Zero walked down the corridor he was in and reached a staircase going down.
He went down and landed on the third floor, right in front of the first maze.
He walked through the maze rather easily, each time he had reached a dead end he just retraced his steps and chose another path.
He walked through twisting passageways, corridors leading to dead ends and numerous forks leading to the unknown.
He walked through one corridor and saw a shadow creeping towards him.
He stopped dead in his tracks and drew his Z-saber.
The shadow crept up, drawing ever closer to Zero's corridor, it only had to take a left turn and it would face the last remaining guardian.
The shadow had finally arrived to the corner but as it moved to Zero's point of view there was nothing, the shadow vanished completely, but Zero felt an ominous presence about.
"Three guardians in the pyramid's depths, if you won't reach them they'll die three painful deaths!" a voice cackled.
"Who are you?" Zero asked the voice, who took it's time before answering.
"A nickel for your fears, a penny for your thoughts beware ye that stands against the mighty Camazotz." The voice chattered loudly.
Zero suddenly remembered something he didn't recall knowing, and said it aloud,
"Mighty? Camazotz was defeated by humans!" Zero taunted, the next time the voice spoke it was colder than before and the laughter was gone.
"Humans were always weak, the god they may have crushed but this reploid my friend will not be whitewashed!" the voice ended with a boom.
It was quiet again and the ominous presence has gone.
Zero stopped and listened for a moment, nothing.
He continued down the corridor and turned to the right, where the shadow came from.
He reached the opposite end of the room after about a quarter of an hour, only to find another one.
Zero sighed and went forward, he turned right at a fork but it was a dead end.
He turned back to the fork but there wasn't any, he had just turned right at a fork but the way he came from was no longer there; it was just a corridor from where he was standing to the other side.
He continued forward, his Z-saber still clutched in his hand.
The corridor turned right and so did Zero, to find he was staring at a dead end.
He turned around to go back to where he came from but there was a wall there.
"What the...?" Zero asked and turned around, to find the road open.
He continued forwards and reached another fork, he turned left this time and again reached a dead end, but when he turned around a different fork was there, leading straight, meaning to the right of the former fork, right, meaning where he came from, and left, a center road that wasn't there when Zero first reached the fork.
"A changing labyrinth." Zero said, suddenly he felt the ominous presence again.
"Walls do change and you don't know the way. My, my I wonder what will become of you today!" the voice whispered.
"Put a lid on it Camazotz, unless you're going to make this stupid maze stop changing." Zero said impatiently as he turned left, leading himself to another corridor.
He saw a black x on the floor and the voice said, "Here is where the flying one did scream, a scream of pure fright that just made me beam." The voice burst in laughter, cold screechy laughter that made Zero's synthetic skin crawl.
"Harpuia, he was here." Zero said to himself.
"The green clad reploid was here alright, even he didn't put up much of a fight." The voice chuckled to Zero's annoyance.
"I'm sick and tired of you stupid rhymes, is this your special attack? Are you going to annoy me to death?" Zero asked nonchalantly and walked further inside the pyramid as he reached a staircase leading to the second floor.
He was inside a giant hall filled with cobwebs and cocoons at least his size, and seemed to keep growing every second.
Suddenly one burst, revealing Harpuia.
"Harpuia!" Zero yelled and ran over to the reploid, only to receive a kick in the face.
Zero fell back on the floor and looked at Harpuia, wait a minute his eyes were red.
"A doppelganger!" Zero exclaimed.
He looked around him; the cocoons were the doppelgangers being produced.
Zero drew out his buster and blasted every single cocoon in the room. The Harpuia doppelganger did nothing to prevent it.
A large robotic spider came inside the room from the corridor opposite of Zero and pseudo Harpuia jumped on it.
He pointed at Zero and the spider sprinted on its spindly legs at him.
Zero jumped in the air and landed behind the spider, but the Harpuia doppelganger threw one of his beam daggers at him and Zero had to fall flat on his back to avoid getting sliced.
The spider pounced at Zero, using the momentary pause for his advantage.
Zero however rolled away and managed to slice off the left row of legs and the spider screeched.
Zero rolled unto his feet and silenced the mecha-spider.
Pseudo Harpuia then jumped into the air with his one blade drawn, the blade was longer than that of the original Harpuia and was about as long as the Z-saber.
They fenced, blocking and stabbing at each other. Zero finally got the advantage as 'Harpuia' was very close to a wall. Zero jumped over Harpuia, kicked the wall and used the momentum to punch pseudo Harpuia in the face, sending him backwards.
He was much weaker than the original, with or without the spider.
'Harpuia' stood up and sprinted forwards, his blade raised to slice Zero.
Zero ducked and with an upper slash sliced pseudo Harpuia from the middle of his pelvis area up to the middle of his head; leaving two symmetrical halves falling next to each other.
Zero went over and looked at the spider, the spider manufactured the cocoons that then built the doppelgangers inside just like a capsule and burst, as the doppelgangers were ready.
Luckily, Zero destroyed the spider and the cobwebs, securing Neo-Arcadia from further doppelgangers.
He proceeded down the corridor and found another black x on the floor.
"Here the lady screamed with fright, I must admit she looked alright." The ominous presence came back and the voice could be heard.
Zero went mad, "If you touched even one hair on her head I will personally make you a part of this pyramid you adore so much!" Zero yelled at the voice, and felt the ominous presence vanish.
He continued down another set of staircases and found himself in a large room filled with statues. The statues each had a name on their base.
He looked at one randomly and looked at the base, the name crumbled with age but there was something written next to it, "died while attacking Camazotz."
Zero looked around and saw a statue that looked a lot like Leviathan, except it had curly hair and stone gray eyes.
The woman was holding a javelin in one hand and her other hand was on her hip.
The name also seemed to have crumbled, but as Zero noticed there were no intact names on any statue. On her base it read: "Killed Camazotz and died from his lethal claw" in Mayan, Zero didn't know where he knew Mayan from but it didn't bother him too much right now.
A loud hiss startled Zero, he looked around before he realized it was Camazotz's voice again.
"This woman I fear because she killed me with her spear. Your friend reminded me of her so the first into the eyes of death she will stare." The voice said, and Zero realized he didn't have much more time. He couldn't let Camazotz kill Leviathan.
Zero reached another statue of Camazotz and blasted it with his buster.
An even louder hiss was heard and the voice vanished.
Zero walked into a seemingly empty hallway, but as he took the second step a large axe swung in front of him, missing his nose by inches.
Zero stumbled backwards and noticed two more axes swinging.
There were three axes in all and Zero had to count on his speed to avoid being chopped.
He looked at the axe that was swinging in front of him in a constant rhythm, he calculated the time and dashed forwards, going past all three axes at once and reaching a hallway.
He continued down the hallway to find two staircases leading down.
He randomly picked the right one and went down, he landed in an underground level and it seemed both staircases led to the same place.
Another X marked where Fefnir fell but the voice said nothing.
Zero looked at the horrifying scene in front of him, Leviathan, Harpuia and Fefnir were sitting tied in chairs placed on trap doors.
Zero heard a roaring sound below him and felt the warmth of the floor and he could only guess that those trap doors led to red-hot lava.
"No go away Zero!" Leviathan struggled to say, "He'll get you too..." she said.
Fefnir and Harpuia were apparently out; on their necks were two bleeding punctures.
It seemed that Camazotz drank their fluids to fuel his own system.
Leviathan was the only one without the punctures, but she was beaten pretty badly, her face bruised and there was a trail of red fluids from the corner of her mouth.
A cold laughter filled the room as Camazotz announced his arrival; he landed right in front of Zero, who almost screamed in horror at the sight of the bat-reploid.
I am afraid that I am incapable of describing exactly how horrifying Camazotz was, his face were as scary as death; two yellow pupils were embedded in his ruby eyes.
Two long ears decorated his head and two gigantic wings came out of his back.
He had a smile as sweet as honey and as terrifying as a medusa.
Camazotz walked over to Leviathan, he held something in his hand that seemed like a remote.
"One step closer and they will die." Camazotz said in a different voice than his mocking laughter. He was dead serious and as frightening as a basilisks stare.
He crouched near Leviathan and turned her head towards Zero.
"Look at her." He said, "Or she will die."
Zero forced himself to look at Leviathan, her face frozen in terror.
"If you hurt her..." Zero started but to his surprise the bat reploid licked the red fluid coming from Leviathan's mouth with a long crimson tongue and seemed as if he was savoring every moment.
Leviathan however seemed disgusted but couldn't do anything due to the metal ropes holding her in place. She tried moving her head but Camazotz held it in his claw.
The bat reploid proceeded by tilting her head and sinking his teeth into her neck.
She let out a soft moan and suddenly her eyes rolled slowly upwards.
The bat sucked out her fluids with moans of pleasure, whether it was to watch Zero's tortured face as he did it or was it tasty for him to drink Zero could not tell.
"The ultimate torture." A voice behind Zero said, "Having to watch your loved one die." Zero turned around to face two cold green eyes. Vulture.
"Bullion warned you, you fool. Now you will pay the consequences of interfering with the executioners." Vulture's cold eyes stared directly at his.
Leviathan became paler with every second, as her vital fluids were sucked into Camazotz who seemed to be savoring every drop.
Even if Zero thought he could rescue Leviathan before Camazotz would press the remote, still Vulture was in his way. And Zero knew that trying to take on an executioner by himself would be the last mistake he will ever make.
It seemed like hours, Camazotz moans of pleasure filled the air and Vulture stood in front of Zero with his cold eyes shining, as if daring Zero to do anything.
It then finally ended, Leviathan's eyes stopped rolling and she fell limp. Deactivated.
When Camazotz removed his fangs from her neck it wasn't even bleeding.
The bat-like reploid licked his lips with a grin, or at least what was the equivalent of a grin to him.
Zero's rage kept rising and rising, he couldn't take it anymore.
With a battle cry he jumped at Vulture, and kicked him straight in the head.
Vulture fell on his back, so surprised by Zero's sudden strength and speed that he forgotten about Camazotz.
He quickly stood up and ran in order to battle Zero but was transferred by someone else, with a howl of "No!"
Zero punched Camazotz's face, hurting his hand with Camazotz's fangs.
"You monster!" Zero yelled and kicked Camazotz in the face.
"How could you!? She was helpless you freak!" he kicked Camazotz a second time but Camazotz wouldn't stand for it. He caught Zero's foot and threw at the wall in such strength that Zero created an impression of himself in the stone.
"You're dead bat!" Zero said.
"We shall see, Zero." The bat said, his eyes shun in yellow.
Meanwhile elsewhere..."Vulture I am very disappointed with you." Bullion scolded.
"The master ordered us not to assault Zero or the guardians ourselves but let our reploids take care of it."
"Bullion, you should have seen the look on his face. It was unlike any expression of pain or anger I have seen in my life, and I have seen plenty." Vulture argued.
"If Zero will manage to destroy Camazotz than it will be up to us to destroy him according to the master's plan understood?" he asked Vulture, who bowed and nodded before leaving the room.
"Master never explained himself, how would I know if his plan is the right course of action? No, I shall not doubt the master. He has taken me in and taught me almost everything I know. I can't possibly think such thoughts." Vulture struggled silently in his mind.
To be continued...