# Chapter 66
Despite wanting to kill him so desperately, Levi couldn’t help hesitating when he saw his dagger against Ion’s neck.
What he had imagined from Grand Duke Ion Verdit was hostility and deception. But what he felt from him was goodwill, to an extent that was difficult to comprehend.
‘Goodwill…? Is this what you call goodwill?’
Levi didn’t know how to describe the emotion emanating from him. Though he pulled out the word “goodwill” as the closest resemblance to this unfamiliar emotion, he felt something deeper and more intense.
Looking at Ion with confused eyes, Levi suddenly recalled what Raziel had said.
“Grand Duke Verdit will certainly try to deceive and persuade you. Since he must have realized that our relationship is special, he’ll thoroughly try to exploit that.”
As soon as he remembered those words, everything about Ion before him appeared negative.
The face filled with pure goodwill seemed like deceit to exploit him, and his warm hand looked as if it would mercilessly break his wrist at any moment, just as it had done before.
Levi sharpened his gaze and roughly swung the hand that Ion had grabbed. This freed his hand, but it caused Ion’s neck to be cut deeper by the blade, splattering a bit of blood.
Levi actually wanted to slice Ion’s neck right then, but he knew it would be difficult to kill him without staining his dagger with his own blood. To kill Ion, who had extraordinary self-healing abilities like the immortal soldiers, he needed to nullify his ability.
The blood that had been on his dagger had already cooled or solidified.
The deathly energy in his own blood was the only key that could counteract Ion’s life ability, but as the warmth disappeared, the effect rapidly diluted. That’s why Levi had no choice but to cut his Black Hand again, letting the hot blood flowing from it heat the blade.
Witnessing this up close, Ion approached with surprising speed. Then he quickly grabbed Levi’s wrist holding the dagger and pushed it strongly against the wall. Levi, who raised his right hand in surprise, had that wrist also pinned against the wall, becoming completely restrained.
Ion’s golden pupils filled Levi’s vision as he came close enough that their breaths mingled.
“What are you doing? Doesn’t it hurt?”
The blood flowing from Levi’s palm caressed the back of Ion’s hand that was pressing down on his wrist. To Ion, Levi’s blood was incomparably hotter than the blood flowing from the wound on his own neck.
Levi looked at the area around Ion’s neck. The wound that had been streaming blood after being cut by the sharp dagger was already shrinking. Only the bloodstains around it gave an indication of the wound’s original size.
He quickly assessed his situation. Though his hands were firmly bound and he was pushed against the wall, there was still about a hand and a half’s space between them. With this much space, he could escape easily if they weren’t on a moving horse.
Using Ion’s firm hands pressing his wrists and the wall behind him as support, Levi lifted his bent knees high. As soon as his knees reached his chest, he kicked Ion’s chest at a right angle as if kicking in mid-air. Ion stepped back a couple of paces at this unexpected, quick, and sudden attack, and Levi, whose hands were freed in that gap, immediately swung his dagger.
Levi was specifically targeting areas not protected by armor. Primarily, he had been aiming for the neck all along, so Ion was prepared to defend by tracking the trajectory with his eyes.
No matter how well-honed and sturdy the blade, it couldn’t cut or destroy knights’ armor unless it was a massive greatsword. Levi knew this, which is why he persistently targeted the gaps between armor connections or the neck. In other words, being careful about just those areas could nullify most of Levi’s attacks.
But Levi thrust his dagger into the inside of Ion’s left thigh, not a vital point.
Although leg armor typically protected the legs by wrapping around with the same material as the breastplate that covered up to the groin, for mobility and convenience, it was closer to the form of long boots that focused on outer protection rather than the concept of pants. As a result, there was only cotton pants above it, not armor, and unlike the outside, the inside of the thigh where the armor was sloped diagonally upward had a visible gap to the naked eye.
Levi deliberately targeted that area, not a vital point.
Caught off guard, Ion felt the same strange sensation from the spot where Levi had stabbed his dagger. It wasn’t simple pain from being stabbed, but a strange sensation as if the wound was spreading on its own, distributing poison around it.
As Ion momentarily stiffened and hesitated, Levi seized the opportunity, instantly twisting his body to target Ion’s neck from the side.
Clank—!
The sturdy armored part of Ion’s raised arm blocked Levi’s dagger. The speed of the approaching blade was certainly fast, but Ion had remained vigilant enough to somehow defend himself.
As if knowing the attack would be blocked, Levi immediately twisted his body and flowed into the next attack.
With both hands free, Levi was truly frightening. He didn’t display disciplined swordsmanship like trained knights or repeat set movements. Though his attacks seemed to come in a barrage, each movement connected naturally, threatening life in the blink of an eye.
There were none of the cautious movements from his assassination attempts. He showed such resolute determination that he would definitely take his opponent’s life even if it meant taking the full brunt of their attacks.
In reality, Ion was solely focused on blocking or avoiding attacks, but had his opponent been anyone other than Levi, he would have had more than five opportunities to cut them down. That’s how much Levi showed movements that paid no attention to defense.
‘Always like this…’
Ion bit his lip firmly.
He recalled how in the past, Levi had fought against the slave traders to save him, ultimately meeting his death.
Thinking about it, his movements now were no different from then. The times when he moved cautiously for assassination were rather anomalous.
Levi’s movements, which suggested he didn’t care how or where his body was injured, invisibly slashed at Ion’s heart pounding wildly inside his armor. Even watching him repeatedly cut his palm with the dagger had given him a feeling of his heart being gouged out, but seeing such movements right before his eyes made Ion feel as if his insides were burning black.
For the first time, he was angry at Levi.
‘You said you wanted to live!’
For Levi, who was nearly immortal, what he valued most was “life.”
Before meeting Ion, Levi had wished to enjoy “life” like a person. After meeting the young Ion, he had given up his core as if a substitute who would carry on the “life” he so desired had appeared. The Crown Prince Kalvern probably played the same role as himself in the past, and thus Levi must have been thoroughly exploited.
And now?
Without need for thought, one person’s face immediately came to mind.
The black-haired man who not only abducted Levi right before his eyes but also made him hate Ion like this.
‘Raziel…!’
The small anger directed at Levi grew immeasurably and was now directed at the Emperor of the Caron Empire. He felt extreme fury that the current Levi would protect Raziel’s “life” to the extent of treating his own life lightly.
He felt anxious to the point of madness because it seemed like Levi’s “death” would be at the end of this path.
At that moment, the wall near where the two were engaged in a one-sided battle shook violently with a huge roar. Soon after, the bricks forming the rampart came crumbling down. Part of the wall that the surviving catapult had been persistently attacking had finally collapsed.
Levi saw this as an opportunity. He thought it didn’t matter if his arm broke or his head cracked from the falling bricks as long as he could kill Ion. Since Ion would naturally defend his head with both arms against the falling bricks, Levi could deeply thrust his dagger into Ion’s exposed neck.
However, Ion, far from defending his head, actually narrowed the distance between them and suddenly embraced Levi with both arms, lying face down on the ground. Though surprised by this unexpected action, Levi still instinctively tried to stab his dagger into Ion’s nape. Heavy bricks that were falling onto Ion’s body threatened to crush Levi’s hand as it aimed for Ion’s nape.
Ion tightly held Levi with one arm as if he would block all the bricks with his own body, while the other arm supported him on the ground.
With his back against the cold floor and his front blocked by Ion’s embrace, Levi couldn’t move at all. He tightly closed his eyes as he watched the bricks rapidly filling his field of vision.
The cascade of bricks completely covered the two bodies along with heavy dust.
