In another room inside the palace, a few men and women were sitting, lost in meditation as well.
It was only as they felt the entire mountain tremble that they opened their eyes.
"What happened?" A woman asked, frowning. "Are we under attack?"
Another man opened his eyes. "Who would dare attack this place? It looks more like the work of Master! He should be upset about something..."
"Something that could upset Master?" Almost everyone in the hall was shocked. They knew just who their master was. He was a person who wouldn't frown even if the entire world was falling apart!
Everyone looked at each other in confusion. However, just as they were about to get to see what could've happened, they heard a shocked gasp of someone amongst them.
Everyone looked at the person who had exclaimed in shock, only to find him pointing at the front with dread.
The others also looked in the direction he was pointing at. At the other end of the hall, there was a small altar. The altar had some stone tablets, each with a name.
In total, there were around four stone tablets initially! However, correctly there were only three which could be seen there! As for the fourth one, it was broken!
"No wonder master woke up..."
Most of the people in the group understood what could've happened. There were only a few in the group who didn't understand. They were all the people who had just joined this hall. They were yet to be taught about these stone tablets.
"Senior, what does it mean?" A fourteen year old youngster asked.
"That means someone is dead," the old man answered as he walked closer to the Altar. He observed the broken stone tablet. "From the looks of it, it was the youngest brother of Master..."
"The youngest brother?" The young man asked as he became even more confused. He had never heard about their master having a brother at all.
"Master has three brothers. Two of them have been imprisoned by him. As for the third one, he was banished by master to a place that even I don't know about," the old man exclaimed, staring grimly at the broken stone tablet.
"These four stone tablets contain the soul essence of the master and his three brothers. In other words, these are just like a messaging beacon to let us and master know when one of them is dead," he further explained.
The ones who already knew about such things didn't show much surprise. However, the young ones were full of questions.
"Why would Master imprison his two brothers and banish the youngest?" The youngster asked.
"Don't ask what you shouldn't know about." The old man walked back to his seat and sat down. "Get back to what you were doing."
"Shouldn't we inform Master about it?" Another person asked.
"No need. He already knows about it." The old man casually responded before entering meditation again.
****
In the secret room, the young man managed to assimilate most of the information he could find.
He slowly opened his eyes which flashed with a confused as well as a cold look.
"This disgusting aura... How long has it been since I last felt it?" The young man frowned, looking at the mirror which didn't even show his reflection. "Are you back... Death?"
He wanted to read the memories of the soul that he had received to find out what actually happened. Unfortunately, because the body was attacked by the Death Knight, the aura of Death had already seeped inside the body and the soul, making it impossible to read through the memories of the person.
There was only one thing that the young man could sense for now. He knew what element of the spell killed his brother. And this presence... He could never forget this cold feeling.
The young man turned around, keeping Izen's soul with himself. He had already understood half the situation by now.
"No wonder Izen died. If it's him, then it makes sense. Izen could never face someone like him, especially in that desolate place," the young man turned his back on the mirror. His mind was still lost in something.
****
Back in the Tower of Challenges, Gabriel tried his best to succeed in his spell. Unfortunately, Izen never woke up. It was as if there was no soul to use at all! There was just a body which there was no use of!
In the end, Gabriel could only give up, realizing that whatever he did at this point was just a waste of time. He sent the body into his Spatial Storage of his Grimoire, not knowing what he was going to do with it. He just didn't want to waste it.
After storing the body, Gabriel gathered some more strength before he started climbing the Tower.
Unlike the first time, this time it was just like a walk in the part for Gabriel to climb the tower. He already knew what he had to do. The challenges were nothing before him now. In fact, he didn't even need to summon his Death Knights or Raphael to help him this time.
Throughout the entire time, he only used his new spells of Light to gain better control on them. He had already mastered all other spells after all.
Before long, Gabriel was already on the ninety ninth floor.
The floor brought back so many memories for Gabriel, especially the two vacant thrones where Cylix and Novius were sitting in the past.
In the present, there was no one on the throne. Other than the throne, there were still the soul clones of the ones who had reached this floor in the past before Gabriel.
The challenge was still the same as the first time. Gabriel had to defeat two of those soul clones to reach the next floor. The difficulty this time was much easier compared to last time when he had to face Cylix and Novius.
Gabriel once again chose the two strongest people here and swiftly passed through the trial. In fact, the soul clones already remembered Gabriel and didn't even want to fight him, knowing they had no chance. Yet, they still had to fight because of the rules.
After Gabriel passed through the trial on the 99th floor, he took one last glance at the majestic hall that was like his second home! It was where he gained his second family... It was where he met Novius and Cylix.
He couldn't help but touch the vacant thrones, remembering the past. He didn't say anything and went to the next floor.
While inside the tower, everything was peaceful and easy, outside the tower, there was an even bigger commotion.
Another person had appeared at the top of the tower ranking, reaching the top floor within a fraction of time that the second place took!
Unfortunately, there was no name before the first rank now. Since the stone which Gabriel was given was a stone without any name, now that he reached the top floor, the name place was empty. Only his rank and floor level was mentioned.
Despite having no name, some of the teachers were quite happy, especially the ones who didn't know that Gabriel had just fought Izen and killed him.
In fact, the ignorant teachers and students were happy that the Holy Lord of Light reached that place.
Last time, Gabriel had reached the top floor. They were initially happy but when they found out that Gabriel was a dark mage, all their happiness disappeared!
After that, whenever they looked at the top name, they felt disgusted and insisted that a pathetic dark mage was occupying that place! Now that a Light Mage had taken that place, they could once again relax and be proud that Light was superior to darkness!
"Finally we have someone who could defeat that Gabriel!" One of the students smirked. He was none other than the person who was beaten by Gabriel in the past.
