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Aly couldn't stop staring around, her body frozen in place. What little heat she had left in her body seemed to slip away into ice. Her heart hammered in her chest, and her mind went black. No, she couldn't panic now, not now.

"Hey, human...hello? Why are you just crouching there? We need to keep going." Nar came into her periphery and waved a hand over her face. Aly blinked.

"It's a tomb," she whispered.

"Eh?"

"A tomb," she said louder. "This is a tomb." She couldn't seem to stop saying it.

Nar looked around then back at her and shrugged. "Yeah, so? Come on, we need to keep going."

Aly's lip trembled as he left her to return to his work. She closed her eyes and took a few breaths, telling herself she wouldnotrun out like a little girl and go crashing into Ryziel's arms where it was safe...no matter how badly she wanted to. Her eyes drifted to the door, and she could see the two figures standing in front of it. They both watched the passage and the room intently. Ryziel noticed her looking over and frowned with concern. "What's wrong?" he asked, tensing as if ready to run to her.

Aly shook her head. "Nothing," she stammered. "Nothing. I'm fine." Not wanting him to see her fear, she ducked back to the next hole and pushed through. She made quick with the fifth hole, knowing now that it was really meant for a corpse. She almost laughed, thinking how oddly Earth-like it was to see such a place made for the dead to rest. Just like the ancients from her world. Strange how things weren't always so different.

With one canister filled, she rushed to switch it out with an empty one. Nar, she noted, was already on his third. Feeling ashamed for being so slow and wanting the deed to be done as quickly as possible, Aly began to pick up speed, forcing her mind away from bad thoughts and focusing solely on her task. She shuffled her way through each square-shaped opening and grabbed the ionx inside, taking no notice of Nar or the others that were quietly talking, of Ryziel saying he thought he heard something and stepping out into the passage, or of the light from the orb beginning to dim. She was so focused, in fact, she hadn't heard the faint sound of rock sliding away from the roof above (no one had really heard it) or of a dark shadow slipping along the wall.

As she moved out of yet another hole and started to place the ionx in her canister, a shout rang out from the passage beyond, and the door slid shut with a loud bang. Aly felt her body shake. She heard Nar let out a sharp bark close by and saw the bright light from the orb fall to nothing but a dim glow. Aly stumbled back, hitting the wall, her eyes wildly searching the dark. She was about to call out to Nar when another bright light shined out of nowhere, nearly blinding her. Aly put up her hands against the light until she could truly see what it was. When she did see, she felt her heart drop to her stomach.

The glowing lady, dressed in a flowing gown, a halo crown above her head, smiled at her.

"How clever of you to find my little treasure trove," she said in a silky voice. There was a sudden pounding on the thickly-laid door, but the lady paid it no mind. She held out her hand to Aly. "Come. I will give you whatever you desire, for I have the power to do so."

Aly was awestruck. Though something in the back of her mind screamed for her to get away, she could not move. The lady was so lovely and her voice so sweet it put her in a near daze. She shook her head but, as if unable to refuse her, Aly began to reach out her hand.

"Don't!" someone yelled. "It's a trap!"

As if those words struck a chord in her, Aly forced her hand down and pushed the lady from her mind. "No," she said and backed away.

The lady dropped her hand with a frown. "Too bad," she said sweetly. And her face began to twist, her mouth growing wider, showing off long sharp teeth. "I'll just have to catch you the boring way."

From the corner of her vision, Aly saw Nar throw another small orb up into the air. Light burst from it, bathing the chamber. The lady disappeared, and, in her place, the shadow loomed overhead, but it was no longer just a shadow.

Aly scrambled away and let out an ear-shattering scream. The thing above her hissed back. It retreated a long tentacle from its head, one with a glowing tip, to have it sit alongside a set of other tentacles that grew like a mane of hair along its back. It smiled down at her with a mouth not unlike a snake or an angler fish, with several rows of long curved teeth. It crawled across the side of the chamber wall. It had a body similar to a long-limbed panther with its talons fully extended. Its sightless eyes didn't even glow in the dark nor did its oily black skin shine with the light. It seemed to absorb the light like it was made from a black hole. It hissed at Aly again and started to scrape its way down the side of the wall toward her when the door blew open, rock and debris spraying into the chamber.

Aly dodged some of the bigger rocks, but a few smaller ones struck her back and arms as she covered her head. There was a gut-twisting shriek, and Aly tried to open her eyes, but the dust blinded her. She could hear the sounds of roars and shouts around her as another scream began to slip from her throat. She slipped to the ground and crawled blindly away as the shadowy beast loomed still above her. As the debris and dust began to settle, Aly caught Nar nearby with a dark egg-shaped object in his hand. He went to throw the object when one of the beast's tentacles slammed right into him, throwing him back, forcing him to drop the object. It rolled toward Aly, red lights blinking across its side and at its ends. It took Aly a second to understand, and, once she did, she grabbed it and chucked it toward the creature.

She had hoped the bomb would land across the creature's back but, not giving herself time to throw it properly, it instead bounced and landed behind the beast's left leg, where it unconsciously kicked the bomb back to hit the slab in the center of the room. The bomb went off, destroying the slab and the ground beneath it, flinging rock up in every direction. Aly could see nothing once again as the dust clouded everything around her. She ducked her head, trying to keep low to the ground and crawl away somewhere, anywhere that wasn't near the horrifying nightmare-born monster shrieking and hissing close by. Her hands cut against rock, and her shoulders ached, and she thought she could hear her name being called. She wanted to crawl toward the voice but feared she would be stomped and slashed to death any moment by the tentacles and talons that she could still hear sliding and scraping across the room. She reached out her hand, moving back farther, until she felt the back wall and could just make out one of the holes.

Just as she thought to hide herself inside it, there was another massive explosion, this time from above, with a flash of blinding orange light that fell across the monster's back. The creature screamed, as did Aly, while more debris rained down from above, some bits hard, others soft and fleshy. The she-beast went sprawling backward, falling back to hit the ground with a loud crack. As it did, the floor beneath it crumbled then split on one side, and Aly suddenly felt herself sliding away down into darkness.

Chapter Twenty-five

The massive creature dropped, its body rolling to the side then sliding peripherally, sinking partially down into the ground where a crater-like hole had been made in the center—its body wedged itself into it, covering it. It did not stir, its mouth hanging open with jaws split wide, blood-trailing down its head and neck.

Ryziel knew it was dead before it hit the ground. If he felt some relief in that, it was short-lived because all he could think after was that Aly was somewhere still inside, possibly crushed by a rock or by the creature's body that lay limp in the center. Dust began to settle, and Nar hobbled out from the side. Ryziel shot over to him, made sure he wasn't too badly hurt, then began desperately searching for Aly, calling out her name.

"Check the holes," Xilya said to him as she checked on Nar, who now sat by the edge of the broken door panting, one metal leg dented and roughed up by rocks.

Ryziel did as she advised and searched wildly through each hole. "Aly!" he called, reaching his arm through a few but coming out empty. Desperation grew to panic as his head turned each way, but he saw no sign of her, no movement. He began to check under rocks but found nothing.

'This is my fault,' he thought. ‘I let her be put in danger again and now...'

Now she may very well be dead.

That thought spurred him on, and he began to fling rocks away, digging through rubble, reaching his arm through square-shaped holes.

"Ryziel...Ryziel...Hey!"