As they peered into the darkness, Garrett's eyes went wide. Inside the room was a huge glowing red crystal in the center and statues adorning the walls, none of which resembled goblins. The ground was covered in bare stone tiles and on the other side of the room was a large stone door. Nervously remembering what happened before, Garrett backed away from the room entrance.

"What are you doing?" Min-Tul asked, noticing Garrett shying away. "We have to go through here."

"Why do we have to? Isn't there any other way?" Garrett asked, his voice shaking.

Xul shook their head. "You know there isn't. The path up until now has been a completely straight shot. The only other path is through those elemental guards." They cross their arms, looking at Min-Tul. "Like I said, we should have gone back to recruit someone."

"Look, we still have a path we can go into," Min-Tul said, gesturing to the room with the Murder Crystal. "It's possible that this could lead us somewhere more advantageous."

"Or lead to our deaths. Even Garrett here is afraid to go further," Xul said, gesturing to the still backing away Garrett.

"Come on, Garrett. We have to keep moving," Min-Tul said, extending his arm out to Garrett. Garrett turned and looked back the way they came, but sighed. He wanted to run and he wanted to leave this place, but he also knew that he had to eventually face this room. Perhaps this time, they would figure out what to do. With a nod, Garrett accepted the offer and the three of them walked into the room, the door behind them closing.

"Hey! What gives!?" Min-Tul shouted, pounding his paws against the metal door, trying to get it to move. "I knew that the Illima who created the Darge were crafty, but I didn't think they'd create automatic traps like this."

"Well, looks like we have to keep moving forward," Xul said as they looked around the room. "These statues are strange."

"Just don't touch the door or the crystal," Garrett said, gesturing to both. The three of them nodded to each other and split up. The three of them surveyed the room, slowly putting pressure on the tiles in front of them as they walked. Min-Tul walked over to a statue that resembled a deer and Xul'Gomoth walked over to a statue that looked like a large raccoon. Garrett stayed behind near the metal door, his mind beginning to work into overdrive about the situation.

'...Okay, so, this is the room where I died the first time... what do I know about it?... All of the tiles are safe... There are four statues... Dragon, Cat, Deer, and Raccoon... There are also markings on the door on the far side in Elven... Pressing on the door last time caused the crystal to activate and kill us all... It shot out a beam of energy that killed us instantly... That's all I know about this room...'

Garrett looked over at Min-Tul, who was intently looking at the statue of the deer. "He recognized it as Elven, but that was it, so he clearly can't read it, but what about...?" He turned his attention over to Xul at the raccoon statue. "Xul, do you read Elven?"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Huh?" Xul asked, turning around. "Yeah, I know a little bit." They gestured to a part of their left arm. Garrett had no idea what that meant. "Why?"

"The door on the other side of the room. There are some markings in Elven and I was hoping you could decrypt them."

"Sure thing," Xul said, giving a raised pinky. They walked over to the door and began to read it. "Okay, it says something about needing to find the right symbol on this door to unlock it."

"And what happens if we press the wrong one?" Min-Tul asked with a look of concern on his face.

"That," Garrett said, pointing his sword towards the menacing crystal in the center of the room, "will kill us."

Min-Tul gulped and nodded. "So, how do we figure out the right symbol?"

Xul looked around the room. "If I had to guess, it would be something about the statues, but there's nothing on the door that tells me what. But, there are some markings that refer to the statues, so maybe we have to press the right one?"

"So, we have to figure out which is the odd one out?" Min-Tul said as he moved over to the cat statue. "Well, obviously, it's the dragon."

"How do you figure?" Garrett asked, joining Min-Tul at the cat statue.

"Well, these other three are animals you find in the forest around here, but there aren't any dragons as far as I'm aware, so it has to be the dragon." Min-Tul smiled with wide confidence.

"I'm not so sure," Xul said as they moved over to the deer statue. "You have to remember that Illimas have vastly different stories and tales compared to Anikinds like you." They turned their head to Garrett expectedly.

Garrett looked at both of them before realizing why they were staring at him. "Oh, uh, right. Illiman stories. Uh..." Garrett closed his eyes and tried to think. He didn't know anything about Illima culture here in Asuria, and all he knew was that English back on Earth was Illiman here. Still, if Illimas were anything like humans back on Earth, there was one animal that stood prominent in human culture. "If there's one animal that Illimans love, it's cats."

Min-Tul chuckled, which partly sounded like a purr. "Alright, Xul. You heard him. Let's go for the cat marking."

Xul gave a pinkie up and search the door before finally pressing on a part of the door. The room shook slightly before stopping. "Did we do it?" Garrett asked, hopeful until it was dashed away by the ominous sound of humming. The crystal in the center began to glow with energy. "NO!"

Immediately, Xul ran over to Min-Tul and Garrett, taking Garrett's shield. "Stay behind me!" They held up the shield as the crystal began to blast beams of energy in every direction. Min-Tul cowered behind Xul'Gomoth and pulled Garrett behind Xul as well. The blasts struck the walls and the statues and Xul. Their body fell backward onto Min-Tul, who was covering Garrett. The crystal continued to blast energy for what felt like a minute, many of the beams hitting Garrett's shield and coursing through Xul's body.

After a while, it stopped. The stone door opened as the crystal's humming died down. Garrett looked around, expecting a white void, but there was only Min-Tul covering over him. "You alright?" Min-Tul asked as Garrett breathed a small sigh of relief. As he and Min-Tul both stood up, Xul's body fell apart, causing Garrett to shout in surprise. "Xul'Gomoth?" Min-Tul leaned down, trying to piece back together the broken Xul. Garrett gritted his teeth as he stared at Xul's body.

That was until Xul's head breathed alive. "Oh, that was awful. I'll never get used to that."

"WHAT THE!?" Garrett shouted as Xul looked over at him, only half of Xul's face existing, yet somehow was functioning like a regular person.

"Yeah, so, mind picking me up, and grabbing my staff?"