Hikari walks into the inactive ritual circle.
It was several times the size of her own back at the estate.
There was a strange structure with an empty hoop mounted on a support column in the middle.
The hoop faced the colossal tower.
Its beam had carved a circular chunk of metal at the base of the massive gate loose. With a push, she might be able to create an opening into the tower.
"Thats a pretty thick gate. The queen wyvern sure barricaded itself in there. This drill thing is pretty cool. How come no one told me that they were gonna do this."
She looked around the ritual. Concentric arrays of cryptic runes.
"Those runes look similar to the ones on the abbot."
The robes of the acolytes, their bodies had turned to ash and scattered to the wind.
"These guys hadn't had a proper diet in a while it seems."
There were the massive mana nodes used in the ritual. Two of which she knocked down. The last one glowed.
She walked up to the last standing node.
The glow swirled, humming eerily as she approached.
"Should I absorb this? I'm not gonna grow horns am I?"
She stepped on a conduit line. Mana flowed down the stem of the stone, into the ritual circle and up through the soles of Hikari's feet.
"Arghh…"
The mana was more intense than the mana vein. Her leg felt as though something was pushing it outwards.
Once the mana node was fully drained, She took out her ration packs and gobbled them all down.
Then, she sat down and meditated.
The wind howled. And then it was quiet.
She expanded her mana sense as she circulated the stone's mana.
Nothing. It was as quiet as meditating back at the estate.
She opened her eyes.
The sunlight shone on the grey stone around her.
The cold wind of the wyvern peaks brushed her hair.
She stood up, feeling fully energized.
The mana she expended fighting the cultists had been replenished.
"That was incredible. I would have been able to bulk more if I had some protein. A mana boost is good enough. Too bad I knocked down the other two."
She walked over to a stone laying dormant on the ground.
It glowed weakly as she approached.
"Maybe I can bring it back to the estate. It's really bulky though. Even for me."
She briefly glanced at the sun.
She took out a bead from her pouch and tossed it in the air. A green flare burned brilliantly for a brief moment.
"I'm fine. I just want to explore a bit more."
She turned and began making her way to the iron gate.
Up close, the massive hulk of iron was even more impressive.
It even made her feel a bit small.
Hikari focused in and expanded her senses.
She detected a strong mana presence beyond the gate. Its mana signature was wholly unfamiliar to her.
"Where is the wyvern queen? A living creature has a beating heart. I don't sense any."
She turned around and reexamined the surrounding area.
"No sign of any burns due to wyvern fire."
Turning back to the tower, she placed her hands on the chunk of iron that had been cut loose by the cultist ritual.
She placed both palms on the cold metal, took a steady stance and pushed.
"Might as well check for loot. Ria really needs the money. I'm out of food now, so I better make this quick."
The heavy chunk of iron groaned as she pushed it into the gate. It was just a small fraction of the mass of the gate yet it nearly matched her in weight.
She ducked under the hole she created and found herself in a vast, pitch black chamber.
Around the room, there were statues of wyvern heads hanging from the wall.
On the walls, there were carvings depicting wyverns riders.
"I can do that? Should have tried to capture a wyvern. How would I feed it though."
In the center of the chamber, a circular stone.
Before it, a massive pillar with a series of carvings arrayed vertically.
"A stick person and several vertical waves. How artistic."
Hikari stepped onto the platform. She felt a presence in the ground nudging against her foot.
The runes on the stone platform glowed.
A series of clicking sounds.
The torches in the wyvern's mouths flared. Inscriptions all along the chamber wall glowed with golden flame.
The gears on the ground rumbled. Slowly cranking at first, as though pushing off centuries of built up dust.
The opening at the top opened. A brief shower of sand poured down onto Hikari.
The platform began raising itself towards the opening at the top.
Hikari stood still and allowed the platform to lift her up towards the opening.
"I guess I can just smash the stone if anything happens."
The platform stopped.
Hikari found herself inside a much smaller room.
The stone walls of the room seemed to resemble the surface of a inside of a furnace.
A carving of a stick figure with several vertical waves right opposite her.
The runes in the room glowed. Rows and rows of cryptic symbols.
They filled the room with its mana.
A feeling not dissimilar to when Hikari was scotched by a wyvern's fire.
The temperature in the room began to rise.
"Ah, I remember this one. The heat room.
Madam RazenHeir made me go through it multiple times. I hate it."
Hikari took out her water tank and emptied the contents into her mouth.
She disassembled her wyvern skin. It was no good in a heat room.
Her salamander suit stretched itself to cover her entire entire body up to her chin and ankles.
She circulated her mana, oscillating the head in her body. The salamander skin absorbs some of the heat and disperses it.
She closed her eyes and began meditating.
The heat in the room dissipated after a few minutes.
She opened her eyes. The room was lit by only a handful of golden glowing flowers.
"That wasn't too bad. "