Anna and Hao kept falling through the foggy darkness, their hands in each other's. The bottom still wasn't visible, but there surely had to be one. Or at least that's what the books said. While they were falling, they weren't talking, just waiting for an end, both's leather coats flickering behind them. The bottom finally appeared. They landed softly and looked around. Just as they expected, the room was lit up, but not as they expected, it was lit up by the river of lava. The room itself looked as if it was hollowed out of one huge block of stone. The archways from which the river came were visible on the each side of the room. One more interesting thing was that the room had one huge step or higher floor, on which the couple landed. The river gave out a sounds of boiling mud. The air itself was hot and smoky.

„This must be a fire room" Hao said. Anna nodded. She walked from the step and suddenly stopped. She looked down.

„Hao, look at this. What could this be?" Hao came to her and looked to the direction she showed. It was a big, about thirty centimetres wide hole. It was surrounded with metal circle.

„Good question" he looked over the room „there's many things like these here" he looked to another hole, completely similar to the first one. Hao suddenly froze from what he saw inside of it: a stream of lava began to flow through, filling the hole.

„Anna, get away from it!" He shout out. Anna rose her head, but by that time Hao pulled her away, back to the step. She immediately understood why: a huge fountain of lava shot out about ten meters high from the hole. Anna gasped.

"That was close" he commented. Anna nodded.

"Must be some kind of sensors, detecting the weight of body"

"Whatever it is, we need to get to there" he showed an arched wooden door at the other side of the room. About fifty meters away. Anna sighed.

"Then lets go" and they did. They ran across the room, ten-meter high lava fountains almost hitting them. Anna jumped from one to the right, but then another one sprang out. She moved her body forwards, slightly avoiding other two. Hao jumped from one lava fountain to another and didn't get closer to the way out. A lava fountains completely blocked it. Then he saw a solution: all of the holes were making lines, equivalent to each other, so if they ran along the line where lines didn't meet, maybe they have a chance. Hao pulled Anna after him, running throughout the room, but not being hit by the lava. The door was just few steps away. Hao saw that the line of holes was about to block their way completely. Hao screamed:

"JUMP!" They jumped and landed just at the time when lava wall rose towards the ceiling. Both laid on a ground for a while, panting heavily. Hao let out a slight laugh.

"One out – six to go" Anna looked to him, amazed how he can be joking around in times like these.

"Yeah, if we will reach at least number three" Hao smiled to her and they both got up and walked through the door…

Anna and Hao saw an old tunnel, made of greenish black bricks. The tunnel seemed to go down and becoming wetter by the meter, as the couple walked along it. The couple reached a huge hall, full of stalagmites on the ceiling and a wide dark lake in the middle of it. Strangely, the place was lit up by torches with blue fire, which made the space look more mysterious. Hao squatted by the water and put fingers into it. The water was as cold as ice.

"I think we have to dive" Hao looked to Anna with a worry "but that kind of water will freeze us to death in few minutes time" Anna sighed and squatted by him, trying the water herself. Damn cold!

"Well, let's take a risk then. Have you ever been under the waterfalls of Osorezan?" Hao nodded.

"Yeah, few times. Think it's the same?"

"Yeah. So we should make it" Anna sighed "wherever the ending is"

They walked into the water, feeling the muscles sore from coldness. They dived. The coldness surrounded their bodies, as if their joints are paralyzed, but neither stopped moving. They dived deeper, with every meter water becoming darker. They swam like this for a couple of minutes, their breath caught in. Suddenly Anna stopped and showed to Hao: in a distance there were a shimmering blue light. They swam to it's direction. As the couple approached it, the lighted appeared to be a giant blue bubble, filled with air. Hao moved towards it and entered it, so did Anna. They looked around: the place inside a bubble was filled with fresh air, as if you were standing by the ocean. The floor was laid out of beautifully ornamented bricks. In the right side of the space stood a big wooden statue of Buddha. Hao walked to it and touched it's skillfully carved relief.

"Talk about a warm welcome" he said with ironic voice. Anna looked through the bubble windows and saw an entire line of bubbles. She saw another thing as well: a creatures appeared and disappeared in the weed covered shelf of the lake. They seemed to be men with fish tails.

"Mermen" Anna whispered. Hao walked to her, looking the same direction.

"They must be guarding the path. Wonder if they are strong. I've never been in such a deep water before" Anna smirked to him.

"What? Afraid?" Hao let out a 'tsk'.

"I never said that"

"But you were thinking it" Anna was having fun, making him feel embarrassed.

"You are impossible" Anna laughed. That was a true, beautiful laugh, ringing like a bell.

"As if you're any better" Anna took him by the hand "let's go. Make your claws ready" they walked into the water, the frost biting again. They swam as quickly as they could. Suddenly three mermen approached them, tridents in their scaled hands. Hao let go of Anna's hand and turned his hands and forearms to the werewolf's claws. Anna drew out her katana. The mermen attacked, a strange hissing coming from their fish-like mouths. One moved right into Anna, his trident turned to her body. Anna bent from the hitting and slashed the merman through the throat. Hao caught both mermen with their throats and crumbled their necks. He caught up with Anna and they walked into another bubble.

The inside of this one was different: the bricks were ornamented with Egyptian style and in the side stood a statue of Egyptian god Seth.

"The mix of cultures. Guess our emperor wasn't doing this alone" Hao commented as they looked around. Anna nodded.

"Yes, I think you're right" Anna walked to the side of the bubble and looked through. Three more bubbles were visible. "We have a long way ahead"

"Yeah. Let's go" And so they've went from bubble to bubble, in each finding a whiff of another culture: Chinese, Persian, Indian. They were heading to the forth bubble as a pack of seven mermen closed on them. They surrounded the couple and began circling them. Anna thrust her hand to the mini bag on back of her waist. She took one of the torches available to burn under water. She turned it on and all the mermen spread al over, hiding from a sudden light. Hao and Anna swam to another bubble and straightened on the brick floor. This bubble was different as well: the place was covered with Arabic style, the altar for Allah in the corner.

"Good thinking" Hao panted out looks like they are afraid of the light" Anna smiled.

"Yeah, but the end of this has to near, because I have only two of these left" Hao stood up and looked to the shelf. His eye caught a huge, greater then others, bubble, lighting up the shelf.

"There's our spot" he silenced "but there's a problem" Anna closed to him and looked to the giant bubble and gasped. Thousands of mermen were circling the bubble. Hao and Anna looked to each other.

"Not good" said Anna "but there's no turning back, so" she took out two torches and gave one to Hao "let's go" they walked to the water once again, lighting their way with torches. The mermen eyed them fiercely, but none dared to get closer to the light. The couple approached the bubble and walked into it. The gasp of amazement flew out of their mouths. The place was round and gone upwards, but the most astonishing thing was that in round line, a place to each were standing the statue of different god of different cultures. A stone table stood in the middle. Anna and Hao closed to it and looked down. On the top were carved a three prints of hands. One was obviously was a werewolf's claw. Another seemed to be made for a human. And the third one, with sharpened nail print was made for a vampire.

"Hey, we don't have a human with us" Anna said out her thoughts loudly. Hao looked to the stone table again.

"I don't think we need it" he turned his hand into claw "let's put our prints together" Anna rose her hand, already with sharp vampire nails. They put them on right prints. Nothing happened for a while, but then the ground started to shake. A light lit up the couple and ground under their feet rose up towards the source of light. For a moment, the whole world disappeared in complete light and another moment it appeared again. Only this time, the place was surrounded with giant trees. The Mystic Forest was covered in fog and darkness. Anna and Hao looked around. Nothing was moving, not a single leaf and it seemed as if everything around is dead and lifeless. Hao inhaled.

"Well, shall we?" Anna nodded and with Hao gone into the depth of the forest. They walked in silence, waiting for an attack, but nothing happened. The road, if you could call it like that, was difficult: the roots of trees, bushes and all kinds of plants were always blocking the way, sometimes even making them stop and cut the way through. The couple reached a treeless ground in a middle of the forest. It was a ravine with pile of cut wood in middle of it. Hao and Anna walked closer, checking the pile.

"Wonder what's it for" Anna said. Hao gave a slight smile.

"Hope not for our frizzling"

"That wouldn't be much of a surprise" Suddenly a shuddering noise came from all around. Anna and Hao looked to the different sides, ramming their backs to each other. Suddenly, huge black spiders emerged from the darkness. They were about eight feet tall, hairy, with scissors in place of their front feet. Anna was disgusted; she never liked spiders very much.

"And the plan?" she asked, not taking her eyes from black monsters.

"How about trying not to get killed?" suggested Hao.

"That's the primary plan. What's the second?"

"Run. See those scissors? They cannot catch us if we're above them. So we'll have to jump" Anna nodded "on the count of three. One…" the circle of spiders grew dangerously small.

"Two…" Spiders raised their scissors as one, making the pack look more dangerous.

"THREE!" they ran to different directions. Anna jumped over one spider, high to the air, flipped over and landed on the moss-grown ground. The moment she did so, she ran forward as quick as she could, not looking back. She knew that Hao will find her: his dog-like senses will do a great due to him here. And so it happened: Hao jumped out of nothingness and joined Anna.

"Where now?" he asked, neither stop running.

"Away from them" Anna answered, as scissor sound reached their ears. They ran and ran until they reached another cutting. In the middle of it stood two black marble statues, resembling horses. The couple approached it and stood in shock for a moment.

"Great. A stone horses instead of real ones" Hao smacked to the marble "this nightmare couldn't get any worse" suddenly, the statue he smacked came to life and a black fine horse stood on his back legs.

"Whoa, boy, it's ok" he comforted the hot-blooded steed. Anna stroke her hand through another statue, which came to life as well. She brushed horse's beautiful black coat and jumped on it.

"I think they might know where to go" she said as Hao lifted himself to the horse as well.

"Yeah. Well, we still don't have any other choice but to trust them" and they ridded back into the forest quickly, seeing how bushes and roots making way to horse's hooves. The couple left the monstrous spiders far behind, as they ridded towards the mountains, which started as they left the forest…

A/N: Guys, thanks for reviewing, I'm really glad you liked my story. A little about this chapter is that some parts of it are taken from another wonderful movie and book Harry Potter. I know it's not much of my imagination, but I really found it suiting here. Anyway, thanks again for reviewing! My hat is of to you!

P.S. Don't be scared this isn't the last chapter! lolz!