"Ok so we all know the plan right?" Sunggyu whispered as we ate around the remains of the fire from last night.
Everyone nodded, silently shoving food into their mouths.
No one really wanted to talk.
Maybe it was cause no one really had the energy to talk.

"What'd you think they're doing?" Sungjong lightly nudged my shoulder, nodding in the direction of EXO's camp. I shrugged, "You're the mind reader. Shouldn't I be asking you?"
"I can only read it from a certain distance. We're too far right now," he sighed, picking at his eggs with his fork, "And besides, I'm kinda scared to find out."
"Yeah," I nodded, swallowing the rest of my food. I didn't eat much but I honestly couldn't. "Kris didn't really have a good expression on when Sunggyu told him that we were going to fight the boss today."
"Cause we just messed up their plans," Dongwoo said while dragging his plate into his inventory. "They can't use Melodia to beat the boss if we're telling them that we're leaving today."
"They have to come with us if they wanna leave this floor," Woohyun added, standing up from his spot next to Sungyeol. "We're not giving them much of a choice."

All I could do was nod again.
My face might be completely blank and expressionless but my insides were churning.
I was gonna end this today.
I told myself that I would do it...that I was fine with the consequences.
My plan even fit perfectly into the plan that Infinite made last night. If we just left EXO, we would have to stay on the floor until we became strong enough to beat the boss on our own, which could take God knows how long. In that time, who knows if they were gonna try to pull something. The only way out of this was to beat the boss and leave them when we got to the next floor, hoping that the win would boost their self confidence enough for them to want to be on their own again.
So why am I getting cold feet now?

The touch of Sungjong's hand on mine jolted me from my trance. His eyes were soft yet they seemed to see straight through me.
The gentle squeeze that he gave me before he let go of my hand let me know that he knew.
He knew exactly what I was going to do today but he wasn't going to tell Myungsoo.
Because even if he read my mind and found out about my plan, he also read my inner thoughts. He knew why I was doing this. And he knew that it was pointless to try to stop me.

"Let's go guys," Sunggyu stood up and looked over at EXO's camp. I could literally see the heat radiating off of him. What was left of the Infinite camp site was taken down and stored into different member's inventories. Across the field, EXO was quickly taking apart their own camp. We were ready to leave in minutes.

"Are you sure about this?" Kris asked Sunggyu as they walked ahead of us. Gramps gyu simply nodded, "If we stay here any longer, we're gonna start getting lazy. The only way back to our lives is if we beat this game and that's not gonna happen if we sit around all day. If we work together, we can get beat it."
"Infinite's leader's lost it," I heard Luhan whisper to Tao behind me. "We're gonna get killed out there."
"Maybe not," Baekhyun replied. "Sunggyu does have a point and I guess since there's a lot of us, maybe things won't be that bad."
"Right," Kai joined in, sarcasm dripping from every word he spoke, "cause numbers helped us so much last time."

"Can you guys be a little more positive?" Sungyeol broke through the wall of EXO behind me and joined me near the front. He turned his head around to look at them, "You're quitting before you've even tried. Stop beating yourself up and thinking that nothing's changed from the last time you were down there. Get a grip people."

Holy crap.
I so did not expect those words to come out of his mouth.
But he was right.
The negativity wasn't gonna get us anywhere.

The rest of the walk to the entrance of the basement was filled with a heavy silence.
It was like we were mourning the dead...but no one had died.
The tension could also cut through steel. Everyone was definitely wired up.

Kris pointed at a dark hole in the ground in between the two biggest trees i've ever seen. "Down there. That's where the boss is."
Sunggyu nodded, "Ok everyone listen up. Grab a teleportation cystal from Sungjong and gather round. Only 8 of you will have crystals so don't start yelling that you don't have one. I'll explain everything later."
"Really?" D.O. mumbled as Sungjong passed him a blue crystal, "Is he really gonna give us a pep talk before this?"
"For once I actually agree," Hoya stuck his own crystal into his inventory. "All this talking really isn't gonna help much gramps."

"Calm down. We'll go in eventually. But right now I want all of you guys to pair up with someone who either has a crystal or needs one. You're gonna be responsible for each other as well be teleportation partners. This way we can at least try to limit....casualties," Sunggyu barely forced that last word out of his mouth as everyone started to pair off. Myungsoo grabbed my hand and gave it a ligth squeeze. It felt completely different from when Sungjong held my hand yet it felt so familiar at the same time.
"Do you have the crystal?" I looked up at him, trying to pull my hand out of his. After all, out relationship was suppose to be a secret from everyone else except Sungjong who dug through our minds and found out. But he held on tightly, his finger intertwining with my own. 
"What do you think?" he flashed me his typical "oh my gosh you're so stupid" look. "If I didn't have one, would I really be partners with you?"
"Well I me-"
"Unless you don't want me to be partners with you..."

I grabbed onto his arm with my free hand, "No. That's totally not it. Sorry...I'll shut up."
His hand patted the top of my head before we all started moving towards the dark hole. "It's okay. But promise me something though?"
"What?"
"When we get down there," he tightened his grip on my hand as we took our first step down into the basement, "whatever happens, just stick close ok?"

I hung my head, focusing on the dark steps ahead of me.
"Ok," I simply replied. I hated lying to him. I really didn't want to. But there wasn't really anything more I could do.
Everything was pretty much playing itself out.
The wheels of fate were definitely turning and by this point, it was impossible to turn it back.

"This is it," Kris stopped in front of a huge set of double doors. It stretched all the way to the ceiling of the basement.
I swear, the boss better not actually be that big.
This game better be trolling.

Chen leaned over to Chanyeol in front of me and whispered, "Why aren't they opening the door?"
He shrugged, leaning over to Suho, "Why aren't they opening the door?"
"I'm not sure. I don't think they know how to."
I watched as Chanyeol fought not to laugh out loud, "Uhhhh...have they tried pushing it?"
"They are," D.O. pointed in Kris and Sunggyu's direction. "The door's not moving."

"Magicians," Kris flew over the group and pointed at the door, "blast it down. Sunggyu tried fire already so Chanyeol, you don't have to do anything."
"It didn't burn down with fire?" Chanyeol looked up at Kris, who shook his head.
"Dude that's one weird door."

One by one, all the magicians in the group who had offensive attacks took turns trying to break down the door, but nothing worked.
There wasn't even a scratch.
"Nothing happened," Dongwoo sighed, slumping against Hoya, who was already sitting on the ground. He aimed his gun at the door, making a purple magic circle appear on the spot where it pointed. His finger squeezed the trigger as the bullet flew threw the air and made contact with the door with a loud bang.
"Damn it. That bullet didn't work either."
"Save your ammo man," Luhan turned his head around to face us, pulling his legs closer to his body. "We're gonna need it later."
"And how much longer is later?" Kai spoke up, teleporting himself over. "We tried everything. Nothing works on that door, whatever it's made of."

I walked up to the door and looked up.
For something that contained something so evil, it's hard to believe how pretty it was.
"What're you thinking?" Myungsoo walked up next to me, his gaze fixed on the door. "You already tried opening the door."
"Yeah, but that was with my regular magic."
"You sure you wanna do this?" he turned his head slightly and tilted it towards EXO who were all sprawled around on the floor behind us. I nodded.
"I don't think this door's gonna get opened any other way."

This time it was Myungsoo's turn to nod. He took a few steps backwards as I pushed off from the ground and flew into the air. I stopped halfway up the door and put my hand on the center of it, where it was suppose to open at.
"C'mon," I whispered, closing my eyes and feeling the energy surge in me, "you can do this."

The energy was literally flowing right out of me.
I felt myself getting more tired, but something told me to keep going.
My eyes snapped open and I watched as the blue energy flooded the designs on the door and the two groups below me gather by the foot of the door.

Then all of a sudden, the door moved under my fingertips.
It creaked open slowly until I pulled my hand back and pushed it forward, causing the door to burst open.

"After you," I gestured at the dark room while looking at EXO's shocked expressions walk past me. Infinite followed, all giving me smiles and patting me on the shoulder. Myungsoo was the last one to walk past me.

"How're you feeling?"
I slashed open my menu and checked my stats.
The energy bar was half full. But it'll have to do.
"Fine," I smiled at him, following him in. Not sure if that was a lie or not, but I didn't really have time to think about it.

The door swung closed behind me with a loud thud.
And the entire room flooded with light.

Author's Note
oh snap...this chapter was kinda longer than i expected it to be haha xD
comment and subscribe guys! ^^
title quote: "i will climb on the place you wanted"~Rosinante