The hallway was spacious, enough for tens of people to walk side by side. Although the torches on the walls were bright, they could not illuminate the entirety of the chamber itself. Due to this, the giant lanterns that hang from the ceiling became the actual source of light that illumined the room.
Forus and Ocelia stood before a large gate, which was taller than their height combined. On its surface were many runes, different in style and position, seemingly portraying the meaning behind the closed door. Its marble exterior was devoid of dust, reflecting the orange light that originated from the candles upon the lanterns.
"Before the Door of Hope, everyone is equal. Behind the Door of Hope, everyone is different." Ocelia said lightly after glaring at the runes. After the fusion with the Mask of Sun and Moon, much knowledge about the Fleeting Emotions Ruin, as well as the knowledge about the ancient language, became available to her as if she had been born with them.
"Then, dear, let hope they store something good for us. However, please be careful. No matter how good the treasures are, you have to be alive to use it. Remember, this is not just for your sake, but for mine and your daughter's too." Before Forus could grasp at the handle of the door, Ocelia extended her hand to gasped at his and said in her worry.
"No worry, Ocelia. I won't leave you easily. Until I met my daughter, I won't die." His calming voice was like a breeze of refreshing wind, passing through Ocelia's heart, slowing down her heartbeat and relieved her of the stress.
With his strength as a first-ranked sorcerer, coupled with his unique method of sorcery cultivation, he could easily beat any other ordinary first-ranked sorcerer in a physical contest, except only the sorcerers trained in the physical body. So, when he exerted himself, the door quickly gave in to him and began moving, emitting noise of friction between the gate and the floor.
Once he pulled apart the door, a veil of white fog appeared before his view, blocking the content beyond the door from the outsiders. Although Forus could not see, he could still send out his sorcery energy to probe the surrounding area around him, and the curtain of mist was blocking his sorcery energy.
"That mist is the mechanism of the Tower of Succession. It acts as a checkpoint and the barrier between the tests, just like the mist at the Mind Burial Lane." Sensing Forus' confusion, Ocelia quickly looked through her memory and found the relevant knowledge regarding the language of the ancient time.
Seeing that Ocelia did not continue to explain about the tests, Forus knew that she didn't have any information about them and did not pursue further. He then walked forwards and let Ocelia stay behind him in case something unexpected happened.
Upon contact, the mist felt like a thin layer of floating water and could not obstruct the path of Forus. His body forced the film to dissipated and made ways for him to travel through without any after effect, and as Forus passed to the other side, the fog recovered to its original state and continued to separate the two worlds apart.
Seeing that Forus disappeared into nothingness, cutting away the connection between him and Ocelia, she immediately rushed into the mist as well, not caring if there were any traps hidden within or not. Like before, Ocelia passed through with no problem, and she regained the connection between her and Forus right after she entered the other side.
"Why are you so reckless? What if there is a trap in there? Please don't do this again." Although she knew that there would be no traps or at least the life-threatening ones within the Tower of Succession, she still could not stop her worried heart from rapidly pounding after she could not sense his location.
After all, if there was a death trap within the inheritance ground, then what would be the point of the place?
"To think that you would be so emotional, I'm glad. However, it is you that is reckless. Even if there are traps, my body is much stronger than yours and could survive with minimal injury." Forus felt a sense of warmness rushed through his heart when he saw her alarmed face. Although Ocelia was a smart girl, sometimes emotions could get in the way of rationality.
After a brief quarrel, the couple began to cool down and started observing their surrounding, furthermore, because nothing of harm had happened, there was no reason for them to be arguing about the hypothetical scenario.
The room resembled the previous hallway where Forus poured out his heart and laid it open for Ocelia to feel and experience. The white walls that stretched across the room were almost the exact copy of the first one. However, the length of the chamber decreased, and its width became even broader, changing from its long-winded structure into a more compact one.
Before the two could walk towards the end of the hall, the brightness of the room reduced and the warming atmosphere became colder, as well as the loudness of the orchestral music. As soon as the Tower of Succession set the stage of the play, the mechanism of the tests ran into motion.
The darkness around the corner of the room gathered together and fused into four spherical balls of blackness. The shapeless darkness did not wait for Forus and Ocelia to react before extending its tentacles out, forming five limbs. The limbs then stretched outwards, forming two arms, two legs, and one head as the core.
As the darkness built its shape, it transformed its liquid state into the solid one, from the black substance to the metallic surface. The exterior of the puppets was pitch-black, swallowing all light that came into contact with it, distorting space around its body.
Four metallic humanoid figures stood in the arrow formation and stared at Forus and Ocelia, moving backwards as they slowly increased the distance between the two. The final puppet behind the other three began to draw strange runes onto the ground, using its sorcery energy every time a rune engraved itself onto the marble floor.
As soon as Forus sensed the fluctuation in sorcery energy, he sprinted into action and gestured his hand, sending a series of lances towards the group. The spears created by different Elements created howling wind in the air as they descended onto the formation master.
As Forus became the first-ranked sorcerer, his sorcery energy manipulation mastery advanced, making him had an easier time detecting fluctuation of sorcery within the surrounding as well as enhancing the destructive power of the Elemental spells. The different Elements that produced the spears would help raise the devastating ability of the spells upon their contact, creating a bigger blast when they banded together.
After Forus made sure that the group of puppets only consisted of third-layered sorcerer-apprentices, he began his assault first to break the circle and headed straight towards the formation master to prevent him from using his unknown array.
Although a sorcerer-apprentice could never touch a first-ranked sorcerer, four sorcerer-apprentices with a prepared killing formation might be able to harm the unprepared, arrogant sorcerer. Anyone could underestimate others would fall first, even for the strong sorcerers.
Two of the puppets moved towards the front of the spears and used their prepared spells to block them, letting the last one stood guarded before the array master, not allowing Forus getting near the runes.
The combination of a water barrier and a wall of thorns blocked off a majority of the spears. However, the last fiery spear broke their defence and exploded, sending them back a few steps before holding their ground.
The black flame erupted on Forus' hand as he closed his fingers to form a fist and punched forwards at the last puppet. It then responded with its fist. However, as soon as they closed in, a faint silhouette of a giant gauntlet manifested into existence and imposed onto the puppet's hand, shining in golden as its power rapidly raised.
A loud bang travelled outwards as Forus took a step back from the impact before immediately threw out some potions towards the direction of the puppet. The puppet stood on its track as it coughed out black oil, but, its treasure, the golden gauntlet, broke into pieces.
The physical strength of Forus was much higher than any ordinary sorcerer. Coupled with the empowerment of the Death Aura, any weak sorcerer-apprentice would turn into dust upon contact. The fact that the sorcerer-apprentice didn't die showed that the gauntlet was one of the great treasure, being able to block one hit from a sorcerer at Forus' level.
The puppet didn't dare to dodge the potions as the array master was still behind it. One punch from the man before it almost took its life, and it was the most durable one out of its group, training in defensive spells and manoeuvre.
The potions exploded upon contact and cooked its surface, opening gaps for the black substance to flow outwards. By using the force of the explosion, the puppet regained some distance from Forus and pulled out a small transparent orb before crushing it. The lingering light within it merged into its surface and healed the wounds, renewing its condition to its peak.
The remaining two puppets didn't rush to help but instead kept circling Ocelia, retreating closer towards Forus, bidding their opportunity to make a clean strike. However, Ocelia would never allow her husband to be in any danger.
She shot out a series of fireballs and conjured an icy blade before grabbing it and rushed forwards. Every step that she took, the path would either become frozen of heat in flame, forming a very contrast environment. The drastic difference in temperature could confuse one's mind and slowed their body.
Knowing the nature of the fireballs and its power when firing from the first-ranked sorcerer, the two rolled to the side to avoid their trajectory, separating from each other as the fireballs shot between them. Seeing the opportunity, Ocelia rushed towards the slower one and slashed her blade downwards, aiming at their head.
Before the other puppet could cast a supporting spell, one of the fireballs exploded mid-air, changing the trajectory of the remaining fireballs towards him. However, because of the explosion, the fireballs lost parts of its power and became weakened.
Not having any choice, the puppet decided to shield itself first. However, as the fireballs grew nearer, they started shivering and changed their shape. From a simple ball into a golem-like structure, their change was abrupt and unexpected. The fireballs were the Fire Spirits disguised as a simple offensive spell!
Getting swamped by a group of Fire Spirits, the water shield got broken down promptly and the puppet burned into ashes soon after. These Fire Spirits were from the fifth floor and had the power of the peak second-layered sorcerer-apprentice.
Although the puppet had some treasures that could save its life, it got caught unprepared and died an unexpected death, not having time to activate its trump cards.
The other puppet dodged Ocelia's slash and got its arm severed instead of its head. By utilising the break between the strike, it shouted an unknown language, and the ground beneath Ocelia trembled. Followed by the earthquake, Ocelia did a backflip and avoided a sharp stony spike.
Ocelia resolutely used her icy blade to cut her hand and sprayed the blood towards the puppet. The floating blood dissipated into a crimson shower before turning bluish and solid. The red fog quickly expanded and became a rain of small icy spikes.
As the oncoming rain of death rushed towards it, the puppet clapped its hand, and a large mirror assembled itself in front of him, covering its body with its size, letting out blinding light that could engulf the shower of spikes. However, before it could do anything, Ocelia tossed out a copper coin and let it shot towards the mirror.
The Underworld Copper Coin landed onto the mirror and emitted an ancient aura, sealing its ability and regressing the treasure into an ordinary mirror, crushing it under the coin's weight and broke it into pieces.
Without anything to defence itself, the puppet could only accept its fate and let the spikes penetrated its body before collapsing into a pool of black substance.
