Y/N POV
"Flugel's Tree... that feels like it was so long ago, you know, Y/N?"
"I suppose you can even call that the good old days at this point, ey? Haha!"
While Subaru and I reminisced a little about our achievements, Meili trotted over and seemed to be interested in the tree.
"Yeah. Right, there's a damn huge tree that grew on the Lifaus Plains in the Kingdom of Lugnica, and it was called Flugel's Great Tree. It's so huge that it's said that it may have almost reached past the clouds; it was something that could really tickle at your male instincts."
"That's an interesting way to describe it..."
"Woah! Can we go visit it one day, Y/N nii-san?" Meili's eyes started to glitter with excitement as she looked at me with expectant eyes.
"Possibly. Im surprised that we actually missed that location. By the way, Subaru, you were going to chop that tree down, were you not?"
"Well, I thought that that was indeed the best way to kill the White Whale. I mean, anything would always get crushed by something that's larger than itself. It's funny how we were so afraid of the White Whale due to its sheer size at the beginning, when there's a much larger living being next to us."
"If Onii-san really chopped the tree down, I would set my new fluffy lion on you!"
"Actually, Meili, since he now has a whip made from your previous Guiltylowe, so I'm pretty sure he might even train it by accident."
"My mabeasts will never listen to someone else! They're loyal!"
"Okay, okay..." Patting Meili's head as she settled into my lap, I continued the conversation as Omega came back from a brief reunion session with Shaula.
"Say, Omega, how exactly were you involved with the Watchtower's construction? I thought you lived in your mansions high above the clouds back in the days gone." I questioned, slightly puzzled.
"I was involved with many things that occurred in this world, Y/N. Many of which you don't know and hence don't need to know until the time comes."
"There you go, being all mysterious again..."
"But part of the reason I came here was to assist Daphne in her creation with Flugel on that little scorpion over there. I simply had to monitor the situation."
"And?" I knew Echidna wouldn't simply just let all the information loose by herself. So I chose to add on a little pressure.
"And I was interested in the pure design of the structure. I did build my part of the Watchtower, mind you. The only problem is... I forgot where I put it."
"You... forgot where you PUT IT?"
"Well, the whole floor that I made was straight out of an entire spellbook I wrote back then, and since the spellbook vanishes right after construction... which happened to be a time I was away from the Watchtower, I didn't have time to actually pinpoint its location. And I have long forgotten what exactly I wrote."
"I- you know what, hearing you build an entire floor is nice and all, but hearing that you losy it all just like that..."
"It doesn't matter, does it? After all, it's not like the scorpion will reveal to you where the other secret lies either. So let's let secrets stay secrets for now, and back to our main goal."
"To restore the people who were affected by Gluttony?" Subaru asked. "I thought that was obvious from the start."
"Ah yes, that is indeed one. But I'm talking about our dear friend Y/N here. What are your goals for this particular destination?" Omega turned to me, and I sighed slightly before pulling out the Cursed Sword.
"Well, the Cursed Sword was originally a coincidental find, but now... I guess I am looking for Louis Arneb."
"Wait! You got another one of those? Y/N, isn't that one of those swords that can rival Reinhard's own?"
"Yeah, Subaru. I have them because I want to make sure everyone suffers less, you know? Given the 'current circumstances', and all that, you know?"
"And about Louis Arneb... she's the Third, is she not?"
"Precisely. As for her purpose and exact place in my plan, that remains unseen for now." I answered.
"Stop talking in code, onii-sans. Meili is still here, you know." The blue-haired girl muttered from my lap, and took a huff of surprise. "But I suppose I've gathered enough information. Anyways, flying rat-chan just told me everyone's going to move up a floor. Are you all coming along?"
"I suppose. Well, let's see what Celaeno and Alcyone has to offer." I replied as I lifted my body off the stone, and we proceeded to ascend.
It was a long way up from Celaeno. I'm counting the flights of stairs while we walked up slowly, having everyone following us as we ascend. Meili, who's already tired, convinced Elsa to piggyback her. Seeing this, Capella teased Meili for being weak but Meili simply blew a raspberry at her and snuggled into Elsa's fur coat.
Reize, Yae, and Halibel were extremely amazed by the structures within the Watchtower. I could only assume that they never thought of ever seeing such a grandiose building in their entire lives before. I have to admit it as well. Flugel did a superb job when it came to decorating the patterns, as the pillars and all the patterns on the wall looks well-thought out, unless he generated random ones with magic and somehow made it just look good...
Shaula was up ahead with Subaru discussing something, and since I was bored, I decided to catch up to them. On my way to join in the conversation, I noticed Omega and Sphinx flying over to the murals nearby and taking a closer look. I knew Omega was definitely fascinated and interested by the works of Flugel, but Sphinx too? Maybe there might be hidden mechanisms powered by mana that she can sense and I cannot...well, either way, her researching skills are top-notch when it comes to anything mana-related. Guess that's why she was called a genius at magic throughout history.
"I apologize that I was late in picking you up from the Sand Palace afterwards. Whilst I let in the other group into the tower, Master and the rest with him ended up advancing into its depths, so I was all in a fluster." Shaula said as I approached the group, and Beatrice, who was clinging to Subaru, seemed to be a tiny bit pissed, probably due to Shaula's previous remarks and carelessly spoken phrases. Sadly, it's not like Beatrice could do anything to Shaula in fury even if she did cross the line: Hell's Snipe is a spell that I could barely defend against as well.
"Aah, no, it's fine... Though, wait, you said 'Sand Palace' ?" Subaru, who was obviously a little scared to directly berate Shaula for any mistakes. However, the last word of Shaula's monologue caught his attention, and arguably mine as well.
"Indeed. It's really dangerous over there, so it's better if you don't go into it. It's reckless to approach without having all the keys, even if it's you, Master. There are Hungry Horse Kings prowling about there too."
"Hungry Horse Kings...You mean those horse-like monsters?"
"Yes." I answered Subaru's lingering doubts. "The Gabaous. And the Keys... I suppose they refer to the Witch Factors, considering I've been quite deep into the tunnel."
"You went down the right side?!"
"Of course. Where do you think I came from when I met you? Surely you didnt think I was just standing there waiting for you, right?"
"I thought you had Pure Truth and you were just too lazy to walk over here." Subaru gave me a look.
"Okay...? For real though, really?" I deadpanned.
"Yes."
"Anyways... yes, I did go down the right side. There were... these doors, of some sort. And to get past them, I had to expend a Witch Factor."
"Wait, you lost all your Witch Factors?"
"Uh, no. What I meant was that I had to have one to be qualified to open one gate."
"Oh, while we're on the topic of Witch Factors, how many do you even have now?!"
"Five."
"FIVE?!"
"Yes, Five, Subaru. You already know about Deceit, Sloth, and Greed. I'm pretty sure you've also seen me use my two other ones: Wrath and Pride, but I never told you because... I forgot?"
"You bastard-!"
"Okay, okay... I'm sorry. Anyways, I extracted Wrath from Sirius, and I took Pride from Typhon's remains in the Great Temple."
"Oh. This connects so many things. Man, and here I thought we were best friends..."
"Aw. Would a hug make this 'unbearable' situation better?"
"NO. OI! Y/N, don't actually do that-"
"I'm just joking. And also, don't worry about Typhon." I pointed to the Witch of Pride who happily skipped up the stairs, seemingly unaffected by any limit on her stamina, while Colette and Palmyra trailed behind her in slight exhaustion. "Her gloves will prevent her Authority from activating. And even if it does activate, it'll just tickle the enemy really hard until they uh..." I trailed off.
"Until what?"
"They... die from suffering? But I'll make sure she won't go unsupervised for so long that such a thing would be allowed to happen."
"Huh. Okay then."
Subaru was always on edge against the Witch of Pride. I mean, he has every right to be scared of that little girl. Her powers back in the Castle of Dreams almost shattered Subaru's soul even thought there was no physical damage involved. Since Typhon's resurrection, Subaru has always voiced his opinion against bringing her along, but eh, if we don't bring her along, the situation might be worse than it already is.
"By the way, does the word 'Flugel' ring a bell in any sense? I feel like it's a German word for wings."
"I'm pretty sure that's the case. Does this mean that the Sage had an uncanny flight ability? To be discovered I guess..."
"By the way, Shaula..." Subaru turned back to the Sage's apprentice. "Maia, Electra, Taygeta, Alcyone, Celaeno, Asterope."
Beatrice, who was utterly confused at Subaru's recitation of the six words, let out a small comment of surprise. I, on the other hand, recognized the names of the Pleiades sisters, and realized what was wrong.
"The missing seventh..."
"Yes. So, where's Merope?"
This question made Shaula silent. Like, extremely silent. I almost got the feeling of her wanting to shoot us off the stairs for a second.
"It's the name of the last one of the seven sisters. It'd be strange to not have seven in Pleiades." Subaru continued. "The floors had been allocated six names from the first floor to the sixth. However, the names that followed that motif were from the start, the seven sisters- A floor with the seventh name attached to it should exist. And if it isn't Floor Seven... it would be a Floor Zero."
"There is a Floor Zero." Shaula confirmed. "Master named them, so it's natural... However, the place was made after Master left, so you shouldn't know where it is."
Huh.
"If the First Floor is the highest floor, then Floor Zero must be the super-highest floor? In regards to entering it, h-"
"No."
Shaula responded to Subaru's inquiry in a horribly monotone voice. "You haven't fulfilled the conditions yet. Master came back to see me in the middle of his journey, and I'm satisfied with that. That's why Floor Zero is a No."
Chid-chan, do you know anything about Merope?
No? I don't think so. At my time of involvement, no names of the floors were ever revealed to me. Flugel must be keeping it as some kind of very interesting secret if he didn't even supervise its construction.
What do you think lies inside?
I honestly have no conclusion to come to. But if you're wondering about your final goal, no. Her remains do not lie in the Watchtower.
Well that's going to be problematic. It's not like I have an exact location of her remains, unlike Typhon's. The Great Temple was easy enough to locate, but I'm not exactly willing to search the entire Augria Sand Dunes.
I, too, hope it wouldn't come to that. But hey, worry about that later. We're here.
As we stepped into Celaeno, Shaula stopped in front of Subaru and gave a little bow. Addressing her most important person with an endearing tone.
"Welcome home again, Master. ――This Shaula has been awaiting the "Great Erudite" Flugel's return with all her heart."
We started to settle down after out arrival. After all, it wasn't exactly easy coming up around 500 stairs. Capella, seeing a random stone on the ground, used her Authority to modify it into a jumbo-sized couch as most of my teammates just kind of hopped onto it as if it was one giant trampoline. But eh, they deserve the rest. The most important parts come later.
Subaru asked if Emilia was fine, and she replied that her condition was fine enough and the air seems to be fitting. "How should I put it, the air goes well with my skin, I guess. Mana too has a slightly different tone to it depending on the country or region you're in, so I think something like that's happening, but...The mana in this place especially seems to go well with my skin. Though I guess I shouldn't be very happy about that."
"Well, I suppose so. But considering that this is close to the place where the Witch is sealed, full of these mabeasts..." Subaru commented, before suddenly remembering something. "Though, the conditions have changed. Unlike before where she could attack us from the tower without us being able to do anything, now that the distance is such that you can see each other's faces, Emilia-tan shouldn't end up losing against her."
Uh. That really depends on the situation. It's not that I don't have confidence in Emilia, but rather because Shaula never revealed her full arsenal. I mean, her transformation and Hell's Snipe couldn't be the only cards she can play, right?
"What is it? What is it?" Shaula seemed rather interested in Subaru's comment.
"Nothing, was just talking about how you have crazy good eyesight. You managed to throw attacks at us from the tower with pinpoint accuracy when we were really far off, didn't you? How the hell does that work?"
"Ohhh, that's just done by linking myyyyy aim and myyyy stingers with mana, and that makes it so it's pulled to where you are. Hell's Snipe was Master's invention, ya know?"
Oh, so Flugel invented the spell. I thought Shaula simply took inspiration from her master's words, but it seems it was a straight learning process.
We didn't stay on the fifth floor for long, since there was practically nothing to see anyways other than the giant door that led us inside. Not wanting to climb any more stairs, I made a simple elevator by hooking an extremely dense piece of steel up at the ceiling end of the staircase, and made a platform and pulley using alloys and strings.
"Amazing. No wonder you're Frakine-chan's descendant. She used to make a lot of those inventions from time to time. Eh, but I could just jump down anyways, so..."
Shaula's strength has already been discussed a few minutes ago, where it was revealed she had carried the Earth Dragon and Rem's carriage up the stairs. I couldn't even lift that carriage or the Earth Dragon alone, even when using El or Ul Akra. I might be able to do it using Al Akra, but it isn't exactly going to help me that much. I was a student, and a nerdy one at that! I was never specifically built or anything, and even after a year of training, I could only come so far. Sure, I have abs and muscles, but those aren't going to allow me to carry something that weighs more than a ton on my back.
We reached the Fourth Floor in no time as it took only 3 round trips for everyone to get up. When we were finished, I disintegrated the materials into pure mana and Omega happily absorbed it using her staff.
"This is the Fourth Floor, 'Alcyone', that I use as myyyy dwelling area. And, the 'Green Room' which I think is what Master came here for is right here." Shaula explained as we stepped into the much more comfortable fourth floor, which was really designed like a living space compared to the two lower floors.
Subaru immediately rushed over and into the room with Ram to check on Rem and Patrasche, which was understandable. Rem needed to be under constant care, while Patrasche is still recovering slightly from the minor damages she suffered from the Gabaous. It seems that the Green Room's spirit was doing its job quite well.
After he took his sweet time checking up on one of the person he cares most about, Subaru returned and I confirmed that everything was in good condition. With that, we decided to head up to the Third Floor, Taygeta.
Apparently, while Subaru and I were fighting the Gabaou, Julius and the others have already went up there to challenge the first trial, but to no avail. He described it as an unfathomable enigma, one that they cannot find a solution to no matter how much they tried.
Naturally, we took up the challenge and headed up. Taygeta and Alcyone were directly connected, so we didn't have to take very long to actually get there. What awaited us was completely different from what I've expected: (Although using my past memories and Pure Truth, I was able to put bits and pieces together, I never fully understood what happened in this arc) A pure white expanse of a room.
The floor was white, the ceiling was white, and you couldn't even tell if it's floor that you're walking on since it is extremely monochrome. If not for the stairs outlining a little blackness at the edge, this room would've been classified as psychological horror.
And in front of the end of the stairs floated a single black slab of stone. It looked as if it was made of obsidian. "A Monolith, huh?"
"You stole my line, Y/N."
"Should I really touch the Monolith though? It looks like a trap beyond obvious."
"No harm in trying, am I correct?" I shrugged and gave my friend a thumbs-up, but he didn't exactly get any more assurance.
Emilia decided to do a countdown to cheer Subaru on, and he immediately went ahead and did it just as his love held up her end of the deal. As Subaru's finger slightly graced the surface, a voice was sent into his head as well as mine, since Omega somehow pushed me forwards with wind magic and caused me to come into contact with the floating stone as well.
"Touch the brightest of the hero destroyed by Shaula."
One sentence. After that sentence rang out, the monolith started duplicating itself and scattered its clones in random directions, filling the room with more floating, pitch-black slabs.
Subaru immediately jumped away in surprise, but I kept my hand firm on the stone. I wasn't exactly sure why I did that, but the answer revealed itself soon enough.
"Welcome to the Trial of Taygeta, brave souls."
Although altered, I could make out Frakinedottir's voice's frequency at the base of all the sounds that congealed into one.
The next words were sent into my mind alone.
Time-limit: "No Restrictions". Number of attempts: "No Restrictions". Challengers: "No Restrictions".
Let the Trial of the Great Library of Pleiades begin.