After roughly confirming her location and the surrounding directions, Aoko's next actions became swift.
She first cast some additional protective spells. In this ghostly weather, the environment would likely worsen once she took to the skies, so making preparations in advance was necessary.
Once her protections were in place, Aoko took to the air again. Braving the cold winds, she used her powerful magical energy to forcibly drive her flying spell into the sky.
Even though Aoko could control a portion of the air around her to create a stable environment, the original design of the spell had its limits. No matter how much magical power she poured into it, she couldn't disperse the blizzard over a wide range. So, she headed northeast, roughly in the direction of the Mirage Rise.
Aoko flew up to a considerable height, but due to the extremely poor visibility, she couldn't even judge how far from the ground she was. All she could do was lower her head against the wind, speed up, and try to fly out of the blizzard-covered zone as quickly as possible.
After flying for over an hour, a sudden burst of light appeared before her eyes, and a clear view unfolded.
It was a vast snowfield stretching as far as the eye could see. Beneath her was a frozen river, running approximately east to west. The western end vanished into the horizon.
Now that she had found the river, Aoko could identify her position—and the location of the mage tower she was searching for.
Recalling the map of the Sacred Snowfield, she followed the frozen river eastward from the air, searching for traces of the mage tower on the river's southern bank.
After another half hour or so, Aoko discovered a very conspicuous platform atop a cliff. A stone stele stood nearby, glowing faintly with Glintstone magic.
She descended from the sky, confirmed the stele's inscription, and then carefully sensed the magical fluctuations behind it.
This mage tower's concealment method was unusual. It wasn't just that people who hadn't solved its puzzle couldn't see it—it had been placed in a sort of demi-plane. Unless certain conditions were met, it wouldn't appear in the material world.
This kind of technique was virtually unique in the Lands Between... no, not unique. Aoko suddenly recalled a very similar case: the Land of Shadow.
According to Mesmer, when Marika left the Land of Shadow, she used some method to seal it, centering on the Shadow Tree, making it inaccessible to both those within and those outside in the Lands Between.
Aoko had once seen the enormous veil-like objects hanging from the Shadow Tree's crown. She suspected those veils created a barrier, isolating the Land of Shadow as an extra dimension beyond the Lands Between.
The mage tower before her used a similar technique—different methods, but the same end.
Aoko took out the Scarlet Staff, infused it with magic, and chanted softly, trying to detect hidden clues in the air. Soon, a smile appeared on her lips. She had sensed a slight anomaly on what appeared to be an empty stone platform, and using that trace, she successfully hacked into the magical energy system sustaining the mage tower.
The only flaw this mage tower exposed to the material world was the magical illusions of small gargoyle statues maintained by the tower's systems. Aoko used this interface to access the control system of the tower.
After some study, she realized that contrary to her initial assumption, the tower's hidden state wasn't a switch—it was a continuous state. In other words, if she could disrupt the magical circuit maintaining it, the tower would be forcibly expelled from the demi-plane.
So without hesitation, Aoko used her vast magical reserves to block what seemed to be the main energy circuit. The empty space before her blurred—and within moments, a tall tower materialized out of thin air.
Maintaining the blockage, Aoko walked into the mage tower without hesitation. Since she hadn't entered through the normal method, the tower's automated defenses, programmed by its previous owner, activated to repel the intruder.
However, the Glintstone mages of the Lands Between weren't especially creative with their guardians. Apart from a few common Carian puppets, only the small gargoyles seen in the catacombs caught Aoko by surprise. The strongest foe was likely a floating magical sphere—possibly the remains of the tower's original master.
Aoko didn't destroy the magical sphere; instead, she froze it into a massive block of ice. This level of damage wasn't enough to kill something that had ascended from a high-level Glintstone mage, so there was no risk of accidentally destroying it.
After cleaning up, Aoko climbed the outer stairs of the tower to the top floor—the tower master's study, traditionally speaking.
Unlike the previous Heretical Tower she had explored, the master of the Mirage Rise had more luxurious tastes. Aoko found many exquisite wine bottles, though they were all empty now—a clear sign that the tower's owner had enjoyed earthly pleasures.
She also saw carefully crafted furs and once beautiful tapestries, now decayed with time.
Ignoring these trivial items, Aoko began rummaging through drawers and chests. After discarding several crumbling scrolls, she found a small, exquisite box hidden in an inconspicuous spot.
She carefully took it out and opened it—it wasn't locked. Inside, wrapped in a piece of purple velvet, was an ornament.
Aoko discarded the velvet cloth and held the ornament in her hand, examining it closely. She could sense a strange magic within, strengthening her connection with Glintstone and pulling at her consciousness, trying to draw her closer to the origin of Glintstone—namely, the Dark Abyss of this universe.
Aoko blinked, ignored the ornament's temptation, stored it in imaginary space, and then released her hold on the magical sphere. She undid the blockage of the tower's magic circuit and once again took to the frigid skies.
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