The Imp led the four companions back out to the hallway. They went back down the passage where the tunnel walls had changed composition from carved to rough. Then the creature stopped, waiting.

"What is it? " asked Tad.

"It's a door, " said the Imp. The small creature looked at Zanna, gave a high-pitched sigh, and walked to the wall, jumping up flapping its wings to press on a small bit of stone that sunk into the wall. There was a grating sound as the wall swung back, revealing another passage. This looked like the rest of the original passage to Tad.

Lamruil looked at the wall, "I do not understand why we didn't notice the magic here. " said the elf.

"Imp, explain this doorway," said Tad.

"This is the lower entrance to the Temple. The gods who were victorious in the war created the door and the other passage and chamber where you defeated me. It was to lock out all that didn't know the way from ever entering the sanctum. " said the Imp.

" Galadinidú, could you sense this door? " projected Tad to the staff.

"No, the magic is on a tier beyond what I can sense, " Galadinidú paused, adding, " right now."

What did that mean, thought Tad? Could Galadinidú have done it before?

"So you could have if the conditions are right? " asked Tad. He was hoping it was something simple such as passing energia to the staff.

"My wielder's own ability and knowledge will enable certain traits. I do not remember all the different things but making the way open is something at my core. Perhaps as we continue to bond and you become more experienced. I'll remember more or become aware of other things. " replied the staff.

"Fine, notify me if anything changes. Especially skills or magics that will help us find doors like this in the future" said Tad to the staff.

Tad looked at his companions. Zanna with Bubbles slowly circling her, giving off a dim light. Tad could easily see through Bubbles form as she took on her half-paying attention appearance he was so familiar with, having grown up near her.

Nico was standing there in his human, fully clothed form.

Lamruil was still examining the door that had swung open. Tad assumed the elf was using magic sight on it. And the little Imp who was now flapping in the air where the button had been looking at him. Above them circled two small summoned lancers lighting the area.

Tad took a deep breath and let it out. He suddenly wished he was far away from here, tending ponies or playing chess with his friend Jack. How did he get into this? He took another breath then he started down the new passage.

The hallway continued straight for almost a mile. Nico stopped once, touching the wall. He looked up at the ceiling. There was more moisture in the air now.

"I think we are under the lake. I can smell the water, and the wall feels weird," said Nico.

Tad touched the wall. He had been searching ahead of them for any creatures, but he decided to project up now. He sensed creatures several feet beyond the stone. They were large, and he felt magic in them. Tad tried using his magic sight but only saw the Life Mana in the rock. The whole passage was bathed in it.

Tad looked at the Imp, "What is this? "

"It is the passage under the lake, " said the Imp while it flapped in the air hovering. Tad was surprised at how silent the wings were while it flew.

Zanna spoke, "The creature flies because the stone burns its skin. I do not seem to have the same problem as it, but I suspect this hallway would burn any creature that touches the stone, which is not of the domain of Life. "

Tad thought about what Zanna had just said. He wondered why she wasn't discomforted by the Life mana like the Imp. This could be handy information as he thought about void creatures and devils.

"Can we do something about this thing flying around? Hold it or something? " asked Tad.

"Yes, easily," said Zanna. She spoke a few words of infernal at the Imp who flew over to her and, as Tad watched, shrunk in size to that of a small bird. Then it landed on Zanna's shoulder, looking forwards like a small red gargoyle.

Zanna spoke again, "Imps can be very small. This is closer to his normal size. I'm sure he was hoping his larger appearance would make you think more of him. They do that. Devils will always try to seek advantage. "

Tad nodded and moved forward. Tad didn't' know a lot about Devils or Imps. Just stories of the creatures always tormenting people sometimes for years.

Tad had noticed something about his light spell. The little lancers flying around were giving off a great deal more light. The spell almost fed itself. There was so much ambient mana in the area he didn't even have to feed energia into them.

Tad again moved forward. The passage was clean of dust and continued straight ahead.

Farther down the tunnel, the passage widened a few feet, and along the walls, statues were carved into niches. Tad saw no magic in these statues. They were decorations. Depicted was a goddess. She was humanoid with scales. Where legs should have been was the tail of a serpent with the upper body of a woman in a breastplate holding a spear and tear-shaped shield. On her brow sat a five-pointed tiara with long flowing hair descending from below it. The statues were very lifelike. Tad felt they were watching him as he passed. Still, he felt no magic from them.

"Naga, " said Zanna quietly.

Tad gave her a questioning look. She continued, "They are half serpent race. But I think this was the local deity Tad. "

The group continued till they reached a large double door. The door was made of stone and was embossed with symbols of the sun, and under it was the goddess with beams of light shooting off her. Tad looked at the door, and it glowed with Life mana.

Tad held his staff out and touched it gently to the doorway.

Galadinidú spoke, "This door is not locked."

Tad nodded and looked at the Imp, "What is beyond this door?" asked Tad.

"It is the Temple of the Sun and a crypt," said the Imp.

"What is in the crypt?" said Tad.

The Imp shifted on Zanna's shoulder.

"The goddess Niucrelath, " said the Imp.

"Will opening this harm or impair us? " asked Tad of the Imp.

"No, " replied the Imp promptly.

"And the goddess and her magic? " asked Tad.

"No, the goddess can't harm you, nor can her magic, " replied the Imp.

Tad could not sense anything clearly beyond the door. There was so much mana beyond that he didn't know if his soulmancy would even work there.

"Any guardians or protectors or other possible hostile creatures in there? " asked Tad.

"No," answered the Imp.

Tad nodded and pushed on the doorway. Both doors swung open, revealing a huge round chamber beyond. The ceiling was thirty feet above them with a round clear piece of crystal in the center of a cone-shaped roof.

Rays of the afternoon sun shot straight down from the crystal to a large statue the looked like a larger version of the guardians from the ruins above. It held both hands out faced upward. The grey body of a clothed human was in its large hands, with the sun beaming directly into the statue's palms.

Tad tried to view it for magic, but the mana flow he had seen from outside came right through the center of the chamber here. The view gave him a headache this close.

Tad looked around the round chamber that was easily fifty yards across. The floor of the Temple was formed of stepped benched seats like an amphitheater or stadium. With the statue below in the middle. Wrapped around the base of the statue on a raised podium was the scaled body of the goddess Niucrelath. Tad initially thought she was part of the carvings, but the surface showed differently than the stone under the bright light. She lay there as if sleeping with one arm above her head, as if shielding her sleeping eyes from the light. Her lower half was curled around the base going to the lower floor of the chamber. She was as large as the statue, thought Tad. She wasn't moving.

Tad looked at his companions, who were also gazing at the architecture of the Temple. The Temple had no dust on any surface. Along the wall, as it wrapped around, were more alcoves with five-foot-tall statues carved into them. A groin-arched gallery wrapped the room with round columns supporting it at intervals. This was all carved from the grey granite stone that made up the chamber. Above the upper level, Tad could see the tops of other alcoves and statues.

Tad scanned the Temple and looked again with his magic sight. The place was aglow with magic. The body of the goddess also contained magic. The statue contained magic. The very walls and ceiling contained magic.

"Imp, where is this magic item to bypass the shield," asked Tad.

"I placed it with the corpse in the hands of the statue, " said the Imp.

"How did you do this and why? " Tad didn't like the look of all this magic, even if it was Life domain magic.

"I flew and dropped it there. This is where the gods who bound me to this place commanded it stay," said the Imp.

Tad thought the Imp was trying to bait him into asking for the names of these gods. Everyone knew speaking the name of gods could draw their attention, and he didn't particularly want the attention of these gods.

"Why did you remove it then? " asked Tad.

The Imp moved on Zanna's shoulder again, "I didn't. I commanded a Gretchic to do it."

"Will that statue or goddess awaken if we go near? " asked Tad.

"I do not know about the statue. It has never moved before. The goddess can not move, " said the Imp.

Tad took a deep breath. He wanted to throttle the Imp for making him ask all of these questions. "Explain why the goddess can't move and how you know this? "

"She was defeated in the war. The city shield that protects this place is hers. In a pantheon war, the gods will try to destroy the power of the other gods. A god's power comes primarily from its worshipers and followers. The enemy will either convert them or destroy them. Sometimes they can banish them from the plane, which also removes the enemy god's ability to draw on them, but it would have to be very far away for this to work. This goddess's followers are not completely destroyed. The ones that slew her pantheon could not find them. Some must still exist, or she would have turned to stone or died here. The other gods failing to destroy the goddess, turned her own spell against her to power the curse that sweeps the land, destroying anything in its path. The God who created the curse explained this to me. " said the Imp.

Tad again tried to sense the goddess. She wasn't asleep or alive, but yet she wasn't dead.

Tad projected to Kettle, " Do you know what this means? She isn't alive or dead. "

"Tad, her spirit is gone. They defeated her, but somehow, she still has at least one follower somewhere. God wars are one of the primary ways for Bismuth to gather artifacts. They tend to litter the planes up if you give them enough time. This goddess was defeated, and the other gods could not find her followers for some reason. This doesn't sound possible since she would have a thread of power to any creature that still worshiped her. They would normally be able to follow that to its end. " said Kettle.

"Can anyone worship her now and bring her back to life? " asked Tad.

"No, for all purposes, she lacks a spirit but retains her divine-" Kettle paused as if thinking, "I guess you'd think of it as a soul. A vast soul that would fracture on her death and scatter into the mana of her domain, releasing all the power she had accumulated back into the universe."

"Could it be a statue or something like that keeping her here? " asked Tad.

"I do not know for certain. I have a limited amount of knowledge on the subject. But I think the worshiper has to have a soul unless the goddess is an animal god, which she isn't. " said Kettle.

"So we can't wake her? " asked Tad.

"You could if you had a huge amount of worship. A couple hundred thousand worshipers could do it. She would be different, though, Tad. Gods take on the personality and traits that their followers project upon them during worship, and it becomes a symbiotic relationship. Most civilizations have several gods, each embodying different ideas or traits." said Kettle.

Tad walked slowly down the staired ramp of the seating and up to the platform. His friends followed him. Tad stood in front of the statue, which was holding its hands out in front with its palms up. On the palms of its hands, the grey corpse lay there suspended in the light from the crystal above. Tad felt some heat from the statue's palms, but nothing he thought was dangerous.

On the corpse's neck sat a golden torque. Tad could see the power flowing through it, and it was Life magic with subtle flecks of brown cursed mana.

"Imp, you said you could carry the artifact safely? Would I then be able to carry it safely? " asked Tad.

The Imp shifted again on Zanna's shoulder, "Yes. "

Tad looked at Zanna, who was looking at the Imp. She looked like she would be happier squishing the thing than talking to it.

Tad nodded, then turned and reached for the torque. Just as he touched it, he heard high-pitched laughter from the Imp.

Zanna shouted, "Tad, NO!"

In a blink rearing from the corpse's chest, the torque flared and struck at Tad like a serpent. Tad projected a shield, and the torque flew through it like it was made of paper. Striking Tad in the neck, sinking deep golden fangs and wrapping its two-foot length around Tad's neck. The corpse disintegrated into dust, and everything went dark.

***