A zone with ancient buildings made of marble and an underground castle with spiky chandeliers. There is a lot of lava that can harm Sonic in this level. Certain bricks can be destroyed for points; sometimes up to 30,000 could be obtained, if the bricks are destroyed in sequence.
Act 1
Run forward and collect the three rings. Soon, you should come to a Buzzbomber and a Caterkiller. Continue moving to run into another set of badniks. Finish them off and carry on, there should be a moving strip of land leading inside, go inside and break open the three ring boxes for 30 rings. Exit the area and head back out, you should see some platforms floating in lava. Quickly jump across these; if you don't, the platform will sink into the lava. When you get back on solid land, you should see another floating strip of land. Go inside.
Dodge the glass pillars and defeat the bat enemies. You should come to a spiked chandelier with a block on it. Push the block onto the switch and the chandelier should rise. Descend, while dodging the spikes on the wall and head left to hit a checkpoint and get a shield. Head right, past the glass pillar, and there should be blocks that fall from the ceiling as you approach them. Jump across each and get to the other side. There should be two more falling blocks and four rings on the floor. Do NOT pick up the four rings yet; there is a spiked chandelier above you and can fall and crush you. Wait for the chandelier to fall and rise, then jump onto the ledge, as the chandelier is rising, jump on it and jump towards the left wall, you should go through it into a passage with four ring boxes and an extra life. Leave the passage and get on the ledge. Jump on the blocks and head up. Be careful, there is a crushing weight and a chandelier above. Jump onto the weight and then onto the chandelier and head outside. There should be a few baddies and lava platforms to jump over, then comes the signpost. If you have 50+ rings, be sure to jump into the big ring.
Act 3 Battle
At the end of Act 3, Dr. Robotnik attacks with an improvement to his craft that shoots fireballs on one of the two platforms Sonic can stand on, briefly setting it on fire.