I'm Expanding My Hand-Written QBasic Text Adventure – "The Descent of Time"

The Shimmering Return

There are moments within The Labyrinth of Time’s Edge where the world itself seems to remember what it once was, a fleeting shimmer, a reflection of purity before the rot took hold. That is where this new journey begins.

“The world begins to twist and shimmer, the rot peeling away as reality reverts to what it once was a fleeting glimpse of purity before the decay.” - Room 4030

The Castle at the Edge of Time has always been the beating heart of the Labyrinth’s mythology, the place where past, present, and nightmare converge into a single breath. Yet, what you now enter is not merely another location. It is a revelation. A resurrection of the world before its collapse. As you step into the Great Hall, you are greeted not by silence or ruin, but by echoes of joy long extinguished. Laughter ripples through the air. Music twines through candlelight. But the revelry is wrong, a reflection of life seen through the cracked mirror of eternity.

“You find yourself among a sea of faces. Laughter and music ripple through the air as pleasant voices mingle in celebration of a life long past.” - Room 4031

Here, in this resurrected illusion, you are a ghost among ghosts, a wanderer walking through memory’s final performance.

The Great Hall and Its Illusions

Among the revelers stands a BARD, his melody pure and untouched by time’s cruelty, a haunting reminder that even in this broken world, innocence once sang.

“Passing through the crowd, a BARD catches your eye his song bright and free, a melody of innocence untouched by time's cruelty.” - Room 4033

The Great Hall rises in grandeur: marble pillars, glittering chandeliers, and vast staircases curling into unknown heights. Yet, the higher you climb, the more the illusion unravels. The laughter grows faint, the music falters, and the cold fingers of truth begin to tug at the seams of the dream.

“With each step, the walls tremble and flake apart. The air hums with truth this world is no celebration, but an illusion unraveling around you.” - Room 4036

Beyond, a horn sounds not in triumph, but in warning. The masquerade collapses, and the Great Hall dies again. You are thrust into another place, a realm ancient and unknown, where ivory doors gleam like bones beneath torchlight and stairways descend into the condemned.

“A violent gust consumes you. You gasp for breath, only to awaken in another realm altogether a place both ancient and unknown.” - Room 4038

The illusion has served its purpose. It has shown what was lost. Now, the descent begins.

Dungeon Floor One: The Shadow of Judgment

Where the Great Hall deceives, Dungeon Floor One reveals. Here, beneath the bones of grandeur, lies truth, and truth is a wound that never heals.

“Before you looms the grand entrance to a dungeon forsaken by the light of God. Here, only the wicked remain, their sins sealed beneath stone and shadow.” - Room 4045

This is not the domain of monsters, but of consequence. The sins of the past are not forgotten here; they are displayed, immortalized in chains, bones, and echoes. The air is thick with iron and regret.

“From somewhere in the depths comes the pleading of the damned faint, trembling cries that twist through the air and find purchase in your bones.” - Room 4047

Through these halls, the player becomes more than an adventurer; they become a witness. A voice whispers your name, a phantom drawn from your own guilt. Each echo feels personal, as though the dungeon remembers you, too.

“A voice calls your name from the dark, soft and trembling. You turn, searching but only shadows answer back.” - Room 4058

And then, as if mercy itself intervenes, the nightmare dissolves. You awaken in a hut, safe but the memory lingers like frost on the soul.

“From nowhere, a figure lunges, knocking you backward into stone. The world spins and suddenly, you're in a makeshift hut, the memory of the dungeon fading like a nightmare.” - Room 4059

Dungeon Floor One is purgatory, not for the wicked, but for those who dare to remember them.

Dungeon Floor Two: The Cradle of Madness

When you descend once more, it is not with courage, but resignation. The Dungeon Floor Two is not a continuation it is an abyss that dreams.

“The ancient stone walls, shrouded in cobwebs and age-old dust, seem to breathe as they draw you deeper into the abyss.” - Room 4061

Each step is a heartbeat, each echo a memory. The air thickens with screams of the forgotten, weaving into a dirge for those who never left.

“The cries of the dead twist through the corridors, a chorus of tortured souls howling like chained beasts beneath a moonless sky.” - Room 4066

Here, the player faces SKELETON WARRIORS, GUARDS, and the grotesque MURLUHS abominations locked in eternal combat, embodiments of a war that time itself tried to bury.

“Two twisted abominations - MURLUHS - tear at one another within a blood-soaked pit, their screams melding into a single note of madness.” - Room 4072

Every passage is suffused with dread, every corridor breathing despair. The scratches on the walls are not decorations, but desperate tallies. Each mark, a soul counting its imprisonment in eternity.

“The walls bear hundreds of scratches — marks of desperation etched by those counting the endless days of their imprisonment.” - Room 4075

Dungeon Floor Two is a study in the architecture of madness. The deeper you go, the less you recognize yourself.

The Descent Into Meaning

At the heart of this new update lies not simply horror, but reflection. The Labyrinth of Time’s Edge has always been about more than darkness; it’s about what we find within it. The Great Hall shows us the beauty that once was. Dungeon Floor One reminds us of the cost of sin. Dungeon Floor Two confronts us with what remains when all light is gone, the raw truth of the soul unmasked.

“A narrow staircase spirals deeper into the earth, deeper into the madness that waits in the bowels of this cursed realm.” - Room 4080

This is the soul of The Labyrinth of Time’s Edge, a free game for the world to experience, crafted in the solitude of creation, built room by room from the mind of one dreamer determined to leave behind something eternal. Every room written, every word placed, is a monument to imagination, a defiance of the modern machine that measures art in profit instead of passion. The journey does not end here. These new areas are only the beginning of a greater vision, a series of novels that will expand this universe beyond the screen, into pages that echo the same mystery, fear, and wonder that the Labyrinth breathes.

So descend. Listen to the echoes. The Castle awaits.

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