"And here we are!" Insider proclaimed as they stretched their arms wide.

Their travels through the warp lead them to a gigantic stone courtyard covered in fanciful ivy vines and elaborate, regal-looking masonry colored in imperial shades of red, orange, and purple like the sunset of an important day. The center pathway out of the courtyard lead to a gigantic building that was surely the treasury. If there was any doubt, the red stone gate flanked with two glowing eyes—one green, one yellow—might have put any fears to rest.

"Finally!" Chihiro heaved a sigh of relief and leaned back. "If I had to look at one more puzzle I think my brain was gonna explode!"

"The job's far from over though," reminded Insider as they looked back at Chihiro and wagged a clawed finger. "We still need to get inside and activate the self-destruct function!"

Chihiro smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "That's gonna be easy, though! We just have to break a few switches, right?"

"I wouldn't be so sure." Insider turned their head back to the tower as its door opened with a rumble. "You never know what kind of tricks they could have up their sleeves."

A couple gulps were heard as the party carefully trailed inside the tower—which was near-completely pitch black! No windows, no lamps… Even the light from the door quickly faded as it closed down behind them.

"What happened to the lights?" remarked a tiny cyclops as they swerved their head around.

"Be on guard!" Insider warned. "Anything could happen here!"

Chihiro snapped her fingers as an orb of cyan light manifested in her hands, and cast it around the area. The sphere trailed around the floors in a circle, though it was so small that precious little was illuminated. All that could be found were what looked like four round, stone switches which glowed with a faint kind of magic energy that could be barely traced.

"Wait, did you guys see that?" Chihiro exclaimed as she jabbed a finger at the switches’ directions. "I think we found them!"

Excited jabber rose from the crowd as Chihiro smiled and summoned a sword made out of magic. "Well, this can't be any more easier." Chihiro took a step forward and held her sword in front of her body. "Just gotta crack these switches and…"

As Chihiro took another step forwards, a low growl echoed from close by and reverberated all around the tower.

"Did you guys hear that?" Chihiro looked back at the rest of the team, who only nodded in response, then glazed over the top of the tower. "Where's it coming from?"

Everybody looked in every which way! South, east, west, north, west-east and perhaps even a few more unknown directions, but no matter what, they couldn't pin down the sound of the growling, which grew more and more intense! It was then that someone clapped and the lights came on.

There, right before them, were cyclops mammoths of all sorts! Tall ones with faded scars and rippling muscles, scrappy smaller ones with sharp tusks, very angry ones with bloodshot eyes and dried red stains on their fur. Thankfully, they were all tied down to tough-looking stakes, though they didn't appear happy with it judging by their way their teeth were bared.

"Well, well, look what we have here~" crooned a shrill voice as a smaller cyclops dressed in animal taming gear stepped out from behind a particularly large mammoth. "Our favorite rebels!"

"And what's this?" crowed another cyclops tamer as they stepped from the side of a smaller mammoth. "They brought Skylanders with them too! No wonder you managed to get past our defenses!"

"We should've known something was strange when our units stopped responding to us!" cried yet another tamer as they flipped off the back of a particularly nasty-looking mammoth and landed on their feet. "Mammoths, get them!"

With a snap of the tamers’ fingers, the stakes that held the cyclops mammoths down disappeared and the tamers went with them! Nothing stood in the way of the mammoths as they growled and charged forwards, ready to make a quick snack out of the team—but they didn't! A bright light, so bright, in fact that the heroes had to shield their eyes before their eyes were burned at the least, shone out and stopped them.

While the mammoths whimpered and reeled back, Spyro flew down as his body shone with a yellow glow that unmistakably marked the light's ownership as his.

"Quick, while they're distracted!" Spyro ordered as he flew overhead.

Everybody in the ground-bound crowd nodded, raised their weapons high, and charged! What followed could only be described as a giant, one-sided fight! The heroes threw everything they had, from magic blasts to stone weapons right at the switches, and their adversaries were little more than an afterthought in their minds! Well, save for two mammoths that regained their sight faster than the others and tried to lunge after the heroes, but they just clunked into each other and fell unconscious.

Chihiro stopped to gaze over the machine that the switches fed with power—an elaborate stone contraption that shot a thick beam of energy at the top of the tower—and her gaze trailed off to the four round switches. The sound of flapping wings pulled her out of her thoughts as Spyro flew up next to her, and she looked up at Spyro and nodded. The two of them held out a hand and a paw, and together shot out a blast of energy that slammed right into the switch and blew it to bits!

While the switch's beam of energy disappeared, the machine's beam wavered just a bit. One of the cyclopes stepped from the crowd and slammed their ax into the second switch as saw Spyro shoot a gigantic fireball into the third. A small cyclops grabbed a sizable rock from the ground, and tossed it right into the center of the fourth and final switch! The rock slammed into it with a sharp cracking noise, and harmlessly fell to the ground as the switch shattered completely!

Gasps of awe and joy rang as the gigantic beam of energy finally vanished, paired with the sound of a machine whirring down.

"We did it!" Eyeantha proclaimed as she bounded forwards and wrapped Chihiro in a tight hug.

Chihiro sharply gasped, and beamed back as she swept up Eyeantha in her arms and spun her around. The other cyclopes were more than excited as well! Some high-fived, others cheered and threw each other into the air, some kissed their partners out of pure, complete glee… Even Insider cracked a small smile as they looked over the deactivated machine.

But, a couple pebbles dropped on their heads.

"Wait, what was that?" Spyro asked as he and several others looked up at the ceiling and frowned.

Tiny, crumbly bits of masonry popped down from the ceiling like raindrops, right before a large stone brick crashed into the floor as the entire tower rumbled!

"Crap!" Chihiro exclaimed as she jumped out from where another brick smashed into the floor. "I forgot that thing was the only thing holding this tower up!"

"You know what?" cried a cyclops man with a frantic urgency in his voice. "How about we celebrate AFTER we get out of here?"

Terrified murmurs of agreement resounded around as everybody raced from the door, but promptly skidded to a halt! Right there in front of them, the cyclops mammoths they thought they incapacitated gathered in front of the sole door with teeth bared and eyes bloodshot. Clearly, they weren't in a good mood.

"CRAP!" Spyro exclaimed as he narrowly flew into the jaws of a cyclops mammoth.

"Forgot about these dudes!" Chihiro finished for Spyro as she yanked his tail and pulled him away just before the mammoth snapped its jaws.

The mammoths leaped after the cyclopes, but the crowd swiftly parted before those mammoths could even get a scratch in! As the mammoths crashed onto the cracked floor, they growled and ran forward while everybody ran for their lives! It was a good thing those mammoths were super slow and bulky—otherwise, the cyclopes might have been in for some real trouble.

"There's no way we'll be able to fight them off in time," Insider exclaimed as they ran around in a circle with a scarred mammoth in close pursuit. "We have to get rid of them some other way!"

"Let me try!" cried a younger cyclops who donned ragged mage robes as he waved a stone staff.

The staff glowed with a faint blue light, and cast a blue glow around the room that made the mammoths stop and tilt their heads for a few moments, but they shook their heads and went back to chasing everyone.

"WHAT?!" The mage exclaimed as their jaw dropped. "WHY?!"

"I don't know what making them glow was supposed to accomplish," Chihiro exclaimed as she ran away from a cyclops mammoth. "But—" Chihiro skidded to her right as a stone slab fell down from above "—YIKES!"

"That's the thing, it wasn't supposed to just make them glow!" The mage readied his staff once more. "It was supposed to banish them!" The mage smacked his staff against the ground. "But this dumb thing doesn't have enough juice!"

"Let me try it, then!"

Chihiro jumped to the mage's side, and as the mage waved his staff around again, Chihiro's hands flashed a magical shade of chromatic cyan. Chihiro shot her glowing hands in front of her body. and sent a large bolt of concentrated magical energy straight at the staff! The staff received the energy like a bird received food from its parents, for its stone surface glowed with bright cyan.

The mage pointed the staff at the mammoths and waved it around a few more times. At first, it seemed like nothing happened, and the mammoths went back to gleefully chasing everyone around like it was nothing! But then, they completely froze in place, and their eyes shrank with confusion. Finally, they all vanished in a bright blue glow!

"Alright, everyone!" Chihiro exclaimed as she stepped towards the door and ushered. "There's no time to stand around, get going like you're Christmas shoppers at a holiday layaway!"

"What's Christmas?" asked one small cyclops to the other.

"Is it something you eat?" replied their conversation partner.

Before anyone could say a word more, a gigantic slab of stone crashed down from the ceiling and made a sizable hole in the floor!

"GO, GO, GO!" Chihiro demanded as she pointed towards the door.

Everybody charged out the door in a gigantic crowd With screams and hastened feet, and the sounds of their running feet were like a herd of those cyclops mammoths they were fighting not all that long ago! Soon enough, only Chihiro sat in the crumbling tower!

"Yeah, I'd say that was pretty good," Chihiro said as she dusted off her hands and placed them on her hips. "Wait, what's that sound?"

Chihiro frowned as she looked up, and her eyes shrunk as she froze in place—fpr a gigantic stone slab was crashing down from the ceiling with its sights set on her! Just before it could squish her like the terrified insect she was, Spyro flew back inside and yanked Chihiro out by the shoulder! Thus, the slab only crashed into the ground as the tower crumbled to bits…