Ravenna watched as Lucivar sprinted out of the bathroom and then out of the room.
She was now in her bathrobe.
Once he left, her expression imdiately shifted into a tense one.
Her eyes naturally settled on the dressing table—the phone wasn't there anymore.
Slowly, she approached the table and reached for the bottom right drawer where the phone should be.
It was easy to find out about this since Lucivar wasn't really hiding the phone.
But a gentle pull showed her that it was locked.
Lucivar brought the key with him, so there's no use searching the entire room.
Ravenna sat down on the edge of the bed, combing her hair backward, contemplating sothing, judging from the complex look she was wearing. It was the sa thought that kept replaying in her mind ever since that day.
'Delilah, is she still alive?'
Back then, after hearing her voice on the phone, she imdiately walked out of the locker room.
She didn't understand why she did that.
At the ti, all she wanted to do was to get away from the phone as far as possible.
Leandra followed right behind.
And outside of the stadium, Ravenna could tell that she also heard sothing.
She said that the voice, Delilah, said not to touch the phone ever again.
'I'm not crazy. Leandra heard it too.'
Even though this thought has been haunting her for the last month and more, she doesn't have the sheer courage to ask Lucivar directly about it. Or maybe, the shock has gotten to her so badly that she wants to avoid talking about it.
Of course, she tried to build up the courage to talk about it.
Maybe earlier in the bathroom, when Lucivar was out of it, she could sneak in the conversation.
But she failed again.
It was the sa for Leandra.
Not only did she avoid talking about it, but she also avoided Lucivar entirely.
Needing to process this shock.
"She's dead… She died right in front of our eyes." She leaned forward, covering her face with both her hands. "I couldn't save her, and she died in front of us. Then who is that on the phone? No call ca in, but there was that voice, and it was undeniably Delilah's voice."
"Is there sothing that we didn't know that only Lucivar knew? Is she sohow… still alive?"
Just then, Ravenna rembered the sticker.
A magical artifact that was certainly tied to the phone.
"What kind of magical artifact was that?"
Biting her lower lip, Ravenna stood up abruptly and changed into the academy hunter uniform.
She couldn't hold it in anymore.
It's ti to face reality and confront this situation head-on.
Once she changed, she brushed Nerissa's head and whispered to her that she was leaving for a mont.
Nerissa only groaned and nodded before going back to sleep again.
Ravenna walked out of the room and traced along the corridor—there are barely any rooms up here.
Unlike the lower floors that have at least almost a hundred or even more rooms on each floor, this floor was a lot secluded as it was reserved only for the top-rankers or soone like Lucivar, who made a big contribution to the academy.
She went down a few floors through the ergency exit.
Deliberately avoiding the main staircase or lift so that she wouldn't cross Lucivar.
It took a minute for her to reach a particular door, and she knocked on it.
But there was no answer, no matter how much she knocked.
"Where is she?"
Ravenna looked around when she realized Leandra wasn't in her room.
She thought for a mont and headed downstairs again to leave the building.
A place ca to mind where Leandra might be.
Ravenna managed to slip past Lucivar, who was talking to Angel at the lobby, and got out.
As expected, the academy streets were already filled with students going to their morning classes.
It was about seven in the morning, and the first class was about to start.
Soon, she arrived in front of a big building not too far away from the main academy building.
A training place for students.
Lucivar requested that the others be moved alongside him to the student dormitory, and he has a special privilege ID that would allow them the sa benefits or even more with the students. So naturally, all the benefits of a student were open to them.
In the lobby of the Training Facility Building, Ravenna talked with the receptionist and found Leandra.
She was in room thirty.
As the door slid open automatically, Ravenna was greeted by an open, spacious training space.
It has all kinds of things that would assist in a Hybrid training, such as nurous kinds of weapons, test dummies, puppets with varying power levels—and even the Reflection ter that couldn't only gauge the raw strength of the Hybrid, but also spell power output.
Leandra was at the center, working up a sweat with a steel sword in hand.
She didn't even turn as Ravenna entered, keeping up with her combos, swift and precise.
Even the sound from every slash she made was a clear tell-tale that she was an expert, and her fluidity of movents made her look like a butterfly. Ravenna watched this from the side in silence, waiting for her to finish.
Leandra made a circular swing and then a quick dash, stabbing forward precisely.
Her ether blasted from the tip, hitting the Reflection ter hard.
[Calculated output: 2-star Chrysalis rank!]
A robotic voice resounded across the room, declaring the result.
Once the echoes faded, Leandra straightened her posture and turned towards Ravenna.
She was slightly out of breath and her skin slick with sweat.
For a second there, she only stared at Ravenna in silence.
Then, she strode past Ravenna, heading to the corner where her belongings were neatly arranged.
"You're here to talk about that, aren't you?"
"Yes, I am. We need to talk about it."
Ravenna turned around and sighed exasperatedly, already feeling uncomfortable.
But a month of pretending is already enough ti for them to prepare.
"That rose sticker," Leandra wiped the sweat—with a towel and sat down on the bench. "I think it's the source of the voice. Delilah is gone, that's for certain, and there was also no incoming call, so the sticker must have sothing to do with that voice. Soone else is pretending to be Delilah. To what end, I do not know."
"Soone is using Lucivar, but that doesn't make sense. He would know that soone is pretending, and knowing his temper, he would've hunted that person down since he loved Delilah." She added with a heavy exhale. "It was blatant disrespect to use the dead's voice."
"You weren't there," Ravenna sighed and took a seat beside Leandra.
Her mind replayed the night of Delilah's death.
"You didn't see how hurt he was when Delilah died, it was devastating for him. For all I know, he might think the voice was only in his mind." She clasped her hands together as her face grew darker by the second. "He blad his mind and didn't question anything. In fact, he might be glad."
"But what is the end goal here? What does this person want from Lucivar?"
"To influence him? Maybe to remind him? I don't know. We can't even be sure that all things Lucivar did weren't from this voice, too."
"No, I'm sure those things are completely Lucivar's doings."
Leandra shook her head, firm about this.
She was certain that the bad things were done by Lucivar's own free will, not the influence of another.
"Besides, I heard him talk a couple of tis, and most of the talk involved him telling the person on the other side about what he did. Nothing more and nothing less. Lucivar always sounded boastful when he talked about his achievent to this 'Delilah'.'
"…"
Silence enveloped both of them again.
It was still surreal that this was actually happening.
Initially, when they heard Lucivar talking to the phone as if he was talking to Delilah made them think that his mind had gone crazy; this was his way of coping with Delilah's death. Now, they realized that he was crazier.
Talking to soone imaginary was already madness, but mistaking a real voice for imaginary was sheer lunacy.
He was that devastated.
Ravenna shifted on her seat and leaned backward.
"Do you know when exactly that sticker was on Delilah's phone?"
"I-I am not sure. I wasn't really paying attention. Bob and Mirel might know since they're close with her. I haven't seen Bob around, but Mirel, we can ask. But wait…"
Leandra looked at Ravenna with clear shock plastered across her face.
She only now realized what Ravenna was insinuating.
"Are you saying soone set Delilah up to die? But that's impossible. A Fire Primordial killed her. So, there must be a dungeon break around the area, sothing that couldn't be controlled."
"By now, we know Lucivar carries the blood of multiple Gods—and Loki is one of them. A master trickster if the myth is true. And the others? I'm certain they're just as powerful. You felt it too, didn't you? For beings like them, I'm sure manipulating a Fire Primordial would be as effortless as lifting a finger."
At those words, Leandra was thrown back to the blood village.
Before Lucivar killed his doppelganger, she saw a jackal-head behind him, flaring theatrically.
It must be another God.
Naturally, what Ravenna was saying made sense.
A God must have their own ways to do the unthinkable.
Manipulating a Fire Primordial, a weak one at that, sounds underwhelming for a God to do.
And then suddenly, everything clicked.
Leandra rembered clearly that Lucivar had begun to change at the small village right after Delilah died. He wanted to learn how to kill at first, and that desire gradually escalated until he beca who he is now.
Delilah's death was the catalyst the Gods used to shape him into their likeness.
At that realization, Leandra's expression tensed up as the weight of the situation pressed on her heavily.
She opened her mouth and uttered with a very light voice.
Almost as if she were scared that soone was listening.
"Are you sure we're going to head down this road…? Because once we do, there's no going back."
"I… I love Lucivar. I'll help him, even if that ans risking my life."
" too… I guess it's settled."
Crossing the Gods would an making an enemy out of them, which was extrely terrifying for those who were nothing more than re mortals. So much so that their hands were trembling uncontrollably, knowing that this might as well be their end.
Or the beginning of the unimaginable pain.
But now that they agreed on what to do, there's no going back.
"What should we do first?"
"First, we have to tell Master Tobias the truth. And then we'll talk to Lucivar."
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