Kiriei got a notification that she'd become a level 12 and looked around at her party. "Looks like we all leveled-up huh? Nice!"<br/><br/>Haku sighed, running a hand through his white hair. "Not quite. I was already a level 12. So close, but not quite enough xp to get to 13."<br/><br/>Kiriei stuck out her tongue, "Too bad. Next time maybe. So are you going to explain that buff now or wha--" Kiriei interrupted herself, just now noticing that she was no longer in the dungeon. Nothing pixilated to alert her of the change, they were just suddenly somewhere else. Looking around, she recognized this as the city square. Haku and Kyle weren't too far away, but what were they all doing here all of a sudden?<br/><br/>Kiriei looked up only briefly to examine the now blood-red sky before her attention was called away by a voice from the sky. As the mystery avatar spoke, his words slowly began to sink in. Was it possible that they really couldn't leave the game?<span style="font-style: italic">Everyone here... are we all hostages?</span>Oh yeah, the point of this game was to find the Holy Grail wasn't it? So... in order to go home, they had to beat the game.<br/><br/>Haku stayed quiet the entire time the mystery avatar spoke, waiting until after he vanished before showing any sort of reaction.<span style="font-style: italic">So if we're stuck in this game and die when we lose, does that mean this is basically our real lives now? I suppose that part's not so bad, but the stakes of this game just went shooting through the roof. That guy... it sounded like he was just using us all like lab rats. This could be fun. I just hope I don't lose my job while I'm stuck in here. And I wonder how powerful of a wish this Holy Grail can grant? Can wishes transcend to the real world?</span><br/><br/>While Haku was lost in thought, Kiriei was just plain baffled, staring at the spot where the Mystery avatar had been. She couldn't quite focus on anything. It felt like her life had been ripped away from her. Was this her new life now? Her new reality? She really was Kiriei Suruko, and that didn't sound so bad... but everyone she knew... she couldn't see them anymore. And she could literally die in this game at any time. How long would she be trapped in here? By the time she was freed would her life have withered away? This, all of this, was completely insane!<br/><br/>------------------------<br/><br/>Yami and Roku had already been in the city square, so their surprise came when the suddenly noticed they were surrounded by people. They heard the booming voice and turned, listening to the Mystery avatar's speech. When it was over Roku simply stared with his mouth slightly open in shock. Yami watched as the boy pulled up his user interface to see the log out button not only disabled, but gone.<br/><br/>The boy pointed to the spot where the button had been, looking at Yami with wide eyes. "Yeah," Yami responded, still rather in awe himself. "We're trapped."<br/><br/>--------------------------<br/><br/>Emilia had let out a groan of relief as they just passed through the gates to the little mountain village. Finally, after all that walking they'd actually made it! The lancer blinked in surprise as she looked around and noticed they weren't in some dinky mountain village. This was the city square. How had they come back here all of a sudden without so much as a warning? And what had she done all that walking for?!<br/><br/>As the Mystery avatar gave his speech, Galen's eyes widened in shock. They were trapped? Who<span style="font-style: italic">was</span>this mad man? Once his speech was delivered, the sky gradually faded back to its usual blue and everyone was left in their places in the city square. Emilia thought that the weird guy could have at least transported them back to where they had been. She slapped herself mentally, realizing she had more important things to worry about than her aching feet.