OK final part, hope you enjoy!!!
Part Three:
Ninth Floor
The room was a grassy plain, they had seen a room like this before. The one with the man who looked just like Shaun and had tried to kill him. Sarah was astounded, “Are we still inside?” she asked. “Yeah, we've been in a room like this before, there is gonna be some guy here who looks like Shaun who is going to try and kill us, well him.” Nate answered. They looked across the field and saw the door with the skull on in, now to find the man, and the key. They heard the sounds of a horse, it was getting closer, they couldn't see where it was coming from, Shaun realized it was coming from behind. As he turned around he saw him, a man his size wearing his face, he wore a long white coat, with a small light blue cape on the back, he had two letters stitched into his coat, “RX” whatever that meant, wrapped around his head was a light of some sort. He was riding a large horse, he looked old, but one who never stopped working hard, he was brown with a white stripe down the middle of his face, the peculiar thing about this horse was that he had no legs, it was some sort of Phantom Horse. Shaun got out of the way of the Man in White, but Nate was not so lucky, the Man in White grabbed Nate and took him into the sky. Sarah and Shaun ran after them, Shaun an ice spell hoping not to hit Nate, Sarah pulled out some parts from one of her cubes and went to work, this slowed down her chase, but soon she was working on something that would be helpful. Nate was unconscious, and the Man in White pulled out what appeared to be a large capsule, he threw it towards Shaun and Sarah, Shaun lobbed a fireball at it, causing it to explode. Sarah finished her robot, it was a bird made out of the spare parts, it even had rockets and jets attached to it, “Damn Sarah, that was quick!” Shaun said. Sarah didn't have time to take the compliment, she grabbed hold of the bird, and Gina climbed into what appeared to be a mini cock pit. They took off after Nate and the Man in White. Shaun continued his spell casting, switching his target to the Horse just in case he might hit Nate, but seeing as how the Horse was mostly body this didn't help too much. Sarah was fast approaching the Man in White, when he noticed this he took out another capsule and threw it at Sarah, she dodged it but it exploded behind her, throwing her off balance. Nate came to and saw how high in the sky they were, he immediately began to freak out, causing the Man in White to lose his concentration, dropping three capsules, Shaun sent off another fireball and the explosion threw the Man in White and Nate from the Horse, Sarah chased after Nate catching him before he hit the ground, and the Man in White came down with a thud that ended his life, the Phantom Horse disappeared into thin air. Shaun checked the dead body and found more capsules and the key, he picked them up and the body of the Man in White started turning into mist, it just disappeared leaving the clothes behind. The entire Plain disappeared, they were just in a large empty room, Nate and Sarah came over to Shaun, “It was all just an illusion?” Sarah asked.
“It couldn't have been it hurt like it was real” Nate retorted.
“I'm telling you, this place has got some crazy magic going on, let's go, someone is in the next room.”
Tenth Floor:
The last trap room they were in was filled with the darkness, this time it just seemed like an empty room, where was the trap, where was one of their friends? Shaun was about to take a step, when he heard a voice. “Stop! Don't take a step!” It was DeAndre. “DeAndre? Is that you?” Shan asked.
“Yeah, it's me, don't take a step, this trap is crazy, it's invisible, in front of you is a floor switch that will kill me.”
“Oh shit, so what do we do?”
“uh, great question, I can see you, but you can't see me or the trap. Just listen to me and do whatever I say.”
“Alright, tell me what to do.”
“Shaun, to your left there is a knob, give it three turns to the left, Nate to your right there is cat, give it a kick-”
“What?”
“Nate just kick the invisible Cat!”
Nate did what he was told and kicked the air to his right, a cat cried out and he heard it run away.
“Sarah, in front of you there is a cage full of Invisible Mice, grab one and put it on the floor in front of you.”
“DeAndre, gross, a cage full of mice? Do they have diseases? Are they invisible diseases?”
“Sarah, don't be a Nate.”
“Hey!”
“Sorry Nate.”
Sarah reached in a grabbed a mouse, she couldn't see them, but she could feel them, moving around there must have been at least twenty crammed into a tiny cage. She felt on of them crawl up her arm and had to grab it to put it back. She let the mouse in her hand go at her feet and heard the cat that Nate had kicked earlier go for it, the two ran around the room until the mouse reached a a hole in the wall it sounded like. It must have hit a switch or something because then what sounded like large gears started moving, causing the floor to shift, they rode the floor until Shaun ran into something, it was DeAndre, he was no longer invisible, but he was covered in vines, “De!” he said, reaching out totake the vines off him, “Stop! Shaun, don't touch the vines, or they'll get you too, these are the vines of the Bearing Bison Barnning Bay Bloods, or the 5B. They grab any who touch them and never let them go until they have sucked all the life out of them.” Shaun had dealt with the 5B before, he began casting a spell that started a small blizzard in the room. Sarah and Nate started complaining about the freezing cold temperature, “This is the only way to get rid of the 5B, so deal with it.” They stopped complaining out loud, but still grumbled a little. The cold killed the 5B and Shaun was able to get DeAndre free. He was very weak, Nate had to use three of his potions to get him back to a good health, they were now down to two potions, the next rest stop they were gonna have to buy more. The door unlocked and Shaun and Nate helped DeAndre to his feet. They were about to go through the door when Sarah stopped them. “Hey guys, the stones, remember? We can teleport to floor fifteen, that was the plan.” Shaun and Nate looked at each other “Oh... right...” They had forgotten all about that in the span of one room. They put DeAndre down, “I'm really fine guys, seriously” He said tripping over his own feet into a pile on the floor. Nate helped him back up. “So, how do we use these stones?” Sarah asked, “Great question, uh I'm trying to remember something my history teacher told us, I think there are two ways to get a magical stone artifact to work, you either hit it against something, or you talk to it... I think. And seeing as how I kept hitting mine against another rock to make it like the lens I assume we have to talk to it?”
“What the hell are we supposed to say?” DeAndre asked, then added sarcastically, “hey stone we want to go to another floor” the stone in Shaun's hand lit up the room with a light green flash, then brought the light back in to create the form of a small slender woman, wearing men's clothes, large dark glasses, and smoking a cigaret, “What do you want!?” The little woman yelled, “Who called me? You! Big guy! You're the one who kept breaking me apart! And now you want me to take you to another floor!? Ha! You're crazy!” Clearly this small magical woman was not one to be messed with.
“Uh, about that, I'm sorry, I was not aware that there was a little magical being living inside of the stone, I thought it was just a normal stone, look, I'm here trying to get all my friends back and we would greatly appreciate it if you could teleport us to level 15.”
“And what do you offer as payment!?”
“
Uh, our gratitude?”
“GRATITUDE!? First you break me and then you have nothing to offer me but Gratitude!? You cabrón!”“Uh, well how about a health potion?” Nate said, trying to save the situation.
“Potions you say? How many?”
“uh, we have two... but-”
“I will take them! Two potions to move five floors” A hole appeared in the ground, “Put the potions in the hole, one at a time” Nate reluctantly gave away their last two potions, it was the only option, but no one was really happy about it, what were they going to give her next time?
“Ok, here we go, to floor fifteen!!!!!” the bright green light filled the room again and took the party with it.
Fifteenth Floor
The room filled with light and when it was gone Shaun, DeAndre, Nate, and Sarah left in it's wake, the stone back to being just a stone. They searched around and found Jon sitting in the center of the room on a stone, playing his guitar, he saw his friends and called out to them, “Hey guys!” Everyone was super excited to see him, but when he tried to go over to them there was a puff of white smoke and suddenly there were two Jons, and two rocks. He didn't notice, and tried to leave the rock again, only it caused more white smoke, and more Jons to appear. “hold on guys, something's wrong, I can't leave this rock.”
“Jon, which one are you?” Shaun asked, Jon looked confused, “What do you mean 'Which one am I?' I'm right here.” He made to leave the rock again, and now there were eight Jons. “Jon, stop it, this is a trick, every time u try and leave the rock you multiply.” Sarah told him.
“Really how many are there of me?” The Jons said in unison.
“Eight right now.”
“Hello seven other mes!” The real Jon said, the other seven said “Hi Jon” back in unison. It creeped everyone out, but now they knew which was the real Jon. Shaun approached him and grabbed his hand, pulling him free of the stone, and making all of the other Jons disappear. “That coulda been disastrous, imagine the room filling with Jons, we coulda been crushed.” Nate said.
“Well we weren't, we're all ok, even I'm feeling better” DeAndre remarked. Jon came over and hugged everyone glad to see everyone's faces, him and DeAndre related the stories of what had happened to them right before they wound up in their respective trap rooms, Shaun Sarah and Nate filled them in on the rest of the details. They got ready to teleport to the next floor, Nate pulled out the lens that he had on him and talked to the stone, “Stone, we would like to teleport to the twentieth floor.” The stone lit up and the same small woman appeared, you want to teleport again huh? Well, too bad, you can't”
“Why not?” Shaun asked.
“Well for starters, you are not done in this room, the trap has not been dismantled, and second-”
“What? We got Jon back, what's left of the trap?” Shaun asked.
“That was only one part, how many copies did he make?”
“Uh, seven copies”
“Well, they each took a part of his soul, you have to get them back and I will tell you your next obstacle to teleporting.” They all looked around the room, but couldn't see any of the copies, Sarah looked to the ceiling and saw one, he was hanging from the wall like a gecko, he turned around and she saw that his eyes glowed an unearthly purple. “Whoah!” Was all she got out before the copy jumped for her, she pulled out a shield made of parts and blocked him, but she was now trapped under her own shield. The other copies began to fall out of the sky and each member of the group had to deal with one each, some of them two. Nate pulled his dagger and knocked one out with the hilt of it, another came for him and he made a dash for the other side of the room. One was trying to ride on DeAndre, but he was used to drunk people trying that and subdued the copy. Shaun caught two in an ice spell and they were knocked out. Jon made a large pole out of some sound waves from his guitar and smashed it upside the head of the last copy. One was still of course terrifying Sarah, so Shaun knocked him out with a bolt spell. Nate dragged the last copy to the center, when they were all brought back together they turned into a mist and became a part of Jon. The stone light up from inside Nate's pocket, he took it out, the small woman appeared again, “Great job, now the door is open to the next room, however u still cannot teleport,”
“Why not?”
“Because there are too many of you, in my current state I can only teleport four of you, one of you will have to go back to a Rest Room. Who will go forward?” She asked looking at Shaun. He didn't want to choose, they all worked great as a team, but maybe someone wanted a break? He sort of did, but he didn't have a choice to stay behind, Death was waiting for him at the top of the tower. Nate stepped forward, “I'll wait, I've been here since floor one, maybe give someone else a chance to help? I'm pretty pooped.” Shaun knew Nate wanted to go forward, he wanted to see it out to the end, but everyone else was much fresher than him or Nate, so Nate would stay behind. Shaun, Jon, DeAndre, and Sarah would go to the twentieth floor and get Guy. The stone asked for payment, and no one really had anything to give, Nate offered up his dagger, she accepted and the light took everyone away, leaving Nate to make his way to the Rest Room alone, without a weapon.
Twentieth Floor
They reached the twentieth floor in a bright light, and immediately everyone missed Nate, there was a moment of somberness, that was broken by Guy's voice. “Hey guys! Finally! Shit, took you long enough. What was that light? Future me came and got me out of the trap, I like future me, he is definitely looking out for my best interests, I don't like past me though, he's always wanting me to do shit for him. Like, look man, can't you take care of some things yourself? Why's everyone so quiet? Hey where's Nate? Oh no, did he die? Nate! Nate! WHY!???”
“Guy, calm down, Nate's fine, he's back in one of the Rest Rooms” Shaun sarcastically comforted Guy.
“Oh, ok, well good, so what's the next step?”
“Well we have to go two floors to recharge the teleporting stone, so we go to the next floor, oh but before that we need you to go back in time, and tell the past me about a shortcut, tell him to ask the Invisible Man, I'll know what you mean.”
“There's an Invisible man? I wanna see him.”
“I know, just go Guy, also you might want to check out your past self in this trap.”
“Alright, damn past self, always wantin shit.” Guy disappeared in a blue time portal and the door opened for the group to go to the next floor.
Twenty-first Floor
The door opened and Shaun, Jon, Sarah and DeAndre found themselves on a boat in the middle of the ocean, Damn, this place really can be anything can't it? Shaun thought. “Where is the key? And the door?” asked Jon. They split up to search for it, DeAndre was having a hard time stabilizing himself on the ship just held onto the side railing, he looked over, and found the door, it was int eh ocean, floating in the waves. “Hey guys, I found the door!” he shouted. Everyone came to look, “But where could that key be?” Sarah asked, she got her answer, a piece of bird shit fell out of the sky and hit her in the face, she started freaking out, everyone else looked up and saw a giant bird perch atop the ship, and Shaun saw that tied to his left foot, was the key. “You have got to be kidding me” Shuan said. “Guys, no sweat, I'm great with birds, I got a ton of songs to put birds to sleep!” Jon said. He started strumming his guitar, as he lulled the bird to sleep Shaun started climbing up towards the bird. Sarah was cleaning her face and most of her upper body in a nearby barrel, she looked down and saw a large cloud in the water, she could see electricity jumping in the cloud, she became alarmed and tried to put the cover on the barrel. The storm cloud fought her and finally escaped the barrel, creating a large thunder storm, heavy rains, and winds that howled, blocking out the sounds of Jon's guitar. The giant bird woke up and saw Shaun getting close to it, he pecked and scratched at Shaun, who fought back with a fire spell. The bird knocked it away with it's wing, barely getting a scratch on it. It began to fly away, if it got away that would mean they would be trapped in this storm and this room. DeAndre pulled out a boomerang and threw it towards the bird, missing the foot, but he managed to get the bird to change direction and it flew back towards the boat. Sarah pulled out her shotgun and fired it at the bird, it was stronger than she anticipated and she went flying back, but she did manage to hit the birds wing, injuring it, forcing it to land back on the boat. Jon was trying to use the soundwaves from his guitar, but the air was so cluttered with rain and wind that he couldn't make anything, the bird came towards him, and he ran straight towards it, at the moment it struck out at him he used the wet floor to slide between the beasts legs and grab the key. “I've got the key!” he yelled to everyone, they made their way to the door, only to find that in the storm it has disappeared, Shaun knew he had to quiet the storm, he raised his hand to the sky “You shall storm no more!” he yelled with the power of five storms, and the storm cloud started shaking and made it's back into the barrel Sarah had found it, as if the entire sky had escaped into this one barrel. The bird was still a problem for the group though, but Jon set out to fix that, he played it a lullaby rocking it to sleep. It took a minute and Sarah's shotgun was knocked over board, but after about ten minutes it was very docile, and Jon helped to bandage up it's wing, it gave Jon a bottle of some gold liquid as a thanks. Shaun was beat, quieting a storm is no easy feat, for any sort of Mage, and now here he was with still another room to go, and unsure of when the next Rest Room would appear, he didn't even know if he could cast any spells for awhile. He asked for a sword from DeAndre, he would have to use it if he couldn't cast magic. Things were going to get bad fast if he couldn't get some blue potion in him soon. The door reappeared and they all jumped into the water, Jon opened it and water started flooding in, taking all four of them in it.
Twenty-second Floor
The water came rushing in, and the party crashed onto the floor all wet. “Well that was one of the less nice ways to go through a door” DeAndre said, “Try going through a door on a whale” Shaun said. They looked around, “Oh shit,” Shaun knew what sort of room this was, there was grass as far as the eye could see a giant plain, in between them and the door on the opposite side of the room, two large men, they slowly turned around, one in a brown suit that looked too small for a man his size, his mustache and goatee were dark, his hair slick, he carried a cleaver, and the other man, unkempt, in green, he looked very physical, and was massaging a black panther, around each man's wrist was a key, they needed both of them. Neither man said a thing, and started towards the group. “Jon and Sarah you take the Man in Brown, and me and De will take the Man in Green, ok? Go!” Shaun shouted out, the two teams split up, Sarah and John immediately set to work building things, Jon built a sword for himself out of a G Chord, while Sarah began building Mech Armor, she was already at her waist. “Jon, I need more time, hold him off” Sarah ordered, “Got it!” he ran towards the Man in Brown and went in for an attack with his sword, the man blocked it with his cleaver and sent Jon flying with a kick. He landed and just started back towards him again, this time throwing his sword towards the Man in Brown, he prepared to block it, but Jon pulled out his guitar and played a few notes, this caused his sword to break apart into five different swords that flew at the man, he was able to dodge three, with one hitting him in the leg, just merely breaking skin. The other one was really the only sword Jon cared about, it was aimed right for his left hand, to which the key was attached, and hit it's target with such precision that it cut the hand clean from the arm, leaving the key to slide off into the grass. Sarah yelled, “Out of the way Jon!” her armor was done, and it was her turn to take on the Man in Brown. He ran towards her, hardly affected by the fact that his left hand was lying in the grass feet from where he stood. Sarah armor made her about the same size as the Man in Brown and about as strong, she hoped, he came towards her, and she grabbed him, throwing him to the ground, but he grabbed her at the last minute taking her with him, they rolled around, he didn't even notice the cuts from rolling around with Sarah's machinery. He got the upper hand and layed on top of her, he pulled his cleaver up high, ready to bring it down upon Sarah, “Oh fuck that noise” She said and a two rockets appeared from each of her shoulders, and the Man in Brown was hit by four mini rockets, knocking him into the air and exploding, what was left of him after was not getting back up.
Shaun and DeAndre took on the Man in Green and his Panther. Shaun went after the Man in Green, he tried to lob a fireball, but it was weak, he wasn't ready to be casting magic, Worth a shot, he thought to himself while he pulled out the sword DeAndre gave him. DeAndre ran at full speed at the Panther, he had dealt with many a wild cat before, but this one was different, he could sense something dark about it. He fired off two arrows towards it and it disappeared, reappearing on the other side of the room, he fired again, and again it teleported. He ran towards it, it fired off three balls made of the same darkness that the group had encountered in other parts of the tower. DeAndre shot three arrows imbued with light magic to counteract the three shadow balls. The Panther took this opportunity to come up behind DeAndre and attack him from behind, latching onto his lower half, DeAndre bucked wildly, and use his boomerang like a dagger and managed to get the Panther off just before it teleported again, this time coming at him from the front. He dodged and saw that far off the field was on fire from the small fire ball that Shaun had tried to use against the Man in Green, he ran towards it, the panther teleporting behind him trying to catch him. As he ran the Panther would appear out of nowhere and try and attack, missing DeAndre by inches. He finally made it to the fire and the Panther teleported to attack, but this time it was DeAndre who was attacking, he grabbed an arrow and as the Panther appeared he stabbed it through the chest, the beast fought wildly, but DeAndre had the upper hand, he threw the beast into the now roaring fire, where it screamed and turned into a cloud of the darkness, disappating into the air.
Shaun had his sword in hand and went to strike the Man in Green, but he was quick and strong with his hands, stopping the blade with just his hands. He tossed the blade to the side and grabbed Shaun, throwing him to the ground. He took out a glove covered in metal plating and proceeded to attack Shaun, who rolled out of the way of the Man's might punch. Unfortunately Shaun was not quick enough and the Man in Green kicked him in his gut, Shaun felt the pain in his stomach, but no time to think, otherwise he would be dead, he grabbed the mans boot that was firmly placed into his gut and pulled the man off balance, Shaun saw the sword not too far from where they were, he sent a fist flying into the Man's jaw, knocking him to the ground. Shaun rushed over to the sword, as the Man in Green approached, now filled with more anger than ever, Shaun dug the sword into the ground knocking dirt into the air, and into the Man in Green's eyes. He stumbled for a second trying to see again, but it was too late, Shaun had sliced open his stomach, having all of his innards spill out onto the floor. “Shaun, that's gross,” Sarah yelled from across the room, having seen the end of the fight. The Man in Green then turned into a mist and left the Key in his wake, the door was now able to be opened and they could teleport to the twenty-fifth floor. Shaun pulled out his stone and spoke to it, “Uh, hey stone, can you take us to the twenty-fifth floor?”
“Real elegant Shaun” Jon joked.
The green light appeared and so did the little woman, “Well well well, here we are almost to the end eh? So what you got to trade? What you gonna offer me?” They all looked at each other the only things they really had left on them were their weapons and the keys, “How about the two keys we won from the two men here?” Shaun asked.
“Why would I want those keys? They are useless outside of this tower, what else?”
“Uh we have our weapons, what if you take one?” Sarah chimed in offering her pistols.
“What use do I have with your weapons? I couldn't sell them to anyone, I couldn't use them, no!”
Then Jon remembered the gift from the Giant Bird. “I have this bottle of strange gold liquid I got from that Giant Bird in the last room?”
The little woman eyed the bottle and lost it, “Ai Dios Mio!!! Where did u get that!!??? It's worth a fortune!!! Yes give it to me!!!”
“Wait a minute, that's worth a fortune? Don't give her all of it Jon” Shaun said.
“I need it! I am but a poor woman, please sir, I am but a humble magic being salesperson, that gold liquid would go very far, and if you want me to teleport you I want that gold liquid!”
“So humble” Shaun mumbled, “Look, we really need you to teleport us, but we also really need this liquid if it is worth so much, can't we strike a deal?”
“Ok, fine, we split it, sixty-forty!”
“Ok, We get the sixty! Now, to the twenty-fifth floor!” before she even realized what she agreed to the little woman teleported the group.
Twenty-fifth Floor
They appeared on the twenty-fifth floor and checked his bottle, only forty percent of the liquid was missing, she was bound by the agreement. “Alright, everyone keep your eye out for Bailey, she is the only one we have left to find.” Shaun said, they searched the room, but couldn't find any trace of her. They split up DeAndre found himself walking up a flight of stairs, he saw Bailey at the top, he turned around and shouted, “I found her!” but there was no response, he called out to her, “Bailey” no response. He ascended the stairs, but he found as he got closer Bailey kept getting higher, so he ran after her, climbing higher and higher, and never getting anywhere. He called out to her again, but nothing, Bailey just looked at DeAndre and smiled.
Sarah found herself at the edge of a pool of water, she saw that at the bottom of the pool there was a glass coffin, inside it, was Bailey. “Hey guys, she's over here!” But she didn't hear anyone. She made a small submarine out of the parts in her belt, and dove in the lake. As she reached the bottom she felt something swim past her and rock the sub, she looked over and a large octopus was guarding the glass coffin, “Mother fuck.”
Jon walked through the dark looking for Bailey, he saw something up in the distance, it was her, “Bailey!” He called out, she turned around, held up a finger as if telling Jon to be quiet, smiled and ran off into the darkness, Jon followed after her.
Shaun walked through the darkness and found himself in a bright forest, he came to a clearing, and there was Bailey, asleep it seemed, she was wrapped it seemed by vines, it wasn't until he got closer that he realized that some of the vines seemed to be plugged into her, the vines were attached to her head they seemed to be feeding off her. He didn't have time to call for the others, he ran over to her, but a vine came out of a bush and grabbed him, he pulled out his sword and hacked it off, at that moment the rest of the forest seemed to come alive and take note of Shaun, and it was coming for him. The sun was blocked out by leaves and vines, all headed for Shaun, he didn't have any magic to help him, he dodged and hacked away at what he could, inching his way towards Bailey while the vines began shooting needles at him.
DeAndre was so tired from running, but he needed to help Bailey, suddenly she stopped moving, DeAndre was able to reach her, and as he reached out for her she became a gnarled mesh of vines and leaves, “What the?” DeAndre got out before the vines grabbed onto him, he used his boomerang to cut himself free and ran down the stairs, away from what seemed like part of a forest that was chasing him down the stairs.
Sarah was trying to use some robotic arms she had made for the Sub to fight off the octopus, as soon as she had it subdued, it disappeared, everything did, the water, the Glass Coffin, all that remained was a bush, where Bailey was. She got out of the sub and approached it, she reached out to touch it and a vine grabbed her, lifting her into the air. Gina leapt into action, turning her small arms into spinning blades, freeing Sarah who rode the vines all they way down as Gina provided cover, Sarah ran back towards the center of the room and the guys.
Through the darkness Jon followed Bailey until he reached a forest, he heard a commotion, it sounded like Shaun, he looked and saw that the entire forest was basically attacking Shaun. He as quickly and as quietly as he could made six large blades and sent them spinning through the air, and using a few loud notes split them into thirty six blades, slashing through most of the forest, Shaun grabbed his sword and cut Bailey out of the bed she was attached to, “Run!” Shaun shouted at Jon, they ran back the way Shaun came, with Bailey in his arms. Jon fired off some more swords as they ran, the forest was now after both of them, hopefully they could find a way to disable the trap.
DeAndre made it to level floor and ran into Sarah, Jon and Shaun with Bailey soon approached, they all said “The plants are alive!” Just then the three large plants came crashing through and the four of them ducked, letting the vines and barbs crash into each other, a giant bulb emerged and blossomed into a giant yellow flower. “NO TAKE WOMAN” it shouted. This woke Bailey up, she looked up at Shaun and for the first time he realized that she had something clutched in her hands, it was a bottle of blue potion, “Bottoms up” she said and handed it to him, he set her down and drank the potion. He felt magic coursing through his veins again, he alone took on the giant yellow flower. It shot poison stingers at him, he annihilated them with a wave of fire. He swung his arms high and wide and from one fireball a tornado of fire was created, he sent it crashing towards the flower, decimating it, and burning most of the rest of the forest in the room. A door was heard unlocking and the plants and vines turned into mist disappearing. “Bailey are you ok?” Sarah asked, she seemed a bit woozy, but said “I'm good, those plants took a lot out of me.” Shaun cast a healing spell on her and she regained some of her color, but now all of his magic was gone again.
“We've got one room left, Death is waiting for me in there, and I'm in no condition to fight, that spell just took up the last of my magic.”
“Did I hear someone say Invisible Man?” His voiced appeared out of nowhere. It freaked most of them out, Shaun was just a bit annoyed.
“No, no one said that.”
“Well you should have, and oh look you found all your little friends, oh and see I knew you were missing a horse!”
DeAndre was offended, “I'm not a fucking horse!”
“Well whatever, anyway, congratulations! Are you ready for the final battle with Death?”
“No, look at me, I have no magic, I've got cuts, scars, and bruises. I'd be no match for Death right now. Do you have anything that can help? I know you've got some sort of bag with you, wait, why are you here anyway?”
“I'm here to make on final Rest Room for you before you fight the big baddie upstairs.”
“Great! Ok, potions, both Blue and Red please!”
“Sorry all out! You can't see it, but my face is showing that I am very much sorry for that.”
“Do you have anything?”
“Well since this is now an official Rest Room you can summon the Mole Merchant, just tap your foot three times.”
Shaun did so, he felt like an idiot, but did it, they needed potions. The ground started shaking where he tapped, and he moved out of the way as the Mole Merchant made her way up from the ground, she looked awfully familiar. Shaun noticed it first, “You're the woman from the stones!! That made us pay for teleportation! But how?”
“I am a very busy very humble magic salesperson, remember? I am Claudia the Mole Merchant Lady, what would you like to buy?”
Shaun was amazed, she was definitely the woman from the stones, and here she was in the flesh. Shaun bought a red potion each for them, and two blues for himself. Then the Mole Merchant threw in three free red potions, because she liked their faces so much. She bid them farewell, and left through the hole she left in the ground. “Ok guys, this is the final battle, are you ready? I wish Nate and Guy could be here to help, but we are going to have make due.”
“Well not necessarily,” The Invisible Man chimed in, “You see you are technically in a Rest Room, and because Nate and Guy are in a Rest Room further down the tower they can be brought here, isn't that nice?” He snapped his fingers, or Shaun assumed he snapped his fingers, and in a puff of white smoke Guy and Nate appeared. Sarah made a dagger for Nate to use since he had given his up to get the party teleported. “Everyone ready?” Shaun asked, everyone nodded yes, and they stepped through the final door.
Twenty-sixth Floor (Final Floor)
They all got inside the room and shut the door, it was dark, Nate and Shaun pulled out their lenses and looked around for a sign of something, “No need for those boys” Said a voice. The room lit up with torches all around the perimeter they made a trail to the center of the room, where they lit upwards, a staircase, one by one, until they reached the top. Where an old man sat in a stone throne. They all recognized him, and were shocked, it was their old mentor, their old friend who started their guild, they named the Guild after him, it was Peter of the family Larlham! “Surprised eh?” he said as he started down the staircase. “I died you know, and I floated through nothingness for what seemed like an eternity, then Death brought me out of it, and told me that if I so wanted I could become the new Death, I would be his successor, they changed Deaths every 200 years or so, and I was chosen. Well, I thought what better way to test and see my dear old friends again then by having them challenge my tower! Well, did you like it?” They were all in shock, how could this be? Peter was chosen as the new death? He was TESTING them? That's all this was? “Peter,” Shaun spoke first, “This was all just a test? We were in real danger a lot of the time, I mean each trap room alone, and thos men who looked like me! The monsters and the Darkness, this was all a test?”
“Yes, the ultimate test! Shaun my boy, you of all people should understand, you were the one who wanted to go on a real adventure again weren't you? Well I heard your desire and thought I could help you out and prepare you for what lies ahead. So I devised this test, isn't it grand?”
“Grand!? Peter you are crazy! This is... this is a bit too much right now.”
“Well snap out of it because you have your final test right now, a battle with me!” With that the lights went out and when they came back on Peter had transformed into Death, a large robed and hooded figure, half man half skeleton, carrying a large sickle. “Get ready Guild Larlham!”
Peter struck out and almost caught Sarah, who was still in shock, “Sarah, get over it, this is a fight to the death!” Peter yelled out at her, she immediately set to work on a machine. Guy began shooting his lazer at Peter, who reflected it off his sickle, Guy jumped into a portal, Peter almost caught his foot with his blade. Bailey pulled out her sword, but couldn't bring herself to fight, Shaun told her, “Bailey I don't want to do it either, but this is what he wants, we have to do it for him!” The attacked together, he enchanted her giant sword and she sliced through Peter cutting him in half. A tear fell from her eyes, but she soon realized that the halves of peter became whole again, and came after her. DeAndre shot a couple of arrows in Peter's direction, peter shot out some shadow that tied his legs up and his arms constricting them. Nate had made some bombs in his time in the Rest Room, and lit them, throwing them at Peter, they exploded but barely did any damage. Peter sent out a wave of dark enchanted fire, it sent Nate flying and burned holes through his shirt. Jon had been busy making a large golem made out of sound waves and sent it after Peter, it got in one punch before Peter sliced in half. He then sent the sound waves back towards Jon, knocking him out. One by one they all tried to fight, but found themselves unable to really do any damage, and mostly it had to do with that it was Peter Larlham. Their friend and mentor, the one who taught them most of their skills. Shaun didn't want to see his friends suffer anymore and used a large portion of his magic to cast a time spell to freeze time. He looked and everyone was suffering in suspended animation, he unfroze Peter and said “ok, just you and me, it's my fault we're all here so just you and me.” Peter agreed and the he came flying towards Shaun, who ducked out of the way, he turned around and put all of his strength into a spell Peter had taught him years ago, before his death, he never used it beacause Peter told him that he should only use it when he was sure the time is right, he would only be able to use it once. He knew that this was that time. The spell created a large ball of light that tore through Peter's chest, it began to eat away at his cloak and being, Shaun felt terrible, but Peter just looked at him and smiled. “You are ready for what lies ahead, you have grown so much, I am proud” END
