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Hm. Nothing interesting about the moat there, Raite observed as he stood up. It would probably be a good idea to investigate the exit then - Raite had no desire to remain in the room. But his gray eyes caught sight of the unfamiliar girl kneeling at the same moat, her torch was dangerously close to the acidic water. If her torch went out, Raite wouldn't relight it for her. That girl, as inconvenient as she was - his gray eyes widened, his thoughts stopping in their tracks. He heard Scylla's scream - he heard, but it didn't register. The torch had gone out, as expected, but the dim light that reflected from everybody else's torches was enough to narrate the scene above them. The girl was overcome by the golden scarabs that they had believed to be treasure that inhabited the room. In a matter of seconds, the golden earrings dropped to the ground with a deafening thud. If only to emphasize her disappearance.

Raite covered the distance from where Roasline had once stood in a blink of an eye, picking up the earrings that had been left behind. As if he had to confirm for himself what had just happened. But they weren't done yet.

It was hard to miss the voice that suddenly screamed out loud, the lieutenant's gaze was drawn to his superior, Hematite. With the statue that had fallen back, it wasn't difficult to tell what the disrespectful male had done. But as the flames licked at his form, the smell of charred flesh filled the air with an inexplicable disgust. "Don't look." He tried to warn the youngest member of their group, Pyxis. The older members of their group had to endure it, but even Raite couldn't let a child be saddled with such a horrifying experience. But the scene was unfolding before them, inevitably. Raite couldn't help but turn his face away. Even he couldn't stand to stare at where Hematite had been.

His expression was filled with resolute determination, but it was also a bit pained. The scarabs came once more, devouring what was left. His hands tightened over Rosa's earrings.

He gritted his teeth, forcing himself to move past the incidents and concentrate on the most important thing. "We need to find a way out." He repeated to himself, as if he had to repeat their purpose instead of the disaster that had befallen the two members of the group. He walked down the path, and met up at Scylla's side to gaze upon the door in closer depth.

Though the strange insects (scarabs he assumed) were absolutely enchanting in color compared to the usual everyday insect, Howl still did not seem impressed by them. In fact, the moment he noted they were insects, he somewhat shuffled away, as if he was scared. Creepy crawly insects were not Howl's thing. If anything, they were something he disliked greatly, since they usually ruined his lovely flowers back at home.

He was about to make his way towards the Senshi at the other side of the large room when there was a sudden beat of various insect wings drilled through his ears to the back of his mind. He turned to the sound to find nothing in the place where the insects had been sounding. However, very shortly after, another sound caught in his ear, and unfortunately, there was no way that Howl could miss this particular display. It was hard to miss a magical creature that burned and practically lit up the area it was standing. The sight was almost like something one would see in a horror movie, but horror movies had nothing on that wretched stench. If there was anything left in Howl's stomach, he would have probably thrown up a little bit in his mouth. And since he had missed what had happened with the scarabs the first time, Howl seemed to heave forward as he got to witness them devouring the young man he hadn't gotten the name of.

After watching the demise of the two, the teal-haired lad stood frozen next to the young lady with the hair that matched his own in color. The one thing the snap him out of it was the familiar voice of Sailor Boreas. "Mr. Boreas?!" After such a display, it was hard to remain absolutely calm. He rather quickly began to continue down the path, glancing back to Erin and signaling for her to follow. To any of the others nearby, he called out "Everyone, meet at the door! Hurry!!"

He ran to the other end, and when he managed to reunite with Sailor Scylla, Sailor Boreas, and Lieutenant Raite, he stood there panting for a bit.

Certainly, Howl could have examined the door, just like everyone else. It didn't seem to be anything particularly exciting to its features.

"Perhaps someone should hold a light to it to get a better look?" he suggested casually before turning to a small pile of treasure that, no doubt, had another small swarm of scarabs in it. It was curious how quickly these strange insects flooded over to the unnamed lad once he no longer was lit up.

I wonder...

Cautiously, Howl held out his torch towards the pile of treasure, carefully observing the scarabs for some sort of reaction.

In the blink of an eye, things went from 'strange' to 'terrifyingly bizarre.' In the blink of an eye, two people were simply gone (although not before the dreadlocked boy was not-so-lightly toasted). The smell of charred flesh and hair was sickening, and Erin squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she fought the urge to vomit. Only when the sensation had mostly passed did she open her dark eyes, to look upon the dijinni.

Erin wasn't sure what to think of it. On one hand, it had just destroyed one of their group. On the other, one could argue that it had simply been defending the treasure, and that said member of their group had been in the wrong. Might as well find out, then. "If we take none of this treasure, this gold, will you let us pass?" she asked the dijinni.

The door was flat and featureless; There was no writing, no clue, nothing that was supposed to give an indication of what the next step was. From across the room, the door had looked like stone, up close it was visible that it was metal. Dimpled. It stood out like a bit of a sore thumb. It wasn't gold, didn't strike her as treasure; that meant hopefully the Guardian wouldn't take offense to it being touched. Hopefully. Scylla personally wasn't ready to find out yet.

Outside the door, it had said Be you wary, seekers of fortune, for that the djinn are creatures of fire and light; so must you be, if you would measure your worth against that which dwells here: for by no other means will this door be opened. The fire that had consumed the nameless boy, and the figure that had screamed... must have been a Djnn. Scylla turned her attention away from the featureless door in time to see Howl waving his torch at the piles of gold.

She swallowed.

"The... things... are afraid of the fire?" she asked it slowly. "That means... if our torches go out... too..." Her voice was small, barely audible. Would they end up like that girl? Nothing but gold. The dark-haired teenager heard the teal-haired young woman say something; she wasn't able to quite hear, but the statue's reply was a boom. Might go in peace, might not. That was not an answer at all, at least not one that comforted the Senshi of the Kraken, by any means.

The little Senshi was looking confused, holding out his hand; Scylla did not take it beyond reaching out to lightly squeeze his arm and then step away. She didn't have time to hold his hand, not yet. People were dying. s**t was real. They needed to get out of here before their lights ran out. They all had three extra... torches! If the boy and girl who had died had left their torches behind, that was four torches extra each, aside from what was lighted now.

She stepped away from the door. There were three other people who had come to look at the door, if they found anything, surely they would have the sense to point it out to someone else. So she started back through the piles of the treasure, intending to pick up the remaining torches if they were still there, but paused as she walked. She bit on her lip, turning to look at the gold; then she pushed her torch closer to the gold piles so she could get a better look at and examine specific pieces of treasure, such as the collars and necklaces. There were statues in there as well. The coins did not interest her; why should they? Maybe there was a clue in the treasure? Though what, she didn't know. As for the carnelian-studded pieces... well, those apparently could bear the spirits of the guardians here. She wasn't certain she wanted to get too close to them.

"Guardian," she kept her tone politely bland, "None of us have more than a scientific interest in the bounty which lies in this room." If one of them did? Hopefully they would keep their mouths shut. "While I speak frankly, I should tell you that the char of our companion's flesh lingering on the air makes it most unpleasant for us to be here. So what I ask, I ask you plainly, and hope you will not game with me: How do we pass through that door? I, at least, desire to leave this place- and not through being killed or eaten. I do not wish to incur your wrath by touching what you guard without your leave." It wasn't Scylla's place to speak for all of them, but she could definitely speak for herself.

"...as I thought..."

Rather content with his discovery, Howl took his torch back before kneeling down on the ground. As he loosened his hold of the saddlebag, he managed to hear a booming voice which caused him to pause from the task he had in mind.

"If that turned out to be the case, you might go in peace or you might not."

He had not been able to hear the question which led to the response, but the strange creature of fire and light certainly came across as vague. If they had the time, he could have sat there and thought this puzzle over more carefully, however, time was of the essence now. The only thing keeping those pesky scarabs at bay was was the torch.

For anybody that was nearby, he announced "If any of you are in need of some extra kindling for fire, I have a few items which I can afford to burn. It would seem the scarabs are not too keen of flame." He held out the saddlebag which he had been holding onto the whole time. The bag more than likely was flammable, and the book inside also would serve as a good source of extra fuel.

Carefully, he tucked the bag back under his arm before making his way back to the door. There was Sailor Boreas, fussing with the door. In a tone that a parent might take, he mentioned to his travel companion "Be careful!"

Not wanting to be a nuisance, Howl began to wander around the edges of the treasure that was outlining the moat, looking to the walls and the gold for any other hints. The wheels in his head were turning a bit as he did such, but he somewhat was trying to pressure them to work faster.

Erin's brow furrowed in thought as she processed the creature's words. There wasn't much to process, really. The dijinni didn't seem to be evil, but neither did it seem to be good. It certainly wasn't reassuring. As Scylla spoke to the creature, Erin made her way to the others, still trying to think her way through what little they knew so far. It more or less boiled down to 'don't touch anything' and 'man-eating scarabs are afraid of fire.'

And yet...Erin couldn't just give up. She decided to try asking another question of the dijinni. "Is there anything that you, or any master that you might serve, would want from us?"

The gold jewelry mostly looked to be in very good condition, though not all of it looked perfectly pristine, of course. The most notable thing about it was that many of the pieces seemed to be incomplete -- they had empty settings where it seemed that gems ought to have been, all except for the pieces inlaid with carnelian.

What Boreas learned when he pressed against the door was that it was heavy, impossibly heavy -- no matter how he pushed or shoved, there was not even the slightest indication that the door would budge, or that it even could. Nothing he tried moved it even a little.

Howl didn't see anything too remarkable as he completed a circuit of the room. As he might've expected, the narrow little moat chased the walls, always about a foot wide. He wondered what the purpose was of a moat that they could so easily step over, once they figured out how to get out. What was it there for?

"There is no trial," one of the carnelian statues told Raite and Scylla. "Either you'll get out or you won't . . . though none ever do. All I need do is wait -- you'll choose a death for yourselves. No amount of force will open that door."

To Erin, it added, "You will give me that which is wished of you when you are dead."

Pyxis, looking at the scarabs, could now see that if he focused on just one of them, he could make out more details about it. It was a large, round sort of beetle -- a fat beetle, really -- with a wide body, tiny legs, and tiny mandibles. It was a fast little creature, scurrying about from place to place with industrious determination, but it didn't seem all too maneuverable. It reminded him of a stag beetle he'd seen once at a kids' museum, they way its sharp jaws had snap-snapped at him uselessly while he held it up from its back end. Every so often it came near to where Pyxis was standing, and seemed to be sizing him up a bit. It skittered away again as soon as his torch came near, which was still a relief.

Boreas' efforts were fruitless. The door didn't even budge as he pushed and shoved against it with all his might. He tried for several minutes, but to no avail. His endeavors were not rewarded and he was forced to face the fact that this door wasn't going to open unless they figured something else out. He turned to examine the rest of the group. He wasn't too excited about what he saw. No one had found anything of great use yet and they were unable to obtain any useful information from the Djinn.

Great. What now?

He looked over the entire room once more. The walls were a bland stone and didn't hold any clues like the previous room. The moat was acid or something that could destroy any material and thus was useless in Boreas' mind. The piles of gold treasure had not one, but two dangers hidden within. However, he did notice that the scarabs were able to devour anything, but gold. Or rather, maybe they just liked gold. Whatever the case, they seemed the next best thing. He knew that devoured an entire person and her cloths, but would they be interested if it was just cloths? He had to try to get the door open somehow.

"I have an idea to test everyone. Please stay away from the door and the path leading to it!"

Boreas wanted to see if he could get the bugs to come over to the door and eat through it or at the very least see if they could get across the moat. He ripped off the two fur cuff links from his gloves and carefully laid them in front of the door. He then waved his torch to get the bugs attention and quickly jumped over the moat and ran to the side to see what would happen to the loose material in front of the door.