The endless staircase stood in front of them like a menacing hollow ghost. Elesis's mind was working. The numbers were adding up. She snapped her fingers in a rhythmic beat as her mind twisted and turned. Every formula she had known so far, quadratic equations, probability, completing the square, Pythagoras Theorem, all of it was being processed thoroughly. Each formula was going through her mind, majority were rejected of course.

She looked at the stair case again. She followed her previous movements.

1….2….4….7…

What comes next? She thought about it for a while.

"AH!" She got it! She was looking it the wrong way! Could it be that they were not the steps that matter rather the number of steps moved! Elesis took this into account and it became deadly clear.

1….1….2….3…

It made didn't really make any sense either. She put her hand on her chin and though, thought deeply. She had the potential to unlock something sleeping deep within her mind. It was a skill she had acquired back in the day. She would feel as if time had stopped and everything being processed in her mind was faster.

Think….Think….

!

Time stood still at last. His thoughts were clearer now. She ran through the dictionary of numbers, searching anything which had the combination 1,1,2,3 in it. Her thought came flowing through as she rejected each one with a calm composure. And then she reached one solution and stopped. She glared at it for a moment taking her time to process the possibility for it being right. For a moment there, she could feel blood rushing up her face as her ego started to fly.

"EUREKA!" She exclaimed, the burst of anxiety broke her spell in which she was induced in. Everyone turned to her, almost shocked.

"Let me try this!" She stepped on the first step, the second step, the fourth step, the seventh step and then she leapt to the twelfth step. An orange glow started to shine brightly underneath her feet. Everyone looked in surprised, Arme was in envy at that point too.

"This is….." Elesis held her breath, trying to make a kind of tension pause.

"THE FIBONACCI NUMBER!" She exclaimed to everyone. To her dismay, nobody actually got what she meant. Elesis sighed and cleared her throat with as much pride as possible.

"The Fibonacci number…" She started. "Is a number comprising of the current number added with the previous number to make the next number. Get it?" That explanation wouldn't be good enough she knew.

"The numbers of the Fibonacci number compromises of 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144 and so one and so on. As you can see here:

One is the starting number. Thus to add that up, we have zero. 1+0=1

Next we have two. 1+1 = 2

Three is the next number thus 1+2=3

Five is the next one because 3+2=5

Eight is the next number due to the fact 5+3=8

This continues on until infinity and beyond. Thus you can clearly see, the front number and the previous number add up to be the next number. This means the first two Fibonacci numbers are 0 and 1, and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two. In mathematical terms, the sequence Fn of Fibonacci numbers is defined by the recurrence relation. You get it?"

Her explanation was quite direct indeed. She guessed only half of the people around her knew what it was, the other half would never admit they did not get it.

"In any case, we need to step on the following steps to reach the top: 1, 2, 4, 7, 12, 20, 33, 51, 85, 140 and so on until we reach the top, get it?"

Everyone nodded, but they knew they had a problem. How are they going to climb 21 steps at once! Let alone 144 steps! They thought and thought. Lire looked around almost giving up on all hope they would get out of this place alive. And then suddenly she looked behind and saw Jin, doing pull ups. He was holding the iron bars holding the candlesticks upright as he did his exercise. Jin looked at her and then did a crooked smile.

"I got fat okay? That cursed medicine Lass injected in me made me turn fat!"

Jin was definitely an exercise freak. Lire thought, but then again, his efforts were not wasted. There was a simple solution to this problem.

"Let's use the candle stick bars to climb this staircase!" Lire exclaimed. Everybody looked at the candles set beside them. And then all nodded. Excitement was running through their veins as another puzzle had been solved. And so their journey continued on. Elesis lead the way on the stairs. Her legs were swift and her arms were even faster as she climbed the staircase. Going from step 12 to step 20 and then to step 33 and to step 51 and further on to step 85. When she landed on step 85, she realized her surroundings were different, she was not in a hollow staircase anymore, she was in a giant dining hall.

She looked behind, it was a flat wall. But then suddenly Lass came swooping through it like magic along with Arme behind him. "MADE IT!" He exclaimed with a more relaxed tone. Then from behind him, the rest jumped through the wall. There was a temporary moment of relief, and then it disappeared almost as quickly as it came.

Black smoke filled the room. The source? No one knew. But it wasn't smoke, it was cooling, more like a black mist to be precise.

"Be on your guard!" Lass said as he looked around. The entire room was filled with darkness. And then out of the mist came a dog. But that wasn't any ordinary dog. "C….CERBERUS!" It was the three head mutt from hell they have read in countless books. It seems to be the gate keeper from hell's pet. It had three nasty jaws filled with curved in razor sharp teeth that just screamed. "Touch me and you DIE!" Yes, for some reason, the words were really written on its teeth using black marker ink.

"KICK THE DAMN THING!" Elesis shouted as she saw the big dog run towards Ryan.

"DOWN BOY!" Ryan spun once and then made a sort of black flip. And with that he put his whole weight one his right foot as it went smashing down onto the dog's body. The landing however was surprisingly hard. "WHAT THE!" The creature beneath him did not squeal or even barked. Instead, it turned into crushed rock instantly. Ryan was surprised, so was his knee which felt dislocated at that point.

Out of nowhere the black smoke retreated almost immediately bringing along the darkness with it. It gathered into a single spot. And then materialized into something everyone thought was just an illusion.

"Greeting, welcome to Gaikoz's castle…" Said the hooded figure, a thick scarf covering his mouth and a shadow completely disguising the man's face. "I am, one of the many dark magicians in this castle, and I am proud to say, it will be a pleasure exterminating you…" Everyone tried to remain calm and composed, a dark magician wasn't anything much, but not one trained under Gaikoz. They got ready their weapons.

Ronan charged in front. Letting off a warrior's cry for glory and then striked down, cutting the magician into half. He thought the deed was done, until he looked up of course. He saw the dark magician was cut into half, but the part of incision was turned into black mist. He grunted as he spun backwards and landed near Lire. "He…he isn't human!" He exclaimed.

Everyone looked at him and in unison said "You think?"

The next attack was coming on quick. The dark magician opens his arms wide. Under his sleeves black mist came gushing out like endless fountains of liquid chocolate, although chocolate was brown that is. In any case, Elesis went on the offence, she quickly rushed to the front and spun her sword hard. It was clear the smoke could be cut through, because both sides of the swords were clean as the smoke retreated slightly to its sides. What came out next was a snake. Or rather, it was a lady, her hair filled with snakes.

"DAMN! DON'T LOOK AT HER EYES! YOU'LL BE TURNED INTO STONE! IT'S MEDUSA!" They all turned behind, not knowing how to fight. "I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" Lass shouted as he took out from his pocket an endless supply of small knives. He threw them behind him, towards the last seen position of medusa. Thankfully though, she was slow and was still at the exact spot. One of the knives penetrated her body, another went through her left breast, her heart.

"UWAAAAAHHHHH!" She turned into stone and was immediately pulverized by Jin who jumped and spun towards her in midair. He ended it with a downward roundhouse punch. After crushing her, the smoke began to move again. It became more concentrated into one spot. And finally a figure came out once more. "HAHAHAHHA! GOOD TRY!" The dark magician said as he walked out from the black mist.

With great accuracy and speed. Lire launched one of her crossbow arrows at the dark magician. "ARRRHHGHHH!" There was a scream of pain that circled the room. "YOU HAVE JUST SIGNED YOUR DEATH WARRANT!" The black mist gushed out from under the dark magician's hood and sleeves once more. The room became enveloped in darkness.

Arme, though she was still small in size, knew she had to do something. "I know thwe answer for thwis one…!"

-Mission: Defeat the dark magician-

Find out a way from the text to make out a battle plan to win the dark magician. Basically, just write out HOW to damage it, killing is not necessary because a way to damage it is enough. The dark magician will not turn back into a figure again after this as a protection feature, please keep that in mind. Winning him is definitely possible, please keep that in mind too. Also, please keep in mind that the one who will be going through this plan is Arme. This is crucial. From the storyline, there lies the key to attacking the dark magician.

-To be continued….. -