Chapter 12: Tile and Error

Kendra, Seth, and the rest of their group proceeded to walk through the exit of the room with the crocodile pool, which led into a stairway that continued further down into the temple.

"Man, those crocodiles were merciless," said Seth, as he walked down the stairs. "I don't know how we ever would've gotten past them if we couldn't cheat like the way we did."

"They probably designed it that way on purpose," said Bracken. "These vaults are meant to keep the relics protected. Which they wouldn't do a very good job of if anybody could just waltz in and grab the treasure."

"I wonder," said Warren. "If there even was a correct way to getting past those crocodiles. That's the trouble with these vaults. They were not built for mortal men to traverse."

"We've come so far," said Ingrid. "I sure hope we're able to reach the Diavolt. It's the only thing standing between us and stopping Murdred."

"That was a pretty good strategy, Kendra," said Skyfrost. "Just bypassing the hazards of the previous room with invisibility, then warping the rest of us across."

"Maybe it'll work again in the next room," said Firesquall. "I don't know why, but I get the feeling that there's more to this place than just a room full of crocodiles."

"Let's just see what the next room has in store for us," said Raxtus. "And let's all try to think out a surefire plan for getting through before jumping in head first."

"Got it," said Kendra, as the rest of her allies all nodded in agreement.

The stairs continued down considerably further, although not quite as deep as the first stairway that led from the entrance to the crocodile room. Before long, they had reached the bottom of the stairway, and had arrived at the entrance to the next room.

Roughly the same size as the previous room, this next one instead had level flooring and did not contain a pool or other such pit. From what Kendra could tell, there did not appear to be any features of significance. Standing from inside the entryway, it looked to be nothing more than a large, but otherwise empty room.

"Hold it," said Firesquall, "something's not right."

"What's that?" asked Ingrid.

"I can't see an exit to this room. At least not on the other side."

"You're right," said Skyfrost, peering across the room. "The exits in the previous room were centered, parallel from each other. This one doesn't have an exit at the other side."

"You don't suppose the Diavolt is hidden in this room, do you?" asked Seth. "It would explain why there's no exit on the other side that we can see."

"We're not entirely positive if this place is even the Grand Temple," replied Warren. "It could be something else altogether, for all we know."

"We might as well explore this room anyway," said Geminus. "I can't see any apparent dangers to look out for, unlike the previous room with its crocodiles."

"Yeah," added Raxtus. "There's gotta be more to this room than meets the eye."

"Be on your guard," everybody," said Warren, as he proceeded to step out of the entryway and into the room proper.

The moment Warren set foot in the room, the floor surrounding him started to glow yellow.

"Uh, Warren," said Seth. "What did you just do?"

"I have no idea," said Warren, admiring the section of the floor that was now glowing.

"Do you feel anything?" asked Bracken.

"Nothing unusual. The glowing feels pretty harmless."

"Okay," said Kendra, as she proceeded to step onto the glowing area where Warren was currently standing.

Before long, the entire group had moved onto the glowing area, which was roughly a fifteen-by-fifteen foot square. In fact, Kendra soon noticed that the glowing section that they were standing on was actually but a single tile in the otherwise massive room. From what she could figure, there were undoubtedly hundreds of other tiles in the room, arranged in a grid.

"This is weird," said Raxtus. "But I'm not sensing any danger. I'm going to go fly around the room and see if I can find anything else of interest. Wait here."

Everyone else waited as Raxtus took off into the air. The group watched as Raxtus proceeded to circle around the room, then came back down for a landing within the glowing, yellow area.

"Sorry," said Raxtus, as he shook his head. "But I couldn't find anything of interest. No exit. Nothing."

"What I want to know is why this panel is glowing yellow," said Bracken.

"Beats me," said Warren. "All I did was step on this panel, and it lit up. Wish I knew what it meant, though."

Curious, Seth walked over onto the next panel to the right. The moment he set his foot onto it, it too began to emit a peculiar yellow glow, just as the other one had.

"Cool," said Seth. "This one started glowing as well."

"Yeah, but why?" asked Ingrid.

"Let's try another one," said Skyfrost, as he stepped forward onto the next panel in front of first panel that everyone else was standing on. Unsurprisingly, it began to glow yellow in the same manner as the first two.

"Are they all like this?" asked Geminus.

"It wouldn't surprise me," replied Warren.

"You think maybe we're supposed to light up all the tiles in a specific sequence?" asked Bracken.

"If so, what is it?" asked Raxtus.

"Well, there haven't been any signs as to whether what we're doing is right or wrong," said Seth. "At this point, we might as well try lighting up as many tiles as we can..."

"Maybe even the whole room!" said Kendra, interrupting Seth. "See if it's possible to light up every last tile."

Seth rolled his eyes. "I was gonna... never mind."

"Might as well split up for this," said Warren, as he stepped forward onto the tile that Skyfrost had advanced to. "We can cover more ground that way."

The group then proceeded to branch apart, each member either heading off to the side or down a different row. As they moved apart, Kendra noticed that each tile that somebody set foot on started glowing yellow, just like the previous ones.

Seth began to make his way down one row of tiles. After reaching the fourth tile or so, he stopped and looked to his sides. Nobody was going down the rows surrounding him, as evidenced by the tiles in them not glowing.

"This is gonna take forever," said Seth to himself. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. "Why walk on one row at a time? I've got two feet! I can do two rows at once!"

Seth stepped over onto the tile to his immediate left, then back-tracked until he reached the last tile in the row, causing it to light up. He was now prepared to walk back down the two rows at once, with one foot on each row.

Seth then placed his right foot down onto the adjacent tile of the row he had just previously walked down. Already glowing yellow, Seth was caught off guard as the glow inexplicably changed to an intense red.

"What the heck?" muttered Seth, wondering why the tile was now glowing in a different color.

Suddenly a large, purple, serpentine figure appeared in the center of the room. Easily large enough to rival Mariana at her full size, the purple figure appeared to be an enormous mamba; its underside a lighter shade of purple.

"What's that?" exclaimed Ingrid, who was by herself in another section of the room.

The mamba turned its head towards Seth, and proceeded to slither along the floor. What Seth noticed was that it wasn't directly aiming for him. Rather, it was travelling straight down a row of tiles, but was no doubt targeting him. However, it was moving fast.

"Seth!" exclaimed Warren. "That snake's going straight for him!"

Seth whipped out the Pyruby and directed a stream of fire directly at the mamba's incoming face. However, it did not seem to effect the oversized serpent in any way. Not knowing what else to do, Seth proceeded to diverge from his path, running past several rows that others had already walked down. Although he was too busy running to pay much attention, he noticed that every yellow tile he stepped on changed color to red upon being touched.

"You dumb snake, leave him alone!" roared Skyfrost, as he flew over towards the mamba and exhaled a blast of ice in its face. However, the snake was still completely unfazed, as the ice wasn't enough to deter it from its goal.

"Nothing's working!" cried Seth, as he began running across some tiles in a diagonal formation. Although the snake was faster, Seth realized that it kept following him while adhering to rows and columns, not unlike a rook in a game of chess.

"Oh no!" cried Kendra, who had returned to the front of the room, only to see that there was no longer an entryway. The entrance! It's disappeared!"

"We've gotta do something!" exclaimed Warren, as he blasted the mamba from a distance with water from the Sapphazure, although his attack proved to be ineffective.

"We could escape!" shouted Kendra. "I still have the Translocator on me!"

"But we're not all together!" stated Geminus.

"Everyone!" said Warren, "try to make your way to Kendra!"

"Easier said than done!" cried Seth, who was still being pursued by the mamba.

Seth continued running, although he soon realized that he was heading towards a corner of the room, where it wouldn't be too hard for the mamba to intercept him. The room itself was very large, and he was starting to get tired from running so extensively.

"Leave him alone!" blared Geminus, as she exerted a blast of fiery light energy at the mamba. Raxtus joined in from nearby with his own light energy. However, their combined power still didn't seem to effect the snake in any way whatsoever.

"There's no stopping this thing!" quipped Bracken. "It's like it's invincible!"

"Of course!" exclaimed Kendra, as an idea suddenly popped into her head. She quickly reached into her bag and whipped out the Emerock. "Maybe we can't defeat the snake. But I can still trap it!"

Still slithering through the room after Seth, Kendra was able to predict the mamba's path due to its grid-based movement. Focusing strongly, she envisioned a section of the ceiling lowering and crushing the immense reptile. However, something felt wrong. The Emerock was not responding to her thoughts. She tried focusing a second time. Nothing felt off about the Emerock, but for some inexplicable reason it wasn't doing anything. It was almost as if the room was somehow protected by magic.

The mamba had now successfully blocked Seth off in a corner of the room. Its body remained on a path of tiles, twisting and turning in order to keep moving in a grid-like pattern. However, Seth could not escape from it; the mamba's body was simply too high for him to overcome.

Seth drew his sword from his sheath, as the mamba's head neared him. Mouth wide open, the snake displayed a set of long, venomous fangs. Seth was feeling fearful, yet confident at the same time. Why couldn't the gloves be with him right now, instead of with Kendra?

As the mamba closed in on him, Seth thrust his sword against the monster's snout. It completely repelled Seth's attack, causing the sword to go flying out of his hand.

Now looming directly over Seth, the mamba raised its head and gazed down upon him. Before it could actually strike, Skyfrost swooped down and grabbed Seth with his talons, then swerved out of the corner.

"Close one," said Skyfrost, as he flew Seth across the room, away from the snake.

"I owe you one," said Seth. "But I don't think we can out-fly him! The ceiling in this place isn't very high!"

Seth watched as the snake worked its way out of the corner, the proceeded to slither down a column of tiles until he reached the row where Seth was currently dangling from Skyfrost's talons.

"I can't keep flying you around like this!" stated Skyfrost. "Not forever!"

"How do we stop this thing?" asked Raxtus. "It's too powerful for any of us!"

Kendra watched as the mamba continued trying to pursue Seth. As it made its way down a row of tiles, she noticed that the tiles that it slithered over did not change color. The ones that were not glowing remained as such, and the ones that had been yellow, stayed yellow.

"I've got an idea," shouted Kendra. "Let's keep turning all of the tiles yellow! The snake doesn't have any influence over their colors, so don't worry about the ones it touches!"

Kendra then started running down a column of several non-glowing tiles, turning them yellow as she set foot on each one. She then, unintentionally, stepped onto a tile that was already yellow, turning it red.

"Oh no!" gasped Kendra, worried that another bad thing would happen upon turning the yellow tile red. But nothing appeared to have transpired. Not knowing what to do, Kendra stepped forward onto the next unlit tile, causing it to glow yellow.

Kendra then looked back at the red tile she had crossed and thought. If stepping on a blank tile turned it yellow, and stepping on a yellow tile turned it red, what would become of stepping on a red tile? Nothing at all? Something bad? Whatever it was, Kendra was anxious to find out.

Kendra stepped back onto the red tile, causing it to revert back to yellow. An idea suddenly crossed her mind. If triggering a red tile summoned the snake, then could turning all the red tiles back to yellow somehow revoke it? Right now, it was worth a try. The only other red tiles that Kendra was aware of were the ones that Seth had created at the entrance to the room.

With the snake still fixated on catching Seth, Kendra scurried back to the entrance of the room, making sure to not step on any yellow tiles. She soon made it back, and stepped on both of the red tiles, reverting both of them to yellow. Now there was just the original goal of turning all of the tiles yellow.

But how? From her current position, Kendra was surrounded by yellow tiles in every direction, including diagonals. Unless she and her allies were flawless, they risked turning more tiles red in the event that they got trapped. Also, what if the goal wasn't to turn all of the tiles yellow, but to red?

"Raxtus!" cried Kendra. "Fly over to me, but don't land anywhere!"

"Got it," said Raxtus, as he soared over to Kendra, flapping his wings to keep airborne by her side. Kendra then climbed up onto his back.

"Raxtus, I want to you to continue making more blank tiles yellow. But try not to turn more of them red."

"Okay," replied Raxtus, as he landed at the end of a nearby row of blank tiles, then proceeded to march down them, turning them all yellow.

"Geminus!" exclaimed Kendra. "Firesquall! Pick up Ingrid, Warren and Bracken! That way, they won't get stuck in an area of yellow tiles!"

"Okay," said Geminus, as she soared over to Ingrid.

Soon everyone was on the back of a dragon, save for Seth, who was still hanging from Skyfrost's talons, as they were still being pursued by the mamba.

"Keep that snake busy, Skyfrost!" exclaimed Warren, as he flew past on Firesquall. "It's Seth he wants!"

"What gave it way, genius?" asked Seth.

Raxtus, Geminus and Firesquall all proceeded to fly over to different sections consisting of blank tiles, then landed, turning all of them yellow. Before long, nearly one full side of the room contained nothing but a floor full of glowing yellow tiles.

"Skyfrost," said Kendra, "the snake has no effect on the yellow tiles! Lure him over here!"

"Okay," said Skyfrost, as he flew over towards the completed side of the room, luring the snake along with him.

Raxtus, Geminus and Firesquall all flew down onto the remaining areas with blank tiles, and proceeded to step on as many as they could find. There were even a few red tiles scattered around in some sections, no doubt triggered by Seth while he was being by chased by the mamba while on foot.

After enough running and bouncing around, Kendra glanced around. From what she could tell, every last tile in the room was now glowing yellow. Suddenly, the massive mamba seemingly vanished from the room.

"I don't believe it!" gasped Seth. "Somehow, that actually worked!"

Next, the glowing tiles all changed from yellow to green, giving both Kendra and Seth a feeling of accomplishment.

"What's going on?" asked Geminus.

Kendra then noticed that not only did the entryway to the room suddenly reappear, but that an exit also appeared across from it at the far wall.

"I think we did it!" exclaimed Kendra.

"But what about the tiles?" asked Ingrid. "What'll happen if we step on a green one?"

"We can't fly into entryway!" said Skyfrost, still soaring around in the air. "It's too narrow! We have to land!"

"Only one way to find out," said Raxtus, as he proceeded to walk onto an adjacent tile. However, upon stepping onto the green tile, nothing about it changed.

"It's okay, Skyfrost," said Kendra, "it seems to be safe to touch the green tiles."

"You can't go wrong with green, I always say," said Firesquall, as his twin soared down next to him, placing Seth down onto the floor.

"Man, that was scary!" exclaimed Seth, as he took a moment to catch his breath. "If it hadn't have been for you dragons and your ability to fly, I don't know what we'd have done."

"This kinda reminded me of that peg-jumping game Grandpa has," said Kendra. "Except there was no giant snake to chase you if you made a wrong move."

"What are we standing around here for?" asked Warren. "We've earned the right to progress to the next room. Let's move!"