The whole process felt like it lasted for days, but James understood it all took place over a few minutes.

As Helios was fighting for his life, James was trying to find a skill that could handle the situation, to no avail.

James’s nose was already bleeding profusely from the strain on his mind. The arcane simulation was very useful when it came to creating new spells. Without it, coming up with a spell that had even a small chance of being useful would’ve been next to impossible in such a short time.

But it was very taxing on his mind and body. He had been brainstorming relentlessly. Frustrated he couldn’t come up with anything useful, even while Helios was fighting desperately to protect them, he began simulating ideas that barely made any sense. Anything that came to mind, he would simulate. Any concept that he envisioned he would put through the arcane simulation in his mind, trying to find something that would create a useful skill.

Among the hundreds of ideas, at least some were bound to work.

He looked at it from every angle he could imagine. But when his mind was exhausted and he was still unsuccessful, he went back to the basics. Keeping it simple. Even with his head throbbing in pain, he tried to still his mind.

He imagined clouds, trees, lakes. Tranquil images that would soothe the mind and help him focus.

A frantic pace of thinking wasn’t working. It was only leading to worse and worse ideas. Only a tranquil and clear mind could solve this problem.

He took deep breaths and contemplated things calmly. He had to use chaos. He needed a powerful weapon, and chaos was by far his most powerful tool.

That was the first part of the equation.

But how could he use chaos in a way that would hurt an enemy he couldn’t see, who could be hiding anywhere inside a room so large it should be called a stadium?

Not only that, he needed a spell that could deal with an enemy Helios's inferno couldn't beat. A spell so powerful that it rivaled his blue-hot fires, while also attacking over a large area. It was too hard to think of such a spell, but he had no other choice, he had to keep trying.

But it was getting him nowhere. The only thing he didn't try was the opposite of what he had been doing all along. Slowing down instead of frantically brainstorming.

James decided to switch gears. He had been too obsessed with the rational side of his brain. This time around, he tried clearing his mind and letting his intuition and imagination do the work.

With his mind nearly blank, he let his thoughts and feelings flow naturally. Instead of speeding up his attempts to create a skill as Helios’s battle dragged on, James chose to slow down.

[Arcane simulation has evolved into Arcane meditation]

He could feel his brain shifting gears. The arcane simulation felt like a loud, screeching, painful entity that required most of his brainpower and focus. It never felt quite right to James, even though he unlocked the simulation as a natural extension of his thought process.

But James was a living contradiction, a convoluted personality that even he himself didn’t always understand. An unsteady, ever-shifting duality. Chaos.

Within this chaotic mind, even the arcane simulation itself was a subject to his dual nature. The antithesis of a highly rational, cerebral, mentally taxing simulation was spawned. The arcane meditation. A serene state of mind, guided by intuition and imagination instead.

In that tranquil state, James let his mind flow freely. Simple concepts and images would fade in and out of his sight. The feeling was familiar, it was reminiscent of the simulation. Deep down it was actually the same concept.

But whereas the simulation was frantic and strenuous, the meditation was computing skills subconsciously.

Surprisingly though, James noticed a consumption of mana taking place. The arcane simulation didn’t take any mana. But even though the meditation was also purely in his mind, it actually began devouring his mana.

However, any amount of mana consumption was worth it. The meditation felt so much better than the simulation. It was a true evolution. There was no need for superfluous calculations anymore, no more strain and frantic effort to simulate new skills.

Now all he needed to do is let his imagination and thoughts roam free. Even as he was imagining rivers and clouds, the arcane meditation was working at full speed.

His mind contemplated the problem at hand. He needed to use chaos. A power so great it could even cripple him, but he didn’t care about that at the moment. He had to help Helios at any cost.

In that tranquil state, time lost all meaning. It felt like he had been sitting there, contemplating for days.

His thoughts flowed, trying to understand how to use chaos to hurt an enemy it couldn’t even see.

After what felt like another few days of contemplating, he felt his head becoming as light as a feather, as if there was nothing above his neck at all. And then he heard a pop.

[Skill unlocked: Chaos Flower]

James wasn’t sure of how Helios’s fight had been going, but even in the total darkness he could guess that it wasn’t going well. It definitely hadn’t been days like it felt to him, but the fact that probably dozens of minutes had passed and the fight still wasn’t over meant that things weren’t looking for Helios.

There wasn’t any more time to spare, he had to use his skill right away. He only had one chance though. If it didn’t work, he wouldn’t have any other way to deal with this weird enemy. And since Helios couldn’t take him down either, it was all riding on this untested idea.

But most of his ideas had worked up until now. He knew he had to have faith in himself. Confidence was an important part of being a strong person. Even the most powerful mage would be nothing if they constantly second-guessed themselves.

This time around it took a lot longer to come up with a skill. That’s what was worrying him. He leaped at the first idea that actually had a chance to work. He couldn’t afford to even consider any drawbacks. But even if there was a price to pay, this was still their only hope. He had to use it.

At the very least, the fact that it took so much time to come up with the skill allowed him to completely replenish his mana reserves. And he had a feeling he would need every ounce of it.

He could see Helios’s sword moving around as he was dodging and weaving in the dark. It was finally time for Helios to put his sword down and take a well-deserved rest.

“Helios, when I yell out, quickly retreat. I don’t want my spell to hit you.” James instructed.

“Ok.” Helios responded briefly, in a raspy voice.

Hearing his usually hot-headed and energetic friend reply monosyllabically and in such a grievous tone made him realize the situation was a lot more dire than he thought. He had to speed this up.

James extended both of his palms and started pouring all of his mana inside. He didn’t spare any mana at all, even the mana he managed to store in the necklace again was being sucked out violently. His hands felt like a broken dam. Every mana channel in his body felt like the eye of a needle with a tsunami passing through it.

He had used the entirety of his mana pool before, but it never felt this painful.

His mana was swirling in his hands, a violent vortex shredding his palms, scraping his skin off.

Slowly, the vortex calmed down and disappeared, until only a tiny flower was left floating between his hands.

It was barely more than the size of a finger. But its size couldn’t hide its might. Its aura alone was almost blinding.

“Helios, NOW!” James shouted.

A moment later, James could see the sword rushing towards him, and he felt Helios’s hand on his shoulder. It was heavy, as if Helios was barely able to stand without falling.

As concerned as he was for his friend, for all of their sake, he had to ignore that for now and unleash his spell.

Without giving the dark figure time to react, as soon as he knew Helios was next to him, James sent the flower flying forward.

With a snap of his fingers, he triggered the skill.

He didn’t know if it was the aftereffect of the meditation, but the spell looked like it was in slow-motion, even though he knew it was happening at dizzying speeds.

The tiny, red, glowing flower suddenly started shaking uncontrollably. It seemed like it was fading in and out of reality, flickering and crackling loudly.

And then it bloomed.

The tiny flower started dissolving, thousands of tiny particles that looked like spores started shooting out violently, as if spewed by a geyser.

Just moments later, the room was filled with the spores. A seemingly impossible number compared to the tiny flower that shot them out.

Just like the flower, the spores seemed to fade in and out of reality, crackling violently.

Every inch of the giant room was filled with spores. There was nowhere to hide.

But that was only the beginning. Each tiny spore split into two even smaller spores, and those two spores split into two more spores, even smaller than the ones before.

The spores must’ve been downright microscopic at this point, and yet they were clearly visible. Not only that, this Darkness was so oppressive that not even Helios’s white hot shield was visible. Only his much hotter and brighter sword was able to be seen in this room.

And yet, one could see the spores with their bare eyes. The room was filled to the brim with microscopic spores. Even if the figure were able to shrink itself down to a molecule, it wouldn’t be safe.

The spores stopped multiplying, but then they began shaking even more violently. Looking at each spore, it seemed like it was only shaking, but looking at the entire room, it began looking like a wave undulating and swirling around the room. It began swirling faster and faster, sparks flying as the spores were hitting the walls.

Suddenly, it seemed like the room was not as dark as before.

It wasn’t just his imagination, with each passing second the room seemed to be turning back to normal.

Sparks were flying as the spores shook violently. Bolts of red lightning were fading in and out of existence as the storm of spores were shredding every molecule of matter that existed within the room.

The spores kept swirling, faster and faster, to the point the winds they gave off made it hard for James to even stand.

But the faster they got, the more compact the swirl seemed to become.

The spores seemed to be converging. The crackling of the spores turned into a loud buzzing sound as the spores were getting closer to each other.

Just moments later, the large vortex of spores that not long ago covered almost the entire room was now barely larger than a ball, but much brighter and much noisier.

The room was now back to normal, they could clearly see inside.

Not seeing the dark figure, James turned his head towards Helios. His concern for Helios was much bigger than his desire to see the dark figure die. Immediately, he noticed him holding his stomach.

He could clearly see that Helios had lost a lot of blood. Even though he was hiding his wound with his hand, James could tell that it was no mere cut. But even though it hurt to see him like this, Lunaris was the one who had to take care of that for now. With Helios in that state, he had to be the one to step up and make sure the threat was gone.

It was his own spell, but not even James knew exactly how the spell worked. He wasn’t even sure if it defeated the enemy.

But seeing that the room wasn’t dark anymore, it was a pretty good indication that it was over. Still, he looked around and he couldn’t see any sign of the dark figure.

The spores were now just a small ball, buzzing in the middle of the room. They weren’t bright anymore, they seemed to have all their light snuffed out of them, dull and gray.

Their buzzing and swirling started dying down as well, until it slowly stopped altogether. What was left weren’t spores anymore, but a flower, identical to the one that released the spores. Except it was completely black. As if it sacrificed itself to suck all the Darkness out of the room.

The dark figure was nowhere to be seen. The room looked like several wars were fought inside. Burns, cuts, craters. The walls and the floors were unrecognizable, charred and smashed to the point it was a miracle they were even standing.

James didn’t receive any xp, like one final insult from the Darkness. But he had gained a lot nonetheless.

He didn’t have any actual proof, but he was sure they were safe now. Nothing could have survived that, not even that thing, whatever it was.

Seeing as the threat seemed to be gone, Helios collapsed. He held on until he knew his friends were safe, but he had pushed beyond his limits.

“I’ll heal him, you put up a barrier just in case.” Lunaris told James.

There probably wasn’t anything that could threaten them on this floor anymore, but they had to be careful anyway.

James hadn’t put up any barriers before, but he had seen his friends do it enough times. He took the crystal and set up the usual defensive formation.

“How is he?” James asked with a pained heart.

“He’ll be fine, don’t worry. His wounds are deep but I can heal him, at least well enough that it’s not life-threatening anymore.” Lunaris said with a sigh of relief. Any longer and Helios really could have died. They cut it really close this time around.

What James had feared had really happened, he had put his friend in mortal danger. He didn’t die this time around, but they couldn’t keep doing this. Time and time again he came to the same conclusions, and yet every fight was just as reckless as the ones before. He didn’t know what to do, but he had to become a lot more cautious and careful.

Although he also had to level up as quickly as possible. He had to get rid of this curse, and he had to deal with the agents.

He was in a tough spot. He needed to find a middle ground where he could still keep himself and his friends safe, but still level up quickly. Which was easier said than done. This world had plenty of opportunities to level up and progress, but it didn’t serve them on a silver platter. It took blood and sweat to level up. James just didn’t want it to be his friends’ blood.

After Lunaris healed him for a while, Helios came to.

“So did you beat that thing?” Helios asked with a smile.

“Aye, it’s gone.” James replied, happily smiling because his friend seemed to be regaining his vigor.

James then turned towards Lunaris and bowed. “Thank you for the support Lunaris, you were a literal life-saver this time around.”

James didn’t even mention his hands and the other things troubling him after using the spell. Using the Chaos Flower had consequences, but he wanted Lunaris to focus on healing Helios for now.

“Yeah, thanks Lun ! You were the MVP that’s for sure.” Helios said, still struggling to get the words out because of his wounds.

Lunaris blushed and chuckled. “All right, stop it guys, that’s embarrassing. I barely did anything at all.”

Her support was subtle, but Helios would’ve bled out long ago without her. Even though every mage had some basic healing spells, his short heals during battle couldn’t have possibly been strong enough to keep the bleeding stopped forever.

“Ok, ok. So now that this thing is dead, we can get out of here soon, right?” James asked.

“Yeah, I doubt there is anything else that could stop us. It’s just up to Lunaris to figure out how to configure the elevator to get us out of here.” Helios replied.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while now! It shouldn’t be that hard after all. We’ll be out of here in no time.” Lunaris gleefully announced.

With the final boss beaten, and Helios thankfully still alive, the trio was almost ready to get out of this blasted place. Although James still had to pay a small price for the usage of his new skill that was way above his current power level.