'What's happening there?'

Blake tried wriggling out of the contraption he was in, but each needle pierced his veins, causing pain when he moved. The noise from the other room made him wonder what Levi was up to.

'No way he killed someone.'

Despite Blake's cold and rude demeanor, there would be a moment of hesitation before he killed a human.

"Noooo."

Another voice screamed in the room, and then

*Boom.*

A loud noise echoed around the room. Blake's ears tingled with pain as he tried to escape. The door soon opened, revealing Levi with hands and a face concealed by dust and blood

Unconsciously, Blake gulped at the sight. The man he vowed to beat now looked like the incarnation of carnage himself, scar illuminated by his unique eye and calm demeanor making even the ever-confident Blake tremble in fear.

'Am I scared of him? Me, Blake Soron?'

He was trying to deny it but right now, the human infront of him looked more like a devil that the one in the other room.

Levi quickly moved, removing every pipe and needle from Blake's body.

"Ahhh,"

Blake screamed in pain, but Levi had no choice but to hurry. Noel was killed, but his brother still lived. Levi exploded one of his lesser eyes right at his back just to stun him. Killing him would make things worse.

"Can you run?" Levi asked, picking up Blake from the creepy surgery bed.

"Yeah!"

Levi created two lesser eyes again and was about to explode the shop wall, but he sensed a Majin's aura straight coming for his neck.

He ducked, and a dagger flew past him. Levi looked back to see the Majin's face burnt, his clothes ragged as he cried over his brother's pierced head.

'I always knew this kid was trouble.'

The moment Levi entered the shop, he sensed that something was off. Even when Levi approached Noel for the business deal, he didn't want his younger sibling to take it, but greed got to him.

And now, he lay on the table with a hole in his head.

'Kill. That's all that was in his mind.' The Majin wanted to kill Levi, to skewer him the same way, and make it even worse. But he was curious.

'How did he know?'

The only risky move the brothers ever took was kidnapping Blake; otherwise, they made no other mistakes. Everything was perfect.

"How? Tell me, how did you find out about us? I want to kill you, but first, I want to know where you found any clues about us," the man said, fixing his attire, his injuries slowly healing.

Levi knew running wasn't an option, and asking for help wouldn't do anything. The whole room was soundproof, and though it was a low-grade explosion, it didn't manage to scratch even a single wood of the building.

Blake behind him could see Levi pass a potion to him, dodging the Majin's eye.

Levi needed to give some time to Blake so he could at least have some strength to run and fight. Answering the questions and wasting time could work.

"This shop always seemed suspicious to me. Why did you guys need such high-quality material for a shop in the most secure place in the kingdom?"

Levi hadn't noticed this at first, but only after he got the Search skill. This fact alone didn't cement the fact for Levi that Noel was a traitor.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Luna's condition started getting worse after you visited Tyson's house in the name of business."

The man still felt Levi wasn't telling all of it. Levi couldn't tell the man he was the one who stopped the thugs from contaminating the water system. Blake would hear it.

Levi then looked at the items on the floor and pointed at a silver and red lining ring.

"Was he your regular customer?"

The man fell silent for a while, but his eyes spoke more. Mark, his senior, had gone missing, came to this shop, and then never returned. That's what his eyes reported and that is what cemented the fact that Noel was a traitor, but Levi didn't know Noel had a brother. It wasn't in the game.

"How do you know about that as well? Do you have eyes everywhere in the city?"

Yes, he had, and he knew Mark entered the shop, but it was too late. Levi had planned to attack Noel but never anticipated them to kidnap Blake.

His boss said Mark could have gone to a cheap shop to buy a potion, and the cheapest and weirdest shop in town was Noel's shop. Levi recognized that ring, it was cemented in his head daily. Mark always showed it to him, saying he was about to get married in a few months. Whenever he was tired, he bragged about his fiancé.

"I am lucky to have her. She just changed my whole life."

His gloomy and pessimistic behavior would change when he talked about her.

"After I marry her, I would like to have a nice house near the academy. Have two kids. Preferably a boy and a girl. I have been saving a lot of money, so maybe for the honeymoon, we could head to—" Mark dreamt of happiness, but now someone else stole his chance to live it.

'They didn't kill him for no reason.' Levi knew that what they did had an intention behind it.

He looked around to notice three markings on each room and recognized those markings.

'A teleportation mark."'

That was the reason Levi didn't bring any help. If he did and they found out about it, this whole room would be teleported to who knows where.

Levi knew that today luck was on his side. If the brother had been calm and used the teleportation spell, Levi wouldn't get the chance to kill him. Emotions really pull someone away from their rational side so much the Majin doesn't even care about the teleportation mark anymore.

Killing Levi is all he wants

But that teleportation gate comes with a cost, and that is a human soul. Usually, a gate like that would need a large amount of mana, so much that they would need 100 S-ranks to create it, but an easy way to do is to feed a human soul to a specific demon. Mark was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The man looked at Levi as he swirled mana around his hands. 'This kid knows too much.'

Levi too was ready to block the attack, but the Majin was B-rank. Levi would break his bone if he directly confronted the oncoming attack.

*Swish.* The Majin launched himself, his dagger right in front of Levi's forehead. He couldn't dodge it; the mana behind the dagger would hurt Blake.

Levi blocked the dagger with his own. *Ting.* The sound of metal clashing and mana twirling in the air created a loud seer explosion. But still, it wasn't enough to destroy or scratch any walls of the room. Levi didn't have to defeat this guy on his own; all he needed was some noise to get out and reach the ears of the guards all over the city.

But the Majin was careful with his attacks; he didn't hold back attacking Levi and had already cast a sound barrier, enforcing the already soundproof room even more.

Levi was being pushed back a moment ago; the Majin felt it but slowly felt Levi's strength increasing bit by bit.

[Essence] had activated, and now it was even more powerful. Whatever Levi believed, it would

aid him, and right now he believed he could block this attack wholly.

Though the mana pressure was getting to his body, especially to his knees.

His body dropped down, and immediately, the Majin saw his chance and kneed Levi in the face. Levi did block it with his plan, but the force behind it was too much.

He hit the wall pretty hard, as his body started aching all over. The Majin ignored Blake, who was right beside him, and rushed towards Levi for the kill.

Levi sensed the attack and perfectly managed to dodge it. He then hit the calf of the Majin, perfectly breaking his mana body enforcement.

'What?'

He couldn't believe how easily a kid like Levi managed to destroy his mana enforcement. He again hit the calf, this time doing double the damage. The Majin didn't stay still as his aura moved towards Levi's neck. Before the aura reached him, the Majin felt a heavy blow on his head.

Blake had thrust his spear at the man's head, but his mana blocked the force, only managing to bluntly poke the head without any sort of damage. It just shows how ridiculous [Essence] was helping Levi. But his attacks were enough to disable the sound barrier.

Levi too saw his chance and created two eyeballs and exploded one at the roof and the other right at the Majin's ear.

*Boom.*

This time, the sound did leak, though only a bit; someone was bound to hear it, and they wouldn't ignore the sound of an explosion coming from inside the room.

*Crack.* The door opened as a man wearing armor with the logo of the Soron family entered the room. Blake breathed a sigh of relief as he shouted.

"Capture this majin now."

The man nodded. A magic circle formed in the air and now was fired, but not towards the Majin, towards Blake.

Levi was quick to rush in front of Blake, pushing him and using his dagger to block the attack at the same time.

'Did he misfire?'

Blake thought as he looked at the guard. The calm and disgusting look he gave was enough to tell Blake that his family knight hadn't misfired.

Now they had to deal with two Awakeners who were way above their leagues.

'Is it the season of betrayal?' Levi said as he readied himself for the upcoming battle.