The streets were empty. Aeryth swept her eyes around for anomalies, then jumped off the fences.

It was Friday night, half an hour away from Saturday.

Her destination was the library. After talking to the spellbreaker, she came to a better understanding of the situation. Silan would leave tomorrow, so she must find a solution tonight or fail and accept his offer. Well, not really. She was ninety percent sure—if she failed, she wouldn't live to accept his offer. That was why she had not told Sera about it.

If I die and she learns about it, what will she think? Probably, how greedy I am. It's probably the truth. Regardless, unless I know the value of the treasure for sure, I cannot accept his offer. And if there's no treasure, then I can say goodbye to my awakening, which is not very different from death.

After leaving the realm traveling commission, she took a sick leave from the library. There would be a penalty of some kind since she had lied ultimately, though Aeryth didn't know what yet.

There was only one problem. Being unable to perceive mana, she lacked any method to locate the spell circle's physical location.

The spell breakers were a series of counterspells, meaning, they were created, to a certain extent, to react with the original circle—and the resulting effect would be the disintegration of both circles—dispersing the power and effects of the original.

To do that, she would need at least a month's worth of reading and practice to be able to say with surety that she could break the illusion circle, still with a great chance of failure. A luxury she had not. Instead, she had come up with her own method—an even riskier one.

The first step was getting back into the library.

She vigilantly studied the empty streets. The rain had stopped, leaving behind a cold and dreadful air as if ghosts breathing down on her neck.

She made her way to the library, looking over her shoulder every few seconds and around the street. Her walk was between a sprint and a jog. The weight of her sword assured her that she was not at risk of some street thug.

She finally reached her destination. Her feet came to a frightened stop, eyes trained on the silhouette of the person leaning against the door.

"Hehe, I knew you'd come," Sera's voice echoed over the empty street, full and powerful. "Hah! Gotcha, you greedy little," Sera made her way to Aeryth's side. "I'm heartbroken, you know. I never demanded any share of the treasure, so why are you all sneaky and quiet?"

"I had no way of informing you," Aeryth replied. "Regardless, how did you know I was coming."

"I just knew."

"Without any substantial evidence? Sure. I had severely overestimated your intellect." Aeryth stopped at the entrance.

"What do you mean lower my smartness? I predicted right."

Aeryth gave a deadpan stare. "Well, I feel sorry then, for however long you had to wait in this cold darkness alone."

Sera sighed, "I saw certain someone sneaking out of the compounds after hours. Stop looking at me like I'm some pitiful mutt."

Aeryth let out a sigh. "I was not sneaky as I considered myself to be. You must be pretty sharp. I am trained to hide from the eyes of predators with far sharper noses, eyes, and ears than you, along with Tor's bracelet hiding my presence—it's almost an incomprehensible achievement," Aeryth considered as they walked in. 'Something does not add up.'

"I'll consider myself lucky then," Sera replied.

'Is she spying on me?' Aeryth didn't entertain the idea. If that was true—she hated how possible it felt—then she would cut Sera out of her life without a second thought.

"Do you want to open the door this time?" Aeryth asked.

"I have no idea how."

"You saw me last time, didn't you?"

"Yeah, and I don't remember a thing. Does that flame your ego?"

Aeryth shook her head. "I didn't mean that." She did the exact same routine as yesterday. "If you pay attention, then there's no need for a good memory to remember something so simple... and it's related to treasure, so I assumed you would have focused."

"Making excuses, now that you realize your polite mask has slipped off."

The stairs were still there, the corridors still as dark. She had brought a candle but didn't mention it as Sera lit her happy flames.

"Did you find a way to break the illusion? I mean, I don't mean to put pressure on you or anything, but you're here, and sneaking out of dorms without any reason seems—"

"I have," Aeryth cut in, "I just need to find the location of the spell circle. After that... I think I will be able to do something. It's still a gamble."

"Gamble, huh? We are doing that a lot, aren't we? What that bag is for?" Sera asked.

"Something to help us break the spell circle as long as we can find it."

"You came here without a way to find it?" Sera peered at her.

Aeryth shook her head. "I have a way... but I would rather not use it if possible."

"What way?"

"Sera, can you help me find it?" Aeryth asked.

"Fine, keep your secrets." Sera huffed, "I'll find it. I am not the best in perception thingy, but detecting a spell circle should be easy."

They stopped at the red door. Aeryth grabbed the cold metal knob and twisted it. The door swiveled from its hinges, and the darkness greeted them once more.

She looked at Sera.

"Let me try," Sera took a breath, "If I fall for the illusion and stop moving, wake me up, Alright?"

"Yeah. Wait, how will I do that?"

"Just poke me slightly." Sera giggled, pointing at the sword on Aeryth's back, and jumped into the darkness.

She took two steps and stopped. Aeryth grabbed her sword to poke her from the outside.

"I am fine," Sera said, a green-colored flame floating in front of her, "I was not playing around too. As long as you keep looking at this flame, you'll be able to resist the illusion, too. Follow me."

Aeryth nodded. Hesitantly, she stepped into the darkness. "What kind of illusion spell is this?"

"There are two Illusions here. One that makes this place seem infinitely big, while the other traps your mind into thinking you're walking, but in reality, you're still in one spot."

After a few minutes of tumbling in the darkness, they found the spell circle.

"This is the spot. Go ahead. Let's see what you got," Sera seemed more confident that Aeryth could do than Aeryth herself felt. It made Aeryth feel even more doubtful.

Aeryth looked down at the floor, and saw nothing in the darkness. "Do I need something to see the spell circle?"

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Sera gawked at her. "What were you thinking when you came here alone?"

"I don't know." Aeryth had no time to go over the foundational part which might've explained it. "I didn't have time to go over everything."

"Oh... right. I forgot you cannot use ethereal sight. I'll make it visible for you," Sera's flames took a bluer shade as they melted on the floor and spread like the floor was covered in flammable oil.

Aeryth saw the geometric runes glowing, the circle, the constitution, and the alignment of three different circles in one. She didn't see the real circle but rather the outline as the flames clung to it.

"I can see it."

It was bigger than she had anticipated. The bigger it was, the higher the chance something could go wrong. The bigger the spell circle, the bigger the power rune base, and higher the concentration of mana in it.

There were three layers in a magic circle, first. The power conductor supplied the mana to the spell. Second, the intention and laws, the purpose of the spell, and the effect that the caster intends.

Third, the fusion of mana with reality forces the laws and their effect into reality—overriding the world's inherent rules, reconstructing the physical reality and the mystical realms in a certain range. After recognizing this part, she could understand why science was still famous among mage scholars.

Then, the final layer, Ballast, was a ward to keep the whole thing in harmony and stop the outside forces from disrupting it. Aeryth could only see the fuzzy image of spell circle. And not the concrete details. Thus, she needed to destroy the ballast rune to get a look at other parts that needed to be broken for illusion circle to fall.

In the traditional method, one needed to destroy the whole circle at the same time. But, she was going to destroy the individual runes instead, starting from Ballast. Adding a time limit to already a complex task.

"Sera, can you keep this visible from outside the room."

"What are you planning?" Sera's eyes narrowed.

Aeryth decided to come clean with her. She was at risk after all. "If I make a slight mistake or am not fast enough, there will, most likely, be an explosion using every ounce of mana in this place."

"What... you have no idea how much mana is in this spell," Sera pointed at the circle, "You will die instantly."

"I am cheating. Instead of the spell, I am breaking individual parts of it. Starting with the Ballast rune. Of course, there will be a risk"

Sera's eyes went wide, as reckless and unworried she behaved, even though she understood the weight of the holder rune. "What? Are you mad? This spell will go berserk in a blink. The first thing we are taught is to never mess with the holder rune because, without it, every spell is a surefire way to death by explosion. K-boom. Ah." Sera her head to the side to pretend dead, tongue hanging out of her mouth.

Aeryth chuckled. "Yeah, I guess, it's an even bigger deal than I presume." Still, she was not deterred. "It does not matter, if I mess up, you can accept Silan's offer and share the treasure between both of you. Just step out of this room."

"I'll stay. You do your thing, and don't worry about me." Sera said, smiling. "No way, I can kick back from this thrilling adventure, now, can I?"

"You will die," Aeryth said.

"If you fail, that is," Sera nodded. She didn't move from her spot.

"Do as you wish," Aeryth sighed. One look at those shining eyes of Sera was enough for Aeryth to understand, there was no way she was making Sera move away.

This spell was woven from mana, and each layer was visible, yet mind-numbingly complex.

Instead of focusing on learning everything, she identified a few common runes present in each illusion circle, which allowed her to identify and trace the edges of the different layers.

She identified the holder. The rune was like a box-shaped spider, with sixteen pairs of legs, stretching over the entirety of the circle.

I can do this.

She unfurled her carry bag. A very black ink that had something more in it than just ink. A very thin brush already wetted so that it didn't soak up the little ink she acquired. The ink for creating spell circles was expensive.

And finally, a normal-looking paper, at least at first glance. It was a hundred jade each and made Aeryth's heart rend.

Placing the special paper on the obsidian floor, she began drawing with the brush. She had been practicing runes for a while now. Had drawn runes at least a thousand times by now, daily night, over and over. Her hands were used to drawing the runes. Not this particular one, though.

"When did you learn so much about magic?" Sera asked.

"Today. Still, I don't know anything. I skipped everything and learned some simple tricks that will break the spell circle."

"Still, that's impressive. I cannot even tell the what family of rune that is, and I've been studying them for years now."

There are twelve families of runes, combine them with different types of elements and laws, and you have an infinite number of spells and skills.

So the book read.

"It's only useful for destroying the holder rune so I am surprised you don't know about it.," Aeryth replied to Sera's question.

"How did you know?"

"Can we focus on this task right now, please? I'll tell you later, I promise." Aeryth received a nod.

She had memorized all the spell breaker spells, and then, by commonalities in them, she came up with a list of runes that would destroy the holder only. Among them, only this particular one that she was currently drawing was present in the spell circle with a spider-like Ballast rune.

There were forty-two strokes, each small, and all it created a chain of half triangles eating its tail.

She picked up the mana sphere.

"Aeryth, let me activate it." Sera extended her hand. "This will be faster. You know you cannot activate all these runes on your own."

Aeryth hesitated. "Pour mana from this point," She pointed at a small dot outside on the paper. "And don't rush until all the parts are alight equally. Then," Aertyh pointed at one specific rune. The holder rune. "Place it up here, like a blanket on a bed."

"I can guess how that works," Sera replied, "newborns teaching me like I am an idiot."

The paper vanished once Sera began pouring mana into it. So only the runes floating in the air remained.

Aeryth tore the second page into four pieces since she had only three pages—all she could afford—and there were a total of seven runes to be destroyed.

The second one was the most complex. It was to destroy the laws. Unlike the holder layer, Four different runes were required to destroy this part.

Sera went ahead and placed the glowing rune on top of the holder rune. Both of them fizzled out like water dumped on a bonfire.

"Hold this one," Aeryth handed her the second drawn rune. It was akin to a horsetail.

Sera nodded. Activated the rune, and let it float in her hand. She watched Aaryth work through another rune with mechanical precision.

The outermost outline of the magic circle quivered and soon vanished. It held seven, small circles brushing a point of each other's circumference, spinning like a wheel.

"This is gonna explode," Sera said, though she made no effort to escape.

Aeryth went about her work with efficiency. Her ears were buzzing with the noise that the circle made. She was done with the second rune. It was a series of circles and triangles mingling like vines.

She handed it to Sera, whose eyes looked at her like she was an appalling abomination.

Aeryth smiled uncomfortably and went back to work. Dipped the brush, only to realize there was no ink in the container. This was not the time of hesitation. She picked up the knife, cut up her palm, and squeezed it. The blood dripped into the ink pot.

To create a rune, it required a special kind of ink that must've magical beast blood, because they had mana property in their blood. Aeryth's blood was not too dissimilar from that.

Aeryth clenched her jaw. *It doesn't hurt. Not at all!

That's how she had created the ink. Mana's blood was expensive, so she decided to use her own blood.

Soon, third and fourth runes floated in Sera's hand.

Aeryth looked at the buzzing circle and pointed to where each of them needed to present. "They all need to touch the magical circle at once, it won't work."

Sera somehow controlled each of the runes with just her mind, without moving, she dropped all of them into the circle. And the Outer circle vanished. The darkness from the place vanished. But they didn't have the time to wait and take in the place they stood at.

Aeryth looked at the final circle. The one who held the power. Now, it had no outset.

"Aeryth, it's going to explode any second now," Sera took a step back out of sheer fright. "I can hold it down for a few moments."

Aeryth raggedly made a red stroke on the paper. First, a circle. A rhombus on it. And a scythe's outline in the center. The destroyer rune. It should destroy the power rune.

"Here."

Aeryth handed it to Sera. Who burned away the paper, and Aeryth snatched the floating rune, "Run!" She said. Desperate. Sera didn't move. Of course, she wouldn't.

Aeryth didn't know if it would work. The theory was very different than reality. She looked at the glowing red circle. The emanating heat made her skin burn.

She placed the rune in its place. It flared. Every hair on her body stood painfully.

Without even perception of mana, she could feel the glowing and uprising power. And then, the rhombus melted. So did the weirdly shaped power rune. It was gone. The entire circle vanished. Fizzled out. There was a rush of air, which was just mana pushing the air, even though it lacked the physical presence to do so.

The rest of the runes vanished and popped like crackers one by one.

"What was that?" Sera said breathlessly. She fell on her back. "For a moment, I thought, we were going to the moon."

"I just thought, it might work."

Sera's eyes widened in horror. She jolted back up, "You... came up with that." She came closer as if Aeryth was a ghost. Placed her hand on her shoulder. "Don't you ever show that to anyone? Never. You don't even realize what the hell you just came up with. We need to talk to Lady Sia. I'll tell her."

"You promised to not tell anyone," Aeryth whispered, her lightless eyes staring into Sera's brilliant, glowing ones. "Please don't tell her. I don't want to know what I created. I don't care. I don't want that kind of attention."

Sera deflated, sighing. "I was too excited. Don't worry. I will take this secret to my grave as well." Then she grinned, "For a sweet, sweet feast at Gringer Company's most lavish restaurant."

"Thank you." Aeryth smiled. "If I have money to treat you to such a feast, I'll be delighted to do so."

They were in a bedroom. The floor was covered in a grey-colored carpet, with floral designs of green and gold.

A single-person bed in the corner of the room. The walls were empty. A desk with a lamp hanging over it. Nothing about it was luxurious or fancy, neither was it modern by the city's standard. Still, looking at this place gave her a sense of nostalgia.

As if she was somewhere very personal, hidden. She could trace back someone once living here, from the way the carpet was used up at the foot of the bed. The ink dried on the desk. Numerous scratched and dug portions of the chair's armrest. The traces from the door swiveling each day for years.

"What is this place?" She muttered.