Second World

Good Janus also exhaled. He was so relieved that Jack had been successful. He displayed a genuine smile that Jack had only seen on Young Janus' face.

"Now, go! Tell everyone about this!" He told Jack.

"If I do that, he might run and take you with him. We might not be able to find you again," Jack said. He wasn't getting up from the floor.

"That's better than having him becoming an eternal grade," Janus said.

"He can still be. If he hides, we won't know when he will attack. The faction leaders cannot continuously live in hiding."

"But they will have a better chance if they know who they are dealing with… What are you doing?" Janus asked.

"I've seen him check this rune diagram every time he came here. I've also studied this diagram using my mana sense while I'm not working on my cage. I already know this diagram mechanism. I should need only five minutes to deactivate it."

Jack looked at Janus as he worked on the diagram. He continued, "If I have you by my side, it will be easier to convince the others about my story. We will get out of here together."

Jack took only three minutes. That already included deactivating the hidden rune diagram under the one powering the forcefield cage. The forcefield cage vanished abruptly once he shut down the rune diagram.

Janus looked at his opened cage. Before Jack arrived, he had resigned himself to his fate. When Jack created that small slit, a tiny hope bloomed in his heart. But deep down, he never believed that he would leave this room alive. Now that his cage was no more, he found it difficult to believe. He wondered if this was all a dream.

"What are you waiting for? Hurry!" Jack urged.

Janus snapped out of his trance. He immediately jumped out. It should still be more than one hour before Evil Janus made his routine visit. They had no problem getting to the outside with that time.

Jack was about to head to the main room which was also the nexus world, but Janus stopped him. If Evil Janus was not outside stalking his next victim, he was most likely inside that room, so they better avoid it. Janus took Jack to go via a different route.

Jack followed. Janus was more familiar with this dimension. They walked through several dim hallways until they came upon a space with voids for walls. Janus stopped then.

"Why do we stop?" Jack asked, confused.

"This… This hall shouldn't be here," Janus answered.

"Uh… So, do you still know which way to go?" Jack asked again.

"It doesn't matter which way. You two are not leaving this place!" A sharp voice echoed through the space.

Jack and Good Janus turned to the source of the voice. Evil Janus was there.

"You… You know we are escaping…?" Good Janus asked.

"Have you two forgotten about this thing?" Evil Janus revealed a long staff. He placed the staff vertically next to him. At the head of the staff was an eye-shaped sculpture.

"The Eye of Illios…?!" Jack uttered.

"It is called the Staff of Illios now," Evil Janus said. "I have a captive blacksmith attached the artifact onto a staff, with my aid of course. It is now a magic weapon. One which has helped me greatly in my endeavor, and it still retained some of its previous functionality."

Evil Janus tapped the staff and a projection appeared above him. It showed the image of Jack and Good Janus in captivity. Jack was in the process of getting out of his cage. It was a replay of what just happened several minutes ago.

"You were spying on us?" Good Janus asked.

"I sensed you do something to your cage," Evil Janus pointed at Jack. "I can't tell what it is but I am not taking any chances. Hence, I've been directing my staff's surveillance ability to your room. I must say I'm not disappointed. For someone who has been able to climb from an unknown outworlder to the king of a country, I was right to not underestimate you."

"You know, there is one thing different from our previous encounter," Jack said.

"What is that?" Evil Janus asked.

"I am not in captivity," Jack said and took out his King Badge. He sent the command to summon his royal agents.

Nothing appeared.

"This is a different dimension. You can't call outsiders here without my permission," Evil Janus said with a chuckle.

"Hah! You think I only rely on my royal agents?" Jack summoned Therras and Spark. The two faithful summons appeared by his side.

"Hehe, cute. I do feel the need to exercise," Evil Janus said. He didn't appear concerned.

"You might be a level 90 mythical but don't think that we will lose!" Jack exclaimed.

"Master, calculating the probability, I reckon our chance of winning is 7,58%," Spark's computerized voice informed.

"F*ck! So low? Are you on the enemy's side? How could you give such demoralizing news?" Jack complained.

"I'm simply stating the fact," Spark replied without emotion.

"Doesn't matter! We have more people. We will beat him with our teamwork. F*ck the winning chance!" Jack declared. He tried to rally everyone.

"Master, my winning chance is calculated based on the others who were hidden behind the void," Spark informed. "My eyes can perceive mana, so I can see through the veil."

"I didn't know you have such an interesting summon," Evil Janus said. "Another subject for me to experiment on once you are back in the cage. Well, since I've been found out…"

Evil Janus waved his arm. Moving shadows were seen from inside the void. Soon after, a horde of young Januses walked out of the void. Jack could inspect the level and grade of these young Januses this time. A majority were rare elites and special elites ranging from level 60 to 80. A few were level 80 mythical grades. These young Januses had the usual smiles they always displayed, but Jack didn't think those smiles were friendly this time. They were now creepy as hell.

"Motherf*cker…," Jack cursed.