"Uh...I thought we were heading to the far wall?" Og'drimun said as he flew next to Trizel's face.

Trizel glanced over at the flying demon. "We are."

"Uh...then why are we closer to the middle than we were before?" Og'drimun pointed out.

Bakade sighed. "Iiitttt'ssss wwweeeiiirrddd. Fffeeelllsss llliiikkkeee nnnoooorrrtthhhh kkkeeepppsss ssshhhiiiffftttiiinnnggg..."

"Even climbing, we seem to miss the mark." Sentenza added as he lit a fresh cigarillo in his mouth.

It was insidious in a way. Everything seemed so straight forward and open, yet the path never seemed to go where it seemed like it should. Even with a clear line of sight of where they wanted to go, it seemed impossible to get there.

Sentenza lifted his head and his eyes darted around at the various pipes, stairs, and giant statues. There was so much open space, but on a closer look the pipes seemed to spread around everywhere. "Nothing feels right in this place...and when did we move off of the lower level we were on?"

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"Iiitttt'ssss aaaallllll wwwwrrooooonnnngggg," Bakade agreed as she knelt down and looked over the side of the pipe they were on. "Wwweee dddooonn'ttt eeevvveeennn ssseeeeeeemmmm aaaaannnyyyy lllooowwwweeerrrrrr."

Trizel rubbed the bridge of his nose as he frowned and closed his eyes. "Nothing can ever be simple in ancient ruins like this, can they?"

"You know," added Og'drimun. "I think it's a serious problem with ancient races. Always making things overcomplicated for no reason. I mean, why not just put a giant monster in the lobby if you really want to guard your old junk."

"Then only a fighter would make it through." Sentenza said. "This way it's only whoever has the key to this puzzle."

"Wwwwweeeee aaaarrreee uupppsssiiiddddeee dddoooowwwwnnn," Bakade added. "Iiiitttt cccooouuullldddd jjjuuusssttt bbbbeeeeee ttthhaaattt."

"That's fair." Nodded Sentenza before he let out a puff of smoke.

What about the whole direction thing? Where it's changing or whatever? Death asked as he picked at his eye socket with his pinky.

"Do you think that would make it hard to travel through here if we were not upside down?" Trizel asked. "Seems coincidental that we are also upside down."

"Whatever the case," Sentenza said before he paused and shifted his cigarillo from the left side of his mouth to his right. "Hopefully the other two aren't having as much trouble as we are."

----------------------------------------

"So, did you do that on purpose?" Narissa asked as she raised an eyebrow.

Ted slumped his shoulders and let out a groan as he kicked a small, broken piece of pipe down off of the edge of the stairs they were on. It joined a larger section of pipe that was already falling down.

"How was I supposed to know it'd just give way like that?" Ted argued.

"Well, if you'd listened to me..."

Ted interrupted her with a sigh. "Fine, you made your point. You can go ahead and take the lead."

She smiled. "Ah, thank you."