The ninety-ninth floor was the highest floor that had been reached ever since the Academy was created. Only a handful of people had managed to reach the floor, and none of them had been able to clear the floor.
Just like the hundredth floor was a core of everyone's fascination, the ninety-ninth Floor was also one which raised everyone's curiosity. Even the Academy didn't know what was on the ninety-ninth floor as whoever came out of that floor never really talked about it for some reason.
Only six people had managed to reach the 99th floor before Gabriel, and only one of the six had managed to do it in the last 100 years. As for the last person to reach the 99th floor, he was none other than the current Dean at the Academy of Elements... Izen Aalec.
With Gabriel's arrival on the tower, the top ten rankings had changed once again.
[1 Axion Light 99]
[2 Qin Elisi Darkness 99]
[3 Izen Aalec Light 99]
[4 Yale Lumen Light 99]
[5 Lia Cien Water 99]
[6 Jax Lumen Lightning 99]
[7 Gabriel Light 99]
[8 Orien Zoan Light 98]
[9 Aileen Drixi Nature 98]
[10 Ior Diadys Darkness 98]
As soon as Gabriel stepped on the 99th floor, he had made his name immortal in the history of the Academy of Elements. Now he stood at the place where all the greatest stood once upon a time. No one could remove his name from the tower even if they wanted, but Gabriel didn't care about his rankings.
He was just a few steps away from the final floor to reveal the mystery of that floor. He was more excited about that at the moment.
Gabriel and the Infernal Emperor came out of the entrance of the 99th floor, expecting to see another battlefield and a fight, but what they were greeted with were claps for some reason.
From the clapping, it was evident that there weren't too many people here who were clapping. In fact, there seemed to be only two people if one was to guess. Unfortunately, it was impossible to see those two.
The entire surrounding was so dark that it was literally impossible to see anything, even for Gabriel. Just to be safe, Gabriel cast the shield of Undead as a precaution.
The Infernal Emperor raised his right hand. A bright fire lit up in his hands which acted like a torch, brightening up the surroundings.
Thanks to the light of the fire, Gabriel was finally able to see the surroundings.
It wasn't a battlefield. At least not a conventional one. They seemed to be in a majestic hall that seemed like the Royal Throne Room of a King.
At the end of the hall, he saw two big thrones. Two men were sitting on those thrones, and they were also the ones who were clapping.
Those two men weren't alone here either.
There were six more thrones, three on each side of the hall. The only difference was that those three thrones were much smaller.
Unlike the men on the bigger throne, the ones who were sitting on the smaller thrones weren't clapping. They were just gazing at Gabriel with a slightly curious look on their faces.
"Congratulations, young man," One of the two men on the throne spoke. "Congratulations on being able to reach this place."
The man who had spoken was dressed in all black. However, contrary to his clothes, his Element was that of Light.
The Dark Haired Man appeared to be a Mage of Light and not a weaker one. In fact, his aura was way stronger than the aura of any Teacher he had seen at the Academy of Element.
His aura was somewhat comparable to Elora, but there was something different about him. It was only comparable to Elora's aura in terms of strength and intensity; however, it didn't have any semblance of the aura received from a Grimoire. His aura was pure but not that of a Holy Book.
In other words, the man seemed to be as strong as the Holy Priestess of the Church of Light, Elora, without being a Holy Priest.
The red-haired man who sat on the other throne wasn't much different either. He had a similarly strong aura. The second man had long hair like the first man, but his hair was a lot messier than the first man's hair, which was more proper.
Another important difference was that the second man had a mark of Darkness on the back of his hand. Seeing a Mage of Light and a Mage of Darkness sitting right beside each other with such comfort was quite rare.
"You can speak?" Gabriel asked. So far, the enemies he faced in the tower, none was able to speak. In fact, it was the first time he saw an enemy who could speak here.
"Cylix isn't the only one who can speak here. All of us can speak," the red-haired man also lazily chimed in. "Don't be that surprised over such a small thing."
"Hahahaha, Novius, you should be nicer to our guests here. It had been a long time since a guest came here last." The dark-haired man addressed as Cylix laughed light-heartedly before shifting his attention to Gabriel.
Even as he was laughing, his eyes were showing a great fascination as his eyes were more focused on Gabriel's right hand. "Though I must say, your Mark is quite fascinating..."
Gabriel saw where Cylix was looking, slightly surprised. He was still wearing the gloves on each of his hands. How was he able to see his mark?
"How can you see my mark? What is this place?" Gabriel asked directly. "And who are you all? What is my challenge to get to the next floor?"
Since these were intelligent beings before him who didn't attack him directly, he believed the challenge here wasn't to fight most probably. Still, he had to be sure before he lowered his defenses. He didn't want to make the same mistake as he did on the 25th floor.
"That's a lot of questions, Young Man," Novius chimed in. "Though the answers to all those questions are easy, especially your very first question."
"We can see your mark because your Numens are useless before us on his floor," he explained. "He can see through the gloves of yours. Not only are your gloves useless here, but also the Ring of Disguise."
"As for your second question, don't you already know what this place is?" Cylix took the lead, seemingly quite amused for some reason. "This is the ninety-ninth floor. As for who we are..."
Cylix's fingers combed through his hair as he smiled. "I am Cylix, and he is Novius."
'Cylix and Novius? The Founders of the Academy of Elements?' As soon as Gabriel heard the name, his mind clicked, and he remembered where he had heard the names before!
He also remembered that one of the two Founders had the element of Light, and the other had the Element of Darkness, just like the two before him! So these two... They were the Ancient Founders? They were still alive?
"As for your challenge, it's simple." Cylix observed Gabriel's expressions as he continued, "Kill the two of us, and you can go to the final floor!"
Gabriel had expected thousands of possibilities for his challenge on this floor, but this one even he couldn't have imagined! The Challenge here was to kill the Founders of the Academy, who were said to be as strong as the Holy Priests? The ones who were said to be one of the most knowledgeable mages of their time?
If that was the challenge, he finally understood why no one could clear this floor! This floor was essentially impossible to clear!
