All was eerily silent as Hex floated down the path, her only companion the sound of Ghost Roaster's rattling chains as they indicated him behind her. Even for someplace in the Undead's realm, this place seemed so somber and lacking in energy. It would don the title of a ghost town quite well.

"I know this place is a realm of the undead and all," Ghost Roaster remarked as he tapped his bony arms, "but it could really stand to be a little less dreary!" Ghost Roaster paused and shuddered. "When even I get the creeps, you know it's bad!"

Hex cast a glance towards Ghost Roaster, and back down at the worn cobblestones paths below her. While she did agree with Ghost Roaster's sentiment, at the same time…

"I don't know," replied a booming voice from out of the blue, one that arrived so suddenly that Hex and Ghost Roaster practically jumped out of their very souls. "I find it quite delightful!"

"What? Who's there?" Ghost Roaster whipped his head in all directions, huffed and crossed his arms. "Whoever you are, I wasn't asking you!"

"Take a peek above you~" the mysterious voice crooned. "You'll see soon enough!"

Hex did just that, and found that the churning blue skies and their wispy gray clouds were blocked out by, a gigantic eyeball? Yes, a pristine white eyeball whose vast white held a blue iris tinged with pink in its center! It contained itself within some kind of brownish-greenish-grayish tendril, with smaller tendrils in the vein of arms attached to its side. Whatever it was, Hex found it quite suspicious how it showed out of nowhere.

"My goodness, we hardly get visitors around here nowadays! What a sight for sore eyes!" The eyeball spun around and bowed. "I am Occulous, your local friendly floating eyeball!" Occulous's eye glazed over Hex. "What brings you here, elf and…"

Occulous let out a shrill squeal the moment his eye laid upon Ghost Roaster and scrambled back.

"THE GHOST EATER! YOU'VE COME TO EAT US OUT OF HOUSE AND HOME, HAVEN'T YOU?"

Hex frowned and hovered in between the two as Occulous pointed an accusing tendril towards Ghost Roaster. "If you don't mind, that's far from our purpose here," Hex refuted, a bit of venom in her normally-cold voice, "and Ghost Roaster hasn't eaten a ghost in ages!"

"Yeah!" Ghost Roaster scoffed and looked aside. "Besides, ghosts taste bland anywho! Nowadays, it's all about bones and brambles!"

Hex shot Ghost Roaster a glare. "You realize you're not helping your case here, right?"

Occulous cast an uneasy glance towards Hex and Ghost Roaster, perhaps affirming Hex's statement for a moment, but nonetheless he shook his, eye? Well, he didn't exactly have a head to shake, but nevertheless the sentiment was the same.

"Getting back on subject, what brings you two to Darklight Crypt?" Occulous asked as he crossed his tendril, the tip of one pressed to his eye like a hand pressed to a cheek. "Visiting relatives? Doing some sightseeing? Come to try our impressive undead cuisine?"

Hex made a twisted frown and took a glance at Ghost Roaster, whose matching stare conveyed the same thing; neither of them trusted this eyeball.

"I could ask you the same question," Hex replied as she stared back up at Occulous and crossed her own arms. "What brings you here?"

"Well, I live here, don't I?" Occulous made a slight chuckle. "Anyways, I asked you first!"

"If you really must know, I merely came for someone." Hex grabbed Ghost Roaster's cold, bony hand and pulled him down the way. "Nothing more."

Though Occulous's gaze crawled down her spine, Hex was not one to let it bother her. Hopefully he was probably just a nosy local. He'd leave if not given the attention he desired, and Hex had no intention of providing him with it nonetheless.

As she stumbled upon a block puzzle, Hex released Ghost Roaster and floated up to the blocks. With a press from her cold hands, their chilling temperature only amplified by the frigid sensation of the blocks, they shifted out of Hex's way one by one. Hex went to float forward…

"Someone? What someone?" Occulous pried as his shadow imposed upon the block maze. "A family member? Old friend?" Occulous clapped his tendrils together. "Ooh, ooh, don't tell me! It's a forbidden lover, isn't it?"

"It is nothing of your interest." Hex magically pushed another block out of the way then levitated onto its surface. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have places to be."

Hex mentally rolled her eyes given her lack of pupils, and drifted through the path she created using the blocks. As she passed through, however, the area became abnormally darker than usual. What could have… Oh, one look up and Hex found her answer.

"Hmm, acting awfully suspicious, are we?" Occulous stroked his massive eyeball as he hummed. "I was just asking a friendly question~"

Hex bit her tongue and the urge to snap at this suspiciously curious eyeball, because thankfully, Ghost Roaster did it for her as he pulled himself on top of the blocks and glared at Occulous.

"You're no better, buddy! You're being way too nosy!" Ghost Roaster shot back as he rolled his eyes. "Any normal ghost would've gotten the message and left!"

Occulous scoffed and crossed his tendril arms. "Fine then, I'll take my leave." Occulous shot Ghost Roaster a glare at cold as the atmosphere around them then turned tail and drifted away. "But I'd watch out for the knights, if I was you!"

As Occulous made his leave, Hex and Ghost Roaster turned to each other and frowned.

"Knights? What knights?" Ghost Roaster remarked as he spun his chain around like a toy. "Unless you're talking about the time kind of nights, I'm not seeing any—"

Clank!

"… Did you hear that?" Hex whispered as she reflexively summoned a skull orb.

Clank!

Ghost Roasted gasped, lowered his head, and snarled like a guard dog as he glared down the path with eyes bounced in every direction. The clanking sounds grew louder and louder around them, but he didn't seem to notice just what they came from…

Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank!

The metal clangs hrew much more massive in number while Hex and Ghost Roaster stopped short, but at least those noises now had a definitive source! The clanging sounds consolidated just ahead of the maze, where some bulky silhouettes armed with swords could faintly be made out from the fog.

CLANG!

Four by four, those bulky silhouettes leaped from the fog and crashed down into the maze. Now they revealed themselves as bulky, silver suits of armor, with intricate onyx detailing on their armor, and gigantic swords with handles carved in the shape of ghosts and ghouls pressed in their hands! The armor suits stomped, slashed their swords against each other in unison, and turned those swords on Ghost Roaster and Hex!

Hex gasped as she just narrowly dodged the tip of one knight's blade, but Ghost Roaster seemed less concerned as he groaned and hung his head.

"Me and my big mouth," Ghost Roaster mumbled.

Hex and Ghost Roaster dashed back down the path they came, but before they could make a getaway, more of those knights blocked off the entrance! The two of them skidded back as the knights brandished their swords, but as they did, their backs hit cold as ice metal and forced Hex to teleport herself and Ghost Roaster away as more armor suits swooped in! She and Ghost Roaster landed on top of the blocks she rearranged not moments earlier and dashed down, but stopped and jumped off the path as more knights dashed down the blocks. Hex wove her way through the blocks' makeshift maze, and for a moment, thought she had found a sanctuary. However, even that wasn't safe as smaller, yet more stubborn knights made haste after her!

From just above them, there was a glimpse of an open stone slope just above the blocks; better yet, it was completely free of those pesky suits!

"Quickly, I think I can see the exit!" Hex proclaimed as she yanked Ghost Roaster's hand and pulled him past the swarms of metal suits.

Hex zoomed over the blocks and teleported close to the slope, then swooped down and hovered forward as fast as she could. But even then, she was too late! In the split-second before she could enter, the knights dashed forward and completely walled off the slope's top.

Hex snarled, and teleported herself and Ghost Roaster back on the ground as the knights swarmed around them in a circle. Left in the eye of the storm, Hex and Ghost Roaster stood frozen as the knights performed that odd stomping dance with their swords all pointed towards Ghost Roaster and Hex. Any ordinary being would've been panicked, but Ghost Roaster and Hex just turned to each other and nodded with cold, steely glances of urgency.

If they couldn't run out, then it seemed they'd have to fight their way out!

Ghost Roaster turned away from Hex as he unhinged his jaw and flipped backwards, all while green flames swirled around his body like an ethereal bonfire! The flames swirled around him with such heat and intensity that the knights retreated backwards, and Hex herself jumped back to avoid getting singed! The flames churned and turned themselves around as a pair of eyes flashed open from their warm surface, and out from the flames came none other than Ghost Roaster, who now transformed into his gigantic skull form!

Ghost Roaster let out a shrill cackle as he dashed through a row of knights and tossed them into the air, and as he reached the end of the line, he detransformed with a satisfied smile while the knights crashed down. Unfortunately, though, it seemed his glee was wrongly anticipated; when the knights fell down to the ground, they landed perfectly on their feet!

Ghost Roaster’s jaw dropped. "OH COME ON!"

Ghost Roaster just snarled as he grabbed his chain and swung it around, but paused as a swarm of cackling skulls drove into the knights and tossed them off the island's edge! Just aside of Ghost Roaster, Hex summoned an entire barrier of cold, hard bones and spat out spells at rapid speed! Eldritch orbs flooded with raw, untapped magic, and cold skulls with nasty snarls trapped within the confines of green orbs both flew out from her fortress's confines and mowed down whatever they could. Unfortunately, it was hardly enough for the battle at hand!

The lines her orbs drew through the masses of metal knights were quickly replaced, and the heads of the crowd already slammed their swords against the bone fortress in a very successful attempt to crack through their exterior! Perhaps she should have used dragon bones rather than her usual ones this time. Hex frowned and drew back as the knights clamored and clattered against her bone fence, while some smaller knights even tried (and failed) to scale it like a mountain. But, among the sea of silver and black, Hex could spot a dull cream-colored head in the midst!

"Alright, you brainless metalheads!" Ghost Roaster shouted as he spun his chain around like a lasso and tossed it against the crowds. "I'll show you that the chain is—ACK!"

Well, Ghost Roaster tried, he really did. But, instead of actually denting the knights' forces, one particularly large one grabbed him by the chain and dangled him above the crowds before it tossed him chain-first at Hex's bone barrier! Hex immediately cast up a barrier in front of herself, but even that wasn't good enough protection; Ghost Roaster's chains smashed a hole in her barrier!

As the barrier shattered, Ghost Roaster himself slammed into her and skidded them both through a number of vases! The sound of smashed pottery and a noise akin to scraping nails against stone echoed as the two of them flew backwards. This impromptu ride came to a close as they both smashed into a wall and shattered a collection of cracked clay vases. While dust leaped up from the ground underneath, the two of them grunted and coughed.

"Ghost Roaster, what exactly was that?" Hex spat as she flew up from the shattered remains of the now thoroughly-destroyed vases behind them.

Ghost Roaster, in return, spat out dirt and shot a glare at Hex while he rubbed his head. "It was supposed to knock out those hunks of junk!"

The two of them cast glares at each other for mere moments, but the sound of metal clatter and quick shings drowned their ears. The knights surrounded Hex and Ghost Roaster and raised their swords!

"Whatever it was," Hex spat as she glared back at Ghost Roaster, "it seemed to have the opposite effect!"

"No kidding!" Ghost Roaster winced as the knights ganged up on them. He scurried backwards as one slammed its sword dangerously close to his body, turned his eyes aside and gasped before he scrambled off!

"Ghost Roaster, what are you—"

Before Hex could finish, the knights slashed at her at well! Hex once again summoned her barrier and shot off her orbs, this time intermingled with spiky black orbs of undead energy and a few larger skulls as well. Once again these knights proved themselves to be stubborn. Every blow she cast their way at most just swept them off their feet for a few seconds, but they were quick to jump back into the fray and slash against Hex's bone barrier.

Hex panted as she held her hands up and went to restore her barrier, but before she did, the world around her completely shifted!

The cold stone around them turned to a bright gold in color, while the moss that coated it grew fuzzy and full of life. The skies turned back to the amber-streaked blue fraught with puffy clouds trademark of the fading afternoon. Even the area beside them turned from cold, dead earth to grassy plains and islands full of brightly-colored flowers!

The knights all dropped their weapons and looked around in confusion as the world around them changed, and all at once, they completely froze into cold, metal statues! Just how did this happen?

Hex frowned, dropped her bone barrier, and turned backwards. Behind her, Ghost Roaster gave her a thumbs up from the safety of a switch identical to the one she had seen at the crypt's doors! Seems there was more of those strange switches in here as well.

Hex nodded, and turned her gaze back to the lifeless piles of armor that were once the knights. Though they were effectively harmless for the time being, the moment they switched back that would hardly be the case. Just to be safe, Hex summoned another swarm of skulls, gestured to the skulls and pointed their attention towards those lifeless statues.

The skulls turned their heads and cackled to the skies as they dashed off in packs and bowled through the lifeless armor suits! The sound of clanging metal turned from a sign of danger, to the most relieving sound to Hex's ears as the armor suits went from proper suits to assorted piles of broken pieces and junk metal! Would it last, though?

With a warble, the world around Hex warped back into the cold, dull undead world of before, but this time, the armor stayed a lifeless amalgamate of broken metal! Seems as thought it was finally time to move on!

Hex floated up to the end of the maze, pressed her hands against the few remaining blocks and lifted her hands as the blocks shifted out of her way. As Ghost Roaster trailed up and narrowly dodged getting smacked in the face with one, Hex just frowned and floated up the pathway it unveiled. The cold, paved cobblestones of before grew more bumpy and prominent, at least based on how often Ghost Roaster's chains rattled beside her.

Hex paid it little mind as she ran her hand against the stone bridges that barred off their pathway from the depths of the valley below. Despite the bumpier roads, everything else here seemed much more civilized, so to speak. The dead fauna and open spaces of cold, dead earth from before were replaced; instead there laid carefully-crafted pathways and cracked statues of ghosts dressed in regal apparel and mayoral clothes like monocles and sashes. There were even a few abandoned houses with shattered windows dusted in cobwebs! This certainly made the whole place feel a little less dead, for lack of a better word.

Hex let her feet drop down to the ground, and passed her gaze towards an arched cobblestone bridge that lacked the guard rails of the prior bridges. However, the bridge itself wasn't of much concern to her—rather, she was more concerned with that gate that laid on its other side! So, she floated back up, dashed over the bridge, and floated closer to find that it was indeed a gate made of rotted black wood! However, it had no traditional lock and key. Rather, it was bound tight by a rusted lock puzzle guarded by an imp that seemed a little more frazzled than the usual lockmaster imp.

"What's wrong, little one?" Hex asked as she brushed her finger against the lockmaster imp's fuzzy head.

"There's, there's another guy in her with me," the lockmaster imp squealed as it jumped up and down. "And he's really freaking me out! He's all red and fiery and angry all the time and he never shares the teleporters!"

Hex hummed as she only half-listened to the lockmaster imp while it went on a further rant about its roommate, but both her and the imp jumped back as Ghost Roaster arrived in a burst of green flame!

"I'll tell ya what's wrong," Ghost Roaster scoffed as he eyeballed the lock puzzle. "There's a lock puzzle here! I'm awful at these things!"

The lockmaster imp gulped and dove back into its lock puzzle, yet peered out the lock as Hex floated up to the puzzle and glazed over its insides. Four switches, a strange flaming red imp not unlike the ones that usually guarded undeath lock puzzles and a few stray rows of blocks. This wouldn't be so bad. Hex held a hand up to the lock puzzle, and in response, the puzzle glowed, shuddered, twisted and turned before it dropped off the gate entirely!

As the gate's withered doors creaked open, Ghost Roaster's gaze bounced between the gate and Hex while his jaw dropped. "How did you do that?" Ghost Roaster asked. "That thing would've taken me me a century!"

"It's only natural," Hex replied as she floated through the gate. "Lock puzzles were a favored hobby of mine in my youth."

As Ghost Roaster rattled behind her, Hex forwent examining the rotted houses and abandoned buildings in favor of the old, half-broken sign beside them. Though the majority of the sign's arrows were broken off or could barely be made out, there was one that stood bold and strong despite the tests of underworld time. It pointed straight down the brick road that made up the village's center, and on it was only a place's name…

"’Haunted Village,’" Hex read as she drew her fingers against the signpost, and turned back to Ghost Roaster. "It seems there's civilization close by."

"You sure?" Ghost Roaster remarked as he glared up at the sign. "For all we know, it could be another ghost town like this!"

Hex turned her gaze down to the brick path before them. "I suppose there's only one way to find out."

§

"Hey, Spyro!" Chihiro exclaimed as she gently shook Spyro's shoulder. "I think I see something ahead!"

"You do?" Spyro asked as his eyes flashed yellow with a subtle light now emanated from them. "'Cause I can barely see anything in all this darkness!"

Chihiro hummed and leaned forward. A cyan glow burned bright from her hands and served as one of the few sources of light around this cold, dreary place as she skipped ahead. Thankfully, even in a place like this, she could always count on her spheres to light the way.

"Alright…"

Chihiro rubbed her hands together and summoned a gigantic sphere of light. With a hup, she cast it into the skies and held up a finger that crackled with magic.

"LET'S SHED SOME LIGHT ON THINGS!"

A shot of magic like a rocket exploded from Chihiro's fingertip and slammed straight into the light sphere, which in turn exploded and shed gentle cyan light all across the area!

Spyro stood in wonder as the undead area changed from dreary to creepy to fantastic and mystical as the cyan light unveiled the rest of the world all around them. More importantly, it also completely lit up the path ahead!

"Yep, that's what I thought!" Chihiro chirped as she turned around and ran a hand against the object before her. "A block puzzle!"

Sure enough, there before Chihiro was a chipped cinder block covered in dead moss and broken chips, one that blocked the way off only for mere moments. A snap from Chihiro's fingers sent it skating away.

Chihiro smiled and beckoned for Spyro to follow before she herself jumped into the thick of the maze and pushed away the blocks. She started out well enough, with the blocks hastily shifted away and formed into a makeshift path the moment she touched them. But, she bonked right into a block she accidentally pushed in front of her path. She moaned as she tried to push the block away, but it wouldn't budge a bit! It was completely stuck, almost like it was frozen to the spot! Chihiro made another loud groan as she held out hands dusted with an aqua glow.

“If I can’t push this thing out of the way,” Chihiro cried, “maybe I can toss it!”

Chihiro grinned as the aqua light from around her hands spread to the block while it nudged up just a bit, but her smile faded with the dying light as the block crashed back down onto the ground.

"Ugh, no more," Chihiro groaned as she panted and slunk down against the cold stone blocks, "I must be rusty or something."

"Being in an Undead Element realm probably doesn't help, either," Spyro said as he flew over to a switch at the beginning of the maze and flicked it on. "It's so cold down here that it might as well be in an eternal winter!"

With one single flick of the switch, the entire world around changed from the barely-illuminated undead realms to the much more lively (pun not intended) living realm! The cold, dead trees grew strong and full of colorful leaves, the dead earth became rich with grass, heck, even the cinder blocks seemed brighter as they became whole and covered in soft moss!

Chihiro beamed as Spyro flew over and pushed the block she faced with barely any strain, jumped to her feet and pushed it alongside him. The two of them grunted as they pressed what felt like ten tons of cinder block against the floor, but with a little magic on their end and one last push, they sent the block flying down the path until it crashed into the blocks that bordered off the maze!

"Whew, talk about a workout!" Chihiro remarked as she brushed sweat from her brow. "Just how many of these are blocking the way, anyways?" Chihiro's eyes grew wide before she broke out into a giggling fit. "Wait, blocked! I made a pun without even trying!"

Spyro joined in Chihiro's giggling, and soon enough, the two of them broke into hapless laughter. The pun wasn't even that funny, but just being around each other made them both grin like idiots without even realizing it. After all, something about being around Spyro made Chihiro a little less tense, a little safer than usual.

"Y'know," Spyro remarked as he sat on top of a block next to Chihiro, "it's nice to see you back to your old self again, Chi."

"Old, self?" Chihiro made a couple strained giggles. "What are you talking about? Have I been acting weird or something?"

"Not weird." Spyro flew off the blocks and began pushing a few more into place. "Just, down in the dumps, I guess. It seemed like lately, you barely talk to anyone and just hole yourself up in the training arena—" Spyro charged into a block, sent it skidding and turned back to Chihiro "—it doesn't really seem like you."

Crap, he noticed! That was the one bad thing about Spyro; he was perceptive, and he could see right through her no matter what!

"Ahahahahaha!" Chihiro trilled, winced and looked away. "I hadn't even noticed, I mean, well, I guess it's only natural I'd be busy." Chihiro made all sorts of wild and disjointed hand gestures. "I mean, I've had to keep on top of training and study for my exams and all that—"

"But after that battle with Kaos, it seemed like it was all you ever thought about!"

"KAOS?" Chihiro jumped up straight and whipped her head every which way, a terrified look in her eyes. "Where? Where is he?"

"I wasn't talking about Kaos, Chihiro." Spyro raised an eyebrow towards Chihiro, a small frown on his face. "I was talking about you!"

As she heard this, Chihiro drooped into quiet, solemn silence. Geez, that was embarrassing, and somehow she got the feeling that Spyro was even more convinced something was wrong. But, she couldn't derail the mission with her problems, not right now!

"Ha, ha, silly me, guess I must've misheard!" Chihiro tittered as she tried to avoid the strange look Spyro gave her, frowned and rolled up her sleeves. "Geez, is it just me or is it kinda hot in here?"

Spyro frowned and placed a paw to his chin. "Now that you mention it, it does feel kinda warm here. Isn't it supposed to be the fallish season? Why would a place on this side of the hemisphere be so warm?"

Spyro turned tail, flew on one of the blocks and scouted around. When nothing was found, he summoned up a pair of magical binoculars and took a peek through those instead.

"Good, he forgot about it." Chihiro breathed a sigh of relief. "That would've been awkward."

"Found our culprit, Chi!"

Chihiro climbed up the blocks and frowned as she sat next to Spyro. There, not that far across from the blocky conundrum they were confined in was a, gate, she thought it was?

Well, it didn't exactly look like a traditional gate, anyways. It had twin metal pillars, one on each side, that held in the center a round red disk which had a bright, white flame symbol with a sharp S carved in the heart of it. Heat radiated from its very presence, and with its fire, it made the cold autumn world feel more like summer instead!

"A Fire Element Gate?" Spyro asked aloud as he tilted his head. "Why would something like that be here, of all places?"

Spyro’s makeshift binoculars vanish into thin air as he flew over to the Fire Element Gate and tapped its surface.

"What's so weird about a Fire Element Gate being here, anyways?" Chihiro asked as she leaned in front of Spyro.

"These Elemental Gates only respond to strong elemental energy from a particular element, and the undead are especially vulnerable to fire. Nothing rots a corpse like a good bonfire, after all." Spyro tapped the gate a few more times, frowned and stepped back. "A Fire Element Gate, in a place where it's unlikely to find many Fire Elementals… Something's definitely up!"

Spyro's eyes flashed red as he opened his jaw. "You might wanna stand back."

In a moment's passing, Spyro shot a bright orange fireball right at the gate's center and sat back as it receded into the earth!

Chihiro frowned as the unfolded Fire Element Gate showed off an entryway made entirely of warm red stone that radiated heat like a hot and ready oven. Which, in hindsight, was well more apt a comparison to make than she initially realized! It felt like she'd burn to a crisp if she stepped foot inside; however, she couldn't hesitate. If Spyro was right, there was definitely something suspicious about this place, and they had to find out what.

Oh, and speaking of Spyro, he already went ahead—Chihiro could hear the sounds of his wing flaps as they echoed through the halls. Funny how for once it was him taking charge, not her. So, Chihiro gulped and hopped her way into the oven.