Well, if this wasn’t the perfect trap for any sort of magic-user. Phlocaz chuckled to himself. If the one who designed this was still around, something he highly doubted, Phlocaz would’ve congratulated the architect. Halra’s directions had taken him to an old ruin within a clearing, deep into the Kizec Mountains. Currently, he was inside an ancient corridor, one that looked like it might’ve even predated the Dynomic Wars. Or perhaps was built around that time. It was rather hard to tell. However, what was clear were the runes inscribed on all the walls. Designed to cancel out most magicks, Phlocaz was just barely getting away with being able to summon his little fireball to even so much as read the runes. He was very thankful at this point that he was one of the High Wizards, even if the price he and the others had paid for it…

Phlocaz shook his head to clear his thoughts. No, thinking about the past would not do. He had to concentrate on his mission. He was given three days to do it, and it was already day number two. He’d spent most of yesterday trying to even find this blasted place, the anti-magic defenses being so strong. Any normal mage would never have found this place. Phlocaz just wished he knew why so many precautions against mages had been taken for this place.

Which was why he kept going. He had a feeling that the answer to his question lay within the heart of this place, wherever that was.

Suddenly he stopped, inches before what seemed to be a vast chamber. “Well well, the architect really was a clever bastard.”

Suddenly turning to the wall, Phlocaz said, “Tenzarin Karai!” There seemed to be a shiver in the air as a section of the wall disappeared, and runes that were booby traps appeared where the chamber was, which was then replaced by a wall with the runes still on it. Phlocaz stepped through where the wall had been.

And found himself in a much larger chamber than the other one had even appeared to be. In the middle of this was a raised platform, and there was some sort of light floating above it. “Is that what Halra wanted me to retrieve?”

But before he could even take a step near it, there was a rumbling, and then several of the runes on the walls suddenly peeled themselves off the walls, and managed to form shapes of sorts, which then became rune-covered statues.

The statues suddenly spoke in unison. “We congratulate whoever it is that managed to find the Room of Line. If you seek the Center, you must first beat us, the Four Guardians of the Path.”

“Somehow, I guess that means this is the take-down-the-boss-before-you-get-the-treasure scenario,” Phlocaz said to himself. “Oh well. More fun for me then.”

Then he remembered that this place barely allowed any magic, and Phlocaz cursed. However, as he tapped into his magic, he found that this place at least was devoid of any constraints. At this, he smiled wickedly. “Alright boys, time to let the party start.”

Muttering a few words, he pushed out his arms as a shockwave of magical energy exploded from his hands. From there, he spun in a circle, making sure this hit everything it possibly could. The results ended up being that he did multitudes of damage to the walls, causing a ton of rubble to accumulate, but barely managed to so much as scratch the guardians. And to further add to the mystery of this place, parts of the walls managed to heal themselves, reducing the loose rubble somewhat.

“At least this isn’t a pushover thing,” Phlocaz said. “I’ve been meaning to exercise my magic muscles for some time now, and I guess this is the perfect opportunity.”

“Carsina Renkie heseros Unuromera!” As he said this, Phlocaz also make several gestures with his hands, and thus a seal formed beneath his feet. Making one more gesture, a great vortex of fire was unleashed from the seal, engulfing everything within the room in flames.

The crackling of the fire still went on, and with a swift motion by his arm, Phlocaz ended whatever fires might’ve still been burning. Looking around the room, he smiled as he saw that much of the room had been burned, leaving behind scorch marks… and frowned when he saw that the guardian statue things had merely been cracked.

“Tough bastards,” Phlocaz said. “But wait... this is both too hard and yet easy at the same time… why aren’t they attacking?”

“On second thought, perhaps it’s best if I eliminated them before I do get attacked. Flame Crosside!”

From his hands came winding chains of fire, which managed to go around all the statues, before Phlocaz gave a sharp tug, which made the chains vanish, but at the same time, the air seemed to swirl, before finally going back to normal, revealing that the guardians had been shattered into thousands of pieces. But Phlocaz wasn’t fooled for an instant. Strong magic whirled around what was left of the guardians, turning the fragments into fine dust. But a magical wind came from somewhere, and the dust was gathered into a single pile. From there, the dust rose, and became an eight foot tall humanoid being, covered in rune markings.

“Well, this place is just full of surprises,” Phlocaz said to himself. “Damn, I don’t know who built this place or why, but they definitely were well-versed in their magery.”

In his magical sight, the runes just blazed with incredible power, giving life and strength to this thing, this… golem, in lack of a better word. Curling its hand around air, a mace suddenly materialized in the hand, also covered with runes. And of course, from there, the golem attacked.

Phlocaz rolled out of the way, managing to escape the blow. He countered with darts of fire, which had no effect on the golem whatsoever. Of course, Phlocaz hadn’t really expected anything to happen either. Gathering magical energy in his hand, Phlocaz sprang off the ground and raked his hand up the back of the golem. The energy blasted through the golem, the strength of it being that great.

Phlocaz landed on the other side of the room from the golem. “Let’s see if that works.” However, this turned out to not be the case. The long streak where the energy had gone through was suddenly filled back in as the runes on it’s body seemed to blaze.

“So the runes are what are keeping it alive,” Phlocaz said to himself. He had an idea, one that was usually rather effective in these cases. Saying some words to increase his speed, he zipped around the golem, his fingers hitting various points on the golem. This of course irritated the golem to no end, and it swung its mace around wildly. Phlocaz just barely managed to avoid some of the blows. As he dodged yet another wild swing, he jumped back and ended the speed spell, skidding to a stop.

“Counterbight!” Phlocaz called, and the areas where he had touched the golem suddenly glowed bright gold with magic, as a counter-rune pattern formed on the golem’s body. The golem shook violently as the power shattered the runes that had brought it to life, before then turning back into dust.

Phlocaz dusted his hands off. “Well, that takes care of that.” He started to head towards the center of the room, only to find that with his first step the room seemed to shudder, and then runes from the walls slid off the walls, across the floor, and onto the dust pile. Within seconds, the golem was fully restored, and attacking once more.

Phlocaz jumped back before he could be hit. “What in the hell…” Suddenly, he glanced around the room. There was something not right about this…

Drawing a symbol in front of his eyes, he saw a bird’s-eye view of the room, and understood. “So it’s all one big rune pattern that has to be destroyed completely, and at once.”

As if sensing that its secret had been found out, the walls seemed to have a presence skitter across them, and this time, the golem was attacking more precisely. Now the real work came in, as Phlocaz had to use quite a bit of tactics to avoid the golem.

Finally, a blow struck home, knocking Phlocaz off his feet and into a wall. As he tried to move, the mace struck him directly in the chest, and he crumpled to the floor.

However, he managed to stay conscious. “Alright, now you’re really PISSING ME OFF!”

The golem swung once more, but this time Phlocaz merely held up a hand, and the blow stopped in mid-air, before the golem was sent flying backwards, crashing into a wall as well, but leaving a rather large dent there.

Phlocaz got to his feet, casting a healing spell as well. “Alright, this ends now, before you can do any more funny business.”

With that, the air seemed to swirl as Phlocaz tapped into some of his reserve power. A seal formed beneath his feet, and the magical wind blew around him as activated the spell.

“Eight gates of Light and those that counter by Darkness, I summon forth your ancient power. That which is burned into time by the ones called Runes, I summon the power to erase from this moment in time the power of these Runes. One strike I deal, and may that one be fatal. I call forth the Time-Sealed Breaker: Pattern-Lock Destruct!”

There was a great roar as the incantation was finished. As the roaring continued, light streamed out from the seal, and the streams went onto the walls, entangling with the runes already there. The light streams formed into patterns of their own, covering everywhere that there was a rune, even on the golem. When the whole room suddenly seemed to be filled with these streams, they blazed with the magical energy, and the walls seemed to moan as the spell took effect. Golden light exploded throughout the room with a tremendous roar. Finally, the spell ended, and as the dust cleared, Phlocaz could see that the spell had destroyed a good amount of this room.

Going towards the item that Halra had originally sent him for, Phlocaz could detect no traps left around it. Finally standing in front of it, he put his hand, and the item, which had before blazed with a protection spell, was no longer blazing. As Phlocaz took a look at it, he read an inscription that was on it.

As he read it, everything made sense: why this place was so hard to find, why there was so much anti-magic here, why there had been a powerful golem guarding it along with the runes, and above all else, why Halra had sent him here. Phlocaz could say only one thing.

“Halra, what have you done?”