CHAPTER 135: CLEVER MOUSE

Serian and Mela just stared at him, their expressions a mixture of shock and wariness. The room was silent except for the faint, echoing drip of something in the dark.

Mela was the first to find her voice, and even then it was just a whisper. "What was that? You were... different."

"I got an upgrade. It is more efficient this way." Nox did not feel the need to explain it further, so he started walking toward the bone staircase that led to the next level. "Come on, the lich is still waiting."

The two girls exchanged a look of deep concern, but they followed him without another word. The staircase was a long, spiraling ascent up the inside of the spire’s dark walls, and with every step, the air grew colder. After a climb that felt like it lasted for an eternity, they reached the top, stepping into another large, square chamber.

This room was different. The floor was made of a perfectly smooth, polished black marble that reflected the cold, blue torchlight like a dark mirror. In the very center of the chamber, a single, fist-sized crystal, glowing with a soft white light, floated a few feet above a simple stone pedestal. On the far side of the room, another ornate iron door stood, marking the exit.

The moment Mela’s foot touched the marble, the door behind them slammed shut, and the disembodied voice of the Lich King echoed around them.

"The first trial was a test of the body. This one, however, is a test of the mind, and of the bonds that hold you together. A trial of trust."

A faint, shimmering barrier of green energy appeared, covering the entire floor except for the small, circular area of the pedestal.

"The rules are simple," the voice continued, full of a dry amusement. "One of you must stand on the pedestal and hold the crystal. That person will be safe. The other two must cross the room to the exit without touching the floor. If the person on the pedestal steps off, or if those crossing the floor touch the marble, the barrier will activate. You will all die, quite spectacularly, I imagine. Do try to be careful."

Mela cursed under her breath. "A trap. We cannot fly, how are we supposed to cross?"

Serian walked to the edge of the safe zone, her eyes scanning the polished black floor. "There must be a trick to it. A hidden path, or a sequence we must follow."

’A puzzle? How annoying.’ Nox’s new, efficient mind was already processing the problem. He did not need to guess. The answer was just... there.

[Analysis: The floor is a pressure-sensitive thaumaturgical field. Direct contact by any life form not keyed to the pedestal’s crystal will trigger a fatal energy discharge. The crystal acts as the safety key, nullifying the field in a five-foot radius around its position.]

"It’s a death floor," he stated simply. "No hidden paths. You touch it, you die."

"Then it is an impossible trial," Mela said, her hand moving to her pouch of needles. "He means to trap us here until we starve."

"No," Serian said, looking at her companions. "We must choose one to stay behind, to hold the crystal, while the other two find a way to cross. I will stay. As your princess, it is my duty to ensure your safety."

"That is not acceptable, Your Highness," Mela immediately countered. "I am your escort. My life is sworn to protect yours. I will be the one to remain on the pedestal."

Nox let out a loud, frustrated sigh that cut through their noble argument. "Will you two stop it? This is not a contest to see who can be the most heroic. It is a stupid puzzle, and I have already solved it."

He walked past both of them and stepped onto the pedestal, grabbing the glowing white crystal from the air. It was cool to the touch.

"I will stay here," he announced. "I am the only one who can get you two across. Now hurry up before I get bored."

Mela looked at him, her expression full of suspicion. "You? What are you planning, human? You will just get distracted and wander off the pedestal."

"Just watch." He looked at the wide expanse of black marble between the pedestal and the exit door. He held out his free hand, and a flat, circular disc of black, void energy, about two feet wide, shimmered into existence a few feet in front of them, hovering just above the deadly floor.

"Stepping stones," he said. "They won’t last long, so you need to move when I tell you. Serian, you go first."

Serian looked at the shimmering, unstable-looking disc, then back at his confident face. She nodded. "I trust you, Nox."

She took a deep breath and leaped from the safety of the pedestal onto the first void-disc. It held her weight, though it wobbled slightly. Nox immediately created another disc a few feet in front of her.

"Go," he commanded.

She jumped to the next one, and the first disc behind her dissolved into black smoke. It was a frantic, high-stakes game of hopscotch across a floor of instant death. Serian, with her natural elven grace, moved quickly, her balance perfect.

Mela followed a step behind her, her movements more cautious and rigid, her eyes darting between the next platform and the deadly floor below. She nearly slipped once, her boot scraping the edge of a disc, and a jolt of green energy arced up from the floor, missing her by an inch.

"Pay attention, pointy-ears!" he yelled.

"Be quiet and focus on making the platforms, you idiot!" she yelled back without looking.

They were halfway across the room when the Lich King’s voice echoed again, dripping with theatrical disappointment.

"My, my. This is progressing far too smoothly. It is becoming rather dull. Let’s add a little... complication."

The polished black marble floor began to ripple like dark water. From its surface, dozens of spectral, ghostly hands, made of a translucent green energy, began to rise. They did not try to touch the floor; they just reached up, their ethereal fingers grasping for the ankles of the two elves.

"What are these things?!" Mela cried out, hopping to a new platform just as a ghostly hand swiped at her leg.

Serian tried to slash at one with her sword, but the blade passed right through it as if it were smoke. "They are intangible! We cannot harm them!"

’Great. More distractions.’ Nox had to keep creating the platforms in front of them while also dealing with the new threat. Lashing out with a Chain of the Abyss, he found it too passed through the hands. They were not a physical threat to be destroyed, but a magical one to be disrupted. ’Inefficient.’ A new idea, clean and simple, presented itself.

He did not attack the hands. Instead, he focused his void energy, not into a shape, but into a pulse. A wave of pure, disruptive void energy, invisible and silent, washed over the floor. The ghostly hands, which were constructs of the Lich’s necromantic magic, recoiled from the pulse as if they had been splashed with acid. They flickered and drew back from the platforms for a precious second.

"Now! Run!"

With the path momentarily cleared, Serian and Mela scrambled across the remaining distance, leaping from one short-lived platform to the next. They reached the far side of the chamber and collapsed against the iron door, breathless and hearts pounding.

They turned back to look at Nox, who was still standing on the pedestal a hundred feet away, across the now-empty, deadly floor.

"You did it, Nox!" Serian called out, a wave of relief in her voice. "Now it is your turn! How will you get across?"

Mela looked at the vast, empty space. "He cannot. He cannot create a path for himself while he is standing on the crystal. The Lich King planned this from the start. We are separated."

The Lich King’s voice chuckled, confirming their fears. "Indeed. A clever solution, but you have only saved your companions. The key cannot leave the lock. How will you join them, little mouse? It seems you have sacrificed yourself."

Nox just looked across the chamber at them, then at the floor, then up at the high, dark ceiling. A slow, deeply unimpressed smile spread across his face. ’Sacrifice? What an idiot.’

He did not try to make a bridge. He did not try to teleport.

He held up his hand and fired a single, thick Chain of the Abyss straight up into the darkness. The hook at the end bit into the stone ceiling with a loud thud, the chain dangling down like a black rope.

Then he just jumped.

He swung.

He soared through the air in a single, massive arc, flying high above the deadly marble floor and the lingering, frustrated ghosts. He let go of the chain at the peak of his swing and landed with a soft thud on the floor right next to Serian and Mela, the chain dissolving into smoke behind him.

The chamber was completely silent for a long moment.

Then the Lich King spoke, his voice no longer amused, but filled with a new, cold interest. "...Clever. Very clever, for a mouse."

The iron door in front of them groaned and swung open, revealing another spiraling bone staircase leading up into the darkness of the third and final trial.