The doors finally broke as Vincent blasted his magic at them one last time, and the gang were finally able to walk out of the elevator.
"Well, that's one less thing to worry about now," Daphne sighed in relief.
"Yes, thank you Vincent for helping us get out," Velma smiled.
"You're very welcome," Vincent smiled back.
Jayden looked around and sighed in relief as well.
"Good thing there's no sign of the Reflector Specter or his monsters on this floor, for now at least."
"Which floor is this by the way?" Flim Flam asked.
"It looks like we're on the 50th floor," Daphne said.
"Well, I hope that we are ahead of the Reflector Specter and his monsters," Shaggy began. "I think we should start using the stairs from now on to get to the stone though."
Everyone nodded slightly in agreement, and they all began to quickly ascend up the stairs to make their way to the 100th floor.
A few moments later, as the gang continued to run up the stairs, Flim Flam had suddenly thought of something.
"You know what I just realized? None of us have seen Bogel and Weerd so far today, except Asamad, of course," he pointed out.
"Well, that is true. Although, I'm kind of worried now that you've just mentioned it," Cheryl admitted.
"Yeah, I have a bad feeling about that," Jayden agreed. "Especially since the last time we saw them, they were helping Time Slime trap Vincent in his past."
"There is no doubt that those two are up to something," Vincent nodded, trying to avoid thinking about that reminder of being trapped in his past. "However, we should focus more on getting the stone and capturing the Reflector Specter first, since we'll run out of time to do so if we put our focus on Bogel and Weerd's plans."
"Right," Daphne nodded. "Are there any more signs of him getting closer to the stone?"
He pulled out the crystal ball once again and gazed into it, sighing for a moment before answering.
"As of right now, a lot more parts of his mirror have shattered, and he has just made it to the 60th floor."
"60th!?" Scooby repeated.
"All that time we spent in the broken elevator slowed us down, and now he's ahead of us!" Velma exclaimed.
"We can still make it to the 100th floor before him, we just have to move faster than we already are," Flim Flam told her.
Asamad looked into the crystal ball for a moment.
"Wait Flim Flam, it looks like the closer he gets to the stone, the faster he becomes," he noticed. "Which means that we must find a way to slow him down ourselves."
"Okay, so how are we going to slow him down?" Shaggy questioned.
Before Asamad could answer that question, however, Velma suddenly gasped in terror as she looked inside her bag.
"Velma, what's wrong?" Vincent wondered.
"The Chest Of Demons… it's gone!" she exclaimed.
His expression and his tone then changed drastically after she responded with that.
"Gone? What do you mean it is gone?" he repeated, trying to keep himself from screaming, as he remembered he had done that the last time the gang lost the chest.
"You lost the chest!?" Asamad fumed.
"You can't be serious," Flim Flam exhaled.
"Velma, how could you lose it?" Jayden asked.
"I- I just had it with me, I swear. I have no idea where it went!" Velma insisted. "Someone opened my bag and stole it," she told everyone, showing them the unzipped bag she was holding.
"Oh man, this is like, really bad! I thought that what we were dealing with today was already enough, but now someone else has the chest, and it's definitely going to get reopened, and then all those ghosts we just recaptured are going to be set free once again and cause even more damage!" Shaggy panicked.
"Rwhat are rwe gonna do!?" Scooby whimpered.
"Okay listen," Daphne began, trying to calm everyone down. "We don't have to panic about this. We are going to look for the chest, but now we have to find it before the Reflector Specter gets the Stone Of Mirrors."
"But we don't know how we're going to find the chest before he gets to the stone. I mean, we have even less time to do so than we already did when we first saw him on the 1st floor," Cheryl said.
Daphne looked away for a second.
"I know how," she then sighed. "We're going to have to split up…"
Everyone fell completely silent immediately after they heard that.
"Are you sure?" Jayden asked.
"I thought we all promised Vincent that we weren't going to split up anymore, you know, because of Scrappy's disappearance," Flim Flam recalled.
She nodded, and then looked up at him.
"I know, but this is really the only way we can find the chest and get the stone before everything gets worse."
Daphne then turned to look at Vincent.
"Is it okay if we all split up, just this one time?"
Vincent was silent for another moment before answering.
"You may split up, but only just this once."
"Thank you," she responded, then turned to the others. "Alright, one group here still has to look for the stone while another has to look for the chest. So, I will go along with Vincent, Flim Flam, and Asamad to go look for the stone, and Velma, you can go with Shaggy, Scooby, Jayden, and Cheryl to look for the chest."
She then gave her crystal ball to them.
"Use the crystal to call us when you find it or if anything else happens."
"Rof course," Scooby said, as the others nodded.
"Please be careful," Vincent told them as he, Flim Flam, Daphne, and Asamad began to ascend up the stairs.
"We promise we'll be careful," Cheryl replied.
She and the others then went back downstairs, and the gang had now officially split up for the first time in a few years.