“I found it on this one!” Srell shouted to his teammates scattered across the large blue room.

Srell raised himself from a crouching position and held up a red card key for everyone else to see. The others, who were examining the motionless bodies of white humanoid machines, joined Srell when he walked over to a sealed elevator door. He tapped the red card key on a white panel on the wall, which then shifted to the same blue marble color as the rest of the wall.

Moments later, the silvery elevator doors opened with a loud *ding* sound. RED-1 quickly crowded inside of the large silver interior of the elevator without a word. It had been the ninth time that day that they’d cleared such a room of hostiles and been granted the ability to go to a higher floor. Such was the nature of The Center, the final challenge of Battle City.

“Prepare yourselves. The difficulty usually increases every ten floors.” Ursun said calmly while they rode the elevator up.

Ursun looked specifically at Prism, who curtly nodded his understanding to the commander.

“Just 60 more floors to go after the next one!” Jaik said optimistically.

Jaik saying the large number of floors aloud had the opposite effect on his team than he’d intended. Leanna, Srell, and Prism looked at Jaik with glum expressions.

“When I went through this building a year ago, there was an especially powerful machine that we had to defeat every ten floors. A “boss,” as it were.” Leanna recalled aloud to Prism.

“Knowing Gnapp, the bosses this time around are going to be turbocharged to give us and our newest member a real challenge.” Srell lamented while making a stink face.

“Well, time to find out.” Lorias said when the elevator came to a stop.

After another *ding* sound played, the elevator doors opened to reveal a large white android that stood 5-meters tall. It had no face, just a smooth, featureless white surface. Its bulging artificial muscles flexed and throbbed as it rocked in place, itching for a fight. It simply stood ominously at the center of the vast room, waiting for them to exit the elevator.

A thick transparent wall blocked off access to its portion of the room, and also prevented RED-1 from simply shooting at the android from the elevator.

“Oh lovely, a hulk golem.” Leanna said sarcastically while she held her PAW at the ready. “It relies on fast movements to stomp on and punch its enemies. We need to stay as far away from it as possible.” She explained for Prism’s benefit.

“It’s a replica of one of The Kingdom’s machine soldiers.” Jaik further explained to Prism. “These are far more sophisticated than those more traditional machines that we faced on the city streets.” Jaik added.

“Prism, give us some cover! This is going to be a tough one!” Ursun yelled.

“Yes, sir!” Prism said before readying a spell that he hoped would contain the golem.

When Ursun stepped off of the elevator, the transparent wall began to slide down into the floor. He readied his powered-on coilgun and stood a few meters in front of the recessing wall, only 10-meters in front of the hulk golem. The other members of RED-1 quickly exited the elevator and took up positions around the golem. They hid behind rectangular marble blocks of various sizes that were in random areas of the room, which served as defensive cover.

Prism’s eyes shined with blue light while he held his PAW in his left hand and held up his open, glowing right hand before him. He stood beside Ursun, and was ready to attack the golem the moment the wall between them had recessed enough. And in a matter of seconds, that’s exactly what happened.

“Now!” Ursun shouted.

Prism hurled a blue circle at the golem the moment that it leapt at Ursun. A torrent of wind pulled it back down to the ground, effectively restraining it. While the machine fought vigorously against the cyclonic shackles, RED-1 unleashed a brutal barrage of bullets upon it, heavily damaging it. The most damaging shots were from Ursun’s coilgun, which fired sharpened steel rods that easily pierced through the android’s fiber-reinforced polymer skin at such a close range. Even Prism fired his PAW at the golem as he held the hulk firmly in place with his magic-controlling fist.

White fluid spattered from the gunshot wounds suffered by the hulk golem, though the android’s fluids were largely sucked into the same tempest that kept it restrained in the middle of the room. As the damage to its body became more and more significant, it fought less and less against Prism’s wind magic. After only a few minutes of nonstop gunfire, RED-1 was sure that their enemy had been defeated when it stopped moving on its own. Its limp, hole-ridden body began to flop around within the vortex that Prism had created.

“That’s enough.” Ursun shouted as he raised his arm and signaled to his team to stop firing.

While everyone eased off of their PAW triggers, Prism dispelled his wind magic. The hulk golem laid limply on the ground in front of them, seemingly no longer a threat.

“Overkill…” Srell said in a hushed tone, as if he was a bit ashamed of their undefended assault on the android.

“Looks like we’ll have to dig the card key out of it.” Leanna said with a disgusted shake of her head as she looked upon the white gooey mess that remained of the android.

The hulk golem’s internal components squelched while its white operating fluids spilled out of its numerous severed cables. Jaik and Leanna looked at the android skeptically, hardly believing how easily they’d defeated the ordinarily-hardy opponent.

“I’ll handle it.” Lorias said to the others.

The blonde-haired ranger withdrew his variable sword from its sheathe on his belt and twisted its hilt with a flick of his wrist. The sword glowed red when it shifted to cauterize mode. Lorias slowly approached the downed golem with his sword raised to his side. He too wasn’t convinced that the machine was truly incapacitated. When he came within the android's attack range, Lorias raised his sword in a defensive stance just long enough to protect against a sudden attack.

After a few seconds, and a few more steps towards the downed machine, Lorias was satisfied that it was truly deactivated. He soon began to hack away at its chest cavity, slicing away piece-after-piece of its white polymer shell to reveal more of its internal structure. It didn’t take long before he saw the gleam of a glossy red plastic card key buried deep within the android near its synthetic spine. He reached inside of the android with his left hand and pulled out the card key, then raised it high for his teammates to see.

"Good work, kids. Let's keep up this speed. We have a little over 10 hours to reach the 70th floor." Ursun said before heading back to the elevator.

"Shouldn't be too hard. From now on, some of the card keys allow us to skip a few floors." Leanna said.

"I get the feeling that the next few bosses will be a lot harder than this one." Srell said while helping Lorias clean up some of the white goo from his forearm armor while they headed to the elevator door.

Srell’s prediction came true when they reached the 20th floor after an hour of fighting combat androids accompanied by a variety of obstacles, traps, and automated turrets within ever-changing room arrangements.

The tower’s next boss was a pair of faceless twin white androids with tall, bladed golden lances. One of the ornate androids held their lance in their right hand, while its twin that stood beside it held its own lance in its left hand. They looked like mirror images of each other; two 2-meter-tall, armor-less, artificial knights with golden filigree accents framing each major artificial muscle on their limber bodies.

“Lance Knights,” was all that Lorias said when their elevator door opened.

“They’re particularly efficient fighters. And don’t be fooled by their lances; they actually double as low-yield particle cannons that'll give you one nasty radiation burn." Leanna explained to Prism.

“We’ll need precision here. Switch to high explosive rounds.” Ursun ordered. “And Prism, slow these knights down as much as you can. Their speed alone makes them deadly.” He added.

The six of them withdrew long rectangular boxes from the back of their utility belts and swapped out their ammo cartridges from their PAWs. The long cartridges slid smoothly into their PAWs and made a quiet *click* once they were fully inserted. Prism’s eyes then flashed white when he raised his free right hand to prepare a restraining spell.

When they all left the elevator, the wall partition that separated them from the twin knight androids rapidly began to slide down. While the others ran behind cover and aimed their weapons, white light radiated from Prism’s eyes as bands of light formed around the androids in front of him. When the shining restraints closed around the torsos and legs of the machines, both of the knights dropped to the ground before the light bands could make contact with them. Prism’s eyes grew wide when he saw how fast the knights truly were.

But Prism quickly started to redouble his efforts to stop the androids. He saw the white and gold machines leap towards him before he could form his spell attack against them. Fortunately for him, the androids were soon recoiling from the impact of his team’s single-shot explosive rounds. The synchronized rounds were powerful enough to knock the androids back to the other side of the room, flooring them and knocking their lances out of their hands. The high explosive, armor piercing ammunition blasted through their white polymer skin.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Despite the damage that the rounds inflicted, the knights soon stood up and rushed to pick up their lances. Prism noticed that the androids’ damaged skin was repairing itself while he formed two spell circles to launch a more potent spell against them. While the knights began dodging the team’s focused shots, the machines readied themselves for another attack against RED-1. The androids bent their knees and prepared to leap across the room and strike at the team.

“Whatever you’re going to do, you need to do it fast!” Srell shouted at Prism from behind a tall block of marble that he used for cover.

“Alrighty!” Prism shouted while his eyes brilliantly shined with white light that could blind his teammates if he’d been facing any of them.

Prism’s two white spell circles flew from his hands and expanded beneath the feet of the androids. In an instant, the marble floor below them contorted like liquid and burst forth, shooting stone tendrils up through the androids just as they were about to jump towards Prism. A horrible screeching sound came from the androids when the articulated marble pierced their synthetic limbs and torsos, striking at their critical systems. Prism caused the marble he controlled to whip around the androids, restraining them and bringing them to their knees.

In spite of his efforts, the androids still managed to overpower Prism’s marble restraints and deftly pointed their lances at him. Before Prism even realized what was going on, the lances discharged two slightly-radiant beams of ionized particles that both intersected directly onto Prism.

Prism screamed as the two crossed beams irradiated his body with magnified power. Though his team looked on in horror, Ursun commanded them to direct their final few shots of explosive rounds at the two lances. With two well-aimed and focused bursts at both lance heads, the particle beams ceased firing. The knight androids wriggled helplessly against the blue marble that skewered them and held them in place.

Prism dropped to his knees and slumped down onto the ground, soon becoming quiet and motionless. His light brown skin steamed while it slowly reddened from the buildup of heat and radiation that he suffered. His allies rushed to his side, though Leanna quickly warned them to keep their distance.

“There’s so much heat coming from his body…” Srell said worriedly while he and the others kept their PAWs trained on the still-functioning androids a few meters in front of Prism.

“It’s the ionizing radiation. He’s being cooked from the inside out.” Lorias said with a shake of his head.

“Damn it!” Jaik yelled before throwing down his PAW and kneeling a short distance from Prism. As much as it hurt his heart, he couldn’t get closer for his own safety. He was powerless to do anything about such extensive radiation burns. “This test has gone too far! We never would have faced off against two REGENERATING knights at the SAME time if it had been just us!” Jaik said angrily with tears in his eyes.

Ursun looked away ashamedly from Prism’s prone body, surprised by how things had turned out. Ursun then took two perfect shots at the nearby knights’ featureless faces. The two androids ceased functioning, and slumped down the warped marble that impaled their synthetic bodies. While the others looked on at Ursun while he slowly lowered his PAW, each of them jerked their heads back down at Prism when they heard their downed teammate begin to cough.

They watched in shock while Prism’s body began to be bathed in soothing white light as Prism began to bring himself onto his hands and knees. The healing light flowed from a white spell circle on the side of his head. Prism dry heaved while every muscle in his body flexed beneath his armor. The white light that surrounded him treated the damage to his cells while also cleansing his armor and gear of any lingering heat and radiation.

After a minute of the display, the light dimmed and Prism was sitting on the ground rubbing the side of his head. The white spell circle that had been there dimmed. He then looked embarrassedly at the confused and relieved faces around him before rising to his feet and bowing to them apologetically.

“Sorry! I forgot to tell you guys that I’d prepared an auto-recovery spell on myself a few floors ago.” Prism said with closed eyes and clasped hands. “There is just such an abundance of mana in this tower. That complicated spell was suddenly pretty easy to cast on myself on the 16th floor. I figured I’d be safe and do it, just in case…” Prism began to ramble when none of his teammates said anything.

“And we’re glad you did.” Jaik said before pulling Prism into a tight hug.

Prism smiled even while he felt like Jaik was squeezing the air out of his lungs.

“Moving forward, let us know when you’re using magic like that. You put us at a serious tactical disadvantage when we thought that a key member of our team had fallen.” Ursun’s words were stern and tinged with frustration at the cavalcade of emotions that he’d just experienced.

Ursun had found himself constantly feeling things that he wasn’t used to experiencing since meeting Verge, and Ursun didn’t like it one bit.

“Yes, do let us know next time, especially if you use something like that on us.” Lorias said with a cold look at Prism before approaching the two twin knights with his variable sword drawn.

“Stop with these death fake-outs. It’s getting to be like the boy who cried wolf with you…” Srell said snidely after he groaned in irritation.

“Sorry…I’ll try to stay dead next time.” Prism said sarcastically after pushing himself free from Jaik’s embrace.

Prism’s words shocked his teammates more than he’d expected.

“Not funny.” Jaik said with a hard squeeze of Prism’s shoulder.

“Not at all. We’re relieved that you’re okay.” Leanna said with a nod of her head. She was still a bit stunned by Prism’s magical resurrection, so much so that she couldn’t make eye contact with the Elementeitan.

“But Srell does have a point, in a way. I’d prefer it if you didn’t have so many close calls with death. Be more careful. I’m guessing that magic of yours would have a hard time healing you if you’d been riddled with bullet holes instead of radiation.” Ursun said in a more fatherly tone.

“That’s right. Especially if enough of those holes were in my head.” Prism nodded softly. “I’ll be more careful, sir.”

The next ten floors that RED-1 climbed featured puzzles and a few tiered levels that spanned multiple floors, offering more places for enemies to hide and be protected by cover. With each floor that they rose to, Prism felt the mana contained in his surroundings grow denser and richer. By the time they’d defeated three elite archer androids on the 30th floor, Prism became sure of the source of the increased mana.

“There’s a massive mana convergence atop this building. I can feel currents of mana flowing to and from it.” Prism said to the others while Lorias once again carved open the bosses’ bodies in search of the next card key.

“Like the one you fed on by the waterfall?” Ursun asked.

Ursun was unsure of how something that he thought was only to be found where various aspects of nature intersected could be found atop a skyscraper. Leanna also scratched her head in confusion. Prism smiled when he saw them look at him incredulously. He was well aware that they only knew what he’d told him about mana, and that he hadn’t been very thorough in any of his past explanations.

"Small mana convergences like the one at the waterfall are just a natural result of being by so many different elements. But large convergences like the one above us are created by a complex network of mana currents that flow across Æba. They take a long time to form, and have a much bigger effect on their surroundings. They also let magic-users like me cast really powerful spells much more easily." Prism explained.

"That must be why Gnapp claims that he does his best work here; atop The Center, I mean. He has a lab up there, amongst other things." Leanna said before glancing pensively up at the ceiling.

"Was there one of these large convergences on that glacier that you repaired?" Srell asked with a hint of guilt.

"Yup, there sure was. But I wasn't able to tap into its full power since I had to utilize it to fix the cracks you and Lorias made, erect a barrier to stop an avalanche, AND escape from you two..." Prism became annoyed while he retold the story of his live combat test's resolution.

"Orders are orders..." Lorias said while walking back over to his group with the card key he'd fished out of one the archer androids' chest cavities.

"Wait a minute, what do you mean by "tap into its full power"?" Jaik asked quizzically.

Leanna had wanted to ask the same question but Jaik had beaten her to it. Prism placed his hand on his chin and then glanced up at the ceiling for a moment. He wasn't sure if he should even entertain his idea, let alone share it with the others.

"We'll worry about this "mana convergence" when we get up there. We still have forty more floors ahead of us. Let's get back to it." Ursun ordered.

Prism was relieved by Ursun's command, and took the opportunity to walk ahead of everyone and wait by the elevator. He'd be pestered by Leanna and Jaik to explain himself for the next five floors, but even they soon stopped probing once they came to an especially dangerous room on the 36th floor.

The multi-floor room seemingly had no enemy machines, but instead featured an expansive network of stairs and ladders that appeared to reach up to the 39th floor. There were a few crates, tables, and assorted seating close to the elevator, signaling to RED-1 that the room was also a designated resupply depot.

"Thank goodness. We could use the break." Prism said with a sigh.

But just as he was leaving the elevator, he was held back by Srell, who'd been standing behind him.

"Don't be an idiot. Don't you see how big this room is? There's no way that it's just a resupply depot." Srell said directly into Prism's left ear.

"An endurance test, perhaps?" Lorias thought aloud while he looked out of the elevator at the stairs and ladders that criss-crossed throughout the room.

"I can't make out the upper area very well. I'd send out a drone to check, but that would set off whatever machines are in there waiting to kill us. We'd be sitting ducks in here." Leanna said, knowing that the elevator doors wouldn't close until each of them was off of the elevator.

"We proceed with caution. We need to restock our supplies, so that will be our first priority." Ursun said calmly "Prism and Srell will cover us while we check the crates. Let's go." Ursun ordered.

They each got out of the elevator in a tight formation that allowed them to have eyes on all of their surroundings. When the others began to open and rifle through the supply crates, their best sharpshooter Srell and their magical ally Prism kept their weapons at the ready while scanning the area around them and above them for threats. It only took a few minutes for Ursun and the others to get the supplies they needed. Jaik handed Prism a few extra ammo cartridges for his PAW before a few of them became a bit more relaxed. After several minutes without encountering any enemies, Ursun felt it appropriate for them to take a small break to eat and drink what had been provided for them within the room.

"A lot of the enemy configurations on the floors up till now are just a bit beefed up but relatively the same. This is the first area that looks completely different..." Leanna mused.

"Gnapp did make this a modal building. Most of the flooring, ceilings, and even the walls can be adjusted remotely." Lorias reminded her.

"Yeah, but this is...extensive. And to what end? Something like an endurance test would be more suited for the Undercity. The Center serves as a prelude for that, but still..." Leanna thought aloud.

"I'm trying to give my mind a small break, but you guys just won't let up." Srell once again voiced his irritation between bites of a ham and cheese sandwich.

"I sense something...something's coming!" Prism shouted before throwing down his own sandwich.

The rest of RED-1 did the same and raised their PAWs, becoming battle-ready with only a seconds-notice. But what they thought was an enemy android was something far different. Small vents began opening at the edges of the walls on each end of the room. Swarms of small mechanical insects began quickly crawling out of the vents. They made their way towards the center of the room en masse directly towards the members of RED-1. The team didn't need time to think once they saw the machines. RED-1 rushed to higher ground, using whatever ladder or stairway was closest to them.

"They're Eaters! They consume any organic matter that they come across! We have to get out of here before they reach us!" Leanna yelled to Prism while they made their way up two ladders.

When Prism looked down, he could see that the small multi-legged machines were rapidly climbing up the ladder poles and the stairs below them. A mass of them had gathered around the abandoned sandwiches but quickly returned pursuing RED-1, leaving no trace of the sandwiches in their wake. With the sheer amount of them blackening everything that they streamed across, Prism realized that there was little he could do to stop the eater swarm without potentially damaging the entire room.

"They're gaining on us!" Srell shouted.

"He's right! We need a speed boost or something, Prism!" Jaik shouted from a staircase near Prism.

Prism's eyes glowed red while he soon formed five red spell circles in his hand, and one on the side of his scalp. He sent the spell circles flying at his teammates, who soon began moving more quickly up the ladders and staircases with ease. Prism was soon ahead of them, and was fortunate enough to find the area's red card key simply lying on the level below the elevator.

"Meet me at the elevator! I have the card key!" Prism shouted below before he rapidly climbed up a ladder and made it to the elevator first.

Prism smiled when he saw his teammates join him a few minutes later. They all got on the elevator before any of the eaters could catch up with them. Ursun gave Prism a hard pat on the back that pushed the small alien forward a bit. The red light faded from Prism's eyes, and it soon faded from his teammates' bodies as well.

"That was a rush!" Srell shouted energetically.

"A useful ability. You should use it on us more often." Lorias noted.

"I was only able to use it so fast and on so many of you because of the mana convergence above us. And having you all move that quickly for too long could put a lot of strain on your bodies. We just didn't have a choice back there." Prism explained with a guilty look on his face.

"We can handle it." Jaik said to Prism with a smile.

Prism shook his head and rolled his eyes jokingly at Jaik, who in turn started to pull Prism into a headlock. The group was still high on the adrenaline from outrunning the eaters, and Ursun knew it.

"Calm yourselves! We're coming up on a boss. We'll need to be levelheaded to defeat whatever it may be." Ursun said while breaking up Jaik and Prism's imminent horseplay before it really began.

When the elevator doors opened onto the 40th floor, RED-1 braced themselves for the high-level threat that hovered behind the transparent partition before them. It was a slender, feminine-bodied white android that had a bulky, white, dress-like lower body from whence short jets of blue fire shot out to keep it afloat. Its face was featureless, like all the other Kingdom-style androids that Prism had seen, though it had a white lace veil coming from the back of its golden filigree-crowned head.

"A Kingdom rector..." Jaik said almost breathlessly. "This is...supposed to be the last boss...on the 60th floor..." he barely managed to say.

"Plasma thrusters for hovering and sustained flight, arm-mounted plasma-throwers, chest-mounted laser cannons..." Leanna began to rattle off the numerous dangerous features of the impressive machine.

"I'll handle this," was all that Prism said before his eyes became completely black. A pitch-black spell circle formed on the side of his bald, light-brown scalp.

"What are you going to do? Be mindful that we need the card key inside of it to proceed." Lorias asked directly, as he usually did.

"I'm going to completely neutralize it with the surge of mana I've taken a hold of; all of it but the card key." Prism said before stepping off of the elevator, which triggered the partition to rapidly retract into the floor.

"Are you crazy!? We can't enter this room without a plan! This thing WILL kill all of us without a plan!" Srell shouted in sheer panic.

"Prism!" Ursun yelled behind Prism, who'd made his way directly in front of the nearly-retracted partition.

Prism didn’t look back at his worried teammates, and he didn’t make a sound.