Chapter 49
The male guard looked a little flushed. But he also seemed to be built similar to her. And it gave Aurora a solution to her problem.
“Ah, sure. Can you follow behind me? I need to sit down to show you the pass.”
The guard followed behind her nervously.
Maybe he could sense that something was wrong. Or he could tell that he was not going to like what was about to happen.
But the guard immediately tried to fall once Aurora shut the door close behind her.
It was a passable effort. But the guard did not make it very far. Aurora’s nerve strike knocked him out cold.
“Sorry. It’s not your fault. I just need your clothes to be able to blend in.”
Aurora apologized. However, her actions contradicted her words.
Luckily for the guard, she was a male. Aurora did not feel too bad leaving him in his under-clothes once she was finished.
A good thing about being dressed as a common guard was the lack of attention it drew toward Aurora. She could blend in far easier.
“Halt. Show me your hall pass.”
The guard on duty sounded bored when he asked Aurora to stop. Staying on the same post day and night must be taking a toll on these guards’ endurance.
This time, Aurora did not hesitate to flash the hall pass she had snatched from the guard.
Thankfully, the hall pass did not possess any initials or identifications. It was a general pass common for everyone.
“You are free to pass. Where is your assignment post located?” the guard asked.
“I am assigned to the garden, sir.”
Aurora did not hesitate in her answer. She even bowed the correct way to make her acting more believable.
“The gardens? Are you sure?” the guard asked.
Aurora nodded without hesitation.
“Weird. They generally don’t post anyone at such a useless place. Well, go ahead. You are cleared of charges.”
The guard ushered Aurora inside. He did not sound worried about the schedule change. Aurora did not know if she felt grateful or worried about the tower’s security.
But lingering on the past feelings was of no use. Aurora needed to head ahead toward her destination.
Just as the guard had said, no one else seemed to be heading the same way as her. The hallway was as good as abandoned by the guards.
Aurora took it as a blessing in disguise. It allowed her to move undetected through the hallways and be on the outlook for the tracking devices.
Her system also got a free reign to scan the hallway and map it out.
The garden was located in the east-side courtyard part. And contrary to its name, it was not an actual garden.
More accurately, it would not trigger an image in your mind if you thought of a garden.
The ground was covered with concrete but the side-lines were filled with planters. The center of the plaza held the most iconic structure in the vicinity – a huge waterfall.
Aurora could not spot the origin of the waterfall, nor could she see where the water went after it hit the ground.
But she could feel the aura of magic all around that waterfall.
And that was how she knew that the waterfall was the real deal.
“System, scan the surroundings. Try and find out the source of the waterfall.”
Since the waterfall had been placed in the center, there had to be a reason behind it. To have such a garden in the tower was an oddity.
With this much magic running around, the place should have been filled with plants and greenery. But someone had gone through a lot of effort to make this place vegetation-free.
Except for the planters on the side wall.
(Scanning finished……
Decoding the area map…..
Asking permission to turn on the magic sensor…..)
Aurora took in a deep breath before she gave the go-ahead. Her eyes burned as magic rushed toward her eyes.
Small magic spells were easy to cast. But Aurora did not want to risk losing control over her powers if something went wrong in the process. That was why she had made the system initially.
And she applauded herself for her foresight as she blinked her tears away. She was not sure she would have been able to maintain the spell for a long time if she did not have her system.
Sometimes, forcing control outside of her hand was a good thing.
“Let’s see what secrets the tower was trying to hide from me,” Aurora whispered.
The garden no longer looked like before. Her eyes could spot a misty hue in the air. It was magic in its physical form.
Generally, magic did not have a physical sense. But it did react with a certain type of magic to create an illusionary image.
This could allow someone to see magic in its physical form. But the technique used for such a thing required precise control and calculations. Something Aurora was not confident in when she was in pain.
“W-What is that? Is that a magic formation?” the magic in her surroundings was not stagnant.
Generally, magic did not flow on its own. Only an external force could make magic move and change shape. The bigger the force, the more magic they could move around.
Under these circumstances, the magic in the garden should not be in motion. There was no active user in the vicinity.
And yet, Aurora could see a small vacuum of magic toward the center of the water-fall. It gathered at the top and flowed along the water.
And then it disappeared beneath the surface.
Wherever the water was going, so did the magic.
“This is another dead end for me. I can tell that water is disappearing in this cavity but I’m too big to enter here.” Aurora knelled in front of the waterfall.
There was a small cavity in front of her. But it was too small for even the water flow to be directed into.
If not for magic, it would have been impossible for the water to be able to disappear into the cavity.
But that was of no concern to Aurora.
She did not care how the water managed to get into the base below the garden. She needed to know how she could enter the base as well.
“Think of the teachings. You have read so many magic formation manuals in the tower’s library. There had to be something that could help me out.” Aurora tried to recall.
But the sad thing was, she had read ‘too’ many books. And no amount of retention power was strong enough to remember all the content.
Still, she could try and think this topic through rationally. Many things stood out in this setting.
The waterfall was the most obvious object of interest. But that was nothing more than a medium. Anything more would make it unstable.
So it was not the device being used to maintain the spell.
What else could there be? Plants could be the answer but their magic conductance was different. They could not manipulate the magic in the air.
What else could it be in the garden that could manipulate magic like this?
Aurora felt her headache. Her thought process was in shambles and it made things difficult for Aurora.
She decided to give her thought process some rest and look up.
And her eyes instantly widened in understanding.
It was no wonder that she had not realized what kind of situation she was in. It was because the real spell had been hidden beneath the magical fog and the waterfall.
But the glass above Aurora reflected the real shape of the spell toward the ground.
The thing fueling the spell was neither the waterfall nor the plants. The magic in the surrounding helped hide the real ‘garden’ beneath the magic mirage.
How cunning of the tower to try and dilute the real magic with the help of extra magic. Even if someone knew that something was wrong, they would not be able to tell what it was.
Aurora did not question why the glass above the garden was installed in such a way to give this cleaver trick away.
There were many mysteries of the abyss tower that were better left unquestioned.
Aurora followed the guidance of the huge glass on the ceiling. She could barely see her position.
But she did make sure she was tapping the right spots on the floor. It was a matter of life and death for her.
Aurora held her breath as she pressed the last red tile on the floor. She waited for something to happen but nothing did.
Aurora started to pick herself up to try again but then it happened.
The floor started shaking and the waterfall began disappearing.
And there it was, the door to the underground. The road had parted to show Aurora the right way. And the feeling of magic was dense in the cavity in front of her.