I Know The Secret To Surpass Level 100

Elliot raised his sword and defensively pointed it at Luck. He could swear he saw the black aura lingering over the man, as though it was part of him and not an attack from Sora.

"Luck?" Elliot called out. "What was that on your back? Who are you?"

Luck glared at Sora, his hands gripping on the handle of his sword as the mist slowly seeped back into his body. He turned to Elliot, "I was the–"

"Infernal Blazing Winds!"

"Black and White Annihilation!"

Luck's eyes widened. He whistled hurriedly and took Elliot away from the two burst of attacks that came from behind the boy.

"What the f*ck?!" Luck yelled. "What do you think you're doing."

There, they saw the four standing, faces looked like they ran a marathon. All sweating, panting, and confused.

"W-We did it!" Connor cheered. "Guys, we did it!"

"You're back!" Elliot gently pushed Luck away and came over to his friends. "Good thing you're back."

The four turned to him, all frozen in place. When Elliot was about to ask them what was going on, they engulfed him with their arms.

"Elliot!" they chorused, tightening their arms around the shorter boy. 

"We thought you died," Hope sighed. "The Vassal's spell made you die in the illusion we were in. How did you get out?"

Once again, before Elliot could even utter a word, Sora yelled. Her eyes were bulging out of their sockets, teeth gritting in anger as she watched the group.

"Why didn't you all die?!" Sora yelled. Her almost automated expression and demeanor changed to a now pissed off one. "I made sure to cast that what you see there won't be suspicious. You were supposed to be stuck there!"

"Well, your illusion sucks," Lance said. "Why are you so eager to trap us there anyway?"

Sora raised her spear. "No matter. I still have three more inside. And you will never see them again."

"Three?" Lance stepped forward and asked. "Who are these three?"

"Oh, so you didn't know?" the woman grinned. "There's one that locates people, one that grows arms on his back, and one that's a child to someone who's important."

Sora laughed manically and leaped over the fallen debris, away from the group. "Blithe, Harley, let's go. We're outnumbered here. We won't last another second if they gang up on us."

Blithe nodded and fired a fan shaped flame attack against Frederick. The latter blocked the attack with a flame shield, letting the flames of the enemy to vanish completely before he lowered his shield.

"I will see you later," Blithe said. "By then, I hope we are evenly matched."

Black flames engulfed Blithe, making him disappear into thin air.

Harley flew over to Sora while she raised her spear. He grabbed the spear and flew up, raising his other hand and opening a portal that they passed through. The portal was immediately closed after Sora got inside, making it impossible for anyone to follow them.

"They're gone?" Elliot asked. "They just retreated like that?"

"But now we have a giant problem," Lance groaned. "It seemed like Sora transported all the people in the Court inside her illusion. This would align with what she said when she told us she has three more captives."

"Three? Beatriz, Arm, and…" Elliot trailed off and turned to Hope. "Who is the last one?"

"The judge's daughter," Hope answered. "They held her captive on the dungeons where the Ember Gems are located. Right. There are hundreds of explosives under this court."

"Explosives? How did you know that?" Lance gasped.

"That's why we were in the dungeons," Ed uttered. "We were going to disable all the explosives that the Vassals brought under the Royal Court. But Harley blocked the way there. If his spell is still active, it would be the end of us since we won't have enough time before the Ember Gems explode."

"So, when will they explode?" Hope asked.

His question was answered when numbers hovered over them. It showed 13:09, meaning they only have thirteen minutes more to find the chamber and deactivate the bombs.

"How will we do this? We won't be able to make it on time," Lance stuttered. "We don't have Beatriz right now since she's been taken."

"But I'm single though," Beatriz said from behind them. She was guiding Arm on her right while Judge Benjamin's daughter was on her left. "I'm not taken."

The boys immediately took the injured Arm and the barely conscious judge's daughter. They laid them over one of Elliot's boar fur bed bags. It was the only thing that they find remotely comfortable for the two unconscious people.

"B-But how did you…" Lance stopped himself and shook his head. "Beatriz, can you locate the bombs? You only need to find within this area, so that shouldn't take long, right?"

"Yeah, it's good," Beatriz said and extended her arm forward, she pointed the ground, the ring appearing right back on her finger. "Deep Location."

Her vision made her feel like she dove through the ground. After seeing how Harley would fight, she already analyzed the extent of his powers.

He can, unlimitedly, alter hallways and their positions, this would include the rooms the hallways are attached to. But he cannot create or remove them from the building. He can only switch their places or alter their positions but he can never destroy them.

With this, Beatriz's powers allows her to dig her vision down the ground and find the hallway that leads to the chamber of the explosives. She already found the chamber, it was moved to somewhere deeper down the dungeons. Now she only needs to find the way to it.

A few more seconds and Beatriz shut her eyes close, memorizing the way. "Okay, I see it."

The group did not waste any more time and blasted the ground of the court, didn't even bothered to go to the dungeon's entrance.

"This area is shallow and it's the closest to the explosives," Beatriz said. She pointed at the area behind Hope, "Pierce your sword through there, Lance. And blast the floor off. But only the floor, just a very thin sheet of floor."

"O-Okay," Lance did as was instructed. He made sure to use a small amount of force against the floor, afraid that he might dig too deep and trigger the explosives. "Black Pierce."

He thrusted his black sword, punching a hole through the floor to which they passed through. Beatriz led the way while everyone else trailed behind her.

Hope was left to guard the two unconscious people and to watch over the time. As much as they should, they must deactivate the Ember Gems before the time goes off. And Hope was on Contact with Lance while he watches over.

"You still have ten minutes left," Hope said.

"Okay, noted," Lance said. "We still need to hurry up though. We don't know Blithe's plans. He might pulla a trick up his sleeve."

"This type of magic is not remote once you pass another dimension," Frederick said. "He already set the time with this since he knows he can't manually make his gems explode anymore."

"If we're going to nullify the explosive magic of the gems, what will happen to it?" Ed could help but ask. "Does it fetch for a good price?"

"It becomes coal," Frederick snorted, actually smiling. "I remember another person who asked just that not too long ago."

"I was young, Fred, what'd you expect me to ask, huh?" Luck groaned. "You're sometimes a bully, you know?"

"I didn't actually said any names, did I?" Frederick smirked. "Well, if the shoe fits."

Elliot was silent throughout their way to the chamber. He still couldn't figure out why there were black mist over Luck while they were fighting Sora. And there was something that Sora called him that Elliot couldn't quite point out. He only heard a buzzing noise from the dome and the buzzed out voice of Sora as she spoke.

Whatever it may seem to be, Luck didn't mind it he heard it or not. The man was still composed and he still stood firm like nothing had happened.

Is this one of their many lies? Elliot couldn't help but ask himself.

"We're almost here," Beatriz said. She stopped in the middle of the long hallway and tapped the right wall. "Lance, take this wall down. – made sure to add the other hallway here so no one would suspect that the path was actually here."

"White Pierce." Lance gently thrusted his sword and made a hole through the wall. It wasn't big like the one he used on the Court's floor. It was just enough for everyone to fit one by one.

"I'll go first," Frederick said walked over Beatriz's front. "He must've set a trap inside, right? We need to make sure our Locator wouldn't get injured."

Frederick stepped his right foot in front of the hidden hallway and it was instantly engulfed in flames. It was a good thing he was the first one to come considering he was almost immued to fire.

"See? It's nothing–"

Before Frederick could finish, the flames had traveled up to his thigh, up to his torso and swallowed him whole.