CHAPTER 368: YOUR HEART WILL BE BROKEN

Lucivar walked along the main street in silence.

Nobody was around anymore; it was already late in the night.

It was so serene that even the sound of each footstep he took rang in his ears loudly.

Unlike his clone with Zibbo, who was having the time of his life, he wasn’t.

A cloud of gloom loomed over his head as he headed back to the dormitory.

Despite managing to torture information out of Lily and even killing her to make sure Horus’ Avatar has no eyes in the academy, there was no triumph, no sense of accomplishment, or even relief. All he felt right now was profound coldness.

One that matched the coldness of the night breeze.

Killing her felt good at the moment, but once the thrill was gone, he was confronted by reality again.

Lucivar gazed ahead blankly as his mind replayed what his other clone experienced.

...

"Kahhk!"

A woman was hurled backward hard, her body slamming into the tree trunk with a sickening crack.

Upon impact, the air in her lungs was forced out in a sharp, agonizing gasp.

Bam!

Her feet barely touched the ground before a fist crashed into her face with brutal precision—causing her skull to strike the tree hard for the second time, then recoiled, before her body collapsed into a limp, sitting heap against the bark.

At this point, her face was a ruined canvas of blood and bruises.

A shattered nose leaked crimson freely down to her lips, which were split and trembling.

Strands of ink-black hair clung to her cheeks, matted with sweat and blood.

She looked like a corpse propped upright—broken, barely breathing.

Even then, through the mess, her bright hazel eyes still glared at the man before her. Defiant. Alive.

Lucivar met that stare with cold indifference.

Once he was about to reach Master Tobias’ mansion, in that empty street leading to nowhere, he decided to strike the woman first. He already noticed the woman from the moment she followed him. Of course, he was expecting a reaction.

It was a gamble, but it worked out in his favor.

Sparing no words, Lucivar drew the combat knife he’d taken from her earlier.

"Keuhkk!"

Out of nowhere, the woman jerked violently.

In that moment, she could feel the heat of pain gradually spread across her chest.

At first, it doesn’t hurt at all—but the pain reached excruciating in a second.

"Raaghk!"

Lucivar drove the combat knife through her chest and into the tree behind her, pinning her in place.

Her scream tore up her throat, raw and guttural, but Lucivar was faster.

He dropped to a crouch, hand clamping over her mouth, muffling the scream effectively.

For a good moment there, Lucivar stared into her face—into her wild, tear-streaked eyes—without a shred of pity or mercy. Her expression contorted, lips quivering beneath his palm, breath hot with pain and panic, but Lucivar felt nothing.

Killing so many people already, he had seen all kinds of faces.

And hers weren’t anything special.

No amount of tears or defiance from her would stir anything inside Lucivar once he made up his mind.

Once she could no longer scream, Lucivar’s hand moved from her mouth to her head, grasping a handful of her hair to keep her head from falling. "I’ve gotten all the information from your friends. This is your last chance to confirm—or give new information. Who informed the Vestal that I was away in training? Who contacted him as soon as I left?"

Hearing this, the woman’s lips curled as she chuckled weakly.

Even breathless, she spent the last of her strength on a broken, defiant chuckle.

"What’s so funny?" Lucivar raised a brow.

Looking at him again, the woman smiled, "You... You’re smart, so how do you not... know?"

A change happened on Lucivar’s expression as he averted his gaze.

Seeing this, the woman tilted her head slightly, keeping eye contact.

"Ah, I see..." The woman chuckled again, finding the situation to be ironic as soon as she realized the reason behind the change in Lucivar’s expression. Then, she spoke again, "You want new information? Okay, I’ll give it to you. Perhaps it’s something you need."

Lucivar watched her, unmoving.

Around him, the world seemed to hush as if someone had lowered the volume of the world.

Even the wind stilled as he fixed his eyes on the woman’s lips.

It was so bad that Lucivar could hear his own heartbeat rattling his eardrums.

He focused solely on her lips, the trees, and even the shapes around him blurred as if reality had shifted out of focus. Everything slowed down almost to a halt, the tension wrapped around his neck—choking him to a breathless state.

And finally, the silence broke as the woman spoke.

"Before you are ready, soon, very soon, your heart will be broken—just as broken as I am right now."

Lucivar frowned.

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, urgency could be heard in his voice now.

But the woman didn’t give him an answer.

Instead, with the last bit of her strength, she reached out her trembling hand to grip the knife embedded in her chest and tore it free in one brutal motion. Giving no chance for Lucivar to react, she drove the blood-slicked blade straight into her own neck.

Blood fell freely, drenching her body and clothes.

She died instantly, leaving Lucivar alone, surrounded by unanswered assumptions.

In the next silent minute, he stared at her lifeless corpse blankly.

Her last words kept repeating inside his mind, as he came to realize that he was a fool.

From the very start, he already knew the answer to that question, but he subconsciously wanted another answer. It was humiliating, and frankly, he wasn’t surprised that the woman chuckled at him earlier. He deserved it.

Lucivar stood up and dragged the corpse deeper into the woods.

Using his immense strength, he dug a grave with his bare hands and finished it in a single minute.

Once he was done, he kicked the corpse into the grave and closed it properly.

Since this was his clone, he couldn’t use his Godly powers, so he had to resort to the traditional way of getting rid of a body. Had this been his real body, he would’ve simply used Greedy Grasp to absorb the corpse completely.

As soon as he was done, his body melted into water, disappearing without a trace.

Oblivious to him, there was a man who was walking along the street alone.

He came from the main street, seemingly heading towards Master Tobias’ mansion.

...

Lucivar stood in front of the student dormitory and looked up at the building.

His eyes flickered with hesitation.

Reaching for his pocket, he took out a phone with a rose sticker and looked at it for a good moment.

Sighing deeply, he placed his phone against his ear.

"Delilah..."

As soon as that name escaped his lips, the rose sticker flickered slightly, but Lucivar lowered his hand and pocketed the phone again. He didn’t know what to say to Delilah. Even though he needed to talk to her, he didn’t know what to say.

Scratching the back of his head, he stepped inside the building and went up.

Moments later.

Lucivar opened the door to his room and looked at the others, who were waiting inside.

He didn’t look surprised to see them, or at least he seemed to already expect them to be here.

"Lucivar..." Leandra called, her voice light.

Stepping inside, Lucivar closed the door behind him and went to the bed. "Where’s Bakar?"

"He went out earlier," Mirel answered, standing up expectantly. "He said he’d be taking a walk around the academy, but he hadn’t come back yet. I’m worried about him. He’s not the type to be rash, but we couldn’t be sure either."

Just then, Mirel noticed that Leasndra was looking at him meaningfully.

He frowned for a second, then realized what she meant.

"O-Of course, you should tell us how your day went before we look for Bakar." He added.

Lucivar stood beside the bed and looked at Leandra.

"What about Ravenna? Is she getting better?"

"Yes, but she’s still recovering. She tried talking earlier, but she got hurt again. It looked to me that she was afflicted by a curse spell belonging to the Vampire Hybrids. It’s in her blood, and it could spread to others." Leandra’s shoulders slumped as she sighed helplessly. "I don’t think she’ll be able to leave bed for a few more days."

Hearing this, Lucivar nodded and turned towards Sabrina.

She straightened her back expectantly when she noticed him looking at her.

"Angel, did she drop something?" Lucivar asked.

"Yes," Sabrina raised a folder. "Do you want to read it now?"

"No." He sat down on the bed, cracking his neck tiredly. "I’ll read it tomorrow morning. We’re leaving at night, so there’s time."

Almost instantly, Leandra and Mirel exchanged a look.

Both of them tensed up at Lucivar’s words.

Leandra turned to Lucivar again, clearing her throat, "We... We’re still going tomorrow? To Vanessa’s birthday party?"

"Does that mean..." Mirel paused, struggling to utter the words.

Before he could say more, Lucivar already confirmed what they were trying to say with a firm nod.

"Yes," He said with a stern tone. "Tobias is most likely the one behind Bob’s disappearance."

Lucivar wasn’t lying.

Earlier, when the compass directed him toward Master Tobias’ mansion, he was already sure that it was not Leandra, Ravenna, or the others who informed Horus’ Avatar about his departure and location. He didn’t want to believe it at first, but at this point, it was clear that Master Tobias was the traitor.

He was the one who was working together with the enemy avatars.

Naturally, this was a tough pill to swallow.

Not because he was sad that Master Tobias did this, but because he didn’t expect it at all.

Lucivar suspected the others first when he got attacked.

In the spur of the moment, when he could’ve blamed anyone, Master Tobias never crossed his mind.

Out of everyone, Master Tobias was the least likely.

But he was wrong.

No matter how hard he tries to think of a reason why Master Tobias would do something like this, he simply couldn’t find a single one. All Master Tobias wanted was for them to become strong, and since everyone has a good image of him, it was hard to determine what he was actually after.

It could be power, for fun, or simply anything else.

"How-How-How did you know that?" Mirel asked, stammering.

"Because he was the one who leaked my departure to the opposing Avatar," Lucivar said, his voice steady with truth as he shook his head, a bitter smile curling his lips. "He’s the reason Leandra—and I were ambushed. Seems like he saved us from our predicament for a price... and now it’s time for him to collect."