Glatorian Comics
2009 - Glatorian Comic 5: Valley of Fear
Adapted by Michael Larson. Edited by Jeff Douglas.
In the years after the Shattering, many had come to believe the world of Bara Magna to be only a vast, unending desert, for that was all they knew. But for those who ventured farther to the north, they would learn that notion was wrong.
The Black Spike Mountains loomed over the northern region of the planet, and today, Mata Nui walked among the peaks. He’d emerged from a great stretch of dense trees. Far to his south, the mountains began to morph into the desert plains of sand from which he had come.
He had come in search of the meaning behind a mysterious symbol, found both on the Skrall shields and on the ancient coin found by Berix in the sanctuary of the Great Beings. As he stood high on a cliff, overlooking a vast and rocky plain, he suspected he’d found the answer — but the solution to the puzzle was another puzzle, mystery piled upon mystery. For what he now saw couldn’t have been natural: save for one feature in the center and natural faults, the entire stone ground was flat. In the center laid an odd feature. It looked like an enormous Skrall shield made of stone, laying on its back. Its convex curve protruded upward.
Its signature tribal design was present, just like on the shield and coin, but the stone object in front of him was so large, the design’s walls actually did make up a large maze. From this vantage point, he could see over some of the walls, but not all. At the center, a large pillar rose out of the curvature of the stone maze’s face.
It was at times like this that he wondered if the Great Beings were truly brilliant beyond imagining, or hopelessly mad. Or if there was even any difference between the two.
✴ ✴ ✴
“Out of my way, fools!” an orange Agori roared as his chariot barreled forward.
“Not likely, Sahmad,” Ackar replied, launching a blast of fire from his flame sword. The fire ball exploded in front of Sahmad, erupting into a wall of flame preventing him from passing. “Not unless you’ve become fireproof,” the crimson Glatorian finished.
The twin-headed Spikit yoked to the chariot reared back in terror, nearly throwing Sahmad from his perch. Sahmad tried not to look as stunned as he was. So far as he knew, these abilities were only possessed by the Element Lords of olden times, and for the most part they hadn’t been seen for millennia. Any other technology like this would have belonged to the Great Beings, but any chance of finding such equipment seemed impossible.
The rogue Agori tugged on the reins, causing his Spikit to turn the chariot in Ackar’s direction. “I don’t know where you got those powers, Ackar, but they won’t help you… or the Agori!” he shouted. With a crack of his whip, the Spikit was spurred on into another charge.
“Oh, shut up, you loser,” Kiina snapped. “Here, have a drink on me.” Twirling her trident, she launched a blast of water from its head, knocking the villager out of his cart.
Sahmad landed in front of Ackar, who grabbed him by the back and lifted him into the air. “Now listen carefully, slaver. You’re out of business, as of today. If you so much as look at one of our Agori in the wrong way, you’ll regret it.”
Kiina grinned wolfishly. “Or maybe you’d like to be the first person ever to drown in a desert, Sahmad?” Wisps of vapor rose from the prongs of her weapon.
✴ ✴ ✴
It was not long before Ackar and Kiina were on their way again, meeting Gresh on their way back to the city. “Hopefully, we’ve seen the last of Sahmad,” Ackar was saying. “We’ve done well since the villages united.”
Kiina frowned. “Just had to get the message out—anyone who messes with the Agori is in for a pounding.”
Gresh shook his head. “I doubt that would scare the Skrall.”
“The Skrall?” Kiina scoffed. “They’re scattered all over the desert like sand fleas after a storm. If the Bone Hunters don’t get them, the Vorox will.” Her tone softened. “My worry is Mata Nui.”
Ackar glanced at her. “You still think we should have stayed with him?” he asked. “Well, so do I. But when Berix got hurt—”
“I know,” said Kiina quickly. “After we ran into those Skrall stragglers in the mountains and Berix got Thornaxed, Mata Nui thought it was better if he went on alone.”
The trio of Glatorian crested the hill. Ackar stopped abruptly and faced the Water Glatorian. “Are you sure you didn’t want to go with him just to make sure he didn’t go back on his word, and leave the planet without you?”
Kiina grinned in spite of herself, “Well… maybe a little. But he’s a friend, too, and I worry about him. He should be back by now.”
Ackar turned and looked out, for the rise afforded a stunning view of the vast desert. “Don’t worry. He’ll return. He has a good reason…” Far below them was the massive, dormant, robot body that was unknowingly constructed from the combining of the villages.
“Maybe a better reason than we even know,” Ackar finished.
✴ ✴ ✴
Mata Nui proceeded cautiously through the Maze Valley. He had successfully made it down from his high precipice and into the maze itself. Now, he knew he was somewhere on the massive likeness of a Skrall shield, the maze’s smooth walls stretched to easily three times his height. He constantly had to reference the maze design on the coin’s surface to navigate the complex area.
“Interesting,” he murmured. “I wonder what was so important the Great Beings needed this maze to protect it? And who they were protecting it from?”
The path he took only stretched for twenty feet before bringing him the next surprise. He stood at the edge of a small pool of water, where the path descended and rose again. At its deepest point, it appeared it would only go up to his chest. On the other side was dry ground again, and another 90-degree turn to the right.
A repetitive clicking sound came from his trusty friend perched on his shoulder.
“A trap?” Mata Nui asked. “Almost certainly. But our only choice is to go through it or turn back.” He checked his map again—yes, this seemed to be the way forward, moving him ever so slowly toward the maze’s center.
Taking a deep breath, Mata Nui slid into the pool. “Cold,” he gasped, taken aback by the temperature. He was now up to his mid-chest in frigid waters, lifting his arms to keep them and his sword above the surface. “Maybe the Great Beings meant for intruders to freeze to death.”
On his shoulder, Click began chirping and clicking furiously.
Mata Nui quickened his pace for his companion’s sake. “Calm down, little friend. We’ll make it to the other side of the pool soon.”
The next second, Mata Nui found he could not move as painful cold chilled his muscles from the legs up—the water had inexplicably turned to… “Ice?!?” Mata Nui cried in shock. The entire pool of water was completely frozen solid, as surely as if a Toa of Ice had willed it to do so.
Mata Nui’s mind returned to when he had first arrived on Bara Magna. During one of his earliest attempts at walking, he had stumbled and found himself in a very similar position to his awkward, frozen stance now. He was helpless, and with the hindsight of all he had learned from Ackar, Kiina, and Gresh, he smiled. The Mask of Life had given him a new body and a new weapon—both of which he had learned to use.
“Once, this might have been a problem…” he said, raising his weapon. “But my sword can easily break me free.”
But before he could shatter the ice, it suddenly changed and became fire. Mata Nui now stood in a raging blaze reaching as tall as he was, the scorching heat stinging his muscles beneath the armor.
“This is madness!” he cried. Running through the flames, he thought, The Great Beings really didn’t want uninvited guests. How will I—? “What?”
The tongues of fire suddenly changed again, this time to plant roots and vines that tripped him by surprise. Falling forward, they snaked toward him, ready to pull, strangle, and bind.
Mata Nui quickly pushed himself back up and jumped away. “I’ve had enough of this!” As he landed, he began furiously slashing through the plants, forcing his way through as if he were in the middle of a jungle. “I will be free!”
After three swipes, his sword met its target with a clang, failing to cut through. The plants had just become pillars of earth, encroaching around the golden warrior and threatening to crush him from all sides. As he strained against the thick mounds, he saw the other side of this catastrophe—the Maze’s path wasn’t far ahead!
Just then he felt the elements begin to shift again. The earth was transmuting into grey stones and boulders. Realizing he might not get another opportunity, he shattered the stones in front of him before they could finish forming and threw himself forward.
“Free!” he said, falling to his hands and knees from exhaustion. He shivered from the cold while the burn marks on his armor remained fresh; water dripped from his form and his muscles ached from where the plants, earth, and rocks had battered them. “Not just a mystery, then, Click… a deathtrap.”
The little beetle clicked several times in response, still riding along on his shoulder.
Mata Nui got up and forced himself forward. “But we have to keep moving.”
✴ ✴ ✴
“Is it hours or days that I’ve been making my way through this maze?” Mata Nui asked himself as he turned another corner. “I can no longer tell.”
Completing his turn, Mata Nui stopped short. The path forward only continued on for another ten feet before meeting a blank wall. The warrior’s shoulders dropped. “Dead end. I must have made a wrong turn somewhere.” He checked his coin again. Here there should be a straight path leading into the center of the valley.
The floor began to vibrate and the walls rumbled. “Uh-oh…” Mata Nui muttered, turning this way and that, looking for what new danger this might be. Behind him, a slab of stone cut off the path from which he had come. Now he was completely boxed in.
The high walls on opposite sides of the maze path began to compress, approaching each others’ faces and threatening to crush Mata Nui between them. “‘Dead’ end, indeed…” he said aloud. “Click?”
The small insect nodded and touched the Mask of Life, changing into his large Scarab Shield. At the same time, Mata Nui called upon the powers of the Mask of Life, causing his blade to glow with power. The walls were already two feet away on either side of him.
“Here we go!” he yelled, and he jumped toward one of the two enclosing panels. Swinging his sword as he moved, the blade, channeling the potent energies of the Mask of Life, obliterated the towering column, cleaving it into two major halves. Before the halves even fell apart, they, too, crumbled into fragments before the Mask’s might.
But the defeat of one trap led to another. Behind the wall Mata Nui had cut away was an array of unpleasantries. “Thornax Launchers!” Mata Nui shouted, as a hail of fire came upon him from over a dozen projectile launchers. Jumping, dodging, and rolling to evade, he saw that these were an older prototype, artificial, almost. Their projectiles were not explosive, though they were durable and spiked.
Mata Nui came back up into a standing position and blocked two more Thornax. “I’m safe behind my shield, but ‘safe’ won’t get me where I need to go,” he said to himself, crouching in a corner behind the defensive equipment. “But maybe this will…”
He jumped into the air, the length of his body now horizontal and parallel to the ground. Twirling during the jump, he threw the shield from his hand. Two more Thornax were incoming, but missed his moving profile. The shield, however, flew into the midst of the launchers. Its four spikes and sharp edges sheared the material, destroying them with a loud crunch and explosions from each device.
Mata Nui triumphantly retrieved the shield and cleaved open the wall that had held the launchers. “Do you worst, maze,” he challenged. “I will make it through. My universe and my people depend on me.”
As he stepped through, he realized he had emerged in daylight again. Here at last he had found the straight path he had sought. Now he exited this corridor of the maze to find himself on a small plain placed at the edge of a bowl.
“I’ve made it,” he said quietly. “The heart of the maze.”
Before him stood a towering fortress, one that had been untouched for some 100,000 years. It was cylindrical, perhaps hundreds of feet high and half as much in circumference. But Mata Nui would find himself hard pressed to get there. The cliffs at its base were steep and distant. Even if they weren’t, the fortress’ base met the natural rock of the Bara Magna landscape, with no obvious method of entrance to its secrets.
“Locked inside that fortress are the answers I seek, I know it. I just wish I knew how to get in there and find them,” Mata Nui muttered to Click. “The Great Beings, it seems, never make things easy. And I haven’t time to waste—for who knows what my ancient enemy, Makuta, might be planning even now?”
✴ ✴ ✴
Makuta’s eyes narrowed. He brought his clenched hands to his sides.
Months had gone by since Makuta had seized control of Mata Nui’s massive robot body and the universe of living beings within it. Since then, he had crushed rebellions by Toa and Matoran while learning to use his new power.
Now, at last, he was ready.
“A thousand worlds are mine to conquer and rule,” thought Makuta, as he gazed out over the endless ocean world of Aqua Magna. “And I know just where to begin… Despite his defeat and exile, Mata Nui still lives… I can sense it. He refuses to be broken. But he must be, if I am to achieve my destiny.”
The head of the giant robot glanced upward at the stars overhead.
“He waits on Bara Maga. But he need wait no longer.”
Makuta activated the rockets and flight equipment on the robot body. The water underneath him was instantly vaporized, and the water near him blasted away from the force, causing waves hundreds of feet high to rise and swell. Using astral calculations from the nearby red star, he lifted off in a flash of energy. The sophisticated workings of the universe within him would minimize the gravitational changes, such that the inhabitants would feel nothing more than a minor tremble throughout the ground, sea, and sky.
But much more was coming for those beyond their world.
As he erupted through the highest layers of Aqua Magna’s atmosphere, Makuta roared.
“Beware, Mata Nui—Makuta comes for you. And he comes bringing death!”