Remnants of magic twisted around the spire as its inertia fought the spire’s pull. Before the man had a chance to react, tens of silver strands split from the spire and lashed at him. His figure blurred once more and teleported back to his original position.

Pools of silver liquid remained in the wake of the strike. The man was truly puzzled now. Though not his full strength, the amount of power in his strike wasn’t something an Apprentice Assembler could offset.

While he pondered his next move with a calm mind, he felt a gaze lock onto him. A pair of crystal blue eyes was staring him down and behind those eyes, the man felt a simmering brutal intent. “Angh… Angh…,” snorted the beast while tapping one of its forelegs as if to warm itself up.

The man’s brows furrowed at the creature. He ignored the beast initially as it posed him no threat and the priority was the girl. However, he reconsidered that idea after the spire’s retaliation. His spiritual awareness felt the faint fluctuations of Sol within the spire, though the emmanations were so weak he knew the girl was likely unconscious.

Following that logic, who was controlling the spire’s defense? Was it automatic? The spire looked unlike anything he had ever seen before. It certainly wasn’t something an Apprentice could pull off as far as automatic defenses go. That’s not even considering the girl lacked the magical capacity to support the contraption.

“Angh…” The beast snorted once more and small holes formed on the beast’s exterior as if strips of its constituting material were leaking from it. The man’s eyes went wide a moment later and blades of silver tore through the ground.

There was no warning. The natural emission of magic Assemblers gave off when constructing their magic was absent. All there was, was the result. The man dodge at the last moment and allowed the blades to flash past his position.

As if predicting his motion, the blades ignored physics and halted their momentum. To his dismay, the silver blade altered its shape into a whip and followed up with a secondary strike. By sheer reaction, the man invoked a defensive spell to block the strike.

The whip of silver struck the shield and was deflected back. The strand-like material acted as if it had a will and proceeded to engage the man’s shield with a series of rapid strikes. Each strike scored the shield and, despite the shield’s attempt to repair itself, slowly dismantled it.

“The fuck is this thing?!” The man no longer remained calm. Mysterious beast? He could forgive that. Magic sucking spire? Threatening, but not life threatening. This mysterious silver material though? It was terrifying. What he initially assumed to be a magically constructed spell was actually a physical material.

Each strike that slammed his shield forced him to realize the silver material contained the same properties as the spire. He could feel his internal magic draining at an alarming rate to recover each strike the shield took. It was as if he were casting the spell over and over again as opposed to just repairing it.

If that wasn’t enough, he had to pump an excessive amount of magic into the defense to offset the magic the spire was ripping from the spell itself. Beads of sweat formed on the man as he started considering retreat as an option.

Recovering magic in the lower plane wasn’t a trivial task and he had already wasted years of accumulation over the few seconds the entire exchange happened. The man’s gaze flickered with determination. It would be difficult to strike the girl again after this, he had to finish it now.

Magic flooded his system and from the palm of his hand, the start of a spell constructed itself. Magic wrapped the exterior of the construct and then packed even more inside the shell. A blood red spear nearly 3 meters in length crackled with electricity as the sheer density of magic inside it evoked environmental phenomena.

Another burst of magic empowered the man’s body and his figure blurred to only 20 meters of the spire. Though not entirely sure, his spiritual awareness was able to detect the girl’s most likely position within the spire.

He took a throwing pose and felt the remnants of his defense shatter at his previous location. The silver material was too far away to interfere and failed to chase him. Only the beast was capable of interfering at this point, however he could tell through his spiritual awareness that the creature was too distant to react in time.

Magic pulsed once more and 3 rings of spells to support his shot and reinforce the projectile formed in front of him. He felt everything fall into place and execute the throw. The bloody spear blasted through the first ring of magic and inherited a potent rotation along its length. The instant torque dragged the surrounding air into a spiral, stabilizing the spear’s trajectory.

The rotating spear pierced the second ring and from it, received an additional acceleration. As it slipped into the final ring, the spiraling wind around it dispersed and pierced through the remaining distance with absolute silence as if in a vacuum.

The man’s figure flickered from view as soon as the spear left his grip. He evacuated kilometers from the spire in anticipation of the magic. The spear neared 2 meters the spire when the ripples distorted the spire’s surface.

Bulges of silver material extruded from the spire at a rate nearly five times the spear’s velocity. The amorphous blob tore open into a massive maw that swallowed the spear whole. The entire engagement took less than half a second and the resulting local environment was destroyed from the explosive reaction.

The man stared in utter shock at the scene. How was that possible? He was truly lost. What the hell was he tasked to kill? He used enough magic in that spear to erase Blonsall capital from the face of the continent.

He could understand it if the spear was deflected. He could accept it if the spire somehow dodged the spear. Hell, he would even begrudgingly accept it if the spire canceled the spear out with an equal strike. Yet to consume and disable it?

The man was no longer confident he could kill Sol. This particular bug was too abnormal. Part of him now understood the standing order to hunt the girl down. Something this dangerous shouldn’t exist. While lost in his revelations, the distant explosions finally reached his location.

Two figures appeared beside him while another two flickered into view near the distant spire. “Romero, Victoria. That spire’s dangerous. It consumed one of this King’s Tier 7 spells without struggle… This is no longer about the job, that thing can’t be allowed to exist any longer!”

The words slipped from his mouth with force behind them. Romero and Victoria were already in agreement. Though they didn’t witness  the exchange the man had with the spire, their spiritual awareness felt the intensity of the attack the man launched, including the attack’s disappearance.

“This King will lock down the two defenders. Romero, strike that spire with a Tier 9 physical based spell. It appears weak to physical strikes… Victoria, protect Romero. This King doesn’t care if it costs your life. He better succeed. This is no longer about personal goals. Something that consumes magic like that is a danger to all the realms!,” yelled the man. 

His figure then accelerated towards the two figures near the spire. He no longer concerned himself with saving magic and released everything he had. Left behind, Romero kept silent at the command and focused on structuring the high Tier magical construct. Victoria also remained silent. The two were in agreement with the man. Even from their remote position, the spire was stripping magic from them. The feeling left an indelible mark of subtle terror on their souls.

Meanwhile at the base of the silver spire, An blanched at the behemoth reaching for the sky. Dorothy wasn’t much better. There was a sense of awe and fear that seeped into her heart when facing the construct. “What is this An?,” she asked without much hope of an answer.

“Sol must have entered refinement…,” he replied with a bit of doubt laced in. “This happened before?” She questioned in surprise. An’s brows furrowed in response. “Not quite. Magic was drawn in during her first refinement, however it was nothing to this scale… It wasn’t nearly as flashy either…” He chuckled dryly at his attempt to compare the two events. “Something must have gone wrong…,” he continued while also turning his attention to the deer-like beast nearby. 

Just like them, the creature was gazing into the spire. Having felt the attention on it, the blue eyes momentarily looked back before dismissing the two newcomers. An couldn’t help but smile wryly at the beast’s actions. He knew An wasn’t in trouble considering the creature’s behavior.

“Sol’s fine. For now, let’s deal with the Assemblers. That’s one dangerous toy being built up there…” He commented while focusing on the 3 Assemblers. Dorothy followed his actions as she felt a new member closing in. Her brows furrowed. “That man’s going all out.”

An was forced to agree. “He must be desperate. Can you handle him?” Dorothy’s eyes flickered while runic symbols rotated around her irises. “No. Not while shackled by this plane.” Her answer was within An’s expectations. Both he and Dorothy forced their way into the lower plane, after all. Sacrifice was needed to avoid being rejected from it. 

At a glance, An could tell the man closing in on them had stayed in the plane long enough to free himself of most of the lower plane’s shackles. He couldn’t help but laugh begrudgingly. “Dorothy, everything was fine until you came… Did you drag this bad luck along with you?”