Chapter 35: 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 zombies 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?