“Wake up,” Theo’s avatar whispered to the cat on his shoulder.
Ellis remained still, only one of her ears flicked several times as if to get rid of a fly.
“Ellis,” the avatar repeated.
The cat’s ear flicked again. This time the action was also followed by a stretch and a yawn. Then and only then, did the cat crack an eye open.
“What happened?” she said in a sleepy voice as she sat up, then started licking her paw.
“We’re here,” the avatar replied.
A giant archway filled the majority of the wall, leading to complete darkness. On either side stood two statues: one of Gregord and another of some famous hero whose name Theo had completely forgotten. Unlike the other Memoria’s tomb he had been in, this one was gracious enough to have its walls glow, providing light to anyone within. Possibly, this was a minor addition aimed at making the participants feel more comfortable.
Mages, the dungeon grumbled to himself. Back when he had experienced the real thing, he had to create his own light, not to mention that the hordes of skeleton minions were a lot more aggressive than the elementals he’d encountered so far. Even without magic, he could have easily killed them off.
“He must have made this during his hero days,” Ellis said, looking at the statues.
The avatar cast a fireball and casually threw it through the archway. As expected, the flame was instantly consumed by darkness and quickly extinguished. Clearly, some things remained the same.
“When we go through, I want you to keep as far away from the guardian,” the avatar said.
“You know what it’ll be?” the cat asked, intrigued.
“I have a gut feeling. The main thing is not to have anything but ice come into contact with it.”
“A puzzle guardian?”
“No, it’s…” the avatar stopped. “What’s a puzzle guardian?”
“Well, it doesn’t have an exact name. Gregord’s original guardian tome changed hands a lot throughout the centuries and suffered a bit of damage as a result. A few pages were torn off. There’s a description of a guardian that transforms everything it touches into puzzle pieces. It had something to do with transfiguration magic, but that never was my area of expertise. I’ll have to ask my boyfriend when we get back to the tower.”
“You won’t remember anything when you get back to the tower,” the avatar reminded her. Furthermore, she’d remember even less if both of them ended up dying on this challenge.
“You never know.” Defensive magic circles formed around Ellis. “I understand what you’re saying, though. Ranged fighting, no direct contact.”
“Any chance you read how to kill it off quickly?” Theo didn’t want a repeat of the method he had used to destroy it last time. For one thing, Liandra wasn’t with him right now.
“That particular page was also missing… Actually, the tome is more a collection of pages. Thirty-seven to be exact.”
“Only thirty-seven pages survived?” Even in this world bureaucracy was so bad that they couldn’t do the one thing they were set up to do.
“It went through a lot of towers. And even the ones we know about are split among three towers. I’ve no idea how my grandfather managed to make copies, but he must have given a lot in return.”
By the sound of it, they were going to have to destroy it using the slow approach.
“Just keep close. I’ll tell you what to do.”
Casting an aether bubble around the two of them, the avatar then floated through the archway. For a moment the darkness surrounded them on all sides, then suddenly vanished, revealing a giant white chamber. White walls rose up from a white floor all the way to the white ceiling over a hundred feet above. From what Theo remembered, there was supposed to be a tomb in the center of the room. Instead, he saw an enormous hourglass and a group of people beyond it.
“You must be kidding!” Lastar shouted from the other end. “How did you idiots manage to get here?”
All five mages with which he had parted ways at the start of the trial were there. With the exception of Auggy, none seemed particularly pleased to see him. Simultaneously, they also appeared slightly on edge. Defensive spells appeared around them for no apparent reason.
The actions were mirrored by Elis, who also cast another half a dozen magic circles around her, in anticipation.
Without warning, the purple sand in the giant hourglass stopped flowing.
“Congratulations, candidates,” the tower’s voice boomed. “You managed to reach the trial chamber within the required time frame. Now your trial can begin.”
The hourglass disappeared, leaving the chamber bare. Everyone looked at the spot on which it had stood, expecting the guardian to emerge. As the seconds passed, though, nothing appeared.
“Aside from luck, skill, and wisdom a mage also requires strength to make it in the world,” the tower continued. “To determine your strength, no more than half your current number will be allowed to proceed to the sixth floor.”
That was an unexpected twist. The mages looked at each other. All this time they had been so convinced that they’d face their own challenge that they hadn’t even considered the possibility they might have to fight each other. Going by the numbers, seven of them had made it so far. That suggested that at the very least three would have to be eliminated.
In Theo’s past life experience, when presented with a similar situation everyone would scurry to attack each other or join whoever they considered the strongest. Yet again, the universe didn’t fail to surprise him.
“If we don’t take him out now, we won’t be able to later,” Laster said, with a smug expression. “Five of us should do it.”
“True,” the ebony elf said. “We’ll settle things between ourselves after the major threat is dealt with.”
If the dungeon could facepalm, he would. That made no sense whatsoever. It wasn’t even going to benefit them, just force him to waste a lot of energy for no good reason.
“You remember the previous floor, right?” he asked in an attempt to shake their resolve. “I promise to carry the first person who joins me.”
“You think that will work?” Laster laughed. “We’ve already reached the sacrificial stage. More people will have to be sacrificed further up. Anyone who joins you is saying that they’re tired of living.”
“Is that true, Ellis?” the avatar asked.
“There’s no clear proof,” the cat began evasively. “But based on Gregord’s works it’s speculated that the tower is divided into three sections: cooperative, competitive, and sacrificial. I expected the sacrificial part to be reserved for the final three floors, but if we’re at this stage already…”
That would have been useful to know a bit earlier. Theo could have asked the spell of Gregord back in the secret chamber about it.
In-between his mental grumblings, the dungeon also noticed that the other side hadn’t attacked yet. All of them had cast multiple spells, yet without exception they had been all defensive. It seemed that they were neither as stupid nor as reckless as one might think. Just as they had determined that this was the optimal time to take him down, they were also aware that some of them would end up being ejected out of the tower. The reason they weren’t attacking was because none of them wanted to be the ones to end their ascent here.
“My offer stands.” The avatar took Ellis off his shoulder and gently placed her in the air near the wall they had entered from. The cat remained static, floating above the ground. “One of you will at least get to reach the sixth floor. Everyone else will end here.”
No one reacted.
“Don’t make me do something that you’ll all regret,” he said in a firm tone.
Up to now, Theo had focused on the tower’s puzzles, and ignored the others’ abilities. He vaguely remembered that the elf could create paper creatures and that Elain Windchild excelled in wind spells, but that was it. As far as he could tell, the old mage had never openly cast a spell, and the rest had kept to basic magic.
Suddenly, Auggy cast a flight spell and darted straight at the avatar. He had already summoned his ominous staff, illustrating that he was serious. Of all the mages, he was probably the worst opponent Theo could have. The dungeon cores on the battle staff alone filled him with dread.
Without hesitation, the avatar cast the most destructive spell he was capable of. It missed Auggy, who avoided it with ease, making his way up to the baron himself. There, the old mage stopped.
“I’ll take that deal,” he said.
“What?!” Laster shouted from the other end of the room. “You old traitor! Why the hell did you do that?”
“Better odds.” The old man turned around. “Only half will continue and something tells me that once the greatest threat is dealt with, I’ll be next.”
“Well, maybe, but that isn’t a reason to ally yourself with… him! He’s not even a real mage!”
While the conversation continued, Theo’s spell was taking effect. A massive chunk of ice had formed on the chamber floor, quickly growing to three times its size. Four large spikes appeared, quickly developing into limbs, forming what was the start of the largest entity anyone in the room had seen since entering the tower.
“Ho, ho, ho,” the old man laughed. “A giant ice elemental. You’ve been hiding your strength, haven’t you?” He looked at the opposing group of four. They, too, had created a number of minions, all of which were insignificant compared to the ice entity. “I think the fight is already over.”
“About that…” the avatar took a step back. “You really should have told me that you’d be joining my side sooner.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
“I don’t exactly have full control over the elemental.”
Hardly ever was a sentence able to change a person’s point of view so utterly in such a short amount of time. A mage controlling a monster of that size was guaranteed to win, regardless of any opposing spells. No one had the monstrous amount of mana to match the entity’s size, and ice had the annoying tendency of reducing the effectiveness of most spells. Sadly, such an outcome was only true if Theo was in control of the minion.
“Any reason you’d summon a minion you can’t control?” Auggy asked, joining the avatar in slowly walking backwards towards the wall.
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“I thought you were going to attack me,” Theo replied. “It’s not the first time I’ve summoned elementals to bring a bit of chaos to a battlefield.”
Although there were elements of truth to that statement, the number of lies was far more. All the times Theo had resorted to this summoning were out of ignorance or desperation. In this case, he had secretly hoped that he’d be able to level up enough times for his avatar to reach the required one hundred mind points that guaranteed control over the minion. Unfortunately, the combined amount of core points the elementals of the maze had provided him had only gotten him to level thirty-four and mind ninety-four, respectively.
Coming into existence, the massive ice elemental slowly looked around. It could sense the presence of numerous strong entities, none of which it liked. Free of anyone’s control, it felt justified in making this room the heart of its domain. The only question was who to attack first.
The mages standing in front of it were relatively harmless, although some of the spells they had surrounded themselves with were rather powerful. At the same time, there were two powerful entities behind—including its creator—who hadn’t bothered casting a single spell. The creature’s nature drove it to attack the strongest potential threat. Yet, as it happened, one of the other mages made the choice for it.
A web of wind strands struck the torso of ice, slicing several feet into it. The strength of the spell was enough to cut through stone, though in this case all it managed to do was irritate the entity. The cuts closed up within moments of appearing and were instantly followed by two freezing rays from the elemental’s eyes.
The mages scattered. A paper tiger leaped into the air, instantly turning into a chunk of ice. A torrent of fire shot through the air, but it wasn’t targeting the ice elemental. Instead, it made its way between the minion’s legs, striking Baron d’Argent dead center.
Flames engulfed the avatar, resulting in a substantial energy drain back in the dungeon’s main body.
“Not again,” the avatar said through gritted teeth.
His clothes had already suffered from the encounter with the dragon. Now they were completely gone.
“Who did that?!” he shouted.
Across the room, he caught a glimpse of Celenia pointing a staff his way. Seeing the consequences of her actions, the woman looked away, flying into the air so that the ice elemental became a shield between the both of them.
“You’ll regret that.” Dozens of fireballs appeared in the air surrounding the now naked avatar. They were quickly surrounded by aether spheres, keeping them in the air.
A swarm of paper swallows emerged from behind the ice elemental’s left shoulder, flying straight at the increasing cluster of fireballs. A quarter of the distance to their target, they were blocked by a magic circle that sucked them all in, trapping them in a dimensional pocket.
“Don’t be so reckless!” Ellis shouted. “If those things explode, it won’t be just you who’d be hurt!”
It was a reasonable remark. The blast would hardly do much to the avatar, but Auggy and Ellis wouldn’t be so fortunate. Casting a series of swiftness spells on himself, the baron then propelled the cluster of fireballs in all directions. Explosions filled the chamber like one of Switches’ new firework experiments.
Most of the mages managed to cast their own spells to counter the threat. The ice elemental, though, was caught completely unprepared. Taking the brunt of the explosions, it fell forward, incapable of maintaining its balance. Both its legs were already locked in place by a pride of paper lions, leaving it no other option but to extend its arms forward in an effort to diminish the fall’s impact. That turned out rather unfortunate, for one particular mage.
Relying on his teammates to create a distraction, he had started a long-sequence spell to destroy the elemental, Theo, or both. That process had kept him in one spot and focused on the intricacies of the spell. Thus, by the time he noticed the hand of the falling ice elemental heading his way, it was too late to react.
“Crap…” Laster managed to say moments before he was squished out of the tower trial.
The entire chamber shook as the rest of the elemental crashed down.
“Finish the elemental,” Stachon, the ebony elf, shouted. “I’ll deal with them.”
Swarms of paper insects emerged from him, flying at the avatar and his companions. None of the creatures had the strength to cause any serious damage, but they obscured the view to the point that targeting was impossible.
“Heat up my wind,” Elaine said, casting another series of wind spells.
Celenia wasn’t at all used to being addressed in such a fashion, let alone by someone of lower stature. Nonetheless, she was smart enough to see what was at stake, so she complied. A layer of red-hot flames stretched out from her, spreading out like an aether barrier.
Flying above it, Elaine Windchild completed her spell, sending hundreds of wind currents through the heated area. Like red hot wires, they cut into the elemental’s body.
Steam filled the air along with the sound of sizzling. Already weakened by Theo’s attack, the entity was no longer able to withstand the attacks. The cracks and cuts covering its surface got deeper and deeper, no longer capable of being closed up as before.
Even so, the ice elemental refused to surrender. Turning around, it let out its ice rays. Cold met heat in an air explosion that pushed everyone back.
Everyone except Elaine surrounded themselves with air spheres to guard against any other attacks of similar nature. Windchild, on her part, was determined to continue with the attack. Using every ounce of mana that she had gathered, she cast a new spell, combining hundreds of wind currents into one.
A butterfly five feet in length formed, created entirely of air. The creature had no form, but if one were to look closely, they’d see its outline bend the image of anything behind it, like a localized mirage that moved about.
“Destroy him, Raggio,” Elaine ordered.
Without mercy or delay, the wind creature flew straight into the ice elemental, carving its way inside like a worm drilling through an apple.
“Great,” the dungeon’s avatar grumbled as a swarm of paper insects squished into his indestructible aether sphere, like bugs on a windshield. “Now there’s two of them.”
And to make matters worse, back in Rosewind, a whole different emergency was demanding his attention. Standing next to a formerly glowing tree, Spok reached out and plucked off a leaf from a branch.
“Sir,” she said in a serious tone. “I believe the state of the garden is no longer possible to deny.”
The nearest hundred doors and shutters creaked in disapproval. From Theo’s point of view, this was the worst time to have this discussion, especially since Spok had insisted on there being gardens in the first place. If all the glowing plants had remained underground, where they were supposed to be, none of this would have occurred; and even if it had, no one would have noticed. Now, both Spok and Theo were a hair’s length away from extreme ridicule.
“The problem isn’t magic,” the dungeon said. “I have plenty of that.”
“I do not doubt you, sir, but as you can see…”
“can’t your gardeners do something about it?” he asked. “I’ve spent a small fortune getting them here.”
“I wouldn’t be bothering you if they could, sir. And I’ve already had a stern conversation with Switches.”
Since the fading had started from the airshipyard district, the gnome and his new assistant were the immediate suspects. However, Spok had thoroughly inspected all their latest work and hadn’t been able to find anything that would cause such an effect.
“Are you certain? He’s a tricky little pest.”
“Even so, his actions wouldn’t cause the fading to spread to the opposite part of the city. And the airships aren’t to blame, either.”
“Well, it isn’t sabotage,” Theo insisted. “I’d have spotted that.” Not to mention that he could easily have replaced the plants, should that have been the case. As things stood, no matter how many new batches of trees and flowers he planted in the place of the old, they’d still fade and at far faster rates.
“I have no doubt, sir.” Spok let go of the leaf and adjusted her glasses. “There’s only one thing left to do, then.”
“Well, I’m listening,” Then snapped. “What is it?”
“You need to have a talk with Peris.”
The suggestion had a greater impact than any spells in Gregord’s Tower possibly could. Theo hadn’t spoken with the goddess ever since he had transformed her temple into a cathedral, and for good reason. Even after expanding several times, the overall size of the cathedral remained somewhat unimpressive. It was larger than most common buildings, but definitely not large enough to hold hundreds, let alone thousands, of people inside. The location also left a bit to be desired. When expanding the roads, the dungeon had chosen to use it to fill in an empty spot of buildings. From an organizational point of view, that had done the job nicely, yet he suspected that the goddess might not be entirely pleased by the new neighbors her temple had acquired.
“Any reason you can’t?” Theo asked in hope.
“Please, sir. It’s highly improper for a spirit guide to make demands from a goddess. You’re the one who has an established relationship with her, so it’s only proper that you bring the matter up.” There was a long pause. “Naturally, if you so prefer, I’ll accompany you for moral support.”
“Thanks,” the dungeon grumbled.
On cue, the spirit guide disappeared, reappearing at the entrance of the deity’s cathedral. A few moments later, she was joined by a cluster of wandering eyes.
“Maybe Cmyk should handle this,” Theo said, having second thoughts already. “He still comes here to clean every day.”
“Cmyk can’t talk, sir.”
“Yeah. That lazy bag of bones has an excuse for everything.” With a mental sigh, the wandering eyes floated towards the cathedral entrance.
Even at its current size, the cathedral seemed rather impressive on the inside. The large hall was filled with pews, placed in-between statues of the Goddess of Journeys and praying altars. Theo had done his best to combine elements of cathedrals of his past life with the temple blueprints of this world. It would be a lie if anyone were to claim that the result wasn’t good. The atmosphere conveyed a certain mystique with the warmth and calm of safety. For the thousands of locals and adventurers who frequented the cathedral, this was a place of worship, where they would ask for blessings before setting off on a long journey.
Walking through the main hall, Spok and the eyeballs went directly to the inner sanctum, where the original statue of Peris was kept.
“I knew you’d show up,” the statue came to life. “Took you long enough.”
As conversations went, this was definitely a bad start. The dungeon’s mind instantly filled with possible things that he could be blamed for.
“The wedding is just over a week away and we haven’t discussed the preparations.” The statue turned to the cluster of eyeballs.
A series of emotions swept through Theo in rapid succession. Initially, there was relief that he hadn’t been blamed for anything. It was quickly followed by concern, then alarm as he realized exactly what the goddess was implying.
“I want my appearance to be memorable, but not overshadow the occasion too much. Oh, congratulations, Spok,” she turned to the unusually tense spirit guide. “Well done. As usual, you and Theo have managed to bring another first to the world.”
“I am honored by your praise, goddess.”
“Please, no need to be so formal. We’ve known each other for most of your life. I’ve made arrangements for my best cleric to come and start the ceremony. I’ll play the central role, of course, but tradition expects that a human oversees things.”
“That’s fascinating, but it’s not the reason we’re here,” Theo said through his wandering eyes.
The pair of glances he received from Spok and the statue of Peris suggested that his eagerness to change the topic might have been somewhat misguided.
“That’s not the only reason,” the dungeon corrected himself quickly. “We were considering enlarging the cathedral and moving it to the center of the main park,” he made it up as he went along. “But for that to work, we need to deal with the plant problem first.”
“Plant problem?” The statue blinked, unprepared for the unexpected twist following such a buildup.
“Allow me to explain, Goddess,” Spok came to the rescue. “Theo created a series of parks in the city. Each of them is composed of glowing trees and other plants. Lately, they have stopped glowing.”
“Stopped glowing?” The statue mused. “Just like that?”
“Just like that,” Theo said. “If it wasn’t for the ceremony, we’d look into it more, but with time being short, we thought we’d come to you for assistance.”
“Ah, I see…” For some reason, the deity sounded a lot less enthusiastic than moments ago.
A long pause began, lasting half a minute. Peris was clearly in no mood to add anything else, and Spok didn’t feel it proper to press on with the matter.
“So, can you do anything about it?” Theo asked, incapable of waiting any longer. “You’re a deity, so this should be easy for you.”
“Well, there’s not much that us deities can’t do,” the statue said with a giggle. “Nature, sadly, isn’t my domain.”
That was the most bureaucratic answer Theo had ever heard. Worst of all, he could actually see the logic in it. While the goddess had helped him in a number of ways, all her assistance was either tangentially related to her domain of power, or generic enough to be considered the sphere of any deity.
“Can’t you ask the goddess of nature for a favor?” the dungeon pressed on.
“God of nature. And, sadly, no. He’s one of the major deities, so I can’t just go up to him and ask directly. I could ask Luminaria, but she, too, has been preoccupied lately and I doubt she’ll respond on time.”
“Of course she would be,” Theo grumbled.
“Have you considered using a gardener for that?”
“I’ve hired a small army of gardeners and they’re as useful as a waterless lake.”
“Oh, no,” the statue laughed again. “I meant a gardening spirit. They’re extremely dedicated and can have partial domain over nature, so they could use their powers to make your plants glow again and even more.”
“Gardening spirit?” the clusters of eyeballs turned towards Spok.
“I’m unfamiliar with that, sir,” the spirit guide replied defensively. “I’m definitely not aware of any suitable minions that would do the job. Not without creating mass panic.”
For a split second, Theo imagined Cmyk tending the fields in a pair of gardener overalls. The image was promptly expunged from his consciousness.
“You won’t be creating them, just establish an adequate contact and instruct them what to do.” The statue of Peris clapped its hands. “You already have the perfect candidate, after all.”
“Perfect candidate?” Now it was Theo’s turn to feel concerned and, for some reason, extremely worried.
“Agonia, of course,” the statue said, as if it were the most natural thing in existence. “You placed her in my altar, didn’t you?”