Nico opened one eye. Turbulent energies collided, twisted, and transformed in a malevolent cocktail of magic around him. Errant fire and water magic kicked up dust and swirled fog around the treasure room. Someone was fighting, but Nico couldn't figure out who through the thick mass of dust and fog. He coughed through cracked, dry lips, “Measure escape routes.” Nico's ability highlighted a giant hole in the wall of the treasure room with translucent blue energy. It glowed even through the dust, which he had to blink away just to see. The other entry way he ran through earlier glowed as well, but Nico's modified Mind Formation on his eyes emphasized the haze of power erected at the entrance. The magical barrier was still up. Of course, he wanted answers to what was happening, like what Yuri and Pullman were fighting, but survival mattered most. The last thing he wanted was to get caught in the middle of the maelstrom of spells. From instinct and feeling alone, he knew the spells would outright kill him without any preparation on his part. His map updated with possible escape routes to each of the exit points. Measure calculated the most efficient ways through the treasure room while whoever was fighting battled. Nico wanted to burst-jump in a straight line to one of the exits, but it wasn’t possible. His burst-jump only accounted for flat surfaces, like the stone floor or walls. But gold coins were scattered everywhere, dampening the effects and making his trajectory unpredictable. On top of that, he didn’t want to get anyone's attention, at least until he wanted it. He was pretty sure it was Yuri and Pullman, but didn't know who or what they were fighting against. [Alert] Something on his map snapped him out of his thoughts. A grey dot appeared on his mini map along with a notification. The grey dot blinked with inexorable momentum towards the treasure room. Nico shivered. Suddenly, all the fog in the room condensed, clearing the air. Without the thick fog to the cling to, the dust settled to the piles of gold on the floor. Nico could finally see what was happening. Yuri, the blonde testee whose life Nico had saved, was barely standing, his boots placed on spell arrays made of ash. Power filled the array while Yuri's finger danced to his vocal incantation, which sounded like Russian. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, probably to focus on the appropriate memory and emotion. His calloused, muscled hands extracted a bright golden flame shaped like a halberd from thin air. With the grace of an experienced athlete, he lunged sideways, grunted, hefted the flame-spear, and bolted it at his enemy. Pullman looked annoyed and unimpressed. He scuttled deftly to the side, but the flames of the halberd fanned outward like the wings of a phoenix. Its flames licked Pullman’s cheek. Pullman lifted his heels, but otherwise stayed in place, bouncing on the balls of his feet like a boxer. He looked tired, but calm. The flaming halberd halted midair, and changed its trajectory toward Pullman. It struck multiple times, hunting the man’s head. Nico spared a glance at Yuri. Beads of sweat poured down the young Russian's face, wincing as if the smallest little thing could break his concentration. His fingers moved in exact coordination with the flaming halberd. Pullman’s boot wriggled in a quick, deliberate motion that looked oddly familiar to Nico. A sphere of water appeared between him and the flaming halberd. It wove around the flame-spear, and strangled it completely. The fires of the magical, floating weapon hissed steam, evaporating into nothing. Yuri cried out in pain, clutching his head, and collapsed to both knees. Despite the Russian’s loss, Nico could not help but analyze the magical formations. Yuri created spell formations out of ash, but not just one formation. From what Nico could tell, the spells the Russian summoned created more spell formations out of ash, which Yuri could transform at will. Nico didn't know that was even an option until now. It wasn’t just the ash Yuri summoned. There were traces of fire spells burning spell formations into the floor with scorch marks. It probably wasn’t Yuri's primary intention, but just a secondary effect of his spells. The idea was simple, but genius. This way, every spell he cast created more spell arrays. How much power did that require? It was definitely more than what Nico had, and he suspected even more than what a standard mage of Yuri's age should be capable of. Yuri struggled to get up, but failed. He leaned his palms on the floor of a smaller spell array made of scorch marks. The formation glowed dimly as a pitiful ball of flame buzzed slowly at Pullman. Perry must have noticed that Nico was awake because the older man turned his head toward him while casually smacking the errant ball of flame. The middle-aged magician yelled to Nico in a delighted tone, "Mr. Kanazawa! Glad you’re awake.This filthy Russian spy tried to kill you in your sleep." Alarmed, Nico strained to get up, but found himself on his feet. His hands went to his pocket and found his marker. Did he have enough time to withdraw it, unscrew it, and draw a modified Gallahad Control formation before Pullman attacked? The speed at which Pullman summoned spells gave Nico pause. Nico didn't buy one word of it of what Pullman said, but he didn't want to give away anything. So he said nothing. He couldn't be sure of whether or not Yuri was trying to kill him either. Measure glowed paths for possible exit strategies, reminding him he didn't have to engage in a fight. Yuri tried to get back up, but could only get up to one knee. He found the energy to croak in broken English. "Nnet, Nico. Pullman was one tried to kill you in sleep." Now Nico was even more confused. It was hard to make any decision except for survival. His only his nerves had been dialed up to eleven ever since the beginning of the day. The only people he trusted since he woke up were the treasure hunters, but they were back in the mortal world now. Nico was alone. He silently had Measure analyze who was telling the truth, if that was something his ability could divine. He wasn't quite sure, but he could try. [Too many factors] Without looking at the screen to give away anything about his ability, he asked Measure to identifies possible lies of omission and commission. It was more important to see when either Yuri or Pullman were leaving things out of what they were saying to bend the truth to their benefit. The data came back instantly, but not quite how Nico expected it. No windows appeared. Instead, he felt his already held suspicions solidify and expand. Good. He could feel he was closer to the truth, regardless of what either told him. His feelings, especially his conviction to discover why he was here, crystallized. The Russian was clearly hiding something, but Nico's now clearer instints told him to trust Yuri. Perry didn't seem patient for Nico's response. His boot jiggled, and he summoned a pipe of water from seemingly nowhere and quenched a wall of defensive flame erupting from a nearly passed out Yuri. Nico slowly pulled out his black marker. He used one hand to uncap it with ease, but stopped himself. The map appeared, blocking Pullman from Nico's view. On the map, the grey, pulsing dot edged closer to the treasure room. Pullman sprayed a bullet of water with a wave of his hand, knocking Yuri flat on his back. Perry nodded to Nico thanked gratefully. "Thank you Mr. Kanazawa. Making Yuri talk was a good distraction." The plumber slowly made his way over to Yuri, who was gasping for air. The water bullet mus have knocked the wind out of Yuri. Perry straddled the young Russian and grabbed the fingers of his left hand. "Stop!" Nico yelled. Sound of cracks filled the room immediately followed by screams from Yuri. Perry had broken all the fingers on Yuri's hand. Perry wiped sweat from his forehead as if unclogging an annoying drain. His grin sent a shiver up Nico's spine. "No more casting for you." He spat on the ground, and added under his breath. "Little shit." A notification appeared. Measure dictated thirty seconds until the gray dot approached. Nico ignored it, wanting nothing more than draw as many modified Gallahad Control formations to defend himself. Pullman showed his true colors, erasing all of Nico's doubts about the man. But Nico kept his calm, assisted by the meticulous calm of Measure. If he reached into his pants right now and pulled out his marker, Pullman would only see that as a declaration of war. Yuri managed to turn a swollen eye towards Nico, and mouth the word run. Pullman turned his attention to Nico, and peered quizzically. "You seem to be confused about what's happening, Mr. Kanazawa? Are you okay? I'm here to help." Nico reminded himself to not pull out his marker, even though every inch of his body wanted to. However, Yuri left plenty of scorch marks with its own spell formations on the ground between Nico and Pullman. Luckily, some were the exact same higher formation he had seen only the day before. The arrays didn't have any of Yuri's magic in it, so Nico didn't have to hijack it. Nico got up warily without a word, and stepped on the scorch marked fire formation closest to him. It was only now Nico realized the array had a bit of Gallahad's theorems laced through it. Despite completely dominating Yuri, Pullman still seemed slightly on edge. He would take any magic cast as a threat. Nico debated about having a conversation with Pullman to get more answer. No. That road only led to nowhere. Even if Pullman admitted to framing him, Nico had no way of leaving the Next Over, let alone bring Pullman back. His drive to find Pullman had been the one thing that kept him alive so far. But now that Nico had the older mage in sight, it quickly dawned on Nico he completely glossed over one important factor. Pullman was at least a class three magician. Nico was vaguely a class one. The power difference was too wide. It wasn't like he didn't think about the difference in power. He just didn't completely understand it until now. Measure tipped the balance toward Nico a little more, but the scales were still outweighed against him. He needed more power, more time. So he made his choice. He only had one shot at this. In one swift motion, he slid to his knees next to one of Yuri's scorch-marked fire formations, and placed his hands down on it. He used exactly half of the MP he had left, which wasn't much. A wall of fire coalesced in front of him. It split through over a pile of gold coins barreling toward Perry Pullman. The humidity suddenly shifted, and a small cloud of rain condensed between Pullman at the wall of incoming fire. The flames evaporated against the cloud in a hiss of steam. When the steam cleared Pullman stood a few steps closer now with a frown on his face. "How disappointing." Pullman's boot moved in a small odd circular fashion. The familarity of the boot's movement would not have mattered to Nico a day before, but now he had Measure... [83% match of movement of Perry Pullman's boot to variations of Gallahad's Water Formation] Puzzle pieces clicked together in the back of Nico's mind, but not in anyway he could understand. Time seemed to slow down for him. He set the thought aside as a streak of water squeezed out of the remains of Pullman's cloud in the shape of an owl with outstretched wings. Pullman spat, "I don't know how you got here, you second-rate copycat, but you won't get in my way again." Nico burst-jump forward toward Pullman, but a little to the left. He could have burst-jump backwards, but he had something else in mind. A map notification appeared in this vision, but he batted it away. The anger cooled by Measure bubbled to the surfaced. Nico felt his nostrils flare, "You're the one who set me up for their deaths!" He'd waited for this moment vindication. He imagined Pullman to either smile with satisfaction like an old cartoon villain or throw a tantrum at having been found out so plainly that even followed into the next over. Instead, Perry Pullman cocked his head to the side confused. "Set you up?" Pullman said with genuine confusion. "Don't make me laugh." Nico could only blink in surprise. Completely caught off guard by the unexpected reaction. [100% match of movement of Perry Pullman's boot to variations of Gallahad's Water Formation.] [Purpose and theory of the variations of Gallahad's Water Formation unclear.] Perry walked forward again and Nico paid close attention to the man's boot. Focusing his energies into Gallahad's mind formation on his eyes while connecting his inner palms together, Nico squeezed his attention at Pullman's boots. He noticed a faint glow of magical energy at the tip of the steel toe boots. Somehow, Pullman was drawing spell formations on the ground. Why would he need to do that? From what Nico knew, magicians of higher classes did not need spell formations cast spells... Or was that completely true? After all, he'd only been acting on the knowledge on what he could get is a hedge mage. An idea clicked in his mind. Perry also seemed off guard by Nico's reaction. "You look confused, Mr. Kanazawa. I can answer some of your questions, and keep you safe. Since you're here with me as well, you must know about the tower." He was probing for answers. Something wasn't adding up. Pullman spoke with complete confidence in Nico's knowledge about why he was here. It was as if Pullman had expected some kind of other party to be here. He almost sounded competitive. Entitled. Perry pushed, "How long have you been here? Do you find the key yet? We can work together. I know how to get there." He reached out a hand open palm faceup. The gesture was common among magicians as a sign they wanted no fight. Nico found himself inching away. He steeled his resolved. Behind Pullman, Yuri struggled to get up with his only remaining good hand. Blood dripped from his face and he croaked out. "Run, Nico." Perry turned back to Nico. He must've recognized the resolve on Nico's face because he frowned. All friendliness vanished from his demeanor. He said, "How disappointing. I thought because of our shared...history, we could work together." The man's words disrupted Nico's concentration. Pullman summoned magical energy, and water rose from cracks in the floor. Nico had only enough MP to cast one actual spell. If he messed this up, Pullman would pulverize him. He dropped his hands quickly into the ash created by Yuri's spell formation, shoving a pile aside for his own formation. With a speed and precision only possible with the guidance of Measure, his fingers drew a new array. The water filled a quarter of the large treasure room by about a centimeter in height. It pooled together in the shape of a small wave that cascaded toward Nico. Ordinary water wouldn't be able to wipe away a spell array infused with magic, at least not easily. Pullman's water wave spell probably had some magic erosion properties. At least, that's what Nico guessed as he saw several of Yuri's formations engulfed and destroyed by the magical wave. Some part of Nico couldn't help but admire the ingenuity and simplicity of the spell. He set his admiration aside and infused his new spell formation with most of the MP he had left. The array glowed a deeper red that Yuri's own fire magic. A single pillar as thin as a finger jetted out of Nico's modified Gallahad fire formation. It breezed above the wave of water straight at Pullman, who casually dodged the fire. Pullman grinned. "Missed." Nico returned the grin. "Sure." The fire spell sunk into the spell formation which erected a magical barrier at the entrance which Nico jumped through, shattering the barrier. Pullman's eyes widened. He whirled around and screamed, "No!" Nico didn't wait. He kicked aside some of the gold coins to make sure the soles of his shoes had a flat surface, and burst-jump toward the downed Yuri. Although the Russian looked like he'd done fifteen rounds against a professional boxer armed with brass knuckles, he silently got up to one knee. Wordlessly, Nico hooked his arm under Yuri's shoulder, and hoisted him up.

They walked together to the hole in the wall which led to who knew where. Nico didn't even bother burst-jumping, confident Pullman wouldn't pay them any attention. There was a bigger fish to fry. The grey dot on his map blinked through the entrance of the treasure room. Nico spared a glance over his shoulder. Pullman swore and cursed and roared as he summoned complex water and earth spells to survive against the relentless onslaught of the death knight's death-aura attacks. Nico felt his grin drop as Pullman seemed to quickly adapt to the death aura blades. How powerful was the warlock? Nico didn't want to stay to find out. He ushered Yuri through the hole in the wall and down the rubble. It didn't matter if Pullman or the death knight won. Either way, Nico would have a monster to deal with.