Kradios drew his hands apart, dragging his loose-sleeve cloak with them. In front of him, an intricate array of radiant lines formed Mystic Tower’s structure. They finely intertwine to create doll-like figures resembling Monster Girls, students, professors, and all else. His calm eyes tracked each of their movement, betraying no hint of emotion, not even when the intruders took over the fourth floor.

Only the fifth floor must not be breached; only the secrets kept there must not be leaked. The rest could fall, so long as the core remained.

Within the projection, a Monster Girl, adorned in a black-and-white suit, walked up to the control monolith and tapped it. When her fingertips pierced through its smooth black surface, Kradios frowned.

He clasped his right hand, in which an ashen wooden staff manifested, and cast a silent spell. The formation governing Mystic Tower glowed. A majestic tide of energy surged throughout the fifth floor.

As it rushed down the fourth floor, a hole opened at the projection of the monolith. It rapidly expanded and consumed everything, crumbling all it devoured.

The lines forming the tower’s layout dissipated in faint sparkles. Kradios creased his brows. He lost access to the formation too swiftly, too decisively. An ordinary Monster Girl couldn’t have accomplished this.

Her goal must be ambitious, her means extraordinary.

Kradios knocked his staff against the floor. Dust quivered and rose from the wooden creaks, revealing ancient marks carved into the floor itself. The symbols of myriad colours flickered, enlivened, and emerged as twisting strings. They coated the floor, enveloping bookshelves, magical equipment, and the spherical crystal floating at the end of the hall.

Despite their all-encompassing presence, the strings failed to wrap around an enclosed scroll floating beside the crystal. Its fiery aura, emanating from its aged structure, burned all approaching magical powers.

Not even Kradios could suppress it.

He let go of his staff, which dispersed into countless glimmers, and closed his eyes. His magical perception extended to every part of the fifth floor. It gathered at the door connecting the fourth floor with the fifth.

The door quivered. Milky fog leaked out beneath it and consumed swiftly the surroundings. The strings whipped at the mist, but they never returned once they entered the impregnable tide.

A murky silhouette passed through the locked door. She lifted her delicate hands and, like an orchestral conductor, waved them rhythmically, from left to right, up to down.

The tide of fog rose, fell, flowed, and swirled. Stirred by the silent music, countless humanoid silhouettes emerged from the formless mist. They marched with their war song, breaching defence and destroying traps in their paths. Their footsteps left pale marks, from which faint mist gradually manifested and tainted the secret formation protecting the floor.

Kradios pressed his index finger with his thumb and, through them, observed the obscured intruder. His Pure Power fluctuated, penetrating all illusions, yet it failed to unveil the distortion protecting her.

No matter. Kradios clenched his hand and yanked an invisible string. The protective formation revealed itself; the floor lit up.

The ceiling bent down, the walls caved, and the floor parted. Innumerable multi-coloured lines emerged from the rifts. They flung at the misty warriors and, cutting through their bodies, scattered them into a downpour of mist.

While most dissipated in one strike, some survived and fought back. Their hazy blades crashed against the strings, some breaking upon impact, a few cutting through them.

Though the number of misty soldiers dwindled, the surviving ones grew stronger by absorbing their comrades. Along with their power, their eyes gleamed with newfound intelligence. Their coordinated dances, as if revolving around the centre of the fifth floor, advanced them past these winding traps.

Kradios narrowed his eyes. The approaching fog consumed his formation. His lines vanished upon entering the grey depth, where his enemy ambled unseen, untouched. He could dispel it with a move, but the risk of counterattack was too high.

He didn’t believe this Transformation Phase Monster Girl was alone. Court of Indulgence would never send its member to certain doom. If she dared to barge into the fifth floor, her mean must rival that of a Condensed One.

A misty warrior swung her hammer at oncoming strings. Its head lit up in greenish flame, burning everything in its path. Ashes flew across the hall, and the hammer impacted a nearby bookshelf.

A translucent shield manifested between the bookshelf and the hammer, quivering, transmitting tremendous momentum outward. The wooden floor fractured, ground to fine sawdust, but the books suffered no vibration or harm.

Not a single page was harmed.

Provoked, the nearby strings disregarded their enemies and swamped that warrior. She dissipated tens of strings before her hammer broke, her limbs torn into vapours. As she dispersed, she looked over to the Tower Guardian and grinned, leaving behind a devilish visage.

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Kradios clenched his trembling fists. He swiped his left hand horizontally. His fingernails drew a floating symbol whose structure bled from a single line into a root system. It expanded from the middle of the floor, covered the untainted area, and pierced through reality, connecting Main Material Plane with Elemental Plane.

Cracks in space-time widened. Elemental Golems stepped out of the colourful Elemental landscapes. They tramped onward, their targets warriors of the hazes.

The warriors looked at the Golems and, giggling, broke into a sprint. Their melodious yet distorted tones permeated everywhere. They crashed their weapons with the Elementals, some shattering, some cleaving, some parrying.

Bright sparkles flew. Shattered metal fragments shot towards Kradios, who disregarded their presence. Lightning coiling his figure struck the projectiles, turning them into drifting particles. He only focused on the ever-present figure within the mist. Despite the chaos, she remained unhurried.

The root system vibrated. Their glyphs expanded before imploding into singularities, forming vortexes. Sharp gales swept the fifth floor, dissipating the dense sea of fog, revealing the intruder’s distorted silhouette.

Iris covered her eyes with her right hand and tilted down her head. Though concealed by her hair and the distortion, her smile peeked through her gradual motion. Her hair fluttered behind her, shimmering, spreading. They flowed like a river and, joining with her shadow, pulled her groundward.

Kradios backstepped. His back leaned on empty air, which crackled, rippled, and fragmented into countless reflective pieces. Mirror-like surface infected his surroundings, forming an intertwining maze. Walls made of pale dense air divided space into countless corridors, where the ceiling imitated the ground and the walls imitated the corners.

This airy maze imprisoned Iris and Kradios. Its turbulent flow disrupted all deliberate change in space-time, preventing teleportation. Within this place, no one could barge in or out, not even the maze’s creator himself.

Kradios uttered a single syllable, a word whose meaning was lightning. His body glowed as it disintegrated into steaks of lightning. They shot for Iris, penetrating all walls between him and her.

Their speed ionised the walls of air, which emitted colourful light as their structure crumbled into Wind Elements. Iris could only clench her fist, channelling her Corrupted Power into her rings.

Appearing in front of Iris, Kradios grabbed her neck and lifted her. His aged appearance contradicted his overflowing strength. The lightning forming the wings on his back crawled to her arms and body. They constricted her clothes and shackled her Corruption Power.

She grabbed his arms, but the lightning shocked her. Her hands loosened their grip and limped. Though helpless, her dull eyes betrayed no shock.

“Marvellous spell,” Kradios said. “What is its name?”

“It’s nameless. I based it on a spell of a friend.”

“Every spell deserves a name, a proof of its existence.”

“If it were to be my legacy, I’d wish it be known as Tide of Warring Dream.”

Kradios tightened his grip on her neck. “Now that the tide has been overturned, do you regret your actions?”

“Do you regret abandoning your fellow researchers and students?

“If my duty didn’t bind me, I would’ve helped them. Unfortunately, their safety is of lower priority than the secrets sealed within this place.”

“Truth for the sake of the truth, madness.”

“And pleasure for the sake of pleasure. Is it freedom, or is it madness?”

Iris hmphed. “This conversation is pointless.”

Kradios channelled his Pure Power. Fire Element gushed out of his sleeves and scorched Iris’s mask. It blackened and dispersed as grey ashes, revealing her dull expression. Her clothes too burned to crisps, yet not even a hint of flush came to her.

Despite only having thin undergarments on her body, she maintained her stare into his eyes as if reaching for a pearl at the bottom of a deep lake.

“I deliberately give you time, but you ruthlessly cast away your chance,” Kradios said. “Have you been abandoned?”

“I’ve always been alone. I do not need saving. I shall not need saving.”

“It’d be a waste of your talent if I were to kill you.” Kradios faintly smiled. “Become my assistant.”

“Rather death with dignity over slave without freedom.”

Iris moved her shaking hands to grab Kradios’s arm. Electricity seared her flesh, and fire devoured her skin, but her motion never slowed. Her fingernails pinched his sleeve but failed to damage it. Only her unreadable gaze, watching past his figure, could shake his confidence, instilling uncertainty to the air.

His maze of air churned, and his perception permeated every part of it. He detected nothing. Within here, nothing could escape him.

Then the problem was on the outside.

“Finally realised?” Iris said.

“You sacrificed yourself?” Kradios furrowed his brows. “They would never abandon you.”

“Everything for my dream, everything.”

Kradios let go of Iris’s neck. The Fire and Lightning Elements clinging to her body intensified. Their orange glow turned bluish, incinerating her body and her Corruption Power. Her flesh disintegrated. Her organs and bones followed. Her blood evaporated into a crimson mist. Yet her expression showed no pain.

As her body crumbled into petals, she smirked.

Outside the maze, the misty warriors engaged with the Elementals, pushing and getting pushed periodically. They advanced with each victory and retreated with each defeat.

As more fell, their momentum rose.

A particular silhouette, holding a flaming spear, broke through the front line. Her blade slithered past her enemy’s defence and penetrated its core, shattering it into pieces. She rushed deeper and deeper into the battlefield surrounded by Elementals of all types.

Other warriors assisted her. They forced their ways after her, delayed her enemies, and even sacrificed themselves to pave way for her advance. She never stopped to mourn. She only marched onwards, her destination the end of the fifth floor.

Kradios’s maze of air dissipated. His eyes locked onto this anomalous lady. Sparks flickered into existence before him. They multiplied into a tide of light, which engulfed the floor and the ceiling and everything in between. Pallid air consumed heat and numbed the atmosphere, stripping all their saturation and movement.

The icy world invaded the fifth floor. Its influence dulled the mist’s movement. It condensed into milky droplets and fell like morning dews.

Energy stagnated; chaos quietened. Elementals and mist halted. Even the magic formation powering the fifth floor muffled, their mechanism frozen still.

The extreme cold reached the mist-concealed lady. She spun around and, as her mist spiralled around her spear, held out her hands. The strings made from vapours, combined with her weapon, knitted her a majestic longbow.

Her left hand holding the arch, she leaned back and pulled the string. Lightning Element manifested between her fingers, forming an arrow of electricity, roaring at the silent stasis.

Iris closed her eyes and released her grip.