The woman's eyes narrowed as she looked at the masked young man before her. She could not believe that the arrangement she made to the platform was rendered useless.
All the sentries around the platform were magic items she specifically set up to shoot different curses and attacks to prevent anyone from getting close to the tower. On top of that, a defense mechanism was hidden at the thirty-meter mark outside the tower, wherein once triggered, offensive-type magic would indiscriminately attack all intruders. It was meant to summon countless magic swords that would rain down on anything within the defense mechanism's area of effect.
However, the masked young man standing at least twenty meters ahead did not trigger the mechanism. She did not even sense his arrival or his attack. If she were a tad late in using her teleportation token to move out of the tower, she would have been disseminated to nothing.
"How did you manage to enter the mechanism?" The woman asked.
Kyran tilted his head to the side, still smiling slightly. He did not say anything.
With narrowed eyes, the woman descended and cautiously approached him. Behind her, the several golden swords continued to rotate, giving off a fierce and oppressive aura.
Seeing the masked young man had no intention of answering her question, the woman sighed. Finally, she stopped rotating the golden swords behind her and said, "I asked because I want to adjust the mechanism's settings."
Kyran raised his brows at the unexpected explanation from the woman. It was true he refrained from answering her question because she had kept her vigilance around him. He felt her attitude unwelcoming and decided to keep his stay here short.
Besides, the woman was from the same plane and connected to the Aureole faction. He did not want to stay and give her a chance to scrutinize what he did, which would inadvertently reveal clues about his magic and identity.
"Not my concern. Can you admit defeat now and let me move up?" Kyran answered with a shrug.
The woman frowned at once. She did not like the young man's arrogance. It was not the first time she met arrogant challengers like him. However, most of them acted arrogant eve before getting close to the tower. In the end, they all ended up cursed, paralyzed, or killed by her sentries. However, the young man before her had just reason for his arrogance, which annoyed her.
"If you don't answer, then I won't admit," she told him. When faced with an annoying person, she tends to act unreasonably to get them to taste their own medicine. She added, "You can accompany me until you do,"
Magic fluctuations instantly erupted as the golden swords behind her rotated once again.
Even before Kyran could react, the woman already charged forward.
She lifted her right arm as seven of the golden swords behind her flew in his direction. All seven sword tips pointed directly at him. The woman's eyes glowed green as light gold magic arrays appeared in front of the sword tips. Concentrated magic energies formed at the center of the magic arrays and shot straight at him.
At the same time, the rest of the golden swords behind her flew out in different directions. The runes on their blades glowed as half of them turned into a flaming sword, while the other half turned into frozen swords —the air where the swords flew sizzled and crackled, leaving fire or ice trails in their wake.
Without even batting an eye, Kyran waved his right hand. An invisible force burst out from him and went straight at the incoming beams of magic energy. Then he waved his hand a second time, and a dark purple spear appeared on his hand.
By this time, the invisible force had already arrived at the beams causing them to explode midway.
The woman's glowing green eyes widened in disbelief. Not from how easily he countered the beams but because of his actions.
'He's not using any magic array!' She exclaimed to herself.
Although she had met challengers from other planes who did not need magic arrays, they had other means of summoning their magic. It could be a magic item, runes tattooed on their bodies, or even long incantations. However, the young man did not have any of these. From the way he summoned his magic, it was as if he was a mage from her plane already at the Magus level.
Kyran looked at all the incoming golden swords. He swung his spear down, summoning another invisible force that went straight at the sword's magic array. As soon as the force collided with the magic array, they exploded.
The backlash of having her magic arrays destroyed was felt instantly by the woman. She abruptly stopped and fell to her knees as she coughed out a mouthful of blood, "Guh!"
Back at Kyran's side, the incoming flaming and frozen swords continued to close in on him. He suddenly disappeared and reappeared above three of the flaming swords. With a twist of his body, he swung his spear in midair at the flaming swords, instantly shattering them into pieces.
The woman who had not recovered from the first backlash again suffered another backlash. She coughed out a mouthful of blood after getting her swords destroyed.
'I-Impossible!' The woman's mind reeled in disbelief. If this continued, not only would she lose all her swords, but she would also suffer internal injuries.
With this in thought, the woman forced herself up and raised her hand, immediately retracting the seven golden swords first, which had already changed course to go after Kyran. She was about to rescind the rest of her swords, but her eyes constricted at the scene unfolding before her.
Kyran disappeared after destroying three of the flaming swords and reappeared five meters in front of the flying six frozen swords. He whirled the spear from his side to his back before sweeping it to the other side than to his front, creating a dark purple vortex. He continued to whirl the spear before him, expanding the dark purple vortex further. Soon, the surrounding air fluctuated as a fierce wind erupted from the vortex. It swept toward incoming frozen swords wherein, the moment the wind touched the tip of the swords, the frozen part started to melt.
A piercing and grinding sound erupted as the wind and the sword's blade collided. However, the force of the wind had Void properties. It immediately affected the sword's edge as several small cracks formed from the tip to the rest of its body. It was followed by shattering sounds as the fierce wind ruthlessly shattered all the swords.
The woman coughed out blood in succession. Her complexion paled at once. However, her eyes that looked on in disbelief were immediately replaced with a determined look as she forcefully roused her magic. She expanded her magic sense and took hold of the remaining swords.
Kyran swung the spear to his side upon seeing the woman struggle to retract her swords. He did not pursue and stayed his hand.
As soon as the remaining swords returned to the woman, they circled her defensively, with their tips facing downward.
"Admit defeat, or else I will not show mercy," Kyran warned, his voice dropping a note.
The woman looked up at him. His movements and unstoppable momentum caused her body to tremble in fear and, unexpectedly, awe.
Right from the start, the young man had the means to kill her in one move. However, he did not. It was for this reason that she also felt awe.
"You… look very young, yet your level of magic is—."
"Can we skip this? I don't want to sound rude, but I am in a hurry," Kyran interrupted her again.
It caused the woman to remember why she attacked in the first place. This guy was genuinely annoying.
"Humph! Then go ahead and kill me. Once I die, the Tower will start with the process of possible new platform master," she replied defiantly while casually taking out a pill and popping it in her mouth.
Kyran's brow made an involuntary twitch after sensing the woman's defiance.
He already heard from Loar that once a platform master dies, activities within the special place would have to stop for a few minutes. If he accepted becoming the new platform master, he would go through a series of imprinting and essence creation which would take more than half an hour. After that, the tower would announce to the rest of the platform masters and introduce him. That would take another half an hour.
However, if Kyran refused to become a platform master, the tower would revive the 'killed' platform master. Only when she had been revived and agreed to let him pass would he be able to move up.
It was such a troublesome process.
Finally, Kyran sighed. Since he did not want to dally any longer, he agreed, "Fine. I'll answer your question."
He recalled the woman's initial concern and said, "You've already seen what I can do. It is easy for me to pass through your mechanism. If you want to improve it, I suggest including an active detection formula and changing the attack formula to trigger not when an unauthorized person passes through the marker but—."
Kyran abruptly stopped after realizing what he had just done and groaned inwardly.
The woman's expression turned from looking annoyed to shock.
"You…" The woman's mind raced as she looked at the young man before her.
'He understands the calculations within my mechanism. But the calculations are written in our native language. This means he is someone from the Human plane! And that ability… it's not Space magic… He also did not use teleportation tokens… Tokens don't work that way. And from how he destroyed the tower… Aside from that, he's not using magic arrays… This…'
Her heart pounded inside her chest as a possibility crossed her mind.
"W-Who are you?" She asked cautiously. If her speculations were correct, this would explain why he deliberately wore a mask to hide his face.
Indeed, there were challengers whose faces were hidden under their robe's hoods, or even wearing blindfolds or full-helmets, but not a mask. The mask appeared to be a deliberate way of hiding one's face.
If this situation had happened before Kyran met the Sovereign of Ruin's real body, he might have killed the woman at once. It did not matter whether he had to accept being the new platform master and stay another couple of hours to go through the process. He would take the easy way out.
But Kyran could see a bigger picture now. Aside from that, it was his fault that led to this. He could feign ignorance, yes, but the woman before him was smart. Not to mention annoyingly unreasonable. So instead of avoiding the matter, he decided to confront it. He knew the acquired knowledge of one's essence would be transferred to the original within the next hour.. If that was the case, he had to turn this situation into something beneficial.