An ancient and gigantic maze, the Supreme Labyrinth is the location for the final task set by the Super-Ancient Beings, where one prevents the Omega Event and becomes the world's ruler.
History[]
Early History[]
At an unknown point in Earth's history, as the race of Super-Ancient Beings devised a series of tasks and trials for an intelligent race to undertake to confirm that they were worthy enough to survive the Omega Event, they built a tremendously large and difficult maze known as the Supreme Labyrinth within the mountains of what would later become a part of the Sinai Desert region of Egypt.
As part of the Trial, the Ancients constructed two thrones within the Supreme Labyrinth, the Throne of Death and the Throne of Life, and if either one was sat upon by someone who had successfully navigated the Labyrinth, it would trigger a quantum pulse if sat upon at the moment the Omega Event occurred, with the pulse racing out into the universe and preventing its end. For whomever was on the Life Throne or Death Throne at the moment of the quantum pulse, they would be rewarded with the ability to command others with absolute authority.
In order to for someone to qualify for entrance into the Supreme Labyrinth, one would need to undertake the Trial of the Mountains and perform the Fall at an iron mountain, and anyone who did so successfully would be granted a brand on their hand known as the "burning key, which would allow the claimants to open any of the five gates leading into the labyrinth. It was intended that the one who received the Mysteries at the end of the third trial would be the one to enter the Labyrinth to become the king of kings who would rule the world, and so a short, safer passage called the Emperor's Route was constructed to allow them to reach the ultimate throne with minimal difficulty.
However, the maze was also designed so that, should any who challenged the primary claimant also received a burning key and enter the Labyrinth, the Emperor's Route would become closed off and force their claimant to go through the various challenges of the maze in order to allow a race to the throne. Established towards the very end of the long-route was the Chamber of Judgement, occupied by a colossal gold statue representing a goldman which acted as a vessel for the consciousness of one of the super-ancients', and would judge those based on their purity whether or not they were worthy to proceed to the Throne of Death.
Before The Two Lost Mountains[]
After the Super-Ancients were gone, the Four Legendary Kingdoms learned about the tasks left behind by the Super-Ancient Beings, including the Supreme Labyrinth and the role it played in preventing the Omega Event.
The ancient architect Imhotep made a pilgrimage to the Supreme Labyrinth, and, with great difficulty, managed to make it to the throne at the center using the longer route before escaping back out. Taking cues from the head of a silver guardian he had brought back with him, Imhotep had clues and texts in the Word of Thoth regarding navigating the Supreme Labyrinth tattooed onto his scalp, with the intention that his followers in the Cult of Amun Ra did the same. Imhotep was also inspired by what he had seen in the great maze, and apparently incorporated some of its features into his own designs.
During Khufu's rule, the Pharaoh had the Great Pyramid of Giza built near the the Great Sphinx of Giza and the fifth iron mountain beneath it, as he knew that the former looked out directly in the direction of the Supreme Labyrinth, and possibly also the distance to it thanks to the multiple inscribed on the Sphinx's uraeus.
After the third Great Games of the Hydra around 1,250 BC, Zeus was granted the Mysteries and soon undertook the Trial of the Cities and the Trial of the Mountains, and went on to navigate the Supreme Labyrinth unchallenged, and preventing the Omega Event of his time. During the return journey, the minotaurs that Zeus's brother Hades provided to aid him were falsely accused of murdering some of their party by Theseus, and the lone survivor, Asterion, was forced to hide within the Labyrinth for some time, giving rise to the myth of the Cretan minotaur and the labyrinth it occupied.
Since the time of Zeus, fortified monasteries managed by Christian monks were built around the each of the five gates into the Supreme Labyrinth as a means of disguising them. However, during the rise of Mohammed and his armies in the 8th century, it was decided that, in order to keep the Islamic army from discovering the entrances to the Labyrinth, a deterrent was required. As such the monks placed plague-ridden bodies within each of the monasteries and left warning signs of the plague so that the army did not dare to venture inside. In addition to accomplishing this immediate task, the plague-ridden bodies and warnings helped keep further investigations from discovering the Supreme Labyrinth for centuries, and so the location of these monasteries and the gates they hid became lost to history.
In 1945, Albert Einstein confirmed the possibility of an event that would cause the universe to collapse in on itself, and eventually uncovered that the means to prevent the Omega Event was based within a quantum pulse signal that would be sent out from an ancient maze into the universe that would keep the universe from contracting.
In the early 21st century, once he had ascended to the highest rank within the Catholic Church's Omega Group, Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza had his bare scalp tattooed with the clues to the Supreme Labyrinth just as Imhotep had done.
In 2016, as preparations for the Trial of the Cities were underway, Hades showed Jack West Jr and his team a papyrus Zeus had written regarding the final two trials, which included a brief mention of the Supreme Labyrinth, however they chose to focus on the portion regarding the former trial.
While infiltrating the Order of the Omega's lodgings in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Jack found a map of the Supreme Labyrinth's gates, but despite its title he mistakenly assumed that the image was a type of star map.
The Two Lost Mountains[]
After their somewhat-successful mission to rescue Lily in Moscow, Jack's team reconvened at Hades's Estate to discuss the remaining trial. Hades noted that the Trial of the Mountains would lead them to the Supreme Labyrinth at the time of the Omega Event, which he described as an impossible maze. As Iolanthe Compton-Jones added that the location of the Labyrinth was one of history's most guarded secrets, Hades informed the team that sitting on the ultimate throne at the moment of the Omega Event would avert the catastrophe and be crowned the world's ruler.
At the same time, a group of the Omega monks led by Brother Enoch went to Rome so that they could take advantage of the sleep-struck city, caused by Sphinx's use of a Siren bell, to infiltrate the Vatican Secret Archives and locate the uraeus of the Great Sphinx of Giza, in order to determine the multiple that would tell them where the entrance to the Supreme Labyrinth was to be found. Enoch's group soon discovered that the multiple was 16 schoinos, which they were soon forced to reveal to General Garthon Rastor before he had them executed.
Meanwhile, Alby Calvin was tasked with researching anything regarding the Supreme Labyrinth. Among the collection of documents that had been amongst Jack's collection, he found a photo of a hieroglyph Imhotep had written regarding the Labyrinth and how the clues had been marked upon his body. Alby also discovered a hieroglyph from Khufu's tomb which mentioned the impossible maze, but because it mentioned a statue looking out at the Labyrinth from its mountaintop perch, he dismissed the Sphinx since he believed it did not sit on a mountain. Additionally, Alby found that Einstein had uncovered the scientific description of what would happen when someone sat on the ultimate throne.
Once he had performed the Fall at the first iron mountain, Sphinx and his forces headed to the gates of the Supreme Labyrinth, while Dion DeSaxe moved to perform the Fall at the second mountain to be prepared to act as Sphinx's backup within the maze. Upon arriving at the gates, Sphinx had his forces, including thousands of bronzemen and silvermen, begin moving into defensive positions at the gates to keep any competitors from entering the Labyrinth. Once Sphinx, Mendoza (whose head was shaven to reveal the tattooed clues he had for the Labyrinth), the Vandals and a few of the Knights of the Golden Eight were ready, Sphinx used the burning key had been branded with to open the Emperor's Gate, which also initiated the slow closing of the other gates. With that, Sphinx and his party entered the Supreme Labyrinth.
However, only minutes after Sphinx's group entered the Labyrinth, High Brother Ezekiel (who had performed the Fall at the third mountain before its destruction) and his group crash-landed their plane outside the second gate, which had had not yet been blocked off by Sphinx's defences. The Omega monks proceeded inside the Labyrinth, which presumably also closed off the Emperor's Route to Sphinx's Labyrinth team. Unable to radio Sphinx to warn him, his outside defences allowed Dion through the third gate so that he could enter the ancient maze to assist Sphinx in reaching the ultimate throne.
With only one day until the gates into the Labyrinth closed, other competitors rushed to perform the Fall at either of the two lost mountains in order to earn the burning key to allow them entrance. As Jack, Lily and Zoe did the Fall at the fifth mountain, Sister Lynda Fadel discovered the location of the Supreme Labyrinth's gates, having overheard the Omega monks discovery of the multiple and determining that the Sphinx, since it did indeed sit on a mountain, was the starting point, allowing them to pinpoint the Labyrinth in the Sinai Desert.
As Jack's team prepared to enact their Russian Doll Plan to get through Sphinx's army of automatons, Rastor (having undertaken the Fall at the fourth mountain) and his men also engaged Sphinx's defences outside the fourth gate to the Labyrinth, using their V-88 Condor to get past the defensive line and land at the entrance. Despite some difficulty, Jack, Zoe, Lily, Easton and four of their "palemen" managed to get inside the final gate before the entrance was closed. Discovering that Alby had thrown them the mummified head of Imhotep, which still held the clues to the Supreme Labyrinth, Jack and the others began their descent into the ancient maze.
The One Impossible Labyrinth[]
As Sphinx and his team neared the end of the First Cavern, they heard the Omega monks enter the Cavern behind them, and attempted to sabotage their rivals' progress by destroying the bridge behind them, though the monks used a bridging unit to traverse the gap. With the Emperor's Route blocked, both groups rushed to begin traversing the Endless Tunnel, both choosing the correct route.
12 hours after Sphinx's entrance into the Labyrinth, Dion and his squires began their own navigation of the Supreme Labyrinth, making their way through the First Cavern with relative ease. However, Dion's long-time lack of attention in history made him ignorant to the requirements to make it through the Labyrinth, and so when they arrived at the six entrances to the Endless Tunnel, Dion mis-identified the symbol of Ningizzida and led them into the wrong tunnel.
In their entranceway, Jack, Lily, Zoe and Easton were attacked by a pair of Vandals that Sphinx had left behind, inadvertantly triggering a sliding stone trap that force them to rush into the First Cavern. With Rastor and his men already narrowly ahead of them, the team struggled to contend against the silvermen guarding the bridge leading into the gigagntic stalactite. However, as Rastor approached the exit, he started firing RPGs into the stalactite to try to bring it and Jack's people down. Though Jack, Lily, Easton and one of their palemen managed to escape, Zoe was unable to reach safety and fell into the abyss, while the others were forced to pass through the exit before it sealed shut. Zoe managed to survive, however, using her maghook to arrest her fall, and would later force her way under the sealed door by using grenades to blast open a path.
Jack, Lily and Easton pressed on, meanwhile, to the six entrances to the Endless Tunnel, and as they considered the correct route, realised how the clues tattooed on Imhotep's head could aid their progress. As Lily went to scout the tunnel entrance beneath the image of Ningizzida, Dion and his remaining squires re-emerged from the incorrect passage, but the remaing squires were killed by a goldman, while Dion escaped its fatal clutches by jumping to Lily's ledge. Though the young king attempted to shoot Lily before heading down the right tunnel, he was instead beaten and killed, with Jack, Easton and Smiley then proceeding with Lily on into the Endless Tunnel.
At around this time, Sphinx's team arrived at the City-Maze and triggered a mechanism that caused the section of the maze containing the Throne of Life to rise to the surface of the Red Sea. Over the next several hours, as Sphinx, Mendoza and Jaeger Sechs began making their way to the Castle of the Tree of Life, Jagers Seiben and Acht fought to hold off Ezekiel and the Omega monks for as long as possible before the two Golden Knights were eventually felled.
Meanwhile, both Rastor's team and Jack's team continued their passage through the Endless Tunnel, the latter group coming into a confrontation with another pair of Vandals which triggered a goldman's attack, though they narrowly escaped to continue on. Eventually, Rastor's group reached the entrance to the City-Maze, and set up an ambush for Jack using the last Vandal and a crimson orb, though Jack, Lily and Easton survived thanks to Smiley's intervention.
With all groups now in the City-Maze, and Sphinx far in the lead, Ezekiel made preparations to bring down the Castle of the Tree of Life using RDX charges with the intention of continuing traversing the second-half of the Supreme Labyrinth to reach the Throne of Death. Rastor himself began firing more RPGs at the Castle to try and thwart Sphinx's progress, and even destroyed a section of the seawall to start flooding the City-Maze. As Sphinx neared the pinnacle of the Throne of Life, Jack, realising Ezekiel's plan and of the existence of the second throne, used a destroyer's cannon to blow apart the Throne of Life. With only the Throne of Death remaining, all the parties rushed to get to the entrance to the second part of the Labyrinth; with Rastor and his troops taking the lead, followed by Sphinx and Mendoza, then Ezekiel and his remaining Omega monk, and finally the now-alone Jack.
After several hours, each group came upon the huge Four-Sided Maze, with only Jack stopping to rest while the others moved in. The Omega monks turned back, however, having decided to rest as well, and came upon Jack. Before they could execute him, Zoe, Lily and Alby arrived, with the former killing the monks. The group then took stock of the rotating maze to determine what they needed to do before heading inside, encountering a few difficulties along the way. Jack's group started gaining ground on their rivals, and though they came even with Sphinx and Mendoza, Rastor and his remaining two men exited the maze first. While Jack managed to get out of the maze, Lily, Zoe and Alby were washed back by a wave of water.
Jack began racing after Rastor, only to find himself confronted by the mad General on the bridge, who unleashed his men in a kamikaze attack to try and kill him. Rastor then continued on to climb the Tower of Judgement, while Zoe, Lily and Alby were forced to hide themselves away while the armed-and-firing Sphinx and Mendoza passed them in pursuit. Rastor was then first to enter the golden cage that was winched up to the Chamber of Judgement, where he was judged by the purity of his intentions by the gold colossus before being allowed on. Sphinx followed alone when the cage returned to the top of the tower, while Mendoza waited on the top of the tower, while Sphinx passed through the Chamber and was also judged to be pure by the colossus. As Lily's group arrived on top of the tower, Mendoza held them at gunpoint, at which point Jack returned and knocked him out.
Decided to proceed undertake the ultimate judgement alone rather than risk his group all at once, and proceeded up in the cage with the unconscious Mendoza. Upon stopping in the Chamber of Judgement before the gigantic statue, the colossus began probing both Jack and Mendoza's minds to determine if they were worthy enough to proceed. Mendoza tried to conceal his thoughts, however the ancient consciousness quickly saw the truth in that he was a deceitful man and killed the Cardinal. The gold colossus then addressed Jack, confirming that he was worthy. After Jack expressed his honest desire to let people live their own lives, the gold colossus briefly answered Jack's questions about what it was and what the trials of the ancients were about, ending the discussion by noting that it was all about being a test of worth before sending Jack on his way.
Up in the Stadium of the Death Throne, however, Rastor was using a high-velocity sniper rifle from a position on the bridge to pin down Sphinx and Jack to keep them from approaching the Throne of Death. Jack then activated his Warbler and charged toward Rastor, the rounds fired at him being deflected by his device's magnetic field. He and the General then fought hand-to-hand while Sphinx took the opportunity to pass them and enter the Castle of the Throne of Death. After tossing Rastor off the bridge, Jack raced after Sphinx, with the two beginning the climb of the pinnacle with the Throne at its peak.
Jack soon took the lead over Sphinx, with Alby, Lily and Zoe aiding Jack one final time by passing the former's artificial hand to Jack so that he could use it in place of the one Rastor had damaged to finish the climb. Rastor returned a final time to try to stop Jack, but was killed when Jack detonated a crimson orb in his mouth. Jack and Sphinx then arrived at the top of the pinnacle at the same time, and raced to get to the Throne of Death first, with Jack sitting upon it first and activating the quantum pulse that spread out into the universe and kept the Omega Event from occurring.
With the trial over, Jack used his new ability to command anyone without question to detain Sphinx, and after reuniting with his family waited for the rest of their team to come and pick them up, leaving the Supreme Labyrinth behind.
In the following years after the world learned of the ancient trials, archaeologists and historians headed to the ancient sites such as the Supreme Labyrinth to study them, with the flooded City-Maze being drained and its seawall repaired in the process. The ancient Labyrinth became a popular tourist viewing site as a result of the historic events that had taken place there, with cruise ships passing by the exposed City-Maze. The Labyrinth was recognised by the world as being crucial and in need of preservation so that they could be used for future runs of the trials and Omega Events.
Features[]
The Gates and Entry Tunnels[]
Set out at the base of a mountain range in Egypt's Sinai Desert, the five gates leading into the Supreme Labyrinth are arranged at five points, with the Emperor's Gate facing directly to the west. Each gate is concealed within the remains of an ancient monastery made to hide the entrances to the Supreme Labyrinth from prying eyes. All of the chapels are basic hovels 10 paces across, with the back wall carved like a high arched doorway with a protruding altar that serves as the gate itself. A raised stone symbol carved into the floor at the base of the back wall in the Emperor's Gate is what opens all of the gates, while simultaneously initiating the closing on a stone slab that slowly lowers and seals the chapel around the gate after 24 hours.
Once the gate has been entered, the claimants begin walking down a sloping tunnel found in each gate. A short way's along, the claimants will reach a set of downward-leading stairs made of a dull-yet-shining metal. Stepping onto these shining stairs will trigger a sliding stone trap, which is designed to force the claimant's team to rush to the end of the tunnel and jump out into the First Cavern.
The First Cavern[]
View of the First Cavern
An enormous cavern dominated by a 15-stories tall stalactite, which serves as the first test of worth for the claimants.
The five entry tunnels each open six feet above a bronze-like bridge with short guttering walls, which keep the surface of the bridges filled knee-high with water, that lead to the central stalactite. In the middle of each bridge stands a single silver guardian encased in a stone shell; once a claimant arrives at the bridge, the automaton's shell break fall apart. As the claimant starts crossing their bridge, greystone pellets suspended on the cavern ceiling will drop down into the water, forcing the claimants to confront or avoid the silverman in their way to reach the other side of the bridge before the water is turned into solid greystone and entraps them.
The bridges meet in the middle of a well-shaft located in the stalactite. After being confronted with two additional shelled silvermen on each side of the doorway into a well-shaft, the claimants then used a ladder carved into the well-shaft's wall to climb down to a doorway leading back onto the outside of the stalactite. Should the claimant lose their grip on the ladder and fall into the well-shaft, dozens of an extremely sharp filament wire criss-crossing the shaft will cut the faller to pieces, thus preventing them from arresting their fall before the open bottom of the stalactite.
Once back outside the stalactite, a spiral path winds around the bottom of the stalactite before leading onto a final bridge adorned with obelisks on each side. This obelisk bridge leads directly to the exit door, which will completely seal once a stone slab lowers into place over it 24 hours after the first claimant has entered the Supreme Labyrinth.
Emperor's Route[]
100 meters down from the First Cavern's exit door stands a fork; directly ahead is the Emperor's Route, which leads straight to the Stadium of the Death Throne. This is the intended path for any claimant to the Supreme Labyrinth who has entered unchallenged, affording an easy means of reaching the Throne and preventing the Omega Event.
Should any additional claimants enter the Labyrinth, the ancient maze will sense this and seal the entrance into the Emperor's Route with a dense metal door inscribed with Thoth hieroglyphs, forcing all claimants to take the Endless Tunnel path.
The Endless Tunnel[]
100 meters down from the First Cavern's exit door stands a fork; directly to the right of the Emperor's Route is the entrance to the Endless Tunnel, which will be the only available path should there be multiple claimants in the Labyrinth and the Emperor's Route is sealed.
The Six Choices[]
Only 10 meters along this short tunnel is a chamber with a seemingly bottomless abyss. Called the six choices due to the six tunnel openings on the opposite side of the chasm, the claimants must choose the correct tunnel themselves, which is identifiable by the symbol of the Tree of Life carved above the doorway. Regardless, the claimants must use a series of rungs carved in the ceiling to reach their chosen path.
Should the claimant choose the wrong path, they will end up travelling a great distance until they reach a dead end. But as they turn to trace their steps back to the six choices chamber, they will be forced to confront a gold guardian stationed in the tunnel, as well as a pair of silver guardians that would have initially stood within stone shells on either side of the tunnel's entrance and activated some time after the claimant's entry.
The True Endless Tunnel[]
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The City-Maze[]
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Castle of the Tree of Life[]
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Throne of the Tree of Life[]
One of two gigantic thrones located within the Supreme Labyrinth, found within the city-maze half-way through the full Labyrinth. The Throne of Life can be sat upon by any who wish to prevent the Omega Event and become the world's emperor should the Emperor's Route to the Throne of Death be closed off and if they do not intend to continue through the second-half of the Labyrinth.
While the mechanism behind it is unknown, the means to prevent the Omega Event is based within a quantum pulse signal that is sent out from the throne if it is sat upon by someone branded with the burning key at the moment of the Omega Event, a signal that races out into the universe at unfathomable speeds and keeps it from contracting.
The Four-Sided Maze[]
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The Tower of Judgement[]
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Chamber of Judgement[]
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Stadium of the Death Throne[]
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Castle of the Tree of Death[]
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Throne of the Tree of Death[]
One of two gigantic thrones located within the Supreme Labyrinth, found within the "stadium" at the very of the Labyrinth. The Throne of Death can be sat upon by any who wish to prevent the Omega Event and become the world's emperor, nominally after using the Emperor's Route if they are unchallenged through the Labyrinth, or by any who traverse the entire maze and do not / can not use the Throne of Life.
While the mechanism behind it is unknown, the means to prevent the Omega Event is based within a quantum pulse signal that is sent out from the throne if it is sat upon by someone branded with the burning key at the moment of the Omega Event, a signal that races out into the universe at unfathomable speeds and keeps it from contracting.
Attributes[]
The Supreme Labyrinth is, as Cardinal Mendoza notes, evidently not of this world, and so is likely constructed largely from materials not found on Earth. It also emits an electromagnetic field of some kind, which prevents any kind of modern radio wave from penetrating the outside world or from coming in.
Like some of the other ancients shrines made by the Super-Ancients, the Labyrinth possesses qualities that allow it to determine if it has been properly challenged, as Mendoza would explain to Jaeger Sechs as to why they could not simply use a chopper to aid their progress to the Throne of Life.
Trivia[]
It is unknown what would happen to a claimant who is already using the Emperor's Route should a second claimant enter the Labyrinth; presumably the remainder of the path before them would be closed off, forcing the first claimant to return to the Endless Tunnel.