Evan went to the row of platforms before he turned around to face the rest. He looked at their faces, one by one.
„We will need five people. Each has to step on the platform, according to what was written on the floor," he informed. „We should choose who."
Few looked over their shoulders back to the puzzle, but their gazes soon returned to the teenager.
„I don't think it's wise to send a little girl," Kenji pointed out.
Mia gave him a look of relief, she even smiled a little bit. It was clear she wholeheartedly supported his idea of letting her off the hook.
„What happens after we step on the platforms?" Asked Lily.
„How would we know that?" Sam rolled his eyes. „Everything we know is on the floor. Do you think we are some mediums who can read hidden signs or something? Smell the wind, and tell you what is going to happen in four days?"
„I can smell the wind and tell you what you had for breakfast if you fart first," Kenji threw, attempting to discharge the situation before it turned into a conflict.
His comment erected a few smiles and made Sam realize he allowed the emotions to take over. He couldn't help himself but feel frustrated, as those who didn't do anything were questioning everything.
„Let's just step on the platforms and find out what awaits us," the salaryman threw moving forward, but his shaky step betrayed that he was scared.
„Do you remember the clues?" Oliver asked.
„We read them so many times, that we learned them by heart," Evan retorted.
Kenji stepped on the platform, at first only with one foot, checking if it could support him. The damn thing didn't even budge, despite hovering over the darkness. This prompted him to fully move on the platform.
„I-I leave this to you. Y-you are younger. You would do a better job than I would," Oliver stuttered, smiling awkwardly.
Lily snorted at his comment, following the salaryman. Sam went right after, with Evan and Jordan following. As soon as the five platforms were occupied, they moved, slowly flying over to the wall on the left. They stopped right in front of it, so they had front-row seats to watch as the wall itself, in five places, slowly caved in with the grinding sound.
It was replaced by several control panels of sorts. They had buttons made out of protruding stones and brass leavers. Everything was named.
Sam spotted the names of the gods, their symbols, the drinks, and the colors of the planets. There were numbers, and the domains, just as well as other things. The two missing pieces of information were present there as well. One was the drink – 'Water' and the other was the domain 'Worth.' A few buttons looked quite interesting, as they were named 'therefore', 'and,' 'column,' 'clue,' and more.
'Find the worthy,' he thought, remembering the instruction. 'We need to find the person with the worth domain. It's Pretiosa in the last column, but I doubt we can just put it there.'
Above the control panel was a blue crystal, which shone with weak, pale light. The only exception was the stone next to the first platform, which shone brighter.
Second later the ceiling flashed with more light, and a table appeared, drawn with bright white light. Five rows, and five columns.
„What do we do with this?" Lily asked, looking to her left, where Evan and Sam were.
To her right stood Kenji. Jordan was the last one, closer to the other side of the chasm, but still way too far to even consider risking a jump.
„Looks like we have to solve the puzzle through this mechanism," Sam explained.
„Yes, and probably one at a time. I bet this light means I'm starting," Evan said glaring at the shining crystal above the panel. „I doubt we can just put the right answer into this thing. It will be safer to follow through with clues, proving that we actually found the solution. I'll go with clue ten, therefore Mutatio, column one," he said, pressing the buttons and pulling the leavers.
As he finished the answer appeared on the tab on the ceiling, while the crystal went much dimmer. At the same time, the one above Sam's panel began shining brighter.
„Mutatio, first column and clue fifteen, therefore blue second column," he spoke as he inserted his answer into the mechanism.
Then the turn for Lily came, and Sam had to tell her what answer to put into. Kenji didn't need help, as he also remembered all fifteen clues due to reading them over and over again while they tried to solve the puzzle. Jordan needed assistance, but he followed the instruction, so soon his crystal also stopped shining, so the one above Evan's panel could brighten once more.
The turns switched, and new entries appeared in the table above their heads, but as the difficulty grew, the frustrations began to appear. The impression of Evan, Sam, and Kenji, that they clearly remembered the clues, began to vanish. They had to consult themselves to make sure they were solving the puzzle correctly. This led to nagging, sarcastic comments and arguments. Their irritation spread, especially to Lily who was growing more restless after hearing some nasty comments from Evan each time her turn came.
She also caught a few of the instructions, as the trio repeated them over and over again, looking for the correct answers. Eventually, her turn came again.
„Wine and brandy column two or four, therefore-" Sam was instructing her as she was putting the information into the mechanism.
„I know!" she cut him off. „I know what I'm doing, ok? You repeated this fifteen times already! I heard! I'm not dumb!" she growled, briefly looking at him, only to resume the input. „Mutatio column two," she inserted, muttering under her breath. Then she realized the mistake she made due to frustration, and she gasped.
Her eyes went wide. She froze, just when the platform under her feet did a flip, throwing her back, into the dark chasm.
„Haaa!" left her mouth.
„Noo!" Both Kenji and Jordan yelled, but it was too late. They couldn't do anything.
Lily plummeted into the darkness while screaming out of horror, her voice slowly losing the volume, as the distance increased. All four men looked into the chasm, frozen in time, unable to do anything.
„Noo! Lily!" screamed Mia, as she rushed to the edge of the hole, to stare into the darkness.
Oliver didn't even budge.
All of them stood motionless and probably would remain like that for at least a moment longer if not for the faint sound of drumming, which reached Sam's ears. He gasped and his attention switched to the entrance to the trial room. Others immediately did the same, listening carefully for the faint sound.
„It's terrible what happened, but we need to continue," Evan said with a dry voice looking at Sam.
It was obvious he didn't care about the girl, or at least cared about her less than about the approaching danger. Still, he showed remarkable resilience to fear despite his young age, to the point that Sam couldn't help but deem it as an act.
Nevertheless, he nodded, then glanced back at the platform that Lily occupied only a moment ago. It wasn't far. Enough to jump there, but performing such an act over a dark chasm, still made him hesitate. 'There is no other choice,' he thought, but that wasn't true. Somebody had to jump, and he was not the only one who could do this. Kenji was just as far as him, unfortunately, the man was still staring at the chasm, as if he could somehow spot the girl in the darkness.
„Forget it," Sam muttered to himself, before taking a few quick steps and then jumping across. He easily landed on Lily's platform, only to immediately insert the correct instructions. As he finished, the crystal went dark, while the one behind Kenji, who still looked into the chasm, flickered with light. „Hey!" he shouted at the salaryman. „Hey! It's your turn!"
The words finally brought Kenji out of the trance. He scanned through the faces of Sam and Evan, then moved to Mia. He nodded, before focusing on the job. With a moment of hesitation, combined with a quick look at the tab above, he inserted another entry, making his light go dark. The one in front of Jordan turned itself on.
„T-the d-drums! They are getting louder!" Oliver shouted.
He was not wrong. The monster, who was supposed to be announced by the sound, was inevitably getting closer. The tension began steadily growing, clouding the minds of the people. Sam was not immune to this, so he needed a moment before he was able to provide Jordan with instructions.
The man followed them blindly, nervously pressing the buttons, and pulling the leavers. The answer was correct, so his crystal turned off, while the one in front of Evan turned on. The teenager didn't need any help. All he required was a moment to think about what exactly he should do, but was able to soon provide a correct answer, therefore the crystal on Sam's platform shined brightly, forcing him to jump again.
'Ok… Take a deep breath and do this. It's only dangerous because you are nervous. Keep calm, forget about the chasm,' he thought, before jumping. Without any problems, he landed safely and then began thinking about the answer, but his thoughts were shifting to something else. The drums were getting stronger, and stronger. He could hear them easily, which meant the monster had to be close.
He shook his head, before forcing himself to think about the clues. Soon the answer was in his mind, and he could insert it through the panel, only to jump across the chasm to Lily's platform. As he landed, he began inserting the second answer.
Kenji's turn came. His hands were shaking as he pressed the buttons. His eyes naturally moved toward the entrance to the trial room, as he was giving his answer.
„O-oh no!" suddenly Mia squealed.
She turned on her heel looking at the black door. She could hear scraping, which in her mind meant that the monster was just behind the corner. She took a single step back, getting dangerously close to the chasm. Oliver stopped her with a shaking hand, just before she could fall into the darkness. He smiled at her nervously, then his gaze shifted to the rest, working intensely to solve the puzzle in time.
Moments later the entry putting the word 'Worth' was inserted into the panel.
„Congratulations!" a soft, high-pitched, pleasant-for-ears voice filled the air. Just like before, the source seemed to be impossible to determine. „You cleared the second trial. As a reward, you all receive Virtus Fortium. Congratulations!"
Nobody even cared about this announcement for two reasons. The first one was that the platforms suddenly moved, swiftly, but fluidly drifting to the center of the chasm, while more flew from the darkness underneath, forming a bridge. The second one was the sound of scraping, which intensified, alongside the drums. All this noise made it almost impossible to hear the heavy footsteps of a large creature charging through the corridors of the labyrinth.
„Run!" Sam screamed, sprinting across the bridge.
Jordan was the first to react. With a few long jumps, he reached the other side. Kanji was much slower, as he kept looking over his shoulder at Mia, who bolted, leaving Oliver behind. The rest was running too, only to briefly stop, when something tore open the door to the trial room.
They all witnessed a massive creature burst inside. It looked humanoidal in its posture, despite moving on all fours. Kinda resembled a crawling human, except it had no head. No neck even. Its torso was just ending. The long arms and legs were wrapped in ragged black clothing. Here and there rotten flesh, covered in blisters, was poking from underneath the dirty fabric.
It didn't waste any time, charging straight at the bridge, reaching it in a few long jumps.
One by one, Kanji, Sam, and Evan reached the other side, rushing for the door, which Jordan was already trying to open, pushing with all his might. Mia followed soon after, with Oliver gasping, as he made a few last steps, but before he even reached the other side, the bridge began to disalign. The platforms were moving to the sides, reversing the process in which they assembled into the passage.
The politician did the last long jump, landing on the other side. The monster wasn't this lucky. Halfway in, he had to decide to either risk it in attempting to jump to the humans or retreat. He opted for the second choice, wailing in frustration, which revealed a toothy maw on his belly, with razor-sharp teeth in several rows, covered in thick saliva produced because of the tempting vision of a true fest on human flesh. Its long tongue swooshed like a whip.
It snarled and grunted on the other side of the chasm, not wanting to retreat to the labyrinth.
Oliver was the only one to watch it, as the rest were too desperate to open the door, unaware the danger was gone. When they finally did, they allowed themselves to look behind, realizing that they were safe. Safe for now.