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A mage hailing from the Magic Tower shuddered helplessly like an aspen in the wind.
His name was Toma. Early in life, his skills allowed him to be accepted into the Magic Tower. He then went on to become a proud member of the 4th Magic Tower, which belonged to the Red Flame’s seat.
Toma's mouth was so wide open that he was afraid that his jaw would fall off.
“Are you telling me… that is a human?”
The inside of the Tower shouldn’t have any wind. It was impossible.
But all of a sudden, a storm had started raging in front of him. Even more surprising was the fact that the great Seven Magicians of the Magic Tower were the ones on the receiving end of that crazy wind.
“How— Against them, he’s alone… No, how are these people—?”
Many of them died and became ashes. Some were burned and killed by electricity. Plus, the two men they all looked up to were fighting for their lives against the very magic that they had cast.
In front of them stood a man holding a spear. The sight of him made Toma’s breath stop for a moment.
“Wait…?”
‘Why?’
For some reason, Toma thought the way the man was dressed was very familiar.
The deep blue hair and eyes that weren’t common on the continent, the bright red spear that stood out, and the way he was dealing with the Red Flame and the Void without a single sign of strain on his face… something about it was familiar.
Toma had been very young when he left his hometown, but he had always been on the lookout for news from his country because he still cared for his family there.
“In the Empire of proud knights... a boy has been born.”
‘Has something taken over my body?’
A strangely-pitched voice kept speaking through Toma’s mouth.
That boy came from a family with the finest bloodline in the Empire—but the other half of his blood came from a common maid. He was ignored, despised, and looked down upon by everyone.
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Despite all that, he stood up for himself and held his own against the world.
Ultimately, the future of the Avalon empire would soon be decided by his red spear.
“Oh no…”
“How very spectacular… You held on pretty well.”
Toma’s eyes grew wide when he heard Joshua’s voice.
“The Seven Mages? No matter how great that name is, you’ve already fallen to your knees in front of a kid. If we added two more people, would anything change?”
“Keugh!”
Zephyros used all of his mana to try to stop the storm of flames that was coming at him, but in the end, he couldn't take it and vomited blood. Scorpino was barely maintaining control and shortly let out a scream of his own.
“Damn you, Joshua Sanderssssssssssssss!”
They knew for sure who the man attacking them was: Joshua Sanders, the new Superhuman of the continent and the Young Master of Avalon. He was also assumed to be the wild beast that killed the Thunderbolt seat, Jack Steropes, years ago.
“I knew it! Jack died by your hands—!”
Now, they could cry out with certainty.
Scorpio gritted his teeth and ignored the huge amount of pressure on his whole body as he forced mana to flow through him. It was a powerful spell, the true definition of a Class 6 magic spell. It was the most powerful spell that the Void’s seat could cast right now.
“Void, the first power in the world that turns everything into nothing!”
Mana in the air started fluctuating after the last word was finally said.
The floor shook with a strange sound.
‘Huh?’
Scorpino tried to continue to chant, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t speak. His voice wasn’t coming out.
Just as Scorpino frowned, unable to figure out why he couldn’t speak, Joshua’s voice reached his ears; he was speaking from directly in front of him.
“You see… There’s one thing that you don’t understand…”
Scorpino's vision got more and more blurry as Joshua kept speaking. His body began to fall as he slowly lost consciousness until he hit the ground with a thump!
“NO!” Zephyros let out an anguished cry.
Joshua casually tossed his spear into the air.
“Out of politeness, I went out of my way to wait for you,” Joshua mocked the mage.
“You bastardddd!”
“Have you ever met an idiot dumb enough to wait for a mage to finish chanting before he makes his move?”
‘Fu… ck this,’ Scorpino swore. Hearing Joshua call himself an “idiot” made Scorpino incredibly furious right before he completely passed out.
***
Theta and Iceline heard a quiet rumble like thunder before the lightning.
Theta blinked for a moment.
“The fight is very noisy,” he noted.
“We’re already on the 28th floor. We’re quite far from their last location, but if you can hear them here…”
Afraid, Iceline couldn’t finish her words. Theta sighed.
“We are not called the strongest Seven Mages on the continent for nothing.”
“Are they gonna catch up soon?” Iceline asked.[1]
“No,” Theta immediately answered, shaking his head. “They don’t have the experience. The current members of the Seven Mages are so prideful that they never came close to the Tower of Trials in their entire lives.”
“Ah.”
“They believe that personal training is enough. They’re people who only want to add links to their circle; they’ll never be able to climb this Tower easily.”
Iceline was quiet for a while while she thought.
“What's the deal with this Tower?” she eventually asked.
“Huh?”
“There was a floor with a dragon lair! A jungle that showed up out of nowhere, and even a centuries-old fort! Plus a lot of monsters and traps that I’ve never seen before! That’s not all! After we cleared the floor, it went back to normal, like it was waiting for the next person to walk in and clear the floor! I remember hearing it in rumors, but seeing it for myself… I just—”
“I don’t know either,” Theta said before Iceline could finish.
“Huh?” Dumbfounded, Iceline stared at him.
“No one will know,” he continued. “Not on this continent. Not me, not you.”
“But you’re the caretaker of the Tower—”
“It’s just a temporary position that the Magic Tower has given me. For them, this is a sacred place.”
“You mean—?”
“I guess there’s one more thing.”
“What is it?” Iceline asked with a twinkle in her eyes that defied their current predicament.
She was an “icy beauty,” but she still couldn’t get rid of the curiosity every mage had. Theta couldn’t help but laugh after realizing that fact.
“The top of the Tower.”
“The top?”
“It is a legend passed down from a long time ago. All of the truth, including the Tower's secrets, is hidden on the top floor.”
“....”
“Right now, people just say it’s a story made up to give meaning and justification for the Tower of Trials, but no one can know for sure. After all, no one has ever climbed to the top of the Tower.”
“So the rumors were true…” Iceline murmured to herself.
Theta nodded in reply. “Then have you heard of this one before?”
“Which one…?”
“There is a rumor that every time a floor in the Tower of Trials is cleared, the challenger gets a special reward.”
Iceline’s eyes widened.
“Didn't the Magic Tower have something to do with that?”
“What about the Magic Tower? They won’t do something like that of their own volition—they wouldn’t gain anything out of it.”
“Perhaps to promote the Tower of Trials?”
“Then what are they getting out of it?”
Iceline had no choice but to stay silent because what Theta said made a lot of sense.
“Trust me, there is no one on the continent who calculates gains and losses more than the Magic Tower.”
“Then the prize—”
“It is something that the Tower itself gives.”
Iceline was once again dumbfounded.
Most Tower prizes, like the lowest-grade mana stones, weren't worth all the work they took to get. It was one of the little things that made it so that many mages had completely forgotten about the Tower of Trials. However, it was a bit different from the 30th floor, where the difficulty significantly increased.
“But if mana stones are so common, why haven’t we gotten one even once?”
“Because I’m with you. The Tower knows the player, and people who have already cleared the floor won't get the same rewards twice.”
Theta’s voice echoed in the silence.
“Those are the Tower’s rules.”
***
On the Tower of Trials's 17th floor, the incredible battle had left only three people standing.
“You bastard. What did we do for us to deserve this, for you to do this?!”
Joshua looked down at the rags Zephyros was kneeling over, grieving for his fallen colleague.
“Do you think the Tower won’t do anything to us when you’ve done this to us? You think you can survive that?”
“....”
“You’ll regret this! You’ll suffer so much that you’d rather die! I will make sure—”
“So noisy.”
“Keugh!” Zephyros flew across the room with one kick.
“The Empire and I are already on bad terms. You really think I’d worry about the Magic Tower?”
“Guuu—”
“Plus…” Joshua’s eyes looked even further down. “The fact that you’re Evergrant’s follower makes your death well deserved.”
Zephyros’s eyes widened as he inhaled sharply at Joshua’s words/
“You rot and stink, so I will take care of you… for the new Tower, for the new leader of the Magic Tower.”
“This guy— You basta—”
“Wait for me in hell.”
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A gut-wrenching sound filled the room.
Shocked, Zephyros looked down. The floating spear was now piercing his heart. Even so, there was no blood on the ground; it was as if it were being sucked up by the spear. He trembled for a bit and then fell flat on the ground, the light going out of his eyes.
Zephyros of the Red Flame was among the most powerful mages on the continent, and yet, he died an absurd death that didn’t live up to his reputation.
Joshua continued to speak, even though he appeared to be alone in the room.
“I know that you’re awake.”
Someone gasped from within the piles of dead bodies.
“Tell Evergrant this.”
“Y-Yes?” Toma heard Joshua loud and clear and raised his head.
“Tell him that soon, Joshua Sanders will pay him a visit at the Magic Tower.”
1. Theta is talking about how his sense as a one of the Seven Mages is advanced, and Iceline thought he was talking about the other two catching up so quickly. ☜