I Know The Secret To Surpass Level 100

Lance was silent, and he needed to be silent. Elliot may seem to slowly calm down now but anything he say could lead to the worsening of his mental state. Lance knew that whatever cheat Console he had, it was slowly corrupting him.

Whatever was giving him power was also swallowing him piece by piece. There was a thin thread Elliot was holding on to from this darkness and when that thread breaks, Elliot will be fully consumed.

"So…" Elliot trailed off. "What do you think?"

"I think you're a hero," Lance said finally. "You did what you had to do, to save Connor, to save our Realm, multiple times. So, even when other people call it murder, then you're a murderer, but that doesn't make you less of a hero that you are. You're just doing your job."

There was a chill in the air for a moment, Elliot's aura was fluctuating as he processed the words that was just spoken to him.

"You think so?" Elliot chuckled. "Then I'm a murderer. Whatever. In the end, it all will still matter on what reason you do things, right?"

"Exactly," Lance said, breathing a sigh of relief. He raised his hand and ruffled the other boy's hair. "And you really need to work on your emotional and mental thought control. It sucks."

The red mist coming from Elliot had finally died down. The room was now even darker now that the light from the aura was gone. Elliot laid on his bed and closed his eyes.

"Let's go downstairs," Lance stood and offered his hand. "They must be worried sick right now."

Elliot stared at the hand and smiled, taking it and used it to pull himself up. "Okay."

When they got outside the room, the others down below seemed to be in a heated discussion. Their voices were louder than usual, reaching even the second floor of the inn.

In the lobby were three groups, Midnight has his own group, the rest of Elliot's party and Marrietta was another group, and the rest of the members from their team who were sitting on the tables were another group.

"Elliot needs our help right now, he needs to hear from us too," Connor said.

"Lance is doing that for you, so you don't have to worry," Midnight said calmly.

"Elliot has done dangerous things while he's out cold, what if he's doing something like that right now?" Ed spoke this time.

"Then Lance can protect himself and can come to us so he could get help," Midnight replied, again with a calm tone.

Midnight was standing a meter away from the bottom of the stairs while stoping the others from going up. They seem to gang up on him, forcing him to let them pass while Lance was still calming Elliot down.

"But Midnight–"

"None shall pass!" Midnight yelled and stomped his foot. There was a blast of dark aura that came from his action, silencing the people in front of him from continuing their argument. "Elliot needs to be reached out on, okay? One by one, slowly by slowly, we don't want to overwhelm him by going there all at once."

"It's okay now, Midnight," Elliot said from behind him. "I'm okay now."

Elliot's friends were silent for a moment. "Elliot!"

Midnight took a step to the side to let them pass. Without any hesitation, they ran up to him and surrounded him, bombarding him with questions.

"Are you okay?"

"Maybe you're just hungry."

"Yeah. You need to eat first."

…

Elliot thought he would be overwhelmed by the questions. But hearing them now made his lips quirk up into a smirk and filled his heart with warmth. "Thank you, everyone. Thank you."

–

The next morning was filled with silence in the inn. It was the day before the Battle of the Champions, and they needed to rest as much as they could to save up as much energy as possible.

In that silent morning was a certain pair of best friends, glaring at each other.

"No," Aquarius said. "You're going to anger her grandmother."

"I want her to see how cool her dad is," Minos grinned, flexing his biceps, showing them off as much as he can.

"Yes, but you know Lady Joane doesn't want her to witness violence at such a young age," Aquarius argued. "You do this and she'll never let you see Cecile again."

"This is where it gets better," Minos grinned. "You're her son. Why not talk to her?"

"I can't even ask her for a silver coin, you think letting the only thing that reminds her of her daughter go to a bloodbath event is something I could pull off?" Aquarius raised his brow while crossing his arms.

Minos sighed in defeat which puts a smirk on Aquarius's lips. He was going to breathe in easily, thinking he had silenced his friend.

Minos placed both his hands on the table and stood, leaning into Aquarius, "What if we both visit them?"

"That's not happening," Aquarius deadpanned. He stood up and turned, walking back upstairs to his room. "I'm going to get rest. This competition is stressing me out too much. I'm too old for this."

"Come on, Aki," Minos ran over to him. "Don't you want to see your mother? It's been how long? 7 years since you haven't seen her. And you don't want to go?"

With a grimaced look on his face, Aquarius shook his head vigorously. "No, I don't. There's a reason I've been staying out of her radar all this time. And if you could sense what that is, I'd fully appreciate it."

"What is the reason?" Minos narrowed his eyes. "You're pretty open to me. Is there something you've been hiding?"

With a sigh, Aquarius walked down a couple of steps from the stairs and smacked his friend's head from the back of his head, "I ran away from home, you idiot!"

Minos formed an O with his mouth after the realization. It took him a couple of seconds to recover before pleaded again, "Still, can't you just come with me?"

"No," Aquarius deadpanned.

–

"I don't even know how I'm here," Aquarius sighed.

They were in front of a large mansion in the noble neighborhood part of Solaguer. The city has three main neighborhoods, the nobles, the rich, and the middle class. The poor people often lived in the city center, above their shops or in establishments that offers lodging services.

"Who are you and what is your intention into coming here?" the guard asked them.

"I'm her son," Aquarius yelled. "Tell her I need to talk to her about something."

"Verification," the guard said.

This made the blue-haired man rub his temple with one hand and conjured a large sphere of water on the other. The sphere grew and grew until it was half the size of the mansion. "I believe she told you that I'm a water user, and a strong one at that."

"S-She did," the guard said in panick and hurriedly opened the gates. "Please stop your magic, please."

Minos was laughing by how the guard panicked after seeing the sphere. They walked inside the gates and into the front porch of the mansion.

"Hello?" Aquarius called out. The mansion was empty and his voice echoed loudly inside. "Is there anyone here?"

"For almost a decade you've been gone," a female voice spoke from the top of the stairs. "And now you come home with the man I hated the most. What is your intention, Aquarius? Do you want to kill me?!"

On top of the marble stairs, a thin woman with blue hair stood. She had a fur coat behind her and a fan covered half her face.

"M-Mother?" Aquarius gulped.