I shove another sharp rock aside, my hands now a mess of scrapes and cuts. The light in the chamber is becoming almost blindingly bright, a white-hot glare that bleaches the color out of everything. The heat is a physical assault, making my head throb.
"There's nothing here," I say, my voice tight with frustration. I've checked three of the five piles. Nothing but rock.
"The last one," Toby says, his voice strained. He's squinting against the light, his face slick with sweat. "It has to be in the last one."
I move to the final pile, the largest of them all. It's a jagged mountain of black glass, towering over me. I start pulling rocks away, working as fast as I can. The metal box with the vial is a heavy, cold weight in my pocket. A useless treasure.
My fingers brush against something different. Not rock. Metal. I claw at the debris, revealing a long, iron bar, half-buried in the pile. It's not a key. It's a pry bar.
But it's something.
I grip it and pull, wrenching it free from the rocks. It's heavy and solid, a real weapon. Better than the shears in some ways. I look at Toby, chained to the pillar.
"This might work," I say, more to myself than to him. I can use it to pry open the clasps. It will still make noise, but it'll be faster than cutting through the chain.
I run towards him, the pry bar held in both hands.
That's when I hear the sound.
A low, grinding rumble, like a boulder being dragged across the floor. It's coming from the corridor on the other side of the chamber. The way out.
The warden.
The light from the orb pulses, one last, brilliant flash of white, and then begins to dim. The heat starts to recede.
It's here.
A shape emerges from the corridor, a hulking silhouette against the fading light. It's massive, easily ten feet tall, its form blocky and angular, as if it's carved from the same volcanic rock as the piles in the room. It has no discernible head, just a flat, broad top. Two long, thick arms drag on the ground, ending in massive, three-fingered hands. It moves with a slow, deliberate, crushing weight.
This is the warden. The jailer.
It stops at the edge of the chamber, its 'face' turning toward Toby. A deep, resonant hum emanates from it, a sound that I feel in my bones more than I hear with my ears.
Toby lets out a roar of pure, impotent fury, straining against his chains. "Come on, you rock-faced bastard! I'm right here!"
The warden ignores him. Its featureless face turns to me. I feel its attention, a heavy, oppressive weight that pins me in place. It's not just looking at me. It's judging me.
The hum deepens, becoming a sound of displeasure. It takes a thunderous step into the room, its stone feet cracking the packed earth floor. It's coming for me.
[ICE WILL] activates, the cold rush of clarity washing over me, freezing the fear in its tracks. I'm not Toby. I'm not chained to a pillar. I can move.
I dodge to the side as the warden swings one of its massive arms, a sweeping arc that would have crushed me if it had connected. The impact with the ground sends a shockwave through the chamber, kicking up a cloud of dust and small stones.
I don't hesitate. I run, not away, but towards the pillar. I have a goal. Get Toby free. We stand a better chance together.
There's no point worrying about noise right now since it's already here.
The only hope is getting out the other door before it can catch us.
I reach Toby and jam the end of the pry bar into the gap between the metal collar around his neck and the chain. The metal groans as I put my weight on it, leveraging the bar with all my strength. The clasp is stubborn, thick with rust.
"Hurry!" Toby yells, his eyes fixed on the approaching warden.
The creature turns, its movements slow but relentless. It's between us and the exit now.
I put my foot against the pillar for more leverage, the muscles in my arms and back screaming. The metal starts to give, a high-pitched screech of protesting iron.
The warden raises its hand again, bringing it down in a slow, powerful smash aimed directly at me.
I let go of the bar and roll away at the last second. The warden's fist connects with the pillar, the impact shattering the top of the stone column, sending cracks racing down its length. Chunks of rock explode outward.
Toby yells in pain and shock as the pillar trembles violently. The chain around his chest loosens, the broken pillar no longer a secure anchor.
I scramble back to my feet, grabbing the pry bar again. The warden is turning, its attention divided.
I still don't understand the vial in my pocket.
I still don't get what kind of puzzle there is to solve.
There's always something, isn't there? I don't have a lot of experience in this place, but it always seems like there's. Something.
Enough of something that I have a vial of unknown substance in my pocket and a man chained with no lock.
And a creature that somehow I didn't see on this one way path.
What am I missing?
Other than the braincells to leave before it arrived.
I grimace and look at Toby.
"Do you know what it wants?" I ask, even if I already know the answer.
He shakes his head. "It just hurts me. What else could it want than that?" Toby grunts, the words coming between gritted teeth. "All this place ever wants." he tries to move the chains, but they're still too tight. He's just...looser. He's stuck to the broken pillar, but he can't move further than a foot in any direction. "Get it off me!"
The warden has fully turned its attention back to me. It's done playing with its prisoner. It's focused on the new, more interesting variable. Me.
I dodge another slow, powerful swing. The warden is strong, but it's not fast. I almost have to try to get hit by it.
I'm not really sure how the man got caught in the first place if it's this slow.
Maybe he was unconscious when it happened.
Well.
Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of just running away from it and getting away if that man is chained still.
But how do I buy the time to pry him free without getting grabbed now that it's so close to us?