"I don't have time to deal with you!" Villin said in an annoyed fashion as he used reverto to reflect the spells the ponytail girl sent at him, following it up with a drowse to cause more pressure.
He was pretty sure at this point that either she cheated like he had to get to the eighth layer of the scarecrow, or the spell she used to get there couldn't be used in practical battle. Her spellcasting wasn't unusually fast and spells quite slow. If the ground underneath them wasn't completely enchanted, Villin would've been able to take care of her within ten seconds using vines and transfiguration.
Even if he just had a puppet he wouldn't have to waste time as he was.
After five minutes of dueling while being insulted and laughed at by the green-haired man behind him, he had had enough of this fight. At any point, actual people could come into the library and see them fighting. If they looked at the situation in the entirety, they might figure out the book at Villin's feet was the cause of the fight.
Unwilling to deal with such a situation, Villin promptly decided to use one of his trump cards.
His face tensed up a little as he focused, causing the ponytailed girl to quickly cast a defensive spell since she thought it was a sign he would attack.
He did.
No spell came from his wands, but invisible threads moved from his own mind towards his opponent.
When she noticed thin threads of magic power approaching her from multiple directions, she was momentarily surprised, causing her to lose the only opportunity to stop Villin from mounting a proper mental attack.
When the magical threads connected their two minds, she no longer had even the slightest chance of winning. Her mental defenses were nearly completely non-existing. She didn't even know how to properly control magic power within her mind making it so that Villin's magic power easily kept the lead and made it to the second mental region.
Here, his magic power simply went around and ravaged the place, messing with her emotions. He didn't completely destroy anything inside though making it all temporary. After all, you never knew who had a powerful family and he wasn't prepared to deal with one.
A few seconds later, she slumped to the ground, fainted. She would probably recover in a couple of days, meaning she'd probably get fired when the general came back to get them all for further training.
"Oh, did she just fall down?" the green-haired man asked, confusion clear on his face.
"Hmm, it would seem that he used some sort of technique to take care of her, it is somewhat impressive." the blonde main added.
"He used a mental attack." The old man said simply as he looked at Villin who now finally properly looked back.
"So, I grab the book and something enters my body, altering my vision and hearing, allowing me to see and hear three strange people." Looking at the blonde man first, then the green-haired man, and finally the old one, he stated, "Dean who never lies. Ron who is untrustworthy as can be. And finally, Harry, who has the answer."
Villin frowned as he thought of the situation. If it wasn't for Ashera, he might not have figured out what was going on as quickly, even if it seemed obvious in hindsight. It seemed that he relied on his human senses a bit too much, something that would need fixing.
Noticing that the three were still engaging in what Villin thought could potentially be banter, he turned back towards the heavy book that had fallen to the ground. Then, since he heard sounds coming from one of the two entrances of the library, he took the book and left the other way, encountering Golmi when he was on the way to the staircase. Golmi seemed to have been looking for him as they both headed to the staircase when they saw the other and descended to the bottom floor.
Even though Villin found golmi acted quite a lot like a kid sometimes, he wouldn't call him stupid, and despite the extremely short time spent together he trusted him slightly, he simply didn't seem like the type of person to try and fool him.
When they got to the ground floor, it seemed empty. Most likely because there were no facilities here nobody bothered to remain. If anyone was here they probably had the same idea as Villin and Golmi and needed a private place to convene.
In order to reduce the risk of being overheard, Villin gestured for Golmi to follow him and headed towards a small room with a pile of ash in the center of it, they should be safe here.
Villin wanted to make sure the area around them was clear using transfiguration but already felt Golmi's magic power underground. It seemed that, in this situation, he was acting a little cautiously, something quite surprising considering he just gave Villin the first hint when they met for, what was really the first time.
Still, he wouldn't complain. And just as he was about to open his mouth and tell Golmi about what he found, Golmi spoke first.
"I found it!" Golmi said with enthusiasm, even though his facial expressions didn't really follow. "I looked very hard and found what we needed!"
"Wait, what? What did you find?"
"So, I was looking through the second room I had to search and I searched everywhere. Beneath couches, under the ground nothing! But then, I had a feeling I should try to jump into the fireplace, so I did! And so I got into a room full of statues. One of them was of an angel holding a sword. I got closer to look at her but she didn't move.
"Then, I searched the statue and I found a note inside of her sleeve."
After this, he took out a small yellow note and Villin read it.
----------
The sixth step, you've come so far.
Shown your courage, looking at your enemy so closely.
But it's angry now and the safe times will dissipate.
Two hours more you have until they all awaken.
Two have died, two are needed to finish your quest.
Two more deaths and the mission becomes void of rewards.
I tell you once more, hurry now.
Get on guard duty or you will fail.
With wits, strength, compassion, and courage tested, only two are left.
Show your charm and you will pass.
-------------
"This…"
Villin was rendered speechless when he read the note. He looked at the trio that he saw standing beside him also reading the note with bewildered expressions and wondered what he went through all that trouble for when Golmi could just go ahead and casually jump into a burning fireplace to skip multiple steps
"This? They cheated!" the green-haired man said in anger as he looked at the two.
"Technically, the only rules we put into place were that only five can die in the allotted period and that you cannot go outside if you are not on guard duty." the blonde man reasoned.
Once more the two then looked at the old man to hear his thoughts, he seemed respected by both of the opposite men, "Hmm, this is a tricky one. It appears they found their own answer." he noted before going silent again.
"I'm not sure what it means but I think it could be another one of those hard riddles!" Golmi said excitedly.
"Hmm, probably not a riddle, just a clue. We seem to have skipped over a multitude of steps. It also seems that we have to be careful of guards dying if we want to see this through to the end, at least until it comes up.
"I'm guessing that either the angel specifically of the statues in general are opponents. Possible just ours, but more likely of all of the guards. I'm also guessing their threat should've been seen in one of the steps we missed.
"We heard guard duty being mentioned by the general before we entered, there's probably a place to sign up somewhere in the tower.
"Lastly, we will have to try and be charming to whomever or whatever will come while we're guarding."
Looking at Villin speaking, Golmi's eyes looked like they were made out of gems, "Oh my! You are so smart, to know all that just from that little text!"
Villin was about to say it was incredibly obvious and most of it was explicitly stated but couldn't get himself to do so when he saw Golmi's gaze. 'Damnit, why do I even care about what this guy thinks of me.' Villin said to himself inwardly, but he didn't really mind too much.
"Oh right! What did you find?" Golmi asked, remembering Villin seemed to have found something as well when he saw him.
In response, Villin nodded grimly, whatever he had was probably useless now, he would most likely just have to find a way to get rid of the three distractions.
"This." he said before grabbing the heavy book out of his spacial bag and dropping it to the ground.
Looking at the book, Golmi looked slightly confused, "What is it?"
Knowing that Golmi probably didn't want to hear 'A book.' in return, Villin explained what happened to him, starting from when he saw the ponytail girl leaving a lane and skipping over the part of how he knocked her out. Golmi was engaged the entire way through.
"So, we open the book now?" Golmi asked Villin, looking at the tattered book on the ground.
"Best if you don't touch it. But yeah, sure." Villin said before leaning forwards and opening the book.
