The fire cloud on the roof moved towards the villain once Levi moved his hands. He looked like a conductor in an opera, playing the symphony of flames.
*Swish*
The villain did not waste any time defending himself. He cast a magic barrier and surrounded his whole body. The flames struck his barrier, and within a few seconds broke through it, burning the villain.
"Argh"
The villain let out a deafening scream. He covered his body with mana to lessen the burning effect. After a minute, the attack was over. Levi quickly twisted the horns on the mask and pulled down the middle horn. Once he took it off, after ten seconds, the mask shrank to the size of an pendant exactly after ten seconds. It now looked like a decoration rather than a mask.
Levi did so because he did not want Irene to see he obtained the mask...he wanted to keep the mask for himself. Once the flames subsided, the villain's face came into view. He had black hair and black eyes and burnt marks on his face. His eyes were blood red cause of anger and pain.
"Why do you want to make things difficult for me? All I asked you is to give me that girl."
"You need to seek some therapy and police, if you want a girl so much younger than you?"
Levi gave a sarcastic, but the villain was not having it.
"Do you want me to laugh at your sarcastic answers?"
"This could be your last time in this world, so laugh if you want to."
The villain laughed menacingly. Levi did not expect him to laugh.
'Is this how people act when they are about to die? Human emotions are hard to comprehend.'
The villain stopped laughing and looked at Irene.
"Look at you living your life without guilt or remorse after what you did to me."
Irene gulped. She didn't know what he was talking about, but her mouth became dry....she couldn't utter a word.
"Your father made my life a hell. He rejected my talent because of my blood. Do you think if I could choose, I would be a commoner? Because your father decided to kick me out of the guild, none of the others hired me. They deemed me a failure. I could not earn anything, even,
I could not pay for my mother's illness and now.....now she is a dead cause of your father."
Irene did not move, she kept on listening. She did not know what to feel, sympathy for the man who just tried to kill her or hate for the man who raised her.
"And now, I shall take your life. I will cut your head and throw it at your father's feet so he knows what it means to lose someone you love in front of your eyes."
"Did you even try to earn money?"
Instead of showing sympathy, Levi raised a question.
"What do you mean? I tried everything-"
"No- you didn't. You probably only applied to the guild and never thought of taking on other jobs. Am I right?"
The villain did not answer. Levi's was spot on.
"You could have done any other jobs, cleaning, manor labour anything but you didn't, you know why.....Cause you have an ego that is so big that it refuses to work those kind of jobs. You never tried. I doubt you were kicked out of the guild cause you are a commoner. You probably messed up. Irene's father may have been the one who started your misery but you had all the power in the world to save your mother. He didn't kill your mother, you did. And why does she need to feel guilty when she is innocent. Stop being a fucking hypocrite."
The last sentence was the nail in the coffin. Levi did not care about the villain's past nor did he care about why Irene's father kicked him out. Levi said this to stall time.
The villain's anger is raised to a new level. Levi just destroyed the reason for his revenge, for why he joined hands with evil. It is hard for someone to face reality when all they have been doing is turning their back losing themselves in their own delusions.
" You say I killed my mother. I loved her more than myself. She was everything to me. What do you know about being born as a commoner? We commoners are treated as if our birth was a sin. "
" I am not a noble, I am a commoner myself."
The villains eyes widened in shock. Why is a commoner doing this for a noble? Is he that girl's knight or affiliated with her family? These questions bothered the villain.
"Then why do you protect her? You know she probably thinks of you as some kind of "loser". Am I right Hyrda's heir?"
Irene looked down cause he was right. She did not call him a "loser" cause Levi did not have noble blood line but she did call him a loser nonetheless.
" Well, I know she calls me a loser. I know that but that does not mean I can kill someone just cause of how they see me. Look, man... I am sorry for your mother's death. She must have been the most wonderful person in your life, as every mother is. You probably miss her scolding you, the food she made, the lullaby she used to sing and the unconditional love she gave you but just cause you lost someone doesn't give you the right to kill others to relieve your misery."
Every word Levi said was damn true and it hurt the villain. He had a conscience of his wrongdoing but it was too late to turn back.
The villain gathered mana around his legs to launch himself towards Irene and end her.
*Rumble* *Rumble* *Rumble*
The ground started to shake violently and before he knew it a dagger came flying towards him and struck him in his chest.
"Argh"
The building was about to collapse not because one of the bombs went off but because the villain lighted the whole place on fire before he came to the roof.
Levi waited for this moment and it came at the right moment. Before the building tumbled, Levi ran towards Irene and jumpe off the building as he held her in her arms.
"What are you doing?"
Irene did not mind Levi touching her. The problem was they jumped up from a building 10 storeys high and now they had no way they could land safely.
Levi turned his body around so he would hit the ground first and cushion the fall for Irene. He used his last bit of mana to shield his back.
*Thud*
Levi hit the ground on his back. That was not the worst part, his back hit a big stone on the ground and Irene's elbow accidentally struck his solar plexus. His G-rank luck was at its finest.
Irene felt her elbow hit him.
" I am sorry, I didn't mean to"
Words got stuck in her throat. Time seemed to stop for her. She could not move and take her eyes off Levi's face.
Irene had only seen some part of his face as his bangs covered half of his face. A perfect face without any deformities. The nose, eyes, mouth everything was symmetrical. The scar on his left side made him look like a warrior and the most mesmerizing thing was his eyes. The colour of the moon and the crimson of blood mixed together gave him an ethereal look. Irene had met many handsome men in her lifetime but none came closer to Levi.
Blood trickled down from Levi's forehead as he slowly lost consciousness. Irene got out of the trance and stepped to the side of Levi's body. She held his head but didn't know what to do. His blood covered her hands. She was trembling looking around and did not know what to do.
"Looks like your prince could not survive the impact."
A voice came from her back.
'Why is he not dead?'
The villain stood up from the rumbles of the collapsed building. He wobbled his way towards Irene as he took out the dagger piercing his chest.
"That kid wasted his life on someone worthless like you. He could have led a happy life if he did not exist. Now look at what you have done."
Irene looked at Levi. His body felt cold, his eyes were closed and she could not feel any mana from his body.
' He is right...this all happened because of me. I should have....never said those things about him. I should have never thrown the book at him. I ....am sorry.'
Irene let go of Levi's head and stood up to fight against the villain.
"Now, you want to fight. You are weak, you cannot win against-"
As the villain was talking he felt something warm on his chest. He looked down and saw a hand pass through his chest right beside where Levi's dagger hit him.
" You have already made too much ruckus in my school. I would have liked to torture you but now is not the time for that.
The villain's body went limp as his body fell to the ground. Irene tried to look at the man who killed the villain but her head started spinning. She had pushed herself too hard.
Irene too lost consciousness and fell on the ground.
The man walked towards Irene and Levi and picked both of them up.
He looked at Levi and wondered.
"Looks like a baby dragon decided to come to my den"