"You will take a warrior with you. Someone who can defend you in the worst case. Someone who can think strategically and who knows about the situation. Someone we can trust unconditionally," Astaroth said.
And who is this someone supposed to be?
Th...
They reached the next room which resembled the first. In front of them stretched an almost rectangular area with dark volcanic rock surrounded by a sea of magma. There were several islands in the magma sea with columns reaching towards the ceiling. Between a few of these islands ran a path of closely spaced stones. As before, the glowing drops dripped from the ceiling again and again, so that flying failed again as a possibility.
Zack went to the column at the end of their island and examined it more closely. It was quite unspectacular. It was a cubic block on which there were two cubic elevations that reminded him of heads. The left one, slightly lower than the other, shone red, while the other one on the right didn't glow at all.
"I assume that we have to go to the back left of the room. I can see a passage over there," said Lucan, who had gained an overview of the obstacle.
Slowly, Zack nodded, then pressed the right of the two buttons. This lowered with a sound that sounded like two stones rubbing together. It began to glow blue. At the same time, the other had moved upwards and lost its color.
As a result, several round stones appeared between their island and the island in front of them. Aha. This was the wet dream of every game developer. Unfortunately, this wasn't a game. The magma was real and would sizzle them if they made a mistake.
"Zackory. When you pressed the button, the stones that were over there disappeared," Lucan said.
Zack looked to the right and realized that he was right. He took a few steps back and sat down on the floor. Lucan went and sat next to him. Zack opened his backpack and pulled out the well-known pad and pencil that had already served them well in Chichén Iztá.
"Hmm. When we push these buttons, one connection path appears and at the same time another disappears. There are a total of nine islands. Ours is here, then three each in the two rows in the middle and two at the end of the room," Zack murmured to himself and sketched a plan of the cave.
He marked the position of the columns on islands one to nine with an 'S' and the respective number. After that he drew the original visible paths with a solid line.
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The path, after column one had been pressed, he drew a dashed line as a new route and next to it a circle containing the number one. Lucan understood the system.
"Well, we have to go from island to island and see what the switches do. There are two states, the red state and the blue state. Depending on which of the two switches you press, one path opens and another disappears. The destination is Island nine," Zack said, straightening up. The backpack landed on his back and the pad with the pencil briefly wandered back in. Then they went together to the first row of stones that led to island three right in front of them.
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*Author's note:
This is a puzzle that you can now solve yourself. Try to figure out for yourself which way to go. You will read the solution right away. The color indicates the current state, just as Zack explained. I wish you a lot of fun with the puzzles!*
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This time Lucan was the first to go. He put one foot on the first circular stone and tested whether it could withstand its weight. The stone didn't move a millimeter. Lucan quickly went to Island three and Zack followed him as soon as he arrived on the other side. There, another pillar awaited them, whose left switch lit up red. Zack pressed the adjacent button and saw what happened.
The path from island two to island five appeared, while the path from island six to island nine disappeared. Zack noted these paths on his plan and they went to Island two. Lucan pressed the left and a path between islands five and six appeared, while the path between island six and island four sunk into the magma sea.
In this situation, they were now able to get directly to Island six, from which there was currently no path anywhere. They had no other choice, they pressed the switch so that it began to glow red. A direct path to Island four appeared in front of them, but at the same time the path from Island four to Island seven disappeared.
"Let's go, Lucan," Zack said, and they both went to Island four. Lucan pressed the switch that was next to the red glowing one. This created a path between islands eight and nine, at the same time the path between two and three disappeared. Now they were sitting there.
There was no path to island seven, eight, or nine. So they were sitting in a dead end. Zack had written down all previous paths. Both looked thoughtfully at the plan.
"Hmm. The last switch, switch six, made the path between Island four and Island seven disappear."
"Zackory, I think we have to split up," Lucan said to his companion.
He looked thoughtfully at the plan again, but then agreed. "One has to stay on island six and open the path for the other, there is no other way. Do you want to go, or should I?" Zack asked the demon.
"Stay on Island six. Watch and write everything down. From there, I think you have the best overview."
Zack nodded and went back to Island six. He pressed the switch and opened Lucan's way to the next island. He walked the way to island eight and stopped. Although he was able to run until the end, Zack would get stuck. Now both were right in front of their goal. Lucan pressed the switch on Island eight.
The path behind him to island seven disappeared and a path from Zack to the target island appeared. Both took the last path and met on Island nine.
"We did it," Lucan said with a smile and patted Zack on the back. The corners of his mouth twitched briefly. In front of them was now the last pillar, but there were no switches on it. On it lay a small, massive, hand-sized staff.
Lucan took it while Zack packed his pad and pen, then they both went to the passage opening. On the other side of the opening was another corridor, which they walked through together. __________________________
That was a riddle which took me actually over four hours. I hope you had fun =)
Your Mouse Goddess
PS: Do you know someone who can draw similar to my cover for Belial? If you do, I would be happy if you contact me.
