Chapter 5: We Take a Test

Chapter 4

We looked to where the voice came from. We saw a big desk, and by big desk, I mean it was bigger than most houses. The shelving area looked it could hold two or three houses alone. Then we saw the freaky part. The girl who spoke to us was sitting at the desk like any normal secretary. Except for the fact that she must have been at least fifty feet high, and she had one eye.

Well, a -

“Cyclops,” Steve said, with some distaste in his mouth. “What is this, a monster night club or something? I think we might have killed the bouncer.” The Cyclops smiled.

“That's nice of you to say dear. Yes, I technically am a cyclops, no this is not a nightclub, and you killed Tauros, not the bouncer. We don’t have a bouncer technically. Whats a bouncer?” She asked, her eyebrow raised in confusion. Then I noticed that there was a spot right next to her big eye. It was small, but it looked like it was moving. I continued to look when Alex slapped me on the shoulder.

“It’s not polite to stare,” she said, then cleared her throught.

“Ma’am,” She began, but the lady Cyclops cut in.

“I know why your here, and who you are looking for. He came through a little while ago, and before you ask - I am not going to tell you how I know who you are. I do not know who he is, I could tell he took something from a God. Dunno which one, but I could tell. He had the powers of a God, teleported past the test and everything, but he wasn’t.”

“Wait, teleported?” Steve asked.

“Powers of a God?” Alex asked.

“Test?” I asked.

“Oh people,” She responded. “Sorry, I am, like, so scatterbrained. My name is Jenny, Jenny the Cyclops. I...well, I run the entrance to the Vault. Although that is not really the correct statement. I cannot stop you from entering, or exiting. Although, entering is, like, a lot easier than exiting. Anyways, I don’t get any company around here except Jeebus, but he is not much in the way of company. Yes, there is a test. Usually only one person tries to come in so they have to do all three parts, but since there are three of you I don’t see why each of you can’t take a part.

“But yes, being here all the time is just so dull. The Gods were, like, so nice not to destroy me for being such a freak among monster kind, but, like, I am not so sure that being spared was nice. As you can see, I technically have two eyes, one doesn’t work though. The test has, like, three parts. The first test is to travel across the chasm without touching the ceiling or walls. The second is, like, to hit the targets without touching the throwing knives, to make sure you don’t cheat they are coated in an acid. The third is the easiest, just walk through fire.

“But I mean, if you can pass the tests, then you can enter catacombs surrounding the Vault. The really hard part is, like, to find the vault. The rest of the rejects may help, fight, or ignore you. Watch out for Jeebus though.” We listened quietly. She must spend a lot of time alone.

“Who is Jeebus?” Steve asked. That, is indeed a good question.

“Who? Oh, Jeebus. He is the God of...well, ex-God of madness. Once Dionysus came along, the gods worked together and removed most of his powers, transferring them into the new God of Madness. Jeebus was happy to let go of all that power, no more praying according to him. But you should hurry, the more time it takes for you to get in there, the closer he gets to the true Vault. Ahh, but before you take the test, I must ask that you sign in.” Near the bottom of the desk, around four feet off the ground, a little compartment with a book popped out.

We looked at each other, then I had an idea and ran to the book. If everyone who entered through this path had to sign in, then whoever the thief was, according to the crazy two eyed cyclops, had to sign in also. The others had the same idea and sprinted towards the book. I reached it first, but much to my regret, the book was blank.

“Why is the sign in book blank Jenny?” Alex asked.

“Hmm? Oh, the book is magical, we make sure that only myself and the Gods know who sign in. Any visitors who enter via the normal path, the way you three did, cannot know who else signs into the book.” Jenny replied, leaning over the desk so her one eye could get a look at us. I saw her second eye then. It was much smaller, but it was dancing around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Frowning, I grabbed the pen that was sitting next to the book and signed my name. After I finished and handed the pen off to Alex, when the pen left my hand my name disappeared off the book. Alex and Steve signed their names, each name disappearing after the pen left their hand.

“Now what?” I asked. “Where do we go for these tests?”

“Hmm? Oh, tests. They are, like, over that way. Once the tests are passed the path will open and you can enter the catacombs.” She replied, pointing over towards three hallways. One hallway had no floor, must have been the floating test. The other hallway had two boxes in front of it, a thin path down the middle, and a bunch of targets. The second test. The third hallway was covered in flames, everywhere, so you could not even see the path. The final test.

“Steve, you take the middle.” Alex started.

“No, I can do each of these tests,” Steve replied.

“No you can’t.” Jenny replied in a sing-song voice. “In order to pass to through to the door, there is a pressure sensitive floor switch. All three must be pressed at the same time for the path to open.”

“Well. That answers that.” Alex said. “Alright new kid, anything in your pocket of tricks that lets you fly?”

“Umm...” I racked my brain for something, anything that could help. Then the flower started purring again.

“Wait,” I thought back to what I had used to make the flower, then I realized. “The flower. On the bottom there is a loop. Hold the flower in one hand and use the other to pull the loop.” Alex frowned at me, then did as I instructed. The flower blossomed, and pulled itself into the air. Once it had caused Alex to stretch out to the tips of her toes, the loop wrapped around her arm, then the blossomed flower flattened and stretched, forming helicopter blades, which spun and lifter her completely off the ground.

“It doesn’t hurt!” She explained. “It is pulling on my arm, but not painfully, almost like its making me lighter also for flight purposes. Your a genius. But how are you going to get through the last path?”

“As you said, I am a genius, I’ll figure out something.” I replied. My mind reeled. I did not have enough time to make something that would let me walk through fire, nor that could stop the flames. I watched as Alex used the helicopter flower to fly across the chasm and reach the pressure sensitive floor plate, she set down on it and waited for us.

Steve moved toward the two boxes and looked inside, apparently he liked what he saw because he smiled and gave me the thumbs up. Then he flicked his hands and purple ribbons flowed out of his sleeves and into the boxes. When they came out of the boxes they had knives on them. They then formed circles around his arms, wrapping around over and over and then flowing off like magazine clips over his shoulders. Once they finished emptying the boxes, he moved forward.

As he walked down the path he started pointing his hands in the direction of the targets and the dagger on the end of the ribbon flew off to hit the bulls eye. As he fired the dagger, the next one slid into place and he fired again, alternating hands. After a few seconds he ran out of daggers, but the first set of targets disappeared, dropping the daggers. The ribbon flowed over to grab the falling dagger, and threw it at the targets ahead of him. He reached his floor plate, and stood on it.

My turn.

Lovely.

I walked over to the fire path and stared at it. Growlz poked his head out. What are you waiting for? He asked.

“I can't exactly walk through flames, now can I?” I responded. Yes you can.

“Wait...what?” ''You are blessed by Vulcan. You cannot summon fire, nor can you control it, But you are immune to it''.

I was stunned. Immune to fire. That was...

Awesome.

I walked forward into the flames. First thing I noticed, they did not hurt. It felt like a warm breeze. Second thing I noticed is that the floor was not full coverage. It was like Steve’s flooring. A small path, but instead of a straight line all the way down, it made turned and wove around the hall, ending in a pressure plate.

That’s when I realized I could see through the flames. Cool.

I followed the path, the roar of the flames keeping me company. As I reached the first turn the humming started. It bothered me a little, but I kept moving. The humming got louder as I reached the second turn. At the third turn, things got exciting.

Exciting thing one, the flooring behind me broke into cubes which flew at me. Exciting thing two, the remaining flooring started having its own personal earthquake. Exciting thing three, the walls grew friends.

The friends from the wall looked like Growlz, except fleshy. They were living creatures, baby dragons of some sort. They did not look friendly. Once they jumped off the walls, and I discovered that they were not, in fact, friendly. I was able to duck the first wave, which nearly threw me off the path.

“You have got to be kidding me!” I yelled. Then I started to run.

Let me tell you, running on an unstable floor, with dragon things trying to scratch at any exposed surface, and floor tiles trying to beat you to death, not a great time. Really.

I activated the shield mode of Ignus and Glacius, using them to block attacks from the floor tiles and the dragons, and slashing some dragons out of the air when I could. Then I reached the floor tile and stepped on it. Nothing happened. I started to panic, wondering what I was going to do, then the floor tiles stopped coming at me, and returned to their original positions. The dragons flew back to the walls and melted back into them. The wall behind me opened up.

I figured that any place was better than where the floor tried to kill me and dragons did not grow out of the wall. So I walked down the path. After about a minute I met up with Steve and Alex.

“You have shields too?” Alex asked incredulously.

“They become shields or swords as I need. You guys had it easy, float across, threw a couple of daggers and you were across and waiting for me.” I said.

“You mean it wasn’t like that for you?” Steve asked. I explained what happened.

“You can walk through fire?” Steve asked when I had finished.

“That is what you focus on? Not the dragon things, not the individualized earthquakes on each tile, not the attacking tiles. The fact that I can walk through fire?”

“Yes. That is extremely rare, usually comes with summoning fire,” he replied.

“No fire control here, it just doesn’t burn me.”

“You two, shut up. We have work to do.” Alex butted in. I put my shields away, and we turned towards the catacombs.