“Sad to say, those were bad doggos,” Wyn mutters while Mira applies cat saliva to treat his injuries.

  With the dog god defeated, the cages vanish, though many of the souls caught in the battle didn’t make it, and only about half remain.

  “We’re so sorry you got caught up in all of this,” Yu says, his voice heavy with guilt.

  “We’re grateful, actually, young one,” one of the souls speaks up, his voice calm despite everything. “We would have been kept here for eternity.”

  Souls that disrespect, defy, or simply displease the gods are often sent to their chambers as punishment – a place where the gods torture them relentlessly, careful to avoid damaging their heads.

  “How did you know how to use the staff anyway?” Wyn asks.

  “I saw him stomp it on the ground then raise it up,” Mira explains. “Once locked on, it stayed on the target for a while. Not sure if there was a time limit, but that doesn’t matter anymore.”

  “So, it was a speculation after all?” James says. “Risky, you sexy devil!” he continues, earning a playful slap to the butt from Mira.

  “You wielded a weapon of a god…Right,…that totally makes sense…,” Wyn mutters.

  “Now, how do we get out?” Lisa wonders, walking around to find clues.

  The throne has been gradually glowing white, so subtle the team failed to notice it before. But now that the glow is brighter, they stand watch, not willing to go to it just yet. Then out of the blue, a cow appears, along with a patch of grass on the throne. Wyn instructs the team and the freed souls to touch the cow at the same time, which brings them back to the garden in front of Anubis’ statue, which has now collapsed.

  The doors above slide open, releasing more Hell souls from Anubis' rooms, all returning to the garden, but David is still missing.

  “We weren’t even done clearing the obstacles, and then there was a bright light, and then we’re here!” a soul from Freedom Faction explains, sharing how they arrived.

  As they exchange information, another statue collapses, leaving only four standing. While the others debate whether they should take on a god themselves, Wyn calmly asks the freed souls to stay in the garden. He directs them to share any knowledge with the newly arrived Hell souls.

  "Let’s do our part. Let’s take one more down," Wyn says, rallying his team as they approach the next cow.

  The team arrives in a room filled with water, where whirlpools swirl beneath the surface. They must navigate carefully to avoid being pulled under while swimming their way to the far end. With no hesitation, the team dives into the water, allowing one of the whirlpools to suck them down and carry them into another chamber.

  “Motherfucking ouch!” James groans from the impact of the fall against the surface of the water.

  The team now finds itself in a massive, water-filled space that still carries the sense of being within the pyramid’s brick walls. The water reaches about a quarter of the height of the towering stone pillars that line the chamber. These pillars stand evenly spaced, each supporting square wooden planks across their tops above the water's surface. Crocodiles swim lazily about, toying with captured souls as they drift through the water, but as Wyn's team arrives, their eyes snap toward them, their attention now fixed on the new arrivals.

  At the far end of the room, a throne sits submerged in the water, its backrest rising above the surface. Seated upon it, a massive figure rests, his face against his fist with his legs crossed.

  “A crocodil…,” Mira begins.

  “Just please don’t, sis,” Lisa pleads.

  “...do!” Mira continues.

  “Blech, you don’t look so tasty to me. You must be from Hell then,” the god with the crocodile head speaks.

  Sobek rises from his throne, stepping down as half of his massive form submerges into the water. He is a terrifying hybrid of man and crocodile, his powerful, muscular frame embodying the strength of a warrior, while his massive crocodile head looms menacingly, its jaws wide with rows of sharp, glinting teeth.

  The god’s ancient armor gleams faintly, its edges catching the dim light reflected off the water. His muscular limbs ripple with power, ending in clawed hands. At his side rests a crocodile-shaped staff, its curved head bearing wickedly sharp spikes.

  With a thunderous bellow, Sobek plunges into the water, disappearing beneath its surface. Yu acts quickly, lifting his team with streams of water and placing them on two wooden planks stacked atop the same pillar, one directly above the other. Below, the crocodiles circle the pillar in swarms, their sheer numbers causing ripples and obscuring the depths.

  “Snow?” James wonders aloud, glancing up at the ceiling.

  “It’s sand! It might be poisonous – close your mouths!” Yu warns.

  “Wait, it’s not tinted green like Anubis’...,” Wyn notes.

  As the team becomes distracted by the falling sand from the ceiling, Sobek seizes the opportunity. Bursting from the watery depths directly beneath them, his jaws spread wide in a vicious attack.

  Lisa, who has been intently watching the water with growing unease, spots Sobek’s movement. Already aiming her gun downward, she reacts instinctively – but before she can fire, the wooden planks beneath the team flip violently, sending them tumbling.

  Thinking fast, Lisa hurls her gun into Sobek’s gaping maw, jamming it between his powerful jaws just in time. The weapon lodges securely, halting his bite for a brief moment.

  The team, however, lands awkwardly atop the trapped gun and each other in a chaotic heap: Mira and Lisa somehow manage to stand precariously on the weapon; Wyn’s rear lands on the back of Lisa’s head; Yu’s stomach collides forcefully with Mira’s tilted forehead as she struggles to stay upright; Wyn clings desperately to Yu for balance, and finally, James lies horizontally on top of the tangled mess of bodies.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Floating atop a powerful water stream, Sobek thrashes violently, sending the team hurtling into another pillar. James takes the brunt of the impact, groaning from the force of the collision.

  Wyn summons a rock formation that emerges from the pillar just above a plank. For the first time, he swiftly expands its surface, forming a safe platform for everyone to land on.

  The team scrambles to their feet, bracing themselves for Sobek’s next attack – but the crocodile god has already vanished beneath the water. Below them, the crocodiles begin to gather again, circling ominously.

  “Freeze the water, Landon,” Wyn instructs.

  “I need to touch the water to effectively freeze it!” James responds.

  “I’ll create a path for you, Mister James! Please wait for my signal,” Lisa says.

  Lisa begins firing laser beams fused with electricity at random spots in the water, testing if she can reach the bottom. But before she can act further, Sobek erupts from the water in another snap attack, propelling himself with a high-speed water stream. The force of his attack shatters the rock platform beneath them.

  To Sobek’s surprise, Wyn has already created multiple rock formations around the same pillar they were sent crashing into earlier. The formations spread like scales, providing platforms for his team to stand on and spread out. Mira, her lips curling into an evil grin, hurls her whip toward Sobek. Boosted by Wyn’s cyclone, the whip cuts through the air with incredible speed. Though Sobek snaps his jaws shut just in time, the whip strikes his snout, triggering a powerful explosion that sends him crashing back into the water.

  Seizing the opportunity, Lisa unleashes a barrage of electrifying beams into the water. The attack obliterates many of the crocodiles circling below.

  “Now, Mister James!” Lisa shouts.

  With the water cleared, exposing the floor beneath, James swiftly raises an ice wall around the area, ensuring that the water can't return and cover it. As everyone leaps, Yu conjures a large stream of water below to cushion their landing. The moment they touch down, James gets to work, extending his merged rapiers so that the tips on each side pierce through the ice wall, reaching the water without allowing any to seep in. Channeling his power into the weapon, the water around the wall begins to freeze slowly.

  Visible through the ice, Sobek commands the remaining crocodiles to begin ramming the wall. Yu steps in to defend, sending the water around the wall shooting upward, then curving it to push the crocodiles further away. But Sobek powers through, thrusting his staff at the wall with such force that the crocodile-headed tip breaks through the team’s defenses. The crocodile head extends, aiming straight for James’ shoulder. Reacting quickly, Wyn leaps forward, allowing the staff's head to snap onto his chakram blade instead.

  “Sorry, Landon!” he says.

  Yu’s curving streams subside, giving Wyn the chance to propel himself forward just as the staff's jaws open, about to release water. Wyn overpowers the stream from the staff’s head, pushing through and shattering James’ wall. The force hurls the staff out of Sobek’s grasp, and his attempt to swim away is futile as Wyn catches up to him, embedding one of his blades inside Sobek’s mouth and piercing the upper part of his jaw.

  Wyn swiftly detaches the blade before Sobek’s jaws snap shut, sending the god spinning backward in the water as the cyclone dissipates. However, as the jaws close, the blade grazes Sobek’s tongue. This gives Wyn the opening he needs, even while submerged, to propel another cyclone forward, pinning Sobek against a pillar. At the same time, he summons another cyclone around himself, draining the water away. Meanwhile, Yu splits the water, and James freezes it, forming a safe path for the others to regroup with Wyn.

  As his team nears, Wyn halts the enveloping cyclone, allowing Yu and James to create another wall for the group, but leaving the front open for him to unleash another cyclone at Sobek. While pinned, Sobek attempts to control the water around the team, trying to make it crash down on them, but their defenses prove stronger than he anticipated. Mira then signals Yu, asking him to send them both over the wall and back into the water when they’re near Sobek. Yu forms a circle inside the water for them to stand on. On her count, Wyn stops his attacks, giving Mira the chance to swing her whip. With Yu’s help, clearing a clean path, she wraps the whip around the god’s snout. An explosion follows, and Wyn resumes his relentless assault, this time fusing rocks, ice, lasers, and electricity into his attacks. With every projectile that strikes Mira’s metal whip tip, another explosion erupts.

  The chaos of the barrage obscures the team’s view of Sobek’s condition. Taking no chances, Wyn presses on with his assault until he sees the god’s snout severed, tumbling into the water. As he ceases his attacks, Sobek crumbles into nothing but sand, gradually turning into sparkling essence. The water begins to drain, revealing the floor beneath.

  “See you later, alliga…wait! Was he a crocodile or an alligator?” Mira asks.

  “Look at the snouts. If it’s pointy and narrow, it’s a croc. If it’s broader and more u-shaped, it’s an alligator,” Wyn explains.

  “I forgot to check! Which one was he?” Mira asks, shaking Wyn violently as she demands an answer.

  “We’re all above five hundred thousand now, right?” Wyn asks, ignoring Mira's frantic questioning.

  “Wow, we’re becoming stronger so fast now!” Yu says.

  “That’s actually the reason why I didn’t want to wait for others to join us in this fight,” Wyn adds. “After Anubis fight, I realized this was our prime opportunity to increase our essence counts fast.”

  “Smart thinking, dude,” James says. “Hmmm, Sobek was slightly stronger than Anubis it seems.”

  “Fifty thousand is ‘slightly’ to you, Mister James?” Lisa asks.

  “Well, when the numbers get that high, fifty thousand doesn’t make as big of a difference,” James shrugs.

  A dark-skinned boy with droopy eyes approaches the team, thanking them on behalf of the freed souls, despite Yu profusely apologizing for possibly having accidentally killed many of them during the fight.

  “You have to put a stop to Ra’s reign,” the boy pleads. “We don’t know what we did in our last lives to deserve this.”

  “I’m sorry, kid. We’re here for ourselves,” Wyn replies. “But hey, somehow our goals align, right? Us surviving Ra means you get your freedom too.”

  As before, a cow suddenly appears on the throne. The team, along with the freed souls, makes their way back to the garden, where they find the remnants of Hell’s army waiting for their return.

  “You’re alive!” David says, calling Wyn’s team to stand next to his.

  “We were last? How?” Wyn asks.

  “Lust’s group got the intel, thanks to you and the poor souls you freed,” Violet says, a bright smile lighting up her face. Despite obviously doing her best to tough out the grief from losing her lovers and many of her friends, Wyn feels a sense of relief – this is the first genuine smile he’s seen from her.

  “Yeah, they plowed through, like, three gods,” Charlotte adds.

  “Well, we took down one ourselves, and a group from Freedom Faction handled another,” Jesús counts.

  “How are you getting out?” Violet asks the freed souls, now gathered in large numbers, saved from the gods’ chambers.

  “No idea. Just focus on Ra. Take him out, and I’m sure we’ll find a way out somehow,” the droopy-eyed kid replies.

  “You’ll have to get out. Your friend is waiting,” David says, to which the boy responds with a thumbs-up.

  With all the god statues collapsed and the stone doors sliding open, the gleaming golden lights shift into disco lights, flashing in various colors as the ceiling finally opens up. The garden vibrates, slowly ascending upward. The freed souls quickly jump off, standing on the ledges above the stairs, waving goodbye to the army. Steve and Wei do a quick headcount and realize they've lost nearly fifty in the previous challenge against the gods.

  A sense of unease settles over everyone as they prepare to face the very guardian who took down the previous Hell army. They look to Lust, placing their fate in her hands.