Leith immediately barraged the dark wizards with the dazzling fires of Omen Lucem. Florence shielded herself from the wall across the room. His aunt did not seem to be holding a wand. No, she leaned back while hugging her dearest deer mask.

Donar brought the tip of the wand closer to his mouth as he began to whisper an incantation.

“Angustia Vocant!”

A flash of light sprinkled from the tip of Donar's wand, and he threw it into the flat wilderness right away. Apparently, The flare was not meant for the dark wizard gang and their mad aunt, the owner of the deer's head. Instead, it flew straight up and swooped down to find a large window on the left to penetrate. Donar imagined the flare would explode into a huge firework, and the remnants would reach any nearby civil guard units or Magisterium mages. However, the beacon did not work according to the father's expectations. The unfortunate event took a turn as the magical flare slowly descended after breaking a specific window—recently replaced after the winged undead's attack a few days prior—only to flicker and extinguish like a dead beacon.

"What was that just now, Papa?" Leith muttered in a loud tone.

"How should I know?" replied the father, "That magic should have given the signal to the authorities."

Florence could only chuckle from behind the wall. "Donar, it's useless. We've jammed the mana signal for two blocks. Although we can't create a restricted magic area due to the threat of our exposure, at least we can prevent you from contacting outsiders!”

Fool. Florence's boast was a venom to her own.

The words sparked a brilliant idea in both father and son. They had not yet shared their thoughts, as Donar promptly stepped out of cover and began chanting another spell.

“Anima-dator!”

All of a sudden, those in the room felt a quake. Inanimate objects throughout the room began to behave strangely, some vibrating until they levitated.

A strange noise came from Donar's workroom. It turned out, all his bookshelves had come to life. Hands and feet emerged from their “body”, in the form of cupboards that snapped themselves. One of the shelves even merged with several sets of telescopes, globes, magic orbs, and several tool poles, forming a humanoid bookcase! The amalgamation went straight through the wall of the room where Florence was and rammed into everything in it, followed by the invasion of other office equipment!

Other home furnishings were not to be outdone. Skinny chairs straightened their front legs and backrests by force, making them martial arts seat puppets. Plates and glasses flew out of cupboards and attacked the mages. The sofa Donar and Leith were sheltering on was turned into a weapon by the automaton resulting from a combination of dozens of furniture imaginable. And so the whole house fell apart, but banded together to attack the alien occupants inside—Florence Crimsonmane and her masked outlaws.

"They are diverted. Let's make a run for it, quickly!” Donar exclaimed.

The two of them rushed towards the door which conveniently swung open on its own, aiding their escape.

Florence, who was furious at being the butt of a multitude of inanimate objects, put on her reindeer mask. Terrible things occurred. Little by little, her legs and arms lengthened, her posture turned a little hunched.

The dark wizards tried to open the door, but it locked itself on purpose. Florence—or whatever she was now—seemed to have that solution.

Crackling sounds continued to be heard no matter how far Donar and Leith ran. But it was not an unusual sound, until a deafening brattle caught Leith's attention and made him turn back. His father's apartment room collapsed, leaving a giant aperture and a humanoid wardrobe thrown out in dismemberment. Magic contact occurred again as Donar and Leith exchanged shots with the masked magicians emerging from that hole.

Almost forgot that Leith had an idea of his own.

“Mus Insidias!" he cried.

A veil of magic instantly enveloped the apartment. Everyone in the apartment immediately felt nauseous, including Donar who almost fell down. Understanding his son’s intent, he surrendered his urge to scold him.

Leith embraced him. “Sorry, Papa. The effects will be gone when we leave the flat. C'mon, move your feet!”

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They opted for the emergency stairs. At first glance, the mages did not chase them because they could not stand the state of their entrails being shaken. Once they descended far enough, Leith released Donar from the barrier magic’s influence. Donar sat down, visibly relieved.

"Oh come on, don't sit around just yet!" Leith scolded his father, “We have to get out first, then you can sit as much as you want.”

“A moment, Leith. I am still gathering strength," answered Donar, gasping for air.

As they conversed, a creeping darkness descended upon them, engulfing the emergency stairway in complete and utter blackness. With no windows to provide even the faintest glimmer of starlight, the room felt like a portal to a nightmarish abyss.

“Haw, you must be joking, flat building!” lamented Leith, as he frantically summoned a small spotlight from his wand. But the beam of light only served to illuminate the horrors that awaited them: a deer-headed monster materialised out of nowhere with a deafening squeal, its grotesque form standing before them like a nightmare come to life. The creature's eyes, as white and empty as death, and its jagged, saliva-covered teeth glinting in the light, sent shivers down their spines.

Leith, with a Herculean effort, managed to shield Donar from the monster's initial assault, but the creature quickly overpowered him, flinging the poor boy down the stairs. Donar's screams echoed through the darkness as he tumbled down the steps, while Leith, writhing in pain from the monster's clawing, suspected the demon-deer to be none other than his aunt Florence—somehow immune to the nauseating barrier spell—assuming a form more monstrous and twisted than her own.

"Darn, your wound is quite wide!" said Donar as he approached Leith. Now it was the father's turn to carry his son. "It's all right, son. Keep the light on your wand. You'll be fine!"

The beast, with its blood-curdling screams, could be heard crawling on the walls, driven to madness by its insatiable hunger for their flesh. Donar, his body drenched in sweat, frantically shot Omen Lucem blindly behind him, not daring to take his eyes off the shadows where the creature lurked. He could feel the creature's breath on his neck and hear its claws scraping the walls, growing closer with every step.

As they raced up the seemingly never-ending spiral stairway, Donar's mind was still seeking a way to escape. But it seemed as though fate conspired against them, ensnaring them in a nightmarish trap. Until, like a gleaming beacon, a brilliant idea illuminated his thought.

Correction, a beyond insane thought—a sign of desperation.

“Leith, drop your glowing wand down!”

“W-why would I do that—”

“Just do it!”

Leith did as his father ordered.

“Hold tight!”

“W-wait wha—Oh, shite! No!”

In the absence of the magic broom, the wizard desperately chose to jump off the stairs.

Donar clutched his son tightly against him, as he dove with only the dim light of Leith's wand to guide his way. Time seemed to slow as he was suspended in midair, but his heart was still pounding in rapid thump. He reached deep within himself, calling on every ounce of strength and focus to cast the spell that would save them from certain death. Every muscle in his body tensed. One misstep could mean a fatal plummet to the concrete below.

A split second to act before it was too late!

“Aer Currentis!"

The light on Leith's wand flickered and dimmed, as a dense, swirling cloud materialised above it, sending Donar and Leith tumbling to the ground. Leith let out a pained cry as he landed hard on his injured shoulder. His deep scratch tore open and gushed more blood.

Panting and bleeding, they finally reached the ground floor, but to their dismay, the exit was firmly sealed. The deer's frenzied howling hurt their hearts and ears. A scream of a man in torment, just like the state of those lads.

But then, the screaming was gone. The scraping of its hooves against the walls fell silent.

Why did it no longer crawl the walls?

When Leith raised his gaze, the dimly illuminated figure of the deer was now swooping down on them! Its long, spindly arms reached out, a diabolical desire to rip them limb by limb. Fear and desperation started to cloud their minds.

There must be another opening. There must be, before the deer's snout started to appear out of darkness and it was too late!

Using his uninjured hand, Leith tried to reach something from his trouser pocket. “Too bad I have to use this. Oh well, I’ll just ask her for more."

A small vial of pure Arcane energy, the result of the blackmail he committed against his sister.

"Oh, wonderful! Quick, use it now!” urged his panicking father.

The pure Arcane instantly enveloped Leith's wand by itself. At this moment between life and death, the deer's unusual hooves had touched Leith's nose. Fortunately, Leith's chant was slightly faster than its being.

“Lux Pulsus!”

The tiny light at the base of the wand suddenly enlarged and created waves of shimmering light, touching the entire room to the top floor! The monster's shriek was louder than before as its entire body full of fur burned and bounced back upwards. The Crimsonmane family yet again outsmarted death.

Donar helped his son up. "Are you all right, son?"

“A-apart from having my body part clawed and numb? Yeah, I guess… never felt better.”

“So you had pure Arcane essence all along? Why didn't you use it earlier?"

"How could I easily throw this magical energy away, Papa!" Leith replied to the father. "If yon boot hadn't jumped from the thirtieth floor, I probably wouldn't have used it as a last resort."

"Fair enough. I might have to ask Alicia as well next time.”

The exit exploded, revealing people who were already curled up on the carpeted floor, thanks to the influence Mus Insidias. The residents outside and the authorities appeared to have been on standby at the entrance.

“We must immediately inform the Magisterium of this. Alicia is definitely not safe here,” uttered Leith.

"Great idea. But first, maybe you can cancel your barrier magic?” []