I Know the Secret to Surpass Level 100

As they went further into the area of where the fight mainly took place, they saw three bodies lying on the ground.

"A-Angin?!" Kaminari gasped.

"Midnight?!" Elliot and his friends chorused.

They all ran to the unconscious bodies of their friends. Crying as they saw how much thier friends had suffered. Wounds, bruises, and blood were everywhere that it was hard to determine how they survived.

"So these two used them as hosts, huh?" Irus walked towards them and fired three tentacles that covered the three bodies like a membrane. He injected demonic powers and energy into them so they would recover quicker. 

Luck and Frederick shared a look before shaking their heads, exiting the scene as they stirred more questions. Galaxia saw this and followed the two.

"You know about this?" Galaxia asked. "Midnight… That person is not Midnight. He has his face, but the aura is completely different."

"We know something about it, but we don't know it was this bad," Frederick replied, taking out a cigarette and smoking it. "But look, he's fine so don't worry about it."

"How can I not worry?" Galaxia said with a higher sounding voice than he intended. "I-I'm sorry. I was just so worried."

"You're screaming as if you're too far from us," Irus deadpanned, watching the three from a couple of meters away. "We could still hear you and what happened here is that these two demons," he pointed Mammon and Leviathan, "possessed these bodies. This is a common practice for demons because not all of us has actual physical attributes after leaving the realm."

"You mean like how Saitan borrowed Daniel's body?" Elliot asked, making Irus nod. "They would borrow bodies from hosts in exchange for whatever the hosts wished for. This was called a Pact. If a Pact is broken, the host will lose their body forever and the demon would take over."

Elliot looked at the sleeping Leviathan who was in Midnight's body. "Midnight…"

He then turned to Kaminari who was sobbing outside of the capsule where Mammon was. Mammon was the host of Angin's body.

"Don't worry," Irus said. He opened a portal and took out two puppets. "Your friends will have their bodies back soon."

–

Almost three hours have passed and the Adventurers had almost lost their hope that Parisol would come back. Elliot sighed as he sat on the ground, his eyes never missing to look at Licht who was miserably sitting inside a cage.

The emperor already surrendered and he didn't want to fight anymore, but Irus does not trust anyone that easily. Licht could still betray them, that's what he was thinking.

"This seems hopeless," Elliot said to Lance. Their initial plan was to split their entire group into eights. One eighth of them would be in Connor's team to provide safety for the Maidens while the rest needed prepare to defeat Parisol.

"The Maidens do not need security anymore," Licht said. "I'm not going after them and I wouldn't command the guards to do it."

Elliot pursed his lips. "Why were you so obsessed with the Maidens anyway?"

"Malice tricked us into believing that they were the key to become an Absolute," Licht replied. "I guess it wasn't true."

"It is," Irus intervened in their conversation. "If you sacrifice all twelve Maidens and drink their blood from a golden chalice, you'll attain Absolutehood. It doesn't matter if you're a candidate or not."

"Candidate?" Elliot asked. "You need to be a candidate to be an Absolute?"

Irus nodded. "Every six hundred years, beings who have reached high powers are selected by the gods, they are the candidates. One of them would be selected as the most suitable being to become an Absolute, so the guards would test them. Unfortunately, the last known being to have passed this test was the Forsaken which happened about fifty thousand years ago."

"Do you know the reason why?" Elliot asked to which Irus nodded again.

"Before the Six Realms and the Absyss were created, beings would roam in nothingness. The Almighty was the first one to gain a physical characteristics, so started to He created the realms."

When he created the final realm, Hell, the Forsaken too had already created his own realms, the floors of the Abyss. Before the Almighty could finish Hell which was a land similar that of Heaven, the Forsaken corrupted it and filled the bright world with darkness.

The Almighty could only watch as his world would slowly dim down and finally fall into the hands of the other Absoulte. He didn't have any other choice.

After every six hundreds of years, the two Absolute beings would clash to stop any Candidate from reaching Absolutehood. This was to maintain their powers and not create more conflict.

If one did reach Absolutehood, then they are required to create their own realms. Both the Almighty and Forsaken does not think that this was a good idea, so they agreed to stop anyone from reaching Absolutehood.

"But things right now is complicated," Irus continued. "It is the ninth six hundred years, and this time three Candidates have joined the fray, ones that equal their powers so they couldn't just get rid of them."

"Who are they?" Elliot asked. "I know one would be the Man, one is Malice, and the other?"

"I wish I know who it is," Irus chuckled. "All I know is that one more Candidate almost have the powers of the Absolutes. This person is unknown so they might be a bigger threat than the other two."

"Is it not you?" Alice suddenly asked, making everyone look at her. "You created an entire realm for you and your mother, you could move mountains and calm storms. Is it not you?"

Irus smirked and shook his head. "You're all too lucky if it was just me. But a Candidate is at least two or three times my power. Malice is twice and just by the aura the Man had exuded, he is at least three times more powerful than me."

The words got stuck in Elliot's mind after hearing them. He had witnessed Irus's prowess from he demon's previous battles. He was not just anyone that you want to take lightly.

But if the Candidates were indeed stronger than him, what hopes do they have now? They have a lot of enemies on all sides. Which ones do they have to take down first?

"Elliot," Irus called out, snapping Elliot from his thoughts. "Lance, Connor, Ed, Hope, and you Daniel. Come with me. I have something to discuss with you. Everyone else can settle down."

"But what about the plan?" Zeus asked but Mammon chuckled. He was still injured and was the first among his brothers to wake up after they have been treated by Irus. 

"He's dead. Oh, wow I have my own body," Mammon said. "Irus must've felt the sudden disappearance of his presence too. Parisol died just now. His aura blinked and he died."

Everyone looked at each other, confused as to what Mammon just said. After all, they saw how strong the Paragon was. It was curious if he died just like that.

"It seems like the Man took him out," Saitan said, also waking up. "He was killed without even getting a chance to fight back.. How scary."