Before ruthlessly abandoning them, their professor told everyone to gather in the canteen in the early hours of the morning.
There they ate their breakfast and afterwards they went to floor 3 of the tower.
Eventually they've reached a wide auditorium, where staff was already waiting for them. Everyone was told to take a seat.
Fulfilling his obligation, Richard waved goodbye to the students and went somewhere else. They will meet after they are done with whatever the Tower throws at them.
The strongest of this generation in Ailanthus Academy were all sitting as far apart from each other as possible.
It seems this short time did nothing to ease the relationship between them.
Regina was sitting in complete silence but threw a sharp look at Myra from time to time. It looked like she carried a grudge.
In his excitement, Bonzo kept talking at the two unremarkable students about some random trivia about poison, his genius, and how they should be honored.
The two poor souls wanted to sit near the prince naturally, but unfortunately for them, their plan was doomed from the start. At least Cedric was there to help out if necessary.
Clayton sat next to Cyril ahead of time; he focused on the podium with a relaxed smile, pretending not to notice any eyes staring at him.
To Cyril's other side was Myra. Her gaze was calm and prepared.
Edmund and Rose sat as close as they could to their friends.
It was still a bit of time before the lecture began. They weren't told exactly what content will be on there. Only that it will be extremely beneficial to them; there will be a gift at the end of it too, apparently.
After more waiting, a woman with blond hair soon entered; she was wearing a white lab coat.
Her face appeared familiar to Cyril, and soon the way Cedric suddenly tensed up when he noticed her gave him all he needed to know.
"To think that she would be the one giving the lecture. She probably insisted on this herself. How juicy!" To Rhamn, this situation only brought amusement; she was eager to see what came next.
Once the woman came over to the blackboard, she waved her hand, and the lights in this place dimmed a few levels.
She then projected a name on the board before turning around and addressing the visitors.
"My name is Elvira Arken. I'll be the one guiding you today." Her voice was confident, sharp, and arrogant.
She dragged her eyes across the room, taking in the faces of the students participating. Her sight did not stop on Cedric; it seems she pretended not to know him.
Instead, her eyes lingered on Cyril for a few seconds. He could feel a malicious intent coming off from her.
Really?"It looks like little mama's boy Leo told her something." Perhaps she found antagonizing Cyril easier than her own flesh and blood.
He was slowly starting to regret helping Cedric, but then he remembered how they found the Black Tulip because of it, and that feeling disappeared.
Aside from staring at him with a mean face, Elvira didn't do anything else.
She made a few steps towards the students and began talking in a condescending manner, "Right now. We'll have a lecture on 'application of spells at higher level'; you better be listening carefully. Then you'll have several choices."
She cleared her breath for a moment and continued, "For the remainder of your time in the tower, you can choose to apprentice under a high-ranking mage. They will answer any question you may have and might even teach you their signature magic. Don't squander this chance."
At this moment Cyril could hear an excited sound coming from his fellow students. From the voice, it was Bonzo. He must've been really looking forward to this apprenticeship.
For now Elvira was seriously conducting a lecture; there was no attempt on her part to withhold some information, and she even answered some of the questions posed by Rose.
"It must be because of Clayton here." Perhaps she didn't dare to ruin her lecture with the crown prince attending it.
Or maybe she was more professional than both Rhamn and Cyril thought.
At least her gaze still became sharper whenever she glossed over him.
Cyril spent this time somewhat tense, fully expecting an explosion to ring out from somewhere, but all was peaceful.
This quiet before the storm was unsettling to Cyril; he would rather it happened already.
They've learned plenty of useful information from listening to her. If anything, she really was a talented mage.
Like this, the lecture ended after some time with no accident happening in the middle of it.
Elvira asked everyone to follow her to another room where they could properly choose a suitable mentor for themselves.
Walking after her, Cyril was becoming more and more tense. He could feel that something was coming; his intuition was sending him warnings constantly.
Looking around, no one else was feeling similar to him. Even Myra—while vigilant—did not appear as concerned.
The group reached the elevator, where Elvira calmly pressed a button, and the platform started to slowly lower.
At this moment, Cyril suddenly heard a sound ringing out from under them. It was really quiet; even with his hearing, he barely managed to catch it.
His concerned look was soon noticed by other members of the group. They tried asking what happened, and Myra prepared for battle.
Soon the color of all the light around turned deep red, and an alarm began playing.
This directly answered people's questions. The students entered a vigilant state and prepared for something to the best of their abilities.
Elvira pulled out a wand made out of crystal and looked at the projection on the elevator control panel.
"Exit on this floor, we—" Before she finished speaking, there was another explosion. This time it was loud and clear.
A giant fiery blast hit the elevator, and the platform started to tilt with a horrifying creak.
Everyone began losing their balance, sliding towards the opened-up pit.
It happened too suddenly.
Cyril didn't have time to hold anything; he was powerless to resist the gravitational force and went down.
His fellow students didn't escape this fate either; all of them collectively dropped.
The only exception among them was Myra, of course.
Before falling, she managed to cast a spell, formed her hand into a claw shape, and pierced the platform's metal with it, keeping herself in place.
Myra turned to look at her side. There was another person still safe and sound, standing not too far away.
Elvira made another platform out of ice at the right moment, sparing her the fall.
The two looked at each other in silence, then Myra turned back to look at the bottom, let go, and dropped after her friends.
On the way down, Cyril tried his best to break the fall by catching whatever piece of metal was sticking out of the wall.
The necklace he was wearing already showed its use. The barrier protected his skin against the sharp metal.
It was a bit painful, but in the end he managed to drop it on the ground relatively intact.
Cyril got up, dusted himself off, and looked around him.
Dark metal, scrap, and ruins surrounded him from all directions.
He was at the bottom of the elevator shaft.
If you go over the trash pile, there is a passage leading out into the darkness.
Confirming a way out, Cyril now looked at other students.
Most of the other students ended up being fine; they had some method of saving themselves.
During his descent Cyril noticed Regina jumping from one wall to another, lowering the speed of her fall. It looked impressive.
Rose, Edmund, Cedric, and Clayton all got down safely with the use of some defensive magic item.
But among their group there was a couple people without such means at their disposal.
Bonzo and two others were not in a good state right now. They either had broken limbs or shards of metal piercing their legs.
Cedric ran over to try and help. He cast a healing spell to assist, but he was no healer. It did little aside from stabilizing their wounds.
They were still incapable of defending themselves in this state.
"Is there anyone proficient in healing magic here?" Understanding his own limitations, he turned towards the others.
Unfortunately, no one responded positively to his words.
Soon Myra dropped in the middle of the group; she looked like a cat landing on its feet and just as unharmed after a fall.
Gaining new hope, Cedric wanted to ask the same question to Myra; surely she would be proficient.
But at this moment Cyril heard a vague creaking sound coming from above them.
Quickly realizing what that meant, he screamed towards the rest, "Get in the passage! Now!"
He effortlessly grabbed Bonzo and another student before swiftly escaping the elevator shaft.
Clayton helped Cedric carry the remaining body, and everyone ran after Cyril into the darkness.
A few seconds later, the wide platform dropped and hit the place where they were standing before with a deafening boom.
Inside of the passage, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Cyril dropped the two students on the ground; he didn't plan on carrying them the whole way.
The two students were in a muddled state of mind from the pain, but Bonzo, looking quite humble at the moment, managed to say with difficulty. "Thank you..."
Cedric now had enough time to ask Myra about her healing magic but didn't receive a satisfying response.
Despite her usual wisdom, Myra was not a qualified healer.
"Great, now we have some deadweight."