"This staircase seemed a little off." Mero sensed the faint fluctuations emanating from the wooden stairs as well. Nothing unusual could be seen from the surface, but judging by her past experience, magical energy arrays had most likely been inscribed inside the stairs or on their shadowed side.
As for what those magical energy arrays did... it was probably nothing good.
Still, Mero was not overly worried. She might not understand magical energy arrays, but the person beside her was a master of them.
With that thought, Mero looked at Angel expectantly.
She had not forgotten the playing card on the fourth floor of the prison. If she could witness Angel cracking a magical energy array with her own eyes, it would broaden her horizons... Even if she could not understand it now, she could slowly savor it in the future and perhaps glean something from it.
Yet Mero's expectations ultimately came to nothing.
Angel did not crack the magical energy array. Instead, he directly cast an illusion, making glowing footprints appear one after another on the stairs.
"Walk on these glowing footprints, and you'll be safe. If you don't follow the right path, you'll probably... die, I suppose? The kind where you end up arranged on a plate." Angel spoke those cruel words as lightly as a breeze, then took a step back and looked at the Gifted. His meaning was obvious—your turn.
Angel had originally considered cutting off the mechanism's energy and temporarily disabling the magical energy array. But for some reason, as he looked at those safe footholds and imagined the hopping gait of intellectually disabled children, he suddenly no longer wanted to crack the array.
Angel's sudden declaration left the Gifted dumbfounded.
"W-we go first?" The fat man pointed at his own nose.
The others looked