Niara and Darian suddenly found themselves covered in suffocating darkness. They couldn't see a thing, but they knew—they were in the Tower of Mind's Darkness.
Darian didn't feel any discomfort, but he noticed Niara's body shaking violently.
Through their connection, he could tell something invisible was attacking her. It wasn't physical or spiritual, which explained why he wasn't affected.
"!"
Darian confirmed it—it was attacking her mind directly.
He felt Niara's hand move toward her own heart as she trembled. Soft grunts escaped her lips while she pushed herself to endure it.
A pang hit Darian's chest; he remembered the vision of the little girl suffering—this was way too similar to her past.
He spoke softly, ready to activate the escape rune beneath them: 'I'm right here. Don't push yourself too far.'
'I'm... fine...' she replied with a faint murmur.
The sensation felt like a brutally sharp headache—so intense it made her feel like she'd black out. Some unknown force was trying to invade her, pressing in without mercy. But Niara fought back with everything she had.
Weirdly, she was actually resisting—and adapting.
They'd been dropped at the outermost edge of the place, and hadn't taken even one step forward yet. With each step, the pressure from the test would increase—same thing in all three locations.
Darian was pleased. Someone who's gone through real suffering has an abnormal ability to endure—and to adapt.
Since they didn't have time to waste, he turned his focus to the surroundings. Then... his thoughts drifted back to the book.
'So this is the power of the mind… We're still at the start, so I can't see it clearly, but I can feel it.'
The protagonist's wife in the book was a specialist in this kind of power. Every living being with a physical body had three forces: the power of the mind, life force, and soul power.
Darian, being just a spirit, only had soul power. He hadn't heard of any other Spiritual Guardians using this. Maybe no one even knew about it? If he could learn to use this aspect, he'd have a powerful hidden weapon on his side.
The book went into tons of detail about all kinds of random-seeming powers and elements. Back when he read it—still a kid—he thought it was all a bunch of nonsense. But now, everything had changed… Not a single thing in it had turned out to be wrong so far.
Ten seconds passed.
Darian turned his attention inward, into Niara. He was looking for something mentioned in the book… something that was near the head—not physically, but in the soul.
It was impossible to see or sense normally, but...
'Got it!'
He felt a faint, nearly imperceptible energy circling that area of her soul. It was the mind-power from the tower, trying to invade her soul and reach a very specific point.
'That's where the mental sea is... the place where everyone's mind-power gathers.'
Darian focused on that point—and had a crazy idea. No, not crazy—suicidal.
'Partner, wanna take a bit of a risk?' he asked without overthinking it. If anyone heard what he was about to suggest, they'd curse him for being insane.
But then he heard her reply, voice shaking with pain: 'I'll do anything… to grow stronger… doesn't matter…'
'I know this sounds insane, but... don't resist. Let the tower's power in. I truly believe we'll gain a lot from this,' he said calmly.
He felt her answer. He didn't explain a thing—but she was crazy enough to trust him anyway.
He focused completely, preparing the white power he got from killing that assassin in the dungeon.
'Go!' he said.
She didn't hesitate. She stopped resisting.
Suddenly, Darian felt the whole environment tremble.
It was like a hungry predator had been provoked. Everything began pouring into Niara like a violent storm, diving straight into her mental sea.
Niara felt a pain like nothing she'd ever known. Her vision darkened...
*Crack!*
It took less than a second for Darian to realize something had shattered inside her. It was her soul — the mental sea had collapsed, and her soul was seriously injured.
He instantly activated the white power straight into her soul.
Everything was restored.
His eyes lit up. The amount of mind power that had invaded the mental sea was huge. When he restored everything, it stayed in there. No matter the amount, the mental sea could hold it.
Obviously, it would break again the very next second. But Darian didn't let that happen and activated the escape inscription on the ground.
Fifteen seconds had passed.
...
They vanished from the place safely. Right after, they reappeared at the Lake of Primordial Blood, without delay.
They literally fell into a lake that looked like blood. But it wasn't deep — they were at the edge. The lake water reached Niara's knees. She regained consciousness feeling totally fine… but not for long.
This time, a crushing, unbearable pain hit her body.
That 'water' felt like boiling lava — and worse: it was alive, slowly crawling up her legs like sticky slime.
She didn't move; there was nowhere to run.
The red liquid climbed up her body, but when it reached her shoulder, where the slug was, it completely ignored that area and moved around it. In seconds, she was almost entirely covered in red.
Darian asked gently, 'Not gonna use your scales?'
"No need. I can handle this pain just fine." She replied in a totally normal voice.
He got it. She had gone through so much pain for so long that this felt like nothing more than an overheated hot spring. But obviously, her body was being attacked. She was just ignoring the pain. Still, they couldn't stay there for long, or her body would eventually give out.
Since that place wasn't a problem for now, Darian focused on her mental sea, which he now knew exactly where to find.
Since everyone only had a tiny bit of that power, normal people couldn't even locate or use mind power. Even in the book, only a few incredibly talented people used it. Even less in this universe, where natives couldn't fight.
The energy that had gotten trapped inside her was insanely vast. It was so much that Darian could sense it easily. If she had a glass of water before, now she had an ocean.
She had it, but didn't know how to use it. So for now, it wouldn't do anything.
"Can we keep going?" Niara asked softly. For her, this wasn't a test, not at all. So she wanted to go further.
He shook his head: 'Better not risk it. Let's just wait ten seconds and get out.'
"What? I'm sure I can take it. Even if we just stand here, I can last thirty seconds and we'll pass." She said quickly.
'Yeah, I know you can. But you'd take physical damage, and that might hurt us in the real challenge.' He replied calmly. 'Didn't you pay attention? Those two couldn't even last four seconds in the last place.'
She scoffed, "Hmm... I don't waste time with that."
'Think about it. When those two came back, their bloodlines were going wild and nearly out of control. Everyone felt it.' Darian said excitedly. 'What's the similarity between them and you? All of you have the Divine Dragon bloodline. But what could affect your bloodline like that?'
Niara was confused. She didn't know the answer.
But Darian did. That knowledge came from the book.
While they talked, fifteen seconds had already passed. Darian didn't hesitate and activated the escape inscription.
Immediately, both were covered by the grayish aura and taken to the final challenge.
...
That's how they reached the Valley of the Celestial Roar.
It was literally a valley. Pretty normal, actually, like any valley you'd find on a planet.
They were in a low, stretched-out area. They could see mountains all around, and a short river flowed gently with crystal-clear water.
Everything seemed normal... until...
**ROAR!**
A roar thundered out like the heavens themselves were howling.
Right away, Niara's face went pale. Her eyes went blank, her legs and body lost all strength.
She collapsed to her knees on the ground, totally overwhelmed. It was like the world had come crashing down on her. Resisting wasn't even an option.
***
At the same time, back in the hall, everything was dead silent.
Everyone had seen the Elder trigger the crystal twice, sending the two of them into the places.
They counted the time mentally. That pair had only lasted thirty seconds in the previous two trials.
A wide grin spread on the couple's faces. The last place was the bane of any Mannaz, especially those with dragon bloodlines. Even the strongest Summoner with that bloodline couldn't last more than sixty seconds in there.
Niara had a mutant and powerful bloodline, but she was still a young one who didn't have her partner's full support yet. Even with their conservative nature, it was impossible for her to last more than ten seconds. In other words, they'd won.
But...
Ten seconds passed, and the Elder didn't move at all.
Everyone's eyes widened in confusion.
Thirty seconds...
A minute...
At this point, the Elder was completely stunned, staring at the crystal.
"Did they die?" the woman broke the silence, surprised — but pleased. That was the only explanation.
"I don't know... I can't feel the connection with them. At the same time... there's an alert system in the inscription in case someone dies... and it hasn't gone off."