The interior of the Wormworld Spiral was like a completely new world swallowing anyone who entered through its door so suddenly that almost always, a dreadful look of shock would appear on their faces.
As it turned out, except for Arch-Mage Ryte – obviously – everyone else in the group had never set foot in this tall tower, and they all gaped at the vast pool of mana, assorted abstract energies and aesthetic sacredness that blew against their faces as they gazed upon the pristine innards of the tower.
They were forced to suck in a sharp breath.
The beauty.
The grandiosity.
The structural genius.
Even though Skullius, Aurolio and Gillewart had no idea what they were looking at, they were smitten silly by it all and lost their cool for a couple of seconds.
It was a privilege to enter this place, really.
Prime Mages and below were not allowed to enter, and there was never an induction for Apprentices to go inside the spiralling structure and glimpse its magnificence. They had to earn it by sharpening their skill.
So, for three non-Mages to simply obtain the privilege of entry and see its brilliance while escorted by an esteemed Arch-Mage no less.... It was more than a bit uncommon.
"Flesh me..." Skullius voiced in awe.
Before him was an endless space with a stone tiled floor of smooth, grey marble, with the individual squares of the masonry rippling with mana.
Above, a silver sky with swirls that resembled clouds and colourful gaseous bodies fettered with stardust and bits of rainbows sheltered the space, its entirely giving both a flat and three dimensional feel depending on how one tilted their head. Spots of vibrant luminance like large stars acted as the lights that illuminated this unbounded ground floor, which also seemed to be a lobby of sorts. After all, dozens of Mages who entered just like Ryte, Skullius, Aurolio and Gillewart, didn't seem to have much business here. And it should have been obvious, since a clear mind could tell that this was just the first floor.
While looking in all four cardinal directions didn't give even a glimpse to where the end of this floor was, certain structures obstructed much of that view and brought intrigue instead. Tens of rectangular pillars with the same shade of colour as the floor rose from below and sank into the cosmic flavoured ceiling.
Twisting swirls of energy like mutant lemniscates that kept spinning at a ferocious speed could be seen before each and everyone of these pillars, the colours of each being either of three; yellow, silver or indigo. Above these twisting swirls, on the pillars, a tag formed by a faint print of mana gave a designation as to where the quivering menaces of energy lead to, after all, they were portals which led to different sections of the Wormworld Spiral.
The colours had no particular meaning.
What was important was deciphering what the print of mana read, and the skill to do that was beyond those of the Prime Mage level and below. This was why entry into the large tower was exclusive. Mages by nature loved to apply themselves, and this setup within the lobby was indicative of their desire for magical challenges. Needless to say, for that reason, the portals were constantly changing positions, and the designations too by extension.
It might have seemed inefficient and time consuming, but there was a finite number of locations to go to within the Wormworld Spiral, thus after some time, it wouldn't even take a high level Mage thirty seconds to find the portal to the place they wanted to go.
Witnessing this arrangement gave Skullius a weird sense of excitement. He had noticed one of the prints changing through his [Greatest Mana Manipulation], followed by the respective portal, which gave away the idea of what was going on here. While he couldn't even begin to decipher what any of the prints read, he was infatuated by the mechanism still.
Arch-Mage Ryte noticed Skullius' beaming enthusiasm and chuckled.
"If this is something that excites you this much, then you truly should have become a Mage," he said before leading the way towards one of the portals.
"I should warn you, however excited you may be, that warping may not exactly be a pleasant experience on the first try. Well, I am talking to anomalies so you might not need the warning but just in case... do be prepared. Also, try to keep still, otherwise you might get torn to shreds if you flail around in panic."
Ryte's warning only seemed to be taken seriously by Skullius, while Aurolio and Gillewart didn't seem too fazed. Perhaps they believed they had experienced worse.
Looking at the portal that was like millions of luminous indigo coloured strings bundled together and tangling in swirls endlessly against themselves was intimidating, but beautiful at the same time.
For Skullius it was even more profound since he could feel the complicated, systematic mess of 'spiced' up mana churning in this outlandish mechanism.
Space.
There was mana immaculately arranged in a pattern that induced heavy spatial effects. A different arrangement of this basic energy, like the layout in which he created the Refinery for his gravity centered mana core could be deciphered from it.
This was fascinating!
Ryte was the first to set foot through the portal, his figure getting swallowed by the indigo mass.
Skullius followed after him and heeded his warning.
Unlike Gillewart, an Incandescent Stage expert and Aurolio who seemed to defy general notions of the world easily, the Hybrid Luman wasn't willing to act tough in an established, yet uncharted territory.
As he sunk into the portal, Skullius felt... nothing.
Stepping into the artificial warping construct was no different from walking through open space, as he still felt the flat ground under his feet and the same terrifying flow of mana everywhere. Even the activation of the portal which he had expected; a surge of specially woven mana or the imposition of a higher authority over him... didn't happen.
What was the warning for then?
Did Ryte simply overestimate the effects?
Who knew?
'This is...sophisticated. I guess high level magecraft can't even be compared to my clunky use of mana,' Skullius thought with a sigh.
In the next moment, the Hybrid Luman found to himself in a completely different area.
Unlike the lobby, this place felt finite and... dark.
Everything just seemed gloomy and heavy, and with good reason.
Arch-Mage Ryte waited for everyone to appear behind him from a similar pillar before which an indigo mass of squirming spatial strings endlessly coiled.
He gave the group a cautious glance.
"This is a very...rigid place. The rules and spells here are unforgiving and intolerant to any contradictory and undesired actions. So, I urge you to not touch or do anything that I do not do," Ryte said, his eye falling on Aurolio in particular.
The group acknowledged the Arch-Mage's warning and followed after him as he walked ahead.
Skullius was once again smitten with surprise and awe when he felt the surroundings.
Towering, dark cubes rose into the high, pitch black ceiling, their arrangement around the finite space growing outward in a circular formation.
Over these cubes' faces, more fine prints constricted with mana could be seen, but they were not nearly as hard to decipher as the ones in the lobby. They seemed to give an idea of what was inside.
What was captured inside.
Indeed.
All the cubes here were prisons, and from the pillar in the centre of this space going outward, the cubes grew in size, as well as the concentration of other energies that Skullius couldn't comprehend surging around them. There were nearly endless combinations of powers that he guessed were supposed to counter those of whatever was stored inside!
And to think that even though some of the most vile of monsters were being detained here, no signs of struggle could be detected from the dark cubes... Was it because the captives were unable to express their rage or was it that hey were constantly doing so... but just couldn't be heard?
Such a thing made Skullius smile sheepishly.
'That's dark.'
The awkward silence made the Hybrid Luman a bit uncomfortable, and he decided to try out the privilege he had been handed by Arch-Mage Ryte earlier, even though it might have been a bit too early.
"Arch-Mage Ryte. What exactly do you keep here? Monsters that you can't kill or creatures you are just fascinated by?" he asked.
The elderly man was amused.
"It's funny that you think there's a distinction between the two."
'Huh?' Skullius thought.
"Creatures that we can't kill are among many wonders that we would love to study exhaustively. But that isn't all we keep here. It's not only living things that captivate our interest but with certain degrees of danger to them. After all, when you think about it, truly powerful weapons or artefacts have a consciousness," Arch-Mage Ryte explained.
Skullius needed no expansion on that topic. He had learnt this through the grand aspect of [Unmatched Sword Sense]. He couldn't imagine what some of the stronger Mythical and even... Transcendent Grade treasures with consciousnesses could pull.
No doubt, such things were worthy of these cubical entrapments.
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