Into The Tower

I gazed across the packed courtyard. Most people here wouldn't even enter the tower, they had just come to see it open. I couldn't see the entrance of the tower from where I was though, just the tower itself. 

I began to move through the crowd slowly, trying to not draw much attention to myself. It wasn't that hard to be honest, most people didn't even seem bothered about me moving past, they were all focused on the tower.

Soon I was near the front, to the side in the shadows of the tower itself. The Archmage and a few other masters were at the tower, alongside the champions. It was obvious not all the masters were here, which, from the whispers that I could hear, was really unusual. It seemed like the tower wasn't as united as it always appeared to be.

The Archmage was giving one of his long speeches, going on about how great the mages behind him were and that others should look up to them. Looking around, the mages were at most third year students. 

"Where are the older students?" I muttered to myself. "It's not like they all disappeared... I get they may be bored of these speeches but why has none of them bothered to show up?"

The speech was finally coming to a close. As the Archmage turned around to open the main gate into the tower, I cast all of my enhancement spells that I had, allowing me to go a bit quicker, then prepared my shadow spell. 

As the tower door began to light up, I entered into a sprint, quickly reaching my highest speed. I could see the door had a small opening, just enough for me to fit into. Once close enough, I released the spell, covering the area in front of the door in darkness.

I leaped through the darkness and entered into the tower. Following behind me was a flash of light. As I smashed into the floor, I heard the crackling of lightning, shot over my head and then a boom echoed around as it smashed into the wall.

"How dare you…" The voice of the Archmage was cut off as the door into the tower closed, sending dust all over the room, covering everything, including me.

I stood up, dusting myself down and looking around for the others who entered the tower ahead of me. As eyes scanned across the room, I saw the darkened stone that had been hit by the lightning bolt.

I couldn't help but suck in some air as I imagined what would have happened if that had hit my back.

After gazing at that spot for a few more seconds, I carried on looking around the room, or I guess it should be called a hall due to the sheer size of it. It's so big, I can't even see the end due to the darkness. The only light sources are hanging from each of the pillars that are either side of the hall, they seem to go on forever but at a certain point the light seems to just stop and become more dark.

After looking around again. It seems like the only way is to go forward, towards the darkness. 

I unsheath my sword, holding it in my right hand, leaving the other free to cast spells as I needed them. As I walked down the hall, my footsteps echoed all around me. It sounded eerie, hearing a step everytime after I took a step of my own.

After walking for a good four minutes in the darkness, the hall suddenly lit up. In front of me was a small doorway that had already been opened. I carefully peered through the opening. On the other side of the door I could see a stairway, going up in a circular fashion. 

Seeing as it was still the only way that I could go, I stepped through the doorway onto the stairs. As I looked back one last time, I saw all the light in the hallway had gone. All that was left was darkness. From the stairs, which were oldly lit up without any light source, I could see the number zero carved into stone above the door.

Apart from that the stairway looked alot like the outside of the tower. White stone as far as I could see. I tried to look up, but found that the stairway only seemed to go up a little way before I could see nothing but white which I assumed to be the ceiling. 

"This place just seems odd. The others only entered a few minutes before me and the only sign of them that I have found is the doorway that I just went through. Where the hell are they?"

I began to slowly creep up the stairs, constantly looking around, but as I expected at this point, I noticed nothing except for the white stone.

After going up the stairs for a few loops I came to a doorway with the number one etched onto it. The doorway this time though, was closed. The door itself was a white stone, apart from the number on it, it would look almost identical to the various walls.

I went towards the door to push it with my free hand. Just before I touched it however, the number lit up. The outline of a figure then appeared before me. 

I immediately leapt back, fearing for my life. In my free hand a fireball was rapidly forming. As soon as my feet hit the floor however, I felt my connection to the mana be cut off. It was then at that point, that the figure became clearer, although I could not make out any facial features at all.

"To enter this floor, you must prove that you can use your mana." A high pitch, yet domineering voice came out of the figure.

I immediately replied, "How can I use mana if you have cut my connection to it."

All that happened was the voice repeating the exact same sentence.

I tried to go past the figure, but just before the door a barrier had formed. Stopping me from getting any closer.

The voice then repeated the same sentence again.

I took a step back, and began to think out loud.

"There must be a way to do this, if the other people are not here. It has got to mean that they passed through already. The voice is saying my mana. Maybe it is not referring to the mana around me in the environment, as that is not really mine. The only thing that could be mine and has to do with mana is the core. Does this mean I can use that to use mana? It's worth a try at least."

I then sat down, cross legged and began to sense mana around me, but this time focusing on the core inside of me. Around I could see small red and black lights, representing the fire and dark mana.

I focused onto one of the fire attributed lights. I then slowly began to cast the spells, my voice mummering in the draconic language. As my focus intensified, the red light began to move towards the outside of my body. After what seemed like an eon, I finally drawed out the fire to my hand. 

As I finished, a small flame appeared onto one of my fingers. The voice then sounded out again.

"You can use your own mana. You may pass into the first floor. The floor of lights."

Once it had finished talking, the figure disappeared, as did the barrier in front of the door.