Hearing Iris’s instructions, the team immediately went to work. Reaper and Octane worked on clearing out the minions since they excelled at taking on multiple opponents at once, while Finn and Iris focused on the large one.

Once they slayed it, Iris would take the orb and dunk it on one of the terminals. Each time she did so, the platform would stop rising for a moment and spawn in the next wave of enemies while Synia shrieked in pain, disturbing her chanting.

When they were on the third orb, however, Iris stopped.

“Damn… what’s the next one…” She bit her lip and glanced around at the three remaining terminals as her allies continued to fight off the Phantoms, orb within her hands. So far, she had been following the order of the symbols from the pillar section, based on which pillar was the correct one in each set.

But at the time, she hadn’t thought it would matter this much, so she hadn’t memorized the whole sequence. And now…

“Circle snake, 8 snake, snake face, twin snake, and sword snake,” a voice suddenly said through her comms. “That’s the order.”

“Fanatic… how do you…”

“I heard you murmuring it earlier, and thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to write it down.”

“… Heh,” Iris chuckled and flew over to the terminal with the face of a snake symbol marked on it, slotting the orb into the device. “You’re a lifesaver.”

“No problem,” Fanatic replied with a soft laugh, before going quiet once again to avoid distracting them.

“Alright… twin snake is next…” Iris murmured, this time memorizing the order in her heart. She spun around and aimed her sniper at the big one’s eye as Finn circled around it to distract it.

“GRAHHH!” It roared in pain, falling to the ground and clutching its own face. Finn set it on fire with his Burning Fists — he had far more mana than the normal person, so he could keep this Weapon Mod active for extended periods of time.

In the matter of a mere minute, the flawless duo used the same method to take this one down just like its predecessors. Octane swooped in with his speed and threw the ball that dropped and threw it to Iris, who was already waiting by the next terminal.

She slammed it into the device, causing the platform to cease to a stop once more as the next wave of portals spawned in.

It was then that they realized just how close they were to the ceiling, and Synia.

“MORTALS… YOU SHALL PAY!” She shrieked hysterically, raising her two arms into the air and chanting more rapidly than before.

“Crap, it’s about to-!” Octane began, eyes widened.

“Kill the big one — quick!” Iris yelled as everyone focused fire on the big guy, melting it instantly. The white sphere of swirling energy between Synia’s palms began glowing brighter and brighter, to the point where it was blinding the entire arena.

“FACE YOUR PUNISHMENT…!”

“Agh, I can’t see-!” Octane yelled, holding the orb in his hands.

“The sound of my voice — hurry!” Iris yelled.

“Tch… here!”

Octane launched the ball in the direction of Iris, judging from the sound of her voice. Unfortunately, it was too high, but Iris managed to catch it with a spur of momentum from her wings.

Immediately turning around as the room began to dangerously elevate in temperature at a rapid pace, Iris dunked the final orb into the sword snake terminal.

“SKKKREEEEEEEEEEEE!”

Synia screamed in pain as the barrier below her shattered, rendering her vulnerable. The room was completely filled with white light as the race against time reached its climax.

“Hit her with everything!” Iris yelled, readying her sniper and unleashing a bullet towards Synia’s head.

Finn and Reaper soared into the sky, side by side, and brutally cut through her body with their weapons just as the white light swallowed everything.

The two landed back on the platform, retracting their weapons and standing up straight. Iris lowered her gun and blocked her eyes as Octane covered his own.

Synia’s body exploded in a shower of black blood, most of which splashed onto Finn’s body — exactly what he wanted, since this was how he was going to steal the powers of this Ghost.

As he absorbed the liquid into his body, he felt warmth flowing through his veins. He definitely received a powerful new skill from this Boss-level Ghost, but he didn’t know what just yet.

But as he was in the midst of his thoughts, to his surprise…

“Thank… you…” Synia’s voice — her real, human voice — whispered in his ear, as soft as the wind, as she faded away.

No one else heard it, but Finn did. He was confused, of course, but decided to save it for later.

The white light faded away soon after that as well, revealing a chest in the middle of the room. Octane collapsed and promptly laid down, staring up at the mesmerizing ceiling.

“Man… that was… intense.”

“You had the most tiring job,” Finn said. “It makes sense for you to be worn out.”

“Yeah? I feel like I really didn’t do much, though. Even when it was time to kill that Boss once and for all…”

“You made it easier for all of us to focus the priority target by getting rid of all the small fry,” Iris comforted, seating herself back on Finn’s shoulders. “While not the flashiest role, it’s an essential one.”

“Heh. Thank- cough, hack… cough…” Octane was interrupted mid-sentence by a fit of coughs, due to his asthma.

“Are you alright?” Finn asked.

“Y-Yeah… just… need some rest…”

“I see.”

“Let’s see what’s inside the chest,” Iris said hurriedly, eyes sparkling. “It’s right in front of you, Ace.”

Finn nodded and bent down, using his hands to feel around for a bit before finally finding the latch to open the chest from. He flipped it open and reached inside, feeling his hand close around some kind of… rod?

“Woah…” Iris murmured. “It’s so pretty…”

Finn, of course, couldn’t see it, so he just took it out of the chest and handed it to Iris to inspect. She accepted it gratefully and tried pouring some mana in.

Suddenly, the white gem embedded at the top of the exquisite staff began to shine brightly. The glow reflected off of Iris’s beautiful different-colored eyes, drawing in the attention of all.

“What is this thing…” She murmured, swinging it one direction just to test it out.

But to her surprise, a powerful beam of light shot out of the gem, piercing straight through the solid stone walls of the tower and revealing the dark void outside.

“Wha-!”

She hurriedly straightened the staff again, both confused and surprised.

Octane blinked a few times in shock, still on the floor. “No way…”