After taking a bath or a shower in the case of Kratus and cleaning their equipment to rid themselves of the stench from the sewers, the group took the elevator to the tenth floor with the floor having the same theme as the area below Old Clockworks, a tomb with a triangular decoration on the floor.
"I'm sure Rainbow Dash would love this area, it would've reminded her of Daring Do." Kratus said before Pinkie could say the same, "And this hotel is full of odd floors." He added before urging the three fillies behind him after torches lit themselves, then he stepped on the triangular panel, activating a trap, four snake heads from each corner of the room that fired arrows out of their mouths, though the Makuta's armor shrugged the arrows off with each arrow shattering, or bouncing off of it as they entered the hall that had tapestries with drawings of the civilization it was themed after, ponies and animals. The ceiling looked like the night sky while having the constellations visible with the ending of the hall having a door with sand blocking the way with the Makuta using his vacuum ability to blow the sand away before opening the door with the general appearance described with five words.
A ballroom that's a desert. Said room had a pyramid in the center, an oasis in the rear to the right with vents pouring sand in from the sides. The fillies' jaws dropped in awe with the ones at the caravan voicing it, as for Kratus.
"It's a desert inside a ballroom, big deal." The Makuta said.
"How is this not amazing to you?!" Sweetie Belle asked, shocked by the Makuta's reaction.
"I helped engineer the relay that helped the planet I call home heal." Kratus said before they heard Samuel's voice.
"Like me, he's been there, done that, seen it all."
"But I don't got the t-shirt." Kratus said, amused before noticing something off about the oasis and fired his skyblaster at it, revealing it to be a cardboard cutout with ghosts attacking from it, though the wounded up captured, before the group searched for the chests, though it turned out that dunes where the ones hiding the chests that Pinkie suggested that were there along with the sand castles that were there while dealing with every type of ghost they'd encountered so far minus the ghosts with double tongues called slappies,
Once done exploring the room, the group approached the pyramid and looked for a way to enter. Their answer came when Apple Bloom pointed out the snake sculpture that had two female pony pharaohs that didn't hold their snake shaped staffs at the same height.
"Hmm… looks like we need to move at least one of the staffs." Kratus said, "I recommend that you stay here in case of a trap." He added after turning to Apple Bloom who nodded in agreement with Little Ghost and Sweetie Belle attempting to move the staff with Little Ghost able to move the staff to its correct positioning with the door to the pyramid opening, allowing the group entry.
There was only one chamber with a sarcophagus at the center surrounded by four torches along with sand, there was also an altar with some bits, a closet in the corner, some vases and a sofa to the left, there was a window letting the moonlight in despite there wasn't a window in the room outside with Pinkie Pie wanting the group to open the sarcophagus much to the dismay of Apple Bloom before the group explored the place with the Makuta only watching the area before the coffin opened with the head of a unicorn mare coming out.
"Eheheheheh. Hello there, don't you know it's rude to enter the tomb of somepony, especially one of a queen? Now, I will have to punish you. Be ready to suffer my curse." The ghost said before Kratus spoke.
"Okay, first of all, it's not rude to enter someone's tomb depending on the intent. Second, a curse? I thank you in advanced for the meal or snack you'll provide me." He said with Apple Bloom stating that she isn't afraid of the mare's curse.
The mare rose from her sarcophagus, revealing herself, orange with a black mane styled like that of a pharaoh, she was partially bandaged, wearing royal clothing and jewelry which supplemented her beauty.
"Uh-oh, Queen Leyla Rahfa." Twilight said over the comms.
Before either Kratus or Apple Bloom could ask for more info, Leyla chuckled before speaking, "You will not die by my hooves." She said with a trap door opening sending the group into a giant sand pit with sculptures of snakes on the walls with Little Ghost following shortly before large, black spiders appeared with the Makuta frying them with heat vision or chain lightning with snakes appearing, though the Makuta used Rahi Control to send them away before the group went to search for a way out with Apple Bloom asking Twilight for more information on the dead queen before asking for a verdict from her teammates.
"Eternity in Tartarus." They said at the same time.
"There something ya want to say?" Apple Bloom asked the Makuta, noticing the look he had.
"I was wondering if Miserix would let me borrow his Kanohi for additional punishment."
"And what does his Kanohi do?" The Apple filly asked, hoping that the Kanohi that this… Miserix uses doesn't do something like eternally torment somepony.
"Allows the user to mutate a target or reverse it or another mutation so long as the user knows how whatever caused the mutation works, though I could modify Hordika Venom to work on a ghost." Kratus replied as he continued to search, "Change her to show how ugly she is deep down."
"Normally, I don't advocate the tarnishing of beauty. But in her case? I'll make an exception." Rarity said.
"I think I found something!" Sweetie Belle said, "There's a half buried statue here."
"Good work." Kratus said as the rest of the group rushed to where the lich stood with said statue like the ones in front of the pyramid the Makuta using his vacuum ability to blow the sand away before pulling the limb holding the scepter down, causing the eyes to glow as a sculpture rose and revealed a hidden passage, though they had a limited time as sand fell from the ceiling with the Makuta teleporting them the passage way with it having a slope though they stepped on a pressure plate with three snake statues rising before firing a continuous stream of arrows before the Makuta teleported with Apple Bloom to the top of the ladder with them ignoring the spiders before they saw an open sarcophagus with the Makuta shapeshifting into an Earth Gafna in order to fit into the sarcophagus easier with it spinning, releasing them in the big room the fell through earlier.
The size of the room was impressive with a giant headless statue with the exit on the right side, though unless the Makuta teleported them, two of the four couldn't get there, near to the exit were three more doors: One at the left, one on the right next to the statue, and one on the opposite wall, both sides of the statue had slopes with giant boulders with the hole that led to the room they were in with sand filling it up. Finally, there was a statue of Leyla plus a statue of a cat, and there were sarcophagi against the wall with vases on spaces above them.
Then the mummies broke out of their resting places.
"Ya wreck 'em while we catch the ghosts?" Apple Bloom asked Kratus.
"You know the answer already." The Makuta said with a grin, "But I just need to do one little thing."
"And what would that be?" Little Ghost asked, only for Kratus to fire his skyblaster at the statue of the queen, destroying it before the Makuta used plasma or heat vision to burn the bandages on the mummies. Apparently, destroying the statue made the Makuta the primary target, with the fillies taking advantage of that, catching tricksters and creepers that left the undead horde with the room cleared in short order before heading to the room to the left of the sarcophagus they came from.
The room was full of sand, stones, with a statue on the far the left corner on an elevated platform, the ceiling held up by four chains from the walls with the group thinking the same thing; the room is one big trap before they fought snakes, though the Makuta decided to turn into a snake himself, one with six heads; the Doom Viper, its breath doing as the Makuta said it would, it killed the snakes while the Doom Viper is immune to its own venom, though after the Makuta changed back as the group approached the platform it sank into the ground as a part of the wall blocked the exit as three more platforms rose from the sand with a snake statue on each one that fired lasers at the chains before Kratus used fragmentation and destroyed one of the statues, though they managed to cut one of the chains as the Makuta helped Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom onto a platform.
"Great, company." Kratus said as creepers appeared, intending to disrupt the group's progress with a second chain breaking as Little Ghost helped the Makuta by dealing with one of the statues by whacking it with her device, though once she was done, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had dealt with the ghosts after Little Ghost dealing with a creeper that clawed her on the back, with the Makuta having already dealt with the second snake with the required statue rising up before Little Ghost pulled the leg, resulting in the door no longer blocked.
"What do you think that did?" The ghostly filly asked.
"Only one way to find out." Kratus replied with the group returning to the previous room and found that a spiral snake statue was now partially covering the hole in the ground, "Interesting."
"What is?" Little Ghost asked the Makuta with Sweetie Belle answering.
"Oh, I see!" She began, "We must pass the traps in three rooms and pull the levers they're guarding to plug the hole. Then, the sand will start filling the room and allow us to leave the room."
"I'll be honest, compared to what I've built into my lairs, the traps are more of a bump in the road."
"And just how dangerous are traps you built into your lairs?" Little Ghost asked.
"Let's just say that not even a battalion would make into the main chambers without losing over a half of their forces. Once you include the patrols, then say goodbye to your forces, And not even an alicorn would survive." Kratus replied before buffies and tricksters appeared, "I pity the ghosts." He said after the group dealt with the ghosts while they went to the door on the opposite side of the room.
"Because they don't stand a chance against us?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"That's part of it, but I pity them because of who their boss is." Kratus said as the group reached the door.
The room they were in had a spiked ceiling, two holes with sand coming through, lots of gold with weights included with two of them on the floor in a lower area of the center of the room, the wall to their right had a picture of eight animals in a circle, underneath that picture was a small pillar with a hole and another picture of an animal in it along with a button underneath. And the four corners of the lower part of the room had four gold snakes with mouths open, ready to fire arrows.
The image in the hole had a crocodile, exactly like on the image to the left. The others were in the following order; what may be a rabbit, a pony, what may be a deer, a lion, a camel, a rhinoceros, and an elephant.
The group exchanged worried looks before Apple Bloom pressed the button. Once she did, a golden arrow spun in the circle before stopping in front of the lion with the image of the lion on the wall spinning around and revealed a red "X" on it with the four statues firing at the circle, hitting nothing as sand piles grew, even to falling to the lower part with the ceiling lowering with Apple Bloom pressing the button with a golden arrow spinning before stopping in front of the crocodile with the one on the wall spinning around and revealing a green "O" with a wall blocking the door as the ceiling slowly fell as the arrow stopped in front of the deer.
Gears in the group's head spun despite most of them starting to panic. The lower part of the room was a scale with Apple Bloom pressing the button again, getting an idea before telling it to her companions with them nodding agreement before they put it to use.
Two weights meant the arrow stopped at the fourth image.
Two weights and some sand meant the arrow stopped at the fifth image.
One weight and some sand meant the arrow stopped at the third image. Which meant that one weight would move the arrow two images.
"Pfft, this is too easy." Kratus said, "I'm sure that a child just starting on the basics of math could solve this." He added before he moved all four weights as the fillies preventing the sand from falling onto the lower part of the room with Sweetie Belle pressing the button with them getting the results they wanted with the lich pulling the leg of the statue before they returned to the previous room with them finding a second snake statue appeared over the central hole.
One left to go, though before they could proceed, they had to deal with the ghosts that appeared, one normal sized buffy along with a dozen mini buffies, mini tricksters, creepers and a slappy that blocked the door.
"Won't they ever learn?" Kratus asked before firing his skyblaster at the ghosts with each bolt of shadow hitting their mark with the fillies capturing each ghost.
The last room, accessed by the door in the giant statue, was small and bare, just possessing vases. There was the sand partially covering the floor. Though the opposite wall there was a green, circular hole in the wall and on the wall to the left was a blue cross shaped hole with Little Ghost shifting through the sand before finding a glass orb that glowed green before inserting it into the green slot causing the wall to lower, revealing another part of the room with the group entering the second part. Only for a section of the wall to block their exit with a purple gas pouring out of the other holes, causing Apple Bloom to cough violently in pain with Kratus realizing what the gas was first, a chemical weapon.
"I'll handle the gas." He said.
"How are ya gonna do that?" Apple Bloom asked between coughs, only for the Makuta's blade to glow green before slashing the air, injecting his power into the gas, causing it to turn green with Apple Bloom feeling a little better.
"What did you do?" Little Ghost asked as she and the others searched for objects for the holes, of which there were a total of six, two green circles, two yellow triangles and two red squares.
"While I can't completely neutralize the poison, I can lessen the damage by changing the type of toxin it is."
"That's a neat trick."
"I had a lot of practice." Kratus replied, maintaining his control over the poison while searching for the rest of the glass objects which were buried in the sand or inside the other objects, an orb inside a sarcophagus, a cube inside a chest with the last one, a pyramid hidden a vase inside the sand, which was the hardest with Apple Bloom struggling to stand as they inserted the last of the objects into the holes, causing a reversal of the flow with the Makuta releasing his control over the toxin as another wall retracted into the floor, revealing the statue they needed to cause the last snake statue to cover the hole, but before any of them could pull the leg on it, a portal opened before they heard Samuel's voice.
"Managed to convince the Matoran to hand these over so that you can use them." He said with a disk with three symbols inscribed on it sliding out, followed by a black device with one end looking like it could hold the disc, with the Makuta recognizing what they were, having used them before.
"What are those?" Little Ghost asked, floating around the two objects that the Makuta picked up.
"A Kanoka Disk and the appropriate Kanoka Disk Launcher. And judging by the markings, the disk is the one I need." He replied, inserting the disk into the launcher, "Apple Bloom, hold still." He said, despite the fact that the filly couldn't move that much before firing the Kanoka at Apple Bloom.
"What?" She asked, feeling better as the disc fell onto the floor after it hit her.
"Kanoka Disks have special abilities, the one that I hit you with is a Remove Poison while made in Le-Metru, while the level is eight." Kratus said, picking up the disk.
"And you know this how?" Little Ghost asked as the Makuta knelt down.
"The engravings let me know, the first is the origin, the second is what power it is, and the third is the power level." He replied, pointing to each marking before placing both the disk and the launcher back into the portal while the telling his friend to send his thanks to the Le-Matoran who made the disk before breaking the vases near the statue with one of them containing a glowing blue glass cross that, after pulling the leg of the statue, they inserted the object into the hole with the wall opening and revealed another part of the room, a sarcophagus and a sapphire shaped like a snake that went into the bag that Little Ghost carried with a mummy leaving the sarcophagus, causing the Makuta roll his eyes before using disintegration on the undead creature, turning it to ash with a trickster leaving the remains with it captured shortly.
The big room, with the hole now plugged as planned, now had sand filling it up, though as they moved some sand to form a pile for them to reach the door, ghosts appeared, some tricksters and creepers, two buffies and a lot of throwers tossing rocks at them.
At least they didn't need to worry about the boulders anymore.
Kratus and Little Ghost targeted the throwers as they popped out of the sand to throw rocks, with the Makuta acting as a marksman, picking off the ghosts with Little Ghost capturing them. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle dealt with the nearest buffy and used the ghost as a hammer against the other ghosts with the tricksters captured shortly as the Makuta also dealt with any creepers that attempted to sneak up on Little Ghost, though when one attempted to attack Kratus from behind, the Makuta offhandedly shot it in the face without turning around using his skyblaster at point-blank range as the Makuta used his Shadow Hand to grab throwers to punch them in the face with their capture shortly after as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle dealt with the other ghosts.
By now the room had enough sand that they could reach the exit without having to push piles of sand with them exiting before the room filled any further.
The hall they were had held a staircase with spiders that they dealt with before they climbed the stairs with them stepping on a pressure plate, causing walls to fall down with them rushing to the end as a result, leaving them trapped unless Kratus destroyed the wall which would be pointless as by now sand blocked the door to the room they left.
The room they were now in was small and narrow while full of vases with the right wall covered in a giant web with the left corner having a torch. Spiders left the vases, only to end up fried by a beam of plasma from Kratus' blade before the Makuta turned into a Fire Burnak and unleashed a pulse of fire energy on the web, burning it away as a result as the Makuta changed back, though the wall didn't have a door, it could spin with a mural of a pony posing in very common in an era of precivilization with three of the group putting their hooves or hands to the wall, causing it to spin with two of them almost propelled to Leyla's sarcophagus with Apple Bloom recovering her senses as they heard the dead queen.
“Well well well, you managed to survive the traps of my pyramid.” She said.
"Pfft… those traps were a merely bumps in the road to us, especially me." Kratus said as the group went around the sarcophagus and found the queen waiting on the other side, looking at them amused.
"You really are full of surprises, looks like I'll have to deal with you myself." She said, chuckling, "You know, this is what I hoped would happen. That I really wanted to kill you myself. To the see the expressions on your faces as you sink to sand to be turned into dried mummies. Heh-heh-heh-heh. This will be… Mmh… Delectable." She said before flying out of the pyramid.
"Let's get this over with, I hate this floor." Apple Bloom huffed.
"I hate this hotel." Kratus said as the group followed the dead queen out of the pyramid.
"Poor, poor, filly and armored one. Here is… my CURSE!" She said before spinning around, resulting in a strong wind pulling sand towards her, causing it to form a statue in the shape of her head that faced the group. Four snakes came out of the top and looked at them with glowing eyes.
"Laaaame!" Kratus said, unimpressed by the sight before the fillies turned on their poltergust and sucked the sand up as the statue of sand charged at them with the snakes following, only for the serpents to turn into fulgurite, courtesy of Kratus' chain lightning before he destroyed them with disintegration before doing the same to another group of snakes before turning his attention to the statue that turned into a ball and used fragmentation on it, causing it to explode before it landed, revealing Leyla who surrounded herself with snake sculptures that attacked with balls of energy that the group avoided with the Makuta to use fragmentation on sculptures, destroying them which allowed the fillies to trap Leyla with her fighting back using sand, even hitting Little Ghost with a hoof made of sand before the queen escaped the vortex and formed a snake head while fighting more aggressively, using hoofs made of sand to punch the group with them evading, or in the case of Kratus, used disintegration on them before he turned his attention to the sand sculpture and used his heat vision to turn it into glass, causing the mare to leave it, allowing the fillies to make another attempt at capturing her, causing her to create a wall of sand that the Makuta turned to glass with his heat vision before using disintegration on it allowing the fillies to continue their attack before Leyla escaped.
"Enough playing." She shouted as an aura of energy surrounded her, causing the majority of the sand to surround her, which formed her upper body. "I am Leyla Rahfa! I am a queen! I will not let some stupid fillies and an armored golem to defeat me!"
"One, I'm not a golem, I'm a Makuta." Kratus said, earning the queen's attention “Two, you're the stupid one, because you challenged us. Though I suppose your death lowered your level of intellect.” He added smugly.
Burn. All three fillies thought as the Makuta continued.
"Three, I don't care if you're a queen, you're nothing but a bump in the road." He said, his words and smug look enraged the queen who turned her attention to the Makuta and attempted to smash him with a hoof, only for the Makuta to teleport out of the way before using his heat vision on the sculpture, turning it into glass with the mare leaving it once more, only for the Makuta to use his Shadow Hand to smack her into the wall with her forming another sculpture, this one smaller than the previous.
"Looks like she's almost out of juice." Little Ghost said, "Though the way you smacked her probably helped." She added after turning to Kratus.
"Like I said, she's a bump in the road." The Makuta replied, turning the sculpture into glass with Leyla, leaving it before a tendril of shadow slammed her into the ground with the mare captured shortly after.