He was again met with complete silence, but there was a small ripple of energy that spread from the hiding section, something that no one else but he could feel; that reaction was enough to confirm Axel’s suspicion.

It was indeed a spy from Arclight keeping an eye on him, either because of a sudden rise in his importance or perhaps because they found him suspicious; he didn’t know.

Axel let out an incredibly tired sigh, "I’ve warned your organization time and time again not to try and spy on me. It seems my words are not being taken seriously."

And the moment his words ended, Axel’s body disappeared from the balcony he was standing on, reappearing 20 meters away in the ground, behind a large tree. Almost in a lazy posture, in his nightwear, he looked at the young assassin, his pressure pressing down on the young second-phase seeker.

And it was a mid-2nd phase seeker at that, but none of that mattered, against the sheer pressure exuded by Axel, how could a mere assassin keep standing? But to Axel’s surprise, just when the assassin was about to be forced to his knees, the little bastard escaped.

Barely getting out of the range of his exodus, Axel let out an exasperated sigh. His sleepy mood was almost broken; he drew out a ball-shaped artifact and threw it towards the fleeing assassin. The artifact broke into two fragments.

A thin energy thread wrapped around the arms and legs of the assassin. The boy tried to escape, tried various phasing through techniques and strength, but none of them worked, which of course would not, since Axel designed it in such a way that cheap tricks wouldn’t work, unless you’re literally strong enough to break free from it. It was useless.

Axel walked lazily, still sleepy. He picked up the young assassin, holding him by the head. His blue eyes blazed with a cold look for a moment. He thought of interrogating the guy, but he was damn too tired for all that shit.

So, he simply put force in his hands; the young assassin struggled madly, but could not get out of Axel’s immovable grip. The power behind Axel’s grip continued to grow stronger, as he was determined to crush the assassin’s skull with his one hand alone, which, mind you, was not all that difficult for him to do.

Even with his runecaster aspect, he could match toe-to-toe against a weaker end 4th phase without going absolutely all out. So, what could a mere 2nd-phase assassin do against him, even though he himself was still a 2nd-phase existence? It was kind of hypocritical of him, honestly.

Blood came out of the young assassin’s orifices under the sheer force of his palms. The spy didn’t have the opportunity to scream despite almost being killed. However, Axel suddenly sensed something, and he frowned.

He focused on the subtle, almost dismissible sensation once more, and he realized that he didn’t feel wrong. Axel grinned as the shadow of the tree fell over him. He chuckled internally, ’How interesting. I almost missed it. This truly is fascinating.’

Axel actually felt the seed of despair in the very depths of this assassin’s soul, but it was strange. The seed of despair was not exactly within this boy’s soul, but as if another soul was hiding within this particular body.

Axel remembered exactly on whom he planted that particular seed of despair; it was the young, talented 2nd phase assassin he allowed to live, from the massacre of the Hand of Umbra’s branch. His name was Lebron.

For a moment, he thought of ordering that soul, the soul of Lebron, to come out and explain the truth about what was going on. But he then disregarded that thought.

Then he thought of doing something else, planting another seed of despair within this new soul, which was currently driving the body.

Axel could only grimace; his plan to continue sleeping had all gone to shit. He might as well see it all. What the fuck was going on? He closed his blue eyes, immersing himself in the bloodline connection between him and Lebron. Not forcefully but subtly. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Pulling on the threads of memory, from the contamination of the demonic energy that was already done to the young assassin. And the fragments of what he was able to see were more than enough for him to understand the twin soul, the unique situation between LeBron and Luke.

He almost exclaimed in wonder. Axel had to put in a bit of real effort not to show the surprise on his face; it was better for the twins to believe that Axel didn’t figure things out. Besides, he hadn’t shown any indication that he actually was the so-called Osiris hiding in plain sight.

Which was the truth Luke was trying to investigate, tracing Neil Croft’s background. Since Neil also possessed a demonic seed.

Axel let go of the assassin, letting him breathe. He said, "Go on, drink a potion. I won’t kill you."

He explained with a dramatic sigh to the coughing assassin, who was barely able to breathe, "If I kill one, they will send more, and this will continue indefinitely. Though I am not afraid of it, I don’t want to muddy my image at this moment, since that would have no profit, only a waste of effort and reputation."

Luke instantly stepped backward, creating a distance of more than 10 meters between the two of them. The fear in his eyes was palpable; it was obvious what the boy was thinking, though Lebron could not tell whether Axel was the very source of that demonic power.

From the unnatural, effortless strength he displayed, it was obvious no runecaster was meant to possess that kind of power. But Axel didn’t bother explaining, which would only make him look more suspicious, so he showed a harmless smile.

But his voice was dry and cold, "But this will be the last time I tolerate such shit. Come 100 meters within my Nomrad mansion, or my family, the people I care about, or me. I will fucking kill you, no matter how many of you there may be."

Without waiting for the assassin’s reply, Axel turned around, started walking back towards his mansion, but he suddenly stopped and gave one last warning to Luke, looking back, his face completely serious,

"One last warning. Leave Arclight and get away from them as far as possible. Otherwise, by the time this war ends, you and everyone belonging to Arclight will absolutely and utterly be fucked."