Albert Lykos the man that brought the golden era for the Lykos family was killed by two rank 2 magus apprentices of the raven academy for conspiring and stealing from the raven academy. Sophie knew if this news got out her reputation will sky rocket, this will bring her more benefits.

She stopped looking at Albert’s dead body that was on the floor and looked at Adrius, Adrius used the invisibility cloak she made to kill Albert. The cloak was invincible only for mortals as for official magus. They can see clearly, but as the rune master becomes stronger and stronger their work will also get stronger. But for now Sophie can make these cloaks that can hide them from anyone who is under rank 3 magus apprentice.

They used the cloak to enter the castle and started to kill everyone on their way up to the meeting hall Albert and the students were in.

Adrius was sitting on a chair and was not moving or making any sound, Sophie knew what it meant so she left him be. Adrius was thinking about something, she has seen him do this a lot on their journey.

Sophie also found a chair in the garden and sat down, she was still very exhausted after using the spell, but she knew if she didn’t use it then they would be the people lifeless on the ground. She also thought that Adrius would backstab her the moment he killed Albert and she was at her weakest moment. But he didn't, he just walked there and sat down.

After time Adrius spoke: “ So now we have killed everyone in this house, but there is something bugging me.”

“What is it?”

“ Why did Albert have such confidence to go against the Raven academy, and was not afraid of us. But he acted like we are not a threat, for him maybe but the raven academy has a lot of official magus. And I would imagine that a magus can destroy the family with one finger. So the question is, who is backing the Lykos family to make Albert this confident of his survival?”

“Clap”

“Clap”

Clapping was heard after Adrius finished, Adrius and Sophie both got up and were on their watch. This enemy is strong, they have come this close to them without discovering them.

The clapping was getting louder and louder with every second, the sky was turning dark and it was hard to see. But Adrius saw a shadow of a person walking out of a door.

Adrius and Sophie swallowed their saliva with fear, they sensed the person to be a rank 3 magus apprentice. They were doomed!

Sophie finally got the courage to speak to the shadowy person in front of the door. They still couldn’t figure out anything about them: “ Who are you? And what are you doing here?”

The figure answered in a calm tone while walking forward: “ Now don’t be in a hurry sweety, everything will come at time”

The person was finally visible for both of them, he was tall with messy black hair, pale as a paper and wore a white magus robe with a pegasus on it. He had brown eyes, but the most terrifying thing about him was him not having a mouth! He had instead skin covering the place his mouth was supposed to be in.

Adrius was a little confused about this man's identity but Sophie wasn’t: “ Oliver the mouthless!” She said with fear in her voice

Adrius still had no idea who this Oliver was, but he knew that he was a big deal from Sophie’s reaction.

Oliver tilted his head and looked at Adrius, he was confused. Why didn’t this weakling react to his name? He knew who Adrius was but didn’t expect him to be this cold. He then spoke: “ Me in the flesh, I didn’t expect you to figure the plot this quickly. Good work!”

Oliver didn’t have a mouth so he can’t talk, so he uses a spell to let him speak with his mind. For magus this is very easy, they don’t even have to use a spell. But they can transfer their sentences and words with magic.

Sophie was still afraid, but she got herself together: “ So the pegasus academy was backing the Lykos family. It all makes sense now, you always used such lowlife methods to get what you want. And you consider yourself a light magus organisation, “humf” pathetic. And by my knowledge they sent you their most loyal hitman here to kill us so no one will ever know about your academy’s plans”

Oliver tilted his head backwards and laughed, it was weird seeing him making the motion of laughing without any sound coming from him: “ You are smarter than I imagined, but what can I say, as expected of the great Sophie Gaius. The raven academy’s prodigy. Also I’ve heard about you Adrius Caseo, you are pretty talented, wicked but talented. So by killing you I’m taking out two of the raven academy’s good seeds. I see this as hitting two birds with one stones”

The feeling in Adrius’s heart got even worse, he knew if he didn’t escape now then he was dead. Sophie was thinking the same thing, she took a health potion earlier so she wasn’t that tired. But she knew that she can’t get in a fight with Oliver without losing her life. Oliver was a very famous rank 3 magus apprentice, and he was the prodigy of the pegasus academy. They were expecting him to advance to an official magus in a span of years.

‘Fuck, what should I do now? I can sacrifice Adrius and run, but I have to create the best scenario first so I can guarantee my escape.’ Thought Sophie, she didn’t know that Adrius was thinking the same thing.

‘How can I get out of here, I may have to sacrifice Sophie to get out of here’ He was perfectly fine with sacrificing Sophie so he could live, thousands of people die everyday. What was the importance of Sophie in those numbers?

Oliver's voice cut both of their thinking process: “ Can we end this quickly I have something important and I must hurry”

After finishing Oliver didn’t hesitate to strike first, a fireball manifested in front of him. The ball was the size of a human head and Adrius could sense its heat from the place he was standing. Which was five meters apart from it.

‘I have to dodge this at all cost, if this hits me then I’m dead’ The same thought went through Adrius' and Sophie’s mind.

But before they could do anything the fireball was unleashed it was slow and fast at the same time. It headed straight for Adrius, because he was the weakest person here. And Oliver knew of the tactic of attacking the weak to scare the strong. The fireball in a matter of seconds was in front of Adrius, he could feel his skin burning by the heat of the ball. This was his first time seeing a spell being thrown against him, in the yearly exam he was the attacker and most of the time he used his sword to fight. So he was frozen for a moment and the ball was very close to hitting him: ‘Fuck is this the way I go? Fuck I couldn’t even achieve official magus rank. I don’t want to get back into darkness. No I will never go back there’ At this moment released Adrius how afraid he was of death, after he got his memories back he realised that he didn’t transfer instantly but time passed with him being in darkness and then he got the chance to enter young Adrius’ body. But he shut off these memories because he was afraid of this so-called “death”. But now he is facing it again, and he knows that at any moment now he will have to go back to that darkness again.

He waited for him to feel the pain of the fireball hitting him, but he didn’t feel anything.

He opened his eyes and saw something that brought him hope, his mask shield activated and defended him against the fireball. But it had a lot of cracks on it and it was going to break soon, but that was all the time Adrius needed to fix his mind. He immediately used shadow step and ran to the side, escaping the fireball's path. The fireball hit a tree that was behind Adrius and the tree was burned out of existence.

Adrius’ back was wet with sweat: ‘ If Demon’s wrath didn’t give me enough time it would’ve been me that burned out of existence’ Adrius’ appreciation for Demon’s Wrath got higher after the incident seconds ago.

Oliver had a slightly surprised expression: “ Wow, so this is the artifact Demon’s Wrath, I didn’t think it was this powerful. It lasted for one second against my spell. Impressive.”

Saying that he attacked with another spell, this one looked like a serpent that was made out of flame. It shot against Adrius like a bullet. But this time Adrius was ready and used shadow step instantly, he dodged the serpent that was coming for him, but he was surprised to find the serpent following him.

“Do not try to escape, this spell was invented personally by my pegasus academy patriarch and it is one of our strongest spells under the official magus realm.” Mocked Oliver

“Well let’s see how good your patriarch was” Provoked Adrius

He then looked at Sophie wanting her to help him, but he saw a scene that shocked him. She was holding a scroll and white light that had the aura of rank 1 magus covered her.

‘Oh no! She is Escaping!’ Thought Adrius, Sophie then looked at Adrius and said: “ Sorry Adrius, but my life is far more important than yours” Before he could say anything Sophie disappeared from her place. She didn’t fly but her speed was faster than Adrius’ eyes.

Adrius’ mind was filled with anger and hate toward Sophie and Oliver. Now he was really doomed, he was facing a rank 3 magus apprentice and he was rank 2 also his only ally just betrayed him and left him for death.

Oliver had an angry expression, he was distracted with Adrius and Sophie took the chance to escape: “ Too bad your friend escaped, but it’s okay there will be another time. As for you there won’t be any.”

‘I’m definitely dead’ Thought Adrius as Oliver attacked again.