Spire of Ascension, Floor 78.
"These familiar corridors... these familiar walls made out of mithril and adamantine..."
Looking around him, Rio could already sense significant similarities.
[Ding! You have entered the Spire of Ascension!]
[Ding! Your destiny intertwines with the summoner of the Spire of Ascension!]
[Ding! You must reach Floor o to leave!]
'My destiny intersects with someone? No... It's perhaps the strings of destiny attached to this body and the original Rio, not the actual me...'
Although his soul has entered this world, it doesn't belong here and is a foreign object after all; the rules of this world and the strings of destiny in this world can't govern over it.
For them, he's completely nonexistent.
'The biggest problem is... that my 'True Immunity' skill failed to stop this from happening... Something interfered with it, and I was forcefully teleported here...'
Rio placed his hand on the wall and sighed.
'The structure, the magic circles, everything is the same... This place is literally the exact copy of that 'prototype S16ir112' place...'
'No... In fact, the place I visited before was named 'prototype' because it was the copy of this 'Spire of Ascension' instead! This one is the real deal!'
Rio contemplated in his mind for a while, and a thought came to his mind,
'Wait! The number 16 refers to 'P' in alphabets 1 is for 'A' and 12 is for 'L'... If I put them in 'S16ir112' the word becomes 'Spiral'!'
'In other words, that prototype 'Spiral' was basically a practice ground for this actual Spire or Spiral of Ascension!... the clues were in front of me all along!'
Rio rubbed his temples and felt a bit idiotic thinking about it.
The clues were in front of him all along, but he never saw them and never thought deeply about them.
That place they visited before clearly had 'Prototype' in its name as stated by that 'Practice Trail', which means there will definitely be the real thing out there if there's a prototype.
'But how did I end up here? How did that portal suddenly open below my feet? Everything is still mystery... And what exactly is the purpose of this thing?'
'The name of this place is 'Spire of Ascension'; don't tell me that it helps people ascend to higher realms when you reach floor o or something...'
Rio has a vague feeling; this place is definitely much worse than that mere prototype.
'To get the answers for questions, I will need to descend deeper...'
Although Rio doesn't know which floor he is on right now, he can find out about it after reaching the stairs of this floor.
'Let's follow the same method I did before...'
[Sword Intent!]
[Elemental Sword Art: Miasma Type: Empty Stance!]
Rio donned the shadow robe again and covered himself in miasma to follow the same method that he did before in the prototype version!
'This time I have more proficiency, and I also replenished my mana potion reserves yesterday...'
Rio always likes to be combat-ready at every moment; thus, the first thing he did after coming back home was replenish his mana potion reserves.
'Moreover, now I have thought of a method to counter...'
After Rio got that 'second fragment', he felt that his 'Will' had become stronger and his control over 'sword intent' finally reached 90%; thus, now he has more abilities in his arsenal.
Rio purposely embedded his sword intent in the floor and the air through this body and used it to sense the area around.
Sword Intent is extremely destructive in nature, so using it to do the tracking and detection work is very difficult.
You need an insane amount of mastery to send out sword intent waves in the area around without destroying anything at all.
Right now, Rio has such mastery over his sword intent that he can use it as a detection-type skill, and even if it encounters a living creature, the sword intent will not harm anything or anyone in this state.
'It takes immense control, but now that I have mastered it, I can avoid any traps easily, and even if I still get hit, I will ignore the damage with the shadow robe enhanced with miasma...' Rio bent his knees slightly and then launched forward like a rocket. Now that he has such a powerful and fast detection ability, he doesn't need to worry about the traps.
[Dark Wing Movement Art!]
Thus, he can move at his usual speed now without worrying about anything! (The maximum speed of the fastest fighter jet is the average speed for Rio...)
...
Floor 77.
A massive empty hall.
"Ah, welcome! I have been wanting to meet a powerful opponent... er... are you really strong? You seem so weak to me..."
A demon with three heads and a body that was ten meters tall stared at a young human girl in front of him with a look of doubt.
The girl pouted her cheeks at those words from the demon.
"Who said that!? I am quite strong, you know!"
Riya, who was already feeling quite frustrated that she had no candy to eat right now, felt even more angry when that overgrown demon suddenly appeared in front of her and insulted
her like that.
She was watching shows the whole night and ate all the candy, and now there's none left.
She didn't even have the time to replenish them when she was sucked in by that giant portal and then found herself standing in this big empty hall.
This giant demon appeared after that and started insulting her.
Riya glanced at the demon with a frustrated look.
"In fact, you look much weaker to me... Are you perhaps a defective product or something like
that?"
It's not that Riya was purposely insulting the other party; it's just that the demon in front of her has the aura of an S-ranker, but it doesn't have that feeling of danger a genuine S-ranker
gives.
'This demon's likely been forcefully raised to rank S using some forbidden magic; it's not a genuine S-ranker... Hmm, a pseudo-S ranker, I assume...'
Although Riya was not insulting him and was just stating the truth, the demon definitely didn't like those words and instantly became angry at her.
"YOU PUNY HUMAN! HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME!!!"
Hearing that loud voice, Riya wasn't scared at all; instead, she felt even more irritated.
'There's no sight of Link, and there's no candies to keep my mood calm... I feel like I am going
to go crazy now...'
[Heart of Eternal Nirvana: Maximum Output!]
[Advance Healing Magic: Domain Type: My territory, My rules!]
A massive field of healing magic spread in all directions, and in a matter of milliseconds, the entire hall was covered in it.
The walls, the floor, and even the ceiling-Riya covered it all with her healing magic's circle
and started to pour massive amounts of healing elements inside the hall.
A look of panic appeared in the eyes of the demon after seeing such a scene.
"This!? Wha!? Such insane concentration of healing magic!? How is this possible?!!"
For humans and other creatures, healing magic is gentle and warm; it heals them, buffs them, and protects them, but for demons, healing magic is a literal poison!!
Unless a healer purposely makes their healing magic enter a neutral state, making it harmless for demons, pumping healing magic in demons is similar to pumping massive doses of poison into someone's body!
Riya's strategy might not be effective on other creatures, but it's super effective on demons. Looking at the panicked look on the demon's face, Riya smirked a bit and spoke in an amused
tone.
"Thirty seconds! You have thirty seconds at max; after thirty seconds, this entire hall will be filled with such an immense amount of healing magic that even SS-rank demons will have difficulty breathing in here..."
"Usually, it would have taken three minutes, but I am in a bad mood right now, so I am using my maximum output right now... The strategy is kind of inefficient, but it's good enough for
you at least..."
A look of fear appeared on the three faces of the demon, and Riya seemed more like a demon
to him instead!
Her amused smile seemed like that of a real demon instead.
'She's mocking me! She's purposely trying to torture me to death!! I must escape!! This girl is
a monster in human skin!'
Demons have no dignity or honor; they run at a moment's notice when the situation seems
unfavorable.
The demon flapped its wings and flew towards the exit like a rocket, but to his surprise, the
magic circle immediately became even stronger in the place where he was trying to escape. The moment his hand touched the door, massive amounts of healing magic poured into his
body, and his entire hand burst apart like a balloon!!
"Twenty Seconds..."
The demon glanced to his side with a look of horror and found Riya sitting on his left shoulder
with a massive smile on his face.
"Ah, I forgot to tell you, this is 'My Territory', so it follows 'My Rules'; I can teleport here..."
Riya patted the other party's head with her hand gently and poured a massive amount of
healing magic into the other party's head.
*BOOM!!*
Its entire upper body blew apart like a watermelon being hit with a bullet. Blood splattered everywhere on the ground, and Riya withdrew the massive healing field.
She waved her hand, and the body of the demon started to compress; it compressed in a small
bead.
She used her healing magic to purify it and turned the demon's corpse into a purified healing potion, made up of immense life force and healing powers.
"Hmm... this potion looks a bit paler... I guess I purified it a bit too much, perhaps..."
"Next time a demon appears, I will throw this at them; that would be more effective..."