Erik threw Gassiter up onto the next level, jumped, and grabbed the edge of the circle, pulling himself up. Great, only another ten levels to go. He looked up at the ceiling. It seemed a little too heavily supported, but that would just make it more work.

Grasping Gassiter firmly, Erik thrust up, sending his blade through the ceiling with a shower of sparks. He began to cut a circle, but no sooner had he moved Gassiter than he heard an all too-familiar sound of water.

Erik cursed as water began to jet powerfully down from the cut he had made.

Erik had made on heck of a mistake. He had just cut above into a pool arena. Pulling Gassiter and avoiding the ever-growing jets of water that could cut him in two—or three—he ran, as fast as he could.

Erik cursed again as the splashes his feet made in the inch of water on the floor corresponded to the creaking of the ceiling behind him. Waves in the water, raising it an inch every time, began to form.

His only hope was to run. He was strong against water, but not strong enough to withstand this. The pool couldn’t have enough water to fully flood this level, so if he could just get far enough away to avoid the larger waves until it had finished…

Erik leaped out of the water, a good three feet into the air, raising on knee in a feint, pausing as he rapidly approached a wooden door. He didn’t have time to use Gassiter, so he let the weapon dissolve into dark green mist.

Erik extended his other leg just in time, slamming into the door with enough force to drive it open and let him through. He hit the ground roughly, rolling in the water that was now mid-calf deep, coughing as his lungs sought air and found water.

He rolled on his back, then groaned as he stood, running and allowing a dark green mist to cover his clothes, dissolving and leaving them dry.

He cursed again as he ran into a steel door. He couldn’t open it. It had probably closed when the water above was released. A safeguard. A death sentence.

No. If there was one thing Erik was, it was that he never stopped trying. He couldn’t cut through the steel, if it was closed it was serious enough to threaten the entire level. If the level was threatened, it could collapse the entire stadium. Not the best idea.

Down, dead. Side, dead. Up…

It was a gamble. If there was more water, he would be dead for sure. If there was an open space, he would live. He reformed Gassiter from dark green mist.

His heart was beating his mind and temples to the point of insanity. He could barely think clearly. Finally, he took the safer route, if it was safer at all.

Gassiter dissolved.

A loud creak and a roar signaled that the ceiling where he had cut had given way. There was only one other way he could get out of there.

He began to run back where he had come from, towards the breach. The water was waist high, rising faster, and the current almost swept him off his feet. It was getting harder to walk, even more so when the freezing cold was taking all feeling from his feet away. His teeth were chattering again, and he fell.

He clawed his way back up through the dark, murky water, and finally stopped sliding, managing to stand. He sucked in breath greedily, and found himself a dozen yards back from where he had been, the water now at his chest, still rising.

Erik grabbed onto the wall support, pulled himself along, and grabbed onto the other one. There wasn’t much time.

<><><>

Josh heard a groan, and a creak, felt the stadium rock slightly beneath his feet. "What was that?" he asked of no one.

Will sought an answer, one that could explain it. Finally, he shrugged. "I don’t know. It could be Julius destabilized this building, and it’s slowly collapsing, or…" he let his words hang in the air.

"Or what?" Rachel asked.

Will looked at her. "Or we’re not alone in here."

Josh narrowed his eyes. No matter, he thought, just another complication.

<><><>

Erik struggled for breath. The water was slower-moving now, but still rising. Not that matters were helped by the fact that the water was at his chin.

Ripples in the water signaled the rip up ahead. Erik’s arms screamed at him, but he continued to pull himself along the wall. He was now totally off the floor, kicking and reaching the higher reaches of supports. The water that was too quickly reaching the ceiling; he wasn’t going to make it.

Erik pulled himself around a corner, finally seeing the breach a dozen feet away. He didn’t have to wait for the next phase of his plan, for he was already gasping the last of the air about him before the water filled and the current subsided.

Weak as he was, Erik launched himself off a wall support towards the breach. There was barely enough light, the murky waters seeming to take all the air from his lungs… He kicked with his feet non-stop and tried to pull his way through the water.

His vision was blurring as he grabbed an edge of the crack and found it small, maybe not enough to let him through. He headed headlong anyway, his body shouting in protest and his lungs blazing and his eyesight fading and still registering the air and light a few yards above him…and got caught.

The jerk of the stop was sudden, and caused a few bubbles of his precious air to seep from his mouth. Stars leapt from the sides of his vision, being black and brilliant and white and nothing, all at the same time. His hips were too wide, they couldn’t squeeze past. He was done for.

No. He would not give up. He hadn’t died and come back to drown.

With the last of his strength, he stretched out his fingers towards the area that held him in its clutches the same was death’s icy fingers were tightening their grip on his lungs. Even as his vision turned to nothing, he used his concentration on that nothing to try and blow his way free.

His last thoughts were that the light was annoying, and that he was going to die a second time, this time permanently, and he felt relived that he didn’t have to care anymore.

Erik Masters lost all touch with the world.

<><><>

Josh glared at Will, who stood watching his every move. First, a dead end. Now, they were lost. Will seemed satisfied, though only his eyes showed it. None of this was worth it.

Will, in turn, shrugged at Josh. "Only one other way, if these two were wrong."

"Once we find our way out of here."

"Once we get out."

Rachel looked away from Laury who seemed to go further into her shell every moment. She could sense the rising tensions between Will and Josh, could feel the changes, and was torn between her loyalty to her friend Josh and her instinct to side with Will. Was she the only one who wasn’t plotting, the only one with any sense?

"Alright, boys. Break it up. Josh, shut up and listen to Will. He’s the only one who knows this place. And Will, quit staring at Josh like you think he’s going to kill us all."

Only Will caught Josh’s eyes darting in alarm to Rachel before they became bloodshot once more.

"Now," Rachel said, "If I remember right, we should go this way…"

Josh worked his jaw briefly. She would be first.

<><><>

Darkness. Light penetrating. Blurry. Groggy. Felt horrible. Lungs filled. Choking. Air. Needed air.

Erik coughed and rolled over on his side, vomiting and coughing up water, sucking greedily at the air. When he could, he looked up.

He was on the side of a pool, one that was drained to a few yards deep. The pool he had been in. The cement below him was cold, hard, and wet.

Suddenly becoming conscious of the hand on his back, Erik looked up again, this time above him. Standing, looking worried above him, was a girl about his own age, a little older.

She had long, curling blond hair that was dripping from the pool water, blue eyes beneath pencil eyebrows that arched in concern, a perfect nose and full, red lips. She wore a white bikini beneath a robe of the purest white silk, one that she pulled around her. All of her was dripping wet, presumably from fetching Erik from the pool.

After a pause, she asked, "Are you all right?"

Erik didn’t reply; instead he turned over and vomited again. "Sure," he said, just before retching again.

"Alright, Grass Master, we gotta go." She said, helping him up.

Erik stood, found her his height, and raised his eyebrows quizzically. "Who are you?"

"Sandra, the plain old Normal Master." She said in a self-mocking tone. "The Master of the white stars, the ruler of the colorless… it goes on and on. I’m sick of hearing about it. Who’re you?"

"Erik Masters."

"’Thus arrived with great effect the medallioned Grass Master to avenge the deaths of countless millions at the hands of the dark prince.’"

"What?"

"Prophesies tell about you. The one with emerald eyes."

They reached a door, and Sandra opened it, leading him up a spiral staircase.

"Why doesn’t another one surprise me?"

"Another?" she led him farther up.

"One led me to this," he said, holding up his medallion to let her see it, "and this." Dark, swirling green mists dried his body. A fog produced a similar effect on her.

"’Mistaken to whom to fight he was, and who to trust, he knew not even to question.’" Sandra said distantly.

"What?"

"Never mind. This way." She said, leading him around a corner.

"Sorry," a voice behind a light green robe and hood said. "All access to this section is restricted."

Gassiter formed out of Erik’s emerald mists, while Sandra held her hands apart, palm up, letting the white fog bather her hands in a white blaze.

The Dragon Master continued. "All who venture too close—as you have—will be dealt with accordingly. Sorry, Sandra dear, but I’m afraid I can’t join you this time. However, I think Abraham and Elihad will deal with you accordingly." Before he could hear the curse Sandra spat at him, he was gone, dissolved into a mists that slowly revealed a figure in a bright yellow robe and another in light purple.

The Electric Master sported two razor sharp rings, perfect replicas of the ones he had used against Matt. The Poison Master used a crossbow loaded with darts that were almost certainly poisoned.

Erik had barely taken it all in when the Poison Master shot at him, reloading and shooting again at a much faster pace than a human. Erik leapt high, nearly reaching the vaulted marble roof, and flipped, landing on the opposite side of the Poison Master.

The Electric Master slashed at him, which he blocked with some difficulty, and jerked as electricity jumped down his blade into him with enough force to kill.

As he jerked and spun to cut, he saw a flaming ball of white fog and fire slam into the back of the Poison Master, sending him face-first into the wall with a sickening crack. He heard Sandra call, "How’d you like that, Elihad?"—just as the poison dart headed for Erik’s heart missed by a half-hair’s breadth.

Abraham, had ducked and slashed upwards, but Erik spun again, and caught the man full force through the middle with the sharp of his blade. The Electric Master caught his breath, held it, and let himself topple to the floor as the upper half of him moved away from the lower half, dark blood pooling around him.

Elihad lay still on the floor, and Erik knew he was dead.

"You fight good, Erik. That way." Sandra said lightly.

"How can you be so nonchalant about killing a person?" Erik asked in disbelief.

Sandra’s tone turned hard. "Elihad used to be my brother. That man in there wasn’t a person; he wasn’t even human."

<><><>

Emerald and sapphire serpents blazed in an ever moving spiral, a dance of death and life and birth and rest, sometimes escaping in wisps of dark smoke, changing colors, teal, ruby, maroon, black-gray, and back to emerald and sapphire. They burned and rippled and flowed, always one contradicting the other, fire bubbling and streaming ripples bursting into flames and smoke, putting out water with fire, giving life by stopping the heart… endless contradictions.

Watching it all, covered in a black, deathly hellish black robe, nothing of the body seen through the unholy shadows that covered it, stood a figure, spiked hilt of his sword reflecting both the shadows and the waters and fires and holding it all and giving less out than it should, seeming to suck in the shadows and wrap up in them as if they were blankets, his sapphire eyes suddenly flaring brightly at the figure across from him. From a shadowed sleeve resting on a simple stone armrest of a throne protruded a single, bone-white, deathly skinny finger pointed across the bubbling fires.

On the other side of the pool stood two men. One wore a light green robe a metallic and enchanted whip of the same color curled and hanging at his side. Jet black boots led up to long, baggy green pants, a black belt and silver catch holding them up. A light green, almost white sleeveless shirt was there, showing off a muscled torso that led to a handsome, clean-cut and clean-shaven face.

Next to the Dragon Master stood the other figure, this one a good head taller than the former Master. His robe was also black, but not the chilling, shadowy emptiness of the man…if it could be called that…that stood across from him. He was clad in all black, boots, pants, even shirt identical to the Master of Dragons. His face was older than the man who stood next to him, but still young. He had no weapon on him; his sword of nothing was only called upon when needed.

The fearful finger that pointed was aimed at this black-robed man. Julius spoke. "My master, all is unfolding as you have planned. Your esteemed worthiness may direct me to your next bidding at your will."

A rasping, dead voice came from the shadow-robed figure. "What of the Master of Fighting?"

Julius tried not to shudder at the sound of that voice. "H-He readily accepted our offer, and is awaiting further instruction as to who to neutralize."

That same, nightmarish voice spoke again. "You question my decision."

Julius hesitated. "Yes, Master." It would not be wise to lie.

"Why?"

"I do not see why we will give him so much, Master."

"This land is nothing to the world." Julius bowed his head. "And besides, we’re not going to give it to him."

Julius looked up but didn’t say anything.

The Master let it go. "Larent, what of your tasks?"

The green-robed figure known as the Master of Dragons answered, a slight, high-pitched incantation fully showing his fear. Good. Fear was good. It maintained control. "The Stones have been moved, and my men are positioned." He hesitated. "A-And, Abraham and Elihad were killed this morning."

The Master showed no surprise. "By who?" he asked, as if asking a small child who had taken his nose.

"S-Sandra and E-Erik."

Julius spun on his heel, imposing a frightening figure and narrowing his eyes, burning sapphire, upon the terrified form of Larent. "What?!" he roared, "I killed him myself!"

"T-Then w-why is he b-b-back?" Larent managed to squeak out.

Julius glared and started towards Larent’s throat, but a word from the Master stopped him. "Stop this petty squabbling, both of you incompetent fools. Julius, if you killed him, and he’s back, you didn’t finish the job. Next time—" he lowered his voice, hate and menace filling it. "—and I promise there will be a next time—destroy his soul, not just his body. Finish it, too. Make sure there is nothing left to bring back."

Julius’s eye’s widened in terror, and Larent just whimpered and cowered, slinking out of the room.

<><><>

"How close are we?" Erik asked, after they turned around what seemed to be the thousandth corner. It was a maze—only someone who had lived there could know it this well.

Sandra opened a door to another staircase, spiraling up what seemed the rest of the way. "Up this staircase, through five or six rooms, and we’re in business, on the top arena."

Erik sighed and followed her up.

About a dozen steps up, Sandra stopped.

"What is it?"

"Sh! Listen…hear that?"

"What?"

"Listen."

Very faintly, as if only beginning, yet starting to grow louder, Erik heard a creak, followed by a groan. Sandra leapt up to the next one just as the step fell into a bottomless abyss below her. The step she was one began to creak, faster.

"Should’ve known." She said. Suddenly, a white, burning fog surrounded her, encasing her in a transparent, foggy-white cloud of mist. When the step below her fell, she remained hovering in the air.

She started to raise up, spiraling a few inches above the steps.

"Ah…Sandra?" Erik called.

"What?" she asked, noticing he wasn’t behind her.

"We Grass folk like to stay near our roots…"

"You can’t fly?"

"In short…" he admitted.

"Hold on." She said, as a white, foggy tendril snaked down to him. He grabbed it and felt a solidity to it, but also a nothingness. It slid through his fingers and surrounded his boots, encompassing them in cloudy spheres.

"There," she said, as the tendril left and he lifted off. "Think of yourself floating along."

He imagined himself skimming the steps, and cried out when he lunged forward. Sandra laughed.

"Not so fast." She admonished.

He tried again and went a little slower.

"One of the nice things about being normal is that you can learn just about any ability you are shown."

"Who showed you how to fly?" Erik asked, coming up behind her.

"Matt."

"The Matt we know?"

"One and only."

"Where?" Erik demanded.

"Tracing the others. Don’t worry, he’s doing fine. Said he’d put in a good word for me with the boss if I showed him around. I suppose he meant you."

"So he knows his way around?"

"You bet."

Erik pondered, then let it go. It was only inevitable that Matt would return. "So what does Julius want?"

"The usual, total and complete domination of the world."

"So we have to beat him?"

"No, you have to beat Larent. Julius is probably taking his coward self off somewhere else, keeping his valued position of the Master’s right hand hiding with his Master."

"He isn’t top dog?"

Sandra laughed. "Not by a mile. But he is a pretty powerful guy."

"So why would this Master person give Julius Earth?"

"It has absolutely no purpose. What is a single planet when compared to the galaxy? Or the universe? Or total power that is unchallenged?"

"Could he get it?"

"Julius? No. That’s why they always fail. Total rule is impossible. There will always be someone against."

"What about the Master?"

Sandra looked him in the eye. "The scary thing about that is that, by the Master, Julius could easily rule all. And the Master can rule the universe. If we put the levels we use on Pokémon on us, we’d probably end up with several thousand. In Julius’s case, it’s ten or so thousand. And in the Master’s case, it’s nearly infinite."

"Very comforting"

"Yah. Well, into death-trap and battle number one."

"What?" Erik hadn’t noticed they had reached a door, but his question went unanswered as Sandra charged inside.

<><><>

"An elevator." Josh said. "Now you remember the elevator. Straight, he says. Left, he says. This way, that way, always wrong. As if he’s trying to mislead. Not even that is worth…" he stopped suddenly.

"Worth what?" Will asked, jaw working.

"All the world, it isn’t worth this."

"Look, Josh, we’re at the elevator, aren’t we? It’s working, isn’t it? What’s gotten into you?" Rachel asked concerned.

Josh didn’t answer, only stepped inside the elevator. The others followed, and someone hit the top floor button. The lights flickered as the doors closed and they started moving.

"You know," Will said, looking up. "If the lights flicker, it might stop—" he was cut off as the elevator jolted them all and the lights cut out, sending them all into pitch blackness. "—moving."