Lavi and Mary ran through the dark and eerie hallways, making many turns here and there to find their comrades' whereabouts. However, it seemed like they have been running for a really long time and the outcome was still the same, a dead end.
"Let's make a left turn, we haven't been there." Lavi suggested as they met with two different hallways. Mary nodded as she took the lead.
Suddenly, Lavi came to a halt.
He grabbed Mary's arm and pulled her to a nearby wall.
She had her back pressed against the wall, while he rested his hand on a portion of the wall, that was next to her face.
"Lavi, what the h--" He placed his hand over her mouth, shushing her, "There's someone there."
They hid behind the wall for a moment, as Lavi peeked over to see a man walking towards them. "Stay here." He whispered to her, "I'll go get that guy there, maybe he can tell us about where Emily and Beck are."
He disappeared as soon as he said that.
He then reappeared behind the man and he gave him a tap on the shoulder, "Hey."
The man turned and replied, "Hey, w-- WAIT! WHO ARE YOU?!--" Lavi immediately punched him in the jaw to knock him out, "Sorry, I don't have time for you to freak out. Well, you probably won't hear this now, but I'm Lavi."
He grinned at his accomplishment and signalled Mary to come out. She did and the both of them dragged the unconscious man to the wall. Mary tied the man up and whispered to Lavi, "You should not knocked him out, you know?"
"Well, it's the easier way out, no? We can get more information now."
"Yeah, but we still need to wait him to get up." An irritated sigh escaped her lips as she poked the man's arm, "Wonder when will he wake up? We need information quickly."
"Pass me your water bottle." Lavi instructed as he placed his hand out, "Maybe this would work."
"What? Why?" She asked as she passed her bottle to him. "Well, you'll see." He grinned playfully, "You have the truth serum with you, right?"
She nodded. He noted her response and unscrewed the cap on her bottle, "Sorry."
Just as he said that, he poured the entire bottle on his head.
Surprisingly, the man woke up, but he was in the state of shock.
"What?! Who are you guys?! HELP, INTRUDERS HERE! INTRU--" The man wanted to continue his call for help, but Mary stabbed a syringe at the side of his neck. She then placed her finger on her lips, "Shh, we don't want attention."
The man slowly reached a state between sleep and consciousness, as his eyes turned slightly dead, becoming a completely different man. Lavi squatted down in front of the man, "So, where's Fiore's fourteenth princess?"
The man immediately responded, "...The second highest level, special room: 1707..."
"How many levels are there from here to the her location?" He asked for a second time.
"Seven leve--"
The man's head suddenly exploded as a gunshot was fired behind them.
The sound of it rang throughout the entire level, causing Mary to cover her ears instinctively. His brain splattered all around the ground and walls, creating a rather unpleasant scene.
That man died once the bullet made contact with his skull. Mary's arm fell back to her sides as she froze when she saw that gruesome sight. A wave of nausea swept over her. She looked away and took a couple of deep breaths to prevent herself from throwing up.
This was not her first time seeing something like that, but until now, she just could not get used to it. On the contrary, that did not affect Lavi whatsoever. He just calmly stood up and turned to see who shot that bullet.
It was Kyle.
The gun he held still had smoke coming out of its barrel, which showed that a bullet was just fired. He had a smirk on his face as he blew the smoke away, "I need to do it. He was revealing too much, this was his punishment."
Lavi folded his arms and smiled, "You know that we gave him truth serum, right?"
Somehow that smile he gave was different from his usual ones, this one was much intimidating.
Kyle laughed before he replied, "Yeah, I do. But, we don't take that as an excuse, because it doesn't change the fact that he did something he should not be doing."
"Ah, I see. You guys are sure brutal, huh." Lavi commented as he was looking at Mary, "You heard about their location, right? You should head up there now."
"...What? I'm not leaving you." She protested as she fought with her nausea.
"Well, you have too. I promise I get to you as soon as I'm done with this guy." He stated as he pointed towards Kyle, "It will be quick."
She wanted to protest, but she knew that if she stayed, she would only be a burden. She was not good at combat, so she would not do much help to these situations. Thus, she have no choice but to reluctantly agree, "Promise me, you're be there. Otherwise, I'll be really mad."
"Yeah, yeah. Just go now." He yawned. Mary ran passed Kyle, to the direction Emily and Beck's location. The phantom wanted to stop her but Lavi appeared in front of him, stopping him from doing so, "Hey, that's not nice. I'm the one you're supposed to focus your attention too. I'm not a beautiful girl, but I'm not that bad looking either, at least give me some attention, will you?"
"Wow, you're confident, aren't you? I hope you won't let me down." Kyle challenged as he reloaded his gun.
"No worries, I won't." Lavi assured as he launched himself towards his opponent with a grin. In a split second, he shortened the distance between himself and the other guy. Kyle shot a couple bullets, so that Lavi could back away.
He dodged those bullets swiftly as they flew past his body. However, the direction of the bullets changed completely once they past him. They made a hundred and eighty degree turn and went for him again.
That caught him off guard.
Based purely on instincts, he dodged most of them, but two bullets had hit him. One shot him in his left knee and the other in his right arm. Blood ran down his arm and knee, forming a tiny puddles on the ground.
"That's an interesting weapon you have there. Homing bullets, huh. That's pretty cool." Lavi complimented as he clapped his hands amusingly, making that injured arm seemed like it was nothing.
"I really like that."
Pleased, Kyle let out a smile, "Thanks, it's great to get some appreciation around here. If you die, I'll be sure you'll go down as my favourite opponent."
"Really? That's an honour."
Lavi continued with an exaggerated sigh, "I would like to have a fun conversation sometime, but I don't have time to waste, I hope you'll understand."
Kyle nodded sadly, "I do. No worries, maybe that could happen in our next life."
"Yeahhhh."
...The two were actually serious about what they said.
In an instant, the blood on his arm turned into droplets of blood that floated around him. Slowly, they combined themselves together, forming a large ball of pure blood. It expanded and contracted as it solidified to form something. After a few seconds, it form two crimson blades - two awfully sharp seaxs.
Lavi grabbed his weapon as they fell into his hands. He then got in position, before lunging himself towards his opponent, "...Let's have some fun, alright?"
All of the sudden, he became incredibly fast. So fast, that Kyle did not have time to launch any of his bullets. Instead, he needed to block Lavi's attack with his gun.
Seeing that he was struggling, Lavi applied more pressure, urging him to give in. However, Kyle persisted, as he grabbed his dagger from his back pocket and swung it horizontally.
To avoid that attack, Lavi jumped away from him.
Once Lavi landed, he gave Kyle no time to recover. He went on with his second attack, as he launched himself once more.
Kyle cursed and swung his blade a couple more times, hoping that his swings would connect with Lavi's body. Unfortunately, Lavi dropped and slid across the ground, under Kyle's arm. He then jolted up and gyrated to faced Kyle's back. He swung both his seaxs at the same time, forming an 'X' towards that phantom's back.
This time, he succeeded.
Kyle stumbled forward as he gritted his teeth in pain, but that was not enough to bring him down. Lavi took this opportunity to give him a kick to his wounded back, which sent him flying across the hallway.
As Kyle was on midair, he launched a couple of bullets towards Lavi.
Lavi swiftly sliced most of the bullets into two, but he could not dodge one of the bullets due his injured knee, which restricted his movements quite a bit.
That one bullet hit his left side, causing more blood to stain the ground.
Kyle hit a wall at the end of the hallway, leaving huge cracks and a dent on the wall. Even after that huge impact, Kyle was still able to get up.
"Whoa, this guy is a tank. This is fun!" Lavi grinned in excitement as he prepared for his next attack.