The fight was over, but seeing two of her friends collapsed on the ground, Rose was still panicked.
She ran up to the Cyril, who was lying closer, in an attempt to cast healing magic.
"Help Myra first; I'll be fine in a bit." He felt he was only exhausted; his unusual physique saved him once again.
Rose thought about it for a moment, took a look at his hand that was already back to normal, and nodded.
But before she could move anywhere, Myra came over, holding a vial in her hand. "No need. Luckily the potions didn't break during the fight." She breathed a sigh of relief.
Her athletic body looked in one piece; it seems the worst of the damage was taken by the barrier, and the rest was healed.
Myra gave Cyril the potion. "I have some more. Drink it; you'll get better." He didn't refuse it.
While happy her friend was fine, Rose was then concerned with another question: "But why didn't you help Bonzo and others earlier?"
They didn't find these potions when exploring, so the only conclusion she could make was that she had them from the beginning.
Myra didn't think long before answering as if it was obvious, "Because I didn't have enough; we needed them too, as you can see."
"I guess you are right..." Rose accepted her explanation with a complicated expression.
"A logical decision." Rhamn nodded her head in approval.
"And thank you for saving my life, I've made such a blunder" Rose said with guilt.
Myra only signaled with her hand that is was fine and dropped the subject.
After drinking the potion, Cyril immediately began feeling better; it was a high-quality concoction.
He slowly got up and asked for more, "Do you have any mana potions too?" He wasted a lot of mana during the fight. There was still a profound feeling of emptiness in him; he really didn't like it.
Myra happily obliged and gave some to Rose too.
The party decided to rest for a bit before opening the doors ahead.
"I didn't see it clearly; how did you pierce the cyclops's skin?" Myra with shining eyes asked in wonder.
Cyril was reluctant to explain it fully. "I used the claw spell and added a barrier-piercing quality to it."
To his surprise, she didn't doubt this in any way. "As expected, you are still you!" She was absorbed in some kind of fantasy.
Rose didn't believe this explanation, having a much better view of the situation, but she didn't expose him. It was fine to keep a few secrets after all.
How did you do that? Cyril himself was also curious how Rhamn managed to change his hands in such a manner.
"I took inspiration from the ghouls earlier. I changed your hand's structure to resemble theirs as closely as I could, and it worked! It was easier than I thought." Rhamn proudly put her hands on her waist.
You can even do that? The feeling of his hand transforming like that was weird, but not painful. "I removed the sense of pain."
"And yes, but I can't change your body too much. Maybe when we absorb the Black Tulip, there will be more possibilities."
He wasn't too shocked by her operations just now; to him, puking out a butterfly was more impressive.
While they were resting Myra was going through this room in attempts to find something. She still wasn't successful.
Cyril finally decided to ask about it. "What are you looking for?"
Myra dejectedly came over and said, "There's a certain plant with a thin, coiling stem covered in spikes. Its flower is purple and bell-shaped. Right now, it's considered a rare and deadly poison, but it has a very beneficial effect on the body if prepared correctly. There's supposed to be a good amount of them here, but unfortunately, we just can't find it." She sighed in disappointment.
At this moment she sheepishly raised her head "If you wanted to find something like this, where would you look?" Myra said with slight hope.
"I wouldn't know. Maybe we'll find it in the next room" said Cyril.
"Let's continue moving; I think we've rested enough." There was nothing more to discuss.
They carefully, but optimistically, opened the metal doors; beyond them was an unusual room.
In the center of the wide-open space, hidden behind a wall of glass, was a big pillar stretching out for who knows how long through the holes above and below.
It was made out of crystal, constantly shining with bright blue light, but it didn't blind one's eyes for some reason.
There was a humanoid figure leaning on the glass with his arms crossed.
Noticing the arrival of new people, the humanoid opened his eyes. "Finally you came by. It took you way too long." His voice was tinged with dissatisfaction.
But upon taking a good look at the new arrivals, he widened his eyes.
There was a prolonged silence. After a few seconds, his face returned to normal, and the figure continued, "Students? Now what..."
None of the group dared to move at this moment; even the prophet was slightly trembling.
Cyril has never seen her this panicked before.
She slightly turned towards him with an anxious expression and whispered, "What should we do, Cyril?" She was looking at him like at their last hope. Shouldn't you be the leader?
The reason behind their collective fear was the fact that the mysterious man had goat horns on top of his head. It was an archdemon.
Standing in his presence was difficult in itself; the amount of magic he had was staggering.
"Don't stand there like scared chickens; come in." The demon motioned for them to get closer.
Seeing how he didn't want to immediately kill them, the group decided to accept his invitation.
"Wow, humans who actually listen. Impressive!" He mockingly clapped his hands a few times and stopped to focus on something.
"Ha, I've almost missed you! Trying to sneak up on me, aren't you?" He laughed, pointed his hand towards a particular direction, and snapped his fingers.
At the place he was pointing, a terrifying explosion appeared, covering everything in that direction in fire.
Behind the now-destroyed wall, through the smoke, was seen a magic barrier. The person who cast soon came out of the crumbling wall.
Once Cyril took a good look, he recognized this mage; it was Richard, their professor of spell making.
"Look, I am just here to protect the students, alright?" He put his hands in the air in a show of peace.
"How very noble." The demon eyed him with suspicion but didn't do anything for now.
Was he following us?"If so, then for how long?" While they were all glad this usually unreliable teacher was showing some competence at this time, they were still worried if he saw something he shouldn't have earlier.
"You can start destroying the tower; we won't interfere. We will even leave if you let us." Richard still had his lethargic voice. He didn't seem that nervous.
He tried to guess the demon's intention and started to slowly move in the direction of the students.
"If only I could do that..." The demon sighed in disappointment, "Unfortunately this pillar, the magic heart of the Tower, is covered in an impenetrable shield."
He turned around in a relaxed manner to look at the source of his troubles, leaving his back open without any fear.
"The strength of this barrier is as inexhaustible as its energy source's. We can't do anything without finding a way to disable this." His voice was calm, but his clenched fists suggested a different state of mind.
"I could tear up all the stone and steel around it, and the Tower would still stand there, mocking us with its mere existence." After he finished, he half-turned to look in a certain corner of the room again.
"But I do recognize the design." Finally there was satisfaction in his voice. "Now will you come out too? You humans really like to hide."
The moment he started saying that, the world before Cyril's eyes appeared to be cut in two.
The ground trembled, and everything in a straight line where the demon was standing got destroyed.
The floor beneath Cyril gave way; he activated a barrier spell and prepared for impact, but it never came.
When he opened his eyes, what greeted him was a magic shield made by their professor protecting them from anything that fell from the ceiling.
He took a look under his feet. The crumbling floor, through some unknown magic, was being kept in place; it appeared frozen in time.
Cyril turned to look at his other companions.
Rose was sitting on the floor, her face pale and breathing fast, but she was fine otherwise.
Myra still looked grim but relieved at the same time. That was a complex expression Cyril couldn't quite understand.
"The knights are here; there is nothing to fear anymore." These words were supposed to be a cause for joy, but she sounded almost sad, defeated.
Cyril didn't have the time to think about her state of mind. At this moment, when the destruction around them finally settled, another voice rang out from somewhere inside the risen dust.
"You demons are as slippery as always." It was a quiet but hostile voice.
Sure enough, despite this sneak attack, the horned figure reappeared on a pile of rubble with not a single scratch on him or his dark clothes.
"You are 100 years too early to defeat me, butcher." In an arrogant tone, he raised his hand up and snapped his fingers.
A shock wave went out from his body, blowing away all the dust and rubble.
Their already tired professor had to invest even more energy in order to not get blown away with it.
With this, the area became much clearer to look at.
It was a wide, clean platform. Pipes used to run from near the pillar to somewhere outside, but they had all been cut, clearing even more space.
This also revealed the knight who made the attack in the first place.
It was a lanky man completely covered in armor with not a single part of his body visible. On his waist was a bulky sword sheath of unusual form, with crystal lining it from top to bottom.
In his right hand he was holding a slightly curved, single-edged blade with a long grip.
The knight sheathed the sword.
He stood there in a sword-drawing posture, looking at the archdemon.
It was not possible to see the expression on his face, but Cyril could feel rage radiating from him even a distance away.
"Oh, how scary. 'I finally get the chance to avenge my loved ones! ' Is that what you are thinking?" The demons mocked loudly with malice.
"That's too bad; you are still not strong enough, butcher. Even your elder brother was akin to an ant when I crushed him! What makes you so different? Oh, I guess you can stall for time so that the other knights can arrive! That's all you are really good for."
The demon laughed without holding back.