Night 43: Room of Fire

[gald_digger]

[from here]

Warmth!

Immediately, Anise could feel the frost melting away from her hair and clothes. Her poor, frozen toes were finally able to wiggle in her slippers again. The scrapes on her skin began to sting less, too. Pausing just two steps into the room, Anise sighed with relief.

Then she saw what was ahead.

The entire room was a sea of lava. There were platforms they could use to get across, but they were so close to the surface of the lake of molten rock... It was more dangerous than the hideout inside of Mt. Zaleho for that reason. Anise was probably lucky in that she was used to the sort of heat found inside a volcano, if experience gained from being an unwilling spy could be considered 'lucky'.

"We have to cross this!?"

Comments

[godforsaken]

Even if he wasn't in the mood, Sync knew he had to at least act somewhat convincing, and in the end he chuckled lightly when Dahlia kissed his cheeks. The feeling was definitely foreign, but at the moment he was too tired to really react in any other way. He nodded slowly when Anise finally made it to where they stood before glancing back at the door.

"It's not like we're out of the woods..."

Really, in Sync's mind he was almost certain that what they were about to face couldn't have possibly been worse. Yet as the door shut behind them, followed closely by that distinct 'click', Sync knew something was horribly wrong.

The heat that circulated in the room was almost inviting at first, but it didn't take long for its true nature to show. Yet the heat was nothing compared to what Sync saw next, eyes widening in horror at the sea of lava that separated them from the next door.

"H-how...??"

That undeniable fear had already begun to creep up his spine, but Sync forced it back, refusing to let it control him.

No. This was different now. He wasn't as helpless as he'd been back then.

Gritting his teeth, Sync finally walked forward, creeping up close enough to properly examine the pit of lava while keeping his distance as to not feel the scorching heat evaporating out. Upon further inspection it looked as if the only method of getting across was to hop on those platforms and pray that they didn't sink. The distance between them didn't seem too far, but one wrong mistake could easily cost someone their life.

Well... there was no use dawdling around.

"Just don't slip and fall," The teen murmured, exhaustion evident in his voice. By then his mind had already been made up; it was obvious that he was the best choice to test the sturdiness of those platforms, especially since it looked as if he couldn’t lead the others by hand anyway. He had to grimace at the sight of the gargoyles that only added to the danger of the room, but other than that he remained passive.

Taking a deep breath, the God-General stepped back before sprinting to the edge and hopping onto the first platform. The momentum of the jump was enough for him to continue to the next one, ducking down on all fours just as a fireball flew over his head.

[dahliahasthorns.livejournal.com]

This next room was warm. It was warm. Granted, ice melting in your wounds was a very strange sensation, but Dahlia wasn't about to complain about it though, mostly because she could feel her limbs again.

...oh god, she could feel her limbs again.

Yes, it didn't hurt as badly as in the cold icicle hell, but the pain still blossomed up in all the little scraps and bruises over her body and made the blood from the gash on her arm bleed all the more. How charming. She gently prodded the cut with the tips of her fingers, watching the red smear like cheep nail-polish.

"We have to cross this!?" Anise was kind enough to break Dahlia out of her train of thought and into the present of what was making this room so much of a challenge. And what was it this time? More zombies? Ghosts? A dragon? At this point, she'd probably swallow whatever they threw at her. So what was so-

...This. What. Oh, this was bullshit. Did they think a five foot girl like her could leap across molten rocks, over lava, while simultaneously dodging balls of fire? Were they expecting her to risk her own life because some moron dragged her to the basement? It would be exciting, he said! It'll be fun! Were they expecting this out of her? Were they?

Sync did, it looked like, since he immediately ran off without her. "Sync!" For once this night, she didn't sound cute. She didn't sound endearing. In fact, she just sounded horribly angry. That idiot! What was he doing, leaving her behind with this pigtailed rat?!

She didn't care. This wasn't going to stop her. Lava was not taking her out. She watched Sync make it to the second platform and took that as an initiative to hop to the first, fearless and determined. Annie had better not be an idiot and follow her while she was still on it, because if it sank, she was not being the first one to burn. And if she died anyway? Well, at least it'd stop the bleeding.

[gald_digger]

Anise turned her head sharply in surprise when she heard the brief weakness in Sync's voice. It was rare to see anything genuinely rattle him, but when she thought about it, Anise realized she should have known better. This had to bring back horrible memories for him...

She watched with a look of sympathy as Sync made his way to the edge of the lava. As much as she couldn't stand the guy, it was impossible not to feel a little bad for him.

Sync started across the lava, and Anise winced when the first platform sank under his weight. If more than one of them stood on one of those, there was a good chance the platform would sink below the surface. And then fireballs! It was a good thing Sync had gone first, because Anise wasn't sure she or Dahlia would have had the reflexes needed to dodge that without even knowing it was coming.

"Hey--!" Before she knew it, Dahlia jumped ahead, following the God-General's lead. That was unexpected, seeing how much cowering she'd been doing in the first few rooms. Between that and her tone of voice, it kind of seemed like she was running out of patience.

"Take it slow, Dahlia! Don't try to match Sync's pace or anything," she called to the girl, hoping she wouldn't do anything reckless. Sync could move quickly because that was how skilled he was, and she suspected he might keep moving ahead at whatever pace he was comfortable with. Any normal person who tried to move that fast would just make mistakes and probably get killed. "I'll be right behind you."

Anise didn't follow yet, having nowhere safe to jump to. She waited for the others to get farther, watching the fire-spitting gargoyle heads anxiously.

[godforsaken]

Unfortunately for Dahlia, Sync had already tuned out everything else as he concentrated solely on this ridiculous obstacle. He knew that if he’d been at full power he could’ve crossed this easily, but this institute had weakened him physically, and he knew his reflexes were slower despite the act he put forth.

However, even after the fireball had already passed over his head, Sync had to use every ounce of willpower to stand back up. For that brief moment that same fear had begun to encase his mind, and once more the God-General refused to submit to something so absurd. To him, it was nothing more than an irrational fear, something he’d been unfortunate enough to hold onto back from when he’d been weak. After all, how could he, someone who stared at Death in the eye too many times to count, be afraid of something he had already experienced twice in his ‘life’? It was laughable.

But the heat wasn’t helping, and even now the teen could feel the platform underneath him shift slightly. In reality only seconds passed, even if it felt like an eternity, but Sync finally composed himself a second time. He gritted his teeth, glaring at the patch of land at the end of the room, and began to move once more.

This time there was hardly a pause in his movements. Sync forced himself to jump from platform to platform, stopping only to duck when a fireball soared through the air in his direction. He took the opportunity to use the knife bag to his advantage, swinging it forward and using its weight to pull him over to the next platform.

In no time he was near the end of the platforms, a light grin overtaking his features when he saw that he only needed to jump over two more to make it to the door. He hopped to the last platform with no problem, and prepared himself to jump the last-

-And then a searing pain ran up the back of his shoulder, causing him to gasp.

"Ah.…!" A fireball had caught him off guard, nearly causing him to lose his balance as he jumped. Yet it was just barely enough to send him rolling onto the solid patch of land, immediately reaching his hand back to press against the burnt flesh of his shoulder, grasping at the tattered remains of his shirt.

[dahliahasthorns.livejournal.com]

So Anise was being a smart girl and not rushing after her. Good. Her warnings were just tossed aside, though. Tch. Like she needed any advice!

It was hotter here, way too hot. From one extreme to another, huh? She was already sweating now, making her feel sticky and making moving a pain, but she wasn't letting it stop her. To think that she'd be eaten by a volcano? No. It wasn't happening. Since Sync was well on his way to the end, Dahlia followed, carefully trying to maneuver her way across the platforms and between the spewing, horizontal flames.

Of course she had to stop every once in a while, breathe, press herself to the ground to keep herself from being fried to a crisp, or regain her balance, but it never held her up for long. This wasn't going to kill her. She wasn't going to die here.

It was like playing hopscotch with Iris back in Kurain. Well, it wasn't so much hopscotch as it was leaping onto large stepping stones in a pond, but it was the same thing. Leap forward, then step back as fast as you can to avoid a mouth-full of gnats. The rush of heat, no matter the distance, as those flames shot past her made the ends of her hair curl up like dying plants, but she ignored it. It was just a swam of bugs for her to dodge, but not so fast that she fell into the water and came back home to a scolding mother and giggling sister. Once it was gone, it was another leap forward, and another, each step, hop, and dodge delicate and precise as if she were on dancing on easily broken chopsticks.

She could ignore the heat. She could ignore the burns. She could ignore the knowledge that she may have lost a few inches on her hair. But once she finally got to the end of the room, collapsing against the wall once her strength left her and she was nothing more than a panting, miserable pile of aching bones? Sync still had her things. She gave no warning and showed absolutely no pity for his burn; she just reached out to yank her bag off of his shoulder and promptly slid to the floor to die sit and regain all the oxygen that left her lungs.

She wasn't doing this ever again. Ever. There had better be one hell of a consultation prize.

[gald_digger]

Anise stayed back and watched the others continue, waiting until Dahlia was two platforms ahead before starting to make her own way across.

Fortunately, Anise was pretty agile herself, and the gap between the platforms was nothing for her. She just had to try not to think about what would happen if she missed a step, and keep her cool. Even though staying 'cool' was getting harder and harder out in the middle of that stifling heat.

When she reached the second platform, she eyed the nearest gargoyle head, expecting it to shoot fire at her just like it did to Sync. Several seconds passed, and it didn't. Was there no pattern to when or where those things shot fire? Rats. She just had to stay on her toes, then.

She hopped to the next one, then looked ahead just in time to see Sync actually get hit by one of those fireballs. Even though he was tired and probably in the worst mood he could possibly be in, Anise still never expected him to slip up. Dahlia, on the other hand, seemed to be way more focused than expected. She was actually making good time, and her landings weren't too unsteady.

During her pause to watch the others, Anise heard a light swoosh and a crackle of flames, and instinctively leapt ahead to the next platform just as one of those fireballs whizzed by behind her. Yikes. She couldn't afford to get distracted by watching the others.

She was a little over halfway there. As long as she didn't get careless, the rest of the way wouldn't be too bad.

[godforsaken]

Maybe it was this room, but the burn seemed to sting even more from the added heat that lingered around him. Sync made no move to get up, practically gasping for air as he laid there on the floor. He had barely registered someone yanking the knife bag away from him, too tired to really do much else.

But he knew he couldn't lie there and succumb to his fatigue. They had made it to the end of this room, and unless there were a hoard of zombies waiting for them in the next room, then this truly was the worst that it could get. It took him a minute to regain his breath, ignoring the burning pain on his shoulder as he slowly pushed himself back to his feet. The God-General wobbled but kept his balance, glancing towards the door and blinking when he noticed something different about it.

Was that... a pedestal?

Sync was already on the move, stumbling over to the new object and grasped onto both ends to hold his weight up. However, when he looked down at what laid there...

... Was that a sword?

Green eyes narrowed, picking up the ornate weapon before looking around the pedestal as if expecting there to be something else.

"... Is this seriously it?"

Landel sure had a bad sense of humor.

[dahliahasthorns.livejournal.com]

Dahlia didn't even notice Sync wander off at this point. She was too busying sitting up against the wall and watching Annie jump from point A to point B with a dead expression on her face. She was too exhausted to move right now. Now that she wasn't directly over that hell-pit anymore, her mind could only think of how insane it was to do what she just did. But... hahahahha.... ahahahaha! She wasn't dead! She wasn't dead! She did it! Ahahahahahaha!

And slowly but surely, Annie was making her way over too. Oh, what that girl could have been wishing for right now! Unfortunately, jetpacks were out of the question. She'd just have to do it the hard way like everyone else.

Dahlia smiled to herself and turned her head, looking to wherever Sync had gone off to. What was over there? A...

...

A sword?

A sword?

That was IT?!

...Yes. Yes, that was it. That was IT. When she got her strength back, she was grounding his annoying, pushy, two-faced dot of an existence into dolphin-safe tuna and feeding him to his little girlfriend. Just... when she stopped being exhausted. He was a dead man.

[gald_digger]

This was a cinch! Once she managed to push the thought of searing hot magma out of her head, Anise was able to hop through the room without any trouble--oops, fireball. With a yelp, the girl ducked low to the ground, pushing her pigtails flat with her hands to protect them. Okay, maybe she was being a little overconfident. The truth was that she was getting pretty worn out herself, though she tried not to show it. In fact, she tried her best not to even acknowledge it herself.

Using a little more caution, the girl continued forward until she finally reached the end. When she landed the last jump, Anise raised both her arms in the air in a triumphant pose... even though nobody was watching. What were they looking at?

Anise wandered over to where Sync and Dahlia stood, peering curiously at their apparent prize. "Kind of... small, isn't it?" Not to mention useless to any of the present party.

Wait. Didn't Guy say the prize his group had gotten in the basement was a small shield? And that he needed another to get to the next room? So maybe this was the other key!

...Of course, she wasn't going to tell Sync that. So when her eyes lit up with interest, she covered it up with some cheerful banter. "Ooh, but it looks like it might be valuable. Maybe it's worth something!"

[godforsaken]

Anise's voice was the one to wipe that look of disbelief on his face as he glanced over to where she stood.

"Is money really that important?" But while the tone of his voice was friendly enough, the look on Sync's face should've been enough to hint Anise to shut her mouth unless she wanted to be pushed face first into the pit of lava.

Yet as much as he wanted to slump back down to the floor he knew that this just wasn't the right place to rest. And so, pushing himself back from the pedestal, the God-General slowly walked over to where Dahlia was sitting and carefully coaxed her up. He had the sneaking suspicion that she was fuming on the inside, so for the moment he could revel at the fact that someone else shared the same opinions for this ridiculous trial.

And if she wanted to kill him? Ha! He'd like to see her try.

With all three of them together now Sync wasted no time pulling open the door while mentally bracing for what was to come next.

[To here.]