From the moment Levi had activated his bonded ability, turning into the beastly creature, Cedric had also activated the property of his regalia: [Blight of Will]

For someone like Levi, whose attribute relied on rage as fuel, this property was a perfect counter. And so, all Cedric had been doing was buying enough time for the property to take effect.

When Cedric saw Levi slowly lose his rage and slow down, a sly grin crossed his lips behind the mask.

In just a matter of a few minutes, Levi's blue eyes suddenly reverted to red as he regained control of his instincts. But at the same time, he was suddenly filled with dread so immense that he could barely keep his hands from shaking.

'What's happening to me?' Levi thought as he halted and looked at Cedric standing with a bored slouch across from him.

'What's he doing to me?'

He wanted to take a step but suddenly froze because in that brief second, he was very sure that he saw the silhouette of a massive hooded skeleton standing behind Cedric.

'What the hell is that?!'

He took a cautious, shaky step back, and at that moment, Cedric spoke in a condescending tone.

"What is it, brother? Are you perhaps…" he tilted his head. "…afraid of me?"

"Me? Afraid of you?" Levi scoffed, though the tremor in his hands told a different story. "Don't delude yourself, Cedric."

He crouched and lunged. But then he suddenly halted again when the silhouette of the massive hooded skeleton appeared a second time. It was as if it was warning him that if he got close, he might really die.

He took a trembling step back.

"Ah…" Cedric tilted his head back slightly. "So you are afraid."

He let out a short, dry laugh, then buried his nodachi in the ground. He then balled his fist, looked at Levi, and lunged with his bare hands.

Levi could see Cedric clearly approaching but…

'Why…? Why can't I move?'

In the next instant, Cedric's fist connected squarely with Levi's jaw, sending him tumbling to the ground.

Cedric then pounced on top of him, wound his fist back and delivered another blow. Then another, and another.

Levi's monstrous frame began to shed its monstrous hide in a shower of embers and in only a matter of seconds, he had reverted fully into his human state.

It was then that Levi finally pleaded, "Please… please brother. Stop. I beg you."

Cedric halted and his hand kept dripping blood onto Levi's torn collar.

"You beg?" Cedric's grin disappeared, and for the first time since this fight began, Cedric felt genuine pure rage. His grip on Levi's shirt began to tremble.

At first, his voice was a low murmur. "I used to beg you. I begged… begged… begged." Then he yelled, "Every day I begged you!"

A painful laughter escaped him. "I begged for food. I begged for warmth. I begged for you to just leave me alone. I begged for a single shred of mercy that never came."

He yelled again. "I begged!"

…A tear flowed out of his eye.

Of course, the original Cedric begged for all these things from Levi and the Martini family. But right now, the current Cedric wasn't just speaking for a dead boy; he was venting for himself too.

For some reason, his worlds seemed to overlap in that moment.

As Kim Min-jun, he begged.

He begged his father for food. For warmth. For love. But when he couldn't get those, he begged to be left alone.

Yet, even that was denied him.

Looking at Levi now, begging after ignoring the previous Cedric's pleas, he was provoked so much because he suddenly saw his father in him. He saw the man responsible for driving his mother to suicide, and the man that destroyed him.

Cedric laughed.

It was a painfully bitter laugh.

As his laughter grew, he threw Levi to the dirt and began to work. He kept pummeling away at Levi's face until it was nothing more than a blurred mess of split skin and dark bruising.

In the heat of the moment, Ifrit manifested and despite also being affected by the Aura of Decay, he clamped a heavy hand onto Cedric's shoulder in an attempt to save Levi, who looked like he might die any time soon.

However, right at that moment, Aika's knee slammed into his temple, sending him crashing into the dirt a few meters away.

Then, Aika approached him, and as she did, the expression on her face was one of pure anger.

Ifrit groaned and tried to rise, but before he could find his footing, Aika unsheathed her katana and raised it high. Then she brought down the blade, cutting off the arm he had used to touch Cedric.

Ifrit let out a ragged yell of agony, collapsing back as he clutched the stump of his limb.

Meanwhile, Leon, who had been a silent onlooker until now, stumbled up to Cedric, who was still methodically hitting Levi.

"Cedric, please."

Cedric suddenly halted and slowly turned his head to look at Leon.

Leon spoke again. "You promised that you would only cripple him. If you continue this way, he is going to die."

Cedric stared at Leon for a moment before looking away. Then he sighed tiredly. "Leon. When Levi joined in selling me off to that Arena, he killed me, you know? Don't you think that it's only right that I do the same?"

Leon faltered, the words dying in his throat as he looked at the hollow expression in Cedric's eyes.

Cedric exhaled, and green smoke flowed out of his mouth, wrapping around his face. Then, he spoke again in the same flat voice.

"Why is it that when people have a bit more power than others, they turn into this? They act like everyone beneath them is just... nothing. They all do the same pathetic, cliché shit. I hate it. I hate it so much it makes me sick."

Leon cautiously stepped a bit closer to Cedric. "Come on Cedric. Don't do this… let's just…"

He was still speaking when Cedric suddenly plunged his hand into Levi's chest and ripped out his heart.

"Cedric!"

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