The first of the two Archwizards was Kolo Tjahn.
I didn't really care about how long he had spent climbing the Magic Tower, or how much ti had passed since he entered the 12th Floor, but I had naturally heard a few rumours about him from Lud and so other residents of the higher floors.
Supposedly, he was quite friendly, and he was said to have assisted nurous magicians in their quest to climb the tower.
I wasn't sure about the veracity of the latter, but the forr certainly seed to be true―at least on the surface, he was exhibiting a very amiable personality, and because of that, I thought it would be easy to gain his assistance.
However,
"Sorry; I swore an oath before I entered the Magic Tower to not leave until I cleared it. So, until this last trial is complete and I reach the 13th Floor, I'm staying here."
He rejected my request. I never explicitly stated what my request was because I didn't feel like revealing it just yet, but perhaps it didn't matter.
If he was never going to leave this place until he cleared the tower, then either way, the contents of my request were aningless. So, I decided to just complete the trial myself; by clearing the tower, I would discover the contents of the trial that he had been struggling with for so long.
If I then helped him with clearing the trial, he would owe , and I could use that to gain his assistance.
"So, you're going straight to the next trial? Well, knowing what to prepare for is undoubtedly a good idea, but I can't say I recomnd going in imdiately."
Because the tower did not permit leaking information on any of the trials to another person unless both parties had cleared and challenged an equal amount of trials, Kolo was not allowed to tell about what to expect.
I had to go in without any prior knowledge, just as I did for all of the previous floors, but it was of no concern to .
Stopping one foot in front of the door to the trial, I swivelled my head and asked.
"What Phase are you stuck on?"
Even if he couldn't leak the contents of the trial to soone who had yet to attempt it, I was sure there wouldn't be a problem with simply telling which Phase had him stumped.
However, I never could've foreseen the next words that ca out of his mouth.
"The 12th Floor Trial has only one Phase."
...Oh. Really?
The Magic Tower had 13 Floors, and everyone knew that because the tower itself stated so in so of the earlier trials. Unless there was so kind of secret on the uncharted 13th Floor, it shouldn't contain any trials since there is no floor beyond it.
Therefore, this 12th Floor Trial is the final trial of the Magic Tower.
Does it make sense for the tower's last trial to have but a singular Phase when every other trial before it has been made up of multiple Phases except the first?
For a brief mont, a thought crossed my mind and I wondered if the Archwizard only made that claim because he hadn't been able to pass the first Phase, but I quickly erased and discarded the silly notion from my consciousness.
I highly doubted a person of such power, intelligence, and status as one of the world's two sole Archwizards would be so shallow as to presu the 12th trial had only one Phase without any evidence.
Most likely, it will state that when I begin the trial.
"Good luck. It's really been giving trouble for a lo~ng ti, so let know how you get along with it."
"..."
Staring at the man who appeared far younger than his true age, I thought he should be able to handle not getting exactly what he wanted just fine.
I opened my mouth.
"I'll give you second place."
"...Huh?"
He blinked as it seed to take a while to comprehend what I said, and before he could fully process it, I took one step into the portal, vanishing from view.
The white void on the other side of the portal quickly constructed wherever the trial would take place, but I quickly began to sense that sothing was off.
Not because the location was strange, though.
In fact, finding myself in an ordinary room, nothing about it was unusual or unfamiliar to .
A completely normal, typical living room-type space; the kind of thing you would expect to see in any household.
Nevertheless, I felt sothing was wrong... No.
It was because of the fact it was familiar itself that it felt so off.
Until now, all the places the Magic Tower had shown were locations one could find sowhere in the Otherworld, but this...
The flatscreen television, LED light bulbs on the ceiling...
This was a room you could only find on Earth.
But how--
[Magic Tower 12th Floor Trial]
Interrupting my thoughts, notifications appeared.
[Outside the bounds of the individual world, there exist many other worlds.]
[Transcendents, who primarily originate from these other worlds, are proof of their existence.]
[Those well-versed or otherwise educated in the subject of dinsional worlds may have co to realise that these worlds are not all equal, that there must be so structure to them, hierarchical or otherwise, and that existences of higher and lower levels are strictly separate.]
[This is called the Theory of World Stages.]
Speechless, I stared blankly at the sentence, wondering what the hell was going on.
The Magic Tower stole my theory and started explaining it to others before I even ca up with it...?
This wasn't just re plagiarism; sothing much more bizarre was going on.
The Theory of World Stages was my idea, and I only ca up with it recently, so how did this old bastard Ancient Sage know about it?
If it's like this, that ans even Kolo Tjahn and that other Archwizard have heard about it...
Now, I knew for certain that sothing was up.
ntioning the theory I created to my face, there had to be sothing it wanted to say.
Though there was no way to find out just by thinking about it, I maintained my patience and waited, figuring I'd receive an answer by the end of the trial.
At least, I don't need to think about what'd happen to the tower if it turned out to be a pointless waste of ti.
[However, this theory is wrong.]
The next sentence made even less sense. My theory is wrong? What nonsense.
Despite thinking it was a completely ridiculous assertion, I still wanted to hear the tower's reasoning for stating it, and so continued to listen.
[The original Theory of World Stages posits that, when a higher being creates a lower-stage world, that world is fundantally lower in existence than the higher being and will never alter from its status.]
[It states that a Stage 2 World, for example, will always be a Stage 2 World - nothing more, nothing less - and that this will never change.]
[But this is incorrect.]
[Under a higher existence, all lower existences are equal.]
[So long as there exists a world of Stage 1 or higher, whether a world is Stage 2, Stage 3, or lower is irrelevant.]
[Just as how an ant, a hornet, and a moth are all seen as 'insects' to a human being, a being from a world of Stage 2, 3 or 4 will all have the sa standing from the perspective of a being from a Stage 1 World.]
[However, if the Stage 1 World is a world created by a higher existence, it too becos identified under the sa classification as the worlds that were previously below it.]
[Worlds are thus divided into two categories: Higher and Lesser.]
[All worlds whose existence stems from the will of a higher being are classed as Lesser Worlds.]
[Therefore, the only Higher world that exists is the one that is not created by a higher existence.]
[A Stage 1 being can think that it is above the beings from the Stage 2, 3 and 4 worlds, but this is not true.]
[Whether or not a world is one or two stages above or below another world has no bearing on its level of existence, nor the power of its inhabitants.]
[Because, so long as there is at least one world that sits above the rest, all who exist under it are equal.]
[Likewise, just as a god does not care for the world within a human's dream, the amount it does not care for the dream world of the humans within the human's dream is also equal.]
[Extending forever upwards and forever downwards, for all future eternity and forever past.]
[This is the truth that I have discovered.]
"..."
I gazed at the sentence that lingered in the air for a while.
Could it really be true?
Of course, I had a hard ti believing it just like that.
It wasn't difficult to understand what the Ancient Sage was saying, but there was still too much that didn't make sense, at least to .
Perhaps it was simply my twisted understanding through the perception of the original world stage theory, but there were plenty of unanswered questions I still had to ask.
Before I had too much ti to delve into my thoughts and contemplate, maybe the tower didn't want to get stuck in the quagmire of my mind for too long as it unabashedly continued.
[Do not simply take my word for it.]
[Go, visit another world, and see it for yourself.] mpy _r.
[No matter the world you visit, you will see that all people are the sa; all life, and all of existence that we know.]
[To pass the 12th Floor Trial and gain access to the final floor of this Magic Tower, you must do just that.]
The words of the Ancient Sage ceased, replaced once more by the robotic tone of the tower as it announced sothing rather unexpected.
[You have already visited another world.]
[You have passed the Magic Tower 12th Floor Trial.]
Surprisingly, I didn't have to do anything at all to pass the Magic Tower's last trial.
At the sa ti, I instantly realised the reason that no one had been able to clear the Magic Tower since its creation.
The farthest anyone has made it was the 12th Floor, and this trial is exactly why.
[Congratulations for being the first to clear my Magic Tower. I knew you would make it.]
The modernised room dematerialised, returning once again to an endless white void.
[I'm glad you could listen to the stories I told, and I hope you rember them sincerely.]
All of a sudden, the tower started speaking to with a more personal, informal tone, similar to that of what the Ancient Sage was using previously.
This, I suspected, was the direct ssage he wanted to convey.
Most likely, it was sothing he only wanted to hear, and so he waited until after the 12th Floor Trial, which he knew no one except would be able to access.
[I cannot speak for long, but I only wish for you to do this.]
[Please recall what brought you here in the first place. Recall what you want to do, and where you want to go.]
[Think about why it led to the current situation. Think about why you want to do it, and why you want to go there.]
[Always keep in mind what I have said, both in this final ssage and in my previous trials.]
[Most importantly, try to realise what the destination you are heading for will entail; understand where you are going, what it ans, and if it is truly worth the cost.]
[Otherwise, you might find yourself lost until the very last mont, at which point everything is irreversible.]
[There is a final gift left for you on the 13th Floor. Please accept it and take it with you, even if you don't want to.]
"..."
[And lastly. Farewell.]
The white void transford into a new place for what would hopefully be the last ti, but my movent imdiately hesitated as I realised I was back inside the modern room from the trial.
Everything was identical to the trial space, exactly as it was―all except for one thing.
Atop a coffee table, I spotted a smartphone with a plain black case.
It wasn't one that I recognised, but the cherry-red colour of the thing reminded of the twins' eyes.
Without thinking much, I picked up the phone and turned it on, soon realising that it seed to have undergone a factory reset as everything on it had been completely erased or otherwise set to default.
That is, everything except for a single recording in the phone's gallery.
"...!?"
Tapping on the file, my eyes imdiately widened as sothing simply unbelievable reflected in my eyes.
―A video of rain, the twins, and myself stained with blood.
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