The final leg of the temple tour did not leave a satisfactory impression at all. Alicia had dashed in and out of the last shrine, lips twitching at the mere assumption of a threat. And now, after receiving information from Barong that the mage Bathara Kala was imprisoned somewhere in the temple complex, a sense of trepidation ignited within her soul. A desire to embark on a quest for the elusive shaman.
"Just curious. Where is Bathara Kala's prison, and how do we get there?" Wisesa asked Barong.
Barong was nonchalant. "Oh, about that, I don't know."
"'You don't know'? By the gods, you're absolutely unreliable!" The man's hand shoved Barong away. "You're Sukra's own flesh and blood, a crucial part of this world! You should know everything that's happening in this realm!"
"Don't push me! Your reasoning is flawed. I am not akin to you living beings. My purpose is to be present among you and respond to any potential earth-shattering threats through the intuitive abilities bestowed upon me by Sang Hyang Sukra, or via the prayers of humans who seek my protection. My knowledge of Bathara Kala's whereabouts is limited, as I was also tasked with safeguarding other parts of the world!"
"Halah! Just tell me you're are neither omniscient nor omnipresent"
"Well I never said I am, aren't I? I am not comparable to my creator, Sang Hyang Sukra."
"Of course not! Most of Sukra's Four Aspects spend their time sleeping!" Wisesa quipped.
"Are you dimwitted or deaf, Wisesa? As I stated before, I do not function in the same manner as you living creatures!" Barong snapped back.
While Wisesa engaged in a verbal sparring match with the spirit that plagued him, Alicia was still sinking into reverie. Her feet had come to a halt, and she was leaning against the doorway. It was only when her gaze was drawn to a certain angle on the stone ceiling that she realised a symbol had revealed itself from that specific vantage point, formed from the various components of the temple.
She withdrew to the outer doorway to gain a better perspective. As expected, a white chalk etching on the doorstep complemented the puzzle created by the ceiling's angle, the painting, and the ivory statue. However, she still felt uncertain. She walked into the temple again, searching for any unfamiliar element that might stand out on the ancient structure. The debate between Wisesa and Barong came to an abrupt halt as they observed her odd behaviour.
"It was the Magisterium of Arcane Plane that sealed Bathara Kala, correct?" Alicia inquired.
"As I mentioned earlier," the kitten energy replied.
Alicia ran her fingers over the golden wall, scrutinising the details of the statue. "And they returned him to his homeland instead… perhaps as a gesture of goodwill towards Lojitengara." The girl placed her forefinger on one of the shaman images before turning to the other side, where the two-dimensional mage had roughly indicated directions. She encountered yet another bewitching statue before moving aimlessly in the temple, which was scarcely larger than a luxurious mansion's living room.
"This weird girl again. What's wrong with you?" Wisesa wondered.
"Look at that corner from outside the door," Alicia instructed, pointing at the ceiling. Wisesa, having nothing better to do, obeyed and approached the door. As an educated man, he recognised what Alicia was referring to, although his grasp was not as perfect.
He saw a skeletal figure of a bird with spread wings and legs grasping two stalks. There was a white line with a downward dipping bump—which Wisesa assumed to be bird droppings—towards the golden wall.
"That's... Magisterium of Arcane Plane’s symbol?" Wisesa guessed. "What did the Magisterium do in an ancient temple—oh, right. I didn't know that the Westerners took part in the construction of the temple of the gods. By the way, the bird shit is a nice touch."
Alicia was still busy walking to the corners of the building. Wisesa said again, "That doesn't explain your strange behaviour right now. Looking for clues?"
Alicia offered rapid nods, but from Wisesa's point of view, her head was stricken with apoplexy. "If this temple tells the story of Bathara Kala, then it's likely that he was sealed here." Her recent reply dismissed the lad's epilepsy-affected-head assumption. "And if the Magisterium sealed it, then it's also likely that they secretly devised a riddle, so that neither the shamans of Lojitengara nor anyone outside the members of the Magisterium could gain access to the shaman's prison, and simply forgot about its existence."
As much knowledge as Wisesa had forcibly ingested, he was not one with a tendency to rely on his brain. He preferred to sit back, waiting for the lass to finish her playtime.
Barong was still sticking out of Wisesa's stomach. It glanced over to the man. "She's a smart one."
"Come on, she's a nerd. A dweeb with a penchant for monotony and boring habits that she calls 'life'," Wisesa replied.
Alicia just snorted at the corner.
"That's too bad. When this is over, you should take your woman on dates to normal places so she can experience 'life' once in a while."
Both youths were aghast! Wisesa sulked and snapped, "Fuck you! Go back to your loka!" While Alicia with her reprimands, "Divine Mercy, quit yer havering, ye daft b-beast!"
Wisesa's hands still wondered if they could capture the yellowish kitten energy this time, but its agility alone thwarted his effort. And his frustration could not be quelled by the statues, so he lashed out at the bookworm lass. "Alicia, this temple is not as big as your palace. What exactly are you looking for that you can't find?"
"One moment! This way, or that way...?" The girl's hands were still fumbling with the wall's contours. "Okay! Where were we? Once, I read a book on puzzle mechanisms designed by the Magisterium in the oldest days. It was so secret that Mama scolded me, and I cried and hid in my room. She said the book was not meant for those who were not members of the Magisterium..."
"Yes, yes, yes. I know you're a crybaby, I've seen you that way many times. But that's not what I'm asking."
"I was heading that way!" Alicia snapped. Orb also rebuked in a stern tone. She scratched her head and scowled. Her memory was so muddled that she had to take a few steps back. Wisesa was never an ideal confidant, indeed. "Just listen! From what little I've read, the commonality of all Magisterium puzzles is that they embody the attributes of the Magisterium itself. If you observe the pictures and statues here, some feature armbands, robes, or other symbols that represent the bones of an owl—the Magisterium's own emblem. And they all seem to point in one direction, leading me to another until, in my opinion, I find a key, an answer, or a new clue… whatever it may be!"
Just as Alicia spoke these words, a group of monsters seized a statue of a Magisterium witch in the corner to the left of Wisesa, grasping her by the neck as she pointed towards a plain stone block. Perhaps this was the result of all that searching for clues? For almost half an hour, the girl scoured the wall only to find a block of stone, requiring simply a push to reveal a new path. That was Wisesa's cynical thought. Alicia, however, sighed in satisfaction and tucked her pride away in the recesses of her heart. She was the human genius who had discovered a plain, unassuming brick.
With a push of her hand, the brick gave way to Alicia's touch, and a small earthquake happened inside the temple. The square altar at the temple's heart rose rapidly, forming a towering block with circular patterns. Alicia's scream echoed through the temple, then trembled with a mix of awe and wonder. She scampered in excitement.
Barong glanced at Wisesa; his facial muscles could not constrict, leaving only a flat face. What was it that he had to radiate on his face? That little girl was already considered insane from the beginning. He could not be more surprised.
"A-Arcane Key!" Alicia thrust her passionate mien at Wisesa while her left forefinger pointed at the stone block. "Arcane Key!"
Wisesa shook his head. "So what?"
"Of course, they're using the Arcane Key! Look! The Arcane Symbol of the Western Rite Sorcery magic branch of the Eternal Empire!" Alicia hugged and groped the surface of the rough stone pillar as if it were her lover—luckily Orb was not a jealous ball. Every stroke she made with her finger throughout the stone carvings enhanced her curiosity to an almost overwhelming extent. Too many things could be learnt here. One example of that was a burning morbid wonder of how a stone pillar bearing the Eternal Empire's attributes could have been brought and even used as an altar table in an idol temple in Yawadwipa, given that the Federation of Lojitengara was not exactly a bed of roses for Western countries.
"This seal can only be opened by Arcane might, ye ken? Because there is an active mechanism inside with the Lapis Philosophorum as the might identifier! If the Philosopher's Stone is filled with Arcane, then the mechanism inside will open the seal accordingly. If it's filled with Khaos, the Arcane Key will turn into a deadly weapon—"
"Alicia, I'm not the one whining for a magic tour!" Wisesa glared at the girl, his patience running thin. “Just open the lock with your twittering orb!"
Barong smacked his lips. "My my, Wisesa, can't you praise that little girl for once? At least it'll shut her up a bit."
"Quite the opposite, you fool!"
"It's okay. I'm about to break the seal anyway!" Alicia's body was already glowing bluish. Alicia's body began to glow with a bright blue light, and she fired a plasma beam from her hand, filling every carving on the surface of the altar pillar. "Of course, of course! The Mages of the Magisterium are geniuses! The perfect confinement for the most dangerous mage!"
In an instant, the blue lines split the stone pillar into four sides, and the ground shook as all four sides hit the ground with a resounding thud.
The altar pillar had crumbled into an amorphous table that twisted itself into a cylinder. Alicia and Wisesa drew closer. Orb bathed the table's surface in light, revealing a mosaic of square segments, each adorned with intricate symbols.
"By the gods. Another puzzle?" Wisesa and Barong groaned.
Alicia's incessant prattle only made their spirits sink even lower. "That was just a warm-up puzzle. There will be many more puzzles and traps before we even reach the 'treasure'. The patterns are mostly that."
"Alicia, we'd better call it a day, and get some rest. You can resume the play tomorrow," Wisesa suggested.
"No way! We've come this far!"
"How much farther?"
"Until we solve this one riddle. Please? I need your knowledge of this."
Wisesa watched the symbols on the chequered row. He reserved no more energy to resist the girl as hyperactive as a child on a sugar rush. "This is an archaic variant of the Yawanese script. There are some discrepancies, but whatever. Only until this puzzle! What should I do?"
"Great!" Alicia cheered. "Hear, hear. This puzzle isn't too difficult after the warm-up one. We just need to include the Magisterium's motto to open the way. I need you to arrange these squares to form the phrase 'Magia Fovet, Magia Salvat' in Yawanese letters."
"Translation or—"
"No, not a translation. Just form the literal word in Yawanese letters."
Wisesa pressed one of the squares. The square turned out to be a button, and the table's base shifted as he pressed it. Wisesa contemplated for a moment and composed the sentence as Alicia had requested. Unfortunately, the table's base returned to its original position. Nothing happened, except for the sun setting and leaving them fumbling around in the dark.
"It seems wrong," Alicia concluded.
"You don't tell."
"Okay, then. Let's try the Yawanese version of the corporate motto," Alicia said, undeterred. "Magic Preserves, Magic Saves."
Wisesa typed the phrase, but the table rejected their answer once again.
"Maybe it's not the corporate motto," Barong said.
"Come on, Alicia. You have plenty of time to think about this answer. I'm already hungry—"
"One more, one more!" Alicia pleaded earnestly. "Magic preserves, magic saves. Common tongue, exactly what I said, but written in Yawanese script."
Wisesa shook his head. He questioned himself as to why he was so eager to be told what to do by a Westerner, let alone a woman. However, his compliance paid off! The table shifted and reshaped itself. The temple trembled beneath them once again, and a circular staircase revealed itself, leading down into the depths of the Moon Devouring Shaman's prison.
"Divine Mercy," Alicia whispered, awestruck. "We… We did it."
They sensed no enchanting aura leaking out but the lass was already hypnotised to descend the stairs, not caring that they led to nowhere but an endless blackness. Orb became a light for her. The staircase she was descending was circular, with no guardrails on either side, making Alicia's legs shiver and run cold despite being wrapped in red nylon. Not to mention, the distance from the top floor to the bottom was too tenuous to plunge down without risking death upon landing.
Wisesa felt a sense of betrayal. Alicia should have made her way towards the exit and started making dinner. Yet, he could not feign surprise. From the outset, the girl's insatiable curiosity had been evident. Her hair was a wild mess, and she seemed to have reached that point in her life where hair was an unnecessary mortal appendage. Magical wisdom was the ultimate pursuit.
Alicia reached the bottom unscathed. However, she was overwhelmed with disappointment, surprise, panic, and anger. Wisesa, who had just caught up with her, shared the same sentiments. Before them lay only a narrow passageway, in ruins. The capstone was shattered, and trap marks littered the ground. Torches were strewn about, still burning and illuminating the passage. Charred earth stung heavily in their nostrils. Someone had recently looted this place. Worst of all, an elongated box covered a rather tall tomb with two headstones, resembling a sarcophagus. The box was also split in two. Bathara Kala's prison, they surmised.
"No, no, no! We're too late," Alicia's exclaimation echoed in the air.
Wisesa's ears pricked up at a sound emanating from the messy hallway and upstairs. A low, agonising moan.
"Alicia, we need to get out of here!" he urged.
Gradually, the moans grew louder and more frequent, becoming audible to Alicia as well. Beyond the hallway, dozens of limping humans materialised from the shadow and filled the passageway. Then behind them, a thud resounded. A pile of humans fell from a height. Orb enlightened their being. The fallen bore glaring white eyes and rose to their feet with arms outstretched. Nobody had warned them that breaking into Bathara Kala's prison was a transgression, regardless of whether they solved the puzzle fair and square. Nor did they know that the temple guardian spirits, with their smooth speech and glowing bodies, could transform into undead creatures with rotting flesh and a putrid smell!
Orb sounded its siren. Barong also urged them, "What are you two boneheads waiting for? Hurry and go upstairs!"
How the Divine had cursed them. A corpse with a more "functional" brain walked and ascended the stairs simultaneously. The living were surrounded by the dead.
Another surprise completed their restlessness as giggles emanated from the end of the hallway. Not the dry giggles of the deceased. A hand emerged from the tomb, and then another face appeared. Even in the dim light of the torches, Alicia recognised the person's silhouette. Not to mention two flashing red visors.
"Alicia, Alicia, Alicia..." the person called softly. "Oh, fate has never kept us apart for long!"
Alicia's heart threatened to burst!
"Oh, not him again!" []
The final leg of the temple tour did not leave a satisfactory impression at all. Alicia had dashed in and out of the last shrine, lips twitching at the mere assumption of a threat. And now, after receiving information from Barong that the mage Bathara Kala was imprisoned somewhere in the temple complex, a sense of trepidation ignited within her soul. A desire to embark on a quest for the elusive shaman.
"Just curious. Where is Bathara Kala's prison, and how do we get there?" Wisesa asked Barong.
Barong was nonchalant. "Oh, about that, I don't know."
"'You don't know'? By the gods, you're absolutely unreliable!" The man's hand shoved Barong away. "You're Sukra's own flesh and blood, a crucial part of this world! You should know everything that's happening in this realm!"
"Don't push me! Your reasoning is flawed. I am not akin to you living beings. My purpose is to be present among you and respond to any potential earth-shattering threats through the intuitive abilities bestowed upon me by Sang Hyang Sukra, or via the prayers of humans who seek my protection. My knowledge of Bathara Kala's whereabouts is limited, as I was also tasked with safeguarding other parts of the world!"
"Halah! Just tell me you're are neither omniscient nor omnipresent"
"Well I never said I am, aren't I? I am not comparable to my creator, Sang Hyang Sukra."
"Of course not! Most of Sukra's Four Aspects spend their time sleeping!" Wisesa quipped.
"Are you dimwitted or deaf, Wisesa? As I stated before, I do not function in the same manner as you living creatures!" Barong snapped back.
While Wisesa engaged in a verbal sparring match with the spirit that plagued him, Alicia was still sinking into reverie. Her feet had come to a halt, and she was leaning against the doorway. It was only when her gaze was drawn to a certain angle on the stone ceiling that she realised a symbol had revealed itself from that specific vantage point, formed from the various components of the temple.
She withdrew to the outer doorway to gain a better perspective. As expected, a white chalk etching on the doorstep complemented the puzzle created by the ceiling's angle, the painting, and the ivory statue. However, she still felt uncertain. She walked into the temple again, searching for any unfamiliar element that might stand out on the ancient structure. The debate between Wisesa and Barong came to an abrupt halt as they observed her odd behaviour.
"It was the Magisterium of Arcane Plane that sealed Bathara Kala, correct?" Alicia inquired.
"As I mentioned earlier," the kitten energy replied.
Alicia ran her fingers over the golden wall, scrutinising the details of the statue. "And they returned him to his homeland instead… perhaps as a gesture of goodwill towards Lojitengara." The girl placed her forefinger on one of the shaman images before turning to the other side, where the two-dimensional mage had roughly indicated directions. She encountered yet another bewitching statue before moving aimlessly in the temple, which was scarcely larger than a luxurious mansion's living room.
"This weird girl again. What's wrong with you?" Wisesa wondered.
"Look at that corner from outside the door," Alicia instructed, pointing at the ceiling. Wisesa, having nothing better to do, obeyed and approached the door. As an educated man, he recognised what Alicia was referring to, although his grasp was not as perfect.
He saw a skeletal figure of a bird with spread wings and legs grasping two stalks. There was a white line with a downward dipping bump—which Wisesa assumed to be bird droppings—towards the golden wall.
"That's... Magisterium of Arcane Plane’s symbol?" Wisesa guessed. "What did the Magisterium do in an ancient temple—oh, right. I didn't know that the Westerners took part in the construction of the temple of the gods. By the way, the bird shit is a nice touch."
Alicia was still busy walking to the corners of the building. Wisesa said again, "That doesn't explain your strange behaviour right now. Looking for clues?"
Alicia offered rapid nods, but from Wisesa's point of view, her head was stricken with apoplexy. "If this temple tells the story of Bathara Kala, then it's likely that he was sealed here." Her recent reply dismissed the lad's epilepsy-affected-head assumption. "And if the Magisterium sealed it, then it's also likely that they secretly devised a riddle, so that neither the shamans of Lojitengara nor anyone outside the members of the Magisterium could gain access to the shaman's prison, and simply forgot about its existence."
As much knowledge as Wisesa had forcibly ingested, he was not one with a tendency to rely on his brain. He preferred to sit back, waiting for the lass to finish her playtime.
Barong was still sticking out of Wisesa's stomach. It glanced over to the man. "She's a smart one."
"Come on, she's a nerd. A dweeb with a penchant for monotony and boring habits that she calls 'life'," Wisesa replied.
Alicia just snorted at the corner.
"That's too bad. When this is over, you should take your woman on dates to normal places so she can experience 'life' once in a while."
Both youths were aghast! Wisesa sulked and snapped, "Fuck you! Go back to your loka!" While Alicia with her reprimands, "Divine Mercy, quit yer havering, ye daft b-beast!"
Wisesa's hands still wondered if they could capture the yellowish kitten energy this time, but its agility alone thwarted his effort. And his frustration could not be quelled by the statues, so he lashed out at the bookworm lass. "Alicia, this temple is not as big as your palace. What exactly are you looking for that you can't find?"
"One moment! This way, or that way...?" The girl's hands were still fumbling with the wall's contours. "Okay! Where were we? Once, I read a book on puzzle mechanisms designed by the Magisterium in the oldest days. It was so secret that Mama scolded me, and I cried and hid in my room. She said the book was not meant for those who were not members of the Magisterium..."
"Yes, yes, yes. I know you're a crybaby, I've seen you that way many times. But that's not what I'm asking."
"I was heading that way!" Alicia snapped. Orb also rebuked in a stern tone. She scratched her head and scowled. Her memory was so muddled that she had to take a few steps back. Wisesa was never an ideal confidant, indeed. "Just listen! From what little I've read, the commonality of all Magisterium puzzles is that they embody the attributes of the Magisterium itself. If you observe the pictures and statues here, some feature armbands, robes, or other symbols that represent the bones of an owl—the Magisterium's own emblem. And they all seem to point in one direction, leading me to another until, in my opinion, I find a key, an answer, or a new clue… whatever it may be!"
Just as Alicia spoke these words, a group of monsters seized a statue of a Magisterium witch in the corner to the left of Wisesa, grasping her by the neck as she pointed towards a plain stone block. Perhaps this was the result of all that searching for clues? For almost half an hour, the girl scoured the wall only to find a block of stone, requiring simply a push to reveal a new path. That was Wisesa's cynical thought. Alicia, however, sighed in satisfaction and tucked her pride away in the recesses of her heart. She was the human genius who had discovered a plain, unassuming brick.
With a push of her hand, the brick gave way to Alicia's touch, and a small earthquake happened inside the temple. The square altar at the temple's heart rose rapidly, forming a towering block with circular patterns. Alicia's scream echoed through the temple, then trembled with a mix of awe and wonder. She scampered in excitement.
Barong glanced at Wisesa; his facial muscles could not constrict, leaving only a flat face. What was it that he had to radiate on his face? That little girl was already considered insane from the beginning. He could not be more surprised.
"A-Arcane Key!" Alicia thrust her passionate mien at Wisesa while her left forefinger pointed at the stone block. "Arcane Key!"
Wisesa shook his head. "So what?"
"Of course, they're using the Arcane Key! Look! The Arcane Symbol of the Western Rite Sorcery magic branch of the Eternal Empire!" Alicia hugged and groped the surface of the rough stone pillar as if it were her lover—luckily Orb was not a jealous ball. Every stroke she made with her finger throughout the stone carvings enhanced her curiosity to an almost overwhelming extent. Too many things could be learnt here. One example of that was a burning morbid wonder of how a stone pillar bearing the Eternal Empire's attributes could have been brought and even used as an altar table in an idol temple in Yawadwipa, given that the Federation of Lojitengara was not exactly a bed of roses for Western countries.
"This seal can only be opened by Arcane might, ye ken? Because there is an active mechanism inside with the Lapis Philosophorum as the might identifier! If the Philosopher's Stone is filled with Arcane, then the mechanism inside will open the seal accordingly. If it's filled with Khaos, the Arcane Key will turn into a deadly weapon—"
"Alicia, I'm not the one whining for a magic tour!" Wisesa glared at the girl, his patience running thin. “Just open the lock with your twittering orb!"
Barong smacked his lips. "My my, Wisesa, can't you praise that little girl for once? At least it'll shut her up a bit."
"Quite the opposite, you fool!"
"It's okay. I'm about to break the seal anyway!" Alicia's body was already glowing bluish. Alicia's body began to glow with a bright blue light, and she fired a plasma beam from her hand, filling every carving on the surface of the altar pillar. "Of course, of course! The Mages of the Magisterium are geniuses! The perfect confinement for the most dangerous mage!"
In an instant, the blue lines split the stone pillar into four sides, and the ground shook as all four sides hit the ground with a resounding thud.
The altar pillar had crumbled into an amorphous table that twisted itself into a cylinder. Alicia and Wisesa drew closer. Orb bathed the table's surface in light, revealing a mosaic of square segments, each adorned with intricate symbols.
"By the gods. Another puzzle?" Wisesa and Barong groaned.
Alicia's incessant prattle only made their spirits sink even lower. "That was just a warm-up puzzle. There will be many more puzzles and traps before we even reach the 'treasure'. The patterns are mostly that."
"Alicia, we'd better call it a day, and get some rest. You can resume the play tomorrow," Wisesa suggested.
"No way! We've come this far!"
"How much farther?"
"Until we solve this one riddle. Please? I need your knowledge of this."
Wisesa watched the symbols on the chequered row. He reserved no more energy to resist the girl as hyperactive as a child on a sugar rush. "This is an archaic variant of the Yawanese script. There are some discrepancies, but whatever. Only until this puzzle! What should I do?"
"Great!" Alicia cheered. "Hear, hear. This puzzle isn't too difficult after the warm-up one. We just need to include the Magisterium's motto to open the way. I need you to arrange these squares to form the phrase 'Magia Fovet, Magia Salvat' in Yawanese letters."
"Translation or—"
"No, not a translation. Just form the literal word in Yawanese letters."
Wisesa pressed one of the squares. The square turned out to be a button, and the table's base shifted as he pressed it. Wisesa contemplated for a moment and composed the sentence as Alicia had requested. Unfortunately, the table's base returned to its original position. Nothing happened, except for the sun setting and leaving them fumbling around in the dark.
"It seems wrong," Alicia concluded.
"You don't tell."
"Okay, then. Let's try the Yawanese version of the corporate motto," Alicia said, undeterred. "Magic Preserves, Magic Saves."
Wisesa typed the phrase, but the table rejected their answer once again.
"Maybe it's not the corporate motto," Barong said.
"Come on, Alicia. You have plenty of time to think about this answer. I'm already hungry—"
"One more, one more!" Alicia pleaded earnestly. "Magic preserves, magic saves. Common tongue, exactly what I said, but written in Yawanese script."
Wisesa shook his head. He questioned himself as to why he was so eager to be told what to do by a Westerner, let alone a woman. However, his compliance paid off! The table shifted and reshaped itself. The temple trembled beneath them once again, and a circular staircase revealed itself, leading down into the depths of the Moon Devouring Shaman's prison.
"Divine Mercy," Alicia whispered, awestruck. "We… We did it."
They sensed no enchanting aura leaking out but the lass was already hypnotised to descend the stairs, not caring that they led to nowhere but an endless blackness. Orb became a light for her. The staircase she was descending was circular, with no guardrails on either side, making Alicia's legs shiver and run cold despite being wrapped in red nylon. Not to mention, the distance from the top floor to the bottom was too tenuous to plunge down without risking death upon landing.
Wisesa felt a sense of betrayal. Alicia should have made her way towards the exit and started making dinner. Yet, he could not feign surprise. From the outset, the girl's insatiable curiosity had been evident. Her hair was a wild mess, and she seemed to have reached that point in her life where hair was an unnecessary mortal appendage. Magical wisdom was the ultimate pursuit.
Alicia reached the bottom unscathed. However, she was overwhelmed with disappointment, surprise, panic, and anger. Wisesa, who had just caught up with her, shared the same sentiments. Before them lay only a narrow passageway, in ruins. The capstone was shattered, and trap marks littered the ground. Torches were strewn about, still burning and illuminating the passage. Charred earth stung heavily in their nostrils. Someone had recently looted this place. Worst of all, an elongated box covered a rather tall tomb with two headstones, resembling a sarcophagus. The box was also split in two. Bathara Kala's prison, they surmised.
"No, no, no! We're too late," Alicia's exclaimation echoed in the air.
Wisesa's ears pricked up at a sound emanating from the messy hallway and upstairs. A low, agonising moan.
"Alicia, we need to get out of here!" he urged.
Gradually, the moans grew louder and more frequent, becoming audible to Alicia as well. Beyond the hallway, dozens of limping humans materialised from the shadow and filled the passageway. Then behind them, a thud resounded. A pile of humans fell from a height. Orb enlightened their being. The fallen bore glaring white eyes and rose to their feet with arms outstretched. Nobody had warned them that breaking into Bathara Kala's prison was a transgression, regardless of whether they solved the puzzle fair and square. Nor did they know that the temple guardian spirits, with their smooth speech and glowing bodies, could transform into undead creatures with rotting flesh and a putrid smell!
Orb sounded its siren. Barong also urged them, "What are you two boneheads waiting for? Hurry and go upstairs!"
How the Divine had cursed them. A corpse with a more "functional" brain walked and ascended the stairs simultaneously. The living were surrounded by the dead.
Another surprise completed their restlessness as giggles emanated from the end of the hallway. Not the dry giggles of the deceased. A hand emerged from the tomb, and then another face appeared. Even in the dim light of the torches, Alicia recognised the person's silhouette. Not to mention two flashing red visors.
"Alicia, Alicia, Alicia..." the person called softly. "Oh, fate has never kept us apart for long!"
Alicia's heart threatened to burst!
"Oh, not him again!" []
