Logan cursed after hearing the news from Matt, this had thrown their entire plan out the window. Several of the newbies had decent potentials, losing them would be a blow to the team. The leader had put the phone on speaker so the others could hear what had happened.

“I’m going to follow them,” Matt said after a moment.

“Don’t” Logan ordered “Wait for us to get there. We’re only a few minutes away”

“I’ll wait five minutes” came Matt’s reply and he ended the transmission.

“This is not good,” Logan said, looking at his teammates. Lance hadn’t suffered any injuries in the fight but was completely drained of his faith energy. Gwen had taken quite a few hits. On the outside she was unscratched, but she was breathing heavily and looked pale. The fight had taken a toll on her. The gamer was currently seated on the floor leaning against the wall. She seemed to have opened up her inventory as with a swipe of her hand two glass bottles appeared from thin air.

“Take this,” Gwen said, holding the bottle of blue liquid up to Lance.

“What’s this?” Lance asked, taking the bottle, and unscrewing the top.

“Mana potion” Gwen explained “it’ll help restore your energy”

The gamer then opened her own bottle which held a light red liquid in it and drank it. Lance hesitated for a second before downing the potion, it had a cool almost minty taste to it. After drinking the entire bottle Lance didn’t feel any changes and was about to voice his complaint when a light tingling sensation came from his stomach. He could feel the potion begin to change itself into faith energy. It wasn’t instant like in games, but he guessed within ten minutes he would be back to full energy.

“Was that a health potion?” Logan asked the gamer as she got to her feat.

“Regeneration” she corrected “Won’t instantly heal but will help make the run a little easier”

“Do you have any others?” the leader questioned.

“Only have a stamina potion left” Gwen said with a shrug “these are too expensive to buy in bulk. I wouldn’t have used them if we didn’t have to rush.”

“We do have to rush” Logan agreed “I’m going to charge ahead and head down with Matt. You two follow and try to get in contact with Josh’s team”

“Hopefully, their mission went smoother than ours,” Gwen said, rising from the floor with a groan.

“Hopefully, they survived” Logan muttered “You two hold onto this” he tossed the diadem to Lance who caught it easily.

“We’ll figure out what to do with this later” Lance said and handed the headgear to Gwen who put it in her inventory.

“You guys catch up as soon as you can” Logan ordered and then took off down the hallway. His enhanced physical stats meant within a couple seconds the leader was no longer in sight.

“Let’s go” Gwen said “I’ll call on the way”

The duo started off in a light jog, giving Gwen a little bit more time before pushing her wounded body further. As she ran Gwen pulled out her communicator and dialed for Josh. Unfortunately, she was left with a ringing tone that signaled that he was out of their range. The same happened when she dialed Eve and Elijah. After the third failed call the duo began to run towards the bathroom, as neither had enhanced their physical stats too much it was easy for them to keep a steady pace with each other. When they reached the floor, the bathroom was on, Lance halted, tilting his head a little and it seemed that he was listening to something. After a moment he smirked.

“Try giving Eve a call now” he said confidently.

Gwen was too tired and sore from the battle’s injuries and sudden run didn’t have the energy to question his request. She pulled out her communicator and dialed Eve, she answered on the second ring.

“This is Eve” the young woman’s voice sounded out of breath

“Eve it’s Gwen” Gwen started “we need you back at the castle. What happened on your mission?”

“We had some” Eve hesitated “complications”

In the background Elijah’s voice could be heard shouting, the exact words were lost but the tone was clearly angry.

“Any casualties?” Gwen asked in concern

“No and no real physical damage but… It might just be Josh and I returning for right now” Eve said as the yelling reached its peak.

“That’s fine,” Lance said “we need you and Josh to head right to the chamber of secrets. The newbies have entered. Logan and Matt should have entered by now, but they will need backup”

“We’re on our way” Eve confirmed and ended the call.

“What do you think happened with Elijah?” Gwen asked

“As of right now we can’t worry about it” Lance said coldly “we need to focus on securing as many people as we can”

Gwen nodded at the decision. The duo took off once again, hoping to reach their teammates before it’s too late.

Out in the forest Josh continued to pull Elijah along as they ran. They had just heard the announcement that they were rewarded for completing a bonus mission. Josh himself had received 750 points and a single D rank reward.

They didn’t stop running till they were out of the woods and officially in the castle’s grounds. Once they paused Elijah snatched his arm away roughly, at the same time Eve’s communicator began to ring.

“How dare you touch me” Elijah spat at Josh “Who the hell do you think you are? Why didn’t you tell me about Ashley?”

“Elijah” Josh began but wasn’t sure what to say “I really did plan to tell you after this movie”

“If I survived” Elijah said in disdain “that’s probably why you brought me out here. Hoping I would die, and you wouldn’t have to reveal the truth”

“That’s not true!” Josh defended himself “I went out of my way to make sure you survived. I spent the last week in the lobby trying to find you so I could tell you about Ashley”

“So why didn’t you?!?” Elijah shouted “I was right here, and you said nothing”

“The team asked me not too” Josh explained but the defense sounded lame even to him.

“Fuck you and your team!” Elijah screamed “if your team was worth anything Ashley would be here”

His last words seemed to strike Elijah, as if he were now acknowledging Ashley’s death. Tears began to form, and his face grew red as the thought processed.

“Elijah” Josh tried but was cut off with a wave.

“Just leave me alone” Elijah said and then took off running towards the castle.

Josh watched the young man flee and wanted to follow but it was at this point Eve finished her call.

“We need to hurry back to the castle,” Eve said and began to walk quickly.

Josh hurried to catch up, they were heading to another part of the castle then Elijah was heading.

“What about Elijah?” he asked, casting another glance at the retreating figure.

“Leave him for now” Eve said stoically “we’re heading to the chamber”

Eve filled Josh in on what she learned over the brief conversation, hearing the danger the newbies were in Josh demanded they began to travel faster. He set off at a brisk pace, it wasn’t nearly as fast as he could go but his physical stats were a league above Eve’s, and he didn’t want to leave her behind. He also made sure not to use any of his divine energy. Despite how brief the skirmish had been against the spiders he had let his emotions ruin his control and used up almost thirty percent of his total energy in a matter of minutes. It would take hours to fully recover which apparently, he wouldn’t have.

The duo arrived at the chamber’s entrance within minutes, as expected it was empty save for the ghost crying in one of the stalls. Without hesitation Eve jumped down, Josh took a second to marvel at the long fall in front of him before jumping in. Just like in the movie the fall turned into a long slide which deposited them in a chamber filled with bones of small rodents. While there had been a large amount of bones in the movie, now there were so many the actual floor underneath was completely covered. A sign of the number of basilisks they would be facing.

Eve had already made her way to the exit of this room, and was looking out into the sizable labyrinth they were in.

“I think I can hear someone” she said motioning for Josh to follow her. The duo ran through the dark stone tunnel, following a ruckus that sounded like a fight. They entered one of the rooms to find Lance and Gwen fighting a juvenile basilisk. Lance was in front of the large serpent, using his papyrus to lodge a jagged piece of iron into its head. While it was able to penetrate the beast’s scales it didn’t have the force to enter far enough to cause any damage. Leaving the snake with a dark metal horn on top of its head. Gwen stood to the side of the beast launching mana arrows into the beast with little effect. The snake swiped its tail at Lance who had caused it the most pain, but the teen was able to jump out of the way in time.

“Lance!” Josh shouted and charged in the room, Eve right behind him. Lance turned to look at the loud shout, as did the giant serpent. The juvenile whipped its tail at the two new opponents. Josh was able to jump over the beast’s tail and avoid any damage, but Eve did not have that strength to do the same. She was caught and sent sprawling on the floor. The beast then reared its head back, preparing to strike at Josh who continued his run forward. Suddenly a white paper wrapped around the beast’s eyes, momentarily blinding the monster.

The basilisk still followed through with its attack but wasn’t able to see Josh jump as it approached. The jock managed to keep his footing as he found himself on top of the large snake's head. Relying on instinct Josh ran up the head in a second and located where the iron had been lodged. Pulling all the strength from his enhanced body Josh struck the iron with his hammer. The blow launched the iron deeper into the snake’s head and through its brain. The basilisk let out a large twitch before falling to the ground dead. Josh fell to the ground with the head and ended up on his back lying next to the beast. An announcement sounded in the jock’s head informing him he earned a D rank reward and 1000 points from the kill.

“Good work Josh” Lance said, walking up to his stepbrother

“Thanks” Josh said, rising to his feet “What’s going on?”

“We entered trying to find the newbies” Lance explained “we haven’t seen anyone yet, just this basilisk”

“Then we need to keep moving,” Josh said seriously. He turned and saw Eve and Gwen approaching. Eve didn’t look injured from the hit she took, though Gwen appeared pale.

The group continued deeper into the chamber, the members exchanging stories about their bonus missions as they travelled. Lance was intrigued to hear they hadn’t received a notification when they had begun a bonus mission, while Josh was annoyed, they didn’t get a warning like the others. Elijah was discussed briefly but everyone agreed they couldn’t worry about the young man at this time. They continued through the chamber for a few minutes. This appeared much larger than it did in the movies, either the movie hadn’t shown it, or God increased the size to accommodate the increased number of basilisk.

A cry pulled everyone’s attention forward. A small form could be seen running between two rooms.

“Claire!” Josh shouted right before a large snake appeared, following after the young teen.

The group rushed ahead, catching up as the snake’s tail was through the archway. In the room Claire stood shaking, her back against the wall as the snake loomed over her. On a large shelf attached to the wall above Claire a statue of a man holding a wand above his head was placed. Before any of the veterans could enter the snake struck at Claire, opening its mouth in an attempt to eat her whole. A translucent barrier appeared around the young girl, roughly stopping the beast. Due to Claire being against the wall all the force they struck the barrier was instantly passed to the wall, leaving the teen completely unharmed. The wall shook behind her as did the statue overhead, but this wasn’t the only cause of the shaking. With an audible grunt the statue toppled over, falling headfirst into the basilisk’s head. The force brought the statue's wand through the beast’s skull, killing it instantly. Crystal lay on the ledge gasping for breath, clearly using all of her strength to push the statue over.

“It’s dead” she called out “I got a notice”

Claire let out a cry of triumph at the information. It was then that she noticed the veterans who were standing in the entrance stunned. They were surprised to see the newbies were not only alive but had actually managed to kill a juvenile basilisk on their own. Crystal also saw the veterans and jumped down to meet them besides the basilisk’s corpse.

Claire tackled Lance in a hug and began to sob softly, much to the older teen’s discomfort. She had managed to stay strong while running through the chamber but now that she was surrounded by others, she couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“What happened to you guys?” Crystal asked angrily “you said everyone was coming down here”

“We found a few things we needed to take care of first” Lance answered, “What happened that brought you down here?”

“Harry!” Claire cried out grabbing Lance’s shirt “He was petrified”

“Harry was petrified?” Gwen asked

“Yeah we saw him in the infirmary” Crystal confirmed “That’s what made us come down here. Figured if things were getting worse you could use some help”

“So, Harry was petrified instead of Hermione” Lance mused “God really wants to push us in this movie”

“Obviously” Josh grumbled “everything about this movie has been a pain”

“I’ll be very happy to be out of here” Gwen agreed

“What happened when you came down here?” Lance asked

Claire let out another sob at the question and Crystal even looked away blinking away tears.

“We ran into a juvenile not long after we entered” Crystal said after a moment “Otis and Laurie got eaten”

“I… almost” Claire tried to speak but she was trembling too hard to continue.

“It went after Claire next” Crystal continued “Thankfully I gave her the jade amulet which blocked the attack and shocked the basilisk long enough for us to run”

“That’s when you came here to take it out” Josh guessed, nodding to the fallen basilisk.

“No actually this is another one” Crystal corrected “we ran into Logan while the first one was chasing us. He killed it easily and sent us her to leave the chamber, we ran into this one on the way back”

“How many of these things are there?” Josh asked in frustration

“What happened to Logan and Matt” Gwen asked

“They went to fight another basilisk,” Crystal said before shivering “I didn’t even realize it was a snake until it moved. It took up the entire archway into a room. Way bigger than the juveniles”

“So, either a mature or a mother basilisk” Lance concluded

“We should go back them up,” Josh insisted.

“Agreed you two should continue to the entrance” Lance decided “you should be safe there”

“No one is safe in this chamber” a chilling voice sounded from above them, the s being drawn out in a hiss.

Everyone looked up to witness a truly large snake wrapping itself around the room. This serpent was almost twice as large as the juvenile.

“Close your eyes!” Eve shouted.

Everyone closed their eyes immediately and realized what this meant. They were facing a mature basilisk who had developed its signature deadly glare. Josh began to channel his divine energy throughout his body, the process made easier by the hammer he held. He was hoping his sense of hearing would improve with the energy but whatever difference it made was not noticeable. Everyone could hear as the serpent made its way down the walls.

“You all will make a lovely meal for my siblings and mother” the basilisk hissed as it approached.

“Josh take the newbies and get out of here” Lance ordered also channeling his faith energy

“You think you can take this thing?” Josh questioned, Claire and Crystal both grabbed onto the jock’s shoulders.

“I have an idea,” Lance answered. Once the serpent hit the floor Josh bolted with the newbies. Lance also struck out sending his papyrus at the giant serpent.

God’s Papyrus like many items in the exchange system had much more to it than the short description told. Even in its lowest stage the papyrus had a very crude form of sentience in that it could follow mental orders from its wielder. They couldn’t be complex or open to much interpretation, but simple orders would work. Simple orders like covering the basilisk’s eyes would be followed fairly well.

The papyrus wrapped itself around the beast’s head, layering itself over its eyes. This unfortunately did not come soon enough to stop the beast from placing its body in front of the entrance, stranding everyone in the room. Josh had almost been crushed by the beast’s massive body but had stopped short hearing the wind from the basilisk moving in front of him.

“Damn you” the basilisk cursed as its sight was taken from it. It began to writhe angrily, trying to get his tail to its head to remove the bindings.

“It's blind” Lance called out as the frenzy began.

Everyone opened their eyes in time to watch Claire get struck by the serpents tail. Thankfully, the teen still had her protective amulet but without a wall to take the force she was still sent flying across the room. Crystal immediately ran to the young teen while Josh began to attack the basilisk with his hammer. Even with his energy enhanced strength the blows were doing barely any damage. Gwen also tried to help, firing another round of mana arrows, and pulling out the Star Hanabi of her inventory. Gunshots echoed through the room as Lance fired his infinite ammo pistol. Eve was throwing ice spikes as fast as she could make them, one out of three already thrown had managed to pierce the basilisk’s scales and was still lodged in its hide. All these attacks together resulted with about the same damage flies inflicted flying around a human, just mild annoyance.

The basilisk let out an enraged hiss out its tail proved unable to remove the papyrus from its head. The magical item still followed the orders it last received as long as the energy it was given remained. As Lance put in over half his total energy, they had some time before the bindings would fail. With the beast’s eyes out of commission and Lance’s gunshots engulfing all sound within the room the basilisk relied on its remaining sense of touch. Causing Josh to be the target of the serpent’s attacks. The jock dodged the first swipe of a tail but the follow up sent him flying away from the snake. At this time Gwen activated the Star Hanabi, a stream of flames began to fall on the serpent’s side. This seemed to cause actual damage to the monster, with an angry hiss the beast’s tail came crashing down on the gamer. Gwen attempted to run but her physical speed wasn’t enough to move her out of the way of the giant tail.

Josh rose from the ground in time to watch the tail smash down on his teammate. As the tail lifted a series of clangs could be heard as a wide variety of items appeared around the gamer and crashed to the floor around her. Josh’s first thought was of how similar the scene was to games where a monster dropped an item upon death. Horror filled his mind as he fully processed what this meant for Gwen. Josh’s muscles froze at the sight, within the odd arrange of items the gamer laid. The only physical sign something was wrong was the numerous lumps across her body, the bones which had broken but been unable to pierce her magically enforced skin. Blood pooled around her head as it leaked from every opening on her head.

Lance had also been stunned by the sudden death of his teammate, his gunfire pausing for a moment and creating silence in the room.

“Gwen!” a young voice cried in horror. Claire stood leaning on one of the stone walls for support. This was where Crystal had left her after the initial hit, the young adult was currently back on one of the shelves with another statue.

The teen’s cry startled everyone in the room, save for the basilisk who lashed out immediately at the sound. It’s tail whipped out and struck the barrier the young girl had covering her. Unknown to the newbie and mostly ignored by the veterans, the jade amulet had a relatively small pool of energy within it which created the barrier every time. After the few hits she had received since entering the chamber Claire’s amulet had run low on energy and with this last strike the barrier shattered. The tail swipe continued and shoved the teen into the wall causing a rain of dust and pebbles from the impact. When the tail pulled away Claire’s body was revealed and did not have the luxury of keeping all the damage inflicted on the inside. The teen fell to the ground with a wet thump and remained still, no longer breathing.

Crystal let out a heartbroken scream at the same time Lance resumed his gunfire, his own shout of rage joining in. Eve continued her ice assault now throwing them higher towards the snake’s head. Josh however stood frozen at the realization of what just happened. In less than thirty seconds two of his teammates were killed right in front of him. Once again, he was forced to watch innocent people die for no reason. The memory of Ashley was still fresh in his mind, the hatred from Elijah remained as well. These feelings consumed the teen pushing him harder than anything he’d experienced before. A cold numbness flowed from Josh’s head, as it flowed the memories and feelings began to fade. As the anger and regret faded a small voice appeared in Josh’s mind.

“Just let it go Joshua” a female voice spoke “it's so much easier to not care about anyone else”

Josh let this voice sink over him, easing the rioting emotions he was suffering through. He could just let it all go, no longer bound by others. No longer bound by his own empathy or compassion.

“Josh!” a cry pierced through Josh's thoughts. Lance stood a few feet from his stepbrother, crouching as he had just dodged a tail swipe.

Josh looked at Lance and watched as the teen dodged another swipe from the basilisk. The action caused something to rise up in Josh again. Concern. Fear. Compassion for his brother. Josh remembered who he was and more important who he wanted to be. With an enraged shout Josh rose to his feet. The numbness faded as he stood, anger and a desire to avenge the fallen came crashing down within him. He wouldn’t give in to the numbness that lay within him, he wouldn’t give up on being a caring person.

Something inside Josh clicked, suddenly the world around him exploded with information. The jock picked up his hammer that lay besides him and began to channel his divine energy throughout his body. As the energy began to flow Josh made a new discovery. His divine energy had a form to it, electricity. He found it didn’t take nearly as much energy as he had been using to strengthen his body. Static crackled as the excess energy rose to the surface, small sparks of lightning danced across Josh’s skin.

With a shout Josh dashed forward and struck the serpent. This hit looked the same as the previous ones on the surface, but the results were vastly different. The basilisk twitched uncontrollably as lighting entered its body from Josh’s hammer. The jock did not hold back and began to strike again and again, each hit pulsing more lighting into the beast. Lance was amazed at the sudden strength Josh was showing. At first it looked as though the teens' strikes alone were causing the serpent to spasm but then he saw sparks of lightning on Josh’s hammer and realized what was really happening.

“Eve!” Lance yelled “start creating a path with your ice down the basilisk”

As he gave the order Lance began to fire his pistol a little lower after each shot. Eve followed the order without hesitation, her ice spikes weren’t highly effective in piercing the beast, but she made some progress. Lance’s plan became clear as his target reached near Josh. One bolt of lightning released in the serpent was drawn upward by the metal bullets now lodged within the monster. The bullets created a path for the lighting, spreading its damage through the beast and leading it straight to the monster’s brain. With one final cry of pain the mature basilisk collapsed dead.

Lance let out a sigh of relief at seeing the monster fall and made his way to reclaim his papyrus. He paused as Josh didn’t join him but instead darted out of the room, turning to go deeper into bowels of the chamber. Lance quickly ran to get his item and planned to join his stepbrother. He wasn’t certain on what had happened but given the new use of Josh’s energy the teen had unlocked his genetic constraint. He was now in the unlocked mode and intended to assist Logan and Matt before it wore off.