Amaterasu prodded the dead body of the ogre with her paw and sniffed at the green liquid that came out of its body while Issun looked around for further clues on what to do next. His mind was filled with questions that he wanted answers to as quickly as possible. Why in the world was there a bud ogre just sitting up here? It was like it knew that we were coming, or like it had been sent here. How would anything in these ruins know that we're trying to get through? What is this place so desperate to hide? It's too much, I gotta know! Issun thought to himself.
"Furball!" Issun called back. Amaterasu looked up from the ogre corpse. "It's time to keep moving. There's something in here that doesn't want to be found. We should locate it as soon as possible!"
They left through a narrow hallway. It was dark, damp, and had an upward slant. They were heading up again, but had no idea where. All Issun had to guide him was the slimy walls that he was careful not to bump into. The scent of the slime told him that it might not be good for him to have it in direct contact with his skin.
Once they stepped out into the light, they found that they were inside the first room that they had walked in to, but they were on a ledge along the wall that overlooked the poison lake below. They were up much higher than Issun would have guessed. He leaned over the edge to get a better look, the damage to the ruins was much more apparent from this vantage point. All the plants were dead and the ruins themselves looked ready to fall over.
Issun whistled. "Dang… it looks worse up here."
Amaterasu grabbed Issun by the pants and pulled him back away from the ledge. He had not noticed but he had been progressively farther and farther over the edge.
"What in the world would do this to a place like the ruins? It's not like there are many people to snack on in here…" Issun said as he walked down the ledge into another room.
There was a large log with huge mushrooms growing like platforms on top of it. Above the mushrooms was another ledge. It looked like there had been stairs in this room before but they had long since eroded away.
"That's incredibly convenient." Issun smiled as he hoisted himself onto the lowest mushroom top. Amaterasu hesitated.
"Don't be such a scaredy cat." Issun said while climbing onto the next. "I know mushrooms well enough to be certain that these are not poisonous."
Amaterasu cautiously joined him in climbing, jumping at the sight of the spores that flew into the air with every movement she made. Issun didn't seem to be bothered by them; he was already on the eight mushrooms from the bottom. Amaterasu didn't trust the spores and did her best to avoid breathing them in. Finally, they scrambled onto another ledge.
Instead of an open tunnel here, there was a door blocking the exit.
"Jeez, and I was just getting used to the no door thing…" Issun walked up to the door and tried to open it just as an arm holding a strange staff came crashing down on the top of his head. His vision whited out for a second and he fell onto his butt, dazed and thoroughly confused. Amaterasu's fur stood on end and she growled ferociously at the doorway.
"What in the world…?" Issun muttered, looking up at the doorway.
The wall began to shake and laugh at Issun. For the first time, Issun noticed that the wall was moving. It was alive. Though cracked and chipped in some areas, the wall showed no signs of deterioration that the rest of the ruins did. Perhaps because it was obviously some form of monster. It had two brawny arms and a strange pole in its right hand.
"Foolish human!" It said in a fittingly gravelly voice. "You will never get passed!"
"What is that thing?" Issun scooted back. No matter where on earth you were from, walls never came to life and taunted people.
"I am Blockhead! I guard this place so that all shall pass! …er, wait… make that, none shall pass!" Blockhead corrected himself. Issun looked back at Amaterasu, who looked only moderately shocked by a talking wall. Perhaps they have some talking walls back in heaven where she came from.
"Many have tried but none have succeeded in penetrating my rock-solid defenses! Of course, there are certain weak points, but I would never be foolish enough to reveal them!" Blockhead laughed again. "Now, be on your way. None shall pass!"
Issun looked over at Amaterasu, she looked back.
"You just gonna to let him talk to you like that? You're a god, I'm sure you could beat him easy!" Issun said in an encouraging tone of voice.
Amaterasu seemed to gain confidence. She dug her paws into the ground, positioning herself just right with extreme concentration. Issun could almost feel her divine aura building. He took a few steps back to give her some room. This is incredible! I know she's a god, but how can so much power come from a single being? Issun thought in total awe. Amaterasu fixed her piercing eyes upon Blockhead and let a mighty snarl tear across her lips. She charged the rock beast with all of her might; even Blockhead flinched. With unimaginable power, Amaterasu slammed her skull into Blockhead's middle. A second passed. Two seconds. Three seconds. Amaterasu whined and staggered on her feet, stunned by the impact
"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?" Issun shrieked at her, completely incredulous at the response to her initial attack.
"Is that the best you can do?" Blockhead laughed. Adding insult to injury, he gave Amaterasu a good smack on the head with his staff and laughed harder. Bits of dust and gravel flew off of Blockhead while his laugh grew even louder. He laughed so hard that his side began to split, literally. Two cracks on his front began to appear.
"Look there, Ammy!" Issun pointed them out to her. Amaterasu shook her head and looked at the cracks in Blockhead. "Quick, hit those before his laughing gets much louder. He's giving me a headache."
Amaterasu dug her paws into the earth again but, instead of trying the head butt, she launched her sword into the air and pierced the two cracks on Blockhead's front with the tip of her blade.
Blockhead immediately stopped laughing as the blow spread cracks all through his body.
"Where my weak points so obvious?" Blockhead exclaimed, holding an arm up weakly as his rock body trembled. "I have failed, but let it be known that I died a warrior's death!"
With one final shudder, Blockhead's body shattered in every direction. Issun held up his arm to guard against the shooting debris.
"It's about time you got him." Issun sniffed at her. Amaterasu seemed a bit depressed. She thought she had done a good job and she expected praise.
Issun simply walked through the doorway and out onto a huge stone bridge that hung over the poison lake below. There was nothing supporting the bridge in the middle. All that kept it in the air was where it attached to the side that Amaterasu and Issun were standing and the other side where they obviously had to go, considering that Blockhead had been guarding this area.
Amaterasu sniffed the bridge carefully. Everything else in the ruins was crumbling, why this bridge should be much different.
"Aw, don't be a chicken! It's perfectly structurally sound!" Issun laughed boldly while marching onto the bridge. "Leap before you think, I always say!"
Amaterasu followed the boisterous Issun much more carefully. She could hear some of the groans deep within the bridge. Issun continued his march, oblivious to the danger that might befall them. Suddenly, he stopped, a strange expression on his face.
"Hang on; I think I have some dust or something up my nose…" Issun said as he rubbed his nose. Amaterasu froze in horror as Issun let out a huge sneeze. The echoes bounced off of the walls and there was a loud crunching noise that followed. The two of them looked at their feet to see a huge crack in the bridge form.
"Uh-oh…" Issun said weakly as the part of the bridge that they stood on shifted downwards. Amaterasu broke into a run, snatching the back of Issun's clothing in her mouth and throwing him onto her back. She ran at a sprint on the rapidly crumbling bridge. Try as she might to keep ahead of the falling bridge, the cracks zigzagged passed her and they fell downwards towards the poison lake. Issun clutched Amaterasu's fur in horror.
In a moment of determination, Amaterasu kicked off of the large chunk of rock that they had been standing on, then the next portion, then the next. She finally heaved one last mighty jump from her legs and crash-landed onto the opposite side of the bridge, panting hard. Issun rolled off of her and lay on the ground, staring up at the sky.
"I think I get why people are always saying this place is so dangerous…" Issun said shakily.
Amaterasu whimpered and licked his arm.
"Thanks for the save, furball. You really are something else…" Issun patted her on the side of the head. She seemed pleased enough. Truthfully, the fact that Issun was alright made her happy enough already.
After a few moments of letting the adrenaline die out of their systems, they stood up and proceeded.
In the room they had just entered was a huge waterfall of pure water that fell onto a ledge high above them. From that ledge poured the poison water that flowed down a winding river and poured into another waterfall into the lake below. The plants that would have decorated the river were all dead and decaying. The smell from inside this room was dizzying.
"Urg…!" Issun threw both of his hands over his nose and mouth while Amaterasu howled, unable to block the smell from traveling up her nose.
"We gotta get up to that ledge over there or I think I'm going to pass out…!" Issun gagged. The last thing either of them wanted to do was get closer to the smell, but they trudged down the side of the river to the waterfall where purple foam was gathering around its base. "Now, how in the world do we get up there?"
Amaterasu looked around at the walls and the waterfall, trying to locate anything that would help them. A sudden glitter of light from a rock ledge above gave away the presence of something, but it disappeared. Through the stench of the river, Amaterasu could detect the scent of that familiar scent that had been haunting her. It smelled faintly of exotic flowers… The ground began to shake and a blue light illuminated some ascending rectangles on the wall. Platforms like stairs slowly rumbled out of the wall all the way up to the waterfall edge.
"I don't know if this is a trap or not, but I think it should be okay… right?" Issun asked carefully. Amaterasu didn't seem to fear them. Instead, she started walking right up them without a moment's hesitation. Issun followed her up to a pond where the pure water fell from above them and collected before it was forced off the edge of the next waterfall. Four urns were situated along the ledge of the pond. They were designed in the shape of spiders that spat out the foul poison from their fangs into the pond. The waterfall churned the pure water and the poison into a deadly mix that spread throughout the rest of the ruins. There seemed to be a limitless supply of poison because the level in the urns never went down. The smell was so strong by now that Issun couldn't see straight.
"We gotta… we… gotta… do something about these…" Issun felt like throwing up.
Amaterasu simply collapsed. Her perfectly sensitive nose couldn't handle the stink. Issun soon joined her on the ground near the pond, his energy and clean air reserves in his lungs spent. He felt that the poison in the air was killing him slowly; he could only imagine how badly Amaterasu must have been suffering.
Amaterasu's vision blurred as she began to succumb to the effects of the poison… a gentle voice whispered in her ear as quiet as the evening breeze rustling cherry blossoms.
"Don't give up, Amaterasu… stand and show this world what you are truly capable of… I believe in you, Amaterasu… I always have…" The voice faded away with a gentle and refreshing breeze that temporarily blew the poisonous air away. Amaterasu struggled to her feet, staring at the urns. She raised her glaive high into the air and sent it crashing down on the urns, causing them to be sliced in half.
The poison splattered and soaked into the ground in a flash of glittering light. The ground pulsated with green light and the clear water washed down the waterfall. As it traveled, a wave of rejuvenation followed in its wake, healing the plants as it went along. Every plant that had grown for decades in the ruins perked up with renewed strength and everything glowed with health. Issun watched over the ledge at the spectacle. Now that the water was crystal clear and the plants were back, the place looked quite beautiful and much less threatening.
"Who would have known that the poison was cursed too? That's what I call overkill." He commented as he pushed himself to his feet, the effects of the poison miraculously gone.
Amaterasu was also feeling much better. She looked around the room for the source of the voice she had heard.
"What is it?" Issun glanced around too.
Amaterasu cocked her head from side to side, trying to adjust her ears to pick up any sound but she heard nothing but the sound of the waterfall.
"Let's just keep going. I know the ruins are purified now but let's not forget the reason why we're here. That Spider Queen needs a butt kicking and Ume is still lost." Issun explained.
Amaterasu looked back at him, her head still cocked.
"Don't tell me you forgot!" Issun exclaimed. Amaterasu offered cluelessness as her response. He just groaned. "You are such a space-case…"
He marched off down the stairs to look for another way to go to find the heart of the ruins. More often than not, anything important was located in the core, especially if it had such high security like this place. He knew that it would get much tougher from here on out.