She could feel it in her bones. The end was close, she knew it. How, she wasn't sure. But then again maybe it was just wishful thoughts, desperately hoping for sweet release. The giggling returned, and a scowl began to make its way across her face. "You…" She pointed at the little girl. The girl grinned that impish grin of hers, and it made the deity madder. The redheaded gremlin waved, and then scampered away. She didn't trust that child one bit. "I swear…something bad's going to happen. I know it." It was another standard hole, with another mixture of hazards she had encountered before. But a shaking began to begin in the trees, and then it became a tremor. A skeleton began crawling out of the ground, and soon flesh began to grow over it. To her horror, Shiloh began to fall into despair as she saw what was happening. A manticore, a Bakulaw terror lizard, and three lycans emerged into the scene–in the flesh. "No…no! Why?! Why would you do this to me?!!" These were just a small sample of what she had to cut through in the maze of death and desire. She knew those beasts, and they even had the scars where she had dealt a killing blow. But wasn't there something that was missing?

The ground shook once again, so strongly she thought it was an earthquake. The form of a skeletal dragon reared its ugly head with a blood-curdling roar, and they all rushed to return the favor she had given them back in the previous maze. Grabbing the ball and fleeing, she saw the little girl standing off to the side, with a glow from her hands. "Oh you little–" Shiloh cursed before she dodged a flying femur coming off of the bone dragon. This was completely absurd! How on earth was this even golf anymore?! As if repeating their past actions, the Bakulaw terror lizard ate the lycans again before charging after her. This was definitely Dalanesca or Angela's doing. How else was it possible for these exact enemies to be revived in the most inconvenient situation possible? 

"If you block my shot, I swear I will put you so deep in the ground you'll never crawl back out again!" She shouted at the remaining monsters. Charging up the metal club, she threw it like a boomerang and hit the manticore square in the face. The club was teleported back into her hands, thanks to the retrieval system implemented for her convenience. Amusingly enough, this was very helpful in combat. Pelting the two smaller monsters with as much electrically charged metal as she could, she threw it like a javelin and impaled it through the manticore's skull. A bolt of lightning struck the beast, reducing it to a charred corpse. With the club back from her throw, she aimed it into the gaping maw of the terror lizard. It gnashed its large jaws onto the metal club, giving her time to draw another lightning bolt to the head. This reptile was tough, as it took more than one bolt to properly take it down. Now the dragon was left, and this was the worst of them all. Using wind to lift herself up, she dove down with a powerful electric field. Ramming the skull down into the dirt as hard as she could, she began beating it over the head with the club in her hands. 

It reared up again, flinging her off. She retaliated by activating the shadows within her, and fully supercharged by her accumulated rage she tore the ancient skeleton asunder. Bones were splintered, fragments were bashed. It was a bloodbath, without the blood. The aftermath was a destroyed fairway and several bones jutting out of the earth. When all was quiet again, she set her ball down and sent it to the flag properly.

Meanwhile, Cymbel was screaming yet again for a completely different reason. He was running with his eyes wide and face pale in fear as a thunderous rumbling followed. As soon as he entered this place the door sealed up and a boulder was dropped behind him. It began rolling towards him, prompting him to run in the opposite direction of its path. A rolling boulder in a maze was truly one of the most fiendish traps an architect could employ. Unfortunately this was fairly common, as it was rather easy to implement. But what wasn't easy was escaping a moving ton of rock that seemed to home in on his location. If he didn't find a way out or a safe space to duck into, he'd be crushed. There would be no continuation after that. "Let me out, let me out!" He wailed, throwing anxious looks over his shoulder with each step. How was he supposed to focus on finding the exit with imminent death behind? He shuddered to think what would happen if he ran into a dead end, and prayed that it would never happen.

While avoiding being rolled flat, he had to use the maze navigating strategies he had used before. Hug the left wall or the right, then keep going in that direction. He ran into a dead end, but thankfully had enough of a lead on the boulder to retrace his steps to a passageway with more branches. This was nerve-wracking, and diabolical. He begged to the goddesses for mercy. Left was no good, so perhaps right was the way. Every turn he made had the rumbling not too far behind, an ever-present reminder of impending doom. He was running out of stamina. There were three ways to go now. Forward, left, and right. He gave a quick look at each one, and tried to discern which path had ways to escape. He couldn't see around the left path's left-hand corner, and the right path led straight down. He had to run ahead, straight ahead.

Pulling himself together for one last sprint, he raced down the corridor. He found an alcove with an impression in the shape of a body against the wall, and laid himself in it. It was just deep enough that the boulder rolled past him, leaving him unscathed. From behind the wall opened, and he fell backwards…safe, but tired. All of this running and stress was bad for his heart. 

"Somebody, please–get me out of this sadistic game. I want out!" She shouted, vainly hoping somebody would hear. The new challenge presented in this one didn't make her feel any less miserable. There was a lumber mill–for heaven knows why–and logs were being rolled off a ramp across the fairway to the opposite site. The logs would then float down the river flanking the area. The madness kept on going! Yes, she was mad–mad to continue playing a game designed for failure, to frustrate and foil at every turn. Mad that she wanted completion more than her own sanity's well-being. Utterly beyond the point of depravity, and several other things. Why? All because she wanted to see what was at the end of this maze. She went through varying degrees of hell to get here, and continued to plod through this despite everything within her screaming. Existence was pain. Death was the end of all things. The world would wither and die while burning in a flood of fire and brimstone. Then a meteor the size of Parvpora would impact the sea, drowning everything else that hadn't turned to ash.

She had fallen into despair believing that this was all just an elaborate ruse and there was no end to the maze. But she still wanted to finish it. That was the paradox that made her who she was. There was a safe spot a few meters forward from the area the logs would roll down. If she could get the ball to roll there, she would have a much easier time. Observing the timing of the falling logs, she aimed high and went for a long shot. Another rare beautiful shot, traveling through the air like an eagle on the winds. It fell right before the boundary too, which wasn't too bad for an angle. Then, that little child showed up. "OH NO YOU DON'T!" Fed up with shenanigans, Shiloh ran around the fairway heading straight for the little girl. Unsurprisingly the red-head nabbed the ball again and rolled away into the bushes. "GET BACK HERE YOU PUCA IN HUMAN SKIN!" The deity shrieked as she cleared out the underbrush with wild swings from an electrified club. That was it. She had enough. Enough with the traps, the hazards, the random encounters throwing her back to the beginning. She was getting that ball back and giving that girl a piece of her mind.

That little imp ran giggling through the forest and tangled roots. Anything smaller than an adult sapling was mowed down in the wake of Shiloh's fury. On the other side was the rest of the river, and there were the logs floating in the water. The child was close to the riverbank, and there was nowhere to run. Having her cornered, Shiloh was tearing up the ground with enraged strikes. There was a swath of destruction trailing behind her, showing where she had been. The child looked worried for a moment, then quickly took the ball in one hand and threw it into the water with a splash. Dropping to her knees, Shiloh let out an agonizing scream that reverberated through the entire maze. An explosion of lightning rained down from on high, striking at random with wild abandon throughout. To the other participants, this sudden turn of events only added to the maze's original dangers.

Pounding her fist on the ground she spewed curses in words from another world, her fury reaching it's pinnacle. That outburst had briefly lowered the strain from within, but now that ire was burning bright once again. She'd conquer this maze, she'd conquer it surely–no matter what it took! By the Circles, she'd beat this tortuous place once and for all. 

Lightning was crackling everywhere, and he saw devastation pummel the earth below. It was terrifying on a different level than what he had went through so far, and he understood why. A scream, an awful and almost unearthly scream echoed throughout the walls. Curling up, he sat on the floor with his hands over his ears trying to wait it out. The stonework shook with waves of tremors, and he felt his stomach churn. "Ut malediceret vobis! Maledicam domo tua, milia sanguinis penuriam vestram! A te in pustulis correptus est, eoque in te omnes!" Words full of anger, hate, and spite were like a thousand burning arrows doused in poison. He could feel the sheer intensity of the emotions behind those words in a foreign tongue. It shook him to witness it. He had only seen her become angry once, and it had been terrifying. Smoke rose up from the forest as the lightning hit with wild abandon. He couldn't stop her or calm her down. It was painful to see her in this state. 

"I'm coming, Shiloh. Please, I'm almost there!" Finally pushing past the doors which would lead to the final stage, he held hope in his heart that he would be there to greet her in the Sanctum. They were almost at the end, almost out of this maze. Soon it would over, and it would be only just a memory. A single string in the fabric of eternity. "Hold on and endure, friend. I will be with you soon." He whispered as he stepped to the last challenge. Drawing his sword, he stood before a towering guardian with four faces and four arms. Each of the four with a different expression and different color bore a weapon or power that referenced the four orbs. Life, Love, Death, and Desire. "May my humble resolution be worthy in your sight…"

The flag was in sight. Behind it was a door, a tall door like the one she had seen a long time ago when she first started. The four colors depicting four orbs were present. Was this the end? It had been an uphill battle in more ways than one. Her mind and body were strained, and she was at her breaking point. In the past she thought she had reached it, but somehow managed to continue on. This last obstacle would either make or break her–figuratively and literally. She wanted this all to be done. This was enough. No mortal or deity should put themselves through this. There were a few things worse than death, she had learned. And how a painful lesson it was. One more trial, one more door. Then finally, she would be given release.

Going through the motions, the repetition from the past holes allowed her to perform almost robotically. After the hundredth time, your own body would begin to remember through muscle memory. Aim high, aim low, putt at full power, putt at half power, tap gently. She was drained and emotionally numb. It didn't matter what was at the end anymore. She just wanted to leave. This last course had a combination of every simple hazard in the book, and was three times as long. With the end in sight, she let loose a powerful backswing–turning the ball into a tiny projectile with the force of a large hailstone. The flag was in her range, it shouldn't be long now. The arc was completed and the ball was descending down, and she held her breath. Faster, faster, faster it fell towards the earth.

At the last moment, some unseen force from a figure in the trees knocked it back, flying towards her and then past her, rolling in the dirt. The storm deity snapped. Having put up with every unreasonable thing imaginable, this was the last straw that broke the camel's back. Hurling her golf club at the opposite side of the maze, it vanished once it fell out of bounds and returned in the pile on the ground. Grabbing a ball from the stack, she ran all the way to the flag screaming at the top of her lungs, and threw the accursed little thing into the hole. Then for some reason, an apple appeared in her hand which she threw at the door. Despite her last action not being within the original rules of golf, it was accepted and the way opened. The remains of the fruit's smashed pulpy flesh fell onto the grass as she stormed out. 

She would be here any moment now. Pacing back and forth he nervously looked up every few seconds. He had arrived at this place where only a pedestal with two objects laid following his victory over the four-faced guardian. Following the battle, he had spent some time healing and resting before pacing as he did now. Hearing the sound of cursing under one's breath, he saw the brunette woman stagger in looking worse for wear. "Shiloh!" He called out, his face breaking into a bright smile. "Ah!" Quickly he ran over to catch her as she collapsed onto the ground. She looked terrible, but there were no wounds on her body. Her eyes looked dull and it was as if her soul had left her body. Propping her up, he tried to make her comfortable and cast a spell to alleviate any mental fatigue she still had. She stayed still for a while, glassy eyed and unresponsive. She was still breathing, so that was a good sign. Then, she moved and rubbed her head with a groan. Handing her a flask of water, he let her sit in silence until she decided to speak up. 

"Are you alright? I heard screaming…I was worried." He sat next to her, taking the flask when she was done. "Yes….no. Is it over?" She rolled her head over towards him, weariness in her eyes. "I believe so. It's peaceful here. There's only that pedestal and those objects. Should we take them?" She nodded, rubbing her eyes. "Sure." He carefully picked the brooch and bottle up, and tucked them away safely. Helping her to her feet, they both were enveloped in a bright light–returning them to the Sanctum. "They made it!" Voices surrounded them as the staff of Antikythera swarmed around him and Shiloh. "So how'd it go? Was the last one a real nail-biter?" "Hey, what was the first one like? Did it have those crystal fountains I heard some people talking about?" "Settle down everyone, you can ask them later. Let's bring them back to the Clephsydra." Several pairs of metal hands raised Shiloh and him up over their heads, as they marched out to show off the two new champions of the goddesses' challenge.

It was a wonderful feeling being surrounded by loved ones and friends after a long journey through life, death, love, and desire. A small smile came to his face as he watched Shiloh fall asleep.

[OOC: A big thank you to the users Serci, Magusandrus (Douken), Brandon (Xunatar), Brittlez (Angela Rose), Whit (Dalanesca), elusivephantom, and many more for their suggestions for this thread! You guys made these 18 holes a fun but challenging endeavor! A big thanks to all the staff here on Revaliir!]