OoC: FINALLY! ^_^;; Phew... I'm glad I got that done.

BiC: This place is gonna drive me nuts, thought Blitz to himself as he wandered through the great halls, having long ago lost all sense of direction. He had expected his long-awaited visit to the acclaimed Dome to be enjoyable, but now it was leaning more toward unbearable. Once he had failed to find Ranul in the market, he had wound his way into this place which was supposedly the Dome’s centerpiece. The massive structure’s interior shifted every now and then, walls moving from place to place approximately every ten minutes. Nevertheless, Blitz could not deny the beauty of this place. Red tapestries lined the rune-engraved walls on either side of the hall he now walked through, accompanied by a coat of arms every four tapestries. A plush red carpet also rolled the whole length of the floor, and shifted along with the walls to turn corners whenever this place changed its shape.

Majestic and odd were the two descriptive terms that immediately came to his mind. Never before had Blitz laid his eyes upon a physical structure that could change its makeup—rather, not since the Realm of the Guardians. Yet while the second mirror of the world, in which the guardians presided, was haunting and foreboding, this place seemed much more cheery and light-hearted. The swordsman found himself craving a fine wine for some reason. Hah! he laughed inwardly. I’ve been living in the same base as Viscen for too long. From high above, light fixtures which were installed in the ceiling shone down as a guide to his footsteps, for which Blitz was grateful. He could not imagine navigating this ridiculously complicated world in the dark. In addition, the floor was composed of a rich marble which reflected the light back onto the cobblestone walls. Every inch of the structure was visible at all times.

Just then, the wall to his left dislodged and began swinging unusually to the right, beginning to block off his straight path. “No!” he shouted aloud, racing ahead. But it was too late; the wall completely shut off his path, opening up a new one to the right. Blitz slammed into the wall, beating it in frustration with his fists. “Crap! How in the name of Dierru am I supposed to get out of this place?!” He was almost certain that if he were able to travel in a straight line that he would make some real progress. Yet every time he felt he was getting close to something, the walls changed again. It was as if the entire structure were deliberately turning him in circles. It would be helpful if he encountered someone else in this confounding place, but so far he had not seen a soul beside his own. “I’d better run into someone soon, or I’m going to have to make my own door.” Then Blitz remembered the event with Ranul; even though the half-angel’s intentions had been good, the swordsman’s power had still not fully recovered. It was only so fortunate that the angel had not administered a larger dose of the substance, or Blitz might have been keeling over and dying right now.

Pushing himself away from the stone barricade in dejection, he turned to face the new path left for him by the Dome. Oh, you have got to be kidding me. It was a dead-end, and a rather empty one at that. Desperate not to be trapped, Blitz strode impatiently toward the blank wall. He could see nothing; no door, no other turns, seemingly no way to progress. But just when he had been about to turn around and head in the other direction, he noticed a small indention on the rightmost side of the wall. Hmm… that’s odd. He placed a finger on the indention, tracing it upward and in an arch-like shape that rose from the floor. Maybe this used to be a doorway? Rearing back and scrunching his muscles, Blitz prepared to exert himself. Then, with all his might, he thrust himself at the arch of indented stone. He pushed hard with his arms, throwing his head down to gain some leverage. But the old doorway did not budge. Not ready to cede defeat, Blitz threw his shoulder at it; he succeeded only in bruising himself. Still determined, he forced his back against the wall, pushing as hard as he could with his legs. Still, the structure did not even move a millimeter. Finally, exhausted both physically and mentally, Blitz rested his back against the wall and panted heavily, trying to regain his breath. Alright, calm down… Let’s think through this logically, he thought in an effort to quell the forceful hammering of his heart in his chest. Is there anything I haven’t tried yet? Yes; as a matter of fact, there was.

Swallowing a deep breath of air and feeling his heart beat normally, Blitz walked purposefully from the wall, keeping a skeptical eye on it as he stalked away. Then, satisfied with the distance between himself and the obstruction, he turned to face it again and intentionally triggered an adrenaline rush in his legs. As soon as he felt strength course through his lower limbs, he bolted forward at full throttle and thrust himself with all his might at the wall. “Hah!”

KLONG!

When he could see again somewhat, he was on his back, and his corneas were swimming in the wrong end of his head. As if this affected his mental perception, his jaw swerved awkwardly in an attempt to orient itself. After a few moments when his sight began to return to normal, he gathered himself and tried to stand. Okay… I guess I should have seen that one coming. Still feeling awkward and disoriented, he stepped on his cloak and tripped, landing on his backside again. This time he waited, allowing his body to reacquaint itself with the laws of physics. Finally, his vision became fully steady and he was able to stand. Times when floors should not be blunt and metallic…

This time, Blitz did not plan on sparing any mercy for the sake of the building’s magnificent structure. There was enough fire element here to build up a decent explosion, one strong enough to remove a small wall at least. The only problem would be his current inability to draw it to himself, for his power cells were still under the debilitating effects of that accursed dihydrogen methanol gas. Nevertheless, he took the concentration stance he had been taught in his early training which supposedly focused the mind. Even if it was a technique that only fresh recruits were known to execute, desperate times called for desperate and sometimes humiliating measures. He grunted at the effort he had to exert in order to call the fire elemental energy to him, but felt refreshed as the energy entered his body. However, the resulting tension immediately begged for release. Forcing as much of it as he could muster into a condensed ball, he quickly hurled it at the barrier obstructing his path. At that very moment, however, and much to his dismay, the wall suddenly vanished to reveal an entryway beyond. His sun bomb rocketed through the entryway, slamming uselessly into a corner further in and exploding in a burst of completely unhelpful flames.

Blitz blinked. Then he blinked again. And then, just for effect, he blinked once more. That could not have happened at a worse time, he thought finally. Now, after that exertion, his power cells had expended the strength they had regained; he would be unable to summon the fire element again for quite some time. Nevertheless, the swordsman decided not to dwell and strode into the archway.

As soon as he had passed through the structure, it closed very suddenly behind him, and all quickly became dark. Startled, he whipped around as if hoping that the obvious had not occurred. But there was no denying it; there were no lights here, and the fixtures had been cut off when the archway sealed off. He was left in the pitch black with a sound that he realized was a low growl. Oh, no… he whispered to himself, turning around as slowly as he dared to see a pair of glowing yellow eyes with green irises staring at him less than four feet away.