Lying down, not suspecting the piece of furniture more out of place than anything else you've seen so far, you almost melt in how comfortable it is.

The beanbag wraps around you, a comforting embrace that you doubt you could forget even if you wanted to. Perhaps this is a good place to rest..

Nonetheless, you've got other things to do, ideas to try out. With renewed gusto, you march back to the cave and pick up the old torch left there.

Then circling right back as soon as you do, you head towards the Black Door.

Since you can't see through its darkness, why not just use the torch? That thought giving you confidence, you practically run into it without any shadow of doubt in your mind!

…

[ Update - requirements met: 2/4 ]

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[ Initiating restart… ]

…

Seems you won't be able to get any further information about the Black Door.. There were two sets of memories stored inside the pyramid-shaped crystal you hold, each of which ending abruptly before giving you even a hint of what lies behind the dark entrance.

You digress.

There's a new crystal near you, one that wasn't included in the memories. It's a spherical orb, colored a transparent white.

[ Size Alteration crystal - Tier 0 ]

Its use is obvious to you. With but a thought, you can increase or decrease an objects size.

Not sure whether this would be useful to you anywhere, you opt to simply check out the angelic tower again.

…

You arrive at the third floor of the out-of-place tower, looking at the intricately carved cube.

You're pretty sure that it's magical in some way, though know not in what.

At first you try to cast a bolt of fire at it, though it starts to evaporate into thin air the closer it gets.

You try approaching it yourself, perhaps not needing to destroy it at all, but you quickly notice that too won't work. It makes you feel drowsy, all of the energy seemingly fading from the world.

Backing up, you reconsider what else you could try.

A few things quickly come to mind, thankfully each easy as can be to test out. One is to try other types of magic on, perhaps it is simply immune to fire.

You quickly cross that off your list. Any magic you can think up to throw at the thing just fades out of existence the nearer it gets, no matter whether it's an energy based attack like fire, force or lighting, or just a "plain water slash".

Yet again, you can thing of something else. Perhaps maybe you could set it alight? There's charcoal everywhere in this blazing realm, perhaps the wood will burn the cube as well.

You spend some time gathering as much of it as you can, then throw it near the cube, almost making it disappear in a sea of black.

Taking a glance at the final piece of fuel you have, you set it alight and wait for it to spread as much as you can. Then, just when it's about to burn you, you throw it at the pile you've made!

..the fire almost instantly snuffs out of existence..

Not having any more immediate ideas to try out, you stop to think again. You could throw physical things at the thing, though only if they weren't made with magic. So that worked as it would anywhere else, though yet again, the energy the fire was made up of vanish like anything else.

..perhaps, you really do need not destroy it?

Though the objects you thrown at it couldn't be influenced by other energies afterwards, perhaps simply moving out of the way would work.

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

You get to work.

First thing first is to find something long and study, to push the magical cube. The charcoal-wood would work, were it not so brittle. Thankfully, there's another kind that you can find, in the Blue Door.

Easily obtaining a long and firm frozen-over branch, you set out to collect something to make a ramp out of. It'd be hard to push the cube through a window with only a stick after all.

Thankfully, yet again there's something convenient you an use. The huge chunks of ice!

You learned that from one of your predecessors, who used the same trick on the demonic tower's third floor.

The preparations complete, you start to move out the charcoal surrounding the cube. It'd only get in way with your new plan.

The moment of truth arriving, you hit the cube as hard as you can!

It easily slides on the ice and shoots off through the window and into the distance, perhaps never to be seen again.

Nothing happens for a moment, though soon, the pillar of red light starts rising.

Neat, you think to yourself.

Satisfied, you head up to the fourth floor. The indents on the pedestal still elude you.

Sure, you've thought of maybe the crystal orbs going into them, though you don't have enough. You have four crystals total, and even then, one of those is a pyramid. Probably meant for the demonic tower, though better not used until this one cleared.

Not seeing other options than simply heading to the next stage, through the Dark Door, you wish the one after you good luck. Maybe they'll get all the orbs needed to try out your idea.

…

You hold a few crystals in your hand, this time the new one being a blue-ish orb.

The voice in your head tells you it's used for defense, though where would you even use that? Nothing has attacked you so far, nor the ones who stored their memories..

No matter, you explore around the realms on your own, hoping to find something different. You make sure to take a good nap on the beanbag of course, wouldn't want to miss that.

…

The number painted on between the Blue and Red Doors is now '13'. No one has made any progress since removing the magical cube from the angelic tower.

According to the memories you've stored, you're also the first one to have six different colored orbs. The ones before you obtained duplicates of ones they already had, though they seemed to merge and become larger and more powerful as a result.

Figuring that out, you've deduced the total number of crystals obtained. 13.

Figuring that the number on the floor is simply the number of crystals, you guess that it's simply there so you don't need to count them manually.

You.. don't really care either way. What you do care about, however, are the pedestals.

They seem to need orbs of size Tier 2, the only ones big so far being a yellow one representing the obscure concept of "luck", and the green one representing "nature".

But what if they don't? What if the only thing that matters it their size?

You've been the only one to think of this so far, probably since no one has tested the size-altering power on the crystals themselves, but it does seem to worth a try.

You head to the angelic tower, stopping for a moment only to look at the gaze-stealing pillars of light. They're truly beautiful.

Arriving on the top platform, you look at the pedestal that points at the sky as though in defiance.

Excitement oozing out of you, your trembling hands hold out a black crystal, and try to increase its size..

..nothing happens at first, though slowly, very slowly, it starts to grow.

Your grin almost stretches off of your face as you see the same trick working on the other crystals.

Carefully making sure all fill the spherical indents neatly, you try to use the size-altering crystal's powers on itself.

Cackling from joy as you see it work, you finally settle it down. Now, the pedestal is filled with six different colored orbs.

For a moment you're afraid that since you only increased their size, the crystals would be impure, though your worry is for naught as you see the red light grow.

It surrounds the pedestal, then envelops the tower as a whole. Some of it even leaks out and into the surroundings.

Not even being able to see because of the blinding light, you make your way down the tower by only your touch and memory.

Moving a good distance away, you gaze back. The tower shakes a bit.

Is it gonna fall apart, it's purpose complete?

The pillar of light fires off as though a beam, piecing the sky just as the pedestal itself foretold.

The world turns even redder.

…

Nothing else happens afterwards sadly, pretty anticlimactic in your opinion, but who are you to judge.

You head to the demonic tower to repeat the same thing.

Slotting the memory crystal inside its hole, you worry for a moment whether this will mean anyone coming after you will be unable to look at its contents.

The tower drains the crystal nonetheless, not caring for your thoughts. The previous white crystals dims, its energies flowing through the pedestal and into the tower, all the way to the ground.

The pillar of blue light starts growing.

This time you know what to expect, so you quickly run off to have to endure blindness again.

…

This time, there really isn't anything else to do. Nothing seems to be uncompleted, nothing appears to be unfinished.

..you'll head through the Black Door once you take one last nap on the magically-comfortable beanbag. After all, the chance might not ever come up again.

Gazing at the inscriptions carved into the doors, you wonder whether they actually mean something. Maybe they're only there to give a sense of wonder.

Glad you were the one to power up not only one, but both towers, you lay into the only piece of furniture around.

It's soooo cozy, how'd it even get made?

It's warm embrace allows you to drift off to sleep, the mirror-like door closing in on you, enveloping you in pitch-darkness.

…

[ Update - requirements met: 4/4 ]

[ ... ]

[ Initiating shutdown sequence… ]

[ Once again, thank you for your help… ]

[ Goodnight. ]