We soon found out why it was getting hotter as we went downhill.
We were looking in on a giant room filled with thick, red lava in the middle of a pit. There wasn't too much space to stand; most of the room was the fiery pit. I spent so much time looking around at the lack of foot space that it took me a moment to realize-
"The Erazor Djinn!" Shahra yelled, making me look around wildly.
"Wha-?" I muttered when I saw him about ten feet above the lava. "What's he doing here?"
"He's calling more spirits!" Shahra said, pointing to the weird magical field that had appeared around him. The Erazor Djinn was indeed chanting some weird incantation or something.
"Hey, Ugly!" I called, but he didn't move. I thought he didn't hear me, but then again, he seemed to know where we were at every moment. He probably knew that we were there and was just ignoring me.
"Come forth from the fiery depths of Jahannam, ye condemned by Iblis!" the Erazor Djinn said, raising his arms high into the air. His voice seemed really intense.
"What's Jannam?" I blinked. "And wasn't Iblis like a... very bad thing? It sounds bad."
"Sonic!" Shahra was pointing to the center of the lava, which seemed to be moving. The ground began to rumble very slightly, too.
"Iz Afrit!" the Erazor Djinn yelled, giving the thing rising from the lava its introduction. A massive golumn-like thing was emerging from it, and Shahra pulled me away from the pit in case the rumbling ground decided to give away.
"That thing is...!" I murmured, too amazed at its massive size to do nothing more than stare at it. It stared straight back at us, and didn't seem too motivated to do anything other than that.
"It's called an Ifrit, Sonic!" Shahra told me. "It's a Djinn that controls fire!"
"Well, we certainly got the environment right, didn't we?" I commented, taking another step back. I had forgotten Mr. Ugly was there until he spoke again.
"I have already carved up half of the pages that make up this world," the Erazor Djinn announced.
"Well, you seem to be doing fine on your own." I replied. "Why do you need this guy? If you really need a wing-man, I saw quite a few spirits on our way here."
The Erazor Djinn smiled, like he actually thought my joke was funny. "I've decided to let the Ifrit burn the remaining pages! Blue rat, have you collected the seven world rings for me yet?"
"I am not a rat!" I shouted, folding my arms. "You do know what a hedgehog looks like, right? You know, a hedge-hog?"
He paused for a minute. "Hedgehog, rat... you filthy vermin are all the same anyway..."
His smile grew even wider, and it looked like it didn't fit on his face. "In any case, you had better hurry it up! I'm growing impatient!"
Suddenly, the world began to spin, and before I knew it, I was on the ground. I heard a whooshing sound, and dread filled me. I looked down, and to my horror, the flame was smaller than ever. "Hey!" I shouted, leaning on Shahra as she helped me up.
"With only half the flame left, only half of your life force remains!" the Erazor Djinn explained, a slight malicious laugh in his voice.
"Get back here!" I shouted, but he disappeared before I could say anything else to him. I pushed Shahra out of the way, running toward the spot the Erazor Djinn had been, but the ifrit rose to its full height and roared. The earlier dizziness was dissipating, but I felt slightly sluggish. I looked from Shahra to the ifrit, seeing the sympathy on Shahra's face and... just seeing the ifrit's. I jumped up and spin dashed at the ifrit multiple times, landing on the ground where I had been. "That..." I stared at the ifrit, waiting for something to happen, but it just stayed in the lava like it was a hot spring as opposed to a killing liquid. "Did nothing."
"Sonic!" Shahra called, grabbing my shoulder. "It is no use! Your life is tied to the flame. You cannot fight fire with fire!"
"Watch me!" I shouted, jumping and spinning onto the ifrit many more times before it swatted me away like I was a fly. Luckily, I landed on solid ground, Shahra helping me up.
"Shahra!" I shouted, pointing to the giant hand that was about to come down and squash us. "Lend me your power!"
Shahra stuck her hand up in the air and muttered, "Time Break!" and the two of us ran for the exit.
"See ya!" I yelled with a wave to the ifrit. "Shahra, get in the ring! I don't want you to get hurt out here, and I'm just going to speed through it!"
"But Sonic, you're-"
"Shahra, just do it!" I shouted, bursting away from the lava pit after Shahra disappeared. I didn't remember where all the turns were, so I had to slow down a few times, but most of the spirits were gone, so there wasn't much trouble. The only thing was-
"It's. So. HOT." I said, wiping sweat from my head for the tenth time. Shahra obeyed and stayed in the ring, and it wasn't like she would be able to make the place cool down. Otherwise, we could have beaten the Ifrit easily. 'Just use your freeze power, Shahra!'
Twists and turns made everything seem like a blur, and I just hoped that the Ifrit couldn't follow us. Then again, I was faster. And cooler!
As soon as I even saw the exit, it seemed to cool down a hundred degrees. I almost shivered, collapsing onto the cool rock as soon as I could. "Sonic...?" Shahra muttered.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, sitting up and smiling. "So where do we go next?"
"Well..." Shahra stared out into the water while she thought. "We need to find someone who would know what to do about the ifrit."
"Right," I said, thinking of where to go. We hadn't met too many people; Eggman and Tails. Both were smart in my time, but I didn't know if they would have the exact same traits that they had in the book. "All we need is a giant bucket of water."
"I think we will need a bit more than a bucket," Shahra smiled. "Perhaps Ali Baba will know something."
"Well," I shrugged, "we don't really have anywhere else to turn, so we might as well try that."
I stood and stretched, looking around with my hand over my eyes. The sun was beginning to go down, so it was at its most harsh. Still, it was nothing like the Ifrit. "Can we just go around the jungle?"
"Yes, I think so," Shahra said, also squinting into the distance. "It shouldn't take us long to get back to the Sand Oasis."
"Great, then let's get going!" I shouted, blasting off across the water.
For a while, it was just crossing along the water at a very fast speed. Shahra retreated to the ring, because she would have been in the splash zone. I didn't dare to slow down and risk extinguishing the little flame. We didn't know if it would kill me, but it's not like I was going to go for a swim anytime soon.
It wasn't long before I saw sand, which was a beautiful sight after so much water. I didn't miss a beat after reaching the desert - I just kept going and going.
"Do you remember where the town is, Shahra?" I asked.
"Turn to the right a little bit," Shahra said, not sounding too sure.
"Good thing the sun's still up," I chuckled.
"It's waning quickly," Shahra noted.
"Should leave us enough time to find the town, at least," I shrugged. "Hopefully Tails - er, whatever his name was - will know what to do."
Shahra had led me in the right direction, and within a few minutes, we were in the town. She appeared from the ring, floating next to me as we strolled through the city. It seemed empty, people hiding in their homes to stay away from the monsters that the Erazor Djinn had unleashed. It just made me more determined to end the mischief this guy was making. I wondered what would happen to all these people if the Erazor Djinn managed to destroy the story. Would they come into my world, or just disappear forever?
I shivered, glad that Shahra hadn't noticed. She had probably thought about that too, and I didn't want to bring her spirits down.
"There he is!" Shahra suddenly shouted, and I rushed forward to meet Ali Baba. He didn't look all that surprised to see us.
"You're the hero that saved me earlier!" Ali Baba announced.
"It's just Sonic," I grinned. "And... we were hoping you could help us with a little problem we ran into."
Shahra explained going through the Evil Foundry and the ifrit thing that appeared to stop us. She also explained that I couldn't fight it because of the flame that was trying to kill me.
"Then we came back here," I shrugged.
Tails put his hand on his chin, thinking. Hopefully, this Tails was as smart and resourceful as the one back home.
"I can't say that I know what you should do..." he sighed. So much for that. "But I do know someone who might be able to help you."
"Who is this?" Shahra asked.
"My friend, Sinbad," Ali Baba said. "He would be able to share some of his worldly knowledge with you."
"The Sinbad?" Shahra asked, her eyes lighting up.
"I-I guess so," Tails replied.
"So... where is he?" I asked, hoping the answer would be close by.
"There's a rumor that he was fighting pirates when he got taken away by a Ruhk."
"What now?" I frowned. "A roof?"
"It's a giant bird," Ali Baba explained. "Maybe more like a living fossil."
"Uh, okay..." I replied. "So where can we find this, er... living bird fossil?"
"I believe the Ruhk flocks someplace in the skies to the west."
"Skies, huh?" I smiled at Shahra. "Good thing I have a genie that has a sweet magic carpet!"
Shahra bowed. "O Master, is that what you wish for?"
"Yeah!" I told her. "We have to go find this roof!"
I hopped onto the carpet, waving to Tails as we flew away. It wasn't long before the town was out of sight as we rose high into the air.
"We should have just flown over the jungle," I said, admiring the view. Sure, it was mostly sand, but with sunset coming fast, the sand changed colors and glistened in a way I hadn't really appreciated before.
"Ah, but then we would have never found the World Ring," Shahra replied. "Besides, you are much faster on foot than this carpet is in the air."
"You flatter me," I grinned.
I wasn't too long before we saw multiple islands in the sky, covered in all sorts of broken buildings. Each island of ruins looked like it was build atop a flying monster of some sort; each had a tail and multiple wings. They looked like it had been abandoned for years, but I found it amazing that people had actually lived all the way up here. Without modern technology, how did they even get up here? Maybe magic carpets were a common vehicle.
"These look like some sort of levitating ruins..." Shahra commented. "We cannot continue on the carpet; you will have to run your way through this."
"Wouldn't it be easier to...?" I frowned.
"There is too much wind," Shahra explained. "It is getting stronger even as we get closer."
"I guess you're right," I said, jumping off the carpet and landing on the ground as soon as it came to a stop. The flying rug disappeared, and Shahra retreated to the ring, a little red ball taking her place.
"Try not to fall off," Shahra said as I looked down.
"C-couldn't you just catch me?" I asked.
"Just don't fall, okay?" she sighed.
"I'll do my best," I replied with a thumbs up, then started off running. The wind really was powerful; rocks and such were flying through the air, shifting directions rapidly. Probably why people stopped living several miles above the ground.
There were evil spirits all the way up here, too. Along with flying obstacles, I had to bash into the spirits I saw. At least there was a rail for me to grind along.
When I got to the end of the island, I jumped off the very edge, landing neatly on the tail of the next island. After running along the tail, I found that the island wasn't as flooded with broken buildings. This one had dying trees and a few walls, like some sort of gathering place. After beating up a few spirits, I jumped off the edge, running along the tail of the next.
"Man, this Sinbad must really be something special," I said as I ran along the tail of the next island. I slid just in time as large pieces of debris came flying over me.
"Of course!" Shahra replied. "He's one of the world's heroes! Watch out for those spikes!"
I jumped over the spikes she noticed, then continued running. It wasn't long before I came to a stop in a small room, with three weird statues of demons. I winced as the gate behind me closed, then jumped as I heard one of the statues move.
"These will turn you to stone, Sonic!" Shahra gasped. "Dodge its attacks and destroy it!"
I leaped away as it rushed at me, then barely side stepped as it shot something at me. I slid under it, jumping up and destroying it. It crumbled, and a path forward opened up. "That wasn't so bad," I said aloud.
When I got to the edge, I noticed that the other islands were too far away to get to by a leap of faith, but it was still to windy to ride on the carpet. Just as I was about to turn back, a spirit ran past me, a ray of light appeared behind it. I put my foot on it, and it was tangible. "It's disappearing, Sonic!" Shahra yelled, so I got onto it and ran forward, keeping close behind the spirit.
"Thanks for the ride!" I yelled, jumping off at another island. I ran past the island, but I ran into the same problem. Again, as I was about to turn back, another spirit flew past me, and I jumped on its path of light.
This path wasn't like the smooth one before, however. It wasn't long before the path started to swerve and create loops that nearly caused me to fall off. I stayed as close to the spirit as I dared, which didn't give me much time to prepare for quick changes that it made.
Finally the spirit came to a stop at another island, and I rolled into a ball and struck it. Once again, I had to dodge several rocks trying to take my head off, but there was another long grind rail to ride on. I couldn't help but smile as I did all this - I was going fast!
The rail led straight into another little room, like the one with the statues. The gate behind me closed, and there was no clear way forward. It took me a moment to realize there was a way upward. I ran up a wall, jumping across a broken section of the path. I saw another break in the path, but there were vines hanging off the wall. "Convenient!" I shouted, jumping from vine to vine. A little further, and we were at the top.
"Sonic!" Shahra called. "It's Sinbad!"
She had come out of the ring and was point at a complicated cage of some sort, where some red creature was. As I got closer, I noticed that it wasn't 'Sinbad' at all - it was everyone's favorite knucklehead wearing some sort of draping hat!
"Knuckles!" I shouted, pointing at him just outside the cage. "How'd you get here?"
"I am Sinbad of the Seven Seas!" Sinbad shouted. "Adventurer of adventurers. Now... who the heck are you?"
"Oh, Sinbad!" Shahra said, emerging from the ring. She looked excited to see him, like Knuckles was something that people loved to look at. "Is it truly you, the world famous adventurer? Would you be willing to impart some of your worldly knowledge with us?"
"Look, miss..." Knuckles started.
"Shahra," she answered.
"I hate to break it to you, Shahra," Knuckles said, looking angry, "but in case you didn't notice, I'm stuck in this cage. You should be the ones helping me!"
"I feel a strong magical force here..." Shahra muttered. "This must be the work of the Erazor Djinn. Which means... we just have to find a way to break the spell!"
"Now you're talkin'!" Knuckles - ugh, Sinbad - said.
"I mean, do we have to?" I asked. "Shouldn't an 'adventurer of adventurers' be able to help himself?"
"Hey, listen, buddy," Sinbad said. "Life's a game of give and take, see? You help me, and then after I'm free, I'll help you. Not so bad, huh?"
"Whatever," I rolled my eyes. "Come on, Shahra, let's go break this spell."
Shahra pointed to something. "Do you see that tower there?" she asked.
"Sure," I replied.
"There are four in all," she added, pointing to all four towers. "There are special mirrors on top of them. I think that will be how we break the spell."
"That doesn't sound too bad," I replied, jumping back inside the little tower we were at and running outside. "We just have to get to them."
"Let's get started," Shahra said. "We don't have much daylight left."
"It would be hard to jump in the dark," I noted.
It didn't take much to get to the first tower that Shahra directed me to. More rays of light to ride along, more towers and vines of ivy. Oh, and the multitude of evil spirits trying to wreak havoc on this place.The second time going around the islands was much easier than it had been the first time. Now I knew what to expect.
When I got to the top of the first tower, I saw the mirror Shahra spoke of and a lever beneath it. "So... I just pull this?" I asked.
"Yes," Shahra replied.
The lever stuck a bit, but after a few tries, I was able to turn it the other direction. Immediately, the mirror turned the other way. Before I could move away, though, we were suddenly in front of Sinbad's cage.
"Wha-?" I muttered, looking around. "We're back where we started!"
"Astute," Knuckles rolled his eyes.
"Hey, listen-"
"Sonic, there's no use picking a fight with him," Shahra interrupted.
"Yeah, but its fun," I said, jumping down the tower. Shahra directed me to the next tower, a ray of light spirit guy helping me out. Spikes littered the way on the ground of the island, forcing me to slow down and take my time. Other than that, it was smooth sailing. The other two towers had similar challenges, but nothing too intense for me. We were able to get to all the mirrors before the sun went down, too.
After breaking all the locks, we appeared in front of Sinbad again, who stood outside his cage with his arms folded. "Thanks for the help!" Sinbad said. "Now, about that fire genie... why not just try splashing some water on him?"
"Wow!" I said, appalled that he had actually said that. "The wisdom of Sinbad of the Seven Seas, adventurer of adventurers...! Man, Shahra, if only we had thought of that..."
"Hey!" Knuckles said, putting his fists up. "I don't see you coming up with any ideas!"
"I knew there was a reason we should've just left you," I grinned.
"Hey!" Knuckles protested. "I've been far more places than you could ever dream of!"
"I highly doubt that." I couldn't help but laugh.
"Stop picking fights, Sonic." Shahra shook her head. "The problem is how we get enough water to stop a fire genie."
"I-I was getting to that," Knuckles - well, I guess it's Sinbad - continued.
"Yeah, right," I muttered.
"You see, the pirates who locked me up in this place took the Water Blue Ring I use to control storms."
Shahra and I looked at each other. "A water blue ring..." she murmured.
"Yeah, that's right," Sinbad replied. "That's your ticket to victory, here."
I nodded, saying, "first a fire genie, and now pirates? The Arabian Nights really are worlds of endless adventures..."