Devila unleashed a talisman he hadn't yet seen. It flew through the air, shaped like a paper crane. It flew extremely fast compared to normal paper. The beast that was diving at Rafe with its mouth open at almost one hundred degrees froze amid a burst of an ice wall.

A few more beasts collided with the wall and fell down the cliff.

More beasts fell from above like rain as Devila once more showcased her legendary prowess. She really was strong enough to consider herself an heiress to the multiverse's greatest genius. Rafe knew the true reason the enchantress was so highly regarded was that even if she fought, the woman was not what one would call a warrior.

Fighting was more like a side job to the enchantress. Her true speciality lay in crafting. And yet she was the best fighter in the multiverse. It was absurd when Rafe thought about it.

Devila on the other hand was a fighter through and through. Somehow, even though she was climbing, her whip was out and swishing, killing monsters even as she fired off cantrips and released less explody talismans. Rafe had advised her to do that, though more as a way of venting his frustration at her.

She was now protecting him and Quin, destroying an army of monsters on her own. Rafe gritted his teeth in helplessness and continued to climb. She was burning mana.

Even using only cantrips, she was burning mana. She had a minuscule amount of stamina to begin with. Her whip would be useless without mana.

Rafe increased his pace, ignoring the pain in his left hand. On his Quest screen, the quest to finish the climb in less than four hours blacked out. They still had two hours. All they had was two hours and he couldn't see any signs of a peak. The Quest timer kept ticking down.

With his racial ability, he kept close watch of Devila's soul. He couldn't see it as clearly as he could see his own, but he saw the star bright pillar that was her mana pool start to dim ever further as she threw out more and more spells.

He saw her start to get exhausted, sloppy. He saw a few of her spells miss. He saw her whip start to lag.

He pushed Quin up in front of him, pinning her body to the cliff wall with his own. He used his belt to bind her to himself. He climbed faster, all the while making sure Quin was not slipping.

"Sorry, Quin. We have to help her," he tried to reason with the girl.

She was still catatonic. Rafe unsheathed his sword for the second time this floor. For the first time since he'd gotten it, Rafe sent it the instruction to shift forms. He didn't think about how easy it was in the moment. He needed to help Devila. He climbed faster. He caught up to her.

She was panting. She did not even notice he'd arrived. She threw out spells almost robotically. Rafe saw her mana pool sputter and die out.

He got ready to assist her, but then, like a roaring infernal it lit back up.

Rafe was confused, thinking she'd somehow taken a potion. That was weird, because he knew potions had cool downs, just like very strong skills. Overloading the body and soul was never a good idea. He'd seen her take one not too many minutes past.

But, as he soon found out, she had not taken a potion. Her mana was depleting too fast, even after only a few spells. She seemed to have been expecting it too, because she was speed charging a bunch of talismans even as Rafe watched. There were too many of them, the talismans, for this attack to be normal.

And they were familiar. The exploding talismans she'd been trying not to use this fight.

Shit!

That was all Rafe could think before Devila let the papers fly under a coating of shining pure mana. Looking at the mana more closely, Rafe realised how she'd recharged her mana pool so fast.

Essence was energy in effect. Essence was also the universe, or the multiverse in this case. A few discoveries Earth's scientists had always spouted had started to make sense ever since he'd found a little passing interest in magic.

Essence was energy. Energy could neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. What did that make the calamity Enith had seen in the vision she'd shown him and Devila?

Rafe shook his head from the digression. The universe always tended toward more entropy. Toward disorder. The Essence was the universe.

Mana was energy. Life force was energy. Stamina was energy. All energies derived from the Essence. They were interconvertible. Devila had sacrificed life force to get more mana for only a few seconds. He could see the distinct flavour of that energy on the supposedly pure mana. He supposed it made sense the conversion wasn't a hundred percent efficient and—

He was trying to stall his realisation. He didn't want to believe it. But then Devila's hair started to whiten.

"I'm sorry…Rafael," she whispered, hugging the wall tighter.

She hadn't noticed he was there next to her. Her premature aging ended with her hair fully white, her face not so different, although her eyes were a little crinkled and bloodshot. Her hands were bony. And they shook.

When the explosion rocked the cliff wall, Devila made to let go of her daggers. Rafe had expected that and he'd already put his sword back into its sheath. Rafe would not let her fall.

He stretched out his left hand and pulled her into an embrace. She stiffened for a bit. Then she seemed to realise where she was. Rafe wasn't looking at her face or at her in particular. He did feel her relax into his embrace though.

"We are close, Devi. I can feel it. We are close. Please do not give up yet," he spoke into her hair.

He leaned his head against the top of her head, letting himself relax for a moment. If she did decide to continue climbing with him, this would be the last chance he would get to relax.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He had to ascend the cliff with one hand injured. He would have to somehow protect Quin and ensure she didn't fall, while also swinging his sword somehow. His heart thudded in his chest.

"But I…I can't fight anymore. I can't help you anymore. Even if we finish this unfair climb, I don't think I'll be going further."

"So you give up?" Rafe asked quietly.

Devila shuddered in his hands.

"I-I want to be the strongest," Devila said.

Rafe frowned. They did not have time for a story just then. The explosions were still going and his body ached from having to hold two women in place against the cliff wall. But soon they wouldn't have the protection the fire provided. Soon they'd have to face the horde again.

"Do you know why I want to be the strongest?"

Rafe tried to shrug but had to quickly abort the effort. "You want to be stronger than or as strong as the Enchantress?"

"No," the woman told him. "I just…I was so bored you know. My life…it's been so comfortable. I was born the daughter of a semi-successful merchant. I say that, but eighty percent of the multiverse would say otherwise. They would say we were rich, thriving even. Because what we have looks like a miracle to them.

"But we are nothing to more successful individuals. At least I thought so. My father…my family. They are all so self impressed. They are satisfied with being mediocre forever. And I was too. Until I wasn't. Until I entered a tiered dungeon, wanting the challenge. I almost died there, and this happened. Instead of being traumatized, I got the chance to enter the legacy trial of Skyholm. Of course I couldn't choose anyone but the best. I don't want to be a mediocre, Rafael. I want to, need to be the best. I am the best."

Rafe kissed her now white hair for some reason.

"You are the strongest person around my level I've ever met, Devila," Rafe told her, speaking the truth from his heart.

"So I am around your level? I'm not special for being lower level than everyone here, huh?"

Rafe hesitated. He wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her everything but… Andragoth's warning came back to him. Back in the multiverse, Andragoth didn't know how many years had passed since she had been here herself, but she knew Devila still lived, and was very strong. If she was in the C grade or higher, she'd likely be able to get the memories of this reflection, or at least some of them. He decided not to risk it.

"Maybe I'm not that much higher leveled than you, but this is my third floor, same as everyone else. This is just your first floor. Even the gods must rate you highly."

She leaned away from him. Rafe looked down to find her studying him calmly. Her hair was white, and she had crow's feet about her eyes, but she still looked young and radiant otherwise. She stared at him for a long time. Rafe felt his heart hammering, but he let her see his resolve. He let her see the truth in his eyes.

She leaned forward so fast for him to dodge. Devila kissed him. Rafe froze. He stayed like that even after she left him. He was stunned speechless, again.

"I will ascend with you," she declared.

Rafe roused himself at that. He let her go as she went to take hold of her still planted daggers. Rafe looked at her a moment longer. Then he looked up at the never ending rise. His resolve firmed. He was not leaving Devila here.

****

"Argh!" Sam said, wrinkling her face, failing to come up with an appropriate expression.

Noid was equally not sure how to feel. Liam threw his hands up in the air.

"Could it be…do you guys think we are the true villains in this kid's story?" Grenderel asked.

Noid was sure it was a question on all their minds. All their minds except Enith's.

"He needs to crack. If we have to be the ones to break him, then so be it."

"But this…" Liam started. "The others I understand, but he spent decades in Noid's trial. How is he still so…immature?"

"One way or another he will have to grow," the enchantress reiterated her point. "Sure, this was not exactly planned, but I stand by my words. It will be better for him to break under our supervision."

The others didn't respond, all watching the boy continue his ascent as he killed more and more of the reptilian beasts.

****

He ignored his pain. He ignored the labour. He ignored everything as he led Devila along. He killed hundreds of monsters.

'Ding' Your class has reached level 6. Stat points received. Spec points received.

Your pseudo-class skill has reached level 6. Stat points received. Spec oints received.

Your race Human has reached level 6. Free Stat point received.

Your skill Aeon's Sword mastery has reached level 763.

Your skill steady footing has reached level 309.

Your skill physical fitness has reached level 74.

Your skill Acrobat has reached level 10.

Somehow, his Acrobat skill finally leveling was worth the long slog. When he and Devila reached the peak, he disconnected himself from Quinsia and got one of his daggers out. He hadn't used some of his sword techniques in a while, and there were hundreds of monsters still.

He was so close to level seven by the end, but he'd need a few hundred more of these somewhat strong monsters to advance. The more he killed of the same type of monster, the less total experience he got from them.

He stood panting over the last enemy. He had seen Devila settle down and start meditating the moment they arrived. It seemed she finally trusted him to take care of her in her vulnerable state. He grinned to himself as he remembered the moment on the cliff. That had been everything.

But now he had to turn back and talk to her. Yeah, he had no idea how he was going to do that. He'd had girlfriends before, but Devila was like a super rich super cool princess from a merchant empire in the multiverse. She was also very scary and older than him by a bit. In fact, this was not the real Devila. The real her was much stronger.

Rafe did not know if he had a chance with the real deal, but he was getting giddy just thinking about it. An older woman, finally.

The ladder appeared and Rafe turned to it absentmindedly. Then he froze.

Devila spoke up before him.

"We…practically won?" she said, sounding a little unsure.

Rafe himself didn't know what to say to that. According to the ladder, they were the only team to have passed the cliff challenge. And Rafe was sure Devila didn't even know the half of it.

According to a second ladder side by side with the first, only five teams had ever passed this trial in history. And all of them had reached the top with only one member. According to that same ladder, Devila's original run had not even reached the cliff. She had done this floor as her first though. Quinsia hadn't gotten past the dark room where she had been injured either. Aska had reached the cliff, but never climbed it successfully.

A team had once reached the top of the cliff in the two hours record time from his room objective earlier, although only one of its members did that and he died shortly after reaching the top. Rafe was going to read the specifics of the four other individuals who'd come this far when he realised he hadn't considered the reason the record holders had died.

The normally monotonous sound system came again, but this time it was singing.

"A bear there was, a beaarr, a bearrrrr…"

Then the notification came.

'Ding' A Keeper of Eternity, a Calamitous monster, Lupa-stione of starry Nights, approaches.

"...all big and black and covered in stars."

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