Gabriel sat in silence on the battlefield, not speaking anything. Even his eyes appeared out of focus. His hands were still shaking, but he seemed not even to notice them anymore.
The Soul Healing pill that he had offered Novius was lying on the ground right next to him.
"A World which changes one's path..." After a long time, he finally said something.
He picked up the Soul Healing Pill from the ground and placed it in his mouth before forcing his tired body up.
"I won't let the World change my path... I will make one myself, safe from all external influence..."
The world around him also started disappearing. The battlefield was created by Novius, and now that he was gone, the battlefield also started disappearing.
Once the battlefield disappeared, Gabriel appeared back in the Throne Room. The Spiritual Form of the youngsters who had arrived on the 99th floor was still here, and all of them were slightly shocked. They had all seen Gabriel's battle, and it was just something else entirely.
They could see that Gabriel didn't use his Origin Element in the battle at all. So he managed to defeat the two Guardians of the Floor, all without using his main strength.
The two thrones in the distance were empty since the people who used to sit on them were dead. Without them, there was nothing left on this floor for him to focus on.
He shifted his attention to the door of the next Floor in the distance. The final floor... The Hundredth Floor.
From what he knew, in recent times, only Cylix and Novius had seen what was on that floor. No one in the Academy knew either.
"Don't say yes to the tower..." He repeated the last words of Novius. He still didn't know what those words implied, but he kept that statement engraved in his mind.
As Gabriel reached the Floor of the next floor, no one stopped him.
He placed his fingers on the door to push it open, but as soon as his fingers touched the door, he stepped back, feeling something strange.
He didn't know why, but as soon as he touched the door, he could feel that the Tower was directly talking to him as if it was a living being.
The Tower didn't use any words to talk to him. It was a really strange conversation as well. Gabriel couldn't hear anything. He could just feel what the Tower was trying to say, as if the Tower was directly in contact with his soul as he touched the door.
"This Tower..." The strange conversation came as a real surprise. It was as if the Tower was telling him that it needed a Guardian for this Floor and that it was offering that position to Gabriel.
The Tower was asking him to leave a figment of his conscience behind, along with a copy of his memories up to this point, so the Tower could have a new guardian... The Guardian who defeated their last guardian.
As Gabriel thought about the question, he remembered the words of Novius. "Don't say yes to the Tower!"
"So that's what he was talking about," Finally, Gabriel believed that he understood the meaning behind those words.
Even though Cylix and Novius didn't show it on their faces, being the Guardians of this floor took a heavy toll on them, especially since they had to be sealed in this Tower until they could be defeated by the next person.
Their real selves had made the mistake of agreeing to the Tower, thinking of the betterment of the future generation. However, Gabriel didn't want to do it.
Even though all he had to do was leave a copy of his memories, he didn't want to do it. Even if it was just a copy, if it was like Novius and Cylix, it was no different than a real person. Gabriel couldn't toss anyone into this hell just for the well-being of the future generations.
He didn't care how the others were going to be treated in this Tower or if they weren't going to have the proper guardians to face. It was none of his concern. For the Tower, he wasn't going to sacrifice himself.
If it was the requirement to go to the next floor, he might have considered it, but even then, he would've just returned after checking the Hundredth floor and destroyed his copy himself. Fortunately, that wasn't the case. There was no compulsion on him to take the Guardian position to get to the next floor.
Gabriel once again placed his hand on the door, but this time he didn't step back. He just told his answer, "My answer is no. I won't leave a part of me behind!"
As soon as he finished speaking, he pushed the door open and disappeared.
The Thrones were left all empty, without a Guardian...
****
"Impossible!"
House of Wind's Head Teacher, Lishen, was on the Guard duty of the Tower with Rem.
Their guarding duty was just about to end. By this time, they had all convinced themselves that Gabriel was already dead inside the Tower, but just then, Lishen noticed a change in the rankings.
Shocked, he pointed at the top of the Tower. "Look there."
Rem also raised his head. "How is this possible?"
[1 Gabriel Light 100]
Gabriel had reached the top floor! He wasn't dead. Instead, he was still moving!
Moreover, since the Academy had started keeping a track of the Rankings, Gabriel was the first person to reach the Hundredth Floor.
He had surpassed even Axion, reaching the highest level floor.
"This guy... Just how talented is he?" Lishen exclaimed. "He is still alive!"
Rem was also grim. He was thinking that maybe their problem was already solved since Gabriel had died. All they had to do was to have a student of theirs reach the 99th floor and retrieve all the stolen Numens.
Since there was a high chance that all the Numens were being carried by Gabriel after his supposed death on the 99th floor, they believed that the Numens could be found there.
Unlike the other Floors, where all the Floors were in separate spaces, the 99th floor was a combined Realm where more than one student could be present together even though they were traveling a different spatial floor.
It was clear that the next person who reached that floor was going to end up in the same space where Gabriel was killed. That was the case initially at least, but now...?
The Hundredth Floor was a different beast in itself... A beast that no one known to the Academy had faced before…
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