Black claws gripped Leo’s shoulders like a vice, nearly immobilizing him, talons digging deep into his flesh. It stung like a vat of boiling acid poured into an open wound. The hand over his face made it impossible to see. With a surge of effort, with what little range of movement he could avail, he liberated Wraith from its scabbard, bringing it up and slicing at the chitinous claws gripping his shoulders. He rained a fury of blows at it, until they retracted just enough to release his torso. Now, regaining full use of his arms and upper body strength, he issued a powerful blow against the hand gripping his head. It released him, and he stumbled forward.

Meanwhile two obsidian arms were strangling Cosimo, their freakish fourteen-fingered hands compressing his larynx. Life was bleeding out of Cosimo’s eyes, the light fading.

“Run!” Leo shouted to the others. Snake like appendages had been extending from the walls, encircling around Dani’s feet, tripping her. Leo struck at it, lopping it off. The part that was severed squirmed on the ground like an angry snake. Leo helped her up. “Get the hell out of here!”

Nico grabbed her arm, pulling her forward. Leo turned back to Cosimo, who looked half-dead. Leo brought his blade to bear on the hands that had imprisoned Cosimo — to no effect. It seemed the snake-like arms were getting thicker, becoming hard as obsidian.

He slashed. His blade skittered impotently. Struck sparks. Infinitesimal luminescence unveiled something: a face — a human face, mouth opened freakishly wide, pressing against the metallic sheen of the wall like an amniotic sac.

In a final desperate effort, Leo drove his sword into the face’s gaping maw. The unearthly, guttural cry that emanated from it was deafening. Cosimo was released. He stumbled to the floor, gasping for breath, his hand clawing at his throat, desperate for air.

But there was no time to delay. The wall was collapsing inward, the cavernous space filled with the deafening roar of some unseen monster. More and more chitinous appendages lashed outward. Leo scooped up Cosimo by the arm and forced him forward. A hand reached out and raked Leo’s gambeson, cutting another deep gouge in his upper left arm. They continued running until they reached the small halo of light from Nico’s Illumination spell.

Nico, Dani, and Gianna were huddled close together, eyes wide in terror. Gianna looked like she might cry when she saw Leo. She flung her arms around him.

“As ever, the Oracle’s warning proved prescient,” Danieli said, giving Cosimo a hard look. “We ought to have heeded his counsel.”

“I don’t…” Cosimo coughed again, practically hacking up a lung. When he caught his breath, he continued. “I don’t need the fucking Oracle to advise caution in a bloody Ilhen deathtrap. Speaking of Oracles and Divination, where is that crystal ball of yours? Can you not foresee these perils in advance?”

“No,” she said. “Not in this dim light. I can scarce see my own hands.”

“Me neither,” said Gianna. “How are we supposed to avoid boobytraps if we can barely see where we’re walking?”

“We need to be methodical,” Leo said, striding forward, ignoring the pain his arms and shoulders. “Keep silent, walk single file. Be on alert for any strange sights, sounds, smells. I’ll take the lead. Nico, you take the rear.”

They continued down the passage in that fashion. In the next area, the walls were craggy stone. Blood dribbled from some of the crevices, and a steady thump-thump thump-thump sounded from within. It was like a heartbeat, like the temple itself was a living creature. The darkness was not a mere absence of light, but rather a living thing. A parasite that yearned to infect them. With each breath he drew, Nico could feel its insidious poison seeping into him, occluding his vision, sapping his strength, eroding his sanity.

Leo, at the fore of their column, moved forward at a deliberate pace. Thrice he pulled Whisper from its scabbard, checking to see if the mystical longsword was in a mood to fight. Each time it was not. Cursed piece of shit, he thought, you’re no better than Ice. Since unearthing the blade in a demigod’s arctic mausoleum, its dormant powers had activated on no more than five occasions.

They came to a passage lit by red torches, lighting a fork in the pathway. To the left, a heap of bones was topped with a red skull. To the right, voices could be heard, whispering indistinctly. Both options made Nico feel queasy. Taking lead, Leo opted for the passage on the right.

It led to a broad octagonal room with doors on each side, eight in all including the one from which they had entered. A dead ogre lay prone on the floor. Torches on the wall shed ample light. The sudden brightness made their eyes hurt.

No sooner had they entered than they heard the voice again, the voice that spoke directly in their minds.

Well done. Your party survived intact… Almost intact. He cackled.

This room marks a crucial junction. Seven doors, seven options. Retreat is forbidden. Six doors lead to certain death. One offers advancement, and one clue awaits discovery. You have sixty seconds.

Again Nico heard the heartbeat-like thump-thump-thump, this time even louder, as though it were ticking off the seconds.

Nico darted around the room, seeking any hint or clue. Leo and Gianna did the same. It felt like the escape room. There were icons above each door, save for the one they’d entered from. A heart, a sword, a book…

“Look!” said Gianna. “There’s something under him.” Trapped under the ogre’s belly was a crimson tapestry. A geometric code seemed to be printed on it. A geometric code seemed to be printed on it. Perhaps some connection to the doors?

Together, Nico and Leo tried to lift him, but the damned beast must have weighed about thirty stone. With their combined efforts, they could barely lift his hand. If only Bjørn was here, Leo thought.

“We don’t have time for this,” Cosimo said. “Danieli — use your crystal ball. There’s light enough to see by. What can you divine about the seven doors?”

Danieli fished in her satchel and produced her palantir. She held it up to the first door.

“Not this one… No, definitely not.”

She turned to the next. “A cruel fate lies beyond this door — venomous asps and poisoned slime.”

She turned to the third door. “Nor this…” her voice trailed off. “Wait.” She placed a hand on the door, her gaze still fixed on the swirling pale silver contents of her crystal ball.

“Actually… Beyond this door… beyond I see light. Darkness and peril, yet light prevails at its terminus. Yes, this is the way. And beyond that, I see… I see…” She turned the handle and pushed the door open just a hair. The thump-thump abruptly stopped.

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“You see what?” Cosimo practically screamed at her. The sudden silence was ominous.

“Oh, Azrael above,” she wailed, as though all hope had suddenly fled her.

“What? What is it?”

“Him.”

“Who?” said Leo. “What are you talking about?”

“No no no,” she said, her voice quivering in terror, her arms spasming. “It’s a trap. We’ve been tricked.”

“Obviously,” said Cosimo. “We’re in Ilhen’s Seventh.”

“Not Ilhen’s Seventh. NOT Ilhen’s Seventh…” she dropped the crystal ball and it shattered. Her hands clutched at her temples.

“What the fuck are you on about?”

“Oh Azrael it hurts,” she said, scratching at her temples, which were suddenly red and swollen. She pulled out clumps of hair as though she were trying to get to her skull. “It hurts it hurts it hurts. I can’t—”

The voice spoke again. You cheated. That was ill-conceived. I will not suffer intrusions on my privacy. Consider this a warning.

And then, Danieli’s head exploded. A jet of blood sprayed from her open neck in arterial bursts. Bone fragments pelted Nico’s face. He could taste the salt of her blood on his lips.

Danieli’s headless form crumpled to the earth, blood still oozing in pulsing bursts from her carotid.

Gianna was crying. In five years of knowing her, Nico had never seen Gianna cry.

“We have to go back,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “You heard her — this is a trap. It’s not Ilhen’s Seventh.”

“I don’t give a fuck where we are at this point,” said Cosimo. “Like I said earlier, wherever we are, the only way out is through.”

“He’s right,” said Nico. “Whatever infernal monster is speaking to us, he’s not going to let us go back. We have to proceed.”

Leo nodded, and wrapped a fatherly arm around Gianna’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay,” he muttered to her. “We’ve got Whisper. I’ll will cut a damn hole in the wall if I have to…”

Wiping tears from her face, Gianna joined them as they pressed forward, leaving the light and entering another passage that dark and dank.

Nico still had his Illumination globe, but the darkness was slowly eating it. It was small and anemic and sickly, offering feeble light. It would not long endure. Nico could scarcely see his feet, or what he was walking on. Each step made a wet squelching sound. Nico had the uneasy sense that the floor was littered with limbs and intestines, eyeballs and genitalia.

He was relieved when they emerged on a broad chamber. It had stone walls and a ceiling over one hundred feet high. A luminous orange door waited at its far end, shedding a bit of light on the environs. Bodies littered the floor, many decayed and mutilated, their limbs hacked off. Nico spied several Diji shields and sigils among the carnage. The stench was putrid.

The voice spoke again. My final test. Only one may pass; the rest must perish.

Pale wisps of smoke rose up from the perished bodies, coalescing into spectres: dark shadows with vaguely humanoid shapes. They had neither eyes nor mouths; their faceless heads were a featureless swirl of gray. They massed before the adventurers, a veritable army.

And amidst the abject terror, amidst all the horrors they had just endured, Leo started laughing. A deep laugh that bubbled up from the pit of his belly. Nico, Gianna, and Cosimo looked at him like he’d lost his mind. Even the faceless spectres gave pause.

“Alas!” Leo shouted, pulling Wraith free from its scabbard again, “Finally you summon a worthy foe to test me. All things considered, I’ve found your deathtrap rather dull heretofore, Mr. Ilhen.”

As if in reply, one of the spectres arms telescoped twenty feet, clamping around Cosimo’s neck, lifting him off the ground. He gurgled, swatting impotently at the shadowy appendage. Leo darted forth, bringing Wraith down upon the arm, slicing it cleanly. Cosimo fell down, rasping.

And then the fight began.

Gianna charged into the fray with Poinsettia, while Nico (lacking a worthwhile close quarter melee weapon) grabbed Leo’s saber (Ice).

“To me!” Cosimo said, standing up on wobbly knees. “Protect me! I command you!”

But Cosimo was already separated from the group. Leo, meanwhile, was wielding Wraith, cutting down spectres like wheat before a scythe. Gianna was ably fending off two spectres with Poinsettia, but she did not see that a third approached her from the rear.

“Gianna — behind you!” Nico yelled.

But before she could react the spectre had enveloped her, fully subsuming her into its own form, and slowly backing away. Her small hand reached out desperately. Nico ran towards her.

“Leo!” he called. “I need—”

His words were knocked out of him when a spectre bowled into him. Ice went flying out of his hands. The spectre raised its oversized fists, ready to make a killing blow when Leo leapt forward, sinking Wraith into its belly. It instantly disintegrated into dust.

Nico searched for Gianna. He caught one final glimpse of her small hand before it sank into the wall.

“Help me!” Cosimo screamed. “Leo — get this thing off me!”

A spectre had clamped itself onto Cosimo’s face. He was batting at it with his hands ineffectually. Before they could reach him, the spectre had burrowed itself into Cosimo’s throat. He doubled over, groaning in pain. His muscles spasmed, his back arched.

“Where’s Gianna?” said Leo, dispatching another spectre. There seemed to be no assailants left. Strangely, they seemed to be fleeing. “She was over there — there were spectres —”

“She’s gone,” said Nico, more calmly than he felt. “A spectre…” he could not even speak the words.

“Gone? Gone where?” Leo looked around the room, as though perhaps Nico was mistaken.

“A spectre… took her. She’s… she’s dead, Leo.”

He could see the anguish in Leo’s face, but to Leo’s credit he hid it well. Cosimo was now rolling on the floor, wailing in pain. He stretched a hand out to them.

“K-kill m-m-me,” he whimpered.

“Gladly,” said Leo with unadulterated contempt. But before he raised his sword, Cosimo’s chest burst.

Something black and wet crawled from the open wound, using its deformed embryonic tentacles to lever itself out of Cosimo’s chest, crunching rib bones as it did so. It was a shapeless wet tumor, perhaps a foot in diameter, but it was growing — expanding at an alarming rate. Soon it became a monstrous, tentacled creature with multiple maws each filled with needle-like teeth. Corrosive black mucus rained down from it, quickly rendering Cosimo's corpse into a thin yellow gruel, wisps of smoke curling up from it.

Nico and Leo backed off, running to the orange door. It was not far, but before they could reach it the voice spoke again.

Only one may pass. The rest must perish.

“You go,” Leo said, sliding to a halt. “I’ll find another way.”

“There's no other way, Leo. And the darkness is so, it’s so — it’s palpable, Leo. I have no more Illumination scrolls.”

The globe had winked out of existence. The only remaining light came form the luminescent door.

“I don’t need one.” And he lifted Whisper from its scabbard — at last the blade was keening, emitting a bright silver light that effortlessly cleaved the darkness. “I’ll find another way — I’ll make another way if need be. Happy trails, Nico. I’ll see you on the other side.”

Undaunted, Leo turned to face the sickening monstrosity that loomed over them. Still, the terror grew larger — forty feet, sixty feet tall, growing and growing. It raised one of its tentacles, preparing to crush Leo with a hammering blow. And Leo started charging at it.

Turning, Nico took a deep breath and stepped into the glowing orange door.

A man waited for him on the other side.

A man whom he recognized.