Master the Elements to win against the experts of those Elements... That was the challenge that Gabriel was given if he wanted to clear the 99th Floor.
The challenge also came with more restrictions than just the one about using a specific element. Another restriction placed on him was that he couldn't take anyone's help. He was allowed to use a Numen, but only one! It didn't matter how many Numens he possessed, but he could only select and use one in the battle.
Other than these restrictions, there was not much that was placed on him. There wasn't anything related to how much time he could take. It all depended on him. He could take one month to learn, or he could train for years. It was all on his capabilities.
Initially, Cylix and Novius were in a hurry for this battle, but not anymore. Since they had decided to take Gabriel as their disciple indirectly, they wanted to make sure that he learned everything that they had to offer. It was going to be the last time they will see him after all.
They weren't going to have any other opportunity to teach him such things.
"Do you accept, or will you leave?" Novius offered a choice that wasn't much of a choice.
Gabriel observed the Staff of Darkness lying near his feet. He had a treasure that he could only use if he learned more about that Element.
"I accept the Challenge of yours." After a brief pause, Gabriel accepted the challenge. "I will defeat you with your own elements."
If someone from outside had seen him make that promise here, they would've considered him crazy! He really thought he could defeat the Two Founders of the Academy? Even though it was the younger avatar of the Founders, they were still very powerful around that time... Possibly one of the strongest Mages, comparable to the Holy Priests at that time.
They couldn't compare to the Holy Priests in terms of magical strength as they didn't have the Holy Grimoires to support them around their time, but they made up for that lack of raw strength with their immense trove of Knowledge. They only grew stronger after leaving the tower.
Cylix smirked, getting confirmation from Gabriel. Even though he expected this answer, he was still quite pleased with the answer.
****
Lira was sitting in the forest near a pond. Her face still looked pale, as if there was not even a single drop of blood in her body. Her lips had a cut that she could've healed, but she didn't. She just looked at her pale reflection in the water, thinking about the past.
Whatever happened in the Prison of Darkness was like a dream. Even now, she had a hard time believing that a novice mage could fight back against her so well and even hurt her so much.
"The power of Origin Element..." she muttered, clenching her fists so tight that her nails were stabbing her skin, making her bleed even more.
She had heard Lambard mention the Origin Element. She didn't place much importance on that. For her, Origin Element just meant it was the first Element to appear in this world... The Element of Life and Death... However, only now she understood that maybe that wasn't the only special thing about the Origin Element.
The Element hadn't appeared even once in this world after Karyk had been killed as if it didn't consider anyone worthy to inherit the element... Until now.
That Element was too bizarre, even for her. Even inside her own Grimoire, the Origin Element was able to hurt her... The Element was certainly very scary.
She placed her hand in the water, letting her blood enter the pure water, cleaning her hand.
"It would've been so good if we could've worked together... My Knowledge and Darkness... And your Origin Element with the raw strength. Unfortunately, you chose to double cross me... You deserved that death!"
She still considered that Gabriel had been killed as she didn't know better. She had inflicted his soul with his Darkness. There was no way for him to survive that and escape. Even the last attack of his that hurt her so much, she considered it to be the last attack of Gabriel before his death.
There was no way for her to confirm if he was alive either. In her eyes, Gabriel had been killed inside her Grimoire, and now that the soul was destroyed, there was no way to check.
Even her Ancestral Staff of Darkness had lost connection as if it went to sleep once again like it had been sleeping for centuries.
The staff had awakened when resisting Gabriel's control which established a better yet momentary connection with Lira, who was the present heir of Darkness. However, now that Gabriel had binded the Ancestral Staff of Darkness with him, the staff again lost its connection with Lira and this time for the better.
She couldn't sense the Staff now, which made her think that it had once again gone to sleep.
"The Ancestral Staff is asleep, and Gabriel is dead. Is there a way for me to get to it now? I don't even know where he kept it..."
"Since he said I can't get to it, as it's even more secure, that only makes me think that it's still in the Academy somewhere..."
"Is that in his room that was assigned to him in the Academy?" She wondered but rejected her own suggestion. "No. If they already knew that the Museum had been robbed, keeping the items in his room would be stupid. Or is it?"
Lira knew that sometimes the most obvious places were also the best places to hide something important. Could it be that Gabriel actually did it? Even if it wasn't in his room, it was still somewhere inside the Academy.
Unfortunately, her problem was still the same as before. She couldn't enter Lumen City without getting marked by the Barrier. When that happened, all the Holy Priests who were still in the City were going to be after her.
No matter what, getting to the Ancestral Staff of Darkness was very important for her. If there was one person who could help her in finding out the exact whereabouts of the Ancestral Staff of Darkness, it was Lambard!
Lambard found it hard to retrieve items from the Museum of Elements, but it was different if the items were kept in the room of Gabriel.
She washed her face with the cold water before standing up. She climbed back on her horse and left for the City of Abadon.
