Everyone in front of the screens froze, silent and motionless, no longer knowing what emotion could possibly express the shock in their hearts.

  Since Allen had stepped into the Holy Demon Prison Tower, except for brief pauses on the twelfth and fifteenth floors, he had maintained a relentless speed. The rhythm of one floor every ten seconds had never wavered.

  Allen had no idea what was happening outside. To him, the so-called pressure was completely imperceptible.

  Following the increasingly piercing voice, Allen climbed steadily, mentally sorting out his emotions: he had just stumbled upon Evelyn and Aerin.

  That had made him momentarily forget the reason he had come, and though his anger had been slightly diluted, the irritation from being woken from his rest still lingered in his mind.

  After adjusting his mindset, Allen reached the eighteenth floor of the Holy Demon Prison Tower, the top of the tower and the source of the strange voice.

  At the end of the eighteenth floor, a man pressed against the wall, his mouth opening and closing, emitting obscure whispers that only Allen could perceive.

  Allen strode forward with firm steps, his voice filled with impatience.

  "What are you screaming about? It's the middle of the night. Go to sleep and stop disturbing everyone!"

  Hearing Allen's voice, the man looked up in confusion. His face was pale to the point of being bloodless, skin stretched tightly over bone.

  Most unsettling of all were his eyes: the whites were murky, without a trace of pupils, radiating a terrifying unnaturalness.

  He struggled to approach Allen, but his back seemed fused with the wall. No matter how hard he tried, he could not move an inch, only twisting in vain.

  This was the demon sealed at the top of the tower, named Malko.

  "After all these years… you are the first to reach me…" His eyes flashed with deep-seated hatred as he roared,"Damn human brat, tell that person, if they want to kill me, just kill me! Don't torture me like this!"

  "If one day I escape, I will flay him alive, crush his bones, and bathe the entire Radiant Magic Academy in blood!"

  His words ended with a crazed, chilling laughter. Yet the laughter abruptly stopped, and he froze completely.

  Because he saw that Allen, instead of showing even the slightest fear, was walking straight toward him with an expression of pure impatience, standing before him in an instant.

  A flicker of shock passed through Malko's eyes, quickly replaced by arrogance.

  "You human brat… are you not afraid I will kill you?"

  "To reach this far, you must be a genius among humans, perhaps even that person's apprentice."

  Before Malko could finish his sentence, Allen lost patience. He raised his hand and delivered two sharp slaps across Malko's face.

  The sudden action completely stunned Malko. He froze, forgetting to continue his threats.

  He was used to seeing humans cower and tremble before him; no one had ever dared lay a hand on him like this.

  "You are…"

  Malko's arrogance and hatred were instantly replaced by overwhelming reverence.

  He had never experienced such a suffocating pressure before. Although Allen's surface showed no trace of magical fluctuations, he instinctively felt compelled to submit.

  Allen still wore a face full of anger. He pointed a finger directly at Malko's nose and warned harshly,"I'm warning you! If you make that horrible noise again and disturb people's sleep, I will make you disappear completely!"

  Already irritated and sleep-deprived, Allen had no patience for Malko's nonsense and just wanted to resolve the problem quickly and go back to rest.

  Malko swallowed hard, his entire body stiff with the soul-crushing pressure, and hurriedly nodded in fear, not daring to entertain even the slightest thought of resistance.

  Almost immediately, the obscure whispers that had lingered in Allen's ears vanished, finally leaving complete silence.

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  Allen nodded in satisfaction, cast a sideways glance at Malko, and turned to head downstairs.

  It was only when Allen's figure had completely disappeared from the stairway that Malko could no longer hold back his tears. His voice choked with emotion as he whispered,

  "Master of the Abyss…"

  In the torture of the seal, he had almost forgotten this presence. Now that he sensed it again, all he felt was extreme reverence and ecstasy.

  ...

  Allen quickened his pace down the stairs.

  Earlier, when he had encountered Evelyn and Aerin, and then Valerius and Felix, he had assumed this place was some secret location prepared by the Academy for those with special preferences, and he had not thought much of it.

  But Malko's words instantly awakened him. The other was clearly a sealed Demon.

  He thought to himself that his purpose had only been to stop the noise. Now that it was accomplished, it was best to leave quickly to avoid causing more trouble or revealing his identity.

  At this point, the Demon's pressure in the Holy Demon Prison Tower had completely vanished along with Malko's silence.

  However, the few people inside the tower were already exhausted, their magic completely drained. They collapsed onto the floors of their respective levels, watching Allen dash past them.

  When he reached the twelfth floor, Allen instinctively covered his eyes with his hand, muttering nonstop,

  "Did not see, Evelyn. I didn't see anything!"

  He feared encountering another embarrassing scene and just wanted to escape the tower as quickly as possible.

  By now, Evelyn had already gotten up from Aerin, leaning against the wall to support herself. But with her magic severely depleted, her body could not regain strength in such a short time.

  Seeing Allen sprinting away, she was both angry and anxious. She tried to shout,

  "You… you stop right there!"

  But her voice was weak. She could only watch Allen disappear at the end of the stairs, lacking the strength to even raise a hand to stop him.

  Nearby, Aerin sat cross-legged on the floor, recovering her breath. She looked toward the stairway and asked,

  "Is he mentored by the same Mentor as you? How can he be this strong?"

  A Magic Apprentice reaching the eighteenth floor and ignoring a Demon's pressure entirely was completely beyond her understanding.

  Evelyn frowned tightly, still unable to comprehend everything that had happened.

  It was not just her. Everyone outside the tower, watching Allen ascend eighteen floors in a single bound and then rush back down, was also plunged into deep confusion.

  But one thing was undeniable: Radiant Magic Academy had claimed first place in climbing the Holy Demon Prison Tower!

  The previously silent crowd was instantly swept up in ecstatic joy. Everyone surged toward the tower, their eyes fixed on the doorway, eagerly awaiting the appearance of the climber who had reached the top.

  Allen stepped out of the tower and froze at the sight of so many people before him.

  Hundreds of eyes were all fixed on him. The crowd was completely silent, staring at him with expressions mixed with shock and amazement.

  Allen's heart skipped a beat. This was bad. Instinctively, he wanted to avoid their gaze. Taking advantage of the moment before the crowd reacted, he hunched down and hurriedly slipped into the throng.

  The moment he disappeared into the crowd, the long-suppressed cheers erupted, vibrating so strongly that it made ears ring.

  "We won! We won!"

  "Amazing! It really is Radiant Magic Academy that claimed first place!"

  The people of Radiant Magic Academy hugged each other in celebration. The frustration and resentment caused by Valerius and Felix earlier had now completely transformed into unrestrained joy.

  Allen, carried along by the cheers, hesitated for a moment. Though he did not fully understand the reason, he knew well that blending in was safer. Instinctively, he raised his arms and shouted along,

  "We won! We won!"

  His voice blended with the crowd, not standing out, but his exaggerated movements caught everyone's attention. The people around him cast strange looks at Allen.

  "What is he doing? He's the one who reached the top. Does he need to be so showy?"

  "Exactly. Even if he set a record, he should be modest. Acting like this makes people uncomfortable."

  Realizing the odd stares, Allen quickly stopped and tugged on the person beside him, whispering,

  "What exactly did we win? What are we celebrating?"

  He deliberately lowered his voice and feigned confusion, trying to hide his ignorance.

  The person he tugged on looked at Allen in shock, sizing him up before stammering,

  "We climbed to the top of the Holy Demon Prison Tower. We crushed the other academies and took first place!"

  Even as he spoke, his eyes remained fixed on Allen in disbelief. The person who had reached the top was standing right there. How could he not know his own achievement?

  Allen heard this and instinctively scanned his surroundings, thinking to himself: Who is this amazing? They managed to reach the top of that broken tower and caused all this celebration.

  But what he met were only the strange gazes of the crowd, along with fragmented whispers in his ears:

  "How does he not know at all?"

  "No way… could it be that he doesn't realize he's the one who reached the top?"

  The murmurs exploded in Allen's mind. Only then did he slowly realize the truth. His smile froze, and he cautiously asked,

  "The person you're talking about who reached the top… could that be me?"

  "Who else? Besides you, who else could, as a Magic Apprentice, climb all eighteen floors in one go?"

  Allen sharply inhaled, feeling dizzy, and cursed inwardly.

  He stared at the Holy Demon Prison Tower in front of him, unable to believe it. The tower he had just climbed, without even noticing, was actually the very Holy Demon Prison Tower that everyone had been racing to conquer?

  He had felt nothing the entire time, thinking it was just an ordinary tower, yet inadvertently set a record and helped the Academy claim first place.

  What troubled him even more was that once this news spread, it would attract countless inquiries. How could he possibly cover it up?

  He was not worried about his identity as a member of the Demon Tribe being discovered. With his strength, as long as he deliberately concealed his magic, no one could detect him.

  But the absurd feat of a Magic Apprentice reaching the eighteenth floor could not be explained.

  If Eleanor pressed him for details, he could not think of a reasonable excuse. He could only silently regret his impulsiveness, realizing he should not have stormed into the tower in a fit of anger.