The floating orb of element radiated power far surpassing a Master's.
Alarms went off in everyone's mind.
The inmates on the second and first floors were also scrambling to escape, entering an altercation with the low-level guards who thought to do the same.
The orb sped up its rotation, going faster than any could follow.
All they saw was a beautiful blend of colours.
The demon worshipper even struck it with his spells, but they were promptly absorbed, rendering his efforts useless.
After three minutes that seemed like forever, the orb slowed as the masters noticed it lose size until finally, the last of it was absorbed to reveal the one within it.
The orb acted as a cocoon, holding Ezra's body within it.
Ezra's mere presence had every person taken aback.
It was suffocating, to say the least.
He came alive, stretching and yawning as the last of the white particles floated away.
There he lay, suspended in the air and shirtless, while all around him was wreckage and ruin.
Yet he was unbothered.
The head warden and the inmates had temporarily stopped fighting to examine Ezra.
Contrary to their expectations, he hadn't blown into a great shower of energy as they'd expected.
Rather, the presence they felt indicated that he'd risen to a new rank.
After a minute of stretching, Ezra looked down at them with his eyes now holding a deeper shade of red.
Without a word he spread his arms out, and a shower of blue particles gushed out to touch every part of the person.
Ezra rose even higher, his skin crackling and stretched his palm, for which a whip of lightning was formed.
*Slash*
The whip moved, and an instant later, the bars to a cell were split in half.
*Slash*Slash*Slash*Slash*
Four more cells were split apart right after.
Lightning chains moved like snakes and entered those cells to pull the ones within.
Dragged out moments later, Ezra smiled at the sight of his Vassals.
"Ezra!" Theron called out in surprise.
They were just as surprised to see him, more so from his presence and how he was masterfully controlling lightning.
Ezra nodded lightly, speaking for the first time.
"I apologize for putting you all in this mess"
"Forget about that" Johan spoke. "When did you advance?"
Ezra chuckled. "Just now"
Their cells were locked with doors, so they hadn't witnessed the ongoing drama.
"He left us behind again!" Velora grumbled.
"So…" Roxanne. "What are we doing now?"
"We're getting out of here" Ezra replied. Then he looked up, "But first, I have a few things to do"
He raised his hands, another lightning whip was formed, flashing upwards.
The siblings couldn't help but wonder what he was trying to do.
A minute passed; Ezra sent two more whips.
Only after another three minutes did the whips come down, binding another individual.
A man garbed in all black, leaving only his face uncovered.
The grey hair exposed his old age.
It was the assassin that fled from the third floor.
Squirming like a rat to escape the binding lightning chain, he was outraged. "Let me go!"
The siblings stared, but no, they'd never seen this man before.
"Who is he?" Johan inquired.
"Someone useful"
That was enough of an answer.
Ezra stared at the man, reminiscing.
'Teacher'
This was the man who taught Ezra, no, Kevin, assassin techniques, and how to properly utilize darkness.
During Kevin's time, he'd only escaped after the apocalypse hit.
History had changed once again.
'Now, we leave' Ezra looked around.
As a grandmaster, his aura was a beacon for other grandmasters.
So, flying across continents would get him killed.
That left one other method, space portals.
Space mages were summoned, and they could take two to five days depending on how far away they were.
Luckily, Ezra knew of someone nearby.
Dropping to the third floor, he released the binding over the siblings, deeming it better to walk.
The master rank inmates avoided eye contact with him.
But…
"I will not allow you to leave"
The head warden blocked his path, with his bloody rapier in one hand, he stood strong though bloody in the face of overwhelming strength.
His courage was unmatched.
Unfortunately, courage did not match ability.
And when courage did not match ability, it was called a different name.
Foolhardiness.
Raising his palm, Ezra created a concentrated sphere of fire, and it grew to twice the size of his palm in no time.
Released, it flew to the head warden, who determined it was too fast to dodge and brandished his rapier to cut it in half, all in ten seconds.
He sought to slice the sphere of fire, but the sphere imploded upon contact.
Boom!
The result? The head warden was blown into the wall like a piece of dirt.
Ezra leaped onto the stairs, landing in front of the fallen squad leaders, and pulled Valentine away without hesitation.
"Ah!" she screamed. One of her ribs was fractured
"Drink this" he said, handing her a healing potion from the space ring.
Shook and unsure, she glanced between Ezra and the potion.
Especially since the potion is not of its regular colour.
Under Ezra's high gaze, she gathered up the courage and chugged it down in one gulp.
She hissed, holding her side as her body was healed.
Ezra didn't wait. He grabbed her hand, held her by the side, and leaped. Landing in front of the siblings.
The siblings watched the duo, blinking as they concluded the situation.
Theron smiled wryly, giving Ezra a thumbs up.
"She looks good"
"Huh?" Ezra raised a brow while Valentine's cheeks reddened.
"It'll take too long if we wait for a space mage, so we'll settle for the next best thing"
"Huh?"
Both Valentine and the siblings were thoroughly confused.
Ezra released Valentine, looking just as confused as to why they didn't understand.
He looks at Valentine. "Can't you open portals?"
"I can…"
"Good. We need your help to go back to Niton"
Only then did they understand.
"Wait" Valentine cautioned. "I'm not my mother, I can't go far before depleting my mana"
"If it's a problem of mana then you don't need to worry. I'll take care of that"
"Are you going to leave them like that?" Valentine asked, looking at the two master-rank inmates trying to avoid detection.
"No, I was getting to it" he said. "Might as well do it now"
He wrapped more lightning chains around the squirming assassin and placed him on the ground, before racing off faster than they could follow.
Darkane appeared in his palms, ejected from the space ring.
Voom
The siblings found him standing behind the two inmates, who-for some reason-froze.
Still wondering what happened, they witnessed the two inmates' heads slide down their necks and fall.
Followed by the torso, and then the legs fell like dominos.
The mouths of onlookers went dry. The assassin stopped squirming as a chill ran down his spine.
He was too frightened to speak.
Ezra sped up the stairs to the second floor, the noisiest floor.
Sounds of falling metal rang loud and clear as of a minute later, silence reigned.
Ezra arrived at the third floor once more after 'exploring' the first floor as well.
With him were fifteen guards bonded with chains of lightning, all wounded.
Placing them down, he races off and comes back, this time with the squad leaders.
With the siblings and Valentine's help, they fed all of them healing potions.
Inferior one, of course, Ezra wasn't THAT generous.
Stealing glances, Valentine spoke.
"What did you do to them?" she asked.
He replied without even looking at her. "Don't ask questions you don't want answers to"
She lay silent after that.
In five minutes, both guards and squad leaders awoke, and could now stand.
Walking to the fourth cell on the third floor, he placed his hands in the small area meant for food and ripped the door out.
Darkane was in hand, ready to cut the person down.
But then…
"Please don't kill me!"
What was this?
A man completely covered in dirty purple robes was bowing.
"I'll do anything you want. Please don't kill me!"
"Raise your head" Ezra spoke.
With a long grey beard, no hair, and massive wrinkles on his face, his age was all too apparent.
Though the man had more meat to his muscles than expected.
More importantly…
'He's not someone I knew as Kevin'
He had no recollection of him from his past life. Most likely, he'd died during the apocalypse or of old age.
"Who are you and why were you locked up?"
"I'm known as the poison cloud. I was locked up after killing ten villages with my poison"
'Come to think of it' Ezra looked at arm. 'I've been looking for how to strengthen the poison in my blood'
He smiled, looking at the man. "You'll do anything?"
"Yes, of course" the man spoke profusely.
"Hmm, I may have a use for you after all" he pointed to the others. "Go and stand with them"
"Yes" the man took to feet and joined them with speed.
A few steps later, he stopped in front of the unconscious head warden.
The sphere was never meant to kill.
He broke the wall apart and pulled out the head warden with lightning chains binding him.
Without a care in the world, Ezra brought out a mana stone from the space ring and handed it to Valentine.
Her eyes felt widened just touching it, she examined it further.
"Such rich mana. What is it?"
"Who knows? Try absorbing it" Ezra replied.
She didn't speak back and tried absorbing it.
Her body shook at the difference in quality she felt.
She looked at Ezra with an incredulous gaze.
"You must've felt its potency, he said. "But we don't have time to do things slowly"
"Give it to me"
Valentine handed him the stone.
"Do you know where your mother placed her marks?"
"No" she shook her head. "But I can feel it"
"Oh, okay. You'll open a portal to the nearest one"
"I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I can open a portal in two, but I'll need at least five to stabilize it, else you all be torn apart"
"Okay-
"I can't hold it for more than five minutes and I can only do it four times a day"
"…." "Is that all?"
"Yes" she nodded.
"Aren't you too weak?"
"Hey!" she fumed. " Not everyone can become grandmasters so easily"
"Fine. Begin the spell"
It was time to leave.
