The formation's force field walls were completely annihilated by successive waves of Disintegration, while the anti-magic rays targeted the crystal ball in Lucian's right hand, attempting to penetrate it, construct a small anti-magic field within, and sever its connection to the arcane tower. ◎◎ Since Lucian had already been struck by the anti-magic rays and his own magical abilities were suppressed, he didn't bother attempting a magical counter. Instead, he extended his right hand to physically block the ray, while simultaneously finishing the incantation that set his eardrums ringing — this wasn't simply casting a spell where forcibly interrupting it would only inflict a minor backlash. Right now he was manipulating a seventh-circle arcane tower with fifth-rank spiritual energy; temporarily halting and changing the incantation would cause the surging energies to rage back, dealing severe damage to his soul!
Thick, silver-white bolts of lightning crashed down from the ceiling with savage fury, instantly transforming the entire room into an ocean of thunder. Everything in the old witch's study — save for the desk and floor inscribed with the arcane tower's patterns — was obliterated by the electrical onslaught. Seventh-circle Arcane Magic: "Lightning Storm!"
Layers of filigree-like light and shadow materialized around the old witch. Every bolt that struck her vanished without a sound. Seventh-circle Arcane Magic: "Energy Immunity — Lightning!"
Immediately after, beams of different colors shot out in rapid succession from the yellowish-brown sphere of the old witch's left eye — charm, sleep, direct damage, fear, slow, petrification, and disintegration — while the central yellow, eerie giant eye radiated an intense aura of death. Seventh-circle Arcane Magic: "Finger of Death!"
After this torrent of violent assault, the old witch's modified "left eye" dimmed, temporarily losing its ability to cast spells. In truth, no beholder would fight this way — they would allocate the use of different eyes rationally, ensuring continuous spellcasting. But the old witch had completely abandoned such considerations. She seemed to have fallen into madness, or perhaps there was some other reason.
Facing such terrifying attacks, Lucian dared not be careless. His right hand swept across the crystal ball, and together with the incantation he spoke aloud, he caused the "Mana Prison" of the formation to descend from thin air, trapping himself inside. The fear, slow, charm, sleep, and death rays struck the Mana Prison, but could only tint it with halos of different colors, while the greenish Disintegration caused it to crumble and rapidly come apart.
A frenzied assault did not mean a perfect one. If the old witch had fired her rays in a proper sequence, the Mana Prison would either have been disassembled in the first round of Disintegration, or would have trapped Lucian himself, wresting the initiative of battle!
After weathering this scalp-numbing round of attacks, Lucian suddenly noticed the old witch cast a quick, furtive glance at several beautiful female stone sculptures to her right.
"Those sculptures survived the Lightning Storm unscathed?" Lucian was startled. Having discovered this fact — what material were they made of, or why did the old witch protect them more than her magic books?
Without overthinking, Lucian instinctively uttered an incantation. A colossal claw seemingly formed of glistening, frigid ice abruptly erupted from the floor, reaching for the beautiful stone sculptures. Seventh-circle Arcane Magic: "Sajimang's Ice Claw Prison!"
The arcane tower could produce only limited magical effects — including those already used, there were only nine in total. Worried that a prolonged battle would allow the old witch to layer various spells and defeat him without the slightest doubt, Lucian changed his target the moment he discovered something was wrong with the sculptures — without the slightest hesitation.
At the same time, fearing the old witch would seize the opportunity to attack him, Lucian continued reciting incantations without pause.
The old witch screamed in fury. Tendrils of black energy surged from her body, spreading outward in waves. Adam, who had just recovered from his glass form and was slowly crawling toward the corner, immediately fell into a state of complete exhaustion and weakness. Seventh-circle Arcane Magic: "Wave of Exhaustion" — a powerful spell permanently imbued in the old witch's robes. Her own spells were still in cooldown from the Energy Immunity.
Although he knew that being hit by the Wave of Exhaustion would leave him too weak even to open his mouth and speak, Lucian did not panic. He finished the incantation with composed calm.
A dim ray shot from the wall, striking the empty ground before Lucian. The anti-magic ray hit the ground and immediately generated a small anti-magic field. The Wave of Exhaustion dissipated as soon as it reached this area, while the beautiful female statues, gripped by the enormous ice claw, erupted with the light of numerous defensive spells, neutralizing each other with the claw.
"As I suspected — there's something wrong!"
"The moment I entered this arcane tower's core, I felt something was off. The old witch is female, and she's been cursed and corrupted to such unnatural age — why would she display beautiful female statues to torment herself?"
"The old witch's body and soul have decayed and aged to this degree — how has she survived for hundreds of years without dying?"
"This is the arcane tower's core, the most tightly guarded place — it's only natural that the most crucial and important things would be hidden here!"
A torrent of thoughts surged through Lucian's mind. The crystal ball floated into the air, taking on the color of a ruby. A crimson beam shot from it, striking hard at the remaining beautiful stone sculptures. Seventh-circle Arcane Magic: "Ruby Reversal Ray" — capable of dispelling the highest-level defensive effects on a target!
The defensive magic on the beautiful stone sculptures had already been heavily depleted during the Lightning Storm, then further neutralized by the "Ice Claw Prison." So when struck by the Ruby Reversal Ray, the glow on one of the statues rapidly faded, revealing a plaster-colored body.
"Ah!" The old witch's furious scream rang out. Forgetting about attacking Lucian, she condensed her force field into a giant hand, seized the beautiful statue, and pulled it behind her back.
Lucian realized he had found the old witch's weakness. Pressing his advantage, the incantation rang out once more. Thick, terrifying bolts of lightning filled the air around the old witch.
Crack, crack, crack — one beautiful statue, stripped of all defensive capability, was shattered into fragments by the lightning. A faint wisp of soul followed and vanished within the electric glare.
The old witch seemed to age drastically in an instant, her back stooping so far it looked as though it would snap, her right eye growing ever more clouded, and her modified left eye suddenly shriveling and collapsing.
"As I suspected — it's something that locks away her life force!"
The "Lightning Storm" continued, and Lucian quickly cast "Mana Prison" on himself. It was a spell designed to trap people, but if one could cast Disintegration as well, it would serve as an excellent defensive option — protecting against the old witch's final, desperate burst.
As each beautiful statue shattered, the old witch stood rooted to the spot as though she had lost all ability to cast spells. She grew older and older, until finally she simply rotted and festered into pus.
"Have I finally killed her?" Lucian wondered to himself. Facing a high-ranking mage, he had kept that string taut the entire time, worried that her endlessly varied powerful spells might reverse the situation. But now, approaching victory, a sudden sense of unreality washed over him — had he really just killed a high-ranking mage like this?
"What about her Spell Trigger? Was it consumed in the underground ruins?"
"Something seemed off about several of her spell choices — otherwise, she could have taken control of me before I ever discovered the statues were her weakness..."
Questions piled up in Lucian's mind. Adam, powerless to move, sent a jubilant voice through the Lesser Telepathic Link: "Partner. You really pulled it off — you actually killed the old witch! We're finally free of her!"
"Adam, don't celebrate too early. We still need to check the underground ruins and hopefully find a way out." Lucian watched the old witch slowly crumple to the ground. At last, he set aside the doubts gnawing at him.
Then, a bizarre smile suddenly appeared on the old witch's face.
"Trouble?!" Lucian's guard flared — but the entire arcane tower was already shaking violently, stone blocks tumbling down, clouds of dust swirling through the air. Lucian's vision began to blur, and everything around him sank into darkness.
...
The darkness receded, and light returned. Lucian tried to sit up by reflex, only to discover in shock that both his hands and feet were restrained by something.
"Heh heh heh heh, very good. Your foundation in magic is excellent. The development of magic over these past few hundred years is truly beyond imagination." The old witch's aged cackling echoed in Lucian's ears.
Lucian turned his head in astonishment and saw the old witch still wearing her red robes, hunched-backed, her wrinkled face pacing back and forth. And he himself was lying in the familiar arcane laboratory, as though he had just finished receiving "electroshock therapy."
"What...?" The inexplicable change prompted Lucian's reflexive question.
The old witch said with smug satisfaction: "Sixth-circle Arcane Magic: Dream Forging. It lets me easily learn your level of magic and the current state of magical development."
The escape had been nothing but a dream? No matter how strong Lucian's mental fortitude, he couldn't help feeling a little dazed. But this also explained many of his earlier doubts — why, after removing the Anti-Magic Collar, he still couldn't open the Soul Library or summon Rhein; why several of the old witch's spell choices had seemed off; and so on.
"Heh heh heh heh, given that your so-called 'arcane' level is quite good, I'll take you into the underground ruins. There's a troublesome maze inside — I hope you can give me a pleasant surprise." The old witch seemed to have found a solution to her problem and appeared quite pleased.
Lucian quickly regained his composure and seized the opportunity to bargain: "Lady Yudura, I believe removing my Anti-Magic Collar would help me explore and navigate the maze for you."
"No problem. I'll remove it before you enter the maze." As a powerful high-ranking mage, the old witch had no concerns whatsoever about Lucian turning on her.
The old witch then led Lucian down to the bottom floor of the arcane tower, and from there along a winding staircase into an underground passage. The passage was five or six meters high and seven or eight people wide, entirely paved with massive stone slabs. On the walls to either side were carved murals depicting ancient humans battling subterranean monsters.
"This underground ruin is truly magnificent," Lucian remarked with genuine admiration.
The old witch said nothing, walking to the end of the passage with the air of someone long accustomed to it. There stood ten great gates, each inscribed with a different mysterious symbol.
"This is the maze." The old witch pointed at the gray gate in the very center.
The symbols on this gate looked faintly familiar to Lucian — they appeared to be different mathematical symbols. Puzzled, he asked: "Lady Yudura, what's inside the maze? I'd like to prepare myself."
"There are no monsters of any kind — only a series of difficult problems..." The old witch's expression suggested painful memories. She then removed Lucian's Anti-Magic Collar and restraining bracelets, urging him to enter.
Feeling his spiritual energy restore, Lucian pushed open the gray gate and slowly walked inside. Since there were no monsters, it was likely a purely intellectual maze.
The moment he stepped through, the gate behind him shut silently. With his darkvision, Lucian found himself standing on a bridge that stretched into infinity, surrounded by boundless void.
"Nothing here?" Lucian thought with puzzlement as he strolled forward. After only two steps, the surroundings abruptly changed.
Stars condensed out of the boundless void, and these brilliant celestial bodies streaked past Lucian's eyes one after another, their light illuminating individual words.
"Please prove that any even number greater than 2 can be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers..."
"Huh?" Lucian stared at the transformation in stupefied silence. The stars that followed resolved directly into a series of mathematical problems — they all seemed to be content from the "Problems in Mathematical Analysis by Demidovich" that he had only recently begun working through. Mathematical symbols, numbers, equations, and hypotheses swirled all around Lucian, and before long his head began to spin.
Suddenly, the darkness shattered, and light bizarrely returned.
Lucian opened his eyes and shook his heavy head groggily. Looking around by conditioned reflex, he saw that Elvace — who should have been dead — was sitting off to one side. Elvace covered his mouth and nose, drops of blood dripping down, and in a muffled, furious voice he accused: "What on earth is going on in your head?!"