by Angel Medina
Angel has just gone through a lot in Darkgaryl's playground. He has gone through he was told a mind trap but Angel has second thoughts and actually believes that what he went through was a permutation. However that would assume that Angel and the others had failed because Angel saw the Cabal hoods inside the closet which meant the Cabal would still be alive. The problem was the one shooting at him was the one he loves. So either Darkgaryl was messing with Angel's mind or was Maria one that he had to watch out for or does Maria have a hidden agenda of her own? Angel has just lost Mariano as well so that meant he was going at it alone, Angel takes a few minutes to catch his breath and his thoughts then he decides to move on.
Angel after gathering his thoughts decides that he needs to trust Maria and doesn't believe she would turn on him. He believes this is just an attempt by Darkgaryl to mess with his mind and get him to against Maria. However Darkgaryl doesn't announce himself like he did back at the great Cabal Temple; Angel figured that Darkgaryl would come out bragging how he was messing with him but Darkgaryl doesn't show up or is even heard. With that Angel still has second thoughts but decides that Maria is still his ally. Angel collects some boxes of ammo for his thunderbolt weapon which come in fuses filled with current. Then he goes down a ramp which leads into a room surrounded with lava, out of no where a shambler shows up to meet Angel. Angel dodges the shambler's attack but he finds himself on the edge ready to fall in the lava. With nowhere to run it was do or die for Angel, either he would find a way to kill the shambler or be fall in the lava and meet his doom all burned up? Angel says "Come on big guy you know you want me if I'm going to die here I'm not giving you the satisfaction of killing me easily!" Angel aimed for the shambler's head with the thunderbolt shot and closed his eyes just hoping for the best. After the weapon had run out of power Angel opens his eyes and sees the shambler on the floor then Angel breathes a sigh of relief. Angel says "I saw my life flash before my eyes; my heart has never pounded this fast ever!" Angel sees a teleport in front of him which he goes in, the teleporter transports him to the beginning room where he got up from the mind trap before. Angel asks himself "I just came from here, is this some sick idea of a joke or am I stuck in this infinite loop." A voice says "Look above you." Angel realizes that the gate that was previously down has now gone up, he has no idea how it went up but he goes up to the gate and into the hall. The hallway finishes with a teleport which from what Angel was able to understand the teleport would transport him to a place called "The Elder God Shrine", he steps into the teleport just relieved that he can get out of the underworld and hopefully meets the others.
Despite losing Mariano and the constant thinking of the mind trap that was placed on him on Darkgaryl Angel is able to fight his way out of the underworld. Or should we call it the devil's playground? Anyway Angel is able to gather himself and by a miracle of having the thunderbolt he is able to kill a shambler. Angel has more questions than he has answers but he'll have to figure out the answers as they come. Angel was heading to the Elder God Shrine which is one step closer to the Elder Temple.
Chapter 25
The Pain Maze
While Angel was trying to figure himself out and breaking out of the underworld; Dayvon and Luis head into a wooden room with strange Cabal symbols all they could see ahead was a room with a checkerboard style floor which was just below them. Dayvon and Luis hope to find Maria in this area hoping they could catch her before the Cabal could do any harm. The duo have no idea what Angel went through and if they bump into each other it could get interesting if Angel tells them what he just went through. Meanwhile as the title would indicate the heroes were in store for a labyrinth of hell and pain.
Dayvon and Luis explore the wooden room which has contains two rings, when the duo put the rings on they become invisible. That meant none of the enemies could see them but it was only for a limited time so our heroes had to use the power wisely. Dayvon and Luis head down to the checkerboard room where they see blue globs with faces on them which were moving, they decided to leave them alone for now. The duo heads for the door but it is locked so they head to the left hallway where eventually they were pushed in to a trap room full of those same blue globs. There were six switches that had to be activated for our heroes to push in order to get out of the trap. The heroes quickly pressed the switches and afterwards an elevator comes down which our heroes quickly get in before their invisibility wore off. Luis says “What the hell are those things down there?” Dayvon replies “Your guess is as good as mines.” The blue globs were called “Spawns” their main method of attack was them jumping onto their victims but at a high speed causing harm to its prey. Dayvon and Luis now saw the door open but realize they had to fight the spawns now since they were now visible. Luis shoots all of the spawns who go down easily but instead of just dying they explode when killed so that added an element of danger as our heroes could not be too close when killing these creatures.
Dayvon and Luis go into the room behind the locked door which has a small pool to the right but also spawns drop from the ceiling and begin to jump onto the duo. Luis and Dayvon get out of the room while the spawns continued to jump out of control like slime. Dayvon used the voodoo doll towards the spawns and all of them explode in unison. Dayvon says “Wow some show that was, that looked better than fireworks!” The duo continued down the hall where they find an altar with some seats like a small chapel where many cultists were waiting for the heroes. Dayvon had found a crate of TNT and used one stick to blow up all of the cultists. Luis says “Damn bro are you on quite the roll lately!” Dayvon replies “I’m just looking for ways for us to survive this hell hole.” They find a switch which they press then they hear water flowing, the water level in another room had gone done making it accessible for our heroes. Luis says “A dead end looks like we gotta take a dip in the water.” Dayvon replies “Well lets do this then.” Our heroes head for the pool of water.
The heroes head underwater where it is full of piranhas the heroes kill the off as they go. Then the heroes resurface back into a big room full of death knights shooting off fire balls, luckily for our heroes the balls cool off once they hit the water. So the do used the dive and shoot technique until the knights were all killed. Then they get on an elevator which leads them to a platform that is small where one person has to go behind the other due to the lack of space. Luis sees an opening with water and jumps inside, Dayvon then follows. Our heroes go underwater then they are in what seems to be a maze of hallways but which hall lead to the exit? Our heroes go right then left then right and they are met with ogres who sneak in from above, our heroes barely survive the attack. Then they go back to the start and go the same way but instead of making a right at the third hall they make a left, a cultist pushes a boulder towards our heroes. Dayvon and Luis have to run for their lives or else be crushed by the boulder. The boulder gets closer to our heroes then…
Dayvon and Luis explore the part of the Cabal lands known as the pain maze and so far it has lived up to its name. Our heroes meet a new enemy known as the spawn but that was the least of their problems. Dayvon and Luis find themselves in a maze of terror, trying to find their way out every time they hit a dead end they are met with a different trap. However the second dead end proves to be very dangerous as a boulder is chasing them threatening to crush their dreams figuratively and literally. Will the duo survive or will their dreams of returning to a normal life be crushed?
Dayvon and Luis feel the boulder getting very close to them until Dayvon spots a break in the wall where they can jump into. Dayvon pushes Luis towards the hole and the boulder rolls on by until it hits a wall, our heroes have cheated death once again. The cultist who pushed the boulder makes a quick great away when he sees the two are still alive. The duo heads back to the beginning of the maze, the two try to keep track of where they have gone so they know not to go in that direction again. The duo decides that they will go right all the way to the end but it's another dead end this time it's a barrage of zombi
es trying to eat the brains of our heroes. Despite their numbers the zombies are slow; the duo use their speed to their advantage by beheading some of the zombies and then they high tail it out back to the beginning of the maze. Luis says "Damn this maze is hell; I've always had a hard time with mazes growing up but this is extreme!" Dayvon replies "I feel you my man but I think we should try left instead of right; I guess too rights don't make it right if you catch my drift." Luis responds "Whatever gets us the hell out of here works for me!" The heroes go for all left this time around but that comes out to be wrong as well and to add insult to injury a shambler pops out of the wall. He shoots a bolt of lightning which misses the duo; Dayvon and Luis work together to shoot the shambler down but he doesn't go down instead he just kneels down. Luis says quietly to Dayvon to avoid the shambler from hearing him "Lets high tail it out of here!" Luis and Dayvon run from the shambler and they lose him easily as the shambler lacks the ability to see. Once again our heroes try the maze again trying this time left, right, left and to their relief that combination lead them to the exit.
The duo stops for a few minutes to gather themselves and to grab the ammunition that was lying around for the crossbow and nailgun. After taking a deep breath our heroes prepare for the next trial that awaits them; they hit a switch on the floor which activates an elevator that was in the room that they first came in after going underwater the first time which leads to a teleporter. Our heroes jumped back into the pool of water watching out for piranhas along the way, jump on to the elevator. The duo pulls on the chain to lift the elevator up until they get to the teleporter. Dayvon and Luis jump inside the teleporter which transports them to a room where a coffin is in the middle of the room. Dayvon says "What the hell is that, I'm not touching that!" Luis says "Ah it's a dead body what can it possibly do to us." Luis looks inside the coffin and sees a small black button which he presses; it opens the door in front of them but a whole pack of fiends are also waiting for our heroes. Dayvon uses a stick of TNT at the fiends while is kills some but some of them are able to jump out of the way. Luis takes care of the fiends that managed to dodge out of the way of the blast. After dealing with the fiends our heroes find the door leading out of the current area and the sign reads "Up Ahead the Elder Temple". Dayvon says "Yean we finally made it, ok Darkgaryl you freak of nature you better be prepared for us." Luis follows with "Say your prayers Darkgaryl!" The two of them get out of the pain maze then begin the journey inside the Elder Temple where they looked forward to meeting the evil one responsible for creating the Cabal cult and all of the evil that surrounds our heroes.
Dayvon and Luis explore and manage to get out of the pain maze with the heads still on them. They bumped into many traps that nearly kill them but they would find ways to break out of them alive even dodging a boulder. Eventually after much trial and error our heroes finally figure out the maze and are able to get out. After all that they finally find the exit to the pain maze and the entrance to the Elder Temple where they hope to defeat Darkgaryl but more importantly recover the anti-matter ball and return to their current time period to stop the gloobas from doing anymore damage to Earth. While Angel was heading to the Elder Shrine which was right next to the temple Maria was still nowhere to be found. Neither Dayvon nor Luis found Maria in the pain maze and Angel has no idea that Maria is gone missing. Where did that gargoyle take Maria to? Better question would be is Maria still alive? Finally where was Caleb he hasn't been seen since running away in the Castle of the Doomed?
Chapter 26
The Elder Shrine
Angel is able to break out of the underworld where he had been trapped after getting thrown off the bridge by gargoyles along with Mariano back in the Cabal docks. Angel loses Mariano in the underworld but kept his confidence up and is the lone survivor in what was otherwise a death sentence for any other human being. Now Angel explores the Elder Shrine what will he find inside the shrine? Will he find Caleb? Will her find Dayvon and Luis? Will he find Maria? Or will he find Darkgaryl the one who tried to trap Angel by using his thoughts against him?
Angel teleports to the Elder Shrine and found himself in a prayer room surrounded by fiends that were quietly lying down. Angel tries to open the door behind him but the door would not budge, the fiends eventually sensed Angel’s and began to head towards him. Angel still had juice left in his thunderbolt which he uses to kill off the majority of the fiends while he used to flare pistol to finish off the last few of the creatures. In the back of the room Angel is able to find some more fuses for his thunderbolt and flares for his flare gun. He also finds a switch which opens the door that was previously locked which leads Angel to a hallway with multiple doors. There are three doors but only one opens so Angel heads inside only to see a combination of undead knights and ogres. Angel has a tough time at first as the room also has an upper level but he rips the sword of one of the knights and uses it to impale the remaining knights. Then Angel throws the sword onto one of the ogres killing it and then he burns the rest with the flare gun. Angel finds a switch at the back of the bottom level of the floor which opens one of the doors but a couple of Cabal Phantoms come out looking for Angel. With the help of his x-ray glasses however he’s able to see the phantoms and he defeats them. Angel heads back to the hallway to see which of the two locked doors have opened.
Angel finds the door to the right is open and the one to the left is still locked, Angel heads for the open door. He enters a semi-dark room with a big pool towards the end of the room, Angel heads down to the lower level where he finds some ogres who Angel kill off easily. He finds a switch in the area where the ogres were located and hears the other door opening but there is no way for Angel to get back up to where he was, there was no ladder and Angel was unable to jump back up onto the platform. Angel says “Well looks like I going to have to take to dip in the pool.” Angel dips into the pool where he swims until he finds the light above him where he resurfaces. However Angel finds himself resurfacing in a graveyard which is infected with zombies, no surprise there. Angel finds himself surrounded by zombies with nowhere to escape.
Angel enters the Elder Shrine hoping to get to the Elder Temple to meet Darkgaryl, get the anti-matter ball and get back to his current time to stop the glooba invasion on Earth. Meanwhile who’s this is Caleb he is also in the Elder Shrine although in a different part of the shrine. Caleb is exploring the shrine looking for any evidence of Darkgaryl but when he heads to a small wooden door to keep moving he is mysteriously assassinated with a crossbow bolt through his heart. However there was no sign of any cultists around or any of the creatures around. The assassin gets out of the room quickly after killing Caleb but who was this killer, was it Darkgaryl? Was there someone else involved that our heroes haven’t met yet? Or is Angel’s worse nightmare coming true by finding out that Maria is a turncoat? Angel had his own problems though he was surrounded by zombies and lots of them; until some of the zombies began to implode in front of him could it be Maria?
Angel looks ahead and it was indeed Maria looks like she escaped the grasps of the gargoyle to get to the Elder Shrine. Maria and Angel teamed up to kill off the zombies in the graveyard which the heroes assumed was the burial spot of the people the Cabal killed or sacrificed to Darkgaryl. Maria is happy to see Angel jumping on him and kissing him on the lips, while Maria was ecstatic about seeing Angel; Angel on the other hand wasn’t as happy still having those thoughts that he had seen during the mind trap. Maria asks Angel “Why the long face honey?” Angel says “It’s nothing it’s just that Mariano is gone. I got sent to the underworld and while I was able to escape he wasn’t as lucky.” Angel purposely doesn’t tell Maria about the mind trap he had experienced; Maria consoles Angel saying “I know it must be hard for you and I feel your pain, don’t worry he’ll be back once we complete our mission. Anyway how did you get to the underworld?” Angel replies “We were with Luis exploring the Cabal docks and while we were crossing the bridge to the bell tower a group of gargoyles pushed us down the
bridge. I thought I was a goner but then I just got up and I was in this strange underworld place then the rest was history I got out while Mariano fell down to the water; I tried to ask him if he was ok but he didn’t respond which must mean he’s dead. Maria replies “Wow honey that’s quite a story but I have one as well, I was with all the other until a gargoyle grabbed me I had no idea where he was taking me. Before I knew it I was here in this graveyard left for dead.” Angel hugs Maria and asks her “You trust me right?” Maria replies “Yeah why do you ask?” Angel responds “Just a random question, just too many weird things taking place here biggest one is why did Caleb run away from us?” Maria replies “I don’t know hun, I just want to get out of this place it gives me the creeps.” Angel says “Yeah you’re right, hey I see a way out straight ahead a teleporter!” Our love couple is finally reunited and was heading inside the teleporter.
Angel and Maria go through the teleporter and end up in the room which was behind the third and final door in the hallway. They are met with a group of behemoths which they take out with the combination of Maria’s crossbow and Angel’s flare pistol. Once the room was cleared the two discover a dead body near the door to their left. The body however was that of Caleb’s and Maria quickly approaches the body sees the bolt that went through Caleb’s heart. However Angel notices something strange the crossbow bolt was exactly the same as Maria’s crossbow, he grew suspicious that perhaps Maria may actually be involved and he saw her acting very suspicious as well. Maria asks “Who could have done this it looks like he was targeted by an assassin and it wasn’t a group of baddies.” Angel then raises his pistol to Maria’s head and says “Yeah I wonder who could have done this with such precision, you wanna start explaining yourself like when you were going to stab me in the back.” Maria is shocked and scared when she hears those words come out of Angel’s mouth. Maria says “What are you talking about honey; you don’t think I killed Caleb?” Angel angrily says “Well the murder weapon is in your hands isn’t it? It looks like that mind trap was actually trying to tell me the truth about you!” Maria still scared says “Angel I would never kill you, just because I have the same weapon it could had been anyone, everyone uses the same crossbow here! Please Angel you gotta believe me on this one!” Angel says “I don’t know what to believe anymore and I don’t know who to trust neither.” Maria says “I don’t know what garbage Darkgaryl put in your head or what he wants you to believe but I love you and never would I try to kill you.” Angel says “The problem is that according to the future you are working with the Cabal and you try to shoot me, what does that tell me?” Maria becomes angry and says “That bastard Darkgaryl is trying play with your head and you’re falling for it. If you shoot that gun and kill me you are falling into Darkgaryl’s trap, you see that’s what he wants for us to separate and kill each other so he can overtake the rest of us to spread his evil. Only thing I’ll ask you is what do you believe Angel, you’re the one with gun you decide what you want to happen! Who do you believe me your future wife or some stupid illusion that this bastard is trying to put in your head!” Angel stutters and can’t decide what to do until he decides to lower his gun. Maria goes to hug Angel and reassures him she won’t turn on him.