Hexen/Guardian of Fire

This level will require two visits, like the Guardian of Ice. If you've come here after completing part 2 in the Guardian of Ice, skip to Part 2 below.

Part 1
You'll arrive in a small room. Behind you is a portal that exits back to Seven Portals. Step forward, and the wall will break open, leading to a small empty chamber. The floor in here will disintegrate, with lava beneath. Quickly cross over and go through the doorway on your right. Past here is a long, elaborate room. Stairs on either side lead down and around a lava pool. Look along the wall on the right, and pull the lever that slides horizontally in the nook you come to halfway down the stairs. This is the first of two levers in the level that go to the main puzzle. (The "one third of the puzzle has been completed" and comparable messages you'll get are a bit ambiguous, because you'll get more than three overall. Simply pull every lever you find.) Throughout the game, levers like these will be associated with puzzles and inter-level actions.

If you're playing the Mage on skill levels 4 or 5, you'll find your #2 weapon in front of the lava pool. When you step down to where the lava is flowing down from above, various columns and stuff in the area will open, and a bunch more enemies will spawn. Try fighting the initial enemies from up on the stairs before triggering this, and you'll save yourself some extra trouble. You'll see the lava flowing through a grating to a lower area. To either side are doors that need the Fire Key.

Flame Mask
There's one more task to do. Near the lava flow, look for an inset area where there's a wall of black stone with a decoration. This is a hidden door. Follow this route until you come to a long, straight walkway with deep pits on either side. At the far end you'll see a dark room with something brightly lit on a pedestal. Get a running start, and run down the walkway to the far end, keeping to the center as best as possible. The room will begin quaking, and the walkway will disintegrate into jagged chunks. A door will have closed off the dark room. To your left is a very narrow ledge along the wall. Carefully jump to it and follow it to the far end, where a hidden door back to the main room has now opened. Look for and pull the switch to your right in the doorway, which reopens the dark room. Now, follow the narrow ledge back to the other end, and carefully jump to the door. (There's a small platform at the end of the ledge, that you can get a bit of a running start on. Also, hold your "jump" button until you land, and you'll stay airborne a bit longer.) The object inside the dark room is a Flame Mask, which you'll need later.

When you've pulled the lever and collected the Flame Mask, you're done here for now. Return to Seven Portals, and go to the Guardian of Steel if you haven't yet.

Part 2
If you come here from the west side of the courtyard in Seven Portals, you'll arrive in the main room next to the lava pool. Now that you have the Fire Key, go to and enter either of the doors that it unlocks. You'll find a shelf with lots of items. Look for and pull the switch, and a nook next to it will lower to floor level. Step onto it, and you'll see it's a lift that lowers to a larger room. This is the lower room the lava flows down to. For now, stay on the lift: it only activates from above. Clear out enemies you can reach from the lift if you want, then ride it back up. Now, go to the other Fire-Key door. This room is a mirror-image of the other; the reason for coming to this one too is for all the items if you need them.

Go to the lower room by means of either lift. Go for the Quartz Flasks right away if you need them: the shelves they're on will slowly sink into lava below, and uncollected ones will be destroyed. The grating the lava flows through is now open; you can return to the main room this way, but it shouldn't be necessary.

Black stone
Go to the nook opposite the room from the lava flow. Lifts on either side will lower. Go up here, explore the network of passages and corridors made of the black stone and clear out the enemies. Find and take the teleporter midway along the long corridor: this goes to a small room. Pull the lever ahead to complete part of the main puzzle. Your tasks here are now completed. Behind you from where you teleported in is a switch with an eight-pointed symbol. This functions as a portal when flipped and returns you to Seven Portals. (It doesn't matter whether the white or red side is showing when you use it.) In the low areas to either side, activate the walls with the symbols, and they'll slide back, connecting to the long corridor. Torches have lit in the area, and a few more enemies have spawned if you're wanting to get every enemy cleared out. In a low nook opposite the corridor from the teleporter is your first Chaos Device. This is another item that was also in the game Heretic. It teleports you to where you most recently entered the level, allowing you to make a quick getaway--and also to get out of a fatal fall if you can select and use it fast enough.

When you're done, return to Seven Portals. If you haven't been to the Guardian of Steel via the west-side portal, go there next.