Stepping onto the third floor with the others, Sachel couldn’t help but feel confident despite herself. The first two floors had just gone too smoothly. She couldn’t deny just how much of that was thanks to Thera, but it did wonders to wipe away plenty of the worry she’d felt going into it all and couldn’t keep herself from imagining the future even as they started the new wing of the tower.

A ninth-level life mage.

It would absolutely be massive progress towards her goal, Ben had been right about that when he’d asked her to come along. It was clear he was still keeping something from her, he still hadn’t said whatever was coming after the tower, but at least in that regard, she had absolute faith in him. He was the apostle of her faith, if he thought he had some sort of method that could push her over the edge then she was going to believe it.

“Another different one,” Ben spoke up through clenched teeth, pulling her from her thoughts as they all looked around.

The floor itself was strangely barren, being nothing more than an empty white expanse, with a single arch sticking out in the distance. Given the nature of the place it was hard to be sure how far off it was, but from how small it seemed it couldn’t be close, especially if reaching it was their goal.

There was an undeniably ominous feeling about it, at least for her. Somehow, just how empty everything was managed to be more uncomfortable than the forest they’d just gone through. She couldn’t begin to imagine whatever challenge could be hidden in thin air, but that didn’t change what they had to do.

“So shall we get going?” Thera asked them all, breaking the small silence as the rest of them nodded.

“Looks like we have to,” Ben sighed, pointing up as he did. “We’re on a time limit.”

Sachel’s eyes were pulled to the sky, the one area she’d neglected at first, with glowing numbers hanging over her head. A countdown that had already started, giving them no more than ten hours.

As one they started to move, but despite it all, she still felt more confident than anything. Even if she was the lowest level there, at least in terms of those who had life magic, she couldn’t help but feel all the more sure about their odds for those who were there with her.

Of course, I can’t hold them back. She thought, slapping her cheeks as she did. I’m an oracle and there’s going to be gods watching. I can’t put on a shameful act here of all places.

On top of her goal, she was a representative of Myriad, and as far as she was concerned, that meant she couldn’t disappoint.

It was Sonya who noticed it first, a weariness seeping into her bones that she couldn’t escape, weighing her down more than she should have been from what was nothing more than a simple walk at that point. It wasn’t like she was worn out already, but there was an edge of it on her she couldn’t escape. A weakness in her muscles and just a bit more weight on her shoulders than she was used to dealing with.

“Is anyone else feeling a bit weaker than usual?” She asked. “Maybe heavier too?”

None of them stopped, but they all thought it over, with Ben in particular clenching his jaw as he thought.

“Ben?”

“It’s nothing,” He told her, waving off the obvious concern as she picked up on that little slip in his expression. “This just reminded me of an annoying experience. Well, maybe a couple annoying ones. You’re all being slightly debuffed. I mean, technically I am too, but I’m not going to feel something like that this early. It looks like there’s a non-affinitied gravity spell starting to press down on us too that I am feeling and given the setup I’d guess both are only going to get worse and the challenge is to make us have to buff ourselves to get to the end. Which I’m really not a fan of.”

She looked at him a second longer, unable to escape the complicated feelings about what the young man in front of her had to have dealt with in the last few years to be able to so confidently state what subtle magics he was under, especially to be able to pin a rare non-affinity spell, but her niece spoke up before she could comment.

“Well, I think I can get us out of here basically immediately,” She told them confidently as Ben shook his head.

“Let’s hold off on that for now, I think it would be best for everyone if we did this the creator-approved way for as long as possible, then we’ll switch to your idea.”

“Ha, I can’t believe you’re saying we should do something the way it’s meant to,” Thera teased. “Aren’t you all for finishing things as easily as possible?”

“Ah well, you know…”

He trailed off as Thera laughed, and Sonya couldn’t suppress her own smile seeing it. Her niece was so much brighter now than she’d been in the past, smiling all of the time, so full of life and so much more willing to show it compared to when she used to hide herself away from the world, along with growing closer to others that would join her for such an adventure.

Although treating this like any adventure isn’t exactly the best idea given the stakes.

She couldn’t help it though. It reminded her of her younger days, traveling with her sister and Falk, seeing the world and getting into trouble.

Well, mostly Pel getting into trouble, and then me and Falk needing to get her out of it. She mused as her longtime friend’s face came to mind.

It wasn’t like she didn’t know why she had been asked to go along with such a thing. She basically pinned her inability to make any sort of progress with the man on her feelings of not being good enough, she doubted that the way this had come up later was entirely unrelated, even if Ben was framing it as a way to help Sachel with her own desires.

And I really can’t let myself not do it after doing something as crazy as this, right?

Not that it really seemed crazy given how the first two floors had gone. Sure, climbing one of the towers for a reason like that was obviously mad, but her niece had gone and made both seem like basically nothing.

Maybe that should have left her feeling like she hadn’t done enough personally, but she was too filled with pride watching the girl she loved so dearly who could barely manage her spells a few years ago shine so brightly.

As she kept walking she began to buff herself a little to take some of the edge off, but she couldn’t help but have faith that things would work out.

By the time they only had five hours left, Steph felt herself needing to really push herself for her buffs as she used her magic to not only cover herself but help Sonya as well while Thera handled both Sachel and Ben.

I guess that’s what makes this a trial. She thought to herself, unable to completely shake the oppressive feeling of weight coming down around her.

It wasn’t like they couldn’t have gotten through it faster, she was a space mage after all, but Ben seemed to want to play this one as straight as they could, and she could at least understand why. The first two floors had gone super smoothly, unreasonably so, and they had two people with them who hadn’t challenged a tower before. It made sense to want them to properly understand what it involved, even if she did think it might have been a bit unnecessary.

The challenge was for life magic. Sure, they might find themselves in a position where they needed to heal or buff themselves like they’d already seen, but there was only so much that could be done with that particular affinity. It wasn’t easy to use by any means, but once one had a certain level of medical knowledge to go with it, it ended up feeling surprisingly narrow.

Of course, it seems like the tower itself was made with the idea of combat in mind at least since the world’s been obsessed with it for who knows how many thousands of years, but even if we do get another combat-themed floor like the first one I don’t think we actually need to worry so much. The best benefit of life magic is that it’s mostly gentle.

She didn’t want to take it too lightly, but she didn’t want to over-worry either and stress herself out jumping at shadows. Like any challenge, it felt better to face as best they could, limiting themselves at all just seemed like a waste of mana.

Which I’m starting to run low on, which means doing any sort of teleportation is going to be hard on me when we do decide to quit and skip to the end. Oh well, it seems like Thera has a way out of this and it’s not like her reserves are going to be hurting by the end of this, might as well get the practice while I can.

With that positive frame of mind, she went back to focusing on her buffs, letting herself burn just a little more than she needed to as they went on their way to make things more comfortable.

Two hours left, but mmh… Yeah, I’m calling it.

“Okay,” Thera spoke up, pulling all eyes to her. “This has been a good bit of practice, but I think it’s time we just skip to the end if you’re all ready for it?”

She got no disagreement, even if Ben looked complicated about it. By that time she was handling the buffs on all of them, the rest of their mana supplies low enough that there wasn’t much other choice. Not that they hadn’t held up well, it was just the nature of the trial pushing past what they could each handle. It wasn’t a challenge really meant for anyone without an awakened life magic to their name and if it wasn’t for her overwhelming power, the lot of them would be crushed against the ground by that point as the tower’s spells played havoc with their bodies.

For her though, covering the five of them felt easy, and she couldn’t deny it felt good. She’d grown to be so comfortable in her power compared to the past, it left her feeling like she could actually take on the tower herself.

It wasn’t that she didn’t feel any sort of risk about it, she still remembered the worst parts of the earth tower and she still wasn’t sure if doing this one had been a good idea, but Ben had been right in his convincing, she wanted all of the strength she could get. She wanted better life magic for the next wave now that she could imagine what the casualties would end up like after seeing that single day of the first one, and she knew that the tower was an opportunity to get it, and fast.

Of course, I also want my other magics to improve too.

It was with that thought that she held her staff forth to achieve exactly how she planned to get them out of there as she ran her mana through it and pushed her memories for all she had, bringing forth iron where there’d been nothing previously.

It wasn’t as much as when Ben had helped her the first time, maybe only half of what he’d let her create when they’d worked as one, but it wasn’t like she had used up her entire mana supply for it either, so she made more, with four more massive clumps falling to the ground before all of their eyes, crashing all of the harder for the added gravity the trial was putting them under before merging each together into a long seat for them all to rest on to be carried forward at higher speeds then they had any hope to run, bringing there time down to nothing.

“I feel like this is bringing back some memories that ended with me flying into a wall,” Ben muttered as she flicked his shoulder.

“That was only the once. This will be fine, don’t worry.”

If he was still feeling any uncertainty he hid it well as he sat down, the rest joining with him. While it was far from the most comfortable thing in the world, that didn’t much matter as she raised it in the air, forcing herself to multitask by keeping up the buffs as she shot them all through the sky, not paying any attention to the sounds of screams at her sides as she focused.

It seemed like the rising spell effects had more to do with their time in there than distance from the exit. She didn’t need to rapidly pump anyone with mana and worry about the side effects, only needing to maintain what she already had as minutes passed and they reached their end, getting to the arch as she slowed down with care, not wanting to throw anyone like she had in the earth tower as they finally came to a stop and got up, making their way to the exit.

It was hard to keep the smile from her lips as they passed through, finding herself in the break room with the rest. She was doing it. She’d ensured everyone made it through each section, and by all accounts easily. There were only two to go, but even as a little voice in her head warned her otherwise, she couldn’t help but feel confident. If the first three floors were meant to help someone judge if they should go further, then the answer was obvious.

There were no guarantees in life, but at the very least, she wasn’t afraid of whatever would come next.