The tower was not that far away, thus the need to take flight on Nemu's back didn't arise, especially with how everyone was right now.
"Let's hasten the pace," I said as I began shadow stepping forward. The rest of the guys looked at each other and within a moment they dashed forward. Vendir who only needed to float rushed forward as a gust of wind split the air before him, as he was unhindered by anything.
Haru, Misaka, And Haruka dashed forward. Though on their feet, they were still ridiculously faster than normal humans. As for Shara, she stood still then shuddered as her back sprouted two enormous dark wings.
Oh, it seems that even after her rebirth she still managed to retain her Fallen archangel's powers and abilities.
With a swipe of her wings, she broke the sound barrier as she boomed forward with intense speed leaving all of us behind. Still, the moment she passed me she turned giving me a mocking grin and continued forward.
"Oh, you want to race then!" I said as I agitated the mana within me.
Nemu didn't bother with all of this as he flew gently, yet still, he was quite fast as he looked at us.
While it as agitating the mana I had to stop and everyone managed to bypass me.
"Dark Rush!" I shouted activating a newfound ability. This was the final tier of the Shadow Step ability. Where one gives access to teleportation from place to place this gives me the ability to change into a gust of dark matter that moved at a ridiculous speed.
Though one would think that teleportation is much better and faster once they see this they will have to think again.
My body morphed into small smoke particles as it transformed into a dark cloud that only had two emerald eyes on it.
Those eyes were mine and within them, the torrent of souls that tormented all beings within me. They looked forward. A dark grin appeared on the black smoke reflecting my state.
Willing myself to move I shot forward like an arrow!
The world rumbled as the giant gust of dark smoke moved forward instantly bypassing the three that just moved past me. The gust of dark smoke was too grand and too fast that it looked like a moving storm moving past vendir who stood and looked at my appearance mouth agape and Shara who looked shocked.
She clenched her fist and turned around facing the tower and using all her speed to get there first.
Not one to give her a chance I chased after here closing the gap almost instantly. Once I reached there it looked like the dark smoke consumed the angel as she disappeared, while I reached the tower circling it twice from bottom to top.
It looked like the dark tower was the source of this dark storm.
I retracted the smoke and remerged before the tower as I stood to wait for everyone.
Shara was the first to reach as she looked at me with astonishment.
"What was that?" she asked, "That is way too fast!"
"Oh, it is an upgrade to shadow step. Though shadow step grants me momentary flight ability I will need to activate it constantly. I managed to understand the concept of Shadow Step and used this dark rush to create shadow within a confined space. As long as there is light, there will be a shadow, and as long as there is shadow I can move, I just need to create smoke before me so that I can move forward. It is like I use light to move. The faster the smoke I can produce the faster I will be able to move… and believe me, this is not the fastest I can move."
Vendire came then and continued the explanation
"It seems that your only limit is how fast can you create that dark smoke right? So in theory… you can actually reach the speed of light if you are able to produce that smoke by burning your mana at an extream speed right?"
"Indeed, but there is a limit to how much smoke I can create… the more I create the lesser my control over it, at some point, I might lose my mind and won't be able to retract it unless I die I won't be able to function properly." I said
"Interesting," said Vendir.
A moment later everyone reached the base of the tower. a look of fatigue was apparent on the three other guys but they still held themselves high.
"Alright I scanned this tower and it seems that the exit to this place is on the top floor… however, there is a problem" I said
Nemu then just came crashed forward.
"Yeah…I think I understand" said Haru while looking at the enormous size of Nemu.
"I don't think he will fit in…" he added with a look of disappointment.
"Don't you dare think that you will abandon me that easy!" said Nemu a dark aura emanated from him. The earth began to crack and quake, even if it was made of iron it split forward as the dark aura from Nemu grew stronger.
With a boom, a shockwave erupted while many of us were forced a few steps back from the impact.
The dark aura then retracted almost instantly while a lone figure showed up.
This figure was tall, almost three meters large, with four horns on his head that were reminiscent of the Crazed black dragon that I fought before he transformed into Nemu.
His eyes were however dark green similar to mine and his body was almost fully covered with lustrous dark scales.
He was a dragon in a humanoid form!
"Oh, I didn't know you can do that!"
"This is nothing, when a dragon is old enough he can change his appearance to resemble a human almost perfectly. This is far from it" said Nemu with a sigh
Indeed, he didn't look the least bit human , in fact, he had several scales on his body, covering his back, neck, arms and legs, only his chest which had a smoother looking scales which were of a pale white color. His fingers ended with claws, and he also had a vicious looking tail swaying slowly in the back.
"This looks much better actually!" said Haru!
"Hmm, I guess you sacrificed strength for speed in this form didn't you?" I asked
"Indeed, This form enables me to become nimble but the difference is I lose a huge amount of my basic strength, I can also grow wings to fly but I won't be able to comfortably carry you all." He said with a shrug
Unable to comfortably carry us… this means that he can still carry us...
"Very well. Let's go then" I said as I walked forward towards the tower.
Once I pressed on the giant gates I was instantly sent tumbling backward.
-200 000hp! Blunt damage!
Everyone was looking dazed at how I was sent back like a ragged doll…
If it was them that would have probably been fatal!
Haruka was the first to come rushing towards me with a look of worry.
"Are you alright?! What happened?" she asked
"Ouch! That hurts!" I said as I stood up barely maintaining my posture.
"Well.. thankfully it was you who grabbed the door… there is a restriction here preventing anyone from accessing the tower… we need first to unlock it or destroy it… it seems that destroying it will be out of the question looking at how strong it is… hmm" said vendir as he contemplated at the door, not even in the least worried about how I am fearing!
"Am alright," I said as I walked forward.
'Damned door, making me look like an idiot'
My body began regenerating Hp, and in a matter of minutes, almost all my hp was regenerated. Of course, that would have been impossible without some mana control further improving my Hp regen.
"I should probably blow it apart I said" as I walked angrily towards it.
"I wouldn't recommend that-" said Vendir but before he could finish I used abyssal projection, trying to force the door to be teleported out of the way.
Yet before the spell could activate I felt a rush of energy blowing towards me.
"Shit!" I managed to dodge in the nick of time while the ground where I stood was ripped apart and a huge crater was formed.
"For someone who has been taught to me, you sure are an idiot!" said Vendire reprimanding me.
"How would I know that whatever I tried against this door it will try to kill me!"
"This is a restriction! I never taught you that because I never thought that you will need to face against one…, not everything can be solved using brute force you should know this!" said Vendir as he moved forward.
"What is a restriction?" asked Misaka who was the most interested in the subject.
"A restriction is like a protective magical trap. Without the correct sequence, one cannot pass, it is like a door with a lock and one needs the appropriate key. There are three ways to unlock it, first one can overpower their way through it. looking at this restriction it is empowered by this dungeon, unless one is of the strength of a high-class Divine, they cannot break through it without hurting themselves, or dying."
"As for the second method is that if its owner opens it as he is the one who will have the key"
"What about the third method, asked Haruka who looked rather interested.
"The third method is the simplest but the hardest at the same time, every restriction has a sequence when it is created, we just need to backtrack the sequence and unlock it, it is the same as how burglars unlock doors when they don't have the keys. We just have to understand the sequence and create a forged key to open it… this will take some time so please wait while I figure it out." Said Vendir as he began pondering while looking at the door.
Though I spent a lot of time with this guy, he never mentioned anything about restriction… if they are so powerful why didn't you say anything about them! I might have been a slow student but at least I could use stuff like this to my advantage if the need arises!
"I know what you are thinking about Daiki, but mainly due to your strength I never thought that you will need to learn these restrictions, however, this one is rather peculiar, it is using the power of a divine to reinforce itself, you wouldn't need to learn things like this… even if you do you don't have the power supplier to make such a restriction functional. Lower tiered restriction might not hold the same power but at the same time, they are easy to break. So they are useless, however, a higher tiered restriction like this,n not only will it need a powerful power supply, the fact that even mounting it and crafting it will take at least years of patience… I don't think you have the will to stand still for years crafting something like this using ridiculous resources and in the end not even finding the chance to use it. thus I didn't teach you…" said Vendir explaining my thoughts without even looking back.
"Sigh, this is going to take some time…" he said and he sat down before the door. Making signs with his hand and pushing some mana symbols on the gate.
After a moment a huge magical formation appeared, it was red in color and had thousands upon thousands of small particles that were shining through it.
"It seems that this restriction is protecting the whole tower and not only the door, I guess that when you were in your dark rush form you didn't activate it because it didn't think that you were a person. However, if you had tried to enter you would have been fried. But how did you know that there was a portal on the top floor?" asked Vendir
"Oh. I saw it through a window, I was going to enter the tower from the top but decided against it once you all came forward…" I said as I shuddered, if I had tried to enter I would have been attacked… just the fact that I took 200 000 points of damage before was excruciating enough that even my pain resistance didn't negate the awful amount of pain that I felt…
"Well, just sit then and wait for me to unlock it, it shouldn't take more than a day." Said Vendir as he was pressing his strange symbols on the red swirling magic circles.
Every time he did so, a small magic circle would be moved to the side and disappear.
Looking at the numbers of the magic circles on the door, indeed this might take an entire day to unlock… sigh…