Note: Although the tag originally said this thread is L:3, I will be alternating between Lysandre, Belen, and Cyril when it's my turn in the posting order. It's still open for two other people to join! This is to clear up any confusion if people see more than three users posting in this thread.


Things had taken a bad turn right from the start. Coughing, Lysandre pushed his way out from under the rubble. They had luckily avoided being buried completely thanks to Cyril's protection spell going off at the last second, but because he had so little time to react the barrier only lessened the impact of the collapse. Unfortunately for them, the boys lost more than just progress after the ground caved beneath their feet. Two of the people in their party were still stuck on the floor above while they had no idea how far they had fallen. "Is everyone alright?" More coughing and groans told him Belen was present, and Cyril piped up. "We're here! No broken bones, only some light bruising. Nui, Uncle Walter, can you hear me?" When they were answered with silence, that was when they knew what had happened. The fox girl and the tracker weren't in the rubble, and a search using aura sight confirmed that they weren't nearby. "Looks like we're not going to be going back the way we came." Belen muttered, looking at the ceiling. The hole in the ceiling was now sealed up with malachite boulders, and it would be a waste of magic to try to clear them. This spire wasn't behaving like a normal dungeon from what the twins' experience told them. "This doesn't look like the place where we found a way leading up either. Let's heal up and check our wayfinder widgets." It wasn't much, but it was a start.

The tool Cyril and Belen's mother made was a godsend when it came to exploring unmapped areas. However if they were in a new area, then any data recorded from their prior exploration was no use. Unless they managed to find their way back to somewhere they had been, there was nothing on the widget's mapping visual. They also had to be careful too, because who wasn't to say that there weren't monsters or traps hidden? Once they were in better shape, Lys took charge. "Alright, stick to the formations as planned. I'll be in front, Cyril will take the rear, and Belen–you'll be in the middle. You're the only one who can make a portal out of here, so if the worst case scenario happens we need to make a quick escape. Cyril is the only one who can resurrect and he can only send one of us to safety at a time. When push comes to shove, it'd be better if I took a hit than both of you." The twins nodded in agreement. "Not going to argue with you there. We'd better hurry–Nui and Uncle Walter are all by themselves on the next floor. Even though he's a werewolf he can't do much in an enclosed space. They're not frontline fighters." 

Quietly and cautiously the trio proceeded, hoping to either run into their separated companions or another party aiming to reach the top. Any friendly faces were welcome in this eldritch, malachite construct. They had narrowly survived a handful of encounters thanks to their strength in numbers; now they were down two-fifths of their party. Using his honed senses, Lysandre tried to pick up on any sounds that weren't right. He had to rely on the other two to handle the traps.

It was almost funny, in a gruesome way. Every single time there was something endangering Revaliir, she had worn the mask. Perhaps it was destiny? Fate? Or the fact that her fashionista friend refused to give her the awesome armor unless she wore the entire costume? Most likely the last one. But she didn't mind too much. The mask was built so that it wouldn't prevent her from fighting. Her face was covered in a mask that had all the colors of the dawn, which perfectly matched her dawn colored force gauntlets. Her silver armor had a pair of cosmic wings on the back, allowing her to fly. In her left hand was a bright red scythe. The scythe had a special ability to burn anything it touched, so she was careful to not let it bump into anything. Around her neck was an amulet with a sapphire stone the glowed slightly. All of this extra gear, with the exception of her amulet, was to ensure she didn't use up too much mana. Magic was important to her but she knew from experience that relying on it was not a smart decision, especially since she was alone. 

She didn't come by herself with the idea of being alone. Her plans had been to teamup with other groups. Yet she was having trouble finding any. She had found injured people that she had escorted out but Attie was having trouble finding a group. Perhaps it was because they had all been injured or fled. Or perhaps it was that they were all at the top already. If that was the case, she would be glad. But for some reason she had a feeling that most weren't there and were a lot nearer than she thought. As if to answer her thoughts, a loud crashing sound was heard behind her. It was close. Behind her. She turned around and looked down the long hallway. The voices were from down the hall and around the corner. Attie doubted it was a monster, since they were speaking to each other and not trying to tempt her to them. 

A shot of pain bolted through her arm and she spun around, looking directly at the monster that had attacked her. It was a fish squid lizard type of monster with its gills, tentacles growing from its back, scales, and lizard shaped head. Its eyes were red and its body was contorted in different directions. The leg had been twisted and its jaw was dented, yet it seemed that was somehow natural. The monster raised its claws to strike her again but this time she was ready. Attie swung her burning scythe at his arm and sliced through the creature's limb, making its flesh burn and smell strangely like cooked fish. The creature let out a shriek of pain before trying to hit her with its left arm. Attie barely managed to get out of the way before the claw sliced at her. 

With one final move, she flew directly at it and held her scythe towards its stomach. The second that the scythe hit the monster, it sliced into its gut and set the creature aflame. It burned quickly and was soon silenced. Realizing that the noise from the crash and from her fight was probably drawing more monsters towards her, she decided to go find the group and see if they wanted to team up. She knew that she couldn't take on the tower of death on her own. Especially after having trouble with just one monster. She flew towards the group and gave them a friendly wave. 

"Hi!" She said with a friendly attitude, "The monster I beat up ahead of us is dead but… we might have more monsters to deal with. So do you guys wanna team up?"

Tempest made it to the camp with relative ease. “This is going to be hard,” Toya said as she put her finger to her chin. “The malachite is tough and it looks like we can’t just fly up to the tower top to fight the pearl.”

Her ears went back a bit in sadness, the best they could. Her Aunt Angela was a good person and the fact that the world was still out to get her was hurtful to Tempest. After all, it was Angela who pushed Tempest to be as good as she could be with her alchemy skills.

“You can always head on out Tempest just be careful. We’ll be behind you eventually,” Toya was confident in her grandchild and could see the strength the girl had. She wasn’t just a craftsman but she also had warrior blood. The more time they wasted on a plan, the less time Angela had.

“Okay Grandma,” Tempest waved and took Kaa with her as she made her way to the edge of the camp.

“This is bullshit,” Furtuna was nearby with a pregnant belly, though it was barely there. “I wanna go fight. I got an airship. I can blow it up.”

There were a few seconds where Tempest had thought just to leave the angry cousin but then a thought hit her. Tempest bound over to the Gensai and her eyes were all lit up. “What the hell do you want Tempest?” Furtuna put her hands on her hips.

“Your airship’s weapon can propel things really, really fast right?”

“The fucking fastest.”

“Can… You launch that?” She pointed at a large, no huge, log that could be used as siege equipment. “I need it to go faster than Grandma when she’s on her dragon.”

“…What are you thinking?”

“I want to ride that log into the tower. We might not be able to fly up to it… but I bet we can smash right through it before it fixes itself,” Tempest was explaining and talking with her hands.

“Kid you are going to di-”

“We’re all going to die if we don’t do something. This is my thing so let me do it.” Tempest was usually right on the money though things did blow up in her wake. This time though… It was probably a good thing.

“Fine. Load the log into my launcher and you… Make sure to tie yourself to it and hold tight to that dragon.”

After all the preparations were done Tempest put on her goggles to protect her eyes and held onto the rope tightly bound around the log. Furtuna got the airship within range and on Tempest’s mark fired the literal siege weapon at the tower.

There was so much screaming as Tempest flew through the air and smashed the gigantic log right into the tower. The whole spire shook from impact and quickly like she planned let go and rolled off the siege weapon. She watched as the tower attacked the log and she pulled up her goggles. “Infiltration is a success.” The small dragon and her high fived before she took a look around. It was dimly lit, filled with death, and most importantly the pearl was at the top.

She was skipping through the spire before another rumble happened. She decided to skip towards the rumble when most people probably would run away. To her surprise, she saw a small group. A young woman and… a few familiar faces which made her excited.

She began to dead sprint towards them. “BELEN! CYRIL! LYSANDRE TOO!” Her voice boomed but it gave way to one of the beings guarding the floor. OOF, was he big but he wasn’t bigger than the dragons that Toya kept.

“Hey, you with the ugly face YOU ARE IN MY WAY. Remove yourself at once,” Tempest did a shooing motion at it before the being smashed its fist down at her. Instead of dodging it entirely she grabbed it and the force sent her back but using the force she got an advantage the group was about to see. “I SAID MOVE,” in a very Toya voice Tempest propelled the creature over her and into the wall as she re-balanced herself.

Leaving her lips was a gigantic firestorm as she roasted the creature. The temperature near her rose tremendously and she only stopped once she knew it was overkill. “Rude,” she put her hands on her hips before she finished her running to the group if they hadn’t come towards her.

“HI!” She waved and smiled at everyone. “How did you guys get in here? I rode a siege weapon from the sky through the tower. It was awesome.” Looking towards the girl she didn't know she excitedly waved. "Hi, I'm Tempest." Man, was she living up to her name.

Meanwhile back in the camp. "She fucking did what?!" Toya was floored. "AND YOU JUST LET HER DO IT?!" Furtuna only offered a shrug and Toya's mouth was almost on the floor. Maybe, the girl was a little too ready for her first adventure.

Someone showed up, but it wasn't anybody they knew. Throwing a quick glance at his twin, it didn't seem like he was reacting so this was probably a real person. Then again, he doubted that the spire had decent taste in fashion. There was a difference between pulling off a coordinated outfit and wearing something that was matching and stylish. "What do you say Lys?" The blond was still surprised, but he nodded in agreement. "Sure thing. We'll need as many people as possible if we want to make it to the next floor. And the sooner the better. I'm Lysandre, these two are Cyril and Belen. I'm in charge of front-line melee, Cyril is our healer." Cyril nodded, with a smile. Since Lys did all the talking for him already, there wasn't anything the silver-haired boy had to add. "And I'm our group's mage–offensive-oriented. We had another person who was in charge of magical support spells, but she's currently stuck on the floor above us. And don't forget Uncle Walter too." There was no time to chitchat, so they all gave their names and roles to better arrange their formation. 

More reinforcements arrived, though not in the way they expected. There was a loud crashing explosion that rocked the floor as something blasted through the walls, attracting more of whatever creatures were spawned by the spire. The boys braced themselves for another cave in, only to be relieved that nothing was falling under or down on them. When the dust cleared and they all turned to see someone Belen could recognize a mile away. "Oh boy–look who's joined the party." He whistled, grinning. He hadn't expected her to show up so soon, but it wasn't a surprise. She and her grandmother–the White Queen, were made of tough stuff. Before he could crack a joke, something lurched out of the maze to attack his girlfriend–which then was smacked senseless into the wall. To add more fuel to the fire, a torrent of dragonfire torched the thing until it fell apart. It was a good thing they were far enough away, as the air was starting to get toasty. Once she was done with the interruption, his twin brother waved at her. "Hiiii Tempest! We didn't see you when we left the camp!" The boy piped up cheerfully. "That explains the miniature earthquake we thought was hitting the whole floor. Too bad you didn't bring the spire down. Would've saved everybody a lot of effort to reach the top." Lys made a face at him but said nothing, only letting out a exasperated groan.

"We came in from the ground floor, and we were one floor up before the ground caved. There wasn't a pitfall trap as far as I saw, but that might be the spire trying to divide us up." The brunet pointed his thumb towards the ceiling. "Now you're here, let's get a move on. Uncle Walter and Nui are stuck up there and they're not going to last long without us." Lysandre told her, showing the telltale signs of worry. "Tempest totally should be up front with you Lys, after all she really packs a punch." Belen added, to which his friend reluctantly agreed. "Does anybody have any objections with our positions? If not, then we should hurry."  

After waiting for their reply, she was relieved when she saw their agreement to work together. The last thing she wanted to do was to try to travel up the tower on a solo mission. That was a one-way ticket to death that she wasn't particularly interested in. Suddenly, there was another loud crashing sound and the floor rocked and dust flew through the air. Attie looked up to see a girl. A girl whom she knew nothing of. She watched as the woman handled the monster with ease. The monster never stood a chance. But that isn't what interested Attie the most. Her curiosity burned within her mind when the party welcomed her with such familiarity. Attie had to struggle to keep her mouth shut. Now was not the time to ask people about their life stories or the other thousands of questions she had in store.

"Hi!" Attie greeted Tempest with a friendly attitude, "I'm Attie. That entrance was awesome! You'll have to tell me how you did it later."

She wanted to know now. What was her technique? How did she get her speed up that fast? Was there some sort of mathematical strategy that she had in her mind? Did Tempest calculate the speed and the angles to ensure a safe but dramatic entrance? The more Attie thought about it, the more Tempest seemed like a genius. Only a genius would be able to figure out all the complicated parts of that sort of plan. If they had somebody that smart on their side, and with that much power, then the tower seemed very small of a challenge in comparison.

"I'll fly in the air with the group. I might be able to see traps from this height and I can handle any wall-crawlers." Attie explained. 

With that, she flapped her cosmic wings and flew into the air. There was enough room for her to fly safely above everybody and even enough room to fight, strangely enough. But she wasn't predicting any flying creatures in the spiral. Attie knew that this tower spiral thing was different from any other place they had been but surely the place wouldn't have flying creatures? She was more worried about things like giant spider monsters or other monsters that could crawl up the walls. Those, she had encountered in towers and other buildings before. Attie kept her eyes alert, ready for any sign of danger up ahead. She was also keeping an eye out for any signs of monsters, though the people on the ground would be able to see just as well as she could. 

"Do you think there are books in this place?" Attie asked the group, "I know it sprang up suddenly and all but if there are monsters and stones, then couldn't there be books?" 

It would be difficult for her to keep her hands off of any books that they came across. Books were valuable artifacts that held countless pieces of information. It was how records were made and empires were remembered. If somebody wanted to be remembered then they had to make a book or some kind of writing. Attie slightly hoped that there were no books, since she knew it could easily distract her. Forcing herself to focus, she scanned the ground and noticed a tripwire right in front of the stairs to that led upwards. 

"Watch out. There's a tripwire in front of the first step." Attie warned quickly. 

“Oh, I just got at the camp.” She had a thoughtful look. “About three minutes before I launched myself into the spire. Grandma said to go on ahead so she’ll be arriving later probably pretty pissed if cousin Furtuna tells her how I got here~” There was a cheeky look on her face.

Tempest rubbed at her neck. “Admittedly there is no way to bring the tower down with any outside force. From the timing that it took for it to react, to the way it healed itself, to attacking the log… It would react fast enough to heal itself before it had the chance to fall. The regeneration abilities of the malachite are something else.” She corrected them as quickly as she could. “The density of the stone too would make it not topple as fast on its own weight from the looks of it, the stone is rather hollow even though it’s outer shell is strong.”

All that from just ramming into the damn thing. “It’s most definitely malachite though I licked it. Not that I doubted Aunt Ang.” Tempest put her hand to her chin. “It could have been the tower but with people progressing up I bet that it’s going to preserve its strength not to collapse the floor every time someone gets up a layer. If anything once people get near the top it’s going to focus on making it more deadly from here on out.”

With another thoughtful look, she looked towards Attie, “Doubtful. This place was made entirely of malachite so books wouldn’t be near it. Even if they were I bet they got swallowed in malachite and can’t be read.”

She put up her hand and smiled at Lysandre. “We can be upfront buddies!”

Tempest paid attention to Attie’s direction as she pulled her goggles down and went over to the source of the tripwire. It took her no time at all to disarm it as she hummed. “Amateurs.”

Standing up she put the spare parts in a little bag she had. “…Ready to go up?” The staircase suddenly closed up and Tempest made a face at it. “Stupid rock. HURRY UP THE STAIRS BEFORE IT CLOSES. By my count, we have at least a few seconds.” Closing her hand she smirked a bit at Belen. “What has five digits and likes to say hello,” she punched it hard as the malachite shattered leaving a gaping hole.

Lys grimaced when Tempest explained how she managed to arrive so quickly. He'd heard plenty about her and Belen's mishaps in Sularia, from his mother and others. Just the thought of the White Queen coming to the spire made a chill run down his spine. "You can't exactly blame your grandmother after pulling such a dangerous stunt like that." But now he was more worried that the Spire wouldn't hold up once Arri's infamous Dragon came on the scene. If Tempest was anything like her grandmother, that meant having both of them present inside this structure would mean good things for the rest of the people attempting to scale its heights…figuratively speaking. His old instincts flared again as soon as she mentioned she had licked the stone that made the Spire. "You did what?!!" What if she had contracted the malachite patches that those wandering the wastes had all over their bodies? What sort of devastation could this parasitic stone could wreak on the camp if it managed to control someone as strong as her? This was one of his greatest concerns despite knowing the Spire had to be scaled. If they weren't careful, they could all become casualties. Death would be a kinder fate than the soulless husks that this pearl had overcome. 

And like always, no one else seemed to be concerned at all. The masked girl introduced herself as Attie, and when she pointed out a tripwire Tempest went to work. They were at the staircase that had taken them up to the floor above when the walls sealed the way, leaving them with no way to ascend. This didn't faze Tempest at all, as her solution was the most direct–if there was an obstacle, you break it. "Everyone run as soon as the way's open!" He said, just in case they weren't paying attention. With shield and sword in hand, he prepared to sprint as soon as it happened. CRACK! Malachite was no match for Tempest's fist as it shattered like thin glass. He charged forward, shield up in case they were assaulted on the way upwards. Cyril and Belen were close behind, Belen giving his girlfriend a wink at her witty riddle before using wind to blast him forward. "Lys, it might try to cut us off at the top! If it does, call and I'll handle it!" Right away he knew what the brunet was getting at–an explosion spell. While he was afraid there'd be more collateral damage, they had to use what they had. They couldn't rely entirely on Tempest without doing anything themselves. "Alright! But don't overdo it! You'll get us caught in the crossfire too!"

Lys felt that he'd regret those words as he heard Belen's whoop of excitement. Sure enough, the tower tried the same technique and he gave them the signal. "Another wall! Everyone, pull back!" Making way for Belen to come to the front, Lys held up his shield while bracing for the inevitable. Cyril cast a spell to protect everybody's ears just before a flaming sphere of magic blew a hole to the next level. "We're in! Yeah! Let's go find Nui and Uncle Walter! Ow!" Belen tripped over something as the floor had become a lot darker than before. "Hey what gives? The light level's dropped after we fell down." Something had changed since the last time they were here, but what?

Attie listened to Tempest as she explained her way of getting through the tower's defenses. Calculating the density and the correct angle seemed to be how she was able to get through the wall. The idea was something that Attie never thought to try but it was far faster than just going up the tower normally. Suddenly, a thought occurred to Attie. If Tempest was able to smash through the wall, why didn't she smash into the top level? Surely she would be able to find a calculation to get through the wall like she did with the lower level? If she just smashed through to the top level, then it would save them all the trouble of going through the massive amounts of monsters. Perhaps there was some reason Attie didn't know about?

As soon as she mentioned the trap, Tempest moved forwards to disarm it which only seemed to make the staircase close up. Luckily, they had enough punch power through Tempest and Belen to get through anyways. Attie swooped down through the holes that they made as fast as she could. Soon they were in a dark room. Attie's cosmic wings made small patches of light in the room. Realizing that it wasn't a good idea to have a single source of light in the darkness, she carefully stepped behind a pillar, just in case anything out there was watching. She looked towards the ground near her and noticed how there was stone figures. It looked like people. But they were turned to stone. 

Gorgons? Or perhaps some other creature? Attie had read about many monsters that turned creatures into stone. In the distance she could see monsters with eyes shining, almost like the lights of lanterns shining to the ground below. She hadn't ever seen any creature like that before. However, most monsters with the power to turn things into stone had one thing in common. But she needed to confirm her theory. Carefully, Attie took out an apple and rolled it on the ground. The apple rolled down the hallway and bumped into a wall. The floating tendril winged monster flew towards the apple and stared at it with its bright eyes. In a matter of seconds, the apple was turned to stone. 

"Okay, so we can't let it see us, or we'll be stoned. Literally." Attie whispered to the rest of the group, "Our best option is to take them out from behind, as quietly as possible. We can't have a million of these things staring at us all at once. Also does anybody have any mirrors with them? Or anything reflective?" 

Attie didn't have a mirror on her but if anybody had a mirror, that would be their greatest weapon. A shiny shield or a pool of water would be enough. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like there was any sources of water. 

"Maybe we should have somebody act as bait? Then when the monster comes around the corner, we can attack them from behind?" Attie suggested, "We could take them out one by one, instead of all at once." 

She wasn't big on running in without a plan. Especially when there were stone statues of everybody else who had done the same. 

"Well…I do but they're not exactly very big." His brother said when Attie asked. "Using someone as bait would be too risky. It might backfire and we'd have one less person in the group in case we get into combat." Lys added. As they talked Cyril was thinking. "I still think taking them out would be the best idea. But maybe we can lure them out without having to use anyone? Like…use something else?" There was a moment of silence. "Hey you have a point! We don't know how smart these petrifying monsters are, but they should at least go after anything that moves and looks like a person–right?" Cyril nodded, while Lys had a troubled exasperated look. "Alright, let me get a few things and we'll have our dummy set to test the waters. Cyril, can you sense anything nearby? The widgets just make maps, they don't track where enemies or people are." As his twin busied himself with a few spells, the silver-haired boy closed his eyes and focused his thoughts. Like his mother, he had an innate talent for sensing things that couldn't be seen. 

"…Nothing within a hundred feet in every direction. I'm going to reach out farther." In his mind, he listened to the sounds and magical energies in the area. There was that sort of dull one that came from the walls. He knew that because that was what he felt when he spaced out and stared at one. That aura was everywhere no matter how high they climbed, so it was safe to guess that this was the malachite. Then there were his friends, which he already knew. Attie's he had memorized to make sure he didn't forget. He didn't sense Nui or Uncle Walter, so they weren't within a hundred feet of them. Outward, his senses pushed until he found something that was familiar. "I think…I feel something. It's about two to three hundred feet that way." Cyril said, eyes closed and pointing straight ahead of him. His finger pointed to a wall, but that didn't change much since the floor had turned into a maze. "I'm sure it's a monster because it feels the same as the walls, just stronger." A monster created would share the same energy and aura as the person who made it, depending on how much of it was 'made' with magic and how much was already existing before the caster did their spell. 

"Alright, that's a start. Belen, Cyril–communicate with each other using telepathy. Cyril can focus entirely on detecting monsters while you tell us what he sees…er, senses." Lys said to the brunet boy. "Got it. And my little decoy's done." Taking out a diamond unicorn figurine, he whispered something to it and immediately it transformed into a living, breathing one–with a pure white coat and glittering horn. It looked a lot like Attie's armor when the light shone on it, which wasn't often now they were here. With some empty sacks and some junk, Belen cast another spell to animate the shoddily built decoy, tying it to the unicorn. "Ok, go that-a-way!" He ordered the horned horse, to which it began to trot. The click-clack of its hooves against the stone floor echoed further and further away while the flapping of something grew faster and closer in the darkness. "Bingo–we've got one." The unicorn was a good distance away from them, though it was hard to tell which way the enemy was coming from with the winding passages. "What do we do if we see it?" Cyril asked his brother, eyes still closed. "We'll blast it with magic before it sees us." Came the reply.