AN: Hello, how are you guys doing? I hope you are having a nice week. Mine has been quite wild, but I am managing, I have only one thing to say; doing job interviews sucks. I don't want to waste 45 mins of my life answering an entire asinine quiz just for you to say no anyway. *sigh*

  Shitty job market aside,

  Question of the week:

  The Firstborn, the Elder Children of Ilúvatar, were conceived by Eru Ilúvatar alone in the third theme of Ainulindal?. They are the eldest and noblest of the speaking races of Middle-earth. They awoke at Cuiviénen, the Water of Awakening, in the far east of Middle-earth, in the starlight of the Long Night, as the Sun and Moon had yet to be created. The first Elves to awake were three pairs: Imin ("First") and his wife Iminy?, Tata ("Second") and Tati?, and Enel ("Third") and Enely?.

  If you were to be reincarnated in LofTR, in the First Generation of Elves as the "Fourth", which waifu would you choose as your pair? (Any waifu from any franchise is valid, choose your favorite. You will both be elves, of course.)

  Now, here is your chapter:

  ~Razen Antares Gremory~Floor 40 - Day 108 - Kal ended up expelling Antares from the workshop. Liking it or not, he just challenged the man's entire lifestyle in a few sentences, so his reaction was quite normal. But he couldn't feel any malice from the man, so he supposed the older dwarf wasn't that upset.

  Still, Antares was happy. The st thing he saw in Kal's eyes was the bze of determination being reignited again, and that alone made him smile in satisfaction.

  "Thank you," a familiar voice spoke. Antares turned towards it and saw Philiah standing on the door towards her and Kal's house

  "Don't need to thank me, Philiah. In these st few days, Kal did a lot for me," Antares shook his head and slowly started walking away; "I was just returning the favor."

  Philiah snorted, "Let me thank you, you dammed brat," she said with a happy smile.

  "Aren't you worried he will get out before you?" asked Antares, genuinely curious, suddenly feeling very fortunate that Neptune and Eu were on his team.

  The dwarven woman scoffed, "I am not some helpless little girl anymore, I've reached floor 96 myself." She shook her head; "And while my team is taking a break right now, we will eventually go back to climbing. I didn't want to leave him behind… and for that, thank you."

  Philiah smiled broadly; "Now that you lit up the fire under his arse, he will finally start moving."

  Antares just ughed and walked back towards the Inn.

  ~Razen Antares Gremory~Floor 41 - Day 109 - The Boss of floor 40 was deceptively easy –It took only a few lightning spells from Neptune, a few Ice Swords from Eu, and a Fireball from Pyra for it to fall. Being a 20-meter-tall metal golem, it dropped an extraordinary amount of ores, ingots, and metal sbs, literally giving the group tons of metals for them to use.

  Still, Antares' suspicions were growing. As expected, Midna talked about the massive spike in difficulty of the middle floors and even expined the floor youts to everyone. Antares felt a little bit dirty for testing Kal's knowledge like this, but he had known the man for a day, and he was not about to bet his life on this knowledge without verifying it.

  Morpheus' Arena was a very weird set of floors, and the Devil didn't forget to point it out; "Another room? Is this floor completely composed of rooms or something?"

  Midna nodded. "Each floor of the group called Morpheus' Arena is composed entirely of these rooms. They are famously called Arenas."

  "It kind of reminds me of those Rogue-like games I used to py." Mumbled Neptune while looking around, "More specifically, Hades."

  "Hades? What d-does the Lord of the Greek underworld h-have anything to do with this?" Spoke Pyra, who, thanks to her curiosity, has been learning quite a lot about Draconic Deus from Antares.

  Neptune shook her head; "A lot? But it's just a videogame about Hades and his son Zagreus," the purplette chuckled; "I mentioned it because it reminds me of the way this pce works… just without the reviving after dying thingy."

  Pyra's eyes sparkled; "You can revive in a video game?"

  Eu, who, thanks to Neptune and Antare's influence, had acquired quite a good knowledge about video games, nodded; "It's not you, but the character that you command that does it. Think about something like a book, but you are the one who commands the character."

  "It's a little more complex than that as we have tons of different genres, but that's the gist of it." Neptune nodded.

  "It sounds fun," Pyra replied clearly, her ck of stutter pleasantly surprising the other redhead.

  Neptune smiled broadly; "It is."

  With the st monster of the room dead, the group rexed for a bit and made some small talk among themselves. But while the girls were happily chatting, Antares looked at the dark grey door that appeared at the other end of the arena.

  With his senses spread around, the Devil frowned, he was feeling something slightly weird at the corner of his perception range. The first four Arenas the team had gone through were retively easy—yes, the enemies were indeed high css—but their numbers were low, and Antares' team had long since grown used to fighting together, so their teamwork was quite exceptional, allowing them to make quick work of the High Css monsters.

  The next arena, however, felt deadly. It started with the battlefield, filled with the bones and rotten carcasses of previous Dreamers. The little of the floor the group could see was bck polished marble without blemishes, and the walls were dark grey engraved stone. These engravings described an ancient kingdom amongst the heavens. And four pilrs held a rocky ceiling filled with stactites that looked more like nce tips than rock formations.

  In the middle of this arena was the source of Antares' bad premonition, it was a strange humanoid creature, with stretched leather-like skin, long and gaunt limbs, cws the size of spears, an arched spine that ended up in a furry tail, and a very creepy eyeless face with a mouth filled with the sharpest teeth the Devil has ever seen. It looked like a weird demonic werewolf that spent the st 100 years starving to death. Its smell was retching, a weird amalgam of wet rotten dog coupled with decaying carcasses.

  And the moment the party entered the arena, it growled and pounced, barely giving the group any time to react –suspicious as he was from before, Antares was prepared and instantly cast a Wall of Force in the beasts' path.

  Like a stubborn enchanted cannonball, the werewolf burst through the Wall of Force as if it were made of gss and not one of the strongest Physical elements ever to exist in the known universe. However, the spell still managed to dey it by a few short but extremely valuable moments, allowing the girls to raise their guards and spring to combat.

  Eu jumped in the air and sshed with her Greatsword, sending a ssh of pure Cryo energy that cut a line of blood in the rushing monster, Neptune followed by spping her lightning-covered hand on the ground, sending a wave of lightning that aimed to strike at the werewolf's nervous system and hopefully further paralyzed it.

  Deyed by the Cryo-infused flying ssh and the briefly paralyzing lightning, the werewolf almost whined when Pyra jumped forward and plunged her bzing sword into one of its empty eye sockets, Antares right behind her with two Force Ssh spells and a swing from his sword.

  The monster roared but scuttered back, snarling and showing its creepy teeth towards its struggling prey. Antares narrowed his eyes when he noticed just how small the wounds on this monster were; they weren't exactly regenerating, but the damage was far from being anything more than superficial.

  "This monster is strong." Huffed Eu while preparing a few Ice Swords. "I think it's an Elite." Gnashed Neptune while upping the voltage of her lightning.

  "It's a Starving Ghost Hound, one of the few elites of the 41 floor." Supplied Midna in a more serious tone; "Aim for its snout if you want to disorient it, and aim for the belly if you want to deal great damage. Its skin is extremely tough and its senses are absurd, so be ready and react quickly –thinking will get you fatally wounded, and hesitating will get you killed." The quartet nodded and rushed towards the hound, Antares on the front –his Gravity Goetia already casting Force Shell and Force Lance.

  Like a te prophecy, Midna's words instantly proved to be true as the werewolf turned into a blur, its long and sharp cws a few breaths away from piercing Neptune's neck, without hesitation the purplette flooded her body with lightning—and for a brief moment—her speed was equal, if not greater than the hound's, which allowed her to evade its attack by a hairbreadth.

  Before the hound could press its offensive, Pyra sshed her bzing sword toward its left leg, an explosion of fire following in the wake of her bde.

  Eu followed up with a spinning ssh of her own, greatly enhancing her bde with Ice and putting all her strength behind the cut.

  Antares fed his Force Lance even more mana, turning the average-sized force construct into something the size of a school bus. Using Force Push for a higher speed, he unched the Lance at the creature.

  Unfortunately, it was faster, so instead of being completely impaled by the Force Lance, the construct just grazed its chest, but Pyra's fmes and Eu's Ice hit it in full. The beast was barely scuffed, its roars were more of frustration and annoyance than any pain it could be feeling.

  With a somersault, the hound turned into a blur and prowled towards Antares. Sadly for the Monster, he was the main frontline of the group for a very good reason, so all it received was a Ki-infused Spirit-Crushing Fist to the snout, briefly disorienting it.

  As the beast became stunned, the quartet started pelting it with their attacks, their experience with the more tricky nature of The Tower stopping them from going all out and using big moves, they respected Midna's warning too much to not treat this floor seriously, and if this Starving Hound wasn't proof enough, the monsters are only going to get stronger.

  The monster shook off its disorientation and jumped toward Antares once more. Ice Swords, Fireballs, and Chidori Spears impaled it along the way, but they did a small amount of damage. Remembering Midna's words, Antares tried to find an angle to hit the Beat's belly with something, but it was tricky; the monster wasn't exactly stupid, so it instinctually knew its belly was weak, meaning it protected it with skillful zeal.

  The battle continued like a game of cat and mouse; the monster would blur towards someone in hopes of insta-killing them, while the others did their best to hit it in its weak spots and kill it as fast as possible. The problem was that as the battle dragged on, Antares' and company's stamina wasn't infinite; it would eventually run out, even if it took a while with their current attributes enhanced by their equipment.

  With a roar that shook the entire Arena, the Starving Hound was the one to break the stalemate. Briefly staggering from the ear-rupturing sound of the beast, Antares almost widened his eyes when he saw half a dozen mini-hounds appear from out of the decaying corpses. They looked and smelled just as bad as their bigger and meaner version—and were still of High Css strength—but just of a lower quality than their parent.

  Briefly looking at Neptune and the girls, Antares shouted, "I will hold the big one, clean the others as fast as possible." Unfurling his wings, he jumped forward and cshed his Common Grade sword against the moving cws of the beast, a small shockwave crushing all the bones around them.

  The small hounds, showing a scary degree of intelligence, went to pounce on him but were stopped by nces of Fire, Ice, and Lightning.

  The beast twisted its body and swatted its tail at Antares, the sheer force behind the rotten furry limb making the Devil sweat for a bit, before he clenched his teeth and created a small gravity Sphere under the beast's left foot, which made the creature lose its equilibrium and stumble at the end of its twist.

  Using the opportunity, Antares swung his sword and put all of his strength behind it; he could've left his ssh at that and it would've been a very good attack, but he decided to go even further beyond by creating two magnetic fields in the middle of the trajectory of his ssh.

  He instantly named this particur spell: Railgun Ssh.

  And much like a Rail Gun, the moment his metallic sword passed through the magnetic fields, it broke the sound barrier. If it wasn't for the magnetic field he applied to his own hands, the sword would've been lurched from his grip, probably taking a few fingers with it.

  With his swing traveling at supersonic speeds, the beast could not even think before its torso was almost cleaved in half, an explosion of air, bck rotten blood, a beast's howl, and Antares' silent screams filled the room.

  Unfortunately, while the Railgun Ssh was exceptionally powerful, Antares' body wasn't yet, so the spell shredded his muscles, split his ligaments, and turned his bones into a cracked mess. Thankfully, his regeneration more than took care of it, so he could theoretically spam it as long as he is aware of his reserves and doesn't make the Magnetic Fields too strong, as it is easier to heal an arm than it is to regenerate it.

  Before the beast could recuperate, Antares thrust his sword towards its belly, hoping to finally score a more fatal hit. But at the st second, the monster managed to slightly tilt its body, making the devil hit it in the arm instead.

  Gnashing his teeth, Antares used another Railgun Ssh, using the Gravity Goetia to cast a spell to disrupt the gravity in the beast's surroundings, making its equilibrium as weak as wet paper.

  Another ssh carved its chest, forming an X-shaped wound that spilled rotten blood at a strangely low rate. But Antares couldn't care less about that at this moment, as he focused on plunging his sword into the hound's exposed belly.

  This time, the Starving Beast wasn't able to react, and Antares' sword easily pierced through its hide. The hound howled and screamed, its wail agonizing. The smell expelled by its rotten body turned even worse—and then it exploded.

  A baleful and dark aura exploded from its prone form –its muscles bulged and increased in size, its rotten body visibly restoring itself at an arming rate, and its horrifying empty sockets began to be filled with a disgusting dark liquid.

  "As if I will let you have a power-up moment-" Antares exploded forward, and putting even greater strengths into the Magnetic Fields, he used Railgun Ssh again –almost cleaving the beast's belly in two.

  Bck blood spilled from the wounds, followed by bone pieces and rotting organs. The beast howled again and wailed at its surroundings, moving in chaotic and unpredictable ways to try to distance itself.

  Before it could go far, Eu jumped from the right and tossed a two stories Ice Sword at the beast's torso, followed by Neptune who cast a massive lightning nce that exploded inside the beast's belly to greater effect, then Pyra came and dropped a Miniature Sun on the wailing beast, shaking the entire room and making quite a few parts of the ceiling come down like thrusting spears.

  When the aftermath of Pyra's attack died down, the quartet looked at the results – a crater that took at least half of the entire arena, filled to the brim with bubbling magma.

  "Wait… was your attack a ball of compressed va?" Asked Eu between battered breaths while trying to hide her disbelief.

  Pyra nodded, her voice sounding a little strained; "Hn, Neptune g-gave me this idea… I thought it w-was a good time to test it out."

  The purplette took a few deep breaths to recover her lost stamina before smirking, "You did awesome, Pyr. I didn't think it would be that strong in your hands." Pyra blushed at the praise and lowered her gaze.

  Midna, on the other hand, was looking at the va pool with suspicion; "Wait, don't rex ye,t Ghost Starving Hounds are notoriously hard to–"

  A bckened cw burst through the magma's surface, followed by a very long and equally bckened arm. The trio instantly shut up and started bombarding the magma pool with even more attacks –Lightning Lances, Fire Bullets, and Ice Swords struck the general area of the hand nonstop. Antares soon joined the fray and started dropping massive Force Lances on top of the bckened hand like it was his archnemesis itself.

  Filled with wounds and being constantly bombarded by spells, the hand finally stopped moving. But the group still didn't lower their guard –only when the door to the next arena appeared, did they finally rex a bit.

  "Is it finally dead?" Antares breathed out, feeling a little out of breath from using so much magic in such a short time.

  Midna frowned; "I… I think it is, but–"

  "It would be wise to check it first." Antares completed while nodding in agreement.

  The Devil then took a good look at his team and almost winced; the girls were all scuffed or scratched in different pces –the battle against the six smaller hounds appeared to not have been easy.

  Approaching the pool of va, Antares turned back; "Hey Eu, can you help me freeze the pool? I want to check if the hound dropped something."

  The noble girl nodded and approached the magma pool. Looking at her, Antares nodded and plunged his hands inside, immediately igniting his Herrscher of Ice and ICHOR Ice powers.

  The temperature of the magma around him instantly plummeted, and it slowly started to turn into stone, spreading in an arch from Antares' position.

  Seeing her lover already started, Eu covered her sword in an aura of frost and plunged it inside—much like Antares—the magma slowly started cooling down.

  In a few minutes, the entire magma pool had been completely cooled off.

  Reaching the st position of the bckened hand, Antares and Eu slowly approached it and broke the stone around it, their muscles and wariness like coiled springs ready to burst at the small sign of suspicious movement.

  Their cautiousness ended up being for naught, as the moment they reached the Hound's Body, all that remained from it was the bckened hand and a strange Yellow orb. Touching the orb, it turned into a pair of gauntlets in Antares' hand, more accurately –a pair of Rare Grade Gauntlets according to its Yellow aura.

  "Is that a rare Grade?" Eu asked, a little bit surprised –it was the first one the group had found after all.

  "I guess it is," Antares replied absently while narrowing his eyes and scanning the equipment, which looked to be made of some kind of Dark Metallic-looking bone. "Let's also check out the bodies of the smaller hounds, maybe they dropped something as well."

  Flying out of the hole they had made, Eu and Antares went towards the bodies of the small hounds. By the time they arrived, Pyra and Neptune had already gone through all of them and had found two Common Grade Items, much to the Party's delight.

  "Two Common grades, that's a good haul," commented Antares while nding beside Neptune. The purplette nodded; "Yeah, the drop rate seems to be quite good, so I bet the Hound was some kind of elite."

  "He was, but only a Yellow one," corrected Midna with a slightly excited twirl; "But you guys did quite well against it."

  "It could've gone better," sighed Eu, already mentally noting down many of her mistakes; "We kept trying to conserve our reserves and ended up overextending the battle more than we should. If Pyra hadn't decided to flip the script and drop the sun on the hound, I wonder how much more time and energy we would waste…"

  "Good thinking on that one, Pyra," Antares gently patted the girl on the back; "you've done well."

  "T-Thanks," Pyra stammered with a blush; "But if it wasn't for Neptune's help–"

  "Don't sell yourself short, girl," Neptune cut the redhead; "You were awesome back there." The purplette then smirked; "Now, what do you want to call this attack? Magma Pressure Sphere?"

  "I w-was thinking of just going with Lava Sphere." Replied Pyra.

  "Short and Sweet, just like a small Milkshake," Neptune nodded, "I like it."

  "Now, who wants the gauntlets–"

  .

  .

  .

  The next arenas were a veritable slog, each battle was a struggle where the team was always left exhausted. But the group was slowly getting the hang of things, learning the patterns of their enemies and slowly acquiring equipment proper for the floor, so while it was very difficult and challenging at the start, proper equipment and experience allowed them to start cleaving through even the Elite enemies, not to mention the higher drop rate, mainly of Rare Grade equipment, which helped boost their combat power even more.

  The improvement was such that if a Common Equipment from floor 41 and up gave more than 10 tons worth of additive boost, a Rare one generally gave a couple of dozen. Not to mention the two Enchanted effects the Rare drops carried with them, allowing the group's combat prowess to take quite a leap.

  After three days of constant fighting, and only being able to rest for around one and a half hours inside a cleared arena before they were expelled from it, the group managed to get only 4 Rare Grade drops, which they distributed evenly among themselves.

  Seeing just how effective the Rare Equipment was, one of Antares' objectives for Morpheus' Arena was to get everyone at least outfitted with Magical Grade equipment at a minimum, and as many Rare Grades as possible as well. His instincts were telling him it would be necessary on the next theme of the tower, and he also made a mental note to not exit the middle floors until everyone had a full Rare Grade set.

  But even while their fighting efficiency was on the rise, the group was feeling their exhaustion catching up to them. Antares, Eu, and Neptune—thanks to the Time-Savers Perk—could more easily manage it, as the perk allowed them to become fully rested with way fewer hours. Pyra, on the other hand, was suffering quite a lot, but thanks to the absurd potential the sealed form of Mythra has, she was somehow pushing through. However, everyone can see that their efficiency decreased by the day.

  "Where did you say the first city was, Midna?" Asked Eu while rubbing her tired eyes.

  Midna yawned cutely; "It should be just before the boss," she shook her head; "But we aren't even at the halfway point yet."

  "Damn, these arenas are really annoying," grumbled Neptune; "Albeit it is looking more and more like a Rouge-like game, and the 'City' is just before the boss as well…" Neptune just shook her head and chuckled.

  "Maybe we could cripple an enemy, and take turns watching it while the other rest to their heart's content?" Suggested Antares after pondering for a bit.

  "That's… sounds like a pretty good idea." Said Eu. "But we would need to choose the enemy very carefully, if we pick some Elite with hidden skills, we may be inviting disaster upon ourselves."

  "Guys… that won't work." Sighed Midna. "The Arenas will know something like that is happening and they will spawn new enemies to correct your behavior."

  "Shit," cursed Neptune with a huff.

  "… Guess we w-will have to wait for the city, then." Mumbled Pyra while doing her best to hide her tiredness.

  .

  .

  .

  ~Razen Antares Gremory~Floor 41 - Day 116 - It took the group 7 days in total to reach the first and only city on floor 41. By now, each of them had at least two Rare Tier Pieces of Gear, and four Magic Tier Pieces, with the Common Grade filling a spot here and there.

  The group's exhaustion was palpable. The girls all had bags under their eyes, messy hair, and scuffed armor. They walked by basically dragging their feet, and Midna had long since started using Antares' head as her bed.

  Their st battle had been a particurly annoying and tiring one, the enemy, some kind of corrupted gazelle that jumped and ran around worse than a Demi-God on a sugar high, dragging on the battle for a very long time.

  Arriving at the city, they didn't even talk with anyone and made a beeline towards the closest Inn they could find that didn't look like a dump.

  They didn't even bother taking a bath and just slept for an entire day straight.

  .

  .

  .

  After a good night of sleep and a warm meal at the breakfast table, the group chatted amongst themselves.

  "Haah, I feel so much lighter," Eu excimed adorably, making Antares want to kiss her.

  "Tell me about it –It's been a week since I've slept properly." Neptune sighed. "Are all the floors of Morpheus' Arena like this, Midna?"

  The Imp winced; "They are. It's a pain, and tiredness is one of the leading causes of death on this floor."

  "I can see why." Commented Antares while sipping a cup of tea.

  "A-At least we are way better equipped now," Added Pyra while finishing her coffee; "I can imagine the next f-floors will be faster at least."

  Midna nodded; "That's a given, give it one or two floors more, a full set of gear, and knowing you all –you should be breezing through the arenas."

  Antares narrowed his eyes; "We should still be careful, do you remember what I told you about McTorke?"

  "I do, and they," Midna pointed at the girls, "Probably do as well. But you are aware you guys are not exactly a standard team, right?"

  "I do." Antares smirked and scratched his head, smiling awkwardly; "It's just that… I don't like to depend on equipment for my strength. It feels dirty, unearned."

  "I understand where you are coming from." Midna sighed. "But that's the way of The Tower, and the best we can do is adapt and overcome it."

  "… Well, if it helps, you can think of the Dream Equipment as j-just temporary tools to help you reach your objective." Said Pyra with a smile, "Just like a s-saw that you have to discard after being used to cut a tree."

  "That's a good way to look at it." Nodded Midna in approval.

  "I understand," he exhaled. It is just that getting used to our normal strengths after The Tower is going to be a pain." Antares grumbled good-naturedly, earning nods of agreement from everyone.

  "No need to worry about that, Stud Muffin," Neptune patted Antares' strong back; "That's still pretty far away. Now we must create a pn to clean these Arenas as fast as possible."

  "Yeah, I definitely do not want to have to slog through arenas for days just to get to another city, again." Huffed Eu in complete agreement.

  "But before we start business, I must ask something very important," Antares made an extremely serious face, prompting the girls to lean forward in rapt attention. "What about your professions?"

  The trio almost facepnted, with Midna cackling mid air, looking at their reactions.

  Being the first to recover, Neptune scratched her head; "Well, it was quite… good? I think?" she massaged her temples; "Look, I am not a medieval kind of gal, I like videogames, software, movies, series, so I wasn't that pumped up." She sighed with a fond smile; "But benign a Scribe/Writer wasn't so bad, I've learned tons of stuff about writing in general and started to write a novel of my own."

  Antares raised his eyebrow, definitely interested; "Oh, what is it about?"

  "Well, it's just our adventures here in the tower." The purplette chuckled, "But with a background and characters of my own."

  "That sounds quite entertaining." Eu hummed with clear interest. Pyra and Midna nodded.

  "If you need any help, just ask me," Midna pointed at herself. "As a guide, I am basically an encyclopedia on this pce, so don't be afraid to use my knowledge." Neptune nodded gratefully.

  "Oh, and you should use my cell phone," Antares suggested, making Neptune's eyes shine.

  "Wait, Antares," Eu called with an exasperated expression; "You can use your cellphone here?"

  The Devil nodded; "I can, why?"

  Eu closed her eyes and took a deep breath; "Can you talk with anyone?" Antares shook his head. Eu sighed sadly.

  "... you can access the internet?" asked Neptune with hunger in her gaze and a voice Antares has only ever heard from the truly starved.

  "Not the way you are thinking Neptune," he sighed; "There is a difference of 91x speed for us, not to mention a lot of other limitations. So while I can buy an ebook, I can't watch a movie or a video, for example. The data gets corrupted."

  "Aww, what a bummer." Neptune defted and plopped her head down on the table.

  "Antares…" Midna started in a very dangerous tone while pointing at the cellphone in his hand; "Why do you have a cellphone?" She then made a gesture as if cleaning her ears; "And did you just say you can affect stuff in the real world with it? Is your phone a Unique Grade Item?"

  "What do you mean by Unique Grade Item?" asked the Male Devil, slightly anxious while also trying to change the subject.

  Midna narrowed her eyes; "Unique Grade Items are the only ones that can interact or affect the real world in any way," she said in a matter-of-fact tone.

  "...well, it isn't a Dream Item, that's for sure." Added the Devil while smiling awkwardly at the imp.

  "I can see you do not want to talk about this," Midna sighed sadly, "So I won't be forcing the issue." She then flew and patted him on the head; "After all we went through, I trust you way too much to start doubting you over it. When you are comfortable enough, you can share it."

  Antares sighed, "Thank you, Midna. I promised to expin it to you and Pyra when it is the right time; you both more than deserve a proper expnation." The Devil wanted to at least help both of them bring their bodies to the tower first before he expined The Company –it was the least he could do for them. Albeit he knows life likes to throw curveballs, and he bets he will end up doing it earlier.

  Trying to dissipate the brief tension, Eu coughed on her hand; "... I loved learning more about music and dancing, it was quite fun." Pyra chuckled at such an obvious change of topics, while Midna just rolled her eyes and smiled.

  "Ehh? Seriously? Did you practice some music in particur?" asked Neptune, dispying a bit of interest.

  "Oh, I learned mostly the traditional stuff," Eu smiled, "Of the Dwarven culture, of course. It was fascinating." She then turned her head down and whispered lightly, "I've never seen so many brass and steam instruments in my entire life."

  Neptune chuckled and then turned to Pyra; "And you, Pyr? Did anything good pop up?"

  Pyra tilted her head cutely. "Oh… I mostly went for engineering." She added softly, in a steady voice, "I found the process of building and inventing stuff quite fascinating." She smiled radiantly. "It reminded me of home, of my father, the good times…" Her voice turned quite sad at the end, making Antares' heart feel a pang.

  He patted his fellow redhead on the back; "You had fun, didn't you?"

  Pyra nodded, "I did. I-It was awesome."

  "And you, Midna?" Asked Antares curiously.

  "Me?" She chuckled, "I am a guide, I already have my profession."

  "But there must be something else you like doing, no?" Asked Neptune while pouring some coffee for herself.

  "Well… I like to gossip, I guess?" she shrugged; "Rumors, intrigue, that kind of stuff."

  "You never stuck me as Gossip Girl, Midna," added Antares while sharing a small ugh with Neptune.

  "Ehh, it's kind of difficult to socialize as an Imp, you know?" the imp grumbled good-naturedly before patting Antares on the head; "My parents used to say I could've become a good politician."

  "Why would they curse you like that?" 'Gasped' Neptune, sounding scandalized.

  Midna rolled her eyes; "Har har, very funny." Neptune chuckled.

  Getting up from his chair, Antares stretched his arms a bit; "What do you guys say we explore the city for a bit?" he cracked his fingers; "See if we find anything interesting or useful around."

  Neptune instantly agreed, "Let's go." Then she scoffed, "I am in no mood to go through a meeting right now anyway."

  Antares chuckled, "I thought as much." He then turned to the others and asked, "What do you say, girls?" They all nodded.

  Exploring the city was quite an enjoyable experience. Although it wasn't as big or as prosperous as the Layered City, the group still found plenty of cool stuff to do. Eventually, they split up for a bit. Antares went to check out the bcksmiths, Eu saw a bardic store and decided to see what was inside, and Pyra went to a bookstore to see if she could find more information about Engineering.

  Neptune found the Market an absolute bst and was browsing the pce's wares in search of anything interesting, while Midna followed her mostly due to curiosity. They formed quite the unlikely duo, with Neptune's nerdiness and very specific knowledge, and Midna's more outgoing and teasing nature, which allowed her to bst through most vendors' defenses.

  After about half an hour browsing the bcksmiths' wares, Antares started to feel a strange pressure inside his head. Knowing his new Goetia was just about to form, he calmly exited the store and, subsequently, the city.

  He entered the forest surrounding the city and searched for an isoted, quiet pce. Finding an empty clearing, Antares sat cross-legged and rexed.

  It was sudden, but almost imperceptible. Like turning on a modern switch, it didn't make any big impacts or any absurd effects. In one moment, Antares was just himself, and in the other, he suddenly gained another awareness, another whole new perspective, another mind.

  His Goetia of Weak Force had finally finished forming.

  Shaking his head to remove distracting thoughts, the Devil refocused on his new Goetia. Controlling Weak Force—much like the other fundamental forces—is no easy task, but now that he had an entire mind made just for it, it became more than just possible.

  Getting up, Antares clenched and unclenched his fist, slowly trying to pull on his knowledge and imagination, briefly he imagined Shigaraki Toumura's Decay Quirk, his mind slowly using this visualization to build the FORM, he used his newly formed Goetia to bring forward information he had on Weak Force –more specifically, Radiation Decay. This fed his UNDERSTANDING of the spell, which subsequently allowed him to provide it with a NATURE, that is to Decay –to use Radiation to knock electrons out of atoms, thus initiating a chain reaction that broke chemical bonds and led to material degradation.

  And a little bit too excited to see his spell coming to fruition, Antares instantly provided the FUEL, his Demonic Power –but came to regret it immediately.

  "Shit! I forgot Radiation Decay releases heat–"

  *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

  The spell exploded in his face, tossing him on his ass. It wasn't a failure to cast the spell per se, it did work perfectly—his current skill in magic is way too precise for it not to—he just didn't account for the little extra effect the spell would have.

  In his excitement of being able to use Weak Force, Antares had forgotten quite a crucial thing: Weak Force is one of the essential forces bearing the process of nuclear fusion in stars, meaning the process of Radioactive Decay generates a lot of heat.

  "Are you okay?" asked Neptune, concerned. When she noticed Antares exiting the city, she grew worried and decided to follow him in case he needed help. Midna opted to continue bothering the vendors in the market, knowing the purplette was more than capable enough to deal with anything in the city area.

  Antares just groaned and slowly got up; thankfully, he had the foresight to wear his Dream Armor before he started experimenting –he reckons the damage would've been way worse if he hadn't. "Yeah, something just exploded on my face… that's basically Tuesday."

  Neptune chuckled, "Yeah, being on the frontline is rough like that."

  "So… since when you were there?" asked Antares while dusting himself.

  "Since you started making that weird spell." Answered the purplette while leaning on a tree.

  Antares winced; "Yeah, I finally finished forming my new Goetia, so I tried making a spell using Weak Force."

  "Why didn't you just use your Trait for it?" Neptune asked, genuinely confused, "It works like some kind of Comic Superpower, doesn't it? Super intuitive, easy to use, and with lots of inbuilt instincts?"

  "Yeah, but I wanted to make a spell with it, you know?" Antares scratched his head a little awkwardly; "I thought that thanks to the intuitive understanding, plus the studies I had on the topic–"

  "And then it failed and exploded on your face. Got it." Neptune absently interrupted and tilted her head; "Why not start with Gravity? It's something you have more experience with, no?"

  "Neptune." Antares smirked; "The spell didn't fail."

  The purplette paused and widened her eyes; "... did you just manage to cast a spell using one of the four fundamental forces of the universe?"

  "Yup," Antares replied with a smirk and a heavy emphasis on the p.

  "The Aethermorph Heritage is such bullshit." she fake whined. Earning a chuckle from Antares, "I know, right? I already managed to do the same with Gravity and Magnetism a while ago as well."

  "Wow…" The purplette nodded, genuinely impressed. As someone studying Electromagnetism to improve her lightning magic, she knows better than anyone just how difficult a spell using it is. She frowned slightly; "Why not use it during the fights then?"

  "Ehhh, I mostly learned these spells as a proof of concept." Antares scratched his cheek; "Like a magic achievement of 'I can do it', besides… Traits are way, way more convenient and easier to use. Just like the difference between doing a calculus equation with a pencil or a hyper-advanced scientific calcutor."

  "Yeah, that makes a ton of sense." She nodded seriously while slowly approaching Antares; "Due to my affinity with lightning, I always found it quite a bit easier to use it. I can't even imagine how much more Traits are."

  "There is a very good reason the 72 Pilr Cns were so feared back then." Antares chuckled. "I mean, there is an entire book about how fearsome and evil we were. A very famous one to boot."

  Neptune chuckled. "I know." She then got really close to the redheaded Devil, her expression a little conflicted. She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something but stopped herself and sighed. "Why do you use set attacks for your Trait?"

  "Set attacks?" Asked Antares, a little confused.

  "Hmm… how do I expin it…" She cupped her chin. "You are always casting Force Lance, Force Sword, Force Bullet, and so on, right?"

  Antares nodded.

  "So why do you limit yourself to that?" She opened her arms. "You have like a set of spells that you keep using over and over. Don't get me wrong, they are incredibly effective, but I feel it is somewhat stifling." Neptune smiled, "Why can't you spawn spikes on your Force Lance? Spin it like a Drill? Maybe make it explode as well? True Force Attribute Manipution, you know?"

  Antares froze, his four minds spinning at miles per second, imagining the sheer possibilities of what Neptune described. Absently, he tried justifying himself; "It's mostly due to control… Creating a 'Set Spell' makes it easier and faster, at the start I…" Antares stopped, Neptune's point finally dawning on him.

  The purplette smirked; "But you are not the newbie you were at the start anymore, are you?" She carefully patted his shoulder; "You've been slowly conquering your fear of fire to the point you became a bcksmith, you learned how to wield two now hopefully three, Fundamental Forces of the Universe, and you have learned more than a few dozen spells from studying Ajuka's obelisks…" Neptune closed her eyes; "When it comes to magic, you have the greatest skill amongst our group, the greatest control, and the greatest knowledge as well."

  "You have more than enough for it. So why limit yourself?" She smiled.

  Antares took a deep breath and smiled; "Ideed… Why limit myself so much?"

  With a flex of his will, Antares summoned a Force Pilr under him and Neptune. Scrunching his eyebrows, he tried shaping the Force Construct, not just casting it like he had been doing. It was difficult at first, the set and guided way he was accustomed to using his Force abilities resisting this new way.

  But as Neptune herself said, Antares had become incredibly skilled at magic in these more than 100 days, so soon the pilr eventually gave and changed. Antares was able to force its shape somewhat, but like persistent hard rubber, it refused to maintain such a change easily, so the Devil needed to find a way to turn it more malleable.

  His first instinct was to feed it more Demonic Power –and it worked perfectly. Much like the hard ores that he had grown used to forging, he just had to provide a little bit more heat, which in this case was Demonic Power, for him to be able to change its shape.

  Soon, the previously rough and mighty-looking Pilr of Force slowly twisted and melted into a Force Lance, and then a Force Spear, a Force Sword, a Wall of Force, and so on and so forth.

  Like a Kid with a brand new toy, Antares kept changing the shape of his Force Constructs, slowly getting crazier and crazier with them. Spikes, Faces, Engravings, Sculptures, Art Pieces, his fascination was such that he simply couldn't stop.

  And all of that had been just a 'single continuous spell'.

  "I will call this Force Manipution," Antares concluded with a shine in his eyes.

  "I do have to admit it looks pretty cool." Neptune agreed, before taking a deep breath and gathering her courage. "There is just one more thing I want to talk about with you, Antares."

  The Devil stopped messing around with his Force Manipution and turned towards the purplette with a toothy smile; "Sure, what is it, Neptune?"

  The purplette stepped forward, put her arms around him, and before Antares could even react, she kissed him.

  At first, Antares widened his eyes in surprise, his four minds taking a while to just catch up to what was happening, but he soon leaned into the kiss –his own muscur and powerful arms wrapping around Neptune, his tongue matching and twisting against hers', their bodies pressed against each other —and for a brief moment, Antares cursed internally at his armor, before forgetting everything and focusing on kissing the woman before him.

  Neptune's lips were soft—and in Antares' humble and totally unbiased opinion—incredibly sweet to the point he simply couldn't get enough of it, enough of her. The warmth of her breath against his skin, the way she passionately pressed her lips against his, and lovingly took in his scent. It didn't take much for Antares to finally notice something quite crucial–

  He loved Neptune.

  .

  .

  .

  AN:

  And another chapter ends, and in a pretty romantic note to boot as well.

  As you can see, I focused a little bit more on romance in this chapter. Antares and Neptune's retionship has been cooking for quite a while, and I definitely should've been faster about it.

  Besides the romance, we finally got a more in-depth look at the group fighting the monsters in the tower. They are finally starting to have a real challenge climbing, with many more along the way.

  I won't say much more because I enjoyed writing this and the next chapter, and I hope you guys enjoy reading them as well.

  Answer: Well, that is a very difficult question. Considering that Elves are immortal, I will basically be choosing someone to spend eternity with me.

  As expected, the first to appear in my mind was Eu. She is definitely one of my top-tier waifus, and I could easily see myself spending eternity with her.

  Then I thought about Scathach, as Shishou is also one of my favorites. I bet she would be an excellent companion for spending such a long time together. I could also see us both hunting and defeating the forces of evil, the power couple that defeated Morgoth. A very good choice.

  Artoria, 2B, Red Hood, Acheron(Star Rail)—many of my favorite waifus passed through my mind. But in the end, I chose Evelyn Chevalier from ZZZ. She has definitely conquered a pce in my heart recently, and she is my absolute favorite character in that game. And while she isn't even close to being as strong as Scathach, I can definitely see us together for eternity and conquering the challenges that come our way, together.

  ~ClearSkySage