dial vanish. Another puzzle completed, but he was feel less eager to continue. This was starting to become downright deadly.

"How many of these have I been through now?" She grumbled, entering the fourth area. These were getting progressively more difficult without any break in between. It was like this place was never-ending. To think the last maze might be infinite made her feel like she wanted to lie down and return to the earth. Fighting enemies were preferable to this under almost any circumstance. At least you could tell when a fight was over. Still no sign of Cymbel either, but for some reason when she used aura sight he seemed close. Must be more of this place's enchantment at work. Hopefully he was safe, wherever he was. Surveying the lay of the land, she noted that things had gone up a notch. First of all, there was a river cutting through the meadow. It was quite wide and the current was noticeably swift. The second thing she noted: the flag was across the river…on a peninsula.

At least she didn't have to worry about any sandpits and underhanded tricks. The ground was actually fairly level this time. Shiloh was sure she would be able to send the ball over the water, but crossing over was a slight problem. She could use magic…but with how ridiculous and strange this place was there was no guarantee that magic would work the way she wanted. Best to take things as they came, and use it as a last resort. Lining up for her first shot, she stared at the flag waving across the water for a long time. Once she got an approximate idea of the general distance, she steadied her grip and unleashed a backswing. The solid clack of the club making full contact with the ball was the most satisfying thing to hear in this game of perpetual frustration. When you heard it, you felt like something was actually going right for once. The ball flew ahead, reaching higher and higher. But soon its height reached its apex and gravity took over. It plummeted into the river with a splash. She was definitely not getting that ball back.

This time she wasn't as upset. She figured the first shot would fail, and was using it to gauge how to adjust her next attempt. So trying to send it across in one go wasn't plausible, but she could at least get it closer to the riverbank so she could reduce how far it would need to travel. A better shot allowed her to control the ball's landing, and she was a meter from the water's edge. The opposite bank was five meters away or so, and if she hit it at full power it would make it. Maybe she was finally getting the hang of this game. That was unless there was another twist waiting to be tossed in. The narrow strip of land which led to the flag far across would be a finicky place to nail a landing. A little too much to either side and the ball would sink to the riverbed. Each time she lost a ball she had to start over, and each successive repeat wasn't any less difficult. Preparing herself for failure, she did her best to hit it straight. The head of the club had a way of causing the ball to go off course should it hit with the slightest angle, which made precision shots so impossible.

As expected, it felt to the side. Her lips drawing into a thin line, she went back to square one. Working her way back again, she decided to angle her shot. If this ball was doing opposite of what she was trying to do, then maybe she could work this to her advantage. It was probably just all in her head, really. Somehow, she managed to land it a little ways from the tip of the peninsula. Now she was halfway there. The river didn't have any fallen logs or conveniently-placed rocks, and she sure as the Circles of Inferos wasn't going for a swim. Rubbing her wrists, she decided to try that spell. It would get her over should it work on the first try. Teleportation was her best choice out of what she had available. Focusing past the opposite bank, she disappeared and reappeared where she had set her gaze in a flash. Holding herself steady, she leaned on the metal club. "Huh…it worked. That's a relief. I'm running out of patience with this place."

Again she went through the tedious task of leading the ball to the flag, and getting into the hole. Just as it rolled in, there was a rumble and sound of roaring waves. Glancing behind, a wooden bridge emerged from below the water's surface. That would've been a lot more convenient about fifteen minutes ago, before she had made it across herself. She'd finished this area and the next one opened up as expected. Shading her eyes, she squinted trying to see if there was any way to see what the location after the incoming one had in store.

Up above, Cymbel was racking his brain with the next puzzle. It was simple, but time-consuming. There was a table with eight tiles, in a three by three grid. Each tile had a portion of a picture, and the only way to complete it was to slide the tiles around until every one was in the right place. The image that he was supposed to recreate was of a wooden bridge over a rushing river. This bridge would span across the riverbanks, allowing passage. He was sure this bore significance to what Shiloh was doing, thus he hurried as fast as he could. The first few moves were easy, but soon he ran into problems. He had successfully lined up a row, but it was in the middle when it should be on the right side. Moving that meant shifting the five other tiles around, and then he had to figure out how to make the other columns match too.

The maze had been kind enough as to not fire projectiles at him for moving too slowly, but he was already putting pressure on himself. She was depending on his progress, and he had to help her as much as he could. Finally, he was down to the last two tiles that needed rearranging. This was more trying than getting the first six right, and he loathed to undo all the work he had done. After several minutes of stressful concentration, it was complete. The tiles fused together, making a complete image and the table retracted into the floor. Looking down, he saw the bridge in the picture emerge from the river's waters, but by then Shiloh was already on the opposite side of it. Disappointed in himself, he and Shiloh progressed to the fifth area.

This place kept getting stranger and stranger. This time instead of sand pits and rivers, before her stretched a long idyllic pasture. It was a cheery Terra meadow with wildflowers poking out their colored blooms from their long Glaciem slumber, outlining the edges of where the trimmed grass was. She was supposed to keep her ball within these lines, that she understood. What made her feel uneasy was how abnormally peaceful it appeared. It was very spacious in contrast to the more boxed-in areas, and the hedge boundaries were obscured by tall trees. This would be a lovely place to sit down and take a break…if it weren't part of this maze. The grassy green meandered around a corner forming a bend like a snaking river. Gently rolling slopes and small raised mounds signifying animal dens were scattered through the small plain. She didn't see the flag from where she was, but seeing there was only one direction leading away from her current location, it was wherever the meadow ended.

The first few hits weren't too hard. It was a nice change of pace from the hectic timing she had in overcoming the last four holes. Avoiding the animal dens were easy, and she was gradually moving the ball through without working up a backswing. Now reaching the bend of the course, the flag's bright colors flapped atop a small ring of mushrooms. 
A fairy circle–when was the last time she'd seen one of these? Looking at it made her feel nostalgic. They weren't the red ones fortunately. To the far left and far right there were breaks in the trees. When she saw them she didn't think about it much, and thought it was odd that they were here. There wasn't a path or any signs of trampled grass, so what was this for? Shrugging, she prepared for another shot. As she swung the club back, a rustling came from the bushes lining the edge of the right-side forest. It grew stronger, followed by the rapid snapping of twigs and branches. Was something coming? 

Suddenly, a person burst out from behind the trees, running at full speed. Expecting an elk or a pack of wolves, this unexpected result threw her off. "Wait, what? Why are people coming out of–" Shiloh quickly realized that although she was in plain view the man was not slowing down, and secondly–that man was Serci, the resident champion of the elder goddess. How did she know who he was at a glance? The answer was simple: it was his face and his long blond hair. "Serci?" The thought never occurred to her that other people might be nearby. All this time she'd thought this was some isolated area or an entirely different place from the rest of the mazes. This was the first time she had run into anybody in here. "Hey, Serci! Where are you–WAIT, STOP! DON'T COME OVER HERE!!" Confusion switched to panic as the man was charging ahead, running right towards her ball!

"No no no no no no noooo–AGHHH!!!" Her shouts fell on deaf ears as he was completely unaware of her presence while he passed through to the forest on the left side, kicking the golf ball with his foot and sending it flying into the woodland. Shrieks pierced the air as the deity voiced her extreme displeasure at his unintentional sabotage, and a bolt of lightning struck the tallest tree within a mile's radius. It was charred in an instant, reduced to a smoldering, brittle spire of blackened timber. Burying her face in her hands she groaned in exasperation, dropping her metal club. Thanks to him, she had to go all the way back and do this again! Picking her club up angrily, she stomped off to her initial starting point. The second time around she made sure to hit past the area, keeping an eye out for other people coming out of the trees bent on making this harder than it should be. 

She made it into the hole in three hits once she landed it close to the flag. She was still seething over having wasted ten minutes of her time though.

This new section was more confusing than the others he had seen so far. There was a map of the fifth portion of the maze Shiloh was currently traversing, and there were small symbols in the shape of various woodland animals. There was a blue bear on the left, a red deer on the right, a yellow eagle on the top, and a green squirrel at the bottom. There was a square of four buttons, each with one of the aforementioned colors. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing for once. There was a red caricature of a person, representing Shiloh on the map. As he watched, the caricature would move in tandem with her progress in the real maze below. Waiting for something to happen, it was fairly quiet from below. Maybe this section was a bit of a breather for them both?

While his focus was drifting off, suddenly the squirrel icon flashed green! Startled, his first action was to press the green button as soon as possible. The animal icon stopped flashing right after. "Am I supposed to be doing this? This is what I'm supposed to be doing, right?" There weren't any hints so he was basing this off of his prior experiences so far. He wasn't willing to try to test what would happen should he fail to press a button correctly, so he continued. As Shiloh's icon moved around the curve of  the course, the blue bear and red stag started flashing in unison! Quickly pressing the corresponding buttons as hard as he could, he sighed in relief when they stopped. Soon the flashing animals started to happen more and more frequently and it was a test of speed and accuracy. It was becoming rather hectic, and it wasn't slowing down. 

The sound of his friend screaming gave him a scare, and he glanced down to see if she was alright. Thankfully she was unhurt, but it was clear she was not happy. His attention wasn't able to dwell on what could have given her grief as he needed to return to the color-coded patterns again. Cymbel lost track of what was going on in the map as he was frantically pressing buttons, until the entire map lit up and the flashing stopped. Mentally strained, he saw the pathway to the sixth area open, and Shiloh make her way towards the next section. The challenges were becoming more and more relentless on both of their sides.