I Know The Secret To Surpass Level 100

A bolt of lightning was fired through the halls. Zeus roared as he let his attack continue, reaching back to him from behind to which he stopped with his palms.

"Where are they?" Zeus growled. "Just a minute ago, they were here."

"This is dangerous," Elliot muttered. "What if Dudu and Licht were the ones who set this up? What if they already caught the Ruby Maiden and now they're here to trap us."

Elliot opened his mouth to speak again but the wall from behind them suddenly burst open. Blue streaks of lightning emitted from the dust cloud that formed from the debris and Kaminari walked out along with Guan Yin, Galaxia, Hope, Viper, and Christina.

"Hey," Elliot run up to them. "Where's the others?"

"I don't know," Kaminari said. "One moment we were here, the next thing we know, we're in a dark room. If Zeus didn't fire the lightning, I wouldn't be able to locate you."

"You found him through your similar affinity," Elliot said. "If we could do this for the others, we can find them."

"Connor," Lance said. "Frederick, you have the same affinity as Connor. Fire an attack similar to Zeus, spin it around this endless halls and then he'll find you."

"Right," his guild master said and nodded. Frederick stood in the middle of the narrow hall while the others stood flat on the walls. "Here we go."

The man engulfed himself with bright red flames. He slowly raised his hand in front of him, concentrating a large magic there before firing a bird-like flame.

His attack roared through the halls, reaching back to him with a split second's time. The others gulped at the intensity of Frederic's magic. This man was keeping cards under his sleeve, but he wasn't afraid to let all the others know that he was keeping them.

"This should suffice, right?" Fredrick turned to Elliot. "Your guild mates will find us, right?"

The man was just keeping it, but everyone could sense the panicking boiling inside of him. He was good at pretending he was alright, but they could still see the slight shivering of his body.

"If all the others are together, then yes," Elliot said. "We can just hope that they are safe."

"Okay," Frederick breathed out. From his lips escaped the silent words that was barely audible to everyone around him. But to Elliot who has a keen sense of hearing, the words were clear, "I'm never losing one of you again."

–

"Ouch!" Florencia whimpered. "My leg hurt."

"That's okay," Aquarius walked up to her and healed her leg. It was twisted to the back and the bone was broken from the fall. 

Elizabeth walked forward and looked up. "How did we fell when we already circled around the maze many times and didn't fall before."

"That's the interesting part," Aquarius said. "This cave was perfectly built to prevent intruders from going inside. The moat with the black lava, the strong winds, and this mountain. The Ruby Maiden was thoroughly protected by her people."

"I think this place was a temple," Connor stepped closer to them. He whisked his hand and conjured a small red flame to light up the room. "The symbols on the wall are familiar. I think I saw them in a library back in Inferno."

"You can read?" Ed scrunched his face. "I don't think I believe you."

The man earned a smack on the back of his head from Connor. "Of course, I can't read. But these symbols are very similar."

"So, they worshipped the Ruby Maiden," Aquarius concluded. "That's why they were so protective of her."

"I don't know about you, but this place gives me the creeps," Jester hugged himself and looked around as if something would come out from the darkness. "I'm not scared though. I lived this long because I keep on cheating Death even when I was walking right in front of her doors."

"Nice analogy," Elizabeth snickered. "But fear is not the issue right now. We have to get out of this place."

From Connor's nape, he felt his hair tingle. He looked around and closed his eyes to feel the thing that tickled his senses.

"Connor, are you–"

"Shh," Connor placed his finger on Ed's lips before he could finish asking. "I can sense flames from somewhere."

"Flames?" Elizabeth asked. "That must be Frederick. Follow him so we can reunite with the group."

"Okay," Connor said. He waved both his hands in the air and conjured wisps so he could light up the path just like what Frederick did. "This way."

The group walked closer and closer to where Connor sensed the faint magic. The path they were on was long, and unlike the cave from above, this path was made of bricks. It was still the flat rectangle-shaped tunnel, but the materials used to build it was different.

"Are you sure it's Fredrick?" Aquarius asked. "My mana detection skills aren't bad too, but I don't think that was him."

"There's no other fire user here," Connor said. "Who else can it be if not Frederick?"

"Me."

They stopped when they reached the end of the tunnel. Kusa was laying in the middle of a circular room, his legs were pierced with thorns along with his lower torso and his right hand.

"Can I get some help?" Kusa said but his voice didn't panicked. He sounded calm, as if he wasn't literally being impaled on almost every part of his body.

"What the hell happened here?!" Aquarius growled. He walked closer to Kusa and looked around to make sure nothing surprising would come to him. "I don't know if you're okay or not."

"I'm okay, actually," Kusa said. "My master removed my ability to feel pain unless it's from flames."

"You lost a lot of blood," Aquarius said. "Everyone, bring me your water bottles. The least we can do here is replace the lost blood from this man. We'll worry about his wounds later."

The others with Aquarius handed him their water bottle. The man placed all the containers on the ground, opening them so he can make the water flow out of their containers.

"How did this even happened, Kusa?" Ed asked. "How were you impaled?"

"I was falling and falling until I reached this floor," Kusa said. "I happen to land on the thorns and it impaled me. My body felt weak, so I can't really move. That was why I sent a signal to alert everyone."

"You're lucky Connor sensed you," Aquarius said. While he converted the water into blood, he pulled out Kusa's limbs from the thorns one by one. He carefully did it so the Flame Master would not lose more blood than he already lost.

"I owe you one, little man," Kusa snickered. "But it seemed like I'm dying. I can see the stars."

"What?!" Aquarius hurried, but he only got a snicker from Kusa.

"Relax," the Flame Master chuckled. "I'm okay. I can't really feel anything except for the constant removal of the thorns from my flesh."

"Whatever," Aquarius only rolled his eyes after.

While his friend was rescuing Kusa, Connor found himslef wandering around the room. He found another path to which he took a look at, only shocking himself and came running back to the group.

"Guys!" Connor yelled.. "I found the Ruby Maiden's chamber."