I Know the Secret to Surpass Level 100

After several minutes of Melissa raging all about their achievements, she finally stopped. Elliot could only look down in shame, not expecting his mother to behave like a child.

"We defeated the Five Kings of Avancia and replaced them with the combined powers of the members of Pentos," Melissa said. This caught everyone's attention, causing them to look at her in shock.

"What?" Melissa asked, looking at Francoise who had the exact same look as everyone else. "You didn't tell them?"

The old man slammed his paw on his face, sighing. "Nobody was supposed to know, Melissa. Nobody."

"Wait, wait, wait," Elliot stepped forward. "Mother, you mean that the Kings are not the actual Kings? Then what are they?"

"The answer to your first question is yes and no. Are the Kings the original Kings that resided on those palaces? No, because we annihilated all of them. Do the Kings right now resemble the former glory of thier former selves using the power of the members of the Pentos apart from one? Yes," Melissa replied, then looking at Francoise. "But looking at Francoise right now. I can say that they retrieved their old powers."

It was the most obvious thing that any one of them could say. Francoise was leagues beyond what they know him as. The immense pressure coming from him was not something to be taken for granted. The man possessed the aura that is even greater than Uriel's hand. It seems like he is in equal footing to an Archangel himself.

"It's such a shame that we had to play pretend for a while," Francoise chuckled. "I really had fun having my powers and the first few years were the hardest because I wasn't used to it."

"Then Frederick helped us defeat the fake Azure King. What was that all about?" Elliot asked. "Just part of your ploy?"

"I did not know that, so you better ask someone else," Melissa muttered, looking at Francoise.

The old man laughed, clutching his stomach. "Well, he just wanted to see your abilities firsthand. I even heard that they try to defeat the fake Kings for fun before retrieving their powers. Those guys are beasts if you ask me."

"But why didn't you recover your powers before?" Lance asked. "There were several cataclysmic events that happened, yet you didn't try to intervene if you really had such powers."

"Because the key to returning our powers lies to you discovering the hidden memory," Francoise said. "We let you defeat all your foes because we want you to get stronger until you reach our level. All of you."

"But honestly, we're not near Elliot's level. He's already past Level 100. How could we even break the limit?" Ed asked. "Do you know?"

"Elliot, what level is the Man?" Francoise asked. "With your skills, you must have seen it, right? He showed his true body to you once and not a clone. You would've been able to see his level."

Elliot was silent, recollecting the memory of his first encounter with the Man's real body. He took a deep breath as he replied, "He was Level 171."

A collective gasp of shock gathered, all eyes widened apart from Melissa and Francoise. It seemed impossible for such feat to happen when the limit of the System was 100.

"But how?" Lance asked. "How did he break the limit?"

"Arms of the Brotherhood feature," Francoise said. "The Man was not the wielder of Elliot's skills, but he was someone whom the previous bearer knows deeply. The previous owner shared the skill to us and that's why he shares the same level as we are."

"Same level..." Elliot scanned Francoise, eyes widened when he saw the old man's level. "You're Level 149. You're far from his level."

"You do realize that one person has just regained her system, right? But still. He must've gotten a whiff of the events because he levelled up too fast," Francoise said. "If you saw him a while ago, then his level should've been past 200. But when our powers returned and Melissa was revived, it levelled down."

"Wait." There was a grin on Elliot's face as he spoke. "Then that means his candidacy can be challenged!"

"I can't challenge him. Neither can Melissa," Francoise said. "Arms of Brotherhood prevents us from killing each other. Well, we can but we will turn into the Man too."

"So it's complicated, huh?" Elliot chuckled. "I guess you have no other choice?"

"Yeah," Francoise signed. "The corruption of breaking the Arms have started long before he killed your parents. It was when we first defeated the Azure King and your father proposed to Melissa."

"Proposed..." Elliot placed a curled finger on his chin. "He likes my mom?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that," Melissa said. "The Man is obsessed with the idea of being your father's friend that he wanted for them to spend the rest of their lives together."

"So he likes father?" Elliot gasped, eyes wide and face contorted.

"Nothing that of sort," Melissa shut the idea down completely. "The Man, or Spencer, has always been by your father's side all his life. He didn't like him romantically or anything at all. He just wanted the idea of being together and travelling together. The person wasn't the focus of interest, but the feeling he gets from the experience."

"He..." Elliot was speechless. "It would've been easier to digest if he liked you. But this thought is nothing that I could've imagined."

"If the Man really wanted that, then why did he kill you?" Lance asked. "He removed the source of the experience, then what will that make of him?"

"A shell of a body without a soul," Connor muttered, speaking from an experience that he was too familiar with. "When Elliot first met me, I was nothing but a shell of my older self. The Infernal carnage that took over me had always been the driver of my mind."

Out of nowhere Irus appeared, walking towards Elliot with his defense raised and eyes glaring at everyone. "I'm here now. I took care of some things earlier. But Leviathan and Saitan are here to help me manage Hell. Good thing I could trust my brothers."

Elliot nodded while Francoise cleared his throat. Irus placed a hand on Elliot's chest protectively, seemingly wanting to speak something else."

"As we were talking, the Man too was like that before he met Reginald. A being without a soul walking amongst us," Francoise said. "He was an assassin in Heaven, born in a clan where he was nothing but a tool. Reginald gave him another reason to live and perhaps the reason why the Man was so obsessed with him."

"But I was saved," Connor clarified. "Elliot faced my wrath and took my soul back. Good thing we did that."

"Good thing indeed," Irus said. "I have seen countless of owners getting killed by the first person they trust. Elliot's father was like that too, and you have to remember..."

Irus walked forward, his aura deadly. The atmosphere shifted into an ominous heavy feeling. He glared at Connor with the intent of warning him about something that the boy should keep in mind.

"You have to bear in mind that you were the first person that Elliot trusted."