"This layer has a problem!" Phyllis immediately furrowed her brows after taking a single glance.
"It seems different from the last time we came here," Huarui observed.
"Let me take a look," Hatch said, placing his hand on hers. "Huh, it looks like a few pillars are missing."
"They've been destroyed," Phyllis replied. "These pillars are locks! If you connect the remaining ones, don't they form a giant teleportation array?"
"Now that you mention it, it really does resemble that," Huarui admitted. "It looks just like the cover of our textbook."
"Yes, it's the Flander Array," Phyllis confirmed.
"The Flander Array refers to arrays personally drawn by Flander himself," Huarui explained to Hatch. "All arrays have unique characteristics depending on the person who designed them, much like handwriting. However, the Flander Arrays also include replicas meticulously traced or copied from the original designs."
"Exactly," Phyllis added. "Unlike handwriting, some of these individual characteristics contain secrets that were never disclosed publicly. That's why people copy not only the formula and lines but also details like the writing style, pen strokes, and even the thickness of the lines. These replicas are referred to as copied Flander Arrays, and they often indicate the destination is no ordinary place."
Hatch, still puzzled, asked, "How can a few pillars convey details like line thickness and writing styles?"
"These pillars are just locks, not the array itself," Phyllis explained. "If you unlock them in a specific way, the array will activate. By analyzing the style of the locks, you can deduce what type of array it is. It's only because the Flander Array is so famous that we recognized it immediately."
"Yeah, the diagram is on the textbook cover! We see it every day!" Huarui said, pulling out the book Essentials of Summoning, whose cover displayed the very array they were discussing. The cover featured a design with glowing pillars as locks, a template of minimalistic locking mechanisms to seal and activate arrays.
"So how do we unlock it?" Hatch asked.
"Breaking or moving the locks are common rules," Huarui replied.
"Preserving the locks is also an option," Phyllis noted. "This one seems to have dual-layered locks. The outer layer needs to be destroyed, while the inner layer must remain intact to activate the array. Any mistake in the unlocking sequence will trigger an alarm."
Huarui and Hatch exchanged nervous glances. There were at least a hundred pillars in this layer. Making even one mistake could set off the alarm? That sounded terrifying!
"Judging by the creator's twisted sense of humor, the so-called alarm won't alert the academy's defense system. It's probably some kind of trap designed to make you wish for death rather than survival," Phyllis said darkly, causing the other two to instinctively step back.
"Why do you think Flander had a twisted sense of humor?" Hatch asked, unwilling to let the topic drop.
"If he didn't want anyone accessing the next layer, he could have simply used a locked door and handed the key to a specific person. Why bother creating such a complex yet solvable puzzle? He's toying with anyone who comes here or showing off his skills," Phyllis scoffed.
Huarui nodded enthusiastically. "Phyllis is absolutely right!"
Hatch was speechless. These two weren't even twenty, yet they dared to criticize the great Flander, the academy's founder, calling him twisted. They were beyond saving.
"But seriously, who's unlocking it? It's not us..." Huarui asked, puzzled.
"It's not human," Phyllis pointed to the severed edges of the pillars. "Every pillar has been sliced cleanly in one strike."
Hatch glanced at his sword and then at the nearest pillar, measuring it. "One strike... definitely a monster."
"Look, first quadrant, A6B8 zone!" Phyllis directed their attention.
Using coordinate notation from drafting, Phyllis referred to a mapping system where a plane is divided into six quadrants, each labeled with letters and numbers for easier reference. Phyllis couldn't physically point to the spot, so she quickly used this system.
Huarui caught on immediately. In the area Phyllis mentioned, they noticed something unusual.
It was a long, shadowy figure. In a split second, a pillar collapsed, and the shadow disappeared. Not even Huarui's cockroach army could track its movements.
"So fast!" Huarui exclaimed.
At that moment, the vibrations from the falling pillar reached them. The ground beneath them shook, the nearby pillars trembled, and the fluorescent liquid underfoot rippled, bubbling with colorful foam that made everyone wary of getting splashed.
Without a word, Huarui slammed his staff onto the ground, muttering "Petrify." Instantly, a stone platform formed under their feet, providing some stability.
It turned out Huarui was also an earth-element mage—a fact Phyllis silently noted. However, just then, Hatch shoved both of them aside, shouting, "Watch out!"
Phyllis instinctively cast three wind shields on herself and activated a group levitation spell for everyone. The stone ground beneath them shattered as a shadow burst through, sending colorful sewage spraying everywhere.
Phyllis quickly realized that the entity unlocking the pillars had detected their presence and launched an attack without warning. At that moment, Huarui's ice demon used her final spell: Freeze!
In an instant, the colorful sewage froze into a jagged, dazzlingly bright ice formation, resembling a mountain of sharp crystals piercing through the cracked ground.
Phyllis couldn't help but admire their quick reflexes. However, the enemy—a shadowy figure—had already escaped from the ice trap.
"I think that thing is playing us with ease," Huarui said as he dismissed his exhausted Ice Demon and cast three layers of Earth Shield on himself.
Although they were under attack, the destruction of the stone pillars only accelerated, becoming faster and more relentless.
Phyllis responded almost in awe, "If I'm not mistaken, this type of Flander Array operates with chained locks. Once the unlocking begins, all locks must be released within a set time frame, or a trap will be triggered. In other words, the unlocking speed will only increase. That creature might have attacked us because it fears we'd interfere from behind. Whoever it is must be a true expert."
"Human? That thin, long thing counts as human?" Hatch asked, shocked.
"No, that's probably a familiar, controlled remotely by its summoner," Phyllis explained.
"Careful! It's coming again!" Huarui warned as he began chanting a Level 6 Earth Wall spell. This large-scale defensive magic could be cast anywhere with earth elements but was exceedingly taxing. Even for Huarui, it was barely manageable, though his wand provided a notable boost.
Sure enough, the creature stirred up a massive wave of fluorescent sewage. Without the Ice Demon, the group struggled against water-based attacks. Fortunately, Huarui's Earth Wall spell completed just in time. The gridded tiles beneath their feet fused into a solid mass, rising into a slope-like barrier that stood before them. The torrent of strange water crashed against the wall, its force diffused by the sloped design. The liquid spilled upward, creating a dazzling rainbow as it swept overhead.
Even while casting the spell, Huarui's cockroach familiars remained active, allowing him to observe the situation beyond the wall. The snake-like entity wasn't as simple as it appeared. The sewage wave was merely a diversion; the real attack followed swiftly. A black whip-like appendage lashed out, striking the wall. The weakened earth barrier crumbled instantly under the force, and the massive appendage loomed above them.
It was only then that they realized the creature wasn't just thin and long. Its enormous, blackened body cast a crushing shadow, and if it came down, none of them would escape unscathed.
At that moment, Hatch charged forward, raising his shield and shouting, "Holy Light, grant me strength! Holy Shield!" A silver barrier erupted from his body, enveloping all three of them. The black appendage abruptly recoiled, retreating without making contact with the silver shield.
Phyllis reached out to touch the thin silver barrier. How could something so insubstantial repel such a powerful attack? "Amazing..." she murmured.
Hatch collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily. "This... this is my ultimate move, my life-saving trump card! I just mastered it this week, planning to save it for the final exam two days from now... and now it's gone..."
"You mean you can't use it again during the exam?" Phyllis asked.
"This isn't ordinary Light Magic. It's borrowed power from the deity. For a low-ranking believer like me, I can only use it once a week," Hatch explained bitterly. "They say this is a Divine Domain Spell from the Main God. Inside the shield, all attacks are nullified, operating under divine rules completely separate from elemental magic. Only the Main God could fully explain its mechanics. Borrowing this power is convenient, but my ability limits its duration to a very short time. The Holy Knights of the Light Church can maintain this shield for fifteen minutes!"
"Fifteen minutes of invulnerability to all physical and magical attacks!" Phyllis was in awe until she heard Huarui's deadpan comment beside her.
"So... this is the one-minute invincibility trick you mentioned mastering?" Huarui asked.
Hatch nodded. "Exactly. It's the latest breakthrough from the academy's clergy department. Over fifty of us trained for a year using their methods, and only two succeeded. I'm one of them."
"Wait, never mind how you learned it. Are you saying this shield only lasts one minute?" Phyllis asked, incredulous at the disparity between one minute and fifteen.
"One minute is plenty! You can do so much in a minute!" Hatch protested. "In this small domain, enemies can't attack you. You can do anything—heal, recover mana, even draw a teleportation array to escape."
"Wait, what do you mean by 'can't attack'?" Phyllis exclaimed. "We're just sitting ducks in here? Eating and sleeping while waiting to die?"
"This is a domain spell. Attacks can't enter, but nothing can leave either. If you stick so much as a hand outside, that thing will notice and come right for us," Hatch explained.
"Think of something fast; we have forty seconds left," Huarui said flatly.
"Let's just rip the scrolls and get out of here," Phyllis suggested. "Forget the array. Staying alive is more important."
"Useless. I've already tried," Huarui said, holding up a torn scroll. "This layer seems to exist in a sealed space. The scrolls don't work here."
"You've got to be kidding me..." Hatch looked defeated.
Outside the Holy Shield, the black shadow continued demolishing the pillars, tearing through most of them with ease. The glowing, colorful water mixed and sprayed everywhere as the shadow thrashed. Mutated rats exposed to the water underwent horrific transformations—some became berserk, others shrank, grew larger, or disintegrated entirely. Without the Holy Shield, the group didn't dare imagine their fate.
"It looks like Flander added an anti-escape mechanism to make his game more thrilling. This layer is under spatial lock!" Phyllis explained grimly. "Once the unlocking starts, the spatial seal won't lift until it's completed."
"So the old man never intended for anyone to leave here alive!" Huarui said angrily before slumping to the ground. With a desperate look, he turned to Phyllis. "Is there no way to break the lock?"
Phyllis sighed. "Not in time. Unless that snake-like thing unlocks all the pillars before the shield disappears, and we're transported to the next layer by the array, we won't survive."
"I doubt it will let us live even if it unlocks everything. If I were its master, I'd ensure we were eliminated before entering the next layer." Huarui shook his head in despair.
Hatch seemed to have resigned himself to his fate. With nothing else to do, he began looking around aimlessly—until something caught his eye. "You know, your assistant is quite impressive. He managed to stay outside the Holy Shield."