The next morning, I felt much better than I did the previous night. Sleeping allowed me to rest well and clear my head. I realized our current situation wasn’t as dire as it seemed. If I could get strong enough, maybe I could find a way back to my world someday. Even if I couldn’t, knowing there was one door meant there were other doors to explore, and that was a positive thought.

  The others were scattered across the floor, and daylight had yet to reach the inner corners of the temple. While waiting for them to wake up, I pulled out the book from my bag and continued reading where I left off. I spent some more time reading, but it wasn’t exactly a thriller. The problem with this book was that I didn’t know how much was factual and how much was mere guesswork or lore. The writers didn’t have any references or firsthand accounts, so how could they know? I would have to ask Sophia at some point, assuming she wasn’t too busy to answer a few questions.

  Eventually, I got bored with the beginning and started flipping through the pages until I saw something about a battle. I backed up a few pages to get the full context of the story:

  THE FALL OF THE LORD OF LIFE AND RISE OF KING GRAVES

  To understand the fall of the Lord of Life, one must first grasp the political structure of the time. A relentless war raged from the south and east. Being immortal, the Lord of Life ensured conflicts never ended until his opponents were utterly exhausted, a key factor in his accumulation of power. Time was his greatest ally.

  In the south, there was a commoner named Nathaniel Graves who rose to power through his affinity with Death Magic. From what I am told, he looked just like any other man at that time. When my father bent the knee to him, he said you could see the blood underneath his skin. However, at that time, no one suspected what he truly was.

  King Seamus, who occupied the throne, was far removed from the conflict’s origins but desperate to survive. The deaths of many nobles over the decades had left the leadership ranks thin. Reluctantly, he began appointing commoners to leadership positions. One of those who rose through the ranks was Nathaniel Graves, who was among the lowest of the common people. However, he proved himself a great warrior, fighting battle after battle, defending the kingdom, and becoming stronger. With each victory, his position increased and his forces swelled. Some were living troops granted by the crown, and the rest were dead soldiers he resurrected to serve him.

  The army grew until it posed an internal threat. Realizing the danger, King Seamus sought to curb Nathaniel’s power. He appointed his most trusted ally, his cousin Dolan, as Grand General, and divided the forces. Dolan commanded the living, while Nathaniel commanded the undead. This strategy aimed to prevent any single person from usurping the throne.

  Meanwhile, the Lord of Life noticed that skirmishes were no longer depleting the southern forces. Faced with the choice of seeking peace or raising a vast army, he chose war. He amassed a formidable force and marched south. King Seamus, in response, deployed every available troop, yet their numbers were insufficient. The Lord of Life’s forces boasted a three-to-one advantage.

  The southern defenders, however, had prepared well. They had cleared an entire mountain and set up defenses in layers. They started with fortifications, then undead troops, and then regular soldiers. The setup ensured there was no retreat. Victory or death were the only options. The Lord of Life’s troops, confident in their numerical superiority, charged.

  As the armies clashed, the battle raged fiercely, with neither side giving ground. Suddenly, something unexpected happened. A massive ice ball exploded over the undead, rendering them lifeless and cutting the southern forces in half. The Lord of Life’s troops, seeing their advantage, pushed forward with renewed vigor. The southern forces, now facing imminent defeat, held their ground desperately.

  Just when victory seemed inevitable for the Lord of Life, another ice ball shattered over the battlefield. To everyone’s shock, the fallen undead rose again. It became clear that the ice ball had been a signal, and the earlier lifelessness of the undead had been a ruse. As they reanimated and attacked from behind, they realized that the defenses also didn’t allow for escape.

  Trapped and outflanked, the Lord of Life’s army crumbled under the assault and eventually surrendered. Dolan swore in the name of King Seamus that no harm would come to those who surrendered, provided they followed instructions. Outmaneuvered but still numerous, they agreed to the surrender. The undead collected their weapons and tied them together, ensuring compliance.

  However, the battle was far from over. Dolan gathered all the troops and announced that Nathaniel had saved the day. He revealed that Nathaniel had orchestrated the resurrection of the undead forces, and with their combined strategy, they had managed to save the city and all their loved ones. In a bold move, Dolan then declared that Nathaniel should be the new king. This caused a division. Some saw merit in Nathaniel’s leadership. Some remained loyal to Dolan. Others refused to commit treason.

  A line was drawn in the sand, and Dolan offered the terms. They could return to their kingdom, or they could join Nathaniel’s rule. Half of the troops crossed the line, aligning themselves with Dolan and accepting Nathaniel as their new king. The other half stayed, cursing those who betrayed their nation and refusing to commit treason. Those who stayed were attacked once a signal was given to the undead from behind. The same pincer tactic used on the Lord of Life’s troops was now turned against them. Trapped and assaulted from both sides, they were mercilessly slaughtered until none remained.

  Yet the night was still young. With all opposition dead, Dolan revealed his true allegiance and turned his wrath on the remaining surrendered troops from the Lord of Life. They cursed him and his broken promises, but Dolan coldly declared that he had a new king and that his former king’s word meant nothing. Single-handedly, he slaughtered over a thousand men that night, raising his level repeatedly. The unbreakable sword he had forged himself became cursed as it drank the blood of so many.

  The undead were offered to his new king. No longer a grave digger, no longer a commoner, he took on the moniker of King Graves. He slowly began raising the undead over….

  “Let’s get going,” Kaylie interrupted my reading, snapping me out of my trance. I looked up to see the others waiting for me. I quickly scrambled to put on my shoes, nearly tripping over myself as I hopped on one foot, trying to catch up with them. They seemed to be walking faster than usual, probably just to mess with me.

  Once I was finally ready, we set off together. It didn’t take long to return to where the first circle was. Since I knew the right path and it didn’t seem like the traps had changed overnight, it was just a quick trip to where we needed to be.

  “What now?” Jack asked as we stared at the circle.

  “I am not sure,” I said with supreme confidence.

  “You are not sure?” Jack questioned.

  “Exactly,” I said with pizzazz. “But we should look around this area. I believe this is the next step. Remember the riddle stated, ‘High above, to down below, the way forward is behind what grows.’ We are probably looking for something down below since we have already found something behind what grows and something high above.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  “Stands to reason,” Sana agreed.

  We started looking around. And by ‘we,’ I meant me. I examined all of the white floor tiles and pointed out which ones were traps, so the others could help look around. There was a surprising number of pitfalls that lined up with the row marked with a circle. It was as if they didn’t want someone to find what we were looking for accidentally.

  Hours passed, and we were still in the same place, facing the same situation. I checked every inch of the immediate area and those outside of the circle. At one point, someone even ran around in a circle like an idiot at Rabbit’s request, only to find out later that he was just messing with that someone again.

  Yeah, someone.

  Still, nothing had happened, and we didn’t find an entrance. Eventually, Sana said, “Say it.”

  I knew they were going to get bored, and someone was going to make me say something. “It may not be here,” I replied.

  “No, not that,” she added with a hint of pride and confidence.

  “What then?” I asked.

  “That I was right. We shouldn’t have come back last night. We would have been stuck in here,” Sana answered with a smile on her face.

  “You were right,” I droned with as little life as I possibly could.

  “Well, just for that, I will tell you my idea, but you’re not going to like it,” she commented.

  “Really? I’ll take anything at the moment,” I said gleefully.

  “You said it. You notice the traps in this section?” Sana began her lesson.

  “Yeah,” Kaylie and I said at the same time. Jack, who had quickly gotten bored, was sitting down and not paying attention at all, meditating during most of our checking around.

  “Well, you should count the number of tiles the hallway is across and then look at the traps again. Maybe even count the traps,” Sana suggested.

  Kaylie and I did precisely that. I started by counting how many tiles wide the hallway was. It was nine, and then I counted the traps. There was a trap in the first spot, then it skipped one, and there were more in the following three places. It then missed the next three, and the final one was on the farthest wall. It was a total of five traps out of the nine tiles I counted. I didn’t see what the big deal was.

  “Oh, she is good,” Rabbit commented.

  “What? Tell me,” I demanded silently, hoping Rabbit would offer some insight.

  “Nope, I didn’t figure it out first. It’s her big reveal, and if she wants to torture you a little, I’ll allow it,” Rabbit replied. “I mean, I already had my fun making you run in circles around dangerous traps. Ahh, good times.”

  Rabbit’s antics nearly got me killed, and now he refused to reveal the answer. It was incredibly frustrating.

  I finally gave up and said aloud, “Okay, there are five traps out of nine spaces. I don’t get it.”

  “What if I told you that there are actually six activations among those nine spots, and there are no traps at all?” Sana challenged.

  I was puzzled. There were definitely five traps.

  Just as I reached that point in my thoughts, Kaylie interjected, “Oh my gosh, you don’t think these are traps at all, do you? You think we have to stand on these in order?”

  “What?” I exclaimed. The idea of standing on them seemed ludicrous. I had tested them personally.

  “Yes, you see,” Kaylie began, pointing to each tile individually. “314 159.” As she called out each number, she gestured to its corresponding spot. She was right that each of those numbers matched a trap, but I hadn’t realized it before. More importantly, I was starting to understand what that meant.

  “Let me guess, I’m not going to be happy because I am going to be the one testing this theory of yours?” I asked.

  “And he finally catches up,” Sana said calmly.

  Reluctantly, I realized I didn’t have much of a choice. I had searched everywhere and found nothing. Sana’s idea seemed like our best option. Hopefully, if it were a trap, it wouldn’t kill me outright. If I didn’t die, I would always have the chance to recover, but instant death was still a threat to me.

  “Fine. Same plan as last time?” I asked, feigning confidence.

  “Same plan as last time,” Sana confirmed.

  It wasn’t the same plan, though. I still wore some of Jack’s armor pieces over mine, but only in certain areas to improve my mobility. Like last time, I had a rope tied around my waist, but this time we also wrapped it around my shoulders to distribute the force more evenly and prevent it from yanking at my armor in just one spot. Of course, these adjustments were minor compared to the risks I was about to face.

  I planned to hit a tile, trigger the trap, and escape as quickly as possible, so I took a running leap. Charging forward, I landed squarely on the third tile and launched myself into the air. At that moment, the others yanked on the rope with such force that my feet didn’t touch the ground for a second. The pull was so powerful that when I was jerked back, my momentum carried me straight into them, and we all tumbled to the ground in a disorganized heap.

  As I scrambled back to my feet, catching my breath, it became clear that no trap had been triggered. The tile had been activated, but nothing happened. No explosion. No arrows. Nothing. We gingerly approached the tile to investigate further. Etched into its surface, three horizontal lines glowed faintly with light, which slowly began to fade. Within a few moments, the luminescence had vanished entirely.

  “Do you think that means it’s active? Or do you think we have to hit it again?” I asked.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” Sana replied, and my heart sank.

  “Your eyebrows are almost completely restored,” Jack pointed out. I touched my face, my fingers brushing over the newly formed hair, and then it hit me. If I chose wrong, I was probably going to lose them again.

  “Which one do you want to try next?” Kaylie asked. I was at a crossroads. I could either choose the first tile, following the sequence, or retry the third tile. Its symbol had faded, possibly because it had reset. Uncertain, but forced to decide, I opted to go big or go home. I would continue with the third tile and attempt to complete the sequence before any symbols faded.

  Determined to face my fears directly, I decided to confront them head-on. I explained the plan to the others. They would only pull on the rope if they saw a trap trigger. The most likely spots for a trap to activate were upon stepping on the third tile or if I retraced my steps to the first tile, since we weren’t sure if it needed to be activated twice.

  With my fear tightly bottled up and a knot in my stomach, I leaped onto the third tile. Immediately after, I bounded onto the first tile, slamming my shoulder against the wall in the process. The expected trap on my right didn’t spring, so I continued. Unsure if I could leap directly to the fourth tile without touching the others, I veered to the next row and dashed to the fourth tile, activating it. As I passed the third tile, I noticed its light was already fading, pushing me to move quicker.

  Now, it was the moment of truth. Had I correctly triggered the first tile twice? I jumped back to it, and it lit up brightly once again. Not stopping, I pushed off the wall to reach the fifth tile and then leaped to the last tile at the far end, crashing hard into the wall.

  All the tiles I had activated were now glowing brightly, accompanied by a buzzing sound reminiscent of electricity coursing through a wall, followed by a subtle tremor behind me. I turned just in time to see the farthest wall begin to shift. The noise of heavy stone grinding against stone sent shivers down my spine. A deep vertical line, suggesting a seam, appeared on the wall, and a streak of light beamed from it. The light slowly traced an outline, gradually revealing the unmistakable shape of a door. Then, with a final grinding echo, the door lowered and moved aside, opening a pathway for us.

  The astonished expressions on the others’ faces mirrored my own, as none of us had really expected it to work. I hoped that my treasure lay just beyond that newly revealed door.

  I began to approach the entrance, but Sana raised her hand, halting me. “Are you sure we should go down there?”

  As I approached, I could also see stairs leading downward. “This is what we came here for,” I replied confidently. “I can go by myself if you’d rather wait here for me.”

  I knew it was just fear holding her back, but we had to press on. I might have been the weakest among us, but I refused to let fear dictate my actions, especially not after everything we’d endured to get here. Taking the lead, I headed down the stairs, and the others reluctantly followed.

  As I stepped onto the stairway, I noticed the white stones lining the walls were smooth and uniform, similar to those on the walls, unlike the irregular tiles that made up the floor of the previous room. This consistency comforted me, suggesting that this path was probably not trapped.

  Only about two dozen steps led down, ending at a wall of rough stone that resembled the interior of a cave. Embedded in it was a single circle of glowing light. As I approached and reached out to touch it, the light faded, leaving a ring in my hand.

  Just as I grasped the ring, the stone door behind us slammed shut with a thunderous boom that echoed through the small room. The door sealed the opening, effectively trapping and entombing us within the staircase.