“Can’t you just magic the door open like you did with the wall?” The clueless white-haired brute beside me certainly has a point but I doubt it’d be this easy.

Just to make sure I try ticking the symbols with their respective element as well with just as little success. A finger on the massive metal door and a quick thought of Chaotic Touch is enough to prove my theory. There’s no way I’m breaking through these three metal monstrosities.

It feels like trying to shatter metal with wet noodles just for the iron to repair itself the moment I cause even the slightest of dents. There’s a power source somewhere around here, a damn strong one. Now, the door might be off-limits but what about their frames? I never understood why heroes in the tales were like, ‘Well the door itself is too tough, I guess there’s no way I’m getting through.’

As expected the adorned stone frame, almost too magnificent to destroy, folds much easier, lacking the enchantment carved into the fabric of the mysterious metal. As the magic begins to crumble however the carvings of the wall and the dome housing the three main gates light up and come to life.

The serpent swallows the ocean before aiming its gaze toward us, the star illuminates atop the mountain turning the clouds furious, and the boulders begin to vibrate in the clutches of the mystical tree.

There’s no longer a path we came from, only another wall with a hexagon on it, and let’s be honest, what shitty trap would let its victims escape that easily…

Not a trap but a defensive mechanism, one activated by my meddling to protect whatever is behind those doors. Wait… Water, wind, earth… I glance at the four symbols on the door again before snapping my gaze upwards.

The fire.

Sitting in a strangely triangular volcano is a lizard with magma flowing from its mouth and the air sizzling around the fiery red lines.

I counter the descending inferno with a gust of wind of my own, or at least try to. As if betraying me the mana, my mana gets drawn to the mountain where it forms deadly blades and turns on its owner.

I can’t block both.

As if reading my distress or maybe realizing that we’re really dead if it's just up to me, Valka steps up, putting herself between me and the murderous gales with her arms up. This leaves only the fire, which I block with a barrier of arcane mana.

Just as I thought, this one does not revolt.

The flames still embrace us, carrying the heat of a dwarven furnace and threatening to boil us, or at least me, instead of incinerating everything but my bones. This forces my hands and I reach for ice magic to cool the room, fully aware that I won’t have control over the mana for long.

It’s not even that I have to wrestle for control… instead of a thug of war, this is closer to getting robbed. These symbols or whatever they are control mana on a way higher level than me, relying not on brute force to win but inhuman finesse. Like a rock playing tag with an eagle… But rocks can still kill eagles.

As expected my water gets stolen, so I switch to wind to scatter it all before having even that snatched from my grasp. Just as I expected. I add fire, plenty of fire, to the air being dragged back to the starry mountain in hopes that it’d damage the aggressive image on the wall.

And it does.

The impact is minimal and the lines are still glowing all the same but there was a flicker and a lull in whatever shenanigans it uses to steal my magic.

“Valka smash the- Aargh!” I forgot to count because of how little I used earth magic down here. I thought I had a moment of breather now that the icons are busy…

The stone brick smashing into my shoulder and causing something to go crack begs to differ. The pain is almost enough to take me down to the ground but I’m not new to injuries. That and my mental Skills working in the background as I weave my mana and I manage to keep my mind on the battle even as the broken bone sends numbing aches through my body.

“Are you okay?” Valka smacks another brick sailing towards me before blocking a water lance with her back.

“Don’t worry about me.” I raise another barrier to block a barrage of curved fireballs. “I’ll be the bait and you smash those damn symbols!”

That’s it, that’s the plan. I have not got the slightest clue yet how I’ll draw all the fire on me and survive the ordeal but improvisation has always been a strong suit of mine. With my arm limp and an angry frown, I step out from behind my meatshield to demolish these fake mages.

Their control might be out of this world but every response is slow and devoid of creativity.

And so the dance begins.

Since I’m basically stripped of my magic, besides arcane, dodging becomes the only option, Premonition going above and beyond to save my skin. Weaving under a beam of water, only making the slightest of twirls to avoid a rock whistling past my face… Jumping over the floor consumed by flames and raising a barrier to block another round of wind blades.

The attacks keep on coming and not once do I use Valka as cover from basically anything but the fire raining down on us. She can hold better than any stone barrier I could make.

Retaliating isn’t as easy as I imagined either. The symbols react instantly to danger, focusing their punishment on Valka every time she makes a move to shatter one of them. It’s four against two with some weird ancient doodle guardians working in tandem to wear us down however I feel like there’s a limit to their power.

The magic often fluctuates and each symbol can only wield about as much mana as I did a year ago. Despite the looks this trap is in no better condition than the ones we faced along the way.

And I can wield more than four elements.

The sparks of energy around my hair dance in delight as I charge my bolt of lightning, all the while dodging like a mad woman. Until it’s time to strike. Using Valka as a ledge while also pushing her out of a rock arrow's way, I take to the sky and aim for the most irritating symbol of them all. The mountain.

The crackling arc slams into the stone wall and snakes through the bright carved lines doing their utmost to murder us. The damage is minimal yet still enough for its purpose.

“Hit it!” I yell, prepping myself for the second phase of my do-or-die plan.

To try and wrestle for control.

The symbols generally target the one closest to them so I position myself in the middle of the fire, water, and earth triangle and begin operation entanglement. As much as I hate to say it… brute force is the only way.

The moment I land a hateful breath of fire is already upon me along with a beam of water swiping down at me vertically. It’s a pincer attack, albeit an unintentional one and I could probably dodge without too much difficulty. But that’s not the plan right now.

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As stupid as it sounds I create both fire and water launching them at their elemental opposites and praying for my hunch to come true. The attacks clash, get gently peeled from my grip, and turn on me, as expected. But before that, I grip my mana again… only to lose control once more.

And still, I go back for it, again and again and again. It’s like the bar of soap making an escape from your grip but you catch it only for the damn thing to slip away again. That’s exactly what I’m doing except the soap is immaterial and others are yanking it away on a string.

I don’t relent though… Concentrating to a point where I can barely make out sounds I claw for control like my life depends on it. By adding more mana and literally forgetting to breathe I finally manage to pull the masses of water and fire against each other, mixing them thoroughly.

Now all the magic, all the mana is just one big mix where I’m not fighting one against two but simply pitting the other two sides against each other by engaging things repeatedly. Mixing the colorful yarns into a big ball of mana and keeping it entangled is already much easier except there are more than two colors of yarn…

From the corner of my eye, I can see a barrage of rocks promising a painful end, with a clear message from Premonition. Dodge now or turn into holey cheese. However… I don’t think I can keep up the struggle while directing my movement. So I reach for more, grab the mana harder, focus on the ethereal energy with every morsel on my mind… And pull.

“Hhnnngha!” I grunt and bite my lips, throwing my everything into this. I raise my arms just the way I’d grab something and pull…

My head feels like it's on fire and there’s something wet flowing down my face but I succeed and the blob moves. The flames and water are locked in their dance-like duel, frothing and boiling as I shift them to become my shield.

More or less.

Some rocks still make it through, still hit me, it still hurts but it’ll bruise and heal. I’ll live.

Now with earth added to the mix, I’m fighting three forces all trying to regain control. I keep pumping my own mana into the mix to regain control and sink my nails deeper into the swirling chaos of arcane I created yet I can feel myself slipping.

I can feel my arms and legs trembling, my throat burning and my vision slowly taking on a red hue, all signs of a very bad next few hours to come. If I survive that is. And to do that I need to hold on, need to push a little longer, need to fight with everything I’ve got.

But I’m losing. It’s a wonder I held on against two and now with the third added to the equation, all of them with a mastery over an element far surpassing mine… The earth magic slips from the whole, however, even while clinging on to it with the edge of my consciousness I can feel its influence just… disappear.

Then seconds later the fire is gone… then the water. Even with nobody left to fight my mind just keeps pushing, grabbing whatever mana it can find and bundling it up relentlessly, with only the task in mind…

“Elyssia!” I hear a distant echo. “Elyssia.” A weak and muddled voice.

“Eli!” Huh, that's me.

A pair of hands grab my shoulder and only now do my eyes register the reality in front of me.

It’s over, the symbols are shattered, the room in shambles, and Valka… cuts, rocks embedded in her skin, burn marks all across her arm, and a deep bleed on her left thigh. About as intact as a target dummy after something gets on my nerves.

Just as I’m about to throw a snarky comment to literally add insult to her injuries my knees give in, turning into noodles and dragging me fast to the ground. My arms aren’t all the more responsive and when the only thing keeping me from breaking my nose on the cold hard floor is a pair of strong and bloodied arms… I’m almost thankful those quips never left my mouth.

[The Class Skill [Arcane Focus] has reached lvl 70 ->72.]

[The general Skill [Serene Spellcrafting] has reached lvl 57.]

“You did something weird there didn’t you?” Valka’s tone is filled with amusement despite both of our states as she lowers me to the ground. “And wipe that off your face.”

Just now do I remember the sensation before I went bonkers and a quick touch with my arms currently rivaling a kitten in power reveals something red. Blood. Blood from my eyes, nose, ears… blood everywhere on my face. With a quick thought I make a mirror of water, relieved to finally wield my magic without anyone stealing it, and… well, I look like a character from a horror story made flesh.

“You’re one to talk?” I shift my eyes to the Valka tiredly resting herself against my back.

If I have blood on my face then she has it everywhere. My mind is numb and slightly buzzing so it takes a lot more out of me to gather my mana, nudge Savant to help me convert it into water before swiping it across my face and lastly dumping it on Valka.

“No complaints this time?” I ask, considering her reaction the last time.

“Can’t you make it any warmer?” This bitch… not a bad idea actually.

Pushing my exhausted mind a little more I add some more liquid before heating it just a little and wrapping it around us like a soft and warm blanket.

“You really need to learn how to dodge.” I point out as the water quickly turns pink from all the blood dissolved in it.

“Eh, it’ll heal.” She shrugs nonchalantly. “And you need to stop collapsing. This is the second time and I haven’t even known you for a day. I think. I don’t know what time it is.”

It’s not a habit I plan on keeping, things just end up the way they do. But man I’d like to just fall over and close my eyes for a few hours…

“Let’s-” I try getting up but an arm pulls me back effortlessly.

“A little more!” Valka declares rather than asks. “New water, and warmer.”

I don’t think this is how our roles are supposed to be. But I do appreciate one thing. There’s no need for words of thanks or praise for a job well done. We did our part, we did it mostly for ourselves and that’s just how things are meant to be.

Indulging my new friend a little I grab the Hadron crystal in my now ragged bag and create a new blob of water before boiling it to the point where it could make soup out of us. This is why food is my only concern out in the wild. Food and a good bed but I’ll come up with something sooner or later.

“I can’t even remember the last time I cleaned myself.” Valka mutters as we sit back to back. “Or ate to my heart’s content without the need to work myself to the bone… You sure are better than the soldiers.”

That’s the bare minimum. I believe in the small things in life, and that happiness matters no matter how tiny or fleeting it is. I learned that danger is something unavoidable and death might lay in wait at any corner… I don’t want to die with an empty stomach, smelling like a pig, and feeling miserable as the last breath leaves my body. Small things do matter.

“Wanna check what’s behind those doors?” I finally ask after a few minutes of soaking. My head is starting to feel dizzy. “At least now you smell a lot better than you look.” A little cheeky there just to spice up the mood.

“Aw thanks, you’re also pretty…. on the inside.” Okay, we’re back to normal. “And do you mean the locked doors?” Valka reluctantly gets up as I let the water disperse back to wherever things made of mana go.

She isn’t wrong, the fancy metal gates are indeed still sealed shut but any self-respecting Mage would’ve realized the way to open them after our battle. And no it’s not arcane, yet something equally as strange.

Despite the now blaring pulses clearly coming from the right-hand door I still approach the middle one. The best stuff is always in the middle. Besides, noise tells me there’s still something operational behind the right door and we haven’t had much luck even with the already broken stuff around here.

I walk up to the gleaming metal masterwork and touch the indentation with my palm. All good, no new traps, hand still connected to me, we’re making progress. Now, the principle to open the door is pretty simple in my mind and was a common pattern for all the symbols trying to kill us just moments ago.

I let my mana spread freely like the smell of something heavenly cooking back home, seeping into the metal just as I hoped and then fumbling around in the dark. It’s a general rule that things well made and of special materials are way, way, way more resistant to mana in any form… but that wouldn’t make sense in our case with mana literally being the only option to unveil what’s behind the large metal slabs.

It doesn’t take long for me to find four… objects in the door, four spheres just around the elemental marks on the metal’s surface. And then just like the murderous doodles I grab those orbs with their corresponding elements and give them a gentle pull.

Yeah… that doesn’t really work. The grip is there and it all does feel right but…

“What’s the matter, can’t turn the key?” Valka really seems to be the fast-recovering type to be mocking…

Oh damn.

Lo and behold rotating the orbs counterclockwise does it. The elemental markings on the metal mirror their movement, turning a quarter of a circle before refusing to budge again. Until I pull them again that is.

Soon all four elements merge in the center, filling the previously empty hole with their light and giving us an encouraging click. Without any need to exert ourselves the metal wings move quietly, to reveal something I never dared even imagine down here in the middle of nowhere.

A city. The abandoned ruins of a gargantuan dazzling metropolis, easily the size of Granhall and probably larger since we can only see so much from where we stand. Spires towering in the distance, bridges of light spanning between buildings and floating platforms, and a ceiling illuminated by stars, maybe even more beautiful than the real thing.

I doubt anything behind the other two doors can match this…