A few months have passed since Ike began vigorously training for the Magus trials and slowly had he gained control over his powers given to him by nature.

However, he felt this progress wasn't quite enough, and so he decided to visit an ancient library that was outside the village but not too far from it. Before departing, Ike met up with Elliot, Ellen, and her younger sister Karen. It was a sunny day outside, and everyone wore a smile on their face, except for Ike who wore a face of expectance.

"Hey everyone. How are you all doing?" asked Ike.

"I'm doing good, how about you?" said Elliot in response.

"I'm fine, thanks," responded Ike. Suddenly, the two younger girls spoke up in unison.

"Don't forget us, we're doing good too!" said Ellen and Karen.

"Ah—Sorry. It's just that you're so small that I didn't notice you," said Ike with a smirk on his face.

"Meanie! That's just cause you're an adult! When I'm an adult, I'll be bigger than you!" fumed out Karen while her older sister kept silent.

"All right, I get it. Say, how about we get some ice cream?" teased Ike.

"Yes! I want ice cream!" said Ellen.

"Me too! Race you to it, mister!" said Karen with a mischievous smirk before promptly running off with Ellen closely behind her. Elliot meanwhile watched in amazement in how agile the two girls are, with each of them perfectly shuffling between people and avoiding obstacles in their way.

"Well, we better start walking if we want to catch them in time..." said Elliot who started walking in the direction where the girls ran off.

"Wait, Elliot. Can I talk to you about something before we do that?" said Ike.

Elliot sensed something was off with Ike's voice.

"What is it?" said Elliot to Ike.

"It's about my training. While I'm making progress, it's not quite what I had imagined. I know you can't help me accelerate how fast I learn this stuff, but I had something else in mind," said Ike.

Elliot was suspicious of Ike at this point, so he questioned him.

"This isn't about borrowing some ancient tomes or finding some relics, is it?" said Elliot.

"No—this is about adventuring to an ancient forgotten library filled with knowledge of past magus. And before you decline, just think about what we could potentially find there! All the good that knowledge would accomplish for our people and land..." said Ike with a passionate voice.

But Elliot didn't seem so excited. Instead, he sighed.

"Ike, really? An ancient forgotten library? Where did you even come to learn of this myth?" said Elliot. Ike took a moment to respond.

"I took a good look at the pillars in the centre of the village and noticed their patterns look like a map, which had one point marked on it. And don't worry, I know where this point is. So how about it, Elliot? A good old adventure like in our childhoods... and some potential riches to grab, right?" said Ike.

Elliot seemed to expect a non-serious response, but after Ike said that he seemed unsure of what to make of all this.

"Ike, are you serious with this?" said Elliot.

"Yes, I am," merely responded Ike.

"And where is this library of yours?" asked Elliot, still unsure.

"I'll show you. It's not that far actually," responded Ike with a smile.

Elliot then assumed a thinking pose for a good minute before seemingly making up his mind.

"Fine, but on one condition. No more ventures and mischiefs after this, can you promise me that?" said Elliot.

"No more of any of that. Promise," said Ike.

And so they had agreed to venture together into this library, promptly realising Ellen and Karen are probably already finishing their ice creams, causing them to run off after them with newfound speed.

***

That same night, Ike prepared his backpack for the venture. He took a notebook, a pen and some water and stored it in the backpack. His anticipation was most likely off the charts since he slept very little that night. From time to time, he muttered something to himself.

"Does anyone else know about this library? I wonder..."

"Inside could very well be the key to this stalemate between us magus born and the rest of the humans..."

"If I could, would I do things the peaceful way or the violent way? In the end though, no one escapes from death's grasp, so does it truly matter?"

"What if there's nothing at all in there... I guess that would be a sign. Maybe this should be my last venture, at least it would be a grandeur end, a death of one thing and the birth of another."

"Elliot, if there's a chance this is true, then I want you to see for yourself..."

Ike muttered a lot more to himself through the night, but it would not be due justice to not mention at least some.

***

Eventually, the sun rose as morning began. It was Saturday, so Ike and his friends didn't have to worry about school that day. Ike once again came down the stairs where his parents already were.

"Good morning," said Ike.

"Good morning, dear," said Ike's mom.

"Good morning, Ike," said Ike's dad.

"I'll be out with my friends today. We're going on a little trip," said Ike in a manner not raising suspicion.

"Just remember to safe, dear. It's not safe if you venture out too far," said Ike's mom.

"Duly noted, mom," said Ike with a smile.

Afterwards, Ike and his parents ate breakfast together. When they finished, Ike promptly brushed his teeth and told his parents goodbye before leaving the house. He made his way to a spot where he was to meet Elliot, eventually locking him in his sights.

"Hi, Elliot. I'm glad you arrived," said Ike upon reaching Elliot.

"Ike, I... I have a bad feeling about this whole thing. Since yesterday, I couldn't keep it off my mind," said Elliot in a worried manner. But Ike only smiled before continuing.

"What's the matter? We're just going on a little adventure as we used to. Just consider our destination a ruin like any other. We already visited this many, so since we're both adults now, let's conduct this one more trip," responded Ike in a calming manner.

For a moment this seemed to calm Elliot, but then his eyes glossed over the pillars in the centre of the village.

"Look, I don't know how you figured this supposed pattern on the pillars, but wouldn't this be considered a forbidden secret by the elders? If they figure out, we treaded on forbidden hallowed grounds..."

"Curiosity is set in nature, just like our powers. If anything, they'll be impressed someone figured this out," said Ike who then put his hand on Elliot's shoulder before continuing.

"Trust me, nothing bad will happen. If it does, it'll be my responsibility. Now, shall we get going? For one last time."

***

Ike and Elliot set out in search of an ancient library supposed to contain knowledge of past magus, navigating the forest outside their village. Ike made sure they were careful enough to avoid any passer-by's while not extending their trip. The map took them in front of a small cave sealed by rocks.

Ike was sure this was their destination and began to remove the rocks in denial of them reaching a dead end. He convinced Elliot to help him, if only for long enough before Ike gave up.

However, when Elliot touched one of the rocks, he stopped in his tracks and turned to Ike.

"Hold on. If you insist this is the place, then I'm pretty sure I just realised something," said Elliot.

"This must be place! But go ahead, what is it?" responded Ike.

"The rocks... there's something off about them. As if they..." Elliot closes his eyes.

"Illusio dispellere," said Elliot and the rock he was holding suddenly turned to a single grain of sand. Ike looked curiously at what Elliot had just done.

"It just turned into a grain! Elliot, what was that? How did you do it?" questioned Ike.

"I sensed the rock was an illusion, so I dispelled its illusion with a spell," responded Elliot.

Upon hearing this, Ike looked even more amazed than before, and a fire lit in his eyes.

"That must mean the other rocks are an illusion too! Let me try dispelling it," said Ike. Elliot nodded. Ike then touched one of the rocks making the formation on the cave entrance and closed his eyes, clearly concentrating. To strengthen his focus, he thought back to a saying back in his village and started repeating it. It went like this:

*

Peace of mind, clarity of mind, control of mind. With all three, the impossible becomes possible.

*

After Ike said this a couple of times, he proceeded to cast the spell.

"Illusio dispellere," said Ike. And to his surprise, the rocks indeed turned into grains of sand, falling onto the ground, and revealing the entrance.

"It worked! I can't believe it..." said Ike in awe. For once, he seemed genuinely surprised and amazed. Elliot was silent and could only stare in surprise.

"Since the entrance was sealed off, do you think anyone's inside?" said Ike.

Elliot composed himself.

"There's always the possibility someone illusioned those grains of sand to prevent potential following," responded Elliot.

"Do you think there's another magus in there?" said Ike.

"I have no idea," responded Elliot.

"Then let's go! Who knows what's in this cave, we can't let someone steal it!" said Ike who suddenly seemed to be in rush.

The two of them then entered the cave. It was very dark inside, but being a magus, Elliot had no problem conjuring a light source. Everything around them seemed like a normal cave at first, but the deeper they went, the heavier the air got around them. This continued until they reached an altar with two sets of slots for two hands and two symbols. One of symbols represented life, and the other one represented death. When Elliot realised this, he immediately got nervous.

"What is all this stuff? It makes me feel uneasy, Ike..." said Elliot eying the mechanism.

"Looks like some sort of mechanism guarding something. What do you think?" said Ike.

"Look at these two symbols... life and death, right? And it looks like two people could put each their hands into these slots," said Elliot trying to put the pieces together.

"I see something up there. It's another inscription. It reads... 'As long as life and death dance, evil and good clash, mana will flow'," read out Ike.

"Then the key to solving this puzzle..."

"...Must be in fulfilling the inscription! One of us must represent death, and another life while holding the slots!" said Ike, completing Elliot's sentence.

"Ah, this brings back good memories... But Ike, how do you suppose one of us represents death?" said Elliot. Ike adjusted his glasses.

"It's simple. We cheat death by entering a state in which we would be considered dead. And I know just the spell for the occasion," said Ike.

Elliot immediately stepped back.

"I-Ike! Have you lost your mind? That's like... extremely dangerous! And God knows what spell you have in mind, but if you think I'll be a willing test subject for it—"

"That's all right. I'll gladly be the one to take the risk," interrupted Ike. Elliot looked even more shocked by his friend's words, but he knew Ike wouldn't let this go until he accepted. He sighed.

"A person can never be bored with you around... Look, are you sure this spell can be reversed? And I won't take pretty sure for an answer," said Elliot.

"Absolutely. Let me tell me you the incantation," said Ike, who then proceeded to walk up to Elliot and whisper something into his ear. As he did, Elliot's expression slowly shifted into that of surprise.

"Where did you learn this?" said Elliot.

"That's a business secret," responded Ike with a smile.

He then walked up to the slots and symbol representing death, placing his hands in the two slots.

"Whenever you're ready, friend," said Ike.

Elliot slowly walked up to his slots and with heavy hesitation proceeded to cast the spell with one simple word.

"Immortui," said Elliot, immediately placing his two hands into the two slots. Ike promptly collapsed, but not before activating the mechanism with his two hands in the slots that he placed there before Elliot casted the spell.

However, Elliot didn't pay heed to their success and ran over to Ike's body straight away before casting another spell.

"Contrarium erit invertendo!" said Elliot with a passionate voice. The knowledge of him separating his friend from death and life was clearly taking a heavy toll on him.

Fortunately, the spell seemed to work, and Ike started gasping for air.

"Oh, thank God... you're still alive, Ike. For a moment I thought I'd lose you," said Elliot. Ike didn't seem so phased, only smiling.

"Have we done it? Ah, I'm just messing with you. Good job, Elliot. I knew you could do it," said Ike proudly.

"Yeah... I'm never doing that again," said Elliot in relief.

"All right, let's see what happened to the mechanism," said Ike as he got up.

They both turned to the altar, which now had a visible lever on it. After exchanging looks, Ike pulled it and suddenly, the floor opened beneath them.

Without time to react, they were both already falling to the bottom, both screaming in terror as they did. Every second seemed to stretch, as they both knew this high a fall would kill them no matter what they landed in.

Eventually, they saw the bottom and prepared for the worst, but their fall we suddenly broken, and they were brought safely to the surface. It took them both a good minute before they dared open their eyes to find out what happened to them.

"Am I dead...?" said Elliot. Ike opened his eyes.

"Uhm... No, it seems like we're not," responded Ike, whose eyes were glued on something in front of him.

"Oh, thank God! That's like the third time we almost squared off with death today," said Elliot while he opened his eyes. What he saw was hardly explainable, enough that they both froze in place.

In front of them was a huge library with shelves ten times taller than them, filled with tomes, books and only God knows what else. What initially seemed like a small cave now turned out to be a huge complex, as these shelves spanned far beyond their sight. They both stared in amazement at what they've found, but Elliot stopped for a second to say something.

"Ike, this... there's no way we are allowed to be here. These tomes must contain centuries of knowledge! Look, this one for example... it says something about summoning a being of godlike strength called a—"

"Hold on, give me that!" said Ike as he snatched the tome from Elliot's hand and continued reading.

"With enough mana concentrated in one place that can sustain an entire world, a being of immeasurable strength can be summoned. We call this being... a Spirit."

***

Ike and Elliot spent a while reading as many tomes and books as possible, but Elliot eventually started pleading Ike to begin thinking of a route to go back. However, Ike didn't seem to pay him any mind, further opening various tomes like a child opens his Christmas gifts.

"Ike, let's go! We've already had enough, now we need to find an exit route. You can always come back here later, but we can't stay here forever," pleaded Elliot. Ike sighed.

"Fine but let me grab some of these tomes with me first," compromised Ike, who began putting tomes he found most interesting in his bag.

When his bag was brimming full of tomes, he finally stopped shuffling through the shelves and came up to Elliot.

"All right, let's go. I think I saw an exit route before, so we should be fine," said Ike.

Elliot nodded compliantly and began following Ike.

However, they didn't get far before a figure appeared before them in front of nowhere. Revealing itself, it was the third elder. Soon behind him, the other two appeared also. Ike and Elliot froze in place. The third elder was visibly seething with anger, pointing at Ike.

"You just couldn't endure the temptation, could you Ike?!" said the third elder.

"And dragging a young, accomplished magus and your friend with you down here... despicable!" said the second elder.

"This place is forbidden! No one was to ever set foot in this place again, but we couldn't risk attracting too much attention by completely sealing it and we wanted to respect our ancestor's heritage, so we left their mechanisms and traps as they were originally," said the first elder.

"Only someone like you would risk a life for this... and only you would think to steal our tomes to learn of this libraries whereabouts. No one else would dare commit such a crime!" said the third elder.

"If you had just trained like Elliot did, you could have been an amazing magus... You showed so much potential, Ike. But for your treachery, there will be no more chances for you. We gave you plenty of warnings," said the second elder.

"For this heinous act, you will be exiled forevermore, Ike Westcott!" said the first elder. In that moment, Elliot spoke up.

"Exiled?! You can't do that to him! Ike's my friend!" said Elliot with shock in his eyes.

"You of all people should know, he had this coming! There is no other punishment for the disrespect of our ancestors and your elders!" said the third elder.

"Then you'll have to exile me too! You can't just administer your own justice like this!" said Elliot.

The three elders were surprised by Elliot's rebuttal. They looked at each other and nodded in unison before turning back to Ike and Elliot.

"Very well. We will settle this now. Come, the whole village is waiting for us! If you want justice, then justice will it be!" said the second elder.

The three elders started casting a spell which proceeded to transport all of them in the centre of the village where every villager was already standing and waiting, only leaving a circle free of space in the absolute centre around fifteen meters in diameter. Ike's, Elliot's, Ellen's, and Karen's parents were also in the crowd along with Ellen and Karen. The first elder started talking.

"Ike Westcott, you will explain yourself at once! Why trespass and steal our tomes, why lie your way into a forbidden homage you have desecrated by stealing from for your own ends? What did you hope to accomplish by doing all this?" said the first elder. All eyes were on Ike.

"I didn't do this for myself, I did this for us! All of us! You choose to ignore the limitless power and knowledge left behind by our ancestors in favour of staying isolated and freeing up space for the rest of the humans. If we instead embraced this power and knowledge, our kind could rise and take our rightful place back!" said Ike.

The crowd kept silent, but the second elder didn't.

"What, so you would kill all who are different from us? What makes you think you'd not be worse than them then? Murder is never just, even if you think you have the right!" said the second elder.

"I never said anything about killing, did I? Don't we at the very least deserve to be equal to them? We could do a lot of things, for example making them fear us, or respect us. It seems they've certainly done the same, seeing as they made us flee to a few secluded locations. If we're talking about justice, then this is just," said Ike.