He took deep breaths and slowly stood up, his eyes fixed on the green mess he had made.
Cobblestones, he stood on brown–black cobblestones that led forward. It was narrow and like a bridge, and at its sides were drifting waves of blackness.
There was no sun here, the little light that shone came from a dim distant white star in the black blanket above.
Mark turned around, his eyes eager to catch something. There was none, the room was desolate. Behind him, was the portal gleaming intermittently a purple glow.
There was only one path, and it was forward.
He began to walk, he skirted over the green puddle he had made and cautiously took steps on the bridge. All he could see forward was more of the path, more of the cobblestones, like it was seemingly endless.
Then came a poof and a smell he knew too well over his short time in the temple.
"Congratulations!" The mischievous spirit announced throwing up its humanly animated legs, moving its paws as if they were fingers.
Mark turned to meet it. The cat guardian hadn't been very competent with keeping its end of the deal, but now that Mark was at the last room, the last trial, he couldn't care less for it, all that was in his mind was the treasure that was to come.
The spirit guardian laughed wryly, and Mark was taken aback. That was the first time he noticed that it had a genuine feeling on its face: fear.
What was it? What was wrong?
"So…" it started and paused.
Mark's heart sped.
"I'm a servant to the god himself, but unfortunately, I'm not privy to all of his will and his doing, and that may have gotten the better of me. You see, this is just a guess…"
"Woo!" It suddenly blurted.
"What?! What?!" Mark threw up his pale long arms, anxious.
"You're very different from the last time we saw each other."
"Of course. Wait, weren't you supposed to be watching me, hoping that I'm safe?"
"About that, I fear that my meddling has caused a bit of a problem. Alright, I'll be honest, it's caused a large problem. Remember that Minotaur you faced earlier?"
"Yes, what about it?" Mark swallowed, recalling the arm he saw in the void on his way to the next room.
'It couldn't have been it? Could it?'
"This is just a guess, but I think the room acted against my overstaying presence and granted the Minotaur a little more autonomy than it ought to possess."
"It's coming for me, isn't it?"
"Yes."
Mark closed his eyes and took a deep inhale and then he exhaled. He opened his information sheet and checked for the duration he had left.
[7:12]
'Seven minutes and twelve seconds.'
"Perhaps I can take it out in this form." He said out loud.
"You might need more, it has grown quite powerful." The cat guardian suggested.
Mark cupped his chin, ruminating, he then looked to the spirit. He turned back to the path forward.
He raised his arms, and the veil of darkness sprouted beneath them. He wanted to fly to get through the trails of the room as quickly as he could before his vampirization runs out.
"I don't think you should do that. If you drift away from the bridge, I'm afraid you might stray away. And once you get lost here, it'll only be a matter of time before you lose yourself to the will of the room. There'll be no finding you."
"Do all the rooms possess greater will as you called it?"
The cat chuckled at the question, Mark noticed a tear form at the corner of its eyes, his eyes widened in pleasant surprise.
"The room is one and many. They are a singular entity but of different parts you see. But that will be later, you have a treasure to claim, and I have a bind to break free of."
It disappeared with a dusty cloud of blue, and Mark was alone in the room that oozed loneliness and sorrow.
He didn't know how, but the wings of darkness withdrew itself.
He continued on foot, his steps making noise that seemed to be music in the uneventful place.
[4:16]
He had walked over two hundred meters. He stopped and looked back at the portal. It remained there, hovering and appearing ever as mysterious.
He took his eyes from it and continued.
'This room won't have difficulties after all.'
The bridge had seemed endless, but all he did was take another step, and a golden radiance appeared a few steps away from him like it had always been there.
A curtain of shimmering golden radiance, and in the middle of it hovered a silvery white belt with intricacies and runes adorning it.
Mark swallowed and his jaw fell. It was beautiful.
His steps slowed as he walked to it, then finally, he was there. Just an inch away, all he had to do was take it.
Unfortunately, the room had other plans. It did have difficulties after all, unique difficulties.
From the portal came two large arms of dense muscles. They grabbed the edges of the portal. A head that has registered itself in Mark's mind surface, a very ugly head bearing nothing but malice and hate.
It was the Minotaur, and it had come all this way for Mark.
"Holy fuck." Mark exclaimed once it revealed itself.
It had taken a total new look since the last time he saw it.
Larger, about three times its original size. Its skin was partly red, and partly a radiant white, the colors evenly divided longitudinally.
Its face was contorted in absolute rage, like it was rage personified. And on its right hand was a greatsword of light that Mark had learnt to fear, the one that had charred his vampiric pale skin.
It swung the massive blade to the side, amplifying its menacing outlook.
Mark's eyes were fixed on it for a moment, then he turned back to the belt.
[Belt of greater will]
There was only one thing to do.