"Halt"

A clear and loud voice rang around the arena as the audience gasped in shock, anticipation, and excitement. In the middle of such an atmosphere, two young people stood there, a hand separating them.

Fiona, asked to be the mediator in the duel, looked at both of her students. Both stood disappointed, one thinking he could do better and the other wondering how he got worse. The latter was Flynn, who couldn't stop his hands from shaking. Each time he blocked Blake's spear, his grip on the sword would weaken.

Though Flynn's attack did manage to do damage, Blake stood his ground, getting stronger and faster. Looking back at the fight, Flynn noticed one thing, 'He didn't falter even a bit from my attack, not even surprised and shaken by it. Just how has he been training.'

Flynn didn't know Blake had seen something so bad; he wouldn't even be fazed if a devil appeared in front of him. Fiona stood in between and declared the match as a draw, and most of the audience agreed with it, except Eliza. She knew Flynn had lost not because she was sour about her defeat.

Eliza and Blake had fought with each other many times in the past, though not an official duel; they never held back. Sometimes she would come out on top, and sometimes Blake would get the best of her. But Flynn, he never lost nor drew.

Every single time they fought, he always won. Never once did Blake manage to defeat him or even draw a match, but this time it wasn't a draw; even by a small margin, Blake had won, and even Flynn felt he didn't deserve the draw. After the match ended, the crowd went back, still mesmerized by the fight.

Fiona patted both of her students on the shoulder and said, "You guys are going a lot stronger than any of us could have imagined. Keep doing what you have been doing, but don't learn too much or else I might lose my job."

She truly meant it from the heart and knew they would surpass her in no time. Her hands gripped Flynn's shoulder a bit tighter.

"Try not to lose your focus too much." And then walked away.

Flynn knew he wasn't at his best today, nor had been since that day. However, making an excuse seemed pathetic. Even though this could be his first loss against Blake after so many wins, a loss still tastes bitter in the end. Blake got escorted by a healer, and Flynn kindly refused the help as they walked down the tunnel.

Once he was out, he could see Irene, Eliza, and Harper waiting for him. Eliza just shook her head in disappointment.

"That was pathetic."

Flynn just smirked back,

"At least I drew; you lost."

Eliza was about to smack him but stopped because she too still felt bitter from her defeat. Sensing the bad mood, Irene decided to cheer them up, "Let's go eat now, my treat at the cafeteria."

As they were about to walk, Flynn didn't notice the blonde girl in the group most excited to see the fight.

"By the way, where's Rose? She was dying to see the fight."

Rose loved to see fights between two high-status people, not because of their strength and abilities but because the aftermath it created satisfied her sadistic tendencies.

"I don't know, but I saw her stomping her way to her carriage. Maybe another royal event or meeting,"

Harper said, remembering her angry face. She wasn't a force to mess around with when her mood wasn't right. As they were about to walk, Blake came out of the tunnel and turned away when they saw the group. He didn't like them nor did they.

Flynn, however, had to make one thing clear to him,

"I don't know why Professor didn't give you the win, but you won that fight."

Blake knew why the match concluded in a draw. He had many chances to finish Flynn off but lacked the technique, and without Fiona saying it, he knew his weakness. But unlike his past selves who would have made a scene, he wasn't too frustrated.

"But next time, I won't give you any gaps to steal the number one spot from me."

Flynn and Blake had quite the rivalry. Though he always came first, Blake pushed him to improve every time and this time managed to nick him off the edge. He wasn't obsessed with the number 1; it served as motivation for him to be better than his past selves.

Blake, who didn't look at the group, now stared into Flynn's eyes for a good minute, making the four a bit creeped out.

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'He doesn't have those eyes. Those eyes show absolute strength, confidence, and mainly emptiness.'

"I used to chase you after the ranks, Flynn, but recently I just realized that those numbers don't accurately represent our strength. Cause if they did, you wouldn't be number 1 nor would I."

Flynn, shocked by Blake's answer, blurted out,

"Who would be the best amongst us then?"

The Blake he knew wouldn't say those things. The strength-obsessed bastard now seemed calm and more understanding. Blake, however, didn't answer the question and walked away.

Flynn confusingly looked at Harper, "Has he become weird?"

"He always was. Let's just go to the cafeteria; after all, a free meal tastes ten times better, right Irene?"

Harper turned back to see Irene deep in her thoughts and Eliza too.

"Hey, let's go,"

Harper said again, pulling both out of their thoughts as they started heading to the canteen. But what Blake said lingered in their minds. Irene too felt the same as Blake. If nobody hid their strength and went all out, who would come out on top? The image of Levi fighting against the villain rampaged her mind.

'If Flynn had fought, would he have won… even survived?'

She knew Flynn's strength the best; she had ever seen among her age, Levi's, however, was something she didn't fathom to reach.

Eliza too felt the same. Levi, in her eyes, didn't deserve the rank 1, but rank 1000 felt too humbling for someone of a freak nature like him. But that didn't mean she respected him. She'd rather chew her tongue than tell Levi he was strong.

*******

After finishing his work and training with Irina, Levi sat on his sofa, taking a puff from his cigarette, all beat from his busy life. Taking a last puff, he checked the box of cigarettes and found it empty. He did go to John's shop originally to buy some mana stones but just seeing him that pathetic, he forgot his intentions. He had finished his quota of taking two of those cigarettes and would need to buy some for the week.

Closing his eyes, he wondered how the fight between Blake and Flynn went. He kind of regretted not watching the match and figuring out how things took a turn. Life really came with many surprises, that even managed to surprise the psycho.

Another thing, Levi felt quite off these days, mainly because he had started dreaming. He never dreamt; it was always him surrounded by darkness, his feet plunged into the water. No matter where he ran, the darkness never ended. But he didn'thate it. Instead, he felt peace sitting and looking at nothingness. He and Darkness were a match made in heaven, or maybe hell.

But now, the darkness around him had started to break down. A bit of dim light had started infiltrating his dream palace. That cold place started to feel a bit warmer. He didn't know if it was good or bad. He guessed it to be his and the past Levi's memory assimilating.

"If our memories intertwine, will I be able to feel or keep on living without any emotions? Maybe staying like this is better. After all, not having something is better than having it and losing it in the end."

**The next day,**

After finishing his work at the office, Levi headed to the teleportation gate. He took a leave from the hospital for two days, and tomorrow is the weekend so he didn't need to take any leave from the school. But he did forget to tell Irina about his sudden leave, and if he did now, she probably would ask him billions of questions, which he wouldn't be able to answer, and then she would kill him. So he would rather travel first and then potentially get buried six feet underground.

Levi wore a white shirt and blue trousers because walking in the academy would cause too many eyes, and the fool would wear their school uniform on a "trip."

Like usual, he went to the gate, got his ID checked by the gatekeepers, paid 5000 Dale, and got a ticket which was less than when he travelled to Theon. And the same usual dizziness, which he hadn't gotten used to. The gatekeepers on the other side too checked his ID and ticket, and let him go.

As the dizziness faded off, he looked around to see buildings made completely of concrete and bricks. Unlike Theon which had tall buildings all over the place, this place had small but large buildings. The higher you went, the hotter the atmosphere would be. They did have alternative mana AC to use, but the heat was just too hot to handle.

Since the teleportation gate wasn't at Uralitha, he had to get an hour's train ride to the city. After ten minutes of roaming around, he reached the station, but the train left five minutes ago, and now the next train would be after an hour. At that time, Levi decided to go to a potion shop he saw when he got here.

He bought some mana potions, health potions, and exactly a hundred E-rank mana stones. The clerk did feel suspicious about that much purchase of mana stone.

"I just need it for my assignment,"

Levi said to the clerk as he showed his student ID. The clerk didn't ask anything else and gave him the items. An hour went by, and Levi got on the train. Even on the train, he could feel the same fresh air and breeze he felt in the city and in the forest.

The best thing about Servania was the air. Pollution seemed nonexistent, as humans in this world figured about pollution earlier and learned many tree-growing and air purification techniques from the elves themselves.

Once he got off on Uralitha, he walked around the city, looking at the maps around the corners. But the people in this world really didn't know how to make good maps; everything was too confusing. After a few minutes of getting lost, asking the locals and getting hit on by random girls, Levi finally found the canal. He took out the map and looked at it for a few minutes and checked if he was at the right location. He looked around and used his Sense skill to check for any onlookers. Once the coast was clear, he jumped down the canal and rushed to the long path that led to a small hole for water to drain down in case of overflow.

The hole wasn't covered with just a simple bar but a barrier as well. Levi wasn't the first person who had ever attempted to go down the canal; the only thing was they didn't know what they were getting into.

Levi closed his gathering a small mana in his palm imagining a knife. Because of the training with Yuki, he was now able to conjure up a mirror weapon but only for five seconds. Within that five seconds with the mana in the knife, he temporarily managed to destroy the barrier, use his silks to cut the bars and jump down the canal straight into a sewer.

"I should have thought this even more thoroughly,"

Levi said as his body dipped into liquid full of things you wouldn't want to dip yourself in.

"Curse my luck."