Elisha Celsius was a genius. From the moment she realized that fact until now, she always had been.
She had an older sister who was three years her senior, but their level was always the same. Elisha learned the same things as Ellesia and used the same magic. It seemed Elisha had covered the weakness of being born three years late with her genius.
However, the reality was different.
Elisha's older sister felt inadequate despite being born three years earlier. She tried to close the gap with blood-vomiting effort, but even that was not enough. Even if Elisha hadn't intentionally slacked off on her studies, the gap would have only continued to widen.
Elisha understood as she watched her sister's inferiority complex, competitive spirit, effort, and venom. She realized that her sister studied all night, vomiting blood, out of a desire not to be overtaken by her younger sister.
And she also knew that no matter how powerful an emotion she harbored, she could never surpass her. That fierce inferiority complex would help her sister's progress to some extent, but it would soon destroy her.
To know more means to be able to grieve over more things. Feeling sorrow, Elisha decided to step aside for her sister. On the day she turned eight, Elisha resolved to climb the Floating Castle early.
And two years later, she awakened her inherent magic and earned the right to climb the Floating Castle. The night everyone blessed Elisha, Ellesia Celsius came and rebuked her.
Calling her a coward.
The more outstanding person must be considerate. Regardless of having such ability, it is because they recognize the problem. Looking at her older sister whom she loved but who was lacking in many ways, Elisha realized such truth.
What she saw after climbing the Floating Castle were magicians who swaggered simply because they were on a higher floor, despite still being inferior to her. Elisha sympathized with them. Even if they were magicians of the Floating Castle, in Elisha Celsius's eyes, they were the same existence as the ignorant masses of the lower world.
Elisha was outstanding, and at the same time, kind. Looking down on everyone gently, she possessed a rare talent among magicians. It was a talent called popularity, a talent that magicians should not have and must not have.
Empowered by that talent, Elisha became the youngest Blue Tower Master, and had much exchange with other magicians inside and outside the tower. Elisha, who possessed too outstanding a talent, gradually came to explore difficult subjects.
The Demon God Temple was created that way.
Like all knowledge, the Demon God is hard to find but not hard to understand. Gathering information about the Demon God, investigating the Earth Mother Goddess and the Golden Mirror, the Blue Tower Master, who gained knowledge, came to know about the relics of the Demon God.
After the Bottomless Pit was formed, a plain was devastated. The Golden Mirror created and destroyed a nation called Yeolguk just by its existence. The Tree of Depravity in Manguk replaces the World Tree and encompasses the dense forest.
A great person's relic might only change a single territory, but a Demon God's relic possessed the power to overturn a nation. Moreover, it was not a refined power like the relic of the Celsius territory. Even though it just scattered power wildly, the nation teetered.
Perhaps.
If that is systematically woven.
Couldn't a law that covers the world be made.
Sweet honey attracts bugs. The attractive ring of the world law gathered all kinds of geniuses. The Blue Tower Master's power and resources, and the sparking debates of the geniuses. All of that combined, and the Demon God Temple gradually began to take a clear and powerful form.
Then one day, the White Tower Master came. With everything veiled, she secretly called the Blue Tower Master and showed her the 'truth'.
A star floating outside that sky. Arrogance.
A weapon made solely to collide with the ground.
Elisha realized the purpose and danger of Arrogance. Also the fact that it was difficult to share with other magicians. Hwaran Fahrenheit, who had even burned her own territory, would not care about the danger of 'Arrogance'. No, she might rather use that danger as a weapon to achieve something.
If it was Hwaran, who had tried to create a perpetual motion machine with infinitely burning flames, she might do so.
Elisha tried to stop the Demon God Temple. However, magicians are not a race that listens to other magicians' orders. The Demon God Temple, where Hwaran and Lankalt joined forces, was a runaway train with no brakes, so even without the central point of the Blue Tower Master, it would creak and move forward. Someday, it would definitely reach the Demon God.
So Elisha left the Demon God Temple and joined hands with the White Tower Master. Because....
Because Elisha was a coward.
"I don't know why you're getting involved in this fight in the first place. Is mediating your hobby?"
My words dug into the Blue Tower Master's heart.
"At first you stopped the Green Tower Master and the Black Tower Master, then you stopped the Red Tower Master, you even climbed the tower to stop me and Lankalt, and now you're stopping the White Tower Master. You only want to play the role of a mediator."
I cannot deal with the Blue Tower Master and the White Tower Master at the same time. I have to win over the Blue Tower Master or make her defect. And that wasn't very difficult.
"Are you afraid of fighting?"
Elisha replied lightly.
"I'm not afraid of fighting. Because I've never lost. I just think it's foolish and pointless."
"So you just backed down? You backed out of the Celsius territory because you were afraid of fighting your sister, and you backed out of the Demon God Temple because you were afraid of fighting the Red Tower Master."
The Blue Tower Master is a mediator. She strives to resolve conflicts between both sides. She is the figure Order likes the most.
Her personality is refreshing and sociable, and she has the thinking ability and rationality worthy of her outstanding intellect, but the Blue Tower Master has a weakness.
"Back down here as usual. This is not a fight for you to get involved in. Protecting Avant-garde safely is what you need to do here."
"Stopping you is also my job. Stop here. Then no one gets hurt."
She is too strong.
No special resolve is needed. With her powerful inherent magic and outstanding magical skills, she could easily subdue her opponent. She could temporarily stop the fight and bring peace.
Because of that, Elisha could not understand intense emotions that would even burn herself. Rather, she felt burdened and feared them.
"What is up there is not 'Arrogance'. 'Arrogance' is just a byproduct of the Demon God. The real thing is the Demon God beyond that. The great knowledge that launched a star into that sky. I will have that."
"That's the same thing. In the end, you'll get your hands on 'Arrogance'. That must not fall into anyone's hands."
"There's a contradiction in those words, Blue Tower Master. 'Arrogance' is already in the Demon King's possession, isn't it? It's the knowledge she put up as a prize."
The Blue Tower Master left the Demon God Temple. Even though she could get her hands on 'Arrogance' if it came to it, she gave up on her own.
"If you really wanted to protect 'Arrogance', you should have climbed the Babel Tower first and obtained the knowledge of 'Arrogance'. And you should have kept it close to your chest and protected it. Like the Demon King."
"...That's possible because she's my master."
"Then handing over that knowledge is also the Demon King's right. Why are you trying to block it? You could have just obtained the Demon God fairly and monopolized it."
There might be complex reasons. Spatial magic is a power that is difficult to understand with common sense, even for the Blue Tower Master, it is not easy to learn, and even if she obtained it, it would be difficult to manage.
But above all, when the Blue Tower Master obtained the knowledge. She was burdened by the magicians who would rush in targeting her power.
"The Demon King was thinking of handing over 'Arrogance' and the Demon God to someone else. If it were you, who are among the top five in the Floating Castle, you might have passed that test. But instead, you chose to be a gatekeeper. For someone who volunteered to be a gatekeeper, your resolve is too light."
"Resolve? I don't need it."
"No. You need it. I'll show you myself."
Freed, I walked steadily. When the Blue Tower Master left her spot, the freed Shay blew away the ice crystals and leaped forward, and Lankalt broke through Ruel's light trap and came to me. And someone in disguise slipped in among the magicians.
Even for the White Tower Master, it would be too much to deal with Shay, Lankalt, and me at the same time. The Blue Tower Master, not forgetting her duty, poured her mana into the atmosphere. With the power to freeze even the atmosphere, she could stop this battle.
"If you're going to intervene, do so with a resolve that matches it, Elisha Celsius."
I stepped forward aggressively, aiming for the Blue Tower Master. The Blue Tower Master reacted to my aggressive momentum. Mana spread out like tree branches, and a blue wall appeared before my eyes.
This is a duel. Me aiming for the Blue Tower Master. And the Blue Tower Master who has to stop me. If the Blue Tower Master poses a problem, I have to solve it. If I solve them all and reach her, it's my victory.
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The first problem, as expected, was ice crystals. The Blue Tower Master created a shield of ice crystals to block my approach.
"It's ice crystals. You experienced it in the Celsius territory, right? It's dangerous, so be careful."
She's telling me this. The Blue Tower Master's warning was soft to the point of being kind. Enough to make me snort.
"At a time like this, you're talking about danger over mere ice crystals?"
Instead of resisting, I rode the wind and ran. I could see the atmosphere slowly hardening into crystals before my eyes. Ice crystals are wind bombs that could explode at any moment. I reached out my hand without any hesitation.
Perhaps because I was too unhesitating, the Blue Tower Master was more flustered.
"Wait. That's dangerous...."
But in an instant, as I swept the ice crystal with my bare hand, it turned into hundreds of cards and fell down.
Ice crystals? A solid transformed by mana the moment it was crystallized by inherent magic. No matter how dangerous it is, I just have to change it with alchemy.
"Alchemy on ice crystals...?! How?"
"You have to figure that out. Give me the next problem."
The Blue Tower Master, while flustered, immediately cast a spell. Cold mana wrapped around my entire body.
Tactical-grade magic, Ice Statue. A magic that turns the moisture condensing near my body into ice and traps me. It was the magic she used by using the freezing point anomaly in the Celsius territory. Now without the thermometer of the first Celsius, I have no means to break the ice.
So let's just keep the ice from freezing in the first place.
"Hoo-."
I recall the magic I saw at the Crystal Tower. The magic Crystal Ember, devised by Ember, a disciple on the 6th floor. A magic that covers one's own body with crystals.
With my meager mana, it only covers 1 mm above my skin, but that's enough.
I freeze before it freezes me.
'Doesn't the inherent magic work on Huez's body?'
The Blue Tower Master's inherent magic is the power to crystallize matter.
Just as one cannot kill what is already dead, what has already become a crystal cannot be crystallized. By turning it into a crystal beforehand, I escape Elisha's control. That's enough.
"You said I lacked resolve. Is this it? Give me the next problem."
I passed two crises. What I see before my eyes is the face of the Blue Tower Master, who looks a bit frightened. The moment I reached out my hand toward her, an ice crystal floated up before my eyes.
"Haaa-."
Condensed air, ice crystals. A substance that is nothing but a bomb in itself. Before I could even react, the Blue Tower Master released the crystallized ice crystal. The solidified atmosphere turns into gas in an instant and explodes.
'Oops. I released the ice crystal without realizing it. It could kill him...!'
It was too late to go back. And I have no intention of going back.
I endure it.
The shock pushes my whole body back, and the wind ruthlessly strikes my head, but I planted my two feet on the ground and endured it steadfastly. My neck snapped once, and blood burst from my mouth due to the sudden pressure difference, but I somehow held on with my regenerative power.
The Blue Tower Master, who watched my gruesome state up close, was seized with fear.
'How...? Why? Why go that far?'
It was possible because it was a hastily made ice crystal. Gritting my teeth and swallowing the flowing blood, I glared at the Blue Tower Master. Overwhelmed by my intense emotions, the Blue Tower Master's usual cool attitude had completely disappeared. With all her magic destroyed, she was nothing but a fragile girl.
Thanks to that short gap, my hand finally reached the Blue Tower Master.
"Mmph!"
'It hurts...! My magic was breached?! In that short gap? Wait. If this continues, perhaps....'
I reached out and covered the Blue Tower Master's mouth. Her small jaw was caught in my one hand. The touch on my hand was endlessly soft and fragile. The Blue Tower Master is just a magician.
If it's me, who has gained a slightly stronger power than a normal human, I could kill the Blue Tower Master like this.
'Die...?'
Of course, there's no reason to do that. The Blue Tower Master is not my enemy. Thinking about the reaction Avant-garde or Shay would show if I hurt the Blue Tower Master, I absolutely must not do it.
I just need to scare her so she can't interfere.
"I won. Elisha. You understand now, right?"
My savage figure reflected in Elisha's eyes. Completely overwhelmed, she answered in a trembling voice.
"Y-yes..."
"Smart. Good."
Growling like a beast, I lightly pushed the frightened Blue Tower Master. With her strength gone, the Blue Tower Master slumped down.
This should prevent the Blue Tower Master from interfering with me or Shay. Goal achieved for now.
The moment I felt slightly relieved, a fierce light flashed and ruthlessly blew my body away.