"What are you then?" Matilda asked with a confused expression on her face.
"I am not there with you, this is a machine created to help me get here without being here," Jude said.
"Huh?"
"Let me explain," Layla said with a low voice after turning her gaze to Jude.
"Okay," Jude said.
"Hello, Matilda, this is Lieutenant Layla, a friend of Jude's," Layla said as her voice resounded through the drone's speakers.
"Lieutenant Layla? Where did Jude go?" Matilda asked as she was getting more confused the more they tried to explain things to her.
"I'm still here," Jude said.
"What is going on?" Matilda asked looking at the drone with a confused expression on her face.
"Nothing is wrong Matilda, at least not on our end," Layla said. "What you're looking at now is what we call a drone in my world. Just like Jude said, the drone is only a means to get here and communicate with people like you without actually moving, it is only a machine, it's not a living thing."
"What do you mean by your world?" Matilda asked.
"Do you remember the portal in the forest that opens every night?" Jude asked.
"Yeah," Matilda said with a nod.
"Do you also remember me telling you that it leads to a different world from ours?" Jude asked.
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"Yeah." She replied.
"Well, we're in that world right now."
"You fell into the portal?"
"Yeah," Jude replied.
"How did you escape from the king's castle?" She asked. "I heard you ran away after committing an offense but they later caught you and threw you into the prison along with Carl."
"They probably let that rumor out to make the people feel at ease," Jude said.
"Yeah and then cast terror into their hearts by brutally murdering someone in front of them," Tuchel said.
"Who was that?" Matilda asked.
"Tuchel," Jude replied.
"Tuchel? You're with the elves?" Matilda asked with a confused expression on her face.
"Yeah," Jude said.
"Then why did the king say that he had reached an agreement with the elves and the kingdom was no longer in danger?"
"That's clearly a lie to make the people feel at ease, the news about capturing me was also a lie but he may have captured Carl and Festus," Jude said.
"Carl didn't go with you?"
"No, you haven't seen him since I went missing?"
"No," Matilda replied, shaking her head.
"Then he must have locked them up but when we checked the castle prisons, no one was there," Jude said.
"You guys saw what he did to my master right?" Matilda asked biting her lower lip. "Are you sure he hasn't done the same thing to him?"
"No," Jude said shaking his head. "He must be keeping them somewhere else."
He didn't want to think of it or believe it but he knew deep down that there was a possibility that that was what happened.
______ _____
It was Luis' turn to participate in level three of the competition after Derrick and Mason had successfully completed their turns.
The Angel let out a deep sigh as he slowly stepped onto the large disc.
[ Physical Status ]
[ Strength: 41 ]
[ Stamina: 33 ]
[ Agility: 36 ]
His agility was up to standards to easily cruise past level three so that wasn't a problem, if only his golden fortification would activate without him having to feel threatened then he would be able to cruise past all the levels like they were nothing.
'Remember, you're not supposed to do anything unbelievable.' Lena said.
'I know.'
"Twenty seconds Miles." The sergeant said before pushing the start button.
"So which event are you participating in?" Mike asked looking at his little sister.
"None," Ella replied after staring at him for a little while.
"Why? I expected you to be part of the main event." Mike said
"Well, I tried, I almost killed some people but one of the students that I almost killed was able to knock me out." She said sarcastically.
'That is a creepy way to say that.' Jasmine said.
"Okay," Mike said with an awkward expression on his face. "What about your friend?" He asked turning his gaze to Silvia.
"Well, she tried her best but at last, she got knocked out," Ella said.
"By who?"
"A third-year student," Ella replied.
"Oh."
Talking about that fight was making the wonder warrior quite uncomfortable because she wasn't proud of the way she had gotten knocked out, despite her speed she wasn't able to put up a good fight against Jeffrey. That fight was entirely one-sided.
"It's a really big surprise to have a wonder warrior in one of the academies given the fact that they prefer to train and do everything else on their own," Mike said.
Silvia didn't say anything as she still had her gaze on what was going on on the pitch.
Luis had been comfortably dodging the discs so far with flips, ducks, and swift body movements.
He had been counting each disc as it flew past him and right now he was down to his last six discs.
The first set of the last six discs wasn't shot out at the same time like most of the ones he had already dodged but as soon as the first was shot out, the second followed before the third followed.
They were all shot out in such a way that dodging one would mean that he would have to clash with any of the other ones.
The Angel quickly sprang up to avoid the first one which was the one heading toward him from the middle and by the time he was up, the disc from up was about to hit him.
He let out a gasp as he quickly crouched up his legs and ducked a little to avoid the disc from way up and the one from below.
He had landed on his knees and wasn't even allowed to get up before the last three discs came zooming toward him together.
The Angel quickly sprang and with a swift rotational spin, he was able to propel himself a little up for both discs to zoom past him.
"That was close." He muttered under his breath after crashing back on the large disc.
Applause was ringing in the stadium now mostly from Crockel academy students, other academies clapped for their students so why shouldn't they?
"That was nice," Ella said with a clap.
"What's his status in the academy?" Mike asked.
"You mean his year?"
"Yeah," Mike replied.
"Luis is a first-year student," Ella said.
"Luis? I thought the sergeant called him Miles?" Mike asked raising his eyebrows.
"Miles is his last name," Ella said.
"Oh, you speak like you're close to him," Mike said.
"Yeah, we're friends," Ella said before turning her gaze back to the pitch.
"Best friends." Silvia chipped in causing Ella to quickly turn her gaze to her.
"I thought you were her best friend," Mike said.
"No, I'm her female best friend, Luis is her male best friend," Silvia explained.
"Oh, I see."
Meanwhile at the staff area...
"I'm just glad we picked the right student," Lennon said, turning his gaze to Nova.
"Yeah." She muttered.
"And you guys said he wasn't that fast."
'Don't do anything stupid Luis.' Nova said subconsciously as she folded her hand into fists before turning her gaze to Lennon with a forced smile on her face.
Ace had searched the hallways and rooms trying to find Dylan but he had not been able to find him, he had almost walked into a room full of military people in the process of looking for him.
He had made his way outside through the back door in the area and looking around now, there was still no sign of Dylan.
'Are you sure he hasn't returned to the stands by now?' He wondered.
He raised his watch to send a message to Chloe but while he was typing he realized that their watches could not send messages to the watches of the students of the other academies.
"Stupid me." He muttered.
He raised his gaze now to see that there wasn't even a reason to send a message in the first place as he could see Dylan walking toward him now.
He recognized the boy from their class and from the day he asked to speak to Dylan while they were walking to class together, just a few days before the betrayal happened.
Ace made eye contact with Timmy before he walked past him and after he had walked into the hallway, he turned his gaze to Dylan who for some reason was still standing there.
"Dylan." He called.
"Yeah," Dylan answered with his gaze fixed on him.
"What are you guys planning this time?"
_____ ____
Mirinda had just struggled to make it past level four and right now, Derrick was struggling to make it past the level.
He could deal with three discs at the same but six discs were just too much for him as he had gotten hit by two of the discs and fell off the disc.
The lights at the edge of the large disc had turned red as soon as he had gotten hit by the discs.
"Derrick Blue of Tron Ville academy has just been disqualified." The sergeant announced.
"I was expecting that, next up, the kid from Crockel academy," Chris said, turning his gaze to Jackson.