We last read Chapter 20, in which Lily Ladair and Theo Ladair run into a new ally known as the Talking Skull during their adventure to steal Prince Boripedes's vast riches hidden somewhere within a labyrinth below his island. The Talking Skull initially refuses to detail his origins or creation to either of the vampires, but nonetheless agrees to help them venture through the challenges set before them and claim the treasure at the end. To Lily's elation, the Talking Skull also succinctly confirms that there is a reward waiting for the duo at the end of all the obstacles, which only deepens Lily's resolve to brave the trials. Now freshly motivated, she straps the Talking Skull onto her hip and advances forth with him and Theo in tow.
The Talking Skull quickly proves his worth to Lily and Theo when he divulges the secret of the numbered stone pillars poking out of a hazardous sea of magma in the room after the one where he initially resided; a set of pillars which explode and re-constitute themselves at irregular intervals. Though Lily brings Theo along with her and clears the first half of the obstacle perfectly fine, things get significantly more dangerous after Lily rather recklessly decides to "speed-run" the rest of the course, claiming that they'll all be fine since they "have plot armor". She begins quickly jumping and leaping from pillar to pillar while barely managing to avoid their detonations, much to the horror and panic of both Theo and the Talking Skull. By some miracle, all three of them manage to survive unharmed, though Lily suffers slight admonishment from the Talking Skull for her brash decision. Her bony buddy, however, eventually drops the matter entirely and ushers her and Theo on to the next room, which they proceed to.
This time, the Talking Skull directs Lily and Theo on a rather roundabout journey indeed.....
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"Okay.....so what are we doing now?" Lily Ladair asked the Talking Skull as she and Theo Ladair looked out at the test set before them this time. "Some kind of.....'rotating maze'?"
"Yes!" the Talking Skull revealed. "Hope you like getting dizzy!"
Lily, Theo, and the Talking Skull were staring at yet another wide gap between them and the other side of the room where the exit was.....except this time, the gap was much more shallow. However, it was now laced with very perilous spikes which looked like it could skewer anyone with a simple graze.
Once Lily and Theo stepped away from safe ground, the only thing preventing them from being brutally impaled would be a series of rotating circular platforms with railed pathway segments on them, meaning that anyone walking on them would be forced to go a certain way depending on the platform's orientation. The railed pathway segments were either perfectly straight, in an L shape, in a plus sign shape, or in a T-shape.
Also present at the start—where Lily, Theo, and the Talking Skull currently were—was a control console adorned with numerous rotating dials fit for one person to modify the layout of the circular platforms, in order to "create" a safe, spike-less path to the exit.
"The good part? Once you have the solution, you're done; your friend just has to run across it after you do," the Talking Skull briefed. "The bad part? Someone has to be on the platforms in order for them to be able to rotate."
Lily looked like she was following him, but in reality, she was having trouble doing so. "So....."
"So one of you needs to stay by the control console, and the other needs to start walking on the circular platforms."
YOU ARE READING
Red Fang II
Vampier~PARAGON CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: PHASE 3, BOOK 3~ *This novel serves as the 3rd novel of Phase 3 and a sequel to "Red Fang".* "My brother was weak. He favored optimism over realism.....when deep down, he KNEW that wasn't how the world worked. Am I suppo...
