I Know the Secret to Surpass Level 100

Elliot was panicking. Lance was gone, and the core members of their group were injured.

Before the two girls who attacked them left, they launched a series of attacks onto the stronger Adventurers, even Guan Yin and Kaminari weren't left uninjured.

"Let's get them to a safer place," Elliot said as he took charge. There wasn't anyone else capable of taking over now except for him.

Zeus had fainted, sustaining a large wound in his stomach while the others were left heavily injured all throughout their bodies. The power the women from the floating island weren't something to be taken lightly. 

Their powers were comparable to three to four of Malice's Vassals each. Even when they fight as one, their efforts would only be in vain considering the power gap between them.

Elliot called the dragons to take them to the ground where the healers were. "Please take care of them. Especially those who are in a more critical state."

"These wounds just look heavy, but these are very light," Aquarius was the first one to notice. He lifted Frederick and laid the man on his lap. "Look at the wound on his arm. It looks big, right? But when it's just long, not deep."

He was part of the group who brought Kusa to the healers, that was why he didn't get to be wounded like the others.

The blue haired man placed a finger on the bare wound and swiped the blood off, revealing the cut in Frederick's arm. "See? It's nothing more than a sratch. It's just, it's really big."

"That's—" Elliot paused. "Do you think they did this on purpose? Or were they just quick and doesn't have that much power?"

"I can't tell," Aquarius replied honestly. "What I know is that those people out there were powerful. They can't be reckoned with, even when they took Lance. We have to consider and reconsider all our steps when approaching them."

"The problem now is, how can we approach them?" Connor asked. "We don't know where they are. Plus they have their floating island. They could be anywhere in the East."

"That's what they wanted you to think," Aquarius smirked and pointed straight up. His hands was pointing at the skies that had a thin layer of patchy clouds. "Because actually, they never left."

–

"Where am I?!" Lance growled. His hands and feet were bound to the ground by silver chains. He was sitting inside a wooden room without any windows and doors. "I know you can hear me. I can sense you."

A plank on the right corner of the room lifted, and the woman who was sitting on the chair entered the room. She was still on her chair while she used some kind of floating magic to move.

"You really are a replica of him," the woman said. "Sheeva hid it from us, but it's impossible for you to escape your destiny."

"D-Destiny?" Lance asked. "I don't understand you. What destiny would that be?"

"Let me tell you a story first," the woman said. She saw the look of confusion Lance had on his face. "I know, I know. Sheeva just told you a story, but that wasn't the end of it. What Sheeva told you was just the first half of what happened back then."

"Tell me then," Lance ordered bravely. "Tell me the second half of the story."

"Oh, my," the woman touched her chest. "Are you really curious, or do you just want to buy some time?"

"Both," Lance replied without hesitation. "I want to know everything and at the same time, I want to buy time until my friends get here."

"The second one would be impossible," the woman smirked. "First, let me introduce myself. I am Lady Hao or in the West I am known as many names. Esmeralda the Gypsy Thief…"

The woman changed forms. The vale lifted from her face and her skin turned brown. She had cat eyes, a sharp pointy nose with a large bridge, and a full lips as though she was stung by a wasp.

Her Eastern style clothing morphed into small cloths that wrapped around her body, barely covering anything at all. On her neck was a shoal that wrapped around it once and both two ends hung behind her with silver embellishments of the sun and stars on the tip.

Lance thought of her as the lady who talked to Elliot before. When his friend told him about a weird woman who told him about a prophecy, the memory or Elliot telling him about the woman came to his mind.

The woman chuckled, "I am also, Solar the First Leader of the Forest Folk…"

Her forms shifted again. Her skin became more pale and her face morphed into more Western look. Her eyes became larger, her nose was now more of a button, and her lips got thinner. 

Her dark brown hair was changed into a pale green one with vines and leaves for a crown trailing over it. Her outfit was now composed of a large orange flower that was made into a dress and smaller dark blue petals trailing down from her chest and was spiraling to the bottom of the dress.

She looked exactly like a Forest Folk. They were big fans of turning organic materials into clothing, and this was what the woman turned into. Although Lance hasn't heard of her name before.

"and—" the woman shifted once more, this time it was a form that Lance didn't expect. Her body got larger, giving her a more masculine look.

Her hair got shorter and her clothes morphed into a white rope. The flower crown that was sitting on top of her head became a large rectangular hat and on her hand was a staff with a bird on the tip and a lion on the pommel.

"It is I," the woman in her new form said, grinning widely. "Do I look familiar?"

"T-The Holy Crow…" Lance trailed off. "But h-how?"

"I am the one who gave the Holy Crow his power and identity. I was the one who took him off the streets and trained him, giving him the lessons that nobody else possessed," the woman said through the Holy Crow's voice. "I was the one who rose through the ranks of the church, it wasn't until twenty years later that that man took my place and became the actual Holy Crow."

"What about Galaxia?" Lance asked. "Is he real too?"

The woman shrugged, "Let's just say that I had three children. One from light, one from the darkness…"

"And the other?" Lance asked.

"One who's a fruit of the universe," the woman grinned, laughing hysterically as she watched Lance panick. "Good luck to your friends."

Back in the island, the healers just finished mending everyone. They were taking turns and just finished the last patient, Galaxia himself who insisted on being last.

"Is everyone okay now?" Galaxia asked Iris, the appointed leader of the healers. "Are you sure that I'm the last one? And that everyone else is in good condition?"

"Don't fret," Iris said, pushing Galaxia down. "You need some rest. Sleep first, then we'll move on to the next Maiden."

"Okay," Galaxia laid down as instructed. When Iris turned around, a deadly grin crept on his face.