Just like I thought...

The sight matched the image of the Gray Magic Tower Ian remembered from the game.

As expected, the place he had entered after passing through the Gate of Larmut back then had been the very top floor of the tower.

"Huh?" Miguel’s voice followed immediately afterward.

Staring at the corridor now coming into view with a furrowed brow, he said, "This is pretty different from what I expected."

"This place is basically the inner keep if you think of the tower as a city. Get ready to run," Ian replied, bending his knees slightly.

He didn’t bother adding that the upper levels they had just passed through had been far more surreal.

"R-Right. But do you know where we’re supposed to go?" Miguel asked, awkwardly bracing himself.

Without even looking at him, Ian answered, "No, I don’t."

"You don’t know?"

"All the more reason to run faster."

The doors had not even finished opening, but Ian had already sprinted into the corridor bathed in red light.

At the same time, he extended his Willful Grasp backward and grabbed Miguel, pulling him along.

"Hey, again?! Wait! I’ll run on my own! I’ll run!" Miguel’s scream followed a moment later, but Ian neither replied nor looked back.

He sprinted down the corridor and slid around the next corner.

Rumble...

Another corridor stretched ahead, dimly trembling under the red lighting. Its architecture was grand and ancient, making the entire scene feel even more eerie and sinister.

A bitter smile briefly touched Ian’s lips.

Maybe I should’ve looked around until I died at least once.

The vague memory from the game resurfaced.

Back then, after passing through the gate and leaving the room, he had walked through corridors filled with spell circuits and crossed several branching paths until he eventually reached a staircase leading upward.

And the moment a horrifying roar echoed from beyond it, he had turned around and given up.

His instincts had told him it was the entrance to another dungeon. After all, he had already been pushed to his limit by the previous dungeon, and he had assumed he could always come back later.

Looking back now, it had been a naïve thought.

That chance never came—he never got to return.

Tap, tap, tap!

However, that fact did not slow Ian’s steps now. It was not simply because he had no other choice.

The corridor before him was not dark at all. To Ian’s eyes, it was almost as bright as broad daylight.

"Ah, watch out! Haa—ugh!" Miguel, still suspended midair by Ian’s Willful Grasp, barely managed to avoid slamming into a corner as he was dragged along behind him.

Ian kept running, his eyes fixed on the magic surging brilliantly beyond the spell circuits that covered the walls and ceiling.

It was unmistakably dragon magic. It shone so brightly it almost blurred his vision.

Thud—

Even so, the flow of magic was perfectly clear. He could even see ripples spreading outward from a single point.

It was the phenomenon produced as the Mantra circuit engraved into the Gray Magic Tower’s ring resonated like a heartbeat. The ring was, after all, the key that controlled every circuit within the tower.

Which means...

The place where that key had to be used lay at the very source of the dragon magic that was creating the resonance.

Ian took a sharp turn into another corridor.

"Hey, brother, I’ll run myself. I’ll—whoa?" Miguel, still complaining as he followed into the corridor, suddenly flailed his arms and legs in panic.

Ian had abruptly released his hold with his Willful Grasp.

Finally quiet, huh?

Hearing Miguel’s footsteps behind him, Ian clicked his tongue. Of course, he hadn’t released him just because he was noisy.

The inside of his head throbbed faintly.

With the distance unknown, he needed to manage his pace, especially as a staircase now appeared ahead.

Ian’s eyes twitched the moment he raced down the corridor and turned onto the stairs.

It wasn’t just because a wide space, like a banquet hall, spread out below, with passages stretching out in every direction.

Splutch... splutch...

Large and small figures staggered about like the dead, each filled with considerable amounts of magic or chaos power.

Others were slowly emerging from several corridors branching off to the left and right. There was no need to think deeply about what they were. They were the successful test subjects supposedly stored on the top level.

I had a feeling.

Ian slowed and stopped halfway down the stairs, clicking his tongue again.

It was a little sooner than expected, but it wasn’t entirely unforeseen. After all, the tower was currently undergoing what was essentially a self-destruct procedure.

Just like the mansions before, the seals and locks on the top level had probably been released to allow escape before the collapse.

The dwarf and the dragon who built this tower probably never imagined that mages would one day fill it with horrific experimental creations.

"W-What the hell are those?" Miguel’s horrified voice rang out from behind. He had just stepped onto the staircase and was staring wide-eyed.

The staggering monsters all turned to look at them at once.

Ian could clearly see the magic and chaos pooled within their bodies beginning to boil.

They noticed us.

He smacked his lips quietly. Of course, he had no intention of blaming Miguel. They would have been discovered soon anyway.

"-------!"

A psychic wave burst out—like a scream filled with rage and agony.

Frowning, Ian extended his Willful Grasp toward Miguel.

"Ah—ugh!" Miguel, staggering from the sudden headache, was caught by Ian’s will and forced down into a sitting position before he could tumble down the stairs.

At nearly the same moment, golden magic spread across Ian’s back.

Swoosh—

The veins along the back of his neck turned gold, and a wing-like tentacle of magic began sprouting from his back.

It's a bit of a waste to use this now, but...

Even as the thought crossed his mind, Ian glanced toward the screaming test subject.

It had the body of a child, but its head was grotesquely oversized. Not only was it completely bald, but its eyelids and mouth had been sewn shut.

Yet purple light blazed through its eyelids as though trying to burst through them.

The other test subjects were no different. Psychic waves echoed chaotically through the air, and soon after, they began pouring toward the staircase all at once.

Some had grotesquely swollen brains or heads. Others were missing parts of their bodies or had limbs stretched far beyond what they should be. There were those only partially mutated, and others that looked as though their transformation had been forcibly halted midway.

Every single one of them bore a horrific, unnatural appearance. Some even looked as though monsters had been grafted onto their bodies.

"Lu Entre..." Miguel’s suppressed gasp was probably for that reason.

However, beneath the shimmering horns of magic rising like heat haze, Ian’s eyes, now glowing gold, weren’t looking at the experiments at all.

That way.

His gaze swept across the high ceiling before settling on a corridor beyond the hall where the experiments were gathering.

Dragon magic was flowing from beyond it.

Ian crouched low the very next moment.

Whoosh—

Several long, golden wings of magic unfurled from both sides of his back.

With the hazy horns of magic flickering above him, Ian glanced back at Miguel.

"Keep your mouth shut. Unless you want to bite your tongue off."

"Don’t tell me... again—" Miguel barely had time to form the words.

Ian kicked off the stairs and launched himself forward, his magic wings snapping backward.

Swoosh!

A streak of gold shot across the air above the hall in an instant.

Ian had activated the Avatar of Platinum purely to pass the test subjects in a single burst. Even if he ended up fighting them eventually, stopping the tower’s collapse came first.

Thump... thump...

The resonance of the Mantra circuit inside the ring was beating faster and faster. It wasn’t difficult to guess that the countdown had already begun.

Miguel’s head snapped violently backward in the very next moment.

"Waaah—"

Still caught in Ian’s Willful Grasp as they sped across the air, Miguel finally let out a scream he could no longer hold back.

Of course, Ian didn’t spare him even a glance.

He simply spread his wings wide, staring straight at the corridor from which the dragon magic was flowing.

However, the glide did not last long. A sudden warning from his intuition made Ian twist to the side.

Fwoosh!

Several crudely formed fireballs shot past him in rapid succession.

Even while spinning in the air within his magic wings, Ian caught sight of the test subject that had launched the attack.

It was a gaunt woman with a twisted body and grotesquely long fingers.

"Uuugh..." Miguel swung wildly along with the motion, a strangled sound escaping his throat as the fireballs struck the ceiling and burst apart in small explosions.

However, that was only the beginning of the attack.

Crackle—

Purple lightning arcs lashed out, followed by violent gusts of wind.

Ian twisted, slamming into the wall to kill his momentum, before launching forward again without hesitation.

Even in the middle of all this, every time a burst of psychic waves scattered his Willful Grasp, Ian reached out to grab Miguel once more.

"U... uugh..." Swaying helplessly as he was dragged across the air, Miguel couldn’t even manage a scream, his teeth clenched tight.

Whether he was obeying Ian’s warning or not was impossible to tell. The Willful Grasp holding him kept disappearing, and spells were constantly tearing past them from every direction.

Boom, boom, boom!

Of course, that was not what mattered.

What mattered was that both he and Ian were still cutting across the banquet hall through the air.

Crack—

The test subjects weren’t simply watching either. Even as they tangled together near the staircase, several managed to claw their way free, flailing as they began to pursue them.

Whoosh, boom!

Several continued firing crude spells. And perhaps drawn by the commotion, even more test subjects were gathering at that very moment.

If all of those are considered successful experiments, just how many human experiments did they run? Those insane bastards.

Clicking his tongue, Ian fixed his gaze on the corridor drawing ever closer. He was going to drop a little short of it. He had twisted his body around too much to glide properly.

Of course, that wasn’t a problem.

Crackle!

Ian spread his magic wings wide and surged upward for a brief instant before sliding down into a landing on both feet.

Before his speed had even fully faded, he kicked off the ground again and sprinted toward the corridor.

Swoosh—

Miguel, who had been plummeting behind him, was yanked sideways before he could hit the ground and dragged back beside Ian.

Ian released his will immediately afterward.

"Run, Miguel!"

"Aaaah—" Miguel tumbled forward with a sound that was half scream, half reply, then sprang to his feet and started running.

He already looked half out of his mind.

Tap, tap, tap!

As he ran, Ian cast a glance back at the swarm of test subjects gathering in the distance before turning his head forward again.

The corridor ahead bent sharply at a right angle.

Crack! Thud!

Ian twisted and slammed into the wall to bleed off speed before launching forward again without hesitation.

A collision like that meant nothing to him.

The pounding headache was far more annoying. It was the result of overusing his Willful Grasp. Even though the skill had leveled up, the limits were still clear.

Ian’s eyes widened slightly a few seconds later.

At the far end of the corridor, inside a chamber ahead, a large chair stood upon a raised platform.

Thump... Thump...

The dazzling dragon magic covering the walls and ceiling was flowing from there.

The Mantra circuits in the ring resonated in response.

Falling farther and farther behind, Miguel let out a desperate shout. "Aaaaaah!"

Ian thrust his Willful Grasp backward, seized him again, and dragged him forward as he rushed into the chamber.

Thud, thud—

Ian twisted and dragged his feet across the floor to slow himself. At the same time, Miguel was pulled forward and flew past him with a sharp rush.

Without even sparing him a glance, Ian extended his right hand toward the corridor they had just passed. By then, both his eyes and the gem at the tip of his staff were glowing a vivid blue.

Boom! Crash!

As the sound of Miguel tumbling noisily across the floor faded into the distance, a wall of ice surged upward in the middle of the corridor.

Crack!

The Glacier Wall sealed off the wide corridor completely. The ice thickened until nothing beyond it could be seen.

Continuing to pour out magic without pause, Ian finally looked around the room.

It was a long, rectangular chamber.

"Phew... ugh... never again..." Miguel lay sprawled in the center of the room, gasping for breath.

Across from him, on a raised platform, the shape of the chair hidden behind the dragon magic finally became clear.

The backrest was shaped like a bolt of lightning, and its surface gleamed like polished silver. Every spell circuit from the walls and ceiling converged into it.

That must be it.

Taking in the hollow grooves carved into the ends of both armrests, Ian finally stopped channeling magic and turned around.

Not only did the grooves appear designed for someone to place their hands there, but Mantra circuits also connected directly to them.

Tap, tap!

Ian crossed the room in a few strides and leapt lightly over Miguel.

Miguel, still sprawled on the ground, could only follow him with his eyes as Ian twisted midair.

Thud!

Ian landed heavily in the chair, almost colliding with the backrest. Still wrapped in his magic wings, he let the staff fall aside and grabbed the hollow grooves at the ends of the armrests with both hands.

Thoom—

The Mantra circuits of the ring and the chair resonated almost at the same instant.

A moment later, an overwhelming surge of condensed magic flooded into Ian’s hands, thick enough to feel almost sticky.

The sensation was familiar to him—it was dragon magic.

Ian’s eyes widened for an instant as the Mantra circuits along his back and left hand began releasing magic on their own.

Two different streams of dragon magic instantly tangled together.

Boom! Thoom—

A heavy impact reverberated through the Glacier Wall. Grotesque shadows were already writhing beyond the thick ice.

"Uh... it seems you’ll have to finish this as quickly as possible."

Miguel, who had been glancing toward the wall, slowly pushed himself up onto his elbows.

"I don’t think that ice wall will hold for long. Are you seeing this, brother?"

Miguel turned his head back a beat later, his eyes widening. Ian, looking almost like a draconic being, was completely motionless, frozen to the spot as he gripped the armrests.

Most striking of all, his entire gaze was shining gold.

"Brother?" Miguel muttered in confusion.

Instead of an answer, an ominous sound crept into Miguel’s ears.

Boom— Crack!