Chapter 87: The Psychotic Lover

Hector Gemini had never loved anyone in his life. Not that he was incapable. He never understood love, nor knew whom to expect it from or return it to.

Familial love wasn't a factor for him. He married for the sake of power and had children to strengthen the family's influence and power.

Eight years ago, he visited the Dexers for something important. During his visit, he remembered seeing Fiona, 20 years of age, practising in their training ground.

It was the first time he had ever seen Fiona with his own eyes. Coincidentally, she never attended parties, and the same was true for Hector. Even so, seeing Fiona didn't pique his interest.

They would be dead soon.

But seeing Fiona at the training ground, with a black shirt and black pants, dusted, her face riddled with dirt, sweaty, but still beautiful, rang thousands of bells in Hector's heart.

It was love at first sight. The only woman and person in the whole world whom he wanted to love. However, his love wasn't beautiful.

He wanted to cage her, so only he could see her. Dress her up as he wanted. And use her without her consent. His thoughts didn't disgust him; instead, he floated in the euphoric sensation every time he thought of her.

That is when he decided,

"I will kill every boon and vassal of Dexer except her. She will be beside me for the rest of our lives. After I become a majin, she will be turned into one as well; then nothing can separate us. She will only be mine and mine alone."

It wasn't love but obsession.

And that is what confused Levi. The game never had this, not in the countless times he played it. Hector was a villain, but he only obsessed over the head of Dexer, not his daughter.

So back in the mansion when Hector told him, or the central eye about it, Levi was shocked. At first, he thought they wanted to infuse two devils into Hector or use one of his sons for it.

Never had he thought Hector to be a psychotic lover.

For that information, Levi had to give Hector a technique that even the central eye didn't know and wouldn't give to someone like him.

"Is it really okay for Hector to know about the Demonification?"

 The central eye asked as Levi entered the boys' locker room, empty and messy as always.

"I wouldn't have given him the technique if I didn't know the counter for it."

Trial Of Heroes had exactly 101 endings, and each for every ten playable characters. It took many turns for everyone in the community to get the perfect ending.

But Levi didn't care about the happy ending. Once he completed it, he started experimenting with the game, checking how far he could push the limit or do something new.

During this, he stumbled upon Demonification, a process to turn a human into a demon, not just a majin. Excited, he wanted to turn the characters into one, but the game always crashed or the whole computer would shut down.

So, he tried to make other side characters a demon, but that too gave some results. Levi gave up on that but doing the process so many times engraved the formula into his mind, for eternity.

Now, in reality, he wanted to test it and had found the perfect test subject. The problem… well-

'If anybody finds out I gave him the formula and Hector turns into an unkillable demon, then I am fucked.' 

Levi wasn't doing this for a grand plan but just to satisfy his curiosity.

'I mean what's wrong with having a bit of fun? Nothing would go wrong if my plans work.'

"The world will end if your plans go wrong." 

The central eye said, wondering how its master's brain worked.

*******

"Sir Ryan."

 The guards at the church's main gate said, saluting him after his absence for the last two weeks. Ryan just smiled as they opened the gate for him.

Ryan had left the academy for a few weeks to work on a cure for the disease that Noel and his elder brother had been spreading. He needed no distraction, so he cut himself off from anybody just to work on the cure, and he had done it.

Yet again, the best healer in the whole world managed to get an achievement to his name, and he decided to return to the church and report his findings to Siras, his senior and boss.

He didn't disturb Quill, praying, and took the church's communication ball to a separate, sound-proof room.

Ryan poured his mana into the orb, imagining Siras's face. The orb let out a yellow light at first and then

*Ting*

It turned blue.

"Were you on a call with someone else, Saint?" 

Ryan asked because of how fast he responded.

Siras didn't answer. Sweat ran down his forehead, his hand clasped, and he had clenched his jaw hard enough to break it.

Ryan saw his nervousness and forgot about what he wanted to say, "Did something happen?"

Siras nodded, 

"I messed up, big time."

"What did you do?"

Ryan was the last person Siras wanted to tell this about. After all, it involved his disciple, "I sent Levi on his first mission."

Those words were enough to tell Ryan what could have happened to Levi. He couldn't even be happy that Levi came this far in such a short amount of time.

"Is he dead?"

"No.....we don't know yet. But this is all my fault."

Ryan had never seen the Saint this scared and shaken for someone. "What was the mission?"

Siras started to quiver even more. Even from the communication orb, Ryan could feel his nervousness.

"It was a simple one. I had put another letter in his mission sample, and where he just had to deliver it to the other church. I could have just sent the message through the communication orb. I wanted him to make connections with others in the church; that's why I did so and had planned but-"

Siras took a deep breath and looked at Ryan, who also like him had started sweating.

"I sent the wrong letter."

Siras put his head down and cursed at himself. Like usual, he would just write a single sentence in his letters, to be clear, and cut, and it felt cool. Ryan also knew this; that is how they had been operating, and such things had never happened before. He rubbed the sweat off and asked, hoping Levi wasn't dead,

"So what mission did he mistakenly get?"

Siras hesitated to answer, but hiding would worsen the situation even more. 

"He...the house….he had to spy on the House of Gemini."

"WHAT?"

 Ryan slammed the table and shouted at the top of his lungs. The sound barrier around the room almost cracked because of the mana coming out from him.

He looked at Siras and wanted his words to be a joke, but the usual smirk on Siras' face wasn't there.

"Damn.."

Ryan sat up and roamed around the room, holding his head.

"The message was meant for "her," but in the end, Levi got the letter. She came to me, asking why I had given her such a simple mission. That's when I realized my mistake."

"I immediately contacted the academy myself, but they said he had returned but left again. I sent my guards to the city, but they didn't find any trace of Levi. The only information they know is Levi did visit Rudal. They still haven't reported to me if he returned or not."

Siras tried everything; he contacted everyone he knew, but no good answers. Asking the academy about a student not being his guardian raised suspicion.

"I am going to the Gemini."

"No..you won't."

 Siras wasn't ready to lose yet another one.

"I am sorry, Ryan. I will do my best to bring back Levi, but you cannot. You know infiltrating is impossible, even for you."

An S-rank healer like him would not get past even the first three barriers protecting the mansion, let alone sneak in, undetected.

Ryan too knew his effort would be a miss in the park, but- 

"I cannot stay still while Levi is out there.....alive...I wish he was alive."

"I am alive."

Ryan turned back and saw Levi staring at him. Siras also saw the silhouette of Levi behind Ryan and was shocked.

Both just stared at him, rubbing their eyes.

Levi confused, tapped on Ryan's cheek, "You look like you have seen a ghost."

Ryan stood up and grabbed Levi by his shoulder, "How are you here?"

"I just walked, and by the way, when did you return?"

Ryan patted Levi on his shoulder, his eyes quivering, almost wanting to cry. 

" That doesn't matter. You're safe and only that matters."

Levi, still confused, just smiled and hugged Ryan. He just felt like it. "And by the way, I hope you burn to death."

He then showed a middle finger to Siras.

Levi then walked towards the orb and pointed at Siras with the middle finger,

 "You aren't a saint but a devil to give me that as my first mission. I barely managed to complete it, and I hope the reward is really something good for the trouble I went through."

"You managed to infiltrate the mansion?"

 Ryan and Siras said at the same time.

Levi frowned and scoffed, 

"Yeah and I came here to report on that."

Ryan and Siras looked at each other. They could tell Levi wasn't lying, seeing how pissed he was. Ryan gestured to Levi to take a seat, and Siras started explaining the mess-up.

Levi sighed after Siras expressed his deepest apology,

 "Just write long letters to me from now on."

Siras nodded and took a deep breath. A big headache and guilt were gone, but now a profound sense of awe and confusion took over him. "Levi, I am sorry for what happened, but how did you manage to do it?"

Levi nodded and started explaining everything, how he got there, where he bought the armour, everything...even pulling the holy "rod". Except how he broke the barrier and the Demonification.

Ryan didn't ask him how, and Siras could imagine Levi using the arsenal of titles and skills he had.

Levi didn't leave the part out about the magic circles. He didn't say anything about the central eye playing a crucial role and just said, 

"I overheard them talking." Once his part of the story ended, Siras and Ryan again glanced at each other and smiled. They had a hidden gem on their side.

Ryan knew Siras had been planning to take down the Gemini. He also had been feeling something off about the city itself. They also had guessed it but needed some concrete evidence.

Levi's words weren't the concrete one, but they now could fully investigate them, without having to face any false charges.

"So what do you want as your reward?" 

Siras, pleased by Levi's act, though he didn't plan it like this, wanted to reward the miracle he did.

Levi thought for a while, but nothing came to his mind.

 "Can I request it later?"

"You can and don't be shy to ask," 

Siras said and looked at Ryan.

"See you later then." 

And called off the call.

"Ah.."

 Ryan then remembered why he had actually called Siras. The whole thing about Levi messed up his head.

"I forgot to mention it to him, but I managed to find the cure."

Levi, acting shocked, glanced at his teacher.

 "This fast? Congratulations. So what do you want for your reward?"

Ryan held his chin and just shrugged it off, 

"Maybe I want the position of the Saint."

Levi laughed as he hit his thigh.

 "You don't joke a lot, but when you do, it is hilarious."

Ryan also let out a small laugh and frowned, 

"I wasn't joking."

"Me neither," 

Levi said as both of them walked out of the church Ryan kept explaining he could be the saint if he wanted to.