I arrived at layer 6 and left the elevator. There were guards waiting in front of the elevator door but I was in stealth and they moved super slow. This layer actually looked like a prison, it was quite dark here. I headed over to the closest watchtower because I didn't want to waste time but I passed by a big hole in the ground. Don’t tell me it’s this easy to get to the next layer? And if that's the case, why did it take Ted and Gregory so long to get down? I jumped into the hole without thought. It was quite a long fall, especially for me since gravity seems to have no idea what to do with me.

I finally got out of the hole and was now falling down to the surface of layer 5. I could see why this hole was a problem because directly below me was a large magma pool. Does this mean I can use Ignis again? I used shadow magic to break my fall and landed on the magma. I used [Magma snake] and got my buddy Ignis back. He curled around my neck acting like a magma scarf and I went over to the part of this layer that wasn't magma. I can imagine that it’s quite hot here.

This layer was smaller and the ceiling was lower. It should be relatively easy to find Gregory and Ted right now. I might have to give them a frost cloak. I think from layer 4 and onwards we should try to speed this up, the constant drain to feed the [time ring] was becoming quite noticeable. I made some frost balls and chucked them in the magma so that they could absorb some energy for me. This won’t be enough but it’s something. My clone finally found them, they seemed tired but they were doing well. My clone told them the information I found and told them to pick up the pace when they reach layer 4, it also gave them a weak [frost cloak] to help them against the heat.

I briefly linked up my vision with Gregory so that he could get the information I got from those drugs that I found. They told me that they have no idea how to get to layer 4. I told them that I would try and figure that out and that they should rest a bit, my clone took some food out of my dimensional pocket and gave them some. I tried to look around but it was quite hard to look around. Too much ancient technology everywhere. I located the nearest high point and got on it to scout out the surroundings. I could spot several lava pools. It seems that layer 6 had multiple holes and they all opened up above the lava pools on this layer. They all seemed to be connected. They must have something in common. Several magma rivers were connecting these pools. one magma pool seemed to have an isolated island in the middle of it. Well, if this isn't suspicious. I headed over towards this suspicious island but I noticed something strange. It seems a lone lightning spirit followed me.

Oh, hey there, I might have missed you, I will send you back.

What? You want to help out? That is kind of you but out of experience I know this won’t end up well for you. The spirit seemed to prefer getting sent back to the spirit world after helping me and running out of spirit energy. I asked it what abilities it has but it seemed to be supportive and said it was weak. I don’t know these spirits have a weird perspective on what’s weak. Cee Horze was also a support spirit that said he was weak but depending on the situation his skills are quite overpowered.

Aha, so you can enhance somethings speed, is this why you don’t seem to be affected by the time dilation? See this is what I mean these spirits are overpowered, now sure this is extra overpowered for me but that’s not the point. These humans are luckily missing the mark here by just using them as batteries. Besides that, he could produce weak shocks that numb and disorient. Well, that’s perfect! The spirit looked a bit like a wisp or a star made out of lightning so I called him Starbolt. Not very creative I know but I don’t have time for this! Starbolt seemed to be happy to just get a name. Spirits seem to be very attached to their names somehow. Even when I gave Horze a half-assed name he wore it with pride.

I was now walking around with a magma snake on my neck and a floating wisp of lightning. It reminds me of those pet classes in games or real-life summoners that walk around with a zoo following them. Is this my future? Fighting like this isn't my style, especially not since things always seem to happen to them. I wanted to hide Starbolt too but I remembered that only spirits can interact with spirits. He will need to rest on my head when I go into stealth though else, he will lose sight of me. I went into stealth after he rested on my head and I jumped from cell to cell. It was still early so the guards and inmates were still inactive. It seemed that every magma pool connected to the one I was headed for and those that were the farthest from this special pool were connected to other pools which then connected to this one. So, in short, this magma pool was the only magma pool that had a high number of connections while the others had 3 or 4 at most. Now the magma was flowing extremely slow so I couldn't see where it was flowing to. I let Ignis jump into the magma pool and I wanted to surf on him to the suspicious island but he was going at a snail's pace.

Hey Ignis? What is wrong? I stepped off Ignis and I could outwalk him. Oh, time dilation, does he only get the effect of my [time ring] if he’s on my neck? Is it proximity to my hand or surface or the surface area that’s touching me? I pulled him out of the magma which was quite hard, my shoulder still hurt and magma is heavy. I finally got him out but he was still moving quite slow. I wrapped him around my neck again and he seemed to turn to normal speed. Surface area it is. This all made cracks appear in his body. I guess to him I handled him quite rough coz everything went super-fast for him. I scooped up some magma and repaired him. I guess no Ignis surfing.

Stolen story; please report.

I walked over to the suspicious island. It was about the size of a city block and had a spiral cylinder-shaped rock the size of a house on it. I got a bad feeling about this. This prison is made out of ancient technology, after all, I haven't seen an obnoxious puzzle or the like yet. But it can't be too hard because it would be a pain to bring prisoners to the lower levels so I shouldn't overthink this. I stood in front of the rock. It looks like it was made out of volcanic rock. I could look through it with my Elgards eyes, it looked like it is hollow. How strange. I climbed on top of it and looked down the hole in the middle of this rock. It didn't seem to be connecting to the lower floor.

I guess that would have been too easy. It bothered me that this rock wasn't in the middle of the island but quite to the edge. It seemed to have a large circle in the middle of the island. It wasn't that noticeable but I could see it with my eyes. I think I figured something out but I don’t know how to test this. I need Gregory and Ted for this. This whole thing looks like some odd crank. I went back to where Gregory and Ted were resting.

Yoo slackers wake up I need your help! Gregory seemed to be waking up but Ted was still sleeping.

Starbolt get him! Starbolt zapped Ted and he woke up.

Huh what? What’s going on? And why does my body feel numb? Dunno. Did you find anything?

I told Ted and Gregory about the suspicious island I found and that it probably requires skilled earth users to move the island which reminded me of a crank. I covered Ted and Gregory in illusions and headed over to the suspicious island. Ted grabbed my shoulder.

Hold on a minute! We can't just waltz over lava like you! Isn’t there anything like a bridge or a boat? Boats don't work on lava… Uhh. I think we would need a bridge because a boat would move too slow.

Hey, what's that? We looked over to where Gregory pointed and I saw a big man covered in gemstones and carrying a huge axe made out of ruby with some gold and other gemstone ornaments. He was accompanied by 3 guards and what seemed some prisoners. What was odd is that they were moving at the same speed as we were. He swiped some card through a device and inserted some mana in it. The ground started to rumble and a bridge made out of rock slowly rose out of the lava and created a path for them to the island. I grabbed Ted and Gregory with my tails and ran over the lava toward the island.

Hey! This is hot! Shut it! I think we got lucky; this guy might bring us to the next layer! We were waiting on the suspicious island in the hard-to-see circle in the middle.

Hey, isn't that the guy you told us about? Geminga? Hehe, nice pun! It’s not a pun he just happens to be named Geminga and wears gems! Now hush stop making my illusions uncertain!

Hey, no need to get cranky! … … come on that was a good one! Geminga and his group arrived at the island and ordered everyone to stand in the middle. Luckily there weren't many prisoners so there was still room for us to stand. Geminga also stood in the middle and started to channel an insane amount of earth magic.

Psst Greg, do you think you could gather up that much earth magic in such a short amount of time? Don’t be crazy! Agnis are you sure this guy is human? Nope, the spirits told me he’s human, hmm let's see, oh he's not human he’s a dwarf giant. What even is that?

I guess a small giant…

I guess that explains his size and strong earth affinity. Geminga roared and moved the outer circle with the rock on it around. It was rotating around the circle we were standing on and it caused the whole island to slowly sink. Magma from all the magma pools got sucked into this magma pool and started to create a vortex with the island in the middle. We kept descending and sinking inside this funnel of swirling magma.

So Agnis, were you by any chance expecting us to be able and pull off this herculean feat? What? You can’t?

Of course not! After 10 minutes we seemed to have reached the bottom. We were at the bottom of a swirling magma funnel. The mana draining out of me started to increase noticeably. Geminga kicked the rock and it toppled over and created a tunnel through the swirling magma.

Fascinating! I hope you paid attention Ted and Greg because you 2 would probably have to reverse this when we want to go up. I’m not looking forward to that… We followed Geminga and the prisoners.

“Welcome to Lay’r 4 you scoundrels! This is the domain of Casi, but don’t call ‘er that if you want to stay alive and keep your sanity, you shall ref’r to ‘er as Cassiopeia, don’t piss ‘er off by skipping ‘er cooking frenzies and make sure to run away when she starts singing” Hehe he talks odd. I think we should follow them; we got some useful information here.

Leave that to me, I’m the information guy, you 2 make sure to get out of this layer as fast as possible, and I will send a clone with you to relay the information. Ok, one thing Agnis, don’t be reckless.

I’ll try my best. Gregory grabbed Ted and [shadow melded] away.