The headmaster appeared in the middle of the remaining members of the group. “The boys on your team have all gone missing. Find them before it’s too late and each of you will receive a reward.”

“So we don’t have to participate.” Bella asked.

“You don’t have to but the training is necessary.” Baccus said.

“So they haven’t been kidnapped.” Bella squinted.

“Well if you don’t help them then you won’t receive any healing during the time they remain captured.”

Bella crossed her arms. “Really?”

Cecil sighed. “What do they need to do? I’m a third party here.”

“Come to the tower. Should be quite easy, no?”

Cecil looked at the girls, who seemed to have been drinking the supposed training tool. Surprisingly only Tiffany still seemed drunk.

“I’ll lead the way.” Cecil said.

For the first time, Cecil understood what having the harem he wanted would mean. That innocent dream died on the way to the tower. People had too much personality, and he got the feeling trying to balance that in this world would be more trouble than he wanted. Maybe the real harem was the friends he made along the way. Cecil stopped and turned around to see a heavily irritated group of young women.

Tiffany had to be carried and refused to get out of her robes. Minah could no longer fit her armor or prototype suit. Bella had to lead Hel by her wrist as she was a quiet and curious drunk.

Opera music began to play from the tower as a black-haired man with a skeletal wing, curved dark horns, and black eyes that held no light in their sclera descended from the top of the tower.

“Is this a boss fight?” Bella asked.

“Hello there children. I’m the King of Slaughter, Psycron. And I’m here to stop you.”

“Bullshit. Let us through, so that we can save you.” Tiffany said as she pointed vaguely in his direction.

“Look at that troublesome pendant Curella gave you.”

Tiffany pulled out the pendant. “How do you know?”

“I am the evil that lies in his heart. Now let’s fight.”

Minah raised her hand. “Who is this guy?”

“I think Kyrion has a type of split personality. You’ve seen him talk to himself at times right?” Tiffany stated.

“So he’s psycho. Great, our healer is crazy.” Bella sighed.

“Indubitably, your healer does have a screw or ten loose but don’t tell me you haven’t noticed something key,” Psycho stated.

“What?” Bella asked.

“No way.” Cecil squinted as he looked about.

“No way what?” Bella scowled.

“We are in his domain. When did he learn to manifest it like this? This range is terrifying.”

“We have been called that, yes.”

“What are the rules?” Tiffany asked.

“I’m limited to incapacitation and non lethal levels of force. Your goal is to get past me and through the set of double doors where Max is being kept. Then you’ll beat another opponent before you can rescue Brion. Ander will be next followed by Kyrion.”

Cecil clicked his tongue. “Girls go ahead. I’ll hold him off. He’s dangerous.”

“Are you sure about that?” Psycho asked, not moving to stop the others from passing.

“You want a fight and I can’t do so with collateral damage.”

“You’re a cocky brat.”

“You could say that, but so long as you can’t go over expert rank in power I can match you.” Cecil took out his curved wand and pointed it forward.

“We’ll see about that.” Psycho waited with a wry grin.

“Armor of Altaria cover me.” Cecil began to glow as a gate opened up. From the gate exited a blue cube.

Cecil picked it up and placed it on his chest. It expanded and covered the young man in blue light, hiding him from sight. Before long, it faded, and Cecil stood there, his body covered in blue metal plates, his face covered by a blue and silver helmet. A black visor protected his eyes, and at each hip were curved wands.

The girls entered the tower quickly enough. The place had been covered in all kinds of vines and other plant life. Upon entering the building, most felt they were being observed by eyes they couldn’t find.

“This place is strange.” Minah stated as she looked for something she could use as a weapon.

“It is. Be careful. I don’t understand what this is but I do know that we are inside Kyrion’s domain. Which meant all sorts of monsters could be lurking in the shadows.” Tiffany stated.

“Not true. Just us expendables.” Said a goblin covered in blades. He was alone and quite bored.

“How are you alive?”

“Karl takes care of monster respawns. Now you need any weapons?”

“You aren’t here to fight?”

“I’m here to lend aid. Some of you need preparation or gear.”

“Any leather armor?” Tiffany stated.

The goblin knocked on the wall. “Anything specific or just the mundane stuff.”

“A cut resistant enhancement along with a buckler. Socks and combat boots as well.”

The goblin knocked again, and what she asked for appeared on a red pillow in front of Tiffany.

“Convenient. Can I keep this or…”

“It will revert to mana when you leave. Supposedly. Due to dungeon law he can’t give you equipment like this for free.”

“This place is a dungeon?” Hel asked as she wandered ahead.

“Lady I just give equipment. That’s management knowledge.” The goblin shook his head.

“2 Mithril daggers, 4 Adamantine, a pouch of charcoal, a copper chain gauntlet, and a waterskin filled with oil.”

“A human of fine taste. Sadly we have no access to process of crafting Mithril or Adamantine. Instead, we have blades that can do the same with a noticeably lesser effect.” A pillow containing 2 silver daggers, four blue daggers, a leather pouch, and a gauntlet with a metal chain attached to its side.

Minah shook her head and looked down again. “Can I get leather armor as well?”

The goblin nodded, and a second pillow appeared ahead of Minah, containing the armor.

“Any other request?” The goblin sighed.

Bella shook her head as Hel continued forward in a haze.

“What are you doing?” Minah ran after her friend.

The four followed the lighted path through the tower, moving to the next floor. Choosing to avoid turning around and exploring.

The second floor resembled a large, flat room with only one way forward. Standing in the middle was a young red-haired man holding a greatsword over his back.

“Kyrion! What are you doing out here.? Did you escape?”

“If you wish to make it past here then you have to best me. However, I don’t favor greatswords so this fight should even out quite nicely.” Kyrie sighed.

“What? Kyrion this is madness!”

“This isn’t Kyrion. This will make you stronger. Besides if you can’t get past me then how do you plan on getting any further up? I’m not the strongest being here after all.”

“Who are you?”

“You may call me Kyrie.”

Hel and Tiffany started laughing as the implication was made.

“Shut up. I’m sure naming conventions for your doppelgangers won’t be much different.” Kyrie swung the sword to the side, and the floor shook.

“Dangerous.” Minah charged forward in an attempt to end the fight quickly. But, unfortunately for her, Kyrie was ready.

Minah connected with Kyrie’s chest, and an explosion of mana blasted through the swordsman.

The attack did not do any damage as Kyrie countered with a flick powered by an excessive amount of wind mana. Being careful not to make physical contact.

Minah flew through the air past her team, using her body to reorient and land with a skid.

“What the hell is that?” Minah said as she stood.

“Tha’ts an interesting power. Is this ten times gravity?” Kyrie let his cut heal before hefting the blade up and carefully swinging the sword at an increased speed until adjusted.

“Lets see… Which one of you is the one using this on me.” Kyrie pointed his sword about counting his foes.

Minah was at the range, preparing to throw blades While He had been summoning a dome of insects to encase Kyrie. Tiffany was behind him, charging up a light-based attack.

“Ah. Above. Re…”

Before Kyrie could finish, a blade of light pierced through Kyrie’s right lung, and the spell he was channeling went wild. Cutting up everyone in the radius amounted to the insects on top of Kyrie himself. But, oddly enough, the insects weren’t killed by the blades passing through them. Instead, mana overload seemed to be the cause of exploding bugs.

“Tiffany a bit overboard isn’t that?” Minah took a step back as everything cleared.

“You used the nonlethal version that incapacitates. Which means your holding back or haven’t mastered it yet.”

“Yeah yeah. But if you want to get Brion back you need to….”

“Wait just one minute. Where is my brother?” Minah asked.

“You mean Max right? You should have run across him earlier.” Kyrie scowled.

“...”

Hel spoke up. “Bella Minah. Go! We should be able to handle this.”

“Right!” Minah ran off at high speeds.”

“Your drunk.” Bella stated.

“I said go!” Hel ordered.

Bella turned and dashed off, her body shifting to that of a large wolf.

” This fight is just beginning. Do you really think the two of you can handle me alone?” Kyrie held both ends of the greatsword upward before he ripped them apart, creating a pair of longswords that seemed to shift to better suit his grip.

“Two swords. Why does that look familiar.” Tiffany scowled.

Hel held out her hands, and hoards of bugs flew from her sleeves, rapidly flying toward Kyrie in an attempt to overwhelm her.

Kyrie summoned another cutting vortex that spun outwards using his swords as an extension of his body.

The bugs swirled around before getting shredded as a rapier was thrust at his neck.

Kyrie countered with a kick that would have knocked her back had he landed a direct hit. But, unfortunately, Kyrie’s foot passed right through her as she evaded the strike.

Before he could react, a blade sunk into Kyrie’s spine. An attack that could cripple most would have been seen as an excessive force in any other situation.

As Kyrie stood there motionless, the hoard of bugs engulfed him and began attacking.

A burst of wind sent everything around Kyrie flying, which allowed him to heal a significant wound.

“Really thought I had you there.” Tiffany prepared to strike again. While Hel began summoning more bugs.

“Close but not there yet. You needed to go a bit deeper.” Kyrie said in a humble tone.

Waves of water mana flowed out of Kyrie and slammed into his opponents, sending them flying into the walls. As this happened, manacles of earth shot out and restrained them.

“Pretty good. But…” Kyrie twisted to the side, the water following his movements and forming a torrent of water to act as a shield.

Tiffany looked aghast as she shot a beam of light into the water, only for it to dissipate.

Ander was in deep meditation in utter darkness. His senses were taken from him somehow. No smell, hearing, or touch. There was nothing there for a long time, as though he was empty. Very rarely did he have anything else on his mind.

“This was my future. Solitude is a single minded desire to reach the top. I don’t have to be alone, I have friends. We will get there together.”

“Nice words human. But can you live up to the power you hold? Will your greed, your desire hinder you? Will you hoard your secrets until you become obscure? Will you become a footnote in history? Don’t you want more? Crave more. Desire to be more.”

“I want to become a teacher .” Ander stated.

“You act so humble. But I can see into your heart boy. You won’t be able to leave until you realize the truth of yourself.”

Ander tried to leave his meditation and found that he was indeed trapped.

“Help!” Ander called to no avail.

“No one can hear you here. It’s just the two of us.”

“Had to try, I guess. Who are you anyway?”

“You know who I am. I’ve lent you my power long enough for you to realize that.”

“Your my spirit. But.”

“Say my name, boy.”

“I don’t….” Ander scowled.

“You do boy.”

“Sky Lion.”

“Why do you even think I’m a Lion….”

“There is a cat on the side of my spear. And the mightiest cat in the world is the lion.”

“Ah. You’re a bit small-minded, aren't you?” The spirit sighed.

Ander blinked slowly. "Do you want to fight?"

"You're in no condition to face me."

"Fine. Then give me the power to beat you."

The spirit didn’t reply as they watched Adner with a gaze.

“So I need to figure this out myself then. This is annoying.” Ander began to think.

“What do you hope to accomplish?” Kyrion asked the headmaster from the top of the tower.

“Always straight to the point. You have a strong team and power for spades, yet you seem to be hiding things from me.”

“Hm?”

“That clone trick you’re doing right now. It’s as though they have free will.”

“They do. You know I’m broken up here.” Kyrion pointed at his head.

“The new guy has strong emotions that differ from my own. I don’t quite know what makes him tick. Sometimes he’s too soft, other times he’s too aggressive.”

“You act as though he isn’t you.”

“I was gifted with what seems to be a shard of my own soul, something I’m aware you know quite a bit about given that you’ve had to have experienced something similar. On top of that, I just obtained a core so I’m halfway to the next tier of practitioner.”

“You shouldn’t be able to use something like that yet.”

“Well I did. I’m not trying to hide my abilities, but by my nature, I’m versatile. So most of my trump cards are kept quiet. As they only work once. Now, will you tell me why you’re having them fight the beings inside me?”

“How dangerous are they?”

“Kyrie is strong but our abilities are a bit different, he also hesitates a bit too much for someone who has killed before. As though trying to overcompensate for past actions.”

“And the other one? The one most of us knew about.”

“I’m worried he may slip up and try to kill Cecil.”

“You said try.” The headmaster crossed his arms.

“And I meant it. Psycho is strong, but he’s also in a weakened state.”

“Weakened?”

“I played a dirty trick when I made his vessel. He shouldn’t be able to go all out. You’ll see very shortly.”

The headmaster did not like when his students acted like this, but he recognized that it was his own fault.

“I guess I will.”

“Yeah... Do you have any snacks?” Kyrion rubbed his stomach.

“Cookies, but... They’re for the others.”

“Not fair” Bastion crossed his arms.

“If I give him one cookie then he’d want them all.”

“True. Now, look. Things are starting to get interesting.”