“I am still furious.” Fa Lian made her comment loudly as they made their way to the next floor. The tower had been a struggle, to say the least, but due to Dan’s ability to drain mana, coupled with his healing capabilities, the group was still in fighting form.

“I agree with Lady Guan,” Shade said with a smile. Dan was hardly in the mood to be bullied but the good nature of the jibing made it hard to be angry. He knew that he had no leg to stand on, it had been his fault.

“I can only apologise.” Dan raised his hands in defeat. He had dropped the neverending water flask at some point during the chaos. Each time they moved down a level of the tower, the level above closed and sealed, so the flask was lost somewhere in the upper levels. It had been thirsty work since and the mood of the group had definitely taken something of a nosedive. Dan fervently hoped that the next layer of the tower was the last.

They had travelled through four layers since the mana copies of Yo Shen had attacked them and each had proven a more difficult fight than the last.

The first layer had been a puzzle in teamwork, working to remind Dan yet again that his allies were second to none. He would trade Fa Lian and Shade for no one, though it would, of course, have gone even smoother with Hyun Soon, Xiaomei and the others to help. There were seven constructs, made of actual labyrinthite all over. It took Dan a few brutal minutes of smashing against the unbreakable enemies to see their trick.

The constructs were generally humanoid but two of them pounced around on all fours. As with the previous room, the enemies needed to be defeated to move on. However, the labyrinthite was unbreakable. Dan had been getting thrown around by a pair of human-looking forms, except each had four arms. It was in these two that Dan first noticed the trick.

Each enemy had a small sliver of shiny, black rock embedded within them. For these two, it was hidden in the crook of an armpit, a different one for each. Intuition and experience had Dan attacking these differences quickly. A flash of his mana, moulded into Fa Lian’s corrosive energy, straight to the centre of the rock was enough to shatter the crystal. When he did, the puppet fell as though the strings were cut, turning from a dangerous foe into rubble within moments.

With some quick analysis of the other enemies, Dan had told Shade and Fa Lian where to hit. Their unbreakable opponents fell to pieces and the room fell quiet. As before, the room unsealed itself and showed a way to a lower level.

The next layer of the tower was shocking in a completely new way. Much like the special rooms which littered the labyrinth, the space that they stepped into simply did not make sense. They had found themselves, suddenly, on the precipice of a valley. At the bottom of that valley was a river of molten rock.

Fa Lian stepped forward first, the least affected by the room’s heat and smog. “We have to move.” She did not wait for Dan or Shade to answer before jumping forward, her form obscured by the thick smoke. With his mana sense, however, Dan could see what Fa Lian had noticed first.

Each room was a challenge and she had worked this one out lightning fast, which was very good because time was of the essence. A series of platforms were standing high above the river but their bases were being melted and burned away. A deadline had been set the moment they entered the place and whether Dan or Shade made it, Fa Lian was going to find her brother.

Shade had a more direct idea. There had been a competitiveness to the journey through the tower and that was apparently not stopping just yet. Dan watched as Shade flashed him a wink and then disappeared. Somewhere in the distance, Dan heard a whooping from Shade along with his declaration that he won the race.

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Not willing to be left behind, Dan tried to follow Fa Lian through the smoke. Unfortunately, some of the podiums she had used were already falling, the strength in her legs and the force of her leaps enough to tumble the already precarious standing areas. Dan knew exactly which ally he should lean on in this situation.

With a swivel of intent, Dan turned his mana from Fa Lian’s to Yurie’s. In an instant, the pathways became clear to him. Golden spots of light that told Dan exactly where and how to step. As though he were holding her hand, Dan was guided by Yurie to the safest places for his feet to fall. Some instinct connected to Yurie’s power told Dan how to jump and he trusted it implicitly.

He was not the fastest across the deadly gorge but he may have been the most fluid. Shade had essentially cheated and Fa Lian had basically barreled through. From the burned hem of her leggings suggested that she had slipped a little close to the lava at one point. Her draconic powers would have helped her there, of course.

Looking back, Dan had a feeling that this was where he had lost the water flask.

The third floor was quick, violent and brutal. Most of all this room tested their ability to push forward. The creatures which attacked them from all sides when they entered the space were vicious and quick. Dan was not entirely sure whether they had many mouths or if they were pincers but whatever their weapon, it was agonising.

Small, leathery and winged, the creatures resembled something close to a bat fused with an octopus. Two heavy wings made up most of the creature and six or seven undulating tentacles trailed behind as they whipped through the air. The mouth or pincer at the end of each tentacle lashed out and connected to their skin as the little beasts flew through the air and stripped it away.

After around twenty seconds of that Fa Lian had had enough and screamed, bellowing a heavy, smoke-like flame of black energy. The little bat monsters were too quick for their own good and completely without sensory organs that Dan could see, so they didn’t even attempt to avoid the conflagration.

Dan was quick to heal his allies but the creatures had given him some nasty cuts on his arms, torso and legs before Fa Lian had dealt with them. Now the wounds were closed but the scalding burn on them was a reminder to Dan that he was definitely the weaker link here in a lot of ways. If the others were hurt, he was important because he could help them. If he got hurt, he was a detriment because they couldn’t help him.

The fourth floor was the largest time-sink of all. This was the first room that did not seem to require combat ability or quick reflexes, instead there was simply a collection of poems. Six of them, six pages in each, were laid out on a table in the smallest space they had been in since entering the tower.

Dan and Shade were at a loss until Fa Lian started quietly moving pages around. With purpose, she picked them up, reading them carefully, before setting them down in a set order. Dan was wise enough to be quiet and keep his eyes down. Fa Lian was crying as she moved the poetry into place. Shade, too, noticed that this was not something he needed to involve himself in.

Dan did not know what to do but something told him that Fa Lian was not looking for loneliness in that moment. He stood nearby, hoping that his presence would not be an annoyance to her. Fa Lian paused and Dan nearly jumped out of his skin as she reached for and found his hand. He met her hand with his own and gave a small squeeze. She did not look at him, instead pushing pages into stacks.

“It’s his. Shen used to write a lot, actually. He’s very good, see?”

Since the first room, shades of Guan Yo Shen hung heavy over the tower of death they found themselves in. One question which hadn’t been answered is why Yo Shen was putting up so many barriers. The power of the soul relic was allowing great power butDan had not yet been able to ask what Fa Lian thought of the situation.

Seeing her now, he could tell that this was the time. “Why do you think he’s making it hard for us?” Dan’s voice was little more than a whisper and yet it seemed far too loud. Maybe it was just that the question itself seemed impossible to answer but still, Dan had to ask. He knew very little about Yo Shen, so it would only make sense to find out some things from his sister.

Fa Lian surprised Dan yet again as she laughed, loudly echoing her voice through the small chamber. As the echo faded, Dan noticed the growl at the end of each laugh. “If you had ever spent any time with him, you would know that making life difficult for others was essentially his calling. You would have thought he got paid to do it.” The laugh was still on Fa Lian’s lips but not her eyes. “This?” She asked, gesturing randomly to the tower. “It’s a love letter to himself. Even here, his poetry is all jumbled up, the pages are mixed. Putting them back together…”

With obvious theatrical energy, Fa Lian places the apparent final page into its rightful place. As she did so, the room opened again. “See? Only Shen would think his poems are so obviously great as to only make sense in a certain order. The truth is-”

Dan didn’t hear anything else Fa Lian said. He was lost to the pressure, intensity and overwhelming presence of a soul relic.

Uncovered, unsealed and pulsing with as much power as it could manage.

The spear was in the next room and it was calling out loudly.

Along with two other, raging voices.