"Going somewhere?" Nyxil grouched as she caught up to Su'Baar and his machine.

He glanced back at her, hand rubbing the dented metal at his side. "Not particularly."

"You left me to deal with both embalmed."

"Not intentionally." He raised his arms defensively. "Buddy got hurt. Besides, you got out fine." He diverted his attention to the walls. "Good thing the tunnel is so narrow; I'd hate to have those two charging after us."

Nyxil narrowed her eyes at the boy for a good moment, considering possible punishments for leaving her behind. Ultimately, she let out a sigh and let the matter go. It's not like he'd actually tried to stab her in the back.

… yet.

"They're dead."

Su'Baar paused. "What?"

"I killed them," Nyxi said. "You didn't hear that crash?"

"…I thought that was the embalmed slamming into the stairs behind me."

"That was the embalmed being crushed beneath its own trap," Nyxil clarified.

"And the other?"

"It's heart was in its thorax," she glanced back down the stairs. "Inside a jar," she mumbled, still uncomprehending the ancient race's decisions.

"You got through its armour?"

Nyxil nodded, taking only some pleasure in the boy's unsettled expression.

His hand unconsciously stroked the side of his micro-tank as he chewed his lip. Nyxil tried not to feel envy that he could do so without mutilating himself.

"I don't think any of us were meant to beat them," Su'Baar said. "There really shouldn't be anything in these Trials that Buddy can't shoot through. I doubt the Adjudicator wants less than five participants reaching the final Trial. Either they expected us to race through, sneak past, or back off and find another way." His gaze fell to her blade, as if inspecting it for modifications. "Not… take them head on."

She shrugged. They were in agreement, but her mind was elsewhere. Besides, Nyxil didn't know if she really wanted to know what went on in Ep'Nanorschi's head.

Slipping past the dented, but otherwise undamaged tank, she slipped into a sprint. "Keep up," she called back.

The twisting labyrinthine design of the lower floors had seemingly ended. They must have progressed high enough through the pyramid that there was not enough space to contain the dozen splitting paths. Now, there was only long, slightly inclined halls that turned ninety degrees every hundred metres.

They were close to the top.

Nyxil managed to run unperturbed for nearly a minute until a black stone sunk underfoot. She had only enough time to hear the click before the walls became spikes. Her momentum carried her forward, just out of range of the spears as they wove between each other and struck the opposite walls.

Glancing back, Nyxil found the wall of black spears blocking her vision of the Worshipper. He hadn't been quick enough to keep up with her, so she doubted he'd been caught in the middle, but it still blocked him from progressing.

Well, at least until the spears slowly began to coil back inside the walls. Like worms sliding back into soil.

More traps. Really, Nyxil shouldn't be surprised after the crushing stone. Of course the higher floors would have greater dangers. Those heart-jar pedestals had just been the warning of what awaited above.

When Nyxil could finally see through the swarm of spears again, she found Su'Baar unharmed. He stood on the other side tapping on a sharp tip as it hid itself inside the wall again.

He glanced up at her when the deadly spike trap returned to its original look. No different from any other tunnel. Not even her third eye was able to tell where exactly the spears came from once the wall was sealed. Predictably, Su'Baar didn't look excited.

"So?" Nyxil tried to stifle her amusement from showing on her face. "You coming?"

For the first time since she met him, annoyance crossed Su'Baar's face. As if taking her words as a challenge, he and his machine rolled forth, uncaring of the trap she'd just triggered. He stopped right before the stone that Nyxil had stepped on. His little show made it clear he knew what she'd done wrong, and didn't need to make the same mistake himself.

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Yet… he intentionally stepped on it.

Nyxil blinked. Had she just watched a suicide? Or had he really not noticed the trigger for the trap?

For better or worse, when the spear wall creaked open again, Su'Baar and his machine were unhurt. Lacking even a scratch. In fact, the spears themselves had come out in a worse shape. Some had shattered over the floor, and others had bent so badly out of shape that they no longer retracted into the wall.

"You can go first." Nyxil waved him forward.

While she was growing rapidly, and had the strength to oppose many cultists far above her own evolution, much of her body was vulnerable. She could survive a spear through the heart as well as she could before her first mutation. That was: not at all. If Su'Baar could brute force the traps, Nyxil would let him.

She still urged him to keep up the pace. Lysyra was waiting.

Su'Baar didn't complain. He smiled, happy to take the lead, and strolled forward frustratingly slowly. Nyxil's fingers tapped the pommel of her blade, sorely tempted to poke the boys feet to have him move faster. She was glad she didn't when he stopped her before another pressure plate.

The floor was apparently covered in them, but to her eyes, they didn't exist. Su'Baar tossed a stone back after they'd passed, and a dozen wire saws ripped through the room. For an instant, it looked like a thick spider web, then it was all gone. As if there had never been a trap at all. Compared to the others, this was silent.

"How do you see them?" she asked as they passed what felt like the hundredth snare.

"Mechanism Talent. The shapes are distinguishable from the other stones."

Nyxil looked at him, surprised he would give away that he had a Talent so easily.

He pointed at the ground ahead. "See the slight deviation at the edges? The cracks don't have as much girder as those around them. It's slight, but noticeable." Nyxil followed what he said, but applying that to the other triggers through the tunnel was not so easy. "At one point in time, there were other triggers," Su'Baar continued. "String tripwire once thread from one side to the other — you can tell from the narrow holes and the small hooks — but the strings must have decayed."

Ten times out of ten, Nyxil would take the embalmed over this. At least with them she had something to fight. Not to mention how frustrating it was to be forced to slow down so much.

Where was Lysyra? Had she already completed the Trial? Right now, she was relying on the assumption that the girl didn't truly know what it was she saw. Nyxil's feet were slick at most. They hadn't yet devolved from their human form. Hopefully, the girl would assume it was the effect of some name, and tell her cult only when she spread the information of every other participant she came across.

It was hopeful, but it was all Nyxil had.

Ahead, a crack in the ceiling bathed the hall in bright yellow light. A gold sceptre leaned against the wall, glowing in the embrace of the sun. There was no denying what this was.

A Relic.

Nyxil didn't need to have witnessed one before to know this was one of the remarkable objects cults would sacrifice many lives to get their hands on. The fiery radiance was unmistakable. Just imagining the power it could grant was enough to fill Nyxil with desire.

And yet, it just sat here. Leaning against the wall of a nondescript tunnel that anyone climbing to the summit would pass.

"I hope I don't have to tell you," Su'Baar hedged. "But don't even think about touching that. It's a trap."

Nyxil let out a suffering sigh. Of course she knew, but that didn't stop her desire from raging within her. If it was as strong as it looked, her dream to tear down the cults could become just that little bit closer. Instead, she would have to go without.

"No chance we'd be able to take it and get away before whatever happens… happens?" she asked, hopefully.

Su'Baar twisted his head to look around the tunnel. Buddy mimicked him. By his sullen expression, she knew the answer before it came.

"No," he said. "If you want to try, do me a favour and wait until I've left the pyramid. I don't know if the building will survive whatever waits under this trap."

Maybe it was foolish, but Nyxil actually considered doing as he said. Depending on what sort of ability it contained, she might not need to care about hiding herself anymore. There were some mutations that might let her survive the collapse of the pyramid. Those mutations felt very conspicuous, but if she could skip years of growth, it would be worth it.

Yet… it was too great a risk.

For all she knew, it was nothing more than an embellished flashlight. Nyxil couldn't toss away her entire future on a gamble. One that didn't even have good odds; why would the Bodytwisters leave such a valuable relic in a Trial, after all?

Heaving another sigh, she turned from the enticing golden sceptre. "Yeah, you're right. It's probably not worth triggering the trap."

"Oh, I disagree."

Ice stung Nyxil's veins. The unknown voice was soft, yet it pricked at her like venom.

Nyxil spun. Standing in the sulphuric glow, a pace from the golden sceptre, was Lysyra. Motes of white hardened into her transparent cloak, casting the white of her hair and robe in a spectral distortion.

Lysyra's hand touched the relic. Her head tilted back to Nyxil, a knowing smirk twisting her lips.

"Can't have you missing the main event."

Nxyil didn't know when, but her legs were already throwing her towards the girl. Too late. Lysyra pulled the sceptre, and the world groaned.

Her hard chitinous fist struck the girl, but Lysyra simply exploded into a mist of ghostly particles. Nyxil raised her hands to strike the ground in mid somersault and roll back to her feet, but the black stone floor posed no resistance. It crumbled. So did everything around her.

Suddenly, Nyxil found herself falling.

The pit below was pitch black. Even to her third eye. That wasn't enough to worry Nyxil; she'd flown such pits before to trust her wings. What came next… not so much.

A crack rang in her ears. An explosion. Millions of stone shards and pebbles pelted her from above. Nyxil twisted and found that, no, her wings would not be as useful here.

Above, a boulder larger than her old rearing ward fell after her.

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